Militia (9 page)

Chapter Eleven

M
ike and his
men were fueled by the atrocities they had found in the last camps. For the first time in his life Mike found himself wanting to punish his enemy, to drive his army into Seattle and brutally decimate any Chinese troops that dared to make their home in this American city. With their scouts moving as quickly as possible trying to reach Seattle and begin the arduous task of reconning not only the city itself but the surrounding towns and smaller cities Mike pushed his troops straight through the state following interstate ninety at the fastest pace the still healing survivors from Coeur D’Alene could safely handle.

The scouts kept on the same route ensuring that there would be no enemy to surprise the main element behind them. They found the middle of the state to be filled with ghost towns that led Mike to realize the Chinese would have all of their remaining forces in the state occupying its largest city. He expected there would not be many enemy units on the west coast with the exception of Los Angeles. The eastern states would be crawling with Chinese by now, occupying every major city and preparing to repopulate them with the many Chinese citizens who had over populated their own country many years ago.

Seattle was America’s northern-most city on the west coast and Mike knew that while there would not yet be a large amount of enemy troops in the area, there would still be some sort of stronghold there. Mike only hoped that they were making their headquarters in a central location and that his army of approximately six hundred armed men would not have to spend the next year stuck trying to take back the city block-by-block while waiting for the enemy to send in reinforcements. More than likely he figured that the unsuspecting enemy would be holding only a few city blocks and have a couple of work camps set up on the outskirts of the city.

With all of the night vision they had managed to acquire from each of the last three camps the militia was able to move more effectively by night. This did two things in Mike’s mind, for one it allowed them to be much safer in case any of their enemy was moving on the same highway, and two it gave the men practice moving and scanning while wearing the goggles. Mike, and his leaders, would send their men straight into the enemy under the cover of night forcing them to scramble for their own night vision and allow the militia to strategically overwhelm and surround them. As the nights went on the men became ever more confident with their new green night vision, becoming accustomed to them until looking through the bright green goggles became second nature.

By the time Mike and the main element were halfway through the state, the fast moving scouts had reached the outskirts of Seattle. Rick moved his teams at night, carefully searching block by block, using tall buildings with their night vision and binoculars to clear large areas in short amounts of time. They took shelter in abandoned buildings during the day, setting up hide sites, posting rotating guard shifts, and booby trapping all possible entrances with trip flares and explosive devices. It would take months for this one platoon to get a good view of enemy movement and their daily operations but the scouts were a dedicated group of soldiers who were proud to be the elite of Mike’s Middle Militia and they worked diligently to accomplish their mission.

When the main element had reached thirty or so miles from the nearest suburbs of Seattle Mike had them make camp in the Wenatchee National Forest just to the east of the city borders. From there they were well hidden enough to for the men to continue training while the leadership planned the assault with each detail learned by the reports brought back by the scouts. They now knew that the scouts had already come across multiple camps, one to the north of Olympia, one just east of Everett, and an enormous camp in Olympic National Park to the west of Seattle. It pained Mike that they were not yet able to free these camps but to do so would give up the element of surprise his militia would need to take the main objective quickly and without large American casualties. These camps would have to be taken at the same time the battle of Seattle began and Mike would place Rick and his proven scouts and snipers in charge of that mission.

Training of the new recruits became more intense as the once broken men and women were becoming not only healthy but many were quickly reaching levels of fitness that they did not posses even before being placed into the work camps. While recovering, Mike and the original soldiers of the militia had done a great job of teaching the new troops everything they could possibly learn in makeshift classrooms while camped and anytime movement had been stopped for an extended period of time. By the time they had set up this last camp outside of Seattle the knowledge was already there in the new companies and all that was left to do would be to transfer knowledge into hands on training and experience. Mike and Tim alike were impressed with how quickly the men and women of these companies managed to transition what they had learned into practical application through training.

After two months of camping and waiting, Mike finally received word that Rick’s men had finished with the outskirts and were now carefully entering downtown Seattle. As much as Mike wanted to get in and save his brethren in those camps he could not have been more amazed at the speed with which Rick’s platoon had gotten accurate details of such a large area. With each scout sent back with updates for the leadership of the main element they brought new sector sketches, detailed diagrams, and Ricks own written briefings of their findings. It appeared that Mike had been correct in his assumptions that the Chinese would have stayed mostly in downtown Seattle rather than spreading out their forces.

As they moved further into the city, Rick and his scouts began encountering more movement by the enemy. Movement slowed as stealth became increasingly more necessary and very little was done besides careful observation during the daylight hours. They moved under the cover of darkness, seeking to improve upon the reconnaissance that was acquired during the days. After many nights of cautiously prowling through Seattle Rick was finally able to send word to Mike that the Chinese had set up their headquarters in Portage Bay, a north facing peninsula with water ways leading to the Salish Sea and from there directly to the Pacific Ocean.

This made sense to Rick and the other leaders at it would be an easy place to ship in goods directly from China once they had populated the city. Most of the larger west coast cities allowed easy access to the Chinese via the Pacific Ocean, and Seattle was no exception. The knowledge gained from the set up and operations being performed in this city would obviously prove beneficial in the future efforts of Rick’s scout teams. Rick was sure that with ease of access and plenty living space, Seattle was being planned for early settlers to quickly and conveniently move to.

Fortunately for Mike’s militia, the Chinese had grown complacent thinking that there was no need to worry about an American resistance in the area, and would be easily surrounded. Mike could move his troops in from the south and take out the two bridges leading across long stretches of water to the north, effectively trapping the arrogant enemy soldiers in the peninsula with no escape. If the militia had a say in it there would be no new homes for the people of China in this city.

Mike was overjoyed to hear the news of the Chinese oversights for a possible attack. Even better was the fact that among the many useful weapons they had taken from the camp guards C-4 was in abundance. Of all the qualities Tim brought into the militia Mike was most impressed with his knowledge of demolitions. Tim was an expert with anything that could blow a hole in something. The militia had already gotten a ton of demo training from the old marine as he showed them how to pack the plastic explosive in between two sign post to blow a hole in large sections of razor wire and how to make a claymore out of c-4, a coffee can, and a handful of nuts and bolts. To the soldiers who Tim picked to be demo specialist he taught more advanced knowledge like obliterating doors using IV bags with the explosives.

Mike gave Tim as much plastic explosive as he would need and let him organize and train and organize teams that would take out both of the northbound bridges to begin the assault. The militia would have to act quickly after the loud explosions alerted their enemies to danger but with the bridges blown and the night hiding the militia’s movements and numbers the Chinese would be sitting ducks.

Rick was given one more month to continue tracking the enemy activities. He and his scouts moved closer and closer to the enemy recording every detail of their nights. They soon had accurate descriptions of what buildings were used for what task, what times the Chinese stopped conducting their operations for the night, and most importantly an accurate estimate of the number of enemy within the city. All and all there were just shy of a thousand soldiers and planners now calling the peninsula home. The camps to the south and north of the city each had approximately twenty guards mainly rotating in and out of the four towers and the large camp to the west appeared to have near one hundred guards many of which lived in a makeshift barracks just outside of the camps walls.

At the end of their last month Mike ordered Rick to split his scouts between the two smaller camps and to use snipers to take out as many guards as possible before going in. The main assault was to begin just after midnight with the destruction of the enemy’s only escape routes to the north as Rick’s snipers would begin their work at twenty minutes after the hour. The larger camp was too far from Seattle to hear the battle and would have to wait until the fight was over and a larger element could be sent in. At night fall on the following Saturday the Militia moved out of the forest and into place for the attack.

Chapter Twelve

“
A
lright men this
is the moment you have all been waiting for,” Mike addressed the militia before moving into their final positions. “There are a thousand Chinese sitting on a peninsula waiting for you to come and send them into the afterlife! With this city we will have secured the largest objective in the Pacific Northwest. Victory will be ours on this day and each of you will be true American heroes.”

The men cheered with eager anticipation of the coming battle. They all wanted to pay the enemy back for the atrocities being done to their countrymen. Many of the soldiers had once been prisoners of the Chinese themselves and knew first hand what this enemy was capable of.

“In an hour’s time we will be in position just to the south of the sleeping enemy. The bridges will be blown in half and we will charge in and massacre our enemy. Some American lives may be lost in this battle but that is the risk we all agreed to take to make this nation free again and we will succeed. Pay attention to your training, remember your mission, and take no prisoners. This day belongs to all of you. Now let’s go and fucking take it!”

The crowd of battle ready soldiers howled their best battle cries as Mike took off in front of them to lead his militia into battle position. Alpha company of first battalion being made up of mostly original Middle Militia soldiers took the lead with Mike and Steve paving the way just as the great leaders of history had done. There was no room for leaders to hide in the rear while their men took fire in this Army. Mike, Tim, Steve, Mark, and Tom would fire shots and risk their lives like every man and woman that had the courage to pick up arms and follow them into battle.

Alpha Company set up on the east end of the peninsula where the enemy had made the blocks of nice houses, condos, apartments, and even many houseboats into their new personal living spaces. There was plenty of housing to be had and many of these arrogant Chinese soldiers already had their own homes, making themselves comfortable in what many of the former residents had worked hard for much of their lives to purchase and live in. The area was very nice and Mike could see the outside of the water access to the Pacific Ocean. The Chinese who were used to cramped and overpopulated spaces obviously loved the comfort that this beautiful American city offered.

The Chinese probably felt they were well hidden on this small peninsula but they had no idea that a young leader like Rick and his scouts would be able to map the entire city so quickly and thoroughly without leaving any trace of their presence. They had made themselves homes only on half of the peninsula; keeping to one small neighborhood and Mike used this to his advantage. While first battalion was setting up facing north into the residential area, second battalion moved up interstate five and prepared to flank the Chinese neighborhood. This would keep them from escaping to the west of interstate five and causing the militia to waste precious time trying to find and kill those who managed to escape across the highway.

First battalion had a much thinner area to assault and was the main effort. Mike wanted to drive the Chinese north to the soon-to-be destroyed bridges and west into Tim’s flanking element thinly set up on each street north and west with machine gun nests ready to kill any enemy trying to cross west over the highway. Second battalion was to be used for more of a wait and slaughter type of battle while first battalion went through each home and apartment killing everything inside. Tim knew the enemy would shortly panic and smiled at the idea that they would soon begin to run into his soldiers, giving people who had once been imprisoned by this foreign military the payback that they had dreamt of for so long.

“So, Steve, old buddy are you ready for this shit?” Mike asked.

“I’ve never been more ready in my life man,” Steve replied.

“Well this is our moment brother. With a victory here we take a large city as well as secure the northern most state on the west coast. This will be a great victory for our militia and for all of the people who are still alive in our country.”

“I hear ya Mike. I just want to hear those beautiful explosions go off so I can get my guys into those houses and get me some trigger time. The last thing I want is to wait around in the woods any longer.”

Mike looked at his watch. “Well, Steve, you’re in luck. Bridges in ten, nine, eight, seven, six…” BOOM! The explosions went off simultaneously creating the loudest noise Mike had heard even during his years as a ranger. Seconds after the bridges were blown in half all of the streets went dark as a team of scouts cut power to the entire peninsula. It was time to fight!

“Fuck, I’d better check my watch with Tim’s,” Mike said laughing as he ran with Steve to the first set of houses. “And speaking of Tim he sure as fuck doesn’t hold back with the damn C-4, my ears are gonna be ringing for hours,” Mike said even though it had already occurred to him that Steve most likely couldn’t hear a single word he was saying after the deafening explosion.

The two leaders took off together just behind the front lines of men and women who were heading for the homes that currently house what Mike was sure were some very confused Chinese soldiers. They ran up and stacked behind a squad just getting ready to enter the first dark house on the block. Mike could hear what sounded like a few people inside who had just woken up from the loud explosion. Even through his still ringing ears the sounds of panicked yelling was still loud enough to be noticed. The Chinese, still having no idea of what was really happening, were about to die without ever knowing what had woken them up.

As the front team in the squad kicked the door open Mike could hear shots being fired in the neighboring houses. His soldiers were well trained and within seconds of the door being kicked in the entire squad plus Mike and Steve were inside and scanning for targets with their night vision. The first of their targets clumsily staggered down the stairs and right into the second team who were stacked and ready to move up.

Crack, crack, crack, the point man fired three shots and moved out of the way to allow the enemy to fall the rest of the way down, leaving a puddle of blood thick enough to be seen clearly through night vision. Mike moved to the body and without bothering to see if the man was still alive fired two shots into his forehead leaving no possibility of life. He moved behind the team that was now in motion up the stairs, all with strategic points of aim to cover each angle of the visible upstairs area. When Mike reached the top of the landing he saw that all four doors were shut. The team he was with split into two groups, each stacking on one room, while the rear team made it up the stairs and pulled security on the other two doors ready to kill anyone who dared come through them.

The front men of the two groups stacked on their doors, nodded to each other, rocked back and simultaneously kicked open the doors, moved in and began to fire multiple rounds into each room. After a second of silence Mike heard a couple quick two shot burst as the soldiers assured the deaths of their enemy and then heard the team leaders announce that the rooms were clear. When they came out the other team split on the two remaining rooms and did the same. The squad leader gave the command “house cleared,” and both teams followed him back downstairs excited to find more combat in the next available home.

Mike ran outside with the squad just in time to see one enemy soldier attempt to run out of the next house. He got down on one knee, aimed, and fired a single round hitting the man in the back of the head. The enemy soldier’s knees buckled under him instantly and he fell to the ground in mid step as Mike got up and ran past him to watch another squad enter a small house. Soon Tim’s machine guns could be heard in the distance obviously tearing into the frightened Chinese trying to escape to the western side of the peninsula. The battle was quickly taking place in the streets as the enemy soldiers were waking up and becoming aware of the attack. Chinese soldiers began running out of their stolen homes and firing their weapons at nothing but ghost as Mike’s soldiers quickly made target practice out of them.

The Chinese ran in all directions not knowing where the attack was coming from. Mike moved down one block after another as his militia entered the rows of houses and killed everything inside. He continued to help take down the panicked enemy in the streets. Soon the six hundred members of the Middle Militia outnumbered the Chinese three to one as more and more unprepared enemy troops lost their lives. As the hours of night rolled on the militia pushed further into the peninsula leaving hundreds of bodies behind them and taking no prisoners. Soon they were at the northern tip watching Chinese soldiers bunch up at the bridges they expected to escape on only to find them uncross able thanks to the plastic explosives that once belonged to their own army and Tim’s love of explosions. The militia slowed movement and watched as their enemy was forced to realize that this really was the end of the road.

The attitudes of the remaining Chinese occupation seemed to quickly change from panic and anger to despair and hopelessness. Some began tossing their weapons to the ground and putting their hands in the air, begging the Americans to take them prisoner while others just starred off into the water knowing that capture was not what the militia had in mind. Mike assumed that most of the surrendering soldiers (mostly the youngest of the group) knew as well as the other that their efforts were futile, but Mike could not blame them for trying with the alternative being a bloody death. It was this alternative that was to be their fate.

With there being no need for Tim’s machine gunners to the south, Tim moved them quickly to Mike’s position by the blown bridge. “Tim, get those fucking guns up here and start ripping into these assholes,” Mike ordered.

“Roger sir,” Tim agreed. “You heard him get online! When I yell FIRE I want all of those guns rocking,”

The once surrendering Chinese, seeing a row of American machine gunners spreading themselves across the bridge, finally dropped their hands to their sides and grew silent. Now a grave silence spread over the entire city as the men and women of the militia quietly watched in anticipation for the battle to finally be over.

Tim looked to Mike who gave a nod of approval and yelled the command of fire at the top of his lungs. As soon as the command was uttered twenty machine guns began spraying bullets into the trapped Chinese ending the eerie moment of silence that they had all shared. With what little time they had some of the enemy troops chose to fling themselves off of the bridge and risk the deadly fall.

“MOVE,” Mike hollered at the men. Gun teams and rifleman alike from both battalions stood up and started slowly walking toward the remaining enemy forces. As they walked they continued to fire and the bodies continued to fall on top of each other. By the time they had reached the water’s edge there was nothing left of the Chinese troop still standing. Mike and the rest of his men pumped ammo into the large pile of bodies, wanting no surprises, and then turned their attention to the enemy soldiers still swimming for their lives. Ammo was not spared as the militia fired as fast as their weapons would allow into the blue ocean waters. Men who carried grenades threw them as if trying to get an out at home plate from the outfield. With grenade explosions and rapid fire of machine guns and assault rifles the Chinese had no chance. In minutes the water had turned red and only bits and pieces of the swimmers would ever be found.

With the battle over and the sun just starting to show over the horizon the Middle Militia had taken back the first American city. Mike was proud of his men but the battle was only one part of their mission. As tired as they were Mike didn’t want to waste much time getting to the large work camp west of the city not to mention the entire area where the Chinese had set up would have to be searched for any information left behind as well as weapons and supplies that the militia would be able to use.

“I need all company commanders over here now,” Mike barked. “Get count of your men. First battalion commanders report any dead, wounded, or missing troops to me and second battalion report back to Tim. Once you get accountability let your soldiers find a home that has some food to eat, and then have them rest up. Keep them together one block for each company. They have four hours before we start moving to the next camp.”

Mike’s company commanders left quickly to start getting accountability of their companies while Mike and Tim stayed to discuss the next plans.

“Ok, Tim, it’s just past six in the morning. I want to start movement to the camp no later than eleven. With the route we are going to have to take around all this damn water the camp will be about one hundred miles from here. We can stay on the roads until we are within about ten miles of the camp. A lot of your battalion is still healing so I’m going to have them stay here, search for intelligence, and guard the area. I want you to take charge as you have the most experience with this kind of multi tiered mission. We are packing light and moving out fast. I want three miles every hour and ten hour days of beating feet. Today is Sunday and I want to take that camp at nightfall on Wednesday.”

“Well Mike my guys are gonna be bummed to get left out but you’re right a lot of them used up all of their energy for this battle. This old marine can handle any hump you can though so I’ll keep up if you want me to come with.”

“I know you would keep up, Tim, but I need experienced leadership to stay and finish the mission while preparing for what I hope will be large numbers coming back with us. I promise next time you will go out and I’ll stay back. Go get me your numbers and then find a bed to sleep in.”

Within an hour both battalions had reported their casualties. All together there were three killed in action, ten wounded being treated, and none missing. Mike hated losing soldiers but even he knew that a thousand dead enemy soldiers compared to three of his were pretty good odds and it was doubtful that they would be fortunate enough to have the same luck in Los Angeles. Mike ordered second battalion to begin getting funeral services for the fallen Americans ready while first battalion was moving to the large work camp.