* * *
The exhausted soldiers peered off to the north, surprise and wonder filling their faces. All that day and late into the night, they had been taking a pounding from hidden gun emplacements some three leagues to the north. Now they watched as the missiles from those same cannons arched into the blackness and disappeared into the low storm clouds, only to drop on some enemy position further to the northeast.
A squeal of brakes diverted their attention to the narrow road behind them. A quarter-deuce skidded to a stop, scattering loose pebbles and splashing the standing soldiers.
A gruff-voiced female officer called out, “Who’s there?! And be smart about it!”
One of the soldiers stepped forward. “Sergeant Merna, Stocie’s Company, 8th Volunteer Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Winehardt’s Division.”
“Well, Sergeant Merna, Stocie’s Company, Winehardt’s Division, get your people up that hill!” The officer pointed toward a high peak about two-thirds up the mountain. “Take this with you and hang it out for the world to see. Morning’s coming and I want it there before then.”
The officer said something to her driver and pointed up the road. As they roared off, she shouted back over her shoulder, “We got the bastards on the run!”
“Know who that was?” someone asked.
Merna shook her head.
The person grinned. “That was General Winehardt in the flesh. I’d recognize that voice anywhere.”
Merna looked at the cloth in her hands. “What’s this?”
The person shrugged. “A signal flag or marker maybe? Who knows? Whatever it is, we’d better get on a hustle. Morning’s coming soon and we got a long hike.”
Merna ordered her squad up. “Come on! We finally got us a job to do. No more hidin’ behind these rocks.” With that, she crossed the road and started the climb for what would one day be called ‘Destiny’s Peak’.