Greenies

'How much longer until your men are ready to move?' he asked Colonel Westley, the commander of his best brigade.

'Fifteen more minutes, General,' Westley told him over the Internet terminal. 'The boys are suited up in their indoor armor and their loading their weapons up right now.'

'Good enough,' Sega said. 'I want that base captured as soon as possible. The more greenies that are allowed to reach it, the more problems we're going to have if they decide to fight us.'

'Will they fight, sir?' Westley asked hesitantly. 'They have an awful lot of armor over at that base. And until our boys can get some of our equipment down from TNB we won't have anything to battle armor with.'

'We won't be bringing anything down from TNB,' Sega said, as if speaking to a six year old. 'And don't worry about those greenies hitting us with their armor. Chances are they'll surrender as soon as they see us heading their way. And even if they don't, they haven't had enough time to deploy any of their APCs or tanks yet. It takes time to gear those things up.'

'Yes, General,' Westley said.

'Incoming communication from Director Corban Hayes of the Federal Law Enforcement Bureau,' his computer terminal suddenly spoke up. 'Would you like to accept?'

Sega smiled. Here was the communication he had been waiting for, the one that would give him the authority to unleash his men upon the greenies. 'On screen,' he said.

Hayes appeared on the terminal, his hair somewhat in disarray, his eyes showing a great deal of strain. 'General Sega,' he said, nodding respectfully. 'Thank you for receiving my call.'

'Of course, Director,' Sega said graciously. He had never actually met Hayes before either in person or online. Federal agents and military commanders did not usually run in the same circles. 'What can I do for you? I assume this has something to do with the events at the capital building?'

'That's correct,' Hayes said. 'As I'm sure you're aware, elements of the MPG have fired upon my men as they attempted to served an arrest warrant on Laura Whiting.'

'I've been watching on Internet,' Sega said. 'My sympathies for your men.'

Hayes waved his hand dismissively at the mention of his men. 'The perpetrators will be brought to justice, I can assure you of that,' he said. 'But at the moment I'm reading some alarming intelligence about the remainder of the MPG.'

'You mean the call-up?' Sega said. 'Yes, we've been monitoring that from here as well.'

'Then you know that greenies are streaming onto those bases from all over the planet,' he said. 'They're hopping onto MarsTrans trains and being taken there and they'll be loading their guns and firing up their tanks pretty soon. I fear that they may have reacted a little strongly to the arrest warrant for their governor and that they might be... well... contemplating serious action.'

'A revolt,' Sega said, not mincing words. 'You're afraid they're planning to attempt a capture of the planet or something equally foolish.'

'That's correct,' he said. 'And while the FLEB has the investigative authority in this instance, this unfortunate turn of events has left us woefully short of firepower to prevent such a thing. We need to stop these greenies before they hurt someone or before they cut into productivity of the various businesses that operate on this planet. Hell, I wouldn't put it past them to attempt some act of terrorism against the agricultural fields or something like that. They need to be stopped from deploying.'

'I've already anticipated your request,' Sega told him. 'I have my entire division gearing up for duty as we speak. I'll deploy an entire brigade to the Eden MPG base within thirty minutes.'

'I see,' Hayes said, a little confused. 'And a brigade is?'

Sega gave him a look of contempt. 'I take it you've never served in the armed forces before?'

'Well... no,' he said with a shrug.

'A brigade is four battalions of combat troops,' he explained. 'About 2500 men.'

'That's a lot,' Hayes said uneasily.

'Better too much than too little,' Sega responded. 'My guess is that the greenies will give it up as soon as they see us marching on them. In any case, once the MPG base and Eden itself is secured I'll get the rest of my men to the other three cities where the MPG is deploying. I'll send a brigade to New Pittsburgh, one to Libby, and one to Proctor.'

'How will you do that?'

'We'll load them on our C-12 transports and put them into orbit,' Sega said. 'We have enough lifter craft to move the entire division up to our ships in less than twenty-four hours. Instead of putting them on the ships though, I'll just have them de-orbit and land at the other three cities. We can capture the spaceports and use them as operations bases from there. My guess is we'll have this entire planet, including the Capital Building, secure and under control in forty-eight hours.'

Hayes nodded wisely, obviously pleased with the efficient self-confidence of the general. 'It sounds good, General,' he said. 'You do whatever needs to be done. There is one concern I have about your men however. You have a number of greenies in your division, do you not?'

'About one thousand total,' he confirmed. 'Most of them are in support positions. I've already ordered my MPs to remove them from their units and place them under house arrest.'

'Very good,' Hayes said, smiling for the first time. 'Once that base is secured I'd like them all turned over to the FLEB so they can be held until this crisis is over.'

'It will be done,' Sega assured him. 'Now if you'll excuse me, I have a base to capture. I'll get back to you once it's in our hands.' He looked at his watch. 'Should be less than an hour I'd imagine.'

'Thank you general,' he said. 'And good luck.'

'We don't need any luck,' he scoffed. 'We're WestHem marines.'

General Jackson was still at his command post in the capital building, monitoring the various operations that were taking place around the planet. The entire operation was at its most vulnerable right now since the bulk of the MPG members were still in transit to the bases. His greatest worry was of course the security of the Eden MPG base, which stood less than two kilometers from ten thousand WestHem marines. His worry was increased by a call from Sprinkle.

'What's up, Jack?' he asked, seeing the intelligence chief's face on his computer screen.

'The marines are moving a little faster than we'd thought,' Sprinkle told him. 'I just got a call from a few of my contacts that are part of the fast reaction division. They say that all of the Martians have been rounded up and are being held in their dorms but that the rest of the troops are gearing up for deployment. Estimates are that they'll be on the move within fifteen minutes or so.'

'Great,' Jackson said with a sigh. He looked at his tactical display and switched the view to a map of the military corner of Eden. Macarthur Avenue was the street that gave access to both the MPG base and the marine barracks. The barracks had two pedestrian entrances, which were located two blocks apart, and a wider, delivery truck entrance in between. He only had one single platoon of infantry troops to cover all three of those entrances. Forty men with small arms, light machine guns, and a few grenade launchers to hold back God knew how many marines who would be trying to egress from those doorways. They would be able to hold them for a little while by virtue of the fact that the marines would have to exit from a narrow corridor. Eventually however, the MPG would be as overwhelmed as the fabled Snoqualmie defenders back in World War III, that single American battalion that had tried to keep an entire Chinese army from descending out of the Cascade Mountains onto the plains of Washington. The Snoqualmie defenders had ultimately failed in their task, more than three-quarters of their number killed while buying the WestHem alliance no more than eighteen hours of time. Jackson had no intention of allowing the Macarthur Avenue defenders to share this same fate. He needed more troops there and he needed them now.

'Get me Colonel Cargill,' he told his communications terminal.

Cargill was the commander of the Eden division. Like all of the high commanders of the MPG, Cargill had been briefed in on the plot to eventually seize the planet from WestHem some years before. He was an outstanding leader and an enthusiastic supporter of the plot. He came online within seconds of his hail. 'Cargill here, General,' he said.

'How many troops do we have on the base, not including those in Dealerman's command?' Jackson asked him.

Cargill consulted another screen for a moment. 'About two hundred have arrived,' he said. 'Not all of them are combat troops however. Probably about half are admin and support people.'