Casserine

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “We thought maybe you folks could use a hand.”

  “This is treason,” Datskill screamed, pointing at the Marine Major. “You can be executed for this, Major.”

  President Constantine, who had been silent through the last few moments’ actions, had been watching Shakir and Datskill with dawning apprehension. Rodriguez had moved away from the other men near him, and he exchanged a questioning glance with Constantine. Johnson, in the meantime, had moved back to exchange greetings with Jake’s companions, who were visibly relieved to see the Marines.

  “Can you shoot that traitorous prick for me, Vic” Mercer said loudly, gesturing at Datskill, who dropped down behind the lectern as McClure’s squad took aim at him in an instant.

  “At your command, Sir,” McClure said. “Shall I drag him out ofthere.”

  “Easy boys,” Jake said, turning towards the Marines. “Let’s not let this get out of hand. I believe President Constantine has enough to think about now. He’s your Commander-In-Chief, if I understand the law correctly.”

  Turning back to face the lectern, as the Marines lowered their weapons, Jake continued. “We don’t want any trouble, Sir, but I believe the disc will explain many things, and I would suggest letting all of your fellow citizens view it. There are probably more of these Earth Command moles in your midst, and it would be to the benefit of the United States, if your citizenry were wary of them.”

  Constantine nodded in agreement. “I see.”

  Shakir drew a hand weapon from inside his jacket. He aimed it at a startled Constantine, just before a particle beam blast took off the side of Shakir’s head, fired from Private McClure’s rifle. Rodriguez reached down, as Shakir’s body dropped to the floor, and pulled a whining Datskill out from under the lectern. Rodriguez waved over a few of the security people, and roughly pushed Datskill into their midst. They handcuffed their squirming prisoner, as he protested his innocence.

  Constantine regained his composure, and addressed the hushed chamber. “It appears we know very little about our troubles. I confess to having been under the illusion we might be able to make some kind of peace with the former Earth Command, but I see now we will have to do it from a position of overwhelming force. I am grateful to General Matthews and his friends for such a pointed lesson.”

  “I am sorry it turned out this way,” Jake reiterated. “We had hoped to go over the disc with you, and let you discover the problem on your own, but I could not take the chance Hassan might get away from me.”

  “I understand, General,” Constantine replied wearily, looking around at the United States Marines, who had rushed in to back Jake’s play. “I see also how General Risling picked you out of all the other personnel under his command, to lead his colonial military. It seems even our own military have given their allegiance to you.”

  “We will all wear the United States Flag on our uniforms throughout the colonies, and it will fly over the planets under our protection,” Jake stated with emotion, and the chamber reacted to his words with loud applause. “I ask only for military operations to be under a military governorship out there. We want to operate in the colonies in a free market, and trade openly, keeping a fair part of what we earn. This interplanetary war must drive us together rather than apart. I would like to remain long enough to ensure your resources do not get sidetracked into Earth issues, as the survival of all of us depends on our readiness to meet this alien threat. If we take the Intrepid on a tour of these countries belonging to the Earth Command, we can make them realize their plight.”

  “I can also see why ancient Rome never allowed a triumphant general to enter Rome at the head of his armies,” Constantine joked. He paused for a moment, as the gallery waited tensely for his decision. “Very well, General Matthews, take the Intrepid and our new warship with you on your tour. Our ambassadors will go with you, and present our ultimatum. There will be no more half measures. If I can get my colleagues in the congress to agree, you will have our permission to make friends on our terms, or crush our enemies.”

  The whole building erupted in celebration, lasting nearly five minutes. Jake could see the President would have very little trouble getting a resolution for what he stated. When the crowd quieted finally, the President and Speaker of the House came down to shake hands. Their words still carried to the chamber of onlookers.

  “As Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces of the United States, I hereby appoint General Risling, of the now United States military base at Genoa, the military governor for the Colonies,” Constantine said loudly to the cheers of all assembled. “I promote Brigadier General Matthews to Major General, and supreme commander of all forces arrayed in the future against the aliens. General Risling will be our direct link to you, General, but he will call the shots as far as the feasibility of military missions in the future. We will update Genoa as we can, and I hope we can count on all of you to reciprocate. I see a brilliant prospect for a prosperous relationship.”

  “You won’t regret this, Sir,” Jake said, shaking his hand again. He held up a fist in the air. “God Bless America!”

  The roar swept down from the gallery, engulfed the congress, and filled the chamber with sound. Outside, the thousands in attendance, who had witnessed the entire meeting, rallied on into the night.

  Chapter 26

  The Fall of Earth Command

  The two huge starships, Intrepid and Yorktown, blotted out the sun over Riyadh, capitol city of the United Arab Emirate. Lieutenant Dougherty had helped ground support install the new shielding Major Richardson had created. He watched at the observation port with Jake and Mercer, as pulse weapons on the ground pummeled the two ships without letup. Dougherty entered figures into one keyboard as he received plotting coordinates from another monitor. The three remained silent as the mobile weapons plotter, Dougherty had made up, finished with the last of the figures.

  “Nick’s shielding couldn’t have received a better trial run,” Jakesaid.

  “Man,” Mercer agreed. “I can barely feel the hits. When do we get to introduce ourselves Tim?”

  “Right about now,” Dougherty answered, as he punched in his last direction.

  The three crowded closer to the port as the weapons array of the Intrepid opened up, using Dougherty’s firing coordinates. All of the pulse weapon batteries on the ground were vaporized in a matter of moments, leaving a smoky residue hanging over the area like a fog bank. They waited for other signs of ground defense, but all they could see was small arms fire, which looked like pinpoint beams of light.

  “Can we get a closer look at the area we’re taking small arms bursts from, Tim?” Jake asked curiously. “It’s hard to believe anyone would be shooting rifles at us.”

  “Sure, Jake,” Dougherty said with a grin, as he typed in a request for video reference on the area where the beams were originating.

  They watched as the points of light through the smoke became larger and larger. Dougherty stopped the progression, when robed figures dancing around in the streets between firing burst at the starships, swam into clarity. They appeared to be screaming something, almost like a mantra.

  “There are women down there too, Jake,” Mercer laughed, unable to control his reaction to such blatant stupidity. “What the heck are they chanting?”

  Dougherty hit the audio translation control, and increased the volume. The three listened to the computer-generated translation of Death To America coming from the mob on the ground. Dougherty fingered the keys rapidly, smiling a little to himself as he worked. Jake and Mercer watched him as he added more and more lines of dialogue into the firing control computer. Finally, he stepped back and gestured at the keyboard.

  “Want to see something neat?” Dougherty asked his two friends.

  “I’m almost afraid to ask,” Jake replied, looking at Mercer.

  “C’mon Jake,” Mercer added. “Let’s see what my man has for us.”

  “Okay Tim, but am I going to regret this?” Jake relented.

  �
�Nope,” Dougherty answered with a grin, as he hit the enter key, “but they are.”

  Tiny beams lanced out from the Intrepid.

  “Oh my God,” Mercer said in awe, as they watched narrow particle beam blasts hit the robed figures on the ground.

  “You keyed the blasts to hit anyone saying ‘Death to America’,” Jake laughed, as he listened to the audio, and watched the individual figures drop the moment they uttered the phrase. “How the heck did you do that?”

  “I just sent an audio pickup beam down, and keyed in the parameters,” Dougherty said simply.

  Mercer wrapped an affectionate arm around Dougherty’s shoulders as Jake continued to watch the results. “You are an evil man, Tim,” Mercer said. “Hey look, it’s working.”

  On the ground, men and women were clamping hands over each other’s mouths, when anyone began to chant. They pointed and gestured at the ships, but remained silent. Tim turned back to his keyboard. In a few moments anyone on the ground, who even raised an arm to point, received a blast. Soon, the streets were empty.

  A laughing Major Jack Johnson joined the three at the port. “The whole bridge is laughing their asses off, including the CO and XO. Colonel Peters wanted me to remind you this all was being broadcast back to the US. You know of course we will all have to hear about this from the peace whackos and race baiters, who would rather be in chains than deal with psychos using force.”

  “Sorry, Jack,” Jake said unapologetically. “We don’t speak that language. The President asked us to make it safe for a visit by our ambassadors, and give these folks a message they can understand. Tim’s practicing to support our mission. Anyone raising a weapon, not dressed in a United States uniform, will never get a chance to fire it. Right Tim?”

  “Can do, Sir,” Dougherty replied. “I’ll lock in with the Yorktown’s firing array, and monitor the mission from right here. We’ll nail anyone who looks cross-eyed at our landing party.”

  “How about hidden explosives?” Major Johnson asked.

  “Piece of cake,” Dougherty answered. “We’ll hone the scanners down to pick up everything down to a fart in the wind.”

  “It will help our position when Jas announces to them we’ll take out every major city in the Middle East if they start anything,” Mercer added.

  “Once we get it established we are not here to negotiate, I think this will proceed quickly,” Jake agreed.

  “It’s all good to me,” Johnson laughed. “I am so sick of walking around on eggshells under the command of those Earth Command weenies, I don’t care how we change things.”

  “That bad, huh?” Mercer asked.

  “You met Taskoroff before you reprogrammed him,” Johnson pointed out, “and he was one of the better ones. Over the years, even the once powerful nations have begun allowing the United Arab Emirate to call the shots. Through stupid immigration policies, and cultural diversity, the once powerful nations in what once was the European Union have been defeated from within. Are you going down with the landing party, General?”

  “No,” Jake shook his head, as if to emphasize his answer. “My wife Adrian’s improving by leaps and bounds, and I plan on keeping her company. You and Charlie can go down there without me. I want no casualties. Any resistance, and you guys open up. Tim will be backing you up from here, along with a fleet of armed Drop Ships closer to the action. They’ll see we are here to state our aims, and to show we will do whatever’s necessary to bring them about. We don’t have time for too much of this nonsense. Governor Risling told me this morning the aliens have entered the quadrant twice on scouting missions, and Yuri told him they almost have the Alien jump gate triangulated.”

  “What’s next then, Sir?” Johnson asked, looking at the street monitor.

  “We’ll let this little interaction sink in for a few hours, and then we’ll have the ambassadors set up a meeting with all nations, so we only have to do this once,” Jake replied.

  “Do you wish to speak to Turki Akiz, the Earth Command ambassador, the President threw out of the US? He will be returning home with our ambassadorial party. We have him under guard, because of his status,” Johnson explained. “He ain’t happy.”

  “Well,” Mercer put in. “Maybe I should introduce him to Mr. Snappy.”

  “As tempting as that is, Charlie,” Jake replied, as the others laughed at the reference to Mercer’s infamous interrogation tool. “I think I’ll just give him a little pep talk before we let him go. He can make this a lot easier for the rest of the Earth Command buffoons.”

  “I don’t know, Sir,” Johnson said, “Akiz is a pathological liar. The President told him to go home, because he hasn’t spoken a single truthful sentence in the entire three years he was in the US.”

  “We have some time,” Jake said. “Why don’t you bring him up to the Bridge, and we’ll let him take a first hand look at what happens when United States property gets fired on. The ambassadorial party will have to wait for them to assemble a meeting anyway.”

  “Not to mention they’ll need to find a new place to hold the meeting,” Dougherty added with a grin.

  Turki Akiz preceded his two Marine guards through the hatch, entering the massive Bridge of the Intrepid, with a swagger. He stopped just inside, and looked around as if he were curious, and then clasped his hands behind his back before walking forward. Jake, who had looked towards Akiz, gritted his teeth, remembering the last man to walk in such a way.

  Mercer, seeing the reaction in Jake’s face, leaned over closer to him. “I’ve still got Mr. Snappy. One brief session, and old Turki here will never walk like that again.”

  Jake shook his head, embarrassed at how close he was to taking Mercer up on his offer. “Not this time, Charlie. We’ll be rid of this clown shortly.”

  Both Sara Corey and Jason Peters were with Jake, Mercer, and Johnson. They had been going over final plans for how the landing party would deploy, and where to have the Drop Ships patrol. Enough room had to be given the landing party, so Dougherty could cover them for street interference. They were all satisfied with the plans, and Peters had received word of where the impromptu meeting would take place.

  Akiz walked up very close to Jake, in the European style of invading a person’s space, while talking with them. He peered up at Jake, a slight smile curling the right corner of his mouth. “Your treatment of me, General, has been completely unsatisfactory, and the United States now acts as a bandit, rather than a nation of honor.”

  “First off, you speak as if you knew what honor is,” Jake replied softly. “Secondly, if you don’t take a few steps back from my face with that putrid breath of yours, I’ll bitch slap you so hard, your eyeballs will pop right out on the floor.”

  This calm statement generated a chorus of muffled laughter, as even the Marine guards turned away, trying not to lose their composure. One look at Jake’s grim face, and Akiz hopped back so fast, he backed into his two guards.

  “I want you to watch what we have on the screen, and then listen to what I have to say to you,” Jake continued. He gestured for the Marines to take him over to a vid panel.

  Mercer clicked on the show for the former Earth Command ambassador to the United States. He watched while Riyadh’s surface defenses were obliterated, and then Dougherty’s homed in personnel attacks on the mob in the street. After the action ended, the Marines brought Akiz back over in front of Jake.

  The ex-ambassador’s face was flushed with rage. He kept at a safe distance. “You could be tried for war crimes. These defenseless.”

  Mercer’s openhanded smash cut off Akiz in mid outrage. Only the Marines behind him, kept Akiz on his feet. Mercer hovered near him menacingly. “The General did not say anything about you talking anymore, mutt.”

  Akiz held his head with both hands in agony. Jake thought it was an improvement over the way he held his hands before, and nodded amiably at Mercer. “Charlie’s right. You listen and keep your mouth shut. We’ll be letting you off first to be met by whatever leaders
are still alive. You can save a lot of lives if you let them know this meeting will not be about making friends, and if even one shot gets fired on our landing party, we will make Riyadh glow in the dark. Make sure you enlighten everyone on their fate, if we get any interference. For every casualty we suffer, I will vaporize one of your cities. Go get your things together, so we can drop you off.”

  Akiz nodded fearfully, and was led away. When Jake looked up, Major Johnson was staring at him with a puzzled look on his face.

  “You look like something’s bothering you, Major,” Jake said.

  “Sorry General, I wasn’t eyeballing you out of disrespect,” Johnson replied. “It’s like you were saying before, you folks from out in the colonies have a hard edge. I was wondering what would have happened long ago, if the US had been as direct with Earth Command and its puppet ambassadors then.”

  “One thing’s for sure,” Mercer observed, “we wouldn’t be wasting our time roughing up little jerkoffs like Turki, we’d be out getting ready for the Alien attack. I have to admit, these guys like Akiz really piss me off. Do they really think if they walk around threatening everyone, and acting like arrogant pigs, people will just bow down and lick their toes?”

  “Unfortunately,” Johnson answered, “it’s worked for them up until now. Thank God we shut off illegal immigration, and limited all immigration period, or we’d be in as much trouble as the countries of the old European Union. They’re so overwhelmed with people from the third world, who have infiltrated their infrastructure, they no longer even have a culture of their own. We’ve had our heads in the sand too long about this Earth Command thing. I guess we’ve been watching too many Star Trek archival tapes.”

  “Star Trek?” Colonel Peters repeated. “I never heard of it.”