Glen Tate - 299 Days - The 17th Irregulars

These Special Forces guys were “smarter than the average bear,” as Yogi Bear used to say. Back at Boston Harbor earlier that day, Ted and Sap had spent over an hour learning all they could about Rich and Dan and planning out how to persuade them. Political planning was as much, or more, of their job as military planning.

Rich and Dan were already impressed with the two of them. Rich and Dan had talked on the way over that maybe the Team had just agreed with an old shooting buddy, like Ted to go do some heroic, and stupid, military stuff. Dan had even suggested to Rich that maybe the Team was “playing Army” and was about to get everyone in Pierce Point killed as a result.

Rich and Dan were no longer having those thoughts after meeting Ted and Sap. Maybe the Patriots actually had functioning Special Forces units and Pierce Point would be one of them. It didn’t seem so crazy, anymore.

Rich and Dan kept telling themselves that, while Ted and Sap were impressive, this didn’t mean the Patriots had a chance of winning. Rich and Dan wanted to know more about exactly how the Patriots thought they could win.

It’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that anyone can beat the U.S. military. Well, it was now the Former USA, the “FUSA” as everyone called it. For their entire lives, Rich and Dan had thought, rightly so, that the U.S. military was invincible, so the big question was whether Rich and Dan were being asked to fight the U.S. military or the FUSA military. There was a big difference; a life-and-death difference.

Ted pulled a document out of his kit. “Lt. Col. Hammond, commander of the Free Washington Special Operations Command, sends this,” he said, handing the letter to Rich.

Rich and Dan read it. It was on the letterhead of the “Free Washington State Guard” and looked very official. In the letter, Lt. Col. Hammond said that he was very hopeful that Pierce Point would help in the fight to finish off the corrupt and failed government. The letter recited some of Rich’s and Dan’s background, especially their Oath Keeper background. Both Rich and Dan realized that if a letter like this got in the hands of the Loyalists, they would be executed. Exactly. That was one of the reasons Lt. Col. Hammond put it in the letter. “You’ve already picked sides gentlemen” was once again the message.

In the letter, Lt. Col. Hammond promised Pierce Point training by Special Forces personnel like Ted and Sap, weapons, food for the fighters, communications equipment, medical supplies, and intelligence.

The letter ended: “We promise you a future. The status quo is not sustainable. You know it. We need a long-term solution. That means the people who did this to us need to go. Pierce Point has been blessed with certain amazing attributes. It is time to use them for a worthy cause: getting America back. Your children and grandchildren, and people for a hundred years, will look back at what choice you made.”

Rich and Dan were impressed. They were getting the royal treatment, but two guys with cool gear and a nice letter on official-looking letterhead was not something that you bet your life on. Rich and Dan needed answers to some hard questions.

“Thank you,” Rich said to Ted after he was done reading the letter. “Thank Lt. Col. Hammond for the time he put into this. But we have a few questions.”

“Certainly,” Ted said. He knew what the questions would be.

The first question was the biggest one.

“How do we protect Pierce Point from being attacked by air, artillery, mortars, etc.?” Dan asked.

Sap smiled because he had a good answer. “The Loyalists pretty much don’t have any,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Dan asked, a little indignant. “The U.S. military has plenty of that.”

“True,” Ted said. “But the FUSA military doesn’t.” Ted then described, at length, how most military units had either defected to the Patriots or had been ordered to sit out the fight by their Patriot-leaning commanders. After the explanation, Ted handed Dan a thumb drive.

“After we leave, put this in your computer,” Ted said. “It’s a series of videos showing commanders of various units who have come over to our side. They describe how their units are either fighting for us or won’t be fighting for the Loyalists. There are dozens of videos of troops describing how everyone in their units went AWOL. You’ll love the submarine guy who said that only three of his shipmates were left. Hard to spark off sea-launched cruise missiles or nukes with only three guys.”

Sap said, “There are too many videos for us to be making this up. They have their equipment in the background. The sub guy? How could we have ‘borrowed’ his sub for that video if this wasn’t legit? You’ll see when you watch it.”

Ted could see that Dan was not entirely persuaded. “Dan,” Ted asked, “what does it take to launch a mortar attack on a place like Pierce Point?”

“Mortars,” Dan said, “A crew, logistics to get the mortars within striking range, and safe passage to get close enough to strike,” Dan said.

“Right,” Ted said. “The Loyalists have very few mortars. With all the AWOLs, they have very few crews. Virtually no units left entirely intact. They might cobble together new units from the stragglers left behind, like the three submarine guys. It’s hard to round up a handful here, a handful there, and make up a functioning military unit when it comes to using gear like mortars. It takes training to use them. You can’t assemble a pick-up team of random guys and instantly turn them into a mortar crew.”

“Logistics,” Sap added, “are the weakest link in the FUSA’s chain. How do they get the mortars here? They have to have fuel and trucks. Let’s say they do. It takes them forever to get from Ft. Lewis to here. You would have plenty of warning that a column of military vehicles was coming. We have people everywhere who tell us everything.”

“Safe passage,” Ted said, “is a huge problem for a FUSA mortar crew. This cobbled-together mortar crew would get shot coming down the road, and if it came close to Pierce Point,” Ted said with a wink to Dan, “I’m guessing you might have a well-trained sniper before they got to the gate.” Dan had to smile at that. Chip must have told Ted about Sniper Mike. These guys did their homework, and that was reassuring.

Sap continued where Ted left off. “The gangs would want to have those mortars. So, assuming all the other stuff—trained crew, logistics—could happen, the mortar crew needs to have a heavy escort, which means using a bunch more units, which are hard to come by now. Oh, and it means using more fuel for the escorts, which is also scarce now.”

Bobby raised his hand. “What about tanks?”

“Same thing as mortars,” Ted said, “but worse, for the Loyalists. All the supply and logistical problems from a few hundred pounds of mortar are multiplied several fold for a few tons of tank. They burn ungodly amounts of fuel, and they’re too heavy to just drive down most civilian roads. The main road from Frederickson might hold up — maybe. But, the road into Pierce Point? No way. And that bridge at the gate I’ve heard about? There is no way that holds a tank.”

“But, a tank doesn’t need a road,” Bobby said. “It could just go on roadless, rough terrain.”

“True,” Ted said, “but, the terrain around here means that the only way to get anywhere is often right where the road is, like the road from Frederickson to here. It hugs the shore, and therefore is the only way in and out, which means that road needs to be used. This then means the Loyalists would need to repair the road the tank chewed up. They need that road for other things like moving trucks of troops or semis of food.”