“So you’d stand around while someone killed your best friend?” the colonel asked.
“That’s not the point, sir,” the MP said. “He broke the law.”
“I’d say the soldier just served justice to a murderer,” the colonel said.
“Respectfully, sir,” the MP said, with an edge to his voice. “We don’t know that.”
The colonel’s features tightened. “Let me tell you something, son. He’s coming with me.”
“I don’t think so,” the MP said. “He’s a penal militiaman. He’s in the Militia. That means he’s outside of your jurisdiction.”
“Colonel Higgins told some of us what had happened to his boy,” the colonel said. “I fought with the colonel in Colorado. Jake,” he said. “Are you done with the Militia?”
“Yes, sir,” Jake said.
“Would you like to join the U.S. Army?” the colonel asked.
“Yes, sir,” Jake said.
“Then climb aboard my tank,” the colonel said.
“He can’t do that,” the MP said, and several of his fellow officers stepped up behind him.
“That’s funny,” the colonel said. “I’m doing it, and you’re watching me doing it.”
The MP licked his lips, and he aimed his gun at the colonel.
On the tank from an inside controller, one of the .50 calibers aimed at the MPs.
“Are you certain you want to face off with me?” the colonel asked. “You have a pea-shooter and I have death.”
Jake kept moving. He was still in a daze over Charlie’s death. He was going to miss him. He’d also killed Dan Franks, and that was hard to believe. Now this…it was crazy, and it was a piece of good fortune. Maybe he could finally get out of the Militia and join a real outfit.
“I’m not going to warn you again,” the MP told the colonel.
“That’s right,” the colonel said. “You’re not. Get on with your regular duties, son. This is way out of your league.”
The MP eyed the colonel. He looked like a tough man, but so did the older colonel. “I’ll have to report this,” the MP said.
That’s when Jake knew he had left the Militia organization. The only way they’d get him back again was over his dead body. Did that mean he was in the tank corps? As he scrambled up the Jefferson, Jake figured he was going to find out soon enough.
-15-
Strategic Interlude III
From Military History: Past to Present, by Vance Holbrook:
2040, July 18-28. Battle of Syracuse. Following the combined ICBM-ASBM/THOR-Air Force destruction of the GD Atlantic Fleet, Mansfeld cast the dice of fate on an all-or-nothing assault upon Syracuse. Phase I of the assault promised the greatest rewards. The defenders, however, had just sufficient numbers and several Heidegger jamming companies to blunt any breakthrough from occurring. Phase II saw a steady increase of forces on both sides as Kaisers from the Niagara Peninsula joined the assaults. The ensuing battle brought about a heavier loss on the GD attackers. Phase III amounted to GD desperation and the last, offensive hurrah of the Expeditionary Force.
2040, July 28-August 7. The Grind. The end of the GD attack on Syracuse signaled a steady but remorseless trading of places between attacker and defender. The GD forces were spread out over a large area of inhospitable terrain. Their inability to close the ring on US First Front now told against them as numbers and materiel built up heavily against the Expeditionary Force.
In Southwestern Ontario, the massed artillery devoured GD soldiery. In New York State, the GD could not retreat from Buffalo without risking cutting off Twelfth Army, while a retreating Twelfth Army would have risked running the gauntlet of Interstate 90. In the north, the Fromm Offensive ground to a halt as GD engineers began to prepare a defense in depth of Quebec. Reinforcements from Europe failed to match the wastage of the continuing campaign.
On the American side, newly trained levies entered the services, swelling their ranks. The reinforced army groups in northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire indicated the direction of American strategic thinking. The removal of 70 percent of the Heidegger battalions from Ontario and their placement at the northern US front against Quebec heralded the coming attack.
2040, August 7-17. The Alan Offensive. General Alan—the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—remained in field command. He switched from Syracuse to the newly combined Army Group North (formerly Army Group New York and Army Group New England). On August 7, a hurricane bombardment signaled the beginning of the decisive Quebec assault…
From Tank Wars, by B.K. Laumer III:
The action-reaction of new technology is an interesting phenomenon in modern war. Side A develops a new weapon and introduces it onto the battlefield. If the new weapon has a devastating effect, side B quickly searches for a countermeasure. Once it finds the counter, it is employed as quickly as possible. This in turn often induces side A to find a counter to the counter.
At times, the first countermeasure so effectively disrupts the new weapon system that it leaves the first side at a great disadvantage, having invested so much in a now-useless technology.
World War II provides countless examples of this. The war in North America also had many interesting instances. One of the more intriguing was the extraordinary reliance of the German Dominion on ground drones and AI-run tanks. The Heidegger jammers were the counter to them, rendering them, if not useless, then no more effective than a similar force of standard type. During the latter phases of the 2040 campaign in Quebec, saw one of the most potent turnarounds in the history of war.
-16-
Drive on Montreal
General Walther Mansfeld stood in his inner sanctum as he stared at a map of the surrounding terrain. The lights were dim and the glow from the map seemed like an evil eye, with a nimbus around the outer edges.
Three weeks ago, he had spoken with Kleist, telling him about the futility of continuing the campaign along its projected course. He had known what would happen, and without surprise, that’s exactly what had occurred.
The Americans hadn’t been particularly clever. No, no, it had been nothing like that. It had been their old tactic of mass materiel with the added bonus of blood. The artillery barrages in Southwestern Ontario showed their lack of mastery. Any fool could line up rows upon rows of big guns and fire them nonstop. The Russians had done that in WWII. Bah, it was a manufacturer’s way of running a war. He was unimpressed.
The enemy had numbers and pressed everywhere, making it difficult to pull back, to extract the troops they needed. Yet he had done so. Day after day, week after week, he had trickled a few more soldiers all the way back to Montreal where he knew he’d need them.
The Americans pressed with greater mass in northern New York, northern Vermont and New Hampshire. They used the foolish Canadians to bleed for them and overwhelm the forward German defenders. The days were bloody, and Kleist had soon spoken to him seemingly every hour. The man had screamed, “Defend your conquests! Hold your ground!”
Those were easy words to bellow, but they showed a lack of military refinement. Naturally, he—Mansfeld—had disobeyed such stupidity. That wasn’t how you defeated superior numbers. You had to suck the enemy in, use tricks and then unleash flanking attacks or enfilade fire.
He had made the enemy pay for their advances. Yet now they had too much ordnance, and they employed heavy artillery and their damned jammers in Quebec. Day by day, the Americans drove north toward the Saint Lawrence River. That was the artery for the Expeditionary Force, the line that reached over the Atlantic Ocean all the way back to Europe and its factories.