The Rangers Are Coming

by Phil Walker

  Then it was off to the mess hall. Robby remembered how hungry he was when he’d gotten his first meal, and how surprised at how good and plentiful the food was. He didn’t give them any more time to eat it than he had had. In exactly 45 minutes, they were moving in a line toward the classroom building and instructors took over to separate the men and women by education levels.

  When the day was over a lieutenant came out to give Robby a report. “It’s a about what we expected. About half the platoon is functionally illiterate. We can fix that in fairly short order with the computer enhanced learning programs. None of them has IQ’s so low they can’t learn. They are ignorant, and unschooled, not stupid. You do have some pretty bright people in your group, especially two of the women. We’ll push them along into higher studies as fast as they can absorb it.”

  The training got underway in earnest the next morning. Robby and his Sergeants drove the platoon very hard for a month. They were shaping up into a good platoon. When the specialized training began that involved other instructors, Robby was sent to the Special Education center, which was also at Fort Liberty.

  The elements of business, trade, commerce, and finance, diplomacy, and the history of the world, with special emphasis on Europe were presented in sections and he learned them. He became very proficient at operating a computer.

  Part of the special education was a stream of information regarding the politics going on in Europe. Apparently, the American ambassadors to the major countries were able to stay in contact by radio with central command. The French and the Spanish were pushing hard to form a coalition with the great powers to mount an offensive on North America. The voice of caution was coming from the British, who had first-hand experience with the tremendous capabilities of the American army. All of the European powers were madly trying to regain what they had lost in the Americas by absorbing other weaker countries in the world.

  A big part of his education was learning the long strides being made in America. With the election of George Washington as President in November of 1776, he was able to organize departments to handle the many enterprises the country needed. Arcadia made sure that money was not a problem, even though the flat rate system of taxes was working very well.

  The most important projects underway were the development of bigger and more efficient steel mills. There were now half a dozen Bessemer plants in operation and specialized products of all kinds being manufactured in revolutionary assembly lines. Products coming out were tools of all kinds from hammers to saws to shovels all produced at a fraction of the price of what it had cost to hand forge these products.

  The power for these mills and other factories was coming from improved hydroelectric plants. The simple generators Ben Franklin had seen were now being built in full sized versions and power was pouring out.

  One of the priorities for the country was a working transportation system. The first rail line between Philadelphia and Boston was completed in 1778. At the same time, construction began on the first transcontinental railroad.

  There was not a single unemployed person in the country and the biggest problem for many of the projects was a shortage of labor. Washington solved this problem by importing hundreds of thousands of starving peasants from Mexico, Central America and some of the Caribbean Islands. They were housed, educated, provided with ample opportunities to worship God in the Roman Catholic tradition, and paid more money each month than any of them had ever seen in their lives.

  In return, the emigrants returned the benefits they were receiving by working very hard. Washington limited all workdays for the whole country to ten hours and everyone had no work on Sunday. This, in itself, was a big improvement in the working conditions that people had previously known.

  America adapted the steam engines from the locomotives to the shipping industry. The plants started turning out materials to build steel-hulled ships with powerful steam engines. Soon, a growing fleet of ships was coming out of the graving yards. They were stronger, faster, safer, and had a much bigger capacity for carrying cargo.

  Another industry that was emphasized was textiles. The special education department got a few hints, here and there, from people disguised as students in the classes, but were actually trained technicians. In record time, the concept of the modern power loom came off the drawing boards. The British would not reach this level of sophistication for almost a hundred years. Cotton that would have normally gone to England to be turned into clothing and textiles, was now sent to plants located near the source. The southern states began to be the leaders in the manufacturing of cloth. Best of all, it was produced by former slaves whose standard of living improved along with the plantation owners. The introduction of the cotton gin significantly increased the amount of cotton that could be grown and processed. The manpower for this expanding enterprise came mostly from Mexico and Central America. No new slaves were imported from Africa.

  Much of this was still in development when Robby started in the Special Education school. It didn’t stay that way very long.

  Robby left the school after a month of intensive study and returned to his platoon to guide them through their year of training. They graduated 40 recruits and they went on to their permanent units for specialized training in the full range of Ranger operations. It was a fast year, and a second brigade of Rangers was just a year short of being operational.

  29

  The New District of Columbia

  Arcadia stood in the center of her office and looked at the big model of Washington, D.C. It was almost a perfect copy of the real Washington she had known all her life, but was now just a smoking radioactive ruin in 2025. She had made a few small changes, but it was substantially the same Capital. Of course, most of it was still not built. She had a crew of 50 men who had come with her from Branson, all top-notch architects, contractors, electricians, plumbers, and top worker supervisors. To this, she added 10,000 workers. The first year they all lived and ate in tents until the building that would be the National History Museum was finished. It was large enough to house the work crews with offices for all the supervisors, and one for Arcadia.

  The actual Capital was still in Philadelphia where Washington lived as President and Congress continued to meet in Liberty Hall and another building nearby. The government was still small, but very efficient.

  The job of transforming a largely agrarian society into one with an expanding industrial infrastructure was daunting. Arcadia was pleased with the progress. People can do and accomplish amazing things when properly motivated. In the five years since the Rangers and the Navy had consolidated the territory of the new United States, Arcadia had pushed forward on all fronts. She looked at the list that showed her inventory. She had:

  Six Bessemer Steel Plants

  Twelve hydroelectric plants, each producing 250 megawatts per day

  Ten modern textile mills with power looms producing 100,000 yards of cloth daily

  One transcontinental railroad that ran from New York to San Francisco Bay

  An operational railroad running from Philadelphia to Boston

  10 times as much land was under cultivation with the addition of the grain harvester, and power drill for seeds. One of the first outposts she established was in central Iowa, and she had 50,000 acres of corn in cultivation. The production of wheat in Kansas was turning out ten million pounds of flour every year.

  There were a large number of manufacturing and fabrication plants that were building consumer goods of all kinds in assembly lines.

  The oil fields in Pennsylvania and the associated refinery were turning out ten million barrels of fuel a year. This kept all the Humvees, Bradley’s, ATVs, and a fleet of helicopters running and flying.

  Just after they had made the time jump, they had launched a dozen communication and surveillance satellites into orbit, grouped over North America and Europe. This was the secret of why the radios worked everywhere in the country and gave the government direct communications with the foreign am
bassadors in the main European Capitals.

  They had completed 10 steel, steam driven freighters with the keels laid and progress toward completion on 20 more.

  Based on her understanding of history, Arcadia estimated the United States was now about 100 years ahead of the technology of any other country in the world.

  After the establishment of the United States of America, the government established embassies in all the European capitals. The Europeans were pragmatic enough to realize the America was a country, whether the liked it or not, and recognized its sovereignty. The ambassadors quickly reestablished trading relations with all countries. Trade steadily increased. However, the trade was limited to the products the old colonies had always exported, cotton, tobacco, and food. The growing inventory of new and cheap consumer products, tools, textiles, and ships, were held back for a better time.

  The ambassadors gave speeches all over each country inviting people to immigrate to America and promising several things. First, was credit for sailing and rail transportation, and a thing called the Homestead Act. This had actually happened in 1862, but Arcadia got it pushed through Congress in 1778. It offered 160 acres of free land with a ten-dollar filing fee and a promise to work the land for no less than five years or until the bill for transportation had been paid. It was a seductive offer and hundreds of thousands of people began heading for the United States.

  Despite all the apparent good will and increasing trade and immigration, Arcadia knew from the network of informants financed by the ambassadors, that the French, Spanish, Dutch and, increasingly, the British were plotting a mass invasion of the United States and the return of all their holdings. Large amounts of money were spent to, secretly, build an enormous armada of war and troop ships, and assemble a huge professional army.

  Of course, this took time. Arcadia figured the worst-case scenario was five years, which was the reason a second Brigade of Rangers were formed. The best-case scenario was ten years, which would allow the United States to build more infrastructure, stock up a bigger inventory of new products, train more workers, and allow the Special Education school to begin turning out more original work.

  One of the products that Arcadia wanted to sell in large numbers around the world was wagons of all kinds, freight wagons, coaches, and elegant carriages. She knew that she could mass-produce large numbers of wagons with great strength and quality, cheaper than any, in the world could. However, the feature that would make the biggest difference was rubber tires. This was one thing that the United States did not have. Knowing that rubber originally came from South America, she sent the big cargo ship and a team of experts to collect a large supply. The cargo ship was gone for months, but returned with a cargo hold full of rubber. A regular shipment schedule was arranged.

  With a supply of rubber stored in warehouses, Arcadia shipped some to the Special Education school, and with just a little help, developed vulcanization. That gave her what she needed and she started a factory building wagons with steel hubs and rubber tires. Soon hundreds of wagons began pouring off the assembly line.

  The Special Education school surprised Arcadia by adapting rubber to many other uses. Soon she had rubber boots, rubber hoses, and many other applications. She set up more factories to produce the products.

  Overnight, the United States was becoming a world power, but the rest of the world was completely ignorant of that fact.

  Arcadia had set a five to ten year window before Europe struck back at the upstart Americans. As it turned out, she got nine years.

  She had plenty of notice from the network of spies in Europe, plus the surveillance photos from the satellites showed large numbers of ships gathering at ports in England, France, Rotterdam, and Spain. At the same time, troops began to make their way to the ports. Arcadia, Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin sifted through the information. The obvious points of attack would be the principal American ports, Boston, New York, the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and further south at Charleston. The might even try to put a fleet into New Orleans. Washington considered that unlikely, but believed Havana, Puerto Rico, and Nassau were possible.

  “I believe they will stick to the major ports,” said Washington. They have to land enough troops and equipment to occupy the bigger cities and use them for bases to strike up and down the coast. What is your estimate, Arcadia of the number of ships our navy can intercept?”

  “That depends on how they disburse the fleet. If they sail most of it in one convoy, it will be a turkey shoot. I don’t believe that’s going to happen. I believe we will see at least four major convoys, Boston and New York for sure, and probably Baltimore. However, I’m betting that they put a good portion of their troops ashore in Charleston.”

  “Why do you think that,” asked Jefferson?

  “Better weather, smaller population to overwhelm, and a straight shot up the coast to link up with a big force they put ashore in either Boston or New York.”

  “So how many ships will get through,” repeated Washington?

  “Maybe 200, or more, said Arcadia. There’s a limit to what our ships can do. They have limited ammunition. The submarine can pick off 30 of the biggest ships. That’s how many torpedoes they have onboard. I would put it down in the Caribbean.”

  “That leaves us with 3 ships to cover five or six ports.”

  “Once the ships are within range of the helicopters we can do a lot of damage with those. If they get inside 10 miles, we can even use the 105s.

  “Can we distinguish the difference between troop ships and battleships,” asked Franklin?

  “Yes, the battleships will show row upon row of cannons. The troop ships will have fewer guns to hold more men,” said Arcadia.

  “If I were in command of this force,” said Washington, I would not want my troops scattered over hundreds of miles. I would concentrate on two main landing points and try to flank whatever forces were in between.”

  “So where would you land,” asked Jefferson?

  “I agree with Arcadia about a major landing at Charleston. The next port I would pick would be New York.”

  “We have a lot to lose in this,” said Arcadia. We can’t afford to lose our steel plants or all the factories around them. They’re not far from Philadelphia. We have our big Textile Mills in Georgia, close to Atlanta plus we have a large civilian population to protect. When the armada actually sets sail, we’ll have a good idea where they are going. A city we can rebuild, but we can’t afford losing a lot of people. I think we need to plan to evacuate the target cities.”

  “I can organize that,” said Jefferson.

  “Forts Independence and Liberty will be empty, you can put at least 20,000 there,” said Arcadia.

  “We’ll need big tent camps for New York and Charleston.”

  “Get with the permanent party at both Forts and see what you can arrange.”

  “It looks like we have done all the planning we can until we know more,” said Franklin. “Let’s go to dinner.

  Arcadia hated it, but she had to agree. The waiting game was starting.

  30

  The Atlantic Ocean

  The armada sailed for America on April 20, 1788. The Americans had the great advantage of knowing when European powers were sailing, believing they had the element of surprise.

  “They have sailed,” said Arcadia at the meeting in the big conference room at Fort Independence. “It looks like they have 1080 ships sailing from England, Rotterdam, Calais in France, and from Spanish ports. They have troop ships with 50,000 men on them. That’s about 650 ships. That means 430 battleships. They aren’t moving very fast. We estimate about a month for the passage. Based on their tracks, the computers say that Boston will not be a target. They predict New York for sure, with lower probabilities for Philadelphia and Baltimore. At least half the troop ships are on a course for Charleston. It looks like your original projection of concentrating their ground forces in just a couple of places was right, Mr. President.”

&
nbsp; On board the British flagship Citation, Admiral Malley was meeting with his staff. “Gentlemen, the signals from all the ships in the northern fleet tell us that our entire fleet has sailed from the British ports, as well as Rotterdam, and from France. We can assume the Spanish have also sailed.”

  “Our plan remains the same. We want to strike at the heart of the American continent. Our principal target is the city of New York. There is more anchorage there than any other port and more places to disembark our troops and their equipment. We will bombard New York, inflicting the maximum damage on the population, then we will move inland and south toward Philadelphia and Baltimore. We expect the greatest opposition at this point. The Americans will have withdrawn to defend their biggest city. Of course, the element of surprise and the sheer size of our army should demoralize the Americans and reduce them to rabble.”

  “Admiral,” asked one of the senior staff “is it possible the Americans have kept their force of Rangers intact? The reports of their effectiveness against General Howe are quite graphic.”

  “General Howe was led into an ambush and his force of less than 6,000 soldiers was harassed by militia fighting from tree to tree, until he was forced to surrender.”

  “I’ve read his official report and he states that his entire army was decimated in less than 30 minutes by a force of demons which seemed to possess enormous firepower.”

  “The Spaniards have given similar reports of an army of ferocious soldiers called Rangers. There reports say that entire companies of men ran away when they heard the words, ‘The Rangers Are Coming’.”

  “What else would you expect from the Spanish? That is why we’ve given them the much easier target of Charleston, augmented by several of our best companies of men, of course. Besides, armies are expensive to maintain. I doubt the Americans can do that and have disbanded their entire force.”

  Day by day, the Commander in Chief of all military forces, President George Washington, watched the photographs from the reconnaissance satellites. Arcadia was his constant companion, as was Ben Franklin. The pictures showed two distinct groups. The computer track for the northern group still indicated New York was the target. The southern group was dead on toward Charleston with a squadron breaking off toward Havana.