Tales of New America #15

Previous TALES are found here: Tale #1, Tale #2, Tale #3, Tale #4, Tale #5, Tale #6, Tale #7, Tale #8, Tale #9, Tale #10, Tale #11, Tale #12, Tale #13, Tale #14.

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The Bug is the Feature

Any modern invasion is preceded by considerable spadework. For the NAR army, little of shaping an actual battlefield took place since there was no opposing force to meet in combat. Instead, the mission of intelligence was to decrease any kind of resistance, anticipate any kind of resistance, and easily counter resistance with preferably non-lethal means while protecting soldiers from harm.

Fortunately, the NAR was highly advanced in weaponry, robotics, drone technology, communications control, hardened computer systems, and the pharmacopeia of immobilizing or stupefying agents as gases or injectable fluids.

One meeting between an intelligence major and his staff weeks before the army surrounded the Seattle/Tacoma region went like this:

Major: How much data have we collected on black, Latino, and Asian gangs up to this point? How many of their, what do you call them, headquarters or gathering places have been pinpointed?

2nd Lt.: Well, having hacked the police data bases of their gang task forces has helped, but analysis of drone recording has allowed us to pinpoint about a dozen black gang residences, seven Latino ones, but nothing Asian thus far. I think it's a waste to bother on them or worry about that population.

Major: Are you prepared to be held liable if an Asian gang we never bothered to look for wounds or kills one of our men, Lieutenant?

2nd Lt.: I'll see it's done, sir.

Major: Now, what about the anarchists?

In the NAR all people with authority or in a government bureaucracy were personally liable for action or lack of action that resulted in injury or loss to a citizen. No longer were officials, judges, police, or prosecutors exempt from civil suits against them rather than their agency.

It was feared, at first, that no one would want a government position if they were going to be held responsible for any bad outcome from having done their duty poorly or having failed to do it all, but doctors treat patients even under the threat of a malpractice tort, and so people in government bought insurance just the same.

If a 2nd Lieutenant had been negligent in that he'd failed to be diligent in his duty, not only was he open to army discipline and punishment, but the soldier who'd been harmed or his family could sue the officer or fellow soldier who failed to be conscientious.

Finally, just as private citizens had always been liable for damages and injuries to others, public servants were also. It tended to make them less arrogant, power driven, and stupid when violating anyone's civil rights or failing to do their jobs in a timely manner. If a bureaucrat responsible for approving your passport and creating the document failed to accomplish the task by the scheduled date costing the applicant time or loss due to plans being interfered with, that bureaucrat could be sued for triple damages.

Threat of serious accountability put a little spring in a public employee's step.

****

The use of spy drones allowed the IS (Intelligence Service) to monitor human traffic patterns in various neighborhoods. The comings and goings of people gave them a good idea of where the bad guys and people who were most likely to offer armed resistance either lived, or would group up in a crisis or challenge to them.

The army generally found the white populations were exceedingly compliant to their directives, but expected greater indifference, stealth, intransigence, stupidity, and violence from minorities. That is why the evacuations proceeded first of all with sectors of whites, saving greater problems for later when they could more easily isolate them and cut off food, power, and water if need be.

General Robertson had been assigned the task of clearing out the minority neighborhoods like Central District in Seattle. This morning at nine, he led a staff meeting to discuss procedures and final plans.

"Gentlemen . . . and ladies," he said acknowledging the two female officers present. They and their women's corps were necessary in the task of handling females processed through detention or apprehension of female scofflaws.

"Next week we start on Central District. This is the first major minority group we've tried to evacuate. Any idea of what we can expect?"

IS Col. Meechum was the first to speak. "Intel of texts, tweets, social media among that group shows that, one, the gangs don't want to go anywhere, but they have a problem. No black population. No drugs to sell, no welfare checks and food stamps to prey on, no one to rob. They can't figure out what to do except encourage everyone else to stay. My recommendation is to separate the wheat from the chaff. Capture the gang members, imprison them, make 'em work. Maybe, just maybe, it will give other blacks a little breathing room to put their lives in better order . . ."

"You can take the people out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of . . ."

"Yes, Major, we get the point," Robertson interrupted the younger field officer. "Nevertheless, I'm implementing the colonel's recommendations. It may help a few people get a better start. It's the least we can try and do considering. Now, colonel, what was the rest you were about to say?"

"There are a number of incentives we're offering the minority population such as supplies being free and available to them before they cross into Oregon. Food, coupons for goods and gasoline, some cash. I hate to say this, it sounds prejudiced, but these people show up in the tens of thousands whenever any voucher program, government job fair, food giveaway occurs. We can lure them out of the city like the Pied Piper. We're getting the message out to phones and tablets of all the goodies awaiting those who are compliant. The response we're getting from people actually signing up, registering for the program in order to receive authorization at the depots in Vancouver across the Columbia from Portland is over 50%."

"That's good news. After that we should neutralize the gangs. Colonel Jenkins? How about it?"

"Our plan is to let the first wave of those who are compliant leave the city, and the next early morning, at zero three thirty, we hit all the gang houses, remove the bodies, bundle them out to the IS Camp. That should catch whoever's left in the neighborhoods off guard. We'll have plenty of insect drones available in case of people wanting to interfere. After that, it's house to house mop up using the warm body, mobile scanners to see who's hiding out."

"Very good. Now, Major Montgomery, what about the anarchists?"

"Our agents persuaded them to leave the city before we got here. The main group is hiding out east of Seattle past Snowqualmie just beyond Ernie's Grove on the north fork of the Snowqualmie River. Their current plan is to wait for us to evacuate the city, and when our major forces leave, attack various squads with IEDs and in ambushes with small arms fire. They think inflicting a few casualties will cause the NAR to abandon the campaign."

"Are they really that stupid?" another officer asked.

"Yes. Of course they are. They read Mao and Che and think they have it figured out. But guerrillas have to be able to hide within a sympathetic population in order to operate successfully. They don't seem to understand that the population, including the rural one, has been purged of anyone who might look the other way or aid them. We have a nice set of ambushes ready for them ourselves."

The rest of the meeting focused on logistics, the number of particular vehicles available, regiments and battalions at the ready, supplies current and in transit, disposition of forces, and so on.

****

On the day of evacuation of Central District commanders set up as many checkpoints as possible on exiting streets in order to funnel as many people as quickly as possible onto the freeway south. Since these checkpoints were often the first and last direct encounter citizens had with the invading NAR forces, they tended to be as abusive as they thought they could get away with. For blacks, that meant unrestrained volleys of epithets and monologues of vituperation usually coming out of every window of their vehicle filled with a few adults, mostly women, and a number of children, each practicing their brand of racial solidarity and disdain for mo'fo' honkies.

Despite the soldiers' best efforts to process the black families out of Central District, the people slowed things down to a crawl with incessant demands for further explanations. It didn't help handing them instruction papers, since they could barely read or understand the simplest directions.

"Where's it say I gotta go?"

"Just follow the arrows, ma'am. They'll get you to the freeway. Soldiers will help you there."

"But how'm ah gonna get this stuff? Don' it say ah get some stuff comin?"

"When you get to Vancouver. Just before Oregon, ma'am."

"Where dat? I don' know no Vancouver. Why you makin' us go. Why you be doin' dis to black folk who nebber did a thing ta you? You's raciss is what. You think ahm yore slave. Ah ain't no one's slave, and you can' make me be yore slave . . ."

"Ma'am, you have to go. Follow those arrows like I said."

"Like you say, hmmph, like I care about what you say. Umm umm umm."

"If you don't leave now, ma'am, I will arrest you and you will go to jail for two years and they will make you work if you want to eat."

"I ain' 'fraid 'a you. You can' scare me . . ."

"Now! Drive on, right now!"

"Like ahm yore bitch, umm umm umm," continuing her monologue as she finally sped away.

To the soldiers, it was a maddening. Most of them had no direct experience of black people prior to this. They understood they were to be despised as invaders, occupiers, conquerors, even as whites under these circumstances, but they'd never encountered out and out stupidity in such massive numbers. Some felt ashamed of thoughts that came to mind about these people, and were repelled not by what some called barbarism, but rather the infantilism. These people seemed no more than wild, ignorant, and crazed children.

How was it possible, many would wonder for years to come, that a sophisticated technological society could harbor an interior population of savages who contributed nothing productive or helpful to it? Why would rational people allow it? It made no sense. Suddenly, it made a great deal more sense to the soldiers (and all their friends and families when they related their experiences back home) as to why they were doing what they were doing. It wasn't just about conquest and gaining wealth for themselves. It was about driving weird, destructive alien creatures out of their midst along with the people who had maintained them here, enabling the insanity.

When the last voluntary vehicles had filtered out of Central District (and various other neighborhoods in the City and Tacoma, the soldiers heaved great sighs of relief and actually looked forward to the next phase of clearing the hold outs. Of which there were a great many, for many people walked over to the checkpoints during the day to give the soldiers a piece of their minds, and gangbangers wandered nearby, taking up positions in yards, on porches, studying the soldiers, trying to assess their armor, equipment, and capabilities.

One woman, in her late twenties, perhaps, disheveled and unkempt, marched her five children, the youngest a toddler, the oldest merely ten, down to a checkpoint and began hollering at the soldiers.

"Ah wanna know where mah money's at? Where's mah money you mother******** white honkies! . . . Ah have fi' chil'run. Fi' chil'run, d'you unnerstan' 'at? You mother******* honkies. Who gonna pay fo' mah chil'run? Sum'un gotta pay fo' mah chil'run. You hear me! You hear me! Mother******* peckerwoods."

She was given a choice of the black bus or to go back home. She gradually retreated, muttering, swearing, yelling, arguing as she went.

If a crowd grew around a checkpoint, many more soldiers would appear with menacing implements of riot control, mostly non-lethal, but not exclusively so. They also had a large number of attack dogs: German Shepherds, Malinois, Pinschers, and Rottweilers.

One weapon they had resembled a shotgun that fired a soft slug that spread on impact into a wide area that felt like the hardest punch in the chest anyone might receive in their life. It had an enervating and demoralizing effect on the recipient. They were also equipped with tasers, pepper spray gel, rubber and plastic bullet AR-15 style rifles.

Squads worked quickly at the first sign of a disturbance. Drivers were instructed to shut off their engines when they came to the checkpoint. If the driver or someone else became too belligerent and uncooperative, they would be immediately tased, pulled from the vehicle, placed in restraints, and quickly put into a windowless bus nearby (depending on their weight, but they'd anticipated that problem and had a low cart to roll them on to and spirit the person away and out of sight). Other passengers were given the choice of driving on or joining their companion. Many joined them since they were related.

The effective and rapid response of the soldiers dismayed the gangbangers.

****

Chinatown and various Asian enclaves of Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese. Korean, Thai, and Laotian were scheduled for a week later. It was complicated with language problems. Many Asians never bothered to learn much English at all, although their children generally did. Although considered to be generally docile and highly conforming as people, Asians often proved stubborn, intransigent, and combative when pushed farther than they felt was acceptable.

The problem this posed was that Asians were clever and smart. The poorer ones would want free goods and might be Pied Pipered into chasing them to Vancouver, but most others could not be incentivized to cooperate in compliant evacuation.

If too many Latinos and Asians refused to relocate, they would shut power, water, and food off in their areas, give it some time as people gave up and gave in, and then clear out the dead enders.

One method to be used was what the army did after the first day of clearing Central District.

At 3 am, units pulled up outside gang houses. Electricity had been shut down for the surrounding block a half hour earlier. Mobile scanners could see through walls and determined how many people were inside, and where they were located. Quiet, light, and agile spider-like robots were directed to positions around the building using various sensors to locate openings such as broken windows, a cracked facade, attic vents, any small opening. If one was found, a beetle bot was sent through it to explore. If the opening was large enough, mosquito drones (much larger than actual mosquitos, but smaller than hummingbirds) were sent in. They had small batteries to power them, but could be supplied with energy by aiming a safe frequency of microwaves towards them from a unit the commando squads used to transport their various drones and robots.

Beetle drones could also fly and had a camera that could view in ordinary light, infra-red, or night vision.

The mosquito drones were called that since they had a fine needle extending from their bodies containing a drug (in this case a curare-like agent) that could be injected. The commandos could have used a knock out gas, but it was difficult to regulate the amount inhaled and might result in death, especially if were children involved.

The drones were electronically tagged so they would appear on the scanner and operators could watch them engage warm bodies.

From what they could see, the house contained nine people spread out in various (assumed) bedrooms. No one was up keeping any kind of watch, using a bathroom or any media to pass the time.

Everyone asleep, though, was behind closed doors. The mosquito drones weren't small enough to crawl under doors so the Captain of the commando squad briefly discussed the matter with his lieutenants and sergeants. He decided to send a walker robot to the front door of the house and see if the door was open. If so, the walker would walk in and start opening bedroom doors to let the mosquito drones inside, one by one until everyone was chemically immobilized. If the front door was locked, then the walker would pound on the door and try to wake everyone up. As doors inside were opened, the drones would fly in and contact the bodies. Once everyone inside was down and accounted for, commandos would enter, put the people in restraints, attach an ankle bracelet to each (similar to wrist ones but more multi-faceted), and transfer the bodies to an awaiting detainment and transport vehicle.

The front door was locked in this case, and so the walker used an arm to slam against the door repeatedly. Watching on the scanner, they could see bodies jump up, some reaching for items close by, guns they assumed, while others, women, they guessed, merely awoke and sat up. People rushed to the doors of their rooms and opened them, conferring with others, but the drones stabbed them with fluid and the people reacted as if actual insects swarmed them, their energetic action helping to disperse the drug more quickly into their systems. Within a minute or so, they began slumping to the floor or in their beds.

With the drones having struck their targets, commandos broke into the house and began processing the inert bodies.

If any neighbors had been awakened, none of them appeared on their porches to see what was going on.

All the gang houses in Central District were thus neutralized that night. If their Intelligence had missed any, they followed up in acquiring data and raiding those. If some houses they raided weren't strictly comprised of gang members, well, that didn't matter.

Immediately following the gang purge, though, water and power was shut off. If people ventured from their homes to raid those of their neighbors for food or water that might remain in their pipes or kitchens, spider robots would run them down and shoot them with a dart, causing them to become immobile and safe for pick up and relocation.

If anyone fired on the robots or commandos who were well armored in lightweight advanced materials, and perfectly safe from small arms fire, they would be fired upon for lethal effect if in the open, or their hiding place would be blasted with explosive rounds to open holes that mosquito drones would use to subdue them. Captured alive, the assailants could look forward to very hard time for many years to come.

In this way, Central District and other ethnic neighborhoods were cleared. Most of those who had been taken by force were transported by bus to the bridge over the Columbia River, pointed south and told to start walking. The ankle bracelets were removed (since they were proprietary technology), replaced by simple shock bands, in case anyone felt defiant or refused to move on.

Washington State had a population of around 8 million people prior to the NAR invasion. No more than 25% of that number were allowed to remain which meant that nearly 6 million people had been funneled south into Portland, Oregon. That state had 5.5 million people. It was an unmitigated calamity.