They’d seized power on the basis that the Reformers had deviated from the path of glorious destiny and turned their back on the possibility of further extending Imperial power. The reaction of the military to those claims had been mixed. A few hadn’t accepted it at all and they were now trickling into Taiwan. A few, of course, had accepted the whole line. The balance, they were waiting on events, to see and hear what would happen, to judge the new regime on its deeds not its words.
So the new regime was committed to expansion and to the conquest of new territories. It would be a mortal blow to its credibility and to its moral authority if its first act was the nuclear incineration of one of its own provinces. In fact, the rebellion of that province was, on its own, bad enough. Almost any action taken in reprisal would make it worse. If nothing was done, if the situation was placed on the “to do’ list, a problem to be addressed when the time was right, then it could be downplayed and presented as one of those local difficulties, a thing of no great import. Masterful inactivity was the most tempting, indeed almost inevitable, course of action. And, the longer action was delayed, the harder doing anything about it would become.
The great trick now was to avoid goading Tsuji and his conspirators into doing anything. There had been one row about that already, a group of hot-heads had tried to demand that Taiwan declare its independence and establish itself as a new country, standing on its own feet. They didn’t seem to understand that if Taiwan stood on its own feet, it would be cut off at the knees. They had to remain, nominally at least, part of the Imperial Japanese Empire. That way, as a rebellious province, Tokyo would have to step carefully and find a way to a solution. In fact, under those circumstances, Tokyo may find the current status of Taiwan useful. If malcontents and dissenters found refuge on the Island, they wouldn’t be causing trouble elsewhere in the Empire. However, declare independence and all that would be gone, Tokyo would be forced to do something.
From Tokyo’s perspective, they wouldn’t have too many options. Even now, an amphibious operation across the Formosa Strait would be a hazardous undertaking and every week that passed made it more so. There were enough military units here to put up a stout defense and they also were growing stronger as the local Taiwanese joined up. That was a well-kept secret, one the Chinese definitely did not like mentioned. They habitually claimed that Taiwan was Chinese and it wasn’t.
Taiwan had originally been settled by the Dutch and Spanish and the local population were their descendants and those of the workers they had brought from elsewhere in the Pacific. Plus a few pirates of course. It had been almost a hundred years before the Chinese had invaded and occupied the islands and started to bring their own people over. Even then, the Chinese had never been more than a minority on the Island. When the Japanese had taken over in i895, their administrators had been startled to find that, outside the small ruling elite, the islanders didn’t even speak Chinese.
No, Soriva thought. Keep the situation cool, keep it quiet, keep everything low key. Don’t draw too much attention to the problem. If a delicate balance could be struck, if the political cards were played properly, then Taiwan could get away with its rebellion for a good number of years. Perhaps enough to end up with Taiwan taking over the Empire.
Officer’s Quarters, USS Austin LPD-4, Eastern Mediterranean
“Commander Thomas Sir. One of the Marines, Gunnery Sergeant Esteban Tomas, wishes to speak with you.”
“Very good. Send him in.”
The SEAL team had arrived on board the Austin a few hours before. Their specialized insertion craft were now housed in the well-deck aft and the SEALs themselves were settling into their quarters. It hadn’t taken a genius to work out what was going on here. Egypt was collapsing and falling into the hands of the Caliphate, there were streams of refugees trying to get out before the borders slammed shut. Some of those people would have intelligence and insight invaluable to the United States. The SEALs were the acknowledged experts in getting into heavily-guarded places, finding people and escorting them safely out again without anybody interfering. Or, to be more precise, without anybody who attempted to interfere living to tell the tale. Thomas guessed his men would be finding the senior people in the refugees, government, military, whoever, and bringing them out.
He guessed why the Gunnery Sergeant wanted to speak with him. Probably wanted to transfer from the Marines to the SEALs. That couldn’t be done, the SHALs recruited from the Navy and the Marines had their own covert operations group, Fleet Recon Force or FRF. Their job was a bit different from the SEALs; FRF had to get into heavily guarded places as well but once in, their job was to stay there, watch what was happening and report back. Good question which was harder, getting out with civilians in tow or staying put and reporting back.
“Sir, Commander Thomas Sir.”
The Marine was standing in front of his desk, rigidly to attention. “Gunnery Sergeant Tomas?”. Thomas frowned slightly, the man looked vaguely familiar. But then, most Marines did. The Corps did that to people.
“Sir, thank you for seeing me Sir.”
“No problem Gunny. At ease. However, you do realize that we do not allow transfers from the Marines to the SEALs. If you want to get into our line of work, I can put you in touch with the Fleet Recon recruiter.”
“Sir, I realize that Sir. But I saw your name on the arrivals list this morning and I wanted to thank you Sir. For this Sir.” Tomas put a dog-eared and aged business card on Thomas’s desk. One side had a cartoon of a seal balancing a ball on its nose, the other a laconic “He’s OK” and the signature of a Lieutenant Commander Jeff Thomas. “You remember Sir, ten years ago. You and your people were rescuing a young American girl who’d fallen into,” Tomas grinned “bad company down in Mexico. Sir, You gave me that card and suggested I see the US consul.”
Suddenly it snapped into focus. Thomas had been assigned to rescue a young American girl, Ellen Case, who’d run off from a holiday tour and got in over her head. It had been a ridiculously easy job, just a matter of finding where her bus had been ambushed, following the trail and then extracting her. The highlight hadn’t been the rescue itself, it had been throwing a fat, lazy, corrupt police chief out of a window. That, Thomas regarded as a treasured memory.
However, he remembered the leader of the bandits who’d attacked the bus. He had the brains to understand that hurting the American girl was a death sentence so he kept her safe. More, at the end, hopelessly outgunned and surrounded, he’d still managed to behave with dignity. Thomas had thought the man had potential and hinted he might like to try the Marines. Obviously he had taken the hint.
“Good God yes. I remember now. Sit down Gunny please. Gunny, you’ve changed a lot since then. You take the oath?”
“Sure did Sir. Did my five, got sworn in as a citizen in the morning, re-upped in the afternoon. Now doing life so to speak. You know Sir, shooting up that bus was the smartest thing I ever did..”
Thomas agreed but couldn’t say so. “Can I offer you some ginger ale Gunny?” American warships were dry but “ginger ale” was a winked-upon subterfuge for special occasions. And this was certainly that. The two men clinked glasses.
“You know Sir, I’ve learned a lot since then Don’t think you could sneak up that close to my boys now. Not in daylight anyhow.”
“Want to try some day, Gunny?” Thomas’s face was positively wolfish. His SEALs had left a trail of Marine units wondering what had hit them and learning from the experience. “Be a good exercise for us both. You set up and defend a target and we’ll infiltrate. Sort of training exercise we do all the time. We’re going to be here for a while, until this Egyptian thing cools down and possibly longer than that. Give me a couple of days to get my people settled in and I’ll speak to the command and arrange for a schedule.”