The holodisplay showed that the Russians and their massive force had pushed twenty kilometers in on what had to be a two hundred kilometer front. Blitzkrieg for them, General Bankole smiled smugly, had been completely denied by the fact that A: they had failed to achieve strategic and tactical surprise, and B: they failed to achieve air dominance over the Europeans. He would commend those Polish fighter pilots soon. But now he had a war to lead, and a twenty kilometer push, while insignificant in the short term, was definitely a threat that had to be dealt with and swiftly.

Being a General in this day and age, was so much different from the days of Alexander the Great, where the greats lead armies from the front and engaged in clashes of sword and shield. Now, as Bankole had found out to his great displeasure, it was all about courting politicians and budget/logistics meetings about how much ammunition could be purchased and how quickly such things could reach the front in a short time were the bread and butter of supreme commanders.

Not much was left to him other than the job of sending the needed supplies to the needed area and encouraging his commanders (sometimes rather forcefully) to attack where they needed and to defend where it was appropriate. The order of the day was defense. There was no way his troops could counter attack in their state, commando raids by Russian Spetsnaz troops had disrupted his forward supply and reinforcement bases and there was just not enough strength to stage a decent breakthrough. For the moment, his field commanders would have to satisfy themselves with preparing defenses and spoiling attacks to keep the Russians off balance. Resistance by attacks on Mother Europe's soil would be fierce, he was sure of that. Bankole sighed, the holodisplay probably wouldn't change today, but his schedule with the emergency European Parliament meeting was sure to give him a headache as bad as if the Russians had pushed all the way to Paris. Such was the way of modern warfare, oh to be back in the days of Alexander!

0600 –Warsaw

The Russians were coming and Captain Illych Sopot was a little nervous. The most violent action he had participated in was leading his infantry battalion, part of the 107th mobile infantry corp, against the dissidents that had opposed the formation of the glorious Federation. Rioting was often a bloody thing but new technologies allowed for nonlethal methods which suited Sopot's conscious. The enemy, in Sopot's experience was a large group of disgruntled men and women who were quickly dispersed by a combination of tear gas, tasers, microwaves and sonic weapons. But this wasn't a riot in the streets. This was war on a battlefield and the Russians weren't armed with merely Molotov cocktails and a few illegal rifles or shotguns. They were a top of the line military force backed by some of the best in military hardware. Sopot's infantry were no match for the new Type 100 Ogre and its massive 140 rifled barrel, or the Ka-65 Howler.

On top of this he had many more men under his command than usual. His company consisted of maybe a hundred men, all of them the cream of the crop, Enforcer Kommandos, full time special forces troops who had a wide range of experience varying from riot control in Poland, to Counterterrorism in France and Spain. These were troops whose capabilities he knew. On the other hand, he had been bolstered by an additional four hundred troops which were Federal Defensemen. Basically they were reservists who half remembered their training and were locals. They weren't given the high tech equipment his Kommandos cherished but they were good troops. They were European after all.

What Sopot groused about most was that he didn't...like having all those troops at his disposal. His mind was small and tactical and he knew he could wield his hundred fighting men and women like a surgeon using a scalpel. With five hundred…it was more akin to a barbarian and his lumpen oak club.

At least he wasn't in charge of the whole defense of Warsaw, that was left to the One star, a Frenchman who commanded a Foreign Legion battle group. The roads had been cleared and the terrain was agreeably flat. Good killing ground Sopot theorized. He directed trenches to be dug because they were after all the best infantry defense since WWI. Mines were laid by his engineer specialists and the trenches were dug quickly with the help of local bulldozers and five hundred men. The tanks and infantry fighting vehicles would wait in the city, ready to bolster the defenses wherever they were needed. A few were on the outskirts camouflaged well behind trees and large shrubs.

At 1000 hours, Sopot began to hear engines and tracks in the distance.

"Enemy approaching." He radioed the colonel in charge of the 107th tactical. "I hear tank tracks." A new screeching sound began to rip through the air "And I hear enemy aircraft-"

"Those are ours Sopot." The German responded in his native language. All European troops, for the sake of communications spoke either French or German. Sopot like most everyone was fluent in both. "Air command notified us twenty minutes ago they were scrambling fighters to meet an air attack. We have close air support groups stacking up now Captain. I will keep you notified if I know more."

Colonel Fieldsebruk was a good man who knew to support his troops Sopot noted as he blew dust out of the ammunition magazine of his Belgian made F2000 assault rifle. The soil and dirt had gotten everywhere. The trenches were built enough so that a man standing in one could be completely covered and merely had to climb up to the firing step to expose little more than his head and rifle to engage. They had even dug little niches for where the elbows could be steadied. They weren't looking too much like the trenches of the first world war yet, although the line of resistance was at least five trenches deep and fifty meters of hell between each one, laced with barbed wire and booby traps where they could place them.

Sopot checked his kit one last time, the assault rifle was good. The 4x optical scope offered thermal imaging which would be more of a distraction during the day but could penetrate smoke and grit if needed. He liked the Belgian weapon although many of the others opted for the French made FAMAS or the H&K German G12 bullpup assault rifle (the most advanced rifle in the battalion actually. The German troops naturally got the first pick). The more enterprising even managed to get their hands on Israeli made Tavor – 21s although Sopot had made a point of not asking too closely about that. Israel had been one of the countries that refused Federation proctorate instead relying mainly on defense shipments from the US as it had traditionally done.

His grenades were within easy reach on his belt, right under the fluorine crystal integrated ballistics armor that were supposedly capable of slowing down rifle rounds enough so that they often were not lethal. He left his spare ammunitions on the firing step, if he needed to move, he would need to move fast and he wouldn't be letting six magazines of ammunition slow him.

His Sig Saur sidearm was located in an American made quickdraw holster on his hip (Sopot had always loved cowboy films), and with the final checks finished he slipped the gas mask that was standard on all Enforcer Kommando helmets into place and activated the advanced Heads Up Display. The camera where his forehead was allowed him real time imaging with all of his squad leaders giving him tactical information that had only been dreamed of in the past, and the tiny GPS tracker placed in the helmet linked him and every troop under his command into the battle computer in the Colonel's command vehicle.

Ready.

The air war was an astounding success, achieving both strategic and tactical surprise against all the foreign aggressor nations which, Dolan was pleased to note, had annihilated almost all the enemy air opposition. If they wanted to fight a war with Israel now, they'd do so with their air forces so crippled it'd take Jesus and his miracle works to heal them. The IDF was already mobilizing their reservists. Israel had long lived on the claim that they could come to full readiness in less than seventy two hours and the wisdom of making military service mandatory became clear to Dolan as she walked between the Counterterrorism wing of the Mossad's headquarters to the IDF wing. The streets outside were brimming with men and women actually walking to their respective posts. Many still wore civilian clothing but a few were already in uniform shepherding the reservists to their places. It suddenly hit Dolan that the enemies of Israel might not have truly understood what it meant when an entire country's population would be mobilized for war. Was it every man and woman between the ages of eighteen and sixty? It was something close to it, and she shivered at the thought that a couple of the friends she had made in this country would be going to war.

Dolan checked the notes on her Macbook one last time as she strode briskly to her next meeting. The interrogation of the prisoner had proved so useful and the follow up was so quick she thought that they might have broken the CIA's and the NSA's speed record on electronic footprint following (it turns out they were about three minutes short but God Damn). The information that had been carefully, figuratively and not so figuratively squeezed out of the terrorist (who was grateful to realize he was not blind but not so grateful about the whole captured part) was a bombshell that was waiting for Dolan to drop on the Generals of the IDF and IAF and INF as well as the Director of the Mossad who would then report to Parliament to discuss how to conduct the war and for their current chancellor to either stay in power or be removed as per the "weekly vote of no confidence". The simple wooden doors belied the power of the men that sat in the room before her. The soldier, gave Dolan a stiff nod before opening the door and shutting it after she had entered.

"Special Agent Dolan." The General in charge of Israel's Naval Forces nodded first. His English was commendably good.

"Sirs." Dolan nodded and set her stuff down quickly and attatched the wireless connector to the projector to start up her presentation. "I know we do not have time for pomp so I will get straight to the briefing."

"Is it wise for an American to be susceptible to such information? The General of the IAF looked between his comrades and Dolan with suspicion.

"Miss Dolan has been a commendable ally in our hunt against terrorist elements in the country." The Mossad Director, Avi Ben Jakob, defended. "And it is at her own request that she give the briefing here to lower the chances of security leak."

"Thank you sir." Dolan said and composed herself before clicking the first slide of her Powerpoint presentation. She had applied neutral gray backgrounds to bland black text points and a few charts. She'd worked on this for maybe ten minutes before arriving.

"I would like to start off by reporting an astounding success by the Air Force. They project that an average of three quarters of the oppositions air assets have been completely annihilated, what is left will probably be left strictly for homeland defense." She said and GENIAF, nodded but still glowered at Dolan and her attempt to soften him up. The Israeli's meant business when it came to war.

"Continuing. It would seem that the information we have retrieved from the terrorist "Subject A" is overwhelmingly correct. As we cannot rely on satellites and our own in field intelligence reports have been murky on the subject, the enemies state of readiness as observed by our air assets was in fact at full strength at the time our preemptive strike hit."

"Miss Dolan" GENINF interrupted, "If the countries of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt were in fact in a state of war time preparedness against our state, why have they not attacked?"

Dolan remembered it was important to give her honest opinion no matter how stupid it was. She'd learned that in the FBI when such stupid observations turned out to not be that stupid. "My guess is General, that our initial attack caught them off guard about what being prepared for war actually meant. It is only my opinion but your question brings me to the second point."

"the countries we have struck at are now moving their respective land and naval forces very aggressively against the borders of Israel; Syria and Lebanon are fortifying their mobile SAM umbrella as we speak over their troops and Turkey's naval forces will be in weapons range of our local ground attack fighters in three hours. Egypt has begun massing troops along the Suez and appear to be preparing rafting operations for some time in the future."

"And we have not received a formal declaration of war." GENIDF noted. "We have already notified the Jordanians about our plight and they are happy to assist us, at least we have one ally here." He seemed to remember that he was interrupting and waved for Dolan to continue.

"Sirs understand that while I briefly noted the defense situation to you all, It is merely the background context needed for the very fact that my investigation will probably lead me to these hostile countries." Dolan paused to let that sink in before continuing. "As you know, the terrorist cells had been operating via the orders of Lebanon. But our intelligence officers have noted that while the country had backed the PLO for such a time, they recently acted by the directive of another country. If we are to discover the true threat to us, we must discover the country that wants us destroyed."

"We have enough problems as is." The GENIAF groused. "we are already outnumbered by the classic three to one, even with Jordanian help. And sorrily they are not as good as us."

"What do you suggest Miss Dolan?" GENIDF ignored the air force general and looked to the FBI agent.

"What I request is a special operations team be placed under Mossad authority to actively investigate this trail and learn the true threat to our nation. This team must be completely off the record, black in other words. If word leaks out to other countries our trail will vanish or worse come around to backstab us. This team in addition to performing behind enemy lines investigations, must also be prepared to travel to other foreign countries that are not so openly hostile to us to complete their role. This will both provide the Mossad with the means to investigate the true motive for the war and also a means to eliminate those responsible for it." she ended the power point.

"How in field and large would this group need to be?" Avi asked.

"I would say at least six men along with their director who would need to be an experienced field agent. They would also need to look Turkish as that is where the trail begins." She said as she shut down her computer. The smell of coffee burned in her nostrils, which told her that she really really needed some. She'd be getting headaches soon.

"When do you leave?" GENIDF said after conversing quietely with his comrades. Dolan actually took a step back in surprise then smiled and chuckled nervously.

"I don't think I'm the right person for this job sir…"

"We have your file." Avi Ben Jakob nodded. "Two years as training officer for the Bureaus Hostage Rescue Team at Quantico. You can shoot, you've done undercover work in Cuba, you can speak Arabic, Russian, Italian, you have a cool head and you know more than anyone else about this business. You said yourself you worried about the security leak."

"I'm also expendable!" the American Israeli said.

"Succintly put. We'll put your team together Special Agent Dolan." GENIDF stood from his chair. "You come up with a way to get into Syria and begin your work."

Maybe coffee wasn't the type of drink Dolan needed at the moment.