Episode 2: The Art of the Assault

Saso, Captain of Monkey StarShip Cent-002, unexpectedly showed up with 169 more monkeys and MonkeySaucers. Gaadmo sternly reminded Saso that he’s supposed to be protecting the entrance to the Rainbow Bridge. Saso told him that a ship from Eridanis is providing cover and everything is under control. Gaadmo gives out an unhappy sigh because the only ship from Eridanis that would be able to get there that quickly had to be traveling at high speed and would be noticed by The Federation. He consoled himself by it being a tiny interstellar ship that couldn’t do much. Maybe The Federation wouldn’t pay much attention to it. He accepted the reality of an incident that had already happened and was beyond his control.

Rusty and FastFish had the only two flyable MonkeySaucers after the disastrous first two MonkeyCombatMissions.. At 00:00 hours on January 2nd, 2084, Gaadmo ordered Rusty to take the first half of MonkeyTeam MT-002A and lead an attack on Borama. The attack failed and Aker was unable to return to the MonkeyPrize.

FastFish, on the other hand, defeated 2 squads with MonkeyTeam MT-002B and succeeded in capturing 1st base at Burao, Somalia. The Space Monkeys discovered “The Mad Mullah” who enthusiastically agreed to ally with them. They also discovered star charts that precisely defined the constellations of the gods with information that could not possibly have been known by earthlings without information from the gods.

MonkeyCombatMission MCM-4 Gaadmo, along with his 4 division leaders (MonkeyTeam MT-064), rendered all of the remaining BWBs at Berbera unflyable but failed to capture the base. Nevertheless, this allowed Purple Penguin and Aker to get to Burao where their MonkeySaucers could be repaired.

Upon return to the MonkeyPrize, Gaadmo ordered a full-out assault on Somalia.

MonkeyTeam MT-003 (Team Captain Ilmatar) defeated 2 squads at Ceerigaabo, capturing a second base of operations.

MonkeyTeam MT-004 (Team Captain Baron) defeated 2 squads at Laasqoray, capturing a third base.

MonkeyTeam MT-005 (Team Captain Apoca) failed to take Qardho, a key location strategically because of the road that passes through it to connect southern Puntland to the northern coast. Apoca, the team captain, was killed. Sam was severely wounded but able to make it back to the MonkeyPrize.

Saso said to Gaadmo, “That so-called full-out assault you ordered was more like a plop, plop, fizzle, fizzle.” Saso volunteered to lead an assault with 6 paw-picked MonkeyTeams from Cent-002 against the 16 squads at Bujumbura, Burgundi. The purpose of his planned mission is to determine if the effort to retrieve Lucy is worth the effort or… if the space monkeys should retreat back across the Rainbow Bridge. In addition to the 8 squads of BWBs, there were 8 squads with two different unknown aircraft types. Gaadmo told Saso, “No. Between the two of our star ships, we can offer eyes-in-the-sky for only 30 MonkeySaucers at a time. You need to experience, first-hand, the situation we’re dealing with before trying to make any strategies. Your idea is good, but it’s not a solution. I’ll decide where we attack and who goes with whom. Capturing the base is high priority, of course, but bringing everybody back is more important. The target is… now you’re gonna love this one little brother… You get to take Old Bosaso and New Bosaso. Is there something wrong, Q?”

Q: Yes. The situation has changed. They moved 2 squads from Mogadishu to New Bosaso. New we’re facing 4. We don’t have enough battery power to take out 4 squads, let alone adding the one at Old Bosaso to the mix.

Gaadmo: We’re too predictable. They figured out where we were going to attack next. Schedule MonkeyTeam MT-006 start an attack at Candala then proceed to New Bosaso to sync up with Saso and MamaZ’s team. Timing is of the essence. Computing the timing is your job. MamaZ, borrow MonkeyTeam MT-048’s saucers. Please bring everybody back, like you did before, and please don’t let my brave little brother foolishly get himself killed.

What Saso knows that Gaadmo doesn’t know is that many star ships from the Confederation are already underway to planet Earth. He doesn’t say anything about it because he does not know how it will take them to arrive. Communications from Earth to the rest of the Confederation are not working.