The decorated chests and five-starred bars stretching across the shoulders of the president’s chiefs of staff remained reserved in the stone-etched expressions of the war-weathered generals in the president’s war room. Each gave their strategic advice to the president for his decision in taking control of the Coalition. At the helm of that top military brass was Admiral Frizen, who’d taken the lead as the official commander of the United States war efforts.
Last year, Admiral Frizen celebrated his thirtieth anniversary as a member of the armed forces and his fifty-ninth on this earth. Despite the patches of white and gray that had woven their way onto his head over the past decade, he still retained some remnants of the brown hair of his youth. His face and body, however, had maintained youthful exuberance, despite accumulating six decades of life lived. Of all the joint chiefs, he was the only one who still looked like he could join his men on the front lines.
“Mr. President, the Navy’s countermeasure for the Soil Coalition was put into place during the first few months of the Coalition’s existence. It was kept off the books in case the Coalition ever became a threat, and to also help supplement the research efforts set forth to find a solution to the damage done by GMO-24. The team was assembled through a mixture of military and civilian personnel. Heading that team for the Navy was Commander Luis Claire, who was stationed at Everett Naval Base, a low-key military installation where infantry assets were stored to stay out of the reach of the Coalition during their acquisition of many of the Army’s resources,” Admiral Frizen said.
Outside of Commander Claire’s unit, there were only a handful of other people, both military and civilian alike, who knew about the countermeasure. It was a hand that Frizen played close to the chest. He had advised against the formation of the Coalition since the beginning, but reelection fears overpowered the decision-making process.
“Wyoming was originally chosen due to its distance away from the earlier Coalition communities, as well as the soil quality during that same time. The civilian team that Commander Claire organized comprised Nelson Willow, PhD in computer science and analytics, Ray Nickle, PhD in statistics, Todd Penn, PhD in biochemistry, and Emma Claire, MD. Their task was the research and resolution of the soil effects created by GMO-24. Now, the last communication we had coming out of Wyoming from that team was one of success.”
The quiet seal of the room broke open as the president’s staff erupted with a slew of questions and accusations.
“How could you keep this from the president?”
“What were the civilians’ credentials? Were they vetted?”
“When was the last point of contact?”
“Where is Commander Claire stationed now?”
Out of all the shouting and questions that Frizen took on the chin, none of them asked the most important question until Jared Farnes, who sat just to the right of the president, rose and quieted the room with the commanding presence of a general, without the want or need for the title. “Gentlemen! Please!” The waves of clamor quieted instantly.
“Admiral,” the president said, his words sullen and low. “Does Gordon have the soil solution that you and Commander Luis’s team were working on?”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
A collective sigh escaped the room, which refueled the barrage of blame and frustration. Every syllable that was thrown toward Frizen simply plunked off the front of his uniform and fell to the floor. Words in a time of war were about as useless as a bail bucket full of holes. In his experience, bullets were much more effective.
“Enough!” the president ordered, slamming his fists on the table, silencing the childish nonsense. “If it weren’t for Admiral Frizen’s actions, we wouldn’t have the upper hand on Gordon’s sentries.” The scolding was enough to shut the rest of the room down and the president gestured for Frizen to continue.
“As of right now, Commander Claire’s campaign in Wyoming has been successful. We believe that success to comprise two reasons: that area of the Coalition’s control wasn’t as densely populated, and we were able to catch them by surprise. Now that Gordon is aware of our strike, he’ll be quick to retaliate. Our strategy is to continue to have Commander Claire push southeast, while the Navy’s Atlantic fleet repositions itself in the Gulf, where we will retake the fishing villages of Louisiana and Mississippi and the oil refineries of Texas. Once we have a strong foothold on the coast, we will push north into Kansas, and our forces will meet in the middle, where we’ll take Topeka.”
“How many men, Admiral?” The president asked, his cheeks continuing their sullen dip into the sides of his face. “How many will we lose on both sides?”
“Our initial assessment is ten thousand, Mr. President. But because most of the Coalition sentries were former army and marines, we believe they’ll join us once the real fighting begins. However, there will still be significant support for Gordon as long as he’s able to keep the sentries fed.”
“General Mears,” the president said. “Do we have enough ground troops to combat the sentries at Gordon’s disposal?”
“The Coalition ground forces outnumber us three to one at the moment, Mr. President, but our Naval and Air Force support will give us the edge.”
“Let me make one thing clear, gentlemen. I don’t want us dropping bombs on civilians,” the president said. “Collateral damage must be minimal, and when this is over, I don’t want the American people to return to homes that were destroyed by the very military that was supposed to protect them.”
“Or course, Mr. President,” Mears answered. “The installations we’re targeting with our air support will be strictly military. We’ll be using a combined effort from our reserves and the Navy to squeeze the Coalition out of the local civilian populations, minimizing loss of life and infrastructural damage.”
“That’s something Gordon knows as well, sir,” Frizen replied. “He’ll use the oil refineries and the fishing villages as shields against our missiles. It will be crucial that the ground forces we have in those engagements understand the risk they’re facing.”
The United States’s first civil war spanned over four years and claimed the lives of over 620,000 soldiers. It was the bloodiest conflict in United States history. However, if Gordon felt cornered or threatened that everything he had would be taken away, then there was the very real possibility that he would resort to a scorched-earth policy, burning anything and everything in his control.
“Mr. President, every second spent waiting is one less we could be using to turn the tide in this conflict. We have our resources in place in the Gulf, and we’ll need you to authorize the use of force against American citizens,” Admiral Frizen said. “I understand the gravity of that decision, and the weight it will carry on you and everyone in this room. But we must act now.”