Eden's War (A Distant Eden) (15 page)

While the western and southern Chinese artillery teams were kept pinned down by the militias in two places, the northern component wasn’t under the same constraint. This is where Adrian’s final surprise came in – on wings. Adrian’s last request to Captain Morgan had been for a gunship. It had been a chancy, last-minute thing; Adrian hadn’t known if it would make it in time, or even if it would make it at all. But Morgan had come through. Coming over the horizon was an AC-131 gunship. The gunship quickly came into play over the northern component.

Seeming to stand on one wing, it flew in a tight circle and delivered rapid-fire killing blows to the Chinese. Firing 40mm cannons and 105mm cannons rapidly into the convoy and artillery, the Chinese were ripped to shreds in less than two minutes. The aircraft then proceeded to wipe out the other two components. It then flew over the compound, dipped its wings, and flew off to the west and landed on the highway.

Everyone was cheering, hugging, and dancing. People were pouring onto the roof in celebration. The militia on the ground were moving through the enemy combatants, making sure none remained alive.

Adrian got on the radio and said, “Everyone in front of the building in thirty minutes, and I mean every single person.”

Turning to Race who had come back onto the roof to report he asked, “Casualties?”

“Yes sir. First report is forty dead, sixty wounded, ten critically.”

“Damn,” was all Adrian said.

Standing in front of the crowd, most of whom were still cheering and dancing, Adrian began to speak. “First let me report that we took casualties, mostly on the ground but some from sniper fire. Today we lost good friends. Brave men and women who paid with their lives and their blood to protect all of us. I think a prayer is in order.” Pointing to one of his militia buddies, Matt, blacksmith, inventor, militiaman, and Preacher, Adrian asked “Would you mind, Matt?”

After Matt’s short but beautiful prayer, Adrian spoke again. “Would someone go and lower the flag to half-mast please?” Two men quickly did and Adrian stood at attention and saluted.

Then Adrian said, “You. All of you. You worked harder than anyone I’ve ever seen work before. By the strength of your will you turned certain defeat into total victory. This is a moment in history that will echo through the ages. Your names will be remembered. Generations from now people will talk about you with awe… and gratitude… for you have saved your countrymen from an overall defeat at the hands of the Chinese who would have used these nuclear weapons against us. I firmly believe that this is the critical turning point in this war. As word is broadcast across the land of what you’ve done here, your actions, your victory will inspire all of the other militias. They will fight harder, be braver, and have more will to win than anything else in the world could have inspired.

“You didn’t just save your own lives. You saved countless lives by denying this arsenal to our enemy. Be proud of what you have accomplished. You just sent the clearest signal possible to the Chinese empire that
they will not take our land!
”

The crowd had fallen deathly silent up to that point, but with those words they erupted into a cheer that could be heard for miles around as it echoed across the land and over the bodies of the enemy bodies lying on the prairie.

Chapter 21

P
antex supplied fuel from its reserves for the AC-130; the gunship had used nearly all of its fuel to reach Pantex from Florida. It would not be returning to Florida, but to Corpus Christi, carrying Adrian, Race, Frank, and the Texas Rangers, crammed into it when it lifted off. They circled the battlefield from eight-thousand feet and Adrian looked down. Pantex was in good shape, but spread out on three sides of it were perhaps two thousand bodies; thicker near the plant perimeter. Large black scorched earth marks indicated where the primitively launched, technologically advanced bombs had exploded.

More troops were being mobilized to set up a robust and permanent defense at Pantex. Artillery and other tactically useful weapons would be sent in as well. Adrian didn’t expect to fight another battle for Pantex, but the downside if he was wrong was too horrendous to not take every precaution.

Over the intercom the pilot said, “Mr. President, it’s an amazing feat. Coupling primitive technology with advanced technology that way. Not to mention how rapidly it was deployed.”

“We had incredible human resources,” said Adrian. “Scientists, engineers, and soldiers working together with the kind of tools and explosives they had at hand is something I would never want to face. If the Chinese had wanted to destroy the plant instead of capturing it whole we would never had had a chance, not in a million years. That was our ace in the hole – and you were the other ace.”

“My pleasure to be of service, sir,” replied the pilot.

The plane banked right and headed for Fort Brazos, where Adrian and the Rangers would be off-loaded and return to their normal duties. For the first time in several weeks, Adrian would spend the night with Linda before proceeding on to Corpus Christi.

The entire village was gathered near the bridge over the Brazos River on FM-2114 where the AC-131 landed. It was two miles from Fort Brazos, the closest place they could land, yet it looked like every man, woman, and child had turned out to welcome the returning heroes. Linda led the charge to the aircraft’s door and everyone was cheering and clapping when the door opened and Adrian stepped out. He paused for a moment to wave, then lunged for Linda, grabbed her up in a bear hug, and whirled her around in circles. Between the winding down engines and the crowd’s cheering, Adrian couldn’t have spoken loud enough for Linda to hear him, but his hug did enough talking for the moment.

If anything the crowd grew even louder as Race and the Rangers stepped off the plane. Eventually everyone moved back to the village, leaving a well-armed group behind to guard the aircraft. The ten-man crew was treated like royalty. The details of the Pantex battle were widely known already, including the gunship crew’s part in the battle.

When things quieted down Linda asked, “How long can you stay?”

“Just overnight. We may have reached the tipping point in this war, but I’m not sure of that and even if I were, there’s still a lot of heavy fighting still to be done.”

“I’ll take every second I can get darling, every single second is a treasure beyond price.”

The afternoon was filled with celebrations and speeches. It was an odd celebration though. The villagers knew that Adrian needed to spend every minute he could in privacy with Linda, so they shooed the couple into their home as soon as they arrived. Then they gathered in front of the house and carried on with speeches and toasts and more than a little drinking while the couple reconnected inside.

“Straight to the bedroom, Adrian, I’m going to give you a proper hero’s welcome.”

“Damn, Linda, I’m not sure I can carry on properly with all that noise outside!” Adrian replied with a grin. She quickly showed him he could.

Later that night, when the celebrants had moved on into the village, Adrian sent for his kitchen cabinet. Matt, Perry, Tim and Race sat at the kitchen table with a glowing Linda and Adrian.

“The reason I asked you here,” Adrian began, “is I need your advice. Pantex is not the only nuclear storage facility we have; there are about a dozen other locations that hold ready-to-go nukes. My concern is that the Chinese are also aware of these other locations. Pantex holds the largest number of nuclear pits along with a sizeable amount of active war heads, but every site is a potential target. It may be that the Chinese land forces have those in mind. If even one is captured we’re back to square one, losing the war.

“While I feel certain that we will win with our present strategy, it’s going to take too long, there’s too much exposure and too many opportunities for them to get one of those nuke storage sites. I’ve sent out orders to beef up security at each of them, but defense is a poor security option when offense is available. What I’m thinking is that our best defense now is to end this war quickly… and that means we have to radically change strategy. The final decision is on my shoulders, but I need to hear every pro and con you guys can come up with. The burden of the consequences could be enormous, and I don’t want anyone at this table to feel the slightest shred of that burden. This will be my decision alone – remember that as we go through this discussion. Please, do not hold back any thought you have…no matter how odd or silly it may seem to you.”

Adrian stopped talking, looking each one directly in the eyes for a moment.

Matt said, “Okay, we got it. Now what’re you thinking of?”

Adrian laid it out for them. The discussion went on until the sun came up and Adrian had to leave for Corpus Christi. As he boarded the AC-131 his mind was made up. The war was about to change, radically.

Adrian returned to the ship and was met by Captain Morgan and the full complement of the carrier’s crew, turned out in full dress uniforms, and arranged in formation on the carrier’s deck. All hands, except for the necessary duty crews, were on deck. He was given a military hero’s welcome with loud cheering and hats flying high into the air.

Embarrassed, Adrian turned to Morgan and said, “Jesus, Morgan, was this really necessary?”

“Yes, sir,” Morgan replied simply.

“I really don’t need this kind of hurrahing, Morgan.”

“No sir, I know you don’t. But
they
do. They’re so damn proud of your weirdly awesome stand at Pantex that they’re about to burst. If they don’t get a chance to let you know how they feel… well they’ll be cheated, sir.”

“Oh,” was all Adrian could say for a moment. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“It’s not just them either, sir. It’s every man, woman, and child in this country. It’s as though the Alamo was fought all over again except this time the good guys won. Not only won, but won heroically and by using tactics that no one in their right mind would have thought of. It was a brilliant victory, sir, just fucking brilliant if you’ll pardon my French, and everyone is beyond proud of you and the men and women at Pantex. It’s become a new battle cry, sir. Men charging into battle all over this country are shouting
‘Remember Pantex.’
”

“Seriously? They’re yelling that?”

“Yes sir, it spread like wildfire. You’ll have to get used to this kind of welcome, sir, it’s going to happen wherever you go. My advice, which I know you don’t need, is to not just let it happen, but to encourage it. Soldiers need more than a good cause to fight for sir, they need to believe in their leader. They need to believe that the man leading this war
can
win it,
will
win it. Sir, think back to when you were in the Army and going out on missions. You wanted to believe that the powers that be knew exactly what they were doing, even if it didn’t make sense to you – especially when it
didn’t
make sense to you. When you believed they knew what they were doing, you fought better, harder, and with confidence. When you didn’t believe that, when you had doubts about your orders, you weren’t as effective. It’s the same for everyone, sir.”

“Well, Morgan, when you’re right you’re right. Carry on with the celebration, but when it’s over I need to see you in my cabin and get an uplink to the Admirals.”

Three hours later Adrian completed the conference call with the Admiral and Rutherford. The call had taken over an hour. Adrian listened to the pros and cons the Admirals and Morgan had elucidated. Each had already been gone over by his kitchen cabinet and Adrian considered all of them. He was as confident as he could be in his new strategy, and well aware of the possible consequences. The trio had, in the end, agreed with him. Encrypted and encoded messages were flying around the country at that very moment, organizing and implementing the first stage of the plan.

Adrian was exhausted. He’d had only a few hours of sleep since the beginning stages of the Pantex battle. He’d caught a short nap on each leg of the journey back on the AC-131. He hadn’t gotten any sleep at Fort Brazos. “Morgan, I’m going to sleep for eight hours, do not disturb me unless there’s an emergency.”

“Yes, sir. And if I may say so, a damn good idea. You’re about to fall over.” Morgan left, pulling the door quietly closed behind him. Adrian was asleep before Morgan was out of the cabin.

Eight hours later Adrian awakened himself by his internal alarm clock. He was aware that the crew would probably have let him sleep around the clock despite his orders, they wouldn’t have disturbed his rest for anything less than a total crisis. But Adrian had slept as much as he dared, time was of the essence and he had to get back to Pantex to get things started personally.

By that evening he was landing on a heli-pad on top of one of the buildings at Pantex. Coming in he had looked down at the battlefield. The Chinese soldiers were being buried in a mass grave, a caterpillar pushing dirt over the hole, forming a large mound of dirt that would settle some, but would be visible on the flat plain for centuries, possibly the tallest landmark for fifty miles. The trebuchets and air tubes were still in place on the roof tops. Simple machines, they could withstand the weather for years with only minor maintenance. The lasers that had been so effective had been removed, too delicate to be left exposed.

Once again he was given a hero’s welcome. As Morgan had suggested, he went along with it. When it was over he and Rafe retired to Rafe’s office for privacy. They had a lot to talk about.