Sitting in a Gasthaus in Munich, I was trying to enjoy a thankfully silent moment to myself when I noticed one of the new recruits looking around, obviously looking for someone. As he perused the bar his eyes locked on me and he started to walk over. I tried to ward him off with a stern look, but he was apparently a man on a mission.

As he sat at my table, I could tell that he was in an emotional tug-of-war.

"Are the stories true!?" He asked.
"Depends on which stories," I answered.
"The stories about Captain Ryan," He said

"Hmm," I pretended to ponder, I knew what stories he meant, and I knew that they were true.

'Crazy Ryan' was the nickname given to Lt. Charles Ryan two years ago. People across two dozen bases knew the stories, even the civilian workers. The nickname had been given to him during a raid on a soviet V3 base that had been setup in Orange County to deal with the threat from Miramar, Pendleton and North Island. 

He had been assigned to a small strike team that had one purpose and one purpose only...to take out that base. He had come up with a plan that had no hope in hell of working, and more hope of handing the entire west coast over to the soviets. No one believed it would work. They had come over a ridge and when they got their first real look at the base, they froze. What they saw had many of them ready to turn tail and head back to base, explaining to their commanding officer that their was no way in hell that base could be hit from the ground. What they saw were tesla coils, at least half a dozen of them, and enough flak cannons to shoot down anything that flew.

Ryan would hear nothing of it. They had come to do a job and as far as he was concerned, they were going to do it...what he didn't know was how. Pulling out his binoculars, he studied the base. Then he got an idea...an idea that would forever brand him as 'Crazy Ryan'. The idea sounded simple enough, until one really thought it through. He would turn off the tesla coils.

You see, in studying the base from a distance, he had noticed one crucial thing...the base had no tesla reactors. The power was tied directly into one of the main feeds into the state.

"Cut those feeds and the base is a sitting duck," said Ryan.
"With all due respect, Sir, Are you CRAZY!?!?!" asked one of the squad leaders, "are you forgetting that our OWN defenses are also tied into those feeds??”
"Not at all, Sergeant," answered Ryan, "but I only need two minutes".

After detailing the plan to his men, Ryan called Pendleton.

"I need two IFVs and an engineer sent to these coordinates,"
"Roger," came the response.

Within the hour two IFVs came rumbling up the road. After outlining his plan to the engineer, Ryan collected up all the C4 that the unit had brought to destroy the base with.

"Sir," said the squad leader, "you can't do this!”
"Then come up with a better plan," answered Ryan.

The squad leader looked at Ryan, and then looked at the ground.

"I thought so," said Ryan, "we HAVE to take out this base. If we don't then we may as well just hand California over and call it quits".

As the engineer's IFV rumbled off to the main feed station, Ryan moved his IFV just out of range of the tesla coils. He knew this was a long shot and he knew he would probably die in the attempt...but it was the only chance they had.

"Basehopper to Weedkiller," Said Ryan over the radio.
"Weedkiller here," came the reply.
"Give me exactly two minutes," said Ryan, "and not ONE second more."
"But, sir..." the engineer started.

"TWO MINUTES," shouted Ryan, "we can't afford to have the state's defenses down for longer than that".
"Yes, Sir," came the reply.

As Ryan sat there waiting, he wondered how the hell he had convinced himself that he could pull this off. No one in his right mind would be sitting where he was sitting and doing what he was about to do. He had no choice now, if he backed out at this point he would completely kill the respect his men had for him and also kill the only chance they had to take out this base.

After waiting the allotted time, Ryan started moving his IFV toward the base. As the tesla coils began charging up, he started praying that the engineer would be on time. Just as the first arcs of electricity started to reach the top of the coils and he could feel the hairs on the back of his head tingling. Then the tesla coils went silent, not to mention the rest of the base.

Ryan had exactly two minutes.

He moved directly to the V3 launchers and placed the first charges on them, then moved to the barracks, flak cannons and construction yard...and finally the tesla coils, placing just enough C4 on each to destroy it. He knew time was getting extremely short and as he placed the last of the charges, he heard the unmistakable whine of the tesla coils. The base was starting to power back up. Running for his life, Ryan dove into the IFV and punched the accelerator. Dust flew up around him as the vehicle lurched forward and Ryan cut the wheel toward the base exit. 

He could hear the crackling of the tesla coils and knew he was a dead man. Even with the speed of the IFVs there was no way he would get out of range in time. As the IFV bounced and lurched over the terrain, Lt. Ryan's men watched as the first V3 launcher exploded, then another...then it seemed like the entire base blew up at once.

As Lt. Ryan's IFV emerged from the enormous cloud of dust his men cheered.

"You are one crazy S.O.B., Ryan," said the squad leader.

"Well, are they true?" asked the recruit again.
"Probably," I finally answered.

The END

War Stories Index »