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. All only to take
five of them down. Oh, EOD? Explosive Ordinance Disposal. The Bomb Squad.
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, alot of 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 struck a chord in me. And with this,
it rang a far greater one.
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. Theories
were proposed as to what they were, and why they attacked. 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 next attack came three days
later in Tuscon, just long enough for the public to have started to wonder
if the attack was a once-only event. 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 force protection Charlie, with west coast bases in Delta. We
were scared. Troops overseas were clamoring to come home and help.
Eventually, even the inactive reserves were called back. The draft was
talked about, but we had enough volunteers (with lots of age waivers), to
cover expansion.
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. I thought it was
especially funny when it was found that a Wiccan's rounds had more effect
than a number of Catholic priests. Our reaction was, well, extreme. This
was a fight against EVIL. A number of mullahs in the sandbox 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 soon 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 state level at a fast rate if they
weren't ignored completely. The federal government was only a little
slower, as the more conservative states gained enough power to point out
that an armed citizenship saved lives. 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 strike. 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 500 pound 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, to
learn to keep out of the view of rooftops and towers. Most of them had
snipers on top 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.
What, with the attacks, most public places are guaranteed 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. Especially when news of the youma's motives came out. They were
feeding on us, on humans. Our energy is what fuels their attacks. Attacks
elsewhere only fueled further attacks, on us and others. China was direly
struck, and became our ally once more. They were unable to maintain their
country as it was under the assault. Everybody had to be armed to hold back
the tide, and you can't oppress an armed people. Iraq and Afghanistan
quickly became some of our staunchest allies. Especially when it was
discovered that the mullahs who preached hate and death were the least
effective in blessing rounds. Common people did better.
The USA showed once again how much war material it could produce when
threatened. We were the largest arms exporter in the world before. Now
we're practically the world's supplier. The new M-20 rifle, 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...
----------------------------------
2nd draft, couple spelling fixes, a little expansion
If you're curious about the essay, it's at:
http://denbeste.nu/external/Mead01.html
Firethorn
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