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“Arrow six, Gray Ghost six, sitrep.”
“Gray Ghost six here, Arrow six, send it.” I didn’t worry about the enemy intercepting our transmissions. They were encrypted and using something called spread spectrum technology. The green berets who’d helped us set up our defenses and gave us some heavy weapons gave the latest Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) radios. They told us they were the best we had. I had used an earlier version in Afghanistan. I don’t know how they work. I do know the enemy couldn’t listen in to us. In my soul, I didn’t trust any technology one hundred percent. The damned enemy had already proved how well they could screw with our technology. They took most of our grid down while blaming domestic terrorists for the act.
I ordered that all of our comms be kept simple and short. The hot part of this new war started a few years ago, anyone with any brains knew it was coming. I and many others I knew prepared for it. We stocked up and prepared to defend what was ours. We had resigned ourselves to the breakup of the union, hell; we’d seen It coming for over a decade. It was still a shock when it finally happened, and the how it happened hurt the most.
We, like many others around the country, have sworn an oath to defend the country. We won’t allow them to complete their plan. Screw them. This is our home. We know the land. We can defend it with our eyes closed. They’re not going to find many allies here. Every time they’ve attempted to attack us, we’ve run them off, or in most cases, just quietly buried their remains.
Arrow 6, the leader of our scout platoon, reported, “Six technicals in an arrowhead formation traveling on 81 South. They most likely plan to follow the freeway to 40 West towards us. They haven’t yet learned we’re not going to let them play their silly games here. Each technical has four in the extended cabs and one or two in the rear holding onto the machine guns. All of the technicals were armed with a heavy MG bolted in the cargo area. We laughed when we saw a couple of the technicals had their RPGs strapped to the roof of the cabs. There was a bright gold-colored technical in the middle that must be their leader; the people in it are holding RPGs out of the windows, stupid fools. If they ever fired it from inside the truck, they’d turn everyone inside into crispy critters. No one ever said the BLM fools were the sharpest tools in the shed.”
Archer and I have known each other for over thirty years. We went to school together. We went to war together. We came home wounded together, and I allowed us to break my rule on short comms because the two of us were bonded at the hip.
I called my executive officer over, “Cecil, six technicals are testing our defenses again. I’ve got a bad feeling about them this time. I think our little yellow friends suckered the morons in the technicals to draw our scouts off, leaving the freeway open for their main attack, which is most likely five to ten miles behind these six. My gut is telling me these assholes are only a distraction.”
Cecil smiled, “Boss, they gave up trying to hit us through the woods, we cleaned their clocks every time they attempted to use the dense forest to mask their approach. The idiots never saw our ambush sites or our booby traps. Our IEDs and mines turned them into ground beef. Now they believe they can run the freeway at high speed and limit our ability to hit them. They don’t think we’ll do anything to damage the freeway.”
I nodded, “The fools don’t know us very well. They must think they can outrun missiles or bullets? I didn’t believe they were that stupid. I guess this just shows the Chinese want to thin the ranks of their so-called allies. On the one hand, I don’t blame them. Who’d want them as allies? The morons really bought the crap the Chinese sold them. Well, they made their beds, and now they’re going to be buried in them.”
Cecil laughed, “Some allies, they’re nothing but useful idiots.”
I nodded and smiled. “Yeah, they’re only useful to be bodies to soak up our bullets. The Chinese sent them as the point of their attack. They know we’ll do their dirty work by killing them, this gives the Chinese more ammo to use against us, and it fits their narrative that we’re all racists. They want us to waste our resources taking them out, so when they make their final move against us, we’ll have wasted our best weapons and ammo on their allies. I know our defenses will easily be able to handle these six while also handling whatever is coming up behind them, and trust me, they’re there, and we just haven’t seen them yet.”
“Archer six, can you get a drone up to get us a look-see what’s behind the technicals?”
“Ghost six, give me ten to let the drone get some height and distance to see if there is a group behind these fools. Please wait, out.”
“Roger.” I waited for Archer to call back with an updated SITREP.
I used the pause by Arrow 6 to walk outside. It’s rare I get a chance to walk in the sun. The warmth of the sun felt so good on my old, weathered face, the minutes clicked by, each feeling like an hour. I don’t know why since this wasn’t the first, or even the second attack they’ve tried against us, something about this one felt off somehow. I waited fifteen minutes, then I gave up any semblance of patience I had.
I clicked the press to talk button on the radio’s handset. “Arrow 6, this is Gray Ghost six, any news? I don’t like this. They know we have defenses in-depth at the intersection. They’re throwing these assholes’ lives away for some reason we haven’t seen yet.
“They usually attempt to strike us at night. If these fools continue at their current rate, they’re going to hit the intersection right around noon.” I looked at Cecil, who nodded his agreement. I nodded my head in response to his. I again pressed and held down the press to talk so I could continue talking with Archer 6. “Archer 6, I suggest you strike them before they reach the intersection. Can you pull it off within twenty minutes?
Arrow 6 paused before responding, “Ah shit, wait out.” He paused for two minutes; I could visualize him yelling out orders. “Gray Ghost six, yeah, we can do it. Do you really believe we need to hit them before the intersection? Our defenses in depth were set up to control the intersection.”
I visualized the map of our in-depth defenses at the intersection of the two interstates. I clicked the pushed to talk, “Arrow 6, we’re missing something. I don’t trust the Chinese. They’ve tried over twenty times to get through the intersection. I want you to send a drone to search the freeway behind the technicals. We need to see what’s hiding behind them. Tell your scouts to stay sharp. My gut really feels bad about today’s probe. They don’t care about losing these people; they’re nothing but pawns to the Chinese.
“They don’t care about losing the technicals. They inherited millions of trucks in the cities they control. We’ve seen the reports of factories working around the clock converting them into technicals. It’s a lot cheaper than giving their pawns APCs. Six trucks and some ‘true believers’ mean less than nothing to them. They want our city; they want the Oak Ridge Nuclear facility. That’s something we’re not going to surrender, not ever. They want the electrical power the TVA generates, something else they’ll never get. I’ll destroy the dams and plants before I allow them to have the electricity or Oak Ridge.”
“Gray Ghost six, I concur with your thoughts.”
“Arrow 6, ever since the terrorist attack, the race revolution, and their invasion, they’ve been trying to crush us. We’re the cork in the wine bottle to stop them from making inroads along the major east/west southern freeway. Other groups are holding strategic locations along Interstate 80. 95 and 35. We lost the 5 along the West Coast, shit, we lost most of the entire coast. Which wasn’t a big surprise since most of the people out there welcomed the Chinese with open arms.”
I remembered what the general told us, we had to stop them from reaching Oak Ridge. They tried an airborne attack until we surprised the shit out of them with the MANPADS the general gave us, and to make it even funnier, we used their own missiles to down every one of their planes. They learned a costly lesson that day. They thought we were fat, dumb rednecks. They didn’t know our lookouts used portable, commercial thermal sights to look for their planes in the sky. The general told me it might have been the first time anyone used portable thermal sights to take planes down. Once we saw them, it was easy to use their MANPADS to lock onto their planes, and then poof, the rockets reached out to touch their planes. We had fireworks that night. They lost over twenty planes and over a thousand people. We gained most of their weapons and ammo, which we’ve been using against them.
I thought I was thinking, I didn’t realize my hand had held down the transmit button, I had been broadcasting to Archer, “You have to give them credit. They planned well and spent the past few years setting this mess up. We knew they and the Russians were working together, we never assumed they’d get so deep in bed together as to mastermind the attack on us. I swear, if I ever get my hands on the SOB who allowed this, there aren’t enough people left to pull me off him.”
Arrow 6 laughed, “Boss, I’ll never doubt your heart and gut feelings, they’ve always been right. Your guts saved us a number of times. What makes you think this attack is different than the others?”
I felt the sun warm my face while I listened to my old friend. I enjoyed the feeling of the sun, I hated spending most of my time in the bunker. “Archer six, the first tip-off was the time of the day. The next was the number of people in the technicals. In the previous attacks, each technical had only a driver and gunner. To be honest with you, I can’t place a finger on it. I just feel something is wrong this time. I’m going to place the city on full alert. My gut is screaming about this one. How soon until your drone reaches over the hills blocking our view of what’s behind these six? I’m sure we’re going to find additional, and if my gut is any indication, more deadly ones a few miles behind the assholes in these six.”
“Sir, only a few minutes. She’s small and slow but silent and has great eyes. She’s painted on the bottom to mimic the sky, they’ll never see or hear her.”
“I know how hard they are to spot. I remember when your people flew one over my house, and it even caught me outside, and I never knew it was there. I only wish we had more of them. I’ll ask the general the next time he calls. It’s times like this I miss Amazon.”
Arrow 6 laughed, “Please don’t make me laugh. I have to piss enough to fill a bucket. I miss Amazon and Starbucks.”
“I don’t miss Starbucks, their coffee always tasted burnt to me, and I never wanted to give my money to far-left companies. Yeah, I know all about Amazon’s background, but they were so convenient. Place an order on Monday and have it on Tuesday….”
I could hear the smile on Arrow 6’s face, “Hell, sometimes, if they had it in our warehouse, we’d have it the same day. Yeah, I miss them too. Those were the good old days. I wonder if we’ll ever see them again.”
I responded, “We’re lucky the TVA was able to keep their networks up after the Chinese hacking against our grid. They managed to take down 48% of the country’s power. They caused a few million deaths and set us on the course for the race war that caused many more deaths and suffering than any time in our history since the Civil War.”
“Old friend, I know. But I believe we’re winning.”
“If this is winning, I’d hate to see us losing. We’ve lost millions, and the average black hates the average white and vice versa. They’ve been killing each other since the Chinese got involved. Wait, out. I need to prep for the attack.”
Ten minutes after the citywide alert sounded, Cecil tapped me on the shoulder. “Boss, we have images from behind the technicals. Arrow 6 actual sent them to me so our Intel group could confirm what they were. The Intel weenies confirmed we’re seeing nine Chinese Type 99A main battle tanks,,,”
Copyright 2021 IJT
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Here's the unedited first chapter.
Chapter 1 (Part 1)
The Current (In the near future)
The Current (In the near future)
“Arrow six, Gray Ghost six, sitrep.”
“Gray Ghost six here, Arrow six, send it.” I didn’t worry about the enemy intercepting our transmissions. They were encrypted and using something called spread spectrum technology. The green berets who’d helped us set up our defenses and gave us some heavy weapons gave the latest Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) radios. They told us they were the best we had. I had used an earlier version in Afghanistan. I don’t know how they work. I do know the enemy couldn’t listen in to us. In my soul, I didn’t trust any technology one hundred percent. The damned enemy had already proved how well they could screw with our technology. They took most of our grid down while blaming domestic terrorists for the act.
I ordered that all of our comms be kept simple and short. The hot part of this new war started a few years ago, anyone with any brains knew it was coming. I and many others I knew prepared for it. We stocked up and prepared to defend what was ours. We had resigned ourselves to the breakup of the union, hell; we’d seen It coming for over a decade. It was still a shock when it finally happened, and the how it happened hurt the most.
We, like many others around the country, have sworn an oath to defend the country. We won’t allow them to complete their plan. Screw them. This is our home. We know the land. We can defend it with our eyes closed. They’re not going to find many allies here. Every time they’ve attempted to attack us, we’ve run them off, or in most cases, just quietly buried their remains.
Arrow 6, the leader of our scout platoon, reported, “Six technicals in an arrowhead formation traveling on 81 South. They most likely plan to follow the freeway to 40 West towards us. They haven’t yet learned we’re not going to let them play their silly games here. Each technical has four in the extended cabs and one or two in the rear holding onto the machine guns. All of the technicals were armed with a heavy MG bolted in the cargo area. We laughed when we saw a couple of the technicals had their RPGs strapped to the roof of the cabs. There was a bright gold-colored technical in the middle that must be their leader; the people in it are holding RPGs out of the windows, stupid fools. If they ever fired it from inside the truck, they’d turn everyone inside into crispy critters. No one ever said the BLM fools were the sharpest tools in the shed.”
Archer and I have known each other for over thirty years. We went to school together. We went to war together. We came home wounded together, and I allowed us to break my rule on short comms because the two of us were bonded at the hip.
I called my executive officer over, “Cecil, six technicals are testing our defenses again. I’ve got a bad feeling about them this time. I think our little yellow friends suckered the morons in the technicals to draw our scouts off, leaving the freeway open for their main attack, which is most likely five to ten miles behind these six. My gut is telling me these assholes are only a distraction.”
Cecil smiled, “Boss, they gave up trying to hit us through the woods, we cleaned their clocks every time they attempted to use the dense forest to mask their approach. The idiots never saw our ambush sites or our booby traps. Our IEDs and mines turned them into ground beef. Now they believe they can run the freeway at high speed and limit our ability to hit them. They don’t think we’ll do anything to damage the freeway.”
I nodded, “The fools don’t know us very well. They must think they can outrun missiles or bullets? I didn’t believe they were that stupid. I guess this just shows the Chinese want to thin the ranks of their so-called allies. On the one hand, I don’t blame them. Who’d want them as allies? The morons really bought the crap the Chinese sold them. Well, they made their beds, and now they’re going to be buried in them.”
Cecil laughed, “Some allies, they’re nothing but useful idiots.”
I nodded and smiled. “Yeah, they’re only useful to be bodies to soak up our bullets. The Chinese sent them as the point of their attack. They know we’ll do their dirty work by killing them, this gives the Chinese more ammo to use against us, and it fits their narrative that we’re all racists. They want us to waste our resources taking them out, so when they make their final move against us, we’ll have wasted our best weapons and ammo on their allies. I know our defenses will easily be able to handle these six while also handling whatever is coming up behind them, and trust me, they’re there, and we just haven’t seen them yet.”
“Archer six, can you get a drone up to get us a look-see what’s behind the technicals?”
“Ghost six, give me ten to let the drone get some height and distance to see if there is a group behind these fools. Please wait, out.”
“Roger.” I waited for Archer to call back with an updated SITREP.
I used the pause by Arrow 6 to walk outside. It’s rare I get a chance to walk in the sun. The warmth of the sun felt so good on my old, weathered face, the minutes clicked by, each feeling like an hour. I don’t know why since this wasn’t the first, or even the second attack they’ve tried against us, something about this one felt off somehow. I waited fifteen minutes, then I gave up any semblance of patience I had.
I clicked the press to talk button on the radio’s handset. “Arrow 6, this is Gray Ghost six, any news? I don’t like this. They know we have defenses in-depth at the intersection. They’re throwing these assholes’ lives away for some reason we haven’t seen yet.
“They usually attempt to strike us at night. If these fools continue at their current rate, they’re going to hit the intersection right around noon.” I looked at Cecil, who nodded his agreement. I nodded my head in response to his. I again pressed and held down the press to talk so I could continue talking with Archer 6. “Archer 6, I suggest you strike them before they reach the intersection. Can you pull it off within twenty minutes?
Arrow 6 paused before responding, “Ah shit, wait out.” He paused for two minutes; I could visualize him yelling out orders. “Gray Ghost six, yeah, we can do it. Do you really believe we need to hit them before the intersection? Our defenses in depth were set up to control the intersection.”
I visualized the map of our in-depth defenses at the intersection of the two interstates. I clicked the pushed to talk, “Arrow 6, we’re missing something. I don’t trust the Chinese. They’ve tried over twenty times to get through the intersection. I want you to send a drone to search the freeway behind the technicals. We need to see what’s hiding behind them. Tell your scouts to stay sharp. My gut really feels bad about today’s probe. They don’t care about losing these people; they’re nothing but pawns to the Chinese.
“They don’t care about losing the technicals. They inherited millions of trucks in the cities they control. We’ve seen the reports of factories working around the clock converting them into technicals. It’s a lot cheaper than giving their pawns APCs. Six trucks and some ‘true believers’ mean less than nothing to them. They want our city; they want the Oak Ridge Nuclear facility. That’s something we’re not going to surrender, not ever. They want the electrical power the TVA generates, something else they’ll never get. I’ll destroy the dams and plants before I allow them to have the electricity or Oak Ridge.”
“Gray Ghost six, I concur with your thoughts.”
“Arrow 6, ever since the terrorist attack, the race revolution, and their invasion, they’ve been trying to crush us. We’re the cork in the wine bottle to stop them from making inroads along the major east/west southern freeway. Other groups are holding strategic locations along Interstate 80. 95 and 35. We lost the 5 along the West Coast, shit, we lost most of the entire coast. Which wasn’t a big surprise since most of the people out there welcomed the Chinese with open arms.”
I remembered what the general told us, we had to stop them from reaching Oak Ridge. They tried an airborne attack until we surprised the shit out of them with the MANPADS the general gave us, and to make it even funnier, we used their own missiles to down every one of their planes. They learned a costly lesson that day. They thought we were fat, dumb rednecks. They didn’t know our lookouts used portable, commercial thermal sights to look for their planes in the sky. The general told me it might have been the first time anyone used portable thermal sights to take planes down. Once we saw them, it was easy to use their MANPADS to lock onto their planes, and then poof, the rockets reached out to touch their planes. We had fireworks that night. They lost over twenty planes and over a thousand people. We gained most of their weapons and ammo, which we’ve been using against them.
I thought I was thinking, I didn’t realize my hand had held down the transmit button, I had been broadcasting to Archer, “You have to give them credit. They planned well and spent the past few years setting this mess up. We knew they and the Russians were working together, we never assumed they’d get so deep in bed together as to mastermind the attack on us. I swear, if I ever get my hands on the SOB who allowed this, there aren’t enough people left to pull me off him.”
Arrow 6 laughed, “Boss, I’ll never doubt your heart and gut feelings, they’ve always been right. Your guts saved us a number of times. What makes you think this attack is different than the others?”
I felt the sun warm my face while I listened to my old friend. I enjoyed the feeling of the sun, I hated spending most of my time in the bunker. “Archer six, the first tip-off was the time of the day. The next was the number of people in the technicals. In the previous attacks, each technical had only a driver and gunner. To be honest with you, I can’t place a finger on it. I just feel something is wrong this time. I’m going to place the city on full alert. My gut is screaming about this one. How soon until your drone reaches over the hills blocking our view of what’s behind these six? I’m sure we’re going to find additional, and if my gut is any indication, more deadly ones a few miles behind the assholes in these six.”
“Sir, only a few minutes. She’s small and slow but silent and has great eyes. She’s painted on the bottom to mimic the sky, they’ll never see or hear her.”
“I know how hard they are to spot. I remember when your people flew one over my house, and it even caught me outside, and I never knew it was there. I only wish we had more of them. I’ll ask the general the next time he calls. It’s times like this I miss Amazon.”
Arrow 6 laughed, “Please don’t make me laugh. I have to piss enough to fill a bucket. I miss Amazon and Starbucks.”
“I don’t miss Starbucks, their coffee always tasted burnt to me, and I never wanted to give my money to far-left companies. Yeah, I know all about Amazon’s background, but they were so convenient. Place an order on Monday and have it on Tuesday….”
I could hear the smile on Arrow 6’s face, “Hell, sometimes, if they had it in our warehouse, we’d have it the same day. Yeah, I miss them too. Those were the good old days. I wonder if we’ll ever see them again.”
I responded, “We’re lucky the TVA was able to keep their networks up after the Chinese hacking against our grid. They managed to take down 48% of the country’s power. They caused a few million deaths and set us on the course for the race war that caused many more deaths and suffering than any time in our history since the Civil War.”
“Old friend, I know. But I believe we’re winning.”
“If this is winning, I’d hate to see us losing. We’ve lost millions, and the average black hates the average white and vice versa. They’ve been killing each other since the Chinese got involved. Wait, out. I need to prep for the attack.”
Ten minutes after the citywide alert sounded, Cecil tapped me on the shoulder. “Boss, we have images from behind the technicals. Arrow 6 actual sent them to me so our Intel group could confirm what they were. The Intel weenies confirmed we’re seeing nine Chinese Type 99A main battle tanks,,,”
Copyright 2021 IJT