Death in the Desert

Major Barbara was dead before she hit the ground; the .50 caliber slug passing through her Kevlar helmet, helmet liner, skull and brain tissue as easily as a swallow's darting flight. First Lieutenant Zoe ducked behind the charred hulk of a Honda, hearing muffled sobs behind her as Kay Company sought cover in Las Cruces' ruins. 'Must be Tech Sergeant Nancy' she thought as more shots hummed above their heads. The women had been lovers since the major was given command seven months ago.

'This goddamn town was declared secure', Zoe fumed, seeking a target for her M4A1 carbine and finding none, 'Fucking HQ fucked up again'.

The comm implant in her mastoid bone blipped and PFC Janice said "Shots coming from that office building to our left, ma'am, twelfth story, that row of broken windows."

Zoe keyed into Staff Sgt. Maureen's frequency. "Maureen, it's Zoe, put some explosive rounds through those broken windows on the high rise to our left."

"Yes, ma'am"

'Tactactactac ... tactactactactac ...THOOOMP!!'

The bank of windows erupted in gouts of smoke and flame and bodies spiraled outward to disappear in the rubble below.

First Sergeant Harriet's comm clicked through "Must'a had ammo stored up there. You're in command, Zoe. How do we proceed?"

Zoe swore under her breath, this was the second time this month her senior officers had been taken out and she was in charge. Captain Angela had triggered a Bouncing Betty mine during the mop up in Tucson, spilling her guts on the ground, now this shit. New West Point had been processing and promoting ninety day wonders as fast as it was feasible, but what they needed were officers with combat experience, not some chick wet behind the ears all gung ho to kill Sunnies.

She keyed the six platoon leader's frequencies "This is Zoe. Six troopers on point, the rest single file on both sides of the street. Stay close to the buildings. No firing unless fired upon."

A chorus of "Yes, ma'am's" was the response.

They traversed the city's center meeting no resistance. Frightened faces peered out from doorways and windows, saw cammies not drab brown uniforms and began to offer cans of food and soft drinks to the passing troopers, all of which were politely refused. Those still inhabiting the partially ruined city needed all the supplies they could find, but the gesture was appreciated.

As they moved along, Lance Corporal Margie said "Why'd the Major pull a rookie stunt like breaking cover under fire, ma'am? It's almost like she wanted to die."

"I think she did. Ever since that bubble brained cunt at HQ let it slip that her baby sister had been killed in the final assault on El Paso, Barb began acting strange. Doc Anita told her she should relinquish command and head for the rear for some R and R, but she wouldn't hear of it."

"Hera only knows who her replacement will be," Margie replied. "Maybe it'll be you, ma'am."

"Just what I need," Zoe snorted, "Another goddamn bar and the privilege of wrangling these grunts through another offensive. All I wanna do is put in my time and get back to my gardens. Why the fuck I took ROTC instead of PE in college I'll never know. Oh yeah, I hated PE."

Her comm bleeped "Looks to be the municipal airfield up ahead, Lieutenant, might be a good place to bivouac for the night. It has a good field of fire and seems easy to defend."

Zoe's helmet heads-up indicated it was one of the troops on point, one PFC Alice, a new addition to the company fresh from the repple-depple. She had previous combat experience and would be wearing corporal's stripes soon, if she lived that long.

"Affirmative, Alice. You and the others recce the site and make sure it's secure."

"We're on it, Ma'am."

She shifted to Second Lieutenant Millie's frequency "Millie, I need a bird over that airport up ahead."

"Affirmative," there was a pause, then "Bird aloft, image available ... now," an aerial view of the airport grounds appeared on Zoe's heads-up.

Millie's 'birds' were, in fact, remote controlled drones approximately the body size and wingspan of a Red Tailed Hawk. Constructed of titanium and high impact translucent sheet polymer film, each carried two video cameras with infinite focus lenses. Utilizing twin propellers, front and rear and powered by NiCAD batteries and solar power cells, the 'birds' could remain aloft for hours, relaying real time information to the control station on the ground. Millie joked that if an enemy would yawn, she could tell what they'd had for their last meal.

Zoe keyed the six platoon leader's frequencies again, "We're going to bivouac on the airfield up ahead in the grassy area between the runways. Establish a defense perimeter; tent bubbles in concentric circles, aid station and cook shack in the center. Bring the AAPC's up and let's get rolling."

"Yes, ma'am" came the response.

***

After chow, Zoe crawled inside her bubble tent, stripped down and cleaned herself with moist wipes. What she wouldn't do for a long soak in a hot bath; fat chance of that happening anytime soon. Maybe when they reached Fort Bliss ...

"Hey Zoe, you decent?" said a familiar voice outside the tent. It was Doc Anita.

"Nope, c'mon in."

A tall, thin woman with a shock of auburn hair and firm, uptilted breasts wearing only olive drab skivvie shorts crawled into the tent saying "Damn shame what happened to Barbara. I told her she was losing it, but being the stubborn bitch she was she ignored me. It was her tough shit."

Zoe nodded; she and Anita had been fast friends with benefits since Kay Company had been formed. Anita had never been to medical school, but was drafted into the Med Corps when the crap hit the fan. Since she was in her fourth year of Veterinary College, she was given meatball med training, a Warrant Officer rank and sent to patch up the grunts. She always said her time in Veterinary school wasn't completely wasted because she was still doctoring pussies.

"A shot of red eye, doc?" Zoe said, producing a bottle of Seagram's VO from her knapsack.

"Don't mind if I do." She took a swig from the bottle, swished it around in her mouth, swallowed and smacked her lips. "Damn, that's good. Why can't every town have liquor stores that haven't been destroyed or looted?"

"War's hell, Anita; say, have you tried any of that depilatory cream that came up with the last supply convoy?"

"Yep, gave me a rash. I'll stay hairy, thanks."

"Thanks for the warning. Any wounded?"

"Penny lost a chunk off her left bicep, but that's it."

"Good deal. We're short a dozen troopers as it is and she can still fire a weapon."

"Lance Corporal Betty requesting entry to the lieutenant's quarters, ma'am" came a voice outside the tent.

Anita grinned "Three's a crowd, babe. I'm gone. I hope Cookie has some coffee left." She and Betty exchanged salutations and Betty crawled in the tent, a blanket around her. She was naked underneath. The women embraced, and then lay back together.

Zoe nuzzled the blonde's neck and purred "That was some shootin' Annie."

Betty was a member of Millie's heavy machine gun squad. She could field strip and reassemble a Browning .50 caliber blindfolded and had a natural shooters eye.

"Annie? Who's Annie?" Betty said, cupping Zoe's breast.

"A sharpshootin' woman in the old west, she could shoot a cigar from a man's mouth at thirty paces."

"Mmmm ... I usually hit what I shoot at," Betty sighed as Zoe fingered her pussy. She rolled Zoe on her back and slid between her legs. "It's show time, beautiful."

Zoe moaned appreciatively as her cunt was licked and sucked by her blonde lover. Betty adored how Zoe's pussy tasted and ate it like a starving wolf. Wanting to give her lover even more pleasure, she pushed a moist finger into Zoe's asshole and began frigging it.

"Ahhh ... fuck ... I love your tongue," Zoe gasped. "Yeah ... that's it ... right there ... suck it ... fuck my ass ...ngghhh!"

Zoe crushed Betty's face into her gushing cunt, Betty swallowing the warm juices that filled her mouth, not wanting to spill a drop. She ate Zoe to another orgasm, and then slid up to exchange soul kisses, her face sticky with cum.

"My turn," Zoe growled getting Betty into position, head on the blanket, knees bent, hips in the air and began to feast on her pussy and asshole.

Betty grabbed handfuls of the blanket as Zoe's tongue worked into her puckered hole and her hand frigged the blonde's clit.

"Nnnnn ... yeahhh ... eat my asshole, baby ... fuck me ... make me cum."

Zoe ate Betty's asshole; licking and sucking furiously while she slid her hand into the gasping woman's gooey cunt and began to fist fuck her.

Betty's senses were overloading as her holes were worked over by her sexy lover. Her orgasm hit like a thunderbolt and she erupted, screaming in pleasure, onto Zoe's hand; spraying cum onto her arm and bobbing breasts. Zoe fucked her into another orgasm and eased her to the blanket where they cuddled in the afterglow.

"I love you Zoe," Betty murmured as they shared tender kisses.

"I love you too, baby," Zoe replied, a tear coursing down her cheek. She'd sworn to never care for another woman again after what happened to Sharon, but then she met Betty and what the hell, they might as well try to find happiness in the midst of all this death. Betty spooned against Zoe's back and they slept.

***

Before sunrise, Kay Company moved out in their Hover Armored Personnel Carriers, supported by four Perseus IV Hover Tanks that had arrived quite unexpectedly during the night. As usual, fucking HQ was offline, hence no notification, but Zoe was glad for the fire support. Their rail guns could destroy anything armored or otherwise and their quad .50's could do the mopping up.

The Sunnies had a lot of armor, all captured tracked equipment they couldn't always operate effectively, but they were learning fast and could still do considerable damage with it.

Millie's birds flew ahead of the column with a point squad ranging behind them on hover bikes; the troopers taking turns riding in and on the HAPC's.

Barbara had 'liberated' an AeroKar from an abandoned dealership outside of Las Cruces, painted it in desert camouflage and rode in style. Now it was Zoe's turn to ride with Margie at the wheel.

"Hey Zoe, want a lift?"

She looked up to see a familiar ebony face grinning at her from the commander's hatch on the lead Perseus tank. "Sue Lynn? Where the hell have you been, woman?"

"Hop on, I'll tell ya all about it."

Zoe scrambled up the chain ladder First Lieutenant Sue Lynn tossed down. They kissed and hugged, then Zoe seated herself on the turret and they began their conversation. She and Sue Lynn had first met at the military processing center at Indianapolis, went through boot, were cadets together, had become lovers and remained fast friends. After graduating from New West Point as newly minted 'butter bars', Sue had been assigned to armor and Zoe to the infantry. They saw each other whenever they could.

"My division was up to its keester in Sunnies last week when we retook Phoenix," Sue said. "They'd captured seven batteries of Hellfire's, several 105mm howitzers, a shitload of RPG's and put up quite a fight. I lost some friends that day. We were sent to the rear for R&R and an upgrade on the rail gun sights, then my commander said 'You' and here we are. We still headed for Fort Bliss?"

"Far as I know," Zoe replied. "How Bliss held out for so long when the Sunnies came over the border, I'll never know. I think they were down to eating Road Runners and horny toads before a relief column broke through and we'd pushed the bastards back to Juarez."

"They were low on ammo too," Sue said. "If the Sunnies had any heavy armor or assault troops worth a damn, they would have been royally fucked. That human wave shit only works so often."

The tank whined past an HAPC and a blonde trooper riding on it waved at them. It was Betty. Zoe waved back and blew her a kiss.

"That your latest squeeze?" Sue asked, poking Zoe in the ribs, "She's a looker, babe."

"I honest to God love her," Zoe replied, "And she loves me. She makes me happy."

"Awww, and here I thought I was your woman," Sue cracked, earning an affectionate punch in the shoulder from Zoe.

"You'll always be my best friend with benefits," Zoe said. "What say we get drunk and screw once we get to Bliss, I need to unwind after all this bullshit."

"It's a date ..." Sue began. Zoe's comm bleeped and Millie said "We've got a column of Sunnies headed our way; looks to be about two hundred fifty or so. They've got twelve pieces of tracked armor, fourteen armored Humvees with chain guns, six track mounted SMAW rocket launchers and some MAAWS recoilless rifles mounted on flatbed trucks. Troops are riding on the flatbeds too and there are more riding in canvas topped six-by trucks."

"What the fuck ... this area's supposed to be secured. Where the hell did they come from?"

"I dunno, lemme ask 'em," Millie chuckled, "Anyways they're here."

"How far out?"

"Nineteen miles, moving at a leisurely pace and rather disorganized as usual. Nancy's hoverbike patrol's staying well out in front and checking out any sites the birds see as being good for an ambush."

"Good job, Millie. Buzz me if you see any good sites."

"I copy, Zoe, Millie out."

"What's up?" Sue asked.

"Sunnies, around two hundred fifty or so with tracked armor and missile launchers about eighteen miles up ahead," Zoe replied. "We're outnumbered about three to one, but odds are we're better armed and trained. The AAPC's armor's not that heavy, but they can put up quite a fight with that dual 30mm cannon turret and grenade launchers."

"We're carrying a good mix of sabot and flechette rounds for the main guns, plus our .50's and we can drop AP canisters off the skirts if we get overrun," Sue said.

Zoe's comm bleeped "Zoe? Millie. The road ahead runs parallel to a string of rock outcrops with an arroyo running through the middle about ten miles ahead. It's a great place for an ambush. If you haul ass I think you'll make it in time."

Zoe and Sue began barking commands into their comm's and the company surged forward, turbines whining.

***

Continued economic uncertainty, sharply reduced industrial productivity, significant losses of goods and services, chronic unemployment and rampant currency inflation made the mid-21st Century United States increasingly less inclined to continue as the world's policeman, resulting in the overwhelmingly popular Isolationist Movement of 2026. America retreated within it's own borders espousing a policy of neutrality; engaging only in limited trade and commerce, allowing other superpowers to exert their influences on the world.

In the continuing panoply of world events, few took notice of the emergence of a stealthy and fanatical religious cult in Cambodia calling itself the Oracles of the Sun. Fomenting discord among various countries burgeoning poor populations and then intimidating and subverting their governments, they systematically seized power first over the Pacific Rim nations, then China, the Mid East, Europe, the UK, then South and Central America. By the time the average citizen realized their country was being subjugated, it was much too late. For undetermined reasons, the cult was unable to gain a foothold in Russia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Australia which maintained an uneasy peace with the cult and maintained trade agreements with them.

Being isolationist and having limited contact with outsiders, America was also immune to the cult's direct influences. Since the country was rich in minerals, natural resources and cultivated farmland, the Cult Elders decided that more aggressive measures would need to be taken in order to bring that country to heel.

In the halcyon summer of 2039 the Sunnies struck and America never saw it coming. What home defense measures that did exist were geared more toward internal terrorist attacks and far less against any type of Chemical or Biological warfare. When their suicide agents infiltrated thirty-five major cities and population areas across the US and released aerosol containers of Sarin nerve gas, mutated Anthrax, Bubonic Plague, Ebola and synthetic Endocrine Disruption Compound, tens of millions died immediately, others within hours or days.

The EDC aerosol sprays were the most pernicious and debilitating of all the weapons used. The chemicals produced endocrine disruptors that profoundly affected males leaving many of the surviving men with lowered bone mass, increased passivity and morbid weight gain.

With Washington, DC, New York, Baltimore, much of the BosWash Corridor and many other capital cities like Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami and Los Angeles virtually cleared of all life, state capitols and military installations were the only organized governmental bodies still able to function. In the resulting confusion, the surviving population of the United States was caught off guard when the Sunnies attacked en masse over the Mexican border in vast human waves driving all before them.

The suddenness and rapidity of the attack overwhelmed any initial resistance and the attackers penetrated deeply into the South Western and Middle West states, finally being stopped at the Mississippi River to the east, the Grand Canyon/Colorado River to the west and the North Platte River to the North bypassing numerous pockets of resistance in their desire to conquer as much territory as possible.

The remnants of the elected officials and personnel of the national government gathered together in Bismarck, ND declaring it the new capital of the US. As the Assistant Secretary of Commerce was the sole survivor of the national governments hierarchy, she was named de facto President until elections could be held once again.

Then began the arduous job of creating an offensive force to counterattack and repel the invaders. The immediate problem in raising an army was the lack of physically capable males. Thus the armed services were compelled, despite objections from senior male officers, to initiate the training of women for combat roles. Soon, entire battalions of female warriors were taking to the field to fight the enemy.

***

Engines roaring and popping, the forward scouts of the Sunnie force traveling on mountain bikes thundered along the road past the rock-strewn arroyo, weapons at the ready. Many troops in the oncoming force were more skilled in combat than the usual Sunnie volunteers and conscripts; many being veterans of the San Antonio and Dallas-Ft. Worth campaigns where they had acquired many of their weapons.

Giving a cursory look around and seeing nothing amiss, they headed back to the advancing column of troops and vehicles to report to their commanders. High above them one of Millie's birds watched their every move.

SPC Helen looked up from her field computer screen and said to Zoe "Looks like they bought it, ma'm."

Zoe breathed a sigh of relief. It had taken them longer than expected to reach the arroyo as one of the HAPC's had fouled its right rear impeller blade which slowed them down. They barely had time to conceal themselves before the Sunnie scouts appeared. The troops were crouched behind boulders, while the tanks and HAPC's had, by reversing their impellers, burrowed into the soft sand of the dry stream bed until only their turrets were showing. Lowering their gun barrels, their camouflage made them almost invisible.

"All units," Zoe barked into her mic, "We only have a short time until they come back. Hold fire until the scouts have cleared the other end of the boulders and most of their heavy stuff is between us. Take out the armor first, then the launchers, then the Humvees, then the trucks. Pour it on until nothing moves. We have one chance, so make every shot count."