Chapter 10

The border between Com territory and that of the Caps had acquired the nickname, 'The Fringe.' At its broadest, it spanned between 10 or 12 kilometers and, by agreement between the two parties, was demilitarized. New Glasgow was something of an anomaly being at the end of a tongue of Cap territory that was surrounded on three sides by the Coms. Recognised as a potential flashpoint, however, at least one armored division was kept on standby by both sides at all times.

But, New Glasgow - colloquially known among Cap soldiers as 'The Dick' - was only the most obvious focus along a border 500 Klicks long. Elsewhere, the swathe of The Fringe ran through pastures, stubbly forests and swampy wasteland. Protecting this, on the Cap side, was a new border force called 'The Guardian Force.' To mark the line, the Caps had strung a strong steel cable about half a metre from the ground. It could be easily stepped over, but it'd stop a vehicle accidentally wandering into no man's land.

The Coms couldn't even afford that modest barrier. On their side there was merely a series of white posts with reflective material stapled to each. This is important to understand what happened next.

Equally important was the fact neither side had much experience in policing a hostile border. The Coms employed regular patrols using trucks filled with young, and under-equipped conscripts. The Guardian Force was not much better and later inquiries would reveal systemic problems from the top down.

The Guardians were a new force and its commanders lacked experience. The task, protecting a long border, was beyond available resources but, as with any professional given an impossible mission, they did the best they could. The rules of engagement were ill-defined, however, and local commanders were often left with vague orders. Their equipment was all second hand ex military and not always appropriate. Protocols were not always observed by Johnny on the spot, either because he didn't understand them fully, or the Force lacked the resources to properly implement them.

In any case, Junior Lieutenant Raul Castro was the sole Guardian on duty at a remote post known as 'Sub 7.' This stretch of The Fringe was about 8 kilometers wide and consisted of swampy, broken country transited by an old, disused road. Castro was newly promoted and, at 21, had only been in the service for a year. His rise in the ranks had more to do with his experience as a cadet leader in High School. In hindsight, very little else about the guy seemed to qualify him as an officer.

He was impetuous, ambitious, and his service record indicated a temperamental personality and easily rattled under pressure. Such a person needed a partner with a cool head as Castro was thought to work best as one of a team.

But, this evening, a team was precisely what Castro didn't have. Normally, Sub 7 should be manned by a crew of three, but the Junior Lieutenant was on his own. For the past month Sub 7 had got by with two, but at this time Castro's partner had called in sick.

Sub 7 was considered a low risk post and nothing much had happened there for 18 months. Nevertheless, it was reasonably well armed with two remote controlled, automatic, 30mm cannon mounted on wheeled carriages some 150 metres apart. Control of these was via a targeting computer installed in the ruins of an old factory. Castro had the scanner mounted on the roof while he, himself, kept watch via a second floor window.

Sub 7, though, lacked long range surveillance equipment and Castro's only aid to his eyeball was a pair of binoculars. His communications consisted of a radio with which he could call 'Sector Command Red' situated over 40 kilometers away. Castro had no profiling scanners to properly identify potential threats, relying, instead on his verbal description to his Sector Commander. Such a delay could see him under fire before any order was received from Sector, and he knew it.

It was evening - to be precise, 1903 hours - when Castro noticed a vehicle enter the fringe from the Com side. He strained to identify it through his binoculars - it was showing no lights - and all he could say with any certainty was it was a truck.

Com border patrols used similar trucks, both with military markings and civilian, and Castro assumed it was one of these, perhaps getting a better look.

We take up the story using the official radio log as presented to the enquiry together with accompanying commentary by the Military Officer Assisting the Court (MOAC), the army's senior military legist, Colonel Samuel Adams.

(Castro) "Ah, Sector Red from Sub-7, Sector Red from Sub-7. Bogies within my AO."

(MOAC) "An 'AO' in Guardian Force jargon stands for 'Area Of Observation, or, the sector of the border fringe he can see from post Sub-7. Here we see the first mistake of the evening. Castro uses the term 'bogie' which is army slang for an enemy. I believe he meant to say 'bogie is' but, as you can hear on the tape, Sector Red believed he meant more than one enemy. In any case, the proper protocol ought to be 'one contact.' A 'contact' implies a more benign threat or of an unidentified nature."

(Sector Red) "Come, again, Sub-7? Can you identify bogies? Are they coming towards your position?"

(MOAC) "The Duty Officer at Sector Red Command that night was Junior Lieutenant Stuart Greene. Greene was standing in for his commander who was away on leave. Greene was not much older than Castro. (Actually, they were the same age - 21, {Auth}) He had arrived from the academy barely 6 months before and he and Castro had never met. I also believe Greene suffered from, what we call in the army, 'JOC syndrome. [JOC, Junior Officer in Command]' A Junior Officer, deputizing for his boss, starts to believe he's really the CO."

(Castro) "Negative, Sector, ah, lost him... {pause} Nope, there he is, ah ... That's a positive, Sector. Bogies coming towards me."

(MOAC) "Again, 'bogies', that is, multiple contacts. This mistake is still being made. Clearly, multiple bogies would mean a deliberate intrusion into the AO. A single bogie could mean the guy just took a wrong turn."

(Sector) "Ok, ah, hang on..."

(MOAC) "Greene searches for the operations manual. He obviously doesn't know the protocol."

(Sector) "Sub-7? Have the contacts come within your Zone?"

(MOAC) "Greene's reading out of the operations manual. Sub-7's 'Zone' is the piece of the AO that lies on its side of the border line."

(Castro) "One klick short. What do I do? Ah, no. Now he's turning North. I lost him again, sir."

(MOAC) "Greene should have been alerted that Castro is now talking about a singular contact, not multiple. Somehow, Greene misses the clue."

(Castro) "There he is! He's closing my zone!"

(MOAC) "Castro's voice is rising. He's beginning to panic. Greene should now be giving him clear, precise orders."

(Sector) "Ok, ok, son. Ah, you'd better go to the SitMap."

(MOAC) "SitMap, 'Situation Map' on his targeting computer. Greene is telling him to go to the computer that controls the guns. Likely, he meant he could get a better fix from there, but wasn't clear. The targeting computer was one floor down and there is a pause while Castro changes positions."

(Castro) "Ok, I've booted up, sir. TA in two minutes at present speed."

(MOAC) "TA, Target Area, and here we have further confusion. The computer is a military model and not configured for use by the Guardian Force. Instead of Guardian slang, 'Zone, ' that half of the screen reads 'target area'. The computer doesn't understand the subtle difference. I believe, also, that the act of sitting in front of that computer with all the army terms coming at him, Castro starts to believe he's a soldier in a combat zone - something he's not trained for. This calls into question the whole purpose of the Guardian Force. Are they soldiers or policemen? If the latter, then why have they been given all that lethal hardware? If the former, then why haven't they been trained properly for the tools they've been given?"

(Sector) "If the contact enters the zone, you must send a warning."

(MOAC) "Straight from the manual. However, Castro has no means of sending a verbal warning. His radio doesn't operate on Com frequencies and he has no loud speaker system. Greene likely has no knowledge of that."

(Castro) "Ok, ok. I'm going to send a warning. Do I need permission for a live fire?"

(MOAC) "Of course he does. The manual states you may not fire without permission unless under mortal threat. That's clearly not the case."

(Sector) "Ah, not sure, son."

(MOAC) "Unbelievable!"

(Castro) "Ok, I'm going to fire a warning'."

(MOAC) "Warning? The MkV Automatic Cannon doesn't fire 'warnings.' Castro's best bet is to turn the system onto 'test mode' to allow him to put a burst into the air. On this diagram of the screen, you can see it's the green button, top left. Otherwise, the default setting is 'acquire and kill.' Castro would've tapped the grid nearest the contact and the system would automatically search for targets within that area. Having found the contact, the guns would lock on and wait for the 'fire' button - red button, bottom left. In 'green' or 'test mode' the system will use that fix as a directional guide only and the burst will be fired some 80 meters in the air."

(Castro) "Ok, locked. Shall I do it?"

(Sector) "Go ahead, if you're sure."

(MOAC) "That order just put Greene in jail. It is a clear, illegal order. Greene, as a Junior Lieutenant, hasn't the authority. I believe he was suffering from 'JOC syndrome'."

(Sector) "You on green?"

(Castro) "Sure."

(MOAC) "Castro's voice sounds distracted, like he's got too much on his mind. Did he really hear that last reminder to turn the system onto 'green' or 'test' mode? We can't answer that question."

(Castro) "Firing!"

(MOAC) "The system was not turned to 'green'. Castro's guns sent streams of armor piercing and explosive shells into a small truck, that, we believe, contained one occupant, a local. What that truck was doing, we don't know. What I suspect, is that the occupant was 'a runner' in Guardian Force jargon. That is, a defector trying to flee. Perhaps he'd lost the road and was searching for a way through the bogs?"

(Castro) "Got him, I got him! Hell, man, he's blown to bits."

(Sector) "Come again? You say you hit the target?"

(Castro) "Hell, yeah, whoop!"

(Sector) "You mean he's dead? Shit, man, I don't think you should've done that."

(MOAC) "He 'thinks?'"

(Sector) "You need back up? We've got to inform IT, I think."

(MOAC) "IT, 'Investigation Team'. The IT is a group of senior officers tasked with investigating live fire events and, yes, it's mandatory for this type of situation. I'm not sure what 'back up' Greene was contemplating because records show no units were likely to arrive at Sub-7 until after Castro's relief. That is, if they were ordered to deploy there straight away and they were not. Greene hadn't the authority on his own to order those units deployed in any case."

(Castro) "Yeah, shit, I suppose we have to inform IT. What do you think they'll say?"

(MOAC) "Um, now let's see..."

(Sector) "Dunno, man, I mean, if the guy was armed, I suppose ... Did you see a gun?"

(Castro) "Gun? Ah, sure, I think so."

(MOAC) "Not very convincing, don't you think?"

(Sector) "You'd better be sure, man, because you know those motherfuckers will come after you."

(MOAC) "And, ironically, you, son."

Junior Lieutenant Castro had two hours before relief. In that time, he watched the smoke billowing from the wreck agitated. His subsequent radio messages to Greene were rambling and panicky. The MOAC sniffily told the enquiry the army wouldn't have left him hanging in that situation.

Fatefully, Greene delayed calling it in - perhaps gripped by the same panicked inertia. At 2019 hours, Castro reported three vehicles stopped on the Com side of the border. At 2021 hours, a 'Sawtooth 3a' APM struck 'Sub-7' on the ground floor, demolishing the building and killing Castro instantly. At 2104 'Sub-7' was occupied by Com infantry.

Early the next morning the army at New Glasgow was still closed down and still not alerted to the events at Sub-7. Three Com ER-15 drones streaked in undetected and bombed the runway. By mid morning, seven border posts had been attacked and occupied by Com infantry. Generally, they stayed no more than a few hours, pillaged what they could and smashed up what they couldn't.

"What was needed and what didn't happen," the MOAC told the court of enquiry, "was someone to take control of the situation. I believe the chain of command let us down and the fault lies with the Guardian Force's inability to properly communicate with Army High Command and put them in the picture. Those bombs on New Glasgow were our first heads up that anything was wrong and that is unacceptable. Again, I say the Guardian Force is not a combat unit."

At 0200 the next day, a column of tanks backed by infantry moved across the fringe and attacked station 'Sub-23' some thirty kilometers North of New Glasgow. The six man Guardian squad took to their heels and no shots were fired. This Com unit intended to stay for they dug in and formed a defensive perimeter.

By that time, however, the army went to 'condition red' and general command went into crisis mode. SitMaps were established and forwarded to all combat units. At West Floral, Hopworth called Hap and Wilson into the 'situation room' and showed them what was developing. Hap stared for a long time at the screen deciphering what was happening.

At this time, cityplex was over 50 kilometers away and had still to be built up to encompass the Floral River. Population centers were well away from the theater of action and mobile forces had complete freedom of movement. But, New Glasgow's vulnerability was all too obvious for everyone to see and clearly likely to be the main objective of the enemy should this war continue.