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headquarters, but Armor Company commander had chosen to be part of the enveloping force coming in from the north.
    This assault was not going to be recorded in the annals of amazing tactical innovations.  The battalion had an overwhelming advantage in personnel, weapons, and maneuverability, so not much in the way of subterfuge was needed to ensure a victory.  Still, Ryck didn’t like having the fixing force simply march right up into the teeth of the defenses, but the operations order had been vetted by both the regimental staff and the division G3, and it was obvious that they wanted to evaluate the battalion in a basic assault.  Ryck was not too concerned, however.  The Yuri Front’s Borosivitch meson cannons were the top-of-the-line—70 years ago.  Most militaries had gone away from them as they took enormous amounts of power, they generated huge amounts of heat that had to be radiated off, and the beams scattered and dissipated in the atmosphere fairly quickly. That generation of meson beam weapon was only practical in an atmosphere for a point defense—such as a fort or bunker. And while they could not be simply reflected away like a laser-based weapon, countermeasures had been developed quite early on.  The Davises could absorb the shots without a problem at distance, and even close up, it would take some extended fire to break through the tanks’ shielding.  Even the PICS would be fairly safe from the cannons, although Ryck wouldn’t volunteer to stand in front of one at point blank range for any extended length of time.
    Fox Company, in their skins and bones, would be vulnerable to the guns, but they would not get anywhere within range until the five guns had been knocked out. 
    Ryck resisted looking up.  He knew this entire operation was being observed and recorded by the FS Tremaine in orbit overhead.  He didn’t like the brass hovering over his shoulder, but he just forced the thought from his mind and focused on the bunkers up ahead.
    The valley leading up to Mt. Hollyoak was perfect armor terrain:  relatively flat with only minor terrain features.  The western approach was out of direct fire until it came around a finger at about 800 meters.  On the negative side, the finger created a chokepoint that restricted movement and created a fairly narrow frontage.  It would be a tight fit for Echo Company and the three tanks that were moving with them, and that could cause problems if the Yuri Front had any surprises in store for them.  If Ryck had been defending Mt. Hollyoak, he would have mined the chokepoint and had it covered with every supporting fire he could control, but he’d been assured that the front was not that sophisticated nor well-equipped. 
    The basic plan was pretty simple.  Echo and a three-tank section from First Platoon would approach the bunkers from the west and fix the attention of three of the bunkers, engaging from 800 meters out and in to about 500 meters.  The Borisovitches shouldn’t have any effect on PICS until about 200 meters, so this was a pretty good cushion, and at 500 meters, the Davises should have a field day knocking out the bunkers.
    Then, Captain Christopher Attleman’s Golf Company, in PICS, and the remaining tanks, which had been air-lifted to one of Mountain Home’s mines, would come down from the mountains in the north and hit the bunkers from that direction.  Fox, Weapons, and the arty section in their skins and bones, were the clearing force. They would clear and secure the bunker complex once the Borisovitches had been neutralized.
    A vital component of the new assault battalion concept was missing:  air.  The battalion had a flight of Storks, the C87-C version, which was a normal Stork with heavier armament.  They weren’t Navy Experions, but they packed a pretty good punch, especially against lighter-armed opponents.  If, God forbid, the Federation and a better-armed force like the Brotherhood ever went to war, however, the story might