Chapter 19

We didn't get in the air at twenty one hundred on the chili as they say in the Texas of my former time. In fact it was almost thirty five minutes after before the lead craft lifted off. Still, with a favourable tail wind and pushing our normal cruising speed, we had our lead elements on the ground a little after 0200 hours. By 0300 Red Hand's commandos had stunned the extra guards at the White House and the sentries for the troops bivouacked in the Mall.

It was a nervous forty five minutes waiting for the commandos and troopers securing the two hundred and fifty troops bivouacked on the banks of the Potomac. When word finally did come over Red Hawk's communication headset he sighed with relief. As those troopers and commandos began to march the captured US troops toward the White House, Red Hawk ordered Robert Mill's artillery company to open fire with star shells and the alien supplied boomers.

Boomers were basically just a very large explosive charge that could be set to go off at any level. They could go from the sound of distant thunder to window shattering and horse scattering explosions. It was right at the window shattering level that the first ten boomers went off.

Boy howdy did they ever have the desired effect. All over the city people ran into the streets to see what was happening. Our troopers slowly but surely moved the entire population of Washington DC, more than forty thousand people including slaves, toward the Mall.

Red Hawk was sitting in a chair across the room from a sleeping President Polk when the windows of the White House shattered. He sat bolt upright in bed, but it was a toss up which surprised him the most, the boomers or Red Hawk in his bedroom.

By 0600 the Mall looked like the pictures in my history book of the protests over the Viet Nam war. People in every stage of dress, most in their night clothes, had been herded through the streets of DC.

All this was not without incident. Six of our troopers were shot, but thanks to Narith's light weight body armor none were hurt seriously. The same could not be said of their attackers. The double tap training that our troopers had spent hours at showed. All six of their attackers died with at least one of the two shots directly in the heart.

What was the most called for medical assistance? Smelling salts, the genteel ladies it seems couldn't handle being touched by 'dirty Indians and Niggers'. One genteel bitch was told if she used the 'N' word one more time that she'd be shot. Apparently she doubted this and attempted to slap one of our troopers who was at the time letting two little girls ride his horse. She became the first wounded person we could treat after twelve year old trooper Tabby Trammel put a 9mm slug straight through her hand, and promised her the next one through her head.

That wasn't the only mutiny we had that morning but it was the only one that led to blood shed. The funny part of that incident, depending on what side you were on, was when the lady with the hole in her hand asked Jana as she was wrapping her hand, "Would that little girl really shoot me in the head?"

Jana smiled at the woman in her mean sort of way, "I'd have shot you in the head the second, if not the first, time you called one of our troopers that, after you'd been told." The woman gasped, "But then maybe I'm a little more sensitive to it since me and two of my husbands other wives are former slaves."

"How many wives does your husband have?" the shocked woman asked.

Jana giggled, "There are seven of us and boy do we have fun. and I even renewed our membership in the mile high club on the way here."

The poor woman was afraid to ask but her curiosity compelled her to ask, "Mile high club?"

Jana, never bashful, grinned, "Yes ma'am. Our husband, that's him right over there with those two little girls. He made love to us on the flight up here."

The woman's face turned red as a beet. I heard the whole conversation and I was just proud Jana had said 'made love' rather than her normal 'fuck'. The woman was rattled enough.

Shortly after all this played out Red Hawk and the President stepped up on a make shift stage and with one of Narith's best sound system and speakers set up throughout the crowd Red Hawk began, "My name is Red Hawk. I am the leader of a united group of people we call 'The Band.' We were to come here in peace today to meet with leading members of your government and society, but your President decided that he wanted to ambush us and hold us for ransom." Polk stared at his feet like a child caught stealing candy, "His actions were an act of war. Is that what you want?"

The crowd didn't seem too interested in going to war. I suspected they might have been more for it if they weren't going to be starting it off as prisoners. Red Hawk held up his hands and they quieted down, "A large group of men were supposed to meet with the President today, I need you men to come forward. While those men are coming forward let me tell you what going to war will mean to you."

Red Hawk turned and whistled for the ever present Fanny and pointed to a nearby patch of high ground. The crowd followed Red Hawk's finger and watched in awe as the tiny red haired freckled face girl did her famous mount and ride wide open towards the stage. She slowed some as she approached the stage and stood in her saddle, her pony now at a slow lope. As she came parallel to the stage she jumped from the saddle and tucked into a roll. She stopped on one knee, her M-4 with collapsible stock and shortened barrel was up and ready. Fanny emptied the twenty round clip in seconds into a wooden bucket full of water we had set at the end of the stage. As soon as the bolt locked out on the empty clip she stood, checked her weapon to be sure it was safe and then handed it to Red Hawk.

He held the weapon up, "This is one of our automatic weapons." Reaching into his pocket he pulled out one of the 5.56mm rounds, "This is what it shoots. For those of you in the back, look to the nearest trooper." There were several laughs from the crowd, "Before some of you start to think that this is just a toy we let little girls play with let me explain something to you in numbers you can understand. This small bullet travels at three thousand one hundred feet per second. It is capable of delivering 1,309 ft·lb of force. And as you saw, it does not take long to fire twenty rounds. We have thousands of highly trained troopers all armed with automatic weapons, some are even more deadly than this one."