The Dragon and The Bear

By J.G. Bruce

Like many empires before, the United States and its power on the world stage began to crumble from within. No army known to man would challenge this great nation. It would only fall for a few, those in power those with an agenda. The population kept in the dark by an assortment of distractions. The sloth of a nation would bring it to its knees and leave the door wide open to destruction. A large and powerful group working in the shadows with ties to many nations would work to destroy their only nemeses. Their weapon was complacency their method of attack the media in a war of information. This would leave a planet in turmoil in the ultimate power struggle. In the power vacuum nations would form new empires heading in opposite directions resulting in new alliances. With the loss of the one super power to watch over the worlds affairs no country was safe. Before the dust and smoke could clear, The North American continent would face what they had not known in over two hundred years. Invasion...

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.G. Bruce
• Release date: Sep 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301657636

Book preview

Chapter 1

Looking out over the frozen waste land that lay before him, the thought of never seeing his wife or his home again began to come to the forefront of his thought process. He knew the mission and there was no time for self pity or clouds in judgment. He had to make it back to friendly lines no matter the obstacles, be they himself or the enemy that hunted him. Moving slowly through the ravine he piloted the huge machine tracing the stream that was now frozen over. Hoping to find a way out of the trap they had stepped into. The copilot/gunner was wounded and in and out of conciseness. A fragment had penetrated the cockpit from one of the many rockets and ordinance that had been used against them during the night. In the heat of battle he had taken two hits to his upper shoulder one of the hot metal fragments ripped through his flesh and lodged only an inch from his carotid artery. The other went clear through just under the collar bone and out of his back. Captain Taylor or as he was called by the other officers in his unit Sam knew the wounds his gunner had taken were serious, and without medical attention he might not make it.

Hold on Johnson, from what I’m seeing here were close to the front lines. You’re not going to bleed to death on my watch.

Sam could not see his gunner directly nor could he touch him. But he could monitor him with the onboard cameras that were placed in both cockpits along with others mounted on the body of the A.E.S.A3 (Armor Exeo System 3rd generation) otherwise known as avengers. These armored robotic vehicles were late to the war, but had turned the tide back in favor of the western forces defending North America. And some parts of Australia. Asian forces were caught off guard with the first generation avengers but soon adapted to tactics on how to maneuver around and destroy them, not always an easy task and usually very costly to the enemy units unlucky enough to engage one. Using his override controls, Sam had the ability to operate most of the fire control systems the avenger possessed. In the next few minutes he would put his skills to the test.

His time as an instructor had not prepared him for this situation. He knew all the drills by hard and at this moment he felt confused and dumbfounded. He did not know what he could have done different to change the outcome. Worse he had doubts about their survival. What would Johnson’s wife and two young children do without him? Sam had always been the clown in the unit. All the men enjoyed his humor especially during the hard times. Their first deployment to the battle front over a year before had changed he unit entirely in attitude. They had tasted war first hand. This was not like the civil war that some of them had participated in before. People died also in that war but the savagery could not compare. At all cost he would make it home, one way or another he would see his Vicky.

Beeping at steady tones his treat warning panel began to light up. His avenger was bleeding power almost as fast as his gunner was losing blood. He was down to three power cells these small but powerful batteries were highly volatile and were designed to shut down if damaged, or if the systems began to overload. Of the ten cells all but three had been affected in the previous battle. He was conserving as much energy as he could buy powering down systems like life support including cockpit temp control. The cold seemed to slow down Johnson’s bleeding and that was ok but their hands and feet became numb from the 20 degree weather outside the avenger.

The beeping turned into a steady hi pitched tone telling Sam he had incoming. This third generation avenger had surface to air missiles and a mini Vulcan. At the moment his FFO or (friend or foe) tracker systems were knocked out so he would assume the incoming was hostile. He paned his Vulcan to the North, and waited for any sign of the coming aircraft. Looking down at his weapons control panel he noted he was down to thirty thousand rounds of 25mm and only had three anti air missiles left. This would be a problem if he had to engage in a prolonged fight. A fully operational avenger with all its automated systems would simply determine who were the bad guys and then take them out. Within seconds the warning came off his panel in big red letters. Missile impact. Missile impact . In a split second Sammy squeezed the trigger on his control stick, letting off ten thousand rounds of 25mm taking out two of the three missiles heading his way. He then thrust his legs as hard as he could against his foot pedals. This lunged the avenger forward and then down onto its knees.

Whoosh! Then a deafening explosion where the avenger had ones stood, consumed all visibility for a few seconds. Debris from the explosion slammed into the back of the avenger, rattling violently the crewmen inside. Sam quickly regained his composure and quickly pulled up on his left peddle. Then using both control sticks to push both of the avenger’s huge arms down he stood the machine up. On your feet! he told himself. His ears were still ringing from the missile strike. Moving as fast as he could he began to punch in target solutions for the hostile aircraft that were out there? He could see at least three helicopters on his radar screen, all moving in a circular direction around