Chapter 7

We had four weeks of grace before we got any more attention from the military. Again, Ft. Jesus Loves Me was the focus of the military activity. We didn't have much warning when the attack helicopters finally showed up. I have no idea why they didn't hit us with drones, but started off with manned vehicles. Whatever the reason, we were able to respond with a hell of a lot of firepower.

Initially, our defense was handled by the quad .60 on the roof of the entry gate. They started to shoot as soon as the radar reported the choppers to be in range. They got two of the six attacking choppers before somebody locked onto the gun-control radar with a radar-seeking missile. Well, that was it. We lost the gun emplacement in a massive explosion as both the missile and the stowed explosive bullets went off. Unfortunately, neither of the gun crew members were able to escape. We would mourn them, but only after the battle was over.

I wondered what the attackers had in mind because they pumped more missiles and explosive bullets into the pillbox long after it was reduced to dust. Maybe it was simply frustration, but we would never know. We decided to let them think that they had won the battle and did not respond with any more active defense. They could not reach us with the weapons they had, so we let them waste ammunition while we sat in the air conditioning and drank coffee or tea.

The attack lasted for nearly 30 minutes—long beyond what was a reasonable time to spend on the job, especially since we were not shooting back. At best, for both sides, this was a break-even type of battle, but we thought that we had won in the long run.

The helicopters eventually left, and we went out to survey the damage. All of the vehicles parked outside had been destroyed, but we had long since moved the important vehicles inside. The formerly decorative front of the facility was completely destroyed and the parking lot was totally useless. It reminded me of some pictures I had once seen of the devastation caused by mass bombing during WW2. About all it accomplished was to make the attackers feel like they had done something useful, but it made absolutely no difference to us.

The survey of the destruction did give us some ideas on how to improve our defenses. We decided to put in some simple foxhole-type stations for men with RPGs. We didn't expect the men to do much against infantry, but they could do some good against vehicles and aircraft. These RPGs had IR (Infra-Red) homing devices, so they should scare the hell out of attackers, even if they did not actually stop anybody. The idea was that these men would get off one shot and run like hell. That ought to confuse the attackers, and that could be a useful function.

Our real defense was to be made just inside the cave. With our living facilities and manufacturing installations now moved well back into the depths of the cavern, we were prepared to fight infantry within the cave. We had done a lot of training toward that eventuality, and we were as prepared for that kind of fight as we could possibly be. With our combination of machine guns and assault rifles, nobody was going to find us to be a walkover.

Two weeks after the attack by the helicopters, we were hit again by several companies of light infantry. They were supported by helicopters when they first showed up, and that gave us a number of juicy targets for our RPGs. We had six men out with RPGs, and they knocked down four of the helicopters before they had to retreat back into the cave.

The choppers poured in hundreds, maybe thousands, of rounds of explosive bullets into the former cave entrance. So much of the former concrete pseudo cliff covering over the entrance had been knocked down that there was only a very small entrance to somebody on foot. Over the years, the operators of the original commercial cave attraction had put in what they thought a "real" cave entrance should look like. This was made of cast rebar reinforced concrete, and that just added to our defenses when it fell. We had two light machine guns, one quad .60, and 15 men with assault rifles set up to defend an opening only about six feet wide and eight feet high.

We were prepared for hand grenades that might be tossed into the entrance with a sturdy set of breastworks. As far as we were concerned, only a suicidal attack could hope to work against us, and we were even prepared for that with demolition charges. We just relaxed as much as we could and waited for the enemy to come at us.

The first effort was by a small detail of sacrificial troops. I was reminded of the punishment battalions that the Soviets and the Nazis used in WW2. These guys expected to die, they just wanted to escape the torture they would receive if they did not follow orders.

The first effort began with four HE (High Explosive) hand grenades tossed through the passageway. These were expected, so no harm was done, though the noise was a hell of an experience. The first few men were allowed through the entrance before they were chopped to pieces with the assault rifles. We were saving the MGs (Machine Guns) for the surprise and shock value.

The next effort by the attackers was to come charging through the entrance at a dead run and with guns blazing. This, too, was met with assault rifle fire. We were still holding back on the MGs until we really needed them. This assault was no more successful than the first one had been.

That caused a protracted pause in the attack, so we settled back to await developments. All of the men, except for one man acting as a lookout, were back in the main reception area. Thus, they were protected by about 10 feet of solid rock. They were where they could quickly return to their defensive positions, but there were no men exposed to danger, other than the lookout.

Suddenly, there was a tremendous explosion as an RPG came flying through the opening and impacted on the back wall of what amounted to a foyer. The lookout was wounded, and was rushed back to the aid station. His injuries were not life-threatening, but they were very painful.

As soon as the smoke cleared, men came charging through the entrance. This time, there was no fooling around! Both light MGs opened up and killed everyone who entered the room. Now the defenders were serious! Nobody was getting through that entrance without a hell of a fight and an unbelievable amount of luck! Men kept trying to get in, and those men were dying as fast as they got through the door.

The bodies were piling up to the point that the entrance was being blocked by fallen bodies. The attack was going to fail simply for that reason, if for no other. One of those little robot scouts with the TV camera tried to make its way through the pile of bodies. The operator finally gave up and withdrew the robot when its entrance proved impossible because of all of the bodies.

We had TV cameras set up to watch the entrance for enemy activity. We had continued to use live observers simply because they could react to unusual situations more quickly than could the cameras, but we relied on the cameras when it became too dangerous to put a man out there. There was about an hour of delay, then the wall around the entrance was hit with round after round of RPG fire. We wondered what the hell was going on, then it dawned on us that they were trying to seal us in. Fine, if that was what they wanted, more power to them.

The enemy apparently thought that we would be discommoded by having that entrance sealed. We guessed that they simply were not aware that there were a number of emergency exits in the original design, and that we had added more as we developed our habitat. We would be in good shape if they thought we were sealed underground permanently.

Finally, enough concrete and rocks fell down to appear to seal the obvious entrance. That was enough to cause the RPG fire to cease, but we were not going to believe that they were through with us until they actually left. A couple of men came up to the collapsed debris and poked around for a while. After about a half hour, they walked away. We figured that they were satisfied that the entrance was sealed, and, hopefully, the attackers would leave.

That's what happened after about 90 minutes. Our cameras showed the remaining men loading into trucks and leaving. We assumed that they were headed back to Ft. Jesus Loves Me, but we didn't do anything to disturb them. We were going to be very happy when they left. They did leave us with a hell of a mess to clean up, but with only one casualty, we figured that we had come out well ahead of the game.

Now was the time for us to decide how we were going to respond to the situation. We had two obvious choices: we could remain hidden in our cave and hope that the enemy would forget about us, or we could find some way to take the fight to them. A referendum was held, and very few people voted to stay hidden. Most of the people wanted to strike back at the repressive government the country was burdened with. That was good enough for me!

I called for a meeting of my staff to discuss the possible actions that we could take. This was a meeting of all of the various department leaders, not just the military people. If we were going to war, we had to make it total war. We did not have the resources to divide our labors among several projects—total war it had to be. Fortunately, everybody agreed to that, and we worked out some broad strategy for the undertaking. The meeting lasted all day, but we broke up with a clear understanding of how we were going about each of our tasks. The next day, we started the detailed planning for each phase of our war.