Donner continued his scans for news the following morning. He noted that the remaining operational satellites that he could scan were either foreign owned or were part of an international communications network. Apparently the Japanese had been very careful with their target selection, choosing only those that were directly owned by the US government and US corporations and only when they weren’t involved in broadcasting to a broader global audience.
But collateral damage had been extensive. US television services were particularly hard hit. Most American TV networks had to rely on internet streaming to continue operation. In any event they estimated that half their former audience was unable to receive their broadcasts. The broadcast corporations demanded compensation for their losses, but were ignored as they didn’t have the influence to stir up public opinion anymore.
The negotiations began a week later in Geneva. On one side was the US, India, Poland and their allies; on the other side were Japan and Turkey and their allies. Days passed without any agreements only accusations. The Japanese presented evidence of the militarization of space by the United States. They contended that the US had secretly tried to construct three command and control platforms in geosynchronous orbit, one above South America, one off the coast of Africa with Turkey in view and one above the Pacific south of Japan.
The Japanese claimed these platforms had offensive and electronic jamming capabilities that essentially reduced the warning time for hypersonic missiles aimed at Japan to a few minutes instead of the former half hour. The Japanese and Turks pointed out that the establishment of these military platforms and their offensive capabilities was against international law and was provocative enough to warrant their actions.
The Japanese presented evidence that the Washington-Beijing-Seoul alliance that had emerged in the past decade had led to the necessary growth of the Japanese military. They claimed they were being denied a clear and safe supply line for the imported resources that they desperately needed to maintain their economy.
Turkey complained that the instability in its local area was not being addressed by any of the major powers and it was up to them to stabilize the region for their own safety as well as the safety of neighboring states. The US military's projection of power was in direct defiance of this basic need while not contributing anything to its fulfillment. The orbiting “Battle Stars” as the Turks labeled them was the provocation that forced them to act.
Donner now understood the importance of those messages he had intercepted. They were updates on the Battle Stars to Japanese Intelligence.
The US and its allies denied all the charges. They termed the Japanese and Turkish actions as bald aggression and paranoid delusions.
The talks were obviously not going well. Donner was astounded at the lack of sincerity on both sides. He soon stopped listening to the news preferring to spend his days helping his dad prepare the farm as much as possible for self-sufficiency.
Donner and his dad were working in the barn, building more stalls to hold the animals that Jack hoped to buy. The robotic carpenter was excellent at cutting boards just right even though it didn't physically measure the cuts. Donner and his dad then nailed the boards up.
Donner said, “Dad, before I stopped following them the talks in Geneva just seemed to be a lot of accusations, no one really wanted to address the issues honestly it seemed to me.”
“Yes Donner,” said his Dad. “There is always a lot of posturing in any kind of negotiations. What they are doing is trying to influence public opinion so that any agreement will seem necessary and reasonable and the parties to the negotiations will appear blameless no matter the nature of the treaty that comes out of the negotiations.”
“So they don't actually want to solve problems just make sure people don't blame them for the results?” asked Donner.
“Something like that,” said his Dad.
“You know dad I've been thinking that instead of going to school for a doctorate, maybe I'll just get a bachelors and try to make a career in flying. You know how much I love flying.”
“If that is what you want son,” said Jack. “I think you should always pursue your interests and not society’s. Too many people doing things they don't like already.”
“That's what I think too dad,” said Donner.
16
Lieutenant Brently had been one of the lucky ones. When his Battle Star was first hit by the kinetic energy weapon, essentially a long spike of nano-hardened carbon fiber, he had responded to the abandon ship alarm by taking the nearest ladder to the wheel's perimeter. He had come off the ladder right next to a lifeboat pod. He waited until the station was shaking violently and when he saw no one else he accessed the pod and launched it.
Brently was quite far away from the platform when he saw the next hit. The inertia wheel where his private quarters were seemed to wobble noticeably as if it were a top spinning down. Next he saw the spine of the platform buckle.
The bottom boom, the part pointed toward Earth began folding almost in its middle. Brently watched the tip of the boom and its attachments approaching the wobbling wheel in slow motion. Brently wanted to yell, to warn, as he watched the end of the boom shred into the wheel. That was when the wheel started dis-integrating, throwing off chunks of itself. Rooms and equipment he could easily recognize from this distance, but thankfully not the bodies, human or robot.
Brently stopped watching the destruction of the platform, he knew that the pod was recording it anyway. He turned to look at his destination. A stable low orbit around the moon from which he hoped to be rescued in a few days.
17
September 6, 2054
Three weeks after negotiations had begun the US used its remaining space based assets and secret ground-based weapons to launch an attack on the Japanese-Turkish coalition in space. Within two hours the coalition's space assets were essentially destroyed. The coalition was now blind. Then the US launched its remaining hypersonic airplanes and delivered almost total destruction to the remaining military assets of Japan and Turkey. The peace talks were suspended.
________
It was zero six hundred, early dawn, when the alarm went off on base. Emily bolted upright in her bunk. That was the launch alarm. She wondered what they were doing.
No one had told her anything about a launch. Of course, she was still on report and didn't have any reason to expect to be informed. Still Emily felt she should have been told. She had to get down to the hangar and check on the hypersonics. She quickly dressed.
The air was still comfortably cool around the hangar. The security guard saluted, apparently not aware of Emily's status. Inside the control room, where Emily should have been, she could see all the top brass. Emily entered the door code and went into the wiring closet down the hall. She took out the alligator clips with the makeshift connector at one end that she had used for troubleshooting many times. She found the terminals marked COMM-BASE23-HYPER1. That was Looker's military designation. She hooked the alligator clips to the terminals and plugged the other end into her Annie.
Emily whispered into her Annie, “Looker this is Sg, over.”
Emily waited.
And waited.
Surely Looker would have responded by now. She heard motion outside the door. She reached for the alligator clips but stopped when she heard, “Looker to Sg, over.”
“Looker glad to hear,” whispered Emily. “How are systems?”
“Systems nominal,” replied Looker. “How are systems Sg?”
Emily understood then that Looker was aware of her recent absence. Emily replied, “Systems nominal Looker but reassigned.”
“Understood,” said Looker. “Mission is a go, I am rolling.”
“Understood,” said Emily. She unplugged the clips and raced outside to see the takeoff.
Emily saw the first four hypersonics takeoff and adopt a finger-four combat formation which was unusual. Looker must be doing that, thought Emily. Then Emily choked as the hypersonic to the r
ight of the point pulled up in what was undoubtedly a missing man salute.
________
Donner and his dad heard about the new attacks when they came in from the fields that evening. Jack said, “Well there goes any chance for a quick resolution, we're in for a long struggle.”
________
December 31, 2054
By the end of the year the Turks had started a ground assault on the Polish bloc using their augmented soldier system. These were soldiers in battle suits whose robotic and computational systems gave them the equivalent fighting capacity of an entire squadron from just a few years before. Networked, they could easily sweep a large area clear of the enemy. Romania capitulated almost immediately and signed a treaty with the coalition. Hungary was overrun within a week. Slovakia put up a stubborn resistance but fell in only three days. Poland now faced the coalition directly and almost alone. The New Year looked bleak for the US and its allies.
________
Jacek Bukowski was caught in a no man's land. The Turkish battle suits, what the Poles called kombinezon bitwy or kombinz for short, had passed Jacek and he was now trapped behind enemy lines. The suits in the distance looked like giants threshing the land.
The speed with which the Turks could move in their kombinz was astounding. The Polish tanks were barely able to keep up, or keep out of the way would be more descriptive. The kombinz could not only push the Poles faster than they could retreat but could also clear such a wide area that regrouping for the Poles became impossible.
The networked battle suits, each manned by a Turkish specialist, were almost impossible to take out with small arms fire. They could be disabled with a hit by artillery, drone or tank fire but this was more luck than skill. Each arm held enough fire power to take out a platoon or tank with a single burst. Other Turks in battle suits ranging behind the advancing front could bring up supplies or take the place of a fallen kombinz as needed.
They never stop, thought Jacek. Always a new refreshed kombinz to take the place in the front. “Unstoppable,” he whispered from his hiding place.
Then he saw it. The weakest link in the battle suit's armor. He moved closer.
A kombinz had stopped. It was being serviced by a utility track vehicle. A Turkish soldier climbed the nearest power pole carrying what looked like thick cables. He attached the cables carefully to the power lines, the end claws digging into the sheathing. The soldiers on the ground were attaching more cables to the backpack of the kombinz.
Jacek knew what they were doing. They were recharging the battery pack of the kombinz. He would stop them.
Jacek ran down the power line away from the stalled kombinz. He found the power pole he wanted. Raising his MSBS-9,56 assault rifle he emptied the magazine. Another clip and he had the electrical lines on the ground.
He was pleased, he had been able to do something. He wasn't running anymore.
With all the firing Jacek hadn't noticed the kombinz coming up behind him.
________
Donner spent the winter in the snows that came and went and on the frozen stream that crossed the field between the house and the mountains. He didn’t think much of the war anymore. If he took to the internet it was to research airplanes and piloting.
18
January 16, 2055
The US announced that it had destroyed the launch base that the Japanese used on the moon. Japan claimed many civilian lives had been lost because of the US action. The US claimed that any Japanese civilians and military were given the option of leaving the base before the attack and that only a few of the more zealous Japanese military had remained.
________
Lt. Danner looked at the video display of the hopper rocket, there below were the Japanese rail-guns exactly where he had expected to find them. The EM detection equipment he maintained had triangulated the location precisely. At first he had been confused as to the cause of the large EM pulses he had observed but after hearing about the attack on the Battle Stars he had suspected the pulses and the destruction of the Battle Stars were related.
He knew the order came from headquarters but at first Lt. Danner thought the Captain was crazy expecting him to find the rail-guns and the Japanese base and neutralize them. After all they weren't really up here to fight a war, most of the men on base were specialists. He had had only a short time to prepare but came up with a plan before liftoff.
The hopper rocket reached the spot triangulated and set down close to the rail-gun machinery. Lt. Danner explained to his men what he wanted them to do while he and Sergeant Norris inspected the rail-gun controls.
The guns were operated remotely from the Japanese base but had local controls also. Sergeant Norris used his somewhat rusty Japanese language skills to decipher the control panel. By the time the men had completed the Lieutenant's orders Norris believed he could also operate the guns remotely using his Annie.
Everything was ready, Lt. Danner asked Norris to establish radio contact with the Japanese base and give them the ultimatum. They had one hour to surrender or suffer the consequences. The reply from the base was somewhat rude and vulgar if the Sergeant had interpreted it correctly. The Lieutenant was unperturbed, he would give them a chance and wait.
The hopper rocket had moved over the horizon about two and a half kilometers from the gun installation. The hour was up. The Lieutenant gave the Sergeant the order and his Annie sent the order to the rail-guns to charge. All six rail-guns tried to charge simultaneously. The Japanese power station hadn't been built to handle the load. Though automatic cutoffs should have kicked in the Lieutenant's men had bypassed them.
It was the first lightning storm ever seen on the moon as the electrical arcs from the rail-guns were blinding against the dark of space.
They would fly the hopper rocket back over the gun installation and the Japanese base to take pictures and pickup any survivors that had decided to surrender. But the Lieutenant knew from the pyrotechnic display that millions of amps of current had accomplished the mission.
________
Donner began asking his dad about his student flight license. Would they still be able to get it with the war ongoing? His dad assured him that as far as he knew the license were still being issued and Donner would get his on his sixteenth birthday in August.
________
March 13, 2055
In March the US launched air strikes on the Turkish army advancing into Poland. Casualties were high. In April the Germans moved against the Poles with the encouragement of the Turks. The Russians, left weakened after years of a bad economy, refused to be drawn into the struggle. By May the British with an almost intact air force entered the war against the coalition, flying sorties against the advancing German armies in Poland.
________
Amir Atakan held the rank of Ustegaman in the Turkish military, equivalent to a First Lieutenant in the US Air Force. He had been in his battle suit now for two days without relief. The attacks from the air and the supply difficulties had finally caught up with the Turkish forces.
Amir had watched in disbelief as the Poles had deliberately destroyed their power system. He could understand such actions from a military strategy point of view. But such deliberate destruction not only affected military combatants but also the civilian population. The Poles were willing to endanger the lives of their families, their wives and children. Would he have the nerve to do such things if Turkey were threatened? He didn't know. One part of him admired the Poles dedication, the civilized part of him was repulsed.
But he had more immediate worries. His battery pack was getting dangerously low. Without that power he would be stuck in this field without defenses. He had called for a backup supply but they were certainly taking their time.
Then he saw movement at the edge of the field. He saw the Polish soldiers emerge from the woods. But he relaxed when he saw they weren't carrying anything other than their assault rifles. The battle suit could easily handle those weapons, thought Amir.
&nbs
p; He went to work.
As usual the Poles were dropping with ease. The suit could take on more than two dozen targets at a time and coordinate the return fire. With Amir focusing on the battle he didn't notice the soft alarm as the battle suit begin to shut down. The bullets slamming the suit's bulletproof sheathing began to sound like a hard rain as the suit went silent.
Then the Poles stopped firing as they noticed the battle suit had stopped. Amir was feverishly working to extricate himself from the suit when he saw one of the Poles stand up and walk toward him. In the suit he stood nearly six feet above the head of the approaching Pole. Amir could see the young man's face. He saw him detach a grenade from the grenade belt which he wore across his shoulder like a sling. Amir was transfixed as the young man pulled the pin from the grenade and gently laid it at the suit's feet. He then slowly backpedaled, all the while staring fiercely into Amir's eyes. Then Amir saw another Polish soldier approaching reaching for a grenade, then Amir saw the first young man and the approaching soldier hit the ground, then Amir felt the concussive force of the explosion at his feet and saw the field disappear in smoke and flying debris, and that was the last he saw.
From the Earth: A Future Chronology Anthology Page 11