Chapter 28: Justice and Invasion

Philadelphia: 11:50 A.M.

Tim let Amy cry in his arms as he held the woman who brought hope to a lot of people of this world. So she went overboard and took justice in her hands. He thought it was worth it as far as he was concerned. He felt Amy gently push on him so he released her.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am. Thank you, Tim," Amy replied.

"Good, what are your orders?" Tim asked.

Amy laughed and replied, "Tim you out rank me. I'm only a commander while you're a general."

"Not in my book, Ma'am. In my book, your experience out weights my rank, tenfold," Tim replied.

Amy wiped the tears from her eyes and they started walking towards the shuttle when six police cars roared to a stop.

Tim started to pull his pistol when Amy stopped him. She watched the lead cars door open and a man wearing a black uniform step out.

Federal Detective Anthony Wiggles of the Maryland division of Law Enforcement climbed out of his cruiser and looked at the man and woman walking towards the shuttlecraft sitting in the middle of the road. Adjusting his belt, he slipped his cap on his head and walked towards the people. Stopping three feet away, he said, "What's going on here?"

"I was rescuing two children," Amy said.

"Rescuing? From what?" Anthony asked.

"A child molester. I'm taking his two children into protective custody," Amy stated.

"Do you have a warrant?" Anthony asked again.

"Nope. I just did it. What do you think you can do to stop... " Amy was interrupted by the mother.

"Officer they're kidnapping my children," Johanna Granger cried out.

Anthony's hand slapped his waist and the pistol was pointed at the man and woman in front of him, as he snapped out, "On the ground. NOW!"

Amy froze as she had never seen an unenhanced human move so fast. The pistol was out and pointed at her before she could bring her head back from looking at Johanna. She raised her hands to show they were empty and replied, "Look let me..."

"I said get on the ground, now or I put you down permanently," Anthony snarled out.

"Look, let the woman explain. We have good reason for doing what we are doing," Tim said.

Captain Charlene Kellogg-Anderson watched the confrontation taking place between her husband, Commander Thompson and the police.

"Shit!" she said as the cops went for their guns her fingers were flying over the control panel and she hit enter and watched.

"Detective watch out!" shouted another of the Federalized officer and his pistol fired. The bullet flew towards the shuttles ramp where four armed men appeared. The bullet bounced off the man's chest.

"What the fuck?" Anthony said as his pistol was ripped from his hand and it floated up into the air and dropped into the woman's hand.

"Thank you, Charlene," Amy said as she looked at the police officer in front of her and addressed him, "Detective, I advise you to seriously think about what you are going to do with the rest of your life. As soon as my husband gets done with your idiot president, he will begin making changes to the United States. In fact, I guarantee you this, the United States will go the way the Roma Empire did, into dust that is and into the chronicles of history. Terra is changing, and it must change to fight her enemies. Now you can join us, or die. The choice is yours."

Inside the shuttle, Charlene was watching her commanding officer talk with the American cop when the console board to her right started flashing for attention. Shutting the volume down on the outside conversation she slid over to the second seat and brought the board up on the holographic display.

The screen flashed a warning and she slapped her hand down on the board as she screamed on the com unit, "Shields up."

Amy had just handed the policeman his pistol back when the first missile hit the stern of the shuttle and exploded, the second and third hit the hastily raised shields. The explosion blew the starboard engine to shreds and crippled the central engine. Shrapnel flew outward and hit the marines, Amy, and the policemen who were talking about the woman and kids. They were picked up and hurled across the street where they lay near the sidewalk.

Charlene sat up and climbed into her pilot's chair. A mile away, two Ninja Battlemechs opened fire on the damaged shuttle, but the shields held. Charlene knew they had to get into the air, but was worried about her husband. Explosions on the front of the shield made up her mind and all she could do was pray Amy and Tim were Ok.

Amy screamed as a something hit her head and she dropped to the ground unconscious. Tim flew back and hit the ground, his right arm severed at the elbow. As Amy and Tim went down, the shrapnel ripped Detective Wiggles to shreds since his back was to the explosion and absorbed most of the flying debris. The remaining police rushed to the three on the ground as the marines on the ramp fell back into their damaged shuttle as more missiles hit the shield. The three casualties were dragged away and behind cover as two Mechs came up the street firing on the shuttle.

Systems were flashing critical on Charlene's display boards and she prayed the engine would fire. Typing commands she brought remaining engine online as she activated the antigravity pad built into the keel of the ship and she lifted off. The wings slid out of their compartments and the ship banked to port as the next barrage of missiles just missed and one of the multimillion-dollar houses blew apart. Colleen activated the defenses and twelve light pulse lasers opened up on the nearest Mech.

The lasers ripped into the first Mech, but the shield generator held. Charlene flipped the missile lock on and the computer quickly locked on and she salvoed the first missiles and ten air to ground missiles belched from the rotary launcher built into the nose.

Missiles leaped from their launcher and flew towards the enemy Mech and exploded as the sensor suite went ballistic inside the cockpit.

Charlene glanced at the sensor station and felt fear in her heart as she kicked the portside engine into full power and pulled the nose straight up. With the afterburner on full, she flipped the com unit on and screamed out, "This is Arrow Strike One, I'm under attack. Arrow is down. I repeat Arrow is down and not recovered. I need help under attack by fifteen I repeat fifteen Lightning class fighters at coordinates 40° 00′ north latitude and 75° 09′ west longitude. Mayday, any Federation fighters unit I am under attack."

"Arrow Strike this is Eagle Squadron. We are on the way. ETA three minutes," replied Commander Richard Jenny.

"This is Apocalypse Squadron, ETA four minutes, Eagle Squadron, blow through them, we will take the stragglers," Lieutenant Commander Tina Wayne.

"Roger Apocalypse, Eagle Squadron out."

"Hurry! Amy is down and possibly captured. I repeat Arrow is down," Charlene cried out as her shuttle shuddered as she was hit by two missiles.

"What?" Tina cried out as she shoved the throttle to full speed and turned all the safeties off. She left the rest of her squadron behind and barreled through the astrosphere, she left a sonic boom that was heard all over North America as she punched through the planets stratosphere and hurtled towards Philadelphia. She past Eagle squadron and saw the Federation shuttle under attack by fifteen fighters, she activated her weapons and targeted the first enemy fighter and fired all her lasers and the fighter staggered under the hit and exploded like a miniature fireball.

Banking her fighter, she swooped around and salvoed a barrage of missiles at a second fighter and caught a third with a small stream of antimatter rail gun rounds. The rounds that missed hit a skyscraper in the city and it blew apart. "Shit!" Tina said as she watched the building collapse on itself.

"No one was in the building Tina," Conquest said as the AI adjusted the shield harmonics and blocked a missile from hitting the fighter.

"Thank God! No more railguns rounds," Tina said as she flipped the fighter around and headed back for the shuttle.

"CONQUEST! HARD RIGHT!" shouted Commander Jenny's voice over the com.

Tina banked her fighter hard right and a triple stream of anti-matter railguns rounds ripped right through where she was heading. Doing a barrel roll, she saw the three black fighters streaking up at her and then Maria appeared behind one and opened up with her railguns at point blank range and the American fighters disintegrated.

The Federation battleship USS Washington: 12:49 P.M.

Molly stood looking at Jimmy and smiled as he handed her the rose. Stepping up, she kissed him and said, "Yes!"

"Yes?" Commander Hutcheson asked.

"Yes to the question you asked me last week," Molly replied.

"You will?" Jimmy said in shock.

Jimmy picked Molly up and swung her around. They stood there kissing and then he set her down.

"Ken, marry us now. Before I get cold feet again," Molly said.

"I can't, only Tammy can," Ken replied as he offered his hand to Jimmy and then kissed Molly on her cheek.

Tammy stepped up and hugged her friends, and replied, "Yes, I will marry you." She released Molly and walked over to the replicator and ordered up a bible and a marriage form.

Turning she stood in front of Molly and Jimmy and said, "Place your left hand on the bible, and recite your pledge to each other."

Molly placed her hand on the bible and Jimmy placed his over hers. She took a deep breath and said, "Jimmy, I, Molly Laura O'Neil take you to be my husband. I place my love in your hands, and offer my life and my happiness to you. I place the life of my daughter in your hands, to raise as your own daughter. I pray you will accept her. I also swear I will look to no other without your permission. Nor will I offer marriage to anyone other than you without your consent."

Jimmy smiled as he looked at Molly. The freckles across her nose were like a small bridge, a bridge he was walking across to join his love on the same plane of existence.

With a small breath he said, "Molly, I ... James Walter Hutcheson ... take you to be my husband. I place my love in your hand and offer you my life and my happiness to you. I swear to love, honor you and to raise your daughter as my own. I swear I will look to no other without your permission. Nor will I offer marriage to anyone other than you without your consent."

"I now pronounce you mates, you may kiss," Tammy said just as the red alert siren went off.

Ken walked over to the wall com and said, "This is the President. What's going on?"

"Sir, Stewardess is declaring a mayday. She is reporting Arrow Leader is down and out of contact," Lieutenant Maria Kessler reported.

"Who the heck is Arrow leader?" Ken asked as he looked around and as his eyes settled on Jessica he saw her face go pale in fear. "Jess?" he said.

"It's Amy. She went to Philadelphia to get Ashley's sister. I am accessing data feed ... oh my GOD!" she said and tears started running down her face.

"What is it?" Tammy demanded.

"Amy's shuttle was hit with a missile. The explosion sent shrapnel through the air and Amy was cut down along with General Tim Anderson and an unidentified policeman. Several other marines were wounded as well.

Ken staggered back as fear ripped through his heart and he said, "Show me."

Jessica turned the viewer on and they watched the missile hit and the explosion hurl Amy and Tim through the air. They could tell the cop was killed, and Tim's arm was cut off. It wasn't until Jessica slowed the recording down and she did a scan of each frame that she saw the sliver of metal hit Amy in her left temple.

Jessica turned to say something to Ken and saw he was gone. Doing a scan she saw him going to the flag bridge with Tammy and Kalaria. Appearing in the transport tube she caught the last of Ken's orders.

"I want the assault cruisers to triple their load-up. We are deploying ground troops to the Eastern part of the United States. The fourteen and seventeenth Mech brigades are to take Philadelphia, the ninth, sixth and twentieth brigades are to take Washington. The Grizzly is to deploy her units to neutralize Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Fort Hood and Dallas, Texas and Pensacola Naval Air Station. Jessica, assign the other battleships to take out the missile silos, Bangor Maine, and the other sub bases. The destroyers are to take out Cheyenne, Wyoming, Omaha Nebraska, MacDill AFB, in Tampa, Florida, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, Mountain Home Air force base in Idaho, Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Ohio, oh hell, just pull up the file on my computer called Buckeye One and send to all ships. Each place listed should get a visit by our armed forces," Ken said as the transport tube came to a stop and they walked out onto the flag bridge.

They walked down the hall and entered the flag bridge and Tammy started issuing her orders. The fleet pulled out and headed for Earth.

The American light cruiser, USS Athena: 1:10 P.M.

President Kincaide was sitting in his suite when the alarm sounded on his flagship.

Activating the com he said, "What's going on?"

"Mister President, there has been a battle over Philadelphia. Several fighters have been shot down and damage to the city is mounting as antimatter warheads miss their targets and incinerate the downtown section of the city. We have also captured General Tim Anderson and Commander Amy Thompson of the Federation fleet. General Anderson has lost one of his arms is expected to survive his wounds. However, Mrs. Thompson is in critical condition and is not expected to live," reported Captain Eugene Holt and then he turned to read another report and he turned back to the screen and continued, "Sir, the combined Federation fleet is closing on Earth and they are sending coded messages to all fleet ships. There are approaching in three waves. The first two consist of two battleships, two assault cruisers, and six destroyers. The second has three battleships, two carriers, the two light cruisers, and six destroyers. The third is two battleships, nine destroyers, and three medical ships as well as five merchant ships. The first wave is heading for the North Eastern United States, the second towards the Southern United States, and the third to the Western United States. Sir this is an invasion. What are your orders?"