"John G. Hemry - Stark's War 3 - Stark's Crusade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hemry John G)

Wiseman managed a small smile. “Thanks. And if it’s any consolation, I bet people’ll be
studying how we used those shuttles for quite a while. We wrote a new chapter on raiding.”

“Good.” Stark glanced over at Sergeant Lamont, who was sitting uncharacteristically
subdued. “I guess you’re still unhappy about losing that tank.”

Lamont spread his hands. “They’re my babies, Stark. We can salvage the tank from the
wrecked shuttle, by the way, but losing even one piece of heavy armor hurts. We can’t replace
‘em, you know.”

“I know. Not unless Gordo manages a black-market buy of a shuttle. Maybe he can
smuggle a tank onto it.”

“Why not?” Gordasa muttered. “Just ask Supply to do the impossible. No problem. We
deal with CDATs all the time.”

Lamont chuckled. Back in the twentieth century soldiers had joked about DATs, dumb-ass
tankers. As their tanks grew more sophisticated the DATs had become CDATs, computerized
dumb-ass tankers. “Gordo, after word gets out on that raid, my boys and girls will be in the
CDAT Hall of Fame. You’ll feel honored every time you reject a spare parts requisition from
us.”

Stark smiled briefly. “Mendo.” Private Mendoza, his chin resting on both hands as he
watched the others speak, jerked slightly in surprise. “What do you think? We blew up a lot of
stuff and rained that enemy general’s day, week, month, and year. Big picture, though, was it
worth it?”

“I think, Commander Stark…” Mendo visibly hesitated for a moment, then spread his
hands over the display. “It depends. On the objective. What do we seek?”

“To avoid getting beat,” Yurivan drawled.

Stark wondered if Mendoza would be intimidated by Stacey Yurivan’s mockery, but the
small private shook his head stubbornly. “That is a very limited objective, though a valid one.
But is that our objective, Commander Stark? And is it a wise objective?”

“Why wouldn’t it be wise?” Stark asked.

Mendoza paused again, gathering his thoughts. “A defensive strategy can work, but it
requires time. Time to wear out the enemy. Too, it requires an enemy who cannot corner you,
cannot force a decisive battle.”

“We’re surrounded here,” Lamont noted.

“Exactly. The essence of a delaying strategy is to avoid a decisive battle. It is often called a
Fabian Strategy after the Roman commander who used it successfully against Hannibal. Since
the Romans had lost every time they fought a major engagement with Hannibal, Fabius simply
refused to fight such an engagement, always retreating when confronted.”

“What kept this Hannibal from just capturing Rome while Fabius ran away?” Reynolds