The Last Crusade

by Ira Tabankin

  Major Silverman is trying to reorganize his attack force when everyone hears screaming from the other side of a small sand dune. None of the Crusaders know what’s causing the sound. The Major sends two APCs to investigate, cresting the sand dune, they are quickly out of sight. Major Silverman hears four loud explosions and sees two black smoke plumes rise of the dune. Whatever they have on the other side of that dune just took the two APCs out. I need to know what’s there and how dangerous it is.

  “I need three tanks to figure out what’s on the other side of the dune.”

  Three American M1s pull out of line and follow the trail the APCs left. When the tanks crest the hill, everyone hears gunfire and three loud booms as the tanks fire their main guns. Major Silverman sees the three tanks reversing over the dune while firing. He presses the push to talk button. “Saddle up, something nasty is coming our way.”

  Every tank crew rushes into their tanks, they close and seal their hatches, main guns swing towards the reversing three tanks. A flash lights up the top of the dune, one of the three tanks is destroyed.

  The Crusader tanks position themselves to attack whatever is coming over the dune when the top of the dune is covered with dark shapes. Major Silverman looks through the thermal sight of his tank. God damn, there must be ten thousand of them, all armed with RPGs. Shit, where in the world did they come from?

  Pressing the talk button for the battalion frequency he yells,

  “Backup, there must be ten thousand RPGs coming our way!”

  Before he’s finished giving the order, smoke trails start making their way towards the Crusader’s tanks. A handful, a hundred, five hundred, a thousand, five and then ten thousand RPGs flash into the tanks. While a single RPG wouldn’t damage a new M1 or Merkava, thousands do. Major Silverman’s battalion is stopped by a massive onslaught of civilian militias firing thousands of RPGs. Smoke and flames cover the destroyed Crusader attack. The attack into the Golan Heights is stopped dead in its’ tracks. Only a handful of surviving tanks reverses to retreat back into Israel. They leave many of their friends burning in the fields behind them.

  The Russians have better luck. No one had seen a T-14 ARMATA main battle tank in action before. The newest Russian tank was developed from everything the Russians learned in fifty years of studying tank warfare. The T-14 ARMATA’s armor is an advanced ceramic covered with sheets of depleted uranium and boxes of reactive armor. No one knew if existing anti-tank missiles or main gun shells could penetrate its armor. Its main gun is a smoothbore 125mm which fires both sabot rounds and anti-tank missiles. Unlike the Crusader’s tanks, the T-14 ARMATA’s main gun is fed by an autoloader which lowers their crew size to 3. The T-14 ARMATAs quickly destroy the Caliphate’s T72s. The Russians average 25Kph while firing on the move, each shell fired equals a dead Caliphate tank. The Caliphate’s secret weapons, their population, armed with RPGs and AK47s is waiting until the Russians enter the ambush site the Caliphate previously prepared with thousands of armed citizens waiting for the Russians to crest a small hill.

  The third front is the Egyptian Army, supported by NATO, using either American M1 Abrams or German Leopard 2 tanks. They don’t run into any opposition until they cross into Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Army is dug in waiting for them with all of their 442 American Abrams tanks. Ten km inside Saudi Arabia is a backup force of 300 American M60 medium tanks all updated with reactive armor.

  The Egyptian army has one hundred A10 attack airplanes flying guardian angel for the tanks. The A10s see the Saudi Tanks. Each A10 opens fire with four Hellfire missiles. Four hundred missiles fill the air in front of the Crusader’s tanks. The Caliphate fires over three hundred shoulder fired anti-air missiles. They also have twenty ZSU-23-4 mobile anti-air gun platforms. Each is armed with radar aimed 23mm auto cannons. These surprise and prove deadly to the Crusader planes and helicopters.

  Crusader supply ships in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea are attacked by hundreds of small high-speed boats filled with explosives. The Caliphate small boats ram against the Crusader’s larger ships. The explosions are usually enough to blow large holes in their hulls. Five tankers and six supply ships full of armaments blow up and sink. Three destroyers and a cruiser are damaged before the Crusader Navy is ordered to fire on any boat that approaches within two hundred yards of a Crusader ship.

  As the Crusader Navy is regrouping in the Red Sea, their radars pick up a new threat, swarms of small planes heading towards them. The small planes are remote control drones; some are private airplanes from the rich oil export countries. The planes are flown into the Crusader ships, where they explode. Two of the drones manage to get through the USS Nimitz’s defenses. The drones are each packed with eight hundred pounds of explosives and fuel. One strikes an armed squadron of F/A18s waiting to take off, the other crashes into the carrier’s bridge, killing the task force’s admiral and ship’s captain. The USS Nimitz’s flight deck is burning out of control. Some firefighters push valuable fighter planes into the sea to clear the carrier’s deck while others spray dense firefighting foam on the burning deck.

  General Green is shaking his head as the reports flood in from the front.

  “How did we so badly underestimate their strength? We’re losing on every front except for the Russian advance. We’ve lost over a thousand tanks; tanks we can’t easily replace. We missed their human wave attacks, we missed the mine fields; we thought our bombardments would have taken their mine fields out. We need to break through or we’re going to bog down and lose. Yes, I said the word lose. We’re closer to losing than we are to winning. We need a Patton, someone who can figure out a way to crush the Caliphate, someone who can figure out how to overcome their human waves. If we have to fight over every grain of sand, we’re going to lose. Not only lose, but we’ll be left defenseless for their counterattack. We won’t have any tanks to block them invading Europe and then America. I need to hear some ideas.”

  “Sir, are you still ruling out the use of WMDs?”

  “Yes, I’d only consider them as a last resort. I’m worried if we use them, the Caliphate will use them against us and will use them against our cities. Hundreds of millions will die.”

  “Sir, we have hundreds of times more weapons than they do.”

  “Colonel, are you sure of that? If you are, please let me know how you know. Right now, I’m not sure what type of weapons they have and don’t have. I never thought they’d arm their population with RPGs and send them against us. Nor did I expect them to turn boats and small airplanes into armed drones. We may hold a technology edge over the Caliphate, but they have the numbers and death doesn’t hold the same fear for them as it does us. They believe by fighting us, they are ensuring themselves a special place in paradise. Our people are fighting to stay alive, they are fighting to die and take as many of us with them as possible. When we count their population as part of their army, we’re outnumbered over a thousand to one.”

  Russian General Zhukov II looks across the table at his friend,

  “General, I think it’s time for us to consider a general retreat, we could use the time to regroup. We need to rethink our plans.”

  General Green stands walking around the room, “I think you’re right. We need to regroup, we have to face the fact, we’re losing.”

  General Rickman replies, “General, if we retreat, the Mahdi will claim victory, every Muslim around the world will assume Allah is protecting them. They’ll cause trillions in damage, we’ll be facing riots like we’ve never seen before. They will have won; their damned black flag will fly over all of our homes.”

  “Do you think I don’t know that? We have to face the facts, our plan failed. I accept the responsibility for the defeat and the poor plan. I agree that we need a new plan, one we can put in place very quickly, we’re wounded and bleeding over the battlefields. I want us to drop FAE over their positions to buy us time to retreat and regroup. The FAEs should knock them back on their heels long enough for us to save what we have.”
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  Without a viable plan forward, the Crusaders retreat to reorganize their forces. The Caliphate suffers massive causalities from the FAEs, which kill tens of thousands of soldiers and over a hundred thousand civilians. The FAE attack allows the Crusaders to retreat and begin regrouping. The misguided Muslim population around the world takes to the streets cheering their victory over the Satans. Every major city in the West is held by the neck by tens of thousands of Islamic rioters. They attack every Jewish and Catholic house of worship. Any business that displays a Jewish flag or symbol is set on fire. Every house with a Mezuzah on the door frame is firebombed. Orthodox Jews wearing a yamaka are grabbed on the street and beaten to death. Any Roman Catholic priests found wearing the collar are beaten and usually set on fire, in Boston, the police respond to dozens of calls, they discover ten Roman Catholic priests crucified, each is still wearing their collar. The row of crosses is behind Boston’s largest Church, which is burning out of control. The flickering light from the flames makes the scene in front of the police look like hell.

  The Boston police call the fire department and EMS. The fire trucks are attacked with Molotov Cocktails and shotguns when they’re three blocks from the burning church. The fire department calls for police help, leaving the ambulances rushing to the crucified priests without an escort. Muslims block the streets causing the ambulances to stop. The rioters swarm the ambulances, any of the drivers or techs who can’t quote the Quran are killed, Muslims drive the ambulances to the church. They back to the rear where the police officers are trying to help the priests hanging on the crosses, the rear doors of the ambulances are thrown open, armed Muslims, who were hiding inside, open fire, killing the police officers. Some of the Muslims steal the police cars. They then use the police cars and ambulances to launch additional attacks.

  The scene is repeated in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Portland and St. Louis. The surviving governors order a state of emergency and Martial Law in their states. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ damage is done to the cities. Black smoke covers the skies of many American cities where fires are burning out of control.

  The Mahdi smiles seeing the pictures of destruction in the American cities. He speaks to himself out loud, “Invade us and we’ll bring the war to your front door. Hurt us and we will kill you. Burn us and we will burn your cities to the ground. You can’t beat us. Allah is on our side; he’s protecting us. We are his holy warriors. We’re going to bring terror to the infidel’s cities; their people will be too afraid to leave their homes to go to work, their economy will collapse.”

  Chapter 10

  The Caliphate floods social media with thousands of posts and press releases publicizing their victories, they fail to mention the human wave attacks or the number of people lost on the battlefields. They invite reporters to see the Crusader’s burned out tanks and equipment in the desert. They hold guided tours to show the world they’ve stood up to the best the Crusaders could throw at them. The tour guides show the rows of Crusader graves. The Mahdi orders the ruins of the war be left as they are so the world can see that Allah protects the Caliphate's holy warriors. He orders a fence placed around the battlefields to preserve them for future history. The Mahdi orders schools to show the students the places where the Caliphate, with Allah’s help, crushed the best the of the Western militaries. He announces plans to turn the battlefields into international monuments so the world can see the Caliphate’s victories with their own eyes.

  A thousand miles away in Switzerland, all of the Cardinal’s votes end in stalemates, they are unable to elect a new Pope. They spend the following two months trying to convince each other who should lead the Christian world. Without a new Pope, the Crusaders lack a leader. In America, the governors finally agree to a new election. They agree on the historical first Tuesday in November. After the announcement, they are surprised when ten different political parties announce candidates for office. The ballots become multi-page documents with parties such as the Green Party, the Conservative Party, the Peace Party, the Rainbow Party, the Socialist Party, Communist Party, The Revenge Party, and the FEA (Fuck-Em-All) Party. The single message the American survivors send is; politics as normal is over. The long ballot is an expression of the people’s frustration and anger.

  The media demands an investigation into how the combined militaries of the world’s strongest countries could be defeated by a bunch of Arabs. The governors also question how the West could have lost the battle to the Caliphate. In the previous twenty years, no one had been able to stand toe to toe with the American military. Even after the nuclear strikes, America had the world’s most powerful military which was dismally defeated in the desert.

  General Green looks at the playing field; he knows his days as America’s military commander are over. He tenders his resignation while trying to slip away into the night. He makes it as far as Dallas-Fort Worth Airport where he was handed a Federal Subpoena as he entered the terminal. The governors want him to answer the country’s questions about how he lost the war and got so many of the country’s boys and girls killed.

  When confronted by the media he smiles saying,

  “There was more than a single Crusade before Christians won control of Jerusalem, there will be another Crusade. We’ll learn from our mistakes and win the next one.”

  “General, are you going to miss not leading the next Crusade?”

  “No, I had my chance. I’ll let someone else lead the next one. I don’t want the army to be bogged down with my baggage. We were surprised, we made some mistakes. The next time we assemble an army on their border, we will advance completely into Caliphate territory without stopping to piss on them.”

  “General, what happened? On paper, you should have easily won.”

  “I made a mistake. I didn’t count on the militarization of their civilian population being armed with PRGs. After we defeated their armor, their people attacked us en masse with tens of thousands of RPGs and machine guns. I delayed giving the order to open fire because I didn’t want to kill civilians. In hindsight, I should have realized they weren’t civilians as we define civilians. Their population is an extension of the Caliphate’s military. We couldn’t survive the onslaught of thousands of RPGs so I ordered a retreat. We’ll rearm and return.”

  “General, won’t they be expecting us to return? Won’t they rebuild and improve their defenses?”

  “Of course, they will General, however, the next time we won’t broadcast which punch we’re going to throw.”

  “General, what’s the final number of casualties?”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know the final number. I’m sure someone in the press office has the number.”

  “General, what will you be doing now?”

  “I’m going to learn how to fish. Thank you and I really need to be going.”

  General Green walks out of the terminal, he gets into the backseat of a white Chrysler 300 leaving the media yelling questions at him. He smiles, “Governor Wilson’s house.”

  “Yes, sir. Here are the newest memos.”

  @@@@@

  The Mahdi and Saladin review the map hanging on the wall of the conference room, Saladin smiles pointing to Egypt,

  “Your Holiness, I believe this is the perfect time for us to strike the Egyptians. They are weak and unorganized. The survivors ran across the border with their tail between their legs. They’ve set up camp in two locations; I suggest we strike their camps simultaneously. We’ll use low-flying cruise missiles which will fly under their mobile radar coverage. The cruise missiles will be armed with anti-radar warheads to destroy their anti-air coverage. Once the radars are down, we’ll strike them with our air power, twenty minutes after the air attack, our armor will strike any survivors.”

  “Are you sure we can strike both encampments?”

  “Yes, sir. We’ve rehearsed the attack, once we destroy the two camps, there will be nothing to slow our march into their cities, we should be able to kill the President and his gov
ernment, allowing us to take over the country.”

  “You have my permission to proceed with the attack. Keep me informed every hour. It’s important we complete the absorption of Egypt.”

  “Your Holiness, after Egypt, I will turn my forces North and destroy the Little Satan.”