The Last Crusade (26 page)

“What do they want here?”

His aide shakes his head,

“Sir, maybe they want to see the Russian tanks which arrived.”

“I don’t know why they’d want to see a Russian tank, everyone knows the Abrams is the world’s best tank.”

“Sir, because we need tanks and we need them in a hurry. We can’t build them fast enough; the Russians say they can supply us with tanks.”

“I’m not going to stand by and watch American boys fight from a Russian shit can.”

“Sir, I think you should review the specs of the T-14 ARMATA.”

“I’ll study the finished test report, in what, six months? A year? Maybe you can drag out the testing for two years.”

“Yes, sir.”

The five Russian T-14 ARMATAs are parked in front of the executive offices. Russian soldiers are checking them for the President’s inspection. President Bentley and General Green stop at the Russian tanks before entering the base’s executive offices. The tanks are surrounded by secret service and armed security troops. The President chats with the Russians while General Green accepts an invitation to climb into one of the tanks.

“General, would you like to take it for a spin?”

“Very much so, however, I think we will do so a little later, is she fast?”

“Very, like your original M1 before she put on extra weight. These have a turbine engine and automatic transmission.”

“Main gun?”

“Remote controlled, fires sabot, anti-personnel and laser guided missiles. She also has an active anti-missile system, fully automatic. We will show you.”

“I can’t wait.”

President Bentley and General Green meet the base commander as he’s rushing out of the executive building,

“Sirs, I thought we’d start with a briefing in the conference room.”

President Bradley smiles,

“General, we wanted to see the new toys, you know, you can’t keep the boys away from the toys.”

“Yes, sir. We also want to show you a new M1, we call it the M1B1, it only looks like the old M1s from the Crusades.”

“Please have it brought it around so we can compare it to the Russian tanks.”

“Sir, it’s classified, Top Secret.”

“Colonel, the Russians brought us their newest tank, have your new toy brought around so we can compare them. I want the leading Russian officer to join us. They are our allies now, either we’re allies or the Caliphate will win and rule the world.”

“Yes, sir.”

They begin briefing the President and General on the M1B1 versus the Russian T14.

“Sir, the major difference between the two weapons system is the main gun. The Russians use an autoloader with two piece shells, we use a fourth crew person who is the loader; our shells are one piece, allowing the penetrator to be longer with greater penetration. Our armor is also different. We use more ceramics; the Russians rely more on reactive armor. Both engines are 1,500 hp turbines. Both systems use an active anti-missile defense. We’ve copied and improved the Israeli Trophy system.”

The Russian Major Interrupts American Colonel,

“Colonel, we also use a type of ceramic armor and our main gun can fire laser-guided anti-tank missiles which outrange the main gun.”

President Bentley smiles and waves to both officers to sit. “I’d like to see each tank go through the obstacle course and discuss how many of each can be built in a short time.”

The Colonel replies,

“Sir, the M1B1 is an update package which can be added to existing tanks, improving their reliability, and survivability, we won’t have to build new ones. The new armor is made in sheets which are added over the existing armor, there are also armored side skirts to protect the road wheels. We’ve increased the output of the turbine to 1,900 HP. The new fire control can engage targets 3,000 meters away.

“Colonel, I believe the war plan calls for us to have over ten thousand tanks, we’re short by more than half of those numbers.”

“Sir, I’m sorry.”

“Let’s get the tanks on the course so we can see them in action.”

The officers escort the President to the obstacle course where he watches both tanks perform.”

“Frankly, I’m impressed with both of them. General, let’s return to Philly and call President Putin.”

“Yes, sir.”

Presidents Bentley and Putin agree to form a quick study team to determine how to combine the best features of both tank designs so the Crusade can have the most commonality and the highest number of tanks for the attack.

The two Air Forces agree to a change in the design of their weapons racks and software so each air force can use each other’s bombs. They agree that air-to-air missiles are too difficult to merge.

Israel, Egypt, NATO, and America use the same 5.56mm rifle ammo, Russia agrees to drop their AK series and quickly adopt the 5.56 round. Russian generals complain the 5.56 round isn’t as good as their own 5.45x39 round. President Putin agrees, saying,

“We need to ensure as common a logistics plan as possible, we’ll give a little, they’ll give a little. At least, you got your choice of rifle, which one have you decided on?”

The Russian Defense Minister smiles,

“Mr. President, we’ve selected the Israeli TAVOR bullpup with the eighteen-inch barrel. The eighteen-inch barrel gets the most out of the small round while still keeping the overall length of the rifle short. We’ll get much better performance than the American M4 carbine. We purchased a license and tools from IWI, we’ve started to build them in our four factories. We’re both modifying our smart bombs to use either their GPS or our GLONASS. Either or both will work to guide bombs to their target. We’re working on changing our laser designators to work on the same frequencies. Fuel isn’t a problem.”

“What are the major problems still on the table?”

“Artillery, MLRS, mortars, heavy machine guns, shoulder-fired missiles, cruise missiles, Surface to air missiles, should I continue?”

“No, I see we don’t have the time to combine our systems. I think we’re going to return to the backup plan. The West will form one attack column; we’ll form the other. I believe we’re starting to cause more problems than we’re solving. I’ll contact the Americans.”

“Mr. President, you had an excellent idea, but at this late date, it’s too late.”

“We’ll review the logistics after we win.”

“Yes, sir. Has the attack plan be agreed to?”

“We should finalize the plan at our next meeting. Your team will attend the meeting with your counterparts. Time is a resource we don’t have. Every day we’re rebuilding, the Caliphate has been building defenses and strengthening their militaries.”

President Putin is interrupted by his red phone ringing,

“Da?”

“Mr. President, the Caliphate has struck at five of our schools, they broke into the schools, firing automatic weapons, they ran through the schools shooting anyone they saw while throwing Molotov Cocktails, burning over nine hundred children and teachers alive.”

“Damn it. Get me President Bentley on the hotline, we have to move up our attack.”

“Sir, we have information that they also struck ten schools in the American State of California, the early estimates are over two thousand dead or severely wounded.”

“Thank you.”

Turning towards the Defense Minister,

“They’re killing our children! Our time has run out.”

His phone rings again,

“DA?”

“Sir, a nuke fizzled in Geneva, the explosive core must have fired out of sequence, there wasn’t a nuclear explosion, the device spread radiation over five city blocks.”

“Minister, get the plane and our escorts ready, we’ll be leaving to meet President Bentley within the hour.”

“Yes, sir.”

Putin is snapped back to the situation when the hotline rings,

“President Bentley, we heard, we’re very sorry for your loss.”

“And we, yours. I’m calling to see if we can meet to finalize our battle plan.”

“You read my mind, I just gave the orders to have my plane and fighter escorts ready to take off within an hour.”

“I’ll have the Air Force meet you with AWACS and tanker support over the pole.”

“Thank you.”

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Saladin smiles listening in on the Presidents’ call, happy his technical experts found a way to hack the hotline. He issues orders to his generals.

“They took the bait; I knew killing their children would push them to meet face to face. Have the special fighters made ready, the Americans will be meeting the Russian’s over the pole, we need to hit them before they merge. The Russian fighters will think the planes on their radars are the Americans arriving a little early. Use the Saudi F15s painted to look like the US Air Force, we will surprise them and shoot down the plane carrying the devil Putin. That should push them back into a final war against each other again.”

The Caliphate Field Marshal smiles,

“Yes, sir. With pleasure. We’ll leave the Minor Satan without a leader.”

“They’ll blame the Americans which might break up the Crusade. Russia will surely drop out and may even attack America again. We’ll sit here watching them kill each other off.”

“Yes, great Saladin. Surely Allah loves you.”

“Allah loves all of his children. Go and make the arrangements. Remember, all of the pilots are to be eliminated so there won’t be any rumors or social media posts. No one will be able to take credit for the attack.”

“Yes, sir.”

Chapter 13

The US AWACS with a flight of six F15 fighters are three hundred miles from President Putin’s plane when the radar controller in the AWACS plane yells,

“Holy shit! Someone just hit the Russians. Six fighters, which look like Eagles just fired on and took down Red Bear One!”

The plane controller spun around asking,

“Are you sure it was Eagles?”

“Yes, sir. They are broadcasting our IFF. I can show you the radar recordings.”

Looking at the recordings, he picks up the radio,

“Eagle lead this is big eye lead, go to afterburner and investigate air action two hundred fifty miles ahead, be alert. We show the flight of six Eagles just took down the Russian President.”

The Lt Colonel leading the flight of American fighters confirms the order, he and his five wingmen accelerate to Mach 2.6. Each of their two engines is injecting raw fuel into the hot exhaust, adding thrust, like hitting nitrous on a race car. The six F15s quickly cover the distance to the site of the shooting down of the Russian President.

The Caliphate fighters swept in, their IFF said they were friendlies, the Russians were expecting them, their air to air missiles were on safe. They radioed welcome messages to who they thought were Americans coming to escort them to a meeting between the two Presidents.

The Caliphate fighters flashed in, each fired two air to air missiles at the Russian executive plane. The Russian fighter’s radar alert them to the new flight of Eagles approaching, this time, they have time to arm their air-to-air missiles. Each Russian fighter launches four missiles at the six incoming fighters. The American radar warning systems scream, “MISSILE LAUNCH.”