by Ricky Sides
“Understood, sir,” Namid said.
“Don’t be afraid to call for backup, Namid,” Tim cautioned. “And no matter what happens, don’t land and exit your fighter to attempt a rescue. You can’t take on passengers in your fighter and if it falls into the wrong hands, they could use it to slaughter untold numbers of innocents. And that, Lieutenant, would be your fault for disobeying an order.”
“That I would never do, sir,” Namid responded. “Though I might fly cover over the innocent victims while a ground team moved in to rescue them,” she said grinning.
“That would be the acceptable response in that scenario,” Jim responded and then he said, “It’s going to be a long night. Get some rest, Lieutenant. It wouldn’t do for you to fall asleep in the sky.”
Namid stood to go and Pete said, “Good hunting.”
***
Namid awoke in plenty of time to prepare for the mission. She had a quick meal that the cook had prepared for her and when she was preparing to leave the cook turned up with a sandwich that she could take with her on the mission. Thanking the man, she left and visited the latrine for it would be a long night. Then she went to inspect her fighter. She found Pete and the men who serviced the minigun aboard the Peacekeeper examining the minigun of her fighter. The men pronounced the weapon ready for duty and wished her good hunting as she climbed into the cockpit.
Once she was airborne, she took a moment to examine the target area on her map carefully once more before darkness set in and made that task much more difficult. Now satisfied that she knew exactly where she wanted to go, and fully understanding the borders of her search perimeters, she nudged the throttle forward gently and flew away from the target area. On the ground below Pete saw her heading in the wrong direction and radioed a private message asking if she knew where she was going. She advised him that she was heading away from the target area and would approach it when the area was dark in order to do so unobserved, if possible. Pete voiced his approval of her plan and signed off.
She flew a few miles out of town and hovered at maximum altitude above a hilltop to watch as the target area gradually descended into darkness. As she hovered there, she thought about her assignment and the men and women with whom she would be working. They all seemed a close-knit bunch and were friendly and considerate. From the cook’s sandwich to the men inspecting her armaments, such little considerations seemed commonplace among them. She liked that and made a mental note to try to reciprocate for the crewmembers when she had the chance.
As darkness enveloped the land below, Namid brought her fighter into a gentle approach and studied the roadways leading into the area. At the moment, there wasn’t a vehicle in sight. Flying slowly she did a reconnaissance of the entire area and only spotted one small campfire. She mentally noted the location and moved on searching for signs of large concentrations of people in the recent past. However, as she continued to search, her mind kept returning to that lone small campfire. Five minutes later, she gave up and headed back toward that location for a closer look, though she doubted that she would see a crowd. The fire was too small for a crowd and was more along the lines of a small cooking fire.
Soon Namid held her fighter in a silent hover in the night sky near the lone campfire, which she had approached just above treetop level. Staring down at the site, she saw several men in robes standing beside a prisoner. Another man was kneeling on the ground doing something that she could not make out in the darkness. Namid rotated her fighter on its axis, slowly bringing the camera into alignment and then trained her camera on the scene below. Magnified and lightened by the camera, Namid saw that the man kneeling down was cutting portions of meat from a human body. The prisoner’s eyes held a wild look of fear. Namid immediately radioed the Peacekeeper concerning her findings and sent them the video feed. She then sent her coordinates and requested instructions. She was asked to stand by while they consulted for a moment.
While Namid was waiting, several more figures in robes began to emerge from the surrounding wooded area. Two more prisoners were brought into the clearing and were left tied to the first prisoner. She reported this change in the situation. Jim told her to watch the area carefully, but to try to wait for the ground team, who they would drop off as close as possible. A portion of the ground team would encircle the enemy and take them out, while the remainder of the team would get to the prisoners to protect them. He told her not to attack unless the cannibals moved to harm the prisoners because the odds of saving them would be greatly improved once ground forces arrived.
It took the ground forces forty minutes to get into position. Those forty minutes seemed to Namid to be the longest forty minutes of her life. The men in robes below seemed to be drinking heavily from a common jug that they passed around to each other. They seemed to delight in tormenting the prisoners. Often one of the men would look at them and brandish a knife causing them to cower and huddle together fearfully. Namid felt like shooting the men when they did that, but she controlled her anger and waited for the strike force teams to arrive.
As her eyes stared down into the darkness, she finally saw a sign of furtive movement in the shadows. Soon she saw another, and another. Then someone opened fire. All around the perimeter shots rang out, and bullets slammed into the cannibals. Two men emerged from the shadows and rushed toward the prisoners. They interposed their own bodies between the prisoners and the cannibals. By then, for all practical purposes, the fighting was over. The strike force team walked around examining the cannibals. Here and there, shots were fired to finish off any who had survived their initial wounds. The prisoners were freed, and would be taken to the ship where they would be treated by Maggie if they needed medical treatment. Namid guessed that she’d lose her bunk for that night at least. She didn’t mind a bit.
“Good job, Lieutenant,” Lieutenant Wilcox said by way of the radio and she saw a man wave up at her.
“Your team did the hard part and you rescued the prisoners, Lieutenant. Nice working with you,” Namid stated. She saw a man on the ground raising a rifle and pointing it at the strike force leader. Without thinking, she targeted the cannibal with her laser and fired.
Lieutenant Wilcox saw the laser fire and turned in the direction that it would have hit. He saw a robed man drop a rifle and fall forward. “Someone want to check the damn perimeter again?” he shouted. “Apparently we missed some of these guys!” The men spread out and entered the surrounding vegetation checking once more for live cannibals but there were no more to be found.
Chapter 25
The Peacekeeper stayed in Millbrae for two more weeks as they worked to close down the facility and lock everything up securely. All attempts to learn the location where the special alloy had been manufactured had met with failure. Pol was disappointed because finding that manufacturing facility might have yielded sufficient material to continue manufacturing the fighters and drones. Nevertheless, his disappointment was overshadowed by the great triumph that the whole venture had turned out to become. Using unskilled labor the team had managed to assemble scores of the lasers and engines. They’d managed to manufacture scores of drones and the newest fighters in America’s arsenal. Pol was a happy man.
On the last night of their stay in Millbrae, the crew sat outside under the stars near the Peacekeeper and talked. Pol surprised some when he asked, “Do any of you believe that there is a divine purpose in things?”
“I believe in God if that’s what you mean, Pol,” Jim replied.
“Actually I mean a bit more than that my friend,” Pol said and gazed thoughtfully at the stars in the sky for a moment as he pondered how to explain what he meant. When he spoke again, he spoke quietly, and all those present listened with deep interest as he said, “I mean that I believe all things happen for a purpose. Ponder for a moment, if you will the disasters that befell our poor planet. Our best scientists could never determine why we were suffering such a rash of unprecedented natural disasters. Yet on the eve of nuclear war, those very
same disasters seem to have prevented that war which could have annihilated the human race. Then you formed the peacekeepers with the ship and the survivors from Illinois as the centerpiece. Yet look at us today. We stretch from California to Georgia and still we grow. Now we have tanks, armored personnel carriers, ultra modern radio equipment, body armor, drones, and now fighters. My question to you my friends, and ponder this question carefully, what future challenge has made the fighters and large amounts of drones, tanks, and armored personnel carriers a necessity for us to possess?”
“Isn’t that a paradox, Pol? I mean if we hadn’t suffered the natural disasters, then the unnamed rogue nation that was going to hit America with nukes because we were considered vulnerable due to the disasters, would never have opted to target us. Who says it has to be divine intervention, Pol?” Pete asked. “And as to the use of the new acquisitions, couldn’t it just be that we naturally turn to our newest acquisitions in a time of need?”
“Could it not also be that the rogue nation would have targeted us regardless and that God provides that which we need when we need it my friend?” Pol retorted.
“Yes, that is equally possible,” said Pete after a moment of thought. Then he asked, “Pol, are you saying that you think God used the natural disasters to weaken the nuclear nations in preparation for the nuclear war. And that this had to occur so that on the night when the nukes were supposed to fly, he could prevent the launches with the quakes?”
“I’d not pretend to know the mind of God that intimately my friend,” Pol said depreciatively. “However I do believe that the quakes alone would not have prevented the launching of America’s arsenal of nuclear weapons. The sub fleet, naval fleet, and the aircraft with the capability could have still attacked. But due to the disasters of such an unprecedented nature, those assets were almost entirely tied up in helping with the evacuations and disaster relief. You all surely remember what it was like when three of the lesser islands of the Hawaiian chain began to experience the horrific volcanic activity,” Pol said pointedly and stopped to gauge the reactions of the listeners.
Many of the assembled peacekeepers nodded soberly and Jim said, “I remember one news report stating that nearly a million civilians were in danger and had to be evacuated to safe areas.”
“Yes my friend and that tied up most of the fleet and every aircraft that could be spared,” Pol responded. “Then there were the hurricane damaged coastal cities on the mainland that also diverted naval and air force assets.”
Shaking his head Pol continued, “No, I’d not pretend to know the mind of God my friends. Yet it has ever been my belief that when life brings you a windfall, it also brings you a challenge that the windfall mitigates or neutralizes, provided of course that the windfall is utilized properly,” Pol explained. “Whether that is by divine intervention or it is just the way the universe works doesn’t matter that much to me. The effects are the same. Once we gain knowledge we are foolish to ignore that knowledge.”
“So you really think a challenge is coming that will require at least a portion of the assets we recently acquired?” Jim asked.
“I am forced to ponder the precedents when you ask me that question my friend,” Pol said easily. “When the Illinois survivors needed assistance to stave off their slaughter at the hands of the men who had a few tanks, Tim and Patricia arrived with the ship and defeated them,” he said smiling at the couple who grinned back as they sat holding hands.
“And when radios were a problem and desperately needed, they were found aboard the ship in time to help make the Arley mission a complete success,” he said grinning and Lacey smiled as she remembered how her son had played a role in their discovery.
“And who can forget the role that the battle bikes played in the battle to protect the convoy transporting the body armor?” Pol asked quietly.
“And the fact that the battle armor saved my life more than once,” Lieutenant Wilcox said with feeling. “And they were acquired right before I took the hit that would have killed me without their protection.”
“And me as well,” another strike team member spoke up.
“And it seems to me that when I really need it, electronic gear is always found that plays a critical role in the missions which soon follow,” Patricia added.
A young voice spoke up then surprising the adults because she was always so quiet that they tended to forget she was there. Lisa added, “And when that awful man kept me captive, I prayed for help and he took me to the city where his enemies, the peacekeepers, found him and rescued me.”
Both Pete and Maggie exchanged knowing looks. It was the first time they’d ever heard their adopted daughter reference her period of captivity in such an open manner. Maggie smiled and nodded reassuringly to her husband. She’d told him that the day might come when this happened and that hopefully it would mean Lisa was well on the road to recovery.
“When Evan and I were at our lowest and a man was attacking me, Jim arrived,” Lacey stated and though she did not say she believed this to be divine intervention, she spoke with such quiet assurance that left no doubt in anyone’s mind as to her personal belief.
“When we needed the enhanced capabilities of the Peacekeeper, along comes Pol who gave us desperately needed upgrades that permitted us to defeat the bikers in Alamo,” Tim observed. "Then there were the nightmares I experienced prior to the liberation of the slaves in Texas. I cannot deny their assistance in defeating the slavers and saving the slaves threatened by the bomb traps."
“Just before we needed a means to do a reconnaissance on Wild Bill’s farm in Texas we went to Missouri and stopped a slaughter there. Then we returned with the makings of the drones which Pol and Patricia perfected just a short time before they were needed the most,” Pete observed thoughtfully. Clearly, the evidence being presented was beginning to sway him.
Then Namid spoke up saying, “When I was a slave at Wild Bill’s farm I waited all night in a storm shelter with many other slaves. None of us really thought we’d ever get out of that storm pit alive. But the peacekeepers came and rescued us all. Then they let it be known that they were recruiting and I was accepted. The peacekeepers saved me twice. The first time they saved me from Wild Bill, and the second from a life of fear and dejection. At the same time they restored my faith in men by demonstrating that not all men are cruel slavers,” Namid said speaking candidly. The council members had known about her past of course but they’d not divulged that knowledge to the other peacekeepers, thinking that was her affair.
“When I awoke in the hospital and left seeking my friends and associates and learned of their fate I grew so very dejected that I just sat down in a chair staring into space,” Pol said as he continued to gaze up at the stars. “For two days I sat in that chair doing nothing. I suppose I was just waiting to die. Then I finally slept a fitful sleep. While I slept, I dreamed of a city called Athens in the state of Alabama. In my dream, I felt a strong compulsion to go to that city and then all of my woes would be over. I was a long way from my home, but the dream also compelled me to return to my home first and get the things needed to upgrade the engine of the ship.” Turning to face the assembled peacekeepers Pol said, “I followed that dream because it gave me a sense of purpose. Look what it brought me when I needed it the most. For the first time in my life I think I actually fit in somewhere.”
Speaking softly Patricia said, “When I was being attacked by Marauders, along rode Tim on a motorcycle and he saved me. He used his only ampoule of morphine to ease my father’s suffering as he died. Yeah, I believe. I really do.”
Someone asked Jim if he had a similar occurrence and he leaned back as he said, “Yes I do. Too many to get into all of them actually, but when I needed a survival trainer I bumped into Pete. Then at what was probably my lowest point after the disasters, I met Lacey and Evan and they renewed my sense of purpose in living. And I guess the most amazing thing of all is all of you,” Jim said and seemed lost in thought.
“All
of us?” Pol asked, not quite understanding.
“Why yes, Pol. When I needed the best crew a man could ask for, one by one I got all of you,” Jim replied smiling.
“So I pose my question again,” Pol said, smiling at Jim’s comment. “What great event might we soon encounter that could cause us to have need of the tanks, armored personnel carriers, fighters and extra drones?”
***
Several blocks to the east of the assembled crew, seven speedboats loaded with men bumped into the shore and heavily armed men swarmed ashore. They were on a mission to attempt to locate and seize the aircraft that had been in the area where two of their boats had been destroyed. With that aircraft in their hands, they could rule the sea and take even the most heavily armed ships.
In the air above them, unnoticed by the raiders, one of the strike force members was flying a drone. The man had not had an opportunity to practice in weeks, therefore he’d opted to get some practice time in rather than attend the outdoor gathering with the rest of the crew. He immediately alerted the lieutenant who passed along the alert and had his men form up a security detail while the rest of the crew got back aboard the ship, with the exception of Namid who climbed up into the cockpit of her fighter.