Chapter 01

Major Developments

November, 2001, Gerry Mannheim sets up his first business, View Port Internet (VPI), and it’s a runaway success. Over the next few years he pours most of his profits back into the business to expand it across the country. He’s operating as a private company well within the law, so he has no need to inform the government of what he’s doing and he sees no reason to do so. He quietly buys the right of way to bury fibre optic cable across the country while only dealing with private land owners and tribal councils. At the time all of the other Internet Service Providers and telecommunications companies in the country are using microwave or satellite systems to bridge the gaps between towns and cities. Within five years of starting VPI every major city and town is connected to the private VPI fibre optic network which is the only nationwide fibre optic cable network, and very few outside of the company know it exists.

VPI offers cheap access, high speed communications by Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones, email, entertainment, and recreational services through games and movie servers as well as the usual Internet services. These are all greatly appreciated by serving Guards personnel, which is why VPI makes placing a fibre optic trunk line into any nearby Guards facility a priority issue when establishing services in an area. These also provide the Swords with easy and cheap communications to their families and friends across the country.

At first only a few bases can make use of the VPI services, but within six years all of the Royal Guards bases are connected to the VPI network. A good business decision because every member of the Royal Guards has their own VPI account to give them access to all of these services wherever they are. That’s over thirty thousand accounts for serving Guards alone, a good reason for providing the services, plus their family members (parents, siblings, spouses, and children) take the total to well over one hundred thousand accounts across the country.

October, 2002, has some major changes in how Gerry Mannheim sees the world and thinks. Kelly’s death is a direct result of the actions of U MAMA. He now puts most of his efforts into thwarting them and making them pay for all of the deaths. He does feel partly responsible for Amy’s death, but he places the main blame on U MAMA because their actions initiated the string of events that ended with Amy’s death. Two of his closest loved ones dead as a direct result of U MAMA acts. He’s out for their blood, and he wants them put out of business.

Gerry’s position gives him access to a lot of privileged information about the activities of U MAMA and their spies. He’s smart enough to realise they’ve spies within the government and they spy on the Royal Guards. He knows anything that becomes very wide spread throughout the Guards will likely become known by the enemy spies when it becomes known to the general community. So he keeps a lot of his special projects very close secrets. What isn’t known can’t be told to others, either intentionally or accidentally.

Gerry’s training and studies in military matters, especially on the importance of information in tactics and strategy, leaves him with a sound understanding of keeping the enemy unaware of your resources and capabilities. Much of the work done on his special projects is done in segregated activities so even the individuals involved aren’t aware of the overall picture or aims. However, not everything can be kept secret, so he spends a lot of time working on suitable commercial operations as reasonable cover stories to hide the important secret military work he does, or his companies do for him.

July, 2005, is the start of Birdman Industries and Birdman Field. By the time the airfield is ready in early 2006 Gerry has finished his studies of aircraft construction and he’s now working on a few aircraft designs. Manufacturing facilities for the aircraft are already being built. The first designs are very fast and very light medium cargo planes made out of Nolar Two. He soon has a range of medium passenger aircraft and private light aircraft in production. The sales of these models helps with the funding of other aircraft projects.

A few other new companies are involved in the design, development, and manufacture of military equipment using Nolar Two and Nolar Three: body armour, combat helmets, small arms, and combat knives. All are far superior to anything else on the market. When Gerry is happy with the specifications, quality, and availability he makes them available for sale to the Royal Guards. Thus he gives them a good combat edge over their opponents. While items are still in the prototype and testing stage he’ll often use them himself to give them a very thorough workout and testing. Nothing is released for general usage until after he’s happy with the product as a final design for reliable long term combat use.

July, 2006, sees Birdman Industries supplying a number of private and civilian commercial aircraft to the region. The latest medium cargo planes also come in a few military versions made from Nolar Three. By mid 2007 the prototypes of their first military fighter aircraft designs are involved in performance test flights with military weaponry while Gerry works on new weapons concepts and designs. In late 2007 revised versions with full combat capability are being designed and flight tested. Alterations are made as new weapons concepts are included in them. Prototypes of his newest fighter planes are ready for testing by mid 2008. Gerry wants a perfect design before he goes into production which will make them public.

All this time only Marcella has any idea Gerry has a hidden agenda. She’s been crucial to the development of his communications network plus some of the special software he developed for it. She also helps him organise the launch of several special satellites built in Europe which are designed for communications and observation. All part of the VPI communications network, or so it seems. Under her able guidance VPI has grown to be the biggest private employer in Berant, and the richest local company. However, much more importantly, VPI has a huge network of fibre optic trunk cables crossing the country to link all of the major towns and cities with a high degree of redundancy. Every town and city has fibre optic cables in the streets linking all of the houses, businesses, and government organisations - including all of the Royal Guards bases. Marcella is aware of this because she worked out Gerry’s agenda early on in her work and she’s been an active participant since then.

Sands of Time

December, 2002, the Strategy and Planning Committee of U MAMA is meeting to discuss the failure of Operation Fulcrum. Not only did it fail to achieve its objectives, but all involved in Berant have vanished. The US based planners are worried if this will lead back to them. All of their people in Berant and Shukra are now missing. This committee comprises the senior members of the U MAMA board, senior associates from the CIA, and senior associates from the US military services. The military and CIA people represent only themselves and their greed, as they’ve no official authority to be involved with U MAMA or any of its operations. They’re involved due to U MAMA giving past operational support and coverage to CIA agents during the Cold War. This resulted in private associations being formed. Now the CIA and military people earn lots of extra money by being involved with U MAMA. For some decades this organisation has been running a number of illicit operations to replace the government of Berant with one they can control. A nice puppet government of some sort that’ll help make them super rich.

The first item on the agenda is the legislation before Congress and the Senate to remove all tax and trade protections the US Military Industry companies have enjoyed for decades. The passing of this legislation will mean a significant increase in their operating costs as well as a big cut in the cream of their profits. Government contracts and sales are written on the basis the protections and tax cuts don’t exist. So the money from the protections goes into the pockets and bank accounts of the companies’ millionaire owners. This legislation will eliminate these extra profits. The secretary reports the legislation has the strong support of the administration and the leaders of both parties in both houses. The members of Congress and the Senate forming the U MAMA lobby groups (i.e. the politicians they own) have been told to vote the party ticket on this or to leave the party. No other choices are being offered. This is an extremely hard line, and one never before seen by them.

The chairman says, “Last week I was asked to visit the Secretary of State. When I arrived I was told the legislation was going through, no matter what. That we’d only ourselves to blame and we have to accept the situation. I was asked to stop agitating in the Houses. I was then shown the evidence which had been provided to the Secretary by the Berant Government. They’ve a full set of the operational plans and planning meeting minutes for Operations Fulcrum and Bright Light. The Berant Government gave them the choice of removing all special tax incentives and trade barriers relating to the military industry and pegging the CIA budget for ten years at last year’s budget less two hundred and fifty million dollars, or the Berant Government will publicly sue all of the departments and agencies of the US Government in the US courts and the International courts for several hundred trillion dollars for unlawful actions against the sovereign government of Berant. Such action would destroy this country and its economy as well as all of our businesses, regardless of the outcome of the court cases. The administration has agreed to King Herbert’s demands. Now we have to live with the results. After the meeting I told our people in Congress to stop fighting because it’s a lost battle.” The other members are shocked by this while they wonder how King Herbert got the plans and minutes.

The senior CIA representative, the committee’s de facto President of Intelligence, says, “There’s another important problem too. For decades the Berant Government has refused to speak about what happens to any people we lose within their borders, they didn’t even admit they exist or existed. They’ve had a major change in policy and they’ve gone public with the information. Copies of the files on all of the people they’ve dealt with have been placed with their Embassy in Washington. Summaries of each file explaining who they were, what they did, and exactly what happened to them, with covering letters, have been sent to their next of kin, the Secretary of State, the person’s last employer of record who are mostly the Department of Defense, CIA, or your people. The letters to the next of kin identify us as the cause for their loss. The Berant Government suggests the next of kin sue us, and even give the name of a law firm prepared to conduct a class action if they get enough people interested in it. My sources inform me the President and both houses are going to publicly support Berant’s actions and rights to the actions about what happened to these people. I’d say it was another part of the deal.”

There’s much discussion by those present as this is a severe blow to U MAMA. All of the people now have to be officially accounted for. Back pay handed out, death bonuses, and the like. A very costly action. After much discussion they decide the only thing they can do is to accept these blows while they plan a stronger and better developed campaign to take control of Berant to recover their costs from Berant itself at a later date. They agree, no more puppet armies from countries they don’t fully control, no more fancy finesse, so they’ll develop a straight forward invasion plan. The CIA is to start gathering information for the invasion planning purposes.

September, 2003, the quarterly meeting of the U MAMA Strategy and Planning Committee is discussing the latest plans against Berant. They’re still trying to assassinate the King and his family, but are getting nowhere. Plans to detonate tactical nuclear weapons fail as the bombs are intercepted and vanish. They’ll try again. The current main hope is the long term plan to identify and deal with all of the significant military forces and authorities within Berant. To this end many sleeper agents and spies have been inserted, they have no involvement with any other operations. Most communications are one-way, out of Berant via blind drop-boxes. Hundreds of agents are gathering lots of information. A battle plan is being prepared, and it’s adjusted when more information is made available. All other areas of business are going reasonably well, only Berant isn’t going how they want it to go.

In keeping with their normal security procedures operatives below the committee aren’t informed of the existence or performance of other operations. This is especially true of the failed operations like the assassination attempts.

December, 2006, the quarterly meeting of the U MAMA Strategy and Planning Committee is discussing their latest plans against Berant again. Things had been developing nicely until May when King Herbert appointed Prince Edward as Royal Protector of the People. U MAMA have no file on a Prince Edward, and he now has significant authority. They need to know how he’s likely to act during their invasion so they can build that into their plans. The plans are ready for action in mid 2007, and are put on hold until they can adjust for this change.

They believe they’ve identified who Prince Edward is in the last two months. There are several Edwards they believe are entitled to be called prince. However, they don’t look into how Berant defines what a prince is, so they use their own definition: the general public meaning. Berant uses it only for the King’s sons, but the U MAMA people list King Herbert’s nephews, cousins, and brothers-in-law. When making the appointment King Herbert spoke of Prince Edward proving his worth as an officer in the Guards - two of the candidates have Guards service. A nephew is a twenty-four year old Junior Captain with no understanding of politics, so it’s unlikely to be him. The other, a brother-in-law, reached the rank of major before a transfer to the Royal Intelligence Service (RIS) as an analyst. The Royal Protector is the de facto head of the RIS. This one has a good grasp of political interactions and realities, but he isn’t prepared to make the hard calls until forced to, usually too late. He’s much more of an academic type who wants to study everything to death before taking any action. Having identified the new player they start amending the plans to deal with the situation so they can contain him when the invasion happens.

In Far View ten days later the Amir Clan are having breakfast in the large dining room when Gerry Mannheim suddenly shivers and he looks across the room to the Great Mother of the Amiri. She’s looking at him, and she nods yes in response to the question in his eyes. She turns to look at Nealla, and he nods agreement. They both go back to their breakfast.

After breakfast Gerry seeks out Nealla and Francine to say, “Nealla, you must pack an overnight bag and go see Shundra. Leave within the hour as her time is short and she must speak with you before she leaves us.” Both the women stare at him. They turn to look at the Great Mother of the Amiri, and she nods yes. He says, “Tell her I feel the winds blow so fast and cold they chill me. I’ve never feared anything in this life, but the storm I see growing behind this current cyclone scares me greatly. She should know this before she speaks to you.” Nealla nods yes before she leaves to pack. Soon after that she leaves for her home village of Koten which she hasn’t visited much since she married Harold.

Arriving in Koten at lunchtime Nealla has the meal with her family before asking her grandmother Shedra, the Great Mother of the Amira, to take her to see Shundra, Nealla’s great grandmother.

While they walk to the house of the old women in the middle of the village Shedra says, “Please don’t tax my mother much, because she has little energy left now.”

“I’ve been sent to speak with her because her time is short and she wishes to speak with me. Although how Gerry knew this is beyond me.”

Shedra slowly nods, “Much of what the Great Falcon knows and does is beyond all of us except mother. Well, then, we must go and see her.”

Entering the innermost room they find Shundra lying on a lounge with a chair close by. The room is very warm and she’s wrapped up in blankets. Seeing them enter she says, “Yes, daughter, this will tax me greatly. But it must be done as I’ve not long now.” She looks at Nealla and nods at the chair. Nealla sits on the chair while Shedra sits on a vacant chair amongst the other women in the room.

Nealla takes Shundra’s hand in hers and says, “Gerry sent me to you saying your time is short and you wish to see me. He also said to tell you, ‘He feels the winds blow so fast and cold they chill him. He’s never feared anything in this life, but the storm he sees growing behind this current cyclone scares him greatly. And I should tell you this before you speak to me.’ Why me, Greatest Mother, why me?”

Shundra smiles at her and says, “Daughter of Koten, first you must learn about yourself. You don’t realise it, but deep within you is a great strength. The granite of these mountains is in your blood and soul. The resilience of the jungle is in your very being as well. During the next few years you must find these parts of you and nurture them because you’ll need them. More importantly, your sister wife, your husband, and the people will need them.” Nealla and all the women present look up at this. “By now you know the mantle your husband prepares for is heavy and it needs many hands to hold it up.” Nealla nods at this reference to the King’s responsibilities. “Know he’ll have to take up this mantle when he’s not ready and not fit. He’ll not hold it long before retiring. But when it comes time to take it up you must provide the strength for you, your sister wife, and your husband to hold the mantle, because the number of helpers will be small. Coming soon upon us is a day when the land will flow with the blood of the Amira, Amiri, and our enemies. Your husband will be harmed in this, emotionally and physically, you must be your family’s strength for a long time after that day.” While gulping hard Nealla nods at this knowledge of her future.

Shundra continues, “Glad am I to have lived long enough to see the Great Falcon as a fledgling. Sad am I to not see him in his full strength. Glad am I not to live through what will launch him from the nest in full flight with his talons out when he rises, screaming defiance and anger at our enemies while he seeks them out to tear them apart. One morning he’ll leave the residence as usual, and he’ll return with wings so wide and strong you’ll wonder how he gets in the door.” After taking a sip of water Shundra says, “Daughter, the day the Great Falcon realises the span of his wings and their strength will be one of great sadness and great joy. Joy at his finally taking full flight, and sadness at the need for that flight. He has much he must, and will, accomplish, but his sorrow will be terrible. As the legends say, ‘His sorrow will be so great that the heavens will weep in sympathy.’ And so they shall, a whole nation shall mourn that day, but he shall lose more and mourn more than the whole nation together. He’ll need you to be strong for your family and to help him to hold your husband up so the mantle won’t be too heavy for your husband. On that day be ready to stand tall and strong, because you’ll be needed by all.” Gulping again Nealla nods her acceptance of this command. Shundra smiles, sighs, and dies. All mourn her passing because she was greatly loved, and she’ll be greatly missed.

December, 2007, the quarterly meeting of the U MAMA Strategy and Planning Committee is again discussing Berant. All of the plans are ready and they need only start the wheels in motion, but they require a minimum of six months to get people ready within Berant. They need to set a date, preferably one when the King is away from Highcliff, the Royal Palace, so the communications disruption will have the maximum effect. A new school named for the King’s daughter killed in Operation Fulcrum is planned to be completed for dedication by King Herbert in October, 2008. They set the day for that date and they adjust the plans to deal with the King’s location at the school.

The plan calls for agents to disrupt all of the communications at the time of the attack mid-morning on the date set. They’ll also ensure the Berant Army can’t react. Overwhelming forces will be sent against the King’s entourage, Highcliff, the second (Dareena) and third (Amarant) largest cities as well. The forces against the King and Amarant are combined to act as one force. The plan also calls for an attack at View Port to capture the King’s children as well as other family members at the schools. Internal agents are already in place and they’ll be supported by two regiments of paratroopers to capture the capital, Berana, the largest city.

Capture of the cities will enable them to use the populations as hostages. The main Guards coordination is at Highcliff and they think Prince Edward will be at Highcliff or with the King, these strikes will ensure he’s countered. The communications disruption will ensure a delay of notification of the attacks to disrupt the defensive responses to them through the lack of coordination. A large amphibious invasion force will land near Highcliff and move through the country subduing the rest of the population. They’re landing there because that’s the most likely area to resist since it’s the King’s tribal homelands. They plan to take out the toughest locals before they can get properly organised. As well as the many thousands of vicious mercenaries they hired as the core of the attack forces with the worst in the force sent against the king they’ll be borrowing a lot of equipment and thousands of troops from the US military services. They think with such a large force of well-trained troops, instead of the local yokels they’ve used in the past, it’ll be a quick operation. No troops from any small Asian country can be as good as US troops, not in their eyes. Everyone will be back from their ‘training exercises’ before anyone at the Pentagon realises it wasn’t an approved exercise. They issue the orders to start the ball rolling for an invasion of Berant on 21 October, 2008. Their losses are expected to be very small, if any at all.

For the next several months little of significant importance happens in either country that’s not part of the plans of either participant in the conflict. All goes well while both sides prepare for future events, one side to defend themselves, and one side to attack the other.

Tuesday - 21 October, 2008

The day starts early for the Amir Clan today. Up in the pre-dawn darkness, get dressed, and a short drive to the View Port Cemetery. A dawn prayer service in memory of Kelly Amir who was killed six years earlier just a few weeks short of her twelfth birthday, and Amy Jones who died trying to rescue Kelly. Sixteen year old Gerry Mannheim says a special prayer for Amy, his first lover. The whole clan is present at their joint grave. It’s a particularly poignant service this year. Mid-morning King Herbert and Queen Lara will be conducting the official opening of the new Kelly Amir Primary School. King Edward will be on the same road in Amarant to dedicate a new building at the North Amarant High School as the Amy Jones Gymnasium. Amarant was her home town. Many other family members will also be there. Later, all of them will be taking part in a joint ceremony with the US Ambassador at the lunchtime opening of a nearby joint research facility.

Afterwards at breakfast in Far View five year old Amarayah, Gerry’s eldest daughter, asks, “Father, may I go to Amarant with grandfather today? Sunara’s mother is taking her to visit family there. We can keep each other company on the trip.” Sunara is the ten year old daughter of a distant cousin, she has Down’s Syndrome and has the development level of a six year old. Gerry has been helping to look after Sunny by acting as a de facto brother and father since her father died when she was four years old.

A smiling Gerry looks along the table to Sunara as he asks, “Sunny, do you think you can keep her under control and behaving for that long?” A happy Sunny nods her head. Amarayah is her best friend. Turning to Amarayah he says, “Well, my little Ray, you can go. Pay attention to Sunny, and keep out of trouble.” Both girls have wide smiles because they’re very happy to be spending the day together instead of apart.

While he eats breakfast Gerry reviews the security plans for the trip. Normally the King and Queen, Gerry’s parents, will each travel with a platoon of A Company, 1st Claymore, as security. Because so many of the Royal Family will be in Amarant he’s organised for extra security. Last night two companies of the 1st Claymore deployed to North Amarant and they’re waiting just a few blocks from the schools, if needed. A third platoon will go along to provide security for King Edward’s party. Four hundred and eighty-five well-trained Royal Guards; they should be able to handle just about anything bad he can think of, and the Royal entourage has many retired Guards as well. He’s quite sure his daughter is safe.

Turning, he smiles at his sister, Carly. She and her husband, Robert, will be at the View Port High School on behalf of the King to present some scholarships. A special assembly has been called at 10:00 a.m. for the presentations. She loves making public speeches, and she’s a great help to their parents. By taking on many of the minor public relations tasks, like this one, she frees their parents from having to do them. Giving them more time for their family and other tasks. It also helps with security because many people think Carly and Robert will be the next King and Queen. Carly and Robert like being in the public eye, but they know they aren’t any good at the management tasks. So they do the public relations work, and run interference for Francine and Harold who are the Royal understudies. Harold is going to Amarant as well, as part of his training. Francine is shopping in View Port today.

After breakfast Gerry helps Amarayah dress in her prettiest dress, a sky-blue pure-wool dress that comes down to the top of her ankles. She also puts her new charm bracelet on her ankle. The charms were hand made by Gerry for her fifth birthday present from him three weeks ago. She likes wearing it, but she doesn’t like it hitting the back of her hand, so she wears it on her ankle. The silver charms go well with her dark blue shoes, light blue stockings, and sky-blue dress. She also wears a nice thick wool coat and hat for the start of the journey because it’s a cold morning. They both enjoy time together doing the day to day activities of a normal family life. After the Amarant party leaves at 7:30 a.m. Gerry gets ready for school in View Port.

Arriving at school at 8:55 a.m. Gerry checks on the Mountain Falcon he’s caring for in the school’s animal husbandry unit. The bird was flying over the town when someone shot its wing. He’s been caring for it through its convalescence in a large aviary at the school’s agricultural section. He feels an affinity for the bird because it’s the emblem of his clan, and it’s the largest of the four species of falcon in the region. Like Gerry, it’s also known as the Great Falcon. It’s doing well and it should be free to fly away soon. The bird hasn’t allowed anyone else near it, yet it lets Gerry treat it as a pet. Everyone is quite amazed it allows him to handle it. When the vet treated its injury it sat quietly in Gerry’s hands while he spoke to it, which was a great surprise to the vet who treats a lot of hurt wildlife.

Alarms Sound

After spending a long time talking to the falcon Gerry is cutting through the gym on his way to the auditorium for the presentations. He stops to wash his hands, uses the toilet, and washes his hands again. At 9:42 a.m. he exits the wash room and looks out the hall windows, where he sees armed men in combat fatigues running across the grounds toward the auditorium. Being careful not to be seen he looks further out the window. There’s over a company of soldiers out there. Activating his personal radio he says, “Viper, Viper, Falcon Nine declaring Viper Black, View Port High School. High-school area is Mandrake, repeat Mandrake. Out.” These codes alert all of the clan members and their security teams of an immediate armed assault by a large force at the high school and he’s telling them not to resist at the high school. Switching to a general frequency he says, “Clay Comm, urgent, Clay Comm, urgent, Falcon Nine declaring Case Omega Extreme, go Defcon Minus, Viper Black View Port High School. Out.” The extra codes declare a major armed invasion and for all Guards units to go to a war footing. He can’t see any other reason for so many troops here, so he’s acting like it is a major invasion until events prove him wrong in the assumption.