Deadly Wands

by Brent Reilly

  #1 flew to rotate shifts with #4 and #5 until the rest of the marathoners finished off their target. By the time the other Americans arrived, the Mongols were too few, too tired, and too cold to do more than die with wands in their hands.

  Because they could fly higher, longer, and faster, the Americans beat five times their number with few casualties by taking them (mostly) one at a time. Each American picked up five money sacks while Billy scored over fifty thousand wand sets, which he sent to Korea.

  They ate an early dinner and Billy gave them a speech while they waited for nightfall.

  “The day before my eighth birthday, I asked my dad how we could win this war. Not end the war, as many pray for daily, but how to win it. Except for you optimists who volunteered to fight a lost cause, everyone else in the world seemed to think nothing could ever stop this war except total conquest by the Mongols. My dad took so long in answering that I assumed he either didn’t hear me or didn’t know. But what he said that day changed my life. And, since you’re about to sack cities in the heart of Mongolia, yours.

  “Dad explained that simply killing Genghis Khan wouldn’t help unless it provoked a civil war, and that wouldn’t happen because every time he changes the succession, Genghis makes every Mongol quad send in a video recording an oath of allegiance. Even killing the top ten probably wouldn’t start a civil war because his line of succession is so deep.

  “And destroying every Mongol air force wouldn’t win the war either because they famously have so many veterans. Every active duty quad can be automatically re-enlisted within ten years of leaving. If we kill those quads, which apparently we have, the Khan can call up several million more who either never enlisted or who retired more than a decade ago. American Jack told me these are the troops we face in Siberia, and those we destroyed in Kiev.

  “The problem is that Mongols and their allies breed half a million quads every year just due to population growth. So all they have to do is simply wait until more kids reach puberty. Which means we have to kill them faster than they can be replaced. Which means our real target is the civilian population.

  “As everyone knows, when Genghis Khan united the Mongols, he only had a million people, and only one hundred thousand quads. But, since then, those Mongols have produce one hundred million descendents. Their allies double that. Only about half of those descendents identify themselves as Mongolian or as an ally, but that’s still one hundred million people. And since they reproduce strategically, Mongols have about twice the quads per capita as the rest of the world.

  “In contrast, American University estimates that there would be one hundred million more Americans if the Mongols didn’t sack their cities, burn their crops. and destroy their herds. So you Americans have lost more brothers and sisters than the total population of Mongols in the world. Just imagine how much easier it’d be to win this war if we had another one hundred million Americans helping us.

  “We therefore cannot win this war without destroying every city, town, village and horde in Mongolia, Siberia, Manchuria, and the Stans. We must burn every crop and slaughter every herd. Anything that keeps them alive. You, your home, and your family will never be safe until we exterminate every Mongol quad.

  “As kids, you grew up dreaming of becoming a hero. You sit here before me as warriors. Now I ask you to become something less glorious. I want you to become butchers. And butchers slaughter. That’s their job. And, until we win this war, that is our job.

  “After dad explained all this, I said, okay. He looked at me for the longest time and asked, okay? Okay, I told him. A day before my eighth birthday, I had agreed to kill one hundred million enemies. My father could not have been prouder. And if you help me keep the oath I swore that day, I could not be prouder of you.”

  They rose in the air and twenty thousand wands sang the American anthem. It was so beautiful Billy cried. Which made them cry.

  Of course, what he didn’t mention is that his father told him to fly to Peking the following night and dominate the dueling arena. His mother would never agree, but it had to be done because they could never win without first hallowing out their super-quads.

  At eight years old, Billy understood what he needed to do. And every day since then he thought how best to kill more Mongols faster. Just like most battles are won before they start so, too, did Billy figure out how to win the war before he started.

  William bombed the cities in eastern Mongolia into rubble by pre-deploying munitions brought off ships. That wouldn’t work for western Mongolia, which is why Billy bought bombs and sent them to warehouses in the cities he wanted to destroy. But, unlike his father, Billy only had ten thousand troops.

  With so many Mongols in eastern Siberia, Billy flew them west, then south, around the enemy. It took them a week, flying nights, to reach their target. Billy scouted the city and got directions to the warehouse. He presented images of the paperwork to prove ownership, so the manager helpfully showed him the munitions depot. They walked past dozens of storerooms before they reached the depot.

  “For safety reasons,” the manager explained, “we placed it in a large depression, then threw up berms of earth around it in case of a mass explosion. We divided it into sections. You occupy all of Section 8.”

  He opened the hanger door and led Billy to his storage unit. Billy couldn’t believe how many bombs it contained. He could destroy every stone structure in the city with so many.

  Gleeful, Billy paid to put the bombs in their special packs, then flew to his division, hiding nearby. Before sunset, he took those who spoke the best Mongolian to the munitions depot, waited for most of the employees to leave, then killed the rest.

  Now came the tricky part. The city’s air base operated continuous patrols. Worst still, they located the depot close to the base. Billy had to get ten thousand fliers to the depot without alerting the enemy. They didn’t have time to walk, and they’d be spotted if they flew in.

  So Billy found himself in a cloud at very high altitude soon after sunset. He tracked a patrol, closed the distance, and dived. He matched speed and angle, then sliced the squad without giving them time to sound an alarm.

  Now he moved out to the medium patrol and repeated this. He rose to the east and made an “X” with his hand wands -- two twenty meter flames can be seen from far away. The Americans waited for the outer perimeter patrol to pass by, then hugged the terrain.

  The first company reached the depot by flying in small, odd-numbers groups. Since they didn’t get caught, the second company tried it, too. Then a third.

  The problem was that he could not sneak in ten thousand Americans this way.

  Meanwhile, Billy snuck up on the other patrols, took them out silently, and replaced them with Americans flying the same pattern. Now, at least, he could bring his troops in faster. Every fifteen minutes he got another hundred bombers. What he didn’t know was how much time he had.

  On the tallest building with a view of both the base and the depot, Billy waited for the next patrols to leave. This bought him three more hours. By then he had fourteen hundred bombers ready. He signaled those hiding at the depot, then flew to lead the rest of the division.

  A sentry on the ground sounded a warning when the division was still a kilometer away. His bombers attacked the barracks as they assembled on the flight deck. The resulting explosion woke the entire city.

  Now the fun would start.

  His fourteen hundred blanketed the air base, then descended enough to shoot at everything that moved on the ground, burning to death those trapped inside.

  As Billy predicted, every quad in the city flew up to find out what was going on. His eighty-six companies fanned out over the city and shot everything that flew. Billy led ten of them to the rescue of his bombers, who’d otherwise be overwhelmed by a mob of veterans attacking from above. His bombers returned to the depot for more munitions while Billy’s companies fought off
the militia.

  Mongols had an old adage: “Bombs don’t destroy cities. Fire destroys cities.” Gunpowder bombs knocked holes in solid buildings so fireballs could ignite everything within.

  As Mongols proved over three centuries, formation fliers beat unorganized mobs, despite inferior numbers. Billy proved that again as his companies flew high enough so that relatively few Mongols could reach them. Their first goal was to exhaust the enemy by keeping them in the air and fighting fires on the ground. Then they reduced altitude as fast as they safely could, diving to send volleys into the mass of enemies below them. Instead of fighting many times their number at a time, the Americans actually enjoyed numerical superiority all night long.

  The city burned and Billy let everyone go who left on foot. At dawn, the Americans hunted down any quads and two-wanders who escaped. Before nightfall, they wiped out the remaining residents, then took their maximum weight in bombs. Except Billy, who may need to intercept enemies.

  One lone division destroyed a Mongol city many times their size.

  They flew an hour away, then waited for any Mongols trailing them. Several thousand showed up, eager to strike the Americans as they pretended to sleep. Instead, the rested Americans rose above their ceiling, surrounded them, then waited for the weaker Mongols to tire out before fully engaging.

  They napped as close as they dared to their next city. At midnight they blew past the patrols and bombed the hell out of the air base. Everyone who could fly rose to fight and Billy let them come: his one hundred companies formed a ceiling against a mob of angry Mongols eager for revenge.

  The beauty of pissing enemies off is that their rage impedes their ability to think tactically. Instead of attacking from above, most just rushed his Americans frontally in small groups -- the fastest didn’t even wait for the slowest to catch up.

  Still, Billy had the center of his line pretend to panic and flee at the huge mob flying up to them. Who then turned in the classic Buffalo Horn tactic, used countless times by the Mongol Air Force. This caught the majority of the militia in a pincer movement whereby the Americans could strike them from several directions. Once they broke and fled, the raiders chased them down. While one company secured the munitions depot, the rest firebombed the city. Again, Billy let the survivors flee before destroying them like a good Mongol.

  The Americans stocked up on more bombs and found a forest five hours away to hide in. Billy and his best company surprised the Mongols following them.

  They attacked the next city just before dawn. Patrols actually saw them from far away but did not signal an alarm because they now wore the uniforms of the Mongol Air Force. Billy met their first patrol and bought time by demanding an escort to the air base for his tired troops. The lead patrolman asked for the images authorizing their deployment, so Billy passed him a huge number of images and rejoiced in every extra heartbeat this gave them. When the patrolman didn’t find the authorization he needed, Billy argued with him, finally demanding to speak with his superior. The Mongol, in return, demanded they land.

  It worked, in that Billy got his force that much closer to the base. But, from his altitude, Billy could see a battalion forming in the parade ground. They would not launch until dawn, but enough of them stood around, setting up their gear, to alarm Billy. If a patrol shrieked, that battalion would have time to position themselves favorably against his weighted down bombers.

  “I’m gonna report your insolence to your commander!” Billy shouted with the perfect tone of arrogance that descendents of Genghis Khan made famous.

  He signaled a greeting and landed looking pissed. He asked the closest Mongol where he could find the general. The patrolman landed a minute later and started arguing with him. Billy looked up to see several patrols now surrounding his division. Those seventy patrolmen could cripple his force if they detonated the bombs.

  A general came to sort out all the shouting. Billy threw an imperial tantrum like so many privileged rich kids did, who didn’t think the rules should apply to them. As the general started chewing him out, Billy spied the giant shadow approaching.

  Ignoring the general, he sidestepped a bit to line up the commanders. He pressed his arms against his body to launch his wands, then impaled several Mongols with each blade. Dozens of Mongols stood within twenty meters, so he twirled and sliced them up, not worrying if the cuts were fatal. He popped away from the base while blasting them. This focused their attention on him instead of the battalion in their diving run.

  Billy sprinted towards the closest patrol as they attacked the Americans trying to release their bombs. His company commanders didn’t carry bombs to protect their troops. Billy did his famous scream to draw the attention of the other six patrols now firing on his troops. He only paused them for a moment, but that moment saved lives. Billy sliced up the first patrol and blasted a second. A third panicked, diving away, and a fourth positioned themselves defensively, so Billy went after the fifth squad, shooting them in the backs. His company commanders sliced and blasted the rest.

  A thousand bombs disintegrated the air force base and the division using it. The battalion swung around and broke into companies to finish off survivors.

  The other nine battalions bombed the city, careful to not explode the munitions depot, then formed a giant blanket to shoot the thousands of quads who flew up. All day long the Americans weeded the angry Mongols out. It always surprised Billy how few Mongol quads fled to fight another day.

  Just before sunset, Billy gave the signal to finish them off so they could sleep safely. That night, one battalion stood watch, another hunted Mongols, while the rest slept. After breakfast, they eliminated survivors and loaded up on more bombs. At noon, they surprised the several thousand Mongols who hoped to catch them sleeping.