Several battles had taken place in places like Louisville, Kentucky, Marietta, Georgia and Little Rock, Arkansas. Each was more violent than the last.
It was more than just Mark’s book stirring the pot of unrest. The ISS had grown heavier handed and were sweeping people off the streets at will. It was mostly because they were afraid the IIB was watching them and if they didn’t perform as aggressively as expected they too would simply disappear.
If fact, the IIB had become more aggressive as well, often stopping people for no particular reason other than they just happened to be there or the agent didn’t like their looks. People had begun to stay indoors except when absolutely necessary.
All of this was putting a strain on the economy and unemployment began to rise. Fewer durable goods were being sold and entertainment goers dropped off significantly. Plays were canceled and even movie theaters were starting to be shuttered. Layoffs were increasing exponentially as corporations tried to stay solvent. Even gas and oil products were starting to slow down due to the travel decrease.
The problems became very apparent when a huge protest that turned violent happened in Nashville, Tennessee. It wasn’t a coordinated protest but once started, it spilled from downtown to the suburbs. Several square miles were burned and hundreds killed and hurt. The ISS suffered two hundred deaths and over five hundred injuries.
Still, President Clemons believed that she was right and everyone else was wrong. Her delusions of grandeur were growing worse each month.
***
General Douglas was finding it more exasperating to try to reason with her at each subsequent meeting.
“Madam President, it isn’t the ISS failing to do the job. They are simply overwhelmed. There were an estimated twenty-five thousand protesters in Nashville before it was all over. We had a few hundred men and women. No one can control that kind of a crowd.”
“That’s your job. Actually, it’s General Lamb’s job. If he can’t do it, you need to get someone who can.”
“What would you have him do? Machine gun the protesters. Throw grenades into the crowd?”
“Whatever it takes. Use the military to put it down. You have helicopters and all those fancy drones. Use them.”
“You’re talking about murdering men, women, and children,” he said unbelieving.
“They shouldn’t have been there causing all this trouble. You listen to me general, we are going to change this country. Change it to the vision I have for it. I don’t care about those people in the streets. They don’t want to get killed, stay at home where they belong. Now I am sick of this. I want these put down in the harshest way possible. You use whatever tools you have. I do not want to see another riot like Nashville. Is that clear?”
“Oh it’s clear alright but it will be your undoing. People are willing to accept some things just to keep from making waves and hope it will get better. You are right to some extent, a vast many are like sheep but if we do this we are going to kick a dog that will turn on you and bite. If we use military assets against our own people they will rise up and take this country back,” he warned her.
“General, all you have to do is follow orders. I’ll worry about the rest. We will kill the dog that bites if we have to,” she said and turned and looked out the West Wing window.
General Douglas just shook his head and left. It might well be time to enact his plans to pull his military Coue d’état.
***
“General Douglas is going to be under the gun to quell these riots. We need to be there to ensure that he doesn’t get the job done,” Thomas said.
“Easier said than done,” Lincoln replied.
“Didn’t say it was going to be easy but it is necessary. My source tells me that the ISS is expecting a protest to take place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Evidently it has been learned that there are four internment camps in New Mexico. The Governor has called for a State wide protest and a huge rally is planned for Albuquerque. Colonel Douglas has been ordered by the President to use whatever means necessary to put the protest down.”
“Meaning?” Lance asked.
“The use of military force. He has free reign to use whatever weapons he feels are needed.”
“You mean he would kill protesters in mass?” Lance asked.
“That is my understanding,” Thomas said.
“How sure is your informant?”
“One hundred percent. He is very close to both the President and General Douglas.”
“Good Lord. Killing Americans for protesting? That’s crazy. She is completely mad.”
“No doubt,” Thomas said.
“So what are you suggesting?” Lincoln asked.
“That we be there. We take our surface to air missiles and have at least two Raptors up and ready to destroy assets on the ground.”
“Engage the military in a fire fight?”
“It is like I said. We pick the time and place. We take the fight to them and then we fade away. We will strike without warning and do as much damage as we possibly can,” Thomas told them.
“And if there are too many or we can’t go up against their weapons?” Lance asked.
“We do what damage we can. Look gentlemen, we are either in this or we just watch. It is time for the militia to get into the game. We have the drones, the weapons, and the missiles. What good are they if we just stockpile them? Remember Mark Walker? He may have been a pain in the butt but he is doing something. He is fighting the administration in the only way he can. He is telling the world about what is going on. We need to step up and start slugging it out,” Thomas said forcefully.
It was silent in the room for several seconds.
“What do you want us to do,” Gerhardt asked.
“I have something very special in mind and it will take all of your talents to pull it off.”
“Good. I’ve been kind of bored just sitting on my hands. What do you think Kim?”
“Let’s do it. It’s about time we took the fight to them.”
***
Going into combat is a rollercoaster ride. You want to get in and do your job and not let your buddies down. Failure is one of a fighting man’s biggest fears. Will I be strong enough to do the job or will I fold. On the other hand, no one in their right mind wants to go out and get killed. Soldiers are the last people that want to fight. It is the politicians that send them off to die while they sit on their rears back in Washington having never know what it is like to be in a battle.
Thomas was, like all good leaders, as concerned for the safety of his men as he was about the success of the mission. If they failed they would take what they learned and regroup. It was the loss of life that had him worried. This was just one battle and there would be many more. He just hoped that he was a wise enough leader to make the right decisions.
“Is everything ready,” he asked Lincoln.
“We have started moving weapons already. The two Raptors are leaving in about an hour by a different route. The New Mexico Militia is ready and understands their part. Our people will be leaving at various times for the next twenty-four hours. I would say we are about ninety percent ready. Once they get there, Generals Uber and Baker will meet them and get them set up. Baker is with General Connor of the New Mexico Militia. As you know, they are the real wild card. They just joined us a few weeks ago and we know little about them. We are putting a lot of eggs in one basket in bringing them in on this,” Lincoln told him.
“I don’t see that we have a choice. We can’t take all of our people to New Mexico. Also, they know the area better than we do. Baker seemed to think they had it pretty much together,” Thomas told him.
“Pretty much together is not the same thing as having it together,” Lincoln shot back.
Thomas decided to let it go. It was nerves and the frustration of not knowing. Once all the assets were in place, Thomas was sure Lincoln would loosen up again.
“The protest is set for ten o’clock Saturday. All of our people will be in place
by Thursday. That will give them time to scout the area and become familiar with their surroundings,” Lincoln replied after a while.
“That’s excellent. They need the time to acclimate,” Thomas agreed.
“Sorry,” Lincoln said.
“About what? Caring? It’s okay Linc. We are all worried and concerned for our troops. I’m just as concerned for the American fighting men we are going up against. We are going to be killing men that were our brothers in arms. I hate that part.”
“Then we need to end this as quickly as possible. Every skirmish, every fight, every battle, means more dead. We are all Americans and we have to end this as quickly as we possibly can,” Lincoln replied.
“Amen to that,” Thomas replied.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Almost every military person will tell you that battle plans are absolutely necessary. They will also tell you that they aren’t worth the paper they were written on once the bullets start flying. No matter what contingencies are allowed for, something else always goes wrong.
This was the case in Albuquerque, New Mexico for both sides on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. Thousands had come to hear Governor Terrance Cranston denounce the building of the internment camps within New Mexico without even informing the state government. Signs by the thousands were displayed as the people packed in to listen to what the Governor was about to say.
They had no idea that they were about to be targeted by the military in an attempt to stop the protest. General Felton was in charge of the operation and he had brought four AH-64D Apache helicopters to back up the two thousand troops being held at Kirkland Air Force Base.
The first inkling that things were not going to go as planned was evident when they had the troops fall in. General Felton was informed that almost five hundred troops had gone AWAL during the night. They had simply taken off rather that to go to war with other Americans. Officers left letters of resignation while the enlisted just vanished.
If that wasn’t bad enough, they found that the Apache helicopters had water added to their fuel tanks. It took three hours to drain the tanks, purge them and refill them. It was almost 9:30 a.m. when they were ready to fly. Everything was behind schedule and once behind schedule, people make mistakes trying to make up for the lost time.
Trying to transport the troops through the clogged roads slowed them down even further. General Felton made the command decision to use just the Apaches at this point. They were to go in and hover over the crowd and if they didn’t disperse they were free to fire into the crowd.
The troops would follow as soon as they could to round up any protesters and arrest them. They were to be brought back to Kirkland for holding.
Anyone in their right mind would have simply refused to carry out such a mission. To fire on innocent civilians should have been absolutely unthinkable but two of the Apaches lifted off and headed for the city. The other two declared mechanical problems. Both appeared to have gauge problems. They were caused by the pilots who had decided the order was unconstitutional. It was their way of refusing to participate.
The other two headed straight for the downtown area. Just as the first one reached the city limits, a stinger rocket streaked up and slammed into the side of the Apache. The chopper was blown into a hundred pieces and fell into a housing development causing a massive explosion.
The other Apache went tactical and started evasive action. It unleashed it’s guns on anything that moved. Cars, busses, and people were riddled. Another stinger missed the Apache and the pilot had seen where it came from. He fired four surface to ground Hydra 70 missiles at the location along with firing a steady stream of bullets from the mini gun.
The next Stinger clipped the rotor tail blowing it off and sending the chopper into a violent spin. It smashed into an apartment complex, creating an enormous fireball.
General Felton was beside himself. His four choppers were out of action. He decided to disembark the men and make it to the downtown area almost a mile and a half away on foot. The troops were force marched and arrived at the edge of the crowd right in the middle of the Governor’s speech. They immediately started surrounding the crowd and attacking the people at the back. People were struck with gun butts and batons as they waded into the crowd.
***
General Baker was the first to realize that the military had arrived and were attacking the crowd. The plan had called for them to stop the military at the city limits but somehow they had slipped through and were now attacking the protesters. He decided the only thing he could do at this point was to flank them and take them out while they were unaware of the militia’s presence.
The plan was sound but within minutes of attacking them from behind, the military started opening fire. Both militia and civilians were being killed. He had no choice but to have his people return fire. A fire fight erupted, trapping civilians in the crossfire. Thousands of rounds were exchanged and the streets were littered with the dead and dying.
Felton was back at Kirkland trying to sort out what was happening from the garbled and confusing transmissions he was receiving.
“Bravo One, say again.”
A garbled message came back.
“Bravo One you are unclear. Say again.”
“We are taking a sustained amount of gunfire from our rear.”
“Bravo One. Who is firing at you from behind?”
“Six Actual, we have no idea at this time. They have automatic weapons.”
“Bravo One, is it the militia?”
“Six Actual, it must be. We just don’t know for sure at the moment.”
“Bravo One. Did any of the choppers make it?”
“Six Actual, negative.”
Just as he was about to toss the microphone, the trailer exploded. A Hellfire missile had been locked on to his command center and detonated. The entire command structure was eliminated with the one push of a button.
The battle downtown wasn’t over as fast. For the next three hours the two sides fought a running gun battle. Most of the civilians had managed to escape the kill zone. Medics on both sides did what they could for the wounded, both civilian and military but unless the battle ended soon, it was apparent that many more would die.
Almost four hours after it began a truce was called and the two combat leaders walked to the court house steps to talk.
***
They approached each other with their hands in plain sight.
“I’m retired General Baker, now with the American Resistance Movement.”
“Sir. I’m Major Bunkmyer, Combined Military Forces under the command of General Felton.”
“Well Major, this is quite a day. Hundreds of Americans killed and dying. Not a very proud day in American history,” Baker said.
“No sir, it is not. It is a very sad day.”
“We need to end this right here and now. We both need to withdraw our troops. Too many have died already and I do not see the need to continue this fight. It will gain neither of us a thing.”
“Sir, my orders were to disband the protest. I certainly had hoped it wouldn’t happen this way. I knew there would be some resistance but I did not anticipate anything of this magnitude,” Bunkmyer replied.
“Would you do it again if you were ordered to at some other place or time?”
“No sir, I would not.”
“What would you do?”
“Resign my commission.”
“You would be sent to an internment camp as a traitor, you do know that don’t you?” Baker asked
“I know that is a possibility but I will not kill innocent civilians. This sickens me. I am ashamed to have taken part in it.”
“Then why not join the militia. We are going to take this country back.”
“Sir, I understand your conviction but I cannot in good conscience fight against our military men either. I would rather go to an internment camp.”
“Alright Major Brinkmyer. I can certainly understand your point. Now, let’s disengage
and go our own way. You can gather your wounded and we will take ours and no more shots need to be fired. Any of your men that we find will be turned over to you as quickly as possible.”
“Thank you general. We will do the same,” he said and saluted the general.
Baker returned the salute and then held out his hand.
They shook and Baker said, “Good luck to you Major Brinkmyer. You are a good man. If you ever change your mind, we would welcome you.”
“Thank you sir. The best to you as well.”
***
The battle had been devastating. Four hundred and twenty-two civilians had been killed and another one thousand injured. The militia had suffered ninety-three KIA and three hundred and six WIA.
It was worse on the military side. The KIA total was six hundred and ninety-three and the WIA total came to nine hundred. They lost two Apache 64D Helicopters and General Felton.
Perhaps the most interesting thing was that both the militia and the military helped the other side as they cleaned up the aftermath. They gathered the dead, looked after the wounded and no real animosity was apparent between the two groups. It was surreal in many ways.
The downtown area of Albuquerque was in ruins. Thousands of stores had been destroyed and fires raged out of control in areas where water mains had been ruptured. It would be a long time before they were up and running again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
President Clemons turned off the sound on the televisions and sat brooding. The room was almost totally dark. Only the flicker of the television screens gave off any illumination.
The Albuquerque fiasco was almost impossible to contain. The media had done all it could but pirate radio stations had begun to spring up and were getting the word out.
A substantial effort had been made to locate these stations but they popped up for only a few hours then were gone and a new one would suddenly appear. The ISS was like a dog chasing its tail. No matter how fast they ran in circles they couldn’t quite grab it.
PROJECT BlueBolt - AMERICAN UPRISING: BOOK III - AMERICAN UPRISING Page 13