Al Steiner: Greenies

"That's a bunch of bullshit," Laura said. "We had all of the troops that were supposed to protect Mars in orbit around Ganymede when the war started. They were there long before the EastHem marines occupied Callisto."

"Right," Jackson agreed. "That was because WestHem didn't believe that EastHem was really going to try to forcibly install troops on Callisto. They thought it was all a big bluff. Since they thought EastHem was bluffing, it was decided that our marines shouldn't be landed there in advance. Another stupid political decision made against the advice of the commanders. That one was probably the worst one of all. If we had had those troops down there, the entire momentum of the war would have been on our side instead of theirs." He shrugged lightly, as lightly as one could when one was talking about a flawed decision that had cost twenty thousand men their lives. "What can you do?"

"What indeed," Laura agreed sadly.

"But in any case," he went on, "that is the excuse our political leaders have settled on for why we could not evict those EastHem forces from Callisto. So, in response to that, they've kicked loose enough funding to form this fast reaction division. It will be stationed here because it's too expensive to station it on Ganymede. They would have to build an entire base on the surface in order to do that. God forbid they spend a couple of billion of the budget for that."

"So will these troops be of any value to Mars whatsoever?" Laura wanted to know.

Jackson offered another shrug. "They could theoretically help defend us in the event of an attempted invasion but they would only be able to hold for a little while before reinforcement became necessary. Reinforcement from Earth, as I'm sure you're aware, takes anywhere from four to twelve weeks depending on planetary alignment. Worst case scenario is that EastHem hits us with a surprise invasion when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun."

"A surprise invasion?" she asked. "I thought that was impossible. Wouldn't we see the ships coming from the moment they left Earth?"

"Not anymore. Now that EastHem has a supply line stretching from Earth to the Jupiter system, it would be relatively easy to launch a surprise attack upon us during certain times of the year."

"What do you mean?" she wanted to know.

"Well," he told her, pouring each of them a little more wine, "they could hide their invasion force in specially modified fuel tankers. When Jupiter and Mars are approaching alignment we would be accustomed to seeing groups of EastHem tankers passing within a few hundred thousand kilometers of us. We wouldn't think anything about it. But suppose a few of those tankers contained not fuel but a dozen assault landing ships apiece. They're easily big enough for that. The EastHems, if they did it at the right time, could have two or three divisions of troops secure in their beachheads before our marines even had a chance to get their own heavy equipment on the surface."

"Unbelievable," Laura said, shaking her head. "If you want to hear a doomsday scenario, just ask a marine commander."

"And ask you did," he said. "And that's just one surprise attack scheme. I can think of five or six others just off the top of my head."

"Has any of this been brought up to the executive council or congress?" she asked.

"It's been suggested that a permanent force of soldiers dedicated completely to Martian defense would be a good idea," he explained. "But the suggestions have only come from the command level. Once the suggestion moves into the offices of those idiots in Denver, it gets shot right down as being unnecessary and too expensive."

Laura sighed in disgust. "Money," she said sourly. "That's what it always comes down to. We don't want to spend the money right now to prevent a crisis later."

"It's the way of the solar system," Jackson agreed.

Though Laura was morally upset with the situation her planet was being left in, she was also elated. Though Mars would be left nearly defenseless in the short term, it did open up an entire new aspect to her long-range plans. The idea she had been mulling over ever since she heard of the impending pullback of the marines began to click more firmly into place.

"Tell me something, Kevin," she said, lowering her voice just a little. "What if there was a Martian planetary guard? A force made up of volunteers from Mars itself and equipped with modern weapons. Could such a force be trained efficiently enough to repel an invasion?"

He mulled that over for a second. "A planetary guard huh? I suppose such a force could be drilled and trained enough to cause EastHem quite a headache. I would even venture to say that a good number of Martian citizens would participate in such a program if you had one. But where would the funding come from? You have the same basic problem as stationing professional marines here. Nobody wants to pay for it."

"The Martian citizens could pay for it," she suggested.

Jackson blinked. "Come again?"

"A voluntary income and sales tax increase," she explained. "Say an extra two percent on sales and maybe an extra three percent on income. I haven't done the exact math but that would generate in excess of two billion every year. With two billion a year allocated for equipment and training expenses, you could buy a lot of tanks and artillery and guns, couldn't you?"

"Yes, you could," he said. "But you don't really think the people would volunteer to tax themselves that much do you? We already have ten percent sales tax in effect and we already pay more than forty-five percent in income taxes to the feds, not to mention an additional six percent to the planetary government."

"On the contrary," Laura retorted. "I believe the citizens would vote overwhelmingly for such a thing as long as it was for planetary defense. Remember, we were hit very hard during the war and most of our citizens know it was because we were largely undefended. Trust me on this. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's read the mindset of our citizens. They would vote this in."

"I'll have to take your word for it," he said doubtfully. "But that's not the only factor involved in such a thing."

"No," she said, "it's not. It would also require the approval of congress and the executive council. But if the funding was available, what possible objection could they have to it? Their prize moneymaker will be protected from invasion at no cost to them. It would also require the approval of the various corporations that control this planet. They would be concerned about an additional income tax affecting their Martian sales. Granted, with only seventy million people on the planet, Martians amount to only one percent of any WestHem corporation's paying customers, but you know corporations. If they think they'll lose ten cents a year, they'll kill the measure and they'll spend billions killing it."

"Do you think they would approve of such a plan?" Jackson asked.

"If it was presented to them in the right way. That would be my job and I think I can do it. Now that I'm a member of the planetary legislature and not just a council member, my contacts have become more powerful — a little higher up the ladder. You have to remember that the corporations were particularly nervous during the war. After all, us citizens only had our lives to lose, they had their very holdings put in jeopardy."

"You seem to have this all figured out," he observed. "What do you need from me?"

"I need a military expert to draw up plans for such a force," she told him. "I need minimum staffing recommendations, minimum supply recommendations, and minimum deployment recommendations. I need facts, figures, and presentations to show just how such a force would be used and to explain to those complete idiots of the corporate boards and congress just how it would be an effective deterrent."