299 Days VIII: The War (4 page)

Hammond put up his hand with three fingers out and said, “There are three fundamental
points about this operation that you need to know.” Anyone could have heard a pin
drop in the room.

“First,” Hammond said, “our enemy is extremely weak. We still need to respect the
enemy. They will cause us some casualties. You can count on that, ladies and gentlemen.
Count on that,” he said a second time to emphasize the point. He paused.

“But,” he said dramatically, “Our enemy is crumbling. They are running out of supplies.
I’ll touch on their lack of military supplies in a moment. But they’re running out
of every kind of supplies, like food. It appears that their stupid-ass socialist system
is not producing any food. Huh? Who saw that coming?” This was about as political
as Hammond ever got. He was a soldier, not a politician. But politics affected the
military situation by having a system that caused the Limas’ food supplies to run
low.

“So what are they doing?” Hammond asked the audience. “They’re doing what dictators
always do, limiting food to the civilians and taking it for themselves. That’s the
whole FCard ‘clearance’ system. It is a hierarchy of who gets how much food. Well,
guess what? The civilians in the Lima areas like Olympia don’t appreciate this. They
see it all day long. The regular people see connected people having plenty while their
kids go hungry. I don’t want to exaggerate, there isn’t massive starvation in Olympia,
but there is hunger. And it’s winter. Early winter. The civilian population, even
those who were big time Loyalists a few months ago or even a few weeks ago, are realizing
that they’re getting screwed. This is a big part of our strategy, as I’ll discuss
in a moment.”

“The resentment by the civilians and the lack of supplies overall,” Hammond said,
“means that the population will either be receptive to us or neutral. I’m not expecting
a ticker tape parade when we go in, but I bet many civilians will just hide in their
houses and come out only to get food. That’s been our experience in the other countries
where some of us in this room have fought.” A few of the Special Forces guys were
nodding.

“Humans are humans anywhere on the planet,” Hammond said. “Civilians in Olympia won’t
fight to the death over … what? Devotion to a political party? Some belief in a Keynesian
economic model?” Hammond was very well-read.

“Now, this won’t be a cakewalk with the civilians,” Hammond cautioned. “There will
be some who are hardcore Limas. They really believe the Patriots are Klansmen out
to get them.” Hammond paused and swung around to a member of the audience.

“Thompson,” Hammond said with a smile to a black soldier, “You a Klansman?”

“Hell no, sir,” the solider said. That got a laugh.

Hammond wanted to get back to serious business. “Okay,” he said, “Here’s what we know
about their weaknesses. They have a huge AWOL problem. With Christmas coming, they’re
melting away to be with their families and get the hell out of outlying areas, like
Olympia. They’re going to Seattle by the busload. Most of the FCorps and National
Guard are either gone or are combat ineffective like when they sell their weapons
for a carton of cigarettes.” Hammond winked and said, “Based on a true story, ladies
and gentlemen. Several of them, actually.”

Hammond pointed outside. “This illustrates my point exactly. We’re in Boston Harbor,
about six miles from the Olympia city limits. Do you see any Limas around here? They
probably know we’re here, but are too weak to do anything about it.” What Hammond
didn’t say to the crowd was that the Patriots had people in the Lima organizations
and would instantly know about a pending attack. On the other hand, and something
else Hammond didn’t say, was that one well-coordinated Lima helicopter attack would
level Boston Harbor in about fifteen seconds. There was no need to alarm people.

“But this is the capitol,” Hammond said, still pointing toward Olympia, “Where lots
of Lima forces are concentrated. The state police are still a pretty cohesive unit.
There are a surprisingly high number of National Guard troops in Olympia—more than
I would have stationed there, but we have to play the hand we’ve been dealt. They
are pretty crappy troops in general, the ones who are left in the National Guard.
Lots of young kids just doing this for that big college money they still think they’ll
get, even though all the colleges are closed. These police and National Guard units
have nothing to lose now. They’ve picked sides. They know what will happen to them
when we win. So they’ll fight pretty hard. Not necessarily well, but hard. But they’re
not up to our standards.”

“There is one formidable foe in Olympia,” Hammond said. Everyone was paying attention.
“The gangs. They are pretty much running the place. They are well-armed, as well-armed
as we are in many cases, but they’re not trained. Well, mostly not trained. The ethnic
gangs aren’t trained, they’re street criminals with AKs and some ARs. Lots of them
are on drugs or have venereal diseases. They are not exactly combat effective. They’re
just thugs who we can take out relatively easily.”

“But this isn’t a cakewalk,” Hammond said again. “Some of the gangs are comprised
entirely of former law enforcement and even military. They will be a big problem for
us. And some of the ethnic gangs have former LEO and military ‘security contractors’
working for them.” What Hammond didn’t say, because he didn’t want his troops to be
overconfident, was that the gangs’ “security contractors” would probably cut and run
at the first sign of Patriot regular units or even irregulars. The gangs’ “security
contractors” were just mercenaries who wouldn’t die for the gangs. Hammond wanted
his audience to take the gangs seriously.

“But,” Hammond cautioned, “Going back to the untrained gangs, what they lack in training,
they make up for in viciousness. This is a huge equalizer. You don’t have to be well
trained to kill our guys if you spray fire into a crowd of civilians and happen to
hit our soldiers. Or if you torture people so they don’t talk to us when we come in.
So don’t think of the gangs like traditional enemy soldiers. This leads to my second
point.” He put up his hand with two fingers up.

“The second difference between this operation and what you might have trained for
in a regular unit,” Hammond said, “is that this is not a traditional military operation.
Okay? Everyone hear that. There’s no air support, no artillery, no armor, nuthin’.”

Hammond continued, “Yes, they have a few helicopters and some arty,” which was short
for artillery, “but very little of it. Most of the Lima units that maintain aviation
assets or move around artillery pieces have gone AWOL, are sit-outs, or are concentrated
in Seattle, so they can’t really use these technological marvels on us in Olympia.
Same with armor. Maybe they have some armor around, but they don’t have the fuel or
spare parts for them to be mobile. Our observers on the ground tell us that the Limas
have some armor guarding their major facilities, but they don’t have any running around
intercepting our infantry, which is damned good news.” That got a few claps. There
was nothing more terrifying to ground troops than enemy tanks.

“If we were going to take Baghdad or Kabul or whatever,” Hammond continued, “we wouldn’t
try it with as small a force as we have. Let’s be honest about that. We have a pretty
lean force. But this isn’t Baghdad or Kabul. This is Olympia, Washington. This leads
to the third fundamental point: civilians.”

“The civilians in Olympia are Americans,” Hammond said. “Our people. Our neighbors—hell,
our families—in some cases. They are our fellow citizens in all cases, which means
a couple of things.”

“First of all,” Hammond said, “we always try hard not to hurt civilians, even in foreign
countries, but the stakes are higher here because these civilians are Americans. This
means we have to have rules of engagement, as much as I hate those things. Basic stuff,
though, not lawyer shit. You know, don’t shoot unless you can reasonably identify
your target. We won’t go overboard on ROEs.” Hammond, and most of the regular military
in the room, had been hobbled in foreign deployments by ridiculous ROEs, as they called
Rules of Engagement. Ridiculous ROEs created by liberal politicians let enemy fighters
get away with murder. Literally.

“A second thing about our objective being full of American civilians,” Hammond said,
“is that we will have a strong emphasis on civil affairs.” Hammond looked at Grant.

When Hammond said “civil affairs,” he put up his hand as if to say “don’t start whining.”
He continued, “Not the ‘civil affairs’ stuff where we give money to corrupt contractors
to build schools in foreign countries that the insurgents use to fire mortars at us.”
He shook his head. “No, we’ll get the government services up and running, especially
food, so our own people, Americans, can make it through this. I guess what I’m saying
is that we always care about the civilian population, but we care more in this operation
because they’re our own people.”

“Any questions so far?” Hammond asked. There were none.

“Okay, here’s the basic overview of the plan,” Hammond said. “I should note that you
are getting a basic overview. This isn’t like the traditional military operations
we do where we spend days planning how to coordinate armor, air, artillery, medevac,
logistics, and all that. We’re going to freestyle this a bit.”

Freestyle? That got some concerned looks from the regular military people. That was
the opposite of precise military planning. Hammond had anticipated this.

“Here’s the deal,” Hammond said almost defensively. “We don’t have any armor or air
to coordinate. We don’t have a traditional enemy. They don’t really have any command
and control that we need to smash. Plus, we have lots of civilians to protect and
get back on their feet. This is why I said this isn’t a traditional operation at all.”

What Hammond didn’t say was that Patriot command at the national level had decided
that the time to strike was now. The sit-out units were getting restless. It was now
or never for the Patriots. The timing wasn’t perfect because the Patriots didn’t know
if they had superior forces and supply, but it was a “use it or lose it” situation
with the sit-outs.

“Regular units will start to move in toward Olympia from all directions,” Hammond
said and used his pointer on the map to illustrate. “They will lead the assault.”
Hammond realized he was repeating this part, but wanted the audience to hear it a
second time.

“But you folks are here tonight,” Hammond said, “because you’re the irregulars. Here’s
your role: come in behind the regular units and occupy the objective. Mop up. Get
government services up and running. Let the regular units go after the entrenched
facilities and deal with the high-tech Lima threats, like aviation, artillery, and
armor, if there are any.”

The Special Forces soldier in Hammond took delight in the next point. “Some of the
irregular units will be doing traditional guerilla work: sabotage supplies and diversions.”
Grant knew that the 17th wouldn’t be doing these things. He knew what role his unit
would have. It was pretty obvious.

Hammond pointed to Captain Morris, who started to gather up packets of documents,
each one in a large mailing envelope. “Each unit will have a plan, of course,” he
said as Morris handed them out.

“There are two kinds of documents in your packet,” Hammond said. “One in English and
one in your Quadra’s language. The one in English has simple things, like radio frequencies
and some basic info. The very detailed plan is written in Quadra. This is the sensitive
stuff that we really don’t want the Limas to get. Your Quadra back at your unit will
be able to tell you what’s in the detailed plan.” Hammond didn’t mention that the
plans in English were to allow a unit commander to know if a Quadra was a spy and
lying about the detailed plan. Hammond wasn’t concerned about this, but they had a
plan for everything.

Hammond continued, “In this non-traditional operation, we will use radio communications,
via the Quadras, to provide a lot of the instructions to you. So you’ll have a basic
plan, some way-point objectives along the way, and you’ll get last minute and detailed
instruction from HQ via the Quadras.”

“Any questions so far?” Hammond asked. Grant was handed his packet. He looked it over.
The Quadra language was in some weird alphabet Grant had never seen. The letters looked
like a cross between the Arabic, English, and Russian alphabets.

“We have someone here tonight for each of the units who will verbally give you your
specific plan,” Hammond said. “Nothing complicated, but we don’t have to be complicated.
This is more like fighting about a hundred fifty years ago, during the Civil War,
than anything you’ve seen since then. I can’t stress this enough: do not view this
as a traditional military operation. It’s more like a giant law enforcement operation,
kicking out some gangs from a city. Because that’s basically what it is.”

“Any questions?” Hammond asked again.

“Will this be coordinated with attacks in other states?” a contractor-looking guy
asked.

“Negative, Brainard,” Hammond said. “Each state is pretty much on its own. The Free
States,” which meant the South and mountain West, “are in the best shape, of course.
But even they have their hands full keeping the Limas under control. There are Lima
terrorists and even Lima guerilla bands in the Free States. Plus, the Free States
are spending all their resources getting food to their people. They are offering political
support by recognizing our new state governments, but for now, that’s all they can
do.” What Hammond didn’t say was that the logistics of moving Free State forces hundreds
of miles to a neighboring state was just too hard with fuel being so scarce.