by Ira Tabankin
Pope Francis II holds up his hands.
“My children, we have a common enemy, we shouldn’t be fighting among ourselves. Let’s take a short break to refresh and continue our planning.”
@@@@@
The Mahdi climbs on the white horse, people bow as he passes, he nods to everyone he passes so they know the Mahdi has seen them. He allows the horse to slow his pace, Mahdi looks up into the star filled sky, closing his eyes, he speaks out loud to Allah, “Is it time? Will they attack soon? What do you want me to do?”
A bright flame crosses the sky above the Mahdi’s head. Silently looking up he smiles knowing he has received his answer. He tells his horse to go home. Returning to the Conference room in the buried bunker, he smiles to the other Caliphate leaders.
“I have received a message from Allah. We won’t wait for them to come and attack us. We will strike them in their assembly areas, we will strike their ships at sea, we will stop them from placing one of their infidel boots on our holy soil. Prepare our forces to strike for Allah. Allah will protect us from their weapons while we kill the infidels.”
The assembled group jumps to their feet cheering.
“My friends, we will attack! We attack for Allah! We will bring Allah’s word to everyone in the world, this is our chance. Allah has shown us the way. Tonight he told me the time for us to strike is now.”
@@@@@
Three days later, dawn spreads over one of the Army of God’s Warrior assembly bases at Sochi on the Black Sea. Soldiers wash, some line up for breakfast, others sip their tea telling stories of other times and places; lies about women they supposedly met and bedded. The air raid alarm breaks the dawn’s silence, heads pop up searching for the cause of the alarm. A few see the gray smoke tails of S300 and S400 missiles rising into the air to intercept whatever is coming their way. A few see the explosions high above their base. The battle between missiles continues for five long minutes. The soldiers rush to the battle positions, donning armor and weapons to fight off the invasion they knew had to be following up the missile attack. So far the Russian anti-air defense systems are proving their worth by destroying the Caliphate’s incoming missiles.
Russian LT General Yuri Gagarin, the commander on site, studies the maps while holding a phone, “We don’t know where they came from. We were having breakfast when the automatic alarms sounded and our anti-air missiles automatically fired.” His report is interrupted by two large explosions. The base is rocked; large fireballs blot out the dawn’s light. “Some got through, we just got hit. No, I don’t know how badly, I’m talking with you. Yes, I’ll call you back.” Yuri is knocked off his feet by another explosion. Damn, where are the missiles coming from?
Caliphate anti-radar missiles home on the S300 and S400 radar units, they explode over the flat radar faces, shredding them with thousands of steel cubes. Additional missiles strike the command and communications vans, leaving the anti-air missiles without any guidance. The destruction of the anti-air missile shield enables the Caliphate to attack the base from the air. Missiles and bombs rain down from the sky. The Caliphate modified cargo aircraft to drop pallet loads of bombs over the unprotected bases. Cheap long range bombers.
Twenty minutes after the alarms sounded, the staging base is covered by dense smoke from thousands of burning vehicles and tents. Seventy percent of the base is destroyed by the spoiling attack.
While the Sochi base is under attack, two additional Russian staging bases also come under attack. General Green shakes his head while reading the reports wondering how he overlooked the possibility the Caliphate would strike them first. What an idiot I’ve been. I thought they were too seriously wounded from the Israeli attacks to mount a spoiling attack. I should have made sure. Damn it. His thoughts are interrupted when Pope Francis II enters his office.
“They caught us by surprise didn’t they?”
“Yes, your Holiness they did. We don’t know how they did it. We’re trying to see if the Caliphate somehow developed stealth technology. Something new, something that our anti-air systems didn’t pick up.”
“My son, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find out how they attacked us, we’ll quickly develop a defense around it and we’ll continue with our plans for our strike. I’ve already released the attack group to capture the Mahdi. If they succeed, this war is over. If not, it’s going to get very bloody, very quickly.”
“My son, go with God. I’ll pray the decapitation strike succeeds.”
“Thank you, your Holiness.”
Chapter 4
Five B2 stealth bombers fly over the suburbs of Palmyra, Syria, which is in the middle of the desert, far away from the coastal cities. Buried three hundred feet underground is the Caliphate’s command center. The entrance to the bunker is surrounded by helicopter landing pads, mobile anti-air guns, and anti-air missiles. Two divisions of armor are based within a mile of the bunker. Four of the B2s opens their bomb bay doors, inside each is a pressurized container holding eighteen special operating troops who are ejected from the bomber. Each is wearing a pressurized suit and a stealth chute. The fifth B2 is armed with advanced anti-radar missiles. Thirty-six missiles are fired at the radar units which destroy the Caliphate’s ability to stop an aerial attack.
The special forces units hanging under their parachutes see the anti-radar missiles’ gray exhausts leading down from the B2. They smile seeing the flashes from the explosions over the radar antennas. The anti-radar missiles don’t see two mobile Caliphate gun units because their radars aren’t turned on. They flip on their radars when the missiles explode over the anti-missile radars. The mobile guns begin firing at the dropping soldiers. Caliphate soldiers rush outside, firing at the dark falling forms. Since they can’t see the falling soldiers very well, they fire on full auto into the sky hoping to hit the falling soldiers, many of which are hit. The few that make it to the ground are quickly captured by the guards, only eight survive the combat drop.
The eight surviving special forces troops, with their hands zip-tied behind their backs, are paraded to the Mahdi, who is waiting for them.
“How nice of you to drop in and pay us a visit. I bet it was pretty scary being dropped like a bomb from a B2, then watching the missiles fly around you and dodging hundreds of thousands of bullets. I congratulate you making it all the way here. I assume the Russians told you where my bunker was located.”
“We have nothing to say, except for our names, ranks, and serial numbers.”
“Suit yourselves. I was only trying to be sociable. I’ll have you taken to our medical facility so you can be checked by one of our doctors, then we’ll have breakfast. If you behave yourself, I’ll allow you to watch our next attack on your troops. You can’t win, Allah is on our side, he is protecting us.”
“And if I say God is protecting us?”
The Mahdi nods at one of his guards who shoots one of the soldiers.
“I don’t think your God is protecting you now. Allah is protecting us, which is why there’s only seven of you left and all of us are untouched. Allah is more powerful than your weak God. Allah is the true God, he is going to ensure we win the Last Crusade, we’re going to crush your troops, and then we’re going to crush your countries, convert or kill the survivors and watch Allah rule the world.”
“What do you want from us?”
“How many people is the delusional Pope sending against us? Where is he planning on invading?”
“Major, Johnathan Walker, First Delta Squad, serial number, 147 77 4321.”
“I’d hoped you’d save your men from being tortured.”
“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.”
@@@@@
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.
@@@@@
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.”
“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.”