A Short Vicious War Pt. 08

This is a work of fiction about what could happen if the wrong Ahole gets into the front office, I alone am its sole creator and author and I alone am responsible for any and all mistakes contained herein. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental and unintended, this story like its 7 preceding stories may not be reproduced, copied or retransmitted in any way known or unknown without the permission of the author. If you like this work that I now present for your perusal, be sure to like, vote, follow and comment below.

Now on with the story.

'I had debated on how to tell these next few parts. Anyone who has studied or been to war knows that wars are messy in ways that are usually hidden from the public in general and only spoken of in hushed tones among those who were there. I am going to base my writings off of what has happened from 1945 to the present day and what the dictators of those times did to not only those they conquered but many times to their own people as well. Many times, what was done was not done neatly or cleanly and even to this very day someone, somewhere is still doing this very same thing.'

Liberation Day

Location: Tuscan, Co.

Date: 22 April 2024

Time: 1337.22

'I had heard the "pop" and knew that very shortly someone would be running up to inform me of what had transpired, but I already knew what had happened. In order to save face, the Coronel had chosen the ''honorable'' way out that many of the Asian race were brought up to believe in too this very day. I was standing by several MPs who were taking down information about what the NKs had done over the last 12 months against the citizens of the town, I knew that the charges would more than likely range the whole gamut from simple assault and theft to murder 1, arson and other charges that I really didn't want to think about right now.'

'I heard the sound of running feet and tried not to turn around, whatever was going to happen was already in motion and there was no way I could change it, the best I could do was delay what was about to come for a few more seconds and keep what little of my sanity I had left, intact.'

''Where's the boss?'' I heard a young voice behind me loudly ask, I could tell he was excited and out of breath for running, here was where the Fates chose to entangle our threads and for me open a Pandoras box of problems that I hadn't even considered over the past 12 months. I turned and raised my hand then whistled loudly.'

''Over here son.'' I called out and watched him sprint over. Now a soldier in full battle rattle doesn't really run, it's more of a high-speed shuffle due to the amount of weight they carry on them, plus even the most modern combat boot doesn't really provide the support needed to truly run. But this young man sprinted over like he was wearing running shoes.'

''Sir... Sir, you gotta come quick... we found something you need to see now Sir... it's... it's... well I don't know what it is Sir, but the sarge told me to find you fast and bring you to the hotel... I ain't never seen anything like what I just saw Sir.'' He managed to gasp out and bent at the waist trying to gulp in more air.'

''Stand up son, take a couple of deep breaths and tell me what's going on and who the sergeant is, deep breaths and think then speak.'' I told him helping him up and to focus, the look in his eyes told me that what was about to come out of his mouth, I really wasn't going to like.'

'I had no idea how far from wrong that thought would be.'

''Sir, Private Delany, I'm in Sergeant McCue's squad... we were over at the hotel doing a sweep clear... and had gone up to the second deck.... The point man Private Thomas and the drag Private Adams were in front... then Private Buckman the sarge and then me sir.'' He explained giving me a run down on the line up. He spent the next few minutes explaining what had happened and then the looking in the first room with an open door and what he'd seen. ''Sergeant McCue had ordered 4 guys to the other end of the hall and 2 to the elevators to keep anyone from coming or going. We counted 36 women and girls Sir, and he told me to run and find you.''

'By now there was a small group of troops standing around listening to what had happened, and they all looked like they were ready to start lining the NKs up against anything and squeeze off a few rounds into them. I needed to get a handle on this fast or I'd really have a mess on my hands.'

''Captain!'' I called out to an officer about 15 feet away and motioned him over. ''I want 30 of you to come with me.'' I said as the captain walked over. ''Listen to me all of you right now I want everyone to stay frosty and not get all froggy, I'll let you know when that time comes. Captain, I want you to keep a firm hold on everyone here and make sure this handover goes smoothly. Nobody gets to play God but me, undermotherfuckingstand me? nobody but me, and if you want to be God, I suggest you all study hard and earn your stars.'' I could see I had put a quick damper on the thoughts that had been running through their heads.'

''You 30, starting here and running 15 on each side come with me.'' I said pointing at 1 man then looked at the private who had run up. ''Lead on son.''

'We started walking towards the hotel and I heard the sounds of booted feet run up behind us and then sort of fall into step with us. As we neared the hotel, I could hear terse commands behind me to "spread out and to keep their eyes open." we quickly breached the lobby, and I could see no one there. I pointed at 1 of the 2 NCOs and had him take 10 men and search the first floor and to sit on anyone they happened to find.'

'I nodded at the private and we went to the stair way and started up, at the first landing he yelled up and got an okay to "come on up." We went past the first 2 guards at the door and Sgt McCue walkover to me, the look on his face and body language screamed volumes and I braced myself. ''Please tell me they're not all dead.'' I quietly said.'

'He just looked at me and shook his head no. ''No Sir, but I'm going to bet that these women probably wish they were Sir.'' He replied and led me to the first room, then stopped me just before I went in. ''Brace yourself Sir, it ain't pretty.'' With that last bit still ringing in my ear I slowly walked in.'

'I cannot even begin to describe the stench of unwashed sheets, BO, stale food and fear that hit me once I stepped into that room, I nearly fucking gagged at the stench. Kneeling by the unmade bed was a young woman, she was blonde and dirty and very thin. I could see the bruises on her body and face, some of which were fairly new. ''Eoseo osibsio, ju-innim. i bicheonhan baen-in noyega eotteohge dangsin-eul seomgil su issgessseibnikka?'' She said quietly without even looking up at me. I later came to find out that it meant "Welcome master, how may this lowly white slave serve you?"

'I'm not sure how long I staired at her but she finally looked up at me and gasped and that spurred me into action. ''Who... who... who are... are you? are... are you a... g-g-g-ghost?'' She stuttered out then retreated to the corner of the room and started screaming in fear. Angel came onto the room and handed me her weapon then went over and took hold of the girl's head.'

''Vicky, Vickey, Vickey, look at me, it's Angel, Angel, look at me Vic, we're here to get you out, okay? okay yes, get you out of here yes.'' She said to the terrified girl and held her tightly to her chest. I stepped out and damn near started to issue what I knew would have been a stupid order, but I took a few deep breathes and calmed myself and started thinking.'

''Find me the keys to the locks for the chains these girls have around their necks or get me several sets of bolt cutters... NOW Sargent.'' I snarled out. He looked back at me with the same steely determination in his eyes. ''Yes Sir, I'll handle it personally.'' And he was gone like a fart in a hurricane.'

'I motioned the radioman that had followed us over to me. ''Get on the hook son and contact the hospital, have the CMO and as medics as he can bring, come over here, let him know we have an MCI.'' I told him as I looked into another room and found another girl chained to the wall kneeling by her bed. Looking in another I found a Medic working on another girl who looked like she'd had the shit kicked out of her in the last 24 hours or so, another soldier was holding an IV bag for him as he tried to stabilize her.'

''Doc, you need anything?'' I quietly asked. He didn't even look up from his work. ''Bolt cutters, a stretcher team and an ambulance over here now, or she ain't gonna make it.'' I saw Sgt McCue come running in with several pairs of cutters and passed them around. I waved one of the guys with a set of cutters to me and sent him in. ''Helps on the way Doc, just keep her breathing.'' I told him and could hear the siren coming closer. I stepped out and motioned a soldier over to me.'

''Go downstairs and have them send up stretcher team on the double, tell the CMO to report to me ASAP... Go.'' I told him. He just nodded and ran to do as I had told him. A few minutes later 2 men came up with a stretcher and I watched them help load the beaten girl up then haul her out of the stinking room and towards the stairs.'

'I saw Sara standing outside Vicky's door, stunned and lightly sobbing, I walked up to her and took her off to the side. ''Sara, there are 9 more missing sisters here, find them and then place a guard at their door. Find them for me Sara.'' I told her and she stormed off with fire in her eyes. I knew she was mad and that was a good thing. Angel came out and I handed her back her weapon, she started to stomp off and I knew what she wanted to do, I just grabbed her arm and stopped her. ''He's already dead Angel'' I told her quietly. ''Just before all this shit storm kicked off, he checked out and ain't going to be any deader if you go over and shoot him again.''

''It'll make me feel better Boss.'' She snarled out quietly. I could feel the anger in her body and knew I needed to channel it quickly. ''No, it won't, go help Sara find your missing sisters, go... GO!'' I said then snarled back at her. I felt her deflate as she moved down the hall to help Sara. I watched soldiers help those that could walk to the stairs and then down, all were naked, malnourished and wrapped in a blanket or sheet from their bed.'

'I slowly went downstairs myself and then stepped outside to make a call, I knew this needed to be run high up the flagpole, and fast. I called Sam first and let her know about the shit show we'd found, she said she'd handle it on her end and hung up. I called Steve next; he answered on the second ring. ''Steve... John, it's a fucking shit show horror story.'' I told him. ''How bad is it, John?'' He asked as I rubbed my eyes. ''We've found 36 so far, and God only knows how many more there are hiding in their homes.'' I said suddenly feeling every inch of my 59 years.'

'I heard him sigh back and knew he was feeling the weight of the problems I was about to dump on him. 'I'll have the bird in the air in under 30 mikes John, it has the capacity to hold 50.'' He told me. I just sighed back and thanked him. ''Get your 5s spun up and tell them to drop the runway teams in the field nearest the town, we now control everything.'' I said and after a few more minutes of back and forth called my boss at the puzzle palace.'

'My call with the Chief of the Army was to say the very least highly unpleasant, he had questions that I didn't have answers to just yet and it seemed that every 10 or so words someone new joined the call. That list included the Chairman, the SecDef, Chief of the Air Force and several others in the food chain that just felt the need to add their 2 cents in for no other reason than they could. In short it was a cluster fuck. The Chief Public Affairs Officer was talking about getting press out here to splash this far and wide.'

'At this point I put my foot down hard and slashed his dreams of spreading the latest war crimes far and wide by telling him no press was allowed in my AO, period and if he didn't like it, to fucking bad, this was still an active combat zone, and I was the area commander. I got to decide who came and went, not some chair warmer in D. C. I don't think I made any friends, but I really didn't care if I did or not.'

'The Boss said that they would be sending out CID and FBI teams to take the lead in this matter, they wanted to make a major court case out of it, something along the lines of the Nurnberg trials after World War 2, if they could find anyone high enough to hang that was. Personally, I didn't give a shit who they hung or imprisoned till they died of old age, I had my own problems to solve and people to track down.'

'The rest of the day and well into the night the roar of turbo propped engines came and went. It was just before midnight local when the final Herkey bird lifted off heading back to base. Tony sat me down and shoved food into my face, I hadn't eaten all day and really didn't feel much like eating right now after seeing what I'd seen all day long. I started to see a few more lights in the homes in town which told me that these people had managed to save a few batteries or oil for the lamps.'

'Mike, Paul and several others were waiting for me to eat something before hitting me with a summarized report of the day, Luckly there had been no accidental discharges of weapons, and all weapons had been confiscated from the NKs and then tagged and shipped out on one of the last C-130s. All those that had been found at the hotel had been sent back to a higher level of medical care at Offutt; many would need months if not years of professional help, help they just couldn't get here.'

'Paul was worried about his troop and I knew they would need a little time off to decompress and put things in perspective, the CID/FBI team would be showing up in the next few days and the regimental colors had already been removed and were displayed next to the set I'd captured on day 1. Soon the craters by the bridge would be filled in, and in the coming weeks and the bridge spanned yet again to reopen the road. Security teams would set up several check points to stop would be attackers, and direct those that were fleeing the NKs to safe areas.'

'For once it was quiet and I really wasn't overly worried about that quietness, the intel teams had informed me that based upon what the NK's had written down, our head count and theirs matched, but I wasn't going to lower my guard just yet, for me this was just the end of act I, the curtain call for act II would rise soon enough and then act III would make its own entrance, I just needed to take them as they came.'

'For me act II began just a few days later on the 29th as some idiot for the FBI claiming he was the special agent in charge and another CID agent that was just as big of an idiot were standing in my office arguing back and forth about who's dick was bigger. I was seriously tempted to just pull my pistol and shoot them both and name their seconds as the agent in charge, Tony walked in and placed a cup of coffee in front of me and flashed me 3 fingers. I grabbed it and after blowing on it a few times chugged it down. Ye Gods I needed that.'

"Tony hit me again." I called out and he came in just a few seconds later with a fresh cup. Obviously, he'd been listening to the crap just as I had and knew my temper was hitting the red line. It was time to shut this clown show down. "GENTLEMEN, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I screamed at them. "I am about 1 second from sending you both back and calling both of your bosses and telling them what immature 3-year-olds you both are. 1 more fucking word out of either of you, and I'll throw your ass on the next bird out of here."

"Yes, but Sir..." The FBI guy started, and I'd had enough at that point. "SHUT THE FUCK UP BOTH OF YOU, STAND AT ATTENION, YOUR ABOUT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PISS DOWN A GENERALS BACK AND TRY TO TELL ME ITS GOD DAMNED RAINING.' I yelled back and pointed my fingers at the both of them. 'Try me gents, 1 fucking word and you're out of here, and your asshole will take a month to catch up with the rest of you, try me, I fucking dare you, go on, try me."

'I sat down and left them both braced at attention, and I could hear muffled chuckles from out in the living room and by the kitchen. "I know you people have things to do, get to it or I'll find something for you to do." I said and heard the doors open and then close. Tony closed my door, and I let the silence build for a few more minutes. "You both have a mission that will come to a head in a court of law, period, all stop, end of story, that's it." I tell them both.'

"You Mr. FBI man, your mandate is to investigate what the NKs did to the civilian population of this town, you will restrict yourself to that mandate and nothing else unless cleared by me and me alone. Understand me? That's a yes sir, no sir question Mister and I want an answer." I told him. He swallowed and opened his mouth. "Yes Sir, I understand perfectly. Sir." He answered. I looked over at the CID agent. "I know you know what your mandate is, I was on the phone when you were briefed, did you not understand something perchance?" I asked.'

"No Sir, I understand perfectly, Sir." He replied. I nodded and rubbed my eyes as Mike knocked and opened the door holding a message sheet. I motioned him in and quickly read it. "Tell General Clarke, thank you very much and I look forward to seeing him here shortly, get with the Air Force and see what can be done about getting resupply in and wounded out as quickly as possible." I told him and then turned my attention back to the 2 idiots I now had in my office. "Both of you execute your mission mandates quickly, if you have a problem, you bring it to me, if I hear you arguing out there, I'll drop a 155 round on your asses personally. Now get out of here and go do your jobs, once you're finished, come see me and I'll review your reports. Now get out."

'Both practically ran to get out of my sight, and I hope like hell I'd finally put an end to the near constant bickering going on. I went back to the make work of reading new regulations and rules that were coming down the pike nearly as fast as I could read them. Most didn't affect me, but I liked to know what was going on outside my little battle space. I received reports every few hours as to the location of the relief force that was headed our way.'

'It was after dark when they finally arrived, luckily, we had comms with them and that saved them from being hit from Fire Base Revenge as possible enemy troops, they also fired off a recognition signal of 2 flares, one white, the other red. They received a red, white reply and came on after making sure everyone was happy. I was waiting outside as they command track pulled up and stopped by my side door.'

'General Thomas Clarke was like me, a no nonsense go getter and straight shooter, I had him bring his people in to shower, get hot chow, wash clothes and receive medical treatments and to work on their tracks in safety. Hillbilly had his teams out checking with each TC and driver to find out any gripes or problems. The docs had the ambulances waiting and drove the wounded to the hospital for treatments and stabilization then were being sent back, if need be, via med plane. Steve had sent several doctors, nurses and medics to assist with the civilian injured and our own if need be.'

'I really hated having to play babysitter to this town and the people that had remained through the occupation, Supplies were still being brought in, and people were still eating MREs and fresh meat now that they could get out and go hunting again. The MPs which were acting as the local police, had arrested several people for collaborating with the NKs during the occupation and several investigations were now ongoing. As the area was still under military control it would fall to the military to conduct any investigations and trials for the time being.'

'Dinner that night was quick, and it allowed the 2 of us to chat in a calm relaxed atmosphere. Sue joined us as did several of the command officers from both commands, I only had 3 sub commands under me, and I kept everything running smooth just as he did, he'd already liberated 5 towns on his little rumble across the countryside. He'd also had captured over 500 NKs and sent them back as US lines moved forward.'

'TF Clarke spent 72 hours resting and refitting at my place and both sets of troops took the time to get to know each other. Tom and I came out of my place on day 2 to find Hillbilly and another trooper elbow deep in an engine arguing about something. We both watched for several minutes then moved on as we both inspected the 16 Abrams and 12 other tracks half of which were older M-113s the others were Bradley's. Their supply train showed up later the next day and replenished the supplies we'd given them.'

'The engineers they'd brought along worked with my people and in less than 48 hours had places a temp bridge and filled in the major craters where the Convoy had met its grisly demise. Those that went down to clean up the last of that mess we'd made were impressed and the CO of the engineers spent a little time questioning me about what I did and my line of thinking. He was impressed when I told him that I'd learned the old-fashioned way, by someone having shown me some, my just doing it and figuring the rest out. Not to mention reading through the thousands of books that I'd flipped through in my lifetime.'

'I had to admit having engineers around made life easier, they also cleared away the destroyed substation and downed tower that I'd rigged on the first day and laughed at the story I told of the having of Pvt. Hotdog to play his pivotal role then getting turned into a red mist, along with his entire patrol. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of idiots. I let the engineers know what I'd done, they thought it was funny as hell, especially the part about the red balloon.'

'A week later a crew of electrical workers came in and spent the next month reinstalling new transformers and erecting a new tower, then hooking back up into the wind turbines I had and routing that power into the town. 9 of the 10 turbines went to power the town and did a fairly good job of it, while my smaller one and T-1 powered my base of operations and would continue to do so for another 13 months until the main power was reestablished in this area. At least people had lights at night now and could use some of their modern conveniences.'

'I had sent several requests to head over to Boulder to help liberate it too, I really wanted to get over there and look for my nephew and bring his ass home. I hoped for the sake of all concerned that I'd find his young ass alive and somewhat well, my sister would be happy as hell if that was to occur. In truth I really wasn't holding my breath to hard, he was just like his mom and took after me for doing the right thing no matter what.'

'I looked out my window and watched a joint Army/Air Force engineering team build the base, so far, they had assembled and erected the base hospital and chow hall that helped feed the civilian population and treat them while the civilian hospital was being rebuilt. The NKs had damaged the civilian one by trying to strip out the advanced medical technology in order to send that back to the homeland, not that they got much of a chance to do that. The stolen tech and other pieces of stolen equipment and hardware were found, crated up in a small warehouse over by the hotel.'

'I would call the new base Fort Apache knowing that I had held the line against overwhelming odds for the first 6 days all by myself, for 8 months there had been just the 19 of us on the top of my hill and we'd kept the NKs contained and on their back foot until more reinforcements had showed up and then shit really started to happen. We had never stopped patrolling and by doing so we controlled the battle space and made them dance to our tune and not the other way around.'

'I was sitting in my easy chair chatting with several of the younger troops after dinner, a few weeks later, in order to show them that yes, I was a real person and not just some grumpy old man whose job seemed to be making their life hard. Mike walked in and whispered in my ear that he'd been found, I looked at those seated in my living room and decided to expose them to the ugly truth. "Gents, suit up were going out." I told them as Mike hollered at Tony to suit up also.'

'The ride to the ambush site took longer than before, or maybe it just seemed that way to me after all these hard months, I really don't remember. We turned in past the monument that someone had set up to remember those that had been killed here on day 6 of the war. 89 had died here on that cold day in May and 2 more passed away up at my place later that same day. Today, we would add one more name to the monument and bring a lost battle buddy, friend, brother and son home. We pulled up next to the growing collection of hummers and other vehicles at the tree line and got out.'

'2 guards met us and directed us to stay one the outside of the caution tape that had been set up, I thanked them, and we slowly walked back to where we could hear voices and see occasional flashes. A Lieutenant slowly walked over and handed me a dog tag now stored inside an evidence bag, I looked it over and read the name embossed into the metal. "Jefferson, Tyron A." then handed it to Mike who was standing next to me.'

'He fingered it for a minute then handed it to another of the 18 as they called themselves. "Corporal Jefferson... Tdog he called himself... he was a good solid guy, and I never had any problems with him Boss... you'd have liked him he was a bit of a caricature John." Mike said quietly as the recovery team finished taking their pictures and 2 medics laid out a body bag next to him. He would be flown out to be processed then returned to his family.'

'I could see that the animals and elements had not been kind to his body, I'd seen it all before but a few of those I had with me hadn't and heard someone evacuating their guts. I'd done the same thing many years ago when I'd first started out as a first responder. The medics removed his ammo mags and handed them to 2 other soldiers that had policed his weapon and grenades up that he'd laid out to make a final stand.'

'The medics lifted his body onto a large, wheeled cart, an American Flag was produced and laid over the body bag and they started to wheel him out. Angel, Mike, Hillbilly, Calvin, Bill and Charley lined up on each side of the cart. The remaining 12 formed up to escort Tdog's body to the medic's ambulance, at some point a preacher had arrived on scene and was now praying for our fallen brother in arms. "Be not afraid, for he that believith in the Lord our God, though he may die will live forever in the arms of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Grant him peace oh Lord that our fallen brother, Corporal Tyron Jefferson, may dwell in your light now and forever, Amen." He said as we walked the 30 yards to the waiting ambulance. "Ya that I may walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear not, for thou art with me oh Lord..."

'He spoke for several more minutes as the body was loaded in and Charley hopped in the back with him to keep his former battle buddy company, I knew that I would have to write something, but I really didn't know what needed to be said. I took Frank aside and told him to grab 2 more people besides himself and Charley and their best uniforms and act as escorts for their fallen brother, he nodded and went off to talk to those people, I was really getting too old to be doing this kind of shit, it was starting to keep me up late some nights.'

'2 Days later after great pomp and circumstance, with flags and guidons waving in the cool morning breeze including the new command flag that had been delivered the night before that read "Fort Apache, Colorado" "We hold the line." the last and only missing brother was sent off for one of his final flights. For over a year I had lost only two while killing my enemies right, left and center and unless a trauma surgeon had worked on them both they were pretty well gone. I hated losing people, it sucked, and it drug the energy down for days afterwards.'

'I'd sent a recommendation for the Bronze Star as well as the Purple Heart based on Mike and testimony from the others, Paul coached me on the verbiage and Sargeant Major Black polished my turd to make it shine. I was grateful. Our Chaplin blessed the body yet again as he was carried aboard and the surrounding troops dismissed before the AC fired her engines up and lifted into the clear blue sky. I really hoped to avoid having to doing that again, it just sucked the life out of you.'

'3 weeks later I got my wish and grabbed 50 of my hardest shooters and looters and packed our bags to head over to Boulder to help crack that egg. I called my dad and let him know that I would be headed to try and recover one of the family. he told me to be careful and that he'd let my sister know. I thanked him and finished packing my heavy sniper rifle, before kissing my pet and heading out the door for what I hoped would be the end here in this state.'

And here I end this part of my story, not to worry there 2 more chapters left to write and I will be getting to them soon enough, for me this was a tuff chapter to write, be safe out there my brothers and sisters and stay frosty. Be sure to like, vote follow and comment below.

Always hold the line.