Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Four spaceships and 29 people were about to change the way wars were fought forever. In Syria and Iraq, it was business as usual, they knew where their enemies were and other than the occasional bombing run by the United States or her allies, they knew they had little to fear. ISIS control of Northern and Northwest Iraq was growing stronger each day, and Syria hardly gave them any trouble at all. With little resistance, ISIS moved about freely, mainly running convoys and smuggling weapons along the highways in the cool of the night. It was a cold and clear night over the two countries when the thundering sound of four invisible spaceships entering the Earth’s atmosphere at the speed of sound boomed across the silent desert. The four ships reduced their speed to 400 mph and their altitude to 8,000 feet and split off in pairs; one pair headed North toward Tikrit, Sharqat, Mosul and the Badush Dam. The other pair headed west toward Fallujah, Ramadi, Ana and Qalm, they would then swing a bit north to rejoin the others as they headed across Syria, destroying anything in their path between the Iraq border and the city of Aleppo. Katelyn and Camil were the first to engage a target as the ships targeting system began to see through the darkness and fire at every rifle, machine gun, weapons carrying vehicle, tanks, mortar emplacements … if it was a weapon programed into the identification system, it and the person holding it or riding in it quickly disappeared in flash of light, only leaving a whole in the ground or building where they once were. The men on the ground began to fire into the air in panic as they witnessed total devastation around them. Katelyn and Camil soon came upon a convoy with over 100 vehicles. Unlike the convoys bombed in the 1990’s that left piles of debris strewn along the highway for miles, this convoy disappeared along with the highway beneath, leaving massive craters where trucks and tanks had once been. Nothing unarmed was hit and nothing was destroyed that did not contain an enemy target. All Katelyn and Camil had to do was maintain altitude and air speed for optimal targeting capabilities.

  The towns north of Baghdad were more populated than the ones to the west, which made for a slower trip; the targeting system would override pilot control in order to hover over a large target to make certain of one hundred percent elimination of everything inside an occupied city. Amber radioed Katelyn and Camil and told them to head north to the Badush Dam area when she finished her run and proceed south to meet her two ships. Then they could proceed across Syria together. The area between Baghdad and the Badush Dam held the heaviest concentration of ISIS troops and it seemed the two ships never halted their fire, even between towns. Amber and Tala had made it as far as Mosul when she began to see the lights of destruction to the north of her around the area of the Dam. She knew Katelyn and Camil would be joining her soon.

  Colonel Lawson had flown many missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, bombing targets ranging from individual vehicles to oil refineries. He could not comprehend this level of destruction, even as he sat in the copilot’s seat and witnessed it firsthand. The level of advancement built into the night vision was unbelievable. As he looked out the windshield, he not only saw the world outside as if it were mid-day, he also was viewing it at 10x magnification, as he watched target after target ranging in size from an individual soldier with a handgun to an entire convoy of trucks and tanks, disappear before his eyes, leaving no sign that it ever existed, just a hole where they once stood. He knew he would end up doing a debriefing on the night’s activities and he quickly realized that King Verron was politically very sharp. He knew exactly what he was doing when he allowed Amber to invite him along. He had just become an official U.S. Military liaison and would soon be letting the Joint Chiefs know about the capabilities of the new weapons soon coming to the U.S. and their Allies. He suddenly realized that he really liked that man. The King was doing exactly what he had wanted to do for years, but lacked the firepower and political clout to get it done.

  By the time Amber and Tala reached the northern edge of Mosul, Katelyn and Camil were firing on targets on the other side of the city. When they reached each other, the firing stopped. They quickly spread out and turned toward Syria. There were so many targets in Syria that they cherry-picked the most important and left the others alone. They destroyed six ISIS training camps, hitting them with a plasma bomb instead of trying to shoot each individual target. When Robert saw the large round field of melted sand, clear of any living or manmade thing, his stomach churned. It wasn’t nuclear, but was every bit as powerful in a more confined area. They destroyed two ISIS owned refineries and several weapons bunkers, leaving large holes empty of any stored weapons in their place. The targeting system selected 25mm Whitematter rounds for the underground bunkers leaving a hole over 100 feet deep where the bunker once stood. They targeted one missile storage facility with a 100mm round, to make sure they went deep enough to get it all, a two hundred foot radius hole appeared where there once had been a small ridge.

  The destruction from Baghdad to Aleppo had been going on since before midnight. The sun was just starting to rise in the east as they began to clear the surrounding area of the city. At the cities edge, the two Light Destroyers reduced their altitude to 100 feet and 24 men and women leaped to the ground below. As they exited the ships, King Verron declared, “Well, I guess we’re getting ready to find out how well this stuff works.” He looked at his brother Kary and added, “You and the boys designed this stuff, that’s why I’m sending you in first.” Kary leaped from the ship shouting, “VICTORY!” the battle cry of the 24th Infantry Division when they fought in Desert Storm during 1990 and 1991.

  The twenty four soldiers in dark-gray body armor spread out over a 200 yard killing field were a scary sight to see. For some reason, 9 foot tall Hon IV drew the most fire. He quickly returned fire with one of those 12.7mm rifles designed for the Klelta. Everyone else was firing 5.56mm rounds. They each carried a 9mm just in case they encountered any larger targets, but even a tank could be destroyed with a few rounds from the 5.56. The target acquisition system built into the body armor worked flawlessly, revealing targets hiding in buildings and behind walls of concrete and dirt. There was no place to hide as the 24 commandoes walked carefully through Aleppo clearing a path two hundred yards wide. It was not their objective to kill every ISIS sympathizer in the city, all they would have to do to accomplish that was leave town and hit it with a couple of plasma rounds. They had three main objectives; to herd as many as possible to the ISIS command center and then destroy them and the center, to destroy their largest ammunition bunker, without destroying everything surrounding it, including a pre-school and hospital, and last, to rescue the approximately 200 Christian hostages being held for future execution or for their female companionship.

  As they made their way forward, the ISIS soldiers would fire from the windows or tops of buildings, and race towards them in trucks or jeeps firing heavy machineguns, fire an RPG from an open doorway and even throw grenades at them, then attempt to run. All along their path there was not one single body to be seen, but there were plenty of holes in buildings where a soldier had once been. The Verron commandoes were deadly accurate, one shot for one target, no more and no less, except for a few APCs that raced down the street firing on them. It only took one round from the 5.56mm to stop the APC, but at least four more to completely destroy any signs of human occupation or the machine. King Verron made it perfectly clear that he did not want to leave a path of dead bodies from Baghdad to Aleppo. Any body count would have to be a guess at best, but he would offer no photo ops for the liberal press.

  The fighting intensified as they approached their first major target. ISIS was determined not to lose their weapons bunker and had formed-up in and around it to make it impossible for the enemy to push through, they thought. Chase and Daniel were given the opportunity to test their Containment Bomb that Hunter and Paul had used one time before. They activated their stealth mode in their body armor and became completely invisible to the enemies eyes. Carefully, the two of them placed the four corner control shields to avoid any damage to the school or hospital and t
hen set their charge, all while a raging gun battle was taking place to hold the bunker. When Paul saw that everyone except a hand full of combatants were inside the control blast zone and his people were clear, he gave Daniel the command to hit the trigger. The blast was blinding and for those people close-by without body armor, no doubt deafening. In seconds the surviving soldiers that were defending the weapons stash took off running as fast as they could toward the Commandoes next target, their Headquarters and Communications building.

  There were thousands of opposition soldiers attempting to block the progress of the attacking force, but they disappeared one by one as the armored ground troops pressed forward. The ISIS soldiers were well dug in to protect their command center, exactly where General Zarman had planned for them to be. Chase and Daniel once again hit stealth mode and set the perimeter blast controls. This time it covered the entire city block that sheltered the Headquarters and soldiers trying to defend it. They set the charge and returned to await Paul’s command. No one could see him smile as he reached over and took the detonator switch from Daniel and handed it to his brother Kary. Kary looked at the switch and across the road to the building full of armed ISIS soldiers and once again yelled, “VICTORY!” as he pressed the button. An entire city block disappeared, along with a few thousand more ISIS soldiers. The apartment building, motel, office building and Mosque surrounding the command center didn’t even have a broken window.

  They split-up and sent the men in four different directions to clear out as many enemy soldiers as possible and to take care of the remaining targets before they left Aleppo. Hunter, Kary, Chase, and three others headed to the Mosque where the Christian hostages were being held. By this time the resistance they encountered as they walked the two city blocks to the Mosque was minimal. But, when they actually got to the site of the hostage prison, they met a determined group of ISIS defenders. As the others cleared the opposing forces, Kary and Chase headed for the door leading to the basement of the Mosque. They quickly cut down those guarding the doors and slammed at a full run into the heavy wooden door, shattering them into splinters with the power of the suits exoskeleton. They were facing a room full of mostly women and children in the basement. That’s when they came to a halt. Two guards on opposite sides of the room now had a wall of women and children between them and the door. Each guard was holding a gun to the head of a closely held hostage and shouting in Arabic for Kary and Chase to drop their weapons. Kary looked at Chase and through their built-in communications link agreed to go along with the demand. As they both placed their weapons carefully on the ground and lifted their hands above their heads, what they expected to happen took place. The soldiers took the gun pointed at the head of their hostage and took aim at them. At a speed so fast the armed gunmen didn’t even have time to pull the trigger, both Kary and Chase pulled the foot long fighting daggers from the shoulder mounted scabbard and threw them at the unsuspecting soldiers. Kary’s hit his target in his right eye. There was such a powerful impact that the dagger penetrated his skull and impaled him to the wall behind. Chase hit his man in the throat at a slight angle and almost removed the gunman’s head, severing both arteries in his neck.

  They checked to be certain the streets were clear before they exited the building. Paul soon arrived and began to speak to them in Kurdish, finding out that they had been taken when their village was overrun by ISIS in the Kurdish section of southern Syria. The men who managed to escape were in refugee camps in Armenia. The women and young girls were going to be re-educated from Christianity to Islam. Paul realized that they had no village to return to and wondered what to do with over two hundred women and children. He couldn’t very well just turn them loose and send them on their way; ISIS would kill or recapture them in no time. He contacted Lucy and requested a small freighter be deployed to his location. While he waited, he conversed with the elders of the group and determined that he would transport them to the refugee camps in Armenia and hopefully find their remaining men.

  It took about 45 minutes for Major Dumas and Captain Stevens to arrive with a freighter that they landed several blocks away. Paul once again checked the streets and began to escort the group from the Mosque. Shortly after they had cleared the building, a young boy of about 14 ran from one of the abandoned buildings screaming, “Lydia, Lydia!” A small girl of no more than 11 or 12 broke from the group and raced for her brother shouting, “Ibrihim!” Hunter was quickly by their side to discover what was happening. It was soon discovered that this 14 year-old boy had followed his little sister to Aleppo after their parents were killed and she was taken. He had been hiding out ever since in Aleppo waiting for a chance to rescue his little sister; the only living member of his family.

  They continued to proceed down the street and would occasionally hear the gun fire of those still fighting the invaders. The freighter was in sight as they paused one last time before crossing the open field to the awaiting ship. Hunter had additional men surround the helpless women, children and brave young man, as they moved cautiously toward the ship. A single shot rang out, echoing off the stone walls surrounding the clearing. Hunter and three other Commandoes instantly acquired the target and hit the sniper who was well hidden on top of a building 400 yards away. When they turned back around Lydia was bent over the body of her brother Ibrihim, lying on the ground with a gaping wound in his chest. With his small frame, the heavy bullet went all the way through. A heavy pool of blood was already forming on the sandy ground underneath Ibrihim. Hunter wasted no time; he picked-up the young boy and told his sister in Kurdish, “Follow me!” He made a gateway right on the spot and disappeared before the eyes of a terrified group of Kurdish women. He stepped out right in the regeneration room at the medical center to a never surprised Ed Meese. He saw the young boy in Hunter’s arms and wasted no time. Young Ibrihim was immediately placed in the regeneration chamber. His little sister, watched in horror as her brother was placed in what to her looked like a coffin. Hunter removed his headgear so she could see a human before her and knelt down on his knees in front of her. He explained, “My name is Prince Hunter and you are now in a hospital on Verron. We can do some pretty amazing things here, your brother will be just fine, I promise.” Lydia began to cry and gave Hunter a hug, saying in Kurdish, “I will pray for him. Will you pray with me?” Right there in that room. Hunter said his first ever prayer in Kurdish, knowing that God hears and answers prayer spoken in any language.

  It didn’t take long for the motherly instincts of a dozen women to kick in when they met the skinny little eleven-year-old, who was not much larger than an eight-year-old. Standing close by her brothers regeneration tank, with black and auburn matted hair, huge brown eyes and tears washing the dirt from her face, covered in her brothers blood, no one could help but reach out to her. The issue was finally settled when Tlase entered the room and spoke perfect Arabic to the little girl, who understood it as well as her native Kurdish. Tlase reassured Lydia that her brother would be fine and there was nothing she could do to help by hanging out by his chamber; not his coffin. Finally the little girl took Tlase’s hand and left the hospital under the care of the women that would one day adopt her and her brother. When she arrived at home, Zimuel immediately fell in love with the adorable little orphan. It took two times through the tub to get off all the dirt and blood. While Lydia was soaking on her second bath, Tlase got some clothes from a next door neighbor with a little girl about her size. Cleaned, dressed and beginning to get comfortable in her new surroundings, she soon had Lydia sitting at the kitchen table devouring a large plate of Chicken Egg Foo Young with fried rice and an egg-roll. Zimuel had brought it home from Klelta the night before and neither had a chance to eat one of their favorite meals. Lydia was now officially a fan of Chinese food. Tlase and Zimuel smiled as she drank her second Diet Coke, to wash it down. She had selected the shiny silver can from the refrigerator herself, having no clue what was in it, only that the can was pretty. Zimuel immediately realized that he could neve
r send this child back to Syria.

  While Zimuel and Tlase were swooning over their foster child, Hunter had returned to assist the others in the finding of the Kurdish Christians among thousands of refugees. Once they found the right camp, on their third attempt, it became evident where the Christians were staying. Off to the side of the camp was a small isolated section filled with the Syrian, Kurdish and Iraqi Christians. The Muslim refugees did not want to associate with the Christian refugees. There were about 18,000 refugees in the small segregated camp. It was absolute panic as the 300 foot long freighter landed beside their camp. They hesitated, even when the hostages exited the freighter, but soon an unbelieving husband saw his wife and daughter. After he took off for them, dozens of others quickly realized it wasn’t a dream, their families had been returned to them by a spaceship. Paul, accompanied by Hunter, Amber and an overwhelmed Colonel Lawson, approached the crowd of refugees. They had decided before exiting the ship, that it would be best to not wear the body armor; no point in them thinking there was an alien invasion. The rescued women began to tell everyone how these men had walked right into Aleppo and rescued them. Hunter then explained what had happened to Ibrihim and Lydia in Arabic since there was a mix of several nationalities of Christians. Soon, what was left of the Elders came forward as husbands and wives were reunited and others discovered they were now widowed or orphaned. Paul looked around at the deplorable conditions that these people were living in, and asked, “Would you like to have a new home, free from war, poverty and religious persecution?” They all looked at Paul as if he were speaking of Heaven itself. He continued, “My name is King Paul Verron. I rule a Nation where there is no hunger, no homeless, no crime, no war and only one religion, Christianity. There is also no sickness or unemployment. I would like to offer you and your people refuge in my Kingdom. I promise you, the living conditions will be much better than here and if at any time you decide you want to come back here, I’ll bring you back myself.”