Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises (39 page)

He caught Caleb’s eye, stood just in front of Jenny, and grinned at him. Caleb stuck his tongue out, grinning at him. Jack grinned back, shook his head and turned back to the door.

Greater love has no man.

Just then, a burst of enemy fire peppered down the side of the aircraft. One of the paratroopers was hit, falling to the floor. The man behind him unclipped the man’s static line and dragged him to the side.

Suddenly, the aircraft lurched upward as it climbed to fo
ur hundred feet, the jump height. Jack felt the aircraft level out and then the pilot slammed on the flaps, slowing down to jump speed at around a hundred knots. The aircraft went slightly nose up and the tail dipped, making it a downhill run to the door.

The jumpmaster smacked Jacks arm down from the door and he put his hands on his reserve. Jack looked out and saw the Washington Monument, looking close enough that it seemed a real danger that the wingtip was about to clip it.

The red light in the door went off, to be replaced by the green light. The jumpmaster screamed ‘GO!” and Jack was out of the door into the slipstream.

Five hundred miles to the south, the Southern Federation artillery began firing a massive barrage and the concentrated armored spear thrust itself into the Regime lines along the narrow frontage of the I-95.

             
The lead element of the Southern Federation attack was an armored battle group and under the cover of the artillery barrage they rolled forward to engage the Regime defensive positions.

             
The battle group smashed through and the barrage rolled ahead of them up the Interstate. Through the gap in the Regime lines poured a squadron of Apache attack helicopters, seeking out targets ahead of the advance.

             
The Regime forces on the demarcation line initially tried to rally but then they started to fold. The Federation column began rolling north up the I-95, engaging Regime targets to the flanks of the road as they moved.

As Jack exited the aircraft, there was no sense of falling, just a buffeting in the slipstream as his parachute deployed, yanked out of its bag by the static line. He felt the risers against the back of his neck as they deployed, pushing his helmet forward on his head. Then, he was under canopy.

Jack had a couple of twists in the suspension lines and he rapidly kicked out of them, as he span he saw the aircraft flying away from him, the parachutes of his men blooming in the sky behind it, tracer fire flashing past.

Next, he looked down and the ground was coming up fast. He put his feet and knees together and slammed in, ‘oomph’, failing to conduct anything close to a regulation parachute landing fall.

Jack rolled onto his back, released the risers from his shoulders, unclipped his reserve and popped the jettison device on his daypack.
He got up on one knee and as he did so there was a series of explosions from the buildings to the north side of the DZ, followed by the sonic boom as one of the Federation fast jets raced over, taking out Regime positions.

He shrugged his daypack on, grabbed his weapon, and looked around him. The jump had been on target, the sticks drifting in to land to the west of him down the north side of the Mall. He saw a couple of his men hung up in trees. The
y rapidly released themselves from their harnesses and climbed down their deployed reserve chutes.

As Jack as
sessed the situation he saw that there was enemy fire coming from the north of the DZ, from the buildings and some Humvees. He noticed that the Regime troops that he could see were wearing blue uniforms.

So the reports were true, The Leader did not trust active duty
army units within DC, and had entrusted his protection to a praetorian guard of blue shirts.

The paratroopers from the other two aircraft were landing around him, the three C-130s banking off to the south past the drop zone to begin their run back south to the Federation lines.

As the Company started to recover from the jump, along the line they were getting their weapons into action. The Company was still in the open on the grassy Mall and they needed to move. The fire support platoon was closest to Jack and they got their 240s into action, hammering away at the Regime forces to the north.

As the platoons rallied, they started to put down
suppressive fire and move to the north, covered by the gunners of the fire support platoon. There were some stragglers, ones who had landed in trees or into the Constitution Gardens Pond, straggling out soaking wet. Orders were to move once the elements reached seventy percent strength at the rally points, so the platoons were already moving on the objective.

This ope
ration had to be bold to succeed, and there was no time to waste bogging down in an urban fight to the White House through the surrounding buildings. Jack got on the radio and ordered them to move rapidly north, as planned, and this spurred the platoon leaders into action.

1
st
Platoon began to run forward, fire and maneuvering by squads towards the ellipse. The resistance from the blue shirts was rapidly overcome. It appeared they lacked the moral or physical courage to stand in the face of determined opposition. 2
nd
Platoon followed 1
st
and soon the two platoons had eclipsed the fire support provided by the gunners so they had to cease fire.

Jack rapidly organized the Company into a classic formation at the southern end of the ellipse and they pushed north towards the White House.

Across the frontage of the ellipse 1
st
Platoon was on the right, 3
rd
Platoon was on the left, tactical HQ central and behind with 3
rd
Platoon following a tactical bound behind. The Fire support platoon was split with a squad to each flank and the third squad to the rear. It was a ‘two up, one back’ Company formation and they started to jog across the open ground towards the White House.

Enemy fire was light and sporadic, not effective. It seemed that at the heart of darkness, the eye of the storm, it was just a paper tiger.

The White House itself was an incongruous sight. Rather than the Stars and Stripes flying proudly above the building, it was the new Regime flag, looking entirely out of place.

When they were two hundred meters from the White House
the Company encountered some effective fire and went into fire and movement, popping smoke and bounding forwards by squads.

Shortly after, there was a roar of engines and from behind the White House
, to the north, rose up two Apache helicopters. The attack helicopters climbed into a hover, framing either side of the Regime flag atop the building. They fired their cannon towards the Company, who were forced to the ground, seeking cover.

Then,
also from behind the building to the north, Marine One rose up along with two Chinooks. The helicopters turned and banked away, streaking away low towards the north west.

Jack screamed to engage
them, but the Presidential helicopter was already gone, low over the city, followed by the two Chinooks. The Apaches were not making a serious effort to annihilate Jack’s command; they rapidly turned away and followed the other escaping helicopters, flying escort.

Jack shouted to move and they were up again, running towards the White House. Resistance was fading away in front of them.

They fought across the south lawn, veering towards the west wing. They used breaching charges to smash into the Oval Office, through the bullet proof windows. Once they had gained entry the Company poured into the building and started clearing the corridors, moving through the West Wing and into the main part of the White House. There was no resistance, just a bunch of terrified staffers.

Jack stood in the Oval Office and looked around him. He saw the framed portrait of The Leader on the wall,
above the fireplace, looking messianic. The broken glass from the blown windows was scattered across the rug. Jack walked over and pulled the portrait from the wall, throwing it to the ground. He also noticed that all the historical paintings had been removed. There were a number of other new paintings on the walls, all of famous socialist personalities. Karl Marx was in a prominent position, but not so as to eclipse The Leader.

Jack
turned to Jim, “Looks like the bird has flown. Let’s get that horrific flag down and get the Stars and Stripes up.”

“Roger that B
oss, it’s about time.”

Jack deployed his Company around the White House, the grounds and put OPs up on some of the key surrounding buildings. Ned set up the satellite radio and they sent the situation report back to the Federation Command.

             
Shortly afterwards the lead element of the light infantry battalion arrived. They had successfully landed at Reagan National and seized control of the airfield. Concurrently to their assault on the Pentagon they had seized the bridges between Reagan National and the White House.             

The commander was a Lieutenant Colonel Dunn. He had left a Co
mpany at the airfield to secure it. In the planning they had been very concerned about the two bridges, the Rochambeau Memorial Bridge and the 14
th
Street Bridge that led directly from Reagan National across to the Capital.

Lt-Col Dunn
had left two companies to protect the lifeline of the bridges, one at each end including a sapper section to check them out and ensure they were not wired to blow. He had advanced with a reconnaissance element and his tactical HQ to link up with Jack at the White House.

             
The Federation infantry had marched up the roads accompanied by several gators loaded with ammunition and supplies for Jack’s Company. Lt-Col Dunn also informed Jack that the mortars were set up at Reagan and were available on call to support Federation forces in the area.

             
Now that the objectives were secure, they would await news on the ground operation and updates on when they could expect a link-up. In the meantime, Lt-Col Dunn was expecting to use the airhead at Reagan National for additional C-130 flights bringing heavier equipment and resupply flights.

             
It was all a little quiet. They had expected a harder fight. Could it be that The Leader and his trusted Regime cronies had simply fled? And where had they gone?

Jack gathered his commanders in the Oval Office. No-one sat at the desk; it seemed a form of sacrilege to do so. It was an incongruous sight, a bunch of sweating bearded Resistance fighters sitting on the sofas and stood around the room, the carpet covered in glass from the blown windows. Some of them still wore their parachute harnesses over their tactical vests.

             
Megan had set up an aid station in the West Wing, but casualties were light overall. It had not been the fight that they had expected.

             
Jack addressed his command team, “Ok gentlemen, we have seized our objective. Well done on an excellent operation. It looks like the Regime leadership escaped in those helicopters, I am not sure to where. I don’t know whether the defense of Washington really has collapsed, or whether we can expect a counter attack. We need to dig in and be ready for it, to hold this position until relieved.

             
“Caleb, I want you to take your platoon on a clearance and recon patrol around the local area. Check for any surprises. As part of that, collect any suitable vehicles you can find. Blue Shirt Humvees, any suitable military stuff, whatever works. Also check out the garage for Secret Service armored vehicles, whatever is useful.”

Caleb nodded, as Jack went on.

“We will now await news on the Federation assault up the I-95. We have linked up with Lt-Col Dunn and can expect resupply through the air bridge at Reagan National. Remember, if the ground assault does not link up, and we face an overwhelming counter-attack, we will be forced to withdraw from here. The rendezvous will be the cache at Yankee. If we can collect suitable armored vehicles, I aim in the case of our withdrawal to fight out of here in a strong armored column. Any questions?”

There were a few clarification questions before people dispersed to their various tasks.

The parachute and TALO airborne assault onto DC had been so bold and unexpected that it appeared that the city was in shock. Either the Regime had literally fled, leaving the city for exile, or they would be planning a counter attack using available military forces. The inability of the Regime to trust army units within the Capitol beltway had been a critical failure – their ‘praetorian guard’ had proved more useful for bullying and murdering unarmed civilians tha
n fighting a force of determined American Patriots who wholeheartedly believed in their cause.

             
Either way, the Resistance and Federation forces were now in a honeymoon period.

             
Caleb returned from his patrol mission having collected a large number of abandoned regime armored vehicles, of various types. They had enough to mount and transport the Company and with the turret mounted support weapons on these vehicles, Jack rapidly moved to incorporate them into the White House defenses as a series of mobile bunkers and a quick reaction force.