Monday, January 09, 2012

ESCAPE

ESCAPE
A continuation of The Future of Warfare


J. Croft
ABANDONED FARM
ANDOVER, OHIO
March 18, 2014

Kayla Miller is in bed, convalescing from the recent battle, her war injuries; a tray that had food was virtually cleaned off, hardly needing washed.  She was watching a movie on the TV courtesy of the VHS-an old one called The Survivors.  By her bedside was her Mosin-Nagant ; she cradles the suppressor-equipped M-14 she got off the cop she bagged during the closing seconds of the Battle of Pymatunig Lake… her new best friend.

A knock on the door.  Kayla cooly points her new rifle… “who that?”

Chris Bernard walks in, all 140 lb 5’7 gangly teen.  Maybe before the war you could call him a gamer or a geek but him wearing full German camo, a pistol belt with a Browning Hi-power and his eyes… he’s seen combat, definitely.  He was scrawny, but he didn’t look weak…

“Sup Chris.”

“Hey.  How’s the shoulder?”

“It’ll get better.  Range was too far for the 5.56 to do it’s hyperlethality bullshit or I’d be out an arm.  I be out bustin’ on fools soon enough but until then I guess I’ll be giving lessons.  Which is cool because the more people we got out there with rifles that know what the fuck they doing, the sooner this war’s gonna end… if I HAD to though, I could go prone or support my new boyfriend on my pack-but hopefully they give me some time to recup, y’know.”

“Sorry about your dad.”

“So am I.  Believe that.  Got back at the muthafuckas though.”

“Yeah we did!”

“Good service though.  It fucking worked!”

“Fuck yeah it did! 

“Just need to get the next one to be able to hit ground targets.  Could’ve definitely used some of that the other day.”

DOCKYARDS
BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY

In the largest port in the world, dozens of commercial Roll on-Roll off fast merchantmen are being opened up and unloaded…

The entire U.S. European Command plus British, French,  German and Belgian armored divisions are being offloaded, combat ready.  The Main Battle Tanks; M-1 Abrams, Challengers, Leopard IIs, infantry fighting vehicles are driven onto trains and flatbed trailers and secured.

Those trailers roll out in convoys under heavy guard and air escort from Apache gunships, Reaper drones and fighters from both the U.S. Air Force and various NATO services.  They head westward, toward Ohio.

ABANDONED HOUSE
ANDOVER, OHIO

Kayla and Chris watch The Survivors…

“That’s going to require a lot more programming and perhaps better sensor technology than repurposed surveillance cameras-like IR or synthetic aperture radar.  Or maybe I can modify some pattern recognition technology but then we’d need the same IFF aircraft use but then there’s introducing a transceiver into the design and any radio link will open a way to hack it.  As it is we’ve pushed the available technology pretty far-you got to remember we can only use whatever’s available and the Beowulf requires certain chips, certain components.  Thank God the rest of the Minuteman can be put together in about any machine shop and hanger, the fuel’s common enough and we can throw about any machine gun into the thing… and what the fuck are you watching?”  Chris catches his breath.

“The Survivors.  Robin Williams is some yuppie turned survivor, some country singer is some killer trying to whack him and some other old dude’s trying to stop him or some bullshit.  Kick it with me for a bit an watch it’s actually not that bad.”

Chris pulls up a chair by Kayla and they watch, and she’s still lovingly cradling her M-14.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIRBASE
DAYTON, OHIO

F-15s, F-16s, A-10s, RAF and Luftwaffe Tornados, Apache gunships are all being rapidly fueled and armed.  Overhead, a KC-130 tanker flies by with F-22 fighter escort.  Pilots from the US Air Force and NATO air services emerge from the barracks… we can see on their legs strap on maps with a 100 mile circle hue around Lake Pymatunig. 

ABANDONED FARMHOUSE
ANDOVER, OHIO

“Would you like me to get Pastor Conrad, get you two properly hitched?”  Chris teases Kayla about how attached she is to her new war prize.

“Huh, what?  Oh, my new rifle?  …Well that just means you’re out of luck aren’t you?”

“Funny.”

They watch the old movie; Robin Williams and Jerry Reed are exchanging gunfire in the woods, Robin banging away with his Valmet and Jerry being a practiced killer.  “See that hillbilly would be me an’ those cops are fucking Robin Williams with guns they don’t deserve.  Now we got the drone issue solved I can get back in the hunt.  We all can.  Get some more nice ass pieces to add to my collection.”

“What about your Mosin?”

“I dunno… I mean I like how I can put down a muthafucka with it, an I like working the bolt and lining up but I can lay crosshairs on a lot more motherfuckers in the same time with the 14.”

They watch more of the movie-Jerry shoots Robin’s expensive Valmet’s barrel, ruining it.  They laugh.  David Getz enters, 6’ 200lb, in his 20’s in fatigue pants, combat boots, a form fitting t-shirt.  Soldier.  “Ah, you found The Survivors.”

You shot my rifle!  What kind of sick bastard does that?!”  More laughs.  Robin pulls his handgun.

“Chump.”  Kayla snorts.  Robin shoots one shot-then his pistol jams…

“Uh, um, can-can we have a cease-fire?”

“A cease-fire?!”

“Yeah.  Um, uh, you’re not going to believe this but I loaded the wrong bullets in my gun!”

“You what?!”

“Yeah, see I loaded the long, skinny bullets when I was supposed to load the big fat ones.”

Kayla doesn’t look comfortable-Chris laughs: “Kayla I remember you doing that your first mission.”

“No shit?”  Dave gets in.

“Yeah I remember you fucking shitting yo’self on yours-an we didn’t even start out.  Glass houses dude.  An fuck you too Dave for jumping in!  I’m a combat casualty-EMMA!”

Emma Moritz, short girl, peeks her head in, holding some electronics parts:  “what’s up Kay?”

“These boys are interrupting my convalescence an’ shit.  Make em’ go away.”

“Honey, I just make sure you get food an’ help you to the toilet.  I got nothing to do with these clowns.”

“Ha!”

“Fuck you Dave.”  Kayla frowns… she hits pause on the remote.

“Shouldn’t they be tearing the state apart looking for us?  I mean, we did take down two drones and two jet fighters with our drone.  They gots to be pissed.”

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

Phone Crews, guarded by State Police, are busy disconnecting phone lines and fiber optics along the western border of town.

STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA

More Phone Crews, more disconnection of landlines, fiber optics.  All over town, all supervised by Pennsylvania State Police.

ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA

Same story: Phone Crews disconnecting service all over town.  The Mayor, a shriveled crow of a middle age woman approaches the ranking State Police Trooper, a Lieutenant:  “what’s going on-why are you cutting service?”

“Orders.”

“But, we can’t use cell phones, we have no television, radio, internet-“

“-State of emergency, that’s all I know.”

“What about everyone west of us?”

What can the LT do but shrug.  Orders are orders.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA

Phone Crews under the supervision of Belgian NATO troops cut phone service all over town.

ZANESVILLE, OHIO

Same story:  Phone Crews under supervision of U.S. Army cut landlines across town.

MANSFIELD, OHIO

More Phone Crews cutting service across town, supervised and guarded by Ohio Highway Patrol.

SANDUSKY, OHIO

Last phone line is cut by the last crew… they watch as elements of a US Army Brigade Combat Team-Stryker AFV variants-line up…

LAKE ERIE

Coast Guard patrol vessels-armed with machine guns and cannon-are patrolling hard along the shore of Lake Erie, alongside their Canadian counterparts, with Canadian Air Force F-18s flying overhead.

CITY HALL
CLEVELAND, OHIO

Pure chaos rules the heavily fortified 30’s granite structure nestled in the midst of downtown Cleveland’s fortress/skyscrapers and office buildings;  people dart in and out, yelling, trying in vain to get cell phones to work, landline phones to work, but it’s not going to happen.

A US Army Major, flanked by a six man infantry squad briskly enters the office of the Mayor of Cleveland, whose having an emergency joint meeting with staff from every office that could come at an emergency notice without electronic communications of any sort.

The Major assumes control; “gentlemen, I am here to inform you that this city and the entire region are under direct military rule now.  You are to cooperate fully with any and all NATO military forces operating in this area.”

“Why” the Mayor has to ask, “why is everything down?”

“National security.  There’s a major terrorist threat, and we’re here to contain it; it is feared domestic terrorists may have another nuclear weapon-“

“-OH MY GOD!”  A councilwoman blurts out.  Everyone is really afraid now.

“Yes, that’s why.  We have our NATO allies here to assist us in crushing the insurgents once and for all.  I won’t have another Columbus on my watch.”

Everyone nods in agreement.

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE
MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA

A B-52 is being armed with six freefall nuclear weapons, under heavy guard.

ABANDONED FARMHOUSE
ANDOVER, OHIO

Chris Bernard expands his thoughts.  “Actually the Minuteman took down two F-22 Raptors.  Those are as top-of-the-line as they come but as stealth as they are against radar and I guess infrared, they can’t mask engine noise.  Minuteman uses both optical and audio recognition software, and even that’s derived from common software.  It flies and fights like an air to air missile only it searches for the next target; just homes in and kills but it can also react faster than a human.  Any human.  Preprogrammed maneuvers and scenarios… well it works.”

Kayla nods.  “Believe me I saw it!  I thought I was dead but then I saw the fighters-no it was the drone-shoot missiles at it but they only hit the rocket boosters after they separated.  THEN, there was the dogfight an’ our drone took both those F-22s out like they was nothing.  Course the Reaper sent every last missile after the Minuteman but it dodged them all an’ handled business.  Most awesome thing ever, and if y’all hadn’t have launched it, I’d been dead, for real.”

“And you saved ours when you made that last stand and took out two of their ground droids.  We’d been dead if you hadn’t.”  Emma chimes in.

“Tell the truth I didn’t have no place to go and… I didn’t care.  I think they will-they ought to we downed two of their best jet fighters and all their drones-why haven’t they gone ape shit?”

“Good point Kayla.  I think we really shocked the fuck outta them.  I think we stunned them and they’re trying to figure out what to do.”  Dave Getz though shakes his head…

“Then we need to attack.  Right now, and take advantage of their shock an’ fuck they shit up proper.”

“Would love that but that was our only drone.  Yeah we recovered the hard drive but everything else is busted up we got to build another one from scratch-body, avionics, sensors, get a Beowulf built up, get another cannon.  Can we?  Depends how long until they regroup-“

SEE FULL DOCUMENT HERE:   http://freedomguide.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/escapea-continu/

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