Above and Beyond the Call Of Duty

[Jaguar]

This story is set in the real world, in the near future. It is based more on a CivII game I played than CivIII. It was a real-world scenario, in which many of the things in this story really happened. It also has some roots from CivIII, and some made up. The battles themselves are often based on Empire Earth battles I’ve fought. Without further rambling, here it is.



Rockefeller Center was busy this morning. Andre Gonzalez was heading up to his job with the morning news. He was a cameraman there, and intended to be until he could get a job in Hollywood. This was his first job, and he was happy with it. He didn’t particularly like it, but it was easy, and he was allowed to listen to headphones during commercial breaks.

The elevator, as usual, was taking forever. He didn’t usually mind it, because the long wait for the elevator meant that he had an excuse to talk to Marisleysis, a very pretty woman who worked in a different office. But to no avail, she didn’t end up in the same elevator as Andre today.

He counted up the floors… …54… …55… …56. The doors opened, and he headed into the studio. He glanced at the clock. He had five minutes. He got his DARW player out and played his mix disc, which had over 11,000 songs on it. It was a prized possession.

His listening was interrupted as he was called to get his cameras set up. Ellen Kay, the anchor, received her notes and headed to the desk. Andre aimed his cameras, and gave the ready signal.

A few minutes later, they were on. “Good morning, America, we have more new over the Lewis case…” Andre groaned, because the Lewis case was a boring computer software anti-trust suit. “Apparently, the Supreme Court has unanimously overturned the reversal, which most likely means we will be heading into a second appeal.” Blah, blah, blah. “In other news, the Intel corporation is reporting losses for the third straight quarter. It helped the NASDAQ plunge to a six-week low of 3125.”

Suddenly, her voice dropped off. Something had been sent in to the teleprompter in her desk, as she was looking down. There was a long pause. A very long pause. She was in disbelief. “Chairman Mao Chen Tsi of China has just detonated nuclear weapons in Bombay.”

There was another long silence. A dreadfully long silence. “Bombay, as you may recall, had been conquered by China over a month ago, but revolted during May, and reinstated its governor. It is unclear whether it was intended as punishment by Tsi’s communist regime, but that is what seems to be what happened. We will keep you updated.”

[Jaguar]

Marisleysis Alejandra Cortez had been dismissed from work early, and was watching television with a grim stare. It was chillingly like the Israeli Hostage Crisis that occurred for six tense weeks during college. Or it the way she felt in Middle School when Mrs. Leoni’s class stopped their regular activities to watch news on the terrorist attacks of 2001. It was knowing that awful things were to come, but not what they would be. She, as well as the 500 million other Americans, looked to their leader figure for guidance. President Brady began to deliver his speech.

“America. We have lived for so long since a crisis such as this, but a catastrophe has arisen in the Orient this morning. Out of sheer spite, Chairman Mao Chen Tsi of China has assaulted the Indian people with weapons of mass destruction. Today’s revenge-driven attack on innocent Indian civilians will forever blemish history with an atrocity that will not be forgotten. The Chairman has justified his monstrous action by stating that it was a punishment. And for what were the citizens of Calcutta punished? Patriotism. And for what reason were they punished? Revenge. The United States condemns this atrocious act of cold-blooded murder, and issues this ultimatum to China. China will immediately withdraw all of its military forces from India. It will also pay 24 billion dollars in reparations. And lastly, Chairman Tsi will apologize to the Indian people, and resign from his position as leader. Unless these demands are met, the United States Army will be heading to war in 48 hours. Nothing further needs to be said.” Brady stepped off the podium, as Marisleysis cuddled her baby, Maria, closer to her chest.

“This is Ellen Kay, in Rockefeller Center. We have just seen some harsh words from our president about the ‘atrocious act of cold-blooded murder.’ It is debatable whether even those words can describe the evil that was done today. We are receiving more news by the minute, and from the records our satellites have of the blast, we know that 28 million people – were incinerated by the blast. Additionally, we understand that no warning was given to the people. We will continue to keep you updated as we receive information. In the meantime, we will go to London to see the British reaction…”

Night had fallen long ago in Japan. Many had stayed up to watch the news; school and work would probably be cancelled the next day due to the problems that were occurring in their corner of the world. The Prime Minister would probably want to initiate a draft, as Japan’s army numbered less than 20,000. Those 20,000 troops were mostly watching television, to see what might happen to them. They did not see, however, the hundreds of amphibious landing craft that were silently crawling onto the shore.

[Jaguar]

Kai Sheng was leading the laser troopers through the streets of Kyoto. They were supposed to drive their assault trucks slowly through the street, and kill all Japanese resistance. Laser guns were, on the whole, very good weapons, but the troops were inexperienced as the Chinese army had just recently outfitted them with the new laser guns. Bullets were becoming obsolete as Ultra High Density Polyethylene was becoming cheaper, and bullet proof vests were becoming easier and easier to make. So, in short, lasers were a new technology, and it was unclear whether they would find their place in modern combat.

Kai Sheng and his fellow laser troopers were doing well at the moment, because there wasn't any resistance to speak of. The missile launching infantry ahead was taking out the military buildings ruthlessly and efficiently, before the few Japanese soldiers even realized what was happening. The Laser divisions were supposed to shoot any soldiers who escaped, or any civilians who actively resisted. Behind the Laser divisions were the armored trucks, which were to confiscate anything that could be used against China's forces.

So far, everything had been a cakewalk. China hadn't even bothered bringing any tanks, as the government knew the attack would be easy, and the tanks were needed to conquer the last of India as well. Sheng wondered what would happen to him next. Would they have to fight against America? That wouldn't be good. America had SAM launchers and Laser anti-missile defenses all over the country, which meant it was invulnerable to air attacks. Is army was even more up to date than China's. Even though it had maybe a quarter army China had, it was stronger economically by far, and it could probably churn out tanks. Were they waking a sleeping dragon?

[Jaguar]

That's all for today. Its gonna be pretty long, but I don't want t nominated for story contest until it is done.

Please tell me what you think.

BTW, the combat system is going to be pretty well thought out. I'm explaning it next section.

[civman2000]

great great great!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cbraund]

Excellent! Please continue writing, it was a very interesting read, the news broadcast actually reminded me of 9/11!

Nemesis

[Metaliturtle]

yuk eye strain

[Jaguar]

The country of America was shaken. It was now heading into night there, and many Americans went to sleep, or tried to, to avoid seeing the depressing footage of the nuclear attack. Few of them were awake at 1:00 AM, when the drained news anchors announced the invasion of Japan.

President Brady had heard the news a full hour earlier from the American intelligence, and had called Head of the Joint Cheifs of Staff Donald McCartney to the oval office.

"Mr. President?"

"I would like you to tell me absolutely everything about combat. The people deserve an informed leader, and you deserve an informed Commander in Cheif. I understand that there have been many new developments in military technology in he past few years, and I want to be informed about all of them"
"All right, we'll start with homeland defense from air attacks. We have a satellite network that can see everything on earth, and they can produce detailed enough images to identify individual people. These satellites guide both of our missile defense systems. One missile defense system, our anti-ballistic defense, launches small, light missiles that can take out most enemy missiles, as well as small aircraft. The enemy also may attempt to deploy small, evasive missiles. These can often get past our antiballistic missiles, but can be shot down by our laser anti-aircraft guns. To protect against torpedoes that could harm our coastal cities, we have small defensive torpedos that can be shot from about 80 underwater locations around our coast. These also can get ships that near our coast, but it isn't too effective. China has these defenses as well. Are you with me so far?"

"So China can't hit our homeland, and we can't hit theirs." said Brady, getting out a pen and a notepad.

"Yes. And in newly conquered territories, both of us can move in portable versions of those defenses before a counter-strike. Now let's move on to sea combat. It really hasn't changed much; frigates and destroyers are the defense against subs, battleships are the defense against destroyers and frigates, subs are great against battleships, and the AEGIS Cruiser is your only good defense against air. We also, of course, have aircraft carriers, which can run rampant against fleets that aren't properly protected with cruisers. So, ideally, you would have all of these components in a fleet. Additionally, there are subs from which we can fire missiles onto land targets. These missiles can sometimes slip by anti-missile defenses and hit their targets. However, any ship or attack sub can nail them without any trouble."

"Air combat?"

"Air combat is also pretty traditional. Fighter-bombers are useful as they can take on bombers and ground forces. However, fighters can beat the fighter-bombers easily, and are great against bombers. They can't, however, do anything against ground forces. Bombers are effective against the ground if they aren't shot down first. However, it is difficult to get anything done close to the enemy homeland. Helicopters are good against ground forces. Either they will be gunships, which attack infantry, or AT Choppers, which are designed to beat motorized ground forces like tanks."

"And ground combat?"

"Grenade launcher infantry or missile launchers are good against the less maneuvrable tanks. AT artillery are also good against tanks. However, the heavy infantry will usually be destroyed by laser troopers. AT artillery can be destroyed by any infantry. Laser troopers are consistently beaten by tanks. Mobile AA guns defend the rest of the army from air attacks, but will fall apart if any other ground weapon. And the Crusader Cannon is good against buildings or ships, but is otherwise worthless. That's about all you need to know for now. Now I need to know something: are we going to war tomorrow morning, or later?"

"Tomorrow morning. Dismissed." McCartney saluted, and left the room.

McCartney and Brady weren't the only people who had conversed that night...



That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll do some more.

[Jaguar]

Mao Tsen Chi was meeting with the leaders of Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. The talking was done mostly in Arabic, as the seven leaders made ominous gestures over the map. China’s ally, Pakistan, was busy, finishing up the conquests of Afghanistan and Northwest India.

China and Pakistan had been lucky to have been left alone for the first two weeks of their operations, but now they had to finish their conquests and create defenses, as American or European intervention was likely as soon as the next day. The attacks on India before the very recent ones had not gone unnoticed, but the world justified the attack on India because they believed the war would end. But in the past week, when Afghanistan and Japan were attacked, and the conflict in India was not resolved, the world no longer would turn a blind eye.

The negotiating was coming to a close. Documents in Arabic and Chinese were signed, and the leaders returned to their helicopters and jets. And a sizeable Chinese land force began rolling through Pakistan, towards the Middle East…

About when this meeting ended, on the other side of the world, in the early morning, the US Congress held an emergency meeting. Brady gave only thirty second speech, because he knew he would get the war declaration, and he wanted to move on. With the Chinese Army’s Speed, allies could be destroyed, literally, in hours.

“The Chinese and Pakistani armies have, during the past week, gone far beyond what the United States considers tolerable conduct. They have attacked our ally India, they have attacked our ally Japan, and they have attacked the very principals of Democracy. America will not condone this unprovoked violence, and will declare war on both of these nations during this emergency meeting.”

100 senators cast their votes. The few minutes the voting took, were, of course, preceded by hours and hours of deliberation before the meeting. But after the meeting, everyone knew the news within minutes – A 93-7 vote had decided on war, and on a draft. The Third World War had begun.

[civman2000]

yay!! World war->fun intriguing story!

[Jaguar]

Some updates...

There will be 2, perhaps 3 more installments to this thread. The story will be split into two threads, as it will be quite long. The second thread will be 2-3 times longer than this one, and it will have the fighting, and the part where people actually go above an beyond the call of duty.

[The Bloody Baro]

What are the other installments going to be called?

[Jaguar]

I don't name my installments. But you can name this if you want.

By the time everyone had heard the news, people were suddenly bursting into the streets with more. England and Russia had declared war on China. There was a surprising amount of optimism, considering that China's total number of enlisted troops was over 75 million. The US had less than 25 million, Russia had 5 million, and the UK had 3 million. That added up to a mere half of China's forces. Of course, the manufacturing power of America and England was, together, far more than China's. However, it wasn't only China that those allies would face...

...

President Brady opened each of the six letters. They were all the same. They were all declarations of war. And Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia joined with Pakistan and China against democracy. The enemy now spread from occupied Japan, to China, westward through occupied India, Pakistan, and occupied Afghanistan, and lastly, it owned all but a very small portion of the Middle East. The phone rang. It was from Israel. Which was fighting a losing battle against combined Chinese and Arab forces.

...

At Rockefeller Center, the young men were comparing draft letters, trying to see who would be heading to the East with them. Andre Gonzalez and three men out of perhaps 40 he knew there were drafted and were to be trained in Massechusetts, and then sent to Italy. From there they were going to land in Israel to help them.

...

President Brady recieved another phone call. America's bases in the Phillipines were overrun. China had an estimated 100,000 casualties, compared with 15,000 American losses. But now the closest place America could attack from in the Pacific was Australia. Brady sighed. The world was being overrun so fast. He could only hope that the Chinese war machine would slow down before too many more countries began to fall.

[Jaguar]

Marisleysis Cortez had been sent a very unusual draft letter. She was to be sent to Hawaii for "special training." She had no idea what this "special training" was, but she hoped it would be a good job. What confused her was that she, at 5'3" and 116 pounds, she wasn't the ideal warrior. She thought she distinctly remembered that to serve in the army, one must weigh at least 140. But she would see what she was wanted for, and if there was a mistake, it wouldn't have troubled her much. It was puzzling, though.

...

As Gonzalez and the other soldiers heading for the Massechusetts camp rode the bus, they watched CNN gloomily. The British forces helping Israel, after their initial push, were now losing ground. But much of the American armed forces were already on their way, to save the British and Israelis. That is, if there were going to be any left.

...

Brady smiled as he read the letters. Canada and Australia were joining them. England's children are all together now, he thought. He too was watching CNN. At least Israel and Britain were stopping the Chinese, the first time anyone had done so. Perhaps this would be the Midway battle of the 3rd World War. Although it was a bit early for one. China was only using a fraction of the world's biggest army to attack Israel. Their defenses from the US in the Pacific were far more than the US could beat. At least not without a catastrophic death toll. But perhaps they weren't expecting an attack from the East...


This is the end of the first thread. The second one is going to jump right into battle. It will stop the sort of omniscient view, and just flip between Marisleysis and Andre. I'll link to it when the first part of it is written.

[Jaguar]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51886