The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 1

Aoloa slipped the helmet over his head, blocking his sight. It took a few moments for the link to activate, and the familiar sensation of his field of vision expanding to 360 degrees occurred. He smiled slightly to himself as the heat signatures of his teammates flared to life, surrounding them in a brilliant corona.

Kanoa's voice came over the link. "Okay, this is a simulation based on the latest data we have. Set your thumpers, everyone, and let's make this fast and efficient!"

Damned mutt, always wants to be in charge of everything. That's okay, we'll still get more kills. We always do. They quickly established their perimeter and slammed their thumpers into the ground. Quickly, the HUD filled with a 3D map of the complex, all their positions marked on it, color-coded by type.

"Kawikani, Koa, Haunani, go knock on the door!" Kanoa's voice ordered, excitement leaking through. The three large blips separated and advanced on the main entrance. It took almost no time for the sound of metal on metal, then the chatter of machine gun fire, to fill his ears. Aoloa held his position near the side walls, waiting for the... Two blips streaked in low and fast, zipping from one tower to the next, until the only sound left was that of the metal doors caving in.

Aoloa charged at a wall while the pack streamed in the, now open, door. Scampering over the wall took no time, and he was slipping in a side door before the defenders could start streaming out to try to deal with the pack and berserkers. I'd feel sorry for them, if they weren't simulations. Almost.

As the colony breached the building, they wordlessly activated their squeakers. Half went up, Aoloa was part of the half going down. He used both knife and pistol, silently killing his way through the complex, searching out all life and extinguishing it. Ten minutes later, the colony began whispering "clear" over the coms. A half hour after that, they'd recovered all data from the computers and left the compound. Another ten minutes, and they were "picked up", and could remove their helmets.

There were thirty of them in the large room. Each stood on a large ball with sensors around them to keep them in place. Iolana and Kahili had suspension gear strapped to their slender frames, the only exception. In one half of the room, the pack was bouncing up and down, fist pumping in their excitement. In the other half, the colony was quietly smiling with bright eyes all around. Even stoic Koa had cracked a hint of a smile on his eight foot frame.

The observation deck above them had people running about, before the voice of their commander crackled to life. "Well done! Excellent job on your final training sim. Go get some rest and then prepare for finals in the morning. You've nearly graduated!"

There was a general groaning as they were reminded there was paperwork involved, too.

---

He stared at the question on the history test before him. "Describe the collapse of the United States and the rise of the United Pacific States." Aoloa had suspected the history essay question would be something like this. He decided to get the easy part down first.

"The coordinated ISIS attack of 2018 was a direct result of lax immigration policies started under Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama and formalized under President Lindsey Graham. The detonation of explosive devices at every major shopping mall on Sunday, July First, at 3PM Eastern time resulted in a massive outcry across the nation. President Graham was forced, at last, to seal the US border and reverse his hawkish policies in the Middle East.

"By the spring of 2019, with Alaska and Hawaii effectively abandoned by the Continental United States' abrupt and extreme isolationism, both seceded and formed the United Pacific States. Hawaii was able to keep its military bases and vessels, in exchanged for a mutual support treaty with the United States."

He paused a moment. What good was a treaty with an isolationist nation, anyway? Probably a formality, more than anything else. Not like the US does anything for the UPS these days, anyway. We took over the treaties with Japan and South Korea. I should probably note that.

"Alaska and Hawaii experienced renewed economic growth. Alaska became a major exporter of oil to various Pacific states and Hawaii's ability to directly trade with other countries greatly reduced the cost of goods coming to the islands. Further, many goods were consolidated in Hawaii before final transfer to Canada, the United States, and Mexico, resulting in robust port activity.

"Unfortunately, the withdrawal of US forces in the Middle East resulted in major instability in the region, which was partially stabilized by Russian and Chinese forces. This resulted in a stalemate as former customers of the two nations became rivals for power. The conflicts were contained, but not resolved as various states supplied various competing groups in an effort to gain power over the region, with Israel desperately seeking to preserve its existence."

He paused again in his writing. So, do I include what I know from a life of military training, or give the official history books' version? Eh, might as well call it like it is. We're all top-secret here.

"Realizing the instability couldn't continue, the UPS government began intense training of special ops forces in both the Hawaiian and Alaskan bases, along with various other locations around the world. The goal was to develop teams capable of precision strikes anywhere in the world, operating with stealth. When Iran revealed it had developed nuclear weapons late in 2028, those troops got their first mission. In one night, they invaded and took out every Iranian nuclear refinement facility and missile factory. There was no evidence left behind to indicate who had executed the attack.

"Despite heavy suspicion, Israel denied all involvement, but no one had any idea who else might have performed such a mission. The second strike, which finally took heat off Israel, was against North Korean nuclear weapons facilities. North Korea's military ambitions were set back a decade." Aoloa found himself smirking. He could almost imagine Kim Jong-Un ranting and raving over that.

"Six months later, every leader of a Muslim Terrorist group was assassinated within a three day period. With this act, the UPS stepped forward, took credit, and offered their services to the UN as the new military super power to fill the void left behind by the United States. This lead to a lot of political wrangling, and an attempted attack on Hawaii by a joint Russian and Chinese naval task force.

"The task force was sunk, and the Russian and Chinese presidents were both assassinated in retribution. When the replacement presidents were vocal about demanding retribution from the UN, they were assassinated as well. The third presidents were, of necessity assassinated as well, with the fourth Russian president still not learning. Discussions of bringing UPS President Jamison on trial for violations of the Geneva convention forces the UPS to point out they were not signatories, and therefor not bound by it. That, along with a veiled threat, put an end to any further discussions about sanctions on the UPS. Further, the Philippines chose to join the UPS in exchange for assistance in eradicating their Militant Islam problems. Japan and South Korea rapidly signed treaties with the UPS.

"Finally, late in 2032, the UN formally acknowledged the UPS as an authorized world military power. For the last thirty-one years, we have held that power has an honer and a duty to the world, to make it a better place."

Aoloa smiled as he set his pencil down, only to realize he'd run ten minutes over time and was late for his calculus final.