Richard Stephenson - Resistance

Lance felt a strange sense of relief wash over him. The hell he had endured for the previous four days was finally ending. In a few short minutes, he would leave this world for a much better one. He would be reunited with his father and his younger brother.

Just past the front gate was a large gymnasium that had been repurposed as an orientation center. Lance watched as a Middle Eastern family was taken at gunpoint from the front of the line to a holding area. He looked into the holding pen and saw naked men and women shivering in the cold while their clothes and belongings were searched. Dignity had been replaced by stark racism, and Lance couldn’t help but feel a sick sense of irony at his current predicament. He stepped into the doorway and turned around. Lifting his arms, Lance squeezed both fists, launching two projectiles from the tube rockets strapped to his forearms. Not concerned with their trajectories, Lance pushed his way to the center of the gymnasium and ripped open his coat, detonating the forty pound vest that hugged his torso.

The two guided projectiles found their targets. The first missile burst through a window on the top floor of the headquarters building and detonated, killing Brigadier General Matthew Jacobs, commanding general of Fort McClellan, along with most of his senior staff. The second rocket smashed into the front lobby of the base hospital, bringing the second floor crashing down into the first, killing hundreds of innocent patients.

When Lance’s vest detonated, a high powered explosive many times more potent than C-4, vaporized his body along with every living thing inside the gymnasium. The structure that had once promised frightened, weary refugees the possibility of a new life came crashing down. Since most of the deceased had not yet been processed into the system, no one would ever know that three hundred nineteen innocent people had just been murdered.

The polite man on the other end of the phone told his two associates that he was going out to the car for a quick smoke. He walked to the end of the driveway and opened the driver’s-side door. With great anticipation, he lit his cigarette, took a long, satisfying drag and slowly exhaled. Once the nicotine rush hit him, he reached into his coat pocket and produced a small device. Carefully typing in the requisite five digits, the man hit the enter key and watched, smiling, as the McGee residence erupted in an explosion that rocked the neighborhood. Car alarms wailed, dogs barked. The polite man always tied up loose ends, and he certainly wasn’t looking to take the blame when The Silent Warriors would be more than happy to take credit for his actions.

“Are you sure it’s time to make such a bold move, Richard?” Howard Beck knew the day was coming, but he never envisioned it would be so soon.

“We have a lot of preparation to deal with before we’re ready to move forward, but it’s time to set things in motion. What do you think, Max?”

“I’m nice and comfy with things the way they are, but we have to move at some point and it might as well be now. My only concern is maintaining the resources we have to secure our own borders.”

“You don’t think Hal can manage it?” asked Howard.

“I have no doubt that Hal can keep the drones busy, but can he repel thousands of troops if they move on our borders? Even worse, what if Sterling decides to wipe us off the map with nukes? What does Stacy think?”

Howard was quick to answer. “Our top spy tells us that Sterling wants the nation intact. He’s confident that once he fully restores power to The Pulse Zone and squashes The Silent Warriors, he’ll have little trouble conquering our quaint little nation, as he calls it.”

“All the more reason for us to strike a serious blow to that smug asshole while he’s weak,” said Richard.

Howard agreed.

“How in the hell does he think he’s going to stop The Silent Warriors? Terrorists don’t exactly walk around in uniform and engage the enemy in direct combat,” said Max.

“Stacy isn’t sure exactly what his plan is, but she did say he seems quite confident that he can pull it off,” said Howard.

“Hal, how many attacks have occurred outside The Pulse Zone?” Richard knew his plan would prove difficult if they had to reallocate manpower to deal with terrorist attacks.

“Only minor incidents, sir. From the intelligence I have gathered, The Silent Warriors have attacked two hospitals-one in Nevada and the other in California. Both attacks were quickly repelled with only minor damage. Several fires spread across California have managed to destroy seven residential areas; however, the possibility remains that The Silent Warriors were not responsible for four of the fires.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” said Howard.

“Or they’re kind enough to stay out of the PSA,” Richard said.

Max tapped Richard’s chair with his cane. “Okay, Richard, the suspense is killing me. How the hell are we going to invade California with the UAE wiping out anything that crosses into the no-man’s land around our borders?”

“Hal and I have been monitoring every engagement in the no-man’s land since the UAE instituted the hundred mile zone around the length of our borders. The UAE only makes a move if any of their civilians try to cross over into our territory.”

Howard shook his head. “Wait a minute. Just because they’re stopping everything going into the PSA doesn’t mean they won’t attack what comes out of the PSA. We don’t exactly have an abundance of stealth jets like the one you fly around in.”

“I realize that, Howard. The one thing they aren’t monitoring is the Pacific. The bulk of their navy is in the Atlantic defending our borders from the invasion Iran is no doubt planning once they’ve finished conquering Europe. The safe bet is that Iran will come onto our shores on the Atlantic side and spill into The Pulse Zone where resistance will be the weakest. Their navy is twice the strength of ours; it will only be a matter of time before they break the line and make it to our shores.”

Max cracked a smile for the first time since the conversation began. “You want to invade California by sea? You realize we don’t exactly have an impressive armada?”

“I want boots on the ground, that’s all. It’ll be a short trip. Their radar station and drone base in California is located in Redding. The radar coverage extends a hundred miles into the Pacific, and they haven’t set up any blockades.”

Howard interrupted. “Jimenez has managed to keep trade routes open, but pretty soon he won’t be able to export anything for trade. China has already been kind enough to send humanitarian aid, which doesn’t really say a lot about their confidence in us.”

“How the mighty have fallen,” said Max. “The arrogant nation begging for handouts.”

Richard let the sting of the pointed remark hang in the air a few seconds longer and continued. “The biggest advantage we have going for us is that Hal has managed to disrupt the UAE’s satellite coverage of the North American continent. They can put radar planes in the air, but that’s about it. Sterling deliberately keeps his planes from getting too close to the PSA for fear of sparking a war. We can load up our troops on cruise ships without them having a clue.”

“Why not just send a stealth jet and take out the base in Redding?” Max asked. “We could send our troops pouring in by land.”

“That was my first plan but I’d rather catch them off guard. We send three cruise ships down the coast and set up a three-pronged attack. Before Jimenez even realizes what’s happening, we’d be hitting them hard from north, south, and center.”