Retribution (Soldier Up - Book Five 5) (20 page)

Selma Rodrigues-Brown was a lifetime resident of Baltimore. She grew up in what she called the hood. She was all of five feet two inches tall, black nappy hair, and her complexion was very dark and she was mean as hell.  She was the leader of Uptown Crips. It was highly unusual to have a woman in that leadership spot.  At thirty-two years of age, she had fought and killed her way to the top, she had the members’ respect, only to the point where they all knew she would have them killed in a heartbeat. 

              For Selma the event was a blessing sent by God for her specifically. She was able to consolidate her power over the city, by brute force, within three months after the event.  Selma was successful in creating a mega-alliance with the rest of the gangs in the city, with her at the top.  Prior to the event Law Enforcement estimated there were close to ten thousand gang members in all of Baltimore.  The number was much higher now.  The citizens of Baltimore had to commit to a gang, or leave town and die—those were their only choices.  Now it was closer to twenty-five thousand; however, prior to the event Baltimore had a population of over six hundred thousand people.  The twenty-five thousand were the number of soldiers that were counted to help fight and defend the city, if it ever came to that.

              Everyone else in the city was considered an affiliate of the gang. The population of Baltimore now, a year later, was closer to eighty-seven thousand.  The first months of the event there was a massive exodus out of the city because of the fighting between the gangs.  Follow-up disease, starvation, murders and so forth severely depleted the population to what it was now.  Selma was now in command of a very lightly armed army, which she called the Army, her Army.  She had sought out the military veterans within the ranks, promoted them into the higher echelons of her army, as long as it was clear they did what she wanted them to. 

              The military veterans were primarily Army and Marines; she felt she had no use for the Navy or Air Force, because she had no Navy or Air Force.  The training her soldiers needed fell more into line with than that of the Army.  Those particular veterans were responsible for training her new Army, and her biggest problem was discipline.  Anyone found flashing gang signs or wearing their old gang colors was quickly executed as there was no room in her Army for this division.  She wanted her Army as close to the real thing as possible, wanted the structure of an Army, Squads, Platoons, Companies, Battalions and if possible a Brigade.  She also wanted the rank structure, Privates, Private First Class, Corporal, Sergeant, and officers too.

              She labeled herself Supreme General of Baltimore. She had four Generals=whom she barely trusted, but she trusted them more than she did anyone else.  The issues with her veterans were that they were all young and none had ever risen past the rank of Sergeant in either the Army or Marines.  Their overall knowledge of how a military structure was built was limited to what they had seen and done.  Out of all of those veterans, less than a quarter of them had any combat experience.  Most of the veterans she was looking for left the city as they didn’t want to be a part of this.  The ones that did join were already gang affiliated in one fashion or another and in some cases had joined the military to get the training they needed.  Problem was they had problems in the Army or Marines with discipline and the majority ended up being cooks or working in supply.

              Yes they could teach marksmanship, drill and ceremonies, which wasn’t necessary as far as Selma could determine.  So, her Army was set up with a fairly loose structure, with some discipline, which they thought was plenty.  Now the weapons they had were not military grade, but would work to keep the population obedient.  The weapons consisted of a lot of pistols, AR-15s, M-16s they had gotten from various Police Stations, hunting rifles, several AK-47s that they had been able to buy on the black market before the event.

              They had plenty of smoke grenades they had obtained from police stations; they got a few flash-bangs they had found in SWAT team rooms.  Everyone in her Army had a weapon. Ammunition was going to be a problem that she recognized if they ever did get into a long protracted fight, but she never really thought that was going to happen.  After the event Law Enforcement had disappeared off the streets and the Federal and State Governments were gone as far as she knew.  Her rationale was that no one wanted Baltimore except her.  It was hers now and no one was going to take it away from her.

              Until now, she was getting reports from down south, Baltimore’s southern border that another Army had appeared out of nowhere. She knew that part was at least untrue, as no Army appeared out of nowhere.  She sent her most trusted General Harold Zenrick’s with two Companies to the area to check out the reports.  She was nervous because she had sent them two days ago and she had expected to hear something back by now, she hadn’t.

              She was unaware that General Zenrick’s and his two Companies were now guests of the United States Marine Corps, which surprised the hell out of the General.  To his further dismay, he saw what looked like a battleship and aircraft carrier offshore.   General Zenrick’s met with Brigadier General Lane, who assured him they were real and active.  General Zenrick first tried to intimidate BG Lane stating he had no right to hold him; in fact, that he outranked BG Lane by three stars.  BG Lane’s response was that he was a two bit hood who had declared himself General.  That Baltimore, Maryland was still part of the United States and would be incorporated back into the fold.

              Still, General Zenrick was adamant that the Marines were outnumbered five-to-one.  General Zenrick was happy to brag that they had twenty-five thousand men and women in their Army and they were ready to fight.  BG Lane’s only response to that was, “Is that so?”

              General Zenrick, not being the sharpest pin in the cushion, continued to brag about the Supreme General, where her command headquarters was located, and various bases of operations. The man was truly a fountain of knowledge.  BG Lane was amazed that the man gave so much information for so little in return, which was nothing, it was clear that General Zenrick by talking so much about how strong their Army was, it would convince the Marines to turn tail and run.  Obviously, the man knew nothing about the United States Marine Corps.  While General Zenrick was spewing information out regarding the Army of Baltimore as he was now calling it, Brigadier General Lane’s aide was taking lots of notes.  With these notes they would formulate a battle plan.

              Brigadier General Lane had been speaking with General Zenrick for almost three hours. When he was done, he thanked General Zenrick and told him he would get back to him regarding the Marines surrendering to him.  BG Lane left the area and headed back to his CP to speak with his staff and get the ball rolling.  General Zenrick was right about one thing: if it was true that they had twenty-five thousand men and women under arms his Marines were seriously outnumbered to his fifteen hundred.  Thankfully, he had a battleship and an aircraft carrier that were itching to get into a fight.

              Prior to implementing any battle plan General Lane felt he needed some confirmation of the information that General Zenrick had given them.  General Lane met with Lieutenant Colonel Hampton, the commander of the four Marine Force Recon teams that were with him.  Over the years, in Iraq and Afghanistan, General Lane had worked with Lt. Colonel Hampton and his Force Recon teams. He and his teams were as professional as they come and he had full confidence they would get the job done.

              Two Force Recon teams were sent out to verify the headquarters location of the woman: Selma that called herself the Supreme General. General Zenrick had indicated that the majority of the forces they had centered on a single location near the center of the city. 

              Staff Sergeant Geilo Roy led the team heading to Selma’s HQ and the other team led by Staff Sergeant Troy Becker sent the team to the primary base of operations for the Army of Baltimore.  Staff Sergeant Roy had twelve miles to travel; the first seven miles would be covered in Humvees, and at that point they would find a place to hide the vehicles and run the rest of the way in.  Staff Sergeant Becker had to travel seven and a half miles east of their present location. Like the first team, they would travel half the distance to the site by Humvee, hide the vehicles and run the rest of the way in.  Each team was scheduled to remain on site for at least twenty-four hours observing and collecting intelligence.

              Both teams would leave the AO from the LOD right after sunset. Using the information they had garnered from General Zenrick they hoped to avoid the checkpoints and patrols.  The key to the first part of the operation for both teams was speed. They needed to get to the point by vehicle, where they could hide them then move out on foot.  The closer they got to their respective objective the likelihood of them being seen and or captured was high, thus blowing the mission, and according to General Zenrick, sacrificing their lives.  Each team had street maps of Baltimore, each map also held key locations where they might be able to hide the vehicles and map out their route by foot to their respective objective.

              At 1900 the two teams left the line of departure (LOD) and headed into Baltimore, where most of the streets had been barricaded by cars since Selma had ordered all avenues of approach into the city blocked. However, she left side streets open, but heavily guarded.  One team took a street and parked a mile from the checkpoint.  From there each team sent a three-man team, out of the six, to the checkpoint to terminate the guards and dispose of the bodies. The two three-man teams, found the checkpoints to be manned by two men each.  One man was awake, the other asleep; the one man awake was bored and not attentive, so they were easy take downs for both Force Recon teams, the bodies of the men were dragged or carried into buildings down the street.  It only took minutes to execute the operation. Then they got back into their vehicles and moved into the city quickly.

              The Supreme General had the majority of the streets cleared of vehicles. I the city ever came under attack, she wanted to be able to get from her HQ and move her forces from the base to where they were needed.  However, this also worked in the opposite. A force entering the city would be able to make very good time to her HQ and the base.  Fortunately for the Marines the streets were deserted thanks to an order that all civilians had to be indoors by six in the evening. 

              Staff Sergeant Roy and his six-man team arrived at the location where they found a parking garage.  They entered and parked the vehicles in the rear of the garage so they wouldn’t be easily seen from the street.  Once satisfied the vehicles were safe SSG Roy checked his map one more time and they headed out for the objective.  Lance Corporal Coal carried the PRC-77, which would allow them to stay in contact with the other team and the General’s CP.  Corporal Hopkins carried his M-4 and the M-107; Sergeant Curtis carried the SAW, Sergeant Bishop carried an M-4 and C-4 explosives, and the other members carried their M-4s, pistols and one shotgun  They took off at  steady jog, since they had five miles to cover and the plan was to make the objective no later than midnight. 

              As Sergeant Roy and his team moved through the streets it was dark because there was no electricity.  They had some night vision goggles, like the 19
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Special Forces group, Marine Force Recon had sights on Pendleton that were underground and protected by the EMP event.  The fact of the matter was, the men that knew about the site had been killed earlier on by the Mexicans.  No one knew about it until, than one US Army Colonel Clayton arrived and asked them why they didn’t use any of the gear in the bunker.  Of course, the Marines response to that question was, ‘What bunker?’

              That US Army Colonel from Special Forces claimed he had been to it several times while working with his Force Recon counter-part, and he led them straight to it and even had access.  It was a gold mine of equipment if it actually worked.  Some of that equipment they were using now, such as the night vision equipment.  The Marines owned the night as they moved from street to street, steady job as they went, stopping, listening, looking than moving again.  It took them two hours to cover the five miles because they had doubled back twice to make sure they weren’t being followed.  They entered a nearby five-story structure that gave them an unobstructed view of their objective.  One of the way’s they were able to identify the objective was it was lit up like a Christmas tree. Every building around it was dark except this one.  The generators were easy to hear rattling through the night. 

              There were several trash cans spread throughout the area, with fires bleeding out of them being for warmth and light.  Around the trash cans three to five soldiers stood staring, hypnotized by the fire.  There was no way right now for the Force Recon team to verify this was the HQ for the Supreme General, but it was at the location General Zenrick had stated.  SSG Roy radioed in what they had found.  They were ordered to remain in place to continue to gather information; they wanted them to stay an additional twenty-four hours, as long as it was safe to do so.  Also, if it was possible to confirm the Supreme General was on site, SSG Roy’s first thought was, ‘How in the hell are we going to do that?’

              SSG Roy spoke with the team regarding commands new request. Sergeant Bishop said, “I’ll do it!”

              “Do what you fucking moron?” SSG Roy said a bit agitated at Sergeant Bishop.