A couple of his Marines on the roof tops began firing their anti-tank missiles at the PLA tanks rumbling towards them, taking several of them out. Thornton got on the radio and began calling in for naval gun support. Several Zumwalt destroyers off the coast began to rain down 155mm high explosive rounds across the streets where the PLA continued to lead their own people to slaughter. It was gruesome; thousands of civilians were being slain by the naval gun support and the machinegun fire of his Marines. In less than five minutes, most of the human shields were either dead or wounded, laying on the ground. The PLA infantry then began to advance, using their traditional human wave tactics. It did not take long before the Chinese soldiers were within grenade range, then both sides began to throw dozens of grenades at each other. As company-sized elements of PLA soldiers would rush forward after throwing a volley of grenades at the American lines, one of the Marines would detonate a series of claymore mines, obliterating most of the charging soldiers.
Just as Thornton thought their position was about to be overrun, he looked back to see two Razorbacks arrive on station. They quickly unleashed a torrent of anti-personnel rockets at the charging PLA soldiers, and then proceeded to land. They swiftly unloaded their payload of 16 EHDs each. The EHDs immediately ran towards the perimeter of the Marine positions and began to engage the Chinese soldiers. It was an overwhelming sight to take in — more than two dozen mechanical killing machines were running at full speed while delivering high-speed, accurate fire at the enemy. Once the Reapers reached the perimeter, they quickly advanced past it, with complete disregard for their own safety. The EHDs were after all, drones.
Many of them were being shot multiple times. Some would eventually have a leg or an arm shot off or those that were hit by larger caliber rifles might ultimately lose their head; However, the rest of them just moved forward at a quick pace, methodically killing everything that moved that did not have a friendly IIF. By the time the first group of EHDs had moved twenty meters in front of Thornton’s position, a second wave of drones landed and began to speedily reinforce the first group. Thornton’s men continued to provide fire support for the Reapers, but they were quite frankly in awe of how fast the enhanced humanoid drones were methodically killing and advancing forward.
Ten minutes after the first wave of EHDs had landed and began to make their presence known, the third wave of drones arrived. Thornton received word that a total of twelve waves of Reapers would be flown into his LZ before the end of the day. The rest would be landing at three of the five ports the Marines still had under their control (in the last 90 minutes, the Marines holding on to two of the ports had been overrun and wiped out).
By the end of the first day of the invasion, the Marines and EHDs had regained control of their original perimeter, recovered the two ports they had lost, and secured three more ports. The Reapers had also pushed the PLA back across the Yangtze River and secured most of Nantong. Of the 3,000 EHDs that had been deployed, some 823had been destroyed, but according to their kill counters, they had collectively killed over 33,000 enemy soldiers and nearly 113,000 civilians who had been intentionally placed in the line of fire.
Unfortunately, the Marine force that had landed in Yancheng had been wiped out before any EHDs from the 32nd infantry division could be rushed forward to assist them. The Marines at Ningbo were nearly wiped out, but 500 Reapers arrived at the last minute. They had helped to create a big enough perimeter for additional forces to land. By the end of the day, some two thousand enhanced humanoid drones had landed at Ningbo and began to push further inland, leaving the Marines to clear the city and surrounding villages.
Sometime around 0230, Colonel Lee pulled up to Thornton’s position in one of the armored jeeps that had been brought ashore several hours earlier. His vehicle had been followed by seven Pershing battle tanks and thirteen Wolverines, which did not stop, but instead pushed beyond them, heading towards Nantong to support the EHDs before they moved across the river. Colonel Lee spotted Thornton walking out of his headquarters and approached him.
“Captain Thornton, we need to talk,” Colonel Lee declared.
“I see you brought some additional armor with you, Sir,” Captain Thornton replied as he observed the armored column moving past his post towards the enemy lines.
Colonel Lee looked at the armored column briefly, then his eyes settled on the enormous amount of dead bodies surrounding Captain Thornton’s position. He could tell they had been hit hard earlier and somehow managed to hold out long enough for the EHDs to land and help them regain control of the area.
Looking Thornton in the eyes, Colonel Lee said, “Captain Thornton, your Company did an amazing job today. You not only held your perimeter against multiple enemy assaults throughout the last 24 hours. You beat back their advances and held on to perhaps the most important LZ in the Shanghai area. I wanted you to know I’m putting you in for a medal again, for you and your men.” Lee heaped some much-deserved praise on his best company commander.
“Thank you for the words of encouragement, but my men and I were just doing our jobs,” he replied feeling almost embarrassed by the adulation and, more importantly, guilty about what they had done to ensure they held their position. “We held, Sir, but I lost a lot of good Marines today. We also killed a lot of civilians, something my men and I were not at all comfortable with.”
“I know. It was a terrible order they issued, but you executed it flawlessly and because of that, you probably saved the entire invasion force in Nantong. If your position had fallen, we would have lost the last three ports and most likely the other LZ,” the colonel asserted, reaffirming the gallant effort of Thornton’s men.
Colonel Lee sighed. “Look, I’m here for more than just a social call and to tell you how good you and your men did today. As you know, we took a tremendous number of casualties. Two of my three battalions were completely wiped out, one at the north port and the other at LZ Liberty. I’ve also lost all three of my battalion commanders. Shoot — the division Commander was killed, and I’m now the most senior officer in the division. On my way over here, I was informed by General Black, the invasion force CG, that I’m being promoted to Brigadier General (BG), effective immediately; they want me to take over command of Third Marines.”
There was a brief pause as Lee allowed Thornton a second to digest before continuing. “As I said earlier, most of the senior officers have been killed; of the three brigades that we have in the division, I’m the only O6 still able to fight. I only have two of thirteen Lieutenant Colonels who are not wounded and able to fight. I’m promoting both of them to full Colonel to take over their brigades. Right now, your brigade has no commander, and your XO was just killed thirty minutes ago. Therefore, I’m promoting you effective immediately to Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) to take over command of your battalion. I’ll send out the official orders to everyone in your battalion shortly.” As he finished his speech, he handed Captain Thornton his new silver oakleaf rank insignias.
Thornton just stood there dumbfounded for a second; then, snapping out of his stupor, he reached out his hand and took the silver oakleaves from BG Lee. They both took a moment to put their new ranks on before Thornton spoke. “Sir, I do not know what to say. I had never thought I would rise above Captain, having been just promoted less than a year ago. What are my orders?”