Terra Vanguard Mobile Command Jet

  President Constantine maneuvered to the head of the large table that dominated the center of the room, mostly out of habit as he was used to being in complete control. In truth, he felt destitute. With no safe haven to retreat to; the White House situation room being compromised and there being no way to leave D.C and retreat to Cheyenne or Camp David, he had been forced to accept Axton Tambor's offer to get on the Vanguard's jet.

  The Vanguard jet was crammed with equipment and it only amplified the alienated feeling. Screens with readouts that displayed the status of nearly every aspect of his country lined the walls. It was as much a concern as it was a relief. On one hand, someone knew what was going on. On the other, it was a massive security breach. On the other-other hand, the U.S government wasn't really capable of being in charge right now.

  The only good news were the things that weren't moving. The information vacuum alone was enough to sow heavy confusion. The military was caught in an infinite feedback loop as the lack of orders resulted in over-cautious commanders ordering their own units to simply stay put. Though, at some point somebody had sent out a recall order, so atleast wide swaths of the force had not simply disappeared into the ether. Congress was a non-factor as most of them were dead or so cowardly they had fled the nation. That, he didn't mind.

  Though, what he did mind was that his own administration was in the same toilet. Half were traitors who were either dead or missing, and the loyalist half was scattered and disorganized. As a result there were far less of his advisors in the room that he would have liked. The Secretary of Agriculture was now his acting VP. He didn’t expect that to last long either as the man was suffering from a gunshot wound.

  There were more Vanguard personnel present than his own. As a jingoist he really didn't like that. It was especially infuriating that the most useful person in the room to him, actually calling shots and triaging the state of the country, was the Vanguard representative that Tambor had seconded to them prior to nuking Los Angeles. The Australian commander was supposed to be on ice after that incident. To his credit, he was performing extremely efficiently and reporting directly to Constantine first rather than Tambor, even though Tambor was also in the room. Considering Constantine's lack of any underlings at the moment, he would just have to accept the help.

  Unsurprisingly, the stock market was in free fall. He tried not too look at the red numbers that he so often gloated about when they were green.

  The nation existed in a state of implied martial law as unrest gripped every major population center.

  Tambor looked over a digital map projected onto the table. Vanguard units were slowly coalescing back into larger components and returning from their missions executed during Phase 3 of the operation. Camila reported that they had achieved a 92% success rate. The globe was like a board swept clean. All that was left was the enemy Queen.

  With communications restored, the Leader-Commander had every commander of every unit up in comms. It was time to put everyone on the same page.

  "All stations this is Terra Vanguard Actual." He started, his tone confident and filled with resolve. "I know we've taken some hits in the last twenty-four hours. We've been betrayed, our entire robotic arm is out of commission, our communications have been compromised and we've just lost half a battalion and an entire city is occupied by enemy forces. This is NOT to be viewed as a disaster. THIS is to be viewed as an opportunity. We have wiped the enemy from the global map and forced him to consolidate his units in a single area. He acts in desperation and is playing every card he has left. L.A. is now our citadel to siege. All units have forty-eight hours to recoup, rearm and reposition. Ladies and Gentlemen, we march on the vampires last bastion. We march on Los Angeles. Tambor out."

  He ended the transmission only to switch to a group video call with High Command.

  "Periscope?" He prompted an answer from Sierra.

  She answered, "Fled the island. We're still backtracing his movements. That AI knows our entire system so it's difficult. We think it fled to L.A. He took an entire battalion of compromised frames. Of that, we're sure."

  Tambor nodded and shifted gears, he would let ISR handle the traitorous rogue robot.

  "On to our primary objective then. The battle to retake L.A will be known as Operation Railhead. Battle plan is as follows:.. " He manipulated several shapes on the map to display the city, the planned positions of the carriers and enemy forces. "Enemy is pulling out all the stops. We have reports of hellspawn, vampires, vampires with super powers, skeletal warriors and an army of fanatical cultists; all equipped with advanced weaponry from Nyx Dynamics. We can tack our own stolen Kilo-class frames onto that list. Estimates put them at the strength of a large Corps-sized element. People, this will not be easy. So, we hit the city from five directions. Iron Heart from the North, Coup de Grace from the west, Cry Havoc from the South, Defining Moment from the East. Reinstead, take personal control of the Fourth Armored. Load the fast amphib' and make for the West Coast. You will be our spearhead."

  "Yes, sir!" The ground-Commander responded enthusiastically.

  "I want all carriers loaded down with every unit they can carry. I don't care if they're from different battalions. I don't care if they have to camp out on the flight deck. We need every gun on the line. We are going to dogpile these bloodsuckers and we're going to make Shock and Awe look like a fucking joke. We use the same tactics as we did on Kotlin. But we're throwing in some wildcards. Reinstead, do not land on the beach."

  "Sir?"

  "Sail up the Los Angeles River and smash through every bridge in your path until you reach the Pacific Highway. Land your armor as close to the Union Pacific Railyard as possible. Seize it and create a landing zone for our Kestrels."

  The commander nodded, understanding.

  "We're not going after LAX first?" Someone questioned.

  "No, they'll be expecting that and they'll be waiting. Satellite optics can't see through the storm they're brewing, but their synthetic aperture radar suggests the enemy has prepared fortified positions on the airfield. The airwings will bomb them into oblivion, but we can’t land there."

  He shifted focus westward. "Coup De Grace will patrol the ocean's edge, one mile out. It was discovered the vampires are using a stolen Russian deep-sea exploratory vessel to control those big sea monsters. The team that was sent to take it hasn't reported back. They are to be presumed dead. Conduct a search for that vessel. If it still floats, sink it. If one of those monsters rears its head, use the Infinity Rail."

  The Sky-Admiral seemed unsure. "Modifications to the weapon have tested satisfactory, but do we have a backup plan? Just in case." he asked, fearing a similar failure to what happened at Tinian.

  "The Standoff Array will be standing by with X-ray rounds in the chamber. If we have to use another one, the atomic excitement will be high and we'll have to take CBRN precautions. But that's a risk we'll have to take."

  Sky-Captain Kilmer spoke up. "What about civilians?"

  "Local authorities have begun a mass evacuation. The city was already well depopulated after the first battle. Everyone's packed up and left. Weapons free outside the Long Beach evacuation area. Federov, I want Whirlwind at the tip of the spear again. Aerial insertion during the initial air-dominance campaign. You'll be assaulting the tower. However, your goal is not to kill Persephone. She'll be too well guarded. I don't expect that you'll be able to get near her. Your job is to pin her in place until our forces come crashing down with their full might. If you get the opportunity, by all means kill her, but use caution."

  "Affirmative." The Striker-Commander acknowledged.

  Tambor concluded his briefing, "Fine details and more specific unit objectives and assignments will be distributed by Lieutenant Camila and promulgated to you. Any questions?"

  Silence.

  Tambor added, "It ends here. This is the final battle of the Vampire War. They will be waiting for us. We kill them all. We kill Persephone. Them we can turn our attention skyward."

  He clasped his hands behind his back.

  "We bring the might of humanity down on the darkness. This will not be a fight against a third-rate insurgent force. This will be a near-peer pitched conflict against an entrenched and well-led enemy.

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  Fight hard. Fight together."

  The conference ended and the transmission terminated.

  President Constantine looked indecisive. "I can't just standby and let somebody else reclaim American territory while I twiddle my thumbs impotently. I can send soldiers-"

  Tambor cut him off. "No. Keep your military clear of the area. This is going to be chaos. I don't need people who still have a future getting in the way."

  Constantine inclined his head in a defiant gesture. It didn't last. He immediately drooped, having no cards to play against the commander. "Whatever you say." He said reluctantly. But internally, he had not resigned to stand helplessly on the sidelines. There were other countries in the same boat as him right now. A plan formed in his head as he saw himself out of the room, making sure to bring the Australian commander with him.

  Sky-Carrier Cry Havoc

  Lieutenant Perelli marched down the corridor, his legs forcing him forward despite his apprehension. He had been shot at, bombed, shelled, slashed at, his bones had been crunched, but none of it made him as nervous as his current tasking: He had been summoned to a meeting with the Leader-Commander.

  Perelli had seen the large MCC jet perform the airborne docking maneuver. These ships still impressed him.

  It seemed like just yesterday, he was humping it through the jungle in extreme humidity, poking his nose into every rank hole he came across, looking for an enemy that could kill him instantly if he wasn’t on alert.

  He didn’t feel a sense of pride or accomplishment at his achievements. He never did any of these things alone. The way he saw it, he was just the one that survived. As he made his way up through the bowels of the carrier he processed these emotions. Many had lost their lives so that he could be where he was. So that he could still draw breath. Theirs actions, names and faces were seared into his mind. Not only the dead, like Cutup 2 and Kinger, but the forever broken, like Lieutenant Walker. They occupied the same space in his mind as those he had left behind in his previous life.

  He found himself staring straight ahead, frozen in place with a hand on a door lever that he intended to open. How long had he been standing there? His hand was shaking. It had never done that before. He tried tensing his muscles to get it to stop. After several seconds, it did. He took a deep breath and continued.

  The corridors of the large superstructure at the center of the carrier were less alive with activity than the flight decks and landing force holds. The white-painted walls here were pristine, mainly due to their light usage. Not many people passed through here.

  His gaze was cast downward and he was distracted. He did not see the woman in front of him, moving to the same location. She must have been just as distracted as he was. They collided clumsily.

  He was quick to apologize.

  “Pardon me, ma’am. My bad.”

  “It’s ok, Paladin.” She said

  He realized who he had run into. It was the angel from D.C. The one from his encounter with the Black Sun in his mindscape.

  She wasn’t wearing her shining battle armor. In her current clothes, she was indistinguishable from a civilian, save the clearance badge hanging from a lanyard around her neck. Without her long lance, she wasn’t intimidating at all. She was almost mouse-like. Cute.

  He apologized again. “Sorry, uh, Ma’am.” He said nervously.

  Checkmate was easy-going, sensing his apprehension. “Fear not, trooper.”

  He stared at her for several seconds. An overwhelming number of questions filled his head. He had never properly talked with the angel. He wanted to know so many things. Why him? Why now? Just… why? But he couldn’t articulate his thoughts. They were a jumble of words and feelings. Which, to add to his frustration, he was not fond of. Emotions were a powerful motivator but also a cloud that marred the mind with unnecessary calculations. He realized he was staring awkwardly.

  “Ah, I guess we should head in.” He stammered and opened the door for the angel.

  "None of this is going to work." Tambor said, looking over a map of Los Angeles. His expression was far from confident. Bags formed under reddened eyes as he had been tirelessly looking over the prospective battlemap of L.A for several hours. At Lieutenant Camila’s recommendation, he finally relented to letting others in on the planning process. Ops were never supposed to be planned by a single mind. Much less entire battles.

  It had been two days since he gave his marching orders and now the combined might of the Terra Vanguard's most powerful weaponry circled Los Angeles like hungry sharks.

  "New intelligence update. Vital 24-06-137. Various sources. Medium confidence." A synthetic computer voice announced.

  New shapes appeared on the map. They added to an ever-growing field of red that covered the entire city like a minefield; the densest minefield in human history. Each red dot represented a confirmed enemy defensive position. They were only matched by orange icons that indicated suspected positions. Every hour, more orange turned to red while ever more orange appeared alongside them.

  In the room with him were a select few individuals. The angel Checkmate, Striker-Commander Federov, President Constantine and Lieutenant Perelli.

  Perelli stood as stiff as a board at the back of the room. He was out of his element; surrounded by top brass. He felt naked, being in his fatigues and not his armor. He had only been called in 30 minutes ago alongside the angel.

  "Lieutenant, you haven't said anything since you entered. What are you thinking?" Tambor asked him.

  Perelli had to clear his throat, calming his nerves before talking to the Leader-Commander.

  "I, uh, I'm not sure, sir." He answered. In truth, he was thinking he'd rather be anywhere else. He'd preferably be with his element, going over the lessons learned from the long operation in Texas and D.C.

  "I called you here for a reason. I want your input."

  Perelli shrugged. He was standing before the big boss and the best he could do to answer the question was shrug.

  "Respectfully, sir, I'm not a strategist. I'm a triggerman. Point me in the direction of the enemy and I will make it disappear. But this," he gestured at the map, "is beyond me. Keep in mind, I wasn't even an NCO less than a year ago. I'm not sure how valuable my input can be."

  Tambor waved away his concerns. "All the better. I need an outsider's eyes. I need a unique perspective. I need to make sure we're not walking into our own massacre. Don't worry about sounding dumb." he told the fresh LT. "You're a reconnaissance trooper. Give me your assessment."

  Perelli felt nostalgic thinking back to when things were so simple. Find the enemy. Shoot him. Now he was about to give his thoughts on an entire battle strategy that affected the fate of the world. He nervously bit his lip while he studied the map.

  "Well, it's a trap. That much is clear." he said.

  "How do you figure?" Federov asked, reclining in his seat with boots propped up on the table.

  "They expect us to hit them where they're strongest. They know, that we know, that hitting the weakest point in their defenses is obvious and we won't do it. They think we'll hit them where they're strongest because we think that'll take them by surprise. So the railyard? It's a trap. It's, uh..." he snapped his fingers, trying to remember a phrase. "Reverse psychology? I think that's what they call it these days."

  Tambor frowned. "And how'd you come to that conclusion?"

  "Their unit deployment. Look at the railyards, the airports, parks, the largest parking lots - everywhere that we're likely to land. They only appear heavily defended. When in fact, they're primed for counter attack." He zoomed in on the rubble of Dodger stadium. "These are all machinegun nests. And this trench network..." He pointed, "It'd be useless for providing cover while defending. The heavy units they stationed beyond it, they're not dug in. So, this defensive layout isn't intended to hold. It's intended to give way while making us think that they're holding. In actuality, they're probably going to withdraw using these trenches as cover. Then they're going to let us land and fill the landing zone with equipment. While we're still deploying our first wave, they're going to move these heavy units in and sweep the board."

  Everyone was listening intently now. Even Federov was leaning forward, completely focused.

  "In layman's terms: You're trying to make Shock and Awe look like a Joke? Whoever they have in charge, is trying to make Iwo Jima look like a cakewalk." He finished.

  "That's an awfully contrived strategy." Constantine said.

  Perelli shrugged again. "Vampires are contrived creatures."

  The room fell dead silent and Perelli wondered if what he said was absolutely insane. Several tense seconds went by. Finally, Tambor broke it.

  "And what would you suggest we do differently?" he probed.

  "Hit them where they're weakest. Counter their reverse psychology with a bait and switch. Have Ground-Commander Reinstead hit the beach at LAX. They can't be surrounded there. But don't funnel the rest of our forces into it. Instead, conduct an airborne insertion in Pasadena and Glendale using Highway 134. Don't worry about finding a big assembly area. Have them land directly in the streets. It’ll be messy, but they should be able to land unopposed."

  Federov finished for him, thinking he had the Rifle's strategy figured out. "Ahah! A pinser movement. We catch downtown in a vice as our forces advance from North and West, brilliant!"

  "No." Perelli curbed his enthusiasm.

  Everyone was immediately confused.

  Perelli explained, "The defenses in these areas are light. They'll have to completely rearrange their deployment strategy to react. That's when you'll have a mass of movement rushing to defend and push us off the beach. That's a massive army on the march. When they redeploy, they'll be coming out of cover and exposing themselves. That's when the carriers and the airwings hit them. All the units on the move-it won't matter how well trained they are. It will cause traffic jams. It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel. Not to mention the confusion it'll sow amongst their own ranks."

  "Maximum casualties." Federov said under his breath, realizing the idea.

  Perelli was growing confident. He put the cherry on top. "That's when Whirlwind inserts via Sky-Carrier onto their command tower."

  Checkmate, who had been silently listening for the entire conversation, was finally intrigued enough to ask a question. "Via Sky-Carrier?"

  "The dragon-thing." Perelli pointed out as if it were obvious. "It'll shred our Foxhounds if we go in conventionally. So, we take a carrier."

  He drew a line on the map that saw the carrier fly only scant feet above the skyline and come right up to the tower where Persephone was expected to be.

  Tambor frowned again. "They're going to have triple-A out the ears. We can't have a carrier just hover there right over them while you offload."

  "The carrier doesn't have to stop. It'll do a flyby. While it flies by, we jump out and onto the building. Minimal time over target. When it passes, the dragon will follow it."

  "How do you intend to survive such a maneuver?" Checkmate asked.

  Federov, rubbing his hands now and practically salivating, had a big smile etched across his face. "I have solution for that." he told her. Then he looked to Perelli. "I knew it was smart to recruit you into Whirlwind."

  Once alone, Tambor looked towards the angel that had been shadowing him since they left D.C. She looked like some kind of juvenile detective, like a Nancy Drew character. Incredibly unassuming, but Tambor knew the power she wielded.

  "You won't help?" He was more pleading than asking.

  She shook her head. "It is forbidden."

  "They're literally summoning demons down there. The rules don't apply to them?" he pointed out.

  "That's why we can't intervene. A direct battle between an angel and a demon would be catastrophic."

  "You killed the one in the White House easy enough."

  "Because you and the paladin already weakened it. And its host didn't know how to wield it. If I faced the one in Los Angeles, fully bonded to a willing host, the city would have already been cratered."

  "I'm starting to think you're just lazy."

  "Magic rarely makes sense to a mortal mind."

  "Am I mortal? Apparently I'm some kind of dark creation that you manipulated." He said bitterly.

  "Well, yes, if I didn't turn you into a mortal you would have become a vampiric slave to the Black Sun like Persephone." She stated as if her intentions were obvious.

  Tambor couldn't argue with that.

  He told her in a low voice, "We can't fail here. Everything is riding on this."

  Checkmate frowned. She was known amongst her kind as a heartless manipulator because of her role as a covert agent. But she had grown fond of the souls she had brought to the service of the Vanguard and humanities future. She had grown fond of Tambor.

  "I will see how I can... shift the balance in your favor."