Dark Coup (3 page)

Mallory was stunned and couldn’t respond right away.

“The warning gave us a four-day window,” Ben said, “which is just about to close.”

“What happened,” Mallory said.

“My mole happened,” Ben said.  “He has been running interference for the last couple of months and now he’s intercepting messages to me.  We have a general plan in case an attack happens, but we’re really short on time now.  We may be in trouble.”

“Is there anything I can do,” Mallory asked.

“Not right now,” Ben said, “and I have to get to evacuating and preparing the base.  I just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on.”

“Let me know as soon as anything happens,” Mallory said.  “Don’t keep me in the dark on this.”

“You’ll be the third person to find out,” Ben said.

...

May 27, 2013 - Fort Campbell, Kentucky

“We’re cutting this close,” the radar operator said.

“We’re operating on an imaginary timeline,” Ben said.  “But we have to get as many people out of here as we can.  We have no idea when they plan to hit us, or really from where.  Has there been any more word from Bragg?”

The radio operator, Sergeant Yale, shook his head.  “And Lejeune has been silent too,” he said.

Ben cursed.  “Well, almost all of the heavy equipment left this morning,” Ben said, “and we’ve been going nonstop since then.  Whatever happens, the Colonel is going to get quite a surprise when he finally gains control of the base.”

“I just wish we could get
all
of the civilians out of here in time,” he said.

“They’ve been leaving at almost the same rate we have,” one of the Sergeants who’d stepped up in Mathis’s absence said.  “The ones that are sticking around either can’t leave, really don’t have much to offer the Colonel without the infrastructure we’re taking with us, or plan on going down in flames giving the Colonel hell.”

“I’m afraid of what the Colonel will do to them,” Ben said, “regardless of why they’re still here.  A tyrant doesn’t care
why
you’re in his way; you’re just an obstacle that needs to be removed.  These are all human beings, people
we
have sworn to protect and…we’re running out on them.”

“We’ll bloody his nose before we go,” the Sergeant said.

“And that’s why I worry,” Ben said, “that’s why I worry.”

…

May 27, 2013 - Staging Areas - Clarksville, Tennessee & Hopkinsville, Kentucky

“We are
go
for the final assault on Fort Campbell,” came the command over the radio.  “Air support will be supplied by aviation units from the 3rd ID out of Hunter and Fort Stewart.

“Roger,” was the sole acknowledgement by all of the units involved.

“I really hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” Major Weaver from Fort Bragg said. 
“And I can’t even get a message to Ben at this point!”
he thought.

…

May 27, 2013 - Elkton, Kentucky

Chief Warrant Officer Fourth Class Diego Hobbs kept his face expressionless, but he wanted to be anywhere rather than here.  He’d been tapped, not as the battalion leader, but as the entire flight leader for this mission since his bird was mission-capable again.  For a month he’d been “assisting” his mechanic and had managed to keep his bird from being mission ready.  But two weeks ago, command finally told him to leave it to the guys who really knew what they were doing.  Luckily, his mechanic had known
exactly
what Diego was doing, and made sure to take another week to “figure out what was wrong.”

“Now I’m back in the game,”
Diego thought,
“
and
I’m in charge.  Curse the luck.  Do or die time.”

“Buzzard Hawk flight,” came the controller over the radio, “begin thru-flight.  Lift-off in twelve minutes.”

“Roger base,” Diego said, and then began his final pre-mission briefing.

“Communications check,” Diego said.  “Coopers.”

“Check,” came the reply.

“Harris.”

“Go.”

“Flight channel check…”

Chapter Three

“We have contact,” the radar operator said.  “Spotters saw the dust plumes just after we picked up radar contacts.”

Ben crossed himself.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic, Sir,” Yale said.

“Lapsed,” Ben said.  “Beginning to think I need to spend a little more time at church on Sundays.  How long have we got?”

“Assuming they want to soften us up first with Black Hawks,” the radar operator said, “and we’ll know that in about a minute from radar, fifteen minutes on the Hawks, and another ten minutes for the ground troops.”

Ben’s radio crackled to life.  “Major, you have an incoming call from Colonel Olsen.”

“Put it through to this handset,” Ben said.

“Major Franklin,” Olsen said.

“Colonel,” Ben answered, allowing just the right amount of annoyance to creep into his voice.  “May I ask just what in the hell is going on?  I just got word that I have a number of inbound aircraft.   Judging by their speed, I would assume they are helicopters.  And I’m now being told that there are several incoming land vehicles, from the north
and
south.  If I didn’t know better, I would think my base was under attack.”

“Major,” Olsen said, “I think you know very well what’s going to happen, and whether or not your base actually comes under attack is completely up to you.”

“Would you care to explain that, Colonel,” Ben asked.

“No more than I’m sure you would care to explain your lack of compliance with direct orders to subdue and disarm your local civilian population,” Olsen said.

“So, the gloves are completely off,”
Ben thought.

“Yale, I want the rest of this exchange on the PA system and rebroadcast on every channel we have the ability to broadcast on, unless I tell you to sever it,” Ben said.  “Everyone needs to hear this.  I’m going inside so he doesn’t hear the feedback.

“In that case, Colonel,” Ben said, less than a minute later, “you won’t mind explaining yourself at all.  I’m refusing to comply with the patently illegal and unconstitutional orders of an egomaniacal tin dictator with delusions of grandeur.”

Ben took a breath and checked to see if his handheld was still transmitting, which it was.  He expected his radio to shut off at any second, but he was prepared for that.  “Nothing in the mission statement of the US Army, or any branch of the military for that matter, gives you or I the right to do the things that have been outlined in your new ‘orders.’  The first thing we swear to, as both Officers and enlisted soldiers, is to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  You are in direct violation of that oath, Colonel, and have become an enemy domestic.”

Ben was still transmitting, so he kept talking.  “Colonel, stand down and turn your men around.  Nobody needs to die today.”

Ben’s transmit light finally shut off and he put in the code to allow his handheld unit to continue to function now that his satellite link had been severed.  The Colonel didn’t know he wasn’t in the radio room.

“Bravo, Major, very well spoken,” Olsen said.  “I’m sure you spent quite some time on that little speech.  Just so you know, it didn’t go out like you had hoped, though.  I’m sure your people heard it like you wanted, but I had control of your radio board and it wasn’t retransmitted back to my people.  Nice try, though.”

“Damn, maybe it got out on UHF and VHF,”
Ben thought.

“Unfortunately, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Olsen said.  “The Constitution hasn’t been our guiding document for almost a hundred years now, and the oath you speak of is just so many words.  If anyone is going to stand down, it’s going to be you.  Save your people and let us in, only a few people need to die today.”

“How can you say that,” Ben asked.  “What do you mean it hasn’t been our guiding document?  Honor is alive and well, and if the Oath means nothing to you, it still means something to hundreds of thousands of men and women who won’t let you destroy what they have sworn to protect.”

“Then this is on your head, Major,” Olsen said.  “You’ve had your last chance.”

…

“…last chance.”

Diego switched to the private channel used by the flight for the mission.

“Battalion leaders,” Diego said in his typical cool, no-nonsense mission voice, “check in.”

After all of his leaders checked in, he asked the first of two questions.

“Did everyone copy the last transmission,” he asked.

All of his leaders answered in the affirmative and even though they tried to play it as cool as Diego, there was some heat in the one-word answers.

Diego let the silence sit for several seconds before asking his second question.

“Are all battalion leaders in agreement with our current course of action,” he asked.

“Coopers, negative.”

“Harris, no way.”

“Roger,” Diego said.  “Use UHF fallback frequencies in case of emergency.”

Diego switched back to the general mission frequency and made his announcement.

“Control,” Diego said, “Buzzard Hawk flight is aborting, repeat Buzzard Hawk flight is aborting.”

“Negative, flight leader,” control replied.

“Affirmative, control,” Diego said with a smile.  “Illegal orders will not be followed, talk to the Colonel.  All battalion leaders concur.”

“Negative, flight leader,” control replied again.  “Orders are not illegal, proceed as planned.”

“No can do, Leo,” Diego said, using the control operator’s name instead of his call sign.  “You and I both know this is wrong.  We’ll find someplace to land, but I doubt we’ll be coming back to base any time soon.  Pass the word: if anything happens to any of the families of these guys, we took off with a bunch of fully-loaded and heavily-armed Black Hawks, and we
will
exact our revenge.”

“Good copy,” was all Leo said, and then broke the connection.

…

“Major,” the radar operator said, “the Black Hawks are changing course.  South-south-west.”

“What the,” Ben said as he looked over at the radar operator.  “Why…”

“What, Sir,” Yale said when Ben trailed off.

“Promised Land,” Ben said.  “Get them on the radio, now!”

…

“Not a good time, Ben,” Mallory said, “and things are only just starting to calm down after our new arrivals.”

“It’s not a social call, Mal,” Ben said.  “I’m about to be invaded, but it looks like the air support just made a left turn and might be headed your way.”

“Excuse me?!” Mallory shouted.

“I didn’t
send
them there,” Ben snapped.  “I’m just trying to give you a heads up before your radar goes crazy.”

“Thank you for that,” Mallory said.  “I have to go shoot down some helicopters now.”

…

Ben and his command staff had known this day would come eventually, and had drawn up several different plans to defend the base.  Ironically, Mathis had been critical to many of the strategies he was now implementing, which made Ben wonder if there were hidden dangers or weaknesses that had been intentionally left open.  Unfortunately, he had to work with what he had since he’d only had a little over a day to prepare.

Every approach to, and all of the main roads on base had been turned into an obstacle course for the invading force while still allowing his defenders to have fairly unrestricted fields of fire.  Ben knew they would be outnumbered–and outgunned–by several orders of magnitude, but he planned to make the invaders pay for every inch they took and had even toyed with the idea of burning the base to the ground on his way out.

The invading forces came from three different directions and Ben was glad he hadn’t waited any longer than he had to evacuate the base.  The only way out now would be through one of the attacking forces.  The initial attack seemed to have been delayed with the loss of their air support, but whoever was in charge over there had recovered quickly and the lack of helicopter over-watch only gained Ben a couple of hours.

Ben was relieved that the attack hadn’t started with a barrage of artillery to ‘soften him up’.  That was the one thing he had no defense against and the death toll on his side would have been staggering.  Instead, they led off with M1 Abrams tanks on all three fronts, followed by Bradley Fighting Vehicles.  His anti-tank devices, large concrete structures that were either shaped like a caltrop or the giant ’16 ton’ anvils from the cartoons, kept the tanks busy long enough for his meager defense force of less than three thousand to move from point to point and engage them with medium-range anti-tank missiles.

The tanks crews also proved to be reluctant to use their main gun to clear the obstacles.  Less than a dozen main guns were fired, and then only after his men had destroyed two tanks, before the tanks were called back and the smaller, more agile Bradleys began to make their way into the base.

It’s true that war is a nasty business, and once it comes down to one-on-one fighting it’s chaotic and all the best planning in the world goes out the window.  On the other hand, a battle like the one Ben was involved in is almost orchestrated…choreographed even.  Obviously neither side knew what the other was planning, but you eventually started to get a feeling for how the other side thought and what was coming next.

Ben almost felt as though the other side was being…hesitant in its attacks.  It was obvious that they’d been instructed not to level the base, if at all possible.

He immobilized three Bradleys, again with medium-range shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles, but he was beginning to lose men on his side as well.

Less than an hour after the attack began, Ben’s troops had expended almost a million rounds of ammunition, most of it fired at the tanks and Bradleys, which basically shrugged it off but kept the occupants’ heads down and inside the vehicles.  The second wave was going to be tougher, though, and Ben did his best to prepare his men to fire on fellow Americans.  It was entirely possible, probable even, that many on today’s battlefield had served side-by-side during their careers.  Not the definition of ‘friendly fire’ he’d grown accustomed to, but a fitting description nonetheless.