“You cut off lines with Strategos?” said Calinga. “Far be it from me to tell you how to do your job, Captain, but won’t that make it difficult for us to get our deployment orders?”
“You won’t get deployment orders,” said Wit. “Even if the lines were open. Strategos won’t send us to China. If orders come through it will be for us to stay put and maintain our position.”
“Why?” said Deen. “The war’s in China.”
“China is the reason why,” said Wit. “They’re a stable state. Strategos won’t send us in without a referendum from the U.N. Security Council and the blessing of the Chinese government, neither of which will likely happen any time soon, if at all. China won’t ask for help.”
“Why not?” asked Deen.
“Because they’re China,” said Wit. “If the landers had set down in Europe or Australia, we’d already be on a plane. China will be less cooperative. They’ll want to handle this alone. Accepting help would be a show of weakness. Their military would take it as an insult. They won’t abide that.”
“This isn’t solely their problem,” said Calinga. “It’s everybody’s.”
“China won’t see it that way. If anything, they’ll see this as an opportunity to assert their strength. If they rid the world of invading aliens, suddenly they’re the strongest nation on Earth. Everyone would think twice before crossing them.”
“Who’s stupid enough to mess with China anyway?” said Calinga.
“The U.S. would have done the same thing,” said Wit. “They don’t want foreign troops on U.S. soil. It feels like a loss of sovereignty. It spooks the civilians and it implies that the nation helping you is stronger than you are. It’s selfish and asinine, but that’s national pride for you. A month from now, after a few million Chinese civilians have died, China may reconsider.”
“You think it will get that bad?” asked Lobo.
“Probably worse,” said Wit. “Think about our approach to alien combat.”
Calinga said, “Analyze before we act and presume hostile intent.”
“Right,” said Wit. “And hostile intent is now a foregone conclusion. They wiped out a few thousand space miners and they turned a U.N. secretary and a few shuttles of reporters into space dust. We can safely assume they’re not carrying gift baskets in those landers.”
“So why did you cut communications with Strategos?” asked Calinga.
“Because I don’t want to disobey a direct order,” said Wit. “I’m going into China. If I never get the order to stay put, then I’m not disobeying it.”
“You’re obviously not going alone,” said Deen. “We’re coming with you.”
“I can’t order any of you to do that,” said Wit. “I can only ask for volunteers. Getting across the border will be difficult. Relations between India and China aren’t rosy. The borders are tight. We won’t be able to take weapons. The Chinese would never let us in. We have to cross as civilians. We can acquire new weapons and gear once we’re in the country.”
“And do what exactly?” asked Deen.
“What we’ve trained to do,” said Wit. “We’ll be fighting an asymmetrical war. Instead of us being the high-tech masters of the battlefield, we will be the low-tech guerrillas trying to sabotage, interfere, strike at key points. We’ll demoralize the enemy so badly, they’ll want to quit. Like the Viet Cong against the U.S., or Castro against Batista, or the Fedayeen against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It will require a much different approach to combat than what we’re used to waging. And we’ll have to make it up and improvise as we go along. We still have no idea what the aliens’ capabilities are.”
“So forty guys against an alien army?” said Deen. “Don’t get me wrong, I like a good fight, but those aren’t promising odds.”
“We won’t be alone,” said Wit. “Everything we learn about the enemy, every effective combat tactic we develop, we’ll share with the Chinese military. If they’re smart, they’ll implement them. And we’ll be watching the Chinese as well. If they do something that works, we’ll implement it. The more we help each other, the more effective we both can be.”
“I thought they didn’t want help,” said Lobo.
“They can’t ask for help,” said Wit. “They don’t officially want help. But the individual squadrons in the thick of things will be grateful to have us. I hope.”
“Where will we get supplies?” asked Calinga.
“Does this mean you’re volunteering?” asked Wit.
“Hell yes,” said Calinga. He turned to the others, “Anyone here not volunteering?”
No one raised their hand.
Calinga turned back and smiled. “Seems unanimous to me. I say we get moving.”
“Not yet,” said Wit. “I need to be clear about what the consequences of this will be. If we trudge off into China, we’ll likely be labeled deserters and court-martialed.”
“The consequences of us not going might be the end of the world,” said Lobo.