Overrun Page 13

  The chute carried three gigantic crates with enough supplies and equipment to outfit a small platoon. Kirken dug into them hurriedly and began loading himself up with weapons, assault gear and food.

  At the same time, Brandon scurried to gather up the chute. Kirken threw an empty pack to him when he had finished so that he could do the same.

  "Take everything you possibly can," Kirken told him. "We're going to need it. We’re going to need it all. We probably won’t be able to get back here for more."

  Brandon nodded back.

  When Brandon was through readying his own gear, they dug a large hole and buried what they couldn’t carry deep within the scorched earth.

  Kirken checked his equipment one last time before they turned and headed back to town. They left the empty crates and parachute behind them in an open area away from the blackened trees.

  Within hours, there wouldn’t be any trace. Most of it would immediately burn to ash when the morning sun finally came.

  Chapter 14

  General Maxwell Tuttle turned away from the command room holovid screens he was watching through his giant office windows just in time to see War Minister Peter Faulken enter the operations center.

  He had never met the man before, but he was quite aware of who he was and what he was like.

  Tuttle rubbed at the sudden pain that flashed across his forehead and stepped backwards to sit at his desk.

  Without a word or introduction, Faulken sat down in a chair in front of him. He folded his hands across his lap and paused briefly before starting to speak.

  "General, I've been sent by the President to personally advise you of the current state of national affairs we now find ourselves in. I will then assist in guiding you in your operations."

  A young command room tech stuck his head into the room holding a tray of sandwiches and coffee. With a dismissive wave of his hand, Tuttle chased him away before he could step past the entrance. The tech set the small metallic tray on a cabinet near the door.

  Faulken waited with a feigned look of tolerance while Tuttle walked past him to retrieve the food.

  "General Tuttle, Plan Zero is going about as well as can be expected."

  Tuttle returned to his desk with his food and sat down.

  "We have neutralized approximately ninety-eight entire legions of invading J.G.U. troops. That's about 100,000 men. And we have you to thank for that."

  "And the civilian numbers, sir?" Tuttle took a slow careful chew from a sandwich. “Do you have an assessment on that?”

  Tuttle forced himself not to swallow the entire thing whole. It had been more than thirty-six hours since he had eaten last.

  "You've been well brought into the loop on the necessities of Plan Zero, General," Faulken answered him. "A civilian count is not being kept. It does not exist. We are doing what needs to be done to achieve our objectives.”

  “And what might those be?” Tuttle asked lowly.

  “To win the war of course,” Faulken answered quickly. “To defeat an invading army.”

  "So if we kill everybody, who are we really trying to protect?"

  “The sacrifices being made ensure our objectives.”

  Tuttle stared at him coolly across his desk.

  "Everything is proceeding as planned, General." Faulken leaned forward menacingly. Tuttle could almost feel himself being impaled by Faulken’s dark glare. “Is that understood?”

  "Yes, sir," Tuttle said quietly.

  "Very well," Faulken recovered himself quickly and eased back in his seat.

  "Our situation is this. Plan Zero is, as far as kill ratios are concerned, heading in the right direction. We have neutralized about one third of the J.G.U.'s troop force already. They, like us, only have a limited number of healthy men living over there. But we have a lot more. Our resources far exceed what is necessary to outlast them in this fight."

  Tuttle's eyebrows raised slightly at this remark.

  "It'll never come to that, General. We're right where we want to be in terms of the plan and its objectives. The old cities of Boston, New York and Miami have been utilized to their maximum capacities in terms of mission success."

  "You mean they were destroyed…," Tuttle’s voice was starting to become hot.

  “Miami was the last to go,” Faulken cut him off. “About the same time your teams finished in Seattle. Despite the success of both ops, the J.G.U. are still heavily concentrated on both coasts. So far we've been able to prevent them from coming further in. Just like we knew we could. The domes are still relatively undiscovered. Overall they’re still considered safe. Everything is proceeding as expected."

  "Not everything is proceeding as expected, War Minister,” Tuttle replied dryly. “Not from where I watch.”

  "You’re right, General. Not everything. And that is why the President has sent me here. It seems numerous complications have presented themselves in this quadrant and on this coast."

  "Good goddamn it man!" Tuttle’s anger flashed. “How the fuck should something like this be expected to go?!”

  “You are losing men.”

  “Yes, we’re losing men,” Tuttle spoke in a nearly quiet rage. “We are all losing men. Every bomb that goes off. This country is losing men…and a great more than that.”

  "General," Faulken came back commandingly. "What is going on here, it cannot occur. If things don’t go as we’ve designed, this war could easily not be won.”

  “You don’t think I know that?” Tuttle’s voice became very low. His temper flared further.

  "A lot has become of your quadrant, General Tuttle. A lot has come to rest on what you now defend. The J.G.U. has moved dangerously close to the area surrounding Science Dome 15. The significance of that facility is great. Especially considering what is housed there.”

  “I know it’s significance,” Tuttle said quickly back.

  “Failing to neutralize Beuford is quite a problem. If we lose that dome, it will most likely be something we won’t be able to overcome."

  "I am quite aware of that War Minister," Tuttle's voice leveled off and became curt.

  "I need to make a full assessment and bring it back to the President. Once all mission logs and battle plans have been reviewed and analyzed, we will decide how we are going to bring you more men. To replace the teams you’ve allowed to be lost.”

  Tuttle’s face seared a brilliant red, and his eyes flashed hotly.

  “After everything that has happened, I’m also here to determine whether you should be allowed to retain your command."

  "You go back to the President!” Tuttle raged. “Go back right goddamn now and tell him! Tell him that today we’ve had fifty-two assault helicopters ambushed and gone down. All their crews lost. Along with them the entire Vulture team headed for the science dome facility.

  "That’s more than three hundred elite tactical personnel capable of handling the explosives now dead. When you count the chopper crews, it goes up more than a hundred more. Beuford is still standing. And the J.G.U. now hold an almost impenetrable stranglehold on the entire city.

  “Danger to Science Dome 15 is alarmingly great. Not only of being discovered. But of becoming an instant overrun. Troops are massing. They are fortifying the city beyond belief as we speak.

  “There is not one thing that could have happened or been ordered to prevent all that!” Tuttle’s voice burned. “Not when our operations are such as they are. Whether on this coast or the next. It was bound to happen somewhere. And it happened here. Take that back to the President! Make sure to relay it all. This goddamn plan. It is anything but working."

  "You have contributed to what we all fear,” Faulken replied coolly. “By the colossal failures this country has sustained under your command. You’ve lost a great number of specially trained men. Each Vulture death is an irretrievable loss to this war. We’ve been able to keep their losses small and manageable to ensure the secrecy of what we are now undertaking. Who knows how many more lives their deaths may have cost.
”

  "Obviously, War Minister, this is not something we should have ever undertaken at all,” Tuttle’s voice was defeated and flat.

  "What is the latest intelligence on troop positions in relation to the dome, General? How close are they?"

  "Their closest patrol has only come within fifty miles of its perimeter. Within the last twelve hours, we’ve noticed their movements are being directed in the opposite direction. South of here. Well away from the facility. We still think it is relatively safe from discovery. They don’t seem to be aware anything out there exists. They’re vacating the area and moving on."

  "So as of yet, they haven't looked in the right place," Faulken said coldly.

  "That is correct. They haven’t. But they don’t know what they’re looking for in this particular area. And they are moving away."

  "General, we are talking about one of the most important facilities in the state of this war. Our new beam cannon prototypes are stored there. If the J.G.U. discover we are planning to create a new artificial ozone layer, they will go after this technology like ravenous wolves. They will seize it and use it to finish us. They’ll deploy it over their country and theirs alone. We will be left to die out here in the sun."

  Tuttle set his jaw and bit back the words flooding his mind. He looked at the ground and then back at Faulken.

  "Isn't that the course we endeavor to take?" he asked softly his voice trailing off. “Aren’t we here to ensure we do the same? To only save ourselves?”

  "General, we are not here to philosophize or debate,” Faulken said quickly dismissing him. “Your current task at hand is a difficult one. And of utmost importance. The J.G.U. is very aware of Plan Zero, and they are understandably scared. They do not know when or where we are about to strike. And to what extreme we are willing to sacrifice."

  “When the chopper teams went down, the airspace around Beuford was effectively sealed off,” Tuttle said swallowing hard and trying to ignore the sickening feeling settling in his gut. “They backed all their troops into the center of the city and successfully closed it down. We haven’t been able to get anything or anyone else in. When they fully realized the size of the assault force we sent at them, they concluded rather quickly they were sitting on an important spot. What it is, they don’t yet know. But, they do know our interest. And that it is extreme.”

  Faulken looked past Tuttle to the command screens at his back. Lighting a cigarette, he leaned back in his chair and turned his gaze back to Tuttle.

  Tuttle calmly returned his stare.

  "There is something else," Tuttle said slowly. "Only the crew in this command room even know about it. We have an element of force, albeit a small one, already inside. Well deep within any area we could hope to penetrate at this time.”

  Faulken’s eyebrows raised slightly at this, but he didn’t lower his stare.

  “We’ve been receiving holovid transmissions for the last two to three hours from someone already inside when the invasion occurred. He’s well now in the thick of it and can’t get out.”

  “Military?” Faulken asked visibly surprised by the news.

  “From we’ve been able to determine, yes. Dome military.”

  Faulken leaned forward in his chair toward Tuttle’s desk.

  “What kind of military?”

  “He’s identified himself as having an infantry commander rank. Apparently out on leave and didn’t heed the medical recall. He’s already met a supply and weapons drop. We plan to use him to help us open things up within the city. Do enough damage so that we can get in.”

  “You’re placing a lot on the shoulders of just one man,” Faulken said breathing out quietly. His face looked a sickly white. “Whether or not he succeeds affects us all.”

  “Right now, it’s all we have.”

  “Things have become more dire than we thought.”

  “We’ve dropped him explosives and target objectives. We’re sending him to some of the same targets as originally planned. He’s doing some of the same wiring networks, but we didn’t give him the full-blast charges. He has specific site objectives, not large sections of the city. We want to use him to the fullest extent possible. Not let him kill himself before making his presence there of full use.”

  Faulken still did not yet speak.

  “He’s made the pick up and going through the gear. He’s expecting us to reestablish contact within the hour.”

  "What did you define as his destruction objectives?" Faulken’s spine was now rigid against the back of his chair.

  "Selected areas of high troop and weapons concentration. We hope he will create at least enough confusion and chaos to allow us to come in and firebomb the whole damn place."

  "How much do we know about this one man in which you’ve entrusted so much?" Faulken asked skeptically. “And exactly how deeply into our secrets has he been briefed?”

  "John Kirken. Rank, dome military commander. Recently retired special forces leader specializing in high priority dome security.

  “Before his final leave he was overseeing new troop excursions on the outside. He was on a temporary out of dome visit when all officers were called back. He was right on the streets of Beuford when the J.G.U. troops came in. He is out there on his own. His two children are with him."

  “And what has he been told?" Faulken asked again. He inhaled deeply on his cigarette and slowly blew smoke throughout the room.

  "What exactly does he know?" Faulken said again more forcefully when Tuttle didn’t answer him right away.

  "He knows bits and pieces of Plan Zero."

  "What does he know about Dome 15?"

  Tuttle was quiet for a moment again not responding right away.

  "What the fuck does he know?" Faulken’s voice dropped to a whisper. "You tell me right goddamn now."

  “All of it,” Tuttle answered matter-of-factly. “He’s been made aware of all of it. I don’t know how we could have done otherwise. We had to tell him everything to get him to agree to do the terrible things we need him to do.”

  Faulken’s face was a scowl.

  "With the missions we’ve outlined to him and the high troop concentrations in the areas he’s being sent, we don’t expect him to survive. We don’t think it’s likely he’ll make it past the first target area. But with him out there and the situation we are now in, we had to give the opportunity he presented a try.”

  “If he is captured, he could tell them all,” Faulken’s voice was now nearly dead quiet. “Or worse yet he could leak information to the inhabitants of the city. It could spark a full scale national revolt if word gets out.”

  “It was a risk we couldn’t afford not to take.”

  “You have no authority to take that risk. There is no room for the unexpected or the unplanned in what has been set in motion. Any deviation from design has the very real potential to kill us all.”

  “How else were we going to convince a man that what we are doing here is the right way to win a war?” Tuttle’s temper again began to flare.

  “Again, it is not your place here to judge or decide!” Faulken’s face was red.

  “He is saving my men!” Tuttle roared back. “Men that you came all the way out here to tell me that I am recklessly and needlessly allowing to die. I entrusted him, because we had to. We had to tell him. Or he never would have done it. Even after we told him, he still was not completely sold on even making the attempt.

  “We had to press him further by telling him we would get him and his children out of there alive if he should happen to succeed in everything we’ve asked him to do."

  "You have no authority whatsoever to do what you have just done!” Faulken now raged. “You should have just left him out there to die. He can only blame himself for not returning for the recall."

  Tuttle clenched his fists together at his hips. He turned away from Faulken towards the giant window overlooking the command room and the holovid screens on the other side.

  "This could cost you your command."
Faulken said to his back.

  "Go ahead and goddamn take it.” Tuttle’s voice was nearly hoarse with fury. “This war is going to be lost. We are past anything else."

  "General, this war is not for us to lose."

  Tuttle walked over to the War Minister and faced him toe to toe. His gaze was hard. His eyes did not blink.

  "If I decide to remove you from command…,” Faulken sucked in a deep angry breath and returned the glare. “Charges will be severe for what you have caused to be at stake. Your actions could be construed as treasonous. Your own execution could result. You wouldn't have to wait for the outcome of this dispute.”

  “I know what would result, War Minister,” Tuttle returned softly. His voice was level. His look remained focused and filled with an intense bitter hate.

  “A traitor’s death for going against what we are about to do. The cause is great. And can be done.”

  "When this is over, we are all going to be dead. By initiating this plan, we have already killed ourselves.”

  "How can you not understand the importance of what we are trying to undertake? We have a responsibility to the world. To the entire human race to ensure this is carried out.

  “Once the cannons are in place, we can launch an artificial ozone layer over any part of the globe that we see fit. It will provide an opportunity for a regeneration of life on our dying land. And we can build a stronger nation by excluding those that oppose us. The J.G.U.., they do not think, and they do not act the way we do. Their people, their entire culture, have always been antagonistic towards us and our way of life. Their government has always been cause for concern.

  “When this is over, we will have inflicted a wound on them so severe they will never recover. Their losses will be astronomical. When this war ends, they will be lucky if anyone returns alive at all. Those that do will attest to the others. The United States Administration. Our way. Our government. Our culture. It must never again be questioned or threatened."

  "When this is all over, our losses will be just as severe," Tuttle responded. “We will also be extremely weakened in might.”