The trucks were parked at the lawn of Rogovaya Obmanka town square. Sergeant Major Gabriel was leading a team setting up the wireless. Captain Gates waved Evans to follow him to the side of the road.

Captain Gates waved down a passing truck which pulled to a stop next to him. The Corporal leaned out, “What you want Sir?”

“Why’s everyone driving away from the front?”

“General chaos I reckon Sir. Vledscans broke through. We’re getting the heck outta here Sir. You should too Sir. They’re tailing. Could be here in a few hours Sir. Whole front’s collapsed Sir. My Colonel told me to run Sir. Before her truck went up Sir. Now if we could get going Sir?”

“Right Corporal, carry on then,” Captain Gates walked back to Sergeant Major Gabriel, “Any word from Regiment?”

“Your discretion Captain. They’ll try to get back when they have word from Newacre, but it sounds like we’re the first to hear about this.”

“Alright Sergeant Major, thank you. Tell the platoon to start getting battle ready. Evans, I want you to find an officer who has just come from the front to talk to me. I’ll be touring the town looking for good defensive positions,” Captain Gates waved at Turner, “Sergeant Turner, find somewhere to set up an MG nest on the Southeast road. Alida Canina can inspect First and Sergeant Hardin can inspect Second. Let’s move people.”

The Sergeants all responded with a, “Yes Sir,” and left to do their tasks.

Sergeant Evans jogged back over to the road and started looking for officers. Not many had made it back from the front. Evans finally saw a truck with a Lieutenant in the cab. Evans stepped in front of it and waved, pointing to the square. The Lieutenant nodded and waved to some trucks behind hers. The Private driving turned the truck and parked it in the square. The Lieutenant hopped out after two more trucks pulled in. Evans Saluted, “Sergeant Evans, 202nd Infantry Ma’am.”

The Lieutenant returned the salute. She looked out of sorts. She was wearing her skirt, but had her helmet on. She had a headset on tucked in underneath her helmet with an unplugged cable running behind. Her pistol belt was missing and Evans could see the matching pistol stuffed into the waistband of her skirt. She lowered her hand and responded, “Lieutenant Welch, 127th Infantry. You need something?”

“My Captain wants to speak with you Lieutenant.”

“Fine Sergeant. Make it quick. My platoon needs to find the rest of the 127th.”

“Righto Ma’am,” Evans then led the Lieutenant to where the Captain was inspecting the town, “CAPTAIN! I found a Lieutenant coming off the front!”

“Thank you Sergeant,” Captain Gates turned to Lieutenant Welch, “Captain Gates, and you?”

Snapping to attention and saluting, the Lieutenant responded, “Lieutenant Welch, 127th Infantry.”

Gates ignored the salute and continued, “What’s the situation at the front Lieutenant?”

“Chaos Captain. We barely even reached the front by the time we started running. With shells raining down, my Colonel told us to pull out. Since then, I have only managed to keep my eyes on my platoons trucks and my Company’s Machine Gun squad. I am just keeping us going until we find someone else from the 127th.”

“And the Vledscans?”

“Nipping at our heals Captain. Three or four hours at most.”

Captain Gates nodded for a few seconds, “Want to make a stand here?”

“I need to find my Regiment Captain.”

“Well, if you make a stand, they’ll find you in the history books.”

“I cannot just order my soldiers to their deaths. We would be facing the brunt of their army. And all we would do is slow them down for a few hours.”

“Miss Welch, our army is in shambles. If the Vledscans catch up while we’re in this state, they could break the whole thing. Punch even further through our lines. Lose us the war,” Captain Gates smiled, “But, we can buy our army an extra hour of two to recover. So what do you say? Want to be a hero?”

“I guess I could wait for my regiment here. I technically have no orders right now Captain,” Lieutenant Welch smiled, “I have with me a full platoon of infantry and my Company’s machine gun team with two medium machine guns.”

“Good, and I’m about done with my survey, let’s head back to our little staging area and plan things out. Maybe get some more soldiers to join us.”