The other men in the room just looked blankly down at the table.
“Look gentleman this is what is required. Nixon, you need to contact your Soviet equivalent and brief them. Finish by asking for their help. Then we need to bring all troops back from Vietnam as soon as possible; do you understand?”
Nixon’s dark eyes narrowed but he nodded.
The men in black turned to Westmoreland and the other generals, “We need to plan an immediate counter-offensive aimed at Wright Patterson and the surrounding area. We need to stop their forces from spreading.”
“What about the nuclear facilities?” Hoover asked.
“Ignore them; if we can encircle their forces then the facilities will be cut off.” The men in black continued, “Finally we need you as a leadership team to split up. If they decide to hot the White House we can’t risk having you all captured or killed in one attack. Nixon and General Abrams you will go to Air Force One.”
Armed guards entered the room, they saluted the President, “Please come with us now Sir, we have a helicopter waiting.”
Nixon looked to the men in black suits, they nodded.
The president and the other men selected followed him out of the room and the guards closed the doors behind them.
“The rest of you will go down to the emergency bunker here in the White House, we need to get our forces ready ASAP, this needs to be a rapid counteroffensive.”
Control
Brooklyn Jnr and the men and women of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise had been held in port for two hours when they returned from the long voyage home. Brooklyn was full of hope and optimism as he was going to try and win his love back. His family had always stood for hard work and always trying your best, never giving up without first trying every possible avenue to success.
The whole crew was packed like sardines into a large meeting room where they were shown the news footage and accompanying broadcast from Commander Sporrenberg. At first, they thought it was a joke in poor taste but soon they realized this was actually happening and the room went deathly silent.
After the footage was shown they went straight into a briefing. A huge counter-offensive was planned for 06:00 the following morning. Brooklyn along with all the Phantom pilots was tasked with taking on the enemy fighters, keeping them away from the lumbering B-52 bombers who were going to carpet bomb the area; only then would the ground forces advance.
High command believed the area to be free of civilians as they had likely all been killed by the insidious ‘Aryan’ forces. Wright Patterson was the main target but the Intel was patchy so the Americans had to be prepared to fight for every millimeter of soil.
Brooklyn and his fellow soldiers were ordered to get as much rest as possible. Tomorrow was not going to be an easy operation and they were going up against the unknown but make no mistake about it, the future of America was in the balance.
Under no circumstances were they going to be the generation that lets their nation be overrun by an evil force, this was their home and their people and they would not let them down.
Brooklyn managed to quickly call his mom, he was happy to hear her voice, it always calmed him and she had a great way of making him feel that everything would be alright. She had seen the news reports and was proud that Brooklyn was fighting for his Country and she knew it was in the best hands possible.
Brooklyn Jnr knew his mother had not mentioned everything though, He knew that Hawaii was being prepared as an emergency evacuation site. If the initial counter-offensive failed then as many people as possible would be evacuated. The Aryan forces did not appear to have a Navy so a group of Islands was thought to be the best place to send refugees.
The men of the brand new Army group Alpha went to their bunks for an uneasy sleep before they had to awake and prepare for what was undoubtedly going to be the hardest mission they had ever undertaken.
Brooklyn Jnr tossed and turned in his clammy bunk, his palms were sweaty as he had an uneasy dream about Pamela where she disappeared into the darkness.
Rolling Thunder
Four long columns of armored vehicles desecrated the chilly morning air with trails of fumes; they were on the approach to the small town of Parkersburg West Virginia. The naturally chilled air created a light covering of mist on this cold morning. The lush green grass was covered in dew.
The vast majority of the force was made up of the durable and versatile M48 Patton medium tank. The tank was easy to identify by her elongated and stout turret, curved along the sides to aid ballistics protection. The Patton carried a reliable 90mm main gun and her crews loved her because she always performed well when the shit hit the fan.
Following the Patton’s was the small shoebox-shaped M113 armored personnel carriers; they carried eleven troops sat in the main structure behind the two drivers. There were forty of these vehicles in total.
Formations of Sheridan light tanks had used their excellent mobility to recon ahead and were now waiting for the rest of the vehicles to join them at the rendezvous point in Parkersburg. The light tank crews had reported back that the town was deserted, there was no sign of a disturbance but every house was clearly abandoned.
The rest of the freshly formed 1st armored division was made up of M163 Vulcan Air Defense systems which had the same base as the M113 but had a powerful 20mm M61 Vulcan Gatling cannon mounted on its frame. The cannon laid down an impressive volume of fire and were great at deterring low flying aircraft.
The last part of the force was made up of self-propelled artillery pieces. They were going to be positioned in cover further back from the town in case heavy fire support was needed. The support and supply vehicles hung back with a few M48 Patton, who was tasked with guarding the artillery.
The familiar roar of jet engines echoed from somewhere overhead. A large squadron of F4 Phantoms powered through the clear sky high above the low blanket cover of mist. Their powerful duel engines growled as they burned through copious amounts of fuel.
Brooklyn Jnr was growing impatient. “Hey Moose how much longer we gonna be circling for anyway?”
William Morgan ‘Moose’ Morris laughed, “Until the B-52’s get into position… or we run outta fuel and fall out of the sky!”
Brooklyn smiled, “Normally the latter buddy.”
“Roger that,” Moose said.
“Will you two zip it.” Flight leader Dan Campbell Ordered. “They are in the air and we are to proceed on mission. You lovebirds would have heard that if you hadn’t been squawking.”
“Finally!” Brooklyn said as the Phantoms powered up their engines and rocketed overhead high above the armored vehicles.
The mission clock ticked over to twenty-one minutes as the Phantoms zipped across the Parkersburg town boundary at nineteen thousand feet. They were split into multiple formations of four planes with a total of thirty-two fighter’s; it was an impressive if somewhat nosey scene.
The B-52 bombers were about a mile further back and above at forty thousand feet, long plumes of vapor trailed behind the aircraft in lazy swirls as they passed through the ever brightening sky. The crews of the mighty bombers had conflicting feelings about carpet bombing one of their own bases but they knew there was a job to be done and as the saying went ‘The bomber always gets through.’
The radio linked to the battlenet crackled into life, “Army group two has encountered resistance just east of Indianapolis… Shots fired… heavy volume of incoming fire…”
William Marlborough was the commanding officer in charge of the 1st armored division. He was fifty-two and had been semi-retired from the army only to be given command of the armored units due to his impressive exploits in the Korean War and as an advisor in Vietnam.