Max Velocity - Patriot Dawn - The Resistance Rises

Two weeks later, Bill arrived. Jack was amazed. Jack had moved his TOC into a bunker he had had built just outside of Yankee, in order to be central to the defensive positions around the base. They grabbed some hot water from the central kitchen, made coffee, and walked up to his bunker where they sat inside on camp chairs by the light of a kerosene lamp.

They had a lot to talk about. Bill wanted to go over the after action reports from the recent combat, and Jack wanted news from the outside world. The big strategic question was about what was next for them.

The war against the Chinese was still ongoing west of the Rockies, with General Wall leading USPACOM. There were no significant breakthroughs to report either way from that theatre as yet. The demarcation line still held to the south with the Southern Federation, but there were rumblings of war.

“Listen Jack,” Bill said, “I want to get your buy in on a plan.”

“Ok, run it by me.”

“Remember the guy I sent to Texas?”

“Yea.”

“Ok, well they know all about your Company in Texas. Jack’s Juggernauts, aka the Mountain Men,” Bill chuckled. “You are famous, and very well regarded. I have been in negotiations and my guy reports that Texas is offering sanctuary to the families, on the basis that we move the Company to Texas. You will have to submit to operational control from the Federation chain of command and they will use you to further the Southern Federation’s military agenda.”

“You say ‘you’ — where do you fit in to this?”

“I would stay here, at the farm, and continue to run the network. Intelligence gathering.”

“I see,” said Jack, “but how do you feel about this? This is your Company, you created it, and we would no longer be fighting in Virginia?”

“I appreciate that Jack, but actually you need to give yourself more credit. I started this thing, but now I’m the network guy. You have fought and bled with this Company, it is yours. I want to see the families safe, and I think we could hit back at the Regime more effectively with the support of the Federation military. Anyway, they are likely to send you back in to conduct operations once the families are safe in Texas.”

Jack mulled it over.

“Ok Bill,” he finally said, “Let’s get some of the main players together and see what they think, and if they agree then we can run it past the group.”

It was not just a military decision. They got the commanders together along with the leaders from the civilian side, including Caitlin and some of the other key women such as Gayle who ran the place.

It was unanimous. They wanted to get to Texas. It would keep the families and kids safe, and then the Company could join the fight again secure in the knowledge that their loved ones were out of harm’s way. From a military point of view, they would no longer have to allocate combat power to protecting the families.

The next question was how?

Bill wanted to keep some OPSEC around this one so he pulled Jack aside and told him: C-130 Hercules aircraft. STOL operations, which stood for ‘short takeoff and landing’.

Texas was prepared to send in Texas Air Guard aircraft to extract the Company along with the families in return for the agreement that they would fight for the Southern Federation.

Bill outlined the plan: he would hang around until they could find a suitable landing field. Once that was established, he would return to his farm, allowing suitable travel and planning time, and pass the message to Texas. On a specified day, the aircraft would come in and lift them out.

They needed a suitable dirt field three thousand feet long. They did a map recon and located some potential locations, following up with recon patrols. They found a suitable location on some upland pasture land dotted with occasional trees and low shrub. It was located in a small valley. It was perfect for two thousand feet and had three thousand feet of clearance available at a pinch.

It would need a little work but it was only a mile from Yankee. Jack had some work parties set to work clearing the few trees and the bushes, creating a dirt landing strip.

Meanwhile, allowing for time to get the landing strip ready, Bill took the coordinates, set a date with Jack, and headed back to his farm. They set an initial date for a daylight pickup, with further dates if they first one was missed for any reason.

They had agreed, in accordance with information that Bill had brought with him from his coded radio exchanges with his agent in Texas, to go for a dawn pickup time. This would allow the Texas Air Guard aircraft to fly in by night, but give them the advantage of daylight to conduct the STOL landing on an unknown and less than ideal landing strip.

Ten days later the Company was waiting in a defensive position in the trees at the end of the makeshift landing strip. It was just a flattish grassy field which they had cleared of trees and bushes. The fighters had a perimeter around the families, who were organized into four ‘chalks’, one for each aircraft.

They only had their basic gear with them, weapons, tactical vests and rucksacks. The larger support weapons, ammunition, food and equipment had been placed into the dug outs at Yankee and camouflaged, making it into a huge cache, while the vehicles were hidden under netting deep in the woods, including the military vehicles liberated by the defectors.

If they ever came back out this way, for whatever reason, they would be able to break out the gear from Yankee.

Under Jim’s supervision, day-glow panels had been placed out to mark the landing strip.

They waited in the pre-dawn light.

Shortly after the sky lightened, the first C-130 Hercules came roaring over the treetops above them, the first of four. It came over and buzzed them low after flying ‘nap of the earth’ up from Texas, hugging the terrain contours at two hundred feet to stay below Regime radar.

There was a separation between aircraft and the first circled the landing strip, getting eyes on the terrain, followed by the others. They came around in a loop and lined up for the approach.

The first aircraft came in and lined up on the airstrip. As it came in its nose dropped towards the strip and then it went to ‘full flaps’ as it swooped in to land, taxiing down towards the end of the strip. As each aircraft landed, it taxied down to the end of the runway and made space for the ones landing behind.

Once the fourth had landed, they put their engines in reverse and rapidly backed down the airstrip in a single file to where the fighters waited with their families.

As the aircraft sat there with the engines ‘turning and burning’ the rear ramps lowered and a small security detachment ran off the back of each to secure the immediate area. The loadmasters walked down the ramp and gestured to the waiting chalks.

The four lines of families and fighters walked out towards the waiting aircraft carrying their gear, some of the wounded carried on stretchers. As they reached the ramps at the back of the aircraft they felt the heat coming off the roaring engines, seemingly threatening to burn their faces as they waited for those ahead to get up the ramp.

Some of the kids and those who had never experienced it were shielding their faces and turning away from the heat as the engine noise roared around them. Some of the younger kids were crying, scared by the noise, held by their moms.

The flight crew was directing them to fill into the red webbing seats that lined the outer skin of the aircraft and also a central island down the center. The rucksacks and wounded on stretchers were secured in the open space by the back ramp, between the two side jump doors.

As soon as everyone was loaded, the ramps went up and the aircraft raced forwards one at a time, taking off over two thousand feet in the same direction that they had landed.