Private War - Episode # 17
(missile launch)
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Launch the War Doves
The mother held her daughter to her. She was afraid. The mob on the other side of the town square was getting louder. The mob was composed of teenage boys
She and her daughter had left their home and walked to the market to buy food. Had they known of the mob they would have stayed home. She and her daughter were presently out of sight of the mob but that might not continue to be so if she moved or the mob moved. She was afraid.
Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, on a converted oil platform, Hank responded to a shrill siren. Instantly moving, he put on a pair of shorts and a short but thick robe. He swung into his powered wheelchair and was rolling down the hall before he was even fully awake. He grabbed a cup of hot coffee from the always full coffee machine as he went by then docked his wheelchair into the “command” slot in his war room.
Hank picked up the phone. He somewhat tersely said “Go.”
“We have a situation...coordinates have been sent....please prepare and execute “Mary One” “ Said the decrypted, electronically altered voice on the line.
“Gotcha” Hank said....and the line went dead.
“Mary One huh?” he thought. “Not too bad as a first test of the system.” He typed in a code from his command station. Deep, deeep down in the depth of the oil platform various devices and mechanisms began to move. A projectile was loaded with various sub-munitions, including the bugs. It didn't take very long , for something to have a code name, such as Mary One, there was a programmed response.
Thus it was that within a very few short minutes a projectile was being lowered toward the load chamber a few thousand feet below the platform.
Things might get tricky if there were anyone around to witness what was happening...but there wasn't. Nothing was within several hundred miles according to hank's Radar. Several hundred miles was just great. No one would see anything from just several miles away much less several hundred...but the more the better. The projectile reached the end of it’s travel and slotted into place. Amber lights became green lights and his board was good to go.
Hank rechecked everything one last time and pushed the “go” button. Somewhere within the bowels of the platform megawatts of electricity were being soaked up by Super-capacitors arrays much like a sponge would soak up water. After a few seconds a tipping point was reached and the super-capacitors flash discharged according to program.
Down below at the bottom of the several thousand foot coil gun, the projectile was snatched by magnetic forces and leaped upwards at a horrific acceleration. The projectile exited the top of the drilling platform with a high pitched
‘ccccccrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkk’
as it broke the sound barrier ....and vanished from sight instantly. It exited the atmosphere and sped along a ballistic path .
Simultaneous with projectile launch the activation codes for end-of-flight targeting and for the sub-munitions aboard were beamed to the FED. What the FED did with them Cord didn't know. The manufacture and launch of various devices was his job, and that was it. What happened later he didn't care. He'd designed, built and delivered a weapon. How it was used wasn't up to him.
Hank had a letter of marque and reprisal from Texas and as such was a known factor to the appropriate Texas Agencies. Hank had sent the those agencies a heads-up about the launch, as well as continuous updates. The agency therefore did not send counter-battery missiles down his launch tube nor did they intercept the projectile when it became evident that it would overfly Texas.
The Second Republic of Texas has no law against private war. It's constitution is much the same as that of the old USA and has a clause about letters of Marque and Reprisal.
Texas doesn't make war. It will defend itself vigorously against any and all attackers. When Texas retaliates it does so in overwhelming force and stomps the enemy flat. If there are any survivors a Texas Ranger or two will go in and kill them. The Texas Rangers then go home, drinks beer and eat bar-b-que.
Don't mess with Texas.
However, some individuals and organizations want to do more than just retaliate. They think that the encroaching Caliphate should be stopped. They are doing something about it, on the individual level.
Texas has no problem with that.
The launched projectile, in fact, did have to overfly Texas. It re-entered the rarefied upper atmosphere where air resistance slowed it and as it fell toward earth.
Entering the denser atmosphere it was further slowed by air resistance and ablative heating. It lost tiny bits of itself in controlled a burn off. Control surfaces guided it directly toward it objective. The projectile was extremely unlikely to have been spotted by radar since there was no rocket plume and it was almost entirely metal free. What little metal they did have were in sophisticated electronics. If sighted visually, at night during re entry, they looked almost exactly like a small shooting star.
Upon arrival over it's target the projectile disintegrated. Hundreds of pieces drifted earthward.
Some of the pieces were remnants of the projectile’s body but most were it’s cargo. The cargo was War-doves and bugs. All of the other pieces evaporated shortly afterward.
When released from the confines of the projectile the War-doves and the bugs activated. Some portions unfolded and some portions filled with buoyancy enhancing hydrogen gas. Shortly it was as if a flock of medium sized birds, with swarms of insects hitchhiking, were gliding down towards the small town...
To Be Continued
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