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Chapter 7: Preparations

DMZ Headquarters

Phoenix goes into the room she had picked out on base and closes the door behind her. Once it’s closed she sighs and finally relaxes her guard a bit. As she walks forward she takes off her shirt, the motions unequipping it as far as the game is concerned and the equipment disappearing and going into her inventory. She plops on the bed and flicks up her in game mail and starts to dictate as she lays there in just her bra and pants.

“Hey dad. I’m still alive. Sorry about the lack of mail to you but I’ve been kind of busy. The player air force was devastated in the fighting along with the ground forces. I’ve gotten in with a new guild that formed up, survivors of the battle. We’re being led by a guy named Bordraab. You’d like him, he’s pretty cool. He’s the only officer to survive the Fall and he got us all out of it thanks to how quickly he came up with a plan.

Anyway, there’s going to be another battle tomorrow or the day after. We found a big force heading for the city and we’re going to beat up on it all we can. I’m thinking it’ll start with air strikes while the infantry gets in position. We’ll find out how good at this Bordraab is. Anyway, I’ll send you a message afterwards. Love you.”

She clicks to stop dictation and proofreads her message, then clicks to send. With that, she takes down her pants and lays back on her bed, shutting her eyes, wanting some shut eye before she goes into battle.

Washington, D.C., United States of America

The President of the United States has a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. He is the most powerful person in the world, able to fling what is arguably the world’s most potent and powerful fighting force into combat wherever. He has the authority to launch nuclear death to anywhere on the planet while his country, thanks to new technology, is largely free of the threat of nuclear missiles. He can, through his own signature, effect the world’s largest economy and he directly influences other countries in the world just from his words. Many countries have the governments they have because the US decided a change was needed and put them in place.

However, he does not have the power to help his daughter right now. President Henry Madison walks into his daughter’s room in the White House and sits down next to her. His lovely daughter, red hair, fair skin, a body she spent a long time getting just right, and a fiery personality that always manages to surprise him, had gotten hooked on virtual games in a big way. He sits down on the bed and pats her hand. All the power in the world and he can’t help her when she needs it the most.

She looks absolutely helpless right now. She is resting in her bed, her Virtual Gear helmet over her head. The only thing to let anyone know that there’s something wrong is the IV drip and heart monitor next to her. Thank God he had been on a diplomatic trip when this whole thing had started, he would have tried removing the helmet.

He had just gotten an email from her telling him that she is alive, but that there’s a major battle that would be happening tomorrow. She also told him her new guild leader was a guy named Bordraab. As soon as he had read the email from her he had gotten in touch with the Director of the FBI. He had told him to find out who this Bordraab is and get the information to him. Information had been easy to come by since the government had seized the servers the game ran on.

He pats his daughter’s hand one more time then gets up and heads out of her room, leaving her to her worries and going to deal with his. “Mr. President.” Says the Army Chief of Staff from behind him as he starts down the hallway. He turns and smiles to the older man. “General. Do you have something for me?” He asks. The general nods.

“I have a plan. When we captured that administrator after he logged out, he informed us that logging in is possible, it’s logging out that isn’t. I believe we should call for volunteers amongst our disabled veterans and send them into the game to fight against the enemy there and get the people in the game safely out.”

“Our disabled vets?” President Madison asks. “Isn’t that a bit iffy? What makes you think they’ll go in?”

The general smiles. “Most of these men have fighting spirit but can no longer fight due to amputations. We can offer them active duty and assignment into the game to assist in its completion. The people in there fighting have no training. There are even a few drill instructors we could send in there to help train their people.”

“The people may be resistant.” The President says. “Many of them already have guilds with chains of command with people they trust. They will be very hostile to what they will see as a ‘military takeover’ of their command structures.”

The general thinks about that, trying to think quickly. “What if they are put into certain guilds that volunteer for it?” He asks. “We could put in the combat veterans as complete squads into those guilds under the command of those people.”

“Such as into the guild my daughter belongs to.” The President says. “I am going to give you some information about a certain player. He was the only officer level beta player to survive the battle in that blighted zone and pulled his command out of a very bad situation. I want you to help him get his new command in order and into an effective force.”

The general blinks at this but nods. “Yes sir, I’ll send him paperwork from West Point. He won’t get complete training, but he should be able to grasp small unit tactics easily enough, especially if he’s already had some combat experience.”

“No. No paperwork, general. Send him an email introducing yourself. Let him come to you, don’t force yourself upon him. Offer to give him advice. Give him pointers. Tell him some of your experiences that he could draw upon in there. If he’s a good leader, he’ll take it. If not, well, we’ll have to think of a way to get a good leader in there. Now, I’m going to have a consultation with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, then I’m off to bed. Good night, general.”

“Good night, sir.” The general gives him a salute and then turns and heads off.

Alaria, Fantasy Faction Territory

Rias is up late tonight, unable to sleep. She has this terrible sense that something’s going to happen tonight. She looks up at the moon and sighs. Some reading will get her through it, she knows. But the only thing to read is the news and she’s not sure she wants to see more bad news. All the news ever shows is bad news. There’s a tap on her door. She looks over at it. “Come in.”

Miya pokes her head inside. “Mind if I come in?” She asks.

“Sure, come on in.” Rias says, scooting up on her bed a bit to give Miya a place to sit. “So, what brings you here?”

“Well, you. You looked like something was bothering you earlier. Want to talk about it?” Miya says, sitting down next to her and looking at her, waiting for her to talk…or not to.

“Sure…” She says. “I just have this terrible feeling that something bad is about to happen. I don’t know why but its right there.”

Miya nods. “Well, the news has said that several million people have died so far. Some players have entered into something like a dream like state. As if they were in a trance of sorts.”

Rias blinks and looks at her. “A trance?” She taps her finger on her thigh. “Remember when we rescued Aurora? She said some of the people were captured and dragged off. What do you think? Could those people be in a trance while captured to keep them from trying to escape?”

Miya hmms, rubbing one of her arms. “It might be that way. We could try asking around, see if there’s a minor blight around.

Rias nods. “Something for tomorrow.” She says. “Anyway, goodnight Miya.” She lays back in her bed.

“Good night Rias.” She says, getting up and leaving.

Rias lays there as if asleep for about thirty minutes, waiting to make sure Miya is gone, then sneaks out of her bed and goes to the window. There is a blight nearby, one with caves. A natural prison. She could sneak in there and see what was going on with any captives that may be there. A quick hop and she’s out the window. Her wings spread out and she glides down to the ground.

“I figured you had something in mind when you shooed me off so quickly.” Comes Miya’s voice. She steps out from behind a nearby tree and smiles to her. “Going to the small blighted cave where there were loads of gryphons, right?” She asks. “I won’t let you go off alone and I doubt I can talk you out of it, so I’ll simply go with you.”

Rias knows better than to argue. “Alright, stay close. If you stay within a few feet of me when I cast this, we’ll both be invisible.” Miya nods and the two head off. Having already thought ahead, Miya had left a message for the others, telling them they were going scouting.

DMZ Headquarters

In the morning, Bordraab is up early. He has a bit of a surprise. In addition to the normal email from his mother, there’s another one. He looks at the subject line. “Hope To Hear From You Soon.” He clicks on it and opens it up. As he reads, his jaw hangs open just a little bit.

From: Lee@wh.mil.gov

Subject: Hope To Hear From You Soon

Hello there, Bordraab. I have been informed that you are in charge of the most capable fighting force in the Washington, D.C. area inside the game Terra Nova. I know you have a battle coming soon and that you will have many battles before this whole situation is over. I want you to know that I will be happy to give you any advice you may want to get from someone with a lifetime’s experience in the position you now occupy.

Sincerely,

General Walter Lee

Army Chief of Staff

Bordraab gapes at this. Of all the people to send him an email, he had NEVER expected THIS person to send him a message. This guy was in charge of the invasion of Iran and had come up with a successful strategy to use against the insurgency there afterwards, the so called ‘Black Sky’ tactic, where a series of drones are always airborne. These drones were run by an experimental AI that was continuously monitoring the population, pinpointing weapons caches, tracking the movements of combatants, pinpointing mortar positions, monitoring for IEDs being planted.

When a suspect event happened or a combatant was tracked, an operator was shown the information, a recording and passed that information on to higher command. IEDs were hit by an airstrike or precision artillery strike shortly after being planted. Combatants trying to hide amongst the population were arrested in night raids by Special Forces. Enemy weapons caches were raided and captured in day time raids. All this was designed to show the population that US Forces were entirely in control and it worked.

Bordraab had been hoping for some outside help all night last night as he planned and now here it is. He quickly clicks the name and adds a contact, then makes one labeled ‘General Lee’ with that email address. He knew he was almost completely out of his depth, just barely hanging on with some of those leadership lessons from ROTC and NEVER letting his troops see him fret about the decisions on his plate. Panic was contagious and easily caught and if he wavers in front of the troops, shows that he doesn’t know what to do, it could be disastrous.

He starts thinking as he heads to the command center. Once there, he pulls up a readout of what they have at their disposal. With that pulled up, he brings up his messages, accesses the email from General Lee and clicks ‘reply.’ A few minutes of dictation later he drags the inventory listing to the email and adds a copy to it as an attachment. He then brings up their personnel roster and copies that over too. The General must have everything to give him good and quick advice. Giving him lists of what they have and don’t have and who they have to man those things would save a LOT of time.

To: General Lee

Subject: Advice

General Lee,

Thank you for your offer of advice. I could certainly use it because I’ve been feeling like I’ve been in way over my head and haven’t found a way out yet. We had a recon flight yesterday flown by Phoenix, our only dedicated pilot right now and head of the new air wing of our guild, the DeMilitarized Zone Peacekeepers. She discovered a massive force coming in. It has limited airpower, equal roughly to a helicopter force escorting a large ground force. They have the equivalent of 20 tanks with them, these being massive beasts with large guns on their backs, and they are heading straight for the city. They also have more infantry than I care to count.

I plan on launching air strikes against them soon with myself and Phoenix flying them. We will be in F-16A fighters armed with two Sidewinders and four 500 pound bombs. We’ll pound them as they come in. When they get to the city, I plan on meeting them with every tank we have available and the infantry launched Dragons but I don’t think it’ll be enough. The lower level guilds only have M48 Pattons and we’ll be fighting units that can destroy M60A3s. After the tank fight, it’ll be house to house fighting.

I will send you a list of everything we have available and keep it updated on a weekly basis or after each major battle.

2 Attachments: Inventory List, DMZ; Personnel List, DMZ

His proofreading done, Bordraab sends off the email. He then goes to the command post and sighs, looking out over the airfield. Things were starting to seem less out of control now. “Mornin’ Bor.” Comes Kthla’s voice from behind him.

“Morning K.” Bordraab says, turning around and smiling to his friend. “Got a welcome email this morning from General Lee. He offered to give me any advice I need.”

“That’s great.” K says in a sarcastic tone. “Didn’t General Lee fight in the Civil War? What help is he gonna be?”

“He’s the general that led the invasion of Iran and the one who came up with that plan to beat down the insurgency.” Bordraab says, leaning back against the map table. “Tell me, have you started making rocket launchers?”

Kthla nods. “Yup, I have enough for the platoon to use. In an hour, my NPCs will deliver the first batch of Dragon launchers and LAWs to the NPC stores.”

Bordraab nods. “Good. What else are you making?”

“Well….” He drags out the well like he usually does when he is proud of something. “I have four Bradleys coming off the assembly lines in an hour to two hours. The M113 drivers will be happy about that.”

Bordraab grins and nods. “As will the infantry. We can make heavy bunkers with TOW missiles as well as heavy MG nests. Now, I need to go get ready.” He says, going past K and heading down to the new airstrip.

Washington, D.C.

“Unless there’s anything else, that’s all for today.” President Madison says to his Cabinet. They nod and start getting up. General Lee makes his way over to him. “Sir, I’ve gotten a response from Mr. Davidson…erm…Bordraab. Like we had hoped, he is very open to getting advice. He has told me they’re going to launch air strikes against the advancing forces. Even better, he sent two lists, one of all the equipment they have, the other of all their personnel.”

The President nods, walking with him out the door and down the hallway. “The good news is, he has a good amount of experience with him there already. For example, the man he put in charge of his mechanized infantry platoon is Shawn Cooper, in game name is Bardock. He is a veteran from our invasion of Iran. He’s a skilled soldier, got several medals including a Bronze Star for his actions in that conflict. He was taken out of it when he was hit by a car bomb during a patrol. Lost his leg. He’ll do great as a leader there. Cooper’s command sergeant, as it is, is John Jackson. He’s another veteran, this one from Afghanistan. He was a platoon sergeant there and is one again in the game.

He has your daughter in as the leader of their aerial corps. So far she’s done pretty well. She survived the air battle in what they call the ‘Fall of the Betas.’ She and Davidson will be the pilots launching the air strikes today. They’ll be using dumb bombs, no cluster munitions yet. They’ll get there though. If they survive this battle they’ll have a good chance at giving a hell of a fight.”

President Madison nods. “Have you been able to look into getting any more vets in there?” He asks.

“Not yet sir. My staff is passing it down to the VA to see if there are any vets there who they believe would want to volunteer to enter into the fray. Our priority will be getting them over to this guild of theirs to make up the bulk of their numbers.” Lee says to his President.

“Good. A few secret service members want to join the game as well. They claim they want to be base defense, but I think that they want to keep my daughter safe. I’ll be getting volunteers up but not sending them in yet, not until she has had time to tell her commander who she is. As for those veterans, keep me informed. I’ve got a trip to Dallas to make.” He says.

Outside Washington, D.C., United States of America (Virtual)

Kaniu flicks his Saiyan tail in a bit of annoyance. It wasn’t hard to find the guys out here leveling, you just follow the yelling and shooting. This group, however, was all in a guild, some low level job called the ‘Aces’. True to their name, when he had come up to them, the leader of the group had grinned. “If you wanna join our badass group, send an application. I’ll warn ya now though, since we’re going to be the best out there, we’ll only accept the best.”

Kaniu had shaken his head and gotten on with why he was there. “This is a courtesy from the DMZ Peacekeepers. There’s a large army of Endarkened heading this way. We’re organizing to defend the city. The General requests all leveling players and groups retreat inside city limits for the time being so no group is caught outside and killed. He’d also like your guild leader to contact him to help with organizing the defense.” He had said, the message he was given by Bardock.

“Why the fuck do we care? A group that scares your ‘general’ doesn’t scare us! Our General is level 13! Highest level guy in town!” The leader of the group said. Kaniu had sighed. As the guy started to continue about how great they are and invitesdKaniu and his fireteam to join up with them and what conditions there’d be, Kaniu had simply turned around and left, heading for the next group and setting a sensor when there’s a beep in his hud. His squad had followed him without a word.

His squad had made him proud. Veterans of the battle in which the Betas fell, each had kept quiet and focused on their sectors, knowing that an enemy could show up at any time. The other squad hadn’t even noticed that they all had better weapons than they had. Oh well…They want to be idiots, he’ll let them die like idiots. The dumbass hadn’t even checked their levels. They were all close to level 20 now. He only hopes Kenichi was having better luck.

“I told you, they’re coming. They’ll be here inside a day, maybe two. Our leader wants you guys to pull back into town so defenses can be set up.” Kenichi says to another group. This one isn’t so much arrogant as much as they don’t believe him. “Why should we trust anything you say? I’ve seen no indications of such a large group and the hunting out here is great! Besides, if they aren’t here till tomorrow, why waste today?”

“We’re launching air strikes on the group to try to slow it down. Inside a day is if the airstrikes don’t slow them down.” Kenichi says.

“What air strikes? There’s only one airplane and it’s a Phantom. Last time I saw it the thing had a recon set and even if it did go bombing, there’s no way one Phantom would survive their air power at anything less than full burner, too fast to bomb.” The group’s leader says.

As if on cue, there’s a ripping and howling noise, a noise very familiar to anyone who has ever been to an air show with the Thunderbirds. Kenichi, his fireteam, and the group of people they were warning look up in time to see two F-16 fighters loaded down with bombs fly overhead, racing skyward and south at increasing speed.

As the deafening noise of the two jet engines passes overhead and starts to fade, Kenichi goes from looking at the jets to looking at the group leader and notes that his expression is entirely different. “Ok, say I believe you. What do we do?”

Phoenix Flight

Bordraab brings his wings level as Phoenix does. The two had made a low pass over the wood line to try to help drive home to anyone in there that there were problems coming. After all, fighters don’t usually fly so low and the bombs were clearly visible. He wishes K had the C model, it had one more hardpoint on each wing, but there simply wasn’t time.

“Phoenix flight to DC tower, come in.” Calls Phoenix from her fighter, Phoenix One.

“This is DC tower, go ahead.” Comes the reply immediately.

“DC tower, Phoenix flight is declaring the entire DC area to be military airspace until further notice. All air travel will be restricted.” She says.

“Military airspace!? You’ve got to be kidding! I’ve got three flights overhead right now!” Comes the reply, the air controller sounding distressed now. Yesterday he had just been annoyed at the military aircraft, now they were taking over!

“Land them then and in a hurry, if you please.” Bordraab smirks at the tone of Phoenix’s voice. She was ENJOYING giving this NPC a hard time!

Silence over the radio. That had gotten their attention. The two F16s fly past a passenger flight close enough that everyone onboard could see the fighters go past. “Phoenix flight, this is the senior air traffic controller. I understand you are taking away my airspace? That’s not going to happen. We’ve been patient with you military types today but this is crossing the line.” Comes a female’s voice, a pissed off female’s voice.

“Fine.” Phoenix says, sounding cool and calm. “There is an army heading this way. We need a clear airspace to fight in. I have tried to be nice and go through you but if you don’t like it, we can intercept any aircraft coming into this area and instruct them to leave, then shoot them down if they try to penetrate our airspace. Do you want me to do that?”

Another stretch of silence. “Negative, Phoenix flight.” Says the senior traffic controller, her voice the flat tone of someone whose mind is starting to seize up at the thought of fighting. “What are your instructions?”

“Keep all aircraft clear of the south sections of the city for today. Tonight and tomorrow, flight is restricted to military aircraft only. Phoenix flight, out.”

The two F16s bank to the south and head towards the last known position of the enemy army. “You enjoyed that too much.” Bordraab says over the radio.

“Perhaps.” Phoenix replies back. She bends her plane a little bit to the left and Bordraab follows. A few minutes later she calls out, “Contact.” Slow as any foot army would be, they were about seven hours from contact with the city’s defenders.

“I see them, falling into trail.” He says, his fighter falling back and lining up behind and above hers. At about five miles from the target, both F16s release their bombs and pull up sharply. The front fighter had been aiming for the rear of the column, the rear F16 had been aiming for the front. The gryphons hadn’t even known the fighters were there at all. The 8 bombs land among the enemy, blasting holes in their formation and pulverizing the creatures unfortunate enough to be in the way of the explosions, the shockwaves from the explosions, or even the bombs themselves. The confusion was perfect, the rear mounted cameras catching it all as the formation halts and mills about, taking cover, looking for a follow on attack. The front and rear of the long formation had holes and smoke billowing. The High Explosive bombs had done their jobs. The gryphons who had been overhead are swirling around like a crowd of angry bees, trying to find what had done this to their ground pounders.

Now for the second part of this mission. The two fighters swing back around and sight in. First Phoenix flies in, sidewinder missiles leaping from her wing tips to knock down a gryphon a piece. Then Bordraab comes in, repeating the process with the same results. The gryphons weren’t high enough of a level to evade the missiles and had no countermeasures. The missiles themselves, a level 15 piece of equipment, were more than strong enough to kill a level 8 beast.

“They seem underleveled for us.” Phoenix says as the two fighters start returning to base, her voice calm and collected as if she had NOT just bombed an enemy formation.

“Yeah, they’re probably matched in level to the average player level since they aren’t in a blight right now.” Bordraab says. He remembered fighting in that blight during the Fall. Those creatures had been, at one point, ten levels above him! Outside of the blight it was obviously different.

“Alright, we’re returning to base.” Phoenix says. “We’ve hurt them pretty good and delayed them for at least a few hours.”

On the flight back, Bordraab notices a fresh email. He puts it off for now. He’d need to land first, then he could worry about whatever was in the email. A few minutes later the two F-16s fly over town and see most of the players are setting up along the outskirts of town, waiting for the inevitable. “Phoenix, think you can start hitting that army independently? I need to get these guys up to speed and start planning.” He says over the radio. Phoenix simply waggles her wings. Soon enough they are landing and Bordraab gets out of his aircraft. No more putting it off. He brings it up.

From: General Lee

Subject: The Upcoming Battle

Bordraab,

I must tell you I believe this idea to meet the enemy head on with your tanks is a bad one given the vehicles you’ve said the enemy will have. You may not know that an urban environment is a nightmare for any armored vehicle when facing dug in infantry and from what you’ve told me, you have infantry to spare with all these other guilds. Aside from that your idea to engage them at long range with your Dragons is good. Make sure your crews know to relocate after firing a shot.

I recommend you establish your tanks in strong points inside the city. Have your infantry use the urban terrain to their advantage to take out the enemy’s armor. With that done and your own infantry supporting your tanks, you will have the advantage on the ground.

I also recommend you hold back any helicopters you have until all of the enemy gryphons are dealt with. Your infantry can also handle this with shoulder fired rockets. Once all enemy air power is gone, sweep in with helicopter gunships and turn the tide in your favor. Of course, have your air power pounding on the enemy whenever an opportunity presents itself. An F-16 is a powerful asset when the enemy has no fast air power itself.

Good luck in the battle my friend. I hope to hear from you afterwards.