by Ira Tabankin
The rest of the commanding officers snap to attention. They salute the fleet admiral, who orders them back to their ships.
The American Navy surged every warship it could to the Pacific. Ships that were in dry dock for repairs are quickly refloated so they can join the upcoming battle. The US Navy has twelve experimental F35C stealth fighters. The CNO orders the training squadron to join the USS Ronald Regan. Every F/A18E and F are sent to the Pacific Fleet while their F/A18C and Ds are sent to the Atlantic carriers. The Navy’s plan is to use the airfield at Pearl Harbor to operate P3 and P8 anti-submarine planes. They also plan to base F/A 18s providing CAP (combat air patrol) over Hawaii, plus replacement fighters for the any the carriers lose in the upcoming battle.
All of the ship’s weapon systems are checked while each ship’s armories and vertical launch cells are fully loaded with war shots. In Hawaii commercial and navy technicians are working 24 hours a day to bring the USS Missouri back to life. Cranes move equipment while others remove museum displays. 16-inch shells and powder are trucked to the ship. Fuel oil is pumped into the ship’s tanks. Nine weeks after the China crisis began Captain Jefferson orders the ship’s boilers lit for the first time in twenty years. Thirty minutes after the boiler ignition the USS Missouri is generating its own power. Captain Jefferson informs the crew he wants to leave port in three days so they can join the Seventh Fleet. No weapon in China’s arsenal, except for a nuclear weapon can penetrate the Missouri’s 16” thick armor. The CNO plans to use the Missouri to lead the American battle fleet. She’ll be escorted by five Virginia-class fast attack submarines. The CNO plans to have the Missouri launch 32 Tomahawk anti-ship missiles while her 16” guns fire. Her 2,800-pound shells have a range of 30 miles. Battleship sailors volunteer to take the Missouri into battle since it will be the first battleship to fight a fleet battle in the largest sea battle since the Second World War. It’s also most likely the last time a Battleship goes in harms way.
Chapter 23
An hour before dawn finds every able-bodied adult in the front yard digging new trenches and placing as many mines as we can build. We placed our entire inventory of mines, including our reserves hoping they will be able to slow down the mob who will sooner or later come across the road to investigate our farms. Looking at the lawn, I don’t think anyone is going to be able to set foot on our property without setting off a mine. The problem is once a mine goes off, it’s gone. People coming in behind the first wave won’t be slowed down by the mines. While we’re planting the mines, the older teens are helping make pipe bombs which we’ll use as hand grenades. John is turning two backpack water sprayers into flame throwers. We also plan to dig a trench in front of our fighting trench which we line with straw and jellied gasoline. We plan to light it if we’re getting overrun. Our defense plans are starting to resemble the dark ages, we’re only missing the castle and boiling pitch to pour on the attackers.
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The mob across the street is happy. They are well rested and for the first time in months they are resting with full bellies. 180 miles away in Knoxville eight motorcycle gangs merged to form a new club they call the Son’s of the Devil MC. 375 hardened men and women had finished raiding the outskirts of Knoxville before 1,200 armed citizens drove them off in a battle that went back and forth for five days. The citizens greater numbers won out over the gang’s mobility, the gang was forced out of Knoxville. The leader of the combined gang, Big Dutch, decided they should move towards Nashville. The 375 survivors ride west on Interstate 40 towards Nashville. They stop at every town along Interstate 40, where they rob to take what they want. Houses are robbed of their food and water, women are raped, hospitals and doctors’ offices are broken into for drugs. In normal times the trip between Knoxville and Nashville takes less than three hours, the gang is taking their time to stop at every town, and rest stop. Big Dutch decides to spend the night on the outskirts of Cookeville, the largest micropolitan area in Tennessee with a population of 106,000. Big Dutch figures Cookeville is large enough to have food, fuel and water and also spread out enough, it will be hard for the people to come together to put up a fight. The gang picked up 20 additional people as they rode on Interstate 40 West. There were almost 400 heavily armed gang members who entered the southern subdivisions of Cookeville. The gang took the town by surprise. They rode into small subdivisions, right up to people’s front doors or rear sliding doors which they kicked in, taking what they want. They left subdivisions in ruins, many burning out of control with many families trapped inside after the gang stripped the homes bare. They captured twenty young women aged between 16 and 30. The gang plans on using the women before they sell them to other gangs for drugs and gasoline. Big Dutch looks at a map before retiring for the evening. He decides their next stop will be a rural area about 40 miles north of Nashville, an area of small farms that should be able to supply his gang with food and water until their next stop. His goal is to reach the coast at Mobile, Alabama.
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We worked 18 hour days improving our defenses. We used the last of our barbed wire to increase the depth of our fence, we placed over 900 land mines, we dug up all of our front yards with punji pits and buried hunting traps. Our two backhoes dug a trench in front of our main fighting trench which we planned to set on fire, hopefully trapping people between the barbed wire and the trenches. We flew our drones over the farms across the street to keep track of the mobs. So far, they haven’t moved from their tent city, which is good and bad news. Good in that they haven’t moved towards us, bad in that every day they don’t invade us, our nerves are getting worn thin. We’ve even started to fight with each other. Our tempers have grown short, we’re sensitive to everyday comments, we’re overly sensitive to everything due to our general lack of sleep and extremely high-stress levels. None of us knows how much longer we can continue this way. On the fifth day of nothing happening, Fred had an idea. He suggested we pause and have a community barbecue suggesting this was a good time to allow each adult three beers out of our strategic alcohol supply. At 7:00 PM we started grilling one of the cows that we planned to slaughter two months from now to help take us through the winter. We allowed everyone to leave the trench for a couple of hours while John and Todd took turns manning the monitors in the security shelter. Eric dragged out some speakers which enabled us to have music at the barbecue. Everyone’s mood started to increase as the fresh hot beef and beers mellowed them out. We sat in folding chairs around long folding tables, taking a break. Our stress started to melt away, we smiled for the first time in five days. The beer hit some of us harder than normal since most of us worked through lunch and we haven’t had any alcohol in a week. We didn’t realize our music and the smoke from our BBQ pit drifted across the street to the mob. Robert’s ears heard the music, he knew someone was having a party without inviting them. When he smelled the grilling meat, he knew the complex across the street was larger than he thought. He called the leaders of the mob together for a council meeting.
“That farm Jack found across the street is having a party, music, grilled meat, they might even have beer. I don’t think it’s nice of them to have a party without inviting us. We’re right across the street from them. I’m sure they know we’re here.”
Jack asks, “Why do you think they know we’re here?”
“Because I’ve seen a small drone flying over us twice. The only place it could have come from is across the road. Those small commercial drones don’t have much range. The only location close enough to have launched the drone was across the road. They know we’re here, they know how many of us there are. They most likely don’t know how we’re armed or any other resources we have.”
Drew, one of the other leaders asked, “Robert, what do you suggest we do? We all saw their barbed wire fences and their welded gates. How do we get into their complex?”
Robert smiled, “We’re on a farm, there are plenty of sheets of wood here. We can lay the plywood over the barbed wire, we can walk across
their fences. We don’t need to break through the gate. There can’t be as many of them as there are of us.”
“Drew shakes his head, “Robert, maybe they’re armed and waiting for us or someone else like us to attack them. If it were me, I’d have spent the last few months building defensive positions. Before we attack them, we need information. We need to know what we’ll be facing when we cross the barbed wire.”
“Drew, how do you think we can get the information?”
“Can we capture their drone? The farm houses have laptops, if we can capture it, maybe we can figure out how to use it to get a look at their location.”
“Drew, good idea if we had a controller and the way to change the frequency so we control the drone and use it against those who are spying on us.”
Jack smiles, saying, “We can do this. I found an X-Box in the basement, it has controllers, I’m sure we can find the circuit board controller. If we change the switch settings, we’ll be changing the frequency. If we can connect the drone’s PC board to the laptop, we might be able to look at the flight program and just reverse it.”
Everyone nods, Robert says, “Worth a try, they usually send it twice a day.”
While the mob leaders discuss what to do, Todd prepares to send the drone across the street, he calls to John, “John, do you hear me?”
“I’m 5 by 5, what’s up?”
“Winds are a little strong today, think we should launch her?”
“Yes, we need to make sure they haven’t moved or changed anything since this morning. The drone should be fine. I’m ready here, pick it up and send it flying.”
“Roger, here goes.”
Todd lifts his arms as high as he can with the drone in them, the drone’s four small motors are spinning, the drone rises from his hands and starts flying across the road.
Robert and the other leaders hear someone yell, “Drone.”
Robert says, “Let’s go, this is our chance to capture it and turn the tables on those across the road.” The leaders run out of the farm house as the drone begins to slowly circle the farm house. Jack yells, “I found a long handle fishing net, I think we can grab the drone with it.” Jack runs after the drone failing four times to capture it. On his fifth attempt, he gets the drone into the net. He gently brings it down to the ground. “I got it! I got it!”
Robert and Drew run to where Jack is holding the drone. He hands it to Drew, who says, “Jack, let’s see if we can reverse this sucker’s course and turn the tables on the assholes across the road.”
A thin teen walks out of the crowd watching them, saying, “I know how to reprogram it. I used to make drones like this in my basement. I can help you.”
Drew says, “Everyone, make a hole, let the drone expert through. Son, what’s your name?”
“Scot, most of the friends I had called me Scotty.”
“Well, Scotty, I think we’d like you to take this drone to engineering and reprogram it. Make sure it’s disrupters are set on stun and don’t enter warp speed inside the atmosphere.”
Scotty’s face breaks out into a huge smile, “Captain, yes sir. Right away sir.”
Scotty grabs the drone running towards the farm house to reprogram it.
Robert smiles, “Drew, how did you know to address him as Scotty in Star Trek?”
Laughing, Drew responds, “Any geek who’s named Scotty is going to be into Star Trek. I bet you he’ll be back soon with the drone programmed and running better than we got it.”
“No bet. I think you’re right. Did you know he was in the group?”
“No, I sometimes wonder who else in mixed in with the people we don’t know shit about. I wonder what other skills we’re overlooking by not getting to know everyone just a little bit.”
“I think you’re right. While Scotty is reprogramming the drone, let’s start with the group in front of us.”
Smiling Drew nods his agreement.
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Big Dutch is leading the gang towards Nashville. He figures they could have been there yesterday, but every town they stop in seems to have food, liquor, and nice women. They party in every town they come to. Big and his gang are happy. Their bellies are full, they’ve all had sex as often as they’ve wanted, their numbers steadily increase, the club is now approaching 450 riding all types of bikes and 15 trikes. Big is thinking this crisis has been the best thing that’s ever happened to them. No police, no bullshit lawyers and judges, no having to kiss anyone’s ass. So far, it's been pure pleasure.
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An hour after receiving the drone Scotty returns with the drone and a huge smile. “It’s ready and better than new.”
Robert, who’s been sitting in a large group of people chatting about their backgrounds, asks, “Scotty, how did you improve it?”
“The drone we captured from the Klingons couldn’t transmit, they flew it over us, when it returned home, they had to load the memory card in a laptop to view the video. I found some laptops and PC boards, I amplified the WiFi signal so that we can stream video from the drone when it flies across the road. We’ll see them in real time.”
Robert asks, “Will they be able to control the drone away from us?”
Smiling Scotty shakes his head saying, “Nobody is going to hack my programming. I used to be able to hack almost any system. All we need is to watch and control it from this laptop using the controllers I have plugged into it.”
Drew smiles, saying, “Scotty, you are hereby promoted to LT Commander and placed in charge of all electronics and programming. You are also hereby named as drone controller, we’re ready when you are, let her fly.”
Scotty smiles, saying, “It’s easier from inside the house so I can place the laptop on a table. I can connect the laptop to other displays so others can watch at the same time.”
Robert pats Scotty on his head saying, “Commander, lead on.”
Scotty launches the drone. Drew, Robert, and Jack look over his shoulder as he pilots the drone across the road. He flies the drone up the driveway, making sure they get a good view of the fighting trench. Drew says, “Whoa, I don’t like that. It looks like a fighting trench from the First World War. It looks very well protected. If they have machine guns, they could cut us down before we even got to the trench. Look at the walls in front of the trench. They have firing slots in them.”
Robert points to the first trench, “What’s the other trench?”
Drew asks Scotty, “Can you move the drone to look at the other trench?”
“Sure, watch this.” The new trench appears on the display,
Robert says, “Shit, that trench looks like it’s designed to stop us. It’s got hay in the bottom of it, I bet they are going to pump gas into the trench and set it on fire, along with any of us that get caught in it.”
Drew nods his agreement, “I wonder what other traps and tricks they have prepared for us.”
The drone flies over the back yard where everyone is sitting around the fire pit drinking beers. Robert points at the screen saying, “Look, they have M4s or M16s ready, they also have magazine belts next to the rifles and helmets and armored vests. These people don’t fool around. They’re armed to repel an armed attack. I think we’re going to have to think how we attack these people.”
Jack asks, “Scotty can you show us their fields and other parts of the farm?”
“Sure.” He increases the height of the drone while slowly spinning it around, they see a large farm and the other homes. Jack says, “The barns are made of cement, not wood. This is going to be a hard nut to crack.”
Robert shakes his head, “No, it won’t. Notice almost all of their defenses are pointed towards the front of their property? If we cross onto their property from the sides and come at them from their rear, I think we can surprise them and possibly take them without losing a lot of people.”
Drew says, “We’re going to have to send some people directly up their driveway, it’s what they’re expecting. If we don’t, they may increase
their security in the rear, which might catch us out in the open.”
“We’ll have to ask for volunteers, I don’t want to order people to their certain death.”
The other two nod their agreement.
