Parting Gifts

by gerald hall

  Oval Office, White House

  Washington, DC

  April 2, 2045

  “Madam President, we were able to get the black box off of one of the airliners that had been hit by one of our missiles before it could reach its target. Based on its information and other intelligence reports, it appears that all of these airliners had been modified by the Arab Brotherhood to use a satellite navigation guidance system hooked to their autopilots to fly to their targets. The planes were then loaded up with somewhere between twenty and forty thousand pounds of explosives each. Our intelligence sources in Europe say that the Brotherhood then forced non-Muslim civilians into the aircraft to act as human shields before setting the aircraft autopilots to automatically take off and fly here.

  In many ways, this was very similar to a program that America used in the Second World War called Operation Aphrodite. We took old heavy bombers, loaded them full of explosives and then had a pilot take off with the aircraft. Once the aircraft was safely at cruising altitude, the pilot would bail out and the plane would be flown by radio control to crash and explode on its target. President John F. Kennedy’s older brother Joseph Jr. died flying an Aphrodite bomber that blew up in mid-air by accident before he could bail out.

  “But we didn’t load women and children aboard our aircraft to act as human shields though. I still can’t believe that anyone could be that cold and sadistic with innocent civilians.” General Hernandez bitterly replied.

  “We’ve seen the use of human shields by the Arabs all too often even as far back as during the First Gulf War in 1991. They very frequently also used human shields in their conflicts against Israel over the years.”

  “It’s still barbaric as hell, Ma’am.”

  “How much damage did this attack actually do to us? Also, what is the chance that we could see a repeat of this, General?”

  Based on the number of aircraft used in this attack and known inventories of airliners with sufficient range to reach us, another attack of this nature and scale is highly unlikely. But they still did a tremendous amount of damage in spite of all of the aircraft that we shot down before they reached their targets.

  Thirty military or dual-use civilian airfields were hit by the incoming enemy airliners and the second strike of cruise missiles. All of those airfields suffered substantial damage, almost to the scale of having been hit by a small nuclear weapon. We assess that we have lost nearly one hundred combat aircraft with at least that many more damaged on the ground. Many of our FB-23 fighter-bombers were hit on the ground by cruise missiles while they were rearming for a second strike against the invasion fleet.

  We also lost over fifty transport aircraft, including over thirty at Dover Air Base. Like with the fighters, there were many more transports that were damaged to one degree or another by the suicide attacks. Our E-3D AWACS force was also decimated by the same attacks. Every one of those planes that was on the ground was destroyed or damaged beyond economical repair. We have maintenance personnel scrambling to see what we can repair as well as what parts that we might be able to salvage from the destroyed aircraft.

  We also had several other military and civilian targets hit, including a major electrical power substation in the New York area. Much of the Eastern Seaboard is now dealing with power outages. However, the decentralization of the power grid with the new LFTR nuclear reactors that had been built since the Second Event has helped substantially mitigate the damage.

  There is one other piece of bad news coming from the attack, Ma’am. As a result of utilizing the Land Aegis sites to help intercept this attack, we have expended all of the available missiles from those sites that could be used for air defense or had a dual role of air defense and anti-missile defense. We just don’t have the resources to quickly replace those missiles. The only other thing that we can do is to pull the long-endurance anti-missile UCAV’s out of storage. Once we do that, we can maintain them in patrol orbits to intercept any additional missiles with the laser and air-to-air missile systems our drones can carry. They can also supplement our remaining surveillance aircraft in looking for enemy aircraft and ships. ” General Townsend said after taking a deep breath.

  “General, go ahead and get those drones flying as quickly as possible. What do we know now about the Brotherhood invasion fleet?”

  “The survivors from the fleet have started making landings in the Nova Scotia area as of late last night. I guess that our naval response blunted any attempts to land directly on American soil. But we burned up a lot of our missile inventory along the way. The ships that repelled the direct attacks on the Carolinas and New England also took some significant losses at the same time.

  We have ordered as many ships as we can spare to return to Norfolk for repairs and replenishment just in case the Brotherhood launches another wave of ships. I have teams of Marines and Guardsmen up and down the East Coast looking for infiltrators who might have slipped in also.”

  “Thank you, General. Please tell your people that they all did well in spite of the difficult position that the enemy forced them into. I know that we can ill afford this, but tell our defense contractors that we must have increased missile production to replace the weapons that we used during this battle.

  But while the Alliance was dealing with the latest crisis brought on by the Islamists, another threat directed towards its allies on Mars lay hidden. But like a virus, it was on the verge of infecting another world that had been free of its poison to this point.

  Michael H. Curtis waited at the landing site near Savannah, Georgia for the Martian Gravity Drive Shuttle Ganemede to arrive. He and over fifty others were going to be flying up to the Martian Colony Intrasystem Transport Chesapeake for the trip to the colony at Hebes Chasma. They were all eager to fly to Mars and be part of the growing community there. But not everyone had the same agenda.

  Michael was in his early thirties and had been born in upstate New York a few years prior to the Iranian nuclear attack on New York. But like so many children in the area, he had been influenced to some degree by the Second Event that rebuilt the areas devastated by the attack. His parents had been professionals who will brilliant in their fields but were also committed liberals. They moved to Southern California very shortly afterwards after the political winds had changed dramatically in the Eastern half of the United States.

  Michael’s father found himself under the sway of one of the growing number of Islamic clerics that had moved to Southern California. He converted to Islam and began to teach his wife and son to follow Islamic law. But the Imam that had led Michael’s father to Islam ordered him to hide his family’s newfound faith from the outside world. Michael had already shown himself to be highly intelligent, even more so than his parents. He was to be groomed for a very special task. He and more than a dozen other young intelligent children who had moved to the West Coast were to practice Islam in secret so that not even the deepest investigation could discover it. They lived near the Mojave Air and Space Port where Michael’s parents worked. There was also a large Muslim community there. Michael’s father would quietly receive instructions from time to time through the imams there. But nothing was ever communicated electronically. It was all done quietly through word of mouth.

  Michael excelled in school and was even selected to attend the Air Force Academy. He got his commission and then studied at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. When the western half of the United States seceded, Michael remained in the Eastern Alliance and continued to serve as an officer in the Air Force.

  It was only natural that when it became known that Michael Curtis was interested in immigrating to Mars that he would be accepted. The Martians thoroughly vetted Michael and found nothing in his background to indicate that he would be a security risk. In fact, Michael was considered by many people to be one of the polymaths by those who had already immigrated to Mars. But, of all of those talented children who had been instructed to follow Islam in secret, only Michael
had managed to both avoid detection and to meet the qualifications to immigrate to Mars. What the Martians did not realize that their worst fears were about to come true. Their greatest enemies would soon have a sleeper agent on Mars with access to the Martians’ innermost secrets.

  As this insidious infiltration was happening, the Arab Brotherhood’s and Pacific Caliphate’s dual military offensives against the Eastern Alliance continued into more waves of attacks. The White House and President Harper continued to receive what seemed to be a continuous stream of reports of attacks.

  “Caliphate forces took out the airfields where our tankers had been operating from using a heavy barrage of tactical ballistic missiles three hours ago, Ma’am. The missiles had been launched from multiple points within the former Western Republic.” General Hernandez reported

  “I can’t believe that they were able to get that many launchers and missiles across the Pacific and into position in such a short period of time. How many of our tankers did we lose, General?

  “All but five. All of our surviving tankers were KC-747’s fortunately. They had the largest fuel capacity of any of our tanker aircraft. Most of the survivors were in the air flying refueling missions at the time. The rest of the tankers were hit while still on the ground at their bases. We had been using the tankers to support long-range air strikes against the Caliphate, Ma’am.

  As far as the source of the missiles, the folks at Langley and the rest of the Intelligence Community believe that the missiles had been salvaged from Chinese and North Korean inventories left over from the Western Pacific conflict. The Caliphate must have shipped or airlifted the missiles and their TELs over to California, moved them into firing position and targeted our airfields, especially the ones used by the tankers. It wouldn’t have been all that difficult since the tankers required very long runways to operate from.”

  “How badly is this attack going to hurt our overall capability?”

  “I don’t know how they could have hurt us much worse in terms of projecting air power. Most of our long-range aerial strikes against the Caliphate and the Arab Brotherhood were totally dependent of air-to-air refueling tanker support to be able to hit their targets. Combining this with the loss of nearly half of our strategic bomber force during the Western Pacific conflict, we will be very hard pressed to interdict any of the enemy’s strategy targets because our aircraft simply don’t have the range to reach them.

  There is one other problem as well. We have also learned that the Caliphate was able to capture at least two squadrons of KC-747’s that the Western Republic possessed at the time of the coup. Caliphate technicians also could potentially reconstitute some of the old KC-135’s and KC-10’s that were in the boneyard as Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. If those aircraft are used against us to refuel enemy combat aircraft, the enemy will be able to hit everywhere within the Eastern Alliance and even as far away as Cuba.”

  “In other words, they will be able to do to us what we have been doing to them since they took over the Western Republic.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. That pretty much sums it up.”

  Chapter Twenty Five:

  Former State House

  Sacramento, California

  April 19, 2045

  “We are going to let our new recruits lead the way in the fight to defeat this Eastern Alliance of States. There is no need for our Mujahedeen who have been fighting so long to be in this fight as well. We shall see that the zeal of those who have recently embraced the Prophet as they fight while our original troops take a well-deserved break from combat. They have certainly earned some time away from the front lines after the campaign in Australia.” The leader of the Pacific Caliphate said with a knowing smile.

  He was more than willing to allow new converts from North America to become cannon fodder against the defenders of the Eastern Alliance of States. He would learn very quickly who among his new mujahedeen were true believers in Islam and those who had merely said the Shahada to avoid becoming dhimmi.

  Anyone who hesitated in firing upon other Americans would themselves be executed as apostates. This would also serve to encourage the others who might be wavering in their commitment to the Caliphate.

  “The order will be given. The Australian campaign truly tested our mujahedeen as few opponents have done. Though few in number, the Australian infidels fought very hard and were certainly very worthy opponents.

  What about the equipment that will be sent to the front lines? We have started activating some of the newer American tanks and armored vehicles along with the older ones that we found stored in the desert.” Brigadier General Nurul Darmawan: the commander of the Caliphate military force in North America asked.

  “Train the new American converts to use their older tanks and armored vehicles that we are about to use from their reserve depots. The vehicles will be simpler to use because it is less advanced than the M-1 tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. The infidel defenders will waste their anti-tank weapons against these older vehicles. This will pave the way for our own people to advance much more easily against the infidels later on.”

  “Yes, Your Excellency. It will also allow our new converts to Islam to prove their mettle against the infidels’ strength. It will be a far more effective means of measuring their faith and resolve.” General Darmawan eagerly responded.

  “We must continue to utilize our first line aircraft and pilots however. There is no room for error there. If the infidels are able to possess the skies over our land forces, they will be able to decimate our conventional ground forces.

  It will be very difficult to operate an insurgency against the infidels in the Western Alliance because virtually all of the people who would be supporting us by faith have long ago left that infidel land. Those that remain are very closely watched.

  So we must obtain victory now by open force of arms, instead of striking the infidels by ambush as called for in the Quran. But we will use the tools that have been left to us by our enemies to strike the first blows.”

  “A wise move, Your Excellency. Our most valuable equipment and trusted troops will be saved for future battles where they are needed most as a result. I simply wish that we could have done the same with our aerial forces also.”

  “”True. But a man with a rifle can be watched by a loyal man with a machine gun behind him to ensure obedience. A man in the cockpit of an aircraft cannot be watched so closely because of the ease that he can decide to simply fly away and desert from the battle or even defect with his aircraft to the enemy. It takes far too long to train a pilot to fly an aircraft to simply risk him abandoning us to join the infidel forces.

  It is better to put all of the new converts into the ground forces. Our trusted mujahedeen will be the ones that we train for the more trusted and specialized positions.”

  In Washington, the news that they received only a few weeks later was not very welcome for President Harper. National Security Advisor Neil Johnson came to the Oval Office to brief the Alliance president on the most recent events out west.

  “What we were afraid of has happened. Virtually the entire Western Republic’s military has turned itself over to the Caliphate. The Caliphate is holding the families of Republic military personnel hostage. The civilians have been moved to camps in the desert near Barstow. Any Republic military personnel who have chosen not to fight for the Caliphate’s puppet government have also been moved to separate camps in the Mojave Desert as well.”

  “Is the Caliphate making any military moves yet?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I’m afraid that they are. We have already picked up heavy movement of military vehicles and personnel moving through Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Likewise, there is also similar movement westward from Washington and Oregon into Idaho. The Caliphate is meeting some stiff resistance from the militias in Idaho already.”

  “What about this southern force? How are they progressing?”

  “All too well, I’m afraid. They are splitting up into two mechani
zed spearheads already. One is moving directly east towards Texas and the oil fields there. The other is turning north to flank the Rockies eastward. There’s one other thing that is very disturbing.”

  “What is that, Neil?”

  “Based on the signals and photographic intelligence that we have been getting from our high altitude drones, the lead troops in the offensive are Americans driving American design vehicles. Oh, there are plenty of Caliphate military personnel in the force. But they are moving behind the ex-Republic troops with orders to shoot anyone who retreats without direct orders to do so.” Neil said with a grimace that spoke volumes about how grave the situation was for soldiers that only a few short years ago were also serving in the United States Army.

  “It is a shame that we can’t do a damned thing to help them either.” Allison sighed in reflection of her own discomfort over the fight to come.

  In the eastern foothills of the Colorado Rockies, the remaining forces of the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), 3rd Brigade got the call that they had uneasily been waiting for. The land east of Colorado Springs was relatively flat, compared to the slopes of Cheyenne Mountain and Pikes Peak that Fort Carson sat in the shadow of for more than a hundred years. It was relatively good tank country for the most part.

  The tanks and soldiers of 3rd Brigade had recently moved there after operating around the Dakotas in support of the Eastern Alliance. The Pacific Caliphate was on the offensive already with the front lines already reaching the southern edge of the old Fort Carson military reservation.

  Captain Carl Edwards was waiting with his tank company when he got the call over the battalion command radio network.

  “Dagger Six, this is Bulldog Six. Execute Operations Plan Kilo Mike Four.”

  The Alpha Company commander immediately knew what was happening and what he needed for his fourteen M-1A5 Abrams tanks to do. Digital data started flowing in on the LCD screen in front of him, showing Carl data on the position of all of the friendly units as well as identified enemy units. This image was overlaid onto a topographical map being displayed on the screen. To the north and south were icons representing Bravo and Charlie Companies from Second Battalion, Thirty-Fourth Armor Regiment; Carl’s parent unit. A small set of icons to the west represented the M-2A6 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles that were performing scouting duties for the battalion. To the east, a series of scattered icons represented where an M-99 Wheeled Self-Propelled 155mm Howitzer battery and a light anti-aircraft battery were located. Both of the latter had been detached from the Second Brigade to provide support for 2-34 Armor’s sector that they were defending.