I would like to thank Sable Cold for taking on the impressive job of being the Beta Reader for this book. As always reviews are welcome. If you find this is easier to read and follow. Thank Sable Cold and all of his hard work

I do not own Battlestar Galactica or have any connection with them, other than I have seen the shows. And it was a long time ago. I also do not own or have input into the game of Rifts. I don't even play the game. But I do own copies of some of the books, and I have used them for this story.

Chapter 7 Fall Out

Day 45 After the start of the Chinese attack

The President of the United States Alexander 'Will' Patch was sitting deep underground. He was not in DC or even on the east coast of the United States. He was in a new facility, one that was originally planned to be built back in the late 1980's. Unfortunately the fall of the Wall and the end of a super power had stopped all of those types of very expensive plans. With the coming of the Colonials, the Pentagon had dusted them off and quietly sent out bid requests. As soon as they could, ground was broken on these new bunkers.

The President of the United States or POTUS was not here, but in his vacation home in Oregon, high in the mountains. At least that was what the press thought, and that was what was going to be logged as his location on all official documentation. He instead was sitting in a room full of very concerned people deep underground in a bunker that still smelled like fresh paint.

Present were members of all branches of the military, two members from each house of congress, the heads of three different congressional committees and subcommittees, and about half a dozen power brokers that had not been elected to public office of any kind. The room could have held a few dozen more people but it would have been close. It had taken two days to get everyone here but not officially here at the same time.

The head of the Pentagon oversight committee was wrapping up his brief, which had lasted about an hour longer than it needed to in the first place. Before he could sit down, a voice came from one side of the room. "In short, I have been hammered again and again, in public no less, on why the Defense Department does not have any of these walking 'powered battle armored suits' in service for our troopers. That question is now in your court, ladies and gentlemen. So why, with the billions of dollars we are pouring into your black hole, do we still not have them?"

The Army Chief of Staff looked over at the six term Senator like he had a horn growing out of his ear. When the air had been empty of vibration for what seemed like a few minutes, he realized that the congressmen was serious. And when someone that powerful asked a question, you had better answer it or you might not get any more funding for the next few years.

"We have been looking into this for years. Since the first reports came back from New Kobol. But even DARPA says we are decades, if not more, from matching anything like them even in the basic prototype stages. We just don't have the technology base or the money to make a focused push in all of the areas we are behind in compared to the Colonials. DARPA suggests that we find partners to help pay for the development of a broad range of items from outside the United States. According to the reports, and yes, I made sure that they were given to the required committees, we have no idea what is going to be the key technology item. What will it take to allow us to make what they used in Taiwan? Maybe we can make a face project for the public to watch and get behind like those exoskeleton suits a few decades ago?"

He stopped talking for a second to let the idea hang in the air before he dropped the hammer on the political powerhouse. "It's going to cost a bundle and I don't think it will have any payoffs for many years. And it will still cost a bundle."

He did not say anything about the cost overruns it would go through, and how many powerful people would have their fingers in the pies those huge buckets of money would hold for all of those years of effort. He just did not want any of the blowback to fall on his people when any reviews came down and the papers started screaming about all of the wasted money.

This seemed to placate the civilian political leader, at least for the short term. The POTUS drummed his fingers on the table and all of the side bars stopped after a few thumps of those fingers on the polished surface. He made a face before talking to the room. "I think we need to look at making something like these walking tanks even if they are not going to be up to standing toe to toe against what we saw the Colonials deploy in Taiwan. It will keep the public supporting the development cost for the short term. The VP is talking with a small group of other people today about increasing our base of support but I don't know how long that will take or how long we can keep that broad a support. I think it will bear fruit with all the cooperation the attack on Taiwan has generated both domestically and internationally."

The two term President leaned forward over the table top, and he had a set look in his eyes. He was about to lower the boom on someone. "What I would like, is an update as to why two of our Nimitz-class carriers were taken out by the Chinese weapons. How did our updated weapons do by the way, after we got them into positions to fire on the enemy?" He looked right at the head of the Navy. He had been a career navy man before this job, and he wanted to know if he needed to fire someone or more likely many someones. He had already drawn up a short list of people that would be getting a phone call to tell them that their retirement paperwork was preapproved.

The Admiral did not look well, but he pulled out a set of papers from a briefcase at his side. He had expected to be asked about this issue but that didn't mean that he was looking forward to it. He had decided beforehand that he would cover the painful part first. He knew better than to try to sugarcoat the death of almost six thousand sailors. Not to this man. Any other politician he could have played a little buzzword bingo to cover the sting. As he looked back up from those pages, he felt oddly refreshed at not having to play word games.

"Sir, we have been working on updating all of our weapons and systems software in targeting and command and control. Frankly, we thought our self-defenses were up to the task for the five-year short term threats. We have only had a few weeks to review the data that the other battlegroup's ships were able to gather post event. Right now, we think that between 20 and 30 Mach 7 to Mach 22 speed class hyper glide vehicles or HGV's were shot at each of those battle groups. That was enough to swamp them and their escorts. We think that most were shot down or missed, but Nimitz was hit with at least 2 of those weapons. The other carrier was hit once and that was why most of the crew was able to be saved before her back broke and she went down."

"I have ordered a review of every ship in the fleet. I want to see about adding additional protection using both active and passive systems for HGVs and other exotic weapons. I also think we are going to have to start looking at completely building from scratch a fleet that can deal with the types of damage near current weapons will be able to deliver on target. I am not talking about the Colonials, but rather near peer threats from people on this planet for the next decade."

He passed over copies of the top two sheets he had in his hands. "It has also already been brought up about our harbor defenses: We saw that the Chinese could target moving ships, and we saw what they were throwing at the Colonials to keep their atmosphere support pinned down. At this time, I don't think Pearl or any of our other bases could have survived that kind or level of attack, much less that sustained level of bombardment. We know that other nations have been working on first and second generations of HGV's, and now we think that number is going to grow explosively in the next few years after they have been proven to be so effective. Worse, the next time they are used, they might not be just conventionally armed. I think we need to look at maybe copying something from the past."

He stopped talking and looked around the room before continuing. "Our boomers have been using old style sub pens like what Germany used in the 40's, and the Russians were using during the height of the Cold War. I think we might need these types of structures in all of our military ports and bases. I am not just talking about my navy, but a lot of our main bases. We might also want to think about putting them deeper underground. This would be a capital project, but the Colonials have an amazingly strong type of concrete that is still measurably better than anything we can make. If we can't get the formula, maybe we pay to have them build the first few dozen of these new pens. If the Warlord had hit Guam or Tokyo Bay with some of these HGV's instead of firing most of them at the Colonials, we would have been Pearl Harbored."

Copies of three more sheets of paper that had a longer winded explanation of what he had just said were passed around the table. It had all of the current buzzword bingo that some in this room would appreciate embedded within those white pages. He just was trying to get the images of burning ships out of his mind.

When the sheets of paper stopped moving around the table, he went to the next page of the prepared documentation. "That is the bad news. The good news is that our updated missiles, rail guns, ship mounted lasers, and updated radar systems worked as advertised. In fact, they worked against a denser threat and lasted longer before maintenance stand down than in any projections that I could find. When each ship comes in for a long port call at home station, I will have dock crews go over them with a fine-tooth comb. The systems data are currently already under review at our testing centers around the country. I have been getting a few rumors that maybe the ship's crews went above and beyond in keeping some of those laser systems operational. We will find out and hand out a few medals and pass any notes along to the builders of those systems. After surprise had worn off, our people were up to the task."

The head of the US Navy looked around at the raised eyebrows at the news he had just thrown at them. He was very proud of how his people had done. "So far, we know that our rail guns also were outranged by the Chinese cannons. Now ours shot faster and they each had a smaller round than the Chinese weapons. Those rounds also seemed to have slipped through whatever local defense the Chinese had set up. After we told the Taiwanese government about the new systems, they were able to start intercepting the incoming Chinese rail gun rounds with whatever they had on hand, mainly Colonial made KEWs paired with local made Radars to point them. I think the ROC military was taking down up to around twenty percent of the incoming rail gun rounds before the last enemy rail gun was rendered nonoperational. One of our embedded people said that they tried to track ours but they think that whatever the ROC did, it was not successful. The ONI think that we have the on-planet edge for those two systems for now. As far as we have found out, there were no other deployed laser systems of this power, but the final reports are not done as of the start of this meeting." Again, he passed along a number of copies of the draft report to the others in the room.

He had a smile on his face now. If the boss wanted his head, he could have it. He was about to go from hard facts into the intel business. "We now have some confirmation, about something we have been thinking about for a few years now. There is one aspect that the Colonials cannot match at least the US in, and that is in subsurface warfare and transportation."

He looked around the table. "We know that they have at least four underwater combat vessels and at least two underground support bases. We now know that they are all small, and all are very short ranged. They did not leave the Trading Post's waters more than once that we can prove. This might be an area we can exploit in the future. It might also be something we can trade for. I do not think we will maintain that edge for long and the EU is already looking into it."

The President had been the CINCPAC for four years. So this was a subject close to his heart for a few reasons. One was that he had known some of those men and women who had died in the attack rather closely. He had written over a dozen letters, but he could not attend any of the public services. He had taken a page from one of the Bushes instead, and he would slip in on the sly and have a private meeting with the close family. His staff would make sure that this was cleared with the family before his arrival. He did not want to politicize the death of people working under his orders. Even if they had been friends.

"At least it's not all bad news. Get some numbers together on each of the projects you are looking at. You might have to put them in some kind of order of precedence, but I will see what I can do to push it through Congress." He shot a few sidelong looks at some of the people in that part of the government. "I want it done with the intel people and on my desk in thirty days. You're point on this one, for now. If you would please let your team know that I know how they feel. It was not their fault and we can learn from this."

For a few seconds everyone around the table could see on the commander in chief's face that these were not just empty words. They were heartfelt and soul deep. The President did not let the silence carry too long because he knew one of the political monkeys would try to jump into the open quiet and ruin what he was trying to do.

He made eye contact with the person he hoped would have the information he wanted next. "I would like the updated brief on what is going on with the island. That is besides what the news is showing this time."

The last time the CIA had briefed him on the subject of Taiwan, it had only been a rehash of what the world news networks had been showing and talking about for the last few hours. The Director of the CIA had not liked it when her boss had explained that bit of data to her in very off color words that were very rarely heard in the Oval Office. The President had flat out said that if she did things like that again, she will be needing to find a new job, like bagging groceries at the commissary. The rebuke was delivered in various forms for about fifteen minutes that the head of the CIA did not want to relive ever again. It would go down in the annals of the White House staff as one of the most colorful chewing outs that had ever been done in the long history of the White House.

She was still shaken by that flashback, and she did not say anything until after she had readjusted her papers. She put on a fake smile that didn't fool a single person in the room. Not even the Major that was the coffee boy for this meeting. Little did she know that the Major that she had been talking down to before this meeting was a member of the DIA. He had been tasked with doublechecking any and all data coming out of the CIA for the last year.

"Yes Sir, I will try. There is still some spot fighting from small groups on the west side of the island as of a few hours ago. It is assumed that most of those are diehards from the Chinese mainland that have slipped through the ROC lines before the turn of the battle. There was a suspected fifth column attack on a missile factory on the east side of the mountain range last night but I have been reassured that the ROC security services have them in hand. The Colonial heavy units boarded what they are calling a 'landing craft' and have relocated to their own planetside base. We also know that they were reinforced from off planet a few weeks ago."

The room started to react with a low mumbling but she decided not to let that go for long and started talking over them. "We have confirmed reports of over two hundred sets of these large armored weapons platforms under the control of the Colonials. We also note that they are not all of the same design, look, or capabilities. This leads us to believe that it is one of the things that they are short of and that they cannot make replacements for those heavy systems. That does not count what we are told are the 'low tech suits' that we have seen used in growing numbers of joint exercises. It is the odd exception among these suits that are involved in combat, and those are called second generation Hoplites. Those new suits also appear to be helping in SAR or rubble clearing around the battle zones. The island was hit very hard from end to end. The invasion force at first only hit military, military support, government buildings or facilities and infrastructure. That changed when the Colonials escalated with the mixed teams of ROC special forces. Then they started trying to take out anything that looked like an economic target or civilian infrastructure."

The current head of the CIA had been fifth in command of the CIA when this new person became the Commander in Chief. Her next three higher bosses had been fired already, and she was trying not to be the next one to get axed. She had no idea that she had failed already and the POTUS chief of staff was already vetting her replacement. The person he wanted for the job had already turned it down the last three times he had offered it to her. At least this time, she had supplied him with a list of lower level names that knew the job.

"The ROC government is putting equal resources on repairing factories as it is in other public projects and military support bases." The tone the head of the CIA used dripped with contempt. This information was going against every bit of her Ivy League high education. The government should be taking care of the people, not worrying about making things to sell to the rest of the word. That should not be the way things were done in her book. She did not even think about how to pay for billions and billions in damages. She just did not have the frame of reference to think like that, and she had not read about the Marshal plan during or after she had left school a few hundred thousand dollars in debt.

The tone made more than one person look down at their hands. Not so for one of the congressmen sitting across from her. In fact, he used the dead air to put his two cents in. "That makes sense and cents. People need jobs to help them pay taxes used to rebuild everything. And the government needs that tax revenue to pay to rebuild those roads and hospitals as well as restock all of the supplies used during that conflict. That is smart. Someone over there has been thinking about more than how to fight, but also how they were going to rebuild after the fighting is over. Any way we can get a copy of any post war plans they must have drawn up? I know I would like to see it, and I bet FEMA and my governor could use a copy."

It was clear that the head of the CIA did not agree with what the senator had just said but she was at least smart enough not to say anything out loud. With a look from the boss, the Secretary of State spoke next to the whole room. "The Japanese and South Koreans already have their first emergency and disaster response teams on the ground. The USMC has four hundred combat troops and three times that number of support units landed on the island and helping. They currently are under an ROC military commander. All of the ports on the north, west and east side of the island are wrecked to some level. I'm not going to go down the list of pledged help from around the world. It's long and mostly from the normal people and countries giving the normal stuff."

The SecState was an old hand at meetings like this but he still could be surprised. "I would say that I never would have guessed that South Korea, Japan, Philippines, and Taiwan would ever work together. Much less working this closely together. We now assess that this group's joint space plan that NASA has been talking with them about may come into being after all, and before most of those players expect. NASA thinks that they could start launching their first small space station in a year to eighteen months, depending on the rebuilding priorities. The Colonial government said that they will be landing a cargo ship in a few days to help with the recovery in the ground war zone, but that has not been publicly released by any group. We have no idea what that transport might bring in or even how big it might be. We do assess that they will take all the scrap metal when they lift off again. We do know two things about the Colonial offer of support to Taiwan. One, they have offered to help rebuild the island's defenses, and two, they are offering any help they can give in getting their economy back up and running."

That last statement got everyone in the room talking in low voices. "The second thing of note is that the Colonials have offered a thousand seats in their equivalent to high school and college level students for a year. They are offering these seats with a full and free ride to the people of Taiwan. This is the first confirmation of the Colonials having set up higher education infrastructure. It will take some time, but in anywhere between two and six years, depending on economic issues or rebuilding issues that might come up, Taiwan will leap frog the United States in many different areas of technology. This will be because of the direct access to off world technology and the schools teaching their basic and advanced theory. Some factors might slow that down some but not by much. That is, unless they are hit by a major typhoon or something like that." The last statement was only half a joke.

The small room rumbled with side bars as the information was digested by this group of movers and shakers. The US had been in the habit of being the ones with the most cutting edge technology on the whole planet for decades, and now only second to an off planet power. To find out that they might move to second or even third fiddle to a local power was not going to sit well with the voting public and the press. That is, after they had come to accept something like that as fact and not hype. Something was going to have to be done about that or heads would roll. Some of them might not just be figuratively speaking, but literally rolling of those shoulders.

The chairmen for the Defense Oversight Committee was blinking his eyes very quickly and changed the subject. "What are the ROC and their allies planning for mainland China? Do we have any updates as to what is going on inside that massive cluster of a broken country? At least besides what is coming out in the news shows and what the internet is talking about?"

This was a military matter and under this Commander in Chief, it was squarely in the DIA's realm to field if they had the information in the first place. In this case they had a lot of what was being asked about. "Sir, that is our lane. Warlord Zeng Guofan has a lot on his plate right now, thanks to his combat power having been cut down so drastically. I might have said it was gutted but he still has two mostly complete ground armies under his control. That is almost as many ground divisions as the whole US Army currently has on active duty. In the pullout from Taiwan, he was not able retrieve any heavy weapons that he used in his assault besides some helicopters that were able to self-deploy back to the mainland. Everything heavy weapons wise that he landed on the island was lost to him in terms of any future use. Otherwise, see the previous comment about the ground armies.

"He also has lost almost all of his IRBM and MRBM in both TEL's and missiles. We think he might have a dozen missiles that are still flightworthy, with some more he can cannibalize to keep both types working. He will not be able to make any replacements. Not after the Navy and Air Force took care of those factories under his control. He still has a boatload of short ranged and close ranged ballistic missiles, and he can make more of those in a few months. We, or our allies, also hit any firing units or storage facilities in area that were under a different warlord but fired in our general direction during the conflict. It was a good time to take as many of those classes of weapons off the battlefield for general regional stability." The US and allied militaries had not broken any rules, but they had bent a few or just broadly interpreted standing orders to their benefit. It was the whole ask for permission or beg for forgiveness method of war.

"His air force and navy have been gutted with very little recoverable. To be frank, we have no idea how he was able to have that many submarines available for operations in this invasion. He put to sea twice as many hulls as we thought he could under our most optimistic calculations. Until we find out how he did that, we don't know how long it will take for him to recover any meaningful forces in that environment. He still has a lot of smaller warships, call them coastal boats and corvettes, but that is about all they are good for. Anything larger than a frigate or something someone could even vaguely justify hitting was hit with a couple of missiles or otherwise hunted down and sent to the bottom. He should be able to recover and refloat some of those ships that sank in the shallow waters off his coast or those that are sunk in harbors with the amount of support facilities he still has intact."

The DIA briefer had to stop talking as a list of possibly recoverable naval assets were listed on the screens around the room. "His air force's largest item inventory number wise is his fleet of L-15 light attack and training craft. He does have the factory in his territory to make more of those but they are not that much of a threat to Taiwan or anyone else for that matter. He might be able to get a few other factories back in operation but it will take time and money to do so. He could have his main military jet engine factory back on line in 3 to 4 months. That is what his material position is, unless someone comes in on the sly and helps him. DIA assesses that this is very likely to happen in the next few months."

The head of the DIA took a sip of water to help her cover the next part of her prepared briefing. "He made a deal with a few of the other warlords before he launched his attack against the ROC. You all might remember how a certain political party ran all of those ads about peace in that region, and that we should butt out? That was even as we warned that leadership. All those ads did was let him focus on something else besides those competitors of his. Guofan was able to get some support from those warlords because they did not like the Colonials and ROC. We think it was a limited agreement in both scope and time. Now that he is both visibly and military weak, it looks that his little ceasefire has fallen apart around his ears."

The room started to snigger at her comment. "The North Koreans tried again to take back their old part of the Yalu river valley and maybe take Sheyang, but they failed again. Most of Tibet has taken its independence from that warlord but the main train line is still open. Xinjiang is shattering, and that looks to be spreading into other parts under different and smaller warlords' control. Vietnam has not advanced out of the pocket they took before the invasion. We think that might change in the next few months if they see an opening to grab some low hanging fruit. Hong Kong has declared themselves an independent city and it looks to be sticking. They are claiming a lot bigger area than just the city of old Hong Kong. They have been joined by the city of Shenzhen and going all the way down to Macau. Right now, they are claiming a line from Macau to Guangzhou over to Huizhou and down to the Dongshan Sea as 'The City and Territory of Hong Kong'. I would not be surprised if they ask for support soon from the UN or other countries that are not a friend of the old leadership. They have some military troops, a small air force and some PGM's that we know of to enforce their claims. Their ground forces have been majorly boosted by PLA defections and returning POW's that are not happy with their old bosses in other parts of the mainland. That will let them fight off any localized attempt to force them back under the neighboring warlords for the short term."

The President leaned forward and looked down one side of the table. He locked eyes with the US Army's chief of staff. When the two men's eyes had locked, the Commander and Chief spoke. "We will have three brigades of the 82nd working to be in Taiwan by the end of the week. Do you think that you can get the 4th BCT out of Alaska and down to them? I also think that we need to keep enough transport handy to be able to move a percentage of that force on short notice to any hot spots on the mainland that might come up."

The Army Chief of Staff nodded his head. He had been thinking along those same lines. "Sir, they were working up for a big training exercise when this blew up. I had ordered them to stand down from combat alert just last week. I think we can have them loading up in about seventy-two hours, and I think that we can have the first battalion in the air about at the same timeline. I will need some more C-17's to get all them going. When I last checked, some of the C-17's were still on hold for the exercise, and they are still in Alaska. Can I use them? It would be better yet if I can get some extra funds so that we could charter a few wide-bodied cargo jets for their follow on forces instead of waiting on 17's or 5 Mikes and the like."

The head of the USAF was sitting right beside the army general, and so the POTUS could see him nodding his head in agreement to the ground force commander. The two term President smiled. "Good and do it Generals. Make sure you get with State to clear it with the ROC Government before we launch any aircraft towards them. We don't want them thinking that it's part of a second invasion of their island." The joke fell very flat in the room.

The head of DIA waited for her boss to finish and when she received the nod to continue, she did not miss a beat. "Now to get to the congressmen's questions. The ROC military, and leadership for that matter, would love to launch a counter invasion of the mainland, but they frankly can't pull it off. They have been running bombing and missile attacks on the mainland every few days until the UN forced them to that ceasefire with some teeth. Outside of maybe some SF attacks, they seem to be still focusing on getting their house in order before taking any major steps towards the mainland. We think ROC government and higher military echelons might have been surprised by the number and skill of the infiltrators they had to deal with to date. I would not put it past them not to do something later on a lot larger scale than a few bombs and special forces teams. The ROCs are frakking hostile, and they will not forget what someone tried to do to them. They have a case of the red ass and I would bet that they would just love to take a few fingers off someone."

The head of the DIA stopped talking and she got a lost look in her eyes. Then just as quickly she returned to this world with an idea. "Maybe we can point them towards helping in the Hong Kong area? That would defuse some of their anger. We would have to give them some support, and it would have to be very public support."

She looked over at the SecState. "If we get some more good will, maybe we can get some of those seats in those off planet schools. Hell maybe we can talk the Colonials into sending some of their brainiacs to the States for a few years to teach and consult on the side or some extra money. I hear that good aged whisky's a good incentive for them. Maybe offer them a phony barrel of a good private label each year."

The meeting would go on for another hour. Even after the POTUS had left the room and gone back to his cabin upstate. He had a fundraiser he had to get to for his cover story to stick. After all, he had to make sure that no questions would be asked about where he had been for the last four hours, and it was not a short distance from this hidden location in the Rocky Mountains. Plans were laid out between the high level power brokers remaining in that room. The US Congress soon would have new members that were now brought into the loop, and the ground work was laid to start adding fuel to the growing fire of new developments.

That would help to get what needed to be done. Well it started them moving faster, if not getting them done in the short term. While that meeting had been going on, the Vice President was back in DC in his own meetings. He was in a meeting with equally high ranked leaders from Canada, Mexico and a few other localish governments. The cover story for this meeting was modifying the free trade agreement that had been made between these countries years ago. What he really was doing was bringing up one key fact. That they would be better off working together to keep up with the changes coming because of the Colonials. It was a meeting to start talking about forming the North American Alliance (NAA) and with it an elite force to help police it called NEMA. That was the plan, if the VP had his way. This was only the first meeting, but it was the first of many of them.