Tyranny in the Homeland (9 page)

The US Military took advantage of the chaos to take care of several festering problems. Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran and several other hotbeds of terrorism were vaporized. All but the South American and Mexicans were eliminated from the group that attacked the USA.

After Bob gave them the update on recent world affairs, Steve brought up the dead birds and the newcomers. Most of the people in the room said that they had noticed dead birds of many species all around the area.

“Bob, we don’t have the resources to investigate, but neither can we overlook this kill off of birds. Can’t take the chance on a bird flu epidemic.”

“Steve you are right, at minimum we need to make sure no one is touching the dead birds. George, can you have each leader have a team gather up samples for the vets and dispose of the rest?"

Steve added, “I am also hearing bits and pieces about some new people straggling in that have formed a tight group between the Bunker and Sally’s camp. They don’t like blacks and they are asking a lot of questions that raise the hair on the back of my neck.”

Steve went on to fill them in on these newcomers. They all agreed to look into the matter after they dealt with Tallahassee and got the new work groups started.

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“John, thanks for flying out to the Ford this afternoon. I hope the flight was safe and comfortable.”

“Thanks for inviting us out and everything was great as usual.”

“John, we need to speed up the consolidation of the land under your control and push the boundaries out to Mexico, up to Kentucky and north east from Florida to North Carolina before the end of this year. You need more Governors and soldiers to protect these gains. Bob is passing on praise for Sally, Ann and Tom. He thinks they would make very competent governors.”

“Sir, I agree and would like to show you my proposed org chart for your approval. I have added Steve as the Governor of Alabama. I knew this was coming and asked my leaders to step up to the plate.”

“John, this is a civilian matter. Choose who you want. I trust you and am sorry I overlooked Steve. I hear that he has worked wonders with Mobile. My intel group keeps hearing bits and pieces about the President wanting to strike back at your team so others won’t want to follow you. You and Gus need to put more concentration on building your armed forces. Naturally we will work hand- in-glove with them and we will eventually report to the President of the ISA, but we need flexibility for the next few years to quickly handle threats.”

“Admiral, we can supply the leaders and soldiers if you can supply the equipment and assist with the training. We have over a thousand men and women in basic or advanced training at this time and have more volunteers than we can handle. Port Arthur has three times as many. With Captain Jones help, I have ordered two new training facilities to be opened by next month. The one at Fort Rucker is due to start training next month and the one at Fort Polk will start training a week later. We need to know the status of all of the military bases in the southeast. We don’t need to start from scratch.”

“John, we have control of most of the major bases in the southeast and southwest. Many are ready to take on hundreds of trainees, but we need more instructors to handle the tens of thousands of troops needed. I recommend that we keep up the current effort while we get the facilities up to speed and train experienced soldiers to be drill instructors.”

Everyone agreed and the Admiral had his executive officer give the team an update on the status of the bases state by state.

***

              “Admiral, the bunker is under attack! There is an air and ground assault on the Bunker that started ten minutes ago. We scrambled a flight of F-18s, ten Apaches and sent a company of Rangers to counterattack. The F-18s have engaged bogies and the Apaches have engaged enemy helicopters and ground assault forces. The Rangers will be on target in ten minutes. Many of the Bunker’s buildings are either destroyed or on fire at this time. It is too early to discuss casualties.”

“The enemy took out the Bunker command center in the first strike and landed about a hundred troops in the attack so far. I’ll keep you updated as info comes in.”

John heard the news, jumped up and said, “We have to get to the Bunker ASAP. Our families and friends are in the middle of this fight and we have to go help them."

***

Steve was returning from Mobile when he heard explosions coming from the direction of the Bunker. It was late evening and he had missed his weekly staff meeting with John at the Bunker due to the Admiral’s last minute invitation. He had quickly set up the meeting with the Governor and his staff to get the steering committee idea on the table. He yelled for Janet to speed up and get to the Bunker ASAP. Imelda manned the twin Saws and Jill was in the back seat.

Imelda was one of Steve’s bodyguards and Jill had traveled with Steve to shop for supplies in Mobile. Steve’s other bodyguards were in another Humvee fitted with a twin Ma Deuce, just behind them. Everyone was well armed and ready for a fight if needed.

Just as they got within a few hundred yards of the entrance to the Bunker, they ran right into the attacking troops from behind.

“They’re attacking the Bunker; kill them.”

Imelda and the .50 Cal gunner opened up with devastating fire catching the enemy charging across the open field in front of the Bunker. Many were caught between the razor ribbon fence and the machine gun fire.

***

Beth, Jenn and Kristie were lying on a blanket watching the children in the playground. Beth and Kristie were enjoying their time together with the children. Kristie had volunteered to be one of the daycare workers as part of her service to their community. Kristie wrinkled her nose and pointed at Jenn.

“I think your daughter has fouled her diaper and needs to be changed before she stinks up the whole playground.”

“Darn, how could such a sweet little thing be so smelly? I’ll take her to the bathroom on the other side of the playground. Be back in a minute.”

Kristie watched Beth duck into the glorified outhouse and then turned her attention to the children. A few minutes later a piece of shrapnel hit her in the head and nearly killed her. She never saw or heard any of the battle.

Beth was changing Jenn when bullets ripped through the top of the bathroom and several explosions rocked the structure. She grabbed Jenn and hit the floor. While she had her 9mm on her hip, she had to protect Jenn first and join the fight second. Several more bullets passed through just above Beth’s head spraying both of them with splinters. The bathroom was a triple stall women’s bathroom that had been built to help handle the large influx of new people, but was just an outhouse over a hole in the ground.

“Jenn, we have to get out of this gunfire. Hold your nose.”

The attack was a complete surprise and all of the outlying guards were taken out in the first minute. One guard got off a shot as he died and alerted one of the children in the playground who quickly got Ann’s attention. She saw several of the enemy trying to stay covered as they moved towards the barn. She shot at them and alerted the camp.

“We’re under attack. Get your asses out here on the double.”

Ann had taken cover behind a Humvee and kept firing until she was out of ammo. She looked up, saw the twin .50 on the Humvee, quickly climbed in and started firing at the advancing enemy.

“Take that you sorry sons a bitches,” she yelled.

Hundreds of men and women swarmed out of the underground quarters and main house to confront the enemy. Many died as they ran out the doors, but most came our fighting and all were armed to the teeth.

Helicopters and jets began launching missiles at the compound and strafing the defenders. Vehicles were thrown through the air and buildings were burning or blown to pieces. They were able to get most of the children into the storm shelters; however, many of the kids were killed with their parents during the initial attack.

Marvin broke out the Stingers and armed five teams who took cover and waited for the next air attack. Ann was directing the defense against the ground troops. Marvin prayed that Ann had paid attention during her training. The wait was short. A flight of F-16s came at the Compound from the North just above treetop. Two teams fired together. The overconfident pilots had screwed up, but the planes automatically began dropping flares and chaff. The countermeasures saved four of the five jets. One stinger got through and hit the unlucky F-16 in the engine. The plane dropped, hit the ground and cartwheeled across the playground shedding wings and other parts as it tumbled. The pilot had no time to eject and burned alive.

Several helicopters started a strafing run on the Stinger teams, but three were shot down in a few minutes. The rest pulled back to a safe distance over the horizon.

Ann directed the fighters to take cover and choose their targets carefully. They outnumbered the attackers two to one, but the enemy consisted of the best mercenaries that could be bought. The attackers were about one hundred yards away and advanced slowly. The fighting was fierce and Ann saw her teammates dropping one after another.

Joan crawled over to Ann and asked, “When will be a good time to set off the Claymores?”

“Oh shit! Now would be that time.”

Joan told Ann to duck and waved at the remains of the barn. Marvin waved back and all hell broke loose. Over thirty Claymores activated at one time. The explosions were deafening and devastating to the advancing enemy. Over twenty were killed instantly and another thirty wounded. The Claymores stopped the advance and gave the Compound time to regroup.

Suddenly there was a commotion at the back of the Compound. There were explosions, yelling and gunfire. Ann, Marvin and a dozen of their team rushed around the house just in time to see several of their friends being drug off into the woods.

“Don’t fire! You’ll hit our friends. Ann, could you see who they captured?

“Marvin, I saw Sam and his mom, Sally, and think I saw your brother’s wife, Karen.”

“Ann, we can’t do anything about them and we need to spread out and make sure that we cover the entire perimeter. That frontal assault was a distraction to cover their real intention to take prisoners. I’ll cover the back and you take charge of the front section.”

Before they could react, they heard a rumbling from the direction the captives were taken and a helicopter rose and took off at full speed. Several jets and attack helicopters gave cover for the escape, then turned towards the compound and began launching missiles towards them.

“Take cover! Get the Stingers on target,” Marvin yelled.

They were about to fire when all hell broke loose in the sky. Three helicopters and two jets exploded and fell to the ground bursting into fireballs on contact. The rest bugged out at top speed, but were too late leaving. They exploded one by one. Then the sky rumbled as a flight of F-18s roared over and continued picking off the enemy aircraft.

After the F-18s cleared the skies, a dozen Apaches began attacking the remaining enemy troops on the ground at the back of the compound.

Just as Ann rounded the front of the house, she heard machine gun fire coming from the road and return fire from the direction of the enemy. She took cover just in time to see two Humvees busting through the woods mowing down the enemy. The enemy soldiers were trapped between the Compound fighters and the Humvees. Ann’s team was picking off any of the bastards that tried to escape the withering fire. The battle only lasted another ten minutes before the few enemy survivors surrendered.

Steve jumped out of the lead Humvee, ran over to Ann and asked, “Are you okay? How bad is this?”

“I don’t know. We have been under attack for the last hour and there is mass confusion. The bastards captured several of our people.”

Steve replied, “Ann, conduct a roll call, while we round up any enemy survivors and see what their objective was.”

Before either could start their assignments, troop carrying helicopters landed all around the Compound. John and Bob jumped out and ran towards Ann and Steve. Bob hugged Ann and made sure that she was okay before giving orders to his command.

John ran up to Steve and asked, “Where are Beth and Jenn? Are they safe?”

“John, we have just suffered a major attack and need to conduct a roll call and triage on our wounded. I’ll have a team search for survivors and bodies. Calm down and hope for the best.”

Bob spoke up, “John, I’ll have three of my squads look for Beth and any other survivors.”

The Marines took over handling the prisoners and guarding the Compound while Steve’s team helped searched for survivors and bodies.

George, Tom and most of his family arrived at the Compound about a half hour after John and Bob. Scott and George were ready to torture any soldier from the USA to get info to find their loved ones, but the others held them back to let the professionals perform the interrogations.

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