Chapter 101

Athena

From orbit around Dagan, in the company of her sister sh.i.p.s the Athena sat quietly awaiting the coming battle. In the fighter bay Athena's sixty F-302's sat prepped for launch, loaded with air to ground ordinance as were the fighters on the other sh.i.p.s in orbit. All told a combined force of three hundred and sixty F-302's stood ready, along with the jumpers carried by each Tauri vessel.

Since the transporting of equipment and men to the planet below Athena had carried out a supporting mission. Her powerful wide spectrum transmitters broadcast in a continuous loop the trail of the former head of the Genii people. It was hoped that hearing the weeping and sobbing of their former leader would cause the Genii troops to question the conflict they surely knew that was coming. Cloaked jumpers had over flown troop concentrations jettisoning thousands of leaflets advising ground troops to surrender now or face untold destruction. Once ground operations commenced further psychological warfare tactics would be applied to shake the hearts and minds of those the Tauri faced.

With preparations nearly complete on the ground the sh.i.p.s of the Pegasus Group prepared for the opening move. To facilitate this Colonel Sheppard had beamed aboard each vessel to brief the individual ship commanders.

"Your 302's will be deploying ten minutes ahead of the other sh.i.p.s" stated Sheppard.

"A first strike I'm guessing" replied Eckhart.

"Not exactly. We're going to rattle the saber a bit. During the cold war the Air Force would overfly Soviet battle groups at sea with B-1's at low altitude and at afterburner. You'd be surprised how much damage that can do to antennae's and moral in general. We're going to do the same thing here. Your fighters will go to maximum atmospheric speed at fifteen hundred feet and overfly Genii positions" said Sheppard.

"Fifteen hundred feet at three times the speed of sound? Ouch" laughed Eckhart.

"Once that is done the fighters divide into pairs and hit all of their assigned targets. It's our own little shock and awe campaign. If we're lucky they'll throw down their weapons right there, but I doubt we're lucky" replied Sheppard.

"Colonel Stone reported in forty minutes ago and said his troops will be ready to move in three hours. The nearest enemy unit to them is one hundred and thirty miles to their north. That gives us time to work over the ground positions with friendly air well before they get there" added Eckhart.

"This is a coordinated strike to cover the 3rd ACR while they are in movement towards contact. Brief your pilots that they are wheels up in three hours" instructed Sheppard.

3rd ACR Debarkation Area

Since their arrival on the surface of Dagan the men of the Brave Rifles had been in a race against time to swiftly ready their vehicles for movement. Dividing into their individual sub-units ground vehicles and helicopters alike had been fueled and armed. Due to the lightning pace an ACR kept in combat quick refueling and rearming was something that was second nature to the highly trained cavalry troopers. Gathered around the M4 Command Track vehicle, known to the troopers as the God Track, stood the Regimental command group.

"We have Comanche's and Apache's from Outlaw and Quicksilver troop in the air now scouting our route" said Major Denton.

"How are they loaded Major" asked Colonel Stone.

"We sent them out loaded heavy. Anything that get's in their way won't be in their way for long" replied Denton.

"Where are we at for the initial rollout" asked Stone.

"Eagle, Fox, and Grim troops are good to go. We'll deploy in forward wedge with the M3 Bradley's out front, with the M8 Buford's making up the outer screen of the wedge, and trailing them will be the Stryker's and Bradley's loaded with dismounted troops. Five miles behind the wedge we'll have the Humvee's towing the M777 field artillery pieces and three ammo carriers per group" replied Major Gross.

"We're breaking the regiment up into three maneuver groups with twenty miles of separation. They will be deploying in twenty minute intervals in staggered formation. The game plan at work here gentlemen is envelopment. Once contact is made with the enemy's flank we'll turn directly into them full force. We will have friendly air for this on call. The Air Force is running psyop's now, but we'll add to the mix on our own" stated Stone.

"The air scouts are running psyop's? That's funny" joked Denton.

"Make no mistake, the Air Force knows what they are doing in this situation. This is their op and we're just here to lend some ground muscle as much as I hate to admit that. Each maneuver group has three psyop's Humvee's of their own. I want those loudspeakers on each playing music at high volume. Something obnoxious and way too loud. It worked in Iraq so we have a decent chance of it working here also" said Stone.

"Loud and obnoxious? I've got just the thing" smiled Gross.

"Good hunting gentlemen. Let's win this one quick and bring our boys home safe. Saddle up and let's start moving out" ordered Stone.