Prepper's Crucible - Volume Six: The End

by Andrews, Bobby

  Cory heard the blast of the explosives as he talked to Tim on the encrypted radio, and then switched the band to talk to the Army unit that still sat on the Arizona border, locked in a toe-to-toe battle with the Mexican Army. He spoke to Kate briefly before signing off. Before he fell into a troubled sleep, he heard the sound of gunfire in the distance. The ambush on the Mexican Rapid Response Team that reacted to the attack on the train was happening, but he was too tired to listen to the battle. He fell asleep that night with details of operations to come rattling around in his head, had a dream about his wife and kids, and arose early the following morning to meet with the head of the resistance in the Tucson area.

  Phil Babson was the prototypical Arizona rancher, wiry and weather-beaten. He was also the leader of the resistance in the Tucson area, and a ferocious fighter who led his men from the front and was a constant worry to Cory. His capture would lead to a disaster for the Tucson group, as Phil knew all the men in his group and where they lived. The two men sat on the porch of the Babson house, where Cory spent the previous night in the bunkhouse.

  “Something big is coming,” Cory said and then fell silent, apparently lost in thought.

  “That’s good to know,” Phil replied. “You gonna tell me what it is or just let me sit here until it happens?”

  “Sometime in the next few weeks we are going to start aerial bombing with the Air Force. They now have air superiority over the state and are sending in more forward air controllers with laser designators.”

  “What’s our job going to be?”

  “Keeping them safe and moving them to target locations. We need to identify the targets and then move on them, one by one. The priority will be locomotives, tanks, and trucks – anything that moves gets hit first. After that is ammo dumps and barracks.”

  “That is big. It means our Army is going to make a final push, or they wouldn’t ask us to do it.”

  “It’s bigger than that,” Cory replied. “After we hit the targets they want us to attack headquarters buildings in all four AOs at the same time and take our towns back.”

  “I’m not sure we have enough men to do that here. They outnumber us 10 to 1.”

  “The Army has intel that says most of the Mexican Army is going to be moved out of the population centers soon. They have to reinforce their troops at the border to hold off our Army. When that happens, we have to move and take our towns back. We’re never going to get a better shot at taking over unless we want to wait for the Army to come and save us and I don’t want to do that. This is our land and I want to be the one to take it back.”

  “I’m with you. Even if the Mexican find a way to come back, they’ll still have to come against us when and where we choose. We can fortify positions and make it so tough on them they’ll give up.”

  “Bill is staying here with you. I have to head back to Prescott. I’m going to stop in Phoenix and talk to the leader there, then send one of my men to Flagstaff again to organize that effort.” Cory was always careful to not use the names of the leaders in the different AOs. He was the only one, aside from Bill, who knew them all.

  “Have you told Bill yet?”

  “He knows everything. We’ve known about this push for a while, but I didn’t want to talk about it on the radio. I know it’s encrypted, but this is too big to take any risk at all.”

  “I understand. I’d do the same.”

  “As soon as we get the laser designators and the forward air controllers, that’s the signal to go. I’ll make sure each leader has both, and then we attack the following night, take out as much as we can, then we move on their headquarters and send them back across the border. The attacks all start at midnight, and we need to move on the headquarters before light. I’m also going to send down some NVGs so each of your team leaders can see the enemy.”

  “Why don’t they just drop the supplies in each AO and save us the trouble of having to distribute all that stuff?”

  “Because we’re the only group that has control of a defined piece of geography. The other three take and hold areas for a while, but always end up dispersed all over the place. A drop into your areas would risk supplying the other side, or losing the supplies in the event of an attack that would make them disperse.”

  “When are you heading out?”

  “Right now.”

  “You shouldn’t be going back by yourself. Let me send some men with you as far as Phoenix and you can pick up a new escort there. We can’t afford to lose you now.” Cory nodded his agreement, not liking the idea of baby sitters, but recognizing the need to stay out of the hands of the Mexican Army.

  “I’ll get them organized. Three should be enough.”

  “That’s fine.” Cory shrugged.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  EMP PLUS 39 YEARS, SIX DAYS

  PRESCOTT ARIZONA, TERRITORIAL CAPITAL

  Horace reviewed his notes before looking at Cory, who was perched up on pillows in his hospital bed. He went back a few pages, frowned, and then said, “Eric told me that you had some sort of lull in the action after you got back from Tucson. What was that all about?”

  “Well, it was the damn Army and Air Force not delivering on what they promised. I had got used to that by then. It’s hard to believe they actually won the war.” Cory paused to take a sip of water through a straw in the water glass on his bedside table, and added, “it almost drove us crazy.”

  “What happened?”

  “We didn’t get the laser designators we needed to launch the attacks on the armor and bases for over a month, and I didn’t really know what to do. If we stopped our normal raids on the railroads and convoys, we would have tipped off the fact that something big was in the making. If we continued them, we were going to get people killed for no reason – we could have just waited it out and let the Army take things over. It was excruciating. I lost 39 men and women when I made that decision.”

  “So you decided to continue raiding.”

  “No other choice. There was too much at stake. We were on the verge of getting the country back, and I couldn’t stop pressuring the Mexican Army without putting more pressure on our Army on the Texas border. They would have sent troops down to the border before our Army was ready, and I couldn’t let that happen. It was an impossible situation.”

  “But the Army was in charge by that time. Why didn’t they just tell you to stand down and let them take over?”

  “They did.”

  “And you disobeyed?”

  “Yes, I was convinced that we had to take our state back and I was also certain the time was right to do it. I wasn’t about to let up the pressure on the Mexicans and risk not taking back, at the very least, our town, and making it an example for the rest of the state.”

  Horace again flipped through his notepad and said, “Eric told me they put out a bounty for you around this time. Is that correct?”

  “Yeah they did, but it didn’t bother me much. We had the forest to ourselves and the photograph was something they managed to get from the Department of Motor Vehicles database. It was five years old and showed the clean-shaven version of me. By that time, my hair was long and my beard was full. I used to see the wanted posters on my travels to Tucson and Flagstaff and didn’t even bother to take them down. We traveled on secondary highways, most of which had no checkpoints, so it really wasn’t a problem.”

  Horace seemed to think for a long time and then said, softly, “what did Kate do during this time?”

  “She ran the communications center.”

  “Was she a commander in the movement?”

  “No, she was the glue.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “We were all running around all over the state. I was going north and south, trying to get a handle on the operations, Tim was handling Flagstaff, Eric was dealing with Tucson, and we had a guy in Phoenix, Roger, who took care of their area of operations. Kate kept us all on the same page by running the operations center and telling us what was going on
everywhere we were not. It was a very hectic and trying time. We got through it, but it was incredibly frustrating being on the verge of victory, but having to wait for the Air Force to deliver us what we needed to end it.”

  “So, when did the breakthrough come? What made you move to the next phase?”

  “When we finally got the laser designators and the forward air controllers. That was a month later, and we were getting pretty tired of all the promises we got from the Air Force by then. They didn’t really provide us with what we needed until they had air superiority, and that was a month of us losing men and women before we finally could go on the attack. We started dropping Paveway smart bombs on anything that moved during the day. Took out tanks, locomotives, trucks. The laser designators had a three-mile range, so we didn’t even have to get close to the targets. Our guys pulled security for the airmen and they took care of dropping the bombs in the right places at the right times.”

  “He’s getting tired,” Eric said, emerging from the corner of the room.

  “I’m fine,” Cory replied. “I want to get this part out now.”

  “Okay,” Eric replied. “But don’t wear yourself out.”

  “So, how did you organize the attacks?” Horace asked, his pen poised over the notepad.

  “Once we got the designators and four forward air traffic [MLF1] controllers, we called the area commanders in and had a planning session. We identified seventeen targets in the four AOs, and prioritized them so we took out the tanks and trucks first. We wanted to take away their ability to move and use the armor to respond to the fight on the border.”

  “According to my understanding, they moved the tanks and most of the men to the border before you attacked.”

  “The Army wanted us to attack everywhere, including in the cities. The original plan was for us to take out as much as we could before they started moving. Apparently, at some point, the Air Force changed their minds. They were afraid to bomb in towns and decided to wait until they were in the open. So, much of the Mexican armor and transport was spared from our attacks. After we hurt them enough, they realized that the Air Force was not going to bomb the cities, and moved everything into the urban areas. So, we did some damage, but nowhere near what we could have done. I wanted to attack in the towns as quickly as possible. In the end, they controlled the aircraft, so I lost that round.”

  “We know that the Air Force decimated the columns that moved to the border,” Horace said. “They did get them south of Tucson, and that broke the back of the Mexican Army. We also know that the militia did, in fact, attack and push them out of all major cities,” he added. “Can you tell me what happened here in the cities?”

  “When the original plan fell apart, we went from seventeen targets to only one in each city. The Mexicans left a token force in each AO at their headquarters. They severely underestimated our strength.” Cory paused for a moment and then added, “in retrospect, the Air Force saved a lot of militia lives by refusing to attack the facilities in town, and not having us attack the tanks and other hard targets. When we did attack the headquarters in each AO, we faced almost no armor or anything else that could have turned us back. I told all the local commanders to change whatever they had to change, but attack that evening. We were out of time and there was no way to fully coordinate the attacks, so I threw caution to the wind and hoped for the best. Truth be known, I exercised very little control over the other commanders. I pretty much left them to make decisions and carry out operations. There was no real way to really control much, but the Army wanted a single commander, so we gave them one for appearance sake and to get their help.”

  “That’s not how I understood it.”

  “That’s how it was. History has a way of making heroes out of lucky fools.”

  “Well, tell me what you can. It’s all valuable to me.”

  Cory thought for a minute and then continued the story. “Flagstaff overran their headquarters without a fight. Tim negotiated a truce with the colonel they left in charge there. In Tucson, our team leader had a real fight on his hands. They were closer to the column that was moving southeast toward the border, but in the end they managed to get them out of their command and control center, and that’s when the Mexican Army threw in the towel and began heading back across the border. Phoenix was also a real fight and it took a full day to take out their headquarters. Here, we had a fairly bloody battle. But we prevailed in the end, and I know you know about all those battles because I read your book on the retaking of the Territory. So I’m not really sure why you’re asking these questions.”

  “Well, different people see different things in the same story and have a different perspective, and I want to make sure I get it right.”

  “You need to spend more time writing the articles about statehood and getting public opinion on our side. We need that to happen soon.”

  “I’m working on one now that covers the time when you decided to introduce the legislation to prohibit the state from rejoining the Union for twenty years. It comes out tomorrow and explains the speech you made to the legislature and how you have now changed your mind. It’s a good piece and I am going to commission a poll next week to see how voters feel about getting back into statehood. I am guessing it will be a positive result for us, but voters are fickle and there’s no way to really know until the poll results are back.”

  “When we get to a 55 percent approval to adopt statehood, come back and we can talk some more. Right now I’m going to take a nap, and Eric can tell you about the final battle for Prescott. He fought by my side and probably remembers more than I do.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  EMP PLUS TWELVE MONTHS

  PRESCOTT, ARIZONA, TERRITORIAL CAPITAL

  The men were ready. Everyone was well equipped and good to go. Eric fussed over all of them, making sure they had enough ammo and grenades to make the final attack on the county court house. After assigning medics to each group, he formed them up in ATVs that would transport them to town, and went to the cave to get Cory to address them. He stopped as he started to enter the cave when he heard Cory and Kate talking. He stepped to the side of the cave entrance and listened.

  “Kate,” Cory said, “we’re going into battle tonight for our future, and I want you in my future. I get the fact that you are grieving over Don, but I am doing the same with Julie and the kids. Do you really want to live the rest of your life without loving anyone?”

  “It’s too soon, Cory. Let’s go fight the battle and come back safe. At some point, we can talk about things. But right now, keep your head in the fight or you might lose it.”

  Eric backed away from the cave entrance and walked back to where the fighters stood waiting. Later, Cory joined them and walked through the crowd, shaking hands and chatting with the assembled group.

  “We good to go?” Cory asked Eric.

  “Yes.”

  “So everybody knows the plan?”

  “We got it.”

  “I’m going along. I can’t miss this.”

  “Not a good idea.”

  “No matter, I’m going.” Cory got into the nearest ATV, rested his M-16 against his thigh, and waited for the group to leave. Eric got in, waved his hand in a circle over his head, and then pointed down the trail toward town. The group of vehicles moved out. They moved through the forest in a long column of captured Humvees, ATVs, and a few captured trucks. No attempt at stealth was taken, and they turned onto Williamson Valley Road with headlights blazing and quickly moved up to a high rate of speed. They turned toward the downtown plaza where the last Mexican outpost in town still operated and split into four columns, with each parking a block behind the square at every compass point.

  Cory directed his group to the north side of the square, where his shooters took up positions behind a brick church. His two SAW gunners deployed to either side of the building, and his sappers kicked the door in and moved through the building to the front side, where they opened the windows and rested their carbines
on the windowsills. As Cory entered the church, men rushed by him and pounded up the stairs to the second floor of the building. Cory examined the building more carefully. It was rectangular and parallel to the surrounding buildings.

  On the south side of the square, the same scenario played out, with SAW gunners and sappers occupying the old Prescott Brewing Company building and the bank building on the corner. Again, men moved to the second floors of the buildings.

  On the east and west side of the court house, the longer sides of the building, Cory ordered the .50s to be deployed in the old Palace Saloon and the abandoned hotel four doors down the street on the other side of the plaza. Both were also brick buildings and offered good cover. On those two sides, the difference was that they placed the .50s, in both locations, on both the ground floors and the roof.

  “Is everyone in place?” Cory asked Eric.

  “We’re good to go.”

  Cory went to a window and donned his NVGs. He scanned the plaza and noted that no guards were in the streets. The court house was surrounded by razor wire, but the outposts weren’t manned. Cory scanned the building and saw there were crew-served automatic weapons at most of the windows on the building. He took the NVGs off and sat down with his back to the exterior wall. He again got up and looked at the building the Mexicans occupied and noted there were no lights on in the building. They were obviously ready for the attack.

  “Crap,” he said, sitting down again.

  “What?” Eric asked.

  “They knew we were coming long before we got here. No lights on, sentry posts abandoned, and crew-served automatic weapons at almost every window. This is going to get nasty before it’s over, and we’re going to lose a lot of men and women. The plan we made to assault across one side and overwhelm them might not work. Whoever decided to leave them here left them well armed.”