Proportionate Retribution
Berlin - December 15
“Okay, we’re all here,” Elias said, “Heinrich, begin the briefing.”
“Right,” Heinrich said, “So as you know, in the evening of November 9, rebel forces from the Sudafrika, Loango, and Westafrika factions launched a major offensive into northern Mauretania, most likely in response to our stunt that day. Our defenses were not expecting an attack of this scale and were overwhelmed.”
That and he had “reassigned” some Crusader divisions to other fronts.
His slideshow put up a map of Mauretania and Hispania. Jerusalemite territory was colored in the usual purple, while rebel territory was labeled in orange for convenience. This slide showed the situation prior to November 9, with scattered rebel strongholds across southern Mauretania and a single rebel stronghold in Gibraltar. He flipped to the next slide, which showed the orange territory consolidate and expand north and eastward, now encompassing a majority of Mauretania.
“On November 10, they seized Casablanca.”
On the next slide, the orange had almost completely engulfed Mauretania, with some small pockets of orange in Hispania.
“On the 11th, they took Tangier, began relieving Gibraltar, and established other footholds on the southern Hispanian coast.”
On the next slide, there were now large pockets of orange in southern Hispania.
“This is the situation as of last week. Rebel forces have broken into the interior, firmly securing Gibraltar and Malaga. We believe their immediate objective is Cordoba.”
“This is a disaster,” Josiah said, “Our Crusaders were equipped only for rebel suppression. Not a full-scale invasion.”
“They want to repeat 1943,” Theodor said, “We must not let them.”
“Agreed,” Josiah said, “If Hispania falls, then Gallia is exposed. And if Gallia falls…”
“We lose,” Elias said, “We must cut off the head of the snake here and now.”
“What do you suggest?” Josiah said.
“I recommend a targeted strategic bombing campaign,” Heinrich said, “They are dependent on airlifts and naval convoys from Mauretania and further south in Westafrika and Loango. We cut those supply lines, they will run out of ammunition and fuel, and the operation willl collapse.”
“Yeah, you can do that, but that’s not going to solve the problem,” Elias said.
“What do you mean?” Heinrich said.
“As long as they have the will to fight, they will fight,” Elias said, “This was what happened in Mexico thirty years ago. We can cut off and destroy their forces in Hispania, but they will inevitably mount another offensive from Mauretania.”
“So we destroy their forces in Mauretania as well,” Theodor said.
“No, they’ll just mount another offensive into Mauretania from Africa,” Josiah said, “And we do not have the resources and manpower to take out the entirety of Africa.”
“Exactly,” Elias said, “Becase they still have the will to fight. We must break that will. Permanently.”
“And how would you suggest we do that?” Heinrich said.
“They are so focused on Cordoba, aren’t they?” Theodor said. “I say we wipe it off the map with several SVI attacks.”
“Most SVI satellites are recharging from our Tabula Rasa operations or still need to be reloaded with tungsten rounds,” Josiah said, “Or they aren’t in position.”
“So we can’t use SVI?” Theodor said.
“No,” Josiah said.
“Then we’ll do things the old-fashioned way,” Elias said, “Drop some nukes. Glass them.”
“YES!” Theodor said, pumping his fists. “FINALLY!”
“Elias, are you sure?” Heinrich said. “The last time we brought this up, you disagreed, saying we needed to keep local infrastructure intact.”
“Well, the situation has changed,” Elias said, “Right now, it’s either we sacrifice a few cities, or we lose all of Hispania and Gallia and possibly everything else. The destroyed infrastructure wil also hamper their supply lines, like you wanted, and send a strong message to any other rebels.”
“But they’re nukes!” Heinrich said. “Why would we use them on our own people? Irradiate our own land? After everything we’ve said about environmental responsibility!”
“It’s a trade off we’ll have to make,” Elias said, “We all must be prepared to make sacrifices for the glory of the Lord Almighty and His Kingdom. God rewards the penitent, after all.”
Josiah and Moria said nothing. Theodor was grinning madly. Heinrich turned to Wilhelm Karl, who sat quietly at the head of the table.
“Sir, please tell me you’re not onboard with this,” he said.
Wilhelm Karl looked down and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I have no choice.”
Heinrich figured as much. They should’ve worked faster to neutralize the blackmail.
“Why don’t we just stop talking about this and start nuking?” Theodor said. “Questions like these are just so lame. Let’s just get right to the point.”
“Agreed,” Elias said.
A Crusader walked over and handed Wilhelm Karl a metal briefcase. Wilhelm Karl placed his thumb on the fingerprint scanner, unlocking the nuclear football. The briefcase opened, revealing a military computer inside. The computer booted up and showed a map of the world, which Wilhelm Karl zoomed in to focus on Europe. He handed the computer to Elias, who pushed it across the table to Heinrich.
“You’re Megas Domestikos,” Elias said, “You should give the order.”
“Uh...what target should I select?” Heinrich said.
Please don’t be too many…Wilhelm Karl, please just give the name of some random ghost town...
“Carthage, Baghdad, Gibraltar, Tangier, Casablanca, and Cordoba,” Elias said, “As a warning.”
Six cities?! A WARNING?!
“Elias, I strongly suggest we just target Gibraltar and Tangier as the primary supply line hubs,” Heinrich said, “We don’t need the others—”
“Of course we need the others!” Elias said. “We need to show these rebels we are serious about this war! That we are men, we support our troops, and we will do whatever is necessary to defend Christendom! Unless you consider yourself a traitor…”
If Elias was suspecting his loyalties...
“No, no, I was merely suggesting an alternative viewpoint,” Heinrich said.
“And I’m giving you
my viewpoint,” Elias said, “Now give the order.”
Heinrich slowly selected the cities on the map and hit the confirm button, trying to stall as long as he could, but nobody stopped him. A compartment opened up, revealing two keyholes. Elias took out one key and inserted it. Wilhelm Karl walked over and slowly inserted the other key. They turned the keys at the same time, and a red button lit up. Elias looked at Heinrich.
“Well?” he said.
Heinrich sighed. He slowly pushed the button. Hopefully it had malfunctioned. It happened for Varennikov back in the 1980s, so why shouldn’t it happen for him as well?
Order issued
…
Salerno silo: order acknowledged
Batumi silo: order acknowledged
Salamanca silo: order acknowledged
Badajoz silo: order acknowledged
Valladolid silo: order acknowledged
Nantes silo: order acknowledged
…
Salerno silo: missile away
Batumi silo: missile away
Salamanca silo: missile away
Badajoz silo: missile away
Valladolid silo: missile away
Nantes silo: missile away
…
Salerno: warhead armed
…
Batumi: warhead armed
…
Salamanca silo: warhead armed
…
Badajoz silo: warhead armed
…
Valladolid silo: warhead armed
…
Nantes silo: warhead armed
…
…
Confirmed detonation: Carthage
…
Confirmed detonation: Baghdad
…
Confirmed detonation: Gibraltar
…
Confirmed detonation: Tangier
…
Confirmed detonation: Casablanca
…
Confirmed detonation: Cordoba
…
Destruction of targets confirmed
Missiles detonated: 6/6
…
Awaiting further orders
Then again, it only happened for Varennikov because Molotov sabotaged the system. Heinrich instantly shut down the computer and shut the briefcase, looking down in shame. He had failed, hadn’t he?
“My God, what have we done?” he said.
“We’ve won the war,” Elias said, “Thanks to you. Be proud of yourself.”
“That’s it?” Theodor said. “Just a few button presses? I was hoping at least for a live feed of some equalists burning in hellfire…”
Kiev - December 16
“…still receiving updates on the unfolding situation in Hispania and Mauretania…”
“…number of casualties remains unknown but is estimated to be at least 7 million…”
“…committee insists this is proportionate retribution and a justified response…”
“…demands the surrender of all rebel forces within a week, or Christmas Eve will see a second such attack…”
At least ten TV screens had been set up around their impromptu command center. Wilhelmina, Izinchi, Kresge, and Gebhard each watched two screens at a time, jotting down important notes and updates on the recent attack.
“Such barbarity,” Izinchi said, “I’ve fought for years to disarm the Reich of nukes. Never would I have thought we’d instead use them on our own citizens.”
“Do their military leaders not have any shame?” Gebhard said. “They gave the order. Why did they go through with it? I would have refused the order and accepted punishment. Did they not see the smoldering ruins of the cities they destroyed?”
“Over seven million dead…” Wilhelmina said. “How could they do this to their own people?”
“I don’t think they consider those dead their people now,” Kresge said.
“What do we do?” Gebhard said.
“I didn’t expect them to do this,” Izinchi said, “I don’t know how to respond to this.”
“You have some experience with this right?” Kresge said.
“Not exactly,” Gebhard said, “World War III wasn’t exactly my fight.”
They all looked at Wilhelmina.
“We’re not surrendering,” she said, “We leave the fight now, it’s all over.”
“They said they’ll nuke more cities,” Kresge said.
“I think that was addressed to the rebel groups,” Wilhelmina said.
“Depends on if they consider us a rebel group as well,” Gebhard said.
“Well, they can’t do a thing about us,” Wilhelmina said, “I’m flying to Gunnolfsfell to speak to the UN again. Draw more international attention to Jerusalem.”
“As if the eyes of the world weren’t already on them,” Kresge said.
“We can’t just sit idly by while Jerusalem nukes our people without a care in the world,” Wilhelmina said.
Bremerhaven - December 17
“No! We need to take the fight to them!”
“Take the nearby cities and spread our forces out!”
“Retreat to the suburbs and the countryside!”
“They can’t nuke us all at once!”
“We should just take the offer and give up!”
“The city and its people must come first!”
The conference call was in complete uproar. Rebel commanders were shouting over each other, trying to get their points across or silence their opponents. As a result, Angelica couldn’t follow anything being said.
“Calm down!” Julian said.
A few heard him and stopped talking, but the rest continued shouting. Julian shook his head.
“How did you do this, Eva?” he said.
After about four years, Eva had finally returned to city hall to help Julian. Angelica had hoped she would return sooner, but with the state of the hospital’s technology and the lack of doctors, her condition took much longer than usual to improve, and the blocks around the hospital had been very dangerous for travel. But now the neighborhood had stabilized enough for her to join them.
“Let me speak,” Eva said.
Julian handed the headphones to Eva. She took a deep breath.
“ALL OF YOU SHUT THE FRAK UP!” she shouted.
Everybody immediately shut up.
“I can’t believe you all!” Eva said. “Squabbling like kids in a time like this?! We need to work together and find a way out of this mess!”
“The problem is we can’t agree!” said Natasha Jacobi, the leader of the cells in the east.
“We need to keep fighting!” said Julian Marks, the leader of the Nordenham cells.
“No, the gig is up!” Natasha said. “They’re willing to nuke us, and we all know a nuke would obliterate us! Maybe we should retreat to the countryside. They can’t nuke the city if we’re not in the city!”
“No, spread to the neighboring cities!” Marks said. “They can’t nuke all of them at once!”
“Nothing says they won’t!” Natasha said. “They have enough nukes!”
“Enough!” Eva said. “I didn’t come back here after four years to listen to this!”
“If I may, let me explain our current predicament,” Julian said, “They are going to drop more nukes next week if all rebel groups don’t surrender. Now, this applies to rebellions all over Europe. So if, say, the Basques don’t stand down, we might get nuked. Or they might target some other city. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of uncertainties.”
“So you’re saying even if we surrender, we might still get nuked because some idiots in the Pyrenees didn’t surrender,” a rebel said.
“On the other hand, if we don’t surrender, we might not get nuked,” another rebel said.
“Yes, we don’t know,” Julian said.
“Okay, here’s my suggestion,” Eva said, “Anyone who wants to surrender, go ahead. Anyone who wants to keep fighting, go ahead. But the city and its people should come first. We should focus on evacuating everyone by sea or into the old war bunkers.”
“That’s good and all, but how do we evacuate them?” a rebel said. “Last I heard, the North Sea was still treacherous.”
“By pooling together our remaining Limitanei ships to escort them to international waters,” Julian said.
“The Limitanei’s already tied up guarding the coast!” the Limitanei commander said. “It’s in our job description! If we do this, we’ll expose the city to an attack from the coast!”
“There likely won’t be a city left at this rate next week, no matter what we do,” Eva said, “We should send as many ships out as possible. This way, we can minimize casualties should the worst happen.”
The Limitanei commander thought for a moment. “This better work.”
After the meeting ended, Angelica left to go get dinner. She found Annie, Anna, and Walter waiting in the hallway, talking to each other.
“If Cigarette Guy hid up there for so long, we could do the same,” Annie said.
“Who the hell is Cigarette Guy again?” Anna said.
“I’ll explain later,” Annie said, “But the place is safe. Nobody will find us there.”
“I don’t know what you all are saying,” Walter said.
“Dad, you should be getting some rest,” Anna said.
“Why should I?” Walter said. “I haven’t had root beer in so long.”
“Dad, this city ran out of root beer three years ago,” Annie said.
“I promise you, they’ll have root beer in Scandinavia,” Anna said.
“What’s all this about root beer and Scandinavia?” Angelica said, walking over.
“Did someone say Scandinavia?” Clara said, also joining the conversation.
Annie sighed. “Too much information, Anna.”
“Annie, be nicer to your friends,” Walter said.
“Dad, you’re not helping,” Annie said.
“Sorry if we’re interrupting something,” Angelica said.
“It’s fine, we’re just talking about maybe settling in Scandinavia,” Anna said.
“Anna, what did I just say?” Annie said.
“Annie, it’s okay,” Anna said, “We can trust Angelica and Clara.”
“But can they help us though?” Annie said.
“Sylvia has a place in Oslo,” Clara said, “Maybe we can set you up with a place in the neighborhood. Oslo’s pretty friendly to senior citizens.”
“I’ve always wanted to try Norwegian seafood,” Walter said.
“Nice offer, but unfortunately we’ll have to decline,” Annie said.
“Why’s that?” Clara said.
“Because we can’t live in the suburbs anymore,” Annie said, “Walter is a wanted man, and so are we now.”
“An old man like him?” Angelica said. “Wanted?”
“We told you he was a head researcher at Tesla Dynamic, right?” Anna said. “Theodor, that madman, wanted him to work on all sorts of horrible weapons.”
“Which I do not want to have a hand in creating,” Walter said, “After what happened last time.”
Angelica did not want to ask what happened “last time.”
“So where are you going to go, then?” Angelica said.
“Don’t know, really,” Annie said, “Maybe some place in northern Norway. A remote cabin hidden in the mountains. Far from any prying eyes. We’ll live out the rest of our years in peace.”
“Anywhere from that crazy Tesla boy,” Walter said.
“We can’t stay in the suburbs,” Anna said, “Remember how Tesla Dynamic monitored our streets and infiltrated our homes through the Internet and surveillance systems? Well, they’re doing that in other countries too, through infrastructure they bought and installed over the last ten years. Oslo is no safer for us. He’ll find us and either send someone to kill us or, even worse, bring us back to Frankfurt.”
“I totally get it,” Angelica said, “You’d do anything to protect your dad, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah,” Annie said, “We both were separated from our families for a long time.”
“Yeah…” Angelica said, looking down. “Relatable…”
“Something wrong?” Clara said.
“This reminds me…” Angelica said. “I haven’t seen my mom in so many years.”
“Why’s that?” Clara said.
“We didn’t particularly leave each other on good terms,” Angelica said, “We had a huge argument when she found my acceptance letter to the Athanatoi academy. Another one when I actually packed up and left Alençon. We haven’t talked at all since then.”
“Have you reached out to her since then?” Annie said.
“I was planning to, but I never found the time,” Angelica said, “And then all this happened. I’m so worried for her, given what’s happening in Normandy.”
“I get it,” Anna said, “That feeling when you know people you love are suffering somewhere, and you’re powerless to help them in any way…I’d do anything to make sure not to feel that way again.”
“But what can I do about it?” Angelica said. “If I go to Normandy now, it’ll be almost certain death for me.”
“Well, it’s up to you,” Annie said, “We can’t make that decision for you.”
“I know, I know,” Angelica said.
“But for what it’s worth, let me pass on some advice to you,” Annie said, “Cherish the time you can spend with your family. Because you never know when you’ll last see them. My brother…”
She looked down, her face suddenly solemn. Anna looked like she was holding back tears.
“You remember Anders,” Annie said, “Always outspoken and dedicated to the truth.”
“Yeah, I liked his and Angie’s X-Division stories,” Angelica said.
“Honestly I just liked the sunflower seeds he shared with us,” Clara said, “Sorry.”
“That’s understandable,” Anna said, “Me too, for the record.”
“What happened to Anders and Angie anyways?” Angelica said. “They drove out of Bremerhaven a month before Red Christmas began…and that was the last we heard of them.”
Nobody said anything for a few seconds.
“…Angelica,” Annie said, “That’s as much as we all know.”
“Neither of us know any more,” Anna said.
“I miss my son,” Walter said, “I miss my niece.”
“It wouldn’t be as bad if we know they’re dead,” Annie said, “Then we can mourn and move on. But we don’t know. We don’t know if they’re alive or dead. Things are bleak enough that it’s reasonable to assume they’re dead after so long without contacting us. But there is still a sliver of hope that since we haven’t heard of their deaths, they might have survived. It’s a most excruciating feeling.”
“I feel the same with my mom,” Angelica said, “I don’t know if she’s okay. Maybe I should go to Alençon and find out.”
“That’s your decision to make,” Anna said.
“What about you two?” Clara said. “Don’t you want to find out what happened to Anders and Angela?”
“We’d like to, but it’s too dangerous,” Annie said, “We know where they were heading to—Constantinople and Damascus. But those cities are on the other side of the country, and the whole country wants us dead. There’s no guarantee we’ll even find the answers we want. And we have to look after Dad.”
“But for the record, my brother always thought getting painful answers was better than neutral ambiguity,” Anna said, “He would have always rushed into danger if it meant getting a chance at finding the truth.”
“And Angie?” Angelica said.
“Well…” Annie said. “I think she’d be proud someone like you was named after her.”
“Really?” Angelica said. “But all I’ve done is hide here for years.”
“So what?” Annie said. “I hid from Sentinel in the Penglai outback for about 15 years. Nothing wrong with it. If anything, it shows you’re smart enough to outlast your enemies.”
“Perhaps,” Angelica said, “Perhaps.”
“Just think about it,” Anna said, “It’s up to you in the end. But if it were up to me? I’d do anything for my family. I’d do anything for closure.”