Echoes of War Box Set, page 54
part #1 of Echoes of War Series
“Not the Monrovians,” Monahan said, interrupting Kaufman. “Our corrupt government. Not all of us. Big difference.”
“Of course, General Monahan. This particular camp has at least five thousand detainees in it. While the Monrovian air force can’t compete on a plane-for-plane basis… they proved today they can put up some big numbers. My biggest concern is interdicting their air threat going forward.”
“Ideas?” Sarno asked the room at large.
Monahan cleared his throat. “I’ve got one.”
“As long as it doesn’t involve regime change, we’re all ears, General,” Sarno said archly.
“How about we hit a high-value target that’s in the middle of a major city? I know the National Guard’s rules of engagement. They won’t attempt air engagements over an urban center for fear of killing their civilians and undermining support for the war.”
David looked at Monahan as if he’d finally spoken something worth saying.
Sarno’s eyebrows shot up. That is quite an intriguing suggestion. “I take it you have such a target in mind?”
“That I do.” Monahan flashed a smug smile. “There’s a detention center I’m aware of situated inside of a federal police administrative building. Two days ago, it held the highest-level dissidents on the continent. If we succeed in busting them out, we send a direct message to the government that we can attack them anywhere, anytime, and succeed. We buoy the hope of our citizens and hopefully drive others to fight back. That will make our fight much easier.”
David nodded. “I see merit in this, Mother Superior.”
“As do I,” Kaufman said. “Do you have any information as to the opposing force, General?”
“A few dozen guards, nothing we can’t handle. The bigger problem is that they have a rapid reaction force that includes a paramilitary SWAT team on standby. Once they’re aware of us… five minutes till those guys arrive.”
“We’d have to use stealth as much as possible,” David mused. “Hassan, think you could pull ECM pods off the fighters and outfit them to a few shuttles? We’d need to make like holes in the sky.”
“Absolutely, Colonel,” Amir said. “It’d be quite an effective tactic.”
Sarno put her hands on the map, seemingly lost in thought, before glancing up. “Sister Kaufman, handpick three platoons for the assault. Our best sisters, and every advanced weapon we have at our disposal. Have another three on standby for a QRF.” QRF was the acronym for “quick reaction force.”
“Yes, Mother Superior.”
David raised his hand and Sarno gestured in his direction. “Yes, Colonel?”
“Permission to join the op?”
“I’m in too,” Calvin boomed from his spot in the back.
“Sister Kaufman?” Sarno asked.
“I’d be happy to have both of our CDF friends join us, as long as they remember the rules of engagement.”
“Then it’s settled. We attack tomorrow at 0700 hours local time. Any questions?” No one raised their hands or spoke. “Good. You’re all dismissed.”
Sarno watched as everyone filed out, some like General Monahan with a renewed sense of vigor; some weary and in need of rest. David stayed behind and waited patiently for all to leave. Once the tent’s flap closed for the last time, leaving them alone, Sarno spoke. “What’s on your mind, child?”
“I didn’t want to say this in front of General Monahan for fear of emboldening him further… but he’s got a point. Monrovia’s government is evil. They ought to be held accountable.”
“And you want to be the one to do that?”
“Someone has to,” David insisted. “Why not us?”
“Do you see any judges in my order? Lawyers?”
“I can’t say that I do, ma’am.”
“Then how could we possibly dish out justice? Even if we did, where would we put them?”
David set his jaw. “I seem to remember that the punishment for aggravated murder is death.”
“Ah, so now you just want to establish their guilt and shoot them?”
“Why not?”
“Is that much different from what they’re doing? Rounding people up without criminal proceedings, throwing them into prisons or killing them?”
David’s face turned blood red. “They deserve what they get. Killing them would be justice.”
Sarno walked closer to David and faced him directly. “Careful. One person deciding who lives and who dies… who does that sound like, David?”
David glanced away, tears forming in his eyes. “The League.”
“Yes. It’s not our place as individuals to play God. In time, the government of this world will be brought to account. I’m certain of that. Throughout my life, I have believed that what is good, what is just, what is right eventually wins out in the end. This situation is no different. But I must caution you when we lose the battle within, when we surrender to hate and anger… that is when the enemy has truly won. Guard yourself, Colonel Cohen. Don’t fall into that trap.”
“Yes, Mother Superior.”
“If you would excuse me, it’s time for me to pray.”
“Of course, ma’am,” David said, a tight expression on his face as he inclined his head slightly and walked out of the tent. Sarno stood there mutely for some time, pondering the events of the last twenty-four hours. How easy it is to give in to the impulse to hate, to judge, and to exact revenge. We must continuously secure our hearts against going down that dark road. Otherwise, we’ll become just like them.
David wandered around aimlessly after the evening briefing, happy with the fact that they were all making a difference. But we were too late to save many of them. He ended up sitting on a step and staring at the sunset, a pure joy after a horrific day.
“Mind if I join you?”
David whipped his head around, startled. Angie stood on the step above him. “I suppose not,” he replied.
Angie sat down on the step next to him. “I always marvel at how sunsets look different depending on the planet you’re on. They’re especially pretty in a binary star system. I’ve only seen one of those, though.”
“Are we on the record or off?”
“Off, unless there’s something you’d like to say?”
David shook his head. “I don’t have anything fit to print.”
“I’m still in shock, to be honest,” Angie said.
“Why?” David asked, peering at her.
“I’ve seen some pretty horrible things out here. The aftermath of battles, dead soldiers, dead civilians. Collapsed buildings and dozens of rescue workers trying to save those that were trapped. That hole with the bodies… it’s the most horrible and gut-wrenching thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“You know what’s worse?” David asked before answering his question. “That the people who did it are going to get away with it. We can’t try them for their crimes, and the government of this planet probably celebrates them as heroes!”
“I don’t understand how another human being could do this. I guess I can get the idea some people are broken and have mental issues, but we’re talking about the majority of people on a planet going along with this and being okay with it.”
“Look back to Earth’s history. Throughout it, people have sprung up who convinced others of some group being sub-human, and then blamed all of society’s problems on them. That happened to my people in the Holocaust. Six million Jews were killed in camps, not unlike the one we hit today. Why? Because they were Jews and some two-bit corporal in the German army got into power by whipping up the masses to believe that the people who were their neighbors, friends, and family were less than human. All they had to do to make Germany rise again was get rid of the Jews. That war cost a hundred million lives, all told.”
“Yeah, but that was five hundred years ago. We’ve grown; we’re enlightened now.”
David laughed out loud. “Seriously? Have you not noticed the war we’re in against the League? They do the same thing back on their planets. Oh, they’re probably better at forcing compliance through brainwashing, but they’ll still put a bullet in your head if you don’t comply.”
Angie glanced down. “But we’re not the League. This planet is made up of people that escaped the League in the second wave of the Exodus.”
“Any human is capable of horrible things.”
“Including you?”
“Including you, me, and everyone else.”
“Then why didn’t you kill the guy responsible for running the camp?” David looked at her sharply as she continued. “One of the nuns mentioned it. She said you had to be talked down from executing him.”
“I didn’t do it because it would be murder. Mitzvot four hundred eighty-two…do not commit murder.”
Angie’s face clouded over. “I don’t want to sound insensitive, David, but you kill people on a regular basis. It goes with the job.”
“You don’t think I know that?” David snapped. “There’s a difference between a justified killing in war and murder. The Torah is clear; if you kill someone in combat, especially in a defensive war, it’s not murder. Killing a surrendered combatant, no matter what his crimes, no matter what he’s done… that’s murder. It’s a line I can’t cross even if for a few minutes I wanted to.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that you almost did?”
“Sure. Does it bother me that I give an order to fire on a League ship, we get lucky and hit its warhead magazine, and the thing blows up without a single lifepod launch? Does it bother me that I have personally killed dozens of people on the ground, in space, with a weapon, and with the weapons of my ship? You’re damn right; it bothers me. Is that your big story from Monrovia, a decorated CDF officer threatens to kill a prisoner?” David spat at her, losing control of his emotions yet again.
Angie opened her mouth, then closed it, shocked. After a moment, she responded, “No. I wasn’t planning to lead with that. I’m not even planning to report it.”
“Oh really?” David asked sarcastically.
“David, I get it. When I saw that grave, I would have killed every last person that worked in that camp, that enabled it, that did it if I had the power. None of them dared to say no. But you know what really scares me? I’m not sure if I would have said no. I don’t know if I would have had the gumption to stand up for what I knew was right and take the consequences.” A tear slid down her face as she finished.
“I’m sorry,” David replied, chastised. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s okay. We’re all under a lot of stress. I envy you at times for the support system you’ve got built-in with your faith.”
David tried to lighten the mood. “You’re welcome to join me for evening prayers.”
“I think I’ll pass, thanks.” Angie’s face creased with a small smile.
“I understand. Look, we’re doing good here. I believe that with all my heart. Mother Superior and her order…they’re the real deal. They will save a lot of lives that would have been lost. That’s worth it, even if the perpetrators of these crimes aren’t brought to justice now.”
Angie stood and stretched. “I hope you’re right. Because it feels like we ought to be doing more.”
“We can always stand to do more.”
“See you later, David.”
“Take care of yourself.”
Angie smiled as she turned and walked off into the maze of buildings in the base, leaving David to ponder his actions, inactions, and what lay ahead.
A few hours later, almost everyone else was asleep except the nighttime sentries, the few medical personnel watching over the most seriously wounded, and the stragglers that couldn’t sleep. David had walked around and looked in on the nuns doing various tasks, from refilling magazines of their battle rifles, to the nightly mass they celebrated to ask for God’s blessing and to repent their sins. Ending up back at his quarters, which the sisters had graciously provided him with a full room to himself in what had been the bachelors' officers’ quarters on the base, he sat down on the bed. He then fished his tablet out of the space bag at the end of the bed and unlocked it using a combination of his fingerprint and retinal scan.
This lack of intelligence was going to keep biting them in the rear, just like Mother Superior said. It was a small miracle from on high that they didn’t lose half their air cover today. Let’s see if I can call in a favor and even up those odds just a hair. He punched up the fleet vidlink, engaging a secure connection and typing in “Robert Sinclair.” As he’d hoped, it showed Sinclair as active.
David pressed the button to connect.
He kicked off his shoes as he waited for the connection to establish and was rewarded a short time later with the smiling face of Colonel Sinclair.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the man on extended leave himself.”
“Is that fleet-wide news?”
“Colonel… I’m in intelligence.”
“I always thought CDF Intelligence was an oxymoron,” David said with a smirk.
“Hah. We’ve got brilliant computers.”
David snickered in response. “Superior information…superior results. I seem to recall reading that somewhere.”
“Sounds about right. How’s it going on Monrovia? I saw a news report about mass graves.”
“Pretty bad. We liberated a camp today, but we were too late to save them all. Based on ground-penetrating scans of the area, they're at least fifteen thousand people buried at that camp. Maybe more.”
Sinclair pursed his lips together. “Damn. You know if we ever get to League space and investigate the resocialization camps there, it’s probably a lot worse.”
“That thought crossed my mind. But I came face to face with the reality of what mass murder looks like today. It’s not pretty.”
“I’m guessing you have an ask since comm credits are pretty steep, and you’re using those nuns’ dime from the looks of the call request I got.”
“Well… the sisters have great training, pretty decent equipment, and no lack of good leadership and esprit de corps. They lack in broad-spectrum intel gathering ability. There’s little in the way of common operating picture, and we got caught with our pants down today. Monrovians sortied in bombers, then tried to mousetrap our small fighter wing. They didn’t succeed, but some of the planes were damaged, and the pilots are rattled. We need some stealth drones that can be interfaced into the battle operations manager they’re using. Almost all their gear is CDF, so I figure that won’t be too difficult.”
“Is this a joke?” Sinclair asked, his mouth agape.
“No. No joke, Colonel.”
“Cohen… I want to help you, mate,” Sinclair said in his baritone English accent. “But you’re asking me to commit an offense that could easily end in a court-martial for me.”
“I already committed one by going AWOL,” David said, invoking the acronym for absent without leave. “I get it’s a huge ask. But put all the blame on me… say I ordered you to put a couple of drones around the planet for intelligence-gathering purposes. You haven’t received official notification I’m on leave, have you?”
“Well, no. But it’s well known inside the intel community on the Oxford.”
Sensing Sinclair’s continued hesitation, David pressed on. “Look, those drones will help us even up the odds. We’ll know when hostile air is inbound and be able to vector our guys into the right place to make a difference. Operations tempo is stepping up, and I want to limit casualties among friendly forces to as little as humanly possible.”
“I suppose I could say that you redirected the drones after they got on station with your command codes if it ever came down to it.”
David smiled. “Do remember our embedded reporter is going to make it very difficult to say anything bad about this op. If nothing else, public opinion will be squarely in our favor.”
“JAG could care less about public opinion, Colonel,” Sinclair said, his voice tight. “I’ll help you, but not because of anything except this… I’m sure it’s the right thing to do. I’d rather do what I know is right than live with knowing I could’ve made a difference for the rest of my life.”
“Thank you, Sinclair,” David inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
“You give those bastards hell, you hear me, Cohen?”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way. These guys don’t have a chance. They’ve got seventy-five hundred nuns coming for them.”
Sinclair laughed out loud. “I wish I could be there to see that. I’ll burst transmit the drone’s location and control frequency along with standard authorization instructions. Godspeed.”
“We’ll make it count. Godspeed, Colonel. Cohen out.”
David set the tablet aside as the screen blinked out. God, please let it be enough. Please help us all. Stripping off his shirt, he was determined to sleep as well as he could to get up refreshed and attack another day.
20
David rose a few hours after he had gone to bed, waking up as the sun came up. His internal clock was messed up, being set to CMT, which was the timekeeping system on all CDF ships. Adjusting to a planet’s time was always tricky, especially after so much of his life was spent on starships. He worked through his morning ritual, did a three-mile jog around the base, had a quick breakfast of prepared rations that were kosher, and took a short, two-minute space shower, even though he was firmly on the ground.
After pausing to conduct his morning prayers in private, David reported to the assault shuttle assigned to him for the next phase of their attack plans. As he walked into the back of it, battle rifle slung over his shoulder, Calvin called out to him, “Be still my beating heart! The great Colonel Cohen got here after I did!”
David chuckled, as did most of the nuns. “Colonel Demood, that may be the first time that’s ever happened.”
“Do you guys need a room?” Kaufman said from the cockpit of the shuttle to sustained laughter from everyone else, including Calvin and David.
“No, ma’am, just some targets to shoot.”
Still snickering to himself, David locked his battle rifle into a holder and strapped himself into the last open seat on the shuttle. With his armor, extra magazines, sidearm, and extra gear, it was a tight fit. Glancing to the right at the occupied harness next to him, he took note of a young woman who appeared to be sweating profusely.
