The Fiery Trial Read online

  The plan was for the 4th Battalion to serve as the primary assault force in displacing the forces of the Congressional Provisional Battalion who now occupied positions surrounding the Capitol, with the actual arrests of the rebellious members of the Congress being conducted by the FBI and every other sworn Federal Law Enforcement Officer that the President and the Department of Justice could lay their hands upon.

  Colonel Gregory was nervous as to what would happen if and when his soldiers were actually called upon to fire against their fellow Americans. Given how many had refused to even contemplate the possibility, he wondered, how many would shrink from the actuality of it?

  The Battalion's Stryker vehicles made their way down the road in near-darkness, with the streets still largely illuminated by artificial light and the regular flashes of the cameras of civilians taking pictures of the movement of the first unit of the U.S. Army ordered out to suppress a rebellion in more than a century and a half.

  U.S. House of Representatives

  "Mr. Speaker," Representative Ronald Fulton of New Mexico rose to speak, "I move that the rules of the House be suspended to allow for expedited passage of the resolution."

  "Without objection, so ordered," announced Terrance Rickover from the chair.

  "I move that the House proceed directly to a vote on the final passage of the resolution," said the New Mexico Congressman.

  "Without objection, so ordered," repeated the Speaker, "the House will now cast its votes upon the resolution electronically."

  It would later be called the "Half-Hour Impeachment." This was somewhat inaccurate. In fact, from the moment that Representative Fulton rose in the House until the completion of events in the Senate some forty-one minutes passed.

  "By a vote of two hundred and forty-six to four, the resolution is carried," announced the Speaker, "the Clerk will inform the Senate of the action taken by the House."

  Per the terms of the resolution, six members of the House had already been designated as impeachment "managers". The moment that the impeachment passed the House, they took off for the Senate at a run.

  U.S. Senate

  "Mr. President," said Senator Jake Reinhardt of Michigan, "I move that the Senate do adjourn and reconvene as a court of impeachment to try the charges brought against President Kevin Bryan by the House of Representatives."

  "Point of order!" shouted Senator Leigh Enfield of North Dakota, one of the few Democrats who had remained in the chamber.

  "The Senator from North Dakota is recognized," said the President Pro Tempore.

  "Mr. President, it is highly irregular – immoral even – for a trial to begin before the defendant is permitted even to mount a defense!"

  "The point is not well-taken," replied the President Pro Tempore, "as an impeachment trial is a political act, not a judicial one, and the ordinary rules and standards of judicial procedure emphatically do not apply."

  "What about standards of civilized behavior!" shot Enfield.

  "The Senator is out of order," replied the President Pro Tempore evenly before continuing, "the motion by the Senator from Michigan, having been made and seconded, is recognized."

  The Oval Office, The White House

  "They can't do this," insisted a white-knuckled President Kevin Bryan as the latest events from the Congress streamed into the Oval Office.

  "I don't know that we can stop them," said Jamal Anderson, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

  "We could try and get our people back down to the Senate," suggested the Legislative Director.

  "Which would mean calling off the arrest of the rebels," said the President, standing for a moment before stopping and leaning over his desk, "which is simply not an acceptable outcome."

  "Mr. President," interjected the Secretary of Defense, "we could speed up the arrests. The battalion is now in place. I've been on the phone with the AG and the FBI Director all morning. We're not 100% ready, but if we have to go now we can do that."

  "Alright," the President nodded, "make it happen."

  U.S. Capitol

  The entire crowd, both pro and anti-Administration, had fallen virtually silent as the Federal forces began to assemble within view of the Capitol itself.

  "Soldiers on the street of Washington, out to arrest the Congress, I never thought I'd see the day," said Christopher Sorensen as he tightly gripped the M-16A2 rifle that had been issued to him as a volunteer member of the Congressional Provisional Battalion.

  "That's the difference between you and I, Chris," replied Martin Green, who had also signed on when the men from the CPB had begun to circulate throughout the crowd in search of volunteers, "I always did."

  By the time that the morning of the 21st rolled around, the little army formed by the Congress had managed to equip and enroll nearly a thousand of the people who had come forward to volunteer for temporary service. No one who did not have prior military or law enforcement experience had been issued a weapon, so the force consisted of men and women who had at least some training. In fact, many of them were either combat veterans or long-term soldiers with specialized skills. However, few of them had ever fought together before and they were lacking in anything beyond the most basic equipment and command and control. Hand-held radios had been issued in the likely event that the Federal Government would shut down the cellular phone network when the time came for the final assault on the Capitol, but they were only available in limited quantities. Lacking an effective screening and personnel selection process, the Congressional Provisional Battalion had organized itself using the same method as militia units in the early days of the Republic: they had elected their own officers. It was by such means that both Green and Sorensen had officially become Lieutenants in that force.

  "Do not fire unless fired upon," breathed Green to himself, "but if they mean to have a war, then let it begin here."

  "What was that?" asked Sorensen.

  "Just something that we'd forgotten," answered Green.

  Sorensen's phone rang. It was only intermittently functional, but there were enough power sources around that he'd been able to charge it at least every once and a while. He answered the phone.

  "Where are you?" Sarah Watkins' voice was ice-cold.

  "I'm where I said that I would be, Sarah. I'm at the Capitol."

  "Do you know what's going on? There are soldiers coming to arrest the people there for treason."

  "Technically, I believe that it's insurrection," answered Sorensen, "and depending on what goes on inside of the Capitol in the next few minutes, it is they – and not we – who will be the insurgents."

  "This is tearing the whole country apart," said Sarah, tearfully, "don't you care about that?"

  "Some things are more important than comity for the sake of comity."

  "This is tearing us apart. Do you have any idea what my friends are saying?"

  "I can take a guess."

  "Don't you care? Don't you feel?"

  "I think, Sarah... I think that what is happening here is more important that you and I. I wish that you could see that..."

  "Don't come home," Sarah hissed.

  "I might not even be able to," answered Christopher, twisting the knife. The call disconnected.

  U.S. Senate

  The dazed Chief Justice of the United States sat in front of the United States Senate, ashen-faced. He wished that he could be anywhere other than here. All of his legacy, all of his work would ultimately be judged based upon this single act. The Constitution required that the Chief Justice of the United States preside over any impeachment trial of a President of the United States and he could have, if he had wished, foiled entire process by the simple expedient of absenting himself from the city. But duty had not permitted it. The process over which he found himself presiding was irregular and perhaps even unfair and immoral, but it was Constitutional. All of his life, his first duty had been to the Constitution. It was too late for him to vote "present," especially on a question of such awful moment for the cou
ntry.

  "The Senate having resolved itself into a court of impeachment and having voted, by majority vote, to dispense with all formal presentation of the charges and evidence as well as any refutation of the same, I now – while registering my formal objection to the process used by the Senate – call for the Senators to cast a vote of either guilty or not guilty on the sole article of impeachment."

  U.S. Capitol Grounds

  As soon as the 4th Battalion arrived on the scene, the mobs of protestors had begun to disperse on both sides. Some of the pro-Administration members of the mob had withdrawn to a safe distance, where they found themselves in the unusual position of cheering on the United States Armed Forces. Others had, on seeing the guns and armored vehicles, simply run away as fast and as far as was humanly possible. Every single Federal law enforcement resource that could be mustered was also deployed to the scene, as members of the Congressional Provisional Battalion eyed the soldiers of the U.S. Army across the couple of hundred years that separated them.

  "Attack, attack, attack," came the frantic orders to Colonel Gregory from the political branch of the government, desperate to forestall the vote inside of the Capitol but unwilling to withdraw their threat of physical coercion in order to thwart it by democratic means. Colonel Gregory raised his radio to speak and carefully enunciated his words.

  "This is Roland Actual. All units, standby."

  The Colonel signaled his driver to bring the Humvee to a stop and opened the door. As he jumped to the ground, several of his soldiers moved to follow him. He held up his hand and gestured for them to stay put.

  Moving beyond the line of Stryker fighting vehicles, the Colonel began to walk methodically towards the line of nervous men with rifles and whatever other improvised weapons had been issued to the Congressional Provisional Battalion. The men and women of the CPB eyed the lone U.S. Army officer warily as he moved ever closer to them.

  "Who is in command over there?" shouted the Colonel.

  "What does it matter?" sneered one of the CPB soldiers, "you're just going to do whatever your President says anyways."

  "I want to talk to the commander here. One soldier to another," replied Gregory, taking another step towards the barricade.

  For nearly a minute, the Colonel stood silent, his arms in the air, as the Congressional soldiers kept their rifles pointed towards him. Then Jacob Henry, now wearing an unadorned uniform, came tearing forward.

  "Lower those rifles," ordered Henry as he approached from the opposite side.

  "Sir," said the Colonel, "my name is Michael Gregory. I am the commander of the 4th Battalion, Third Infantry Regiment, United States Army. I have been ordered by the President of the United States to render assistance to the civil power in putting down an insurrection within the city of Washington, DC. The forces under your command represent a clear obstruction to the enforcement of the laws of the United States. I will remove that obstruction by force if necessary, but I wish to avoid unnecessary bloodshed."

  "Colonel," replied the CPB commander, "my name is Jacob Henry, and I am the commander of what has been designated, pursuant the resolution of the House of Representatives, as the Congressional Provisional Battalion. I will not initiate offensive action against your forces, but I will defend this position against any illegal intrusion."

  "Mr. Henry," said Gregory, "my orders come from the President. I will use force to execute my orders if required. Your force cannot possibly hope to withstand mine."

  "We shall see," replied Henry, "but we shall certainly try. Personally, I wouldn't count on all of your boys to shoot us when you give them the other to do so. I wouldn't rule out that some will come over to our side."

  "Well," replied Gregory, "we shall see."

  U.S. Senate

  "The vote being fifty-six guilty to two not guilty, I hereby direct that a verdict of guilty be recorded against Kevin Jonathan Bryan, President of the United States and that, consequently, Kevin Jonathan Bryan do be removed from his office and disqualified from any other office of trust or profit under the United States," said the Chief Justice.

  A great cheer arouse from the Senate Chamber and reverberated throughout the Capitol, spreading almost instantly from the inside to the outside as the people still gathered in the surrounding area saw what the Congress had done.

  "The proceeding are now adjourned," announced the Chief Justice, banging his gavel with a convincing thump.

  As soon as the Chief Justice stepped down from the rostrum, Michael Nelson walked up to him, a Bible tucked under his arm.

  "Alright John," he said, "let's go and do this thing."

  The Oval Office, The White House

  "Why hasn't the attack begun?" demanded an outraged President.

  "The commander of the forces on scene first attempted to parlay with the opposing force," said the Secretary of Defense.

  "Well now..." said the exhausted President, trailing off.

  "Mr. President, that will never hold up or be recognized as legitimate by a majority of the American people, or even the courts," assured Chief of Staff Jamal Anderson in his most-soothing tone of voice available.

  "Just tell them to go. Now," ordered the President.

  Smithfield, NC

  The 3rd Squadron of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment was passing through central North Carolina when the latest broadcasts from Washington, DC announced that the Senate had removed President Bryan from office.

  "...Scholars are divided on the legality of the act of the Senate," explained the NBC Radio broadcast, "in that the so-called impeachment trial occurred both with almost all of the Senate Democrats physically barred from the Capitol and, further, without the President being allowed to present a defense of any sort."

  "An impeachment trial," insisted the Republican commentator, "is not a trial in the criminal sense. An accused individual has no specific rights. This is wholly a political act and, therefore, can take any form so long as it respects the forms set out within the Constitution."

  "But surely," challenged the anchor, "the Founders – who you so often defer to – never intended for an impeachment to take place wholly while the members of one party were absent from Congress."

  "They chose to absent themselves from the Congress. Clearly, that was a very foolish act. Like how the United Nations was able to authorize the Korean War because the Soviets were boycotting the U.N. Security Council at the time. There's nothing illegitimate about taking advantage of one side's tactical error."

  "But you already hear Senate Democrats arguing that they were, in fact, basically physically barred from the Capitol by the threat of violence and this militia that has been raised by the Speaker of the House."

  "The question, however, is simply whether or not the action of the Senate was permitted under the rules of the Senate. A quorum existed and a majority of two-thirds voted to remove the President from office. Accordingly, Terrance Rickover is now – or will be as soon as he's sworn into office – the President of the United States."

  Word of the movement by the Seventh Cavalry had not taken long to make its way to the internet and the world. General Starnes had made the decision, for the time being, to simply ignore everyone calling him and ordering him to stop, not even bothering to answer any of their calls.

  "Perhaps," said Colonel Robinette, "by the time we get to Washington, this thing will be effectively over."

  "I don't know," replied Starnes, gesturing towards the crowds that had gathered to cheer the progress of the cavalry squadron on at nearly every town along their route. "Do you think that they'll cheer us like this everywhere? I mean, as much as I hate that son of a bitch, he definitely still has supporters."

  U.S. House of Representatives

  "Please raise your right hand, place your left hand on the Bible, and repeat after me," said the shell-shocked Chief Justice as he stood in front of the packed House chamber. The Speaker of the House followed his instructions.

  "I, Terrance Timothy Rickover, do solemnly swear.
.."

  "I, Terrance Timothy Rickover, do solemnly swear..."

  "That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States..."

  "That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States..."

  "And that I will, to the best of my ability..."

  "And that I will, to the best of my ability..."

  "Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

  "Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God."

  The Chief Justice weakly extended his hand.

  "Congratulations, Mr. President," he meekly said, as the entire House broke out in wild applause. Terrance Rickover stood up and turned to the assembled crowd, which included practically everyone still within the Capitol complex, with the House floor crowded with not only members but also practically every single staffer and intern.

  "My fellow Americans," said the Acting President, "I assume the office of the Acting Presidency with a heavy heart. I recognize that the process by which I have arrived at this place has been rushed and irregular. I regret that it must be so. But, that being said, with the army having been ordered to bear down upon the Capitol to suppress the Congress of the United States, I feel justified in asserting that as one norm had already been broken it had become necessary to break others.

  "We have taken this action in order to uphold the Constitution when, quite simply, we ran out of other options.

  "My single overriding priority now is to resolve the present crisis without violence. To that end, I have ordered the ad hoc security force that had been created to protect the Congress not to fire a single shot unless they are first fired upon. I hereby, as the President of the United States, order that all elements of Federal power – both military and civilian law enforcement – cease any and all plans for an assault upon this building immediately.

  "The single objective of our Federal Government in the immediate future must be the restoration of order both here and abroad. We will restore normality to our financial markets and ensure that the acts of our government are regular and predictable, so that normal economic activity might resume both in this country and in the world.