In honour of the KBR naval counterterrorism contract (previous entry) here's an April 2006 self-reprint. It may make more sense now.......

It's 2016, a decade after the 6/6/06 commencement of The Armageddon Conflict. Australia is at war. Naval vessels, able to stay at sea and away from the Antichrist's terrorists under technological stealth cloaks are occassionally forced, while trudging between the various global "fronts" to sail into ports for replenishments, refurbishment of armamentaria and some time off for the sailors. The boys and girls of Halliburton have every need in readiness to get the job done before there's time to become a missile target.:

As the ships approach the Port of Adelaide, the support system swings into action as Halliburton's program co-ordinates local activity into providing the ship with the quickest return to sea that is humanly possible to provide. Old tanks are sent to the factory while refurbished vehicles, comlplete with fresh crew desert-ready guarding the uranium mines, the Adelaide-Darwin railway and the Papua-Adelaide gas pipes are loaded on board, and local water, stored in the specially built sub-city aquifers (piped from the extraterrestrially-refilled Artesian Basin) and produce are speedily transferred to naval supplies. Refurbished missiles and the extra-effective depleted uranium ammuntion are restocked, and when the sailors have replenished themselves in the local bars and brothels another nautical Death Star is back on the high seas, ready to fight for God.

Unlikely, scenario? Have a read of these paragraphs from a Time article in March: This is the current operational approach of the US Navy to Middle Eastern port visits.

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After the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, the Navy undertook a wide-scale review of contracting procedures, including those involving ship husbanding. As a result of that review, the Navy took several steps to increase the security of ships in foreign ports, but maintained its system of contracting.

Husbanding agents arrange everything from fuel to spare parts to fresh vegetables for vessels at ports of call. More critically, they often provide security, like erecting concrete barriers and what the military calls “force protection.”

Husbanding agents often learn weeks in advance of a ship’s schedule so as to be prepared when the vessel arrives, information that the Navy keeps closely guarded since it could be invaluable in the hands of terrorists. The suicide bombing of the Cole, for instance, occurred less than three hours after the ship had completed mooring in the harbor of Aden, Yemen. “It would have been much more difficult for the bombers to execute the attack without some previous knowledge of the ship's schedule...".

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It doesn't seem so unlikely any more, does it? Especially when you've got a company that's turned South Australia into a One-Stop Apocalypse Shop waiting on standby.

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Original available here.