drewkitty

GWOT VI - Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select Start

"I'm asking You God, to give me what You have left.
Give me those things which others never ask of You.
I don't ask You for rest, or tranquility.
Not that of the spirit, the body, or the mind.
I don't ask You for wealth, or success, or even health.
All those things are asked of You so much Lord,
that you can't have any left to give.
Give me instead Lord what You have left.
Give me what others don't want.
I want uncertainty and doubt.
I want torment and battle.
And I ask that You give them to me now and forever Lord,
so I can be sure to always have them,
because I won't always have the strength to ask again.
But give me also the courage, the energy,
and the spirit to face them.
I ask You these things Lord,
because I can't ask them of myself." - The Paratrooper's Prayer as translated from French; an abridged version is sometimes credited to the UK Special AIr Service, because the Brits steal anything that is not nailed down

I left the Governor's Office, checked out with Major Rodriguez, and walked to a nearby hotel. My California Republic officer's credit card booked a room. I ate in the hotel restaurant. I tipped a truly larcenous amount to be allowed to procure half a box of tea bags, two carafes and a long spoon and take same up to my room.

Between these supplies, the coffee pot and trips to the ice machine, I brewed myself a merely adequate supply of iced tea.

I put my uniform shirt up on the hanger, adjusted the AC until I determined that it was already doing its feeble best, and got out a notepad.

The only way to win this war was going to be to cheat.

###

The gyrostabilization of the gun truck heavy machine gun mount increases its effective range by …

California scout soldiers are selected for the following qualities…

###

There was a knock at the door, which I answered with my handgun.

Once the visitor satisfied me that I did not need to shoot her, she got out a wand and waved it around the room while requiring me to not merely turn off my laptop and phone but remove the batteries and put the base units in the bathroom with the water left running. I had already unplugged the TV and telephone, which is why she'd had to knock in the first place.

Then she told me, briefly, about _RCS Panoptes_.

And all about how ursines perform their ablutions in arboraceous terrain.

###

Selected quotes from Sun Tzu's _The Art of War_:

All warfare is based on deception.

Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without
fighting.

Mistranslation: In death ground, fight.

Corrected translation: On desperate ground, I would proclaim to my soldiers the hopelessness of saving their lives.

Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight. If they will face death, there is nothing they may not achieve. Officers and men alike will put forth
their uttermost strength.

Now an army is exposed to six several calamities, not arising from natural causes, but from faults for which the general is responsible. These are: (1) flight; (2) insubordination; (3) collapse; (4) ruin;
(5) disorganization; (6) rout.

###

"Set a thief to catch a thief."

I made a particular note. Every person sentenced to eight years' military service to be individually asked to volunteer. Especially if they served with Homeland.

There is no zealot like a convert.

###

I was never a gun bunny. Reading manuals wasn't enough. So I watched videos, both on the California Republic military training network and on the public facing YouTube.

On the screen, puffs of dust came up as the men passed the shells hand over hand, the last dropping them down the tube and covered his ears.

###

The operational range of the Aerospatale medium helicopter is X nautical miles with Y payload, at a speed over ground of Z in no wind, for a calculated flight time of T.

###

I made a cell phone call.

The answer was wary. Even more wary after he recognized my voice.

"I have a son," he protested. Then controlled himself.

"Where am I to report?"

###

Six days. The number came up over and over and over again. Six days. The maximum marching radius of cargo beasts carrying their own fodder. The maximum that healthy military age men could force march without sustained rest. The maximum that refugees could keep going before starting to take fatal casualties.

"And on the seventh day, (h)e rested."

Asshole.

###

In the middle of the night, I ran out of vital supplies.

I therefore, without bothering with my firearm or my uniform blouse, walked down to the corner store to get some iced tea.

I also forgot my wallet.

But the store proprietor was happy to give me as many bottles of iced tea as I could carry.

The two robbers, on the other hand, were in no condition to carry anything anywhere, ever again.

And I had a new-to-me pistol, too.

###

Somewhere between measuring distances between small towns, musing over terrain maps, downloading the entire 2010 US Geological Survey map set of Iowa, and trying to make sense of scanned photocopied pages of a UN chain of command translated into French from Bengali …

I made another phone call.

"I need access to some things," I explained.

Amazingly enough, Mo had picked up.

"Yeah. I can build that."

###

I mused over my electronic copy of _Starship Troopers_. Never mind the movie, except that scene where the trainer pins the recruit's hand with a knife.

"Medic!"

I knew my limits. So I made a phone call.

"You want to do _what_?"

"I need sixty medical personnel to provide medical care at three to six sites for one million people."

"Eight battle surgeons. Six emergency physicians. An anesthesiologist and a resuscitation specialist trained to work on a field surgical team in austere settings. Ten nurses. A pharmacist, a laboratory technician. Two medical command officers, both also battle surgeons. And yeah, thirty paramedics."

###

"Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…"

I paused. Repeated it again.

This was disgusting.

But I had to get the cadence right.

"… deliver us from evil…"

Now that I could get behind.

###

"All personnel must volunteer. All personnel must complete their next of kin, life insurance and disposition of effects paperwork _before departure from California_."

###

I double checked the handwritten range table and the draft range cards.

###

I finally reached a state of total information overload, extreme caffeine overdose, and utter sleep deprivation.

I closed the laptop, pushed aside my notes, drew the hotel curtains tighter until I figured out that I could use the clamps of the suit jacket hanger to seal the center gap in between.

I stared at the dark ceiling, hearing the noises of a mid-day hotel as rooms are cleaned, tourists fuck, and families walk past outside on the way to the pool.

It was all starting to come together in my head.

"Oh!" a voice of indeterminate gender distantly ejaculated.

Schwerpunkt.

Kick, don't splatter. Boot, don't piss on them.

To hell with lines of control.

I don't have a rear area.

The entire state of Iowa is the enemy rear area, and I will roam through it at will.

I defend nothing unless it serves my purposes to defend it - for a moment, or for the length of the fight.

I save as many as I can by being utterly ruthless in my willingness to let the others die.

I inflict suffering on my enemies in direct proportion to their willingness to attempt atrocities.

Surprise is an event that takes place in the mind of an enemy commander.

The physical destruction of the enemy commander's brain is a tolerable second best.

"They won't surrender to me. So I have to find something bigger than me that they can surrender to."

I find my phone, fumble with it, find a song.

"Are you deranged like me?
Are you strange like me?
Lighting matches just to swallow up the flame like me?
Do you call yourself a fucking hurricane like me?
Pointing fingers 'cause you'll never take the blame like me?"

One of Brooke's favorites. "Gasoline" by Halsey.

My prayer before I fall asleep in utter exhaustion and confusion is very short.

"Brooke, I pray I die as well as you did."