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