Hey everyone. We are going to slow things down a bit. Unfortunately this is a little bit of a filler, but there is still important info in here, so make sure to read or else you will be wondering, later, why I turned certain people into idiots when I really didn't. Don't worry, things will really go boom next chapter. So with that enjoy and please review.
So without further ado, I give you chapter 6.
(Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station: Four weeks later)
President Damian paced the hallways as he killed time before the meeting. In his hand was a half drunk cup of black coffee. All around him, the grey walls added to the dismal atmosphere. More than ever he found himself longing for home. Not the White House, but he wanted his actual home back in Montana. He missed his earlier life. However, it was too late for that now. Now he got to direct the battle for his planet from under two thousand feet of solid granite. Usually he would've done his rounds around the various command centers (NORAD, Northcom, SPADOC, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Center) but he had done that so many times that the commanders had politely and tactfully chased him out with a promise to update him at the next meeting. Having done all that he needed to do, he was reduced to pacing the halls. Shaking his head, he checked his watch.
Show time, he thought to himself as he turned down the next hallway.
Walking just below a jog, he quickly found the meeting room. Unlocking the room, he flipped on the light, and continued to pace. The first to come in was his VP, Hayley Coleman. Surprised to find him there already, she took a stutter step at the door before recovering.
"First time I've seen you early to a meeting," she commented as she organized the papers in her hands.
"Almost. I do believe I was early for all of the debates during the campaign though," he commented with a smile.
"True, but I don't think that mattered to the British Prime Minister when you made him wait," she needled with her own smile.
"Ya, but you know how I feel about him," Damian answered with a sigh.
"True. How did you put it at the end of that meeting..."
"In 1775 we quit caring what you thought about our domestic policy. That has not changed since," he finished with a thin smile.
"Yes, I think it was at that moment that I started to become a regular at the UN instead of you," she answered.
"I do believe it was, but then again you have more patience for that kind of thing," Damian stated.
With that the room fell silent as generals began filling up seats at the conference table. Without anyone saying a word, the relaxed atmosphere was replaced by a much more foreboding and grim one. Each person snapped a quick salute before taking their seat, with a frown. The NSA director in particular seemed uncomfortable as he subtly fidgeted with his suit in the disguise of smoothing it out.
Seeing everyone was present, Damian began, "Alright, let's begin. What's our status?"
"The CIS holds most of the Eastern Seaboard, with the exception of a few hold outs, most notably Boston and Annapolis. The navy was slipping in supplies by sub, but with the bay now locked down by a couple Separatist cruisers, we can't get in. Annapolis has maybe a day or two left at this rate. However, we have been able to bog down their efforts to push inland substantially. With help from our friends in the intelligence community, we have resistance cells popping up wherever they can get a little breathing room," answered the General on the far right, "On the west coast, they have breached our lines on I-10, have crossed the border into Baja. They have slowed their assault on Donner Pass through, and have turned their attention back up to I-5. Here's a map of their gains."
With that, the General pinned the map to a large piece of cork board on the back wall.
The red was splotchy but there was a lot of it. There was a large portion in South America. The two red spots in California were under threat of joining up. And the one on the Canadian/Washington border was sitting right at the northern edge of Seattle. The General went on to explain that large portions of both France and Spain had been overrun. Afghanistan was holding on but it wasn't looking good.
Taking it all in, Hayley spoke next, "What does this do to our strategy?"
"Not a lot," answered another general, "However, Anakin is redeploying himself up to the I-5 corridor and Ahsoka is moving to the Seattle area. It appears that they were able to get intel from a droid commander that that is where the droids plan on focusing their attack. I-10 was just to keep everyone busy. However, it appears that they aren't totally how far they are going to push that area so we are still treating it as an active front. That said, we have another problem surfacing. Director Baits would be best to explain that."
All eyes shifted to the Director as he cleared his throat.
"The CIS has decided to hit below the belt. As we're all aware, they've been targeting cities behind the lines in a firebombing campaign. That wasn't a massive surprise. However, before when they captured an area, they took prisoners. However, that is changing. Intelligence operatives have confirmed that they are running a targeted campaign against civilians now. They have greatly thinned the labor teams via execution and prisoners of any kind, combatant or not are being executed in mass groups. Here are some of the images and frankly if these were black and white I'd say this was a photo out of Natzi Germany," the director explained a deceptively calm tone.
Seeing the photos, Damian could only stare in wordless horror at what he saw. The images were mainly of large holes. Inside were up to twenty or thirty bodies in various uniforms and clothes all lying dead. At the edge various droids were filling in the hole. In another was several people on their knees in what was once Central Park. The leveled blasters made it all to clear what happened within seconds of the photo being taken.
"Damn it. How do we intervene?" the President asked as horror was replaced by rage.
"At the moment, all we can do is win the war. I know it isn't much be we need to be careful. I can tell you for a fact that they wanted us to know about this. I'm sure they made sure that these images got out. This is a form of psychological warfare. We can't do something brash just to save a few people trapped behind enemy lines, and they know it. They want us to give into our emotions and make a mistake they can capitalize on," Director Baits answered.
President Damian wanted to cry out and protest. This wasn't just a few people, this was hundreds if not thousands of people that this was happening to. However, he wasn't a strategist. That was what he had appointed these people for. He was just there to lead and make sure those people did their jobs. If they said there was nothing that could be done, than he was sure that nothing could be done.
"Is this just here in the U.S.?" he asked as his calm professional demeanor returned.
This had an unsettling effect on everyone in the room.
"No," the Director managed to quickly answer, "We have reports coming from as far away as Paris and Kabul to Shanghai and Tokyo."
President Damian let out a sigh. He was at a loss of words and to angry to give a rational set of orders. His first thought was just to empty their nuclear arsenal on the world. If they didn't get the world, than no one did. Then he was reminded of the fact that they were droids and as such could survive the nuclear wasteland that would ensue.
If I do that, I might as well hand it over to them, he thought as he shook his head, unless…
"How hard would it be to slip a nuke onto one of those cruisers?" Hayley asked before Damian got the chance.
This caught everyone's attention. There was silence as the commanders rolled it around in their heads.
"Under the assumption that we could get on board without getting picked out of the sky, not too hard," he answered.
"Hey, we could use it to test out that knew armor we were developing," piped up on of the commanders from the other side of the table.
"True, but it would take some work. We'd need a Republic Gunship. As we learned the hard way, any flak would pick off any of our insertion ships," answered Director Baits.
"Given the plan, I don't see that being an issue," President Damian answered.
"Yes we could. I don't see why not," the Northcom Commander finally answered.
"Yes, but it's important to realize that we can't just continually do this. We would risk doing something akin to burning up the atmosphere. As it is the area under whatever ship we destroy will probably be a radiological mess for quite a while," interjected the Secretary of the Navy.
"True, but once should be fine, and we need whatever advantage we can get at the moment," the commander of NORAD answered.
"Alright then. Let's make it happen," President Damian ordered, "Is there anything else?"
Upon finding nothing else, he dismissed everyone.
(Coruscant: Chancellor's office)
Chancellor Palpatine was staring out the window as he contemplated his next move. He knew he was walking a tightrope. Never in this war had he ordered something this bold, or frankly, savage. However, there was a threat on Earth and since the Force had refused to reveal that threat, he decided he would cover all of his bases and take advantage of his blood thirsty general. However, this came with other issues. This invasion was taking forever. He could only keep Grievous there so long before the Separatists would start questioning the campaign. However, his biggest problem was that he could only keep Republic troops tied up so long, and if news of his "final solution" leaked out, he had no doubts that the Jedi would do more reasoning behind his back. As it was, they were starting to ask some dangerous questions.
However, at the moment he had a Senate meeting. Luckily he had been able to pawn Earth off to the Jedi to answer for, while feeding just enough false info to save them from being on the same page. That said, he needed to end this, and quietly.