November 23, 2003. That was the day of the first published, confirmed
incident in the United States. The day the beings later known as youma
first hit San Francisco, California. One hundred and fifty-seven people
died that day. The monsters just teleported in and went on a rampage. It
ended up taking a SWAT team, some citizens with heavy rifles, and a brave
EOD man who improvised a large mine attached to his truck to take five of
them down. Suddenly the war on terror, Iraq and Afghanistan took a back
seat. Sure, the attack killed less than Pearl Harbor or September 11 did.
It didn't matter. Sure, the mullahs whined that the 'Great Satan' was
reaping his just rewards. They soon learned differently. I had recently
read an essay about the "Jacksonian Tradition". It rung a chord in me. It
was to ring a greater one later.
Me, I took stock of my finances, and ordered a .50 BMG sniper rifle. Cost
me close to $8,000. Took every cent I had saved in my career. Fortunately,
the same day, Barrett had announced that they were going to sell at cost,
plus tool-up costs. They were going to expand. Precipitously. The next
attack came three days later in Tuscan, just long enough for the public to
start wondering if the attack was a once-only event. Aliens, monsters,
radioactive mutations, all the theories expressed in the movies were
proposed. The fact that the bodies decomposed to dust so quickly didn't
help. We didn't know anything but that it took large amounts of damage to
kill them. Until then they were a nightmare out of hell. How little we
knew, and yet, how right we were. The second attack was with six of the
suckers. But Nevada was a different proposition than California, and they
had some warning. Only seventy-eight people died that day. Eight civilians
opened up on the youma, delaying them long enough for many people to escape.
Curiously, one man was more effective that what seemed right. Pastor Jack
Newman's bullets, from a unimposing .38 revolver, did more damage than the
.45's fired by several others. But it was several weeks before this news
came out.
At this point, President Bush started calling up military forces. Every
base was in Charlie, with west coast bases in Delta. We were scared.
Troops overseas were clamoring to come home and help.
The attacks accelerated and spread. We learned that Japan had been
suffering from them, and some 'Sailor Scouts' or 'Sailor Warriors' had been
fighting them. It was discovered that blessed bullets, especially from
certain pious individuals, were more effective. It certainly resulted in
certain priests being, well, marked as fraudulent. Our reaction was, well,
extreme. This was a HOLY fight. Many mullahs were torn apart after their
'blessings' proved less than effective in killing the beasts. After Fort
Carson was attacked, killing 12 soldiers, I was issued an M-16. But that
was discovered to be capable of little more than harassing to the youma.
They had gotten tougher. Well, so did we. You quickly started seeing
weapons worn openly by people. First it was mostly handguns, but people
started carrying the heaviest rifle they owned. I started carrying my
Barrett instead of the M-16, and nobody questioned me. Anti-firearm laws
were repealed at a local level as a fast rate if they weren't ignored
completely. The youma mostly hit population centers, but anywhere people
gathered was a target. We, the military, just couldn't cover everywhere
sufficiently. The NRA and other groups started setting up carefully staged
'parties', complete with .50BMG machinegun demonstration centers... It was
the rebirth of the militia. In Colorado Springs, the local Class 3 arms
dealer happened to be close to a youma attack with his... vehicle. He
managed to dust 3 youma in short order with the two machine guns mounted on
his SUV. This, to me, marked the start of the full restoration of the 2nd
amendment.
Meanwhile, every scrap of evidence about the attacks were gathered up and
analyzed. I heard rumors of new weapons, even as precision-guided artillery
was being set up in strategic points in and around cities. Police were
given GPS devices and hasty training in calling in fire support. I still
remember the how the youma looked shocked when they were hit with the first
artillery strick. For all of six seconds, when the second shell hit. Heck,
at Minot AFB we had a B-52 flying at all times armed with JATO laser guided
bombs. And people around with radios and pointers. Washington D.C. had
alot of the protection, of course, with an A-10 constantly circling between
the white house and congress building. The 30MM rounds from the GAU-8 don't
need any blessings to kill youma. Hotlines were set up so people could call
in attacks. Fast reaction heavy weapon patrols were formed. They usually
finished up what the citizens didn't kill. Youma started to learn, but they
didn't have much of a learning curve, that's for sure. They had a hard
time, even when they popped up in the dozens, learning to keep out of view
of rooftops and towers. Most of them had snipers firing blessed ammunition.
One round usually wouldn't kill one, but they would do rather serious
damage. Three or four rounds would finish most of them off. Of course, it
would be all over when the FRHWP, or 'FRAP', showed up. Heavy machine guns
would keep the youma from charging the HMMWVs long enough for the others to
nail them with RPGs and wire-guided missiles.
Construction codes have been revised again. What, with the attacks, most
public places are guarenteed to be attacked sooner or later. We refuse to
give up our lives for the youma. And that includes gathering. Anyways,
public places have all been reinforced. After all, they have to take
monsters, and the high-caliber response to them. The highest-risk sites
have guards armed with machine guns just in case. Crime has dropped to just
about zero. Everybody's armed, and any gunfire attracts an overwhelming
response.
Sure, we still take casualties. But we're in a fight for HUMANITY. Many of
us view it as the preview of the final coming. Praise god and pass the
ammunition type of thing. Even now, less than a year later, there's talk of
a monument to all those who've fallen to the monsters.
And the talk about pulling out of the other countries evaporated once we
learned that other countries were suffering attacks as great, if not worse
than us. China was direly struck, and became our ally once more. They were
unable to maintain their state as it was under the assault. Everybody had
to be armed to hold back the tide, and you can't oppress an armed people.
The USA showed once again how much war material it could produce when
threatened. We're the largest arms exporter in the world now. The new
M-20, firing an explosive 10MM round is the most popular, followed by the
venerable .50BMG. I've heard some troops are being issued an experimental
variation on the gyrojet round. Supposed to do more damage at longer
ranges. Thing is, if you're that far from youma, you call in for an air
strike or artillery, know what I mean? I hear that we've had some success
in the research on how they manage to teleport in. The other day, I heard
on TV that the youma might be coming using Antarctica as a relay point. If
so, I can see us nuking the area...
----------------------------------
1st draft, probably final, written in about 2 hours.
If you're curious about the essay, it's at:
http://denbeste.nu/external/Mead01.html
Firethorn
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