The Bible has much to say concerning weapons, war,
and self-defense. Perhaps none are more clear and pertinent to the issue
at hand than Luke 22:35-36, "And He said to them, "When I sent you out
without purse and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?'
And they said, 'No, nothing.' And He said to them, 'But now, let him who
has a purse take it along, likewise also a bag, and let him who has no
sword sell his robe and buy one.'"
-Pete Peters
And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no purse
or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." He said
to them, "But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag.
And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one. For I tell you
that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, "And he was reckonned with
the transgessors;" for what is written about has its fulfilment." And they
said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "That is
enough."
The Pacific Militia was larger and better armed than expected, hidden in secret underground military bases, what they referred to as mosses, military operating sites. The existence of mosses had been camoflaged by the building of buried technical operating sites, or tosses. Advertised as environmental relief, the tosses were revealed for the deceptions that they were. The federal government tried to control the proliferation of the subterrean cities, but Pacific had just evaded regulators.
Jackson might not be an expert in military strategy, but even he suspected the network of narcoterrorists spanning the western coast proved instrumental in the rebels's successes in battle. Pacific had decriminalised most illegal drugs, again claiming state sovereignity. Eden's puppet, Assembly Speaker Lightbody, claimed that Pacific knew better how to run its own affairs than the Congress on the other side of the continent. It quickly became a haven for drug smugglers, and illegal immigrants were also given sanctuary. Even when they were tried in federal courts, sympathetic jurors turned them loose. It became so bad, they had to shut down the federal district court in Pacific and move the trials to Los Angeles.
"And Mr. Secretary, this is Ryan Jackson, who as been researching the Pacific aircraft."
"Mr. Secretary."
"Mr. Jackson. Go on."
"Yes, Mr. Secretary. After we received some spectral data from NRO, we deployed additional observers in the field. They were equipped with special cameras and equipment to capture wideband information. We discoverred that their R1 engines generated everything from radio waves to X-rays. No traditional combustion would have this effect. Their exhaust gasses also seemed too hot for chemical combustion. What we did find was minute but definite increase in the amount of helium.
"I'm afraid, gentlemen, that Pacific has discoverred a sustainable method to fuse hydrogen and exploit it in their aircraft. Their primary air-to-air weapon, code named Lancer, is in fact nothing more than beryllium-steel cap in front of one of these fusion based engines. If this is true, we have only seen a fraction of their power. Their fuel tanks could easily lift them to earth orbit; the only limit to their speed and range would be the endurance of the airframes and pilots.
"There is also a risk they could have nuclear weapons which operate
without fission. So far our proliferation controls have depended tracking
hard to refine isotopes of uranium and plutonium. If they are capable of
weapons without these, we will have no method to discover that fact until
after weapons are actually detonated."