The Fiery Trial Read online

  "However, if the military comes apart – then what happened on the steps of the Capitol today will only be the beginning. That's our job today. Not to champion any particular political cause, but to keep the armed forces together so that we can keep our country together."

  He looked around the room to see nods all around.

  "My first order: all previous orders authorizing offensive action are withdrawn. Units are to defend themselves if fired upon only. No offensive action whatsoever. Is that clear? These orders are to stand unless they are countermanded by a higher authority."

  "Ok then. Now, what's our status in detail?"

  "Different units are responding in totally different ways. Some units have signaled that they're standing by and awaiting our orders. Others have called us to announce that they're only going to accept orders from the rebel government. Others have gone dark. We're keeping track of it on the screen," said Walker, pointing to a giant monitor.

  Hall walked towards it, put on his glasses and squinted.

  "What is the 3-7 Cavalry doing in northern Virginia?" he asked.

  "Well," answered Walker, "that's what we were just grappling with."

  The Capitol

  "Mr. President," began Mark Preston, "Third Squadron, Seventh Cavalry Regiment – essentially a heavy battalion – has raced north from Georgia over the last twenty-four hours. The best reports that we have are that they're now in position to the north of Fredericksburg. There aren't any other heavy units in the Washington, DC region. They could be here in a few hours."

  "To lift the siege of the Capitol?" asked Rickover.

  "Well," answered Preston, "that's one option. Major General Gregory Starnes – he's the commander of the Third Infantry Division but he's essentially taken command of the Squadron for the moment – has proposed that they could use their power to move directly on the White House to arrest President... Former President Bryan and to, hopefully, bring this whole mess to an immediate end."

  "Mr. President," interjected Michael Nelson, "I know that this has been a terrible day. And I recognize the situation that we are now in... But what is the world going to think if you begin your Administration by rolling tanks down Pennsylvania Avenue? They'd call it a coup d'etat."

  "What would you have us do?" asked the Acting President, "we can't live in the Capitol Visitor's Centre forever."

  "No. We can't. But the people outside are holding their distance from us. I don't think that they're going to try and come in. And if what the Secretary is saying is right – there's a tank battalion ready to simply march into this city – then I think we'll be able to lift the siege without further loss of life here. Then we can put on political pressure for a peaceful settlement."

  "What sort of settlement?"

  "I don't know. But I think that if we take the rest of the government by force, we risk civil war. Or at the least a prolonged insurgency."

  "If we don't take the President now, then we risk an actual civil war," pointed out Preston, "even if a large portion of the military sides with us, some will feel duty-bound to stand by the existing Administration. Not everyone in the military is a Republican – some of them will go along ideologically. And they'll certainly have control of most of the civilian apparatus of the Federal Government, many state governments, and all of the resources that come with that."

  "Alright." replied Rickover, "I'm convinced. Order them to take the White House. Take Bryan alive, if they can. If this can be over now, that's a risk worth taking."

  The Situation Room, The White House

  President Kevin Bryan sat quietly as the room around him buzzed with activity.

  "...Twenty miles south of the city..."

  "Surely we have some special forces that we could deploy?" asked one Undersecretary of Defense.

  "We should evacuate the White House," maintained one official.

  "That'd signal to the rebels that they'd already won," shot back the Secretary of State.

  "Alright!" Secretary Ransom finally announced to the room, "I have some more information."

  General Richard Hall walked through the door. The President looked at him quizzically for a moment.

  "General Hall," he said, then stopped.

  "Mr. President," replied the General curtly.

  "It's good to see you," the President finally said, sinking into his chair.

  "I'll keep this brief," said Hall, "elements of the Third Infantry Division, led by the division commander, joined the rebel forces even before the fighting in Washington began today. As a result, there is a battalion-sized force on the way to Downtown Washington right now. We don't have anything on the ground that can stop them."

  "You're telling me," the Secretary of State challenged Hall, "that there's nothing in place that can defend the capital of the most powerful country on Earth from just one battalion of tanks?"

  "That's exactly what I'm saying, Mr. Secretary," said Hall, "no one anticipated that something like this would happen. The ground forces that we have in and around Washington are small and largely ceremonial. Putting them into the field would result against a full-on heavy cavalry battalion would result in enormous casualties. Further, under the present circumstances, the handful of small units that exist would be of dubious reliability. There are some National Guard and Reserve forces in the region, but they wouldn't be able to mobilize in time even if they would respond to the call... And I'm not sure that they would."

  "So..." said the Secretary of State, "what you're saying is that we're defenseless?"

  "Not exactly," responded the General, "we're only getting spotty acknowledgements from other units back at the Pentagon right now. But one unit that is responding is the 4th Fighter Wing from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. The commander there tells me that he has a group of F-15Es ready to go. They've been fighting it out for control of the base, but he's got some of them ready to go. I'd rather not use them, but if we're going to stop an attack on Washington... That's the weapon that we have on hand."

  "You want the President to order an air strike on American soil?" said the Secretary of State with incredulity.

  ""Want" is the wrong word, Mr. Secretary," answered Hall.

  The Capitol

  "The latest reports that we've had passed on to us are that they're attempting to generate an air strike against us out of Seymour Johnson AFB down in North Carolina," explained Preston.

  "Can we do anything about that?" asked Acting President Rickover.

  "Well... We've begun to generate a map of which installations have definitively come over to our side," answered the Secretary of Defense, "it's spotty, because we don't have full communications. But my understanding is that the 20th Fighter Wing out of Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina announced for us. Likewise, the Governor of Virginia has recognized you as the legitimate President. So has the Governor of North Carolina. That gives us some options."

  "Such as?" asked Michael Nelson.

  "Well, we don't have any real air assets that we wholly control in the greater DC region. My understanding, though this was as of a few hours ago, is that there's a standoff between the Air National Guard and the Federal forces at Langley. But I think we might be able to mobilize some ground units in North Carolina and use them to neutralize the 4th Fighter Wing. Or at least the elements loyal to Bryan. But that might take a bit. The faster option is to order the F-16s out of Shaw to launch a strike against Seymour Johnson."

  "You want the President to order one Air Force base to attack another?" asked Theresa Rowan.

  "I want us to get out of this in one piece," shot back Preston.

  "Can we get a message to them in time?" asked Rickover.

  Joint Base Langley–Eustis, Hampton, VA

  The 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team traced its lineage back to the famed "Stonewall Brigade" commanded by General Thomas Jonathan Jackson during the First Civil War. Per the orders of the Governor of Virginia, the elements of the brigade had been mustered at S
taunton, Virginia and ordered to prepare for action. Their mission was to descend upon Hampton, VA in order to support elements of the Virginia Air National Guard as well as U.S. Air Force in seizing control of Joint Base Langley-Eustis on behalf of the new Federal Government.

  As a result of the first attempt to storm the Capitol, fighting had broken out for control of the base itself. However, between the 633rd and 733rd Security Forces Squadrons, the base commander had managed to keep the majority of the facility in the hands of the Bryan Administration. Members of the Virginia Air National Guard who had attempted to take the field had been repulsed and rebellious members of the US Air Force had been successfully placed under arrest. Now the soldiers of the 116th were supposed to change that.

  There were no serious forces in place to oppose the two companies of the 1st Battalion as they raced across Virginia and then down the peninsula towards Hampton. However, the combined base defense forces possessed roughly six hundred well-armed men and, furthermore, the base would be of little use to the Congressional Government if it was destroyed. Certainly, the destruction of the base was preferable to it – and the F-22 fighters housed there – falling into the hands of the Bryan Administration, but that would be a sub-optimal outcome.

  Furthermore, during these early days, most fighting was conducted with a profound sense of disorganization, with almost all conventional doctrines being discarded. There wasn't time to move the whole brigade across Virginia or to organize a proper plan of attack with the correct support elements. The result is that the Stryker vehicles of the Stonewall Brigade simply came roaring across the state and through an adjacent golf course, crashing through the fence that separated the runway from the road with the gunners on the vehicles wildly blazing away at anything that attempted to oppose them with their .50 caliber M2 machine guns.

  Though no video or audio evidence exists to support such claims, survivors of the Air Force base defense forces that remained loyal to the existing Federal Government claim that, without any substantial warning, the Stryker vehicles of Company A simply crashed through the fence and laid down massive suppressive fire while dropping their rear hatches.

  The base security forces were equipped with individual rifles, grenades, and even a handful of crew-served weapons. They had done a first-rate job in dealing with the sporadic resistance of a handful of renegade pilots and ground crew members who had tried to seize control of the base with their personal weapons in the morning. But they were no match for the overwhelming fire of two trained companies of infantry.

  One brave Air Force sergeant attempted to hold a strongpoint where a machine gun emplacement existed. When he made the mistake of standing just a little too high and allowing his head to become visible over the concrete barrier, a trio of 5.56mm bullets fired from one of the National Guardsmen's M-16 rifles struck him squarely in the helmet, knocking him to the ground. If the trauma of that wound was not fatal, the two rifle-launched grenades that landed in close proximity to him in the following seconds certainly were.

  Twenty-six Air Force personnel were killed in the initial assault on the perimeter of the base. Once word of what was happening reached those personnel laying siege to a mix of rebel Air Force and National Guard personnel who were holed up in some of the base's buildings, they signaled their immediate surrender.

  Stepping onto the scene a few minutes later, the commander of the 116th Brigade, not bothering to disguise the tears in his eyes, called the Governor of Virginia to tell him that the deed was done.

  The Pentagon

  "Langley is gone," reported a Colonel who talked into the National Military Command Centre to hand General Hall a sheet of paper.

  "Take it off the list," ordered General Walker.

  General Hall looked at the large display with trepidation. Events such as those at Langley were happening across the entire world. Fifty-two minutes earlier, the commander of the USS Abraham Lincoln had simply dumped a thousand crew members considered to be politically suspect at dockside and then sailed off after declaring for the Congressional Government. The latest reports said that the commander of Ramstein Air Base in Germany had requested permission from the Commander of the European Command to ask for the intervention of the Bundeswehr in order to suppress what he described as a "rebel uprising" at the headquarters of the United States Air Force in Europe. That request had been kicked up to the Secretary of Defense and, by extension, the President. That was, of course, presuming that President Bryan was even in the physical or emotional shape to make a decision at this point in time.

  "What about Seymour Johnson?" asked Hall.

  Technically speaking, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff had no business issuing instructions to the Air Force, but in the midst of the chaos of the day, it seemed as though that had been forgotten. In any case, General Hall had been, as a result of the Secretary of Defense's suspicions as to the political loyalties of the Commander of the Northern Command, been given temporary operational control over all U.S. military forces worldwide.

  "They'll be in the air in a few minutes," reported Brigadier General Jamie Wainwright, the U.S. Air Force officer seconded to Hall for the duration.

  "Get them here quickly. The latest reports have the rebel force closing on Washington damned quickly."

  "What's the next step?" Walker asked Hall as he bent over a map of all of the military units and installations in the continental United States.

  "We need to get in touch with as many men and women who we trust as we can. That's the broad theme here – for the most part, units are following their commanders. That's not universal – there's definitely grumbling and we've had reports of fighting between individuals and small units all over the place – but it's the best control lever that we have. If we can keep the leadership of the military together, than this can be sorted out politically... Somehow. Between you and I, Martin, I think we'll need a compromise of some sort... Perhaps a different Acting President and a special Presidential election. Perhaps even a Constitutional convention. I don't know. I'm not a politician. I just want to keep the military together."

  "When those Strike Eagles tear that Cavalry squadron a new asshole, there's going to be a lot of pissed off people."

  "I didn't start this," replied Hall.

  Near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, NC

  A dozen F-16Cs of the 55th Fighter Squadron roared through the sky in three quadruple formations. There had been no time for sophisticated or subtle planning. They were simply going to go straight for the jugular.

  Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Spenser watched as his aircraft made their final approach. They'd tried to warn the people down on the ground there at Seymour Johnson to get the hell away from the runways through every means that they had. He prayed to God that that had worked – a lot of the people on the ground down there were his friends and he bore them no ill will.

  The F-16s out of Shaw AFB had made their way into North Carolina at maximum speed, ignoring all of the frantic shouts from the civilian air traffic control system. There had been no time to do anything more than to outfit the dozen fighters with four JDAMs each and to hope that they'd be able to disrupt runway operations.

  "Bengal 1," signaled Colonel Spenser, "you are authorized to proceed."

  The first flight of F-16s dipped slightly away from the other two, making a sharp turn towards Seymour Johnson AFB's runways, where they would hope to strike a temporarily crippling blow.

  The Fighting Falcons reduced their speed and dove lower in order to bring themselves within range of the base. By the time that they defenders on the ground realized what was happening to them it was much too late and the first sixteen thousand-pound bombs had been released and were already on their way towards their targets.

  "Alright," said Spenser softly to himself before speaking into the radio, "Bengal 2, good to go."

  As Spenser's flight continued to circle the second group of fighters changed course and made their way towards the air base below, releasing their bomb loa
ds with a devastating effect upon the targets below.

  "Ok. Everyone left, on me," ordered Spenser as he swung his F-16 to the right and began a sharp descent. The Colonel and his wingmen brought their aircraft to a lower altitude and slowed so as to allow their GPS-guided cargos to land on the target. The plane shuddered as it released one bomb after another against the runway below.

  The bombs weren't the best munitions to be used against an air base – the ideal would have been to use cluster munitions that would have disrupted flight operations until bomb disposal squads could clear the runways – but for the time being it was necessary for the 55th to make do with what they had on hand. One bomb after another impacted the runway and the surrounding area. In total, some forty-eight thousand pound bombs found targets on the North Carolinian ground.

  "Fuck," radioed one pilot as the squadron turned and began to make its way back to base, "I didn't see signs of flight operations on the ground. Did you?"

  "Negative," replied Spenser, "I'm not sure if we were early or late."

  Fairfax, VA

  The tanks and armored fighting vehicles of the Third Squadron had finally disembarked and were now making an oblique approach towards Washington itself.

  "I have to admit – to you and no one else here," General Starnes told Colonel Robinette, "that I'm no longer really sure of what's going on."

  He took his smartphone and waved it in the air.

  "I was in the middle of the fucking desert in Iraq, commanding a tank platoon, with no communications immediately available beyond my radio and things were a whole lot clearer than they are now, with all of the Goddamned information in the world at my fingertips."

  "Rumor versus truth is pretty much impossible to sort out at a time like this," agreed Robinette, "I was a brand new Lieutenant at the Pentagon on 9-11 and I remember all of the crazy things that people said were going on, almost all of them untrue."