Greenies

Wilde suppressed a sigh. 'Yes, sir,' he said. 'I'll be there in five minutes.'

Browning didn't acknowledge him. He simply ended the communication, his face disappearing from the screen to be replaced by the Marine Corps emblem. Wilde flipped his PC closed and looked up at Spears. 'My apologies, Admiral,' he said, 'but could we finish the briefing later? General Browning needs me for an urgent matter.'

'Of course,' Spears said. 'I think you've got the basic feel for the plan anyway, don't you?'

'I do,' Wilde agreed. 'As you said, the important part is to hit the nearer satellites quickly and simultaneously in a coordinated initial strike. After that, it will be nothing but mop-up.'

'You've got the feel for it all right. Assuming that General Browning approves this attack plan my flight crews can be ready to launch that initial strike in forty-eight hours.'

'I think you can be assured the general will approve the plan,' Wilde told him, meaning, of course, that if Wilde recommended approval it was as good as done.

'Excellent,' Spears said. 'Now all that's left to do is come up with a suitable starting time for the first launch and a catchy name for the operation itself. You know how the media eats up stuff like that.'

Wilde wanted to shake his head and roll his eyes. He didn't. 'I'm sure whatever you come up with in that regard will be fine, sir,' he said. He braced and gave a smart salute. Spears returned it and dismissed him.

Wilde walked quickly through the halls of the Nebraska, making his way from the naval operations section to the main operations deck, wondering just what Browning — who was almost completely incapable of tying his own shoes without assistance — thought was so urgent. He passed effortlessly through the layers of dense security and directly into General Browning's office.

'Major Wilde, reporting as ordered, sir,' he proclaimed, giving a half-assed salute.

Browning returned it in half-assed fashion and motioned for him to sit down. He looked at his aide a little guiltily, as if he didn't quite want to share the news he had to share. Finally he just blurted it out. 'I need you to prepare a press briefing for me on the upcoming second stage of Operation Martian Hammer.'

Wilde's eyes widened. 'A press briefing?' he asked. 'Begging your pardon, sir, but you don't mean a... a press briefing, do you? Sharing details of our war plans with the media?'

'I'm afraid so,' Browning said. 'I've been exchanging communications with the Executive Council and the joint chiefs of staff all morning and they have ordered me to provide the big three representatives with a summary of our plans.'

Wilde was aghast. 'Sir... that's... I mean... that could destroy our entire plan! Why would they order such a thing?'

'Apparently lobby groups for the big three and their CEOs have been hounding them ever since the pull-back for us to release details to them. The public back home is demanding to know what happens next and the big three are afraid that if they don't keep them apprised of the current situation that ratings will start to slip on the primary news channels. If that happens the other corporations will not be willing to pay as much for advertising and product placement spots.'

'Advertising?' Wilde said. 'They want us to compromise operational security for advertising revenues?'

'The big three are recording record advertising revenue since the start of Martian Hammer,' Browning said, in all seriousness. 'It's understandable that they would want to protect those profits.'

'But, sir,' Wilde pleaded, 'the very success of this plan depends on the Martians not knowing what we're going to do until we do it. If they know we're going to start hitting their satellites, they'll double or triple their combat space patrol. If they know what city we're going to launch at they'll reinforce it with troops from the other cities before we have a chance to put their rail network out of commission. This could turn into an even worse disaster than phase one!'

'I'm not an idiot, Major,' Browning said, irritated. 'And neither are the council members. We all realize that secrecy is paramount in this operation and the council has taken steps to insure it is maintained. The big three have all promised to release the information to the public only as it occurs. They just want advance notice of our intentions so they can have their assets in place and get rough drafts of their stories composed.'

'The big three hold on to information?' Wilde said doubtfully. 'Do you really think they would honor such an agreement?'

'Of course they will,' Browning almost shouted. 'The council has given me their word on this.'

Great, Wilde thought. A bunch of lying, cheating, backstabbing politicians have given their word. 'Listen, General,' he said. 'What if we gave them misinformation instead?'

'Misinformation?' Browning said, appalled. 'You mean lie to the media?'

'We've been lying to the media the entire time,' Wilde reminded. 'They still think we've only lost a thousand soldiers in this conflict. They still think Martian suicide crews killed our Panamas. Why don't we just tell them we're going to be attacking New Pittsburgh or Libby instead?'

'That's a different kind of lie,' Browning said. 'The suicide attacks and the casualty figures are official lies designed to help protect the public from a truth they would not be able to handle. You're suggesting we be deliberately deceitful.'

'There is historical precedent for it,' Wilde said. He was about to start citing examples — the most famous of which being the Persian Gulf War of 1991 in which the media had been told the ground attack would start with an amphibious invasion instead of the overland campaign intended all along — but Browning wanted to hear nothing about it.

'The media would crucify all of us if we did something like that,' he said. 'If we told them we were attacking Libby and then attacked Eden they would smear me, you, Admiral Jules, and the entire Executive Council. We would all end up as vermin at best, in prison doing hard labor at worst.'

'But what if told them we changed our mind at the last minute? What if we...'

Browning was shaking his head. 'It would never work,' he said. 'Besides, the Executive Council is having the Joint Chiefs draw up their own briefing papers so ours needs to match theirs.'

Wilde was fuming. 'Sir,' he said. 'I must protest this in the most stern manner possible. There has to be a certain degree of military secrecy here or all may be lost.'

'Lose to the greenies?' Brown scoffed. 'Impossible. Not with an eight to one advantage. You drew up a good plan, Wilde. You should be proud of yourself. I hardly see how giving the media advance notice of the stages of it will have any effect on the outcome. Like I told you, they are not going to release any information until the plan is already underway.'

'Sir,' he said. He had to try one more time. 'I find it hard to believe that the media, once they get hold of this information, will keep it quiet.'

'I'm not asking your opinion of what we should do, Wilde,' Browning told him. 'I'm ordering you to prepare a press briefing. Now are you going to do it or are you going to be relieved of your position and sent down to the surface to command a company?'

Wilde shook his head. 'I'll have something for you in two hours, sir,' he said.

'Very good,' Browning said. 'You're dismissed.'

The briefing documents were prepared and distributed, both to the big three representatives accompanying the task force and to the representatives back on Earth. The documents were a truthful and comprehensive summary of the plan, outlining each step of the process including target order and preference, what facilities were being marked for destruction on the surface, and which railheads, bridges, and tunnels would be struck. The document was marked Top Secret and every representative that received a copy was required to put his or her fingerprint to a secrecy document that threatened prosecution under the WestHem code and prison time if the information was released prior to official authorization. As such it took almost six hours before the first reports of the document were aired to the public on one of the big three channels.

It was an InfoServe station in Denver that broke first. They published a copy of the document on their website and reported its existence on their main news channel claiming an 'anonymous source within the military complex' had provided it to them. Within an hour of this the other two of the big three were reporting the same thing. Within twelve hours of the document's release, nearly everyone in WestHem and everyone on Mars knew what the plan was.

'I knew this would happen!' Wilde told Browning in the latter's office. He was yelling at his commanding officer and didn't even care. 'The goddamn Martians know what we're going to do now! They have a complete and detailed copy of our war plan for the next phase!'