The Fiery Trial

by Adam Yoshida

  "But parasites cannot survive alone and too many will kill the host. And that is exactly what happened in Washington. The locusts were set loose across the land and, when the crops were all gone, the wise men and women who were supposed to be protecting us offered up the seeds as well.

  "Now, however, we can begin to rebuild our country. We can begin this process here tonight in Washington by recognizing a physical reality: our state is divided. It is divided between those areas under the control of the old Federal Government in Washington and those under the control of the legitimate Federal Government in Colorado. But it is also divided in a moral and spiritual sense, between those who would take and those who would create.

  "Let's talk straight. Freedom would always win in Washington, were it not for a heavy concentration of looters in King County. This phenomenon is true not only in this state, but in many others as well. Dense concentrations of takers in some of our great cities outweigh the votes of productive citizens everywhere else. The Founding Fathers, in creating the Constitution, intended to ensure that a proper balance was created between the competing interests. However, in recent decades, that balance has been shattered in favor of protecting the interests of those whose votes have secured the powers of the permanent political class.

  "There are many remedies for this. Some of them are complicated. One of them is simple and within our power. Tonight, I ask the Legislature to vote to send to the Congress the proposed measure that would create the new State of Cascadia."

  The White House, Washington, DC

  When President Kevin Bryan appeared to address the nation for the first time in months, the first thing that most people noticed was that the President had lost a substantial amount of weight. Next they noticed the fiery intensity that filled the man's eyes.

  "My fellow Americans, over recent months you have watched as our nation has been divided. This division has been driven by the greed of a few who, rather than work together for the progress of all Americans, have placed the selfish goal of assuring their own positions above the good of the whole nation. Those who have taken this approach have been willing to commit crimes of every nature, up to and including murder.

  "What these people do not recognize – or, perhaps more accurately, what they do recognize but are afraid of – is that we all need to be in this together and that all of us includes a newer and more diverse America which consists of people from many nations and many different modes of living. Rather than accept that reality and that their own day of privilege is over, these few fanatics have been willing to drive the country into the full-on horrors of a civil war.

  "I know that there are many in this country who believe that the circumstances require compromise. But I do not believe that there can be any middle ground found between greed and virtue, or between bigotry and acceptance. That America – an open, sharing, and tolerant America – is the one that I, as your President, swore to protect. It is the one that Henry Warren died trying to create. It is one that I am willing to die to preserve.

  "I have concluded that, however regrettable any loss of life is, military measures will be required in order to preserve the nation against the insurrection that now exists. It is my duty under the Constitution to suppress this rebellion and I will execute it, however personally difficult that may prove to be.

  "The details of military operations, of course, will sometimes have to be withheld from the public. That is the nature of war. But I will say this: the time for action is coming.

  "And, tonight, to the leaders and supporters of the rebellion I say this: the hour is not so late that you cannot reverse course. Join us in building a better, more open, more tolerant America. Doing this requires no more of you than that you give up your fear of the unknown."

  Temporary Seat of the United States Government, Cheyenne Mountain, CO

  "Well, Mr. President," said Mark Preston, "we've got to make some important decisions now. The First Army is moving down the I-70 out of Pennsylvania into Ohio at the moment. Our best intelligence says that the First Army consists of the II Corps, which consists of the re-formed and re-organized 10th Mountain Division as well as the 42nd Infantry Division, which has been mobilized by pulling together pretty much every single major National Guard unit in the Eastern United States that responded to the Bryan Administration's orders. They're joined by a unit that they're calling the 1st Infantry Division, formed out of a mix of active force volunteer loyalists as well as new recruits. Call it altogether some 70,000 soldiers.

  "They're joined by X Corps, which is a unit formed by the mix of NATO forces that have been shipped across the Atlantic. That's the German First Panzer Division, and the French first "major force" – effectively an armored division as well. There's also a mixed European force of divisional size under a British General and anchored by a British tank brigade. In other words, another 70,000 soldiers give or take."

  "And what do we have organized to oppose them at this point?" asked Rickover.

  "Well," said Preston, "we've got the 81st Brigade from the Washington National Guard. The Western Republic Army unit is here as well. That's pretty much a large brigade, though it's nominally designated as a division. Our primary fighting force is the 101st Airborne Division, which is actually in pretty good shape at this point in time. But they're not set up to fight German tanks."

  "That's it?" asked the Acting President.

  "We have some other scattered units around. I'd make it for a total of 60,000 soldiers in various states of readiness in Colorado. Of course, we also have other units elsewhere in the country."

  "Can they help?"

  "The Third Infantry Division, of course, was even able to temporarily take over Washington. General Starnes has that and another Division's worth of soldiers organized as the Army of the South. But they're far away. And they have a lot of territory to cover.

  "Down in Texas, we've got a fair-sized force. Of course, the disposition of that force itself is somewhat ambiguous. Make it two Divisions in Texas.

  "The problem is that most of the Army, though it came over to us, is still overseas and difficult to move. The 2nd Infantry Division is in Korea. The 1st and 4th are in the Middle East. Ditto the 1st Cavalry and the 82nd Airborne. The 25th is scattered to the wind.

  "We do have the 11th ACR in California, but they're really just holding in place, gazing warily at loyalist Army National Guard forces."

  "So, you're telling me that – in a country of this size – we don't have any major forces between Colorado and the Eastern Seaboard of the country?"

  "Yes, that's about the size of it," admitted the Secretary of Defense, "there are scattered elements of the 28th, 34th, and 38th Divisions that joined up with us, but none of them are in a position to offer serious resistance to an army the size of the one that the loyalists are moving. We have our own volunteers being trained at Fort Benning, but they're not ready for combat either. Especially against professional soldiers."

  "How do you think we should proceed now?"

  "We call in what forces we can and then we wait for them to come to us. And, when they do, we take the gloves off everywhere. That includes our overseas contingencies."

  The Situation Room, The White House, Washington, DC

  "It's time, Mr. President," said the Secretary of Defense softly as the members of the National Security Council viewed the disposition of the forces that Central Command had arrayed across the Middle East.

  "Ok," said Bryan, "get me a secure line."

  The President, along with the Secretaries of State and Defense, the National Security Advisor, General Hall, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff sat in silence as aides set up a video connection with Jerusalem.

  "We're ready to go, Mr. President," announced the communications aide, an Air Force Major as the face of General Mackenzie appeared on the screen.

  "Mr. President," said Mackenzie curtly.

  "General," replied the President, "I have some very regrettable news. As you must already know, the
United Nations Security Council has passed a new resolution with regard to your Peacekeeping mission in the Middle East. It is the view of the Security Council, in which the government of the United States has been forced to acquiesce, that, in view of the political situation that exists in the United States today it is not possible or desirable for American soldiers to continue to take on the role that they have assumed in resolving the Middle East crisis. To that end, the Russian Federation has been invited – and has accepted that invitation – to take over the peacekeeping mission that is now ongoing there.

  "Furthermore," continued Bryan, "in the interests of preventing the unnecessary loss of human life here, given the ongoing acts of political violence that have occurred and are anticipated in the near future, it has also been decided that the best course of action with regard to the Central Command is for the members of the armed forces stationed within the region to remain there for the duration of the crisis, albeit in a non-combatant capacity."

  "Mr. President," replied General Mackenzie, "am I to understand that you are ordering my soldiers to disarm themselves and to place themselves at the mercy of the Russian forces that are moving through Central Asia?"

  "Our hope is to keep your soldiers, as I wish I could do for all Americans, out of the fighting," replied the President, "and, in any case, based on the information that we have here it appears to be unrealistic to hope that you, without resupply, will be able to conduct serious military operations in the immediate future. And, I must tell you in all honesty General, that the supplies you would require for such a contingency are simply not available at the present time."

  The President smirked as he delivered the last line.

  "Mr. President?" said Mackenzie.

  "Yes?" asked Bryan.

  "Go fuck yourself."

  U.S. Central Command Forward Headquarters, Jerusalem

  The screen went blank. General Mackenzie breathed deeply.

  "Initiate Operation Deluge," he ordered, before turning to face Augustus King.

  "You'd better be fucking right," he said, before getting up and stalking out of the room.

  Near Colby, KS

  The orders to Central Command had triggered a series of orders from General Hall to all elements of the First Army, which was by then in western Kansas, as well as all of the forces assigned to its support.

  During its week-long journey across half of the continent, the First Army had only been sporadically engaged by unconventional forces, most of them unsanctioned by any government. That messy fighting had taken two hundred and fourteen lives among the American and European soldiers, largely as a result of the effective deployment of roadside improvised explosive devices by veterans who had learned a thing or two about how such things were done in Afghanistan and Iraq. Other than a few scattered firefights with guerrillas who attempted to directly engage the army, most of the First Army and the forces assigned to support it had not fired a single shot in anger during the entire course of their westward journey.

  Now, however, that was rapidly changing.

  It has been a struggled for the Federal Government to find qualified military pilots, most of them having joined up with the rebels or gone home. But there were enough to fly the three hundred tactical aircraft that had been moved into Kansas and Nebraska to support the advance into Colorado. These were supplemented by one hundred and fifty additional planes belonging to various European air forces and nearly five hundred drones, most of which were flown by pilots without previous military service.

  General Martin Walker, appointed as the commander of the First Army, watched as a flight of a dozen F-16Cs from the Florida Air National Guard, representing one of the first waves of the all-out assault on the rebels, zoomed by overhead.

  "Damn," the General said, shaking his head sadly.

  "Sir?" asked an aide.

  "I never thought I'd see the day that we were flying combat missions in fucking Kansas," said Walker.

  "Of course," nodded the aide, "we have the first reports coming in. Our air missions all got off the ground successfully, but they've been engaged in the air by rebel aircraft all across the front. There have been some pretty serious losses. Thankfully it seems like the rebels only have a limited number of front-line combat aircraft ready."

  "To be expected," said Walker quietly, "and on the ground?"

  "The 1st Panzer Division continues to spearhead the advance. They're moving in good order. Our helicopters are cutting them a path."

  "Alright," said Walker, "order the lead Brigade to make its dash."

  Temporary Seat of the United States Government, Cheyenne Mountain, CO

  "Well," said Mark Preston as the screens arrayed across the command center showed battle damage from across the State of Colorado, "thank God for the Texans."

  "Mmm..." murmured Acting President Rickover in assent. The timely arrival of the 1st Armored Division meant that the forces of the rebel government, though they were still outnumbered, at least had a fighting chance against the mighty armored punch that the European forces provided to the otherwise-green Army of the United States.

  "Do you think that they know what we pulled out of the Boneyard?" asked House Majority Leader Michael Nelson.

  "I'm sure they know we pulled stuff from there," said Preston, "I mean, they can see it from space. But I don't think that they know nearly how much."

  "Well," said the Acting President, "they're about to find out. Begin the attack."

  Over Eastern Colorado

  Lieutenant Colonel Avi Stern couldn't help but laugh as he moved his ancient F-4 Phantom II forward over windswept Colorado. The McDonnell Douglas-built beast, nicknamed the "Rhino" during its previous service in the Air Force, was obsolete before he was born. Even his own Israeli Air Force, which held onto their gear for as long as possible, had retired their last F-4s when he had been nothing more than a rookie.

  But, there were a lot of them sitting in the desert in Arizona, just in case they were ever needed again. They were tough and they could be refurbished in surprising large numbers. The new leadership of the United States Air Force had managed, all told, to put nearly five hundred of them back into the field. Trucked out under the cover of darkness and then quietly dispersed in much the same way, the Air Force had worked a minor miracle: the Loyalist government in Washington didn't have a clue what was waiting for them.

  Still, putting that many planes into the air had meant finding pilots. The temporary volunteers commissioned by the Air Force to man the aircraft pulled from the Boneyard were one of the most bizarre military forces, in terms of the composition of their personnel, ever to be put into the field. The 14th Provisional Fighter Squadron, of which Stern was the commander, had pilots who ranged in age from a nineteen year-old college sophomore with a private pilot's license who had been hastily commissioned out of Western Washington University to a seventy-four-year-old Arizonian who had flown F-105 Thunderchiefs in Vietnam.

  Far ahead of the squadron of a dozen Phantoms, Stern knew, the preciously-husbanded resources of the rest of the United States Air Force and Air National Guard, were attempting to clear a path for them. That battle was invisible to stern and the rest of the men of the 14th, occurring beyond visual range between combatants who were exchanging missile fire at a distance of fifty miles or more. Nothing that Stern could do would influence the outcome of that contest. All that he and his men could do, he knew, was their own individual jobs.

  Each Phantom flew heavily, loaded down as they were with eighteen Mk. 82 General Purpose Bombs. Out of necessity, the bombs that the F-4s carried were all unguided – GPS having been rendered unreliable and laser-guidance kits being in extremely short supply.

  As they approached their designated target – one of the leading battalions of the 1st Panzer Division – alarms began to sound on Stern's plane as they were engaged by German-fired Patriot missiles.

  "Release at the designated point," ordered Stern as he and his fellow pilots and radar intercept office
rs continued forward.

  One of the other Phantoms of the squadron, sitting at the leftwards limit of Stern's peripheral vision, was struck by a missile that shredded the aircraft in a spectacular fireball that Stern could not spare precious seconds to observe.

  Arriving over the German unit, the Phantoms slowed and dropped their bombs. Each of the five hundred pound devices dropped to the ground and detonated, leaving a trail of deadly carnage in its wake. Though the bombs were relatively ineffective against most of the German Leopard tanks – except for the occasional lucky direct hit – they shredded personnel caught out in the open. The bombs exploded one after another, setting fires and demolishing the roads on which the Germans hoped to continue their advance.

  Stern didn't have time to admire his work. As soon as he released his bombs, he attempted to increase speed and evade the two Patriot surface-to-air missiles that were tracking him and his Phantom.

  It simply wasn't enough. The speed that he bled off while making his attack run was simply too much to allow him to cleanly evade the pair of missiles. Changing tacks, he attempted to dive for the ground. His sudden change of course, combined with radar-confusing chaff, was enough to allow him to evade one of the two missiles. However, in so doing, he placed himself directly in the path of the other missile, which impacted the belly of the aircraft as it angled downwards.

  Over Fort Morgan, CO

  Captain Alison Miller banked her F-16C sharply to the right to avoid the first of the incoming AMRAAM missiles that the loyalist forces from within the USAF had fired from nearly maximum range. As soon as the planes pulled out of the AMARG had appeared on the scene – the so-called "Dinosaur Flight" – the entire ordered structure of air operations over the Colorado-Kansas-Nebraska theatre of operations had simply broken down into a wild melee.

  The F-16s speed sharply increased as Captain Miller worked to increase altitude. With nearly a thousand planes in the air, the hastily planned operation had simply moved beyond the ability of the controllers to manage, especially with all of the confusion generated by the fact that many of the aircraft on both sides were of identical models and configuration.