Authors: Ira Tabankin
“No matter what you do to us, we can’t tell you what we don’t know. We weren’t given any information about the upcoming invasion. We knew there was a chance we’d get caught so we were kept separate from the other troops. We have no knowledge of the invasion.”
“We’ll soon see if that’s true, we have some very potent truth serums, we won’t have to harm a hair on your head, you’ll tell us everything you know, you won’t be able to stop yourselves from telling us the truthful answer to anything we ask you. Let me show you. Roll up his sleeve.”
A nurse in a white burka steps forward, she injects the Major who’s forced into a chair.
“He should be very willing to speak with us now, let’s try, Major, what are your orders?”
“My orders are to follow the Templar’s Code, Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Stand brave and upright that the Lord may love thee.
Speak the truth always. Even if it means your death.
Protect the helpless and do no wrong.”
“Those aren’t the orders I was asking about. What are your orders concerning this mission?”
“To follow the code, to kill you and everyone on your staff.”
“How were you going to escape?”
“We weren’t planning on escaping.”
“GET THEM OUT OF HERE! MOVE, MOVE.”
The guards push and drag the six soldiers out of the conference room, they’re jammed into a cell when they explode. The blast wave kills the Caliphate soldier who was looking through the window.
The Mahdi feels the explosion through the floor and walls. Dust covers him and his staff, shaken from the ceiling and walls. Shaking the dust from his hair, frowning he says,
“We are facing animals. They were willing to sacrifice their lives to get me. Thankfully Allah is watching over us. He warned me to get them away from us. They were on a one-way mission. I thought only our troops would undertake suicide missions. We’re going to have to reevaluate our plans. These soldiers fought like the original Knights Templar. It’s been many years since we fought the Knights Templar, we’re finally going to have the ability to settle history and proclaim Allah as the true God. Bring in the military staff.”
“Yes, sir.”
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A frustrated and tired General Green looks over the inventory report of available military equipment.
So much was lost in the nuclear strikes. Thank God many of the ships and bombers were already in the air or at sea when our missiles struck each other. I’ll start with sending crews to Fort Hood to salvage as much of the armor as possible, second is to inventory the Air Force and Russian boneyards to check which planes we can get back into the air. At least, the tank plant in Ohio and the fighter plant in Fort Worth survived. The Russians have two tank plants working 24/7. We have more recruits than we can use, we’ll open boot camps like we did in the Second World War. Our training routines have been vastly improved from the 40s. I hope the young can live without their mobile toys, they’re not going to have time for their social media. They’re going to go from living on the internet to a real war zone in less than three months, our way of life depends on them being strong.
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One hundred specialists wearing protective suits make their way onto Fort Hood where they find over 400 M1A2 main battle tanks. Most of the electronics in their fire control computers survived the attacks, the recovery specialists are happy the hardening worked as designed. LT Colonel Franklin shakes his head;
I hope we can find replacements for the crews. We’re lucky that we found thousands of shells, replacement engines, tracks, and replacement armor. There are underground tanks full of fuel and the rail line to the port is still intact. Once we get the tanks running, we’ll be able to move them to the ships, from the ships the tanks will go to the Middle East, back to war. The M1s were designed in the Cold War when battlefield nukes were anticipated, thank God the engineers over designed the tank.
Captain Lewis sends a message to LTC Franklin, “Located the main armory, it’s intact. No survivors found. Opened the underground storage bunkers, tons of uniforms, MREs and rifles, everything except for the troops.”
“Keep looking, some may have made it to one of the base’s shelters. Good job.”
Two hours later LTC’s tablet pings, “FLASH ALERT. Found a large shelter, there are people inside, need help. Coordinates follow.”
Turning to his Master Sergeant,
“Take two platoons and hightail it over to these coordinates, Captain Lewis found a shelter with people in it. He needs help to free them.”
“On our way.”
Four hours later Colonel Jackson and two hundred people are helped out of the base shelter. Everyone covers their eyes from the bright sun. All hug their rescuers. Colonel Jackson tells Captain Lewis,
“I don’t know how to thank you, the blast jammed part of the shelter doors together, we couldn’t open it from the inside. We didn’t have a cutting torch. We thank God you found us.”
“Our pleasure. We have a mobile MASH unit; why don’t you lead your people there to be checked over. I’m sure the General will want to speak with you.”
“Thanks.”
The next morning, Colonel Jackson and LTC Franklin sit across from each other over breakfast.
“I can’t tell you how good it feels to be out of the shelter, I don’t know how we can thank you.”
“Colonel, you can help us repair the tanks and other vehicles, we have a war to fight.”
“We’re going to invade Russia?”
“I forgot, you’ve been offline for a while. The USA and Russia are allies again. We were suckered by the Caliphate into attacking each other. We and most of the God-fearing world are forming a new army, one Army under God to attack the Caliphate.”
“A Holy Crusade? I thought crusades went out of style nine hundred years ago.”
“They did, until the recent short nuclear war. The new Pope, Pope Francis II is organizing a new military, he calls it the Army of God’s Warriors to defeat Islam. We, NATO, the Russians, Israel, Egypt and even some of the Latin American countries are preparing for the largest invasion in history.”
“How bad did we get smacked in the attack?”
“They fired a counter strike attack at us, as we did to them. We lost our Minuteman silos, which were the only ground bursts they used, although they were already empty when their birds arrived. Our missile boats were out of Kings Row Bay and Bangor when their birds arrived, again, our usable boats were already at sea. The only cities directly struck were Washington D.C. and New York City. One of their boats lobbed two nukes at the White House. San Diego and Norfolk both took a lot of damage because of the location of the Navy’s bases.”
“What about the Air Force?”
“All of the flyable bombers were already in the air. The air bursts destroyed hangers, control towers, and fuel tank farms, the good news is all of the underground facilities survived. We’re able to repair and rearm our planes.”
“Marines?”
“Not so good. Pendleton and Lejeune were both struck. The Marines on Navy ships survived.”
“How about the Pentagon?”
“It’s under the fallout cloud; the Generals are safe in the bunker. We’re in communication with them.”
“Who’s running this screwed up mess?”
“General of the Army, Frank Green, he’s currently in Switzerland with Pope Francis.”
“I know General Green, a very good man, is there a way I can speak with him?”
“Colonel, when he was told you made it, he sent the message that he’ll take your call at any time. He wants to speak to you as soon as you’re ready.”
“I’m ready, can you connect us?”
“We have a comms LAV, which can make a secure call to the General.”
“I’m ready, Lt Colonel, lead the way.”
“Yes, sir.”
General Green and Pope Francis are enjoying dinner together when the General’s aide knocks entering the Pope’s private dining room.
“Sir, we have an encrypted call from Colonel Jackson, the call originated at Fort Hood, in Texas.”
“Your Holiness, if you’ll excuse me, I have to take this call. I think we found our tank commander.”
“Excellent, carry on my son.”
“Colonel, is that you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I was afraid you bought the farm.”
“We had just enough warning to get a few hundred of us into one of the bunkers. The blast wave jammed the damn doors, we couldn’t get out. The blast took out all of our antennas. We were rescued last night by a team that was here to salvage our tanks, which I assume are headed to you.”
“Colonel, they’re actually going to be yours. I’m field promoting you to Major General. We are a little short of experienced field officers, you’re going to take overall command of our armored forces. How soon can you get here?”
“Sir, I would like to get these tanks functional and checked out. If I’m going to be fighting them, I want to make sure they’re up to snuff.”
“How much time do you think you’ll need to put them in working order and send them to the debarkation port?”
“At least two weeks.”
“General, in two weeks I’ll expect to see you here.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
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The Mahdi returns from an inspection tour of the command bunker after the suicide attack.
“Damn them. The only satisfaction I have is knowing they are burning in hell with the rest of the infidels who will soon join them. Hell is going to be overflowing with infidels. Send the warning order to all of our holy warriors, Allah’s soldiers, to be ready for an invasion. I expect they’ll repeat their Desert Storm playbook and begin with an air attack. They lost the element of surprise. I never thought they had the faith or courage to use suicide bombers.”
Unknown to the Mahdi two B2 stealth bombers are fifty miles away from his bunker armed with ground penetrator bombs.
“Sir, air defense says they see a weak signal. They can’t get a lock on it. The signal fades in and out.”
“Damn, that’s Great Satan’s stealth bombers. Do we have fighters up?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell them to search with their IR sensors, the bombers won’t show up on their radar until they open their bomb bay doors when it’ll be too late. I’m not sure if their bombs will penetrate through our reinforced roof.”
“Yes, sir.”
Six Caliphate fighters, two ex-American F14 fighters, and four ex-Russian Mig 35s are flying search patterns for the American Bombers. The F14s have long-range video cameras which they’re using to scan the sky for an object that blocks the stars.
The lead B2 bomber calls his wingman.
“Nightshade one to two, we’re picking up some search and target radars, none can lock onto us. Let’s try to stay in the clouds.”
“Roger one, we’ll follow you.”
One of the F14 radar operators who is watching the camera feed yells,
“I’ve got them, thirty miles ahead. Angels 30. They’re trying to hide in the cloud cover.”
“Roger.” The pilot fires four American Phoenix missiles the Shaw of Iran purchased in the seventies. The Iranian pilot smiles thinking of the rewards that will be his if he can shoot down an American stealth bomber. The pilot presses the missile fire button, “FOX 4, FOX 4. Missiles away.”