Rick Pickles was working in his state-room when the ship's internal intercom buzzed, “Pickles,” he stated, he listened for a few seconds and said, “OK, ask the port master to clear the central dock of commercial shipping and set up an exclusion zone of, say a kilometre landward and ten to seaward. Get the small units off first and over to the Syrian border ASAP.”
Pickles then lifted his com-unit and selected the direct connection to the Prime Minister.
“Hello Rick,“ said Goldbloom, “is everything OK?”
“So far so good, I just wanted to bring you up to date, so far the defence system has taken out eleven Iranian attack aircraft and the missile you know about on Sunday, we have also recorded two unmanned reconnaissance drones flying along the other side of the border. I have just heard that our mobile ground attack vehicles have arrived at Ashdod and are docking as we speak. I'm moving some of them directly to the Jordan and Syrian borders, which we see as the danger areas, but we have much more in reserve. After what Iran has thrown at you over the last few days, I would recommend a surgical attack on Iran, Israel can no longer be accused of making a pre-emptive strike, we are the defenders here.”
“I will need to get the agreement of my inner cabinet,” Goldbloom told Pickles.
“Fair enough, but we need to strike fast, and hard Heidi.”