Upper Creek drained the area south of Sugar Knob. The trees here had been cropped about ten years before so that their cellulose could be converted by bacteria to crude protein for animal feed. The second-growth trees that replaced the original forest were densely packed and had thin boles.They provided good cover, but they weren't obstacles for vehicles of the power and weight of combat cars.
Yokel tanks would find the conditions passable also, even if they left the trails worn by animals and the local populace.
"We can't go anywhere," Blue Three's driver whined. "We—"
"—only got two cars left and they're shot t' bloody hell.We're right at the little store, where the road crosses the crik."
Willens,following the course Ranson and the AI set for him,nosed
The distance between barren Chin Peng Rise and the thin trees of Sugar Knob was about a kilometer and a half. Ranson's western element followed a winding three-kay course to stay low and unnoticed while encircling the Yokels' expected deployment area. Cooter and the two-car eastern element had an even longer track to follow to their hide . . . but the Yokel tanks seemed to be giving them the time they needed.
Willens advanced twenty meters further, to give room to One-five and One-one behind him, then settled with his fans on idle.
Task Force Ranson didn't want to stumble into contact before they knew where all their targets were.
Blue Three's sensors had greater range and precision by an order of magnitude than those crammed into the combat cars, but the cars could process the data passed to them by the larger vehicle. The sidebar on Ranson's multi-function display listed call signs, isolated in the cross-talk overheard by the superb electronics of the tank pretending to be in Kawana while it waited behind Chin Peng Rise north of the tiny hamlet.
There were twenty-five individual call signs. The AI broke them down as three companies each consisting of three platoons—but no more than four tanks in any platoon (five would have been full strength). Some platoons were postulated from a single call sign.
