Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  For the next forty-five minutes there was a debate going on among the Elders of the various villages represented in the refugee camp. To Paul’s surprise, many of the women took it upon themselves to get involved in the debate. They wanted a better life for their families and were not about to allow them to go back to some bombed-out village in the mountains along the border of Iraq. Soon, four of the leaders approached Paul and Hunter, asking, “When would we go?” Paul pointed to the freighter saying, “I can take you all right now. There’s plenty of room for everyone and your possessions.” He escorted the four men over to a freighter and gave them a brief tour of their way out of Armenia. When they returned, the camp was quickly being disassembled. Hunter told them that they would not need to take their tents; there were houses with solid walls for everyone. Most left their tents behind, but several could not grasp the concept of not having a tent to live in; after-all, some of them had been living in tents for generations. Colonel Lawson smiled as they escorted goats and sheep on board and few of the skinniest dogs he had ever seen. There were also a dozen mules and several oxen as well. Hunter asked, “How are we going to get them to part with their livestock?” Paul replied, “I think we just recruited some more farmers, they can have all the sheep, goats and cattle they want.” There were a good many of the refugees suffering from physical wounds and all of them were malnourished. Amber told the one lady that appeared to be the most outspoken of the ladies, “We will provide medical care for everyone. Get the sick and injured together and we will take them directly to a medical facility.” The elderly woman began to cry as she had the other women spread out through the camp to spread the word.

  The first stop on Verron was the J. Verron Medical Center. They had radioed ahead and were greeted by over a thousand members of the medical staff, including Dr. Joe Verron. Renee and her staff were there waiting in front of the medical center to greet the nervous passengers. As soon as the sick and wounded were transported to the Medical Center, the freighter flew the short distance to Mountain City, the temporary of home of almost 18,000 Christian refugees. Their lives would never be the same. While more medical staff and social workers got everyone settled and escorted them to their new homes, others passed out food and water to hold them until they could be served a warm meal. The refugees stared in amazement when they saw the spaceships in the hangers and hundreds of aliens helping with their transition. Paul left the group in the capable hands of his staff and went upstairs to the Mansion. He immediately headed for the office to get an update from Lucy. More than fifteen hours had passed since they entered Iraqi air space and the news was already reporting the greatest destruction ever experienced in Iraq. So far there had been no reports of civilian casualties, but thousands were returning home to their liberated villages and cities to find the ISIS forces gone. There had so far only been ½ of a body found, along with half of the recoilless rifle he had been firing from a small opening in a wall. The opening was now eight feet wide. It was reported that it was now difficult to get around since the major highways had huge craters in them, but they were completely free of debris. The word was already out that the assault on ISIS had been conducted by King Verron and his forces in retaliation for the attack on his staff and family. King Verron’s war on terrorism had officially begun.

  Chapter 4

  It was the first week in February and the Job Fair crew was preparing to go to Seattle. Paul made certain that their security was doubled just in case there were ISIS sympathizers in the area. They were expecting a large turn-out of aviation assembly people and engineers from Boeing and had almost as many online resumes from Microsoft. They were also surprised to get inquiries about whether there was a need for commercial fishermen on Verron. It probably wouldn’t have the large number of people they were expecting for their last stop in Los Angeles, but there should be some good quality people who may help expand some as yet untapped markets for Verron products. Marcus was drooling over the Boeing people looking for work and reminded Paul and Renee that they needed to hold Fairs in Paris, London, Rome and Munich as well. He had already reviewed numerous inquiries from people at Air Buss and the French Space Agency. At General Zarman’s recommendation, security was increased around the Success, Mississippi complex. It wasn’t exactly a haven for terrorists, but he felt like the total lack of security was a mistake. Two dozen Marines with crotch-rockets were assigned to patrol the perimeter of the monstrous facility. General Z smiled when Paul recommended the crotch- rocket patrol, knowing that it would soon create additional business for Verron. The good ole boys working on the job site had been riding ATVs around the complex and immediately requested that they be furnished the same vehicles as the Security Patrol. Paul had opened the can of worms and was smiling all the while as he ordered a dozen crotch-rockets with restrictor circuits shipped to Success. He didn’t want a man who thought nothing of doing 60 on his ATV, riding a craft capable of over 200 mph.

  Colonel Robert McGee Lawson was commanded to appear, immediately upon his return to the Air Force Academy, before General Dorsey and the Joint Chiefs. He flew himself from Peterson AFB directly to Andrews AFB where a car was waiting for his arrival. Amber asked him if he wanted her to go with him, but he knew that although it may be requested later, for today’s trip, it was all him. Colonel Lawson entered the room facing the seven members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and nearly a dozen other high ranking Pentagon Officials. After he gave a crisp salute, General Dorsey asked, “What the hell were you thinking? What made you decide on your own to go on an assault like that?” Lawson, replied, “Permission to speak freely sir.” The General pointed to a chair and told him to be seated then asked, “OK, tell me everything from the very beginning.”

  When he began with, “I was invited to Verron to meet Princess Amber’s parents.” There were more than a few questioning looks. He continued, “Before you ask, yes, it may very well be like that. Anyway, I was shooting skeet with Amber, I mean Colonel Hall’s stepfather when she arrived and offered me, at King Verron’s request, an opportunity to be an observer in their assault on ISIS. And that is exactly what I was. I rode in the Light Destroyer flown by Princess Amber and was present during the entire assault. I am prepared to make a full report of everything that happened, Sir.” General Dorsey looked over at the Commanding General of the Marine Corp and joked, “Hell of a first date, wouldn’t you say.” The Colonel spent the next two days reviewing satellite and drone camera footage of both Iraq and Syria. He must have been asked at least a dozen times, “You mean to tell me that this was done by only four of their ships and 24 Marines?” He was finally sent home when General Dorsey got a secured e-mail from General Zarman, on behalf of King Verron, declaring that the equipment used for the assault was the exact same equipment that he intended to use with the Terrorist Elimination Unit and that he appreciated having a member of the General’s staff present during this trial run.

  The General smiled and swore to Colonel Lawson, “Trial run, my big ole butt, he just took out half of ISIS in a little over fifteen hours without one single friendly casualty. The Iraqi and Syrians are already moving back into the liberated towns and finishing off what little resistance is left.” He smiled at Lawson and said, “I know it’s a real chore for you, but don’t let anything happen to that girl. If the bad guys find out she is at the Academy alone, she could be a target. Now get out of here and take her to dinner or something.”

  When everyone from Verron returned to their assignments back on Earth, they were instant heroes. Katelyn and Tala were given a special dinner at the Officer’s Club by others from Australia who had fought in Iraq. In all the years of fighting in the Middle East, no one had delivered such a devastating blow to the fundamental terrorist oppressing that country. They knew that they would rise up again and rebuild, but it would no doubt be a much weaker power to deal with. When they found out that Katelyn was upset because she had missed an amateur surfing competition that was held while she was away, she had six volunteers offer
to take her to one the following weekend in Perth. Tala was glad that it was an off weekend for racing, but had planned to test her new bike before the race coming up.

  Chase and Daniel were almost idolized by the Israelis. They had plenty of footage of the destruction, and envied anyone who could command such power. They knew that such weapons were out of their reach, but now were certain that the anti-missile system being installed by these two young men would do everything they claimed. Hunter returned to The Farm and was reprimanded for disappearing without permission, but soon became a major source of knowledge about how the entire campaign was planned and conducted. When he told them about the targeting systems and Containment Bombs they were soon on the line with Langley filling them in on the information passed along by the young Prince. What they really struggled with was the fact that the incredible damage done was accomplished by only four of their smaller ships and 24 Marines. Hunter ended up being a legend to some of the trainees at The Farm and a thorn in the flesh for those who were envious of the only man at The Farm allowed to wear a ponytail.

  Amber had a small one bedroom apartment about eight miles south of the Academy. After her first week there, she had made arrangements to use the staff workout room and to keep a change of clothes there. She made it her routine to run the eight miles to the Academy, workout with weights, work-out with the heavy bag, shower and change clothes, all before 7:00 AM. She would then grab a bite to eat and head to her first class. It was not exactly the routine of Air Force Academy Cadets, however, she was not a cadet and everyone knew it. More than a few resented this twenty-year-old girl wearing the rank of a full-bird colonel and strutting around in her dark-gray commando outfit with a red dragon on her cap. The first four weeks had been a bit rough, with both cadets and staff resenting the special privileges being given to the Princess from Verron. They wrongly assumed that her rank and position was simply a perk of having a grandfather who was a King. The other cadets saw it as some kind of a joke. A few actually began to feel sorry for this girl who believed herself capable of commanding an entire Air Force. Several of the staff who had been passed-over for promotions and offered teaching positions at the Academy was determined to show everyone just how incompetent she was. Amber’s outspoken personality and total lack of diplomacy didn’t take long to offend dozens of her classmates and professors. She was back in her little apartment wondering how things were going for Robert, when a knock came on her door.

  When she looked through the peep hole, she was facing eight of the Academy upper classmen holding boxes of pizza. She slowly opened the door and greeted them with a questioning smile. Although they were not in uniforms she quickly recognized a Group Commander, two cadet Majors, two Cadet Captains and three cadet Lieutenants. She couldn’t remember their names, but the Cadet Colonel quickly extended the pizza as a peace offering, as he said, “When we’re wrong we are really wrong. My ole man was in the room when Colonel Lawson briefed the Chiefs on that invasion of yours into Iraq and Syria. He told the Pentagon brass that you were in command of the air invasion. I think if they had crow pizza we would all be eating it.” Amber smiled for real this time and opened the door wide enough for them to come in. Her apartment was only one bedroom, but very nicely furnished and with a mountain view from the living room deck. One of the Cadet Captains commented, “No wonder you live off campus. This is really nice.” They soon spread out the pizza boxes on the kitchen table and raided the freezer for ice cubes to put in their sodas.

  Once again Cadet Colonel Bass spoke, “From everything we’ve seen on the news and from what I heard from my father, Major General Bass, what happened over the weekend will change the nature of warfare forever. My Dad says that our best aircraft are already centuries out of date, and everything I’m learning at the Academy will have to be relearned in the near future to even begin to comprehend Verron’s capability. We Earthlings come in peace and wish to know more about your world.” Amber couldn’t help but smile at his sense of humor and his complete honesty.

  She reached for a slice of pepperoni and her Diet Coke and began, “The technology we have on Verron is even more than centuries ahead Earth’s. The alien races we are allied with were flying at light speeds when people on Earth were still trying to figure out how to make fire.” The eight cadets gave her questioning looks, as if she were simply bragging. Amber continued, “I know it is hard for you to comprehend, but as you know, Colonel Lawson was with us on the mission and has verified everything that happened. Now here’s the part that will be hard to swallow. We only used four of our smallest spaceships and the most primitive weapons in our arsenal. If we had chosen to do so, there would no longer be an Iraq or Syria left. We were very careful not to get carried away.” They shook their heads and a female Cadet Major spoke up, “Please, tell us more.” Amber thought where she should begin and replied, “I will tell you all I can, but I believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. If you’ll allow me a few days to contact my grandfather, I’ll ask him if I may hold an Air Force Academy field trip to Verron. We are Allies. As future leaders of the Air Force, you need to know just what that future has in store for you. Would you be willing to give up a weekend of your free time to take a trip?” There were smiles all around as they switched the subject to Verron as a different world instead of a military power.

  For the next few hours Amber told them about the size of the planet, the mountains and oceans, about the unique wildlife that lived there. She especially had fun telling them about Zeus, 99 and Finley and a planet made by men that orbited Verron. She told them about her family and the ultimate goal of King Verron. By the time they left her apartment they had a different attitude about this 20 year-old Colonel. She heard Cadet Commander Bass say to the others as they departed, “That girl’s the real deal. We need to let everyone else know.”

  Amber got up the next morning feeling much better about her stay at the Academy. She could understand to some extent why so many resented her, after-all, they had all worked really hard to get accepted into the Academy, and were going through some incredibly rough times in their Freshmen and Sophomore years, and had to compete continually against each other for rank and even types of careers they would be offered upon graduation. Amber had never faced that and knew that one day Verron was planning to have a Military Academy, she hoped they could do a few things differently, but she also knew that the competitive spirit pushed people to excellence. She then realized how much the members of the Dragon Guard pushed each other and how her grandfather seemed to get the very best out of everyone. She knew he got the best out of people because he expected their best. Failure was never an option, and good was not good enough; no matter what you were doing, everyone from the King down to the factory workers and farmers tended to always attempt to do their best. She didn’t know how he did it, but she wanted to be the kind of leader her Father and Grandfather and even her Mother had become, the kind of leader people respected and worked hard to please, who always got everyone’s best.

  She enjoyed the run from her apartment to the Academy. When she decided to run each morning she managed to find a route that included a bit of woods and neighborhoods and avoided almost all the major thoroughfares between her apartment and the school. She really missed her mountain runs on Verron and was seriously thinking about getting up each day and making a jump to the nearby mountains and getting a really good run in there, but she knew that she should not bring any unnecessary attention to herself. That was part of the reason she ran by herself and lifted weights by herself; well almost by herself. There was always one other person there each morning getting in an early workout. His name was Andre Vandermuellen. He was the strength and fitness coach for the Air Force Academy Falcon Football Team. In four weeks of being in the same room with the big man, he had not once spoken to her. At first she just chalked it off to him being a real loner that liked having the gym to himself, but on more than one occasion, there had been someone show up for an early workout and he was very sociable.
Then just last week, she heard him make a comment about the uppity white-girl to one of the black men who had just come into the gym when Amber was leaving. She realized that she was as much a victim of racial profiling as Andre obviously felt he was.