Vaughn Heppner: Invasion: New York

“Let me explain it like this,” Stan Higgins said in “Professor” mode. “A specialized machine or weapon often costs less than a broad-based weapon. In the 1870s, the newly invented self-propelled torpedoes were married to fast steamboats as launching platforms. The battleships of the time were very expensive and the measure of a nation’s naval power. The battleships had long-barreled guns of large caliber that could not be depressed low enough to destroy the torpedo boats when they moved at night and came in at close range. At that time, the battleships mainly had armored the decks and superstructures. Below the waterline, they were exposed to the new torpedo.

“Many people then reached the ‘obvious’ conclusion. The day of the battleship had ended as the torpedo boats took over. A man named Jeune Ecole heavily influenced French naval policy in that regard. From 1877 to 1903, the French built 370 torpilleurs .”

Jake must have looked confused.

“That was the French name for the torpedo boats,” Stan said.

“Oh.”

“Now, the torpedo boats were effective against the old-style battleships,” Stan said. “But the very effectiveness caused those boats to reach their culminating point of success quickly.”

“What’s that mean in English?” Jake asked.

Stan grinned. “It means the old school navy people changed the way they built battleships. They put searchlights on the big ships to spot the torpedo boats at night, added smaller caliber, quick-firing guns to kill them and had sealed bilges built below the waterline to lessen the effectiveness of a torpedo’s hit. In harbor, they draped heavy steel nets over the side. They also created a new kind of warship, the ‘torpedo-boat destroyer’ or as it was soon known, a destroyer. In other words, they negated the torpedo boats’ strengths. Because they were such a narrow weapons system, their importance quickly dwindled. That meant those who had built too many torpedo boats at the expense of battleships lost out in the naval competition.”

Jake thought about that. Not for the first time, he wondered how his dad remembered all these arcane military facts.

Stan cleared his throat. “That’s what happened to the Sigrids, by the way. We found a way to jam the signal between the remote-controller and the drone. The small Sigrid became inert, and the cost-effective weapons system thereby because useless in too many instances. That helped us to turn the tide of battle our way.”

“Yeah, I think I see what you mean,” Jake said. He would have liked one of those jammers in the Niagara Peninsula. It had taken many dead Americans to buy their country time to figure out a way to defeat the little bastards.

Theirs boots crunched over gravel as they walked through an old streambed.

“So what happens now?” Jake asked.

“Concerning you?” Stan asked.

“We can start there.”

“Well, you’ve joined the tank corps, the Behemoths. For now anyway, even though the Detention people want you, they don’t have enough authority or firepower to come and get you. I’m still working on taking you officially out of their clutches. Until that happens, you have to lie as low as you can.”

“Okay,” Jake said. He’d been lying low all right. And he always carried a gun. If the MPs came for him…he planned to shoot it out until he was dead or they were dead. He was never going to let the Detention people get hold of him again.

He noticed his dad eyeing him. “So what happens next in the war?” Jake asked.

“Yes,” Stan said. “That is the question. We’ve knocked out the Germans, or will soon finish them in Quebec. That means we won’t be fighting a two-front war next year. It will be a one-front war between us and the Pan-Asian Alliance.”

“They’re getting ready for it big time,” Jake said.

“I know they are, but so are we.”

“You’re saying it’s a showdown then,” Jake said.

Stan mulled that over. He looked at his son. He was so glad to have him back, to have him alive. He wanted to send him far away so no one could harm him. But his boy had become a man, a soldier, a veteran. His heart burst with pride over him.

“It’s going to be a showdown with the PAA and the South American Federation,” Stan said. “We’re going kick the Chinese out of our country and teach them why it was a bad idea to mess with the United States of America.”

“I want in on that one, Dad.”

“Me too,” said Stan. “This time, we’re going to finish it and mop the floor with their corpses.”

A door opened in a dank prison chamber. A naked man with many welts on his body lay cinched to a table. Several women with electric cattle prods readied to shock him and make him scream yet again.

A beefy guard glanced at former General Mansfeld on the torture rack. “They’re letting him go,” the guard told the women.

“What?” the chief torturer asked in a smoker’s raspy voice.

“The interim governor says the political captives are being freed.” Without another word, the beefy guard left, shutting the heavy door behind him.

One by one, the women turned off their cattle prods. The ranking torturer studied Mansfeld. They’d had him several weeks now. He looked awful, a shriveled wreck of a man.

Walther Mansfeld turned his head, and his eyes burned with something approaching madness as he stared at her. He even managed a chuckle.

The chief officer wasn’t sure why, but her spine tingled with an emotion similar to fear. Maybe she should finish this mad dog, just kill him.

Instead, she warned him. “Make sure you do nothing to return to us.”

The threat didn’t seem to penetrate. He stared at her with those strangely burning eyes. This man was no longer completely sane.

“Help him dress,” she told the others. “I’m going to the office to fill out the paperwork.”

She went to the door, looked back at him once more. Should she kill him? No. Why risk her career? Thus, she failed to use the world’s best chance to escape a hellish future.

To the Reader: I hope you’ve enjoyed Invasion: New York . If you would like to see the story continue, I encourage you to write a review. Let me know how you feel and let others know what to expect.

Invasion: Alaska

Invasion: California

Invasion: Colorado

Invasion: New York

Star Soldier

Bio-Weapon

Battle Pod

Cyborg Assault

Planet Wrecker

Star Fortress

Accelerated

The Kill

Strontium-90

Visit www.vaughnheppner.comfor more information.

Copyright © 2013 by the author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.