Episode 40

Chapter 163

General Hambright
11:40 pm, November 3rd, 2006
5:40 pm November 4th, 2006 (local time)

I've never seen so much of our military might planned to be concentrated on such a small area of land. Oh sure, I remember my grandfather's stories about D-Day and a few other of battles World War Two. But there had been no real question about whether we should have fought these battles. Hitler had to be taken down. Then it wasn't just a matter of principle, it hadn't been for years by that time. The man was just too dangerous. The issue was clear cut. Unlike the issues that concerned George Hambright IV. His assignment was seen by many to be unwinable based on recent information. According to that information, the Density Force had taken over a United States Marine base. That was nothing short of shocking to start with. What shocked the military establishment was the confirmation that even sustained attacks with conventional weapons didn't slow them down. Their only weakness was that their ground troops lacked our military training. The problem is, with those ships supporting them, I'm not sure just how much of an advantage that is. Given that though we can prevent them from occupying the land, that doesn't stop them from denying it to us. How much of our men and hardware can we afford to lose? That's the question facing me. Truth be told, I thought this was the craziest war plan I was ever assigned to design since the Army's War College. I can only hope that the group assigned to find a way out of the fighting is having a lot more luck. This isn't the War of the Worlds. The tech levels might seem comparable, but there were several things different. Normal earth germs won't save us. But neither do they have the ground strength for a war of occupation. So the question is how long can they keep up their operations before running out of whatever they use for fuel? Is it something we can even find and stop? Food and water is something else we can work to regain control of. But what about the rest of the world. There are no doubt other countries that would be glad to restock them because they devastated the American war machine.

There is was only one weapon we haven't tried.

Nuclear weapons.

God help our descendants if we do have to try them.

There was knock on my office door.

"Enter."

It was my aide. "Sir, the President is on line three."

"Thank you, Major." I finished my notes on the results of the last battle scenario they had run. The numbers were still not what I was hoping for. I clipped my notes onto the folder and handed them to him. "Tell Col. Frunt these were pretty good, but I recommend he read Churchill. Specifically the part about kissing wives and disappearing. Insurgency tactics can at times be more dangerous than outright war."

"Yes Sir." he saluted, turned and left.

Punching the flashing button, I picked up the phone. "Yes, Mr. President?"

"This is your Commander in Chief speaking."

"Yes, Mr. President."

"By the authority of Almighty God and all Right Thinking Voters of the United States, I'm authorizing a nuclear strike on Camp Carter in that so called country of Palestine."

Please let this be a bad dream. "Sir?"

"You heard me."

"I hoped, Mr. President, that I had heard wrong. Palestine is a sovereign country. The world won't stand by and let you order nuclear strikes on independent countries. Also, Mr. President, there is the political fallout within our own country if we attack an American base. They will not approve of us attacking our own people."

"Our own people, you say? You can't be one of them, you can't be an American if you disagree with me!" the President snapped back at me. "Palestine is not a country and I'll bomb it to hell and answer to God with a glad heart. As for the other part, it's not in American hands, it was attacked by a traitorous force bent on defying General Colt and his Presidential Orders. Now will you carry out my orders before I am forced to replace you with somebody capable of doing their job for God and country?"

My disgust for the Commander in Chief's disregard for the law was turning my stomach. But I decided not to throw up on the phone. I channeled my disgust into contemptuous sarcasm. "You mean replace me with somebody willing to obey orders without question? Somebody who wouldn't care if the order was illegal or stupid?" I put as much sarcasm as I could into his title. "Well, Mr. President, I will not. You know, Mr. President, you are such an intelligent person that I think the rumors about your impending impeachment are wrong. They won't get rid of you that way. They won't have to. I think it's my duty to have the Surgeon General check you out. You are behaving as if you have some serious mental imbalances. Congress and God willing, you'll be out of office within the month."

The President snapped back "God's on my side. Congress is immaterial. Nobody and no stupid principle will stop me."

Chapter 164

Lt. Frost
11:55 pm, November 3rd, 2006
5:55 pm November 4th, 2006 (local time)

My communications specialist started receiving a signal. "Sir, I have base command on the radio." He handed me the handset.

"Lt. Frost here."

"General Smith speaking. Have you assembled your team?"

"Yes Sir."

"Combat effective?"

"Yes Sir."

"Location?"

"Secondary motor pool. The attackers blew the primary one to hell."