Chapter 249: To Silverpeak City - I

While the naval group outside Saicine continued securing ASR-003, Golden Eagle’s southern formations left the Colony that same morning and began moving toward Silverpeak.

They followed the reopened roads toward the old intersection outside Grefort.

The sign was still there.

------

Silverpeak City - 60 km

------

Joseph Brandon looked over the Radar display inside the Battalion Armored Command Vehicle (BACV).

"How long for the sixty?"

"If the road is clear and usable, under two hours, sir."

"And the air?"

A Radio Operator inside the BACV passed the latest report forward.

"Raptors still have the approaches. Sporadic gunfire has been detected farther inside Silverpeak, but nothing moving toward us."

"Anything around the installation?"

"No major changes. A few more vehicles and people than before."

Brandon glanced toward the road again.

"Keep watching it. We don’t need to poke them before we know who they are."

"Yes, sir."

Brandon shifted the route farther south.

"What’s our first stop?"

"The nearest occupied settlement. Raptors confirmed people there during the earlier passes. Main road is barricaded, but they didn’t show any hostile response to the aircraft."

"Numbers?"

"Not enough for a reliable count from the air."

Brandon nodded.

"Our forward recon squads will confirm the ground picture before we approach. If they want to talk, then we’ll talk."

"Understood."

The convoy continued south.

This was much larger than the reconnaissance groups Golden Eagle had been sending outside Grefort before.

The new companies formed the main body, but they were only part of it.

Guardian APCs and Vanguard tanks moved with the maneuver elements. Engineers, Medics, Scouts and other support personnel rode in the vehicles between them.

Tactical Drone Operators were distributed among the forward reconnaissance and command elements, while Radio Operators kept the different parts of the column tied together.

Two BACVs accompanied the formation.

Brandon kept one closer to the forward companies while the second remained farther back with the deeper support elements. He did not intend to keep both moving beside the column for the entire trip.

Once they moved beyond Grefort’s fixed Radar coverage, the rear BACV would stop at a suitable position and fully deploy.

A security element would remain around it while the other BACV continued south with the advance. As long as their Radar coverage continued overlapping, Brandon could extend Golden Eagle’s System picture along the road without leaving a gap behind the formation.

Dietrich kept the heavier armored elements farther behind the reconnaissance screen, while Metler continued handling the Air side of the advance despite being inside one of Grefort’s Airfield Bases.

The arrangement also gave the command network another protected communications point along the route. Losing the System Radar connection would interrupt the shared tactical picture, but it would not cut the southern force off from ordinary long-range radio traffic.

Grefort’s fixed Radar Facilities supported most major operations around the city. Golden Eagle had no fixed Radar coverage around Silverpeak yet.

Raptors covered the wider approach from above. Tactical drones checked nearby terrain, while Scouts went into places neither aircraft nor Radar could properly read.

...

Echo One was several kilometers ahead of the main formation.

Dmitri Volkov returned to his familiar work.

The road changed gradually after they left Grefort’s southern fringe.

The larger developments became less frequent, but the corridor never became empty. Roadside businesses, storage compounds, residential clusters and smaller built-up areas continued around the highway, with open land and farmland between them. Much of the farmland had been left unattended long enough for weeds to reclaim the edges.

The road was usable, but that did not make it safe.

Echo One moved in short bounds rather than driving straight down the center.

Two Scouts checked the immediate road while another pair worked the flanks. The dogs stayed close enough to warn them if something was hiding where optics could not help.

A Tactical Drone Operator accompanied them for the advance.

It was the first time Dmitri had worked with one this far outside an established Golden Eagle position.

The operator stayed behind the lead Scouts and sent the drone ahead. The drone checked places Dmitri would otherwise have needed to send a Scout.

Roofs.

Rear yards.

Roads hidden behind tree lines.

The other side of intersections.

Dmitri still trusted the Scouts on the ground more when they got close to buildings.

The southern road bent around a low rise before dividing ahead. The first settlement on Brandon’s itinerary appeared beyond it.

The place was already marked as occupied by earlier Raptor passes, but the images did not show much more than that.

From the ground, Dmitri saw more.

Several buildings occupied both sides of the intersection. It was larger than the scattered communities they passed earlier, with rows of homes, repair shops, a fuel station, several commercial buildings and what looked like a municipal block farther in.

Someone was maintaining it.

The occupied buildings looked used rather than simply defended. Several damaged doors and windows had been patched, while supplies and salvaged parts were kept closer to the repair shops instead of being left scattered around the road.

Abandoned vehicles were dragged away from the center of the road and pushed into lines along the approaches. Sheet metal and concrete barriers filled the gaps between them. Sandbags covered several windows facing the highway.

Smoke rose from somewhere deeper inside the settlement, most likely from cooking.

Dmitri stopped behind the remains of a roadside retaining wall. The drone operator settled beside him with the live feed open.

"First settlement ahead."

"I see it. Start with the northern approach."

The drone passed along the first row of buildings.

People appeared between the structures.

One crossed an alley carrying a rifle. Another stood behind the barricade facing the northern road. Two more occupied an upper balcony behind improvised cover.

Dmitri watched them for several seconds.

They weren’t random thugs off the street. They were organized.

"Take another pass. Don’t cross directly over them."

The drone shifted farther west and followed the outer edge of the settlement instead.

More people appeared.

A truck had been parked sideways behind the main barricade. Several motorcycles sat under a covered area beside one of the buildings. Water containers occupied another yard, and someone had stretched tarps between two structures to create additional shelter.

"Count?"

"Twenty-one visible so far. Probably more inside."

"Weapons?"

"Mostly rifles."

The operator adjusted the feed.

"Two launcher tubes near the northern barricade. Another armed group near the east road."

Dmitri studied the image.

"Vehicles?"

"Civilian trucks and motorcycles. Nothing armored on this side."

One of Echo One’s Scouts reported from the western flank.

"Actual, they’ve got another position behind the fuel station. Four people. One watching north."

Dmitri brought the settlement up on his interface. Gray markers occupied parts of the road ahead.

That was all the System classification told him.

Armed did not automatically mean hostile. After months of this, an unarmed settlement probably would not have lasted very long anyway.

But they had fortified the road.

And driving the main armored column straight toward them was a good way to make someone panic.

"Hold positions. Do not approach the barricade."

"Copy."

Dmitri switched to the command channel.

"Echo One to southern command. First settlement confirmed."

"Go ahead."

"More organized than the aerial pass showed. Defensive positions on the approaches. At least twenty-five people visible outside, probably more inside. Rifles, a few launchers, civilian vehicles. No armored contacts identified."

"Hostile?"

"Nothing so far. Looks defensive."

Dmitri watched one of the men behind the barricade turn toward something inside the settlement.

"They haven’t seen us yet."

A short pause followed.

"Maintain observation. Main body will hold outside contact range."

"Copy."

Dmitri closed the channel while the drone continued around the settlement.