Illegal Alien

"Oh, totally fucking clear, Perron," I said, 'n this was gonna be interesting, 'n I was smiling. "Let me summarize. Your ships and men have illegally entered the territorial waters of the Second Republic. When instructed to leave, you refused. You are in the process of landing hostile armed forces on the territory of the Second Republic, have refused instructions by the ranking officer of Second Republic military units in the vicinity to halt, and have threatened the use of force against Second Republic military units who attempt to prevent you. You have also advised you intended to release detained and convicted criminals. Seems clear to me."

I laughed. "You're fucked, Perron. You wanna surrender now? Coz if you try later, I won't accept any attempt to surrender whatsover. Your call, dude. Wong Out.

"You're mad," he said. "Perron Over."

I took the headset of 'n I laughed. "Major Campbell, do you think I'm mad?"

He looked at me for a long moment. "You're fucking insane," he said.

I grinned. "Maybe I am, Major. Maybe I am, but if I am, well, we know what caused that." I shrugged. "And in the end, it doesn't matter whether I am or I'm not." Except to me, 'n me, I wasn't sure whether I was sane or not, and I laughed. "And honestly, Major, I don't give two fucks."

Not even one fuck, being honest about it, 'n I looked around and Maddock nodded. Good to go.

"They're still loading into those boats," Rogers said, 'n he was eyes on with the binoculars.

"Kratman says they're ready to rock 'n roll," Maddock said, 'n I guess that was Kratman showing his age.

"We wanna put some music on while we watch," I said, coz once this started, well, it was pretty much up to the boys.

"Didn't bring the sound system up here, ma'am," Wiley said, 'n he was totally apologetic.

"Never mind," I said, coz Maddock was on the line with Kratman and he was ready. Most of the Javelin teams were up on rooftops, like us. The height gave you better eyes on and twenty of them fired off at once, the flames as those rockets ignited real visible, and he'd targeted that warship with every one of them and they were fire and forget so the guys were reloading as fast as they could after they got the first ones off.

Give the Borealean Navy some credit. They tried. They really did. That Phalanx system opened up right away and it splashed half a dozen of the Javelin's in as many seconds and Jesus, I tell 'ya, I was impressed, but a few seconds was all those Javelins took to reach out to the target. Fourth of July had nothing on this and it was broad daylight. That big gun on the front started to move and then, whoeee, one of the Javelins just whacked right into that turret and blew the fuck out of it and the Major beside me groaned.

"Is that the barrel?" I asked, kind of fascinated, coz something bigger had gone off and I was watching something long and thin spin into the air before it dropped into the sea, and frigging heck, those Javelins just lit that warship up so that it frigging sparkled. Couple into the bridge and I wouldn't have wanted to be there right then coz flames came out all those little fucking windows, 'n I guess if one of those Javelins could take out a main battle tank, some armored glass was fuck all.

That Phalanx thingie on top of the bird hanger blew, the bird hanger took a missile as well and a couple went into the hull around the waterline and one of the boys got that SAM missile launcher 'n that was good one.

"Wylie," I said. "Tell the artillery boys they can start up too. Can you call the shots?"

"You know I can, ma'am," he said, kind of reproachfully and yeah, I'd forgotten. I forgot a lotta things these days but what the fuck, this was the most alive I'd felt since Brad bought it and I kind liked the feeling, and I liked it that Montoya was there, with me, real close, and I liked it that he was.

It was good to be alive.

"Shall we put some more Javelins into her, ma'am," Maddock looked up.

"We got the guns, I said. It's not going anywhere fast." Coz you could see the flames inside, coming out through the holes. "Tell Kratman to take out those boats first, Maddock," I added, kinda pointing, coz they had a dozen of them in the water and a couple of them were moving away from the ship and starting to come our way and there must've been fifty men in each. "That's a frigging battalion they're sending in."

Didn't take long. Those boats, they were frigging ships lifeboats, not even landing craft and what frigging moron had put this one together?

"Don't waste 'em," I heard Maddock say to the dude fring from the far corner of our roof, and yeah, I was close enough to hear her. "Pick your shots, guys, and I'll have the balls off of any fucker that misses."

"Jesus, no," the Major groaned from behind me as the first boat blew in a fireball and I guess those Javelins really were all they were supposed to be.

"No," he groaned again. "No." And those boats blew one after the other, ten, maybe twenty seconds apart and Kratman, Jesus, he really had this under control and I was kinda impressed coz not one of his boys missed their shot and it musta been years since any of them fired these things.

"Hey, Lieutenant," I slipped the headset on and I could hear him on his company channel.

"Yo, ma'am." Yeah, he could hear me. "Tell the boys the beers on me tonight 'n it's chinese takeout," and I was really smiling and I hadn't smiled like this and felt so happy in weeks and that freaked me, coz Jesus, I didn't want to cry over Brad and this was the first time since he'd bought it that I'd felt like this.

"Artillery's coming in," Wylie called and yeah, Jesus, it was. Full battery and they musta been pretty confident coz they were laying it on. Splashes all around those big grey ships and then hits and oh man, that must be hurting. We could hear and see the explosions, most of them in the water but enough hitting that there were bursts of flame and smoke and things flying and guess it was a bit late to try and get those ships moving but they were.

"Hold fire, hold fire," Wylie was screaming into the radio.

"Jesus, what the fuck?" I said, looking up coz I could hear aircraft, fast movers, and you didn't often hear them these days. The EMP bombs had knocked most of them out right at the start, frived the avionics. The ones that were left after the Air Force disintegrated and our guys and their guys sabotaged the aircraft to stop each other getting them.

"Goddamn, ain't seen those ones since I was a kid," old Hawker said, reverently, 'n he was the oldest guy we had. Old fucker was in his late eighties, shoulda been in an old folks home but he'd walked in and said he'd rather go down fighting and he couldn't run but he could sure shoot. Been in 'Nam, that's what he said and yeah, I believed the old guy.

Blow the balls of a Ratdog at four hundred yards with iron sights and I'd watched him do it. Ratdogs hadn't enjoyed it but what the fuck, they weren't gonna get the chance to use 'em again and we shot them afterwards so it wasn't like they suffered for long and the boys had a good laugh and old Hawker won a few bucks on that one.

"What are they?" I asked, watching those four jets flying low over the hills and yeah, they were just about hugging the hilltops and there were four more behind them and they weren't heading towards us so I didn't crap myself, and they were pretty damn small.

"Skyhawks," old Hawker said, spitting a black wad of chewing tobacco off of the rooftop. "Fuck me, they musta got those out of a museum or something."

"Nah, some company up north had a contract to refurbish a whole pile of them for some shithole airforce," Rogers said, looking around. "My bro worked there, still does. They were fixing up about sixty of them, complete rebuild, got them all outa that 'ol graveyard down near Tucson a coupla' years ago, bought a few from here and there. Doing some cool work on them, so I heard. The first couple they built, shot down some old F15's and F18's on exercises."

"Looks like they got some up and flying," Hawker said, 'n holy fuck they looked beautiful, 'n they were ours coz I doubted anyone else had Skyhawks. Just a name to me, but Hawker, Jesus, the old guy had tears in his eyes.

"Saved our asses in 'Nam more times than I can count," he said, 'n shit, that was near sixty fucking years ago. "Fucking beautiful sight, they were. Never thought I'd live to see this again," and we all watched as they banked over the range across the bay, 'n Wiley turned the radio speaker on full 'n the voices came through, loud and clear, 'n totally controlled, the way Brad had always been when shit happened, 'n that was what I tried to sound like when it went down, cool as ice, 'n these guys had it nailed.

"Start descending."

"Okay. You want to maintain the same speed or do you want to reduce to 450?"

"No, maintain the speed. We'll have to increase it."

"Okay. Green Leader descending."

"Go right four degrees..."

"Eyes on target. Descend to fifty feet over water, maintaining four nine zero knots."

'N we watched them as they dived down towards the Bay, 'n they were just dots in the distance and we could barely hear them now.

"Right, let's tighten it up a bit now. Base advises ship weapons disabled."

"Strike Force, Strike Force, this is Local Ground Commander," I cut in on their channel. "Advise ship weapon systems non-operational. Repeat, advise ship weapon systems non-operational. We have eyes on target. All ground fire stopped. You're cleared for attack run. Over."

"Roger that, Local Ground Commander. Coming up to one minute out. On track. Get your speed up, Blue."

"Green, what's your level?"

"We're at six hundred feet, descending. Four ninety knots."

"Got you visual."

Yeah, I could see a second formation of four aircraft coming up behind and they were in this loose spread out formation, low and going lower over the Bay and you could see the water kicking up, a long wake behind each aircraft, and frigging heck, they were low.

"Okay. We're over the water now. Descending to fifty feet."

"Turn left now."

"Onto?"

"Now, three-zero-four."

"Three-zero-four. "

"Three-zero-four. Rolling out now. Holding about four ninety. Eyes on target. Eyes on target."

"Go left—about two degrees."

"Three-zero-two. Roger."

"Oh shit! I hope the fucking wings don't fall off!"

"Fuck that was gnarly. Holding at fifty feet, Thirty seconds out."

"Right on, Steady. Pick your targets. I'm taking that frigate. Steady."

And bombs arced up and out as the Skyhawks rose sharply, their bombs arching upwards before plunging back down as the Skyhawks peeled away and the next four came in, targeting those two large cruise ships.

"Steady. Steady. NOW! Bombs gone. Bombs gone."

"YES! Fucking beautiful."

Yeah, we could all see that as four explosions erupted from that warship and four more from one of the cruise ships, and they just seemed to rip the guts right out of both of them, and the first four Skyhawks peeled away as the second four rocketed in, 'n they were talking between themselves, and the bombs arced in, explosions, red flame, smoke, eruptions from those ships, 'n yeah, guess Perron was pretty much fucked now and I hoped he was still alive, coz I really wanted him to know how fucked he was before he died.

"Green Leader to Local Ground Commander. Over."

"Local Ground Commander. Over," I replied.

"We've got one bomb each left. Anything else you need taken out? Over."

"No," I said, kind of regretfully, coz I'd have loved to call down an air strike on some ratdog holdouts. Wish'd these guys had been around back a couple of months ago. Or even when we first arrived here. "Use 'em up on the ships, will 'ya. We'll finish off anything that's left. Over."

"Hooyaa, Local Ground Commander. We'll circle round and do one more run and they're all yours after that. Green Leader Over."

"Hooyaa, Green Leader," I said. "You guys ever run into us, it's Task Force Wong, Special Clearance Duties, Quartermaster Corps and drinks are on us. Local Ground Commander Out."

"Roger that, ma'am. Green Leader Out."

We stood there on the roof watching as they formed up, eight of the old birds and fuck, they were doing formation flying or something 'n they must be old dudes to know how to fly those things like that, coz fuck, they could fly 'n they circled around over the city behind us and they were coming in low, and I swore they wove between some of those high rises and they were on us.

Eight of them, tucked in tight like it was a frigging airshow and they were low at full noise, screaming thunder and the Skyhawk closest to us as they came past flicked the aircraft sideways and his canopy was rooftop level to us, that's how low he was, and as he flew past he was giving us a wave and fuck, to fly that fast and low as well as giving us a wave took some skill and balls, and then we were looking down at their asses as they just about skimmed the surface of the bay.

"They're fucked," Kratman said as more explosions erupted from those ships, the Skyhawks climbing and banking away and that frigate was a roaring furnace now, flames shooting towards the sky and that first transport wasn't too far behind.

"They're toast, Ma'am," Sergeant Montoya said, looking out at the burning warship and that sinking transport ship with the heads bobbing in the water around it and more jumping off the deck to join them. Guess it was burn or drown and a lot of them preferred drowning. Or maybe they thought we'd rescue them. The other transport ship, well, we're talking 4th of July bonfire. Nothing more to do with that one now.

"What're we gonna do about them?" one of the young kids asked curiously. "Ma'am," he added when Maddock gave him the eye.

"What the fuck do you think we should do, Mackler?" I said. "Rescue them?" I turned half around and yeah, the look on his face said that's what he was thinking.

"Mackler," I said, kind of disappointed. "We're the National Liberation Army of the Second Republic. We only accept a surrender if they don't fight at all, and we don't take any prisoners if they do."

"Yeah, kid," Kratman might've been laughing. I wasn't sure. "You know what we are, right? We'll cross a frozen river on christmas at midnight to kill those fuckers in their sleep." He grinned at me. "We've done it." And we had.

We'd do it again, too.

"You can't do this," Major Campbell said, and his face was pale.

"You made a mistake, Major," I said. "Nobody tells the Army of the Second Republic what to do. Your task force out there, they were instructed to leave the territorial waters of the Second Republic and they didn't. They threatened to use force and as soon as your ships did that, they became an active threat to my unit."

I smiled. "We don't take kindly to threats, Major. Not any more. We've learnt from your kind. There's no room for compromise, Major. Not any more."

"You murderous bitch," the Major said, and his voice was shaking as he watched those little bobbing black spots on the water popping like balloons, and then the bodies, they just floated, no longer moving, and there were more and more of them by the minute and the shots were a steady crackle.

"Your ships and your men entered the territorial waters of the Second Republic illegally," I said. "Illegally, and you ignored requests and then instructions to leave. You then attacked units of the National Liberation Army of the Second Republic without a declaration of war. You attempted to protect convicted criminals with the use of force."

Behind me a crackling flurry of shots rang out and the Major paled. I didn't have to look to know what he'd just seen. Bunch of ratdogs, ratdog symps and other criminals being escorted away from the waterfront? They'd just had their notice to exit the Second Republic. And they had.

Quickly. Permanently. And with no appeal.

"Illegal Aliens detained within the borders of the Second Republic are subject to the death penalty on being judged guilty," I said. "With no right of appeal, sentence to be carried out immediately. Your passport and entry permit, Major?" I held out one hand.

"You know I don't have them," he said.

I shrugged. "Montoya?"

"Only military dogtags on him, Ma'am. Borealean Armed Forces. No passport. No visa or entry permit. Headquarters advise that the warship and the two ships with it, one of which the accused arrived on, were here in our territorial waters illegally and without authorization, and it's confirmed that they refused to leave when requested. Also confirmed that they fired or threatened to fire on units of the Armed Forces of the Second Republic after being instructed to withdraw from the territorial waters of the Second Republic. No declaration of war exists between the United Nations or Borealea and the Second Republic."

She looked down at the Major, and her expression was as remote and cold as mine. "Further confirmed that illegally armed personnel from those ships and under the command of the accused attempted to prevent the detention of criminals and intervened with both the threat of unlawful force and with unlawful force in the execution of their duties of units of the armed forces of the Second Republic in the pursuit of their duties."

"You were executing civilians," Major Campbell said, tiredly.

"We were executing convicted criminals under sentence of death, Major," I corrected him. "And the Second Republic both enforces the death penalty and does not recognize any right of appeal."

"We better do something about that second ship, ma'am," Maddock said, 'n I looked and yeah, it was on fire, but nowhere near as bad as the other one 'n it was starting to move.

"Guess we better," I said, 'n I waved Wiley over and he came at the jog, grinning, 'n I knew he was having fun. "Wiley, why don't you tell the boys to go ahead and see what the old Ontos can do to that thing?" I said. "Let them have some fun with it. If they're sure it still works."

I was kinda interested to see how it worked myself. It musta been sixty, seventy years old. Museum piece.

"Just tell them that anyone who hasn't gotta death wish better stand way the fuck back, okay." I wasn't gonna stand next to it, you can bet your ass on that one.

"Cool, ma'am," he said and we weren't that big on formality as long as the job got done.

That old Ontos, it was a sight to see. Tiny little thing but those six 105mm guns on the outside packed a punch and yeah, old Hawker really did know that old beast coz he lined her up and a couple of minutes later there were six holes in the side of that ship and smoke coming out of them and the Ontos was in one piece and they were reloading those guns fast as they could move, which was pretty fucking fast.

"You can't do this," the Major said, and his voice was hoarse, sweat beading his forehead but we both knew that I could and behind him, that warship flared brightly, a mass of flames from one end to the other and that first transport was sinking fast now.

The second one, the one that was trying to head back out?

The boys were firing that Ontos as fast as they could load her and hey, one oh five isn't big, but those AP shells were just ripping holes open along the waterline and they must've been ripping through the guts of that whale coz she was slowing. Engine damage maybe? Kratman had put the hold on the Javelins.

"Be more use down on the frontlines, ma'am," he said, and he was up here with me now, standing there watching, smiling as the old whale sparkled and the flames grew. Old Hawker was taking his time now, targeting the ship's bridge and I'd have hated to be up there.

"Can't you call them on the radio?" the Major groaned. "They'll surrender now. This is murder."

I'd just about forgotten about him coz I was enjoying watching that old Ontos. Weird looking thing but those guns sure worked. Bit exposed for real combat, coz you had to reload from outside, but good for this sorta stuff and I thought maybe we should keep it round.