"We can see the enemy," Sky Hammer continued. "Do you wish us to attack the tanks?"
"Negative!" Samuel answered. "Attack the heavy artillery at the rear of the column. We can deal with the armor, but if they deploy they'll cut us to pieces. Repeat, attack the heavy artillery."
"Cannot acquire target!" Sky Hammer answered. "Heavy artillery not at the rear of column!"
"WHAT?" Samuel asked.
"And column is changing formation. They are beginning to deploy across the clearing."
Samuel checked with his glasses. He could still only make out the lead vehicles but he believed Sky Hammer's warning.
"Get out of here!" he screamed "Fall back! Rally in the road! Get out of here! Move! Move!"
All along the line vehicles began to back up and turn around, and fall back.
"Sky Hammer," Samuel ordered, "find that artillery. It's deployed somewhere nereby. Find it and destroy it."
"Understood!" Sky Hammer answered.
Suddenly a high whistling filled the air, and all along the edge of the woods artillery shells began to fall. Barrage after barrage crept deeper and deeper into the trees.
If Samuel's forces had been there they would have taken a horrible pounding, but they weren't there, they were on the road far to the rear!
"What now?" an officer asked, running up to Samuel.
"They'll keep up the barrage while their forces are deploying," Samuel answered, "then lay down smoke We line up, wait for that smoke, then go right down the road, right out among them, blast a hole right through their center. Then every other vehicle will go right or left, attack them from behind. If we move hard and fast we may be right in among them before they realize we're not where we're supposed to be. Once we get there we keep fighting. We don't stop until they stop! Pass the word. We stop as many of them as we can here.
The rest of the officers had gathered. "Yes sir!" they all snapped. Samuel climbed back into his pc and waited. Below they saw smoke shells begin to fall and billow, but then the artillery suddenly stopped.
"Air Hammer's found them!" Samuel cried. "Go! Go!"
His driver put his pc in gear and making its best speed it rushed down the road, and through the smoke, and came out on the unsuspecting enemy. Its first two missiles roared away. The lead tank and the one to its left blew up, as the missiles found their mark.
Their next one only blew up the ground, but their last one got another tank. Then they were through the line, turning wildly, heading to the left, their 44 millimeter pounding at anything that came into range. Smoke and fire was soon everywhere.
Suddenly their pc lifted into the air, flipped over, and came down with a crash. Samuel gained his feet. His driver was dead, but his gunner was opening the hatch. "Get out, sir!" he cried.
Samuel grabbed up his rifle, went out through the hatch. His gunner followed. A dozen men charged at them, only to be cut down by the fire from their rifles. But one of them managed to kill Samuel's gunner.
Samuel reloaded, snatched up the gunner's ammunition, and headed down the line. He emptied clip after clip as again and again men came at him out of the smoke.
Twice he was empty, when someone charged at him, and he had to use his bayonet. He could barely breathe in the smoke that seemed to be everywhere. There wasn't the slightest breeze to carry it away and it seemed to hang about them like a suffocating cloud.
Samuel's clip was empty again, when he suddenly burst from the smoke. He was at the end of the line. He looked back. The carnage behind him seemed to be dying down. Suddenly three young enemy soldiers burst from the smoke, coughing. They saw Samuel and began to raise their weapons. Samuel quickly brought up his, forgetting it was empty. Suddenly the young soldiers threw down their weapons, fell to their knees and locked their fingers together behind their heads. "Don't shoot!" cried one of them in fairly good Spiritist. "Don't shoot!"
Samuel quickly rushed over, shouldered his own weapon and snatched up one of theirs.
"Get over there!" he cried, "Take cover! Get down there...stay down!"
The noise of battle was dying. Suddenly it was deathly quiet, except for the moans of the dying. The smoke began to lift as the fires died out. As it did so Samuel could see men in vehicles moving around among the shattered hulks of tanks and pcs. To his utter amazement he realized they were HIS men. They were gathering large numbers of prisoners.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Samuel muttered. "I think WE WON! Get up!" he told his prisoners, "Let's go!"
He herded his prisoners back towards the center of the line. He noticed his men were strip searching their captains and thought it a good idea. He checked his prisoners. "Stop there!" he cried, "Undress! Pile your clothes on that rock so I can search them and see you have no concealed weapons. Come on! Hurry up!" The prisoners quickly obeyed. As they got out of their shirts Samuel suddenly realized these weren't young men, they were young women! They looked at him nervously as they slipped out of the last of their clothes. "It's all right," Samuel ordered. "You can put your underwear back on." He came over, quickly checked their clothes and told them to dress. "Please," their spokesman pleaded, "don't put

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