'We copy you, Tabitha.' Mike replied.
'Lieutenant, where is the target?' I asked.
'It just passed under you, sir. You are due west of it and about thirty-four miles high.'
I adjusted the altitude and—bingo! A bright shiny spot appeared in the screen labeled back. 'I got it!'
'Anson, we have no choice.' Tabitha knew what I had in mind. She took my hand without taking her eyes from the screen. 'Do it!'
'Don't worry gorgeous, we were gonna dig up the Moon with it. The bubble will hold . . . I hope!' I increased the velocity of the facility and slammed into it. The last enemy warp missile disappeared into a million points of light. The cameras saturated solid white then readjusted themselves.
'Bite me!' I let out a sigh of relief; the warp bubble of the facility had enough power to go faster than light, which was more than nineteen orders of magnitude more energy than needed to destroy that piece of crap foreign rocket. 'Tabitha what do you say we take out their ability to ever launch an attack on us again? Lieutenant, get me a vector to Beijing.'
'Hold it, Anson. General Tapscott, we're now in an offensive posture. Do we have a go ahead to take out the target's ability to make war?' Tabitha interrupted.
'Hold that General Ames. We're awaiting orders from the President. Tabitha, good job.'
'Thanks Mike.' She explained to me later that she had known Mike Tapscott for over twenty years and that they were good friends. I had asked her about protocols and how she got away with calling him by his first name, even though they knew each other. She said that she or Mike were never big on them except in public. Kind of like how I prefer to be called Anson, not Dr. Clemons. I guess.
'Tabitha do we have a mute button?' I said under my breath.
She picked up the remote and pressed a button, 'Okay we're muted. What's on your mind?'
'We have to take out the enemy's ability to ever build another warp missile now, or we will have another arms race—but this one will destroy the world. Look at the damage already. Few people know about this technology or few could rebuild it. I will guarantee that the scientist that built these missiles are near those launch sites.'
'Anson, millions might die.'
'As opposed to billions living as Communist Chinese? Besides, millions of Americans have already died. We will do unto -others . . .'
'We will do unto nothing until the President gives us the order.'
'Then we have to give him deniability. The meteor strikes will still work as a cover. Nobody will ever believe this story. Even if they claim they detected us on radar we'll just laugh and say they're nuts. Remember, nobody can see us with their own eyes.'
'Anson, what do you propose?'
'Just like we planned with the Moon, I'm going to bulldoze China into one huge-ass parking lot. Then I plan to move on to Kazakhstan, then Moscow and Svobodny and any other Russian launch site and then North Korea. They joined the wrong team. Screw 'em!'
'You mean all of China?'
'No, no. Just Beijing and every one of their military and space facilities. We will completely remove their army. And their government. We will land on every Chinese government official. Then all that will be left is the people. And the troops massing in North Korea and the navy ships on the Taiwan Strait are history also. Sure, there will be some collateral damage and many civilians killed—but this is war not lasertag for God's sake. And look how many of
'I'm with you, Anson. But not without presidential approval.' She said.
'Tabitha we just got word that if you can give the President deniability then we will go with any offensive plan you have. The President said to hit them and hit them hard.' General Tapscott snarled triumphantly.
Tabitha unmuted the room, 'Roger that, General. First priority is to remove the enemy's ability to launch weapons.' Tabitha nodded to me.
'Lieutenant Black, guide me to Hainan Island.' I said.
'Roger, sir.' He vectored me into the South China launch site. I brought the Roswell Air Force Underground Facility down right on top of the launch platform. I lowered the warp field until the warp bubble was half way underground. Now I had a huge five hundred meter diameter bulldozer blade at my disposal. Several times the cameras saturated.
'What is that?' I asked.
'General Ames. This is Lieutenant Black. You are being fired upon by antiaircraft and surface to air missiles. Are you okay?'
'Hold one. Anson?'
I pressed the talkie button. 'Jim, are you there?'
'Yeah, Anson, what's up?'
'How are things with the warp system?'
'Everything is fine. We haven't taxed it more than a hundredth of a percent of the required field stress that would be caused from faster than light travel.'
I had guessed that would be the case. But you never know. 'Everything is fine here.' I replied as I continued to level off Hainan Island.
