GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 16 ... Landfall - plus 27 hours. Overlord, the beginning of the end

"Sergeant Sir. I'm not feeling too well."

"What do you mean you are not feeling too well you horrible little man? Move from that position and I will show you how unwell you can really look you funny-man you." The Sergeant unsympathetically vowed his wrath at the soldier whose face twisted in pain.

He snapped off a grass stem and chewing it only to spit it out and grimace in disgust. "Damned stuff tastes like crap." He mumbled as a sound from behind had him glance back. He caught a glimpse of Lieutenant Volos, ass in the air and leopard crawling towards his position through the long grass. "At them in ten Jackson." The lieutenant said by way of greeting. "Right and left flank has thirty tanks each with a few mobile flamethrowers thrown in for luck. Mortars and cannon in ..." he glanced at his wristwatch, "Four and a few odd. Will stop in five and then it's our lots turn."

"Remind me why we are attacking a city Lieutenant? This isn't war and it's going to be a massacre."

The lieutenant said, "Doing as I'm told Sergeant. Just like you. But I have been notified that the scouts have seen an exodus of civilians. Seems that there are only a few stragglers still on the roads. Any more questions?"

"A whole dang lot of them Sir. One of them being where the enemy is, but I guess that question can wait."

"Sarge? Hey Sarge?"

"What the hell is it now Kowalski?"

"Just to let you know Sarge, Bowie over here crapped himself and it stinks kinda awful like. He actually crapped himself Sarge and I don't think he looks great."

"Fuck." the man turned and glanced about. "Medic. Yeah you, you dumb shit. Get your ass over here and check up on Trooper Bowie there. If the fuck is shamming it I want to know ASAP."

"Sure thing Sarge." The Medic answered crawling towards the indicated trooper as the crashing sounds of Cannon sent high explosive projectiles overhead. Mortars thumped and sent their own projectiles straight up into the air to burst open at one hundred and thirty feet to swiftly drift towards the waiting and silent town not half a kilometer from the waiting ground troops. Shell after shell slammed into buildings, tarred roads and a duck pond. Dust, raging fires and collapsing walls added to the melee. First hundreds then thousands of mortar rounds kept being sent overhead to burst open and drift towards the killing grounds. The first rounds of suspended death exploding, sending hundreds of miniature explosive ball bearings down on the unsuspecting enemy below. Then more and more exploded and a rain of death lashed the city in a rolling, creeping thunder of detonations. A pall of dust hung in the air above the city and the sound of falling masonry went unheard as homes, offices and buildings came crashing down. The spearhead attack on a major city of Overlord had begun. An attack that was calculated by the tacticians to bring out the enemy forces from wherever they were hiding.

"Heads down you bloody idiots." shouted the Sergeant over the reverberating Cannon shot. "Jumpers next." The word was carried by Sergeants and their Corporals as all ducked and tried to dig their shallow trenches deeper while cursing the hard ground and a lack of covering.

Jumpers. A metaphor if there ever was one. Take a large Mortar tube, say with a radius of approximately 375mm and drop in another large looking ball bearing that weighed next to nothing and had what looked like a skirt of charges attached around its circumference. Stand well back and press the remote. The name Jumper was derived from the fact that every time the 'ball bearing' hit the ground, it would simultaneously release one explosive canister and then bounce straight up into the air at ever decreasing heights. Five canisters, five bounces. Each canister could, and more often than not, level half a city block. The nightmare of bouncing death was bad enough, but determining where the next hit would be was terrifying and unpredictable. In this way, many an attacking force was cut to shreds by its own weaponry as without warning, a jumper hitting the ground at an angle would bounce in their direction.