Chapter 43: Rules of Peacekeeping

The Masi'shen embassy conference room was full. Ambassador Jon'a-ren and Michael sat at the head and foot of the table, respectively. They were ringed with invited guests from the United Nations, the U.S., France, and Africa. The Masi'shen were preparing to mount a ground-breaking peace-keeping mission in central Africa.

"Explain to me this non-lethal stun technology your forces use, please," Secretary-General Kusnadi asked.

"It is a directed cone of tuned energy," Michael explained. "It affects the body's nerve centers and certain higher-level brain functions for a limited time. The effect can be varied as far as duration, from a brief moment to as long as an hour or more. I'm unable to be more specific, Sir, but I can reassure everyone here that the effect has proven to be non-lethal in all instances. It's not a matter of intensity. Whether a subject receives a weak or a strong stun dosage matters little. It's a matter of field-frequency modulation that determines the effect. This has become the primary self-defense tool of our Peacekeeper forces, along with our body and vehicle armor, and our cloaking technology. With these three technologies, we're able to send our Rangers into hazardous duty areas with great confidence in their safety and the probable success of their assignments."

"You've not caused a fatality, even inadvertently," Deputy U.S. Secretary of State William Adkins asked?

"Not one, Sir. Our Rangers are trained to avoid using the stun field where an adversary is piloting an aircraft or in similar situations where conscious control is required to avoid fatal injury. I'll not guarantee that some unforeseen accident might occur; but we are dedicated to non-lethal means even to the point of risking some personal injury to ourselves."

"Assume for a moment that your Rangers are surprised by an attack from overwhelming air and ground forces; how would your stun defenses be applied?" Adkins asked.

"Without giving away the company secrets, Sir, I'll just mention our delivery systems. We have personal devices, including stun pistols, longer-range rifles, and stun grenades which can be thrown by hand or propelled for longer reach. We also have vehicle-mounted devices, stun cannons if you will. And finally, we have aerial broadcast methods for large area coverage, but not so large that we cannot anticipate and prevent fatal accidents. These are all methods that supplement our basic Ranger training of cloaking, evasion, and non-lethal hand-to-hand methods of subduing an opponent."

"You use no blast weapons to eliminate enemy assault armor or weapons platforms?"

"No, none. You're probably aware of EMP technology, the electro-magnetic pulse effect that was discovered by your military during nuclear weapons testing. We employ EMP technology as either a focused, localized tool or as a wide-area defensive barrier. We can stop a single tank, or a squadron of tanks or an on-coming wave of armored personnel carriers. As you know, an EMP will destroy electrical and electronic systems," Michael said.

"It is common practice for modern military units to employ EMP-shielded systems. What about that?"

"Our systems are a bit different. That's all I can say," Michael answered.

The African Union representative, General Mahmoud Nguma, raised a finger to get attention.

"Mr. Hawthorne, I understand that you intend to place your Peacekeeper Rangers in harm's way guarding the refugee camps and villages from hostile forces. Are you confident that you can intercede without being overrun or losing men, while restricting yourself to this notion of non-lethal defense? And, let me ask from the other side of the problem: it is said the best defense is a good offense. Can you employ your methods in an offensive manner?"

"Yes to both questions, General. We've gained sufficient experience and skill to know with full confidence that we can mount a very effective defense or offense, as needed. And I've been accused of being quite offensive when the need arises," Michael smiled.

"I hope this brief discussion of military methods will suffice for the moment, gentlemen," Ambassador Jon'a-ren interjected. "We have a much more difficult subject to discuss: that of putting our forces into a region where the host governments themselves are an opposing force. I understand that this has been a serious obstacle to humanitarian aid and preventing injury to refugee populations. Is that correct?"

"Yes. Our United Nations aid mission depends on permission from the host government. The government can restrict or deny our people in many ways. We've found ourselves too often frustrated. We've been forced to reduce or withdraw our joint U.N.-African Union personnel. They've been ambushed, kidnapped, held for ransom, tortured and killed. We've been too few, too scattered, too ill-equipped, and obstructed and harassed by both sides," Mr. Kusnadi spoke for his agency heads.