Chapter Six - part four

   Brigadier General Holt had called James to the command center she had established on base at the start of this mess. When James arrived she had just smiled as she spoke into a secure phone before handing it to him. "He is here sir, you can tell him yourself." As James took the phone he heard a short curse, followed by silence. James had recognized the voice. Putting it to his ear he spoke a one word question, "Sir?" There was a brief pause before General Kendrick spoke. When he did his voice was calmer. "Cooper, I have a job for you. You can refuse, but I need you to say yes. I simply don't know anybody else I can ask to do this job. I need you to take command of the strike force that will be supporting the retaking of L.A. in the morning. Now before you say anything just hear me out. I want you, because I need a man who can diffuse this mess. You are aware of the situation, so I won't go into a detailed discussion of things. If we can't stop this there may be no way to stop a complete disintegration of this nation. We simply cannot start bombing our own people without starting a revolt among the people and troops. Eventually I fear a civil war will result. I need you to find a way to stop this before we go any further. James, I don't know if anybody can do this, but I am still asking you to try."

   James had been silent as he listened to this request. Susan Holt was just watching him with a slight smile. Others in the room were looking at him with questions in their eyes. James didn't know what Kendrick thought he could do that anybody else couldn't do too. But he had heard the desperation in his voice. James took a deep breath and spoke. "Sir, I will do whatever I can, but I don't know what that will be." He hesitated as he heard sighs of relief over the line and from the room too. Then he continued. "Sir, I have seen and heard the orders that were given to Major Roberts. I am aware of what they have told him to do and why. You need to be aware of something else though, Sir. I will try to diffuse this mess. I don't want to use that kind of force on civilians, but I will use force... if I cannot find a way to avoid it and still start regaining control. Sir, I will follow orders and help secure the city. I hope I can avoid doing that with force, but if not... I will use force. You need to understand that, Sir." The room and the phone were both silent for a long time before he heard a short reply and the click of the phone hanging up. The reply had been very short and very clear. "Good enough, may God be with you."

  James had finally let out a long sigh and handed the phone to Holt. She just smiled and hung it up before speaking. "I knew you would go, but I couldn't ask you myself. You know that L.A. is the worst and that it will be the first place they try using air strikes to regain order. They will be watching and what happens there is going to decide what happens everywhere. James if we have to take control of these cities back with brute force we might have to kill tens of thousands, thousands at the very least. Are you sure you are prepared to do that?" James looked at her for a long moment and then spoke. "I really don't see another choice. If I don't act then they will definitely use extreme force and tens of thousands will die. If I don't try to stop this, their deaths will rest upon me as surely as if I had been the one killing them. Now if you will excuse me I need to get moving. I just hope that Major Roberts is willing to yield his command to me. I know he will have orders to do that, but..." James shook his head and left the room.

   Susan Holt had watched James leave. She could almost see the burden that he carried with him as he left the room.  There had been no doubt in her mind that he would go. The truth was she knew in her heart that this was why he was here and what he had been destined to do all along. That sort of thinking would have been totally alien to her only a short time ago. But now, after spending so long working around and directly with him it all made sense to her. James Andrew Cooper was about to start another kind of Ironman run. Only this time he would carry the future of an entire nation rather than just a single person. She had watched his eyes as Kendrick had made his request. She had seen resignation as he listened, but that had been replaced before he had replied. Then she had seen only resolve in those cool blue-green eyes. He had accepted this mission and he would see it to the end, regardless of what that meant for him. She never took her eyes from the door he had closed behind him as she spoke to everyone else in the room. "People, I am not religious. I never have been, but today I think we all need to bow our heads and pray for that man whether we are religious or not. Today I think the future of our nation rests upon him and he needs all the help he can get from us... especially our prayers."

   James walked towards his own squadron briefing room. He was in no rush, but he wasn't wasting any time either. He had told Jeremy to call up the squadron, so they should all be there by now. All base personnel had been on alert and required to be at the ready since the start of this. It took only minutes for the pilots from any squadron to be assembled for briefing and prepared to go into action. James knew that all of his pilots would be eager to go along with him. That wasn't in his plans though, unless things went totally wrong. James was going to let them know what was going on, but this was his mission to handle alone. If it went wrong then everyone involved might be in a world of trouble. If he couldn't change things enough to avoid an actual air strike he didn't want them involved in that either. He had no intention of letting them follow him into this mess. James was going to need them if he could prevent the strike, but not unless he had already done that.  

   This possible use of force had been in the works for a while. The strike force he was to command had been ready and waiting for several days. The military bases in close to L.A. had actually been heavily damaged during the early riots. Most of the major weapons had been secured or removed by now. Almost all military bases located close to the large cities were either abandoned now or locked down and isolated, virtually under siege themselves. Edwards AFB had become the center of all Air Force operations on the west coast. That was where the strike force for L.A. was staged. A full squadron of F/A- 48's was to be sent in. General Hodges meant to show everyone that he was going to regain control of the cities. Major Roberts had just assumed command of that squadron before the end of last year. James was hoping that Roberts would respect him enough from his days of flying under James command in Japan to let James take over his command. James hadn't seen much of Roberts since then, but Roberts had remained with the squadron for another year after Sarah had taken the command. That was when he had been moved to his current squadron to become a flight leader and eventually the squadron leader.

   James walked into the briefing room and stepped to the front. Once there he faced his squadron to let them know what was going on. "At ease, I need to make this short. I have been asked to assume command of the strike force designated for L.A. in the morning. I will be leaving as soon as I am finished here. I am placing Jeremy in command while I am..." The room almost seemed to explode with shouted questions and demands to go with him. James had expected nothing less. These pilots were highly trained and well disciplined, but they were still as fired up and driven as they had ever been. James gave them a brief moment and then simply pointed his finger towards heaven as he raised his hand. Silence quickly descended on the room. James lowered his arm so that he was pointing towards them and they took their seats. Then he continued. "As I was saying; I am leaving Jeremy in command. I expect all of you to follow his orders with the same respect and discipline that you show for me. I don't have time to debate or discuss my decisions with any of you, much less all of you. I am asking, and trusting, each of you to give me the same trust I have in you. I hope that I have already earned that trust from you."

   Turning to face Jeremy he sighed heavily before he spoke directly to him. "Jeremy, I would love to have you and my squadron flying with me, but I need you here for now. I hope that I will need you for something more important soon, but I must take this first step alone. You are already familiar with the current plans for the strike force. You are to go directly to Holt and tell her that I need you to be made aware of everything I am doing. If I can do what has been asked. Then I will need all of you ready to support me. If not then I need you here to deal with the consequences of my failure. Ask Holt to allow you to strip the F-35's down and load them up with extra fuel tanks instead of weapons. I want them setup for maximum flight time and light ground support only. If I can make this work then we will need to stay in the air as long as possible and shouldn't need much more firepower than we can manage with the guns. Load those with the standard light rounds and tracers we use for practice runs. I want you and the other F/A-48's to be loaded up for a major ground assault. You won't need the extra fuel, but you may need all the extra firepower you can carry." James stopped and faced his pilots for a moment before he spoke again. "I want to tell you that it has been an honor to serve with you and that I know you will be ready when you are called. I know you all want to be there with me, but all of you must remember something... I never fly alone."

   James had dismissed them and managed to limit the time they spent wishing him well. Once he was free he went directly to his office. The ground crews were already prepping his F/A-48 per his new instructions. It was being loaded with spare fuel tanks in place of all extra munitions. In addition they were loading his guns with all tracer rounds. James was hopeful that if he did have to carry out the original orders he could at least scare the opposition enough to avoid actually killing them. The rest of the squadron he would be commanding would be fully loaded and more than capable of taking out any opposition they were likely to face with ease. If he could stop the strike then he would probably need to stay in the air as long as possible. That short walk to his office gave him enough time to think of a few possibilities that might work. He wouldn't know if anything would work until he tried it, but at least he had options now. James sat down to make a call that he knew he had to make before he did anything more. He called Sarah and told her where and what he was heading into this time.

   After that call was finished James went to make another important call. Sarah had seen several more possible issues and she had made some good suggestions too. She had also made him realize that he didn't yet know for certain who else Kendrick had informed about this. James went back to the command center and made a secure call to General Kendrick in Colorado Springs, where he was currently located. It turned out that he had informed only a few people and nobody at Edwards knew anything yet. He was trying to find out who he could depend on. He was concerned that if Hodges got wind of the changes he would override them and the strikes would go on as planned. James gave him a couple of names he could call at Edwards. He also asked him to just get him clearance into Edwards and let him talk to Major Roberts himself. Two hours later James was on his way. Nothing was definite, but everything looked good so far. According to Kendrick most of the folks at Edwards didn't want any part of this air strike as it was planned. They were prepared to carry it out, but they didn't like it. James spent several hours after he arrived convincing them to let him try something else first. They finally agreed and the next morning James was the acting commander when the strike force took off.