A Short Vicious War Pt. 07

I keep going with this story line and know that I'm removing parts that when I wrote it originally in my minds seemed relevant at the time but now several years later really aren't needed. As always this is a work of fiction what could happen if the wrong asshole got in office, and we had no checks and balances.

As always this is a work of fiction, and I alone am solely responsible for its content and any and all mistakes. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental and unintended, this story may not be reproduced, reprinted, copied or retransmitted in any way known or unknown without the permission of the author. If you enjoyed reading this story, please be sure to like, vote, follow and comment below. Be careful out there and remember to play safe.

Now on with the story.

Date: 24 December 2023

Time: 2246.22

Location: Victory 03, inbound to Chaos Base

'I leaned up against the avionics bay in the nose of the Herky bird that was headed for my hilltop bastion against the NKs, they had tried yet again just this morning and failed miserably. From what was passed to me they had attacked with around 300 men just before dawn, trying to infiltrate through the woods that bordered the field below my hilltop. Of course, they were detected by Sam and then they hit something that went boom, at that point the stealth portion of the early morning show went right out the fucking window. Bullets started getting thrown around in large quantities by both sides but only one was under cover and the other was out in the open.'

'I received reports that the NKs had lost 123 dead, wounded or captured, so far, no wounded on our side had been reported. I was always relieved to hear news like that; I had no want or desire to write any letters to families of those who might be lost. I looked around the bay and could see the others that were coming to Cactus field at Chaos base. I'd chosen Cactus field to remember the fighting units that had showed up on Guadalcanal in 1942 and had fought like hell against overwhelming odds time and time again. They had held the line and kept the Japanese from pushing against Australia and completely taking over the southern Pacific Ocean.'

'I looked at the other men and women that had huddled against the same bulkhead to share the warmth coming from it. Most were asleep or lightly napping, opening their eyes from time to time to quickly look around only to close them and drop back into that middle ground of sleep. Sue shifted against me, and I looked down at her, I could have left her at Offutt, but something told me to bring her along, she needed to see the things that I would still do to and against her people.'

'I heard a pop in the headset I was wearing and knew that something was about to happen. 'General?' I recognized the pilot's voice.'

'Yeah, go ahead.' I replied after pushing the PTT switch with my right hand.'

'20 Minutes out sir, if you'd like to come up.' He said and I looked around and found the closest person and nudged them with my boot till they woke up.'

'Yeah, I'll be right up, thanks.' I said as the soldier looked up at me. '20 minutes out.' I said and he nodded and started waking people up. I woke Sue up and then managed to shuffle my way to the stairs that lead up to the flight deck and knelt between the 2 pilots and looked out.'

'Off our right wing I could see some green tracer fire coming up, it was far off and posed no danger to us, I suspect that they did that just to feel that they had done something even if they knew they could do nothing to stop this plane or any of others that they and I knew would be coming. We had taken control of the air battle space and were slowly squeezing them back into smaller and smaller pockets, only to be hit from all sides with ever increasing amounts of fire power.'

'The NKs had failed one of the fundamental cornerstones of modern warfare, control the air battle space and deny your enemy open movement. We controlled that part of the battle space and any NK vehicle, or group of troops were fair game for patrolling attack fighter/bombers, attack helos, and armed drones. Night held no respite from modern sensors that turned night back into day and allowed the pilots to strike from any direction at any time. The NKs were losing troops in droves to more than ghostly planes, there was the problem of gorilla units that had banded together and made them pay in blood for thinking they could take over this country.'

'Admiral Yamamoto had once said that any invasion of America would be a mistake, for Japanese soldiers would find rifles behind every blade of grass. He had attended Yale and gotten a degree, toured America extensively and had been the Naval Attache for the Japanese Embassy between WW1 and 2. It was obvious that the NKs had not headed that warning from the past and were now learning exactly what it meant.'

'Then there were also the deserters that had seen the light and simply decided to run for it, many were killed going over the wall, but enough made it and told of the things that were being done to and against them. I don't know if I believed them all but from what I'd already seen I wouldn't put it past the commissars to use anything and everything to keep their troops in line.'

'I slipped into the jump seat between the 2 pilots and strapped in then hooked back up. 'Did they shoot at the other 130 that came in last time?' I asked and checked the time on my watch.'

'If they did it wasn't reported General, looked like light MG fire, not really dangerous.' The Co-pilot said and looked around and started his line up to land. I just stared at the back of his head.'

'I ripped the heart out of a follow-on battalion, going 12 of 18 and took their fucking cookies with a pair of old M-60s young man, and I wasn't even using anything special up the pipes. So yeah, I think that light MG fire might be dangerous to an aircraft's systems.' I said casually. 'Then a few days later, completely gutted the NKs long range transports by going 19 of 21, eating their fucking cookies too with an M2 50cal. If you're flying and someone starts slinging around the lead, shit can get real fucking interesting really fucking fast. Especially if you get turned into a pink mist.'

'I'll make sure it gets reported Sir.' The pilot said and called for the checklist. I just sat there quietly listening to the traffic being traded, I was glad to hear that it was so crisp and quick.'

'I sat back and felt the mains kiss down then the nose and the props reverse as we came to a stop then crabbed around and pulled up to the off-load area and shut down. 'Praise god, we have cheated death again.' The pilot said. I just laughed and started unhooking myself, clapped him on the shoulder and tapped the co-pilot to let him know that while not totally forgiven, he'd done a good job. He just had a lot to learn still.'

'I headed down to the cargo area and pulled the rest of my gear on then followed everyone off, there were people waiting for me and some of them looked happy to see me home again. Most of my original team was waiting for us to deplane, I spotted Tony and told him to take charge of the small pallet that I pointed out and not to let anyone mess with it until I told him personally.'

'Paul Stanley shook my hand along with several of his junior officers and senior NCO's as I stepped off the ramp and shook hands all around, I joked and let everyone know that hopefully they'd be sleeping above ground soon enough. He took me over to where the wounded and captured NKs were setting, and I spotted one that was dressed a little better the rest and pointed him out to Paul. He smiled and nodded then showed me the preliminary interrogation report.'

"Well fuck me sideways." I said in a quiet voice then whistled. I walked back over and motioned for the soldiers standing near him to stand him up. "Captain Chu, a pleasure to finally make your acquittance, I have been so looking forward to this day. You have so many sins to answer for that I doubt that I'll be even able to scratch the surface, so I'll just bypass the normal channels and send you directly to hell. Azie does owe me a few favors, he'll put you in a special room and in a few million years or so you might just graduate to a lake of fire to burn in for the rest of eternity."

"On his knees, now." I said quietly and made a great show of drawing my pistol and screwing the suppressor to the end of the barrel as he was pushed to his knees and held there. I then pulling a small metal box out of my left pants pocket and opening it. I showed it to him; it was loose 45 round that I rattled back and forth. I could see that despite the freezing temps; he was starting to sweat and sweat hard.'

"Know what this is, hmmm? No, let me enlighten you then. This is a mercury round, highly illegal, band in every country in the world, even in your little slice of personal hell strangely, but I digress." I told him then popped out the mag and racked the slide, and caught the ejected round, I loaded the merc round and popped back in the mag and walked behind him and placed the mouth of the suppressor against the back of his neck, angling it so that it wouldn't go into his brain but tear out his throat.'

"Captain Chu, you have been found guilty in absentia by a Military courts marshal of crimes against humanity, multiple violations of the Geneva Convention regarding the fair and lawful treatment of captured and or wounded combatants and or civilians, murder in the first, second, and third degree, looting, and too many other crimes to list. You have been sentenced to death, said sentence to be carried out without the need for review, by any unit that may capture you." I said and heard him whimper and pulled the trigger.'

'The "SNAP" of the hammer striking the firing pin was deafening, I could smell shit and piss and knew that he'd just soiled himself. I pulled the pistol away slowly and knelt down beside him. "Not quite as much fun when it's your neck on the line is it asshole.' I whispered listening to him breathing heavily. "You're going to spend the rest of your days in a military supermax prison, there will be no chance for you to escape and you'll spend 23 and a half hours of every day in your cell unless your being taken to the shower or to the exercise pen. You'll never see the sky or the sun ever again or breathe fresh air, I want you to know that asshole, you're going to live in hell, every moment of every day from this moment on until you die 40 or 50 years from now."

'I stand and look around at the troops that now stood stock still or stare at me from their knees, their jaws hanging open. "Load his ass up and make sure that he cannot escape, he's to be permanently considered a high-risk prisoner, no lone solo guard with him ever." I say and watch the 2 guards quickly force march him up the ramp and chain him to the deck plates pad eyes so that he's unable to move more than a few inches in any direction.'

'The other prisoners were loaded up and I watch as Mike handled fielding the few that want to speak with me as soon as possible. 30 minutes later everyone is loaded aboard, and I watch the hawk close up then hopped in the hummer that had been sitting there waiting to take me back to the house. Sara looks back at me and smiled, she like everyone else had watched the calm collected way I'd gone through the motions of getting ready to pop that pile of shit.'

"You should have popped him boss, would have saved everyone a shit ton of money." She said casually and drove us to the house. I just nodded, knowing that if I'd popped his ass, I'd have been no better than he was. Would it have been justice or just another in a long line of officially sanctioned murders that made up what soldiers did during a war. I just sat back and sighed, I really didn't want to think too much about it right now, mainly because I was tired and needed to rest. I knew that would never happen up here.'

'I went in and sat down in my office, Tony brought me in a fresh cup of coffee, for more years than I think anyone can remember, militaries have been running on some form of stimulant, be it wine, tea, beer, coffee or what the hell ever they had handy.'

'As he left Paul, Mike, Hillbilly and Paul's Sergeant major, a tuff looking no nonsense taking black guy who's first name was Tyrone and last was Black. He had a look in his eye that told me he'd heard all the jokes before and more than a few times, so I just kept the quips that were running with scissors, loose around in my skull to myself. I just stood up and shook his hand and let him know that my door was always open to him if he had a fuck up, he couldn't cure through his chain of contacts.'

"Paul, first things first, pull that gold leaf off, congrats, you got your silver leaf." I said and flipped a small box at him. "We'll wet you down later, but for now we have business to attend to, congratulations on getting your leaf." I told him then stood and shook his hand, the others shook his hand also and then we got down to business.'

'I got a sitrep of the various things that hand happened while I'd been away, several troops had noticed that the NKs had been going out hunting the local deer and other smaller animals to get some meat into their diet. They had reported that they'd seen civilians leading the troop out toward the wooded areas, from the looks of it they were showing the NKs where to hunt in the surrounding woods.'

'I knew the area they were showing me on the area map; it was rugged and easy to get lost in if you didn't know where you were going or even looking for. I also knew that we could get into that area also and set up several ambushes, besides I needed to know that the hill that made up the North end of the valley was free and clear of NKs. I'd managed to talk the powers that be out of a short battery of 155mm M-777 guns to totally cut off the NKs from either moving anything in or out. Plus, anyone thinking that they could reinforce their position would quickly find out that just getting in would be a very exciting half of the battle, if they survived it that is.'

"Mike, get with the Sarge Major and set up a 20-man patrol, be sure to include a few of our people also, I don't want anyone getting lost or hurt. They'll have a 2-fold mission, 1 check the hilltop of hill 435 for any NK interest or activity, waste any NKs you find up there. 2 hunt down the NKs that are going hunting and bring me the civilian, alive and unharmed for questioning. Make it all happen quietly; I don't want the NKs to figure out what's happening until it's way past too late to stop it." I said with an evil gleam in my eyes.'

'When you try to steal form someone and disturb his retirement, be prepared to suffer the consequences and repercussions for your action and deeds. "Also check and see what the fuck they've been doing at my factory and if anyone's there make sure they don't see you.' I said and hand drew a map of all the places I wanted them to look. I told them to let me know before the team went out.'

"For the NKs that are hunting, I want their take down to be quiet but messy, they are to be stripped of everything and left hanging by an ankle or wrist. I want it to look like a new gorilla unit has moved into the area and have started taking scalps." I said quietly. "It's about time we gave our uninvited guest a few new things to worry about anyway" Mike and Hillbilly just laughed while Paul and Tyrone looked aghast that I would even suggest something like this.'

"Don't look all shocked Paul, Sarge Major, in a few months we are going to be taking the town back and I want the NKs itching to surrender, the one thing I don't want is to have to go in there with guns blazing. I'd rather it be done quick and quiet, no fuss, no muss, no screwing around, just march in take their weapons and put them on a plane out of here." I said.'

'It had taken us months to convince the NKs that coming into the tree line that separated the field from the base of my hill was a one-way ticket to hell, patrols would walk in, most times they never walked back out. A day or 2 later their bodies or parts of bodies would be found, along with a warning to stay out and don't come back. They even tried larger patrols, of the big 45 man patrol they sent in, 39 came out in parts and pieces or not at all. 6 went back as POWs, they just threw down their weapons and flopped to the ground and held up their hands.'

'A Corporal knocked on the door and after catching my eye held up a message form. "Message from Roundhouse Base Sir about the special delivery." He said and I motioned him over to me and quickly read the message then handed it to Hillbilly. "Get some people together and get the big forklift out, I suspect you're going to need it to move the building into the cave. In fact, get both big forklifts out to help move everything over to the cave and I want the barracks assembled as quickly as possible."

'They all looked at me except for Mike who was taking notes. "I want the lowest ranks moved in first, this way it doesn't look as though the higher ups will be hogging the good stuff. Here from the lowest PFC to the highest officer will be treated equally and share the risks as well as the rewards." I told them and smiled. "Hey, it's nearly Christmas so let's all stay alive and maybe next year we won't be here." I knew full well that we'd more than likely be doing exactly what we were doing right now and that was holding the line.'

Dec. 25, 2023.

Time: 0724.00

'Tony had found my stash of wrapping paper and opened the box I'd brought with me and took the time to make each present look nice, I knew it wasn't much, but everyone enjoys a present at Christmas time. I knew from past experience that the one thing a soldier in the field needed above all else was warm socks, especially in the wintertime. I had assembled everyone not on duty in the main cave area and handed out the presents I'd gotten for them, being sure to shake each one's hand and thank him or her for being here and helping to defend and defeat the NK invaders.'

'I made sure that they all understood that soon there would be barracks for them to sleep in and that no, those that had the rank would be placed in them first, I would be going from the bottom up instead of the top down. Also, there would be a hot meal and hopefully no fighting today but not to let their guard down. I didn't want anyone injured today.'

'Fortunately, the day was quiet except for the arrival of the C-130 that was carrying the first part of the barracks and the set up crew. It was quickly unloaded and taken to where it would be set up, the troops helped to carry and adjust the base as needed and helped to set some of the walls, an old adage came to mind, many hands make lite work.'

'For me the day went well into the night as I looked over the accumulated paperwork that seemed to grow each time I turned around, I had a command staff, and they helped to keep me from drowning in paperwork even though I still had several files to read before the end of the week. I finally did crawl off to bed sometime after midnight.'

'The next few weeks were interesting to say the very least, I did finally get the hit teams out to track down the NK hunting teams and the civilians that had been leading them were brought back, they spent some time being debriefed and that info went up the ladder fairly quickly.'

'The info I'd sent out was not good and I had to remember to stick to the plan and not just go in guns blazing, the bosses wanted live NKs to question, and I wanted live neighbors at the end of this little event. I also found out that the NKs weren't interested in hill 435, that would be their downfall, not that I really cared if they screwed the pooch by the numbers.'

'The inspection of my now former factory was much more insightful; they'd tried to unbolt and move the machines that did the precision machining only to find that the tools that did the work were missing or damaged. The ammo bunker had also been flooded and unless they knew where to remote valve was located at it would remain flooded for the foreseeable future.'

'There were also no weapons for them to use as all that had left behind were unfinished blanks and bars of steel, every computer in the computer room had had its data memory cores removed and then the systems had been shut off. Without the cores all you had were some cool looking boxes with a lot of blinking lights but no way to tell a machine what to do.'

'They had also tried to find out technical information on the weapons that I'd made and shipped to many different places around the country and to select SpecOps partners as the military would allow. Afterall while I didn't mind making money, there were lines that not even I would cross especially having served and knowing that some countries spent billions to equip and field their armies at the expense of their country every year. Our country spent billion to make sure we had the best equipped and trained military while making sure the country continued to grow and prosper.'

'The first barracks building had finally been assembled and finished and 2 more were in the process of being erected and finished off, needless to say the troops loved being able to have a place to stow their gear and relax in during their off time. A chow hall had been erected, and the troops could now get a quick meal or a hot cup of coffee before or after their time on the OPs or a patrol.'

'I did notice that many of the youngsters tried to grow a beard like many of us older guys had, some were making a good attempt at it, but just didn't have the genes to make a good beard at a young age. I had the sergeants take those kids aside and try to trim it to the point that it at least was even looking instead of a patchy mess.'

'Yes, we received lots of snow and for several days I restricted all operations to essential personal only to keep the possibilities of someone getting frost bite or lost during the snowstorms down to a minimum. I made the trip to the cave to eat with the troops many times to show them that I would support them and if they had a real bitch I would listen and act on it at once.'

'The new year came and went, and I made sure that everybody had at least 1 drink to welcome in 2024. January also quickly went by the wayside and soon it was February, we had more snow and freezing temps, we also had time to get the rest of the barracks in and put up so that now everyone was out of the bunker and out in the fresh air.'

'What we also had in February was a positive test that would culminate in either late September or early October with the birth of my first-born child, at the time I had no idea if it would be a boy or a girl but either way they would be loved and I wanted to make sure they would never see the horrors that I'd seen or had to inflict to defeat the enemies of my country. I made sure to call my dad and let him know that I would finally be making him a grandpa yet again, he was surprised and congratulated me then let me know he'd let everyone else know. He, like me knew how expensive a call from a sat phone was.'

'In March I turned 59 and knew the next stop was 60, normally I'd have retired from the military before this time and would have been making money in any number of ways, such as I was now. But here I was neck deep in alligators and trying like hell to drain the swamp with a sieve, yeah, I really wasn't making too much headway, but the battle wasn't over just yet.'

'I also finally got my artillery in and situated in just 1 night, so when the NKs woke up the next day they quickly found out I had yet another strike arm as each watch tower surrounding the town was turned into a smoking crater. I loved watching that as did the other troops on the hill and let the NKs know that on the scale of 1 to 10 they were fucked yet again. I wonder if they ever thought that this was a bad idea and maybe we should just pack our tents and go home.'

'If they hadn't it was already way too late to do so now. On top of the arty, I'd received 4 M1A2 Abrams and Hillbilly had turned 3 trucks we'd captured into gun trucks, and they were now ready to roll out. I was just waiting for the last pieces to drop into place and after the 10th of April that happened. I then had Sam hack into their comms system and started calling for Coronal Jung Lee to come up on this frequency.'

'He took several minutes to answer, and I told him that I was his neighbor on the hill that had been killing him sense day 1. I also told him that now was the time to pack it in and hoist the white flag because I was coming and when I did it could go one of two ways. Quick and quiet with no fuss or muss and his men would be treated as PWs, or I could come in guns blazing and then just pick up the mess later, but no NKs would be left alive if I had to come in like that.'

'I told him that I'd give him a few minutes to think it over and then shit would start getting messy. We had everything ready to roll, hell it was even a fairly nice day with the sun making an appearance to try to warm up this freezer box. I called him back and appealed to his sense of honor that a blood bath from tanks, gun trucks and artillery would allow him no chance to do anything but simply die in large numbers.'

'I let him know that if they surrendered, they would receive food, medical care, a warm safe place to sleep, showers and everything else that the Geniva Convention had spelled out all those years ago. He finally said that he'd call me back in 30 minutes and I said that I'd be waiting, I really hate waiting but sometimes it's what you have to do, so wait I did, as did the rest of my "Command Staff" for the call.'

'I already had the engineers ready to take down the barricades we'd put up last year before we took down the convoy. the tanks and trucks were warmed up and ready to go as were the trucks loaded with food, water, med supplies, blankets and the million and 2 other things the surviving towns people and the NKs would need to make it through the next few weeks until we reestablished a joint Military/Civilian law in the town.'

'Round house base had let me know that they were ready to deceive the NK PWs as soon as I let them know to come and take them off my hands, I just had to wait on their CO to figure out that the end was here and there would be no returning to the motherland.'

'25 minutes later OPs on my hill and on hill 435 reported movement in the NKs Barracks area and that their troops were mustering up, if I gave the order, 6-155mm HEVT rounds would land in that area and there would be mass carnage, I let everyone know to keep their booger hooks off the bang switches for right now, just not to let them get too far away.'

'4 minutes later the call came in that Coronal Jung Lee had decided to surrender what remained of his command to me. I told him to have every man remove the magazines from their weapons and to standby where they were, I gave the go code to those that would make the initial assault then stepped outside and watched several vehicles roll out and down the hill.'

2 hours later we received the code word that the area had been secured, and it was safe for me to enter, the 18 troops I'd rescued 11+ months ago and we piled into 5 up armored Hummers and headed down. All 5 hummers had the top hatch open and weapons in the mounts, mine was sporting twin M-60s, Frank was on the triggers and Sara was my driver yet again. I could see Bobby in the Hummer in front of mine standing behind the M-2 swinging it from side to side, anyone wanting to play stupid games would win several 600+ grain prizes that would splash them into the afterlife.'

'We pulled through the gates now maned by American troops and flanked by an Abrams and a gun truck, they were still on high alert and waved us through the gate. I could see several trucks with people surrounding them as the troops passing out boxes of MREs and cases of water, up by the clinic/hospital several ambulance hummers were moving in boxes of med supplies and military medics and doctors were taking over for the time being.'

'We pulled up in front of the old town hall that had been turned into the NKs command post and several guys and gals got out, weapons at the ready and Angel finally came over and opened my door as I slid out my own weapon at the ready as we moved inside past several troop that had already rounded up the NK troops that were in the building. We walked to the door marked with my counterpart's name and rank; I knocked twice and then entered out of common curtesy.'

'A young Captain followed Mike and me in, he was our translator and made the introductions and them introduced Mike and himself. "I speak your english language fairly well General, perhaps you and I can speak alone as... how do you say?... as men do, about what will happen to my troops." He said. I nodded and had Mike take the translator and himself out to the outer office and asked them to wait for us.'

'We spent the next 30 or so minutes talking back and forth and I let him know that Captain Chu was now a PW and would be tried for multiple counts of crimes against humanity and for war crimes also, more than likely he would spend the rest of his life in prison, or he would be executed for his crimes, I pulled no punches and spoke bluntly. We both took a few minutes to remember those that had fallen and had a quick drink from a bottle I'd brought with me, I let him know that I made this up on my hill and would be happy to show him before he was sent back.'

'We both looked up at the sound of the first of many C-130s flew over the town to land on the road on the other side of town, it would take out the first 100 NKPWs to the first of several interrogations and finally to a holding area before they would be sent to a final prison for the time being.'

'I reached into a briefcase that had been left for me and pulled out a surrender document and handed it to him to read. "If you'd like I can have the translator, come back in if you require it." I said. He shook his head and signed then I signed and dated the document and looked at the date again 22 April 2024, 360 days from when they had landed and start this shit storm. I had killed or ordered killed several hundred and destroyed nearly 3 dozen aircraft.'

'We looked at each other and I knew he had made up his mind about something I knew I didn't want to watch. "I'll give you a few minutes to yourself sir and I wish you the best." I said and gathered the documents, stood and shook his hand. Then turned and walked out the door after gathering my briefcase the left him alone, In found several people standing by in the outer office, I gave Mike the case and told him to head up the hill and get the documents copied and sent out on either this bird that's loading now or the next one and Steve was to be alerted on which bird it was on. He was off like a shot; I turned to the Sargent and let him know the Coronal was taking some time to get himself together before coming out, he was to be treated gently and yes, he did speak english. He was to be brought to the house and allowed to rest before being shipped out with his troops.'

'I walked outside and knew he would never come out his office alive and started walking towards where the troops were turning in their weapons, each weapon was tagged and the soldier turning it in was made to show his ID card that they all carried. Each weapon would be sent back and then tested to see if the holder had been at the ambush sight during the early days of then war.'

'I kept walking heading for the area where the towns folk were receiving food, water and medical help, several were clustered around several MPs who were taking notes and asking more questions. I headed that way knowing that I wouldn't like what I was about to hear, but I knew that I needed to hear it. I was about halfway there when I heard a muffled pop and knew what had happened and that soon enough someone would find me to deliver the bad news. Ye Gods, I was getting too old for this shit, and I knew that the shit was really going to hit the fan soon enough.'

Here I bring this part to and end and I hope that you enjoyed reading this part of the story that I wrote in my head many years as I worked at an injection molding machine overnight. Please remember those that gave there all as we are just past Memorial Day, Salute my Brothers and Sisters, until Valhalla. Please remember to like, vote, follow and comment below and I will be writing more soon enough, be safe out there.