Collier spoke again.”Five years ago, in Colorado, on your first mission as Red Team, you destroyed the regional command center of the WCA’s military forces. That disrupted their operations in North America enough for us to launch a counter offensive, get back across the Mississippi, and begin to drive the enemy off of the North American continent. This caused the enemy to make his command and control structure even more centralized. The WCA stopped using regional command centers and concentrated its command and control into a few hubs in Europe and Asia; the idea being that we wouldn’t be able attack them so far from our own soil.”
When no one else spoke the Admiral continued. “The WCAs political leadership is always afraid of a military coup; so their command and control is designed to keep unit commanders from conspiring with each other. Every order issued to units above battalion level has to go through a central command hub before being implemented. Take out the central command and its backups and WCA’s forces, won’t be able to communicate with or maneuver any unit larger that a company in a coordinated manner. Instead of fighting an organized, coordinated force we’ll be fighting a bunch isolated, individual units with no way of calling for support.”
Muller stepped forward slightly. “Forgive me, Admiral, but are there not two more such facilities; one in Beijing, and another somewhere in the Himalayas?” he asked.
Hicks nodded. “Yes, there are, Major. Those will be neutralized by less direct means. We’ll explain that later.”
Collier stood by Hicks. “Colonel Carter, General Hicks tells me that you observed that, even if the targets in question were eliminated, that an invasion of Europe on the scale of the World War Two D-Day invasion would be necessary to truly capitalize on their sudden absence. You are, of course, correct,”
Carter and the other team leaders exchanged curious glances as Collier continued. “Once these targets have been taken out, we have half a million troops, with all the necessary support elements ready to be the first wave of such an invasion. With a million more ready to follow up.”
Neither Carter, nor his companions, could hide their astonishment. “Sir, how could you have kept a force that size secret?” Carter asked. “And how are you planning on getting that many troops and their equipment across the Atlantic and still maintain the element of surprise?”
Collier smiled slightly. “We’ll get to that Colonel,” he said. “What I want to know right now is, now that the mission is no longer theoretical and you know how many lives will be at stake, do you still believe that you and your teams can accomplish the mission? I want an honest, no-shit assessment.”
Carter looked questioningly to his friends again; each was nodding in the affirmative. He squared his shoulders and looked at Collier. “Yes, Admiral,” he said finally. “We can get do the job.”
Collier stepped forward and took Carter’s hand. “I’ll consider it done, then. I’ll leave you with General Hicks’” he said, moving toward the blast doors, followed by his aids. “He can take you on the tour through wonderland.” Collier and his entourage left without another word.
“We’ll get to that logistical question in just a minute,” Hicks declared. “First I’ll answer Major Muller’s question about the central command centers in Asia. Major, those two facilities will simply not be a part of the W.C.A.; because Asia will no longer be a part of the W.C.A.” Hicks seemed to take pleasure in seeing the questioning faces on Carter and the others. “We have been in secret talks with Asian leaders. They have informed us that they are preparing to secede from the World Central Authority. We’re planning to coordinate their secession announcement with our strike on Europe.”
“Do we know why the Asians would want to secede?” Garba asked.
“Our intelligence people have been monitoring a lot of resentment of Europe on Asian’s part,” Hicks replied. “A large part of the Asian population is starving, but the W.C.A.’s central planning committee is still ordering most of the food production in Asia to be sent to Europe because their collective farming system has ruined European farmland. Seventy-two of the one hundred members of the Governing Council are white Europeans despite the fact that the Asians have a much larger population. On top of all of that, Asian troops have borne the brunt of the fighting against the United States and FNF; particularly in the Alaskan campaign. The Asians are just fed up.”
“How sure are we about this intelligence, Sir?” Carter asked.
“Dead sure,” Hicks said. “We have independent confirmation from several assets in place.”
“So, any Asian forces garrisoned in Europe won’t fight us?” Price asked.
“They’ll stand down,” Hicks assured him. “More than that, three of the five enemy divisions garrisoning the British Isles are from Asia. We’ve promised those divisions safe passage home during the invasion. Securing Great Briton is the key to the operation’s success.”
“Sir, even with the Asians out of the picture, that still leaves two divisions to oppose an invasion of British Isles; that is still a lot of resistance.”
“True,” Hicks replied. “But one of the two remaining divisions is a recently formed unit from Wales. Intelligence is confident that they will also stand down; they may even join us in liberating their country. The last division is a First Earth Guards division and will have to be destroyed.”
Carter put up a hand. “Sir, I don’t want to seem pessimistic, and I know I'm asking questions that are above my pay-grade, but I’m concerned about the accuracy of the intelligence. It seems like a lot of assumptions are being made. For instance, how do we really know that the Wales division will stand down? Even if the command officers are with us, how do know that the junior officers or even the N.C.Os will go along with them? What if the commanders of the Asian divisions decide to stay with the W.C.A. even though the rest of Asia secedes?”
Hicks smiled to show Carter that he didn’t consider his questioning to be disrespectful. “All I can do is assuring you that the intelligence is solid; I’ve reviewed it all personally, Doug.”
Hicks could tell Carter remained skeptical; and Hicks couldn’t blame him. After all, Hicks only had the opportunity to review intelligence reports; he had not collected the intelligence personally. All he could personally verify was that the reports seemed to be factual and thorough.
Hicks stepped closer to Carter. “The WCA is as worried about their own civilian population rebelling as they are about fighting American and FNF forces,” Hicks answered. “That’s why they deploy troops from one geographic area or ethnic group to garrison areas populated by people of different ethnicities and cultures. It’s easier to oppress strangers than it is your neighbors. The Wales division was just raised last year, and is scheduled to ship out for the Ukraine in two weeks. The WCA brass likes to rotate the units away from their home soil as soon as possible. The troops in the Wales unit consider themselves to be British; and the old Welsh traditions die hard. Give them a chance and turn on the WCA troops and they’ll fight as Englishmen. The Asians will obey the orders from their national government.”
“Sir, if I may ask; what government would that be considering that they are seceding from the world government?” Williams inquired.
“They’re going to call it the Pan-Asian Homogeny,” Hicks said. “They’ve already signed a secret nonaggression pact with us.”
“So the Asians pull out of the war and then watch Europe, the United States, and the FNF fight it out; all sides getting weaker while they get stronger.” Garba observed. “They’ll be interested observers profiting from the misery of others; just like the Corporate Consortium.”
Hicks nodded. “I’m sure that’s what they’re thinking. But, if their pulling out gives us a chance to take down the European parts of the W.C.A., free the conquered nations in Europe, and win at least a period of relative peace, I’ll take that chance.”
Their skepticism mitigated, if not laid completely to rest, the team leaders asked no more questions and Hicks moved on. “Alright troops, let
’s go see the good stuff,” he said, gesturing for them to follow.
There was more winding through narrow corridors and passing through checkpoints before Hicks stopped the group at another elevator. He presented his eye to a retinal scanner, typed in a lengthy code number into a panel on the wall. A guard inside another armored booth then pressed a button and the elevator doors opened and hicks led the group inside. They descended rapidly for nearly two minutes. They passed another checkpoint and entered a mono-rail train car; the rails of which extend into a concrete tunnel that ran in both directions as far as the eye could see.
“Have a seat and strap in,” Hicks said. “This thing accelerates like a bullet.”
Obeying, the team leaders fasten themselves in as Hicks reported their readiness into an intercom on the train car’s wall. There was sudden jolt as the car accelerated. “This thing will hit four hundred miles an hour,” Hicks said, grinning.
“Where are we going Sir?” Carter asked.
“Virginia,” the general said; “the east coast. You all are about to be let in on one hell of a secret.”
“This train is a bit of surprise, Sir,” Price observed.
“This is nothing, Major Price,” Hicks said. “I have a lot to show you.”
“You’re enjoying stringing us along aren’t you, Sir?” Monica asked the general.
Hicks smiled. “You’re damned right I am. The last few years I’ve watched troops like you fighting this war and busting their asses with no victory in sight. I wanted so badly to tell you all that there is hope. I wanted to show you that we could finally win. Today I can, at least, show all of you.”
“So you’re going to make the most your moment of revelation.” Monica chided.
Hick’s smile became a grin. “Abso-fuckin’-lutley,” he said, laughing. Everyone laughed with him. ”I’ll tell you this,” Hicks continued; “Trains like this one run under all of North America, and were right under the enemy’s nose during the occupation. We kept their use to a minimum so they wouldn’t be detected, but they were here. Now that the enemy has been pushed back they’re running coast to coast.”
“Moving troop and supplies completely in secrecy,” Carter said.
“Not just troops and supplies, and not just transportation. There is a whole industrial infrastructure down here. Didn’t any of you wonder how we managed to maintain war production at the level we did during the occupation. We had factory complexes underground that enemy bombs couldn’t touch even if they had known they existed. They routinely destroyed out facilities on the surface, but down here, the factories kept running.”
“I have always assumed that they had dispersed the war production into smaller, hard to find, workshops; the way the Nazi’s did during World War Two,” Muller said.
Hicks nodded. “We did that too, and got quite a bit of production out of those little workshops, but they’re main purpose was to divert enemy attention away from the underground facilities. Some factories were turning out munitions while enemy forces were directly over them. You’ll see part of that infrastructure in an hour or so.”
An hour and fifty minutes later the group exited the train into a vast man-made cavern. What amounted to a city filled it. Carter could estimate the distance between walls to be at least five miles. The ceiling of the cavern was at least a thousand feet above his head. A mass of large, industrial buildings formed the city’s core. Living quarters were arranged in tiers along the cavern walls and there were entrances to tunnels leading to more caverns dispersed at intervals on every tier. Electrically powered vehicles moved along multi-laned streets and thousands of people were moving about from building to building. Light was provided by a cluster of emitters on the cavern’s ceiling that produced light of sun-like brightness. Hundreds of troops could be seen running or marching through the avenues in formation. The scene was awe inspiring.
“How deep are we?” Carter asked.
“Almost six miles down,” Hicks replied. “This chamber is five miles across and there are dozens of other chambers in this complex.”
“Keeping all of this secret is the counter intelligence coup of the century; maybe the millennium," Carter observed. “There are more facilities like this, Sir?” he asked.
“Yes, there are twenty more underground environments like this one; although some are larger. The one under Denver is five times this size. They’re all connected by mono-rails like the one we came here on. The whole system is called the Defense Alternative Relocation Community; or the DARC. This one houses about four-hundred and fifty thousand people in six chambers similar to this one”
“All of this must have taken decades to build,” Beauchamp said. “I did not think we had anything like the technology to even begin to construct something like this. Disposing of the displaced earth would be an immense accomplishment all by itself.”
Hicks turned to Beauchamp. “That’s right Beauchamp; your father was mining engineer wasn’t he?”
“That is right, Sir,” Beauchamp said. “He would be fascinated by this place.”
“Sorry, but your old man wasn't on the need to know list.” Hicks said.” You’re right though, construction of the DARC was begun in 1947. Back then we thought it would be used to survive a full out nuclear war with the old Soviet Union and China. When those threats diminished a terrorist attack with nuclear or biologic weapons was the reason we kept things going down here. There was a lull in construction in the 90s and the whole thing was sort of mothballed with exception of a few key facilities. Things were started again during the Sino-American War in 2040.”
“Where do you get the power for something like this?” Garba asked. “It must take millions of kilowatts just for ventilation.”
Hicks nodded. “Each facility has its own volcanic vent: shafts drilled into the Earth’s molten core. The heat from the volcanic activity produces steam, and the steam drives electrical turbines.”
“That’s how you disposed of the excavated earth,” Beauchamp concluded. “You dumped all down the volcanic vents. All you had to do was explain the dirt that came from digging the vents themselves. You could do that with a few convincing lies.”
Carter chuckled. “When I was a kid I used hear rumors about huge underground complexes the government built in partnership with extra-terrestrials. Those rumors were around for decades. It was all a big disinformation program wasn’t it, Sir? If anyone ever did find out about these underground cities and tried to tell people about them; no one would believe them because the whole subject was already linked to non-existent ETs. Whoever tried to leak the information would be written off as insane.”
Hicks nodded again. “Right, and there were other cover stories too. From Freemasons building underground shelters so that they could wait out the Apocalypse, to and elitist cult of ultra-rich people building bunkers to survive a meteor or comet strike. We just put out one bullshit story after another until no one would believe the truth even if we decided to tell it.”
Muller stepped forward a bit. “Forgive me General,” he said. “But if we had the technology to do all of this; one would think that we would have had the technology to end this war before it had begun.”
“The tech we used to build this place is impressive, but it did take decades to build the DARC,” Hicks replied. “The machines and techniques used to build the DARC weren’t designed for warfare and most of the factories weren’t even running at full capacity when the war began. It was decided to keep the DARC secret until we could use it to help throw a knock-out punch. Now, with the PAC up and running and the Asians ready to dump the WCA, we can throw that punch.”
Muller nodded his acceptance. Hicks continued. “Let’s go see the really good stuff,” He said.
He led the way up through a long passage way that opened into another massive steel door. A guard verified their identifications and then worked several controls on console imbedded in the wall. The door opened and the group entered another smaller room and the group found a second s
teel door in front of them.
The first door sealed behind them. There was a rush of air and the sounds of high-speed fans and everyone could feel a change in air pressure. Exiting the room, they stepped onto an observation platform positioned twenty feet above a cavernous chamber with huge pool of ocean water at its center. Surrounding the edge of pool were dozens concrete and steel docks; each one housing a gigantic submarine. Directly opposite the observation platform was a concrete tunnel that allowed the submarines access to the sea.
The submarines were shaped like round, bulbous cigars and each had four retractable doors on top of the hull; two in front of the comparatively small command tower and two behind it. The doors were open on one of the subs; revealing hangers that held several helicopters each. There were huge clamshell-like doors on the bow to allow landing craft and fighting vehicles to be deployed. The vessels had a utilitarian, brutish look to them; their purpose was clear.
Hicks touched Carter on his shoulder. “Doug, this is how we are going to get our first wave of troops across the Atlantic; the Rickover class amphibious assault submarine. Each one can transport a fully equipped combat division and its support elements. We have twenty of them.”
“This is all incredible,” Winters commented. “Those subs are enormous; they must have cost trillions of credits each to build.”
“They weren’t cheap, but they didn’t cost as much as you might think. They’re designed for a one way trip. Once they have delivered our troops, they’ll beach themselves and act as temporary harbors and logistics bases. We have submersible aircraft carriers as well; they’ll provide air cover for the invasion. Those ships are birthed elsewhere. ”
Carter was silent for a moment."Sir, the amount resources this all would have taken is mindboggling; and to do it all without a security leak, is miraculous.”
The Fate Of Nations: F.I.R.E. Team Alpha: Book One Page 10
