DC Evangelion
Chapter 6: The Hard Place
He could barely see in front of him. The smoky haze lingered, heavy with the acrid tang of gunpowder. It irritated his nostrils and he fought the urge to violently sneeze. The wind began to pick up, he could feel it cooling the sweat on his bare skin, clearing away the wisps of smoke. But the smell continued to linger, pervading everything with the stench. He cocked his head, hearing the dull thumps and roars of artillery, broken with the high pitched cracks of rifles and the occasional bursts of machine gunfire.
He heard himself breathing harder. Louder. Faster. He could feel his heart thumping crazily, as thought it would burst out of his chest. He closed his eyes and tried to will himself not to breath so much. For his heart not to beat so loud. It was no use. He opened his eyes and glanced over his shoulder at his battalion. He gripped his rifle tighter and wondered as he looked at his men. Which one of them wouldn't be coming back today? Which one would he be forced to leave behind on the battlefield. And if not today then would it tomorrow? Or the next? It never seemed to end. The war never seemed to end.
He felt a tremor run up his arm. Cold sweat formed his brow and ran down his face, dripping into his eyes. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear them of the stinging sweat and rubbed his forehead with the back of an arm. His legs felt slow and clumsy. He closed his eyes for a moment and then he felt the earth roiling, a trembling accompanied by the tympanic deafening sound of explosions.
Out there other soldiers were locked in mortal combat. Out there other soldiers were fighting, others soldiers were wounded, perhaps dying or hanging on by a thread. And he and his company was their only chance. The only reinforcements they had.
He felt the tremor in his arm still. His breathing slowed. His heart beat softly. He opened his eyes. The fear was gone. The doubt. He lifted his rifle and bellowed, "LET'S GO EASY COMPANY!"
Suddenly the entire world jerked and lurched and he looked around momentarily disoriented and confused.
In his sleep fogged mind, it took him a moment to realize that he wasn't in the middle of the Hell that historians called World War II anymore. He was no longer a mere Sergeant anymore. He glanced down at his shoulder bars and still couldn't believe it when he saw the gleaming stars. He felt like a kid playing dress up. Halloween.
He straightened in his seat and shook his head. Damn, he hadn't dreamed about World War II in years. At least, not since he had been forced to revisit Hell in the few years following the wake of Second Impact.
It was no coincidence that he had been dreaming about it now either. He felt his nostrils flare. Another XT. He had secretly hoped he would be dead and buried before another one appeared. His damn luck sure hadn't changed too much, he thought darkly as he removed his seatbelt and stood up even as the aircraft taxied to a halt.
He strode down the passageway and saw the Air Force pukes cracking open the hatch and the stairs unfolding themselves. The glint in his eye challenged any of them to dare and comment that he should still be in his damn seat like a good little passenger.
None did.
He stuck his head out and squinted at the sprawling cityscape of New Washington nestled in Colorado.
It still felt strange to think of this place as the new seat of government for the United States of America. But after Second Impact, the original Washington D.C. was now underwater and the surviving government had relocated the central hub of government.
He quickly located the White Tower, a gigantic superscraper that was the combination home and office of the President. Not that it was difficult. The White Tower as it's name implied, was a glittering needle of what appeared to be white stone but actually reinforced permacrete, a much more durable form of concrete and for further toughness, was sheathed in over a foot thick slab of transparent armorplast making it capable of shrugging off heavy artillery fire. Standing slightly over 2,000 feet, it was the tallest structure in New Washington as well as the tallest one permitted.
New Washington had been planned from the ground up and unlike other cities, was a model of geometric angles and precision. The White Tower was directly centered in the middle of the entire city which radiated outward from it in as series of concentric rings.
The rest of the city consisted of buildings of three to five stories and domes. The only towers of any height were the Defense Towers. Standing over approximately 1,200 feet, these Towers were only slightly shorter than the old Empire State Building and bristled with heavy multi-barreled chain guns, heavy laser cannons, and entire stories of missile launchers.
Rock took a moment to appreciate the careful and fiendish preparation that the military strategists had taken to site the various Defense Towers in the concentric inner and outer rings of New Washington. Nasty, he decided how they ensured that every single one had interlocking fields of fire. He certainly wouldn't want to try and take this place.
At the bottom of the staircase, he shaded his eyes and peered towards White Tower and saw a trio of helicopters approaching the airport. Even as he watched, two of the helicopters broke off, circling the field with their heavy chain guns tracking as the third and much larger helicopter landed. A group of men and two women dressed in matching black suits and ties leaped out of the passenger compartment, forming a protective wall of human bodies around the youngish looking brown haired man dressed in a gray sports coat with a red tie who exited the copter somewhat clumsily.
Rock found himself glaring at the jeans and white sneakers the man was wearing. He inwardly sighed. Throughout his long career, he had encountered quite a few politicians and other movers and shakers. Some were better or worse, a few competent or at least projected competence. This … guy (he refused to actually call him Mister President) had never really inspired Rock's confidence.
"Mister Chairman," the much younger man said with a nod of greeting.
"Sir," Rock said, giving a minimal inclination of his head.
The President of the United States loosened his tie and irritably asked, "Would you mind telling me just what the Hell is going on here? I was sitting in the Oval Office when the Secret Service comes charging in, hauls me up from behind my desk and throws me into the helicopter. And they all refuse to say anything." he complained. Rock privately thought he sounded like a whining kid.
But he would do his job, Rock reminded himself. He swore an oath all those years ago and he had always kept it. Always. "It's currently classified," he said in a neutral tone of voice.
The President stepped closer and with gritted teeth said, "General, you are the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And I am the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Which if memory serves, makes me your BOSS. You work for me. So what—"
Rock held up a miniature computer, "I need to perform an ID scan, sir. Please hold still for a moment."
The President grimaced but allowed Rock to take his right hand and press it against the screen which lit up and scanned his handprint. Rock released the man's hand and continued to hold the mini-computer which flashed and commenced a new series of identification verifications. Retinal scans, bio-metrics, and a host of other scans were executed.
The computer thought about them, whirring faintly as it processed the data.
/ IDENTITY VERIFIED \
/ LUCAS CARR \
/ PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA \
/ COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF ARMED FORCES \
Lucas "Snapper" Carr, President of the United States of America and Leader of the Free World raised an eyebrow. "Satisfied?" he inquired sarcastically.
Rock tucked the computer away in a pocket, "Yes sir. I apologize sir, but we are currently operating under CODE BLACK."
Carr blinked. "CODE BLACK?" he repeated.
Patiently, as if explaining to someone too dumb to grasp big words, Rock explained slowly, "Yes sir, no classified information of any kind will be transmitted under any medium or frequency except direct personal face to face, physical contact upon stringent identification procedures and protocols to prevent the possibility of interception."
Carr made a sour face, "I know what CODE BLACK is, General. But I thought that CODE BLACK was only used—"
"In times of war." Rock finished, "Correct, sir. We are currently at DEF CON Level One," and smirked inwardly as he saw the little snot pale a bit. He continued in a calm tone of voice, "Approximately a half an hour ago, Fortress Command received an emergency communiqué from Fortress-1. CODE IMPERIOUS. DAMOCLES ALERT."
Damocles Alert was an emergency global alert code adopted by all nations. It was never used in even the most realistic of drills or simulations. For it had only one meaning and one meaning only.
It referred to the legendary Greek fable of Damocles, a ambitious courtier who tried to flatter a King in proclaiming how fortunate he was being a man of great power. To which the King offered to exchange places with Damocles for a day. Damocles immediately accepted and greatly enjoyed being waited on hand and foot. Until he happened to glance upward and suddenly noticed a large sword suspended above his head by a single thread that the King had ordered placed there.
Like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, the Alert referred to a large, oppressive threat hanging over the heads of humanity. It meant Extraterrestrial Incursion. An XT.
Snapper Carr quite eloquently summed up the entire situation. "Oh … shit."
Actually, Rock thought with bitter amusement, that was actually a rather optimistic view of the entire situation.
A/N: General Rock was formerly SGT. Rock of Easy Company, one of the more popular WWII comic books. He and his unit were a group of regular soldiers fighting the Nazis and has since reappeared in the modern DC Universe as a General during the "Worlds at War" storyline in 2001 although it was hinted that this Rock was in fact, an imposter and the actual Sgt. Rock had died in the final days of WWII although it is difficult to say as he has made several cameos in various comics past that era that seem to conflict with that.
He was the quintessential grunt, a "regular dog faced soldier" as he proclaimed himself to be. I vaguely remember reading one story featuring him simply because it was included in a DC Collection of Best Stories digest when I was a kid. I had almost completely forgotten him until DC brought him back for the "Worlds at War" saga as an Army General; basically a fairly logical progression I thought.
I set up the whole dream sequence at the very beginning just to see if anyone would catch the reference and guess who it was. The title was a bit of a clue too from the whole "between a rock and a hard place" phrase.
Easy Company itself is a generic name for Army regiments during WWII, typically they divided up the various units into Able, Baker, Charlie, Delta, and Easy. Today, they are referred to as Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo.
Snapper Carr on the other hand was the original sidekick to the Justice League of America, way back when they actually had sidekicks. He went on to become an interstellar superhero after gaining superpowers, later lost them, went on to become a supporting cast member of the future android Hourman, and most recently was the mentor to Young Justice after their previous advisor, Red Tornado took a leave of absence. I don't think he's appeared in any titles recently but he did manage to show up in the Justice League Animated Series as a TV news reporter. I felt I just had to include him in somewhere and decided to make him President of the US.