The Last Crusade

by Ira Tabankin

  “General, would you like to take it for a spin?”

  “Very much so, however, I think we will do so a little later, is she fast?”

  “Very, like your original M1 before she put on extra weight. These have a turbine engine and automatic transmission.”

  “Main gun?”

  “Remote controlled, fires sabot, anti-personnel and laser guided missiles. She also has an active anti-missile system, fully automatic. We will show you.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  President Bentley and General Green meet the base commander as he’s rushing out of the executive building,

  “Sirs, I thought we’d start with a briefing in the conference room.”

  President Bradley smiles,

  “General, we wanted to see the new toys, you know, you can’t keep the boys away from the toys.”

  “Yes, sir. We also want to show you a new M1, we call it the M1B1, it only looks like the old M1s from the Crusades.”

  “Please have it brought it around so we can compare it to the Russian tanks.”

  “Sir, it’s classified, Top Secret.”

  “Colonel, the Russians brought us their newest tank, have your new toy brought around so we can compare them. I want the leading Russian officer to join us. They are our allies now, either we’re allies or the Caliphate will win and rule the world.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  They begin briefing the President and General on the M1B1 versus the Russian T14.

  “Sir, the major difference between the two weapons system is the main gun. The Russians use an autoloader with two piece shells, we use a fourth crew person who is the loader; our shells are one piece, allowing the penetrator to be longer with greater penetration. Our armor is also different. We use more ceramics; the Russians rely more on reactive armor. Both engines are 1,500 hp turbines. Both systems use an active anti-missile defense. We’ve copied and improved the Israeli Trophy system.”

  The Russian Major Interrupts American Colonel,

  “Colonel, we also use a type of ceramic armor and our main gun can fire laser-guided anti-tank missiles which outrange the main gun.”

  President Bentley smiles and waves to both officers to sit. “I’d like to see each tank go through the obstacle course and discuss how many of each can be built in a short time.”

  The Colonel replies,

  “Sir, the M1B1 is an update package which can be added to existing tanks, improving their reliability, and survivability, we won’t have to build new ones. The new armor is made in sheets which are added over the existing armor, there are also armored side skirts to protect the road wheels. We’ve increased the output of the turbine to 1,900 HP. The new fire control can engage targets 3,000 meters away.

  “Colonel, I believe the war plan calls for us to have over ten thousand tanks, we’re short by more than half of those numbers.”

  “Sir, I’m sorry.”

  “Let’s get the tanks on the course so we can see them in action.”

  The officers escort the President to the obstacle course where he watches both tanks perform.”

  “Frankly, I’m impressed with both of them. General, let’s return to Philly and call President Putin.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Presidents Bentley and Putin agree to form a quick study team to determine how to combine the best features of both tank designs so the Crusade can have the most commonality and the highest number of tanks for the attack.

  The two Air Forces agree to a change in the design of their weapons racks and software so each air force can use each other’s bombs. They agree that air-to-air missiles are too difficult to merge.

  Israel, Egypt, NATO, and America use the same 5.56mm rifle ammo, Russia agrees to drop their AK series and quickly adopt the 5.56 round. Russian generals complain the 5.56 round isn’t as good as their own 5.45x39 round. President Putin agrees, saying,

  “We need to ensure as common a logistics plan as possible, we’ll give a little, they’ll give a little. At least, you got your choice of rifle, which one have you decided on?”

  The Russian Defense Minister smiles,

  “Mr. President, we’ve selected the Israeli TAVOR bullpup with the eighteen-inch barrel. The eighteen-inch barrel gets the most out of the small round while still keeping the overall length of the rifle short. We’ll get much better performance than the American M4 carbine. We purchased a license and tools from IWI, we’ve started to build them in our four factories. We’re both modifying our smart bombs to use either their GPS or our GLONASS. Either or both will work to guide bombs to their target. We’re working on changing our laser designators to work on the same frequencies. Fuel isn’t a problem.”

  “What are the major problems still on the table?”

  “Artillery, MLRS, mortars, heavy machine guns, shoulder-fired missiles, cruise missiles, Surface to air missiles, should I continue?”

  “No, I see we don’t have the time to combine our systems. I think we’re going to return to the backup plan. The West will form one attack column; we’ll form the other. I believe we’re starting to cause more problems than we’re solving. I’ll contact the Americans.”

  “Mr. President, you had an excellent idea, but at this late date, it’s too late.”

  “We’ll review the logistics after we win.”

  “Yes, sir. Has the attack plan be agreed to?”

  “We should finalize the plan at our next meeting. Your team will attend the meeting with your counterparts. Time is a resource we don’t have. Every day we’re rebuilding, the Caliphate has been building defenses and strengthening their militaries.”

  President Putin is interrupted by his red phone ringing,

  “Da?”

  “Mr. President, the Caliphate has struck at five of our schools, they broke into the schools, firing automatic weapons, they ran through the schools shooting anyone they saw while throwing Molotov Cocktails, burning over nine hundred children and teachers alive.”

  “Damn it. Get me President Bentley on the hotline, we have to move up our attack.”

  “Sir, we have information that they also struck ten schools in the American State of California, the early estimates are over two thousand dead or severely wounded.”

  “Thank you.”

  Turning towards the Defense Minister,

  “They’re killing our children! Our time has run out.”

  His phone rings again,

  “DA?”

  “Sir, a nuke fizzled in Geneva, the explosive core must have fired out of sequence, there wasn’t a nuclear explosion, the device spread radiation over five city blocks.”

  “Minister, get the plane and our escorts ready, we’ll be leaving to meet President Bentley within the hour.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Putin is snapped back to the situation when the hotline rings,

  “President Bentley, we heard, we’re very sorry for your loss.”

  “And we, yours. I’m calling to see if we can meet to finalize our battle plan.”

  “You read my mind, I just gave the orders to have my plane and fighter escorts ready to take off within an hour.”

  “I’ll have the Air Force meet you with AWACS and tanker support over the pole.”

  “Thank you.”

  @@@@@

  Saladin smiles listening in on the Presidents’ call, happy his technical experts found a way to hack the hotline. He issues orders to his generals.

  “They took the bait; I knew killing their children would push them to meet face to face. Have the special fighters made ready, the Americans will be meeting the Russian’s over the pole, we need to hit them before they merge. The Russian fighters will think the planes on their radars are the Americans arriving a little early. Use the Saudi F15s painted to look like the US Air Force, we will surprise them and shoot down the plane carrying the devil Putin. That should push them back into a final war against each other again.”

  The Caliphate Field Marshal smiles,

 
“Yes, sir. With pleasure. We’ll leave the Minor Satan without a leader.”

  “They’ll blame the Americans which might break up the Crusade. Russia will surely drop out and may even attack America again. We’ll sit here watching them kill each other off.”

  “Yes, great Saladin. Surely Allah loves you.”

  “Allah loves all of his children. Go and make the arrangements. Remember, all of the pilots are to be eliminated so there won’t be any rumors or social media posts. No one will be able to take credit for the attack.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Chapter 13

  The US AWACS with a flight of six F15 fighters are three hundred miles from President Putin’s plane when the radar controller in the AWACS plane yells,

  “Holy shit! Someone just hit the Russians. Six fighters, which look like Eagles just fired on and took down Red Bear One!”

  The plane controller spun around asking,

  “Are you sure it was Eagles?”

  “Yes, sir. They are broadcasting our IFF. I can show you the radar recordings.”

  Looking at the recordings, he picks up the radio,

  “Eagle lead this is big eye lead, go to afterburner and investigate air action two hundred fifty miles ahead, be alert. We show the flight of six Eagles just took down the Russian President.”

  The Lt Colonel leading the flight of American fighters confirms the order, he and his five wingmen accelerate to Mach 2.6. Each of their two engines is injecting raw fuel into the hot exhaust, adding thrust, like hitting nitrous on a race car. The six F15s quickly cover the distance to the site of the shooting down of the Russian President.

  The Caliphate fighters swept in, their IFF said they were friendlies, the Russians were expecting them, their air to air missiles were on safe. They radioed welcome messages to who they thought were Americans coming to escort them to a meeting between the two Presidents.

  The Caliphate fighters flashed in, each fired two air to air missiles at the Russian executive plane. The Russian fighter’s radar alert them to the new flight of Eagles approaching, this time, they have time to arm their air-to-air missiles. Each Russian fighter launches four missiles at the six incoming fighters. The American radar warning systems scream, “MISSILE LAUNCH.”

  The F15s begin turning, which at twice the speed of sound is a long curve, the Russian missiles arrive a moment later, killing all of the F15s. The AWACS sees the F15s shot down. She also sees Russian missiles heading to her. She broadcasts she’s under attack by the Russians when two missiles strike the large radar dome mounted on top of the plane, tearing it off, it takes part of the plane’s fuselage with it. The AWACS noses over spinning out of control. The last thing the mission commander did was to upload their radar recordings to a MilSat so someone would know what happened.

  While the American AWACS is dying, the Caliphate fighters are being refueled, their pilots are bragging which of their missiles killed the Russian President. Nine hours and two additional refueling’s later they land in Saudi Arabia. Their crew people assist them up from their planes. The six pilots get into a van which is to take them to the office to debrief them. The van got half way to the office building when a bomb under the van explodes killing all six of the pilots. Dead people tell no tales.

  The Russian Defense Minister is furious, he lifts the Hotline,

  “Mr. President, can you in one sentence tell me why I shouldn’t unleash our nuclear arsenal at you? You assassinated our President when he was on a mission to plan our joint attack. Many of my generals want me to unleash our weapons against you. We were putting aside our differences, you invited President Putin to Philadelphia when you planned the entire time to kill him where our radar coverage is poor due to the curve of the planet.”

  “We didn’t do it!”

  “HA! My generals said that’s the first thing you’d say. How do you explain six of your F15s shot President Putin’s plane down and we had to turn around and shot your six F15 fighters down? We also shot down your AWACS, which directed your fighters to our plane. I’m sure you can confirm the loss of your AWACS and your fighters.”

  “We didn’t do it! I confirm the loss of our AWACS and the fighters. Our proof is we have the radar recordings from the AWACS, I’m happy to share them with you.”

  “How do I know you haven’t doctored them?”

  “Your experts will be able to prove the tapes are untouched.”

  “Send the recordings. If they prove what you say, I’ll hold my forces if my experts say the recordings were doctored, I’m going to order a massive launch.”

  “I understand. To prove my honesty, I’m not going to increase our alert status. You know when we change our DEFCON status, you’ll see we aren’t going to change the status for our strategic forces.”

  “I’ll call you back after we review the recordings.”

  “Thank you for holding your launch order.”

  “Mr. President, if you killed President Putin, you and the rest of your countrymen will die within an hour. The Russian people demand payment for the death of their beloved President.”

  “I understand. I promise you, we didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  “We’ll see.”

  President Bentley calls the CNO,

  “Admiral, how many Trident boats are at sea?”

  “Sir, we’ve kept ten at sea since the war.”

  “How many boats could launch in an emergency?”

  “The ten at sea and one in port.”

  “Can you place the boats on alert without the Russians or Caliphate knowing it?”

  “Yes, sir. What about our attack boats and carrier battle groups?”

  “It must remain top secret. If the Russians learn of it, they’ll strike us.”

  “Sir, only the captains of the boats will know.”

  “Issue the order.”

  “Sir, what target?”

  “Strategic target, Russia.”

  “Sir?”

  “They believe we brought down Putin’s plane. They’ve threatened to attack us. I gave them my word I wouldn’t place our nuclear forces on alert. I won’t place the Air Force on alert. However, I refuse to be stupid and naked. Which is why I’m calling you.”

  “Will do. Sir, we’ve loaded nukes on the carriers again which can multiply the number of warheads we have to counter strike them with.”

  “What target list are the Trident’s current aimed at?”

  “The Caliphate.”

  Pausing a minute which the CNO thinks is an hour, the President says,

  “Issue the order.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  @@@@@

  Field Marshal Nikola and the Defense Minister study the American AWACS radar recordings and voice recordings. Nikola shakes his head,

  “If these recordings haven’t been altered the Americans are telling the truth, you can hear it from the voice of the radar operator and mission commander. They are surprised by the other fighters approaching and firing on our planes. We can hear them order their own fighters to investigate AFTER our planes were attacked. Someone else hit our fighters. The only other people who use the American F15s are, Israel, who wouldn’t shoot our plane down, they’ve been assisting us, the Japanese, who have signed new treaties with us. The third party is the Caliphate. My guess is the Caliphate painted their planes to look like the Americans and somehow got their hands on the Americans IFF codes.”

  “That wouldn’t be hard. The Americans are fools when it comes to their computer security.”

  “Minister, what are your orders?”

  “Prepare our nuclear forces for an attack on the Caliphate.”

  “What do you think the American’s will say?”

  “I’ll know in a couple of minutes, I’m going to call President Bentley. I believe the time has come to end the Caliphate forever.”

  “I agree. Do you think Israel; Egypt or NATO will have any issues?”

  “No, I believe they’ll be happy to be done with the anim
als. If we don’t destroy them all now, we’ll be fighting them on our own streets.”

  “Minister, our military commanders believe the risks for a conventional attack are too high, the only way to ensure their destruction is to vaporize them, we need to send them all to meet their God. Let him deal with them.”

  “I personally agree with you. I’ll call you right after I speak with the American President.”