Invasion USA 3 - The Battle for Survival (46 page)

“Do we know what happened to the civilians?” asked the President.

“Yes,” replied Admiral Rogers. “Several civilians who escaped told us that the town’s people had been rounded up and were told to carry supplies northwards on foot. The local airport had aircraft coming in. One man told us that the aircraft were Venezuelan. For days these aircraft, a dozen of them, brought in food and ammunition and took out wounded.

“Did you find any identification on the dead bodies?” asked Carlos. “Since my uncle, the ambassador cannot be here, I would like to transfer any relevant information back to him and his contacts in Colombia.”

“They searched many dead bodies. It was a gruesome task as many were already over a week old and they only had a few gas masks with them. Most of the bodies we searched had no identity on them at all. All the Chinese and the opposition armies’ weapons and ammo were gone, but we did find empty Venezuelan and Colombian cigarette packets on the ground. We assume that there were just too many bodies to carry back to wherever, or the advancing army was ordered to move on northwards. We found several bodies with Venezuelan information on them. One had an old girlie magazine and we found some Colombian papers on a couple of others. There was one body which had a Brazilian passport on it, Carlos. I will brief you and your uncle later in North Carolina. We have rounded up a thousand locals and we are digging pits to bury the dead before disease becomes a bigger problem there as well. We left 12,500 troops and supplies at the canal. This was a week ago and the Panama Canal is under U.S. control again.

“The container ship and its Destroyer guard passed successfully through the canal and headed to the Hawaiian Islands to meet the other five container ships from Shanghai anchored there. We made contact with the vessels yesterday and several small battles on board the Chinese ships ensued. We had asked the captains to anchor a couple of miles offshore of a small uninhabited island near Kauai. This island was visible from the ships and is a couple of square miles in area. Many of the Chinese troops jumped ship and began swimming to the island. I don’t know if they can survive on this island, but that’s not my problem. We sustained a dozen or so casualties and took over command without any damage to the ships. Our vessels had enough naval personnel aboard to take command of the Chinese vessels. They are steaming past Maui at the moment and we are aiming for the five main West Coast ports where the Army and Marines are currently securing and forming a lock-down. We hope to be distributing food in about a week.

“The third container ship, still in New York harbor, is ready to sail and we will send her south to the Panama Canal with another 12,500 troops on board to make sure that we are ready if this army decides to return. Thank you.” And the admiral returned to his seat.

General Patterson then introduced the President of the United States, the last to speak.

“Thank you to all for a job well done,” he started. “Members of the military and civilians, we are about to enter the most productive cycle of 2013, our spring planting season. Reports into the White House from around the country estimate there are over 300,000 large-acreage farmers on millions of acres of prime farm land, working together with five million civilians and 200,000 soldiers as protection squads. We have literally sourced every seed, plant and animal we can into maximum production for the coming spring and summer. With estimates on population numbers changing daily, we expect to be able to feed millions of people within two months from these farms. We have the distribution and food points in place. We know that millions more are small farmers or new communal farms where groups of people are getting together to plant crops for themselves. Our numbers of this second group are vague but we believe that enough food will be grown to feed America.

“A second season of summer/fall crops is already in the planning stage, and planning for winter storage is on the docket. On hundreds of farms across the country, every piece of plastic sheeting from central warehouses like Home Depot, Lowes and greenhouse specialty companies is being used to build acres of greenhouses and hot houses for the coming winter. We hope to have over 100,000 new acres of winter food grown in these houses during the coming winter months. Crime is now our biggest problem and the military and I are going to work out a plan to setup up new community police forces and judicial systems, using county-sized areas of land. I need help forming a new Congress and Senate and we will do so in the summer. We have enough gas and diesel fuel reserves to last approximately five years at our current usage. We have over 10,000 engineers, mostly on the West Coast, working on new developments. Unfortunately it is too early to give you dates of when projects will become active. I’ve been told that the national grid will take at least a decade to get going again, and that is only in the areas where we are planning to house our population. We have information from Mr. Wang about a cache of working electronic parts in Harbin, China and we will be going in to get them. I do not have any more information on that mission yet. It is time to reinstate law and order, stop gangs, stop all the killing, get our numbers into a census and begin to rebuild. The good news is that we cannot go any faster than what we are doing at the moment. So, I thank you all for your work, and I would like the next official meeting of the New United States of America to be at the White House on July 1st, three months from now. By then we should have buried our dead, know our population numbers, have enough food, and will begin planning what our next efforts will be. Thank you.” General Patterson returned to the podium and asked the President to stay.

“Who says that in these dire times, we humans can’t have a bit of fun?” continued the general. “So please, will current Air Force Captains Sally and Jennifer, and future Captains Martie, Maggie, Barbara and Pam come up to receive your Air Force Insignia for the latest Wing of the United States Air Force. Ladies and gentlemen, the President will hand out flight overalls and wing insignia for “The Super Tweety Pie Wing” of newly painted Super Tweets under newly promoted Wing Leader, Captain Carlos Rodriquez.”

For once there were smiles as the six girls stood up and walked forward. “Come on, Wing Leader Rodriquez,” added the general. “It’s not every day that a man is given command of so many good-looking female pilots.” There was much laughter and wolf-whistles from the audience as one by one the pilots received their flight overalls, the usual Air Force issue, with the new insignia already on the shoulders.

Carlos also received his set and an official military photograph was taken of the new wing with the President and General Patterson in the photo.

“Many of you pilots still need hours of training, including the Wing Leader himself,” continued the general. “This will be done at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base until the wing can be stationed at our new airfield in Apex, North Carolina. Many of us are heading that way later today and the Super Tweets will be flown down by qualified Air Force pilots for the occasion. The aircraft are now on display outside. Thank you for coming. The next meeting is at the White House, July 1st.”

Manuel Calderón and Mexico

The two Calderón brothers met up and joined forces at a good ambush point on the road. The third brother, Pedro, was hundreds of miles to their south at the Panama Canal and unable to help them with their main army.

They had continuously and systematically picked up men everywhere they went, but the last two battles reduced their force of 3,000 men to nearly 2,000. Both Calderón groups had amassed captured weapons and ammunition from the defeated Mexican forces and had then ransacked everything they could from the destroyed Mexican bases. The 2,000-plus men prepared for the arriving Mexican army.

Unknown to them, the Mexican army also had new men arriving from all directions as they chased the banditos. It had taken time, but a spotter plane finally arrived overhead to give the Mexican troops eyes on their fast-paced race southwards. Over the last 24 hours 2,500 men had joined the 4,000 men who had survived the last battle where they had been ripped apart by the unexpected heavy bombardment from whomever they were chasing.

The army commander had been told by radio that another 5,000 men were on their way from the northern areas and would join them in a couple of days. With an army of over 10,000 men he felt confident that he could destroy the remnants of the southern banditos he was chasing.

The Colombian spotters up on the hills were the first to hear the faint sound of an approaching aircraft. The alarm was given and even though they were in southern Mexico, there was enough vegetation to hide the vehicles. Tire tracks were obliterated and men on the open sand dunes got under beige-colored tarps, or just dug into the sand with their camouflaged clothing.

Ten minutes later a “brave” Mexican pilot flew down the highway towards them at a high altitude of about 10,000 feet. If the pilot had flown lower, the two spotters in the aircraft, a Cessna 210 military aircraft, might have seen something, but they were taking no chances on this southern flight. Their plan was to head south and then return north at a lower altitude once they got a hundred miles south of the advancing Mexican army.

The Calderón brothers watched as it passed overhead. They were pretty sure that they wouldn’t be seen, but also assumed that this would not be the last aircraft overhead. They were always prepared for this in Colombia; the Colombian Air Force continuously sent spotter aircraft to look for large groups of people out of place on the ground below them. The Calderón Cartel always carried camouflage blankets, sand-colored and green, to protect them from the air. Most of their Colombian vehicles had camouflage materials for aerial surveillance and the captured Mexican vehicles were already camouflaged, many equipped with extra camouflage netting.

“Alberto!” shouted Manuel Calderón to his younger brother. “Get three men with shoulder rockets loaded with ground-to-air rockets on the highest hill, a mile to our south over there,” he said pointing to a hilly region. “Take the three shoulder rockets we captured at the last Air Force base. If this aircraft or any other aircraft comes close at a lower altitude, I want it shot down.” Alberto acknowledged the order and shouted at three of his best men to take a helper each and head for the hill.

The ambush was set twenty minutes later, two lines of men behind dunes well over a hundred yards from the main 190 north/south highway and about 150 miles south of Mexico City. This was a sandy area, but had a reasonable amount of vegetation for the invaders to hide from air surveillance. The hilly outcrops were higher than around the last ambush site further north and the grounds on both sides of the highway flatter and more open.

Manuel thought the last ambush by the Mexican Commander on his troops was amateurish and had lacked military expertise. The Mexican troops had been placed too close to the road; so close, in fact, that the ambushed force on the highway were able to charge the ambushers very quickly. Here, there was a hundred yards distance on each side, very few would survive charging that distance with lead raining down at them, and ambushers would be shooting downhill to the road from a height which made sure that they wouldn’t kill each other.

All went quiet as they waited for the rapidly moving enemy to close in on them. Manuel’s radio operators were searching for the frequency the spotter plane was using and they heard the aircraft returning very low twenty minutes later as they found its broadcasting frequency. Manuel heard the pilot radio to the ground forces that he was about seven miles ahead of the advancing army.

Three ground-to-air rockets went up to meet the small plane several seconds later, two missing but one causing an aerial firestorm several hundred yards south of his ambush position. Manuel suddenly realized his new predicament, and his big mistake.

“
Mierda, Mierda
!” he muttered to himself. “Now they will be looking for us,” he stated over his radio to his brother. “Alberto, form a line of your men to defend your northern border and I’ll do the same in case they spread out and attack us on our northern boundary.”

Men moved into position and they got ready for the mother of all battles. Once this Mexican army was defeated, Manuel and his troops would have an open road to Texas, where he really wanted to be. He should have just continued north, but being an experienced commander, saw the need to gather his forces together. Pedro was still days behind them somewhere in Panama and his plans to attack America might have to be put on hold for a few weeks. He supposed that there really was no rush; he envisaged that America was in total disarray, and time didn’t really matter anymore.

For the rest of the day they waited. A second spotter plane flew overhead just before dusk and at such a high altitude would see nothing. The army should have reached him by now, but it hadn’t and his surprise might be thwarted, but he stayed in his position just in case the Mexicans thought that he might still be traveling south.

Nothing happened the next day either and he was getting worried.

“Where is that yellow bunch of cowards?” he stated to his brother over breakfast on day two. “Alberto, send a few men north, not along the road, and find out where these soldiers are.” Alberto sent out five of his best men and they returned just before dark. It had been a hot day and most of the afternoon they dozed in the shades of trees and tarps which took away the broiling heat of the sun.

“They are camped about four miles north of us,” stated the leader. “About 4,000 men and they seem to be waiting for something. They don’t seem to be in a rush to fight us, Señor Calderón. Maybe we should put a spark of fire under their fat butts and let them chase us into our ambush?”

“I don’t think they have a battle-tested commandant,” stated Manuel to the men. “Let us wait until dawn and then attack them with a group of a hundred men. Make them angry and hopefully they will chase our guys down the road. Alberto, take a hundred of your men in twenty jeeps with guns, mortars and rockets to them and attack their southern boundary with a killing rain of fire. Shoot off the mortars and rockets first, and then sweep in with the jeeps to machine gun them and immediately retreat like a yellow village dog with its tail between its legs.”