A Prelude to World War III:

The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America

Book One of the World War III Series

By James Rosone & Miranda Watson

Copyright Information

©2015, 2018, James Rosone and Miranda Watson, in conjunction with Front Line Publishing, Inc. Except as provided by the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Disclaimer

This book is fictional in nature. Any resemblance to persons or events in actual existence is merely coincidental. The views expressed in the book are the views held by the characters and are not reflective of the authors’ personal views.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Stage is Set

Chapter 2: Kings and Pawns

Chapter 3: Comrades

Chapter 4: Whole Grains

Chapter 5: Alliances

Chapter 6: Saving the Mounties

Chapter 7: Infiltration

Chapter 8: South of the Border

Chapter 9: Escalation

Chapter 10: America Under Attack

Chapter 11: The Chosen People

Chapter 12: Day Zero

Chapter 13: The Dragon Awakens

Chapter 14: European Craziness

Chapter 15: Operation Red Dragon

Chapter 16: Unholy War

Chapter 17: The Day America Changed Forever

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key

Chapter 1

The Stage is Set

Some news creeps over time. It may not steal headlines because of its slow progress, but its significance can come to overshadow all other events in the world.

Beginning in the 1960s, the border between India and Pakistan became one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world. Tensions over who would ultimately control the resources and water flow of the Kashmir Province were compounded by a natural distaste of each group for one another along religious lines. The more radical Muslims of Pakistan found the idea of hundreds of Hindu gods in India to be disgraceful and repulsive on a level that inspired widespread hatred.

For decades, the only thing that kept these countries from engaging in all-out warfare was the knowledge that each country possessed nuclear weapons. However, this standoff was bound to end eventually. There was simply too much loathing and abhorrence between the two parties for peace to really be successful. By 2024, both sides had deployed numerous intelligence assets into each other’s countries to try and detect weak points in security. It was only a matter of time until one was found and then exploited.

During the late 2010s and early 2020s, the various Islamic extremist groups steadily united under one banner and organization, the Islamic State. This merging of groups and resources strengthened their ability to influence politics, policies, and various regimes throughout the world. Then their strategy of violent and continuous conflict shifted to education, spreading extremist teachings and infiltrating various political offices in Europe and North America to further their agendas. This dramatically increased their support base and political influence across the globe. Like the mafia, they enforced their rules and positions within their organization, and like the mob, they had a front man with the true leader hiding in the shadows.

Their leader was a man named Mohammed Abbas, a man who hid in plain sight. He was a distinguished Saudi prince in his late fifties, responsible for diversifying the Saudi Arabian economy so it would not be solely dependent on oil. In his younger years, Mohammed had fought with Al Qaeda forces in Iraq and then later in Afghanistan before he was wounded and forced to return to Saudi Arabia.

After surviving his participation in the global jihad, Mohammed maintained his allegiance with Al Qaeda, albeit secretly. He knew being a foot soldier would ultimately get him killed, so he opted to pursue the leadership track. He smartly leveraged his position in the royal family to pursue a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics. Upon completion of his education, he returned to Saudi Arabia and worked his way through the ranks of the Ministry of Industry and Science. Meanwhile, in his secret life, he became very influential within the Islamic State and led the change in strategies within the organization.

After a decade of planning, the Islamic State was preparing for their first major military operation in Pakistan. The next few weeks would set in motion a series of events that would change the world. The air was rife with anticipation. If things went according to plan, then the ensuing war between Pakistan and India would be the first pawn to fall in this global game of chess.

*******

Mohammed woke up early one morning, shortly before it all began, and opened the laptop in his apartment bedroom for a video chat with the Director of Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, Zaheer Akthar. As the chat window opened, Mohammed watched his ally take a seat in his office chair, a fancy leather number that was a little too expensive for his position. Influence could be gained in many ways—Zaheer liked the finer things in life and was willing to do quite a bit in order to take a shortcut to prosperity. Mohammed was more than happy to oblige Zaheer’s tastes to buy his undying loyalty.

“As-Salaam Alaikum,” began Mohammed. The greeting had all the fervor of a truly devoted man.

“Alaikum As-Salaam,” replied Zaheer.

“Are your operatives in India ready for the big day?”

“Yes, Mohammed. My most trusted commanders have ensured the assets are in place throughout India. The weapons are in place, and everything is ready for the coming operation.”

Mohammed leaned in to the video camera. “Zaheer, it is imperative that this operation goes according to the plan. This is the first domino of many that needs to fall for our strategy to work.”

“My men understand, Mohammed, as do I. Once the shooting starts, this conflict will turn nuclear quickly. When this happens, I will ensure the President launches our nuclear weapons in retaliation. I have guaranteed that enough evidence will be found to directly link these attacks to the ISI, which will force the Indians to respond,” said Zaheer confidently.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Mohammed nodded. “Just make sure you are at your safe location when this starts. I’ll need you here in Saudi Arabia for the next phase.”

“As you wish, my Caliph. Peace be upon you, and Allahu Akbar.”

*******

Through the years, the ISI had smuggled hundreds of Islamic State and ISI operatives into India to prepare for the day when they would decapitate the Indian government. During the 2030 opening session of the Indian parliament, their terrorist plan was finally put into motion. Fifty operatives dressed as security personnel successfully snuck high-grade explosives into the parliament building, strategically placing them within the ornate meeting hall to achieve maximum carnage.

While the country was watching their versions of C-SPAN and CNN to see the newly elected officials sworn in, they had no idea they would be watching the murders of hundreds of people. The ceremony began with its usual pomp and circumstance, droning on without anything to set it apart from any other government formality. However, as soon as the prime minister took the stage, one of the ISI operatives who was disguised as security began to sweat profusely. From his vantage point in one of the second-floor porticos, he would be able to see the man he hated most die before he met his own end. Before anyone could stop him, the nervous terrorist pressed the detonator button, beginning a chain reaction of destruction. At least the prime minister’s death would be swift.

Explosions ripped through the structures supporting the building, causing large portions of it to implode in on itself. Pieces of the walls and ceiling continued to crack and crumble down for several minutes. As surviving and stunned members of parliament fled the building, the militants executed them, firing their machine guns into the crowd and using knives on those who happened to be at close range. Those who were smartest among the group tried to appear as lifeless as possible, hoping this would save them from certain death. Sirens wailed, and alarms sounded all across the government buildings and the city. As help began to arrive, first responders and military members were met with a barrage of small-arms fire from the militants.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the capital, a separate group of five suicide bombers set out on their own mission of chaos and destruction. Knowing thousands of people were injured at the parliament building and many more would be wounded before the day was out, these five suicide bombers each drove an ambulance packed with 3,000 pounds of explosives towards their intended targets—the five largest hospitals in New Delhi. Upon reaching their destinations, all five successfully detonated their cargo, effectively destroying the hospitals in the capital and causing thousands of additional casualties.

Over the next several hours, Islamic State militants and ISI operatives conducted coordinated terrorist attacks all across India in what would be known as Bloody Monday. They attacked all types of political leaders, religious leaders, business owners, and companies. Throughout the rest of the day, malls, train stations, bus stops and open-air markets were all attacked with indiscriminate gunfire. There was no apparent rhyme or reason to the attacks other than to just kill as many innocent people as possible.

By the end of this horrible day in human history, over 53,000 people were killed. In the following days, additional attacks took place, this time directed at police and other security personnel who were trying to restore order. Then, for some unknown reason, the men and women who had carried out the worst terrorist attacks in world history dropped their weapons and simply disappeared into India’s sea of humanity.

What was left of the Indian government gathered in underground bunkers and began to piece together the information to determine who was responsible for these dastardly attacks. Fortunately for them, during one of the terrorist attacks, an Islamic State member had been successfully captured. In the course of his tortured interrogation, he admitted to receiving training and assistance from the ISI. The prisoner then divulged a treasure trove of information about other terrorists’ cells and the ISI handlers who were providing them with the weapons and explosives to carry out their attacks. It became clear that this attack had been planned for years by the ISI. With this newly obtained information, it left the remnants of the Indian government with some tough choices, chief among them how to respond to this brazen attack by the Pakistani ISI and Islamic State.

*******

Horrifying and shocking as these attacks were, they were only the beginning. In every catastrophe, there is always an opportunist, looking to take advantage of the situation. The attacks on India were no exception. Throughout the past several decades, Mohammed Abbas had mentored, recruited, and manipulated hundreds of individuals in key positions across the Middle East and Asia as he looked to build an Islamic Caliphate. Now it was time for those pawns to move on the giant chess board he had created.

In Indonesia, Ismail, the regional spiritual figurehead for the Islamic State, had been following the news closely. He watched every second of twenty-four-hour news coverage that he could stay awake for. Weeks of being holed up in a dirty warehouse, changing safe houses, and avoiding the government’s counterterrorism sweeps were about to pay off.

He startled briefly as he heard one of the building doors open but breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized his military commander, Mohammed Jamal. Ismail waved him over, eager to tie up any loose ends. He grabbed a dusty seat, brushed it off, and sat down across a dilapidated table from his partner in this grand scheme to discuss their plans.

“Ismail, it is time for us to begin our phase of the operation,” said Mohammed Jamal. He lit a cigar and took a giant puff. Mohammed knew Ismail hated it when he smoked, but it was his way of making sure Ismail understood that he was his own man and not beholden to Ismail and the laborious readings of the Koran.

Ismail predictably crinkled his nose in disdain at the foul smell of the cigar, letting out a soft cough in protest. “We have worked long and hard to enable our people to infiltrate the various key positions within the government and military. Now that our brothers in arms in India have successfully conducted their attack, we must hold up our end so that Mohammed can initiate his plan and bring in the new Caliphate.”

“Is there anything I should worry about? Are all the pieces in place?” questioned Mohammed Jamal. He knew he had the military side of the operation under control, but he was a bit unsure of Ismail’s followers.

“Inshallah, there is nothing that has not been prepared for,” replied Ismail confidently.

“Then, Inshallah, the next time we meet, we shall have a true celebration, my brother.”

*******

On Thursday of the same week, with the world still reeling from the massacre in India, Ismail’s group of Islamic State militants broke through the security detail surrounding the president of Indonesia. Their attack was so swift and well-coordinated that none of the security guards knew what was happening until it was too late. While their motorcade traveled to an event in Jakarta, an IED blew up right in front of the lead car, sending it rolling end over end. The president’s driver was unable to respond quickly enough to evade the flying hunk of metal, and their car was quickly smashed as the lead car landed on the hood. Armed men rushed in before anyone could react, killing the guards and dragging the president and his family from their vehicles.

While this was taking place, several cameramen were videoing what was happening and live-streaming it to social media. Minutes after the capture of the president and his family, signs that read “Infidel” were placed around each of their necks as they were strung up by ropes to a lamppost. While they dangled from their restraints, someone read off a list of charges against them, detailing their crimes against Islam. Then their bodies were riddled with bullets.

Within minutes of this gruesome attack, other key military figures all over Indonesia were assassinated by Mohammed’s trusted military officers and were quickly replaced by trusted men who had been prepared for this moment in history.

Days after the bloody coup, Ismail appeared on the main news station in Indonesia. He announced to the world that he had taken over as the new Caliph of the Islamic Republic of Indonesia and had assigned Mohammed Jamal as the new head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Indonesia. Fearing deadly retaliation, the majority of the Indonesian military quickly backed the leader of the coup, and martial law was imposed across the country. Panic, however, had spread rapidly throughout the countryside. Most of the opposition was smart enough to stay silent during the transition, but those politicians and military members who did come to the aid of the former government were dealt with swiftly and made into public examples in a brutal show of force.

Still, various factions of the military and police fought against the army units that were supporting the coup and the Islamic State militants. Though they had the passion and spark of those who were fighting for their very survival, they lacked adequate firepower to combat Ismail’s forces and quickly became outnumbered. The rebels were rapidly pushed into the backwoods of the remote parts of the country, unable to emerge for fear of annihilation. By Saturday, Ismail Mohammed was running the new Islamic Republic of Indonesia.

*******

As Indonesia fell, the next piece on the chessboard was moved into position, and it was time for the Malaysian group to act. Islamic State militants waited until the dead of night to approach Kuala Lumpur, dressed in urban camouflage and hoisting large Islamic State flags on their vehicles. Dozens upon dozens of vehicles loaded with explosives carried militants towards their targets, full of zeal and confidence that their cause, like that of their brothers in Indonesia, would be successful. However, even after months of planning and with moles inside the inner circle of leadership of the Malaysian government and military, there was a wrench in their best-laid plans that had not been anticipated.

Two nights before the attack, the Commander in Chief of the Malaysian Armed Forces woke up in a cold sweat after a vivid nightmare. And since he held the dream world in high esteem for its power to inform, he quickly set a plan in motion to change patrol routes along the outside of the city. He doubled the size of the patrol units and pulled some strings to incorporate armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles.

The following evening, Islamic State militants, unaware of this recent change in military posture, started their assault on the capital. However, within minutes of the official go order, the lead column of militant vehicles drove right into a security checkpoint. With the element of surprise lost, the forces that had been going to raid the presidential palace were summarily defeated, and the coup collapsed.

The Malaysian Army and security forces quickly squashed any further uprising within their country, swiftly identifying the disloyal officers within their ranks and removing them. Several days of bloody street battles and terrorist attacks stunned the nation, and the popular support for the Islamic State was crushed by the government. At least for the time being, Malaysia was prevented from becoming the next Islamic Republic to spring out this Militant Islamic Awakening.

*******

Back in Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Abbas was watching the news about India and Indonesia on Al Jazeera with particular delight. As the unofficial leader of the Islamic State, nothing brought him greater joy than to see infidels lose their power and their lives. He stepped out on his balcony and smoked a cigarette, quietly looking out at the city. In the distance, he heard the evening call to prayer. With that, he pulled his prayer rug out and sought guidance, protection, and strength to carry through with the following day’s plan. Following his evening prayer, he got a surprisingly restful night’s sleep.

Mohammed woke up the next morning to his usual routine. It had taken him decades to build an intricate network of loyal workers across the country and throughout the Arabian Peninsula who shared his same religious goals. Each day at his day job, he managed to maintain the façade of loyalty towards the royal family. But secretly, in his spare time, his only focus was fomenting anger and insurrection against the various monarchs that ruled the Middle East and preaching the need for a new Caliph and Caliphate that would unite the nations of Islam under one banner and one religious cause. Despite his secret private life, he had slowly worked his way into the upper echelons of the royal family’s inner circle through his economic modernization plans.

Before Mohammed left for the royal palace for his monthly meeting with the king, he drafted an email and saved it to his special account. Across the city and country, other members of his cell were logging in and looking at his message. Because it was never sent to a recipient, it could avoid security checks and monitoring, which was critical to the secrecy of their group and future operations. Mohammed’s plan was on schedule, and the world was about to change forever.

At the palace that morning, the first few hours did not differ in any noticeable fashion from any other day. Appointments were made, mail was sorted, cleaning personnel managed, and a feast that was called breakfast was brought to the king and Mohammed while they discussed the modernization of the Saudi economy.

As the meal was being cleaned up, one of the staff members received a phone call that the new yacht the king had ordered was going to be made with oak cabinets instead of mahogany. The man quickly left to personally see to the “fixing” of this situation. Following breakfast, the King and Mohammed drank their coffee before going over the redevelopment plans for a new manufacturing plant near Jidda.

The King was not accustomed to having coffee without a cigarette, and he made a motion to Mohammed to join him and light his cigarette. Of course, Mohammed obliged and opened a fresh pack of Marlboros for the King, pulling one out and igniting the end with the gem-encrusted twenty-four-karat lighter the King had given him as a gift several years back. However, as the King of Saudi Arabia took that first drag, he would be making his final move. As the trail of smoke emerged from his mouth, Mohammed slipped his right hand into his suit jacket and pulled out the knife that had been hidden in the inside pocket by a janitor earlier that morning while Mohammed had been eating breakfast with the King. In one seamless motion, he slit the infidel pig’s throat.

In that moment, a shockwave hit the room. The guards, who had not been paying particular attention, suddenly gasped in genuine disbelief that this could have occurred on their watch. The surprise caused a momentary delay in response. What seemed like a minute went by in silence, but five seconds later, three guards had pulled out their guns and aimed them at Mohammed.

Just as they were about to shoot him, men loyal to Mohammed, who had been secretly planted in order to be in the room at this time, killed the body guards with knives. A butler, a housekeeper, and two bodyguards loyal to Mohammed made short work of the other guards. All the routine actions of the day had been carefully orchestrated to ensure a maximum number of men loyal to Mohammed’s cause would be in the room or nearby when the King was to be assassinated. The Saudi royals never saw it coming as he had been one of them for so long.

Once the guards had been killed, one of Mohammed Abbas’s men pulled out his smartphone and recorded a short message from their fearless leader while proudly displaying the dead body of the King. Soon the group was sending out a broadcast showing their victory to all television channels across the region and signaling for the other attacks to take place. In between declarations of “Allahu Akbar,” it became clear that this day would end with the death of more than one Saudi royal. Across the country, selected members of the Saudi military, who were secret Islamic State members, hunted down and killed members of the royal family wherever they could find them.

Mohammed Abbas proudly proclaimed the following day that he had assumed control of Saudi Arabia as the new Caliph. He sat in the King’s chair, sending out a broadcast to the world. Taking a deep breath, he smiled, turned to the camera, and boldly declared, “At long last, the land of the Prophet will once again return to Sharia law and be ruled by a true and just Caliph. This nation will no longer be occupied or used as a puppet by the West and their influences. All US forces must leave the Kingdom within three months. They are no longer welcome in our new nation.”

*******

May of 2030 was a bloody month of revolution and change across the Middle East and Asia. Despite the West’s best attempts to try to stabilize the regions, many feared that a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam was looming on the horizon.

President de Blasio and his administration were caught completely flatfooted by the events. There had been no intelligence reporting to indicate something like this happening, and they were left with no real choice but to accept the changes being made in Saudi Arabia. The American president called for calm and dialogue between the various factions vying for power but refused to directly involve America or the military. In compliance with the new Caliph’s request, President de Blasio ordered all US forces to withdraw from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, relocating the majority of them to newly leased land and facilities in Israel.

Many Americans saw this as a capitulation by the President to Islamic extremists now that the Islamic State had announced they were responsible for the regime change in Saudi Arabia. However, even many of the more moderate Muslim Americans supported the President’s move to recognize Mohammed Abbas as the Caliph of Saudi Arabia.

*******

With the loss of infrastructure and key leaders, it took India a full three weeks to determine how they would respond to the horrific attack on their country and to position divisions and aircraft accordingly. Without consultation with his allies in the West, the newly sworn-in prime minister of India launched an all-out attack against Pakistan in retaliation. Within the first four days of the India-Pakistan war, an Indian armored division had penetrated the Pakistani defensive line at the border and was driving fast and hard, rolling up the Pakistani defensive positions.

With an Indian Army bent on revenge, once they had broken through their line of defense, the Pakistanis saw no other alternative than to do the unthinkable and consider the use of tactical nuclear weapons. At first, this decision had been ruled out. However, Zaheer Akthar, the Director of the Pakistani Intelligence Service and Mohammed Abbas’s right-hand man, had persuaded the prime minister that this must be done or Indian forces could be on the streets of the capital within weeks. The prime minister, believing that it was Al Qaeda militants responsible for the attacks in India and not his own intelligence service, felt India was using these terrorist attacks as an excuse to invade Pakistan. Reluctantly, the use of tactical nukes was authorized.

On June 3 at 1835 hours, the Pakistanis deployed the first of five 30-kiloton tactical nuclear weapons against the Indian Army. The attack was devastating, wiping out multiple Indian divisions and air force units. The Indian military was severely crippled. Initially stunned, the Indian forces quickly scattered and dispersed to minimize the chance of being hit with another nuclear strike.

*******

Throughout the decades of tension between the two countries, the Indian prime ministers had warned that if Pakistan ever used nuclear weapons against India, they would respond, and their response would be unequivocal in nature. It was time for this threat to become a fulfilled promise.

Less than eight hours later, at 0132 in the morning, India launched ten 300 kiloton nuclear missiles and thirty tactical nuclear weapons at suspected Pakistani nuclear missile locations, four military installations, and their six largest and most strategic cities. Within an hour, mushroom clouds filled the skies of Pakistan with the fiery glow of their destruction, visible for dozens of miles in every direction.

Deep below the earth’s surface, some Pakistanis were safe in their bunkers. From the comfort of their cots and sleeping bags, they still possessed the power to respond to the attacks. Mobile launchers had been dispersed across the country for some time, and they were finally put to use.

Forty-five nuclear missiles were launched at Indian cities within range of those weapons’ capabilities. Being mobile missiles, the largest of the warheads was 200 kilotons—the “city killers” that the Indians feared.

The Indians responded with a second launch of thirty more 300-kiloton missiles and fifty smaller 20-kiloton nuclear weapons at their remaining military bases, while the “city killer” nukes were heading towards the remaining large cities of Pakistan. By 0257 on the morning of June 4, a combined 160 nuclear weapons had detonated across Pakistan and India, killing over 600 million people. The carnage was grotesque and extensive.

By sunrise, Pakistan as a nation ceased to exist. However, the Islamic State had just sacrificed their last chess piece for the greater good. The vast majority of the Pakistani people had been killed during the nuclear exchange; what few remained were left to die of radiation poisoning and starvation.

During the nuclear exchange, twenty-eight Indian cities were seriously damaged, and three were destroyed outright. The nuclear weapons hit across the north and northwestern portions of the country, sparing the lower half of the nation from the destructive power that had just been unleashed. While the south of India had been spared Pakistani nukes, over a third of India had been devastated by the nuclear attack.

Following the nuclear exchange, Indian forces moved into what was left of Pakistan and absorbed the country into a greater India. It would take years, if not decades, to decontaminate and rebuild the areas that were hit, but India began work at once, determined to rebuild and restore what had been lost.

While the war between India and Pakistan had been brief, it had shaken the world to its core with the sheer devastation that had been wrought in that region. The global economies immediately felt the effects of the nuclear exchange as well as the massive political changes in the governments in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Within a couple of days, the price of oil had gone up to just over three hundred dollars a barrel as speculators swooped in to try and take advantage of the situation. Overall investor confidence was severely shaken in the wake of these global changes.

*******

Throughout the 2020s, the United States and the European Union became bogged down with a severe sovereign debt crisis and were struggling to provide basic services to their ever-growing and aging populations. The US had to begin a series of tough austerity programs to try and balance the budget. By the end of the 2020s, the US had borrowed nearly $45 trillion, and there just wasn’t any more money left to borrow. The European Union was in the same shape, with many members having defaulted on their debts by the end of the decade.

The new leader of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Abbas, and the Mullahs of Iran, saw this as an opportunity to squeeze the West further by cutting the production of oil. This caused the price of oil to remain over three hundred dollars a barrel for an extended period of time. The United States and the European Union began a massive shift in consumption from oil to natural gas, of which the United States had an immense reserve. Converting power plants, semitrucks, and trains to run on natural gas as an alternative to diesel was going to take a long, sustained effort, but the people and their leadership were all in agreement that they must make that goal a reality.

The economies of the West suffered even further in the wake of the nuclear devastation of India. With the explosions came not only political stability in the region, destruction of infrastructure and loss of life, but also the devastation of numerous technology research centers, manufacturing cities, software development companies, and numerous research and development departments for many major global corporations. India had been an economic and intellectual powerhouse prior to the attacks. The conflict had brought them backward more than a few decades as they began the process of rebuilding and caring for the tens of millions injured.

When the affected corporations announced their losses, the economic tragedy of the situation truly began to unfold. The stock markets had already been shaky due to the political climate, and with these corporate disasters, markets began a steep decline. The US even closed trading on several days when runoffs were initiated because of immense single-day losses. With the steep oil prices staying steady, shipment costs increased exponentially, and so did the cost of goods and services, making everyday shopping excruciatingly painful. All unnecessary consumer spending came to a halt. Unemployment rose, GDP plummeted, and the income tax revenue of all major nations fell dramatically.

President de Blasio instructed the Treasury Secretary to do whatever was necessary to restore confidence in the market and to stabilize the American economy. The US began a series of continuous quantitative easing policies to improve liquidity in the market. The problem that arose was that no governments or private financial institutions were buying the US bonds because the interest rates were at zero, and the Treasury kept printing more money. This forced the Federal Reserve to buy the very bonds the Treasury was issuing. At first, sovereign debts began to default across the third world nations. Those defaults soon spread to Eastern Europe and the European Union. By the winter of 2026, when things didn’t look like they could get any worse, people across Europe and the United States lost confidence in the banks’ and the governments’ ability to keep things under control. Fearing the worst, the public pulled their money out of the banks and the stock markets.

During the first few weeks of the financial scare, the bank withdrawals were kept to a minimum, but somewhere along the line, a panic set in, and within a week there was a full-blown run at banks all across the United States, the likes of which had not been seen since 1929. Within a week, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bank of the West and CitiBank had to close their doors and stop people from withdrawing their money. They simply did not have the reserves to cover everyone’s accounts, and given the current economic climate, there was little faith in the FDIC to return cash to the average account holder.

As the banks across the US and Europe started to fail, the global economy began a tailspin that no one could have envisioned. By the spring of 2027, the world had fallen into a global depression. The Great Collapse caused the price of food to skyrocket along with other commodities, while precious metals soared to unseen heights. Gold had risen to over twelve thousand dollars an ounce. The costs of transportation, manufacturing and even farming had risen with the cost of fuel and with the devaluation of the US dollar. People simply could not afford the basic necessities of life.

Glaciation as a result of the massive use of nuclear weapons in Asia also started to take its toll as once-fertile farmlands were now susceptible to late-winter thaws and early freezing, reducing the growing seasons and diminishing the amount of food that could be grown.

The loss of crops caused by the environmental issues was just the beginning of the world famine. While bananas had once been shipped from Central America to the United States, the cost of fuel made them too expensive to export. Grain that had been grown in the US was no longer being sent to Asia and China. People across the world had to begin coping with eating only the food that could be sourced locally.

As transportation systems broke down, nations had to turn inward to provide for themselves. As a last dig at Saudi Arabia and Iran, the US ensured that any food or commercial exports that could have been sold to the Middle East were diverted to other markets, causing Saudi Arabia and Iran to suffer immense food shortages. They might have made enormous profits from keeping oil above three hundred dollars a barrel, but they were paying the price for it as the US and the EU refused to sell them any food.

While the crisis continued to escalate, hundreds of millions of people around the world starved to death. The global population shrank. Entire nations were simply famished, lacking the basic necessities to provide for their people. This caused immense amounts of civil unrest all across the world but was particularly felt in the “previously developing world,” which had fewer resources on which to draw. Rather than large population centers migrating to areas in the country that could support them, most people continued to stay in areas that could not sustain the population without outside help.

As the only group to really profit from all this chaos, radical Islam continued to spread across the rest of the Middle East, and then the philosophy became much more popular in Europe and Africa as well. Young people were disenfranchised by their governments and felt a sense of hopelessness. The Caliph, Mohammed Abbas of Saudi Arabia, was using this restlessness to his full advantage. On many of the remaining functional television stations with a global presence, Mohammed appeared on a continual loop, preaching his message.

“Let us overthrow these nonbelieving governments! These nations must turn to Islam, the one true religion, and ask for Allah’s divine help and guidance through these tough times. Only through turning to Islam will the world begin to right itself and prosper once again.”

Had he been preaching a message of peace and nonviolence instead of a violent overthrow of their governments, Mohammed’s plea to turn to Islam might have worked on many more people. As it was, most European and Western powers, and also China, saw his message as nothing more than a direct threat to their own power and way of life. Slowly and steadily, the world powers were headed on a collision course due to religious differences and conflicts over how to manage what resources of the world remained.

During the height of the crisis, Mohammed’s message of radical Islam led to the overthrow of the King of Jordan as well as the presidents of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. Throughout this turmoil, Saudi Arabia fomented hatred and infighting against Shia Islam and united these countries under a new country and banner, the Islamic Republic, or IR for short. Shortly following the formation of the IR, several non-Middle Eastern countries—Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Indonesia—were quick to align themselves with this new coalition of nations. The unification of these countries would allow them to pool their resources to survive the Global Depression and emerge a much stronger country.

While the US had been focused internally on its own struggles, the rapid change in the Middle East and the formation of the Islamic Republic caught the de Blasio Administration ill prepared to respond. The challenge the US then faced was how to support their traditional allies in the Middle East: Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Turkey. After some consideration, President de Blasio ordered the repositioning of the US Fifth Fleet to Eilat, Israel. With the economic conditions in the US on the brink of disaster, de Blasio didn’t feel America should continue to protect the Middle East or the rest of the world. He began a series of military withdrawals, leaving a power vacuum in a number of global hotspots.

*******

While not every country was ready to submit to the leadership of radical Islam, the entire world was feeling the pinch of the Global Depression. By the spring of 2027, tensions between nations over livestock and agriculture were commonplace. On the border of Russia, the provinces of the South Caucasus were growing more and more isolated and disconnected from Moscow. The citizens of that region were practically being forced into slave labor to grow food for the greater Russian Federation while being allowed to keep very little for their own use. With every bead of sweat that ran down their foreheads while tilling heavy soil on an empty stomach, the farmers’ hatred for Moscow grew. This anger burned, becoming the only fuel that would awaken them in the mornings. Allegiances to Moscow were shifting quickly.

During the spring of 2027, a Russian convoy of vehicles that was transporting food was ambushed near the border of Kazakhstan, the drivers and other support staff mangled and left to die on the side of the road. At first, this was treated like an isolated incident. Hunger had certainly caused an increase in violence across the globe. However, over the next couple of months, it became clear that this attack was not the act of a rogue group of thieves. Insurgent forces from Kazakhstan and the South Caucasus began regularly interdicting food supplies on their way to southern Russia and rerouting them to their own people. Perhaps they were a little careless about drawing attention to themselves; however, when the same groups siphoned off larger and larger portions of Caspian Sea oil for their own use, Moscow became more heavily involved.

After this supreme miscalculation of stealing oil from the oligarchy of Russia, the insurgent rebels would not have such an easy time. The Russian government produced a military show of force, moving tens of thousands of soldiers and Special Forces to the border regions. The political dissidents that were caught were tortured and publicly humiliated. To ensure everyone knew the government was firmly in control, they used social media and prime-time news coverage to increase the “shock and awe” factor and remind the people not to test the will of the Russian president.

Unfortunately for the Russian government, this strong response was the wrong play on their part. Their actions spurred even more anger, and pretty soon the situation spiraled out of control until the entire southern half of Russia was in a full-blown revolt against the heavy-handed government. Within a month, no trucks could transport food from the South Caucasus or near Kazakhstan to Russia without being robbed. As food supplies were further disrupted and the one resource that was producing income for the government—oil—continued to be interrupted, the government crackdown became even more severe and urgent.

*******

United States

The winter of 2030 came with a blistering, brutal chill that had not been seen in decades. For seventy plus years, environmentalists had claimed world temperatures were increasing, until the 2030s, when it became clear the world was going to be facing a period of global cooling, not associated with carbon emissions. Arctic vortexes from the North Pole became commonplace across North America, bringing subzero temperatures and blizzards that struck remarkably far south. People in Florida were caught completely off guard by the first serious snow they had ever seen. Around the globe, there were fuel shortages and food was in short supply. The frost and ice killed crops with a vengeance but didn’t hesitate to kill the old, weak or sick among humankind as well. The global cooling also affected the rest of the world, causing a decline in global food production and further extending the global famine.

Russia was beginning to splinter as a nation. More and more provinces were revolting against the central government. While tensions were high in Russia, Europe was struggling with the massive influx of refugees fleeing Eastern Europe and Africa, all looking for food, safety, and shelter. The European Union was beginning to buckle under the strain of both the human and economic suffering. The leaders of the EU shut down the borders with military troops, closing all entry into the EU and turning people away by the hundreds of thousands.

America was faring no better. The harsh winter had hit the northeast the hardest. Tens of thousands of people were reported dead, frozen to death in their homes because of fuel shortages and an inability to afford what little heating oil was available. Those people that could afford it had to contend with rationing, as well as desperate citizens knocking on their doors, begging to be let in. People were losing their patience with the government and their leaders.

It was during this time of despair and struggle that a new political party was formed in the United States. Its leader was a businessman from Florida named Henry Stein. He christened the new group the Freedom Party, or FP for short. In 2030, Stein won the governor’s race as a third-party candidate, which drew more attention to the FP. Like most people during this turbulent era, he had lost faith in the political parties of America. Therefore, he decided to form his own party as a means of trying to save the once-great nation of the United States of America and leave behind the political parties of old.

Henry Stein had served in the US military and fought in the second Iraq War in the mid-2000s. Afterwards, he had become a successful businessman and self-made billionaire. Stein, like most Americans, had become disenfranchised by both parties and the level of corruption that seemed all too rampant in both factions, especially since the Global Depression had begun.

The Freedom Party began as a local political party in Florida, but by the summer of 2032, it had spread throughout Florida and was rapidly expanding across the United States. Over a million Americans had died from starvation and lack of basic services since the start of the Global Depression. Voters had become so distraught by the warring political parties and the state of the US economy that they searched for anything, anyone, that could provide them with hope for some kind of better future.

Henry Stein’s group started out as a small statewide political party in Florida, funded mostly out of his own money. However, with a leader promising measurable change and a country that was rife with political discontent, the group soon turned into a nationwide movement. People wanted strong leadership. They wanted a leader who could turn things around and wasn’t beholden to various political lobbyists and interest groups. While Stein might have had an unassuming appearance on the outside, he was a genius entrepreneur, and he had something that no one else really had at that time—a legitimate plan to restart the economy and the country.

Governor Stein studied the natural resources of Florida and the gaps in the state and national economies. During his first year as governor, he began to leverage the resources available in Florida to turn the economy around and provide jobs. He incentivized the construction of numerous offshore wind farms to provide cheap renewable energy to the state as well as create an economic demand for American steel and other resources needed to build this statewide project. In order to increase manufacturing jobs and help reduce fuel and energy costs for Floridians, Governor Stein started a statewide project to advance the development of sugarcane ethanol. Slowly and steadily, the Florida economy was starting to grow, and even the media was starting to notice that this politically independent governor was starting to make a difference.

In time, the media was fawning over Henry Stein like Barack Obama in 2008. Like Obama, and later Trump, he represented something different. Governor Stein began holding Freedom Party rallies across the country, attracting tens of thousands of supporters, waving signs and willing to plaster their entire neighborhoods with as much propaganda as they could get their hands on. After winning his second term as governor of Florida, it became inevitable that he should be a candidate for President of the United States in 2036.

Henry was a man of above-average intelligence, having graduate degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Wharton. He was an incredible organizer and extremely business-savvy. He was also an exceptional orator and a skilled communicator, not just with the average person, but with the media as well. He knew how to deliver his vision for America in layman’s terms and could also present his message at a PhD level, depending on his audience.

As a student of organizational theory, Henry realized that he could not be an island unto himself. He spent a great deal of time recruiting and vetting likeminded candidates to run for Congress and Senate under the new Freedom Party banner. By the end of the 2036 elections, Henry Stein’s Freedom Party had won control of not just the presidency but Congress as well. They also had a strong minority faction in the Senate, splitting the Democrat and Republican parties’ influence and requiring the two parties to work with them in order to pass any legislation.

The Freedom Party’s near-complete domination in the elections assured that their agenda was going to meet little opposition. Even before they were in office, all the FP candidates journeyed to a small resort in West Virginia to spend the week identifying the new party leaders, legislative priorities, political appointments, committee chairs and members based on their skill sets. They outlined a very detailed plan for delegating who within the party would be responsible for pushing specific items of the FP agenda through the various Congressional committees. These men and women were working together like no other Congress before them to try and craft legislation and executive orders. At a time when hope was at an all-time low, the Freedom Party was determined to restore optimism once again in America.

*******

The winds of political change were also moving elsewhere. The EU elected a new Chancellor, Heinrich Lowden from Germany. Like President Stein, Lowden was a strong leader and an outsider. He pledged to keep Europe united and to take control of the dire situation that was facing the European Union. Despite the full political and fiscal union being less than six years old, Lowden was convinced a combined European government in close relationship with the US could succeed.

Lowden had a lot more to deal with than the first Chancellor, who had been elected in 2030, but he was not the kind of man to back down from a challenge. His main platform had been securing the European Union’s borders against the massive influx of refugees who were trying to enter from Eastern Europe and Africa. There was simply not enough food and shelter to take in millions of new immigrants and refugees. The people of Europe, who had traditionally been rather involved in foreign aid to needy countries, knew that it was time to help themselves before they could be of any real value to anyone else.

Lowden’s thoughts on a potential conflict with a militarized Russia were notably absent from public view during his campaign. While the main focus was certainly going to be on feeding the people of Europe and getting them back to work, the Chancellor knew he had to do whatever was necessary to prevent Russia from threatening the rest of the EU. After a series of harsh crackdowns throughout Russia, the Russian central government had consolidated power and was once again ruling with an iron fist. Russian nationalism was at an all-time high, and so too was their continued military modernization, which had continued virtually unabated since the early 2010s, despite the Global Depression. It was the one aspect of their economy that continued to provide jobs and helped to keep the country’s manufacturing base alive. Though Lowden did not tout his furor against Russia publicly, he was constantly planning what his next move would be against them.

During this time, the British people elected Stannis Bedford as prime minister. Bedford knew Great Britain was facing a turning point in history—its demographics were heading in the wrong direction, and the great nanny state was no longer able to support the current system with its finances in the shape they were in.

Once President Stein, Chancellor Lowden, and PM Bedford had all been elected, they worked closely with each other to right their economies. All three governments started aggressive infrastructure and work programs aimed at improving and repairing roads, bridges, rail, and power networks. More importantly, these projects put people back to work.

*******

Michael Montgomery, or “Monty” as most people called him, had been one of Henry Stein’s closest friends for over thirty years. The two of them had worked together a number of times, and more recently, Monty had taken over as CEO of two of Stein’s companies once he was elected governor. Now that Henry was President, there was no one else he would rather have at his side than Monty. He was a natural pick for Chief of Staff and senior advisor. Sparked by a sense of personal loyalty, Monty did not hesitate to accept the position.

After the first full week of Stein’s administration, Monty strode into Henry’s office with a sense of urgency. The Economic and Congressional Leadership meeting later that day was going to hold great significance for this administration. As he stepped into the Oval Office, he could not help but feel a sense of awe and excitement. Today they were going to change America.

“Mr. President, the Congressional leadership and your economic advisors are ready,” he announced with a broad smile on his face. Monty had always known that Henry would one day become President, but he had no idea that he would one day become his Chief of Staff.

The President looked up and smiled at his friend. “Excellent, Monty. It’s time to start putting people back to work.”

Monty handed him a folder while they crossed the hall at a brisk speed, heading towards the Cabinet Room. The President glanced at the first two pages while they walked, then nodded to his friend. No other words were spoken. The two men had developed an almost telepathic form of communication that was nearly indiscernible by strangers who had not observed them during their long tenure together in the private sector.

Henry entered the meeting room, placing his folder in front of his chair. The idle chitchat that had filled the room suddenly ceased, and there was complete and total silence.

The president opened the meeting. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for your hard work and determination in creating this economic plan. This strategy is going to be difficult and challenging for us to accomplish, but with your help, I feel we can do it.”

Pivoting in his chair, the President said, “I’ve asked the Speaker of the House and the Senate Minority Leader to be here as well. What we have to discuss is important, and it is now time to begin the Congressional coordination aspect of this plan.” Several of the economic advisors glared at the “intruders” in the room, but the president didn’t seem to mind.

“Part of this plan is to put forth not just a new economic plan, but also a fundamental change in the way our country does business and how it runs. There will be no more compromises or endless arguing and debating for months while lobbying groups threaten to pull their support if politicians don’t support or kill a proposal. The Freedom Party was elected to fix the problems that both the Republicans and Democrats were unwilling to fix, and fix them we will.

“Gentlemen, the first of these economic measures being enacted is a complete rewrite of the tax code. Let’s face it—the country is bankrupt, and we need revenue. We need a fair system that promotes growth while still allowing the government to have the operating capital it needs to provide basic services and fund a military. Monty, will you please pass out the folders to everyone?”

The silence in the room was broken as each person received their packet and frantically rustled through the papers. This noise didn’t bother Henry in the least, and he continued on undistracted.

“I want you all to look over this information and provide us with your thoughts on it.” He tapped the file in front of him. “This folder contains the details of the economic plan and is going to be used as a rough template for putting the country back to work. It is by no means the complete answer to all of our problems, but I believe it will be part of the solution.”

“Mr. President,” interjected the Senate Majority Leader, Joyce Landrew, “I think you’re trying to pursue too aggressive a program. This is only your first month in office, and frankly, I’m not sure there will be enough support in the Senate to take this forceful of an approach.” The President restrained himself from shaking his head at Landrew. From his point of view, she was the quintessential idealistic California liberal who believed the government was the answer to all the people’s problems, and that the ills of the poor could be solved if the rich would just pay their fair share. He couldn’t relate to her worldview.

“Senator Landrew, if you feel the proposals I’m making are too radical, you are welcome to oppose them, but they will be pushed through in the Congress and you will either be with us and part of the solution or be a part of the problem. Either way, these changes are going to happen with or without your support. The American people are tired of politicking. They are tired of leaders who will not lead and who only say what needs to be said to be elected. The Freedom Party is different, and you are about to see that difference now that the new Congress has been sworn in.”

Senator Landrew didn’t reply out loud, but internally she was thinking, Who does this guy think he is? If he thinks he can go around the Senate, he is in for one nasty surprise.

President Stein continued, “As I stated before, the first step of the plan is to reform the tax code. We need to start generating income and start encouraging growth again. Unemployment is hovering near 23%, and that is intolerable. The first order the Congress will take up when they come into session on Monday is the tax code. We will effectively eliminate the existing code and restart it with a new one—a much simpler tax code that will bring in more taxes while leveling the playing field.”

Tax reform had been discussed by previous presidential administrations and Congressional leaders, with little actual reform accomplished. The federal deficit had continued to climb at an exponential rate until it had surpassed forty trillion dollars. At this point, the money in the Social Security trust fund was now being used to buy government bonds in order to offset the record deficit spending.

“The plan calls for a 10% tax on all income earners and a 10% sales tax on all goods purchased, with the exception of food and medicine. Corporations will pay a flat 10% with no deductions, and any corporation caught not paying their 10% share will be fined by having to pay a 20% tax for the following three years. The days of corporations not paying their fair share are over. There will also be no further personal deductions; a flat tax of 10% on all income earners is fair to both the people and the government. There will also be a 5% debt reduction tax, which will be a part of the sin tax on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and high-fructose corn syrup.”

“Excuse me, Mr. President, did you just say corn syrup tax?” asked Senator Landrew. Even with her freshly Botoxed face, she could not hide her thoughts as her eyebrows raised incredulously.

“Yes, I did. As I said during my campaign, one of many issues I stumped on was the health problems associated with high-fructose corn syrup. Our people are becoming more and more obese, and this is caused in large part by the use of high-fructose corn syrup in virtually everything we eat. I’ll never advocate banning it outright, but we will tax it in hopes we can start to change people’s behavior and, in time, get the food industry to reduce its use and move back to a more natural sugar,” said the President.

Well, at least he’s keeping to one of his campaign promises. I know this will make a lot of people in my district happy, thought Senator Landrew.

“This new tax structure will allow the government to bring in more revenue and streamline things on businesses and people. The sin tax is going to be the big winner for people; the revenues used from this tax will be used solely for the purpose of paying off the national debt. We estimate that once we begin taxing high-fructose corn syrup, we will save billions of dollars a year in healthcare costs associated with poor health from this product while earning an extra $143 billion a year in new tax revenues. This will go a long way toward paying down the debt.”

Other than the sound of shuffling papers, the room was quiet with rapt attention. “The simpler tax code will also eliminate immense amounts of waste at the IRS and allow for job creation. In addition, we will be eliminating numerous tax breaks that corporations and high wealth individuals are currently able to use. The reduction in the capital gains tax from 30% to 15% will also generate increased investment here at home, which is greatly needed.”

Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement by President Bill Clinton, America had been losing jobs, manufacturing capability and other advantages America had once held to subsequent “free trade” agreements. America, always playing by the rules, was being economically ripped off for decades by nations who did not value rules like America did. China and the rest of Asia had a particularly strong stranglehold on American manufacturing and the supply of rare earth minerals.

“The most controversial part of the tax plan is the tariffs. If a US corporation like Ford, Apple or GM choose to produce their final product abroad and bring it back into the US, they will pay a tariff equivalent to what it would have cost them to produce that same product in the US. Corporations are no longer going to be able to leverage free trade agreements to ship jobs overseas and then bring those products back into the US and pay no taxes on them. Corporations that also choose to establish their headquarters abroad are free to do so, but any money earned abroad has to be separated from money earned in the US and their US subsidiary if they want to avoid paying taxes. The cases of corporations like General Electric, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and others paying zero taxes will never happen again with this new tax code,” the President said with conviction.

“You almost sound like a Democrat, Mr. President,” said Speaker Fultz with a chuckle.

Congressman George Fultz was a retired Army colonel. He had joined the Freedom Party in 2029 after getting to know Henry Stein while he was running for Governor of Florida. Henry had recruited George to be one of the first party members to run for Congress, and upon being elected, he was made Vice Chairman of the FP. In concert with Stein, he would run the party and focus on recruiting likeminded people to run for political office under the FP banner. Several members of both the House and Senate also joined the FP, but with strings. They were required to back the party and not to accept any super PAC or special interest monies.

Speaker Fultz ran the party with an iron fist, carrying out Stein’s vision and keeping members in line with the FP agenda. The FP was not for sale, and Fultz ensured its members stayed honest or they were out. George was six foot four and muscular, and he possessed a commanding presence when he walked into a room. As a young officer, he had served in the second Iraq War just as President Stein, so they had that shared experience in common.

President Stein continued, “I do not believe we need to raise taxes. We just need to set up a process that effectively collects the taxes due. That is what this new code will accomplish. The average person and corporation will pay less in taxes, but the government will bring in substantially more income, simply by ensuring corporations are not using an overly complicated process to cheat the system.

“If you all will grab the blue folder, we will move towards the jobs program. Monty, please walk us through this next initiative,” said the President, nodding toward his Chief of Staff.

Monty smiled and stood up to give his brief. “Certainly. Moving towards the jobs program, we have a large workforce that is currently unemployed. We’re going to start putting them to work. We have bridges that need to be repaired, we have an energy infrastructure that needs to be upgraded, and we have roads and schools that need to be serviced. We are also going to begin immediate work on establishing high-speed rail throughout the country. So, taking a page out of FDR’s playbook, we are going to start government work gangs to put people back to work.”

He paused just long enough to allow everyone to flip to the next page of the handouts to follow along. “There will be a government bid for one hundred American companies to manage these projects. The pay for these contractors will be set in line with the government pay grade system of WS-7s, WS-9s, WS-12s, and WS-13s. Let me also emphasize, these are not government positions—these are contractor positions with pay that is equivalent to those government pay bands. The President envisions this work plan having a ten-year shelf life, with positions gradually being eliminated as the program heads towards the ten-year mark and the projects are completed. The number of people employed will surge through the first six years with close to twenty-two million people, and then decline during the final four years until it ends at the end of the tenth year,” Monty said as he guided the group towards the next section of the program.

The President interjected briefly to say, “While attending Oxford, I studied program management. This work program is going to be the largest program ever conceived and executed in our country’s history, and perhaps the world. Because of the scope and size of this program, I have spoken with the director of the Oxford Center for Major Programme Management Studies, and they have agreed to assist in its management. I’m confident that, by bringing in a world-renowned outside group to head up this project, we will see tremendous success. Sorry for the interruption. Please continue, Monty.”

“Yes, Mr. President. If the infrastructure projects are not completed, and the program needs to go beyond the ten-year mark, then it will have to be approved by the Congress and the President. This is not meant to be a new long-term government program or entitlement program. This is designed purely to put people to work on necessary infrastructure upgrades.” Monty paused for a moment to take a drink of his coffee before he continued.

“Make no mistake, people in this program will work and work hard. The Army Corps of Engineers, along with the Oxford Group, will manage the overall program for the government. This program will help give people a reason to wake up in the morning and will be the first step in rebuilding this country and putting people back to work. As things begin to improve, more and more people will leave this work program to go to work for other businesses. The program will be paid for by shifting monies from personnel currently employed at the IRS and other government departments as we continue to trim the government down to become more efficient and lean. The American First Corporation’s profits will also be incorporated into paying for this public works program.” He held up a hand. “Before anyone asks me about that last part, we will discuss it shortly.”

Monty paused long enough to look at the President and then continued. “Until such time as the long-term overarching goal of having people employed by the private sector can be realized, we need to do something to help stimulate the economy and put people to work.”

The President interjected at this point. “I refuse to pay people welfare and not have them work. People will be fed and taken care of, but they will work for it. Our nation has unfortunately created a nanny state where people believe the government has all the answers and will take care of everyone. This ideology has been implemented and tested for the last seventy years, and it has failed. Particularly the last forty years…people do not know how to do basic tasks such as balance a budget, plan a meal or work a forty-hour work week. Twenty-five percent of the country can no longer support the other seventy-five percent—nor will it, under my watch. Under this plan, there will be jobs for people to be able to work—both through the public works program and through America First Corporation—and unless they are physically or mentally unable to do so, they will.”

Senator Landrew cleared her throat, a little too loudly. “Excuse me, Mr. President, but it seems to me that you will be taking people in the welfare system and throwing them out onto the streets. I mean, seriously—giving them one hundred and twenty days to transition? How can you do that?”

The President had known Landrew would be difficult and could throw a lot of hurdles to hold up his reforms, but he also knew that she had concerns similar to his that she wanted to address. Because of this, he knew they could find common ground and work within those areas, giving her something her branch of the party wanted in exchange for something he needed.

The President had prepared for this response. “If you will go through to page twenty-three of the packet in front of you, you will notice that we will provide something which should have been nationalized a long time ago—education in basic job and life skills. People leaving the government subsidy system will know how to create a budget, plan a family menu that’s not dependent on fast food, go to interviews, write resumes and perform the functions of being an employee with the basic consideration that most supervisors would consider to be a minimum standard of efficiency. People will not just be thrown into a different way of life without being taught the necessary skills to survive in the world. There will also be ample job opportunities for them through this new job-training and work program.”

Ms. Landrew interjected, “—But, Sir, can you really expect a few months of education to change a lifetime of living under a broken system that has created entire generations who have never worked?”

The President paused for a minute before responding, collecting his thoughts. “I’m sure there will still be some problems with those who have been under the welfare system for multiple generations, and I do anticipate some violence in the beginning from those who feel they are entitled to a free lunch. However, it is time for people to wake up. There is no money for the country to keep paying those who are capable of working but choose not to do so. That said, we need to foster an environment where they can find work, and that is what we are intending to create through the new tax code and the America First Corporation.

“Simply put, if you don’t work, you don’t eat—simple as that. Those who voted for the FP are tired of people who have new smartphones and freshly lacquered manicures asking for government assistance while there are people who would be happy just to have enough food to eat and who are willing to put in labor for that privilege. They will be given the tools to survive in the working world, and it is up to them to walk through the open door,” said the President, who at this point was clearly annoyed but still realized he needed Senator Landrew.

Stein sighed softly and softened his tone a bit. “I’m not ignoring the importance of what you’re saying, Senator Landrew. However, we have a lot more ground to cover today. Do I have your permission to continue?”

With all eyes turning towards Senator Landrew she suddenly became very meek in her response. “Of course, Mr. President.”

The President took a deep breath and slowly let it out. The meeting was going well, but he was definitely irritated with having to deal with a progressive liberal who just did not understand the financial situation these entitlement programs had placed the country in.

The President continued the briefing, moving on to the energy agenda. “Our economy is still dependent on fossil fuels, and so is the rest of the world. We have seen what three hundred plus dollars for a barrel of oil has done to the global economy. America has fared better than others because we have energy resources, but they are not enough. We need to become one hundred percent energy independent and lead the way in finding realistic alternative energy sources in order to ensure the world is never again held hostage by one country or region.

“Going forward, we are establishing a new energy plan and policy. Our new policy will be a multifaceted approach. We are going to move full speed ahead with ethanol-based fuel for vehicles. As a country. we can produce enough crops to convert into sufficient fuel for our domestic needs. This will increase demand in the farming sector and reduce our need for gasoline. Oil is too important to the rest of the economy for us to use such a large portion of it as fuel for vehicles when there are clean, renewable alternatives available.

“We will also expand the exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas in our own country. Petroleum is used in nearly every aspect of the economy. To ensure economic stability, further exploration needs to be done.” The President stopped for a second to take a drink of water and turned towards the economic advisors and Congressional leadership before speaking again.

“The US has been sitting on an enormous surplus in oil and natural gas for the last couple of decades, yet we have never realized its full potential to increase our exports and revenue. Believe it or not, this industry is also a means to transform our economy into a greener economy. For the last one hundred fifty years, administration after administration has federalized immense amounts of public land to turn it into federal parks. At this point, over fifty percent of America has been turned into a federally protected park.”

The President paused for a second, continuing to gauge the response of the Congressional leaders who were not part of the FP, since they had not been made aware of the forthcoming executive order. “With Executive Order 902, I am officially creating the America First Corporation, or AFC. The Congress will vote on this later in the year to make it a permanent organization beyond my administration. AFC will be run like a private enterprise, with the exception that sixty percent of the profits will be used to help fund the federal government. Ten percent of the profits will fund an internal R&D department with the sole purpose of creating new ways of capturing the sun’s energy and will include space-based platforms. There are no shareholders or other special interest groups to interfere with this type of research, so I am confident we will see an alternative to fossil fuels within the next decade or two.”

A few whistles came from some of the Republican representatives. Even Senator Landrew smiled at the thought of finally being able to move away from fossil-fuel-based energy.

Seeing approving looks so far, the President continued. “The remaining thirty percent will be used to develop organic growth, employee training, and community programs. AFC will initially be funded with fifteen billion dollars in start-up capital and will have exclusive rights to drill and mine for minerals and resources on all federal lands except for certain specific National Heritage Parks, which will remain as pristine treasures for our future generations. CEO pay for AFC will be capped at no higher than two hundred and fifty times the lowest paid employee. There will be no stock sold in AFC, and as there will be no investors, there will be no bonuses or dividends paid to banks or individuals. All internal CEO bonus pay is also capped at no more than fifty times the lowest bonus given. This will ensure that AFC will remain a corporation that serves the people of America and the government. There will be no excessive pay, yet it will still allow for merit pay and bonuses when warranted. We want the best and brightest to work for AFC.

“AFC’s sole purpose is to earn money to help fund the federal government and entitlement programs—essentially a sovereign wealth fund. It will compete on the open market for materials and will receive no special privileges, with the exception of only being allowed to operate on existing federal lands. I’m also authorizing the construction of ten additional oil refineries, so as additional oil is brought into the market, we will have the refinery capacity to handle it and produce our own gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum products in the quantities needed to be completely self-sufficient.”

America had trillions in unfunded liabilities, primarily Social Security and Medicare. If these programs were going to remain solvent, then a sovereign wealth fund solely dedicated to generating a profit to pay for them needed to be developed. The President also believed AFC would, in time, generate more than two hundred thousand new high-paying jobs, which was greatly needed in the wake of the Great Depression.

“During the campaign, I said I’d work to provide America with clean energy, and I plan on doing just that. As President, I am authorizing the construction of additional natural gas and nuclear power plants. As we build a new power plant, we will close down the dirtiest of coal plants, replacing them with natural gas and nuclear power. The goal is that over the next decade, we will replace virtually all coal plants with clean natural gas and nuclear power. Most of these new power plants and AFC facilities will also be located in coal-producing states and counties to help offset the job losses that will occur as we move away from coal.

“I have directed the Department of Energy to work on increasing America’s generation of nuclear power by twenty-two percent to forty percent within the next ten years. Each of the new plants will have a built-in capacity to handle the nuclear waste they generate in a safe and guarded manner until scientists are able to find a better means of disposing of it.”

Monty quickly interjected to point out, “—Older nuclear plants will be replaced by the new ones. As each new plant comes online, we will decommission an old facility.”

After years of working together with Monty, President Stein was used to him bringing up important points during his presentations and continued completely unfazed. “As part of the Clean Energy Act, we are also going to begin construction of eight large-scale wind farms, both onshore and offshore. We will expand and build new solar farms in the southwest and geothermal plants as well. I’m also determined to put the devices that harvest wave energy on the market—this has been held up too long because of lack of funding. These initiatives will take time, but over the next decade, we will reduce America’s carbon footprint and bring cheap inexpensive power to the marketplace through common sense energy policies, thus lowering the production cost of manufacturing and increasing job growth. This comprehensive approach will increase renewable energy generation by thirty percent, nuclear power by forty percent and natural gas power by thirty percent.”

The President saw Senator Landrew looking as if she wanted to say something, so he gestured to her to invite her to speak.

“Mr. President, we may not agree on a lot of the issues we have been discussing. However, I’m surprised and excited to hear you speak so confidently about this renewable and clean energy plan and policy. I had figured all that talk on the campaign was just a way of drawing Democratic voters to your party,” said Senator Landrew.

With the liberal Senator starting to come around to the FP’s agenda, the President was more congenial in his response. “Senator, I was clear on how I’d run the country if elected. Expanding and building a clean, renewable energy plan is something America needs. It is not just a matter of financial security—it provides a way to protect ourselves from dependence on other nations. Likewise, we need oil and natural gas, not just for our vehicles but also for manufacturing, and unless we can bring down the price of oil and end our dependency on foreign oil, we will continue to be entangled in the affairs of those regions of the world. I want to bring a conclusion to our endless involvement in small conflicts over resources and make our country truly self-reliant. I hope that I can count on your support for all of these initiatives which will benefit our country?”

With a look that was neither approving nor disapproving, Ms. Landrew began a very measured political response. “Mr. President, it will be hard for me to gain support from the Democrats in the Senate on your oil drilling and the America First Corporation initiative. However, I do feel that if the legislation includes all these green energy projects you mentioned, I can get them to agree to support your legislative agenda. They would be hard-pressed to vote down legislation that includes some of their cornerstone ideas and projects.”

The President knew that this was the closest thing he could expect to a glowing approval and show of support, and he smiled before responding, “Excellent. Then that is the approach we will take. These initiatives will be put into a single bill. It will provide your colleagues with a victory of their own and still allow us to move the country in a direction that will end our dependence on foreign powers for energy and resources.”

The President surveyed the room for a minute, gauging the mood and response thus far to this extraordinary legislative agenda being discussed. For the first time in who knew how long, the leaders of America were talking civilly about how to address the problems facing the country and coming together with solutions to fix them.

“Monty will hand out the next set of folders…I would like to discuss the new monetary policy.” He motioned to a new player in the room. “Joyce Gibbs, our new Treasury Secretary, will lead the next discussion and explain how we are going to restructure our debt and rebuild our currency. Before we begin, let’s take a short thirty-minute break. We have some sandwiches and drinks being brought in as well.” The President nodded towards an aide just outside the door. As the group stood to stretch, the President got up and walked into the hallway to talk briefly with Secretary Gibbs.

“Joyce, it’s good to see you. Everything is still ready on your end, correct?” asked the President nervously.

“Yes, Mr. President. The markets will be closed tomorrow and will remain closed until Tuesday. This will be more than enough time for us to have the initial batches of the New American Dollar ready for circulation. Within two weeks, the banks will only have NADs for distribution to the general public. We anticipate it will take us about six months to fully convert all of the world’s dollars to the NAD,” Joyce said with excitement in her voice.

“Do we really have the needed gold to cover the currency? I heard that part might be a bit iffy,” the President said hesitantly.

“We just secured the last order of gold from Canada and South Africa needed to cover everything. Short of several countries actively trying to convert all their NADs into gold and silver, we should be fine. Even if they tried that, we have sufficient rules in place to ensure they’re not allowed to receive any new NADs unless they back their request with precious metals. Most people, even in the government, don’t realize how immense the gold stashes held by the Federal Reserve are.”

The President seemed to relax as he replied, “Excellent. When the break is over, I’ll introduce you again to everyone, and then you can begin to inform them their world is about to completely change.” Stein let out a slight chuckle.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

Joyce Gibbs had been a long-term member of the Federal Reserve and was an outspoken critic of several of the previous administrations’ continued use of quantitative easing and of the government printing money and then buying and issuing debt with that new currency. She had been a strong advocate for a return to a precious metals basket currency and a massive restructuring of America’s debt and currency. When the Freedom Party had formed, Joyce had provided then-Governor Stein a lot of economic advice. So, when Stein became President, she was his obvious first choice for Treasury Secretary.

Once the break concluded, the President signaled for everyone to take their seats as he introduced the new Treasury Secretary again. “Joyce, if you could go over the new monetary policy for us,” the President indicated as he took his seat at the center of the table.

“Thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me to address the senior leaders of the Congress in private. I feel this is important to discuss discreetly as these changes are going to have a profound effect on everyone and the economy.”

Secretary Gibbs continued, “The US dollar, along with the other world currencies, has been in a race to the bottom for decades. As a consequence, they have been so devalued as a means of dealing with their sovereign debts and increasing their own domestic exports that drastic actions need to be taken to right the global currencies.

“Economists have warned in the past that we are on the verge of a hyperinflationary event. If that happens, I believe it will not only destroy the dollar but will cause the world currencies to completely collapse. The depression we have been experiencing—and still are—will become even worse as society will soon have no means to conduct commerce except through direct trade between parties. The proverbial ‘can’ may no longer be kicked down the road.

“This needs to be solved, and with the leadership of President Stein, we are going to solve it. However, what we are proposing is also going to cause certain short-term problems and have an enormous ripple effect in the market and around the world. If we are to right our financial house, then it is necessary.”

Pausing for effect, and to collect her thoughts, Joyce looked at the President before letting the other shoe drop. “The Treasury is going to begin printing the New American Dollar, or NAD. The old US dollars will be converted to NADs at a price of five old US dollars for one NAD. As you can imagine, this will have a profound impact on people’s savings accounts, debts and loans, 401ks, and investments, but it is also going to shore them up. The NAD will be pegged to the price of a basket of precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum. We will initially set a NAD value against precious metals, but the currency will be allowed to fluctuate with changes in the market, which will ensure it is not being artificially propped up. The Federal Reserve has enough gold, silver, and platinum at the new NAD price to cover the currency that will be in circulation, and the Federal Reserve will have preferential buying power within the US to purchase these metals at the new NAD price and will do so on a continual basis to stabilize the NAD and increase its value.”

Monty raised his hand to quickly interject, “—People will still be allowed to own and purchase precious metals. We don’t want anyone to think this is like 1929 all over again, when the government required people to turn in their gold and made it illegal to own it. People can turn their gold in for NADs if they would like, but they will not be forced to do so.”

Secretary Gibbs smiled at Monty and thanked him for clarifying a point she had forgotten to mention. “The Treasury will begin printing the NADs in enough quantities to absorb the number of US dollars in circulation and allow foreign governments to have ample time to convert the old currency over. I’ve also worked with the Federal Reserve, and they will reduce interest rates from 18% to 6% to lower the borrowing cost for people and businesses. This is an aggressive and radical approach. However, we believe it is time to start thinking unconventionally and try something altogether new,” said Secretary Gibbs as she reached for a glass of water.

Seeing an opening to talk, the Speaker of the House interjected, “Madam Secretary, I’ve read your research papers on this idea when you proposed it while working at the Federal Reserve five years ago. Won’t this cause some problems with our creditors abroad?”

Secretary Gibbs nodded in acknowledgment. “Mr. Speaker, this will cause some of our lenders to become angry, yes—but there is simply no way we can repay what we owe, and neither can they as long as we continue to operate on the old currency. A new balance needs to be struck to right the worlds’ currencies. This endless circle of debt has finally caught up with the world. Through this currency revaluation and conversion, a sound fiscal policy for the world currencies can begin.

“I am not naïve enough to believe this will not cause problems in the global market, and I do foresee foreign governments not lending new money to the US for a while. In all reality, we can’t borrow enough to keep up with the current inflation of our own debt payments. The creation of the AFC and the new tax code will help to balance our budgets, but it will take a couple of years before we see the full effect. At this moment, with the current financial situation we find ourselves in, we have to do this,” Joyce concluded.

“When is the Treasury going to announce this change?” asked the Speaker.

“This evening, after the market closes—this is why it was imperative to speak with you all today. We couldn’t inform you sooner for fear of it being leaked while the markets are still open. The US markets will remain closed tomorrow and will not reopen until next Tuesday. When they do, they will reopen with the new values displayed,” she replied.

Clearly annoyed at this new information and drastic monetary change, Senator Landrew pouted. “I really wish you would have consulted us about this before you unilaterally made the decision to do this. I mean, this is the end of the first full month of your presidency, and already you are one-sidedly making a decision that is going to radically change the country.”

Seeing that the conversation was about to get nasty, the President interceded for Secretary Gibbs and cut in. “Senator Landrew, in all reality, would informing you have made any difference? It only would have allowed for people to disclose the information to the media, and that would have further hurt the economy, if not crashed it. This had to be done in secrecy.”

Considering that the Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders were clearly feeling blindsided by this new monetary policy, the President quickly moved to end the meeting and to incorporate them into the implementation of the various plans and policy directions discussed throughout the day.

“We’ve talked about a lot of information today, and we have a lot more details that need to be reviewed. I’m going to ask that you all stay into the evening tonight, so we can work as a team to begin putting these ideas into action. Senator Landrew, I would really appreciate it if you could help to lead the discussion and plan on how AFC can develop environmentally-friendly ways of drilling for oil and natural gas. I’d also like your input into the renewable energy aspect of this plan. Your insight would be greatly appreciated.”

“Thank you for the offer, Mr. President. It would be an honor,” said Senator Landrew, who still looked a bit angry over the financial news and not being able to spread the word to her contacts before the changes went into effect. She knew that her constituents and donors would make her pay for this transgression.

The President was clearly tired but excited that the plans had been disclosed and put into motion. “I’ll return later in the evening to see what progress has been made before dismissing everyone for the evening. I will need you all back here again tomorrow for the entire day while we work out the rest of the details. We are radically changing our economy and financial system, so we need all hands on deck. I’ve asked the kitchen to prepare everyone some ‘good brain food’ for the next couple of days, so we won’t have to worry about anyone’s energy level,” said the President, hoping to soften the blow of all the changes by diplomacy through good grub.

“Yes, Mr. President,” responded the team.

Chapter 2

Kings and Pawns

It was no surprise that the introduction of the New American Dollar came as a complete shock to the world markets and governments when it was announced that evening. Over the weekend, the twenty-four-hour news cycle painfully dissected every ounce of the decision. The logic and reasoning for it was sound; however, the effect it was having on a number of countries was concerning. China had no choice but to accept the change, but they did call America’s debt. This meant the US would now be making double payments in an attempt to meet their demands. As expected, no country in the world would extend credit to the US, and many countries insisted that America repay their debt in gold as they did not trust the NAD, despite it being backed by gold.

Countries that wanted their old US dollars converted into gold instead of NADs were allowed to do so but were not allowed to receive any new NADs without exchanging precious metals at the set price. Unlike the crisis with the Brenton Woods Gold Standard, during which a country could exchange their currency for USD and then exchange that USD for gold, in order to acquire NAD, countries now had to put up gold or other precious metals in exchange for it. This increased the value of the NAD and made it a viable and stable currency.

*******

Riyadh, the Islamic Republic

Zaheer Akhatar loved being at the center of the decision-making process. Being the personal advisor to the Caliph was not just an honor, but a chance to have immense influence on the direction of the country. “Caliph Mohammed, the economic ministers are in the briefing room waiting to provide you with this past year’s progress,” he said, zeal and excitement in his voice.

“Excellent. We need to continue to retool and reeducate our people if Islam is to rule the world.”

Mohammed Abbas had been the Caliph now for nearly a decade, and though a lot of progress had been made in unifying the Middle East and North Africa under one banner, there was still an immense amount of work that needed to be done. Mohammed was an economic wizard. He had spent most of his life studying economics and worked tirelessly to convert the Saudi economy from an oil-focused financial system to a dominant manufacturing and banking center. After becoming Caliph, his major focuses were on economic expansion, manufacturing, and education across the Middle East and North Africa. He had secured numerous trade deals with China, Russia, the EU and South America and had garnered a lot of economic activity for the new republic despite most nations not agreeing with their political and religious beliefs.

Caliph Mohammed and Zaheer walked through the grand palace at the heart of the Islamic Republic as they made their way to the formal meeting room that had only been completed a year prior. The palace was made of the finest marble in the world and decorated with gold, gems, and other expensive and magnificent materials. It had taken five years to construct, and only the finest artisans were allowed to touch any part of the construction. The formal meeting room, the “council chambers” as it was starting to be called, was a fusion between the decorating sensibilities of the old world and the technologies of the current world. The Caliph walked past the long mahogany table to the golden chair intended especially for him. The other chairs in the room were made of silver and bronze, with comfortably padded seats and backrests.

The room had numerous 3-D media displays that showed either TV programs or computer-generated images and reports. Each media device was specially placed so every person at the table had the optimal view. In the center of the table was a small holographic interface. This allowed presenters to display their brief as a floating image, and it also could be used as a 3-D video phone.

Muhammad bin Aziz, the Minister of Industry, began the meeting once Mohammed and Zaheer had taken their seats. “Caliph, thank you for taking the time to meet with us. We have a lot of information to go over with you.”

Nodding, Mohammed replied, “I hope you have good news to report. It has been five years since we took power, and we need to start showing more improvements.”

“Yes, Caliph. I’d like to discuss our manufacturing improvements first. We have completed construction of the military manufacturing plants, along with the manufacturing facilities to build our new air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles systems. These new manufacturing industrial centers are spread throughout the provinces of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Indonesia. They will employ 330,000 people directly and engage another six million workers for supporting positions.”

He paused for a second to gauge the Caliph’s response and then continued, “With help from our Chinese and Russian advisors, we have been converting our manufacturing capabilities towards war production at a rapid pace. We also have numerous armament factories under construction, and the Chinese are in the process of assisting us in establishing our own ground-based antiballistic missile laser defense system. We believe we can have our first operational laser battery to cover Riyadh within the year,” explained Muhammad bin Aziz.

“Excellent. And how has the modernization of our armed forces been going now that we have no prying eyes from the West?” asked Caliph Mohammed. His face did not hide the fact that he was clearly impressed with the economic progress being made.

“Caliph, as you know, a lot of our military equipment came from the US and Europe for many decades, so replacement parts are going to be a problem since they are no longer going to provide them to us. To get around this problem, we leveraged 3-D printing as a means to copy and replace the parts that are not readily available. With the help of our Chinese and Russian advisors, we have begun rebuilding our armored and mechanized infantry forces in line with theirs as well.

“I have been working with our Defense Minister to ensure we are producing the equipment he says they need as we continue to gear our entire military towards defending against and defeating those infidel pigs in Israel and the US. We have begun a full modernization of our air-defense capability with the most advanced Russian equipment available. Russia has also offered one hundred fighter pilot advisors to help train our air force to handle the Israeli and American Air Forces.” Muhammad bin Aziz laid some papers down on the table in front of them. He knew the Caliph would be pleased to reaffirm that the economy was being shaped to confront their greatest enemies.

Clearly, Muhammad bin Aziz had things under control. It was good to see that he knew how to develop the industrial capability to take on their adversaries. “All right, gentlemen, continue with your current projects and report back to me at the end of next month. In the meantime, I have a meeting with Talal bin Abdulaziz, our Foreign Secretary,” said the Caliph, indicating the meeting was over. The group stood up in deference to their leader as the Caliph got out of his chair and exited the room with Zaheer to walk down the hall to his next meeting.

Talal was a tall man, who stood about six foot one and weighed nearly two hundred and eighty pounds. He was also a wealthy businessman who knew how to work deals and get what he wanted. When Caliph Mohammad walked into the room, Talal stood up as a sign of respect. Caliph Mohammad nodded slightly to Talal and then sat down. He didn’t need any pleasant niceties with his Foreign Secretary, so he just jumped right into business.

“How are the meetings going with the other foreign heads of state? Have the other Arab countries agreed to join our great Caliphate? Also, were you able to make any headway towards establishing our free trade agreement with China and our military defense pact?”

“Caliph Mohammed, let me address these questions individually. First, I have spoken with the leaders of Yemen, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. They have all agreed to join the Caliphate, and the majority of their population agrees as well. They will move to make the transition over the next couple of months.”

Mohammad Abbas nodded his acknowledgment.

“Moving to the trade agenda—the Chinese are ready for a free trade agreement with us. I’m working out the final details of when such an agreement will be finalized and signed.”

“Excellent,” responded Mohammad.

“As to the defense pact, the Chinese are more than willing to share technology and military equipment with us, as are the Russians, but neither country wants to enter into a military pact with us. Their representatives said that our intentions to destroy Israel and attack the West will draw them into a war they would like to avoid, or at least participate in at a time of their own choosing, not ours,” said Talal, apprehensive at the thought of disappointing the Caliph.

However, despite the last bit of bad news, Mohammed was impressed with Talal. He was a real mover and shaker and could get things done. Some things were understandably still a little out of reach.

“In a way, that was to be expected, Talal. We may be able to approach the military alliance later on.”

The two men then strategized on the tactics of their grand espionage plan to further support their foreign policy goals. With the proper information and money, anything could be accomplished.

*******

The following two years, 2037 and 2038, saw tremendous growth in the US and a rebound of the global economy. Although numerous world governments and financial institutions were still angry about the new precious-metal-backed NAD, they could not refute the improved global economy. The $45 trillion US debt had just been reduced to nine trillion NAD with the conversion. However, it would still take more than a decade to pay off.

The America First Corporation was starting to post profits near sixty billion dollars a year and was growing fast. The profits were starting to offset a larger portion of the budget deficits with each month as profits were posted. The change in currency had also forced many other countries to back their own currencies with some sort of similar precious metals as the US had done.

With the world’s reserve currency revalued, numerous governments around the world were forced to do the same. The US had remonetized its debt at the expense of its debtors, affecting virtually every other major government. This caused an increased strain between central governments and various financial institutions that had, up to this point, heavily influenced the lending and holding of government debts. The US-China relationship had already been shaky since their incorporation of Mongolia in 2034 at the height of the Great Global Depression. Now the revaluation of the debt owed to China further stretched the already-tense situation.

Despite the enormous challenges facing the US, there was an energetic sense in the air as people across America began to feel like things were finally turning around. Roads were being paved, bridges repaired, schools fixed and modernized, and tens of thousands of miles of high-speed rail were being laid. People had jobs, and though they weren’t the highest-paying jobs, they had a way to put money in their pockets and support themselves again. People slowly began to spend extra cash, and demand for consumer products picked up again.

The tariffs on US firms importing products back into the US to sell tax-free finally forced US firms to repatriate their manufacturing back to America. Of course, the nationalization of American assets and facilities in China also forced a lot of US firms to cut their losses abroad. The Chinese government had seized nearly 375 billion NAD from US corporations in an attempt to collect on the US debt the Treasury Department had just remonetized. This had not gone over well with the business community, which demanded repayment from the government.

During the first two years of President Stein’s tenure in office, America had increased its oil production by over one hundred percent and brought the price of oil down dramatically, to below one hundred dollars a barrel. New refineries were under construction and expected to be finished over the next four years. Sixty new natural gas plants and twenty nuclear power plants were under construction as well. The decommissioning of the dirtiest power plants was also well under way.

Five new solar farms, each covering twenty thousand acres of land, had been built in the southwest, lowering the price of energy. The refinement of ethanol from corn, sugarcane, potatoes, rice, and wheat had increased to three million barrels a day and was on pace to hit eight million within the next three years as more arable land was being sown.

Despite the improvement in the global economy, the situation in Russia was continuing to become unstable near their borders. The secessionist movements in Chechnya and Dagestan, along with the continued unrest in the “Stan” countries, were causing immense civil unrest across the various federated provinces. China’s never-ending thirst for natural gas and oil, along with the free trade with Russia, was one of the few bright spots for Russia. Several high-speed rail networks had been built linking western Russia with greater China and were starting to pay dividends for both countries as trade and economic activity increased. Of course, the issues between Western Ukraine and Russia were also causing their own complications.

The Russian President, Viktor Zubkov, was using the civil unrest as an excuse to strengthen his control on the country and continue his modernization of the military. Military technology had changed a lot over the last twenty years. The use of unmanned aerial drones as fighters and ground attack drones had moved from science fiction to a new reality in modern warfare. Many countries had caught up to the US in drone technology. The use of drones had even made its way into light armored vehicles and tanks, changing the way future wars would be fought forever.

Western Ukraine had joined NATO and believed that this membership would allow them to get away with being more provocative with the Russians after their absorption of East Ukraine. Leveraging NATO as a shield, Western Ukraine siphoned off natural gas and fuel shipments being sent to the rest of Europe. The situation was starting to spiral out of control as this action started to decrease the profits of Gazprom, and thus, the Russian Federation.

NATO, as an organization, had continued to decline in relevancy and capability throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s. In the early 2030s, during the de Blasio Administration, America continued to maintain the NATO headquarters in Brussels but had scaled down the military presence in Europe. By the mid-2030s, the US maintained less than ten thousand military personnel on continental Europe. NATO had become more of a European peacekeeping force than a real defensive deterrent against future Russian or Islamic Republic aggression.

Russia, on the other hand, continued to rebuild its military and began positioning more forces along their Ukrainian border and their secessionist provinces. Insurgent groups in the Caucasus were operating out of the Republic of Georgia and Azerbaijan, making it more difficult to conduct counterinsurgency operations without involving either of those countries.

*******

June 2038

Washington, D.C.

Oval Office, White House

“Mr. President, Secretary Wise just arrived,” announced Julie Wells, the President’s personal secretary. Ms. Wells was in a rather unique position since she had also been the previous President’s personal secretary. A new president typically would bring his own secretary into the White House, but in spite of her not voting for him, President Stein had chosen to keep Julie on because she was likeable and very proficient at her job.

“Excellent, Julie. Please have him brought in as soon as possible and inform the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the National Security Advisor. Please have coffee brought in too—this is going to be a long meeting.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

The Secretary of State, a man who had been the head of the Kennedy School of International Studies at Harvard and had previously been an ambassador to the European Union, walked into the room.

President Stein walked over and warmly shook his hand. “Jim, it’s good to see you again. Please, come sit down. I understand we have a lot to talk about today.”

Mr. Wise did not mince words and cut to the point. “Unfortunately, Mr. President, we only have bad news and more bad news to talk about.”

As soon as he finished his sentence, the National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Secretary of Defense walked in and solemnly took their seats around the coffee table.

The President took his cue from their countenances and decided to skip any further niceties and get straight to business. “Gentlemen, we’ve called this meeting because it appears that matters in Russia may be getting worse, and the news coming from Iran and the Islamic Republic is not much better.”

“Mr. President,” interjected the NSA, Mike Williams, “Sir, the situation in the Middle East…I believe it is a bit more pressing. Our latest intelligence indicates that there is going to be a major announcement coming out of the Islamic Republic in the next couple of days—an announcement that will most certainly change the way we will have to deal with the Middle East.”

What now? thought the President.

“Mike, please go ahead and tell us what your sources have discovered. I have a feeling that I know what it is, but the others should know.” Mike hadn’t known the President personally before his term in office; he had recently retired from the DIA Human Intelligence branch as a senior collector specializing in Middle East affairs. However, the two men had quickly formed a bond, and sometimes it was almost as if Stein could literally read Mike’s mind.

“Yes, Mr. President,” responded Mike. “As you all know, there has been some talk about a possible unification of additional Middle Eastern and North African countries into the Caliphate, the Islamic Republic. Unfortunately, these rumors appear to be true, and in the next couple of weeks, we expect an announcement is going to be made with the countries of North and South Sudan, Mauritania, Mali and Somalia all joining the IR. It would also appear that the IR, backed by their Russian and Chinese friends, is going to make a play for Iran.” Grumbling emanated from the other officials as they digested this information.

Mike cleared his throat. “The situation gets worse. The countries of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and to our dismay, Indonesia, will all likely become a part of this new Caliphate.”

The President interjected, “Mike, can you please explain how the IR is going to acquire Iran, since they are a mostly Shia country?”

Mike pulled out his tablet and zoomed into an area of Iran annotated with markings indicating oil and gas fields. “The Chinese are going to acquire a hundred-year lease on these oil and natural gas fields in exchange for their help with the coup. The Russians are going to gain the port of Bandar Abbas to establish a new naval and air base. The Chinese will also gain the port of Chabahar, giving them an additional forward naval and air base.

“To ensure the military does not actively resist, the Russians, Chinese, and IR are paying nearly ten billion dollars in bribes across the government to key individuals, especially within the IRGC. Their goal is to make this coup and take over as bloodlessly as possible, and it looks like it will succeed,” said Mike, clearly in awe of the complexity and reality of the deal.

Director Rubio of the CIA asserted, “Our intelligence assets agree with this assessment as well. A lot of the hardliners that would have opposed this have been either bought off or killed by the IR. When asked, the average Iranian citizen believes a merger with the IR would benefit them, which means there will probably be little in the way of popular resistance to such a move.”

The President sat back in his chair and thought for a second. “What about our allies—Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, and Oman?”

“As of right now, they’re not merging with the Islamic Republic. However, we’re fairly certain that the IR will at some point make a move to occupy them and bring them into the fold. We have to ask ourselves what we want to do about it,” asserted Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense.

President Stein replied quickly. “That is a good question, gentlemen. General Branson, do you feel our military forces would be adequate to defend our allies?”

“Sir, with the relocation of the Fifth Fleet to Israel, and with no viable bases in the region, there is little we could do unless we were to deploy all of our carrier fleets and an invasion force to secure additional ports and air bases once the campaign started. That said, our military forces have been seriously depleted over the last several decades. We frankly do not have the military strength to get involved. We also lost our air bases in Turkey when they joined the Caliphate,” General Branson replied, sitting back in the chair with a sigh.

“Eric, I know you’ve only been Secretary of Defense for a year now, and I’m going to be asking a lot of you. Right now, we have a small budget surplus. I want to start putting more money back into the defense budget. We have, what—six carrier battle groups right now and about twelve brigade combat teams and another six more support brigades?”

“Yes, Mr. President. The Army stands at about active duty troops. The Air Force is down to 160,000, the Navy is at 210,000, and the Marines are at 62,000… Shells of what they used to be. We’ve moved most of our combat power into the National Guard and Reserve units because of funding issues,” he replied glumly.

Eric Clarke had previously been the CEO of General Electric until the President had asked him to take over as the Secretary of Defense. Stein had chosen Clarke for the role because he intended to modernize the military while finding ways to reduce the military bureaucracy and waste. The US military was becoming outdated compared to the other global superpowers. Technology had changed so much since the introduction of drones, exoskeleton combat suits, and railguns.

“Gentlemen, given the intelligence and the events of the last twelve months, I think we need to do a rapid rebuild of our military. Yesterday, Mike was briefing us about the increase in the Chinese military, particularly in their ability to project power beyond just their territorial waters. They have fielded three new supercarriers and two smaller support carriers.

“In the past two years, Russia has increased defense spending by over four hundred percent with their renewed oil wealth. Russia, like the US, has been seeing their own resurgence in their economy—they are modernizing and growing their military at a rapid rate, and so are the Chinese. We cannot allow the United States to fall behind or be caught off guard.”

The President had been worried about the ability of the American military to protect the country since receiving his first presidential briefing after taking office. The last twenty years had seen a real decline in the military while many other countries had been increasing their own capabilities.

Eric could see the President was concerned and knew he had doubts about the military. “Mr. President, our military force is small, but our capabilities are great. Our F-35 and F-22 aircraft are still unrivaled in the air, and our satellite and laser defenses are far above any other nation,” he said.

“Eric, all that means is we can keep a possible enemy from our shores. It doesn’t mean the US has the ability to project any serious force abroad or protect our allies if needed. We need to not just blindly spend money on defense but spend it on the right type of military force.”

“What are you suggesting?” asked Mike.

“I believe we should move from six carrier battle groups to nine. I also want us to move from twelve BCTs to twenty-six, increase our mobile laser battery battalions, and add additional antiballistic missile laser batteries and airborne laser systems. I also want an increase in our cyber-offensive and defensive capabilities. The wars that may be coming are wars that are going to be fought and won with the ability to neutralize an opponent’s ability to communicate globally and dominate the skies. We must make sure that America is able to meet that challenge.”

“That’s an ambitious goal, Mr. President, and also a very costly one. We would have to more than double the current defense spending, and it would take time to build up these forces,” Eric said while tapping away at his tablet.

Henry knew if anyone could turn the military around, it would be Eric. He was a master at turnarounds in the business world, and reforming the DoD was going to be critical to transforming the military into the twenty-first-century fighting force it needed to become.

“Gentlemen, I will speak with the leaders in the Congress and the Senate. After this last election, we now firmly control both houses, so I don’t foresee a problem with increasing the defense budget. I also want these defense contractors held accountable for their programs. No more cost overruns and no spending billions of dollars for them to develop the weapon systems they think we need. We will give them the requirements, and then we’ll let them show us what they can do to meet those requirements.”

“Sir, if you want to increase the budget, you certainly won’t get any disagreement from me. I’ll do my best to see that we meet your goals as soon as possible. I’d like to expand our drone program to include fighter and bomber drones and light drone tanks. They’re far less costly than manned aircraft and heavy tanks and a whole lot faster to produce in the quantities needed,” explained the SecDef.

“All right, with that settled, let’s move on to Russia. Mike, we’ll come back to the Middle East problem later. Can you please present us the situation in Russia?”

“Yes, Sir. As we all know, the situation on the Russian borders has been deteriorating rapidly, and it is our firm assessment that the Russians will probably escalate the situation in the Caucasus and along some of the ‘Stan’ countries as well,” his national security advisor said.

“What do we anticipate the EU will say about this, or about the new Islamic Republic absorbing more African countries?” asked the President.

“As of right now, the EU will most likely put their forces on a high state of alert. The EU’s main concern is that the Russians may decide to go further than their absorption of East Ukraine. As for the Islamic Republic, once they begin their unification process, they’ll be quite busy merging their military and government forces. Presently, our military assessment is that the Russians will most likely look to absorb their formal satellite states and continue to retool their military before they would consider making a move against the EU, if they choose to. Right now, the EU is Russia’s second-largest trading partner next to the Chinese, so, despite tensions being high, we believe trade will keep the tension from escalating further,” Mike replied.

The President postulated, “Eric, I believe this further reinforces our need to begin a build-up of our forces. We are going to need to be able to project power if we are to have any say in preventing any of these countries from escalating their conflicts and their expansionist ideas. Of particular concern are some of the waterways in Asia and the Suez Canal, where so much of the world’s shipping passes through.”

“Sir, with your permission and with Congressional approval, we will slowly raise the Army to 550,000 troops over the next two years, and likewise push for similar percentage increases in the other services,” responded the SecDef.

President Stein replied, “Again, I’ll talk to the Speaker of the House, and we’ll work on getting it pushed through Congress. I have a feeling that we’re going to need to really step up our military buildup over the next few years, perhaps even higher than five hundred and fifty thousand. You should have your people put together a plan to increase the Army to two million if needed.”

There was a small gulp before the response.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

Chapter 3

Comrades

The Stein administration spent most of its first few years on domestic issues and the American economy. The tax code had been rewritten, and hundreds of thousands of regulations covering the entire economy had been revised, rewritten, or eliminated to streamline the regulatory environment in the US with an aim at improving the economy and making life simpler for the average citizen. Tort reform had taken place limiting the number of malpractice lawsuits and lowering the costs of healthcare. Unfortunately, world events continued to draw the administration into the complicated international web it sought desperately to stay away from.

Mike, the National Security Advisor, walked into the Oval Office suddenly one afternoon while the President was doing some paperwork. Stein looked up in surprise at his unannounced guest to see his secretary poke her head in and mouth, “It’s important, Sir.”

“Mr. President, we have a situation developing in Moscow right now,” blurted Mike as he walked over and turned on the TV.

“What’s going on, Mike?” asked the President.

“Sir, it would appear that President Zubkov was just assassinated. His motorcade was attacked with a car bomb, killing him instantly.”

“Do we know who is responsible for the attack yet?”

“Yes, Sir, we do. We have very reliable intelligence that suggests the people involved in this attack originated from the Caucasus, the Dagestan-Georgian area to be exact.”

“Great. So we can expect a heavy response from the Russians, then.”

“Yes, Sir, I’d suspect the Russians will respond very quickly.”

“Please send our condolences and offer any assistance we can. Perhaps we can help defuse the situation at least slightly, though I highly doubt it.”

*******

September 2038

Russia

After the death of the Russian president, the newly appointed president, Mikhail Fradkov, went on a tirade for the first couple of weeks, whipping up nationalistic anger over the death of President Zubkov. He appeared on a nearly endless loop on several major television networks, making speeches that could mostly be summarized as follows: “Russia will no longer tolerate these dastardly attacks by separatists from the Caucasus. Soon we will begin to bring the fight to the enemy.”

President Mikhail Fradkov had been Zubkov’s protégé before Zubkov’s death. Fradkov had been groomed to take over Russia and lead it into the future once President Zubkov’s term as president ended. Fradkov had served in the Russian Army and later with the FSB before being pulled into public office. He was young for a major world leader, late forties, and extremely aggressive. Now he was President and in charge of a country that was being attacked continually from its border regions.

Like the US, the Russian economy was starting to boom again as the Great Global Depression gave way to a global economic boom. The numerous high-speed rail networks connecting China and Russia were starting to have a real impact on both economies. The Islamic Republic was having their own economic renaissance, which was driving Russian exports through the roof, especially in the defense and manufacturing sectors.

Despite the economic improvements taking place in Russia, the Caucasus continued to fight against the government. The provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya were rich in oil and fertile farmlands, in addition to a burgeoning manufacturing base. Like Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, they wanted to become their own countries. After nearly fifty years of fighting against the central government, the situation had finally reached a precipice of violence that neither side was going to turn away from.

The republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan both had their disagreements with Moscow, and though neither country could directly stand up to President Zubkov, they could support, sponsor and train separatists from the region to fight against the central government. As tensions between Moscow and these two nations rose, so too did the support they provided to the separatists.

It was the end of September when the Russians began their “Red October” campaign, designed to root out and eliminate what they perceived as separatist safe havens and supporters. The Russians decided that if Georgia and Azerbaijan wanted to support the separatists, then they would need to be dealt with. Tens of thousands of troops poured into Dagestan and Chechnya to confront the separatists and to secure the region. Though some separatists chose to stay and fight the Russians, many fled the region into their safe havens in Georgia and Azerbaijan.

As it became clear that the separatists were fleeing into Georgia and Azerbaijan, the Russians quickly expanded their operation into those countries. In the twilight hours of the morning, over 6,500 Russian paratroopers attacked the Tbilisi and Baku airports in Georgia and Azerbaijan. At the same time, the Russian 2nd Shock Army invaded both countries as twenty thousand soldiers arrived in Dagestan and Chechnya. The most intense fighting took place at the Tbilisi airport, with Russian paratroopers having seriously underestimated the strength and determination of the Georgians.

Though the paratroopers caught the Georgians off guard, they quickly rallied and resecured the airport, forcing the paratroopers to take refuge in neighboring buildings and houses while they called in air support and waited for reinforcements. The Russians rapidly followed up the invasion with 30,000 additional mechanized and armored forces. The 2nd Shock Army separated into two prongs, one focused on securing Tbilisi and the other Baku.

The Georgian and Azeri armies were quickly being cut to pieces by not just a numerically superior Russian force, but by thousands of Russian light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Nearly one-third of the armored vehicles in the 2nd Shock Army were light and heavy drone tanks and fighting vehicles, which were proving extremely effective. As one vehicle was destroyed, the drone operator could quickly take control of another vehicle and continue the attack. With a second operator manning a separate machine gun or cannon, they were able to continuously attack the Georgian and Azeri soldiers, only stopping to rearm.

Despite the losses, Russian forces met heavy resistance from the Georgian military, who had been receiving training from the US Army for decades. However, the Georgians, though well trained and full of fury, were outnumbered and underequipped. The resistance collapsed after ninety-six hours of intense fighting and turned into all-out guerrilla warfare against the invaders. Within the first couple of days, Russian forces had advanced to the outskirts of Tbilisi and were pushing hard towards Baku, the Azerbaijan capital. Intense house-to-house fighting took place throughout Tbilisi and Baku as the Georgians, and Azeri turned their capitals into deathtraps for the invaders. Thousands of civilians were killed, but so too were soldiers on both sides.

While things were heating up in the Caucasus, the Russians launched an all-out offensive against Kazakhstan and the other “Stan” countries. The Russians were making their final move to secure their former satellite states, and more importantly, the minerals and resources held by those former allies. With another 230,000 troops and over one thousand T-14 Armata tanks racing across the “Stans,” it was only a matter of time until the Russians would fully occupy their former republics.

By the end of October 2038, the Russians had fully dominated the countries of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, along with the vast majority of the Stan countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirgizstan. This redrew the map along old Soviet Union lines and put Russian forces at the border of the Islamic Republic.

Russia deployed an additional 300,000 troops to these newly acquired regions and began a systematic purge of anything Islamic. General Anatoly Kulikov, the grandson of a former army general from the old Soviet Union days, was in charge of putting down the separatists and establishing the new occupation, just as his grandfather had done in the 1990s. Like his grandfather, he was a stone-cold killer and ruthless in his pursuit to crush the opposition, resorting to public executions and hostage taking until rebels turned themselves in. The Russians were intent on building a new and stronger country by restoring the former glory of the old Soviet Union.

It was estimated that over 200,000 civilians died in the first thirty days of the occupation. By the winter of 2038, things began to calm down with the realization that the Russians were not leaving, and they continued to consolidate their positions in the occupied territories. Hundreds of separatists and insurgent leaders had been captured or killed, and the Spetsnaz were relentless in their pursuit of insurgent cells and groups operating within the various cities and countryside. Continuous drone coverage and strikes throughout the region ensured around-the-clock surveillance and provided the Russians with the ability to attack anything that moved, if they chose to do so.

Chapter 4

Whole Grains

March 2039

Washington, D.C.

White House Situation Room

The President was having his national security team keep a close eye on military developments within the Islamic Republic. With Russia and China building their armies for war, it was imperative to keep tight surveillance on the IR to determine if perhaps the three countries were planning to initiate a war together. With those thoughts weighing on his mind, President Stein sat down in the Situation Room for a briefing with the National Security Advisor.

Mike Williams picked up a folder and opened it before beginning. “Now that the Russians have consolidated their gains during the Red October campaign, they are in a better position to help the Islamic Republic continue their military buildup. During the last six months, the IR has received a number of drone tank battalions from Russia and China.

“They are protecting the industrial belt of the Republic and their nuclear weapons capability with their new land-based laser antiballistic missile shield near Riyadh. They’re also expanding that shield to Tehran, Baghdad, Ammon, and Cairo. Once operational, it will make it virtually impossible for our cruise missiles to hit targets around those areas, and it will also make it impossible for our aircraft to conduct an air raid should that need ever arise.

“The most alarming report—and the main reason we have called this meeting—includes intelligence showing a massive troop movement by the Islamic Republic forces in Asia. As you have already been made aware, Sir, they’ve spent the last six months building up their military capability and troop levels. Well, last night, our satellites picked up a significant migration of troops in Indonesia towards several ports. When looking closer at the ports, we discovered over eighty large transport vessels anchored at the docks. Our only conclusion is that the Islamic Republic is moving a large number of troops from Southeast Asia to the Middle East,” Mike said.

General Branson spoke up. “It may be nothing, but I get the sense that something greater is afoot, Mr. President. The Chinese, Russians and now the IR are all building massive militaries. Armies are expensive to maintain, and you don’t create an army of this scale without having a purpose for it. These sizeable troops would simply be too expensive to maintain for peaceful purposes.”

The President responded, “That’s my thought as well. What we do know for sure is that Russia ultimately wants to overtake Europe, China wants to conquer Southeast Asia and dominate the Pacific, and the IR wants to destroy Israel and us. Given this development, we should start orchestrating war plans for how to deal with these known threats.”

Stein turned to his Chief of Staff. “In the meantime, Monty, I want you to get in touch with the EU Chancellor and the British PM and let’s see if we can arrange for a meeting between their defense ministers, national security advisors and ourselves. I also want the NATO EU leadership involved in the meetings. We need to go over some of these events with them and get our countries working together.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“All right, gentlemen. If you’ll excuse us, Monty and I have to meet with our economic team to discuss some new initiatives and devise some new plans on how to speed up our own recovery.” Stein stood up and walked out of the Situation Room. The other men in the room stood out of respect to their Commander in Chief.

Within a few minutes, Henry Stein was in the Oval Office, ready to face his next meeting. “Gentlemen, sorry for the delay. We were detained in the Situation Room. Now it’s time for me and Monty to turn our attention towards the economy, so I’m hoping you all have some good news for me,” said the President as he sat down.

Jeff Rogers, the White House Senior Economic Advisor, jumped right in. “Mr. President, we do have good news to report. As you know, tomorrow the GDP numbers will be released, and so will the jobs report. I’m proud to say that the economy grew at 5.6% during the third quarter, and unemployment dropped from 16.9% to 12.3%. More and more people have been getting hired into the jobs program, and the private sector has also recorded 653,000 new jobs added this month.”

Prior to joining the administration, Jeff Rogers had been the CEO of Proctor & Gamble, and he brought with him years of experience in job creation and innovative ways of solving difficult economic problems as he guided P&G through the Depression. One of the hallmarks of the Stein presidency was his ability to surround himself with successful people from both the private and public sectors. There were no political appointments made based on political donations or to garner favor. The President was absolutely intent on appointing people who were subject matter experts in the area to which they were appointed. In several cases, individuals who had not performed well were asked to step down or were replaced. The best and brightest from the private sector were being poached to work for the Stein administration.

The President was very impressed so far with the changes Jeff had brought to the table. He acknowledged, “This is great news, gentlemen, great news indeed. We need more improvements like this, and we need to keep growing the economy. This should be the main focus in the media. We need to do everything we can to let people know things are getting better and help them to believe that there is hope. If people start to feel good about the country and our prospects, it will not only cement the Freedom Party as the party of growth and change but also inspire the rest of the nation.”

The other people in the room nodded in agreement.

The President continued, “I also have an idea I’d like to float past you all to see what you think. As you all know, our country is still in massive debt—over thirty percent of our country’s yearly income goes towards servicing our debt. The new sin tax has made some headway in paying it down, but I have two thoughts on how help to pay it down even further,” he said with a smile.

“Mr. President, we’re all ears. What do you have in mind?”

“I’ve given this a lot of thought, and there are two areas I’d like to discuss. The first is a national lottery system that would help to pay down the debt. For every NAD paid into the system, forty percent would go towards paying down the national debt, ten percent would support and sustain the national lottery system, and fifty percent would go towards the prize for the winning number. A drawing would be held every Tuesday and Friday.

“Lottery systems have traditionally raised a lot of money for the states. I see no reason why the federal government shouldn’t leverage this as well. Once the debt has been paid down, then I propose the funds be transferred to the Social Security fund. We could finally fix the solvency issue and protect our seniors for generations to come.”

Jeff sat there thinking for a second before responding, “I don’t see why we couldn’t establish something like this. We can create a subsidiary company under AFC to manage and handle the system. I’ll start to discuss it with my team and get back to you during our next meeting on the feasibility of it,” he said as he made a few notes on his tablet.

The President smiled, knowing if Jeff thought it was a viable option, he would not exude praise until his team had examined the idea first. “Excellent, Jeff. This next idea is a plan I thought should have been enacted decades ago. It’s a radical approach but something that will, in time, help to stabilize global food levels. I’d like to propose the development of a grain consortium.”

Stein linked his tablet to the interactive holographic projector on the ceiling of the room. Instantly, a floating image of the world displayed. The President used the program to highlight specific countries, then turned to face his advisors. “The oil producing countries have OPEC. I don’t see why the large food-producing countries of the world can’t form a grain consortium to both stabilize the price of commodities and ensure enough food is being produced to feed the world. These countries represent our greatest potential for membership in the consortium.”

Jeff sat back in his chair and stared at the map as it floated in a circle just above the center of the table. He was thinking about what the President had just said. “I don’t see why we couldn’t look into this—however, the trick is making it work. That will be the hard part. First, we have to get enough of the large food producing countries to participate in the consortium, and then we need everyone to stick to the prices and food production quotas. It would definitely be hard to enforce.”

Grabbing a pen and writing some notes in her notepad, Katelyn Smith, the President’s senior trade advisor, asserted, “At a minimum, we need to get Canada, Argentina, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia to be a part of the consortium if it’s going to be effective. We’ll also need to stop producing corn ethanol entirely and ensure our farmers are running their farms at full production. No more subsidies to farmers who don’t grow and sell crops.”

Katelyn Smith had been a commodities trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for several decades before she’d started her own financial firm. When it came to international trade, particularly in the area of commodities, she knew her stuff. The President had chosen her to be his senior trade advisor because she was sharp, honest, and direct—qualities he respected. He knew he needed help to turn the economy around.

Jeff interjected, “Another point for consideration is that each country will need to establish a central entity, whether it’s a corporation or some other entity, that will coordinate the purchasing and sales of all national food products.”

Katelyn nodded towards Jeff, then continued, “Another caveat is that local farmers would need to have a choice in selling their products to local grocery stores and communities or to the government entity. We don’t want this to appear like the government taking control of food production, because we’re not. As long as we include this qualification, I believe this consortium could work—it will take a lot of coordination and some patience, but I believe we can do it. If you would like, my staff can start to develop the outline for this consortium, and we can start the dialogue with our potential partners.”

“All right, then, please have your staffs start work on this immediately, and let’s see how fast we can get this moving,” the President said, satisfied that this idea had some merit and could potentially work.

Looking at his watch, the President saw they were running behind schedule. “Let’s talk about the infrastructure projects, Jeff. Where do we stand with them?”

Jeff tapped away on his tablet, and the holographic map showed new data and information represented on each state. He pulled several states forward to discuss them in more detail. “As you can see, we have 497 bridge projects, 2,667 highway projects and 3,422 high-speed rail projects underway. All of the agreed upon projects in the 2037 Infrastructure Plan are on track.”

Switching to a new image on the map, he continued, “The nation’s power grid upgrade and security improvement effort are moving forward. The Department of Energy is working with the various utility companies on hardening specific critical power nodes against EMP and cybersecurity threats. DHS and DOE are also stocking up on transformers and other critical components needed to repair and maintain the various critical nodes should something happen to the supply system,” Jeff said.

“Good. This will fold in nicely with the 2040 National Defense Authorization and Recovery Act. Our country has been wholly unprepared to deal with any major catastrophes like this for far too long,” the President responded.

“This has been a major focus of the National Recovery Working Group, Mr. President. We’re scheduled to have a meeting with them next Thursday. I suggest we wait to discuss this further with them,” said Monty as he adjusted his reading glasses.

“I agree, Monty. Thank you for keeping us on track. Before we move on—Jeff, I want to make sure that we’re diversifying the equipment used in these upgrades. Pay particular concern to products that are built by Chinese firms or subsidiaries. I don’t want our power grid exposed because we used the same product in every facet simply because it was cost-effective.”

“I agree, Mr. President, and I will personally make sure that’s being looked at,” said Jeff as he annotated a few items on the map.

Running short on time, the President jumped to the next section of the brief. “How is our manufacturing renaissance going?”

Jeff nodded towards his counterpart. “Katelyn can provide input into the trade aspect, but things are starting to improve a lot. The corporate tax and tariffs have helped with reshoring a lot of manufacturing. With the steady reduction in energy costs and a large supply of labor, it has made America a very attractive place to set up new manufacturing.”

Katelyn broke in, “—We have also increased tariffs on competing manufactured products coming from abroad, with special interests towards products from China. We have spent the last two years reviewing the various trade policies and agreements currently in place. A lot of these deals were initially poorly negotiated, which led to our enormous trade deficit. We have since modified these agreements or terminated them. We have effectively evened the playing field for American manufacturers, which has encouraged a lot of them to reshore a majority of their overseas plants.” Katelyn used her tablet to display the latest trade levels on the holograph.

“The Chinese, of course, are not happy about the tariffs, but the alternative is that they lose their ability to sell their goods to the American market.”

The President smiled at this. My entire life, the Chinese have taken advantage of my country. Now it’s time to take advantage of them, he thought.

“Good work, Katelyn. I’m all for free trade, but it must be fair trade,” said the President. “Let’s continue to work on this grain consortium initiative and ensure our trade agreements are strictly fair trade going forward.”

“China is in desperate need of both food and oil—the grain consortium would be the perfect tool to leverage those needs to our advantage. We can also add an additional charge to food and oil products being sold to China.”

Jeff, sensing that the President wanted to stick it to the Chinese, asked, “Can you explain that a little better, Mr. President? I’m having a hard time following.”

“We sell the goods to China for the price we paid through the consortium, and we then add an extra five percent to it. Rather than taking it in the form of cash, we take it in the form of them forgiving that amount of our debt. So, the Chinese would be able to secure a steady supply of food and oil from the US, while we get an even larger portion of our debt paid off. By doing this, the government wouldn’t be losing any money on the purchase of the food from our own markets, and at the same time, we would reduce our debt by five percent of each sale made to the Chinese,” said the President, clearly excited at the possibility of reducing the debt even further while “getting even.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that, Sir. I think it could work, but the Chinese aren’t going to like buying the food and fuel from us when they could just buy it directly from the market,” said Jeff.

“Normally you’d be right. However, since the Global Depression hit, most of America’s food and fuel supply has been reserved for Americans only. Very little has been authorized for overseas sales. We can tighten that restriction even further, forcing the Chinese to have to play by our rules.”

“All right, Mr. President. I’ll start work with the Commerce Secretary, and we’ll start putting this into action. I’m also going to meet with our various farmer groups. I want to see what we can do to help encourage our farmers to produce more products and increase the supply going forward. I think food could become the key to our economic success and recovery, at least in the short term, Mr. President,” Jeff said.

“Ok, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get things moving, and we’ll reconvene next week,” said President Stein.

*******

The Americans quickly implemented the concept of the Grain Consortium, or “the GC” as it was swiftly coined. Through a series of legislation and executive orders, the AFC took the lead in purchasing commodities from American farmers willing to join in the GC. Canada quickly jumped on board, and so did a number of other countries. It would take the rest of the year to fully integrate all the participating members into the Consortium, but the initial concept and American-Canadian partnership had an almost immediate impact. As the first planting season began, farmers in both countries reported a 120% increase in the number of acres planted for the first growing season.

*******

02 April 2039

Paris, France

President Stein hated dealing with his European counterparts. Despite having lived in Europe and worked with NATO during the early part of his career, Henry still found that Europe was a continent so fragmented and diverse that it was difficult to get anything of substance done. The US had spent so much blood and treasure on Europe during the twentieth century to ensure they remained a free people. Most Americans no longer believed Europe was worth the sacrificing of additional lives or resources.

The Europeans had so fouled up the Syrian refugee crisis and the Arab Spring in the early 2010s that millions of refugees had poured across their borders and never left. During the following twenty-five years, the demographics of Europe had changed as a result, and despite the central government’s having very little in common with the Islamic Republic, a large percentage of their population did. There was a cultural undercurrent of support for the IR and a distrust of the central government by European Muslims.

President Stein had landed in Paris to start a series of important talks and negotiations. As his motorcade made its way through the city to the location of the meeting, he couldn’t help but notice how much of the city had changed. There were a lot more minarets dotting the skyline and women wearing headscarves, despite the bans on them. The air hung with a certain darkness that had been not there before. The atmosphere just seemed a bit bleaker, lacking the energy and hopefulness one would expect in Paris.

The motorcade pulled up to the official entrance of the Élysée Palace, and as Henry stepped out, he couldn’t help but feel that he was entering a bubble that brought him back to another time in history. As he followed his security agents through the entrance, he was struck by the building’s grand décor and ceaseless beauty. Despite all his worldly travels, he was still amazed by his surroundings, like a child who has seen Disneyland for the first time. When he arrived in the Salon Doré, he was jolted back to reality a bit as he realized that he was the last one to arrive for the meeting. This meant that business would begin right away. He took a deep breath and refocused his mind on the task at hand.

Without further hesitation, he extended his hand to greet the man closest to him in the room. “It’s good to see you again, Chancellor Lowden. How have you been?”

Lowden took the President’s hand and gave him a firm handshake.

“Things are going well. I hear America is experiencing an economic renaissance—you will have to share your secret with us.” A wry smile crossed his lips. President Stein tipped his head towards him in acknowledgment and smiled back.

Turning to the next prominent leader in the room, President Stein continued the task of introductions. “Prime Minister Bedford, how are things faring in Great Britain?”

“We’re doing great. Things are really starting to turn around. I do want to personally thank you for the generous food prices to England and the EU. This will make a big impact in our continued economic recovery,” replied PM Bedford.

In response, President Stein and Bedford shared some polite exchanges that the rest of the room did not hear. The two men were not-so-secret fans of one another and always enjoyed being face-to-face whenever possible. The benefits of teleconferences were a bit overrated in situations like these, especially with the potential security breaches from hackers.

PM Stannis Bedford was a strong leader and worked hard to ensure Britain didn’t lose their British identity despite the recent massive influx of foreign immigrants. Unlike his EU counterparts, he wanted to model more of the British economy around what the Canadians and Americans were doing, especially with regards to their trade agreements with Asia.

After shaking each leader’s hand, President Stein turned to the group and said, “Our goal in the US is to continue to strengthen our military and economic ties with England, the EU and our NATO partners. To that end, we cannot have our friends starving. The Grain Consortium can be used as both a relief program and as a weapon, if need be. The Consortium is only a month old, and as we get more organized, I can assure you greater quantities of commodities will be made available at reduced prices for those countries in our grand alliance,” Stein said with a warm and disarming smile.

The leaders all nodded their approval. They were a very eager audience. President Stein spent some time going over the finer details of the Grain Consortium program. Most of the leaders were taking notes and asking questions during the presentation; they were all very engaged.

As President Stein finished speaking, the group stood for a brief restroom break. As some left the room and others mingled, the Canadian PM, Troy Peck, approached him. “Mr. President, on a different topic, I wanted to thank you on behalf of Canada for the help America continues to provide in putting down the civil unrest in Toronto and Vancouver. These extremist Muslims have been causing all sorts of problems across Canada since the Grain Consortium stopped selling food products to the Islamic Republic.”

One of the initial acts of the Consortium had been to stop selling food products to the Islamic Republic. It was a known problem that the IR continued to sponsor terrorist organizations globally and was persistently behind efforts to undermine Western governments. They were also continuing to try and expand their empire into Malaysia, the Philippines, and Sub-Saharan and East Africa. To that end, the Consortium made it known that they would not sell food products to the IR until this behavior stopped.

Canada had experienced a demographic change, as had Europe. Decades of taking in asylum seekers and refugees had changed the religious and social dynamics of the country. The Islamic population made up close to thirty percent of the country. In several cities where the Islamic population was closer to fifty percent, there were movements to insist that these cities be governed by Sharia law. There was also a growing crusade nationwide to move the country to Sharia law and away from the control of the Canadian Constitution.

The government had, of course, balked at this, and civil unrest had followed all across the various Islamic communities in Canada. Tens of thousands of Canadian citizens had immigrated to the IR and were encouraging others to do likewise. Despite the migration of Muslims from Canada to the Islamic Republic, the ones remaining were doing their best to turn Canada into an Islamic country.

The Canadian administration was clearly overwhelmed by the violence, which had spread from Toronto to the rest of the country. Government workers and police officers were routinely being targeted and killed, and several buildings had been bombed. It was during the height of this violence that Troy Peck had called Henry Stein directly to ask if the US government would be able to assist Canada in putting down this uprising by these extremist Muslim communities.

At first, President Stein had been reluctant to get involved. His main focus was on rebuilding America, and thus he wanted to avoid external conflicts. However, once the US intelligence community determined a lot of support for these uprisings was originating from Dearborn, Michigan, and the rest of the Detroit area, the President decided he needed to act in order to keep the same thing from happening within the US.

The President, in agreement with the Canadian government, authorized the use of US military forces in Canada. This included the deployment of 5,600 Military police, 120 judge advocate generals and three brigade combat teams or BCTs. There were also six Special Forces A-Teams assigned to support the BCTs. The results of the military engagement were almost immediately successful. Minor disturbances cropped up here and there, but the large-scale riots were gone and violence was on a definite decline.

It was during this tense period that PM Beck and President Stein secretly began to explore the possibility of the US and Canada holding a national referendum to merge their two countries. It was too early to announce anything publicly yet, but there were a lot of backroom conversations happening behind the scenes.

“Troy, if Canada needs any additional help, please let me know. I’d be more than happy to deploy additional military police to Canada to help augment your government. We’ve been fortunate in that we have not experienced the same level of violence or uprising by our own Muslim communities. Of course, the problem really isn’t with Muslims directly. It has more to do with the one to three percent of radicals within these communities that stir up the problems. As we identify these individuals, we prosecute them under the law or move to deport them,” said Stein, trying to reassure PM Peck that things would get better.

The President was eager to get the next part of the meeting started. His arrival had been delayed by nearly thirty minutes, so he felt behind schedule. The leaders filed back in and sat down, and Henry wasted no time.

“Switching gears, I wanted to speak with you all about the growing problems with Russia and with the Islamic Republic.” Stein linked his tablet to the holographic device on the table and brought up a floating global map. Next to the map, several intelligence reports, photos and analysis were available for the rest of the group to read through while he spoke. “I feel that at this point, conflict is all but inevitable with the Islamic Republic. It is incumbent upon us to make preparations for this battle and ensure that we win.”

As naïve as the leaders of the EU appeared, they also recognized that the massive demographic changes of the last twenty-five years had caused some serious problems between their Muslim immigrants and their European counterparts. The provocative activities of the IR within Western countries and the rest of the world were pushing everyone towards a clash of civilizations.

“Do you really feel that diplomacy will not work?” asked PM Bedford, hoping that his own assessment was wrong.

Stein responded, “At this point, I don’t—we’ve shared our intelligence with you in regard to the Russian build up and the massive troop movement and modernization of the Islamic Republic’s military. They’re gearing up with assistance from China and Russia. The questions we have to ask are ‘How much time do we have?’ and ‘Who will attack who first?’”

Chancellor Lowden cut in, “—Europe is still recovering from the Depression. We are only now able to adequately provide for our people, and we cannot afford to spend additional resources on a military buildup.” He looked concerned while he spoke, genuinely torn.

“Chancellor Lowden, I understand your economic situation. The US has been in the same situation. You and I both know the EU cannot possibly hope to protect itself with a military force of 130,000 soldiers…. The US cannot protect Europe alone. We need Europe to do its part,” said Stein, nodding towards the photos and intelligence reports floating on the holographic screen.

“With all due respect, Henry, the US does not need to lecture Europe on protecting itself. With the combined forces of Europe and the US, we can more than hold our own against the Russians. The Russians use quantity over quality, which is our advantage over them. Our weapon systems are more precise, and we can do more with less,” Chancellor Lowden shot back.

“That may have been true twenty years ago. However, neither of our countries have invested in new defense technologies, while Russia and China are now leading the world in that arena. A lot has changed. Look at this report here—the Chinese are already integrating robotic exoskeleton suits into some of their combat units. Neither of our countries are even close to incorporating this technology to the same scale they are.” The President brought a new set of documents up, showing the initial preparations the US was starting to make.

“Because of these new developments, I have directed our military to begin a slow buildup. We are adding almost 300,000 additional troops to each of our military services. I highly encourage the UK and EU to begin a rapid buildup of forces as well,” said Stein.

“Henry, I don’t know that I can gain the needed support from Parliament to increase the military. I understand the threat. I’m just not sure I can gain the political support to do what you’re asking,” said Lowden in a more conciliatory tone.

Bedford concurred. “I fear I will have the same problem. England is struggling, and we still have an unemployment rate of nearly eighteen percent. Paying for an increase in the military budget will be a tough proposition. Our young people are frankly just not interested in being a part of the armed forces, and as you illustrated earlier, our defense technology isn’t what it used to be. What you are proposing would take the better part of a decade to achieve, not years like you are implying we need.”

The President had known this was going to be a hard sell from the beginning, so he had come to the table with several options. “Gentlemen, I understand the concerns and the problems that you all will face. However, if we do nothing, it may be too late to act. We need to take action now while we still have time, not wait until after we’ve been attacked.

“To help increase your own economic recovery, I ask that you review and approve the new US/EU/UK free trade zone that you see before you. We will remove any tariffs currently in place and ensure that this trade agreement doesn’t outsource jobs away from our respective regions. This will enable goods, services, and materials to be sold between our countries without having to pay an extra duty tax. I have also directed the US Treasury to offer fifty-year, one-percent-interest loans for the sole purpose of rebuilding your militaries,” said Stein.

There was a short pause as the leaders in the room looked over the information in front of them. PM Bedford was the first to speak. “This trade deal is excellent news. I’m also glad to see that there will be special provisions in place to ensure this isn’t used to outsource either party’s jobs, just provide tax-free access to goods and services.”

Lowden chimed in. “I agree, Henry. I’ll work to have this treaty moved through quickly. As for the military, I’ll recommend we increase our reserve forces to 600,000 and then slowly start to convert some of them to active duty. We may need to rely more on your defense industry for newer equipment—France and Germany’s defense industry is limited in what it can produce right now.”

Seeing that he had essentially gotten everything he wanted from the meeting, the President handed his tablet back to Monty and rose from his chair. “Gentlemen, I’m glad we were able to clear a lot of these issues up. I believe we have a dinner to attend in a couple of hours. Let us break for some drinks and a lighter conversation before we eat and share some of this exceptional French wine.” The men all smiled. Stein always knew how to keep the mood in the room light.

*******

June 20

Washington, D.C.

White House, Oval Office

The Grain Consortium was really starting to take shape as more countries joined and food production continued to increase. Stein wanted to leverage the Consortium to ensure the world had enough food and to lower overall global food prices. During the Great Global Depression of the 2020s and early 2030s, close to one billion people had died from starvation when the global movement of food goods had collapsed. When OPEC and then the Islamic Republic had placed a global squeeze on oil, raising the price of a barrel of oil to over three hundred dollars, things had broken down fast. OPEC and the IR had believed they could exploit their control on oil and gain an incredible amount of wealth from the West. What they had actually done was create a global depression and caused an interruption in the global supply chain—energy and transportation prices had become unsustainable.

However, by June 20, there was plenty to smile about. Jeff Rogers stepped into the room, and Henry stood up to greet him. “Mr. President, I’m proud to report that the Grain Consortium is starting to get up to speed. We have the food agreements in place with the EU and our NATO allies. We have cut off all food shipments to the Islamic Republic, and China has grudgingly agreed to our food proposal.”

The President motioned for the attendant in the room to pour everyone a fresh cup of coffee. “Jeff, I’m always amazed at how fast you can make deals happen and get things moving. How do you do it?”

With a smile on his face, Jeff replied, “Well, Mr. President, running P&G has given me a lot of experience in how to establish a truly global supply chain and negotiate deals that are fair to all parties…I’ve also poached a lot of really good people from a number of Fortune 100 companies,” said Jeff with a snicker.

“I anticipate that next year, the Consortium will really start to hit its stride as the group begins to increase food production,” Jeff added, taking a sip of coffee. “I’m confident it will, and as the years go by, this Consortium will bring a lot of wealth back to our countries, and more importantly, to our lower- and middle-class workers.”

Monty checked his tablet as a new message popped up. The intelligence reports of the Islamic Republics troop movements had finally come in. The President saw Monty had received a message and asked, “So—what news do you have for me?”

Monty looked up and quickly said, “Sorry to interrupt, Jeff. Sir, we’ve gotten additional intelligence on those troops that were being moved from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. It appears the Islamic Republic has pulled them back to receive additional training. The intel guys believe most of them will return back to Asia, though our sources have said some of them will stay behind,” explained Monty.

The President had been concerned about the troop deployments, not knowing if the IR was preparing for a potential conflict with Israel or just moving troops around to consolidate their positions globally. He asked, “Did we ever get a full count on how many troops were arriving from Asia?”

Monty looked down at the tablet for a second before returning the President’s gaze. “One hundred and twenty-five thousand troops—our source said about 25,000 will stay behind after their training. It would appear they will be deployed to Iraq to receive additional training.”

The President thought for a moment, then asked, “What training bases are in Iraq? What type of training are they receiving?”

Checking his tablet again, Monty replied, “It appears they’re receiving additional training in mechanized infantry operations in Anbar Province, and about 15,000 are going to Balad for additional Air Force–related training. That training is most likely being provided by the Russians. Our sources and analysts believe the IR is in the process of reorganizing their military forces and working to unify their training and equipment.”

Placing the tablet on the couch seat next to him, Monty continued, “Since we stopped selling them spare parts, they’re having to reorganize their military forces with newly purchased Russian- and Chinese-manufactured equipment. Seeing that Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt primarily used American equipment, they have to replace virtually everything.”

The President snickered at that. “It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years as parts for the F-35, F-18s, F-16s and F-15s start to become scarce. It’ll get harder for them to properly field a military until they switch everything over.”

Jeff rarely interjected in anything related to the military, but at this point, he added, “They may be using 3-D printing to help with parts. If you have original parts, it’s not hard to develop a replica using 3-D printing software, and the printers these days are exceptionally good.”

The President thought for a moment. “I hadn’t thought of that—you’re correct, Jeff. I guess we’ll have to factor that in.”

Chapter 5

Alliances

June 2039

Riyadh, Islamic Republic

Imperial Palace, The Council Room

“My Caliph, there is a problem that I must discuss with you,” said Muhammad bin Nayef, the Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Republic, who often went simply by “Nayef.”

“What is so important that you must interrupt my studies, Nayef?” Mohammed Abbas asked as he looked up to see several of the other advisors and ministers entering the chamber.

“Sir, we must find a solution to the food shortages the West has imposed upon us,” said Nayef.

Talal bin Abdulaziz, the IR foreign minister, interjected, “I know we have discussed this before, Caliph, but the food situation is starting to become a critical problem. None of the EU countries will sell food products to us either.” He was clearly very angry at the situation.

“Haven’t our economic ministers worked out a way around this or figured out how we can increase our own food production?” asked the leader of the Islamic Republic.

“Sir, our engineers are working to increase the Nile River Delta area and increase the distribution of water to more lands, but it is a slow process. We have started construction of hundreds of biodomes using the latest in genetically modified seeds to increase production. These solutions will work in the long run, but they are not going to provide us the relief we need now,” he replied.

“Then some people will starve while others will not. Until the situation changes, there is not much we can do but pray to Allah for his blessings,” Caliph Mohammed said with a bit of heat in his tone.

Nayef knew the Caliph was right. It was just hard to accept that outcome. Knowing he also had to provide some good news if he was going to interrupt the leader’s quiet time, he brought up something on his tablet and linked it to the holographic display. Up popped the latest economic and military reports. If there was one thing the Caliph liked to discuss, it was industry and the modernization of the Republic. “Caliph, the food situation is dire, and as everyone has said, we have solutions in development, but they will take time before they come to fruition. However, I’d like to direct your attention towards the progress we have made with regards to the modernization of the military and the Republic.”

“Thank you, Nayef. This is an area of great importance to the Republic. We need to build up our own military industrial complexes and secure new sources for weapons and parts. If we can do this and solve our food problem, then the Republic will truly be self-sufficient,” Caliph Mohammed said with some return to enthusiasm in his voice.

Nayef continued, “We have been making headway with the Chinese. They are not happy about this new cartel the Americans have formed, but they are in desperate need of food, so they are going along with it for the time being. They have agreed to sell us additional weapons and spare parts if we cut them a deal on oil. I told them we will sell them all the oil they need for thirty percent less than market value, as long as they continue to provide us with weapons and, more importantly, 3-D printing technology.

“The Russians have agreed to sell us their entire line of Armata armored vehicles. We are purchasing three thousand T-14C main battle tanks and 28,000 armored personnel carriers among other assorted vehicles. They also agreed to allow us to manufacture them under license, and we are setting up plants in Riyadh, Baghdad, Cairo and other industrial hubs.”

Smiling, Nayef nodded towards Muhammad bin Aziz to continue.

“The Russians have agreed to sell us two thousand MiG 32s and will also let us manufacture a large percentage of them under license. This will greatly bolster our aerospace industry. They have agreed to sell us their newest air-to-air fighter drones as well. These are much cheaper and easier to produce. We have agreed to purchase four thousand immediately, so our pilots can begin to train with them. And once the factories are operational, we will start producing one thousand new drones a year,” Muhammad said excitedly.

Nayef happily replied, “Muhammad, I didn’t know you were such a shrewd negotiator. This is an excellent deal. I’m very pleased that you were able to secure the manufacturing licenses—it will not only provide highly skilled labor jobs, it will help advance our ability to design and build armored vehicles and combat aircraft…How about food? Are they able to assist us in that area?”

Muhammad relaxed a little as he said, “The Russians can assist us with minimal food this year, but they are in the process of converting large portions of their newly conquered territory into farmland. We will make it through this year’s food shortages, but it will be rough.”

“How is the training of the army?”

“It is going well. We have instructed the Asian region to build up their regional force to 450,000 troops. The North African region is working to build their forces to 600,000 troops and the central region to 5,500,000 troops. Most of those recruits are coming from the provinces of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, and it will take time for this force to become proficient. The Russians and Chinese have both agreed to send us 50,000 military trainers each for the next five years to integrate our forces into the same military doctrine as theirs,” said Muhammad.

“Excellent. How has the integration of Iran been going?”

“Rough in some areas and good in others. The military has been a big help in securing the country and ensuring it stays protected. It’s some of their former leaders that are causing trouble…not all of them are happy with the assimilation. The drafting of a few million military aged males will certainly help with integrating them into the Republic. If it were not for the military coup, this whole incorporation of Iran would have been a disaster.”

“It would have been war. Who would have thought a few billion NAD could have bought an entire country?” replied the Caliph with a snicker.

Before the meeting ended, the Caliph wanted to make sure everyone continued to stay focused on the end goal. “Everyone needs to remember that despite our final integration of Iran into the fold, our ultimate enemy is America and Israel. You need to remember that no matter what your thoughts are on the Americans, they are fierce and ruthless in combat. I’ve personally fought them, and I know that to be true. Their individual military training is the best in the world—that is why they are such tenacious fighters. We need to train our soldiers to that same standard, so they will not run during a battle but will charge right into it like the Americans. We can beat them, but we need our soldiers to be better trained.”

General Rafik Hamza, the Overall Islamic Republic Military Commander, chimed in. “We recently had several thousand Muslim Americans immigrate to the Republic. Some of them, who had previously served in the American military, have agreed to share what they know. We are leveraging their skills and experience, along with our Russian advisors, to help modernize our basic training. The former Quds Force has also been instrumental. Surprisingly, there are some American companies that are also helping us in this area for a price. They are expensive, but they are very good.”

“This further reinforces my previous statements that the West only cares about money. They will do anything for money, even train their future enemy.”

“Have we moved Allah’s Swords to Tanzania yet?”

“Yes, they have been smuggled out of Iran and are now sitting in a shielded warehouse in the Tanzania Coffee House Company. They make regular freighter shipments to America, so when we are ready to move the devices, they should make it through the port security intermixed with the regular cargo shipment. They have a very dense lead shield, so they will not show up on any detention sensors or satellites. I have agents who will load them onto the freighters when you give the order,” said General Rafi, IR Special Operations Commander.

“If we could work out a more coordinated first strike with the Russians and Chinese, the Americans would never know what hit them until it was too late,” said Muhammad.

“In time, we need to create as much instability inside America and Mexico as possible. The Russians have designs for Europe, and we need to convince them that with America out of the picture they can do whatever they want with Europe. The same argument can be made with the Chinese, but they are going to need to know that we can play our own part,” Talal said.

*******

June 2039

Beijing, China

Imperial Palace, Central Military Commission Meeting Room

“What are the Americans trying to do with this deal? Starve us to death?” asked Zhang Jinping, the Premier of the People’s Republic of China.

“Premier, the American president is working to reduce their debt, a debt of which we hold the majority share. Our country is becoming flush with cash, and the US is starting to buy more of our products again. All of this is good news,” said the Premier’s Senior Advisor, Jing Xi.

The Premier was clearly angered that the Americans had negotiated China out of ten trillion dollars with the remonetizing of their debt. The US had also imposed severe tariffs on Chinese products coming into America, despite the free trade agreements previous administrations had signed. Now the US had coopted other countries to join their Grain Consortium, further squeezing China. Though outwardly trying to remain calm, the Premier could not hide his ire. The veins on the side of his neck were bulging and pulsating with each breath. The middle of his brow furrowed involuntarily. No amount of “good news” was going to erase the perceived wrongs of the West.

“This food cartel the West has formed is going to force us to play by their rules, or they will simply cut off our food supply,” said Jing Xi.

Premier Zhang thought for a moment before responding, “Not only do we have to pay an artificially high value for the food that we buy from them, we have to reduce their debt by five percent of the cost of that food. If our people were not starving right now, I’d have half a mind to tell the Americans to go to hell.”

Jing knew the Premier was angry and wanted to assure him that despite these slights by the Americans, all of this was still good for China. “At least they are paying back their debt—there was a time when we thought they were not going to. The value of the NAD is also rising quickly as their economy continues to improve.”

“Yes, but all the money we are making from them paying back their debt, we are just paying right back to them to buy food. Not only that—we are reducing their debt by five percent of each purchase. At this rate, they will have the majority of their debt to China paid off in less than half a decade, and our leverage over them will have evaporated.”

“True, but the global economy should have improved significantly by then. Our factories are already returning to life,” replied Jing.

“I believe that has more to do with the massive weapon and industrial goods sales to the Islamic Republic than anything else. I can’t help but wonder if we are supplying a future enemy with weapons that may one day be used against us.”

“One can never know these things. Right now, it is a good business opportunity for us to pursue, and the Muslims have not been stirring or causing problems in our country, so we should be thankful,” said Jing with a neutral face.

“Mark my words, if the Muslims ever try to rise up in and revolt in China, I’ll not hesitate to crush them with the full weight of our military. I will absolutely not tolerate an Islamic uprising in China,” said the Premier with a determined look in his eyes.

“The bigger question is, ‘What is Russia doing?’ They have been building up their military to pre–Cold War levels,” said General Fan Changlong, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The Premier looked everyone at the table in the eye as he spoke. “Russia has always had an ax to grind against the Europeans. They have been invaded by Europe multiple times throughout history. Perhaps they feel Europe is in enough of a decline they can enact their revenge or vision of a unified Europe under Russian rule. In either case, it is not our vision or our problem.”

Zhang continued, “Our vision is for a unified Asia. Southeast Asia has always been the Rice Bowl of Asia; it has flatter lands and can handle our growing population. It is for this reason that we continue to build and train our forces to become the dominant force in the Pacific and push the Americans out.”

He paused, then asked, “What is the state of our military? Are we fully prepared for Operation Red Dragon yet?”

“As you know, the military has suffered like everyone else in China. However, our forces are still strong. The PLA stands at 3.5 million troops, all ready to defend China. We still retain a very limited offensive capability, but we can more than defend our borders. As we continue to expand our light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, we will be ready to secure Southeast Asia. We have three additional supercarriers under construction, and once they are completed, it will bring our carrier force to six supercarriers and three smaller escort carriers,” General Fan Changlong said as he highlighted some images of the new supercarriers on the holographic display.

The general went on, “At that point, we will be ready to initiate Operation Red Dragon and destroy the American Pacific Fleet should they try to intervene. We also have another six million troops in the reserves that can be called up if needed. Our current plan calls for us to activate two million of the reserves by the end of the year and begin to train and integrate them into our active army. By the end of 2040, our active duty force will consist of 5.5 million soldiers. A full 300,000 of our infantry will be equipped with the new exoskeleton suits. They will be our shock troops for the operation.”

The Director of State Intelligence, Xi Lee, spoke up. “As long as we do not attack Taiwan, I believe we will be left alone if a conflict arises between Russia and the EU or with the Islamic Republic. With India still picking up the pieces from their last war, we do not need to worry about them as a possible threat to us either.”

“Our country is safe, Premier, so long as we do not provoke a fight until our carriers are finished,” said Jing with confidence.

*******

July 2039

Moscow, Russia

Kremlin, Presidential Office

“Mr. President, I’d like to speak with you about the deteriorating situation in the Stans and the Caucasus region,” said General Gerasimov, the head of the Russian Military.

“I trust our grip on the region is not slipping?”

“No, Sir. General Kulikov continues to purge the region. However, we are seeing a rise in the number of insurgents and separatist activity, including weapon smuggling, particularly along the border with the Islamic Republic,” replied General Gerasimov.

“We have an envoy from the IR this week. I’ll speak with them and see what they can do to help shut down these smuggling routes. They want to discuss the issue of a joint military defense agreement,” said President Fradkov.

“That could be dangerous,” asserted Nikolai Bortnikov, the Director of the Russian version of the CIA, the FSB. Nikolai was another holdover from President Viktor Zubkov’s administration. President Fradkov had thought about replacing him but was more scared of what would happen if he tried. Nikolai lived for the FSB, and though he had been part of the Zubkov administration, he was extremely loyal to Russia, if not to President Fradkov. For that reason, the President had left him in power.

“In this we agree, Nikolai. The IR will at some point attempt to destroy Israel and continue the spread of Islam into Europe and America. They could entangle us into a fight sooner than we want, but they could also be a useful ally. If they do attack the Americans and we provide them with the best weapons possible, then they may be able to bloody the Americans enough that they would not be able to intervene in Europe when the time comes.

“Likewise, we can encourage and aid them in their activities in Europe. If the EU has to put down popular uprisings in their major cities, they will not be able to react fast enough to our invasion,” said the President.

General Igor Gerasimov, the Head of the Russian Military, interjected, “Whatever is agreed upon with the Islamic Republic needs to remain in line with our European objective. In all my years in the military, I have never seen the Americans at such a weak moment. President Stein knows this as well and is taking remarkable steps to correct the situation, but he has time working against him. If the IR attacks Israel, the Americans will come to their aid. We need to ensure the IR has the training and equipment needed to deliver several major hits against the Americans. If they can weaken the Americans enough, they will not be able to intervene in Europe and stop us.”

Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense, saw the President was weighing General Gerasimov’s comment and wanted to reinforce it. “Mr. President, the general is right. I propose that when the IR does attack the Israelis and Americans, we be ready to act. If the Chinese also act when we do, then the chances of success in Europe are incredibly high. They have been building their naval forces for decades in preparation for taking on the American Pacific Fleet. If we could coordinate with the Chinese to initiate their attack shortly after the IR moves, the Americans will be split between Asia and the Middle East. Then we will launch our attack in Europe. We could capture Europe in less than sixty days.”

“My intelligence sources suggest the Chinese would be open to organizing an attack with us,” Nikolai added.

The President took a puff on his cigar before responding. “Nikolai, continue to work that angle. I’d like to see if the Chinese would be open to coordinating their operation with us. I also want you to look into how we can help the IR in further destabilizing Europe and North America. The more fires we can start before the big one, the better.”

“I serve Russia,” was Nikolai’s response.

Lieutenant General Nikita Sergun, the Director of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence division, was not sure why Nikolai hadn’t brought up the information about the East African coffee company his sources had discovered, so he decided to speak up. “There is one other major item I’d like to bring up, Mr. President. As you know, in the past several years, the GRU has been expanding the number of agents we have abroad. Recently, one of my agents discovered something of great value in East Africa,” Sergun said, looking to Nikolai to see if he would interject. When he did not, Sergun continued.

“One of our operatives in East Africa has made an alarming discovery. His sources tell him that a freighter arrived from the Islamic Republic last week. His source works at the shipyard as a dockworker. He said one of the containers being offloaded was heavily guarded; it had a biometric lock on the door, and it required a special truck because it was too heavy for a regular truck.

“The dock worker said he believed the shipping container was lead-shielded. When it scraped against another container, it left a mark on the container that appeared to be lead,” said General Sergun while displaying several photos on the holograph.

“I had our agent look into this a little further, and he discovered that the container had been delivered to the Tanzania Coffee House Company and placed into a new warehouse on the property. This coffee company also went from having minimal security to suddenly having several dozen armed guards and biometric locks on the doors to its new warehouse.”

“So, what are you saying, General Sergun? That the IR shipped a few nuclear bombs or something to this apparent front company?” asked Nikolai with a surprised look on his face.

“Mr. President—Nikolai—that is exactly what I am saying. I have directed our agent there to do whatever he can to infiltrate this company, and we are looking at every angle of this,” General Sergun replied.

Nikolai thought for a moment about what General Sergun had just brought up. His agents had known the IR had moved two nuclear devices out of the country—they just hadn’t known the location. “Mr. President, if the IR uses these devices against the Americans, and we and the Chinese coordinate this right, we could knock the Americans completely out of the war before it really has a chance to get started,” said Nikolai with a bit of excitement in his voice.

“How do you mean, Nikolai?” asked the President.

“If we can convince the IR to use the nuclear devices against key US logistical nodes instead of symbolic targets, they could cripple the Americans’ ability to move men and materiel to Europe or the Middle East.”

“That is a big ‘if’—these Muslims don’t always use logic when they fight a war,” Minister Puchkov said.

“Nuclear weapons are dangerous to play with, as we saw with India and Pakistan. They nuked the living daylights out of each other, and it’s lowered global temperatures by five degrees. Plus, if the Americans get nuked, you can be assured that President Stein will obliterate whoever attacked them,” the President said with a bit of concern. “The goal is to conquer Europe, not destroy ourselves in the process.”

“That’s the beauty of it, Mr. President. The IR would do it for us. If anyone would be attacked with nuclear weapons, it would be the IR,” explained Nikolai.

“Continue to monitor the situation, and let’s play this one by ear, Nikolai.”

*******

In the following months, a series of secret meetings between Russia, the Islamic Republic, and China took place as they discussed a strategy for defeating America once and for all. They all had their own reasons for plotting an attack against the US, but for all of these parties, the end would justify the means.

Chapter 6

Saving the Mounties

November 2039

Washington, D.C.

The White House

The last nine months had been terrifying for the people of Canada. The country’s Muslim population had risen to over twenty percent following the Global Depression. With the creation of the Islamic Republic and the return to a Caliph, the Muslim minority in Canada wanted to be a part of this historic event. When that didn’t happen, they grumbled—loudly, and the more radical groups started to cause some civil unrest. They bombed government buildings and targeted the police and government workers. Once Canada joined the American Grain Consortium and cut off all sales of food products to the IR, the extremist groups erupted.

Extremists within the Muslim communities across the country denounced the Canadian government as anti-Muslim and held massive rallies and protests. Through careful manipulation of the situation by the Islamic Republic, these rallies and protests quickly turned more and more violent, with both sides taking casualties. The IR’s public relations machine produced extremely effective propaganda showing images of Muslim children starving and blaming the atrocities on the actions of the Canadian government. They also showed graphic images, telling stories of “peaceful” protesters who were shot or killed by Canadian police. The social media campaign was proving to be incredibly effective in changing the mood within the country.

What resulted was a near-constant conflict—both violent and nonviolent—between the various Muslim communities in Canada and the authorities. In April, a series of bombings targeted police stations and killed 154 police officers. Those in law enforcement were starting to be openly attacked and assassinated, causing further casualties. It was during these trying times that the Canadian government reached out to the US and asked for assistance.

*******

“General Branson, the President will be ready to speak with you in a few minutes. He’s still speaking with Prime Minister Peck,” said Monty.

“Not a problem. I suppose they’re talking about the most recent rioting in Montreal. Their police forces were overrun by those Muslim radicals,” Branson replied.

“I heard about that this morning. They burned down a police station and killed several police officers, didn’t they?” asked Monty.

“Yes, law and order were just restored to the city about four hours ago, after the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment arrived and suppressed the uprising.”

“The problem in Canada only seems to grow. Their government seems to be paralyzed by this revolt of their Islamic population. They’ve been hit the hardest in the economic recession with—what—close to thirty percent unemployment?” queried Monty.

“Something like that. I’m a military man, so what I’m most concerned with is threats to our country and what I can do to stop them,” replied Branson, always the soldier. He did his best to stay out of politics and wanted nothing to do with the political fighting that often consumed Washington and anyone that dared to get involved in it.

The President’s Secretary walked back in the room and with a welcoming smile said, “Gentlemen, the President is ready to see you now.”

Walking in to the Oval Office, the two of them saw the President walk towards them with his hand extended. “Mr. President, always good to see you,” said Branson as he shook the President’s hand.

“Likewise, General. I assume you’re here to talk to me about the recent uprising in Canada.”

“Yes, among a few other things, Mr. President,” he replied.

“General, before we talk about this uprising, I think Monty and I should bring you up to speed on some very secretive talks that PM Peck and I have been having. Monty, if you would explain the situation.”

“Yes, Mr. President. General, we all know that Canada has been in some great turmoil for the last five years. Shoot, they’ve had three different PMs, and their government has all but collapsed several times. This recent uprising by their Muslim populations is the straw that looks to be breaking the Canadians’ back,” said Monty while taking a sip of coffee.

“We’ve been in secret talks with PM Peck and Speaker of the House Fultz since our April meeting in Paris. The Canadians are going to hold a national referendum in three months, and the United States is going to hold its own national referendum alongside it. This referendum will allow both countries’ people to vote on the unification of Canada with the United States. Their individual provinces would become States in the Union with Senators and Congressmen just like any other state,” Monty said as he showed the general the breakdown of the new states that would be formed.

Sitting back on the couch, the general had to catch his breath. “Wow, I must say, I never saw this coming, Mr. President,” a flummoxed Branson managed to spit out.

“There has been some talk about this in the press, but nothing serious yet. We’ve been working to keep it a secret for as long as possible, particularly since we have 26,000 US troops in Canada right now to help provide security,” said the President.

“Our intent is to bring this public on Wednesday night during a prime-time speech that both PM Peck and I will be making at the same time. Our hope is that people will welcome this unification. It would certainly help both of our economies and bring additional stability to our borders.”

“Well, with Mexico slowly slipping into a failed state, it would be good to know that our northern border is at least secure,” said Branson, still in a bit of shock that Canada might become part of the Union.

“Yes, thank you for bringing up Mexico, General. We need to talk about possible scenarios should the Mexican government completely collapse. We cannot have a failed state on our southern border, nor can we allow a drug cartel to take over the country. We may need to intervene militarily.”

“Our planners have been thinking about this as well, Mr. President. We’ve been working on several military contingencies, but things would go a little faster if we had a clear vision of what you’d like to see done in Mexico should things fall apart,” Branson said, clearly looking for the President to give more guidance rather than just a broad picture.

“A clear vision, such as us installing a new government?”

“Or taking over Mexico and just annexing it into the Union,” said Branson, going out on a limb.

“Annexing Mexico might pay off in the long run, but I fear it would be costly in the short run, General. I think we would need to use the military to eradicate these cartels that currently have almost free rein in the country,” said Monty, looking to the President to make sure he had not overstepped his bounds.

“No, I like this idea Monty. If Mexico becomes a failed state and we intervene, we are going to have a military presence there for a long time to put the new state governments and law enforcement in place and ensure it survives. This is going to require a massive commitment on the part of the US,” said the President.

“General, inform your planners that if Mexico’s government does collapse, we should plan a military operation to eradicate the cartels and to bring Mexico into the fold of the Union. We’ll annex them as a US territory until the cartels are wiped out. Then we can hold formal elections to begin building an internal state government and integrate them into the Union like the proposal with Canada. I also think that if we’re going to invest resources into Mexico, then America should be the one to reap the benefits from it.”

Branson countered, “I was kind of joking about annexing Mexico, Mr. President. The proposal you’re asking the Pentagon to put together would be rather difficult to accomplish without a substantial military commitment. I can have my staff work on this plan, but I believe we should also work on a plan to just eradicate the cartels and leave the government intact. We can accomplish both.” The last thing Branson wanted the military to do was get bogged down in nation-building—he wanted to keep the force mobile and ready should they need to deploy to Europe or Israel.

Stein rubbed the day-old stubble on his chin as he thought about the general’s proposal. “We may ultimately get stuck in Mexico, but if America is going to expend blood and treasure there, then we are going to benefit from it. I’ll concede to you that we may need two plans—I’d rather have an alternative to choose from when the time comes. Have your staffs prepare the proposals accordingly then,” the President concluded.

Smiling at the concession he just obtained, he replied, “As you wish, Mr. President. I also think we should look at the size of the military again. If we are going to annex Mexico, then we’re going to need a solid military presence down there for some years to come.”

“How many additional troops do you believe you will need?” Monty asked.

“At least another 120,000 troops,” Branson replied. “We’ll need that many to clear out the cartels and to establish law and order while we build up the police force and local law enforcement.”

“Agreed. We’ll speak with Speaker Fultz about pushing that increase through Congress. I believe we should go ahead and increase the size of the military by another 200,000 instead of 120,000, and add an additional 300,000 troops to the National Guard and Reserves. A storm is coming, gentlemen, and we are going to be prepared to meet it head-on.”

*******

Riyadh, Islamic Republic

Imperial Palace Council Chamber

“Caliph, the Americans and Canadians are going to hold a referendum in three months on a possible unification of North America,” said Muhammad.

“A unification of North America? Do you believe this will complicate our plans?”

“No, Caliph, it should not interfere with our plans. However, it does mean that the situation for our Muslim brothers in Canada may get worse if this unification does happen. Currently, Canadian law is a lot more lax than American law, especially as of late.

“This new political party, the Freedom Party, has been pushing through a lot of very tough domestic legislation aimed at giving the government and states a lot more power and policing capabilities. This whole biometric-enabled National Identity Card, or NICs as they call them, is making it so that everyone has to carry and use them to purchase everything. It’s making it hard for our sleeper cells to procure items and go unnoticed,” said Muhammad.

“As long as nothing interferes with our end goal, then I’m not concerned with what their government does. How many agents have we been able to get into the US?”

“We have a total of two thousand special operations and insurgent specialists in the US so far. They were all hand-selected to ensure they had never been biometrically enrolled in Europe or anywhere else, so when they get their NICs, there will be no record of them being associated with the IR.

“Now that they’re in, they have begun to develop their cells and direct-action units. Fortunately for us, the Americans have pretty lax gun laws, so they’re acquiring a lot of their weapons, both legally and illegally, with little problem,” Muhammad said while sipping his tea.

“We have a little over a year to get things ready. Ensure everyone is in place and ready to execute their missions when the time comes.”

The Islamic Republic had been moving select members of their Special Forces and other military and intelligence specialties into the US and Mexico for the past few years. The IR had named the North American operation “Allah’s Judgment.” Their goal was twofold: to destabilize the government of Mexico and work with the Mexican Army to conduct a coup and then let the cartels run wild, and to cause as much panic and chaos as possible inside the US. This would force the Americans to get involved in Mexico, which would result in a significant portion of the American military becoming committed to that theater of operation. This, in turn, would make them less able to handle any other attacks on their soil.

A large portion of the domestic assaults were slated to be conducted against the American power grid. This would involve attacking transformers, towers, power plants, and dams. Some of the other cells would focus on mass killing events, attacking malls, schools, subway and train terminals, and movie theaters. Then, while the US reeled from these violent acts, the last wave would attack law enforcement and first responders.

With the American Army committed in Mexico and the internal chaos going on inside America, it was believed the US would not have sufficient forces available to prevent the IR from wiping out Israel. This single act would fulfil the great Mahdi prophecy and cement Mohammed Abbas as the lifelong ruler of the Caliphate and usher in a new Islamic renaissance.

*******

02 February 2040

Post Referendum Day

“Mr. President, it’s official. All votes are in, and the referendum won in the US with 62% of the vote. It also won in Canada with 52%—not as much as we would have liked, but it passed,” said Monty with a big grin on his face.

“This is great news. PM Peck is scheduled to call me at 11 a.m. today, and we’re going to hold a joint news conference tonight at 7 p.m. here at the White House to make it official. We’ll both sign the referendum into law, and that will start the official process of merging our two countries together,” the President said happily.

“This is a great day, Mr. President. It is clearly one of the most significant moments in American history, sir. Ten new states will join the Union, and our country will increase in size by over forty percent,” said Monty.

“Mr. President, congratulations on the referendum,” said Jeff, also smiling from ear to ear.

“Thank you, Jeff. It was a lot of hard work selling this these past three months, and I’m just glad it paid off. I feared it would have been bad politically if it didn’t.”

“Well, Mr. President, it worked. We have ten new states. I’m going to organize a meeting as soon as possible with their former economics and finance ministers, and we will work to bring the Canadian economy into ours. We will need to work on currency conversions, consolidating their debt into ours and converting their people’s money into NADs. It’s going to take a bit of time to make all these adjustments, Mr. President, but this is a task I’m really looking forward to,” said Jeff said with a serious look of determination.

“I am too. This is a significant point in our country’s history, no doubt, and this is also a chance for all of our people to start something new. I firmly believe this will really improve the economy,” said the President with confidence in his voice.

“I believe it will certainly help. Their unemployment is still near twenty percent, while ours has finally fallen below six percent for the first time in two decades. There are significant infrastructure projects that will need to be done in Canada, but the sheer volume of natural resources is going to be an amazing boon to our economy. They’ve been unable to exploit them properly for decades because of a lack of investment and their ridiculous environmental laws,” said Monty.

“That is about to change, gentlemen. Monty, we also need to work very vigorously to get the Freedom Party firmly entrenched in the new Canadian states. We need to ensure that they know which party is bringing them this newfound prosperity and security.”

“Yes, Mr. President. That will be one of our first tasks. I will meet with Speaker Fultz about this and get the party heads working on getting things set up,” said Monty, tapping a quick note to himself on his tablet.

The Speaker of the House, Mike Fultz, was also the Deputy Chairman of the Freedom Party, while the President remained the Chairman. Speaker Fultz’s primary responsibility within the party was its expansion and recruitment of candidates. The actual Freedom Party headquarters was located in Tampa, Florida, where Henry Stein had initially founded the group. The party had 7,000 full-time employees spread throughout the country and boasted an incredible candidate research team. Their goal was to find and interview potential candidates for positions in their state that the FP thought they could win.

For the past eight years, the FP had been active in identifying and recruiting candidates to run for every state and federal position across the country. Of course, not every candidate won, but enough candidates were winning at the state level that several states were now FP-governed. As the economy continued to improve, more people left the Democratic and Republican parties to join the one party that truly was doing what they said they would do. Their goal was to bring prosperity back to America and make the nation successful again.

The President, out of necessity, was already starting to turn his attention towards his own reelection. “Remember this is an election year, and the Democrats and Republicans are already going full bore after us. The polls still show us with a very commanding lead, but once the final candidates are determined, it will be a tougher fight.”

“I wouldn’t be too concerned with it, Mr. President. In the last three years, unemployment has gone down almost six percent, and it’s going down one percent to two percent each quarter. We’re showing steady economic progress, and more and more people have money in their pockets,” said Jeff.

“Thank you for the assurance, Jeff. Let me and the President worry about the political stuff. You worry about integrating the Canadian industry and economy into ours and ensure that the economy continues to improve,” said Monty, clearly not wanting another senior advisor in the administration advising the President on the election or political matters within the FP.

“Sure thing, Monty. I didn’t mean to intrude into your area. I was just saying, I don’t see the elections being a problem for us. I travel the country a lot, and when I’m waiting around in the airports, I often strike up random conversations with people and ask them what they think of the Freedom Party. The vast majority of people love the President’s straight talk and his take-charge attitude. I very seldom find someone who has something negative to say,” Jeff added.

“That’s good to know, Jeff. I do appreciate your thoughts on the matter. What Monty means is that you have a huge job ahead of you, and a lot of our political success will hinge on our success or failure with the economy. Focus on your part of the machine and let us focus on the other parts,” the President said with a smile, clearly trying to ensure Jeff didn’t feel left out of the inner circle.

*******

The spring and summer of 2040 brought dramatic changes to North America as Canada and the United States merged into one country. Ten new stars were added to the flag, bringing the total number of stars to sixty-four (Northern and Southern California, East and West Colorado, East and West Washington State had separated and become their own states during the early 2020s under the Warren administration, and Puerto Rico had also been added as a state during the same timeframe).

The United States continued to see enormous economic growth, especially as employee wages quickly increased. The median household income had risen from $62,400 annually in 2037 to $83,700 by the summer of 2040. Meanwhile, the Republicans had nominated one of their rising stars to challenge Henry Stein and the Freedom Party while the Democrats nominated a familiar name and face, Senator Lowden from Northern California.

England and the EU also continued to grow as the Transatlantic Fair Trade Agreement increased trade and eased movement between the two continents. England and the EU also experienced a sharp increase in emigration as tens of thousands of Muslims were immigrating to the Islamic Republic. The IR was starting to truly turn into the Islamic paradise most Muslims longed for. It was a pure Islamic country, with little in the way of Western influence. The state controlled that, to be sure. Slowly, the IR was starting to solve their food shortage problems through the creation of thousands of biodomes and genetically modified seeds to grow more food per acre than traditional seeds.

The modernization of the IR military continued at a rapid rate. They had increased their military force to nearly three million soldiers, and another two million more were being trained. Russia and China had increased the number of military advisors in the IR to over fifty thousand. China had established a new naval base in Oman, repositioning one of their supercarriers as they continued their expansion into East and South Africa. Russia had expanded their naval base in what used to be Syria. They had also leased an airfield and established a training squadron to assist the IR in training pilots for the new aircraft they were purchasing at a rapid rate.

Russia and China both continued to look for ways to increase their own spheres of influence. China was nearing completion of their additional supercarriers and established a solid footprint in East and South Africa to include the establishment of two joint naval, army and air force bases. The People’s Liberation Army or PLA had grown considerably, and so had their provocations towards Taiwan.

Tensions between the two countries continued to build as Taiwan was going to hold a referendum on whether to officially become their own country or continue to hold their claim as the only legitimate government of the Republic of China. President Stein had made it clear that the US was not going to get involved in territorial disputes that did not directly threaten the national security of the US. The US did continue to sell Taiwan as much top-of-the-line military equipment as they wanted. In technical terms, the PLA was now more advanced militarily than Taiwan. The PLA Air Force had thousands of fighter drones and the PLA Navy had six supercarriers. The Chinese Army had also managed to equip and train nearly 300,000 soldiers with the newest exoskeleton combat suits.

The PLA and the Russians’ new exoskeleton combat suits integrated both speed and survivability of the individual soldiers. A soldier using the new suit could lift over one thousand pounds, jump nearly forty feet, and run close to thirty-five miles per hour. The helmet worked much like a fighter pilot’s helmets did, with a heads-up display that identified targets for the soldier and kept track of how much ammunition the soldier was burning through. It also had a built-in map and mini ground radar, so it could distinguish between friendly and enemy forces in real-time.

The polycarbonate uniform sewn into the mechanical aspects of the suit protected soldiers against flash burns caused by nearby explosions and flying debris, including limited amounts of shrapnel. The suit also monitored the human body and could automatically inject the wearer with additional red blood cells and clotting agents to assist the body in naturally clotting an open wound. Also available were insulin, adrenaline, and stimulants.

The soldiers wearing these suits would be able to operate at such a high level that the Russians and the Chinese would be able to accomplish more tasks with fewer soldiers. The US, UK, and EU forces also had similar exoskeleton suits with similar capabilities but nothing close to these numbers of soldiers equipped with them. This was a very new military technology, and though the US had it, the US had not integrated it into the armed forces to the degree the Chinese and Russians had.

*******

With a lot of negative influence and activity by the Islamic Republic, the situation in Mexico continued to worsen despite the improving American economy. Millions of Mexicans were still trying to cross the American border, which had become nearly impossible since the FP had turned the southwest into a militarized border. Aside from the twenty-foot-tall wall separating the two countries, there was also a ten-mile no-man’s-land that was heavily patrolled by border patrol agents and drones.

The various cartels and criminal organizations controlled most of the country outside of the major cities, which made life for the average citizen difficult, to say the least. The Mexican government was quickly losing control of the country, which was putting an enormous strain on the situation at the border, as millions of Mexican citizens were desperately trying to escape their crime-ridden country.

Chapter 7

Infiltration

September 2040

Riyadh, Islamic Republic

Imperial Palace, Council Chamber Room

“Muhammad, are we ready for Operation Allah’s Fire?”

“Yes, our operatives have infiltrated the Port of Baltimore, the Port of Houston, the Port of LA, and several contracting companies that provide services at two of the major utility companies that provide power to the northeastern US,” Muhammad replied, pouring himself another cup of tea.

“Excellent. I am glad that you have included several ports, in case one does not work out.”

“As of right now, the primary targets are the Port of Baltimore and the Port of LA. We have people infiltrating the Houston port in case we need a fallback plan. Some of our people believe we should also make use of our liquid natural gas tankers. They would act like mini-nuclear bombs if they were full when they are detonated.”

“That is not a bad idea, but the Americans only export LNG, and they only use a couple of companies for security purposes. I am not convinced a shipment from one of our front companies would be able to get through.”

Wanting to discuss the main operation and not get dragged down a rabbit hole, Caliph Mohammed said, “Tell me about the plans against the American power companies in the Northeast that you mentioned.”

“The primary attack against the northeastern US is going to take place in the dead of winter, when electricity is needed most. The plan for our groups that have infiltrated the power companies is for them to destroy several critical transformer nodes from the inside. One group even plans to destroy one of the power plants directly with explosives.

“When the power goes out, it will cause a number of things to happen. First, people will lose power in the throes of winter, which will prove deadly as it will take more than a couple of weeks to repair. Second, with no power, there will be a lot of looting as people run out of food. Third, we have two hundred fighters broken down into numerous smaller direct-action units that will go on a killing spree all across the major cities. After the first five days, those fighters that are still alive will do their best to fade away into the population and move to their next assignment once they are able to check the draft emails in their accounts.”

Huseen ibn Abdullah, the Director of Intelligence, made a point to mention, “We are staggering the attacks to take place over an extended period of time, to cause as much fear and damage to the American psyche as possible. Some of our three- and five-man direct-action units will conduct random and uncoordinated attacks on malls, supermarkets, movie theaters and elementary schools, mostly across small and rural towns, cities and the suburbs outside of the major cities. These attacks will be hard to deter and even harder to predict. We believe this will increase their likelihood of success and cause more casualties.”

“How are we going to ensure these attacks coincide with the two nuclear bombs?” asked Caliph Abbas.

“The plan right now is to have the nuclear weapons detonate two days apart from each other. The first one will hit Washington, D.C., during the first day of the new Congress in January of 2041. The vast majority of the government will be in session that week, giving us the highest likelihood of decapitating a large swath of their government. In the evening, the President is supposed to have a dinner with the prime minister of Israel, so it is possible that we may take him out as well,” said Zaheer Akhatar, the Caliph’s Senior Advisor.

“This is also when we will issue our ultimatum to the US to stop supporting Israel and to leave the Middle East and Europe alone. We know they will not agree to these demands, and that is when we will have the second device detonate two days later. After dealing with two months of terrorist attacks across their country, the blackout on New Year’s Day in the Northeast, and then two nuclear bombs, the country will be in a panic, and they will agree to our terms. If they do not, then the attacks will continue, and their economy and country will grind to a halt,” said Talal, the foreign minister.

The Caliph smiled a sinister grin. “At long last, we will be able to pay the Americans back for all of the wars they have waged on our lands. We need to remember that when this happens, and the Americans are most panicked, they will lash out and it will not take them long to do so. What contingency plans do we have in place to deal with the Americans once this occurs?”

“We have the most advanced surface-to-air missile defense systems, the same ones both the Russians and Chinese have. Our antimissile laser defense system is now operational and will be able to protect the industrial heartland of our country and the major population centers from any ballistic nuclear missiles or bombers the Americans may try to hit us with,” said Muhammad.

“I hope you and our advisors are right. This is going to either devastate the Americans, or it is going to cause them to destroy us. Are the plans for Israel ready?” asked Abbas.

“The operation is ready to start on New Year’s Day.”

“What are we going to do about the American carrier battlegroup in the Mediterranean?” he inquired.

“Our plan is to saturate their defenses with missiles and then slip in a nuclear missile to finish off the battle group. Once the operation begins, Israel and the Americans will be bombarded with missiles, and while they are raining down, our armored forces will be racing across the border and will drive their army into the sea,” said General Rafik Hamza, the commander of the Republic’s military, hate and vitriol in his voice.

Clearing his throat, Huseen linked his tablet with the holographic monitor and brought forward several reports. Changing subjects, he said, “Caliph, if you are ready, I have the briefing of our activities in Mexico completed for your viewing.” Prior to the formation of the Republic, Huseen had been the head of intelligence in Egypt and had been instrumental in Egypt joining the IR several years earlier. Now, he was the director of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence service and had the task of coordinating the myriad of attacks that would take place across North America.

“True to their word, the cartels have held up their end of the bargain. They have thoroughly infiltrated the police and military and are ready to take over as soon as we give them the word. We have also secured the cooperation of numerous senior defense officials.”

The Caliph smiled. “This is good news indeed. Have they asked for any additional weapons?”

“They have asked us for two thousand SA-18 man-portable air-defense systems and three thousand additional RPG-7V rockets along with eight hundred additional launchers.”

“Why so many MANPADS and the new RPG-7Vs?” asked the Caliph with concern.

I’m not sure how badly that will cut into our own reserves, he thought.

“Their assessment—and I have to concur—is that once the coup takes place, the Americans will most likely intervene. When this happens, they will need to turn to guerrilla tactics. The SA-18s will aid them in shooting down the American drones and pose a huge risk to their attack helicopters. The specific RPG rockets they are asking for are the high-explosive antitank or HEAT rockets, which can destroy or disable just about any armored vehicles the Americans would bring to the fight. They have RPGs, but the rockets are only fragmentation rounds. They needed the newer rockets to take out newer tanks and armored vehicles the Americans are likely to use,” he explained.

“I understand now, but do not send them that many. Send them about one third of their request. There is no way they will need more than that. Also, I want you to send a few thousand advisors to assist them in the coming conflict. Our advisors can also help in taking down those American helicopters.”

“As you wish. I’ll see how many commandos I can get reassigned to Mexico.”

“Once the coup takes place, how reliable is their military going to be? Are they going to be effective?” asked Abbas.

“Their military is pretty infiltrated already, and we have several high-level officers on our payroll. The military will be brought in line within the first couple of days. Some units may not respond or go along with the coup, but those units can be dealt with. As for how effective the army will be against the Americans…not very effective. Their plan is to try and hold their own at some strategic locations, and then, between their propaganda and ours, they will try to rally the people against the Americans once they invade. Their plan is to move everything to a sustained guerrilla war, which will drain the Americans of even more troops. With US forces entangled in Mexico, it will limit their options in aiding Israel. Add to that the chaos our sleeper units will be causing, and a large portion of the American military will be unavailable.”

“There are a lot of moving parts. How are we going to ensure the American intelligence agencies do not discover this before the operation is able to start?” asked Caliph Mohammed.

“There is no guarantee. We have a lot of activity going on in Africa, and we are starting to stir things up in the EU, mainly in France, Germany, and England. We just need them to be distracted. This is also why we cannot delay the operation. The longer we postpone, the more likely it is that someone will figure out what we are doing.”

“I agree. What other items do we need to discuss?”

“I think we should talk about the nuclear warheads. I still believe that if we use them, the Americans are going to use theirs against us. We can still accomplish our goals without the use of nuclear weapons.”

“I know we can make things work without the nukes, but I want to use them. We want to level Washington, D.C., and wipe out as much of the government as possible in the process. They may use nuclear weapons against us, but we are a huge sprawling empire. We can absorb some hits like India did. We also have our laser defense system, and I’m confident we will be able to shoot down their missiles,” the Caliph said, rebuffing their concerns.

He continued, “The damage that will be done to America will be devastating. I am just not sure where the second bomb should go off. Part of me wants to have it go off in New York, and then the practical side says we should use it against a target that will cripple their economy.”

“I suggest using it against Houston or the Port of Los Angeles. Houston would hurt their energy exports and refinery capacity. Hitting the Port of LA, however, would wipe out their largest and probably most important port, not to mention the damage it will do to the city,” Talal said.

“I’ll have to take that under advisement, Talal.”

“I think it is also time for us to get things going in Mexico. Let’s stir that hornet’s nest up and get the Americans involved. The sooner they become truly entangled there, the better,” said the Caliph, indicating he wanted to end the meeting.

“As you wish,” said General Rafik Hamza.

*******

Early September 2040

Washington, D.C.

White House

“Monty, we need the President down in the Situation Room,” said General Branson with urgency.

“What’s going on?” asked Monty with a bit of concern in his voice.

“Monty, this is Jim Wise. We need the President down in the Situation Room ASAP. Please go find him.”

“All right, I’ll track him down. I believe he was out for a short walk to clear his head,” said Monty as he looked for an exit that would lead him towards the Rose Garden.

As Monty was walking towards the Rose Garden, he spotted the President smelling one of the roses still in bloom. “Mr. President, we need you down in the Situation Room—something is going on,” Monty said as he moved towards the President.

“Is it really so urgent that it can’t wait fifteen minutes? You know I like to take a short walk after breakfast to clear my head before the day’s schedule.”

“Yes, Mr. President, it’s important. Jim Wise, Eric, and General Branson are all down there waiting for you.”

“Well, if they’re all there, then I suppose it really must be important.” Henry sighed deeply, knowing something must have gone wrong that would require him to make a decision he would rather not have to deal with right now.

As the President walked into the Situation Room, he could see by the looks on everyone’s faces it was grim news. “Gentlemen, this had better be important.”

“Mr. President, it’s critical. One of our agents in the Mexican Army told his handler yesterday that the cartels had just received a very large shipment of weapons from the IR—MANPADS and RPG-7V rockets,” said the National Security Advisor as he looked up from his tablet.

“We’ve known for some time that the IR has been shipping weapons to the cartels. We’ve intercepted some of these weapons shipments in the past—if I’m not mistaken, the Mexican Army has as well. Why is this such bad news, Jim?” asked the President, clearly annoyed at having his morning routine interrupted.

“The cartels are planning a coup, and the Mexican Army is in on it,” General Branson blurted out.

“Our source said his unit just received orders directing them to be ready to attack the presidential palace and secure the major government buildings in Mexico City,” Jim added.

“What about the rest of their military? Are they in on it as well?” asked the President.

“Not all of the units are in on the coup. Our source said he’s going along with the coup plans for the moment, but when it comes time to execute his orders, he’s going to move to safeguard the palace and the government buildings, not seize them.”

“Have we alerted their President about this impending coup?”

“Not yet. We aren’t sure who in the government we can alert without notifying the wrong people. Our source in the military said he believes his commanding general is part of the coup, so informing the military is not going to work, and neither will the police. They’ve been heavily infiltrated by the cartels, so nothing stays a secret with them.”

“So, what’s our plan, then? Do we have one?”

“We have the military option we discussed earlier in the year, Mr. President. If the coup does happen, then we can initiate our plan,” General Branson said, not knowing if the President would want to act now or play a “wait and see” approach.

“What are your thoughts, Monty?”

“This is a hard one. On the one hand, if we do nothing, then the cartels will more or less take over the country. This will give the IR a willing partner on our southern border, which is something we want to avoid. On the other hand, if we do intervene, it’s going to require a lot of troops and resources,” said Monty.

“Eric you’re the SecDef. What are your thoughts?” asked the President.

“Well, General Branson is right. This gives us the pretext to act on our earlier discussion about this situation. The government is going to fall—we know that. I propose we let this play out and once the dust has settled, then we execute our plan and intervene. This way we can hopefully eliminate the leadership once they have come forward to form their new government.”

“You’re talking about the plans to annex Mexico?” the Secretary of State asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” replied the SecDef.

“I still think the annexation of Mexico is not a wise move, Mr. President. There are just too many problems in Mexico that we’ll be inheriting,” asserted the Secretary of State.

“I have to agree with Secretary Wise, Mr. President. We can annex Mexico, but managing it is going to be a difficult problem,” Attorney James Roberts said. If the annexation went through, then the Department of Justice would be incredibly busy trying to establish a new legal system with the Mexican provinces.

“What are your thoughts, Jorge?”

The Director of Homeland Security, Jorge Perez, pondered the question for a moment before responding as he steepled his fingers. “America has been dealing with problems from Mexico for nearly a hundred years. The country is rife with crime and totally corrupt. If you’re willing to keep Mexico under martial law for a few years and give us time to root out the cartels, I believe we can make it work. I think we should just annex it if we’re going to get involved. Putting that much blood, sweat, and tears into nurturing a territory, only to hand them off to revert right back to what they came from would be a supreme waste of time, effort and resources. It reminds me too much of what our country did in Iraq in 2011 that ultimately led to the formation of the Islamic State.”

Taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly, the President thought about what his advisors had said before responding. “I understand the logic and concerns in annexing Mexico. It would solve a lot of problems, but it would also bring a lot of problems that we don’t need right now. When I first took office, I told the American people that we would not get involved in foreign wars unless American security was threatened. Because of Mexico’s proximity to us and our shared border, I believe this constitutes an immediate threat. With that said, I do not believe America should have to shoulder the burden of nation-building. If America is going to intervene abroad, then we’re going to keep what we take, and America will be the one to benefit, not some corrupt government that always seems to come to power once we hand it over,” said the President, who had clearly made his mind up now.

“Jim, I want your staff to work up an exercise with the DOJ, DHS and the FBI on how we would begin to implement our law enforcement agencies into Mexico once annexation begins. Let’s frame this as an exercise to downplay the possibility of it really happening, but I want a plan ready within the next twenty-one days.”

“That’s a tight timeline, Mr. President. I’ll see what we can do,” Jim said as he wrote down some notes in his tablet.

“Well, I guess we wait and see what happens next,” said the President as he stood up and left the Situation Room.

*******

September 2040

Moscow, Russia

Kremlin, Presidential Office

While situations continued to spiral out of control in Mexico, the Russians continued their covert preparations for their own attack against the European Union. On the opposite side of the world, China and the Islamic Republic continued to plot their own assaults against the Americans and the West. Their ultimate goal was a new world order, where the three nations would rule.

*******

“Mr. President, it would appear the Islamic Republic has presented us with a unique opportunity. They are moving forward with their attack on the US,” said Nicolai with a mischievous smile.

“Have we learned the full details of the attack yet?”

Nicolai shook his head. “Not yet. We know some of it, and we know they plan on attacking the Israelis,” said General Sergun, the director of the GRU, reading the latest intelligence feeds from his tablet.

“Do we know when they plan on attacking the Israelis? What type of assault are they going to launch?” asked Fradkov.

“We believe they are going to launch their attack around the New Year, although we are not sure of the exact date. As of right now, it looks like they plan on launching a massive conventional missile attack on Israel, targeting their military bases and their ability to defend themselves. This raid will be quickly followed up by their military attacking through several predetermined invasion points, so no WMD as of right now,” replied General Sergun.

General Sergun loved to use the multidimensional maps and graphs when presenting war plans. They made everything seem more aligned and perfect, or at least they did to him. He cleared his throat and continued. “Their first invasion point is across the Golan Heights. If they can break through, then they will be able to drive deep into Israel quickly. The Israelis know this, so they will send a large part of their forces in that direction. A second front will be initiated from the north along what used to be Lebanon. A third front will then be opened in the south near the American naval base in Eilat on the Red Sea. The fourth front will come from the Sinai, and the fifth attack, which is the main assault, will come through the Jordan Valley towards Jerusalem.

“From what we have gathered, the attack in the Golan along with the assault in the south will happen almost simultaneously, and then twelve hours after the first assaults begin, the other three fronts will begin their invasions,” General Sergun said while changing some slides and maps on the holograph.

“It sounds like they might actually have a chance of beating the Israelis if they do not go nuclear, which I highly suspect they will,” President Fradkov said, not believing for a minute that the Israelis would not use atomic weapons if they were about to be overrun.

“If the Israelis go nuclear, the IR will as well. I don’t believe the Israelis would survive even if they did go nuclear. One point of concern that I’m not sure the IR has fully accounted for is the use of land-based and mobile antimissile laser defenses. These can also be used to target aircraft, and if the Israelis are somehow able to achieve or maintain air superiority, the IR is going to have a much tougher time. Unless Israel receives massive reinforcements from the Americans, they will probably only be able to hold out between five and seven days at best,” General Gerasimov said, stealing Sergun’s thunder.

“The IR’s placement of mobile and fixed antimissile and aircraft laser defense systems guarding Israel will make it hard for them to use their nuclear weapons too,” Nicolai interjected.

“What forces do the Americans have in the area that they could use to help Israel?”

“They have a carrier battle group operating in the Eastern Mediterranean and another in the Indian Ocean–Red Sea area along with a Marine Expeditionary Force with about 2,500 Marines. The MEF is about the only unit that could quickly come to their aid. Though there is still an airborne battalion in Italy, that would add another 550 paratroopers to the mix,” General Sergun said as he lit another cigarette, ignoring General Gerasimov’s request to share one with him.

“It sounds like our hopes and dreams are being answered. The Americans will be bogged down in Mexico and then Israel. They really won’t be able to provide any meaningful support to the EU,” the President said with a wicked grin on his face.

“That is true. The next test will be Great Britain and the EU,” Sergun said.

“Yes, but they do not pose a serious threat to our forces. Our Air Force is on par with theirs these days, and they do not have the ground forces needed to stop us,” Gerasimov added as he brushed off Sergun’s concerns.

Fradkov thought of an idea that might help further their ruse. “Let’s hold a military exercise in mid-January along the NATO lines. We’ll make this a joint exercise with our Belarusian and Eastern Ukrainian allies. Let’s also include NATO officers to ensure we defuse their apprehension. Once the IR attack is in full motion against the US and Israel, then we can make our move.”

“True, Mr. President. We had planned to attack the EU next fall, but the IR is going to make us move our timeline up sooner than we had anticipated. If our winter training exercise coincides with the timing of the IR’s attack, we could redirect the training to a full-on invasion of the EU and a combined first strike against the Americans. Our forces will have been dispersed and have crossed into the EU, so neither the EU nor the Americans would launch nuclear weapons at them,” General Sergun said devilishly.

“Despite our forces being dispersed, the Americans will respond with nuclear weapons if we use them on their troops. It’s part of their standard procedures.”

“Mr. President, to launch nuclear weapons, the Americans need their president to authorize it. If he is not available, then it passes down to the Vice President. Next it would go to the Speaker of the House. All of these people will be at the inauguration, and if the IR plan works, they will have decapitated all of the people in the line of succession that could authorize an attack,” said General Gerasimov.

“What is the state of our ballistic missile defense system?” inquired Fradkov.

“We have twenty-one pulse beam batteries covering the likely approaches their missiles would take from either submarine launch or their missile silos. In addition, we have recently launched four new weather satellites that are part of our space-based laser missile defense system. Our primary concern would be their stealth bombers; we may be able to identify some of them, but more than a few would slip through our defenses,” replied General Sergun.

“The question we have to ask is this—can we inflict enough crippling damage to knock the Americans out of the war at the start and secure the rest of Europe? And can we absorb the damage the Americans are most likely to inflict?” asked President Fradkov. “The other question is—will the Chinese play their part and strike the American West Coast and their Pacific Fleet?”

“During our last talks with the Chinese, they seemed like they would do their part. They want to absorb Southeast Asia and the Rice Bowl it would bring. They may even look to secure Australia, if the Americans are knocked out of the equation. The hardest challenge our forces and the Chinese will have is ensuring we coordinate our attacks to coincide with the Islamic Republic’s assault,” General Gerasimov replied.

“Yes, it will be a challenge trying to synchronize everything, but I’m not sure we will have an opportunity like this ever again. If we and the Chinese choose not to join in this attack, the Americans will recover quickly and obliterate the Islamic Republic. If we limit our first strike to purely military targets, chances are if the Americans respond, they will likewise limit their strikes to our military facilities as well. The GRU believes our missile defense will help reduce the number of potential strikes we would absorb, so our only real concern is how effective the Americans’ missile defense system is,” replied General Sergun.

“Let’s move forward as if we are going to execute this operation with the IR and the Chinese. If we need to cancel the operation, we can do so right up until the last minute if we believe the Chinese are not going to be able to pull off their end. Perhaps we even let the Chinese launch the first attack, and while the Americans are responding to that threat, we hit them,” said the President.

Chapter 8

South of the Border

Mid-September 2040

Mexico City

“Colonel Zedillo, we have received final confirmation. We are to begin the coup at once. Send the word to our people to start arresting the various commanders and military officers we know will not cooperate and replacing them with ones that will. I want this done within the next two hours. We are to commence with the coup by the end of the day,” General Galván said with glee in his voice.

“Yes, General. We shall have everyone in position soon,” Colonel Zedillo replied. Then he began to type up a coded text message to let everyone know the coup was going to take place that day.

General Guillermo Galván was an egotistical narcissist who had a god complex. He truly believed he could one day become president or take control of the country and lead Mexico to new greatness. His tenacity, skill, and determination had led him to become the second-highest-ranking general in the Mexican Army. For years, he had fought the cartels, until two years ago. One day, he had been approached by a member of the Islamic Republic intelligence service with an offer that had seemed too good to be true—five hundred million NAD to stop attacking the cartels and start cooperating with them.

The Islamic Republic’s goal was for Galván to form a partnership with the cartels to take over the country and ensure the Americans would not pose a threat to his government once he completed his overthrow of the current government. If he was able to successfully plan and execute the coup, he would have their full support to become the new president for life.

He would, of course, need to continue to turn a blind eye to the cartels and to change his country’s stance towards the US. The IR reasoned with the general that by incorporating the cartels into the government, a prearranged percentage of revenue made by the sale of drugs globally would be given to the government. The Islamic Republic would then ask for permission to base soldiers in Mexico, and he was to accept this offer and extend an opportunity for the IR to establish a military base there.

With the orders sent, Colonel Jose Zedillo felt good as he left the secret meeting with General Galván. He owed his entire military career to the man, and he was confident that when this coup was over and the dust settled, he would obtain a senior position within the government. To help ensure the success of the coup, the general had ensured he would be the commander of the soldiers that protected the presidential palace and the Mexican government. This would help to ensure the general had people loyal to him in key positions near the president, and furthermore, he would be able to control the message the army wanted sent out.

*******

When the coup finally happened, it transpired quickly, despite some army units refusing to be a part of it. Their commanding officers were quickly eliminated as well as any other individuals who wanted to resist. During the first hours of the coup, the Islamic Republic’s cadre of Special Forces operating in the country assisted the Mexican Army with securing important government institutions and military bases as well as eliminating opposition and potential opposition leaders.

The first two days of the coup were bloody. Thousands of people within the government and media as well as individuals identified by the Islamic Republic’s intelligence network were killed, and others with needed skills and political leanings contrary to America were installed. Within two days, the entire country had been secured with help from the military, and the police had no resistance or violence from the cartels.

At first, the US stood on the sidelines to see what would happen. Within five days of General Galván taking over the country, several governors refused to recognize him as the new leader of Mexico. Several military units whose commanders had not been replaced during the coup also revolted when they saw how the cartels and the Islamic Republic advisors appeared to be cooperating with Galván. The situation in Mexico appeared to be quickly dissolving into a civil war as new battle lines were being drawn. Those governors who initially stood up to the military dictatorship being imposed were quickly killed by IR Special Forces units at the request of General Galván. It then became apparent to the US President and his advisors that the level of involvement by the Islamic Republic was much greater than could have been anticipated.

The Islamic Republic quickly recognized the new military dictatorship and even the cartels aligned themselves with the rebels. After the public recognition, the IR’s military advisors and Special Forces in Mexico openly assisted General Galván’s forces in “holding the country together.” The Islamic Republic had even offered to send an additional ten thousand soldiers to help act as peacekeepers, which General Galván gladly accepted.

For the IR, the situation played out exactly how they had hoped. Mexico was becoming a base of operations that would necessitate an intervention by the American military. The ensuing battle that would rage in Mexico would tie down American forces, keeping them from being mobilized for the coming fight with Israel. Once the Americans did intervene, the IR sleeper agents would then start their part of Operation Allah’s Judgment and would rain chaos and terror on the American people for the next three months, until it was time to deliver Allah’s Swords.

*******

End of September 2040

Mexico

As it became clear that Mexico was going to become a base for Islamic Republic forces in North America and that the Mexican government was going to become a “narco-state”-sponsored military dictatorship, President Stein saw no other option than to intervene in Mexico. The Pentagon had been working on a war plan to capture and then integrate Mexico as a US territory for nearly six months. Units had been identified along with equipment that would be needed. The President only needed to give the order, and within three days, the operation could begin.

On September 26, President Stein gave the order for Operation Brimstone. The President brought in the Congressional leadership of all parties and had the National Security Advisor, Director of the CIA, Director of DHS and the Secretary of Defense brief them on the situation in Mexico and explain the finer points of Operation Brimstone. At the end of the meeting, the President asked for approval for the operation. Support was unanimous from the FP and Republican Party leadership and their representatives. Several Democrats also voted for the campaign, despite most voting against it.

On the morning of September 29, US forces initiated hostilities in Mexico with devastating effectiveness. Before the sun rose, the US launched a series of attacks by land, air, and sea across the US southern border, the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of fighters, drones and cruise missiles hit critical military targets all across Mexico, with hundreds of Special Forces and American paratroopers landing all across the country securing airports, critical bridges and military command and control centers.

*******

30 September 2040

Philadelphia, PA

The day after President Stein announced the US was going to intervene in the Mexican Civil War to restore order, the Islamic Republic activated one of their direct-action teams to start their first series of attacks. These outbreaks of violence would continue to escalate in frequency until the final two assaults, when IR agents would direct a full insurrection and rioting of several major cities.

Nagim Abdullah had just finished his coffee and was returning to work when he received a text message. He quickly checked his phone and understood that his group had just been activated. Nagim had succeeded in obtaining a warehouse position shortly after his arrival from Oman a year earlier as a political refugee. He had been recruited by IR intelligence to be a group leader for a direct-action unit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just prior to leaving Oman.

His orders were to obtain a low-level job that would draw little attention and wait to be activated. They had given him three targets to attack. The first was a mall located in the downtown area. If his group survived the first attack, then he would proceed to their next target, which was a movie theater in one of the suburbs.

His orders were simple—spend no more than three minutes in the mall shooting as many people as possible and then quickly get away. Lie low for twelve hours and then conduct the next attack. He would continue to move down his target list until either his team was killed or they completed their mission. Once the assignment was complete, he was to head to Detroit, where the IR had a major operation planned.

*******

01 October 2040

Washington, D.C.

White House, Situation Room

Since the authorization of Operation Brimstone, the President had requested an update every twelve hours, until the country had been fully secured.

“Mr. President, the first forty-eight hours of Operation Brimstone have been completed. There were 1,353 bombing sorties since the start of hostilities. We’ve hit various military and strategic targets all across Mexico, with a special emphasis on hitting the known cartel locations and operations. While this has been taking place, thirty Special Forces A-Teams began hitting every known cartel safe house, drug factory, and leadership residency location. They were either directing the air strikes on the ground or quickly following in afterwards with ground forces to ensure the targets were killed,” General Branson said.

Changing presentation slides, he continued. “Delta Force was tasked with attacking the central military command base in Mexico City and quickly apprehended General Galván while they were trying to organize a defense of the city and country. They also captured and secured the presidential palace,” General Branson said, giving the President a chance to ask questions before he continued with the brief.

“Please continue, General,” instructed the President.

“The 75th Ranger Regiment conducted a combat jump directly onto the Mexico City International Airport and secured it for follow-on forces. The entire XVIII Airborne Corps, all 35,000 of them, completed their combat jumps and hit over a dozen locations across Mexico City. They also landed with their light tactical vehicles and two battalions of the new light tank drones. They are currently securing the remainder of the city and expect to have it fully secured within the next seventy-two hours. One of the first major units we have landing at the airport is a brigade of military police. Once they land, we’ll begin to filter them throughout the city to assume the policing duty while we keep our combat forces focused on finishing off the enemy military units.

“Our Navy quickly neutralized the Mexican Navy, capturing what ships they could in port with the SEALs and destroying the ones they couldn’t capture. 1st Marines led the charge across Southern California, securing Tijuana and moving through the Baja Peninsula. 2nd and 3rd Marines are making various amphibious landings across the Gulf Coast of Mexico.”

Moving to a new slide that showed the US southern border, the general continued with his presentation. “The 1st Armored Division out of Fort Hood is leading the ground invasion from Texas, along with the 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Bliss. The 4th Army Division has several battalions securing positions across the Arizona and New Mexico borders, with the rest of the division pushing inland through the desert. The commanders on the ground believe the majority of Mexico will be secured within the next ninety-six hours and full occupation of the country will be accomplished within ten days as more follow-on forces arrive and begin to move to every major city in Mexico.”

“It still amazes me how fast our forces were able to capture and secure most of the country,” said the President, genuinely impressed.

“Mexico isn’t that far from most of our military bases, and sharing an almost-2,000-mile border does make it a lot easier to invade. We also had the element of complete surprise, thanks to your speech earlier about the US taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the new government. They were completely lulled into a false sense of security,” Eric Clarke said with a smile before turning serious again.

“I want to make sure that once follow-on forces are in Mexico, that we extract our frontline troops, so they are ready for any other surprises. I didn’t think the Islamic Republic would have gotten involved so soon, nor that they’d have as many soldiers already on the ground as they did,” he added with a bit of concern in his voice.

“They caught a lot of people by surprise with that,” said Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA. The CIA was starting to catch a lot of flak in the media and from the DoD for not knowing there were already several thousand Islamic Republic troops in Mexico.

“How many casualties have we taken, and has there been much resistance?”

General Branson resumed his brief to answer the President’s question. “Resistance was heavy the first day. Special Forces had 60 killed in action, and another 135 wounded in action. The brunt of those casualties came from Delta Force, which was hit particularly hard.”

“Why did Delta take so many casualties?”

“They had the toughest, most well-defended target. The military headquarters compound was heavily guarded by Mexican and IR Special Forces. They put up one heck of a fight before they were able to capture General Galván,” said Branson.

“Sorry for interrupting—please continue, General.”

“During the airborne operation to secure the Mexico City International Airport, the 75th Rangers suffered 19 killed and another 124 wounded. Despite the resistance at the airport, they were able to secure the airport within two hours. They also repelled two separate but uncoordinated attacks by the Mexican Army to prevent us from being able to use the runways to ferry in additional soldiers.”

Changing slides, he brought up that showed the casualties for the conventional forces, which were just now starting to get more heavily involved in the fight. “The rest of our ground forces up to this point have sustained 675 killed, and roughly 4,250 injured. A large number of those wounded will be able to return back to their units within a week, so do not let the large number throw you off. The conventional forces are now starting to make contact with the Mexican army units that are fighting for General Galván, which is why the casualty numbers are a bit higher right now. That number should drop as we finish mopping up the enemy units.

“The cartels have also been putting up a good fight, though they are also melting away into the population. We’ll need to hunt them down. The MANPADS the IR provided them prior to the conflict have caused us a lot of problems. We’ve lost thirteen helicopters, 46 drones, and four aircraft that flew a little too low. We’re starting to see more use of those new RPG-7Vs rockets as well,” Branson concluded.

“Gentlemen, I’m impressed with our success thus far. I want to make sure it continues, so please use whatever resources and troops are needed to pacify the country quickly. I want law and order restored soon, and I want a return to normalcy, or as close to it as possible.”

Knowing the domestic aspects of Mexico and America still needed to be discussed, the President changed the direction of the meeting and asked for his domestic advisors to begin their brief. “Moving to domestic matters, Jim, I believe you had some information you wanted to share—but before getting into that, I want to make sure everyone is working towards stabilizing Mexico. I want the FBI to hire an additional 1,500 Special Agents and start to identify Spanish-speaking agents who can start setting up field offices in Mexico. I want the DOJ to start developing their plan for criminal prosecutors and a police force,” said the President as he looked over the men and women at the table.

“I have my best people working on this, Mr. President. We have several plans underway right now to accomplish that goal. I will have more details about this in my brief with you tomorrow,” said Attorney General James Roberts.

AG Roberts had been a federal prosecutor prior to being named the AG. He was a tenacious prosecutor and had spent his first few years as AG repealing hundreds of presidential memos and directives that previous administrations had issued in direct violation of the Constitution. Churches were no longer required to report their attendance or their membership base. Sharia law was no longer being tolerated in any city in America. The cities and townships that had allowed this now had to abide by the laws of the United States government, not Islamic Sharia law.

The Sharia law challenge had created a lot of problems between those who were Muslim and those who were not. There was a high tolerance for people to practice their own religious beliefs in America, but all religions had to respect and abide by the laws of the United States. Likewise, the sanctuary cities were no longer allowed. City governments that refused to enforce federal law were being denied all federal funding until they became compliant. The city governments that were still in violation after the one-year compliancy period were dissolved, and a state caretaker government was installed until a new election could be held.

AG Roberts had taken a lot of heat for his reforms within the DOJ and the legal system. His primary goal had been to reform the justice department back to its original stated purpose, to return the judiciary back to interpreting the law and constitution, no longer tolerating judges who legislated from the bench. Laws could be struck down or upheld, but no judge could impose a new law or issue an opinion that could be interpreted as a new law. Roberts was a true constitutionalist and loyal party member.

“Excellent, I look forward to learning more about them tomorrow, then. Jorge, can you please go ahead and give us your brief?”

“Yes, Mr. President. The NSA intercepted several communiques between several known IR intelligence individuals and people in the US. They were not able to glean any usable information from the messages, but they believe they were coded messages, perhaps intended to activate some terrorist cells or just a status report on our operations in Mexico. They still have a few thousand soldiers and operatives operating in Mexico,” Jorge said as he clicked through several images of known IR intelligence agents suspected of being in the US and Mexico.

Suddenly, a Secret Service agent walked over to the President and whispered something in his ear. The President’s eyes grew a little larger, and his demeanor changed.

“Sorry to interrupt, Jorge—I was just informed that we should turn on Fox News. There’s been a terrorist attack in Philadelphia.”

An aide quickly changed the 3-D holographic image in the Situation Room to Fox News, where a news update was being aired live from a shopping mall in Philadelphia. A Fox News reporter by the name of Nina Short was in the process of providing an update on the situation at the mall as it developed.

“We are standing outside the Mayfair Mall, where twenty minutes ago, five men were seen running into the food court entrance to the mall, wearing baseball caps and dark sunglasses, each of them carrying an AR-15-style rifle and small backpacks. We were able to interview a survivor, who told us what she saw.”

The camera panned to a woman who was clearly shaken and had blood spatters on her blouse. She explained, “Three of the men ran past the food court to the center of the mall and shot at everyone they saw. The two at the food court entrance opened fire, shooting and reloading as they walked through the food court. After what felt like an eternity, they worked their way back to the food court exit. Then I saw a security guard shoot two of the suspects before they killed him. One of the attackers was left behind by his partners while the other was able to retreat out of the mall. I was hiding under one of the tables but managed to catch most of the event on my smartphone.”

The camera returned to Nina Short as she continued, “Upon leaving the mall, the individuals sped away in their vehicle. The FBI and police told us they have issued a BOLO for the suspects’ vehicle and are asking the public for help or video footage of the event.”

“Enough. Turn it off. Do we know how many people were killed, and do we have any idea who the attackers are?”

“I just received an update from the agent in charge at scene right now,” said the Director of the FBI as she looked up from her tablet. “She’s reporting 87 people killed and 107 people injured. The suspect who was shot by the security guard has been transported to a local hospital for treatment.” Audible gasps were followed by an awkward silence.

“She said they plan on questioning him as soon as he’s out of surgery. We should have an ID on the suspect shortly as they run his prints and facial image against our databases,” Jane Smart said.

“Jane, I want answers soon. Find out who this person is and whether this is a lone wolf attack and if it’s related to our operation in Mexico or something else.”

“Yes, Mr. President. I believe I should excuse myself and work on this with my people right away, if I may leave?”

“Yes, please get us an update as soon as possible. Keep Jorge and James apprised of any changes. I want the NSA cross-checking this as well.”

A chorus of, “Yes, Mr. President,” echoed throughout the room.

The President turned towards his National Security Advisor and said, “Mike, can you please give us a shorter version of your brief, so we can be ready to handle this new situation as we receive more information?”

“Yes, Mr. President. The intercepts from the Middle East indicate something is going on. We’ve seen a lot of military orders and activity within the IR. They appear to be moving a lot of forces to the provinces of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Some of these movements appear to coincide with a major military exercise that they’re holding towards the end of November; others appear to be new unit assignments to bases in those areas.

“The cause for concern is that most of these units are their Tier 1 frontline units. The best equipped and trained units are all moving to within striking range of Israel, with the majority of these forces and support units being in position around the time of the exercise.”

“Why is this important, Mike?” asked the President.

“At first, we didn’t think anything of it. However, the Chinese are conducting a massive naval and amphibious exercise throughout December, and the Russians are conducting an exercise of similar size in Eastern Europe in the middle to end of January. This is a lot of military activity by these three nations, all within a very short timeframe, suggesting it might be a coordinated effort and part of a much larger plan,” Mike explained.

“Not to discount the information or your group’s analysis, but are we sure this isn’t a legitimate exercise as opposed to something more sinister?” asked Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff.

“Perhaps. Right now, there are several alternatives. I’ve retasked a lot of our intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance and HUMINT assets to find more information. We’ll continue to monitor it and ensure nothing else is going on.”

“All right, gentlemen. Let’s table this for the moment and focus on the immediate tasks at hand, stabilizing Mexico and reestablishing law and order. And let’s identify who these men are that perpetrated this dastardly terrorist attack today.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” chorused the whole room.

*******

02 October 2040

Riyadh, Islamic Republic

Royal Palace, Council Chamber Room

The Islamic Republic had initiated the Mexican coup in mid-September, anticipating that the Americans would intervene in a month or two—not immediately. They hadn’t anticipated the swiftness of the American military, or their ability to destroy the Mexican Army and occupy the country so quickly. While it was true that the American Army had been growing in size for the past couple of years, the Republic had still believed the Americans to be years away from being able to deliver such a devastating blow to an enemy. Nearly all past American interventions had been in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, far from America’s home bases. Unlike past interventions, Mexico shared an almost-two-thousand-mile border with the US. Nearly all the military units involved were located within a thousand miles of Mexico City, meaning there was very little in the way of logistical problems or long distances for their forces to travel.

“The Americans have secured Mexico faster than we originally thought they could. Our advisors were unfortunately not able to prevent the Mexican army from collapsing as quickly as it did either,” said Huseen, the Director of Intelligence, dejectedly.

“The MANPADS did bring down a number of helicopters, drones, and aircraft, and they should continue to destroy aircraft as the occupation continues. Some of the Mexican military units were smart and faded away quickly as soon as it became clear that the Americans had taken out the military leadership. They are now carrying out guerilla attacks as often as they can,” assured General Hamza.

“Our operatives in the country are working to establish a grassroots-level insurgency as we speak. It will take time, but they are confident attacks against the Americans will start to increase in the weeks and months to come,” said General Rafi, the IR Special Operations Commander.

“Excellent, General. Please continue the good work and keep us informed. I’m disappointed by how fast Mexico was taken, but I take solace in knowing that our Special Forces and military advisors have inflicted a lot of casualties and will continue to do so. For the rest of our plan to work, we need the level of violence to continue to increase in Mexico in order to tie down the American troops,” commanded the Caliph.

“On another note—have the Americans figured out our involvement in the Philadelphia attack?” the Caliph inquired, hoping the answer was no.

“Not yet. They captured one of the attackers, but he didn’t know anything that would lead them back to us. I ordered the next group to begin their attack, and they should begin tonight. The first group will begin their second attack in two days—they had to lie low and regroup after the mall attack. I’ll initiate the third group right away. By the time we have all eight groups active, the Americans are going to be going crazy,” Huseen said with a devilish grin.

Chapter 9

Escalation

October 2040

Beijing, China

The Central Military Commission Briefing

The Chinese had been preparing for a confrontation with the US for nearly fifty years. Decades of cyberattacks and theft of intellectual property had given the Chinese the advantage they needed to not just catch up to the Americans, but advance beyond them in multiple areas. For nearly thirty years, the Chinese had infiltrated various aspects of the American industrial control systems’ manufacturing base and embedded viruses and malware that were just waiting to be activated. The Chinese planned on not just dominating the Pacific but replacing the US as the world’s leading superpower.

“What is the status of the situation with the Americans? How are things progressing?” asked Zhang.

“Premier, the terrorist attacks in America continue to increase. The assaults against American forces in Mexico are increasing as well. The Islamic Republic was right—as this continues and their attack against Israel starts, it will draw forces away from the Pacific and limit the Americans’ options when Operation Red Dragon begins,” said Xi Lee, the Director for State Intelligence.

“The Navy is nearly ready as well. We have relocated our fleets to be within striking distance of the exercise location, and I have moved the majority of naval infantry to be ready for the ground invasion as soon as the order is given,” said Admiral Wei Shengli, the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy or PLAN as he sneered at his Army counterpart.

The rivalry between the PLA, PLA Navy, and PLA Air Force had been going on for decades, with each service commander believing theirs was the most important branch of service to the People’s Republic of China. “Premier, we discussed this earlier. It would be the PLA that would lead the invasion of Taiwan, with the PLAN infantry creating a diversion. We do not want to split the PLA Air Force’s support between two different amphibious landing forces,” said General Fang Wanquan, the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army.

The capabilities of the PLA Navy had increased over the last several years with the additional supercarriers. Their ability to go toe-to-toe with the US Navy was unmatched by any other group. It was also the naval infantry that was first to receive the new exoskeleton combat suits, outside of the Special Forces.

“Gentlemen, the attack will continue as planned. Admiral, your forces will destroy the Taiwanese Navy and neutralize the American bases at Guam and Okinawa. I want your naval infantry to capture the airfield at Guam.”

“Yes, Premier. I merely offered a second front to split the Taiwanese defenses,” said Admiral Shengli.

“I understand perfectly, Admiral. You want to show off your naval infantry and your new toys, and you will…at Guam and then Okinawa. Taiwan is going to be a victory for the PLA. I do not want interservice rivalries to compromise this operation. This is going to be our first engagement against the Americans, and we need to win so we can assert our dominance over the rest of Asia.”

“The Air Force is ready to deal with both Taiwan and the Americans on Guam. We are going to time our attack on Guam to coincide with the cruise missile attacks in order to overwhelm their defensive capability. As for Taiwan, we have moved 6,000 cruise missiles, along with 3,000 aircraft and 10,000 drone aircraft, to cover the army’s amphibious assault,” explained General Xu Qiliang with a smile and a nod towards the PLA commander.

“This had better work, General Qiliang. If the Air Force is not successful, that will make it very hard for the Army and Navy to accomplish their mission. I believe enough has been said about this matter. I want everyone to give me a status update at the next CMC meeting.”

*******

Late October, 2040

Washington, D.C.

Pentagon

“General Black, what is the status of operations in Mexico? How are things proceeding?”

“We’re a month into the operation, and we’re starting to see the rise of an insurgency. There’ve been multiple IED attacks against military patrols, sporadic rocketing of some of our bases, and some small engagements against our troops on patrol—but it’s nothing we cannot handle,” said General Black, the overall commander in charge of Operation Brimstone in Mexico.

“This isn’t going to turn into another Iraq or Afghanistan, is it?” asked General Branson.

“No, Sir, it is not. I still have 70% of the Special Forces community in Mexico, along with additional military police and specialized counterinsurgency teams arriving every day. I have the SF guys busy hunting down any and all insurgent leads as soon as we learn who they are. We also have the entire country covered 24/7 with drones. If we spot a group of armed men moving to engage our patrols, then we engage them. The same happens when someone is spotted putting down an IED. We’ve also placed bounties on the heads of the insurgent leaders and will pay for any information that leads to their capture or death. We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of tips, and for the most part, they’re starting to pay off.”

“How are the work programs coming along there? Are we getting the various projects up and running?” asked General John Branson.

“The Army Corp of Engineers has about 15% of the identified projects underway, and they anticipate having another 20% started in the next couple of months. Even with just 35% of the projects active, it will employ roughly 800,000 people with high-paying jobs, which, when compared to what they previously had—it’s almost a miracle. I believe the insurgency will start to die out once more people are employed through the various reconstruction projects.”

“Generals, this is a top priority for the President, and not just because of the election in a few weeks. You all are aware of the increase in terrorist attacks here at home. The President wants to get things in Mexico stabilized soon so we can have more of our combat troops ready when and if they’re needed,” said Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense.

“To that effect—General Black, I’m retasking Delta Force back to the US, effective immediately. If these domestic attacks continue, the President may look to task Delta to work with the FBI and DHS in locating and terminating these terrorist cells,” the SecDef ordered.

“The loss of Delta Force is going to impact my mission, but I can live with it as long as you leave the rest of my A-Teams and the SEALs, at least for the next couple of months,” replied General Black.

“Unless something else comes up, General, I have no intention of taking any forces away from Mexico. We need that mission stabilized and ready to hand over to the provisional governing authority or PGA. The President has also authorized the use of three security firms in Mexico: Ravenwood, DynCorp and Triple Canopy. They’ll start to show up once the PGA gets set up, and they’ll provide a lot of the security for the DHS, Army Corps of Engineers and DoJ as they begin to setup operations.” An audible sigh was heard by the various generals.

“Gentlemen, I know not all of you agree with the President’s decision to intervene in Mexico. You may not love the thought of us integrating Mexico into the US, or the use of private military contractors either. The President wants to stabilize the country to a point where a general referendum can be held. The people need to be able to begin national elections for Congressional and Senate seats, along with Governors and State legislature,” said the SecDef.

“I’m not against the President’s plan—I mean, it will solve fifty years’ worth of problems between the US and Mexico. It’s just going to be a big adjustment,” said one of the divisional commanders.

General Adrian Rice, the Air Force Commander, placed his reading glasses on the conference table. “This is going to be an adjustment for us all. The Freedom Party is not going to be like the political parties of old—we are not going to get involved in conflicts abroad unless either the United States is going to gain from it or there’s a direct and immediate threat.”

The DIA Director looked tired and complained, “I fully understand the party’s stated goals. It just feels like imperial expansionism.”

“Gentlemen, we all serve at the pleasure of the President. This is the strategy going forward. I suggest everyone make the best of the situation for the good of the nation or look for positions in the private sector. You are the best officers in the military—that is why you all have been promoted, in some cases far ahead of your peers. The President wants the most qualified people in charge, not the ones who put in their time and believe that ‘now it’s their turn’” the SecDef reiterated.

The meeting broke up, and each commander went back to their respective offices to brief their own staffs and implement the orders given.

Chapter 10

America Under Attack

End of October

Washington, D.C.

White House, Cabinet Meeting Room

“Gentlemen, last night was the ninth domestic terrorist attack in three weeks. This last attack was at a Republican Party rally, nearly killing the presidential candidate. By the way—do we have a final death toll yet?” asked the President, still in a state of shock.

“Ninety-seven people killed and 232 wounded. On a happier note, none of the attackers survived the attack,” said Director Smart of the FBI.

“Senator Landrew is calling for the White House to make peace with the Muslims in order to end these terrorist attacks. She’s already using last night’s attack in a new campaign ad,” said AG James Roberts, shaking his head in disgust.

“I don’t want to focus on politics. I want to discuss what we’re going to do about this situation and how we’re going to make this stop,” the President replied, clearly irritated.

“Mr. President, the three terrorists we’ve managed to capture are starting to provide some good intelligence,” said Mike Williams, the National Security Director. “One of the individuals captured was just a foot soldier; he was recruited locally here in the US, so he doesn’t know any information about future attacks or other cells. The other terrorist that’s talking said he originally worked for the Quds Force as an intelligence agent, and when Iran became part of the Islamic Republic, his mission changed from gathering and reporting intelligence to recruiting and building direct-action units to be used to conduct terrorist attacks.”

“Really? I hadn’t heard this before,” said AG Roberts. “When did the National Security Council learn of this?”

“We opted to use an interrogation team from Joint Special Operations Command or JSOC, and they were very persuasive in getting him to talk. He originally spilled the beans about four days ago, but we didn’t want to say anything until his information could be verified. All the information he gave us about his Quds Force contacts, dates, and the Islamic Republic proved to be accurate, so we had no reason to believe he was lying,” Mike explained, putting down the dossier of the individual in question.

“I’m always skeptical about information obtained through the use of torture,” interjected Director Smart.

“He wasn’t tortured; he was just given some pharmaceuticals to help him relax. Eventually, he said that if we were willing to pay him money and place him into our witness protection system, along with his family, he’d tell us about additional future attacks that he knew about.”

“I hope you were planning on asking me for permission before you went ahead and agreed to this,” replied the President, giving Mike a stern look.

“Of course, Mr. President. As I said, we only just broke him the other day. As a test, we asked him to give us the location and names of one of the cells that was going to conduct another attack. He gave us the names of the individuals who conducted the movie theater massacre, and JSOC should be apprehending them sometime in the next few hours. They’ve had their safe house under surveillance for the past eight hours. They’re just waiting for another member to return back to the house before they execute the raid.”

“Mike, if you are going to use your JSOC guys for something like this, then please keep my office and the FBI informed,” said AG Roberts, annoyed.

“I agree, Mike. I have no problem with you being proactive, but please stay within the rules we set when I gave you permission to use JSOC on US soil,” chided the President. He was clearly irritated that Mike was not keeping the other agencies well-informed.

“Yes, Mr. President. It wasn’t my intention to leave anyone out of the loop on this operation. I just wanted to make sure it was real before I got everyone’s hopes up,” said Mike, who was clearly annoyed at being dressed down by the AG and the President during the meeting.

“All right, everyone, let’s get back on track and continue with the rest of the brief. What’s done is done. Can you please continue, Mike?” asked the President.

“Yes, Sir. As I was saying, we told the Iranian that if his information about this cell was accurate, then we would agree to his demands and have a letter personally signed by you for his review. If at any time, he provides us with false information or warns the IR, his deal will be voided, and we will deport his family and the rest of his entire extended family. We would also make sure the IR knew he had been a double agent for us.”

“Well, this leaves us with some interesting questions and options for what to do next,” said Monty.

“Mike, are you one hundred percent confident that these terrorist attacks we’ve been experiencing have been directed, supported and orchestrated by the Islamic Republic?” asked Jim Wise, the Secretary of State.

“I am, Secretary Wise. What we are trying to ascertain is how many more direct-action units the Islamic Republic has in the US and what their other missions are,” Mike replied.

“If that’s the case, Mr. President, then this is an open act of war against the United States by the Islamic Republic,” said Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, with a bit of heat in his voice.

“The question is—how do we want to respond, and when? Mike, I want full confirmation that this is, in fact, being directed and supported by the Islamic Republic. I want as much factual evidence as possible: money traces, people, signals intelligence…everything. We are going to respond, but I want to make sure we lay out a solid case against the Islamic Republic to both the American people and the world. I also want the other agencies to see if they can confirm or validate your findings. We will not go to war on sole-source reporting,” emphasized the President.

“Yes, Mr. President. I’ll start working with the AG,” said Mike, nodding towards AG Roberts. “We will prepare to present the facts, releasing as much information as possible at the unclassified level.”

“Actually, I want to declassify the intelligence in this case. Everyone knows our capabilities and how we gather intelligence. Don’t reveal any sources or information that could damage a source or a means of intelligence collection, but make sure the nitty-gritty details and information are there. I want there to be no doubt as to their culpability in this.”

Stein turned to his senior military man. “General Branson, you’ve been awfully quiet. What are your thoughts?”

“I’ve been kept informed by JSOC on the progress of the interrogations, so most of this information is stuff I’ve already heard. Right now, I’m trying to look at the bigger picture and figure out what’s going on globally.”

“Care to elaborate on that, General?” asked the President.

“Let’s look back to the beginning of the year. The Islamic Republic started shipping heavy weapons to the cartels in Mexico. The cartels increased their attacks against the government and generally created a lot of internal chaos and instability. Then, the military conducted their coup, and the problems caused by the cartels evaporated. Once the coup happened and we announced our intention to intervene, terrorist attacks start to take place all across the US. We’ve had nine attacks in the last three weeks, and twenty-three since we started operations in Mexico. The American people are becoming afraid to leave their homes or even go to work.”

“That attack against the corporate headquarters at Apple in California and the Amazon warehouse in Tennessee have caused a lot of employees to fear that their office may be next,” said Jane Smart, the Director of the FBI.

“Yes, these types of attacks are designed to target and instill fear among the common person. None of their attacks have been against the government, or what we would consider ‘hard targets,’” explained Branson.

“But you see a bigger link to this?” Mike asked curiously.

“I do. I believe everything has been orchestrated by the IR to preoccupy us and distract us from their next move so that we won’t be in a position to intervene.”

“What do you believe this next move will be, General?” asked Monty, leaning forward in anticipation of the response.

“The IR is going to conduct a massive military exercise in December. I believe this exercise is going to be used as a cover for an attack against the Israelis and the US 5th Fleet,” said General Branson.

“Hmm, certainly could be. Does the intelligence support your assumption, General?” pondered the President.

Director Rubio suddenly remembered a report he had read two days ago on this topic. “Mr. President, one of our case officers published a report a couple of days ago that mentioned a possible attack against the 5th Fleet and Israel. We had tasked the agent with obtaining more information, and I wanted to vet this information further before we briefed it…I believe General Branson may be onto something. If he has additional information, then it may help us paint a better picture.”

“Thank you, Pat, for bringing us up to speed on what your agent found. It has been a well-known fact that the IR wants to destroy Israel, and they believe our continued support and military bases there infringe upon the holiness of the lands of the Prophet. A lot of this does make sense when you picture it all together. I believe you’re both right—the IR’s next move is probably going to be against our remaining forces in the Middle East and Israel. If that’s the case, we should make preparations for it. Any suggestions?” asked the President.

“My advice is that we work on the assumption that this is going to happen and begin to shift specific forces to the area that could quickly be used. We could have a Marine Expeditionary Force conduct a joint military training exercise with the Israel Defense Force at our base in Eilat. It would also reinforce the naval air station and port. This will place 3,500 Marines and their equipment on the ground prior to a potential attack. At the same time, we should have some of our F-35s and F-22s conduct a training exercise, enabling us to pre-position additional combat aircraft in Israel.”

“I would also like to add several additional antimissile defense ships to the George H.W. Bush carrier battle group. We should also move the 6th Fleet out of Naples to Greece. They can be in position quickly if needed,” said Branson as he looked at the faces of everyone in the room, making sure they understood the gravity of what he was saying.

“I’m in agreement, Mr. President,” said the National Security Advisor. “It’s better to have the forces in place and ready. If nothing comes of it, then at least our forces were able to get some additional training.”

“All right, then let’s go ahead with the deployments. Perhaps we should also send additional Special Forces teams or some airborne units to Italy.”

“We can do that, Mr. President,” replied General Branson as he looked at General Black, who nodded, knowing that these forces would be pulled from his resources.

*******

31 October 2040

Los Angeles, California

Ibrahim had received a coded message early in the morning, letting him know it was time to activate his direct-action unit. His cell had originally been developed by the Iranian Quds Forces. Now that Iran was part of the Islamic Republic, his unit fell under the IR Special Operations and Intelligence Group. Having seen the numerous attacks happening across America, it was only a matter of time until they would activate his unit. Now it was time to let the others know.

“Najim, the attack is on. Get ready while I make the calls. This is going to be a long day.”

Ibrahim had been given some autonomy in determining his unit’s targets. The first target was a big one. The unit was going to attack the central police headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, kill as many police officers as possible, and then release any prisoners being held. They had exactly ten minutes to kill as many police officers as they could and destroy as much of the building as possible.

Pending their survival, they were going to break into three groups. One team of two people would take one of the Chevy Tahoes and drive through the varying valleys surrounding LA County, throwing road flares into the dry underbrush to start as many wildfires as they could. The second group would consist of three people, who would also take a Tahoe but would head to Malibu. Their mission would be to go house to house, killing people in their homes until either the police killed them or they successfully attacked ten homes. If they survived, they would fade into the background of the city and await further orders. The third group was to head to Universal Studios and attempt to kill and destroy as much of the compound as possible. This group would be the largest, with the remaining members of the assault team.

Grabbing his cell phone, Ibrahim begin to make the calls to his lieutenants to activate their groups. “Have everyone armed and assembled at our preplanned staging point,” he barked.

Walking down to the basement, he removed a couple of boxes that were obscuring a large black trunk. Pulling out his key, Ibrahim unlocked the trunk and did a quick inventory of what he had and what he would need to bring with him. Placing his military-grade body armor on, he quickly loaded six magazines of 5.56mm ammunition for his AR-15. He grabbed another eight magazines and placed them in his backpack. Next, he grabbed his Glock 19 and five eighteen-round magazines. Before he left with his tools for this mission, he placed six radios with throat mics in his backpack, knowing that his lieutenants would need them.

As Ibrahim pulled into the meeting location with his Suburban, he saw most of the group had already arrived. “Ibrahim, everyone is accounted for except Abu Kassim. We are ready,” said Mohammed, one of his lieutenants.

Getting out of his vehicle, he told Mohammed, “We need to hit these targets fast and stick to the timeline. If we stay at the objectives too long, additional police will arrive, and we may not get out.”

“I understand. We are ready when you give the word. Do you think the twenty of us can really pull this off?” Mohammed asked.

“As long as Saïd doesn’t chicken out. When he detonates his van in front of the police station, that should kill a lot of them.”

“I don’t think he will become a coward at the last minute. He has been preparing himself for this moment for a long time, and I think he is ready,” replied Mohammed with confidence.

“We shall see.”

Beep, beep. Ibrahim checked his smartphone and saw the go order from his handler. The time had come for him to do his part in this Holy war against America.

“That’s it—that’s the message. Everyone, get ready. We leave in a minute. Saïd, are you ready for your mission?”

“I am ready. I will not let you or Allah down. I will be a martyr for Islam as we bring Allah’s judgment upon America,” Saïd said with a wicked grin on his face and a look of burning rage. Saïd’s father had been killed by an American drone attack when he was just a child. His mother had brought him up with one purpose in mind: to avenge his father’s death.

“You will be greatly rewarded, my brother. May we all die as great a death as you will. Now, start heading towards your target and complete your mission.”

As their little convoy drove through downtown LA, they could not help but revel in the chaos they were about to cause. Americans had grown fat and lazy. They were only concerned with their own lives and did not notice anything else around them.

Then they saw it—a big plume of black smoke rising into the sky just a couple of blocks ahead.

Boooom!

A large fireball emanated from directly in front of the LA central police station. The utility truck Saïd was driving had been reinforced with bulletproof glass and armor around the passenger compartment to ensure that he survived long enough to detonate the truck. The truck had been loaded with 5,000 pounds of high explosives and 1,000 pounds of ball bearings to create additional shrapnel. When he reached the front of the police building, it detonated—with an explosion so powerful, it tore the entire face of the building off, along with several buildings across the street. Dozens of people were lying on the pavement and sidewalks, some slowly moving, some discovering the gravity of their wounds. Others lay on the pavement like tossed and torn rag dolls. The screams of pain and cries for help began almost immediately after the shock of the blast wore off.

Speaking through his throat mic, Ibrahim ordered Khalid to have his team drive right towards the hole in the building and start clearing the building. His twelve-man team should be sufficient, considering they were all armed with assault rifles and the police were bound to be shell-shocked from the blast.

“Mohammed, I want you to have your team break into four groups. One group is to walk around and start killing the wounded. I want your other teams to start clearing and killing everyone in the surrounding buildings. We have exactly ten minutes to cause as much chaos and damage as possible, and then we move to the warehouse and regroup for our next mission.”

“As you wish. This is a glorious day for us, Ibrahim. I’m honored to be a part of your command,” said Mohammed, who quickly turned and ran towards the two vans carrying his team.

As Ibrahim walked towards the heavily damaged Starbucks across the street from the police station, he heard the moan and soft cry for help from a man lying on the sidewalk. His arm had been badly mangled from the blast, and he had a terrible head wound. He reached out his good hand towards Ibrahim, begging him for help. Without thinking, Ibrahim reached down, grabbed his Glock and shot the man in the face, putting him out of his misery.

For some reason, he was amazingly thirsty. As he walked into the Starbucks, he saw what he was looking for—the cooler filled with bottles of water. He grabbed several bottles of water and started walking back towards his command vehicle, a black Chevy Suburban with a reinforced brush guard and bulletproof windows and doors. The sound of automatic fire emanating from the police station was intense—the police were clearly putting up one heck of a fight.

Ten minutes went by quickly. Everyone had returned to the vehicles. Some were bloodied, and others were carrying a wounded comrade. “Ibrahim, we cleared the first two floors of the police station and the holding cells. We released 86 prisoners. We made sure to arm all of them and told them to go cause as much havoc as they could. Khalid lost five of his twelve guys, and two of my guys were killed clearing the buildings around here,” Mohammed said as he climbed into his vehicle and took a long drink from a bottle of water Ibrahim had liberated from the Starbucks. Then they all drove away from the carnage they had just inflicted.

Dozens of sirens could be heard as three police cruisers drove past their vehicles, heading towards the police headquarters. “How did you lose two men while clearing that office building?”

“Several employees apparently had concealed weapons. As soon as the shooting started, they quickly shot two of my guys before they were gunned down themselves,” explained Mohammed.

“Make sure all of the men are aware that anyone they see could be armed, so we should treat them all as hostiles. Now we will head back to the warehouse to rearm and get ready for our next mission.”

Grabbing his cell phone, Ibrahim made a quick call to Sami Abbas. He had recruited Sami two years ago to be the group’s primary hacker. His mission today was to disable the traffic cameras in the city and delete the hard drives. “Sami, this is Ibrahim. Have you completed your task?”

“Yes, Ibrahim. It has been done. The cameras are disabled, and the hard drives were deleted. Do you want me to start hacking into the power grid?”

“Yes, do what you can. Any destruction and distraction you can provide will greatly aid the cause.”

“I’m on it,” replied Sami as he hung up.

*******

October was a month of pure terror across most of the US. Since the 2nd of October, sixty-eight terrorist attacks had taken place, striking malls, movie theaters, restaurants, business offices, hospitals and police stations. The entire American way of life and freedom of movement was under attack by Islamic extremists. Forty-two thousand, three hundred and seventy-five Americans had been killed by these horrific attacks, which were now starting to alienate anyone who looked as if they came from the Middle East or practiced Islam.

Mosques were starting to be attacked in retaliation for attacks against churches and synagogues. When a Muslim group in Washington, D.C., held a rally to denounce the attacks against Muslims in America, they themselves were attacked by armed factions within the US population who had had enough of the attacks being carried out by Muslim extremists and looked for a way to vent their anger.

As the presidential election neared, the three political parties made their case to the American people. The Democrats were saying that the US needed to reconcile its past with Islam and the Middle East to achieve true peace. The Republicans were demanding war against the Islamic Republic. The FP continued to stress the economic revival taking place in the US and emphasized the successful capture of hundreds of Islamic extremists before they were able to execute their attacks.

*******

07 November 2040

White House

“Mr. President, it would appear that you’re going to win by a landslide. Forty states are reporting results in so far, and you’ve won 38 of them,” said Monty as he muted the television in the residence.

“I think you’re right, Monty. It looks like this is as good a time as any to declare victory. We’ve clearly won enough electoral votes to claim it.”

“I agree. Four more years, Mr. President—we did it,” said Monty. He smiled. Four more years. Four more years to right this country and the world.

*******

25 November 2040

Washington, D.C.

White House, Situation Room

The President had planned on celebrating Thanksgiving with the troops in Mexico, but due to multiple credible assassination plots, the trip had been cancelled. So, the President enjoyed his Thanksgiving dinner with his family at the White House, and as was customary in the Stein family, they overate and sat around watching football. Unfortunately, things around the world forced the President back to work halfway through the fourth quarter of the afternoon game.

“I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It’s unfortunate that we have to shorten our holiday, but the issue with the IR needs to be resolved.”

“Mr. President, we have collected enough evidence from the DoJ, FBI, DIA and the CIA to present a clear case to both the American people and Congress to declare war on the Islamic Republic. There is no refuting the evidence. The question now is—when do we start launching cruise missiles?” asked Director Rubio, the head of the CIA.

“General Branson, what is the state of our military forces? How soon can we be in a position to strike at the IR?” inquired the President.

“We have begun a quiet shift in forces from Mexico and other combat divisions from the States to various ports on the East Coast to be moved by transport. We’ve moved over four hundred Special Forces personnel to Israel, along with a full air wing of F-35s. We also have most of Third Corps arriving over the weekend.

“Fortunately, the IR is also moving a lot of their forces into the local region for their supposed exercise. I suggest we launch our attack soon to preempt them and catch the bulk of their forces by surprise before they can get fully organized,” said Branson.

“So, what’s the timeline, General? How soon will we have sufficient forces in place to launch an attack?”

“Three more days, Mr. President. In ten days, we’ll have Second Corps at the Haifa port, ready to offload and enter the fight as well.”

“All right, then. Let’s plan to launch our attack on December 1st, five days from now. That gives us a bit more time to get that Corps closer to the action. We also need to start coordinating things with the Israelis.”

The Commandant of the Marine Corps spoke up and added, “Sir, the entire 1st Marine Expeditionary Force of 20,000 Marines is also already linking up with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.”

“Excellent.”

“I would hold off on making any major announcements, Mr. President, until the day before or the day of the attack. If possible, I’d wait until you’ve given the order. We don’t want to lose the element of surprise,” said Lieutenant General Rick Scott, the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“I agree, General Scott. I’ll hold off on any announcement until the attack order has been given. Jim, you have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time on the diplomatic front. Eric, I want you to begin a rapid mobilization of National Guard and Reserve units immediately. Activate the units that we know we’re going to need, and get the second echelon of forces ready to deploy to Israel as well. I also want more Marines heading that way. Once this kicks off, we’re going to need to secure the Suez and a number of other areas that will need their skill set,” said the President. He took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out.

“We also need to be ready in case they go nuclear. What are our options, and how do we want to respond? I’d like an answer to that question for tomorrow’s meeting, so we can begin to position specific weapons.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” the men replied in unison. The President got up to leave and return to his family at the residence.

Chapter 11

The Chosen People

29 November 2040

Beijing, China

Central Military Commission

General Changlong Fan, the Vice Chairman of the CMC, had called an emergency meeting to discuss the imminent attack to take place by the Islamic Republic. “General Changlong, the Islamic Republic has been conducting terrorist attacks against the Americans for the past ten weeks. What is new about this situation?” asked Zhang.

“Premier, our intelligence operatives within the US military have confirmed that the Americans are planning to declare war on the Islamic Republic on December first. Their attack will originate from Israel and will include several seaborne invasions as well,” replied General Changlong, looking at General Zhang Yang, the Minister of Defense.

“Premier, the information has been confirmed by other sources. Our cybercommand has decoded numerous orders for ships, aircraft, and munitions to be moved to Israel,” said the defense minister.

“Hmm…I suppose this could work to our advantage. I had hoped the coming conflict between the US and the IR could have been held off until the start of the New Year.”

“The American intelligence agencies have traced all of the terrorist attacks to the Islamic Republic. I suspect they were waiting until they had everything in place and then planned to present the case to their people and to the world,” said Xi, the Director of State Intelligence.

“I never understood the Americans’ need to justify their actions to the rest of the world. They somehow believe they need the world’s permission to act in their own self-defense.”

“Premier, this presents us with a unique opportunity. Rather than waiting until the New Year to launch our attack, we could launch our attack on December seventh. The Americans will be heavily engaged in the Middle East by that point, and they will not have the forces available to prevent us from taking Guam and Taiwan,” said Admiral Wei Shengli.

“Admiral, you do realize the date you have recommended for the attack is the same day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor?” asked the Premier.

“I do. This time, we will finish what the Japanese could not.”

“Very well. Proceed with the modified timetable, but make sure we do as little as possible to draw any major attention from the Americans prior to our attack. It has to be a complete surprise if this is going to work to our advantage.”

*******

29 November 2040

Riyadh, Islamic Republic

Command Bunker

“Caliph Abbas, our intelligence assets are reporting that the American 5th Fleet in Eilat has put to sea and is currently heading on a course towards the Indian Ocean. Our reconnaissance flights out of Egypt have spotted the American 6th Fleet moving towards the Suez,” said General Rafik Hamza, the Military Commander of the Islamic Republic.

General Hamza had been the second-in-command of the Saudi Royal Army before the formation of the Republic. He had been trained by the American military and had attended the finest American schools, so he knew the capabilities of the American military and quickly recognized these movements as a precursor to what would most likely be an American attack on the IR.

“What about the Israelis? Has their military posture changed in the last forty-eight hours?” asked Caliph Abbas.

“The Israeli Defense Force has called up their entire reserve force for what they are calling a ‘military readiness drill.’ Most of the IDF military forces are starting to leave their bases and moving to forward defensive positions. We are also seeing a repositioning of their air defenses and antimissile laser defense systems. Our assumption is that they are moving them around in case we had them pre-positioned by artillery or missiles,” explained Huseen ibn Abdullah, the Director of Intelligence, as he laid down a tablet from which he had been reading.

“Caliph, we need to launch the invasion immediately. The Americans and the Israelis have seen through our deception and know we are positioning to launch a first strike against them.”

“The Americans have also determined that we are behind the terrorist attacks on their homeland. They have held off on attacking us until their military is in position to strike us,” said the Director of Intelligence.

“How soon until the nuclear devices are in American ports?”

“The ships are at sea now. In concert with the Russians and Chinese, I have redirected the ship that was heading to the Port of Los Angeles to move to Baltimore Harbor, and the other ship is heading towards New York Harbor. It will not be in position for another seven days,” said Admiral Jaffa Mustafa, Commander of the Islamic Republic’s Naval Forces.

“Why the change?” asked Caliph Mohammed.

“The Russians asked that we use the devices to hit two of the larger East Coast ports. This would hinder the Americans’ ability to move supplies and reinforcements overseas and would cause considerable infrastructure damage and civilian deaths. The Chinese have also asked that we not attack the Port of LA. They have a surprise for the Americans that requires the port to remain intact,” the Intelligence Director said, nodding towards the head of the military.

“Thank you for the clarification, General Muhammed. What is the likelihood of success if you were to launch your attack immediately?”

“Assuming the Navy is able to keep the American carriers occupied and the Air Force is able to overwhelm the American and Israeli Air Forces, my land force should be able to cut Israel in half within seventy-two to ninety-six hours. At that point, we will be able to destroy them piecemeal,” said General Abdullah Muhammed. He was the military commander on the ground who would lead the Islamic Republic forces in their invasion of Israel.

Prior to the formation of the Republic, Abdullah had been a general in the Iraqi Army. He too had been trained by the Americans and had initially fought against them during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when he had been an officer in the Republican Guard.

“General Hamza, how quickly do you believe we will be able to overwhelm the American and Israeli laser defense systems?”

“Nothing is certain or guaranteed when fighting the Israelis and especially the Americans. Our initial assault calls for a massive overwhelming of their systems. We will be using the newest version of the Russian 9A53 Tornado multiple rocket launch vehicles to send an assortment of no fewer than twenty thousand 120/220/330mm rockets at targets all across Israel, with the vast majority being targeted against their airfields and air-defense systems. Ninety percent of these rockets will be launched over a six-hour period. This will provide our aircraft six hours to engage the American and Israeli Air Forces and destroy them.

“Following the first two waves of fighters, our bombers will launch an additional three hundred cruise missiles, specifically targeting the Israeli power generation plants and major transmission nodes. This will disable electricity all across the country, further hindering their ability to coordinate their defenses. The third and fourth waves of aircraft will be our fighter bombers, who are assigned to attacking and destroying the Israeli missile and air-defense capabilities as they are identified. We will have twelve airborne early-warning and control aircraft aloft to assist in directing the air battle.

“The Navy will send all of their missile boats against the American fleet heading towards the Horn of Africa. Between the ten attack submarines and sixty missile boats, they will attack the fleet with over four hundred antiship missiles. We are also launching one hundred ballistic missiles from our OTR-21 Tochka vehicles at the carrier battlegroup. Five of the missiles are armed with a five-kiloton nuclear warhead. It’s just enough power to destroy the fleet and minimize fallout to the area. It is possible the Americans will respond with nuclear weapons in retaliation. However, despite this concern, the opportunity to destroy two of their seven operational carriers is worth the risk.” General Hamza nodded towards General Muhammed to take over.

“Once the missiles have launched, we have 1,200 various artillery pieces that will begin to fire into the prepared Israeli defensive positions. The artillery will be able to fire a continuous barrage for several hours, providing covering fire for our armored forces as they advance to engage and destroy the IDF and Americans. I assure you, this will not be a repeat of the Six Day War or the War of 1973. This time, Israel will be destroyed.” General Hamza spoke with the confidence of a man who had thought about this moment for a long time.

“Then, Generals, let’s proceed with the attack. General Hamza, the attack will commence on your order once you have returned to your field headquarters. The rest of us shall remain in the bunkers. We need the leadership to leave for their separate bunkers in case the Israelis or Americans get a lucky shot off and destroy this position.”

With that, the military members left to quickly return to their units and begin to issue the orders that would start World War III and the annihilation of the Jewish State.

Chapter 12

Day Zero

29 November 2040

Tel Aviv, Israel

Third Corps HQ

Major General Garry Gardner was promoted to Lieutenant General and given command of Third Corps, which consisted of three divisions. One was armored, one was a mechanized infantry division, and the third division consisted of light infantry modeled around the Brigade Combat Team’s concept that the Army was rebuilding.

Lieutenant General Garry Gardner had seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan during the late 2010s, had participated in peacekeeping operations in the Ukraine, and had recently led the 3rd ID in Mexico. He was a career soldier and had spent his military career in various combat arms units, steadily rising in rank. Once he had been selected for brigadier general, he had been offered the opportunity to obtain a doctorate degree at any university he wanted. Garry had elected to pursue his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, where he’d obtained a doctorate in global logistics management and obtained a master’s in Russian studies at the same time.

Four weeks ago, Third Corps had been given the order to rapidly deploy to Israel and prepare for combat operations. Most of the soldiers had been arriving by commercial and military aircraft since they were given the order. Their equipment had just arrived eight days earlier and was being moved to numerous marshalling points as the soldiers and vehicles were being fully equipped for the combat operations that were expected to take place within the next thirty-six hours.

The 1st Armored Division, commanded by Major General George Twitty, was at 95% strength and ready for action. The rest of the division was expected to be ready within the next twelve hours.

The 3rd Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Brian Kennedy, was at 97% strength and had deployed to marshalling points near Jerusalem with the IDF. The 1st Infantry Division, led by Major General Paul Brown, had arrived two weeks ago and was at 89% strength. Their equipment had arrived ahead of the battalions as personnel were still in transit to Israel. Most of the division had been in Mexico when they had been directed to proceed with all speed to Israel and join Third Corps.

Since a portion of the 1st ID was still in transit, the majority of the division was encamped in several locations near Tel Aviv, not far from the airport. It was expected that the remainder of the force would arrive over the next twelve hours. The military had commandeered over four hundred commercial passenger aircraft from United Airlines, Delta, American Airways and Air Canada to move nearly 50,000 soldiers over a four-week period.

One hundred FedEx, DHL and UPS cargo aircraft were also being used to transport enormous amounts of munitions, MREs and other equipment that would be needed to sustain sixty days of continuous combat operations. This would normally be accomplished by the Army Materiel Command. However, with the short notice of this operation, what would normally be moved over a three-month period needed to be moved in thirty days. To ensure US forces were coordinating with the IDF, General Gardner had located his HQ element near the IDF HQ and ensured he had more than enough liaison officers and linguists in both HQ elements.

Major General Lance Peeler was the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force or MEF commander. His forces were moving with the USS Gerald Ford supercarrier and the rest of the US 6th Fleet, which had left Naples five days earlier. Their mission was to get within striking distance of the Egyptian Coast, conduct an amphibious assault to secure the Suez Canal Zone, and destroy the IR forces in the Sinai.

By securing the Suez and the Sinai, the MEF would control the crossing and would reduce the number of borders from which the IR forces could attack Israel. It would also effectively destroy approximately 80,000 IR forces in the Sinai. General Peeler’s 20,000 Marines had been part of the initial assault against Mexico and was ready to get back into the fight, especially because of all of the damage and carnage the IR terrorist groups had inflicted across the US. It was time for some payback. They also had the support of 3,500 Marines and a Marine air wing at the Eilat Naval Air Station and Naval Base.

Vice Admiral Lisa Todd was the commander of the US 6th Fleet based in Naples, Italy. She was the first female commander of a US fleet. The 6th Fleet consisted of the supercarriers USS William Clinton and the USS Gerald Ford, which were to escort the 2nd MEF to the Suez Canal Zone and assist the Marines in capturing it and destroying the IR forces in the Sinai. The fleet was also tasked with destroying all enemy airfields within a 300-mile radius of the battlegroup.

The battlegroup had just received four additional antiaircraft and missile defense ships prior to departing Naples. Three additional guided-missile cruisers had also joined the battlegroup, bringing the total number of cruise missiles that could be launched from 820 to 1,400. Four munition replenishment ships had also joined the fleet, ensuring there would be more than enough munitions when the order was given to launch the attack.

The 5th Fleet, which revolved around the Supercarrier USS George H. W. Bush, had been augmented with a second supercarrier. The USS Enterprise had left their home port of Eilat, Israel, to move into position near the Horn of Africa, where they could provide significant air support to operations in Jordan and western Saudi Arabia. Unknown to Vice Admiral Jeremiah Lewis, their fleet was about to be attacked by over five hundred antiship missiles, to include one hundred ballistic missiles, five of which were nuclear armed.

Near Amman, Jordan, General Abdullah Muhammed was receiving the final report on his tablet that all units were in place and ready to commence their attack. The past five years had seen a massive rebuilding of the IR military force. True to their word, the Russians and Chinese had provided the IR with tens of thousands of advanced military vehicles, including the newest main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery, multiple-launch rocket system or MLRS vehicles, antiaircraft and antimissile vehicles.

The IR had also received the newest fourth- and fifth-generation stealth and conventional fighters and ground-attack aircraft, including medium range bombers. With nearly 120,000 Russian and Chinese military advisors, the IR was as trained and ready to take on the Israeli and American forces as they were going to get. Knowing that their attack against the Americans would be quickly followed up by the Chinese, and then later the Russians, gave the IR the assurance their war would be successful.

“General Omar, order phase one of the attack to begin. Get our aircraft in the air. Once they are airborne, have the artillery and rocket forces begin their bombardment. Tell the forces in phase two to be prepared to start their attack shortly as well,” said General Abdullah Muhammed.

At 2315 hours local time in Israel, 1,600 Islamic Republic aircraft and 4,300 drones took to the skies and headed towards the Holy Land. At the same time, thousands of artillery and MLRS vehicles began their barrage from the borders of former Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Sinai, raining tens of thousands of rockets and artillery rounds all across Israel. As the rounds hit their targets, the IR fighters began to engage the Israeli and American aircraft flying over the country. The American and Israeli F-35s and F-22s attacked the IR fighters, scoring six kills for each fighter they lost. At the time of the barrage, there were only 68 Allied aircraft in the sky.

Once Allied radar had detected the IR air armada leaving their air bases, word came down to scramble all available aircraft. Twenty additional aircraft took off just as the rockets hit the runways, preventing additional aircraft from getting airborne. Fortunately, the aircraft not immediately ready for takeoff were well sheltered in their secured enclosures.

The Israeli Iron Dome System immediately engaged the rockets and artillery rounds heading towards the IDF bases, scoring a 91% hit ratio of the targets engaged. Unfortunately, for every rocket or artillery round that was targeted by the Iron Dome, two were still getting through to their targets without any resistance. Once it was determined that the volume of incoming fire was too large for the Iron Dome to protect everything, the Iron Dome switched from protecting civilian targets to shielding critical infrastructure and military bases. While the Iron Dome system was engaging these targets, the fixed and mobile laser and railgun defense systems attacked the IR aircraft and drones that were beginning to swarm over the skies of Israel.

Within the first twenty minutes, several of the fixed land-based laser systems went offline as power transmission nodes and energy generation plants were being destroyed. Power was starting to go out all across Israel. Despite backup generators coming online, their limited generation capability was reducing the number of shots the lasers could fire per minute.

*******

Captain Brian Jordan was serving his last tour in the Navy as the captain of the USS George H. W. Bush supercarrier. After thirty years in the Navy, it was time to retire to that dream house his wife had insisted they build in Tennessee, near where two of their four children lived. This was his final tour. As Captain Jordan sat in the Combat Information Center or CIC, an alarm went off indicating the E5 advanced surveillance drone had detected a threat to the battlegroup.

The E5 surveillance drone had been in service with the Navy since the late 2020s. The drone used stealth technology and could stay aloft for as long as thirty-six hours. It typically loitered at an altitude of 60,000 feet, providing hundreds of miles of surveillance coverage for the battlegroup. As data from the drone was being received, the threat board suddenly showed hundreds of aircraft and drones heading towards the carrier group. Dozens of smaller missile boats were detected on a course that would bring them into striking distance of the battlegroup as well.

“Sound general quarters, and someone get the admiral in here quickly! Commander, activate the battlegroup’s automated defense system. CAG, get your aircraft in the air and engage those fighters and the bomber group.”

In walked Vice Admiral Jeremiah Lewis, moving briskly. “Captain Jordan—what are we facing?”

“Sir, we’re tracking 62 missile boats, most likely equipped with four Exocet missiles each. There are also 60 medium bombers, 230 Su-43s, and 600 drones heading towards the battlegroup,” said Captain Jordan.

“How long until the first missiles come into range?”

“Six minutes,” said one of the petty officers.

“How long do we have until those fighters and bombers are in range to launch their missiles?”

“Roughly twelve minutes, if they launch from optimal range. If they launch from maximum range, then it’s closer to nine minutes,” said a petty officer at one of the radar stations.

“Captain, the fighter CAP from the Enterprise and our ship are going supersonic to engage those fighters and bombers. All of our drones are also in the air—ninety fighter drones to their six hundred,” said one of the officers manning the battlegroup communication stations.

“The CAG is launching aircraft as fast as he can, about four aircraft a minute right now,” said one of the air boss commanders. The admiral issued attack orders to the ships in the battlegroup and ordered the frigates to move further out towards the incoming missile boats to increase the battlegroup’s missile defense shield.

The three cruisers in the fleet launched their antiship missiles and engaged the smaller IR missile boats with their railgun turrets. Just as the admiral was thinking this couldn’t get any worse, their “eye in the sky” detected multiple ballistic missile launches tracking towards the battlegroup.

Suddenly, one of the destroyers in the battlegroup detected multiple torpedoes in the water. Several torpedoes had locked onto the cruisers protecting the carriers. The ships began evasive maneuvers and increased speed while launching torpedo countermeasures. Four of the eight torpedoes went for the decoys, while the remaining torpedoes zeroed in on two of the cruisers. Both cruisers were hit and quickly began to list heavily to one side, sinking within minutes and depriving the carriers of much-needed antiaircraft and antimissile defenses from their advanced railguns.

The destroyer quickly moved to engage the submarines and fired off two torpedoes of their own. Several of the antisubmarine helicopters reported multiple submarine contacts. They, too, began dropping torpedoes in an attempt to chase them off while the destroyers attacked them. Within minutes, the sounds of several submarine hulls imploding could be heard as the torpedoes made impact.

In the skies over the battlegroup, the Su-43s launched their antiship missiles, adding to the fray of missiles the smaller attack boats had launched. As the missiles fired, it looked like streaks of lightning stabbing in the direction of the American fleet as they began their journey to their targets. Between the IR missile boats and the Su-43s, 480 Exocets were fired at the battlegroup in an attempt to overwhelm their defensive capabilities. Twenty-eight missiles made it through the laser and missile screen and scored hits against the battlegroup. While the Exocets were closing in on the fleet, the bombers launched their two Russian-made P-270s Moskits, also known as SS-N-22D Sunburn antiship missiles. These missiles traveled at three times the speed of sound, carrying 710 pounds of high explosives.

The ocean around the battlegroup was lit up like the Fourth of July as hundreds of missiles, lasers and railguns were fired. Missiles exploded in an almost constant rolling of thunder. Despite the enormous success of the battlegroup’s defensive screen, eight frigates, seven destroyers and all three of the remaining guided-missile ships were hit by the remnants of the Exocets’ missile barrage. Bright flashes of light could be seen for miles as the missiles hit their targets and the subsequent flames raged out of control on the damaged ships. The sea was starting to look as if it was on fire itself as diesel leaked out from the ships and burned on the surface of the sea.

One Exocet hit the Enterprise, causing the ship to shudder slightly despite inflicting minimal damage, while three missiles hit the Bush, causing damage to the flight deck. Several aircraft that were still trying to take off were obliterated, and one of the elevators that had been descending in order to move another fighter to the flight deck imploded. Several fires could be seen in the night sky from the Bush, while her crew immediately went to work putting them out and trying to repair the flight deck so they could launch more aircraft.

As the Exocets were hitting the fleet, 120 Sunburns began their final approach. Ninety-eight of the missiles were destroyed by the antimissile laser defense system, while twenty-two missiles scored hits all across the fleet. The Enterprise took two more hits, one near the waterline causing significant damage to the crew quarters area and the second hitting just below the hangar deck that housed the aircraft munitions. As the missile exploded, it caused several secondary explosions, which tore through the hangar deck and two decks below, killing hundreds of crewmen in a fiery cauldron of death.

Two of the cruisers blew up shortly after being hit with the second round of missiles. The Bush was hit by five Sunburn missiles, scoring several hits just above the waterline. One shell hit the hangar deck, killing many members of the aircraft maintenance crew. The remaining missile hit near the engine room, shutting down one of the engines. The George H. W. Bush was severely damaged and starting to burn, slowly listing to one side.

As the ballistic missiles began their descent on the remains of the fleet, the last antimissile frigate engaged the missiles with its SM3s and the one pulse laser that was still operational. The captain of the ship was not optimistic about their chances to destroy all of the incoming barrage. They had already expended seventy percent of their own missiles, and the batteries for the pulse laser were low from engaging the last two waves of rockets.

The battle lasted less than twenty-five minutes. Admiral Jeremiah Lewis knew he had lost his fleet as the third wave of missiles, this time the ballistic ones, rained down on the remains of the 5th Fleet. Three of the five nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles detonated at various positions over the fleet. The carrier George H. W. Bush took a direct hit and was completely destroyed, disappearing below the waves before the blast evaporated. The Enterprise was on the edge of two different blast zones. The carrier was battered on both sides from the blast and badly burnt. Once the fires reached the ship’s jet fuel, the carrier sank, taking all hands with her.

Two of the ships in the fleet were outside of the blast zones and survived to report on the engagement. The mood of those who had lived through the attack was grim.

*******

Still unaware of the events that were about to take place, 6th Fleet continued moving into position for their part of America’s preemptive attack against the Islamic Republic.

Vice Admiral Lisa Todd was being groomed to become a four-star admiral and had just taken command of the fleet in June. As the battlegroup neared Israel, Admiral Todd spent most of her time in the CIC with the ship’s captain. She had a gut feeling the IR was going to launch a preemptive attack and was determined not to be caught off guard.

“Captain Carr, we’re now less than one hundred miles from our patrol position. Are we detecting any additional increase in activity at the IR air bases or ports?” she asked.

The captain looked to his intelligence officer to provide the answer.

“The E5 has spotted a number of aircraft taking off from various air bases in Egypt—the activity just started less than five minutes ago. The analysts are still trying to determine what they’re up to. There are already a number of IR ships on patrols, though we’re seeing additional activity in the ports.”

“Captain, let’s go ahead and move the fleet to general quarters. I have a feeling something is up with the IR, and I do not want to be caught flatfooted. Launch the air wing, but keep them in orbit over the fleet, and be ready for whatever may happen over the next couple of hours,” she said as her intuition and training told her an attack was imminent.

“I understand your concern, Admiral. Perhaps we should increase the fleet’s speed and get closer to our shore-based air cover,” said Captain Carr.

“I agree, let’s make haste. Have the MEF ships tighten up their positions and order them to prepare to conduct their amphibious assault of the Islamic Republic if they attack. I want the MEF to head straight for the beaches and secure their targets if the IR decides to start the party early.”

*******

The quick thinking and gut instincts of Admiral Todd were probably the only thing that saved the 6th Fleet from the fate of the 5th. When the IR missile boats and aircraft headed towards the fleet to fire their Exocets and Sunburn missiles, the fleet was in position to attack them at maximum range and keep them from getting within reach of their missiles.

With the entire carrier air wing already in the sky, they were in quick position to attack the IR fighters and bombers before they were able to get into range. Essentially, the entire IR attacking force had been stopped, with the majority of the assailants destroyed. Only five Exocets and two Sunburns hit the fleet, sinking one destroyer, who took two hits, and a frigate, who took a hit to her missile magazine. The other impacts were absorbed by the rest of the fleet, with no catastrophic damage done.

With the attack blunted, the 6th Fleet launched hundreds of cruise missiles at their assigned targets all across Egypt and the Sinai. The MEF moved into position to assault the Suez Canal Zone, while the Marine air wing began softening up the IR ground forces in the Sinai.

The E5 sentry drone began detecting the sheer volume of missile and artillery fire being directed all across Israel while this was taking place. Admiral Todd directed fifty of the cruise missiles to go after the artillery and MLRS vehicles in the Sinai. Her hope was to reduce the volume of fire being poured across the border and to minimize the possibility of it being redirected at the MEF. She directed half of the air wing to engage the IR fighters that had survived attacks by the Air Force and the IDF and ordered another four hundred cruise missiles to hit Islamic Republic troop, missile and artillery positions all across the Jordan Valley, Lebanon and Syrian border.

What concerned Admiral Todd the most was the fight underway with the 5th Fleet. It looked as if they were being completely overwhelmed by the enemy. Then 100 ballistic missiles showed up on the threat board, adding further concern about their survivability. Within a minute, it was clear that they were targeting the 5th Fleet and not Israel. Her heart sank several minutes later as the screen monitoring the missiles and the fleet whited out and then slowly returned. She instantly realized that one or more nuclear devices had gone off over the 5th Fleet. For all intents and purposes, the 5th Fleet ceased to exist, which was a devastating loss for the US Navy.

*******

Lieutenant General Garry Gardner’s Third Corps was just about ready for full combat operations. They were still waiting on a few thousand troops to arrive and for additional munitions that were being flown in from the States. He had the 1st Armored Division, also known as “Old Ironside,” moving to marshalling position in the northeast of Israel near the Golan Heights, where intelligence reported the largest concentration of IR armored units. Ironside had recently received the new M36 Pershing tanks. This was the newest tank in the Army, replacing the venerable M1A4 Abrams tanks that had been in service for nearly sixty years.

The Pershing was made of a new secret type of alloy that was five times stronger than the armor used in the Abrams. The tank was also the first in the world to field a magnetic railgun, giving it an incredible range and punch. The railgun and fire control system could also switch from ground attack mode to air attack, making the vehicle extremely versatile. When in ground-attack mode, the Pershing could hit targets as far away as fifteen miles and could fire one round every twenty seconds for a sustained ten minutes before it had to drop its rate of fire to one round per minute to recharge its battery bank. The US had roughly four hundred Pershings in service, until the manufacturing sector got up to speed. The DoD had ordered roughly 2,800 units for the Army and Marines.

The 1st Infantry Division, also known as “The Big Red One,” was being moved towards the Jordan Valley to reinforce what would certainly be a bloody battle for Jerusalem. The 3rd Infantry Division was marshalling around the Tel Aviv area and was going to be used as a floating reserve to plug any holes in the line or exploit any breakouts. General Gardner was in a planning meeting with his IDF counterparts, despite it being nearly midnight, discussing the coming operation and what the contingency plans were should the IR launch their attack before the US officially declared war.

Suddenly, the “enemy incoming” rocket/aircraft alarms wailed, and an IDF captain came into the room, announcing that the IR had just launched a massive missile and artillery attack all across Israel. The IDF commanders immediately ordered all aircraft that could get airborne to do so immediately. As the staff was moving to the Joint Command and Control Bunker, where the war was going to be run from, a naval officer approached General Gardner, whispering in his ear that the US 5th and 6th Fleets were both under attack as well.

As General Gardner walked into the Joint Command and Control Bunker, an Air Force colonel said they were scrambling all available aircraft and that the aircraft currently on patrol were engaging IR fighters, though they were outnumbered fifteen to one.

“General Williams, get word back to US Central Command and US European Command that we are under attack by IR forces and we are engaging them. Tell them we will need all the available resources they can provide and get the commanding general on the horn. I need to talk with him. Also, make sure the Pentagon is kept in the loop.”

“We are already on it, sir. General Wade said he would like to talk with you as soon as you are available,” said Brigadier General Peter Williams, Gardner’s Chief of Staff.

“Sir, we’re tracking over three hundred missiles heading towards our position, and there are also six hundred rockets heading towards the airport and the 1st ID’s marshalling points,” said an Air Force major, who was tracking inbound threats with four other NCOs.

“Make sure General Twitty knows he has incoming and to disperse his force. What’s the status on our air-defense systems? Are they engaging yet?”

“Yes, Sir. The mobile laser batteries and antiair railgun systems are engaging the incoming artillery, missiles and enemy aircraft penetrating our fighter cover,” said an Army lieutenant colonel who, along with six other soldiers, was controlling and coordinating the Army’s air-defense efforts. The mixed use of lasers and railguns provided an incredible layered defensive system. The railguns had a range of fifteen to twenty miles and had a quick rate of fire, while the laser systems could hit targets as far away as several thousand miles in the case of a ballistic missile, or several hundred miles in the case of an aircraft. The primary difference, and the reason why they worked as an integrated defensive system, was that the lasers could only fire once every twenty to thirty seconds while the railguns could fire one round every three seconds.

“If our MLRSs have not started counterbattery fire, make sure they are on it. We have to cut the volume of fire down, or they’re going to cut us to pieces,” directed General Gardner.

*******

Sergeant Jordy Nelson and his squad were putting the finishing touches on their machine-gun bunker as part of the Jordan Valley defensive line. The Big Red One was assigned a five-mile area of the valley that, if taken, would give the enemy a clear path to Jerusalem. The Americans were given this patch of ground to defend because this was also the most direct route by which American forces could invade the Islamic Republic and move towards Amman. Hundreds of machine gun and antitank missile and railgun bunkers had been constructed over the past several days as the 1st ID settled into their positions until the invasion order was given. Despite it being nearly midnight, the soldiers were still hard at work.

“Private Miller, how much ammo did you guys bring back with you?” asked Sergeant Nelson as he walked towards several of the younger soldiers.

“We brought ten thousand rounds for the M240 and ten thousand rounds for the M5 AIR.”

Nelson nodded. “Excellent work, guys. I want the ammunition and power packs split between the two bunkers so—”

“Everyone, get down! Incoming!” someone shouted, interrupting Nelson in midsentence.

The sergeant’s team immediately jumped into the trench between the two bunkers and ran for shelter as the artillery rounds landed all across the Jordan Valley and endangered their positions.

What in the name of all things holy is going on? What are we supposed to do now? Sergeant Nelson thought. Looking at the scared soldiers in his team, he collected himself and told everyone in the bunkers, “Be ready for anything, and if you see something, report it to me. If it fires at you, then—light it up!”

As the artillery barrage continued, IR infantry fighting vehicles, light drone tanks and the much heavier main battle tanks advanced towards the Israeli and American positions. As they neared, they poured their own direct fire into gun positions and vehicles that the artillery hadn’t destroyed.

“Sergeant Nelson, we have enemy tanks and infantry vehicles advancing towards our lines,” said one of the privates. Nelson grabbed his night-vision binoculars and scanned the field in front of their position. Just twenty minutes earlier, it had been a lush green valley; now it looked like an alien planet or the moon as artillery and missiles continued to impact all around their positions. Despite the heavy artillery barrage, American soldiers fired their antitank or AT missiles at the light drone tanks and main battle tanks, leaving the heavier railgun positions to attack the infantry fighting vehicles. Thousands of tracers zipped back and forth across the battlefield as both armies were locked in a desperate fight to destroy one another.

The armored vehicles took heavy fire from the railguns, with more than half of them destroyed. The remaining vehicles disgorged their infantry, who attacked the American missile and gun positions. Tanks and armored personnel carriers could provide great direct fire, but they were vulnerable to AT equipped soldiers and the larger-caliber AT railguns, which was why they traveled with their own supporting infantry.

“Everyone—begin firing at those soldiers!” shouted Sergeant Nelson as he raised his own rifle and took aim at the several dozen soldiers about eight hundred meters in front of his position. As Sergeant Nelson engaged one enemy soldier after another, an artillery round landed in the center of a small cluster of enemy soldiers, throwing their torn bodies into the air and across the ground like rag dolls. The smell of smoke, cordite and burnt flesh permeated the entire valley.

After an hour of continuous firing across the American lines, it was becoming apparent that they were going to have to fall back to their secondary positions. The IR was attacking with massive human wave assaults and continuous direct fire from the hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles supporting the infantry. Then, the second and third waves arrived. The casualties and damage caused by the twenty-minute barrage prior to the initial attack had weakened numerous fortifications along the American and Israeli defensive works, creating multiple gaps that the IR were starting to exploit.

Despite the carnage and numerically superior Islamic Army, the training and equipment used by the American and Israeli forces showed why they were the most formidable soldiers in the world.

*******

29 November 2040

Washington, D.C.

Presidential Emergency Operation Center

The SecDef and General Branson were still being fed data by their aides about the attack underway in Israel, trying to ascertain the status of US forces. Mike Williams, the National Security Advisor, and his two aides walked into the room. They quickly took their assigned seats and assimilated the same information the SecDef and the general were studying.

The situation was starting to look grim, particularly with the 5th Fleet in the Gulf of Aiden near the Horn of Africa. Jim Wise, the Secretary of State, walked in with Monty. The two appeared to be in a heated discussion. “Those dirty, heartless animals! They really attacked our embassy and executed the entire staff, including the ambassador?” asked Monty in a rather loud voice.

All conversations stopped, and everyone looked at Jim Wise for clarification. Just then, the President walked in. He surveyed the room and walked to his seat at the head of the table. An aide quickly placed a half-frozen twenty-ounce Red Bull on the table for the President. A can that large usually meant the President had a stress-induced headache, which he liked to pacify with excessive amounts of caffeine. Not being a coffee drinker, his choice of poison was Red Bull—always had been throughout his life.

“Jim and Monty, sit down and tell us first what happened to our embassy. Then we’ll get right into the rest of the information.” The President sighed deeply, thinking to himself, Perhaps we should have acted sooner and prevented this. We lost the advantage, and now we’re paying for it.

“Mr. President, our embassy in Riyadh has been taken over and burned to the ground. Just as the attacks were getting underway, the embassy said they were coming under heavy attack by several armored vehicles and a tank. The walls were quickly destroyed, and soldiers stormed the building.

“The Marines put up a heck of a fight and managed to destroy all the classified data and the servers before they were killed. One of our diplomats was on his way to the embassy when he saw the attack begin, and he moved away to a point where he could observe the situation and relay it back to us. Shortly after the IR forces had secured the embassy, they walked everyone out of the building that had surrendered,” Jim Wise continued.

“The ambassador was among the nineteen people who were captured. News crews filmed as they were all lined up against a wall; an officer walked up to each person, shooting them in the head. They killed everyone at the embassy. Our diplomat filmed it with his video phone and managed to send the video and a short message before he, too, was apprehended. We haven’t heard anything from him since,” said Secretary Wise, sounding tired but seething with anger.

The President sat back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling for a second before turning back to face everyone at the table. “First things first, I want everyone at the Islamic Republic embassy in D.C. arrested and detained. We’ll figure out what we’re going to do with them later.

“I know the situation is bad from the looks on your faces, and from what I can see on the screens. Of course, it doesn’t help that the media is giving the world a front-row seat as well. General Branson, start from the beginning and bring us up to speed on the situation on the ground and how we’re faring.”

“Around midnight local time, the Islamic Republic launched an all-out attack against Israeli and American forces, starting with a massive rocket and artillery barrage.

“Intelligence was alerted minutes before the attack, allowing the air and rocket defenses a couple minutes’ warning, but not much more. The majority of the IDF air bases have been temporarily taken out of commission until the runways can be fixed. The IR also conducted a massive cyberattack against the Israeli energy grid, causing further problems with our command, control, and communications,” explained General Branson.

“Vice Admiral Todd from the 6th Fleet thought something was odd with the behavior of the IR forces in Egypt and brought her fleet to battle stations, ordering her air wings to get airborne. Shortly after that, the IR fleet and land-based systems launched a massive barrage of cruise missiles at the fleet. Over three hundred IR aircraft also vectored in to attack the fleet.

“Because she had brought her fleet to battle stations and had her air wings already above the fleet, they were able to interdict over 95% of the incoming missiles. They destroyed over fifty Islamic Republic ships and shot down 247 of their aircraft. The rest fled the area back to their home bases—”

“—I sure hope she was able to hit them back,” interjected the President.

“She was. The fleet attacked every airfield in Egypt and destroyed the naval ports. She also ordered the Marines to secure the Suez Canal Zone and attack the IR forces attacking the Israelis in the Sinai.”

“This is great news, General. Tell her to keep beating the tar out of them,” said the President, showing a bit of excitement at the thought of really hurting them.

“Mr. President, I need to interject something. Sorry, General Branson, but I need to talk to the President about the 5th Fleet. I just received a FLASH message from Admiral Todd,” said Admiral Lewis Juliano with a look of sheer horror on his face.

“What is it, Admiral?” asked the President.

“Sir, the 5th Fleet has been destroyed. They were hit with multiple nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. We’ve lost the supercarriers George H. W. Bush and the Enterprise, along their entire support fleet. Thirteen thousand, three hundred and seventy sailors and Marines are gone,” said the Chief of Naval Operations as he sank into his chair.

The room fell silent for a minute as everyone digested what they had just been told. The loss of two supercarriers and more than 13,000 Sailors and Marines was a lot to take in.

“Admiral, before we discuss how we’re going to respond to that particular attack, we need to assess the rest of the situation. General Branson, tell us about the situation on the ground.”

The general nodded. “The 1st ID has taken the brunt of the IR attack in the Jordan Valley. The barrage did a considerable amount of damage to their vehicles, and they’ve been getting hit with multiple wave attacks of both infantry and light drone tanks. They’re putting up a brave fight, but they’re starting to fall back to their secondary positions.

“Two brigade combat teams from the 3rd ID are moving up to reinforce them as we speak in order to plug up the holes in the lines. The Israelis were hit hard on their southern border, and just as it looked like they were going to have to fall back, the 6th Fleet hammered the IR with their cruise missiles. When the Marines landed along the Gaza strip and the Suez Canal, the IR force withdrew towards the southern section of the Sinai to block the Marines from cornering them. Admiral Todd’s air wing and the Marine air wing should finish them off soon.

“The Israelis are holding the line along the Lebanon border, and the 1st Armored Division completely blunted the IR armored assault. Those new Pershing tanks are performing far better than anyone expected. They absolutely pulverized those frontline Chinese and Russian tanks the IR is using,” said General Branson with a hint of a smile.

“General Gardner is requesting the XVIII Airborne Corps to reinforce him immediately. Third Corps and the IDF have taken a beating. General Gardner says they have already sustained 5,340 KIAs and about the same number of WIAs.”

“Mr. President, these are some heavy losses. This is close to 20,000 men and women killed and at least another 10,000 wounded in the first hour of the war. I recommend we surge troops to Israel and hit the IR with some tactical nuclear weapons of our own,” Eric said. He looked at Admiral Juliano, who nodded in agreement.

“I agree, Mr. President. The IR just hit us with nuclear weapons—we need to respond in kind, or they’re going to use them again,” said Admiral Julian as he highlighted a submarine that could be used on the holographic display. “We have a sub in the Arabian Gulf and another one not far from where the 5th Fleet was located.”

“General Scott, Director Rubio, what are your thoughts on a proportional response to the IR’s use of tactical nuclear weapons?” asked the President, searching for more consensus on the use of nukes.

“The US has had a long-standing policy of proportional retaliation. The IR detonated three tactical nuclear weapons over the 5th Fleet, and these weapons were in the one-to-five-kiloton range. If we were to respond with tactical weapons in the ten-kiloton range, I believe that would be a proportional response. The next question is—what type of targets do we want to hit?” asked General Scott as he nodded towards Director Rubio.

“Not only has the IR conducted a nuclear attack against our forces, they have carried out sustained terrorist attacks against our country for the last two and a half months. More than 20,000 civilians have died from these attacks, and they have also conducted continuous cyberattacks against every facet of our economy. They have attacked our very way of life, and they aren’t done attacking us at home. Now that they have taken the gloves off, it’s time we do the same and hit them with that proverbial big stick we still have,” Rubio said, anger burning in his eyes.

“The IR laser missile defense system is going to be challenging to get through, but not impossible. The key to any laser defense system is power. I recommend that we conduct a series of strategic attacks against their critical infrastructure. It’s still experimental, but we can use our new hypersonic ramjet cruise missile, the X59. It travels at Mach 10, making it nearly impossible to acquire and target by laser. In addition, a laser needs to hit the missile for at least three seconds for it to cause enough heat to cause an explosion. The X59 travels too fast for that. It can carry -pound high-explosive warhead, or it can transport a variable nuclear warhead. We only have fifteen of them, but we could begin full production at once,” said General Adrian Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff.

“Mr. President, the public is going to demand we hit the IR with nukes. They will want their pound of flesh after the last three months of terrorist attacks. We need the IR to understand that these types of attacks are not going to be tolerated and we will respond with overwhelming force.”

“I understand the frustration, Monty. I want to make sure we hit them hard, but I also want to make sure this doesn’t spiral out of control either. With the 5th Fleet gone, what does our antiballistic missile defense capability look like in the Middle East now?”

“Sir, the 6th Fleet packs more than enough punch to deal with any ballistic missile attacks by the IR on either Israel or US forces. Unless the IR starts to use nuclear-tipped artillery rounds, we can take them down,” said Admiral Juliano.

“All right, gentlemen, let’s hit the IR with a taste of their own medicine. Take out their power grid. Hit them with the thirty-kiloton warheads. Also, ensure that at least two of the missiles devastate their ability to export oil by destroying their two largest terminals. I want the Straits of Hormuz heavily mined and some subs sitting out there to pick off any shipping, either entering or leaving. The minute their power is down and their laser defense system goes offline, I want those sites destroyed,” the President said.

“We need to disable their laser defense system quickly, and then we’ll systematically destroy their ability to continue this war.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” rang the chorus of voices.

With the plans in place to strike back at the IR, the President left with Monty to prepare his address to the American people.

It was dinnertime in America, and as families sat down to eat while glued to the news of the war, the President went on national TV and radio to explain the situation in the Middle East and the nuclear strike that the IR had conducted against the US 5th Fleet. The President assured the American people that the US was responding in kind and soon the IR would feel the wrath of American nuclear weapons as well.

The following morning, the President gave a second national address, laying out the facts of the terrorist attacks against the US and the links between those attacks and the Islamic Republic. The sheer number of casualties coming in from the Middle East was also staggering. The President asked Congress to issue a formal declaration of war against the Islamic Republic and declared a state of emergency and martial law.

All governors were asked to activate any of their National Guard units that had not been activated yet and to begin to use those forces to protect the critical infrastructure buildings and nodes in their states. Within an hour of war being formally declared, the President asked for all able-bodied men and women to join the armed forces to assist in the protection of their families, homeland, and way of life.

The Islamic Republic responded to the President’s declaration of war and the nuclear attack on their own country by issuing one of their own. They vowed they would not stop until Israel was destroyed and the Americans were removed from the Middle East. Within hours, five additional terrorist attacks were carried out against civilian targets in the US, attacking several power plants and transmission nodes.

As police and first responders arrived, they were attacked by several terrorists who had chosen to stay behind and kill as many police as they could before detonating the remaining IEDs and vehicle-borne IEDs they had lined along the roads. These attacks only furthered the hatred brewing between the Muslims and non-Muslims living in America, particularly when a small country church was attacked and all 103 parishioners were crucified on crosses on the county road leading to the church. There were nineteen children among them. Muslims all across America were starting to be attacked in retaliation. The police did their best to protect both groups of people, but it was becoming harder and harder to keep the two sides apart.

*******

29 November 2040

Israel

Third Corps Headquarters

The US struck the Islamic Republic’s power generation plant at Ras Tanura on the Arabian Gulf, the Abqaiq plant in the same area, and also the Ar Riyad plant, destroying 13,391 Megawatts of power production and effectively disrupting sixty percent of the power generation capability in the heart of the IR. The city of Buqayq was completely destroyed in the nuclear attack, along with the oil terminals and ports of the cities of Ras Tanura and Al Khobar and its oil terminals and port.

Several power generation plants in Iran, Iraq, and Egypt were also destroyed, along with the cities they were near. The IR government denounced these attacks, citing the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed, and demanded the US be sanctioned by the United Nations. The Russian government immediately denounced this blatant attack against civilian targets by the US, as did China.

The European Union asked that all parties refrain from further use of nuclear weapons and asked for a pledge to keep the war conventional. The President of the United States announced that any further Islamic Republic use of nuclear weapons against US forces or Israel would result in a substantial nuclear response by the US.

Meanwhile, General Gardner had been awake for nearly thirty hours as reports from the frontlines continued to pour in. The 1st Armored Division had gone from being on the defensive to taking the fight to the enemy. They had broken out of the Golan Heights and were pushing the IR forces back to Damascus. Because of the success of 1st Armored Division, the IDF had been able to root out the IR forces in Lebanon and shifted forces from that front towards Jerusalem.

*******

Undisclosed Site in Israel

Allied Underground Command Bunker

One of the colonels running the J3 or Joint Operations group for Third Corps gave an update on the situation on the ground. “The 1st ID has been in constant contact with IR armor and infantry fighting vehicles for nearly twenty-four hours. They had to fall back past Jericho and found themselves less than four miles from Jerusalem. The IDF moved two additional battalions of light infantry just before dawn to reinforce American-Israeli forces and took up positions throughout the hills approaching Jerusalem.”

“Tell General Twitty I need him to commit the rest of his division to the defense of Jerusalem. Unless the Israelis tell us otherwise, we are going to turn Jerusalem into a meat grinder,” said Gardner. He was reading from one tablet and then another, each with up-to-date aerial reconnaissance and reports from the front.

“General Twitty is already on it. He moved his HQ to the west side of Jerusalem so he could be closer to the battle. I also have that report you asked for and photos of that platoon from 1st ID that had been captured yesterday. It would appear the rumors are true. The IR crucified all of the prisoners to motivate their own forces, showing that even the Americans can be beat,” said Brigadier General Peter Williams with a look of anger and disgust on his face.

“This is getting out of control. They’re not only killing those who are wounded or captured—they’re now crucifying them? How many prisoners of theirs do we have?”

“A few thousand. Most of them are from 1st Armor’s area of operations,” said General Williams.

“Hmm…I’m not going to kill their prisoners, at least not yet, but since they’re making this a religious war, then let’s hit them where it hurts. Tell General Twitty he’s to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque near the Temple Mount. I want it flattened as soon as possible.”

“I’m not sure the Israelis will let us blow it up, Sir. They’re currently protecting it,” said Williams in protest.

“I will take full responsibility for this, and if the President or the SecDef wants to relieve me of command, then so be it. I will not let our soldiers be crucified by these jihadists without retaliating.”

“I believe we should coordinate this with the IDF. Perhaps we can arrange to have a film crew on scene to video its destruction.”

“Make it happen.”

*******

The Israeli cities were being devastated by the almost constant missile and artillery barrages. While, the Iron Dome was extremely effective, even it could be overwhelmed. Multiple power plants had been taken offline by cyberattacks or damage sustained from the barrages, and this was starting to have an impact on the Israelis’ ability to sustain its rocket and missile defense systems. The Iron Dome system was running out of missiles, and the railgun and laser systems were running out of power. Their own self-sustaining power generation could provide enough power for air defense, but with a continuous barrage all across the country for more than eighteen hours, they needed additional power to sustain their defensive effort.

Word spread quickly through the American and Israeli ranks about the crucifixions, which only spurred them to fight harder. As the fighting continued, the 1st ID stopped taking prisoners and started to kill any wounded or surrendering IR soldiers they saw. Without informing the Israeli prime minister or his own higher command, the Israeli major who was in charge of the soldiers guarding the Al Aqsa mosque, let soldiers from the 3rd ID place explosives throughout the mosque and stood by as they detonated them.

Within seconds, the entire building collapsed and was nothing more than a smoking ruin. The people that hadn’t fled Jerusalem couldn’t believe the mosque had just been destroyed. No one knew if it was an errant missile that had destroyed it, or if it had been intentional. It didn’t take long for pictures and video of its destruction to spread across social media.

A BBC news crew who had been filming the fighting from a vantage point near the mosque was reporting on the battle that was taking place a few miles from Jerusalem when they saw a number of soldiers entering the mosque, then leaving just as quickly. A couple of minutes later, the famed mosque was completely destroyed. Every Muslim around the world saw the destruction of this holy site, and many took to the streets, shouting, “Death to Israel and America!”

The Israeli prime minister was quick to denounce the destruction, saying the IDF had no part in its demolition and quickly blaming the Americans. General Gardner provided a short statement to the media saying that he had authorized the destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque of his own volition in retaliation for IR units crucifying captured American soldiers, of which there was plenty of video evidence. Had the situation on the ground not been so precarious, the Israeli prime minister would have insisted on General Gardner being replaced. As it was, Jerusalem would have fallen within a day if the 3rd ID hadn’t been able to stop the IR.

*******

Near Amman, Jordan

Islamic Republic Military Headquarters

General Abdullah Muhammed could not believe the success his army was having against the Americans and Israelis. Admiral Jaffa Mustafa had come through and destroyed the entire 5th Fleet! Two aircraft carriers and all of their support ships—if only he had been able to destroy the carriers in the Mediterranean, his victory could almost be assured. Those two carriers had destroyed his Sinai force, which would have placed additional pressure on the IDF.

The campaign in the Jordan Valley was going exceptionally well. The American 1st ID had put up a fight, but ultimately, they had to fall back. Even with the American 3rd Infantry Division coming to their rescue, it was only a matter of time before Jerusalem would fall. He had 200,000 light infantry moving into the valley to begin the final assault to take Jerusalem.

“General Muhammed, General Hamza wants to know what we are doing to stop the Americans from advancing and capturing Damascus. They are at the outskirts of the city already,” said General Ishmael Omar, General Muhammed’s Chief of Staff.

“Tell General Hamza I have ordered three divisions of armor to reinforce Damascus. I’m also diverting additional attack aircraft and helicopters as well. That should satisfy him…doesn’t he realize the goal is to cut Israel in half? Damascus is not important. Capturing Jerusalem is.”

“I will inform him right away, Sir. Before I leave, we received word that our forces have captured Eilat and the American-Israeli naval base there.

“The IDF retreated to the Ovda Israeli air base just north of there. General Ibrahim also reported that he had finally secured Ir Ovot all the way to Dinoma on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. He has asked for permission to use his reserves as he makes a push to capture Be’er Sheva.”

“Tell him he has permission to use his reserves and prepare to fight the American Marines. Once he secures his objectives, he needs to be ready to move towards the Sinai and push those Americans into the sea.”

IR forces were starting to break through the Jordan Valley defenses. They had poured over 600,000 soldiers into the valley to fight 12,500 American soldiers and roughly 60,000 Israelis. After twenty-four hours of hard fighting, they were now less than four miles from capturing Jerusalem. Then the news that the Americans had destroyed the Al Aqsa mosque sent every soldier into a religious frenzy against the Americans. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims protested in virtually every major city in the world. Close to two million people from Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were moving towards Mecca to pray and to volunteer to fight against the Americans and destroy the spawn of Satan, the Jews.

Caliph Mohammed played this up in numerous broadcasts he televised from a hidden underground bunker. The IR Public Relations Ministry was broadcasting news reels of the destruction of the US 5th Fleet and the nuclear detonations destroying the Americans. Videos of the massive missile and artillery barrages pouring into Israel, videos from the frontlines showing destroyed Israeli and American armored vehicles, and the most startling images for the West, Israeli and American soldiers hanging from crosses with the city of Jerusalem in the distance—all of these played on near-constant loops on any television station that the IR could control.

Shortly after those videos were shown, the pope came out with a statement. He was less ornately dressed than on some other occasions, but the gravity of the situation called for quick action and less ceremony. “This treatment of Christians and Jews is intolerable. If the Islamic Republic succeeds in capturing Jerusalem, they could destroy everything sacred to the Christian and Jewish religions. I declare that this wanton destruction and desecration of life by the Islamic Republic is a crime—not just against humanity, but against the Christian and Jewish religions. I call on my brothers and sisters in faith to stand together against these horrible atrocities. We must take up the call to action.”

Within days, tens of thousands of Catholics and Protestants from across Europe were either joining the military or looking for ways to join the Israeli Defense Force militia units that were originally established by the Vatican but quickly sprang up in Italy, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. This movement quickly spread to South America, where the word of the pope carried a lot of weight.

The Vatican had all but called this a holy war against Islam. Tens of thousands of Muslims in Italy converged on the Vatican in protest. Very quickly, many Muslim communities across Europe began to riot and take to the streets, attacking Christians and Jews in response to the pope’s message.

*******

29 November 2040

United States, Undisclosed Location

Mt. Weather Station, Presidential Command and Control Bunker

Within hours of the Pope’s message, tens of thousands of Muslims converged on Washington, D.C., in protest. Several hundred young men used the protest as a cover to get close to the Capitol building before launching their attack. They broke from the protest march and ran for the various Capitol building exits, shooting police and security guards as they encountered them. Several dozen attackers were engaging the Capital Police near the main entrance while a group of seven individuals managed to break into one of the emergency exits. Within seconds, they were running through the hallways of the Capitol, throwing grenades into offices and shooting everyone they encountered. Two other groups of attackers were able to enter through other emergency exits and began their assault.

As additional police officers and SWAT team members engaged the attackers, they were able to block them from the House Chamber, where a number of the senior Congressional leadership had evacuated. A similar attack was also underway at the Senate building and two other government agencies within D.C. The protest rally quickly spiraled out of control as police shot the protesters and several gunmen hidden amongst the crowd continued to shoot at the police.

Thirty minutes after the start of the attacks against the Capitol building and the Senate, the President activated the continuity of government plan, which began the dispersal of all elected officials to various command bunkers as the US government went underground. The President also moved the American military to DEFCON One, bringing all US forces to the highest level of readiness. This placed all US overseas military bases on a war footing in anticipation of combat operations.

Rioting and protests were starting to spring up all across the US as the various Muslim communities reacted to the destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque and the Pope’s message. Other Muslim groups began denouncing the barbaric acts the IR was perpetrating on the US and Israeli soldiers with the crucifixions, pleading for all sides to remain calm.

*******

“Mr. President, the rioting is starting to get out of control in some cities. Just as we believe things are starting to calm down, some nutjob starts shooting Muslims or Christians or Jews, and once again the situation is a boiling cauldron of fury and rage. The National Guard is still mobilizing and getting into position in the major cities, but something has to give,” said FBI Director Jane Smart.

“We need to give it some time, Director. Order is not going to be restored immediately—the National Guard needs time to get in place, DHS is still getting the detention processing camps established and so on. I just authorized curfews, as well as the use of deadly force against the rioters. If things don’t calm down over the next forty-eight hours, we’ll look at the situation again.”

“I understand, Mr. President. We have more than just a detention problem. There are literally hundreds of cities experiencing this problem, and the gangs in some of the major cities are also taking advantage of the situation. On top of it all, I have the ACLU breathing down my neck crying foul everywhere,” complained the Director of DHS.

“This war is almost forty-eight hours old. I don’t give a crap what the ACLU says right now. We are under martial law, and under the 2015 and 2039 Defense Authorization Act, I’m operating within the legal bounds of the law. Let’s move on to a status update on the war—where do we stand, General Branson?” asked the President, clearly frustrated.

“Mr. President, everyone is aware of the atrocities the IR has been committing against our forces. I’d fire and replace General Gardner for destroying the Al Aqsa mosque, but right now he’s in the thick of it, and I think pulling him out would cause more problems than it would solve,” replied Branson.

“I agree. As you said, it would cause more issues at this moment, so we’re stuck having to turn a blind eye to it at the moment. Please continue.”

“The 1st ID is less than two miles from Jerusalem. In some locations, the IR forces are even closer to the city. Our forces have been getting mauled, and they have been in almost continuous combat for nearly forty-eight hours. General Gardner has ordered the rest of the 3rd ID in to reinforce them. The 1st Armored Division broke through the IR lines and quickly advanced to the outskirts of Damascus. Gardner has ordered them to swing south and try to put more pressure on the IR forces in the Jordan Valley.

“The 2nd MEF has secured the Sinai and the Suez. The 6th Fleet is reporting a massive troop movement from Cairo heading toward the Suez. The Marine air wing is engaging them along with the 6th Fleet. I’ve directed Admiral Todd to do what she can to assist our troops in the valley. We still don’t have air supremacy, but the more pressure we can put on the IR air forces, the better,” said Branson.

“Where’s the rest of the Air Force in all of this? When will we have control of the skies and start to pound these guys into the dirt?” demanded the President.

“Soon, Mr. President. We are moving the USS Intrepid to the Mediterranean. Their battlegroup should be on station in four days—they are sailing at flank speed,” said Admiral Juliano.

General Adrian Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff, interjected. “The 81st Fighter Drone Wing has arrived in Sigonella Naval Air Base, Italy. The Wing consists of one thousand F-38 air superiority drones and six hundred FA-38 ground attack drones. The 80th Fighter Drone Wing has arrived at Aviano Air Base, Italy, and they consist of the same number and type of aircraft. The 80th is engaging the IR Air Force in Turkey and their naval assets left in the area. The 81st is going to focus solely on providing support to our forces in Israel once our forward air bases in Crete are back to being operational. As soon as air superiority has been achieved over Israel to the best of our capability, the ground attack drones will move to their forward bases so they can provide quicker ground support.

“The 80th ground attack aircraft will also move to Israel as soon as possible. I’ve ordered two additional F-35 squadrons to the region, and our cyber guys are constantly sending new viruses and worms to any of the old US aircraft that the IR still has in their possession. So far, we’ve managed to keep them grounded, so I’d call that a win.”

“How soon until additional reinforcements arrive?” asked the President nervously.

“We lost two transports carrying reinforcements a few hours ago. We have another 3,000 troops waiting in Italy once we can secure the skies a bit more. Most of the XVIII Airborne Corps is still in Mexico, so they aren’t going to be available for at least another week. The issue we face is getting enough troops mobilized and deployed to Israel to make a difference.

“The troops we would traditionally have available are either tied down in Mexico, already deployed in Israel, or conducting antiterrorism activities here in the US. We have one brigade from the 82nd that is en route to Italy and will be ready to jump into Israel as soon as there is an opportunity,” said General Jeremiah Smith, the Army Chief of Staff. A worried look covered his face. “With your permission, I’d like to prepare Fifth Corps to head to Israel as quickly as possible.”

“How soon could they get there?” asked the President.

“I have the orders drafted, and the Corps has been placed on ready alert for deployment We can start to have them move to Norfolk for embarkation immediately. They should arrive in nine days with their full equipment load,” replied General Smith.

“Before we deploy more troops to Israel, we need to secure the Straits of Gibraltar. The British are holding their end—the issue is the IR side. At first, they posed no significant problem once our aircraft from Britain paid them a visit, but I’m concerned that this may change now that we are going to need to move a lot more ships through there,” explained General Tyler Black, the Commandant of the Marine Corps. General Black looked like your typical Marine. He had a bulldog’s face and could stare down just about anyone. His first concern was his Marines, then his country.

“I suppose you have a plan, General?” inquired the President, raising an eyebrow at the general.

“I do, Mr. President. I have the 4th MEF about a day away from the Straits as they move to reinforce the 2nd MEF in the Sinai and the Suez. I’d like to drop a battalion and their equipment to secure the area. The British forces on Gibraltar have said they would provide air support for the battalion and, if needed, medical support.”

Stein thought about that for a moment before responding. “All right, General. Secure the area, and then get the rest of those Marines to the 2nd MEF. General Gardner has ordered one of your brigades there to retake our base at Eilat. The situation around Jerusalem is only getting worse, so the more Marines we can get in country, the better.” The President rubbed his temples as his migraine continued to get worse. He looked exhausted, practically haggard from the lack of sleep and immense pressure.

“Mr. President, we need to make a decision about Jerusalem and whether we want General Gardner to hold it or withdraw to a more defensible position,” interjected General Branson, pouring himself a refill of his coffee.

“I’m afraid the IR has already made that decision for us, General. If we surrender the city, they’re going to kill everyone in it and destroy any Jewish and Christian historical sites. We need General Gardner to hold the city at all cost, even if it means house-to-house fighting. The civilians need more time to evacuate. I spoke with the Israeli prime minister, and he said they’re evacuating as many civilians as possible out of Israel to Italy.” The President let out a heavy sigh. “Generals, you all have your orders. Continue to manage the war as we’ve discussed and have your updates ready for our next meeting in…four hours.”

As the President got up to leave, his Chief of Staff was hot on his heels. “Henry, you need to make another address to the nation soon. The people need to be reassured that things are OK, and we are in control. The COG has really spooked a lot of people. There are lines of people fleeing the major cities, heading to the countryside. People aren’t showing up for work, and basic services are starting to break down,” explained Monty.

“You are right as usual. Please schedule a broadcast for 5 p.m. today. When’s our domestic briefing?”

“In a couple of hours. You have some time to catch a short nap, if that’s what you were thinking.”

“Thank you, Monty. You know, aside from my wife, you probably know me better than anyone else.”

*******

The President gave his third address to the nation in a few hours, this time to reassure the American people that things were fine and they should return to their homes and jobs. The President informed the public that the National Guard would remain on the streets with the police to help maintain law and order. The best thing people could do for the war effort was to return to their homes and their businesses, as the country and the soldiers in the Middle East needed their support.

In this same period, the FBI and DHS had apprehended 74 individuals before they could carry out further attacks. This brought the total number of captured terrorists to three hundred and twenty-nine. Four hundred and sixty-two thousand people had applied to join the military in the first forty-eight hours of the war. People were angry, and they wanted payback.

Despite large numbers of people wanting to leave the big cities after the initial use of nuclear weapons by the IR and the terrorist attacks on the Senate and Capitol buildings, American nationalism was at an all-time high. Riots and demonstrations both for and against the war, along with pro-Muslim and anti-Muslim rallies continued. Some turned violent, and there was a lot of vigilante justice going on. Local and federal law enforcement was doing their best to maintain law and order, though they often fell short.

*******

02 December 2040

Islamic Republic Underground Command Center

“Caliph Mohammed, I bring good news. General Muhammed has finally captured Jerusalem. The American and Israeli forces have fallen back to less than ten miles from Tel Aviv. General Hamza believes his forces will be able to secure Tel Aviv within the next three days.”

“Our Air Force has taken a terrible beating, Caliph. We have lost nearly 1,200 aircraft since the start of operations, and 4,000 fighter drones were destroyed. We still have 2,300 fighter drones, but these constitute the last of our operational air force,” said General Ishmael Malik, the Commanding General of the IR Air Forces.

“General Hamza, I’m pleased that we have finally secured Jerusalem. General Malik, you bring up a major concern. Have we been able to get our laser defense systems operational yet?”

“Yes, we have about forty percent of them back online. The Americans were able to destroy ten of our sixteen ground-based sites with cruise missiles. The majority of our mobile defense systems are at the front line, leaving us vulnerable. We have started to pull some of them to help protect our critical infrastructure. The Russians are helping by connecting their power transmission nodes into ours. As they are able to provide more electricity, we should have the rest of our laser batteries operational,” explained General Malik with an optimistic look on his face.

“It was a smart move on the Americans’ part to destroy our power plants. Aside from shutting down our laser defense systems, it has plunged most of the Republic into the dark.”

“Fortunately, we also have a lot of industrial grade generators and two Russian nuclear-powered ships in port—they are providing a substantial amount of power,” said Admiral Mustafa.

“Their attempt to take out the reactors at Fordo failed, though we are letting them believe they destroyed them. We have that weak idiot President Obama to thank for giving us the time to reinforce it beyond their capability to destroy it a few decades ago,” said General Malik.

“The American cruise missiles are really starting to cause some problems. Aside from electricity shortages, they are attempting to destroy our infrastructure, making movement across the Republic incredibly difficult. It is making it hard to move additional reinforcements and supplies to the front lines.

“We have over two million volunteers in Mecca and Medina right now that need to be transported to the front. A lot of them are being moved by commercial busses, which is helping. Once they arrive, we are providing them with basic small-arms rifles and a minimal amount of ammunition. General Muhammed is having them formed into shock brigades—he plans on using them in human wave attacks and then his professional units will follow in behind them,” said Malik.

“Let us hope that with these numbers, we will be able to overwhelm their defenses and finally crush the Jews.”

“Caliph Mohammed, if I may—I’d like to discuss our operatives in the US. The Americans have captured ninety percent of our remaining operatives, so it is going to be difficult for us to carry out the final attack once the nuclear packages have been delivered,” said Huseen ibn Abdullah, the Director of IR Intelligence.

“Abdullah, your agents have exceeded our wildest dreams in attacking the Americans. Over 20,000 of them have been killed, and you have struck fear in their hearts. I would like all operations there to stop until we are ready for the final attack. Let’s conserve the few remaining agents we have for our final acts of destruction,” replied Caliph Mohammed, smiling broadly at the thought of detonating two nuclear bombs inside the US.

Chapter 13

The Dragon Awakens

02 December 2040

Beijing, China

Premier Zhang was on his way to a meeting with the Central Military Commission to discuss the plans to finally reacquire their lost province, Taiwan, and become the supreme power in Asia. The war in the Middle East was becoming a bloodbath; the Islamic Republic had hurt the Americans badly when they’d destroyed the American 5th Fleet. The destruction of the 5th Fleet had given China a few new options that they had not previously believed possible. With the Americans sending the USS Intrepid battlegroup to the Mediterranean, the US 7th Fleet would only have the USS John F. Kennedy to rely on, which was located in the Pacific Northwest. With only one US aircraft carrier down near the Indonesian Islands, hammering the Islamic Republic, they would not be able to intervene with Taiwan or Guam.

The only real concern is the American submarines, thought the Premier.

As the Premier walked into the room to meet with the CMC, he noticed several of the generals in various heated discussions. If there was one major weakness within the Chinese military, it was the various rivalries and the desire for each branch of the PLA to be the dominant branch.

“General Wanquan, are we ready to secure the rest of Asia?” asked the Premier. He took his seat at the head of the table while the rest of the CMC members took their own seats.

“The Army is ready to cross the border and secure Southeast Asia. When the attack begins against Taiwan, our forces will cross into Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Once these countries have been overrun, our forces will continue south and west until we have Thailand and Singapore. We are ready,” replied General Wanquan, the Commander of the PLA.

“My naval infantry are ready to secure Guam as soon as you give the order. Our sources have reported that the Americans have not reinforced Guam and appear to be fully occupied with the Islamic Republic. Two battalions of Marines left the island yesterday to join the battlegroup near Indonesia,” said Admiral Wei Shengli, the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

“Premier, our original timetable was to attack Taiwan and Guam around the New Year. With the Americans involved in Mexico and now the Middle East, they are stretched thin. My advice is that we move our timeline forward by at least three weeks. With the Americans sending more troops to Israel, they will not have the option of also intervening in Asia, or have the ability to challenge us with the loss of their two supercarriers,” said General Zhang Yang, the Minister of Defense.

“You bring up a good point, General Zhang. Upon further consideration, I will agree to move the timeline forward by two weeks. We should capitalize on their precarious situation before it changes. In the meantime, I want our cyber forces to begin their attacks against the American military and economy. The more problems the Americans are forced to deal with now, the fewer resources they will have later.”

*******

03 December 2040

Be’er Sheva, Israel

Sergeant Joe Thornton had joined the Marines four years earlier, looking for adventure and a chance to serve his country like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had done before. They had been jarheads, so it was a family tradition for the Thornton men to join the Marines out of high school or college. Joe had done well and had been promoted to sergeant just prior to the deployment to the Middle East.

Now he had a squad of leathernecks he was responsible for, and within five days, half of his platoon was already dead or wounded. His squad had been flown into the Sinai on one of the Marine Corps’ new Razorback assault helicopters to secure Ismailia, which was a critical city on the Suez. His company met minimal resistance upon landing, and with support from the Razorbacks, they had quickly secured the city and their portion of the Suez. Securing the Suez was critical to the defense of Israel as it blocked any possible reinforcements from Egypt and North Africa. It also provided the Navy with several port facilities which could be used to offload more equipment for the Marines.

The newest aerial addition to the Marines was the Razorback assault helicopters. They were a cross between the V-22 Osprey and a Cobra attack helicopter. They sported the same tilt-rotary system the Osprey had, except there were two smaller rotors per side, one behind the other, and they were enclosed in an armored ring protecting them from ground fire. They were also considerably smaller and very quiet in comparison to a traditional helicopter.

The Razorbacks’ armament included eight antitank Hellfire III missiles and forty-six 2.6-inch antipersonnel rockets on each side, and a front mounted 30mm railgun that delivered an incredible punch and fire support. It had a crew of two pilots and two crew chiefs and could carry twelve soldiers into combat. The Razorback was the first fully armored assault helicopter, and it replaced not only the venerable Cobra gunships but also the Ospreys as the primary assault helicopter for the Army and Marines. The V22 was a beast of an aircraft. It was 57 feet in length with a wingspan of 45 feet, and the Razorback was 68 feet in length and had a 40-foot wingspan. Both had been in service for barely a year, so there was a limited number of them available for the Army and Marines, and they were in high demand.

After the initial success in securing the Suez, Sergeant Thornton’s company was ordered to assault the IR forces near the strategic city of Be’er Sheva. This city was a crossroad junction leading to many different cities within Israel as well as several highways. The IDF was making a last-ditch stand to block the IR advance, and it desperately needed reinforcements.

The 2nd Marines were going to assault and secure the cities of Nevatim on Highway 25 and the city of Hura along Highway 31. This would place most of the Marines behind the main IR forces and would compel them to halt their advance on Be’er Sheva. With Marine Aviation support and assurances from Admiral Todd with the 6th Fleet, Major General Lance Peeler, the Commander of 2nd Marines, was determined to make the IR pay for crucifying captured American forces. His Marines would disrupt the IR supply lines and force them to have to fight his Marines. The Marine armored units had secured the cities of Eilat and Aqaba, blocking the IR advance into southern Israel. Now it was time to go on the offensive and take the fight to the enemy.

Sergeant Thornton’s company had assaulted the Islamic Republic lines at Nevatim, and with support from three dozen Razorbacks, they had quickly destroyed the IR’s armor, infantry fighting vehicles, and light drone tanks in the area. They secured the critical highway network supplying the IR’s main force near Be’er Sheva. The company had been in near-constant contact with the enemy for seventy-two hours, and it was starting to show; his men were exhausted, and so was he. In addition to limited air support and their Razorbacks, there was a self-propelled 155mm Army artillery battalion assigned to support their position, which was facing continuous contact with the enemy. The IR was now starting to use massive human wave attacks.

“Sergeant Thornton, I’m pulling your squad off the line to get some rest. I can’t give your men a long break, but I need to start rotating the squads in the company before everyone drops dead from exhaustion,” said First Lieutenant Jack Lee. Jack had taken over command of the company two days ago, when the captain had been killed during one of the IR’s suicidal human wave attacks.

“The men will appreciate it—not sure how much longer we can function in our current state. Some of the guys are starting to fall asleep during lulls in the battle, and my fear is they won’t wake up fast enough to respond to a new assault,” Sergeant Thornton replied, leaning against the wall of his foxhole.

“It’s a problem the entire battalion is facing. That’s why I need to get your squad some rest while we can. We’re pulling one squad from each platoon and giving them an hour and a half to sleep before rotating the next group in. We will continue this rotation for as long as possible,” the lieutenant said, sounding optimistic about the sleeping plan.

Sergeant Thornton was glad his squad was the first to get some rest. Before the lieutenant left to go inform the next squad, Thornton asked, “Sir, do you know when we are going to get some replacements? Nearly half our platoon is gone.”

“There are two thousand Marine reservists that just landed in Siganella yesterday. Word has it they’re supposed to start filtering in within the next forty-eight hours. Of course, that assumes we’ll still be alive in the next forty-eight hours.”

“If they keep sending these human wave attacks and that constant rocket barrage, you may be right,” said Sergeant Thornton dryly.

*******

The 1st Infantry Division lost Jerusalem after two days of house-to-house fighting through the suburbs. General Gardner had ordered them to fall back to the surrounding hills and suburbs on the west side of Jerusalem. Sergeant Jordy Nelson’s platoon was exhausted and running on fumes. Nearly five days of constant combat was grinding them into the dirt. His company had lost nearly sixty percent of their original force by the end of the first day. After unrelenting rocket and artillery barrages, they were quickly faced with nearly 300,000 IR troops fighting to capture Jerusalem. When the 3rd Infantry Division had reinforced them four days ago, the 1st ID had lost nearly 4,200 soldiers of their original 12,300. With the loss of Jerusalem, General Gardner had folded the two infantry divisions together since Major General Paul Brown and his staff had been killed in Jerusalem during one of the many IR bombing runs. Both divisions were down to less than forty percent strength, and until reinforcements showed up with additional senior officers, having them operate under a joint command only made sense.

When the US’s 80th and 81st Fighter Drone Wings arrived from Italy and Cypress, they immediately made an impact. The drones were slowly beginning to retake the skies over Israel. The ground attack drones had moved to forward air bases in Israel, and despite the air bases coming under rocket and artillery attack, the drones were starting to take a bite out of the IR artillery and rocket forces. The greatest contribution the drones had made thus far was whittling down the IR’s artillery, which had been devastating the Allied defensive positions.

The key advantages the American soldiers had over their IR counterparts were their superior training, infantry weapons, and body armor. With some air support, they were finally starting to halt the massive uncoordinated IR human wave attacks. Word had spread through the Allies that these human wave assaults were waged by civilian volunteers with little in the way of training. They might have had numbers, but they lacked courage and conviction in their cause once the artillery and rifle fire started to cut through their ranks.

Chapter 14

European Craziness

03 December 2040

Brussels, European Union

The EU was experiencing a rash of violence against Jews, Christians, and Muslims all across the Union. After the destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque and then the condemnation from the Pope, the Muslims living in Europe had exploded. There had already been strong support in the Muslim communities for the Islamic Republic, and once hostilities broke out against Israel and the United States, hundreds of thousands of Muslim men began traveling to Turkey to join the Islamic Army. Turkey had left the NATO alliance to join the IR, which created a lot of friction between the EU and Turkey. The border between Greece and Turkey, which was already a source of friction, quickly became a fully militarized border.

To complicate things further, the American embassies in Paris, Rome, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, and Germany were brutally attacked on the third day of the war. The embassies were pummeled with multiple vehicle-borne IEDs and RPGs, and then they were directly assaulted by hundreds of “protesters,” as the European media was calling them.

The Germans had caught wind of the threat and had prepared accordingly. When the attack there was about to get underway, hundreds of German police and counterterrorism units intercepted the attackers. The outcome was a massive shoot-out in central Berlin that resulted in two vehicle-borne IEDs going off, causing considerable damage to the neighboring buildings.

In Great Britain, the British arrested most of the attackers in the middle of the night and prevented the others from getting close to the embassy.

The Paris attack was perhaps the most disturbing. The French had been dealing with hundreds of attacks between Jews, Christians, Muslims, and rioting across the country. Despite intelligence sharing between countries within the EU, they were caught unprepared for the attack against the embassy. Ten individuals attacked the French police guarding the embassy with machine guns, killing them quickly. One individual unslung an RPG-7VR and blew apart the Marine guard station next to the gate, killing the two Marines and security contractors.

Within seconds, a cargo van drove directly into the front gate and exploded a 1,000-pound bomb, destroying the primary and secondary gates. A second van drove through the newly created hole in the embassy security and drove straight for the front entrance. Three security guards opened fire on the van, killing the driver. As the van slowed down, someone detonated the bomb, exploding three thousand pounds of Semtex high explosives. The vehicle-borne IED blew the entire face of the embassy right off, creating multiple new entries into the building.

Five additional vans arrived and disgorged thirty heavily armed men, who quickly stormed the embassy. In less than five minutes, they had captured the ambassador, the deputy ambassador, and twenty-three employees. They were quickly moved to the vans and driven away while the remaining armed men began killing everyone in the building and waited for the police to arrive. By the end of the day, 136 US and French nationals were killed during the attack, and an additional 61 police officers were killed as well. The next day, a video was posted showing the ambassador and the twenty-four other individuals crucified and their bodies set on fire; their screams were horrific. This same type of attack occurred at the other embassies, with the ambassadors and their staffs also being crucified the following day. The brutal manner in which the diplomats were murdered further infuriated the President and the American people, and President Stein was furious with the EU for not providing better security for the embassies.

*******

“Chancellor Lowden, we have started the call-up of the reserves. Our active duty forces are now on high alert and ready to deploy to the cities when you are ready,” Minister of Defense André Gouin said as he looked at the faces around the table.

“I do not like the idea of deploying the military into the cities, but we have to do something. The rioting and the attacks on the American embassies are too much. President Stein was enraged when he called me this morning.”

“Perhaps if President Stein had kept his generals under control and not destroyed the Al Aqsa mosque, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” replied Minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Prodi.

“I might have done the same thing if I had been in General Gardner’s position, after seeing video of our soldiers being crucified. That is beyond barbaric,” said General Volker Naumann, the EU Military Chief of Staff, shooting a stern look at Minister Prodi.

“Gentlemen, arguing is not going to change the situation. We have to deal with it and move forward. I want solutions, not arguments.”

“If you want to solve the problem, then we need to encourage the Muslim populations in our countries to leave and join the Islamic Republic. As long as they are here, they are going to cause problems. They refuse to assimilate and learn our languages, and they demand that our women dress more conservatively and wear a headdress. French women are scared to go out in public in certain areas of Paris for fear of being attacked,” said General Naumann, looking each person in the eye.

“Chancellor, I do not believe it is possible for us to evict them from our country, at least not peacefully. What we can do is deploy the military into the cities to return law and order. As Muslims are apprehended for violations of our laws, they can be moved to a detention facility we intend to set up in Marseille. From there, we will load them on freighters and send them to Algeria or Tunisia, both IR members. If the IR will not accept them, then sink the ship in the harbor,” said André Gouin as he took a sip of espresso.

“I cannot even believe you would suggest such a thing,” said Paolo as he pointed angrily at Gouin.

“Enough!” shouted Chancellor Lowden. “We, as the government, need to have a unified plan and deal with this problem immediately. Paulo, I understand your concerns, and I share them as well. However, the state of the world has changed so much in such a short time. While the majority of the Muslim populations in our countries used to be peaceful, we can no longer say that is true. The last five days have resulted in over nine thousand people being killed, and four times that many injured. We cannot continue to debate this. I do not like this plan at all, but I can see that it is the only plan right now that will work. Minister Gouin, order the military into the cities. General Naumann, crush this uprising.”

*******

05 December 2040

Washington, D.C.

White House, Situation Room

After spending several days in the underground bunker, the President returned back to the White House, albeit with a significant military presence protecting the residence, in addition to the regular detail of Secret Service. Despite his advisors saying he should continue to stay underground with the rest of the government, the President was adamant that he needed to be in the White House and project to the American people a sense of calm. It was imperative that people stop panicking and do their best to return to their daily lives.

The President met with the CEOs and head producers of each of the major news networks and insisted that their coverage start to focus on the positive aspects of the war—victories, defeats of the enemy, winning—the economy, and other stories rather than coverage aimed at scaring the public and further inciting rioting and violence between American Muslims and non-Muslims. The news agencies agreed to refocus a majority of their coverage to topics that would hopefully help to defuse the growing violence and panic that was starting to run amok. Even the journalists, usually keen to find the most salacious stories possible in order to rack up their ratings, realized society would not function if everything imploded. They knew they could do something to help bring some calm to the situation and moved to do so.

While the group waited in the Situation Room for President Stein to arrive, General Gardner gruffly addressed the group through the secured video phone. “Does the President understand how many casualties we’re sustaining? We need more reinforcements now, or we may lose the rest of Israel,” he asserted.

“General, we know how many soldiers you’re losing, and so does the President,” said General Aaron Wade, the Central Command Commander.

“Sorry I’m late, gentlemen. Monty and I were held up in the economic meeting. Please, let’s start the briefing,” the President said as he sat down at the head of the table. “Before we move to Israel, update me on the situation in the EU and our forces there.”

“Our forces in the EU remain in a state of high alert. The bases are also receiving additional security from the EU, so we’re confident they’re as secured as they can be,” said replied General Branson.

“Well, I’m glad the EU is finally doing something to protect our people and buildings from their unruly mob,” said the President.

“We have moved close to 300,000 troops to Italy and Germany. Our biggest challenge is getting those troops into Israel. We do not have full air supremacy over Israel. We’ve had to focus on using only military cargo aircraft to bring in reinforcements, which has slowed down the number of reinforcements we can send each day. Nine civilian aircraft were shot down over the past four days, trying to break through. No civilian pilot is willing to take the chance now,” said General Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff.

“General Rice, how many troops a day are we sending into Israel right now?” inquired the President.

“We are flying in thirteen thousand reinforcements a day. I would also like to add that we have lost sixteen C-17s and four C-5s—roughly four thousand troops were killed. We just aren’t able to get enough reinforcements to the front,” said Rice.

“Fifth Corps just arrived at the port of Ashdod. They’re offloading their equipment as we speak. They’ve been under a lot of artillery and rocket fire, slowing the offloading of their vehicles. The equipment and troops that are offloaded are immediately being moved to General Gardner’s Command,” explained Admiral Juliano, reading from his tablet.

General Gardner broke in to add, “As these troops are becoming available, I’m filtering them into the front line where they’re needed. It will still take several days to unload their equipment. I’m feeding most of the Corps into the front line as infantry for the time being.”

“Mr. President, I know you’re aware of how dire the situation is here in Israel. If we are not able to get more reinforcements to Israel within the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours, I’m not confident we’re going to be able to hold on to northern Israel and Tel Aviv. If we lose Tel Aviv, the Army will have to pull back to Be’er Sheva and Gaza,” asserted General Gardner with a worried yet determined look on his face.

“General Wade, what’s your opinion on the situation?” asked the President.

“I have to agree with General Gardner, Mr. President. If we continue to try and hold northern Israel and Tel Aviv without reinforcements, General Gardner’s force may be cut off from the rest of Israel and surrounded. Then it would only be a matter of time until they’re wiped out,” replied General Wade with a solemn expression.

“General Rice, what else can the Air Force do to improve the situation?” asked Stein.

“Mr. President, we’re in a tough position. The IR continues to move hundreds of thousands of troops to Israel. They have already lost over 300,000 troops, and more keep coming. Presently, there are 540,000 IR troops fighting in Israel. The IDF has taken some horrific casualties too. The Israelis have lost 154,000 troops. On our side, 31,235 soldiers and 18,432 sailors have given their lives in sacrifice to our country.”

“I know the losses are terrible, General Wade. What is the solution? How are you going to get more troops into Israel and stop the continued IR reinforcements?”

“The USS Intrepid battle group has arrived on station, and we’ve moved another six hundred fighter drones to Europe, most of which are currently in Cypress. We’re going to make a massive air assault that we believe will finally give us air superiority. I’ve ordered our strategic bombers to Europe as well. Once we have air superiority, our bombers will begin attacking their reinforcements and supply lines. Of note is our cruise missile stockpile—it’s down to thirty-seven percent. I’ve ordered 12,000 additional cruise missiles to Europe, but it will drop our strategic reserves down to twenty-eight percent,” said General Rice.

“I’ve been in discussion with our cruise missile suppliers, and they’re now working 24/7 on producing more cruise missiles. They’re even adding several new production lines to increase their production capacity,” said the SecDef, trying to ease concerns over the possibility of a munitions shortage.

“That’s a whole other issue, getting the economy on a war footing. We knew a war was coming, but I don’t believe we thought we would lose this many troops and this much equipment this fast. We’re only eight days into the war, and we’re already running low on munitions, infantry vehicles, tanks, aircraft and naval ships,” the President said with a bit of concern.

“Mr. President, there’s another issue we still need to discuss. As you know, the country has been experiencing an incredible amount of cyberattacks against the DoD and private industry. Some of the attacks have been going after the critical infrastructure, which is concerning,” said Mike Williams, the National Security Advisor.

“This is becoming an issue for the DoD as well. We’re starting to see bogus equipment requests and orders for personnel. We have to divert manpower to address the issues created by the cyberattacks, which is hurting us in other areas,” the Secretary of Defense said.

“Where are these attacks originating?” asked Stein.

“We’ve tracked them to various organizations and groups within China. Most of them have some connection with the PLA,” said Lieutenant General Rick Scott, the Director of the DIA.

“Is this a potential precursor to something, or are they trying to just take advantage of the situation?” asked the President with trepidation in his voice.

General Rick Scott’s parents had lived in China while working for an American company. General Scott had become fluent in the language and studied at the University of Beijing before obtaining his master’s degree from Yale through the Army ROTC program. General Scott believed the true threat to the US was Russia and the Islamic Republic, not China. His strong belief that China’s interests lay not in attacking the US but in stealing technology was blinding his perspective.

“From the DIA’s perspective, it does appear they may be up to something. The challenge with the Chinese is that over the past two years, they’ve been conducting land and naval exercises in and around Taiwan and the South China Sea. These exercises have always been preceded by an increase in cyberattacks, making it difficult for us to determine if this time, there may be something more to the equation. The first few times, we certainly thought something was amiss, but after four more exercises, we assumed it was part of their training drill,” General Scott said with an air of confidence.

“Mr. President, the problem I have with this assessment is that this time around, they’ve more than doubled their number of ships and troops as part of this exercise. The more alarming part is that a PLA Naval Task Force is conducting their exercise between Taiwan and Guam. My concern is that if this isn’t an exercise but a pre-positioning of forces, we could be hit pretty hard. We’re in a weak position in the Pacific right now. If there were ever a time to invade Taiwan and assert dominion over the Pacific, this would be it,” asserted Admiral Juliano.

“The DIA has evaluated that as well, and we believe they are posturing. The Chinese economy has been growing immensely the last three years. Our repayment of our debt has left them flush with cash, and our economic recovery has increased demand for their products. Our analysts don’t believe the Chinese would be willing to throw away the American market by attacking our base on Guam or anywhere else.

“They may take a risk and go for Taiwan, and if they do, there is little we can do to stop them. However, we believe that would be the extent of it,” General Scott insisted.

“Admiral, if we wanted to shift additional assets to the Pacific, what do we have available?” the President inquired.

“Sir, we just pulled our third aircraft carrier from the Pacific, and most of our naval assets are engaged in Indonesia. The most we could bring to bear would be eight additional submarines and two fighter drone squadrons. We have, at most, two battalions of Marines at Camp Pendleton we could move to Guam, but that’s it,” explained Admiral Juliano.

“Look, I don’t want to be caught off guard by the Chinese. We already got sucker-punched by the IR with those nukes. I don’t want to get hit by the Chinese like that as well. General Black, I want you to send every additional Marine you can to Guam. Tell the base commander to be ready to repel a potential Chinese invasion, should it come to that. I also want to start evacuating all military dependents from Guam,” directed the President.

“Admiral Juliano, I want you to deploy that additional fighter drone squadron. Also, move additional hunter-killer submarines into the waters around Guam. If the Chinese surface fleet does make a move towards Guam, then our subs are to target the Chinese capital ships. This is important, Admiral Juliano. I’m authorizing the use of nuclear torpedoes, but only if the sub commander believes it’s necessary and would significantly damage the PLA Navy fleet, understood?”

“Yes, Mr. President. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I will relay those specific instructions.”

“General Lewis, is the Air Force able to maintain air superiority over Guam with assistance from the Navy and Marines?”

“Yes, Mr. President. We have two squadrons of F-22s, two squadrons of F-38 fighter drones, and three medium-range drone bomber squadrons, which are currently being used in support of our operations in Indonesia. They could easily be retasked to protect Guam. We still have plenty of antiship ordnance on Guam to supply our air wings, should it be necessary,” General Lewis said with a devilish grin.

“Excellent, General. I was hoping you were going to say that. Now, moving to the cyberattacks—since the Chinese have engaged in a full-scale cyberattack against the country, I want our entire cyberwarfare capability launched against China. Target their banking, energy, and transportation sectors. If we can turn the lights off in the country, then do so. It’s time we start to show the Chinese what it’s like to be hit with cyberattacks at the same level, and perhaps a bit worse. Oh, and General Black and Admiral Juliano, if hostilities were to erupt between China and the US, then I want those specific locations where the cyberattacks are originating from to be immediately eliminated—is that clear?” asked the President with a sternness not often heard in his voice.

“Yes, Sir,” came the synchronized response.

*******

10 December 2040

The Middle East

Between the seventh and twelfth day of the war, the US Navy and Air Force had moved 185,000 US soldiers and Marines into Israel and the Egyptian Suez Canal Zone via military and commercial aircraft, military, naval transports and civilian cruise ships. This massive influx of US forces into Israel was the deciding factor in being able to repel the near-constant human wave attacks from the IR forces. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians had been killed in less than two weeks, mirroring the destruction of most of Israel and the entire Palestinian area in the West Bank and Gaza. The IR had lost their ability to threaten coalition air forces by the end of the eighth day of the war when the US Air Force conducted a massive air raid comprising of nearly two thousand fighter and fighter bomber drones and nine hundred cruise missiles. They destroyed every IR air base within three hundred miles of Israel.

Once the Allies had regained air superiority, the tide of the war quickly shifted as the IR supply lines and reinforcements came under tremendous pressure. The IDF and US forces were able to stabilize the frontlines and slowly pushed the IR forces back, reclaiming territory and Israeli cities. As the IR forces withdrew, they ensured no civilians survived and did their best to level every building, increasing the number of defensible positions.

Every yard of land was being heavily contested as casualties on both sides continued to mount. The IR had lost 400,000 soldiers, and another 170,000 were listed as missing. The IDF were reporting nearly 197,000 killed and missing soldiers. From the US, 72,340 had perished or were missing, and nearly twice that number were injured.

With large portions of the Islamic Republic operating on limited power and subject to rolling blackouts, it was becoming nearly impossible for them to move additional soldiers and equipment to the frontlines. However, the Russian Federation succeeded in integrating the IR power grid into their own along their shared border in the Caucasus region around the eleventh day of the war. Russia began to provide the IR with nearly 65% of their power, restoring most of the country back too normal while emergency repair crews began to fix what power plants could be mended after the American nuclear and conventional attacks on the first day of the war.

Russia also moved the Second Shock Army into Turkey and insisted on a dialogue with the Israelis and Americans to put an end to hostilities. While the Second Shock Army was being assembled in Turkey, the First and Third Shock Armies were being positioned along the EU border to begin their winter training exercise.

Caliph Mohammed was adamant with the Russian foreign minister that the IR would continue to fight and did not want to pursue talks with Israel and the Americans. They believed if they could continue to send reinforcements and received enough replacement equipment from Russia and China, they could continue to grind the IDF and American forces into submission.

The Russian foreign minister had to remind the Caliph that neither Russia nor China could supply the IR with essentially a new military overnight. It would take years to replace the equipment that had been lost, not to mention the training of military members to operate it. The best course of action was to negotiate a ceasefire and insist upon retaining the conquered land. The foreign minister assured Caliph Mohammed that once Russia declared war on the EU and US, hostilities with Israel could be restarted almost immediately. With great reluctance, the IR asked for a ceasefire with the Allies. Whether President Stein would listen was another question entirely.

Chapter 15

Operation Red Dragon

10 December 2040

China

“We need to get the Premier to start the war. The Americans have already reinforced Guam, and these cyberattacks against our transportation infrastructure and other aspects of the economy are starting to get worse,” said Director Xi Lee. He was starting to become concerned that the Premier might be getting cold feet.

“I agree with you, Director. We will pressure the Premier to make the decision today at the CMC meeting. Admiral Shengli and General Wanquan will also insist that the war start today,” General Yang said with a bit of urgency in his voice.

“For the sake of China, we must start the war today…the Americans have had too long to prepare, and I fear this preparation is going to cost our forces,” insisted Xi, not trying too hard to hide his trace of anger at the indecisiveness of the Premier.

China was supposed to have attacked the Americans yesterday but had held off once the cyberattacks against the Chinese economy had begun to have some serious effects.

Premier Zhang walked into the secured bunker under his official residence for the final CMC briefing before the government moved to the war-time bunkers burrowed deep in the Da’Anshanxiang Mountains just west of Beijing. As Zhang walked to the head of the table, he could sense the tension in the room.

The generals were angry with him for not starting the war according to the original plan, but he had his reasons. He wanted to ensure his generals were loyal to him and to China. Inspector Ma Keshi, the head of the secret police, had suggested holding off on initiating the war as a means of testing his generals to determine if they would listen to him or find a way to disobey him. If one or more of them had found a way to start the war without his direction, then Zhang and Inspector Keshi would know who was loyal and who could not be trusted. Inspector Keshi had wanted to hold off for three days. However, Zhang realized that holding off for even a day might have provided the Americans with more time to prepare, leading them to lose the element of surprise. No, today was the day that China would rise and secure her destiny as the dominant power in Asia.

“Generals, Admiral, please take your seats,” said Zhang.

“Premier, we must start the war today!” said Admiral Shengli angrily.

“My task forces are ready, and any further delay is going to raise too much suspicion.”

“Admiral, please keep calm and sit down. I held off on starting the war yesterday as a test. I wanted to assess each of you to see if you would obey my orders or if you would find a way to start the war on your own. You all have passed my test, and I am now confident in your loyalties. We begin the war today. This is the day of the Red Dragon. I want all command-and-control functions moved to their secured bunkers and the military brought to full readiness,” said Zhang. “Please issue your orders, and let’s move as a group to the CMC bunker at Da’Anshanxiang.”

*******

Operation Red Dragon had been in development for nearly forty years. It encompassed a wide variety of tactics, including corporate espionage, industrial sabotage, and placement of thousands of sleeper agents throughout Asia and the US. Once activated, the PLA would begin to turn off critical industrial control switches and routers in virtually every satellite in space with the exception of Russia, China, and the IR. All other nations’ satellites would simply turn off and become space junk.

The loss of critical communications satellites, GPS and military surveillance satellites would blind the Allies and give the PLA a short window of opportunity to move forces and conduct attacks without anyone seeing what was going on. With satellite communications down, it would be difficult to coordinate a response or even call for help. The disruption in satellite communications would quickly be followed by tens of millions of internet routers and various industrial control systems burning out in America, Japan, Korea, the European Union and India.

Great Britain and Australia would be minimally affected since most of their internet switches and routers had been converted over to a product solely built in the UK. That company was one of the few targets that the Chinese had not fully infiltrated prior to Red Dragon. The breakdown in global communications would be nothing short of catastrophic and, in the eyes of China, would lead to a quick victory.

The PLA Navy had been maneuvering as if they were going to attack the US air and naval base at Guam. Once the global communications systems went down, the task force that was headed to Guam would quickly change direction and hit the American facilities at Okinawa, Japan. Then they would turn back to Guam, knowing that the Guamanians would receive no assistance or help from their bases in Japan. With the American naval and air forces in the Pacific destroyed, there would be little to stop China in their conquest of Asia.

*******

10 December 2040

1943 hours

The Hive, Northern Virginia

During the early years of the de Blasio administration, the government had begun building a series of regionally based deep underground bunker complexes for the government and scientists to retreat to in case of an apocalyptic event, such as catastrophic climate change, a solar flare, or an unchecked Ebola outbreak. President de Blasio was, if nothing else, paranoid about climate change, and he had spent billions of dollars building these networks that he believed could one day save America should it come to that.

When President Stein had been sworn into office, rather than abandoning the bunkers, Stein had them expanded to include a multitude of civilian functions. Each hive network consisted of fifty underground levels that started with two ground levels and then three basement levels. From there, the hive began a series of fifty underground floors that started at four hundred feet below the surface. Each floor was separated by fifty feet of earth, reducing the likelihood of one floor collapsing into another—each floor was essentially a self-sustaining little city. At a half mile wide and three miles long, each floor had immense space that could be divided and partitioned off as needed. Every fifth floor could be converted into a self-enclosed farm that was able to raise chickens, fish and grow produce via hydroponics. The bunkers had all been equipped with sustainable energy generation from geothermal sources below, allowing each bunker to have sunlike UV lighting 365 days a year. Once operational, each farm floor could grow enough food to sustain five thousand people indefinitely.

The design of the floors resembled the design of the human DNA code as it descended into the earth. Only a small portion of each floor was parallel to the one above and below, reducing the likelihood of one floor collapsing onto another. President Stein, along with a select number of senior level individuals, determined that these new bunker series would replace all the older government bunkers and could be used for more than just housing the government. As they were completed, the government would move most of its research activities to the hives and lease some of the floors to select American firms for their own R&D. These facilities could truly be secured from the public and prying eyes…and hopefully acts of sabotage or espionage.

When the nation’s satellites and communication systems went down, the Secret Service believed Washington, D.C. or the President might be the target. “Mr. President, we need to move you and your staff to the hive now,” announced the senior Secret Service agent as he entered the Situation Room.

“What is going on, George? Should we go down to the Presidential Emergency Operation Center?” asked the President.

“No, Mr. President. We believe everyone should be moved to a more secured location.”

“All right, everyone, let’s move with the Secret Service. I assume we’re heading to the hive in Virginia?” asked the President.

“Yes, Mr. President. The Secret Service signed off on its operational use two days ago, relegating Mount Weather and other locations to be mothballed.”

“Mr. President, I just received word from the Pentagon that our satellites have gone offline,” the SecDef said with a look of concern.

“What do you mean, our satellites have gone dark?” asked the President as the group began walking through the White House on their way to the West Lawn.

The federal government had switched phone providers to Verizon and broadband to Google Net two years earlier as part of a diversification of the government’s critical infrastructure protection program. This change was probably the only reason the government had been able to hold together in the wake of this recent attack.

“We’re not sure yet,” replied Eric, who was talking to someone on his cell phone. “It appears to also be affecting GPS and the Internet.”

General Branson was on the phone, yelling at someone to figure out what was going on, when he turned to the President and said, “One of our subs in the Pacific just sent a message saying the Chinese are attacking Taiwan. The skipper also reports that he has lost communications with our forces in Japan and Hawaii.”

This is the last thing we needed…the Chinese to join the war, thought the President.

As the fully armed Razorback assault helicopter took off from the West Lawn and raced away from the city, the President emerged from thought and announced, “We need to find out if the loss of our satellites is a result of a direct attack by the Chinese. I also want to know what else the Chinese are up to in Asia.”

The helicopter dropped down to near treetop level as it accelerated to over 200 miles an hour, speeding its passengers away from the danger of being in Washington. “Admiral Juliano is in the other Razorback with the rest of the team right behind us. I’m sure when we land, he’ll have more information for us,” Monty said while talking to someone on his smartphone.

*******

Lieutenant General Rick Scott, the Director of the DIA, had arrived at the hive thirty minutes before the President and the national security staff. His first priority was to find out how bad the cyberattack was and figure out what still worked. He had been on the phone with the DoD and DIA CIOs, and so far, the most they could tell him was that the Uninet routers and switches had been infected with some sort of malware that caused them to overheat and essentially burn out.

For the last fifteen years, the DoD had been upgrading its IT infrastructure with Uninet hardware, meaning most of the DoD’s IT infrastructure had been effectively destroyed. The CIOs explained that the problem was much worse than just the DoD systems. They had been in touch with their DHS and DOJ counterparts, and they were also facing the same problems. Director Scott hit the speed dial on his phone to the Director of Homeland Security.

Within the first couple of minutes of his conversation with Director Perez at DHS, Lieutenant General Scott learned that AT&T was down and so was Sprint, along with nearly half of the country’s internet providers. Apparently, Verizon was one of the few internet and phone providers who had not used Uninet’s hardware and had not been affected by the malware attack.

“General Scott, the President and the rest of the National Security Council will be arriving in ten minutes. We assured the President that the Chinese wouldn’t launch an attack against us…what are we going to do now?” asked Colonel Bauser, General Scott’s Chief of Staff.

“We were wrong. I was wrong to doubt General Wright’s warning. I suspect the President will probably fire me once he knows we made the wrong call.”

Brigadier General Joshua Wright was the Director for Intelligence or J2 at the DIA. Several of his analysts had determined that there was a high likelihood that the Chinese and Russians were going to attack the US and Europe within the week. Their assessment had been dismissed by Lieutenant General Scott due to lack of intelligence supporting the assessment and countering information from the economic and geopolitical analysts. All of this had become a moot point once the satellites had started to go down.

The President’s helicopter arrived at the hive entrance, and he and his staff were immediately led to waiting elevators that would take them to the fiftieth floor. The fiftieth floor of the hive had been designated as the presidential level. It had a residency for the first family along with the national security staff. There were also numerous offices and secured conference rooms to conduct the government’s business. The next five floors above them were dedicated to various essential departments of the government and their staff.

Once the President and the National Security Council arrived, the hive went into complete lockdown. Thirteen hundred Marines moved into the facility and took over internal security in coordination with the Secret Service. Five hundred Army Rangers, fifty Special Forces, and three thousand Army infantry soldiers would provide external security, scattered across every approachable position to the site. The US government had gone to ground and was hunkering in for the long haul until the situation with the nationwide communications blackout could be sorted out.

As the President got off the elevator and walked to the National Security Council briefing room, he saw that General Scott had already arrived and was clearly getting the room set up and gathering information for a quick briefing.

“General Scott, we’ve been in transit for the last hour. I need an update on what we’re facing,” said the President with urgency in his voice.

“Mr. President, I spoke with Director Perez, who’s also en route to our position. He told me his department also lost communications. They believe it had something to do with Uninet routers and switches within the government IT infrastructure. I’ve talked with the CIOs at the DIA, DoD, DoJ, DHS, DoS, NSA and CIA. They’ve all experienced the same problems. All Uninet routers and switches suddenly overheated and burned out at the exact same time. Our assessment is that they had been compromised prior to installation with some sort of sleeper malware waiting to be activated,” said General Scott with a worried look.

“Good God, this is worse than we could possibly have thought,” said Mike Williams.

“They’ve also destroyed our communications and GPS satellites,” Admiral Lewis said.

“So essentially, we’re blind and unable to communicate with our forces abroad or here in the US?” asked the President.

“Sir, it’s a bit more than that. AT&T, Sprint, GoogleNet, Comcast, Cox Cable, and Time Warner are all down. Cell phones, internet, just about everything. We’re not entirely in the dark. The government’s cell and phone carrier is Verizon—so far, they’re the only phone and internet provider that’s not down. They didn’t use the Uninet hardware. Right now, we don’t even know if this has hit the Europeans or how this is affecting our forces in the Middle East,” General Scott replied.

The President immediately took charge of the situation and rapidly fired off orders to his staff. “First things first. We need to get communications back up ASAP. General Rice, see how many communication drones we have in the US and get them deployed immediately. We need to get military data communications back up at once. Also, someone get on the horn with the CEO of Verizon. Let him know that for the time being, the federal government is going to nationalize their company and infrastructure until the other companies can repair or replace all of the Uninet routers and the switches and are back operational. We need the government functional, and if Verizon is the only content and data provider operational, then they just became our number one priority to secure and use. Work out a generous compensation package for them and ensure that they begin to assist the other providers in order to get services back up and running,” directed the President.

The attack against the American critical infrastructure grid caught most Americans by surprise—though some companies were better prepared than others to deal with a situation like this. Thousands of private companies began to assist the government in restoring the communication grid in the US. Google and Facebook had wireless internet drones and blimps they used in remote locations around the world. They immediately deployed that capability in the US, which greatly helped to restore communications within America.

*******

10 December 2040

1543 hours

Pacific Ocean, near Pearl Harbor

Three Shang-class Type 96 nuclear-powered submarines entered their optimal strike range of the US Naval Facilities at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As part of the first strike of Operation Red Dragon, their mission was to destroy the 7th Fleet Headquarters and any ships within the harbor. Upon receiving a message stating the that American satellites and communications were down, two of the three submarines fired four cruise missiles towards predetermined land targets, while the third submarine fired three cruise missiles at the Honolulu International Airport. One nuclear torpedo was launched towards Ford Island, which would effectively destroy the deepwater facilities upon which the US Navy relied.

The cruise missiles quickly found their marks and met no resistance since the communications and electronic grids within the naval facility were still offline. They quickly decimated the 7th Fleet Headquarters and numerous other strategic facilities at Hickam Air Force Base, Camp Smith, and the Honolulu International Airport. The final and most devastating element of the attack was the nuclear torpedo. When it exploded, it destroyed dozens of naval ships in port, along with the equipment needed to service the surface fleet. The damage caused by the mini-nuclear explosion was immense and destroyed the use of Pearl Harbor for years to come, essentially neutralizing the military there for the duration of the war.

*******

11 December 2040

0120 hours

Okinawa, Japan

Kadena Air Force Base

During the communications and satellite blackout, the PLA Navy had maneuvered two of their carriers and the rest of the battlegroup to within ninety miles of Okinawa. While it was still early in the first hour of confusion among the American forces, forty-six J36 attack aircraft began their bombing of Kadena AFB, destroying the runways and numerous aircraft. The battlegroup had launched 190 cruise missiles at the air base and Marines stationed throughout the island. The Japanese Defense Force was able to destroy several of the J36 aircraft while their naval forces moved to engage the Chinese battlegroup. With the bulk of the American naval forces fighting in Indonesia, Japan was on their own. Since the American bases on Okinawa were neutralized, the PLAN carrier battlegroup changed course towards Guam to finish destroying the bases’ capability and remove them as a threat.

*******

11 December 2040

0120 hours

Straits of Taiwan

With the start of Operation Red Dragon, the PLA Navy and PLA Air Force launched a massive barrage on the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Straits and began their amphibious landings to secure the islands. The PLA bombarded the main island with thousands of cruise missiles and several hundred short-range ballistic missiles carrying 20,000-pound warheads. They devastated the Taiwanese airports and major command-and-control centers, flattening them like bugs under a fly swatter. The missile and air bombardment of the main island lasted for nearly twenty-four hours before the PLA landed troops on the main island.

Dozens of PLA and PLAN ships were destroyed in the straits by Taiwanese missiles and artillery, slowing the PLA advance but not stopping it. The Americans had sold the Taiwanese their advanced mobile antiaircraft and antimissile railgun systems over the summer. The Taiwanese leveled these weapons to face the ocean and began to add their own devastating fire into the invasion force. These systems were also having a destructive effect on the PLAAF. Within minutes of taking off from their bases on the mainland, they were already within range of the railguns. If it hadn’t been for the swarms of thousands of PLAAF drones involved in the attack, the PLAAF might have suffered even worse losses. The railgun defensive systems were beginning to limit the level and frequency of air support that could be provided to the ground forces.

*******

11 December 2040

0220 hours

The Border of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar

At the start of Operation Red Dragon, 1.1 million PLA soldiers advanced across the Chinese southern border into Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Vietnam had been the Rice Bowl of Asia for over a century, so the capture of Vietnam by the Chinese was paramount to stabilizing their nation’s food supply. Myanmar would give China deepwater ports on the East Indian Ocean, along with vast amounts of arable farmland.

Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore were next on the PLA’s list. With control of Malaysia and Singapore, the Chinese would control the straits of Malacca and with it the shipping lane of nearly sixty percent of the world’s exportable goods.

*******

11 December 2040

0542 hours

Riyadh, Islamic Republic

Command Bunker

“Caliph Mohammed, the American satellites and communications systems are down. We have received word from the Chinese that they have commenced their attack on the Americans,” Zaheer Akhatar, Mohammed’s senior advisor said with glee.

“Excellent. How soon until our packages arrive in America, Huseen?” asked the Caliph, eager to knock the Americans out of the war in the Middle East.

“The liquid natural gas tanker is at the Panama Canal now, and it should enter the lock shortly. Once it does, our people will detonate it as it reaches the optimal spot. With the destruction of the canal, the Americans’ ability to move between the Atlantic and Pacific will be crippled. Since the Chinese have plans for the American West Coast, we have moved the Swords of Allah to the East Coast. The first ship has arrived in New York Harbor. Once the captain receives the order, he will move his ship towards the Hudson River until he is adjacent to the New Port Center in New Jersey. Inshallah, he will deliver the first of Allah’s Swords,” explained Huseen, the IR Intelligence Director.

“Is that the best location to deliver Allah’s Sword?” asked Mohammed.

“That location will ensure the vast majority of the buildings in lower and mid-Manhattan will be destroyed. It is also one of the heaviest populated areas in Manhattan and next to the Greenwich and SOHO districts. This is where the wealthiest people in the city live.”

“How many casualties do we anticipate?”

“At least one hundred thousand dead from the initial blast, then close to five or six times that number over the next several days as people start to die from radiation poisoning and the general chaos this is going to cause,” explained Huseen with an evil sneer.

“The second Sword is still on track to hit Washington, D.C.?” asked Mohammed.

“The ship docked in Baltimore two days ago. Allah’s Sword has been offloaded to a lead-shielded delivery vehicle. When you give the order, our operative will drive the vehicle to Washington and deliver Allah’s Sword near the Capitol Building. It will destroy everything within a half-mile radius of the event, with severe damage extending as far as two to three miles away. We anticipate fifty thousand casualties initially, and that toll will rise to nearly three to four hundred thousand over the next several days.”

“Huseen, I thought the casualties were supposed to be significantly higher than that. What changed?” asked Mohammed.

“The American government has gone to ground. They instituted their Continuity of Government plan. The vast majority of administration functions are no longer being conducted in Washington, D.C., and have moved to their various underground complexes. Before you ask if we know where these locations are—we do not. The ones we knew of have recently been decommissioned, which means they have newer ones that we have not found yet,” replied Huseen.

“Perhaps we should move the last Sword to a better target, then?” inquired the Caliph.

“Sir, the goal was to destroy the symbol of American power, Washington, D.C. Even if the government is no longer operating out of Washington, we can still destroy the city,” said General Rafik Hamza.

“Destroying the city has been one of our major goals. However, we only have one of Allah’s Swords left to use. I want to make sure it is used where it can cause the most damage and hurt and kill the most Americans possible. We can have several of our direct-action units in the area start fires all across Washington and attempt to burn it, but Allah’s Sword is special. What other targets should we consider?”

“If this is your final decision, then I propose we use Allah’s Sword on Baltimore. It is already in place. All that needs to be done is to move it to the downtown area and then deliver it. We would destroy one of their largest seaports on the East Coast and cripple a key aspect of their rail and road infrastructure. The casualties from this should be several hundred thousand people initially, and eclipse a million within a month,” said General Rafik Hamza.

“There are better targets than Baltimore, General Hamza. Demolishing Philadelphia would destroy a naval yard, along with one of their oldest and most notable cities,” Zaheer Akhatar said.

“Zaheer, the drive to Philadelphia is further than the drive to Washington, so the chances of the device being detected are much higher. Philadelphia does have the naval yard, but Baltimore has one of the largest deepwater ports on the East Coast. With New York Harbor reeling from the destruction of the first device, destroying the Port of Baltimore will hurt the American military far more than the demolition of one of their naval yards,” General Hamza said with a bit of annoyance at being challenged by Zaheer. Although Zaheer was the senior advisor to Caliph Mohammed, Rafik did not like or trust him.

“Enough. You both bring up good points…I believe General Hamza is right. Destroying a second East Coast deepwater port is going to cause more problems for the Americans. Our Russian brothers have not attacked yet, but the destruction of a critical deepwater port will not only aid our war in Israel, it will aid the Russians’ attack against the EU. Huseen, issue the order for the LNG ship to destroy the Panama Canal immediately. Twelve hours after the canal has been destroyed, issue the order to deliver Allah’s Sword to Manhattan. Then, I will issue the Americans their warning to surrender and withdraw from Israel, or we will deliver a second Sword of Allah.”

“Caliph, once we do this, we have to expect the Americans to respond with their own nuclear weapons. We saw what they did to us when we used tactical nuclear weapons on the 5th Fleet. They hit us pretty hard, with over a dozen nukes. We are only just now beginning to restore power to the country, and we lost nearly sixty percent of our laser missile defense systems. I fear the use of a nuclear bomb in New York City is going to destroy us,” said Talal bin Abdulaziz, the IR foreign minister.

“I understand your concern, Talal, and the Americans will most likely respond with more nuclear weapons. But this is our chance to hurt the Americans at home. For nearly a century and a half, the Americans have waged war in our lands and killed our people by the millions. This may be the Muslim world’s last chance to really hurt the Americans, and I intend to take it.”

“Caliph, we are grinding the American military down in Israel. The Chinese have just entered the war and are hitting the Americans hard. The Russians will launch their attack soon. We need only to stay the course, and we will achieve our victory without nuclear weapons.”

“You speak wise words, Talal. However, we already have Allah’s Swords in place—”

“—If we do this, we will lose the Republic. The Americans will destroy everything in retaliation, and even if we do win with Russian and Chinese help, we will not have a functioning country for our people to enjoy our hard-won victory,” said Talal, almost pleading with Mohammed.

“If I may, Caliph—as the senior military commander for the Republic, I have to agree with Talal. I want to nuke New York City just as badly as you, but I also want to live to enjoy our victory, and my soldiers will want a country to return home to. With the Chinese and soon the Russians entering the war, it will not be long until we have destroyed Israel and permanently removed the Americans from the lands of Allah. Then we should let the Russians and Chinese destroy America for us,” said General Hamza with a somber look.

Caliph Mohammed sighed deeply. “You both have given me pause. Huseen, continue with the attack on the canal. Have our operatives continue to hold on to Allah’s Swords. We will wait and leave them in place for the time being.”

*******

14 December 2040

Kremlin, Moscow

“Generals, the Islamic Republic has been battling the American and Israeli forces for sixteen days. How can they possibly have lost 13,000 fighter drones and over sixty percent of the aircraft that we sold them and the pilots that we trained?” asked President Mikhail Fradkov, still in shock.

“The American antiaircraft and antimissile railgun systems have proven to be far more effective than we believed possible. Their new Pershing main battle tank also has this technology and completely destroyed our frontline battle tanks we sold to the IR. They were able to engage the IR tanks at maximum range, never allowing the tanks to get close enough to fire a shot. When a few of the tanks were able to get a shot or two off, the rounds just bounced off their new armor,” said General Gerasimov with an anxious look.

“General Sergun, the GRU assured us that the Americans had not been able to produce these new railgun weapon systems in sufficient numbers to be a problem, yet, they are completely destroying entire drone armadas, and our state-of-the-art tanks cannot get close enough to fire a shot at their tanks. What do you have to say for yourself?” asked the President, clearly irritated.

“Mr. President, the Americans only have one division of Pershing tanks with the new railgun systems. That group is currently bogged down in Israel. They do not have another division of these tanks that can be deployed to Europe. Their mobile and fixed antimissile/antiaircraft railgun systems are also limited in number. They have deployed the bulk of these units to their military forces in Israel and now in Asia to fight the Chinese—”

“—Yes, but they are mass-producing these weapons, are they not?”

“Yes, Mr. President. They are, but it will take time before they have sufficient numbers.”

“This still creates a problem for us. Have they shared this technology and the plans with the EU? Are they now producing these weapons as well?”

“Our sources have confirmed the Americans have provided this information to their European partners, and yes, the EU is now starting to produce these weapons. Again, this is a very advanced technology. It’s not something that can be mass-produced and deployed quickly. It took the Americans nearly three years to produce enough tanks to field one division. We have time on our side, but only if we act soon,” said General Sergun with a look of confidence.

“If we were facing the Americans and the EU at full strength, then these new weapons would pose a significant problem for us. As it stands, the Americans are heavily engaged in Israel and Mexico, and now they have to deal with China. They are not going to be a factor in Europe,” said General Dmitri Kulikov, who had recently returned from Central Asia.

“General Kulikov, how soon could the First and Third Shock Armies invade the EU?” asked the President.

“I need three days for both army groups to be ready once you give the order. The Third Shock Army will cross into Western Ukraine and then travel to Romania and Hungary. The First Shock Army will cross into Poland and drive towards Germany. The EU army is not large enough or prepared enough to stand against two experienced combat army groups.”

“Do you agree with General Kulikov’s assessment, General Gerasimov?”

“I do, but we should wait until Christmas Eve. Let’s see what the Chinese do these next two weeks.”

“The destruction of the Panama Canal sure caught the Chinese by surprise. They had originally wanted to capture it.”

“They should have worked that out with the IR,” said General Kulikov with a smirk on his face.

“Prepare your forces, General Kulikov. The attack will commence on December twenty-fourth. It will make for a warm present to the EU and America from Russia.”

“Mr. President, I have one last question before I leave to prepare my forces. Will the MiG 40 be ready?” asked General Kulikov, determined to get a truthful answer.

“Sergei, what is the status of the new MiG?” asked the President, knowing that Kulikov would put the screws to him if he believed he was being misled.

“I had lunch with the CEO of Mikoyan, Artem Gurevich, and he assures me that the MiG 40 will be ready at the end of this week. They have completed the software patch and testing of the system as of today. With the modified timeline, there will be 120 aircraft available with thirty additional aircraft being completed each month,” responded Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense.

“I do not mean to dismiss the MiG, but how will 120 aircraft be a deciding factor?” asked Kulikov.

“The MiG 40 is a unique aircraft. Aside from its ability to fly at Mach 3 and a range of nearly nine hundred miles, it is the only aircraft that not only uses stealth technology but also incorporates a translucent fiber-optic exterior camouflage that mimics its surroundings. This means that the aircraft is invisible to the naked eye. It has virtually no radar signature and can only be tracked by the heat it emits, making it nearly impossible to detect until it is too late. It can carry a total of eight missiles or six guided munitions,” replied Sergei.

“It will be impressive if it finally works,” said Alexander Manturov, the Minister of Industry and Trade. He did not believe the aircraft warranted the immense amount of money and resources it was consuming.

“This aircraft has cost a fortune,” asserted Anton Shoygu, the Minister of Finance. “This is like the American JF-35 program—a trillion-dollar program for one aircraft line.”

“Gentlemen, this aircraft will be effective, even if a few more bugs have to be worked out, and when it is utilized, it will be the most advanced aircraft in the world. The Americans have nothing like it—this aircraft will dominate the skies long enough for us to win the war,” replied President Fradkov with confidence.

“I look forward to using it to secure the skies over Europe for my ground forces. It had better work,” General Kulikov said with a hint of skepticism in his voice.

Chapter 16

Unholy War

15 December 2040

Tel Aviv, Israel

General Gardner’s Headquarters

With nearly 290,000 US forces in Israel, President Stein reluctantly gave General Gardner his fourth star and overall command of US forces in Israel. The President was still mad at General Gardner for the destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque. However, despite his displeasure with his actions, Gardner was becoming a brilliant military tactician and had grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat.

General Wade, the CENTCOM Commander, and his planners were developing a plan to invade Turkey via Greece once the situation in Israel had been stabilized. In the meantime, they were still working on how to move 140,000 soldiers in Germany and 110,000 troops in Italy to Israel. There were still another 350,000 troops on the East Coast waiting for transport to Europe, which had become more complicated with the loss of US satellite communications and GPS.

General Gardner walked into an underground command bunker that had been commandeered from the IDF, ready to address his senior officers and NCOs. “Everyone, listen up. We’re going to have to deal with the fact that we don’t have satellite communications or surveillance and, yes, there is a serious disruption to our supply lines. We train for this junk, so just get over the loss—we have a war to win,” barked General Gardner. “The Air Force is providing continuous drone surveillance and communication flights across the battlefield, the Navy is continuing to ferry reinforcements from Italy, and the 80th and 81st Drone Attack Wings have been tearing into the IR supply lines and frontline troops. They have also lost nearly 460 ground attack drones, so we won’t have as many available for close air support—keep that in mind as well.

“For the last eighteen days, we’ve been getting our butts handed to us on a platter, and now it’s time for us to go on the offensive. We’re going to encircle the IR forces in the Jordan Valley and cut them off from the rest of their army. Once we have them encircled, the 307th Bomber Wing is going to conduct a massive carpet bombing of the entire valley. Their attack will quickly be followed up with the 80th and 81st Drone Attack Wings, and a massive napalm attack will finish them off.” Audible whistles could be heard throughout the room.

“Major General Kennedy, the 3rd ID has been doubled in strength, re-equipped and supplied. Tonight, your forces are going on the offense. The Marines have been slugging it out with the IR forces in Be’er Sheva for over a week. The 80th Air Wing has been pounding the crap out of the IR forces in that sector for the last eighteen hours to soften them up. I want the 3rd ID to pass through the Marine positions and hit the IR hard, then drive your division to Arad and onward to the Masada Forest Preserve near the Dead Sea. Be prepared to hold that territory.”

General Gardner turned to the next divisional commander. “Major General Peeler, the 4th Marines are going to move through your lines and support the 3rd ID by holding the line from Beit Kama, Lahav and Meitar, where they’ll form the left flank of General Kennedy’s defensive line. The 80th Air Wing will provide continuous air support to your division’s forces, so use them as needed. Moving to the north, Major General Preston, your 4th ID is fresh and about to get bloodied. The IR forces have been making a push again at Umm al-Fahm. Your division will need to push the IR forces back and then secure Ein Harod-Ihud down to Beit She’an. It is imperative that your division hold this line. The IR is going to press your troops hard in an effort to cut our forces in half. You absolutely cannot let this happen, no matter the cost to your division. Your position is perhaps the most important in this whole attack scheme.” General Preston nodded in acknowledgment of the significance of his mission.

“Major General Twitty, I need the 1st Armored Division to bring the hammer down and close the back door. Your division is to push through the 4th ID at Beit She’an and drive hard to Zubaydat, As Salt, Jericho and Almog along the Dead Sea. This area is good tank country, but you’ll need to watch your six with Amman to your back. It’s imperative that the 1st Armored and 3rd ID hold your positions at the Dead Sea. This will leave the IR forces nowhere to go.”

“The IDF, along with the 101st Airborne, will hold the line in front of Lod, Rehovot and Kiryat Gat. Once the bombing runs are completed, all divisions will move forward and shrink the perimeter until we secure the entire valley,” General Gardner ordered.

General Kennedy raised his hand. “Once we’ve destroyed these pigs, are we going to get our payback for their crucifixions?” he asked.

The Marine commanders, who were beyond enraged, jumped in. “We found 153 Marines crucified when we resecured the Ben-Gurion University campus near Negev the other day,” blurted General Peeler, eyes burning with rage.

“I know everyone wants payback for the crucifixions, and I assure you we will have it. Once the battlefields have been secured and the grave registration units move in, they’re going to bury the IR forces in mass graves. They’ll do their best to identify the IR soldiers so that they can be properly marked. Prior to the graves being filled in, they have been instructed to cover all the bodies in pig’s blood, which the Germans and Brits have supplied. We have documented over 5,000 crucifixions of US forces, so we will bury their dead in pig’s blood in retaliation. They believe that this will prevent them from entering paradise, so we will test that theory.”

A few laughs, snickers and whoops could be heard, mostly from the NCOs.

This was a tactic used by General “Black Jack” Pershing in the Philippines prior to World War I. The US had taken possession of the Philippines during the Spanish American War of 1898. In 1911, a Muslim uprising had taken place in Mindanao, and General Pershing had had the insurgents shot with bullets dipped in pig’s blood, and then their bodies had been buried with the guts of the pig. This had discouraged future jihadi attacks. General Gardner’s staff wanted to take a page from history and see if it would make a difference in this war—any small advantage that could be gained was something worth pursuing, no matter how strange or unconventional it might be.

“If anyone has further questions, please stay behind and direct them to Brigadier General Williams. I want everyone ready to move within the next twelve hours.”

*******

15 December 2040

The Hive, Presidential Briefing

“Eric, are the other hive locations operational yet?” asked Monty.

“All thirty sites are operational. We’ve located and moved every member of Congress and senior government official along with their families to the secured locations. There should be no more high-level assassinations,” said Eric Clarke in a serious tone.

“I still cannot believe the Chinese would openly assassinate our elected officials,” said Jorge Perez in disbelief.

“The world powers seem to be trying pretty hard to put us down for the count,” said Monty angrily.

“Is the President going to sign the executive orders for the Trinity Project today?” inquired Director Perez.

“We are still going forward with the program? I thought we had agreed to table that,” said Jane Smart, the Director of the FBI.

“We had tabled it, until the Chinese killed all but three of the Supreme Court justices and Senator Landrew. Between the Muslim extremists in our country and the Chinese sleeper agents, the President made the decision to move forward with it last night,” explained Monty.

“I understand your concern with it, Jane. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll shut it down,” said Director Perez.

“Call me old-fashioned, but once this program goes live, I highly doubt it will ever be turned off. It’ll become too powerful a tool to simply cancel it.”

“Right now, we need to stop these terrorist attacks and bring some sense of security to the American people. The war in Israel is finally starting to turn in our favor, but the Chinese have really hit us hard,” explained Monty with a bit of concern in his voice.

The Trinity Program was the culmination of decades of identity intelligence collection, social media monitoring, big data and predictive behavioral analysis, all rolled into one program. Essentially, the program would scan people’s social media pages, blogs, and other easily obtainable information and analyze the behavioral characteristics of every single person in the US and around the rest of the globe to provide a predictive analysis as to whether or not that individual posed a security threat. Because of the use of biometrically enabled national identity cards, the purchases people made could also be included in the profiles being generated.

Once the parameters for the search were entered into the program, the system could immediately go to work providing real-time data of threats, including their locations, who they were connected to, and a detailed dossier of the activity of the individuals who met the program’s requirements, justifying them as a valid threat. Once a link to a known threatening individual had been made, a warrant for further investigation would be acquired from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Then the program would begin to go through the individual’s emails, phone calls, text messages, banking records, etcetera, until it had built a complete dossier of the individual for analysts and senior leadership to determine their next steps. Once activated, the Trinity Program would become the most complex and detailed profiling and surveillance program in the world.

By 2039, biometrics had become a major part of the American economy and a major component in reducing crime throughout the country. Through federal grants, the Department of Homeland Security had assisted cities and communities throughout the country in installing traffic and surveillance cameras in public places and buildings, similar to what London and other British cities had done. The network of cameras covered the vast majority of public spaces, making it easier to track the movement of suspicious individuals.

Of course, the Trinity Program was highly classified, with less than twenty total people in the government knowing about its existence, including the two programmers who had built it. There were also several checks and balances built into the program to ensure it wouldn’t be used for a political or discriminatory role outside of its stated mission to protect the homeland. All four agency directors, in addition to the President, Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, had to agree on the search parameters and any modifications before it could be used or changed.

As Jane and Monty were engaged in their intense discussion about the Trinity Program, the President walked into the War Room. He could tell by the awkward silence that followed his entrance to the room that he was interrupting something. “Sorry for the intrusion. I know I’m a few minutes late, but let’s go ahead and get this meeting started.”

“Mr. President, we’ve broken the briefing down by theaters of operation as requested. The first theater we’re going to discuss is Asia,” said Colonel Alisa James, a sharp Air Force officer who had been the Defense Attaché to China just four months prior. Her unique knowledge of Chinese military capabilities had attracted the President’s attention during a briefing at the start of the war with the IR, and she had been his preferred briefer ever since.

“In Taiwan, the PLA has landed nearly 215,000 troops and effectively split the country in half. The Taiwanese Defense Forces believe they should be able to hold their current positions for at least another month and will continue to do so for as long as they can. The TDF destroyed nearly twenty percent of the invasion force’s ships and shot down over 1,300 Chinese fighter drones. Ultimately, the TDF will have to surrender if they’re not reinforced, but at present, they’re tying the PLA down and costing them thousands of casualties a day.

“We have three attack submarines in the area that have been hitting the Chinese surface fleet on and off for the last three days with some success. They were able to destroy a PLAN heavy missile cruiser along with two roll-on, roll-off heavy transport ships, which will probably hurt the PLA and PLAN logistically more than any of the other ships sunk thus far.”

“In Okinawa, the PLAN and PLAAF have destroyed our Naval, Marine and Air Force bases on the island. Most of our aircraft that hadn’t deployed prior to the surprise attack by the Chinese were destroyed on the ground. The 12,200 Marines, sailors, and airmen are working with 15,000 Japanese Defense Forces or JDF to prepare the island for a potential invasion. Unfortunately, we do not have any capabilities within the region to evacuate our military members from the island. Should the Chinese land ground forces on the island, our forces are on their own.

“The North Koreans and Chinese haven’t made a move towards South Korea yet. We aren’t sure how long this will last. Admiral Libby, the PACOM commanding general, has ordered all American forces in Korea to withdraw to Japan. The South Koreans have activated their entire reserve forces and are moving to fill in our positions as we withdraw.

“The Japanese have provided over a dozen heavy lift transports to assist in moving the heavy equipment to include tanks from Korea to Japan. The JDF has also moved three of their five carriers into Korean waters to protect the transports. Admiral Libby has stated that all American forces should be out of Korea within the next seven days, bringing the US forces in Japan to around 42,000.

“Aside from the attack against our bases on Okinawa, the Chinese have not attacked the Japanese Defense Forces. Intelligence does not believe there’s a separate deal being worked between the Chinese and Japanese, but the Chinese don’t appear to be concerned by the JDF at present.”

The President interjected, “Colonel James, before you go any further—can you please tell me if the JDF plans on assisting the US in fighting the Chinese?”

“I believe that is a question Secretary Clarke or Secretary Wise could better answer,” said Colonel James, turning to them both.

“Mr. President, I have spoken with the prime minister of Japan, and he has told me that Japan is going to try and remain neutral as they continue to mobilize their reserves,” replied Secretary Wise.

“Jim, kindly remind the prime minister of our mutual defense agreements, and that America is depending on Japan to honor those agreements. If they’re holding out for a few more days or weeks so they can mobilize their reserves, I understand. However, we need their help in challenging the PLAN in the Pacific until our other carriers are operational,” said the President, clearly annoyed that yet another ally had not come to the aid of the US.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Colonel, please continue.”

“Yes, Mr. President. Our forces on Guam are surrounded. The PLAAF and PLAN have been hitting them round the clock. It would appear they are going to invade the island sometime within the next twelve to twenty-four hours. The Navy lost four attack submarines in the last twelve hours in the waters around Guam, and the Air Force has expended nearly all of their remaining fighter drones attacking the PLAN armada—”

“How many PLAN ships are in this armada?” asked the President.

“According to our last surveillance drone, there are three Chinese supercarriers, along with their supporting ships, and what appears to be roughly 90,000 naval infantry forces,” said Colonel James. “These naval infantry forces are equipped with their newest exoskeleton combat suits. These are the best trained and equipped troops that the Marines and Air Force will be facing.”

“Between the Air Force and Marines, we have 21,200 personnel on the island. Most of the family members have been evacuated, but some are still on the island. As of five hours ago, the base had suffered the loss of 2,312 servicemen and women killed, with nearly twice that many wounded. There have also been 964 civilian casualties.”

“General Black, can the Marines repulse their invasion?” asked the President, knowing the chances might be small.

“It will be tough, Mr. President. I’d like to say they can, but with no air support, reinforcements or assistance, they will ultimately fail. I do believe they could defend the base and island for a few weeks, maybe a month. Do you want my Marines to try and hold out?” asked General Black, knowing where the President was going with his question.

The President didn’t want to make General Black responsible for issuing the command to hold the island and essentially commit to losing over 15,000 Marines. He needed to be the one to give that order.

“I do, General Black. The longer they can tie down the PLAN, the more time it gives the Navy to attack and sink their ships while they’re in a contained area. I hate the idea of losing more service members, but surrendering without a fight is just going to give the Chinese an operational air base in a key position in the Pacific, and our forces will be moved to God only knows what kind of POW camp the Chinese are running.”

“I’ll inform the commander on the ground that he’s to prepare to hold the island for as long as possible, destroy the remnants of the runways and then heavily mine them. It will slow the Chinese down, and hopefully the Japanese Defense Force will get involved soon. They could potentially relieve, or at least resupply our forces there,” said the general with a solemn shadow cast over him.

“Thank you, General Black. We will do everything in our power to make sure that those Marines do not make a sacrifice in vain,” replied the President.

“Thank you, Sir.”

Colonel James paused a moment and then broke the awkward silence that hung in the air. “Moving on to Southeast Asia, Mr. President. The Chinese 7th and 8th Army Groups have rolled across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and most of Thailand. Intelligence suggests that they’ll move on Malaysia and the Philippines next.”

“What are the Australians doing in response?” asked the President.

“The Royal Australian Navy is conducting hit-and-run attacks on the PLAN in the area, but in general, they’re pulling their forces back from Indonesia to northern Australia. I recommend we withdraw our forces from Indonesia as quickly as possible, along with the rest of our naval assets, and move them to northern Australia and prepare a new defensive line,” General Branson said while pulling up a holographic map of Australia.

“We are in no position to stop the PLAN right now; they have three supercarriers heading towards Malaysia. Our best option is to withdraw as quickly as we can and prepare a defensive line in Australia. Until we can regain control of the seas, we need to be cautious with our remaining carrier group.”

“I concur, Mr. President. For the time being, we need to play defense with the Chinese until we can retool and get our shipyards going,” Admiral Juliano said while opening a file on his tablet.

“We have ordered the construction of eight new supercarriers, and we’re pulling another eight out of mothballs to get them in the fight. It’s going to be three to six months to get our mothballed carriers into the fleet, and close to three to four years for the new ones to be completed.”

“I assume we are activating most of the Ghost Fleet, correct?”

“Yes, Mr. President. The Navy just issued a contract for 200,000 workers to retrofit the Ghost Fleet and get it operational. We’ve also activated the entire naval reserve force, and they’re going to start reporting for Fleet duty within the week,” said Secretary Clarke, nodding to Admiral Juliano.

“Sorry for getting us sidetracked, Colonel. Is there anything else with regard to Asia that we should know?” asked the President.

“There is one other item. We know the Chinese have several military installations in Africa and the IR. One of our subs in the Indian Ocean spotted two Chinese convoys. They followed them until the convoys split, so they followed the one heading towards their naval and land base in former Yemen. The other convoy appeared to be heading towards their base in either Madagascar or Tanzania.”

“Hmm….so our forces may start to see Chinese ground forces in Israel soon. General Gardner, did you catch that part?”

“Yes, Mr. President. I’ll see if the Air Force can task some of their drones to that location and see if we can spot the convoy as it comes into port,” said General Gardner via the 3-D holographic image.

“Colonel, thank you for bringing us up to speed in Asia. Let’s transition to Mexico and the Panama Canal before we discuss Europe and the Middle East.”

“Mr. President, I’ve authorized four private military contractors to provide security for the DOJ, DHS, and reconstruction efforts in Mexico. This will allow us to withdraw an additional 60,000 troops from Mexico and bring our total troop count to around 45,000 from the 105,000 currently there. I’ll leave the reconstruction status for the DHS brief later today. Moving to the Panama Canal…well, it’s a mess. The Corps of Engineers believe they can have the locks repaired within the next thirty to forty-five days. We are also sending 9,300 troops to provide additional security for the canal; it’s become too important of an asset for us,” Secretary Clarke said.

“I’m amazed the canal can be repaired in that amount of time, Eric. I thought we might have lost use of it for much longer,” said the President with a hint of optimism.

“We thought it was going to be out of commission longer as well. Thankfully, the blast wasn’t a nuclear or a dirty bomb, so it’s just a matter of repairing the infrastructure, as opposed to decontaminating everything prior to working on it.”

“I know I’m changing subjects, but how is the recruiting going?” asked Secretary Perez from DHS.

“Surprisingly well. The first week of the war, we had 2,300,000 volunteers. The issue we face right now is processing them all and getting them into training. It’s taking nearly three weeks to get a new recruit to basic training. We have twelve new basic training locations being opened, and we’ve tripled the size of the existing sites. Last week we had another 1,700,000 people join,” Eric said.

“Do we still need to look at a draft with these numbers?” asked the President, hoping to keep the armed forces an all-volunteer force.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Even with nearly four million people joining the military in the last seventeen days?” asked the DHS Director, a bit surprised.

“Four million men and women is a lot, but this war is going to need a lot more. We’re facing a Chinese military that’s close to forty million strong with their active and reserve force. The Russians have activated their entire reserve, bringing their total force to over six million, and the Islamic Republic still has over six million troops, despite the losses they’re incurring in Israel.

“We also need a lot of tech-savvy recruits for our drone and other technical programs. A lot of these training programs are in excess of six to eighteen months. Even with accelerating the training, it’s going to take time to field these new soldiers. In the meantime, we’ve lost 71,242 service members in Israel, 32,435 service members in Asia and 2,352 in Mexico. These are just our KIAs. Our wounded are nearly triple that,” Eric said with a deep sigh. He rubbed his temples, unable to hide the stress.

“We’re going to need an army closer to ten to twelve million strong and a complete retooling of our entire economy to accommodate war production in order to win this war, and it will take years, not months.”

Monty broke in and quickly asked, “Things aren’t that bad, are they? We’re about to crush an entire IR army in the Jordan Valley.”

“It’s not that they’re dire right now…it’s the combined weight of Russia, China and the IR that will eventually crush us. We have no blocking force in the Pacific right now, leaving Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast exposed. The Russians are about to enter the war, and they’ll most likely roll over the EU within six months. With the Russian and Chinese navies and most of our carriers and naval forces destroyed, there’s little we can do to stop the Chinese or Russians from taking Hawaii or Alaska, or making a move into our Canadian states,” explained CIA Director Rubio.

The President saw the realization of what Director Rubio had just said, and he knew he had to regain control of the mood and thoughts of his advisors before they began to think the situation was hopeless.

“Gentlemen, America has been in tough positions in the past, and in each case, we have risen above them to new greatness. This will be no exception. Our soldiers are using the most advanced infantry rifle in the world; we have already seen it make a difference in Israel. Our new Pershing tanks are unrivaled on the battlefield. They defeated the best Russian and Chinese made tanks near Damascus, and it’s that same railgun technology that cut down over five thousand IR fighter drones that swarmed over Israel.

“The American soldier is the toughest killing machine in the world, and we will win this war! It may not be in six months, or even a year, but mark my words—as long as I’m President, we will fight this war through to victory. We are Americans. We are not just the greatest country on earth, we are the most innovative and craftiest devils in history. If any of you doubt that fact, then I ask you to resign immediately, and we will replace you with someone who will work tirelessly for complete and total victory,” said the President, eying all of his directors, generals, and advisors.

The room became silent. The few who had doubts about America’s ability to win this war quickly lost them with the President’s fiery pep talk. Monty broke the silence. “So that everyone is aware—the CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have assured us that their entire manufacturing capability is in the process of switching over to manufacturing armored vehicles, tanks, drones, missiles and anything else we need. They will no longer produce any new American vehicles for the duration of the war and will focus solely on building military equipment. Wal-Mart and Amazon are assisting with the logistics and movement of material across the US and to the operational theaters. Lockheed, Boeing and General Dynamics have ramped up production to 24/7 operations producing cruise missiles, fighter and bomber aircraft, along with our entire suite of fighter drone aircraft.”

Secretary Gibbs also added, “The Treasury Department has also begun to seize all IR and Chinese assets in the US, including businesses, buildings and other assets that the Chinese and IR subsidiary firms have in the US. We have also frozen the bank accounts of all government and private individuals from those countries, and we are in the process of seizing those financial assets as well.”

“The rest of the banking community has been made aware that the US will not do business with any financial institution or corporation that has a joint venture with these countries or that has financial dealings with them. The seizing of assets alone has netted the federal government 1.8 trillion NAD in cash and $5.6 trillion in physical assets, such as buildings and businesses,” said Joyce.

“What are we going to do with the money and assets from these seizures?” asked Secretary of State Wise.

“The cash is going into the regular federal budget. I assume it will be used to help fund the war. The physical assets will be sold on the open market for any US persons or corporations to purchase. The proceeds from these sales will also go into the government coffers—”

The President interrupted to add his thoughts. “—We did not start this war, nor are we going to allow these countries and their people to benefit financially from the conflict or sabotage our war efforts. The money being seized will be used to directly fund the war. Director Perez, can you tell us about your meeting with the various heads from the Silicon Valley?”

“Yes, Mr. President. Yesterday I had a meeting with the heads of Google, Apple and some other IT corporations in Silicon Valley. They have agreed to shut off internet access to China, in addition to the entire IR. We’ll be instructing them to move ahead with cutting off the Russians as well. Cutting them out of the internet, or at least the seventy percent of it that Silicon Valley controls, is going to have a devastating effect on them,” said Director Perez with a smile.

Secretary Wise looked puzzled. “How did you manage to get them to go along with this? I would’ve thought they would’ve balked at losing money from those markets.”

“They initially did balk at it; they even said they would ignore our directive. Then Secretary Gibbs joined our meeting and said their assets would be frozen for aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war if they didn’t go along with the program,” Director Perez said with a smirk.

“That’s actually a good point. By continuing to provide them services, they are essentially giving them aid by greatly enhancing their ability to communicate and continue cyberattacks against us. I guess I hadn’t thought of it in that way,” responded Secretary Jim Wise. He flashed a look of admiration at Gibbs and Perez for pulling this deal off.

“Since Russia has already been brought up, let’s discuss them briefly before we break. There are a lot of orders that need to get issued and a lot of coordination that needs to be done,” said the President. He was starting to feel almost overwhelmed by the enormity of the decisions he was having to make.

An Army brigadier general began briefing his portion of the meeting. “General Dimitri Kulikov, their Central Asian military commander and the general who led their Red October War, has been transferred to Europe. He has brought the Third Shock Army, which has been battle-hardened for the better part of the last two years in Central Asia. The First Shock Army has moved to the western Ukrainian border while the Third Shock Army is in Belarus, not far from the Polish border. Both Army groups have doubled in strength in the last six months, bringing their total number to 1.7 million soldiers each. They’ve also moved four million second-tier troops that will be used for replacements and occupation duty when the time comes.”

“They also have the Second Shock Army assembling in Turkey, which could threaten our forces in Israel or the EU via Greece,” General Branson added.

“Will the EU be able to hold them?” asked the President, knowing the chances were slim.

“Not a chance, Sir. The EU has activated their entire reserve force of 1.2 million soldiers, but they’re not ready for combat. The EU’s active force is around 660,000, and most of those soldiers are underequipped and undertrained to face the Russians. The Russian Army isn’t like the old Soviet Army. This new army is well equipped and well trained. At this point, the EU will be more of a speed bump unless they are seriously reinforced,” replied the general.

“Do we have a timeline for when they may attack?” the President asked.

“Our agents were able to identify the launch date for their attack. It’ll take place on December twenty-fourth,” said Director Rubio.

“What a Christmas present Fradkov is giving to the world. So, we have less than two weeks. Do we have troops or equipment that can be diverted to shore up the EU positions until they can build up their own forces?” inquired Monty.

“We have 350,000 troops en route to Europe, but they were slated to head towards Greece and open a second front against the IR in Turkey,” replied the general.

“If the Russians are going to invade, then opening a second front against the IR is a moot point. As those troops deploy to Europe, have them head to our bases in Germany, Poland, and Romania. Let’s initiate Operation Reforger and get the gravy train of equipment headed towards England, France, and Germany,” said the President.

Once again, America is going to have to save Europe from their own inability to protect themselves. Something has to change in this equation or saving Europe is not going to be worth it, the President thought to himself.

“Sir, we can reroute the troops and equipment, but we need to recognize that it will take us close to a month to get an Army group equipped and operationally ready to take on the Third Shock Army. We have 140,000 troops in Italy right now, but they’re supposed to join General Gardner’s Command. I recommend that we still send them. We obviously cannot fight on three fronts right now, so let’s finish and secure one front while we can. Then we can move more of those forces to the other fronts. The main issue our forces in Europe will face is air power. Most of our air power is supporting our forces in Israel,” the SecDef said.

“It’s going to be tough, gentlemen, and perhaps we end up trading land for a time, but we need to help the EU hold Germany. It’s their industrial center, and losing it will hurt the EU’s ability to build up their forces. To your other point, Eric, you’re right. We cannot fight on three fronts. I want our focus to be on securing Israel and removing the IR as a threat. In Europe, we need to focus on delaying action and plan to make a stand in Germany. For Asia, I want the focus to also be on delaying damage. Until our naval forces are able to take on the Chinese directly, we’re not going to be able to do much against them.”

“With all due respect, Mr. President, the EU has really shot themselves in the foot in this situation. Once again, it’s America coming to their aid a third time with our military. I respect our EU military forces, but their people and politicians continue to rely on America to defend and save them. I know we can’t let the Russians just take them, but there should be something in it for us.” A few jaws dropped when National Security Advisor Mike Williams was finished. All eyes turned to the President.

Chuckling slightly, the President responded, “I spent several years working for the DoD in Europe during the 2010s. I couldn’t agree with you more, Mike. The question is, what will make it worth it? We can’t let Russia have all of Europe. We also can’t continue to defend Europe when they should be able to defend themselves.” Rubbing his eyes slightly, the President stood. “I appreciate everyone’s hard work and effort. These are trying times for America, and we as a country are going to have to rise to meet this challenge. I don’t have all the answers, and neither do any of you…what we do have is a will to win and a determination to make that happen. I’ll think about what you said Mike, and tomorrow we can discuss it further. With that, I want to end this meeting. We will reconvene tomorrow.”

*******

19 December 2040

Kramim, Israel

Sergeant Joe Thornton’s platoon had advanced steadily once the 4th Marines had hit the IR forces near Be’er Sheva the day before. Despite the numerical advantage the IR had, the American fighter drones had been pounding the IR for days. “Lieutenant Lee, are we going to advance with the 4th further into the Jordan Valley?” asked Sergeant Thornton.

“No, Sergeant. Our orders are to hold this location, so have the rest of the platoon dig in defensive positions. Word has it the IR is about to be pounded from the air, and then we move in and mop up what’s left.”

That afternoon, the 307th Bomber Wing, consisting of eighty-four B5 strategic bomber drones, flew over Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and the bulk of the IR army. The slow and relentless whistling of tens of thousands of bombs being dropped in a pattern designed to saturate every square foot of land below them was nothing short of sheer terror. The mixture of high-explosive and incendiary bombs was designed to not just destroy but incinerate everything in their path. The ground shook and rumbled as if a long and deep earthquake was happening. The Israeli and American forces watched the death and destruction being rained down throughout the valley in awe. A swath of the valley nearly twenty miles deep and sixty miles long was a burning cauldron of death that few, if any, could survive.

After nearly ninety minutes of continuous bombing, Private Thomas and the rest of his platoon stood up and surveyed the damage in the valley. “Do you think anyone lived through that?”

“Listen up, people,” said Sergeant Thornton, “the lieutenant says the platoon will be moving out soon to see what’s left of them after the bombardment, so get your gear ready. Remember the rules of engagement—if they are unharmed and they surrender, accept it. If they are wounded and need more medical assistance than what the corpsman can provide, shoot them. The higher-ups have said we don’t have the medical supplies and support to treat both their wounded and ours. We’re not going to sacrifice a wounded Marine for one of theirs—understood?”

“Yes, Sergeant,” echoed the chorus of voices through the platoon.

Chapter 17

The Day America Changed Forever

19 December 2040

New York Harbor, New York

The Coast Guard boat was bouncing around as it sped through New York Harbor while the crew began their inspection shift. They were responsible for conducting boardings and inspections of ships as the higher headquarters or DHS directed. Since the start of the war, DHS had been directing the Coast Guard to conduct an increase in cargo ship inspections before ships were allowed to move up the Hudson River.

“I was watching the news before we left on the boat. Those videos they were showing of that air attack in Israel were unbelievable,” Mike said while lighting a cigarette.

“I missed seeing it. I heard a few of the guys say they wiped out most of that Muslim army,” said George as he sped the boat towards a group of freighters entering the harbor.

“Cut the chatter, guys. Take us towards that freighter near Ellis Island. It’s not answering the harbor master’s hails, and DHS wants us to investigate before it enters the Hudson River,” said Petty Officer Ed Phillips.

While the small Coast Guard boat headed towards the freighter, they could see it pick up speed as it moved past Ellis Island, heading into the Hudson River. “That freighter is moving a bit fast into the Hudson, don’t you think, George?”

“Ed, that ship looks like its speeding up, not slowing down,” George warned.

Boom!

As the new sun expanded into lower Manhattan and Jersey City, it rapidly gained in speed and temperature, quickly rising to 20 million degrees Fahrenheit, vaporizing everything—buildings, trees, cars, and people—in a mile-and-a-half radius. In an instant, nearly one million people were killed, and four million people received fatal doses of radiation and deadly burns. As the wind swept through the city and surrounding boroughs at several hundred miles an hour, it blew out windows, pushed cars into each other and threw tens of thousands of people on the streets of New York to the ground and into buildings like rag dolls.

Within seconds of the blast wave dissipating, thousands of taxis, delivery trucks, and other vehicles that traveled the busy streets of New York began to explode as the firestorm from the blast created thousands of secondary explosions. Gas and water mains also exploded, further adding to the chaos and destruction being wrought on Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs.

Battery Park, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty were obliterated in the blast, destroying one of the most recognizable symbols of America. As the Statue of Liberty fell apart, so too did any restraint President Stein or the military were using in the war with the Islamic Republic. More Americans had died in this single act of aggression than any other in American history. The Islamic Republic was showing no restraint in their war against Israel and the US. It was time for not just the muzzle to come off the American military, but the leash as well.

From the Authors

Miranda and I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. We are currently working on the fourth book of the Falling Empires Series. We also recently released two children’s books about PTSD—if you know someone who struggles with that battle, we hope that they might be able to use these books as a resource.

While you are waiting for our next book to be released, we do have several audiobooks that have recently been produced. All six books of the Red Storm Series are now available in audio format as is our entire World War III series. Interview with a Terrorist and Traitors Within, which are currently standalone books, are also available for your listening pleasure.

If you would like to stay up to date on new releases and receive emails about any special pricing deals we may make available, please sign up for our email distribution list. Simply go to http://www.author-james-rosone.com and scroll to the bottom of the page.

As independent authors, reviews are very important to us and make a huge difference to other prospective readers. If you enjoyed this book, we humbly ask you to write up a positive review on Amazon and Goodreads. We sincerely appreciate each person that takes the time to write one.

We have really valued connecting with our readers via social media, especially on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RosoneandWatson/. Sometimes we ask for help from our readers as we write future books—we love to draw upon all your different areas of expertise. We also have a group of beta readers who get to look at the books before they are officially published and help us fine-tune last-minute adjustments. If you would like to be a part of this team, please go to our author website: http://www.author-james-rosone.com, and send us a message through the “Contact” tab. You can also follow us on Twitter: @jamesrosone and @AuthorMirandaW. We look forward to hearing from you.

You may also enjoy some of our other works. A full list can be found below:

Nonfiction:

Iraq Memoir 2006–2007 Troop Surge

Interview with a Terrorist (link to audiobook here)

Fiction:

World War III Series

Prelude to World War III: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dawn and the Siege of Europe (link to audiobook here)

Cyber Warfare and the New World Order (link to audiobook here)

Michael Stone Series

Traitors Within (link to audiobook here)

The Red Storm Series

Battlefield Ukraine (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Korea (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Taiwan (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Pacific (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Russia (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield China (link to audiobook here)

The Falling Empires Series

Rigged (link to audiobook here)

Peacekeepers

Invasion (available for preorder, release date November 25, 2019)

Vengeance (available for preorder, release date February 17, 2020)

Retribution (release date TBD)

Children’s Books:

My Daddy has PTSD

My Mommy has PTSD

For the Veterans

I have been pretty open with our fans about the fact that PTSD has had a tremendous direct impact on our lives; it affected my relationship with my wife, job opportunities, finances, parenting—everything. It is also no secret that for me, the help from the VA was not the most ideal form of treatment. Although I am still on this journey, I did find one organization that did assist the healing process for me, and I would like to share that information.

Welcome Home Initiative is a ministry of By His Wounds Ministry, and they run seminars for veterans and their spouses for free. The weekends are a combination of prayer and more traditional counseling and left us with resources to aid in moving forward. The entire cost of the retreat—hotel costs, food, and sessions, are completely free from the moment the veteran and their spouse arrive at the location.

If you feel that you or someone you love might benefit from one of Welcome Home Initiative’s sessions, please visit their website to learn more: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/

We have decided to donate a portion of our profits to this organization, because it made such an impact in our lives and we believe in what they are doing. If you would also like to donate to Welcome Home Initiative and help to keep these weekend retreats going, you can do so by following this link: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/donate/

Abbreviation Key

ACLU           American Civil Liberties Union

AFC             America First Corporation

AG              Attorney General

AIR             Advanced Infantry Rifle

AT              Antitank

BCT             Brigade Combat Team

CAG             Commander, Air Group

CAP             Combat Air Patrol

CENTCOM     Central Command

CIC             Combat Information Center

CIO             Chief Information Officer

CMC             Central Military Commission

DHS             Department of Homeland Security

DIA             Defense Intelligence Agency

DoD             Department of Defense

DOE             Department of Energy

DOJ             Department of Justice

EMP             Electromagnetic Pulse

EO              Executive Order

EU              European Union

EUCOM         European Command

FP              Freedom Party

FSB             Russia’s version of the CIA (Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti)

GC              Grain Consortium

GDP             Gross Domestic Product

GRU             Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, Russia’s equivalent to America’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

HEAT           High Explosive Antitank

HUD             Heads Up Display

HUMINT       Human Intelligence (information gained through spy craft, interrogations, and source operations)

ID              Infantry Division

IDF             Israeli Defense Force

IED             Improvised Explosive Device

IR              Islamic Republic

ISI             Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence Agency

ISR             Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance

J2              Joint Intelligence Directorate

JDF             Japanese Defense Force

JSOC           Joint Special Operations Command

KIA             Killed in Action

LNG             Liquid Natural Gas

MANPADS     Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems

MIA             Missing in Action

MEF             Marine Expeditionary Force

MLRS           Multiple-Launch Rocket System

MRE             Meal Ready to Eat (packages of meals that are shelf stable for a long time and used by the military)

NAD             New American Dollar

NCO             Noncommissioned Officer

NIC             National Identity Cards (biometrically enabled cards for identification and tracking)

OPEC           Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries

PACOM         Pacific Command

PGA             Provisional Governing Authority (temporary government set up by the US)

PLA             People’s Liberation Army (Chinese Army)

PLAN           People’s Liberation Army Navy (Chinese Navy)

PLAAF         People’s Liberation Army Air Force (Chinese Air Force)

PM              Prime Minister

POW             Prisoner of War

RPG             Rocket-Propelled Grenade

SecDef                Secretary of Defense

TDF             Taiwanese Defense Force

WIA             Wounded in Action

WMD             Weapons of Mass Destruction

Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

Book Two of the World War III Series

By James Rosone & Miranda Watson

Copyright Information

©2016, 2018, James Rosone and Miranda Watson, in conjunction with Front Line Publishing, Inc. Except as provided by the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Disclaimer

This book is fictional in nature. Any resemblance to persons or events in actual existence is merely coincidental. The views expressed in the book are the views held by the characters and are not reflective of the authors’ personal views.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Day that Changed the Nation

Chapter 2: The Country Responds

Chapter 3: A Caliph’s Dilemma

Chapter 4: The Phone Rings

Chapter 5: In Other Parts of the World

Chapter 6: Europe Changes Tactics

Chapter 7: The Great Dragon Awakes

Chapter 8: Revenge

Chapter 9: Mobilization

Chapter 10: New Commander

Chapter 11: Tipping Point

Chapter 12: The Lion Licks His Wounds

Chapter 13: A Very Un-Merry Christmas

Chapter 14: Korean Peninsula

Chapter 15: Decision Point

Chapter 16: WMD Unleashed

Chapter 17: Southern Negotiation

Chapter 18: Crash Course

Chapter 19: The Coming Freeze

Chapter 20: Spetsnaz

Chapter 21: All is Not Quiet on the Western Front

Chapter 22: Operation Red Dawn

Chapter 23: Trifecta

Chapter 24: Modern Trench Warfare

Chapter 25: A War of Attrition

Chapter 26: Bloodbath at Megiddo

Chapter 27: Redirect

Chapter 28: Chinese Manifest Destiny

Chapter 29: STEM

Chapter 30: Saving Samson

Chapter 31: Before the Law Takes a Break

Chapter 32: Armageddon

Chapter 33: Alaskan Blues

Chapter 34: Stronghold

Chapter 35: Quadrant Identification

Chapter 36: Rescuing Berlin

Chapter 37: Smile for the Cameras

Chapter 38: The Invasion Begins

Chapter 39: Clash for the Kodiak

Chapter 40: Drone Attack

Chapter 41: After the Shock and Awe

Chapter 42: Field of Blood

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key

Chapter 1

The Day that Changed the Nation

Day Twenty-One

19 December 2040, Late Afternoon

New York Harbor, New York

Freighter Zulu Warrior

Captain Omar Hammadi and his crew of eight had volunteered for this suicide mission. They would deliver the first of two of Allah’s Swords against the Americans. The 50-kiloton nuclear warhead they were carrying below the deck of their ship could be set to detonate by timer or by manual control. Captain Hammadi had one of his engineers wire the trigger device directly to the bridge so that he could personally be the one that unleashed Allah’s Sword on the unrighteous Americans.

They had originally planned to target Houston and the oil-refining centers, but then their orders had been changed by the Caliph himself. He’d told the men that he had had a vision and that their target should instead be Manhattan and New York Harbor.

Having served in the Iranian Navy for years, Captain Hammadi was pleased with the change in orders due to the greater tactical advantage of the new target. However, he was concerned about the increased risk in of detection before they reached their final position. He didn’t want anything to stop him from fulfilling his legacy of destroying the infidels.

As they joined the queue of freighters waiting to enter the Hudson River, the crew played along with the harbor master’s rules, waiting their turn to be inspected before they could proceed. After nearly three days of waiting, they had finally received instructions to move their ship into the next inspection queue. The Coast Guard announced, “Come to a complete stop, and wait to be contacted for your inspection.”

Captain Hammadi started to feel nervous. They were so close to their intended target—less than six miles away, yet it felt like a million miles. Hammadi had been assured that the device was heavily shielded and should not set off any radiological detectors or other devices. It was also buried under several tons of coffee beans to ensure it wouldn’t be detected by a boarding party. Despite these assurances, Hammadi’s heart was still racing. If they were discovered before they were able to get close enough to their intended target and had to detonate the warhead in their current position, they would still cause catastrophic damage, but it was nothing in comparison to what would happen if they managed to reach their goal. The maximum potential carnage would be reached if they could position their ship near the I-75 bridge that connected lower Manhattan and Jersey City.

As the minutes turned into hours, they waited for the Coast Guard to board their ship. Hammadi’s palpitations became one step shy of a full-blown panic attack; his palms were sweaty, his breathing became labored, and his thoughts were steadily racing. Time continued dragging along at a snail’s pace while his internal urgency kept increasing. He finally decided that the boat was close enough that if he crept into the harbor and then gunned it, he could get to his intended target before anyone could do anything to stop them. The captain informed the crew of his decision, and they all said one last prayer before getting the ship and the device ready to go.

Their plan appeared to be working. They had not been hailed by the harbormaster or the Coast Guard yet, and they had just made it under the I-278 bridge. It was at this moment they received a hail from the Coast Guard. “Stop your ship and prepare to be boarded!”

The captain and his men quickly spotted the small cutter heading their way, but the men aboard it didn’t appear to have any heavy weapons on them other than a 20mm cannon and a couple of .50-cals. This was more than enough firepower to disable their ship, but not if Hammadi acted quickly.

“Full speed ahead!” Captain Hammadi ordered. He prayed he would be able to get close enough before the Coast Guard ship decided to engage them or could disable their vessel.

Suddenly, an urgent voice filled the bridge, “Zulu Warrior, Zulu Warrior, this is Lieutenant Willis of the US Coast Guard. Stop your ship and prepare to be inspected! Acknowledge.”

The ship was nearly to full speed, and they had just passed the Statue of Liberty on their left and Battery Park on their right. The radio came to life again. “Zulu Warrior, Zulu Warrior, stop your ship and prepare to be boarded. If you do not comply, we will fire and disable your vessel. Acknowledge!”

Hammadi continued to ignore their desperate pleas for him to recognize their warnings. He could see the Coast Guard ship repositioning itself so they could have a better angle to shoot, angling their propulsion and engine room to the rear. At that moment, the I-75 bridge came into sight. Captain Hammadi grasped the detonator in his right hand, and as he depressed the button, he let out one last, “Allahu Akbar.”

*******

Lower Manhattan

Jeremiah Nolen was a rising star at JP Morgan. He had made it to the “big leagues” as a trader, and over the past two years he had built his book of business to over $192.3 million. With his new promotion from senior advisor to Vice President, he felt that he had finally arrived: bigger commissions, company stock options, and a bigger piece of the action. He was handling the higher-net-worth clients now. He had earned a lot of money for his clients by buying railroad stocks, which had gone through the roof with the increased demand the war was placing on the manufacturing sector. He had also made several smart investments with a couple of companies that provided very specific component parts to the new Pershing tanks and the Razorback helicopters, the two most in-demand items of the war.

As Jeremiah looked out the window of his corner office, he reveled in the fact that he had finally moved out of cubicle land. Suddenly, the late afternoon became incredibly bright. Something powerful reflected off the building windows across from his office, forcing him to bring his hands up to his eyes to protect them as he turned his head. His metal and plastic chair quickly fell apart, dropping him to the floor. He looked down at his hands to see his skin liquefy and melt right before him, right before his body drifted into unconsciousness. The super heat generated from the nuclear device caused the structure of the building to liquefy. The structure imploded on itself and then dispersed into a million pieces of flying debris as the shockwave of the blast slammed into the expanding inferno. Jeremiah’s hopes and dreams vanished into an untraceable film of radioactive dust.

*******

Jersey City

Lisa Thomas was waiting in the checkout lane at the neighborhood Whole Foods grocery store with her two-year-old daughter. Like all rambunctious toddlers, her daughter was trying to pull at the candy and gum to add other items into the cart as her mother was placing her groceries on the belt for the cashier. As Lisa reached down to pick up something her daughter had dropped off the floor, a bright flash suddenly appeared near the entrance to the store. Thinking it must have been lightning for a brief moment, she placed the dropped item back where it belonged. Seconds later, the entire front wall of the store shattered, sending thousands of shards of glass flying into the store. Then the structure of the store imploded, and those at the cashier stations were thrown like rag dolls against the aisles from the several-hundred-mile-per-hour winds. Lisa was swiftly impaled on part of the structure of the building. The last thought she had before everything went black was of her daughter.

*******

About four miles away from the blast site, Claudia Álvaros finished her shift as a nurse in the oncology ward of New York Presbyterian Hospital in Queens. She walked to her favorite diner, ready to eat some “breakfast for dinner” and unwind with a sudoku puzzle before heading home to her cats. Claudia knew a thing or two about the direct effects of cancer; five years ago, she had lost her daughter, Diana, to an aggressive brain tumor. The grief had been too much for her and her husband to bear, and the couple had separated. Unwilling to allow this loss to create bitterness in her life, Claudia had instead used it to fuel her change of direction in her nursing career. Before her daughter’s illness, Claudia had been a school nurse, enjoying a more relaxed schedule and weekends off. After Diana’s death, Claudia did whatever she needed to do in order to transition to the oncology ward; she’d had to pay her dues at the night shift on the Medical-Surgical wing, but she had finally made it. Now she spent every day helping families like hers to make it through a traumatic experience.

Every day was so rewarding, and also so painful. She couldn’t help but see her daughter in the face of every patient that she worked with. However, every time a family member hugged her and said, “Thank you,” with that deep gratitude that came from having someone compassionate walk alongside them in their tragedy, Claudia found the strength to keep on going. This was one of those days. As her omelet arrived, Claudia bowed her head and gave thanks to God for helping her to be a light to the patients with whom she worked.

With her eyes still shut, she was aware that there was a bright flash of some kind. As she opened her eyes, she looked out the window and saw several people behaving very strangely, almost drunk. They were holding their heads or eyes and stumbling. A loud sound, almost like rolling thunder, filled the room. Before she could process this odd behavior or the strange noise, several cars crashed into each other. She leapt up from her table to go see if anyone was hurt. As she ran outside, she suddenly saw the mushroom cloud in the distance and understood immediately what was going to happen to her and the people around her. While she didn’t know everything about how atomic bombs and nuclear fallout worked, she did know a thing or two about radiation…and she was pretty sure she had received a fatal dose.

In that moment, she made the decision to simply help as many people as she could on her way out. She assessed the wounds of the car accident victims. One man’s air bag hadn’t activated and he had a horrible gash on his forehead. Head wounds are notorious for bleeding heavily. She grabbed the guy’s scarf and quickly applied pressure to stop the bleeding. No need to worry about bloodborne pathogen exposure today. She would be dead before it could possibly matter.

She talked to pedestrians nearby, calmly saying, “I’m a nurse. I can help.”

Claudia enlisted the help of several passersby to assist her in bringing the injured back to the hospital. The process was slow, as they kept stopping to help those who were most in need. One of the men who was with her was in his late sixties, old enough to remember the 9/11 attacks. He was calm and helpful, but he seemed very far away. The memories were clearly affecting him, but he was also determined to help his fellow New Yorkers.

When they finally arrived, the ER was already crowded with people. Some had injuries from falling debris, several had been in motor vehicle accidents, and a few poor souls were already demonstrating signs of radiation poisoning. They were vomiting intractably, disoriented and somewhat delusional. One woman reached up and touched her head, and a handful of hair fell out.

Given the situation, “business as normal” was cancelled at the hospital. All non-life-saving activities were cancelled. Surgeons that were scheduled for tonsillectomies were suddenly treating open fractures. Patients that were stable were enlisted to help. No one was concerned about possible lawsuits or malpractice. It didn’t matter who was licensed to do what; everyone just pitched in and did whatever they were physically able to do to help one another.

Claudia hadn’t started to have the nausea and vomiting yet. She calculated in her head that she could live a week or more, given the length of time it was taking for symptoms of radiation sickness to appear. She shrugged off her tiredness and selflessly began working to triage and to provide comfort wherever she could.

*******

As the fifty-kiloton nuclear explosion expanded into lower Manhattan and Jersey City, it rapidly gained in speed, with temperatures quickly rising to twenty million degrees Fahrenheit. Everything within a mile and a half radius—skyscrapers, trees, cars, people—was completely vaporized. In an instant, nearly one million people were killed. Four million more received fatal doses of radiation, suffering with agonizing third- and fourth-degree burns. As the several-hundred-mile-an-hour winds swept through the city and surrounding suburbs, they blew out windows, pushed cars into each other, and threw tens of thousands of citizens on the streets of New York to the ground and into buildings like ragdolls. The impact bent dozens of skyscrapers in the neighboring boroughs beyond their tolerance levels, causing them to rip right off the lower part of the structure and fall into neighboring buildings, crashing to the streets below.

The initial blast wave dissipated, but the eerie silence that followed was not to last long. There was an immediate reversal as oxygen was sucked back into the blast cloud, and the surrounding firestorms began. The blaze from the blast created thousands of secondary explosions. A multitude of taxis, delivery trucks, and other vehicles that moments before had been traveling the bustling streets of New York burst into flames. Gas and water mains exploded, further adding to the chaos and destruction. In minutes, most of Brooklyn and Jersey City and all of Manhattan became a massive cauldron of flames and death. People were being asphyxiated from the lack of oxygen as it was sucked into the firestorm, which continued to grow and consume everything in its path.

Battery Park, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty were obliterated in the blast, destroying one of the most recognizable symbols of America. As the remnants of Lady Liberty fell into New York Harbor as unrecognizable hunks of melted copper, any restraint President Stein might have felt in his response was destroyed. More Americans had died in this single act of aggression than ever before American history. The Islamic Republic was showing no restraint in their war against Israel and the US, so it wasn’t just time for the muzzle to come off the American military, but the leash as well.

Chapter 2

The Country Responds

Day Twenty-One

19 December 2040

The HIVE, President’s Office

The President was sitting in his overstuffed leather rocking chair drinking a cup of tea, trying to relax for a short while and take his mind off the war and all the responsibilities of running the country. He was watching a movie on his tablet, trying to rest and decompress for a couple of hours. The twenty-hour days and the pressures of the war were starting to take a toll on his body; he felt every bit his fifty-five years of age, and then some. The last time his wife had seen him, she’d had a concerned tone in her voice as she’d cautiously commented, “Honey, you look like you’ve aged ten years in the past three weeks.”

The President’s head slowly drifted down to rest on his left shoulder, and he slipped into a dreamless sleep. Twenty minutes had gone by when Michael Montgomery, the President’s Chief of Staff, and a few other key advisors burst into the office, startling the President. He quickly glared at the intruders.

“Monty—what the…? What in the world is so important that you couldn’t even let me get one hour of sleep?” demanded the President, clearly agitated.

“Mr. President, I apologize, but you need to see this immediately,” Monty replied as he quickly turned on the TV and adjusted the volume. As the President wiped his eyes to bring himself back to reality, the images of the damage from the nuclear bomb were being shown by a news drone from a news channel in Newark, New Jersey. The camera panned from where the Statue of Liberty had been to the astonishing mushroom cloud in the center of the Hudson River. The President gasped, too shocked to comment immediately. The drone continued to pan around, showing the thousands of fires spreading across Upper New York City, Brooklyn and Jersey City. All of lower Manhattan was completely gone; not a single structure was left standing, and the damage continued to varying degrees for several miles in all directions.

The next images were from a news drone that had flown into the blast zone. They were horrific. Bodies were strewn across the streets, crumpled against the sides of buildings and tossed about like discarded litter. Nearly every building was on fire. Streams of injured people were rushing out of the burning buildings. One injured woman in a business suit was carrying her severed arm with her, probably too delirious to realize that there was no way to reattach her appendage. A mother was seen cradling her young son in her arms, tears streaming down her face; he was obviously dead.

As the President sat there watching the images, he slowly sat forward in his chair in shock. His mind raced.

How could they have gotten a nuclear bomb into New York? What am I to do now? he wondered.

“Mr. President, if they were able to sneak a nuclear weapon into New York Harbor, they could have smuggled in other bombs the same way,” National Security Advisor Mike Williams said with genuine fear and concern in his voice.

Mike felt like he had completely failed his president and the country. Despite his best efforts to try and protect the country, he had been unsuccessful. A nuclear bomb had destroyed the most iconic American city. Millions of people were either dead or dying. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, a fire was lit from the inside. He was determined not to let this happen again. Whatever it took to win this war, he would make it happen.

The President, still reeling from the images being shown on the TV, turned to the Director for Homeland Security. “Director Perez, I want every ship and shipping container in our ports searched immediately for a nuke. I don’t care how many resources you need, or what needs to happen. Get this done yesterday. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Mr. President. I will see to it immediately. I’ve already been in contact with the directors of FEMA and the Red Cross. Both organizations are mobilizing their people to New York as we speak,” responded Director Perez. He was also in shock. As the images of New York continued to play, the sum total of the human tragedy before him was completely overwhelming.

The President’s Chief of Staff turned to Henry and said, “Mr. President, the Secretary of Defense, Secretary Wise, and General Branson are in the Situation Room along with the Joint Chiefs. They’re insisting that you join them immediately.”

“Tell them we’re on our way,” the President said as he stood up to follow Monty into the hall.

As the President walked down the hallway to the Situation Room, his mind was racing with thoughts of what to do next. He had wanted to keep this war conventional. However, he had also warned the Islamic Republic that any further use of nuclear weapons against Israel or the United States would result in an immediate and severe reprisal.

This war is quickly spiraling out of control, he thought.

As the President entered the Situation Room, the group lost no time in getting down to business.

“Mr. President, we’re still assessing the blast site to determine if the weapon originated from the Islamic Republic,” Eric Clarke said as the President took his seat at the head of the table.

“If this is traced back to the Islamic Republic, then I’m going to ask for permission to use nuclear weapons,” General Branson asserted, slamming his fist on the table.

“Everyone, calm down,” urged the President. “We are all in a state of shock right now. The last thing we need to do is overreact. I assure you, General, if this does trace back to the Islamic Republic, we are going to hit them hard. In the meantime, we need to identify with certainty where this bomb originated, ensure there are no other immediate nuclear threats, and begin to assist the people of New York and New Jersey.”

The group seemed to take a collective deep breath. The President continued, “For now, General Branson, I want our strategic bombers armed with nukes and ready to get airborne immediately if so ordered. I also want our ballistic missile submarines to move to their global launch sites right away. We need to be prepared in case this is a coordinated attack.”

“I’ll send the order out immediately, Sir. We should have some information about the origins of the New York bomb within the hour,” responded General Branson.

Jorge Perez informed the group, “The FEMA Director said they are initiating their contingency plans, establishing dozens of emergency aid camps outside of New York City for people to find refuge. However, it will be hours, if not a full day, before their full resources are in place.” The Director of Homeland Security was starting to feel completely overwhelmed in his position. It had been four days since he had slept in his own bed or even seen his wife and kids. Lately, he had been catching catnaps on the couch in his office, running from one disaster to another. Now a nuclear bomb had gone off in New York City; he was at his breaking point. Inside, he just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Of course, he could not let his staff or anyone else see that. He needed to be the image of stoic strength. He took a deep breath and steadied himself to face the next challenge and ensure his country survived the trials being thrown its way.

*******

Elsewhere throughout the country, the American people had been celebrating the first major victory of the war in Israel when they were suddenly rocked to the core by the images of a mushroom cloud over New York Harbor. People gathered in coffee shops and each other’s homes, silently watching the news and allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by the sheer destruction of New York and Jersey City. Virtually nothing was left standing in lower Manhattan. This was the second time that the World Trade Center had been destroyed. Dozens of skyscrapers and buildings all across the city were on fire, and others had sustained massive damage.

The indomitable spirit of the American people was bruised, but it could not be crushed. Heroes rose up to help those in need. In 2039, the DHS, DoD and FEMA had all planned for several mass-casualty scenarios—now those strategies were being put to action. An army of volunteers donned hazmat suits and headed toward the blast site. The doctors, nurses and EMTs that arrived triaged the injured into the different levels of required care and separated out the deceased; the casualties and the wounded were transferred to nearby airports or airfields and then flown to predetermined hospitals or mortuaries for follow-up care or identification.

The goal was to recover the injured and have them moved to their final triage points within twenty-four hours, before the hazmat suits would need to be cycled out for new ones. This would quickly disperse the wounded away from the epicenter to less-overloaded facilities. If this could be accomplished, there was a higher likelihood more individuals could be saved. As aircraft landed in the predetermined cities, hundreds of police, EMTs and firefighters who had volunteered in advance to assist in a national emergency would board the aircraft for the return flight to the places where they would be needed most, providing an immediate influx of emergency personnel. In the days following the disaster, civilians who had been displaced by the attack would also start to be dispersed to predetermined refugee centers, where they could be housed and taken care of until they could return home or leave to stay with family.

Chapter 3

A Caliph’s Dilemma

Day Twenty-Two

20 December 2040–0100 hours

Islamic Republic

Command Bunker under Riyadh

The Command Bunker, where the leader of the Islamic Republic had moved the government, had been developed by a famous Chinese engineer who had also developed similar bunkers for the leaders of China. It was a honeycomb of various living quarters, meeting rooms and work spaces designed to sustain and support a government or run a war from several hundred feet below the surface. It also had multiple escape tunnels to ensure the occupants could exit when the crisis had passed. Caliph Mohammed and his senior staff had been quite comfortable staying there since the beginning of the war, and now that the Chinese were entering the conflict, he believed that the Americans would capitulate soon.

Mohammed sat in his war room, reading over the various field reports from General Abdullah Muhammed, his overall military commander in Jordan. The Command Bunker incorporated the latest in technology and communications systems, so the Caliph could effectively communicate with the outside world and continue to manage his armed forces from safety. Between the surveillance videos from the drones and the reports from Abdullah, he ascertained that the majority of his forces in Israel had either surrendered or been destroyed. The general estimated that they had lost close to 400,000 soldiers in a single day. Of course, there were still close to 90,000 troops fighting in Southern Israel, and General Abdullah had 300,000 troops in Amman. Another 1.2 million reinforcements were still en route.

“Caliph Mohammed, General Abdullah is requesting permission to withdraw all Islamic Republic forces from Israel and to consolidate them near Amman under the cover of our laser defense network,” General Rafik Hamza said, not sure how the Caliph would respond in light of the destruction of so many soldiers in the Jordan Valley and the loss of Jerusalem.

“Do you agree with the general’s assessment that he should withdraw his forces?” asked the Caliph, his voice dripping with disappointment and sarcasm.

General Hamza did not like to be talked down to. He resented the acid tone of the Caliph’s words. It was his order to advance all their forces into the Jordan Valley, but this had made them too tempting a target, and his men had been slaughtered by massive air raids. As far as General Hamza was concerned, this military catastrophe was entirely the Caliph’s fault.

“If he is allowed to withdraw his forces back to Amman, then he will be able to establish a defensive line until additional reinforcements from Iran and Iraq are able to move to the front. He is trying to buy time while ensuring the Americans are not able to launch an offensive and capture Amman,” General Hamza replied, clearly annoyed at having sound military advice dismissed or questioned.

“This is a disgrace, General. An outrage. Nearly a decade of training and modernization, hundreds of billions spent on our military, and in one day, our entire attacking force was wiped out. They didn’t even have to use nuclear weapons to do it!” raged the Caliph.

“If you will recall, my Caliph, you ordered General Abdullah to send all of our forces into the Jordan Valley to push past Jerusalem. General Abdullah’s original attacks may have been slower than we liked, but he was grinding the Israeli and American armies into the dirt prior to sending the entire army in.”

“Do not try to blame this catastrophe on me, General Hamza. I have provided everything the Army said you needed to win, and then some. We had Jerusalem, and we nearly had Tel Aviv. Now our army is destroyed,” Caliph Abbas asserted, leaning back in his chair, exasperated.

“All is not lost, Caliph. This is just a setback, and once our reinforcements from Iran and Iraq start to arrive, they will be able to resume the attack. There are 1.2 million additional troops on the way, along with another three million civilian volunteers. The Russians still have forces in Turkey, and once they join the war, they will assist us in Israel. My Caliph, we lost a battle, but not the war,” the general reassured him, trying to make it clear that the situation could be turned around in time.

The general continued, “I would also like to point out that we just launched our offensive in North Africa to push the American Marines into the ocean. Our navy is also setting up hundreds of small motorboats with Exocet missiles to conduct hit-and-run attacks on the American supply lines, and once the Russians join, the American supply routes through the Mediterranean will be cut off.” General Hamza was confident that he could regain the initiative and trust with the Caliph.

“We also have the first of Allah’s Swords about to be delivered to the Americans. We may be able to force them to capitulate to our demands as well,” General Rafi interjected.

Caliph Mohammed knew General Hamza and Rafi were correct, and the smart move to make right now was to pull his forces back to Amman and regroup while they waited for reinforcements. The Russians were about to enter the war, and the Chinese had an expeditionary force on the way. Once the Russians and Chinese arrived, the IR’s fortunes would change. They just needed to stay the course.

An army colonel walked into the room and immediately approached General Hamza, whispering something in his ear. General Hamza smiled and his eyes lit up.

“General, I assume you have received some good news? Please share it with us,” Mohammed Abbas commanded.

“I believe we should turn on Al-Jazeera. The first of Allah’s Swords has been successfully delivered to New York City.”

As the TV was turned on, the council members watched as the scene unfolded. The various images showed the vast destruction of New York. The widespread devastation of the city was made complete with the obvious absence of the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center. Images of mangled bodies strewn along the streets flashed across the screen; throngs of wounded tried to flee the city as many more were practically piled on top of each other at overcrowded emergency rooms.

Dozens and dozens of military helicopters could be seen ferrying people from the more damaged areas of the city to numerous triage locations and regional airports. The skies were abuzz with military aircraft. Fires could be seen burning out of control in several of the boroughs and Jersey City, and blazes also plagued numerous container ships and other large ships that had been in the various harbors and piers. It was a picture of complete and utter destruction.

General Hamza smiled. Then, picking up his tablet, he decided to waste no time and started sending out additional orders. “Colonel, send word to all of our radar stations and laser defense centers to be prepared for the Americans’ response. They will most likely attack us with nuclear missiles.”

Mohammed Abbas looked at the images with awe and a bit of fear. If their nuclear bomb could do this amount of damage, how much damage would the Americans inflict on the Islamic Republic with their much larger nuclear arsenal? The Islamic Republic still had close to four hundred nuclear weapons. However, none of the warheads compared in size to the American, Russian or Chinese city killers (the 300-to-500 kiloton range and higher). After longing for this moment for so long, Mohammed began to wonder if attacking an American city directly with a nuclear weapon was the best way to bring terror to America.

They were supposed to coordinate the bomb going off with the second bomb quickly to follow. They must have had to move up the timetable for some reason, thought Mohammed Abbas. The genie was out of the bottle now. It was too late to go back. Looking at Talal bin Abdulaziz, the Foreign Minister, he ordered, “I need you to contact the American government immediately. We need to make our demand to them immediately before they launch a counterattack.”

Talal looked at Mohammed Abbas for a second before responding, “I will start on that immediately. Please give me a couple of minutes to make a few phone calls.” Talal picked his tablet up and then dialed a phone number that was to be the official number by which the two governments were to communicate.

As the phone began to ring, Talal tried to think of what to say. “This is the presidential switchboard, how may I direct your call?” asked a man’s voice.

“This is Talal bin Abdulaziz, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister. I have the rest of the Islamic Council with me. We would like to speak to President Stein.”

“Please hold one minute.”

Chapter 4

The Phone Rings

Day Twenty-One

19 December 2040, 45 minutes post nuclear detonation

The HIVE, Situation Room

As President Stein, his cabinet and advisors were trying to determine if the nuclear bomb had originated from the Islamic Republic and what their response would be, an aide interrupted the discussion to announce that the IR Foreign Minister and Caliph Mohammed were on the phone and would like to speak with the President. The room suddenly fell silent, and all eyes turned to President Stein.

“Please put them through. We have a lot to discuss,” said the President, eyes ablaze with fury.

“Mr. President, this is Talal bin Abdulaziz, the Foreign Minister for the Islamic Republic. I also have Mohammed Abbas, our Caliph, and General Rafik Hamza on the line with us. We wish to discuss a matter of great urgency with you.” Back at the Command Bunker in Riyadh, Talal looked nervously back and forth from General Hamza to Caliph Mohammed. However, the anxious thoughts he was having did not translate into his voice. In a feat of great acting, he sounded as confident as any great number of dictators delivering a monologue to a brainwashed crowd.

President Stein believed the IR was either calling to claim this attack or to try and assure the Americans they’d had nothing to do with it. In either case, the President was about to ensure Caliph Mohammed knew his only choice was to surrender and end this war.

“This is President Stein. Please go ahead with whatever it is you wish to discuss, and then I have something I would like to say since we have everyone on the line talking.”

Mohammed had rehearsed this conversation in his mind hundreds of times. Now he was talking directly to the President of the United States and about to make the ultimate demand.

“Mr. President, this is Caliph Mohammed. For over one hundred years, the West has propped up dictators in the Middle East and waged countless wars over our oil. America has led most of these aggressions against the Middle East, and we hold America accountable for the millions of people who have died at the expense of Western interventions in the lands of the Prophet.

“Today, the first of many of Allah’s Swords was delivered to America with the destruction of New York City. If America does not agree to an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of all military forces from the Middle East and North Africa, and surrender the Jewish State to the Islamic Republic, then additional nuclear bombs will be detonated in American cities,” announced Caliph Mohammed with a steady and commanding voice.

President Stein sat back in his chair for a moment in complete shock at the callousness in Mohammed’s voice and his willingness to wage total war on civilian targets. “Caliph Mohammed, you may believe that you have struck a great blow against America and that we can be defeated. If you were talking with any of my predecessors, you may have been able to intimidate them with your threats and demands. I, however, will not be intimidated.

“I want to make something crystal-clear to you. We will respond with a proportional response for this attack on New York City, but if another nuclear device is detonated against one of our cities, then I will give the order for your largest one hundred cities in the Islamic Republic to be obliterated from the face of the earth. We will use every nuclear, chemical and biological weapon if need be to utterly destroy your nation. We will completely eradicate your country and people from the face of the earth, including Mecca and the Kaaba. Do I make myself clear?” President Stein said with conviction.

General Hamza knew that if the Americans were bent on completely destroying the IR, they could do it, but it would take time. Whether or not the Americans knew it, time was not something they had on their side, especially as the Chinese moved into their second phase of their war and the Russians began their offensive in a few more days. He also believed the Russians and Chinese would intervene and force the Americans to keep the war conventional in order to keep them from using their own nuclear weapons. General Hamza whispered his thoughts to Caliph Mohammed, assuring him that the IR would take severe damage but would ultimately survive.

Caliph Mohammed felt better about the country’s chances after General Hamza’s brief comments. With the mute button still on, he looked at General Kalel Rafi, the IR Special Operations Commander, and ordered, “General Rafi, please have our agent with the second device detonate it immediately.”

Without a second thought, General Rafi picked up his cell phone and sent a text message to his operator, who would martyr himself and detonate the second device personally. They had offloaded the device from the ship and had moved it in a specially shielded utility truck into downtown Baltimore, where it would do the most damage. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late in the evening on the East Coast of the United States, so a lot of the people were starting to leave the city.

As President Stein and his advisors were discussing the threat made by Caliph Mohammed and what to do next, a Secret Service agent walked over to the President and informed him that another device had gone off in Baltimore. One of the aides turned on one of the wall TVs to Fox News, and immediately the image of a newly formed mushroom cloud started to rise out of the downtown skyline.

President Stein could barely contain his rage and frustration at this point. With the mute button still on, he looked at the directors of the FBI, DHS, NSA and CIA and asked a very simple question. “Do you believe they have additional nuclear devices, or it possible that these are the only two bombs they have?”

The FBI Director Jane Smart replied, “We had not received any word or credible evidence that the IR had smuggled any nuclear weapons into the country, so I cannot say with certainty that these are the only two bombs.”

Jorge Perez, the Director of DHS, explained, “We knew the IR planned on smuggling some nuclear weapons into the US via commercial shipping. As of right now, we have no idea how many they may have tried to smuggle in or have in port. It’s obvious that at least two devices made it to our coast. The Coast Guard and FBI have barely had time to get organized and begin a massive sweep of the ports. I cannot confidently say they do not have additional nuclear weapons.”

Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA, was deep in thought as the others gave their assessments. As the President looked at him, he thought about his response for a second and pulled a file up from a folder on his tablet. “Mr. President, one of our agents within the FSB had overheard from one of his colleagues that the IR intended to smuggle two nuclear devices into the US and make use of other commercial ships and natural gas tankers as improvised bombs to destroy other major ports.

“I only bring this information up right now because our agent sent this information to us this morning along with the Second Shock Army’s final orders for the Christmas Eve attack.” Nodding toward the NSA Director, he continued, “We were working to coordinate this information with the NSA to determine if there was additional corroborating information about the number of nuclear devices before we disseminated the threat. Obviously, since they used the devices today, we were unable to do that,” said Director Rubio.

Director Perez was clearly irate and barked, “If you had provided that information while it was being vetted, then perhaps we could have pieced that together with additional information and may have prevented this from happening.”

President Stein knew this could get out of hand quickly and moved to squash the disagreements before they went any further. “Jorge, if this information came in this morning, then chances are we were too late. That said, Director Rubio, you will share these types of threats in the future even if they are not fully vetted. So…before we respond to Caliph Mohammed, are you certain these are the only two devices? Should we respond with nuclear weapons of our own?” asked the President.

“We need to identify the other commercial ships that may be used as improvised bombs—they can still hurt us. As for the nukes, I do believe these are the only two they have. Our agent in the FSB is assigned to the Second Shock Army; they’re currently stationed in Turkey, and one of his duties is to coordinate intelligence between them and their IR counterparts. He only learned of this information when his counterpart bragged about the Americans being forced to withdraw from the Middle East soon. He alluded to the two nuclear devices but never mentioned any additional ones. They may have slipped additional nukes in, but I highly doubt it.”

Signaling for the communications officer to unmute the line, President Stein began to address Caliph Mohammed in a measured and calculated manor. “This is President Stein. I have just received confirmation, and I am looking at the video feed of a second nuclear detonation in Baltimore. I assume this was detonated by your agents?” asked the President.

Caliph Mohammed was relishing this moment, clearly thinking he had the President of the United States over a barrel. “We needed to make sure you understand that if you do not withdraw your forces from the Middle East, then we will detonate additional nuclear bombs in your cities. Your only choice is to withdraw or lose more American cities,” Caliph Mohammed said confidently.

Knowing that the US needed to strike back at the IR, the President began to give his response in a cool and calm manor. “Caliph Mohammed, your regime has shown no regard for human life. Your army butchers innocent civilians while we go out of our way to minimize the loss of innocents. You have clearly indicated with these two nuclear detonations on civilian targets that you have declared complete and open war on our civilian population. Now it is my turn to tell you that we know that you only had two nuclear devices in our country. You have done as much damage as you can do. Now it is time for you to feel the complete and utter wrath of the American nuclear arsenal. I can assure you, you have no idea how much damage the US can do to the Islamic Republic, but you are about to find out.”

Click. With that, the President had the connection terminated.

“Admiral Juliano, how soon can we hit Riyadh?” asked the President.

“We have a nuclear attack submarine in position, but the problem is their laser defense system. Our ballistic missiles will be destroyed quickly. We could use a cruise missile, but even those would most likely be destroyed. The cruise missile can fly under their laser defense system until just at the end, when it needs to climb to its effective altitude before detonating. It’s in those last two or three seconds that it would most likely be destroyed. We could do a ground burst, but then we irradiate the area for generations,” Admiral Juliano explained, a look of disappointment on his face.

“Mr. President, if you’re willing to give us some time, we can install a warhead on one of the X59 cruise missiles,” said General Rice, the Commanding General of the Air Force.

The President turned and asked, “I thought we had gone through our supply of them when we attacked their power grid at the start of the war, right?”

Eric Clarke interjected for General Rice and explained, “We had, Mr. President. The manufacturer said they have five missiles ready for use right now. They began full production of the X59 at the start of the war, and with the current parts they had on hand, they were able to give us five additional missiles. They should be able to start supplying us with about twenty cruise missiles a month starting in January and will ramp up to one hundred missiles a month by the end of next year.”

The President turned to General Rice and directed, “I want you to pick five of their largest and most strategic cities, and I want them obliterated. What are your immediate suggestions, and how long until we can hit them?” asked the President.

General Rice thought about that for a minute. The US had secretly converted a number of mk-41 thermonuclear warheads to be fitted to cruise missiles. The yield was nothing short of amazing. “Mr. President, we will install a cruise missile variant of the mk-41, called the w-100 warhead, on the cruise missiles. The warhead has a maximum yield of twenty-five megatons, which will essentially flatten anything within ten miles of ground zero and irradiate everything within a fifty-mile radius of detonation.

“Alternatively, we also secretly developed an experimental twenty-five megaton neutron bomb. Before anyone says anything, yes, this directly violated every nuclear arms reduction treaty we ever signed. It was an ‘eyes only’ project with a limited number of scientists who worked on it. It was developed to essentially eliminate the population of a city without destroying it. It still produces an EMP, so there will still be damage, but it won’t obliterate a physical target. We also worked out the bugs in it and raised the yield from ten kilotons to the twenty-five megaton beast I’m now talking about. The bomb needs to be detonated as an airburst, approximately 15,000 feet above the targeted area. Once it detonates, it will release roughly 8,000 rads of radiation to everyone within a ten-mile radius, killing them nearly instantly. Everyone within a thirty-mile radius of ground zero will receive a lethal dose of radiation as well,” General Rice explained, reading the effects from his tablet.

The Secretary of Defense interjected, “Aside from the fact that this bomb should never have been developed, this is a particularly nasty weapon, Mr. President. No country in history has ever used a bomb with these kinds of effects before, and I’m afraid of the retaliation from the Chinese and Russians. Not to mention what our allies will say. I agree that we need to retaliate against the IR for these two attacks, but I’m just not sure if this is the right weapon to use. The million-dollar question is—what will the Chinese and Russians do? And do we risk it?” asked Eric Clarke, a bit concerned that this could escalate out of control.

The President thought for a moment, trying to determine how to respond to what General Rice had said. His brain told him not to go down this route—that this could lead to disaster—but his gut said this needed to be done to avenge the lives taken in New York and Baltimore. He was also committed to using whatever weapon necessary to win the war and bring it to a swift conclusion. With the internal battle of the mind having been settled, the President said, “Let’s move forward with the neutron bomb, as it will create the least fallout and long-term damages. I don’t want to destroy the global environment if possible…If I’m not mistaken, there’s a portion of the IR not protected by their laser defense system—correct?” asked the President.

“Yes, Mr. President. During the blackout, we hit a number of their laser defense sites. Egypt and most of North Africa are completely open. We could hammer North Africa and their forces there. We can move forces in to secure the area once the situation in the Middle East is stabilized. If we use the neutron bombs, we’ll minimize the damage and environmental fallout. When our forces move in, they should encounter little if any radiation,” Eric said, offering the President some options.

“Then I want their strategic, logistical, military and high-density civilian centers in North Africa destroyed immediately by conventional nuclear weapons,” Stein ordered. “One more thing, make sure our attacks don’t appear to threaten Russia or China. I don’t want this to escalate any further than it already has.”

Secretary of State Jim Wise interjected, “Mr. President, we can inform the Russians and Chinese that our nuclear attacks are being directed at the IR. If they interfere or threaten the US with nuclear weapons, then we will not hesitate to use our nuclear weapons in retaliation.”

Taking a minute to think about things, the President said, “I’m concerned about things escalating out of control. At the same time, I don’t want to limit ourselves in bringing this war to a swift and decisive conclusion. That said, the Chinese already used nuclear torpedoes on our naval facility at Pearl Harbor. We retaliated by hitting their naval headquarters.”

“Mr. President, with everyone having laser defense systems, the likelihood of ICBMs or submarine-launched ballistic missiles being used against each other is rather slim. Our biggest problem is materiel shortages. The war in Israel has depleted not just our pre-positioned equipment stocks in Israel, but most of our cruise missiles in the US. We burned through our entire year’s production capability of war stocks in three days. We need to slow the pace of the war down,” the SecDef said, almost pleading, and craftily changing the subject away from the use of nuclear weapons.

“How long until these cruise missiles could be ready with the neutron warheads to strike at the heart of the IR?” asked the President, rubbing his temples.

“Probably twenty-four hours, and another ten hours to get them in range of being used,” General Rice responded.

Stein knew this was one of the most critical decision points in World War III—one that could escalate the conflict into a nuclear hot war. That was something he desperately wanted to avoid. “General Rice, continue to use the Air Force to hurt the IR and see if there’s anything we can do to go after the IR laser defense system with our stealth bombers. Also, begin destroying every piece of infrastructure we can in Lebanon and Syria. If the Second Shock Army is going to invade, they’ll have to go through Syria and Lebanon. There’s no reason to make their passage any easier than it needs to be.

“Also, see if our stealth bombers can get through their laser defenses and start to attack their power grid again. If their grid goes offline, or those laser defenses go offline, then I want our submarines and bombers to launch a wave of nuclear cruise missiles at the IR and hit every city they can,” said the President, anger burning in his eyes.

The United States had been dealt a massive blow with the effective destruction of New York City and Baltimore. Tens of millions of Americans were frightened and livid, not sure of what to do next or what to expect. The President addressed the nation that evening, letting the American people know that it was in fact the Islamic Republic who had detonated the nuclear bombs. The President assured the American people the IR would be dealt with in due time. Then he asked the American people to continue to do their jobs and go to work. The war effort counted on people carrying on with their work and doing their jobs, not fleeing to the countryside and making matters worse.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs assured the American people that the laser ballistic missile defense system was fully operational. The IR could not use their ballistic missiles against the US, and neither could China. Despite the shock and horror of nuclear bombs being used on American cities, the majority of Americans resolved themselves to carrying on. America would not be subdued by a foreign power.

*******

Jeff Rogers, the White House Senior Economic Advisor, and Joyce Gibbs, the Treasury Secretary, continued to do what they could to improve the American economy and ensure the financial sector didn’t implode. With the destruction of New York City, a large number of the investment banks were destroyed, along with the vast majority of their staffs. This was a terrible loss, requiring Secretary Gibbs to close the stock market for the following two weeks until these organizations could reestablish themselves and determine where elements of the financial market stood.

Jeff had worked with the various American manufacturers, and they were now converting almost all manufacturing capabilities over to the production of military vehicles, aircraft, cruise missiles, rifles, body armor and everything else that the American military needed. It was going to take close to a year to retool the economy to a war footing. Once it was running at full speed, America would be producing tens of thousands of tanks, aircraft and other materiel for the war.

*******

The Navy’s National Defense Reserve Fleet had been activated at the start of the war, essentially reviving the Ghost Fleets. This gave the Navy an additional 120 ships (frigates, destroyers, cruisers, submarines and carriers) once the refurbishments and new weapon systems were upgraded. Among the ships being upgraded were five retired supercarriers that had originally been built in the 1990s and early 2000s. Some of these carriers were sixty and seventy years old, but once all of the renovations were completed, they would still be operational and ready to fight. Within six months, the Navy would nearly double in size, buying time until the shipbuilders could finalize construction of the new Navy.

The biggest addition to the fleet was actually the roll-on/roll-off ships and troop transport vessels. Moving vast amounts of equipment, munitions and people required a tremendous sealift capability, something the US had that the Chinese and Russians were still struggling to match. There were also twelve additional attack submarines being reactivated. Fortunately, most of the Ghost Fleet was stationed in Beaumont, Texas, and Norfolk, Virginia, so they had been relatively protected and unaffected by the war. The older fleet bases in New Jersey and California had been deactivated in the 2030s.

The various American shipbuilders had eight supercarriers under construction, along with forty-two new destroyers, thirty-eight cruisers, twelve of the newly redesigned battleships and forty-five attack submarines. The battleships of old had been massive armored floating artillery weapons. The redesigned battleships of the twenty-first century were incorporating the latest railgun technology and pulse beam lasers. These laser batteries could be upgraded later to plasma lasers once the newer energy systems could be miniaturized to fit on a ship. In addition to the lasers and railguns, the battery of 1,600 cruise missiles added significant long-range punch. The newly designed ships could effectively keep enemy aircraft from attacking the battlegroup from 400 miles away and could deliver a massive cruise missile strike as deep as 2,200 miles.

The new basic combat training facilities were starting to come on line. Each basic training course could train and graduate 72,000 new recruits a week. All of the new soldiers had to undergo a sixteen-week-long grueling training process that pushed them physically and mentally to their breaking points. Recruits were physically conditioned harder than any other military grunts in history. In addition to the standard boot camp, they also spent three weeks in simulated villages practicing house-to-house combat. Then they would progress to fighting and survival scenarios in the desert, forests, mountains, and plains. These new recruits were conditioned to be effective in combat in all global environments and were going to be the most fearsome warriors America had ever trained.

Nearly every Army Reserve and National Guard base in the country was being activated to federal service and either had or was establishing a basic training facility. Over 250,000 NCOs and officers who had retired within the last ten years were being asked to return to active duty to fill drill instructor roles—a critically short position with most of the active-duty forces deployed. Of the 310,000 soldiers completing training each month, roughly 40,000 of them were being sent for additional military training in areas such as armored vehicle operation, artillery, communications, medical, cyber, and other essential functions, while the remaining 270,000 would attend an additional thirty-day advanced infantry course before forming new military divisions or being filtered in as replacements for other units currently engaged in Asia or the Middle East. Close to 5,000 soldiers were selected to attend the elite Army Ranger School. Another 2,000 airmen were being selected for the Air Force Special Operations programs, and 3,000 seamen were being held back to attend BUDs/SEAL training. Not to be left out, 3,000 Marine recruits were also being chosen to attend Marine Force Recon and Scout Sniper schools. The growth of Special Operations Command was exponential to its regular rate of increase; however, it was going to take time to train these special operators. The typical turnaround from recruitment to being battle-ready in these jobs would be around two to three years.

Judges were once again offering certain convicted felons the choice of serving honorably in the military for four years instead of spending time in prison. This had the dual benefit of reducing the resources spent on jailing people for offenses such as robbery or assault and providing legitimate rehabilitation and job training to people who weren’t beyond redemption. The recidivism rate at the country’s prisons went way down, and the program was so successful that many communities saw a rise in voluntary recruitment.

The Army had reactivated several armies that had been retired since the end of the Cold War and World War II. First Army had been activated to defend the homeland, and their numbers would soon swell to over 750,000 troops. Second Army was also forming and would stay in the US for the time being as well. The goal was to get these armies established quickly and then have them train hard together for a number of months while the battles in Europe and the Middle East played out. Afterwards, the determination would be made as to where they should go.

In Europe, the US Army had activated the American Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Armies, the same armies that had helped to defeat Nazi Germany before being deactivated at the end of the Cold War. Initially, the Fifth and Sixth Army were operating at 35% strength just prior to the Russian invasion, while the Seventh was still being formed in England. General Gardner’s Third Army in the Middle East had been augmented with two additional Army groups, which pushed his operational strength to over half a million troops. He had five armored divisions and six mechanized infantry divisions to counter the Russian Second Shock Army, the Chinese First Expeditionary Force and nearly two million Islamic Republic forces. General Gardner had asked to activate the American Fourth Army and position them in the Middle East as well. Once he was able to secure a breakout, he was going to need an additional Army to punch through it and fully exploit it. His goal was to finish the war with the IR as soon as possible so his forces could be fully turned on the Russians.

The challenge with the formation of all of these armies was keeping up with the demands for equipment and soldiers. Both the Army and the Air Force lacked the necessary gear to support these forces, and it would be some time until that equipment could be produced. Both services quickly turned to their boneyards to find serviceable equipment that could be brought to bear quickly. It would take nearly five months for the Fifth and Sixth Armies to reach 100% manning strength, and that would largely depend on the number of casualties the Third Army continued to sustain in Israel.

The Air Force had reactivated most of the aircraft at the Davis-Monthan boneyard in Tucson, Arizona. Nearly five hundred A-10 ground attack aircraft were being retrofitted and upgraded with modern avionics and the new railguns, replacing the venerable 30mm chain gun it was known for. The aircraft would once again resume its role of “tank buster” and close air support, with the vast majority of these aircraft being sent to Europe. There were also six hundred F-15s and seven hundred F-16s being reactivated, along with thirty-four KC-135 refueling aircraft and five additional JSTARs. These aircraft were not the most modern aircraft of the day, but compared with the fighter drones they would be going up against, they could still hold their own. Plus, their ability to attack ground targets also gave them the multifighter capability the F-22 didn’t have. However, finding qualified pilots and training new ones was going to be an enduring problem.

The Army’s Sierra Army Depot was hard at work refurbishing nearly 6,000 main battle tanks and over 16,000 assorted armored vehicles for deployment to Europe. With the creation of several new tank divisions, there was a huge need for tanks. The Anniston tank depot and the General Dynamics Ohio facilities could only produce so many Pershing tanks a month. The 300 new tanks being built each month could not keep up with the demand needed to keep both the Third Army and Fifth Army supplied, let alone sustain the creation of three other armies. It would take time to build the military industrial complex to meet the wartime needs. Once fully operational, the entire manufacturing and technological capability of America would once again be pitted against the superpowers of the world.

Chapter 5

In Other Parts of the World

Day Twenty-One

19 December 2040

Tel Aviv, Israel

General Gardner’s Headquarters

The bunker in General Gardner’s headquarters was nearly one hundred feet underground, part of a larger bunker complex used by the Israeli Defense Forces and the government during times of war. After twenty-one days, it had begun to smell musty, permeated with the scent of stale sweat and burnt cordite. It would have been hard to completely control the odor—nearly two hundred US officers and NCOs were living in this complex, responsible for running the war in the Middle East.

An Air Force major who had been manning the air battle management section approached the head honcho. “General Gardner, the battle damage assessments are starting to come in from the final bombing raid.”

“How’s it looking?” asked Brigadier General Peter Williams.

“I’m bringing up the video feeds from the drones right now. The Air Force is about to send in a fourth wave of ground attack drones to hit any targets missed with the first three,” said the major.

As the footage came to life on the widescreen monitors in the Command Center, the sheer destruction of the bombing was surreal. Thousands of Islamic Republic armored vehicles were burning wrecks and smoldering ruins. Tens of thousands of burnt bodies could be seen strewn all across the battlefield. There were just a few targets left that had not been destroyed by the three waves of bombers and ground attack drones.

“Order the Third Corps in. I want the entire valley secured and the IR pushed back into Jordan. General Williams, send the order to Major General Peeler to have his Second Marines pivot south and push the IR out of Southern Israel. With the loss of nearly 400,000 troops in the West Bank, the IR is going to be reeling—now’s the time to press home the attack,” General Gardner directed. He had a commanding voice and a look about him that only a victorious commander could project.

“I’ll let General Peeler know it’s time to release the Devil Dogs in the south. I know they’re itching to get some payback for that Marine company that was crucified the other day,” said Williams.

“We all want some payback for that atrocity,” responded Gardner.

It was getting close to midnight, and the energy in the bunker was kind of quiet as various people throughout the room were taking a moment to refill their coffee in order to stay awake for the rest of the night shift. Suddenly, an NCO manning one of the communication terminals stood up and shouted, “Someone just nuked New York City!” That announcement quickly got the attention of everyone in the room. An officer walked over and grabbed the FLASH message from the Joint Staff and began to read it aloud to everyone in the room:

NUCFLASH! NUCFLASH! NUCFLASH!

Confirmed Nuclear Detonation in Hudson River near the I-75 bridge.

Manhattan completed destroyed, surrounding boroughs being consumed by firestorm.

Unknown who is responsible for nuclear device, will have confirmation within the hour.

CONUS and OCONUS Forces are to disperse and prepare for additional nuclear attacks.

All air traffic is being grounded until further notice.

Full Combat Air Patrols of all CONUS and OCONUS facilities are to begin immediately.

DEFCON Status has moved from DEFCON 2 to DEFCON 1. All Strategic Nuclear Capabilities are to be readied for immediate use.

All commanders stand by for further orders from POTUS.

Message Ends.

NUCFLASH! NUCFLASH! NUCFLASH!

General Gardner stood there for a minute, digesting what had just been read. He signaled for the message to brought to him. He needed to read it himself. “General Williams, send a FLASH message to all units in the field to immediately prepare for a nuclear attack and disperse their forces as best they can. Have their soldiers dig foxholes quickly and don their full protective suits.” Gardner didn’t want to waste any time preparing his forces for what might come next. There would be anger, horror and sadness, but not today. This was the day to respond.

*******

Same Time

Israel

Route 60 near Meitar

Sergeant Jordy Nelson’s Platoon from the 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, otherwise known as the “Big Red One,” had been slugging it out with the IR since the start of the war twenty-one days ago. Their company had set up a defensive line in the Jordan Valley near Jericho to act as a blocking force in case the IR tried to make a thrust toward Route 1. Everyone knew the IR would ultimately try to take Jerusalem—the question was how best to defend the Holy City and prevent the IR from taking it.

The original plan had fallen apart within the first forty-eight hours. Thousands of IR tanks and over two hundred thousand soldiers had crossed the Jordan-Israeli border and rushed their positions. At the outset, the 1st ID had to fall back to Mitspe Yerihom. Before long, the group was pushed back to Ma’ale Adumim, less than three miles from the Western Wall in Jerusalem. After sustaining 40% casualties in the first two days, the division was being mauled and pressed to its breaking point.

Four days of bloody house-to-house fighting in Jerusalem had left everyone in the platoon exhausted and on edge. Sergeant Nelson’s platoon was once again forced to fall back to their final position in the Neve Ilan Forest, where they received enough reinforcements from the 4th ID to stop the IR from dividing the country in half. In one last move to push the Israeli and American forces out of Jerusalem, the IR started using massive human wave assaults until they overwhelmed the defenders. Had it not been for the Air Force finally establishing air superiority over Israel, the 1st and 4th ID would have been slaughtered like so many of their counterparts in the Israeli Defense Forces, who refused to fall back or surrender Jerusalem.

At the start of the war, the IR Army had invaded through the West Bank with a ground force of nearly 350,000 troops and 2,200 main battle tanks. A pretty substantial force proceeded from the Golan Heights and Lebanon—around 250,000 ground troops and 1,300 MBTs. From the south, near Eilat, around 150,000 troops hit the Israeli Defense Force, and out of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai, an additional 110,000 troops joined the fray. The sheer amount of manpower drawn to this fight was unparalleled. During the following two weeks of the war, 800,000 IR reinforcements began to arrive and filtered into the different sectors.

With nearly 1.7 million troops invading Israel, the situation appeared hopeless for the IDF and American Forces. The IDF had 176,500 active-duty soldiers and 445,000 reservists to defend Israel, while the American Third Corps had a scant 48,000 troops, and the 2nd MEF consisted of 20,000 Marines just off shore in the Mediterranean. The American Fifth Corps was a few days away with their 42,500 troops.

When the IR destroyed the American Fifth Fleet with three nuclear missiles as they were exiting the Red Sea, they nearly succeeded in crippling the US Navy. However, the quick retaliatory strike of ten nuclear cruise missiles against the IR power grid reminded them (and the world) that any further use of nuclear weapons against America would not go unpunished or unchallenged. Those ten cruise missiles nearly knocked the IR out of the war altogether. Had the Russians and Chinese not intervened and begun to provide the IR with power, they would have effectively been moved back in time several hundred years. The Chinese had several nuclear-powered ships in various ports, and the Russians connected the IR power grid into their own. This breathed life back into the IR’s fighting campaign.

It was quick thinking and luck that saved Vice Admiral Lisa Todd’s Sixth Fleet from the same fate. Call it women’s intuition; as her fleet approached Israel and the Suez Canal Zone, Admiral Todd believed the IR was up to something and ordered her air wings to provide additional cover for the fleet. Her air and missile defense ships moved into a picket position between the coast and the fleet. When the IR did launch their attack, the fleet saw it coming before it was able to get organized and immediately engaged and destroyed the oncoming forces.

With the war now on, the Sixth Fleet began to pummel the IR air and naval bases in Egypt and Libya before turning the entire fleet’s attention to the capture of the SCZ and assisting the IDF in the Sinai. The 2nd Marines made their landings and quickly secured the SCZ, blocking any retreat or reinforcements to the IR forces in the Sinai and the Gaza strip. They quickly engaged the IR forces, despite being outnumbered six to one, destroying the entire IR Army in the Sinai. It was the immense air support and the use of a new ground attack and troop helicopter, the Razorback, that turned the tide of battle.

The Razorback ground attack troop helicopter was a cross between a V-22 Osprey and the old Cobra gunship. The helicopter had two small rotors encased in armor on each tilt wing, providing the helicopter with incredible speed, lift and maneuverability. Near the joint where the tilt wings connected with the frame of the helicopter was a rack of forty-two 2.6-inch antipersonnel rockets, eight Hellfire III antitank missiles, and two short-range air-to-air missiles on each side of the helicopter. Under the nose of the helicopter was a twin 30mm magnetic railgun to give the helicopter added punch. The Razorback carried a crew of four, with two pilots and two crew chiefs who each manned a .25mm magnetic railgun that could spit out 450 rounds a minute to cover the soldiers as they boarded or dismounted the aircraft. A completely new type of armor was showcased in this work of art, made from a top-secret polymer that was lighter than traditional steel armor yet five times as strong. The Razorback’s shield could sustain direct hits from a 30mm machine gun without taking any critical damage. It was also impervious to current Russian and Chinese MANPADs, making this helicopter the most in-demand frontline asset in the war. It had also been in service for less than eight months before the outbreak of World War III, so it was in short supply and heavy demand.

*******

As First Lieutenant Chantilly approached Sergeant Nelson’s position, it became clear he was the target of the lieutenant’s attention.

“Evening, Lieutenant—uh, Captain Chantilly,” Nelson said.

The captain waved off the stumble over his new promotion. “I’m only captain because all the other officers are dead. Here are your new stripes…you are now Sergeant First Class Nelson, so congratulations on skipping a rank,” announced the captain.

“I take it I’m the platoon sergeant now?” asked Nelson nonchalantly.

“Until another officer shows up, you’re in charge. You need to get the other NCOs squared away with you running the platoon and me as the new CO. The Air Force is finishing their last bombing run in the valley, and Headquarters wants us to move in and mop up just before dawn. All I’ve been told is we are to move through Route 60 and head toward Hebron.” He showed Nelson the directions on their tablets before syncing the route with the rest of the platoon’s heads-up display (HUD) in their helmets.

“That’s a long walk with no wheels, especially if we hit any resistance,” asserted Nelson.

The captain shot Nelson a disappointed look before replying, “Are you really expecting there to be much in the way of resistance after the complete barbecue the Air Force just laid on them? There will be a few infantry vehicles, and even a couple of Pershing’s on point—our company is to follow on foot and assist where needed, so get a few hours’ sleep and have your men ready to move. We push off at 0600 hours.”

In an abrupt change of pace, a NUCFLASH message suddenly came across the battle net to all soldiers. They were being ordered to shelter in place and prepare for a potential nuclear strike. Within seconds, everyone was donning protective gear and standing by for further orders.

Captain Chantilly looked at Sergeant First Class Nelson before saying, “You heard the new orders. Get your platoon ready. I need to get back to the company command post.” He didn’t stick around to make sure his instructions were followed. Instead, he turned quickly and ran off in the direction of the CP.

*******

Time ticked on nervously, slowly and quickly at the same time. After nearly three hours of sheltering in place, no further update about the NUCFLASH message had been received. Then, finally, new orders came on the wire. Preparations for a possible nuclear attack were cancelled, and they were to resume with their original mission.

Then, a short message from General Gardner himself was broadcast across the battle net to all US forces. “It is with a deep heaviness that I am called upon to inform you that New York City and Baltimore have been hit with nuclear devices. We have confirmed that the nuclear weapons originated in the Islamic Republic and were delivered via freighters entering the Hudson River and the Baltimore Harbor. We have received no further information indicating that the IR is preparing to launch any additional weapons in our AOR. Military operations are to continue as previously planned. No enemy prisoners are to be taken, unless they are of high intelligence value. May God have mercy on our country, and may we be a part of bringing justice to the world today.”

*******

0530 hours came quickly, and most of the platoon had gotten little if any sleep. They all knew someone who lived in one of the two cities that got nuked.

“So, what’s the plan, Sarge?” asked one of the soldiers as he approached Sergeant First Class Nelson.

“First of all, that’s SFC now, and second, we’re moving out—so get your stuff together,” Nelson said as he replaced his old stripes with the new ones.

Now I need to get with the rest of the NCOs and make sure the platoon is ready. I don’t care what the captain says; some of those jihadis will have survived, he thought to himself.

The group rolled out promptly at 0630 with the armored vehicles. After two hours of patrolling, the platoon had only seen a trail of burnt and twisted bodies, smoldering ruins of armored vehicles and shattered homes and buildings littering the landscape. There had been some sniper fire further ahead, but nothing that slowed the advance of the Battalion on their way to Hebron.

“Sergeant Nelson,” called Captain Chantilly over the HUD that was built into each soldier’s helmet.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Battalion wants us to move off the road and spread ourselves out as we near Route 317. They want our company to head toward Rafat and Samu’a with Bravo Company. Delta and Echo Company will be to our right as they head toward Susya if we need them, or vice versa. I’m sending the new directions through the battle net.”

The new route was instantly highlighted on the HUD. In the map mode, the HUD could display not just the instructions and waypoints designated by the platoon or company commander, but also the individual identification frequency of each soldier in the platoon. This information could also be relayed to one of the tablets each squad and platoon leader carried, allowing for better coordination.

“I’ll pass it over to the rest of the platoon. We’ll start moving in that direction now,” Nelson said, signing off.

The Army’s new battle helmets had come into service with the Army and Marines at the end of 2039, so their use was still relatively new. The battle helmets (or BHs, as they were being called by the grunts wearing them) had a number of new improvements and technology woven into them. They were incredibly light compared to the traditional ballistic helmets, and unlike their predecessors, the BHs could truly stop a bullet. They also sported a ballistic visor that protected the soldier’s eyes, only exposing the individual’s mouth and jawline. As the platoon marched out into the Jordan Valley, their visors were adjusting from night vision mode to clear as the sun rose. When the rays of sunlight became bright enough to begin affecting eyesight, the visors automatically adjusted to darken into sunglasses. It created an incredible advantage for the US and IDF Forces.

The air in the Jordan Valley smelled of scorched flesh, burning rubber, and refuse as the battlefield continued to smolder. As the company moved through Rafat and into Samu’a, they started to meet some resistance, but the fighting was coming from small uncoordinated pockets and the men had no trouble dispensing with the ruffians they encountered. The automated targeting system in the BHs could provide a 5x zoom on any mark and would place a red dot in the visual field, indicating exactly where their weapon was aimed at any time. There was also a mini camera and mic built into the BH, allowing commanders to see what their soldiers were seeing. This tech made one US soldier worth at least ten of the IR forces because of the capabilities it provided to the individual soldier and unit.

The truth was, there wasn’t much left after the bombing campaign in the Jordan Valley. The IR had massed together a large group of about 400,000 infantry and armored vehicles across the area, gathering their forces for a final push to divide the country and destroy the IDF and Americans, but they had been so clustered together that it had made for one giant easy target. The goal of the bombing mission was to destroy everything within a 675-square mile kill box, and with the 7,650 individual bombs hitting synchronized targets per bombing wave, the strategy had been highly effective. The Navy had also added their weight into the fight, firing 1,200 cruise missiles into the kill box. It was no surprise that the forces on the ground had been largely obliterated.

With the bulk of the IR Army destroyed, it was now time to push the rest out of Israel and get ready to take the fight to their homeland.

Chapter 6

Europe Changes Tactics

Day Twenty-Two

20 December 2040

London, England

Number 10 Downing Street

Despite the final fiscal and political unification of the European Union in 2026, Great Britain continued to maintain its autonomy. While the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries had folded into the EU during the Great Depression of the 2020s and early 2030s, the UK was determined to remain their own country. The free trade agreement with the US had guaranteed access to affordable food and had helped to fuel the revival of the British economy in the late 2030s. Unlike Chancellor Lowden, the leader of the EU, Prime Minister Stannis Bedford had no problem convincing the members of Parliament of the dangers posed by the Islamic Republic, Russia and China.

At the private urgings of President Stein, Prime Minister Bedford had persuaded Parliament to increase defense spending and the size of the British military several years prior. The United States had also made extremely low-interest loans available to aid Britain in their military buildup. When war had broken out with the IR, the British had not only been ready, they’d had a military force that was up to the task.

General Sir Michael Richards of the British Defense Staff walked briskly into the room. He was ready to provide his boss with the latest updates. “Prime Minister, the Americans confirmed several hours ago that the nuclear devices that destroyed New York and Baltimore did in fact originate from the IR. Caliph Abbas himself confirmed this during a brief phone call with President Stein. As of right now, the Americans have not responded with nuclear weapons, but we believe they are going to hit the IR hard in the very near future.”

The prime minister was exhausted from the late-night meetings and the early-morning phone call he’d had with President Stein. He still couldn’t believe the casualty estimates that indicated over four million civilians dead. He understood the need for America to respond with their own nuclear weapons but had cautioned Stein not to go overboard. He didn’t want the Americans to escalate the war into a nuclear shooting exchange with China and Russia should they come to the defense of their ally. PM Bedford signaled for Sir Richards to continue.

Nodding toward the PM, he expounded, “The last intelligence brief we received from the Americans says that the Russians are going to invade the EU within 72 hours. Military intelligence and MI6 also concur with this assessment.” He nodded toward Admiral Sir Mark West, the First Sea Lord, to provide the PM with the military recommendations.

“Mr. Prime Minister, after consultation with our intelligence services and the American Navy, I recommend we put our entire naval force to sea immediately. We need to ensure our naval forces are not destroyed in port or caught off guard as the American Pacific Fleet was when the Chinese launched their surprise attack,” Admiral West announced with confidence. “The Russians will try to move their fleet and subs into the North Atlantic, which will cause all sorts of logistical problems for us if they are left unchecked.”

“I agree, Admiral. Please have our naval forces put to sea as soon as possible. Let’s also start coordinating with the EU Navy and get ready to interdict the Russian Navy in the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland-Iceland gap,” the PM ordered.

The prime minister looked each of his senior military leaders in the eyes and said, “Gentlemen, the Americans have been warning us for years of the Russian military buildup. There was not a lot we could do to influence our EU partners to prepare. Now it is time to put our own preparation to the test. General Sir Wall, I want the entire Reserve and Territorial Army activated immediately. Recall all military members from leave, and cancel all future holidays. You are to have the military ready to disperse from their garrisons within 48 hours.”

The British army had quietly increased their military reserve from 25,000 personnel in 2037 to 275,000 by the end of 2040. The increase was mostly infantry, military police and armor—areas that could quickly bolster the strength and capability of the active-duty force, should hostilities occur. The active-duty force had likewise been increased from 89,000 to 300,000. Similarly, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy had increased in size, with the Navy adding five submarines to their fleet along with additional antisubmarine capabilities.

The RAF had followed the American Air Force in developing Fighter Drone Wings to augment their piloted aircraft. The advent of fighter drones offered the RAF a unique ability to increase their air power at a fraction of the cost of traditional manned fighters. The drones could outmaneuver their manned counterparts and were for all intents and purposes disposable. If they were shot down, the pilot was not placed at risk and could activate another drone. Drone aircraft did not have to take into account the survivability of a pilot; they were smaller and nimbler, carried a good weapon load, and cost a fraction of a manned aircraft.

The Americans had perfected the manufacturing of fighter drones and were able to produce nearly 85% of the aircraft using 3-D printers. A drone could be built within two months and ready for action. The construction was still incredibly complex, and required thousands of 3-D printers of various sizes and capabilities, which is why it took so long from start to finish. It was only a matter of time until the American manufacturers were able to produce these drones in days instead of months.

Although 3-D printing had been around for decades, it wasn’t until a relatively small and unknown manufacturer, the Atlas Group, had built the first combat fighter drone in 2025 that the military saw a real combat use for them beyond surveillance and pinpoint strikes. After ten years of testing and evaluation of various models, the US Air Force had finally approved the first prototype two years before President Stein had come into office. The Stein administration had exponentially increased the fighter drone programs as a means of cutting costs while improving capability.

“Air Marshal Sir Trenchard, what is the status of our air defense capability?” asked the PM as he took another sip of his tea.

“Our laser missile defense and surface-to-air missile systems now encompass all of our airfields and major defense facilities and cities. If they use ballistic missiles, we are ready to knock them down. We will move the eight mobile laser systems with the army as they disperse. We also have eighty-seven of the American mobile antiair/missile railgun systems; they will disperse with the army. I will issue orders after this meeting to begin flying air combat missions over the country and our critical facilities round the clock. The Russians may suspect we know about their pending invasion with our sudden increase in force posture, but I assure you, they will not sucker punch us,” said Air Marshal Sir Andrew Trenchard with an air of confidence.

“Excellent, Sir Trenchard. We should be ready to provide fighter support over the EU when hostilities do begin. I have a meeting in two hours with Chancellor Lowden and his defense staff. I would like everyone to return to the conference room in an hour and half and be ready to participate in this meeting. We need to convince the Chancellor and his staff that they need to mobilize. With that said, everyone is dismissed to issue what orders you need to and prepare our country for war,” said the Prime Minister in a stoic manner.

The European Union had also taken President Stein’s advice and expanded their military capabilities during the past several years, though not as aggressively as the British. Where they differed from Great Britain was their expansion into drone technology—they had not placed significant resources into modernizing their military. They had increased personnel but continued to use equipment that was not on par with the advanced military equipment the Russians, Chinese and Americans were now using. Full modernization of their forces, to include mobile laser defense systems, railgun air defense systems and newer infantry rifles and tanks would be costly and was simply not something they were willing to do yet.

The EU had increased their active-duty army to 350,000 personnel with an additional 1.4 million in the reserves. Since the start of hostilities in the Middle East and the civil unrest taking place in cities all across the EU, Chancellor Lowden had most of the military deployed in the various cities attempting to put down the violence. They had yet to activate their reserves or deploy their active-duty forces with their full combat equipment. They were being bogged down trying to assist local law enforcement with restoring order.

As Chancellor Lowden walked into the conference room, the arguing between the Defense Minister, André Gouin, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paolo Prodi, was in full swing. The two ministers had been quarreling for weeks over the war in the Middle East and the intelligence being shared by the Americans and British about the Russian troop deployments. They disagreed strongly about what it all meant.

Minister Prodi shouted at his compatriot, “The Russians are not going to invade the EU! They might get involved in assisting the Islamic Republic in their fight against the Israelis and the Americans, but they are not going to intervene in Europe. Besides, there are 350,000 US troops positioned in England, Germany, and Italy. Even if they decide to invade, the Americans will keep them busy long enough to allow the EU to fully mobilize.”

Minister Gouin had been arguing for the activation of the reserves and making preparations in case the Russians really did invade the EU. He was unscathed by the impolite speech from his coworker. “I don’t want to place all of our hopes on the American forces. You do realize that there is significant risk that the US might soon be engaged in a nuclear fight with the Russians or the Chinese, right? The Americans will certainly respond to the horrific nuclear attack on their country. When they do, this might escalate other parties to participate in kind. The Chinese have already used several nuclear tipped torpedoes, and the US has responded by destroying several Chinese harbors. That may be the extent of the nuclear exchange now, but who knows what tomorrow holds?”

“Gentlemen, please stop bickering. The British are about to come online and we need to decide what actions we are going to take.” Chancellor Lowden was clearly annoyed at his senior staff.

A technician interrupted the conversation. “Chancellor, the British are ready to begin.”

Lowden shifted his eyes to the holographic screen. As it came to life, he could see the British senior military leaders were all present. He nodded in acknowledgement before greeting them. “Mr. Prime Minister, it is good to see you. I am sorry it could not be under better circumstances.”

PM Bedford was, if nothing else, a blunt and direct politician. He had nothing personal against the EU Chancellor, but like most Europeans, he was slow to react and quick to give in to the fringes of the EU’s political parties and activist groups. “Mr. Chancellor, I will cut to the chase and keep this discussion short. We have a tremendous amount of work to do. By now, we all know the IR used two nuclear weapons against New York and Baltimore. Clearly the war is going to escalate, whether we like it or not. Are you going to mobilize your reserves and prepare to meet the Russians? Time is running out.”

“We have not mobilized our reserves just yet. Our focus has been on putting down the uprisings in our cities. Not everyone in our government is convinced that the American intelligence about a Russian invasion is correct. I would also like to add that, in light of the nuclear detonations last night, the Americans are likely to use nuclear weapons of their own, and we do not want to appear to be a threat to Russia and potentially encourage them to use nuclear weapons in a preemptive strike against the EU,” Lowden said, not entirely convinced of his own intelligence services’ assessment of the situation.

PM Bedford was irritated but not surprised to learn that his EU counterparts weren’t taking the military situation as seriously as the rest of the Allies. “If the EU is not going to take any precautions or preparation in spite of the evidence of a massive Russian troop buildup on your borders, then are you expecting the Americans to save you?” asked PM Bedford with a bit of scorn in his voice.

“If the Russians do invade, our forces will stop them. The Americans will honor the NATO defensive pact,” said Minister Prodi.

“—Just as you have honored that same defensive pact when the Americans were attacked by the IR?” interrupted PM Bedford.

“We have assisted the Americans by providing our bases to launch their invasion and giving them logistical support,” Minister Prodi retorted with the same level of sarcasm.

PM Bedford fixed his gaze on the Chancellor and announced, “Chancellor Lowden, we have expressed our concerns and offered to coordinate a defense if the Russians do invade. If they invade and the EU has still not activated its reserves and made preparations for the defense of Europe, then we will be forced to focus our defensive effort on protecting Britain. We are an island nation and are not equipped to defend Europe.”

Without saying goodbye, the PM Bedford abruptly ended the video conference call.

“Well, that went about as well as we could have expected,” said General Volker Naumann, the EU Defense Chief of Staff. Naumann was a German military officer and, as such, had received enough training from the Americans to know that if their intelligence suggested the Russians were going to invade, then in all likelihood the report was correct.

“Typical British arrogance,” Minister Prodi said, dismissing the PM’s warning.

Chancellor Lowden sighed deeply. “Bedford is right. We cannot rely on the Americans and British to provide the bulk of our defense. The Americans are already stretched thin; if the Americans have to choose between defending Alaska, Israel and their other interests, they will choose them over us. The British military is just not big enough to fully defend Europe. They will have their hands full with the Russian Navy.

“I want our reserves activated immediately. Our active forces need to be pulled out of the cities and prepared to meet the Russians now…Bedford is right. We have squandered precious time and disregarded the warnings the Americans have given us. Let’s hope we are not too late.”

*******

While the central EU government began to mobilize their reserves and prepare the active-duty force to meet a possible Russian invasion, the individual member states started to activate their own military reserves and national guard forces. Chief among them was Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Romania. Germany maintained an active force of 250,000 soldiers, the Czechs 95,000, the Romanians 130,000 and the Poles 190,000.

The central EU government maintained a military force separate from the member states, in a similar fashion to the US with the state National Guard units. People from any member state could join the central government forces and reserves, or they could join their own country’s military. The central government also had the power to draft individuals from each member state, up to the size of 25% of the member state’s active duty force. Since Germany had a military force of 250,000 soldiers, they would have to provide, if necessary, as many as 62,500 citizens during an EU draft.

Chapter 7

The Great Dragon Awakes

Day Twenty-Two

20 December 2040

Da’Anshanxiang, China

Central Military Commission Command Facility

The Chinese government, like the rest of China and the world, watched the destruction of New York City and Baltimore by the Islamic Republic on their various multimedia devices and tablets, in awe of the carnage and destruction. The average Chinese citizen could not believe these great American cities had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and the images of the dead and dying were something the average citizen had never been exposed to before. In the past, the government would censor such images and ensure the people of China saw only what they wanted. In this case, the Chinese government wished to let the people of China know that even the great Americans could be defeated and brought to their knees. They used these images to remind their people that it was now China’s time to rise up and become the dominant world superpower.

*******

The fighting in the Middle East continued, drawing more and more American forces to the region. The newly created American Third Army was in the process of driving the remaining IR forces out of Southern Israel, and had retaken Jerusalem and the entire Jordan Valley. They were now in a position to strike at the former capital of Jordan, Amman.

The Chinese 1st Expeditionary Force (or 1st EF, as the CMC was calling them), had finally disembarked in Jeddah and were making preparations to move to Amman to join the remains of the IR Army group. Over half a million soldiers were on the way from Baghdad along with three million civilian militia volunteers. By the end of the year, the IR should have 800,000 regular army troops in Amman and three million civilian militia volunteers, along with 250,000 Chinese soldiers of the 1st EF. The Chinese would take over the Suez Canal Zone and assist the IR in rebuilding after they had defeated the Israeli and American forces.

*******

Premier Zhang Jinping was happy with the progress of Operation Red Dragon. The Americans had been effectively defeated in the Pacific and posed no serious threat. Southeast Asia was starting to fall to the Red Army, and Taiwan was in its final death throes. Now it was a matter of getting ready for phase two, the capture of southern Alaska and the Canadian States.

The capture of Alaska would ensure China had the long-term oil reserves their economy desperately needed and depended upon. It would also provide them with a springboard to launch an invasion of America through their newly acquired Canadian States. The States were rich in resources, with the central provinces providing tens of millions of acres of fertile farmlands. With 2.4 billion citizens to feed, obtaining more agricultural resources was a strong priority for the Chinese. The challenge would be moving their army to North America and still keeping it supplied during combat operations.

Chapter 8

Revenge

Day Twenty-Three

21 December 2040

Mediterranean Sea near Crete, Greece

Lurking deep in the dark waters of the Mediterranean was the SSBN Minnesota, one of the new Florida-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. In 2019, the US Navy had begun a program to replace the fourteen Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) with the next generation in submarine technology. The older Ohio SSBNs had been converted to cruise missile carriers and delivery vehicles for Special Forces, giving them a new purpose and mission in the Navy. The twelve new Florida-class SSBNs had come into service in 2034, six years behind schedule due to budget cuts during the Great Depression. They were equipped with twenty Trident III ballistic missiles, each of which would split off to hit fourteen different points through the use of MIRVs, multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. The Floridas also carried 84 Tomahawk cruise missiles, making them a versatile offensive weapon.

It had been a little over thirty hours since New York and Baltimore had been destroyed, and the US had not retaliated with nuclear weapons. As the SSBN Minnesota waited in its holding pattern, they suddenly received an emergency action message, indicating a priority message from COMSUBLANT, or Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic. As the message was printed and decoded, the captain couldn’t help but wonder if this was the order to avenge the destruction of New York City and Baltimore. The casualties from the attack were still being counted and had exceeded five million deaths so far.

The executive officer walked up to the captain and handed him the decoded message with curiosity and uncertainty written all over his face. As the captain finished reading the message, he handed it to the XO for him to read and verify it. “By order of the President, the SSBN Minnesota is to launch a series of ballistic missiles at targets across the Islamic Republic’s provinces in North Africa and stand by to launch additional missiles against targets in the Middle East.”

Further instructions ordered them to launch eight of their twenty Trident III missiles, releasing 112 nuclear warheads against the IR’s largest cities, military bases, manufacturing centers and logistical hubs in their North African provinces.

As the Minnesota rose to launch depth, the sonar techs continued to monitor the waters around them for any potential threats. With the threat board showing green, they gave the captain the go-ahead to initiate the attack. The captain and the senior weapons officer looked at each other as they turned the keys to launch the missiles, knowing they were about to make history, for better or worse. This was only the second time a submarine had ever launched a nuclear attack against another nation. The vessel shuddered briefly as one missile after another ejected from the tubes and was sent to their targets. As the first rocket broke through the water, its booster ignited and it raced for the sky, slowly starting its arc toward a point about one hundred miles in the air, where it would release its MIRVs for maximum effect.

*******

In a bunker one hundred feet below the surface of the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, five B-5 stealth bomber drone pilots were hooked into their controls, guiding drones that were flying 40,000 feet above the Mediterranean Sea. The bomber drones were on their way to deliver the first of the most destructive weapons ever to be used by one nation against another.

Approximately two hundred miles west of Israel, four of the five stealth bomber drones launched their X-59 scramjet cruise missiles, carrying the largest neutron bombs ever developed. Tehran, Baghdad, Riyadh, and Cairo were all targeted; they represented the largest industrial and logistical nodes of the IR. They also represented the largest population centers outside of Asia.

A single B-5 flying over Italy launched their lone X-59 at Istanbul. The purpose of these neutron bombs was not to destroy these historic cities; it was to kill the population in a thirty-mile radius while causing as little destruction and environmental damage as possible. Unlike the 112 cities in North Africa (and thirty more in the Middle East), these five cities could be repopulated with virtually no residual radiation left to clean up.

The bomber crews watched as the scramjet cruise missiles hit their maximum speed of Mach 10. Numerous antimissile lasers and missiles reached out to try and knock them out of the sky, desperately trying to defend their country. Dozens of lasers in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were frantically trying to destroy these fast-moving missiles with no luck. Horror began to spread across the defenders as they realized they could not hit the missiles. Several Russian and Chinese ships were in the area and began to use their antimissile systems to try and engage the American missiles by launching their own missile interceptors and lasers, but it was all to no effect. The missiles were traveling too fast for the lasers to hit them long enough to cause them to explode.

The first missile detonated 15,000 feet above Istanbul. Within a fraction of a second, everyone within a ten-mile radius was hit with over 8,000 rads of radiation and died almost immediately. Their organs began to liquefy, and blood poured out of every orifice of their body, until they died minutes later. Everyone within a thirty-mile radius of Istanbul received a fatal dose of radiation and would die over the following thirty days. Their hair and teeth would begin to fall out within hours or days, and then their internal organs would fail. Finally, blood would ooze from eyes, ears, nose and mouth until finally their bodies would give out. Their death would be long and horrific. The first neutron bomb used in combat effectively killed 14 million people, including several hundred thousand IR soldiers.

As the missile detonated, the EMP immediately fried the electronics across the thirty-mile radius of the city, blacking out the live news broadcasts that millions of people across the Republic had been watching. Within an instant, an emergency alert was being broadcast all across the Republic, urging everyone to make their way to the nearest bomb shelter or basement. The IR immediately let the people know the Americans were launching a nuclear attack against them. The Islamic world erupted in anger and angst at the thought of American nuclear missiles heading toward them, not sure if their city was one of the targets or not.

Once the first missile detonated above Istanbul, the laser operators realized there was nothing they could do to stop the four remaining missiles closing in on their targets. The bombs detonated above Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad and Tehran, effectively killing fifty-one million, two hundred and fifty thousand people instantly. Another thirty million more received a lethal dose of radiation. The power grid all across the Republic began to fail as the EMP blasts ravaged the IR’s critical infrastructure, which routed the majority of the nation’s power through substations that operated within the major cities.

The simultaneous missile strikes by the SSBN Minnesota killed another fifty-six million and, in time, would kill thirty-two million more from radiation. In a single day the IR had lost 110.25 million people and another sixty-two million more would perish in the coming weeks. Within the hour, it was determined the IR had lost 128 cities in total, along with all of their major military installations, industrial, logistical and communication centers. The Americans’ attack had effectively plunged the country back into the dark again as their power grid went down.

The Minnesota launched a second wave of nuclear missiles an hour later and hit thirty additional sites across the Middle East to include Mecca, detonating just above the Kaaba. Within twenty minutes, a TV drone was showing raw footage of the mushroom cloud still lingering over what had once been Islam’s most holy site and House of God. Muslims across the globe exploded in anger toward the US. So many could not believe the Americans had just destroyed the most cherished symbol of their religion. Riots erupted in various parts of the IR, throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, the entire Middle East and Northern Africa.

Fortunately for the IR, the Russian and Chinese warships in the Arabian Gulf had managed to shoot down seventy-six of the 106 nuclear warheads, minimizing the damage the IR received to several of their military facilities, cities and port facilities in Kuwait, Iraq and parts of Iran. The thirty missiles that did get through hit every major power station in the country, along with critical logistics and transportation nodes. The exception was the Kuwait area, which was heavily protected by both Chinese and Russian warships. Together, they were able to successfully intercept the American ICBM MIRVs directed at that target.

Chapter 9

Mobilization

Day Twenty-Four

22 December 2040

Newark, New Jersey

FEMA Field Headquarters

Within hours of the nuclear bomb going off in New York, FEMA had immediately gone into action. They had run several tabletop drills and exercises in the past, simulating what they would do if a nuclear bomb ever went off in a major city. Now those drills were being put into practice as thousands of FEMA workers were directed to one of the two disaster zones. FEMA also alerted all of the cities that had been designated as disaster and medical relief centers and activated their FEMA disaster relief volunteers.

Thousands of police officers, EMTs, firefighters, nurses and doctors had volunteered to be a part of a reserve force of FEMA personnel in case of a historic natural disaster. These individuals would immediately head to a designated airport and be ready to fly to the affected area to provide what support they could. Hundreds of hospitals across the US were placed on alert and told to expect injured people from the disaster sites in the coming hours and days. National Guard armories and school gyms were also being readied to receive displaced people from the blast.

The nondeployed members of the New York, New Jersey, and Northeast National Guard units were immediately activated and ordered to head to the blast zones to begin assisting in the evacuations and recovery efforts. FEMA requested hundreds of aircraft from the airlines to begin the massive airlift of equipment, injured and displaced people, and all of the volunteers from across the country. All flights into Newark, LaGuardia and JFK were redirected to other cities. All outbound flights were allowed to leave to make room for the incoming aircraft that were bringing additional rescuers and much needed equipment.

Fortunately, the EMP blast from the nuclear bomb was contained to around five miles from the epicenter, so it had not affected the airports, though it had seriously damaged the telecommunications and transportation system as many routes traveled through parts that were affected. The Air Force began to shift several of their communication drones to head over New York and Baltimore to provide immediate 4G wireless capability over the affected areas until communication systems could be reestablished.

FEMA had organized their rescue and recovery response into three stages, the first being as close to the affected area as possible. These sites would begin the triage of injured people and identify those that needed to be flown out immediately to one of the local hospitals, and those that could be driven to the second stage of treatment and local hospitals. Once there, patients’ injuries would be tended to, and then they would be scheduled to be flown to one of the disaster relief cities for further treatment and free up the local hospitals for the more serious patients.

Everyone being treated by FEMA was being biometrically enrolled and then given a wristband with a RFID chip to identify the injured person and to keep track of where they were being treated. This function was going to be critical to ensuring family members stayed together and, if separated, could be found and reunited quickly. The third staging point was for displaced persons and refugees who could no longer go back to their homes. The government immediately established a five-mile perimeter around the blast site, preventing people from going back into the hot zone.

*******

Claudia Álvaros had had the wildest, craziest 48 hours of her life. She had managed to stay awake without sleep for the last couple of days, moving from one patient to the other without ceasing and, in true nurse fashion, barely stopping to use the restroom at all. When the FEMA agents arrived at the hospital to help transport all of the patients to safety, she had stayed behind until there were only a handful of people left to move and she was basically ordered to get on a plane. She didn’t realize until she was in the flight, but she hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the bomb had gone off. The result was that she had actually gotten incredibly dehydrated and had managed to throw her electrolytes way off balance. She was forced to become the patient for a little while as she was hooked up to IV fluids to stabilize her condition.

Claudia had a brother in Houston, so she had requested to be transferred there. Once she arrived, she learned that she actually had not been exposed to a fatal level of radiation. She had gotten indoors before the fallout had really started to come down, and although she had been exposed to some additional radiation that emanated in through the entrance, her condition was still treatable. The hospital had also given everyone who wasn’t acutely dying a dose of potassium iodine. She went through the full decontamination process before being transported. She was scrubbed within an inch of her life with a special solution and given new clothing to wear. Now they were giving her new medications that had recently been developed to treat and prevent damage to her bone marrow and internal organs. It would take her a little while to process the fact that she had another chance at life.

*******

The only individuals allowed to enter the contaminated area were rescue workers, firefighters and paramedics. Police were assigned to go door to door and search for injured people and to evacuate everyone in the danger zones. Radiation was going to be high within the perimeters, and unless people began to move out of them, they were going to receive a lethal dose of radiation in short order. All police and rescue workers were required to wear a radiation counter, and once the readout reached a certain level, they were no longer allowed into the hot zones.

As FedEx and UPS cargo aircraft landed at previously identified airports, they were loaded with prepositioned pallets configured to transport injured people in double-decker beds. Other parts of the planes’ cargo holds were set up for people with more severe injuries. The Boeing transports could move sixty non-critically-injured people and up to twenty-four intensive care patients, along with all the medical equipment and personnel needed to care for them.

While the aircraft were being readied for their new medical mission, helicopters arrived at the airports from the stage one and two triage centers, bringing hundreds of injured people to the waiting aircraft. As the planes were filled with the wounded, they began their takeoffs to the next destination. Most aircraft would fly to a city within a two-hour radius and then return for another trip. FEMA had the aircraft spread out their trips to different cities so one city wouldn’t suddenly get overwhelmed. As medical, police and firefighter volunteers showed up at those airports, they were loaded into the aircraft for the return flight.

Within sixteen hours of activating the disaster relief plan, thousands of seriously injured people had been flown to dozens of cities across America. Those who couldn’t return to their homes were being loaded into trucks and taken to Fort Dix or flown to Fort Drum, where field tents and barracks were being made available for people to stay in until they could be flown to their next of kin in another city or state. Because it was in the throes of a cold Northeast winter, establishing adequate shelter for the tens of thousands of refugees was imperative.

By the end of the first day, FEMA had their disaster recovery system fully operational and running at 100%. People were being treated and relocated to other cities for further care or tended to by their extended family. Those who had nowhere else to go were being provided with housing and food on various of military bases and in local hotels near those military installations until something more permanent could be arranged.

*******

Emma Shultz was one of the ER nurses who had volunteered for the recovery effort; she lived in Richmond, Virginia, which happened to be one of the major hubs for many of the patients from the Baltimore area. Emma had seen `em all in her twenty years in the emergency department—gunshot victims, drug users and those with run-of-the-mill broken bones, so in some ways this was all routine for her. She really was a natural, not just for the profession but for that specific type of nursing. When a true emergency arose, it was almost as if a switch inside her would flip and she would be able to shut out her emotions. Some people would panic in this chaos, but to her, the next task was always clear.

Emma had rarely been overwhelmed by the emotional side of her job, except for when she’d worked at a hospital that had a lot of drama and in-fighting between the nurses on the staff. She’d only stuck it out there for about a year before she moved on to greener pastures. At first, this disaster seemed just like any other day at the office. She moved steadily from patient to patient, providing efficient yet compassionate care. Her job was to stabilize patients as they flew in, getting them ready to be admitted for longer-term care, and she had a set of protocols that she could follow for treatment without constantly asking a doctor for orders. IV fluids, standard medications, and injury management—one after the other, things were falling into place.

Then, out of nowhere, they flew in an entire classroom of second graders. The children’s hospitals were completely overwhelmed, so every hospital had to take on their share of the pediatric patients. This was Emma’s weak spot. She could easily handle the standard injuries that always happen in childhood; she had certainly seen her share of playground accidents. However, whenever there was a case of child abuse or neglect, her stomach churned and she would feel sick over it for days. As the innocent, beautiful seven-year-olds kept piling in, she was suddenly overcome with emotion. What kind of monsters could do this to children, for no reason at all? What misguided delusional philosophy would lead someone to this kind of depravity?

She hadn’t gone to the bathroom in a while. She slipped away into the restroom and had a cry for a few minutes. Then she splashed some water on her face and did her best to hide the signs of her little emotional outburst before rushing back onto the floor. This was going to be a long day.

Chapter 10

New Commander

Day Twenty-Four

NATO Headquarters Brussels, Belgium

22 December 2040

General Michaels had been the US European Commander and the NATO Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR) until two days ago; he had been dining with his wife at a restaurant in Brussels when he’d suddenly suffered a heart attack and died. His expeditious demise was still under investigation, but it was believed he had been poisoned, causing his heart to fail on the eve of the Russian invasion. President Stein knew he had to get a new commander in place who had combat experience. General Branson would be ideal, but his counsel was needed with the President. Plus, he was the organizational genius behind the rapid mobilization of forces in the US.

That left General Wade—he had overseen Operation Brimstone in Mexico as the senior military commander and then had moved into command position at US Central Command (CENTCOM). Now he would take over as Supreme Allied Commander NATO. The President wasted no time in announcing his choice.

General Wade didn’t waste any time either. His first task was to get the American and NATO forces ready to take on a Russian army that number in the millions of men and tens of thousands in tanks and drones. As soon as he accepted the new position, he immediately began to disperse forward elements in Poland, Hungary and Romania, getting them ready to meet the Russians head on. Their mission was to conduct a series of delaying actions and give ground as required, but most importantly to make sure their forces were neither surrounded nor destroyed. They needed to buy time for the reactivated American Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Armies to constitute.

General Aaron Wade was a very competent commander, but he was an unknown to Europe and NATO. He had never served in a European or NATO command or staff position, instead spending all of his military time either in the Middle East, Asia or South America. He had little time to move to a theater of operation and take over command of a multinational force he knew very little about. The NATO countries had historically been more of a social club than a military organization. The only countries that really maintained a military close to the NATO standards were Germany, Poland and England. French Special Forces were still on par with the US and others, but the rest of their force was using outdated equipment from decades of neglect and lack of modernization.

The European Union attempted to take over control of the national military forces, and to a large extent, they had. Each country’s active military force became a National Guard force, like the ones that the American states each maintained. The exception was Germany’s force; theirs was as strong and large as the entire EU military force, of which Germany provided nearly 40% of all the military members. Germany was by far the industrial and military backbone of the EU. The question was—would Germany’s strength be enough to save Europe from the Russian hordes, or would the EU collapse?

With the situation temporarily stabilized in Israel, the American Fifth Army was not going to open a second offensive front into Turkey. They were now redirected to form in Northern Germany and be prepared to defend Western Europe. The American Sixth Army was forming in Southern Germany and would move into Hungary and Romania, with their fallback position identified as Serbia and Hungary’s western border once they were ready. NATO would slowly allow lost ground in order to buy time for the rest of the EU Army to mobilize and reinforce the Americans.

General Wade’s combined American Force consisted of 575,000 soldiers, with another 200,000 set to arrive over the next five days. The biggest problem facing him in the EU was equipment. They were in desperate need of tanks, armored vehicles, munitions, artillery and aircraft. The vast majority of the available equipment had been shipped to Israel to replace the horrendous losses General Gardner had taken. The American economy was quickly retooling for war, but it would be months if not a full year before the economy could produce enough equipment to replace the current losses prior to the Russians invading. It was going to be a fight against time. Truth be told, General Wade was not confident he could win.

*******

Major General Dieter Schoen was the Commander of the German 10th Panzer Division Bundeswehr, which consisted of approximately 12,200 soldiers spread across two armored brigades, a grenadier brigade (mechanized infantry), an artillery brigade and a mountain infantry brigade. His division had 680 Leopard 3Cs main battle tanks, the most advanced European battle tank available. Unlike their French counterparts, these tanks were on par with anything the Russians had. The disadvantage they had was their numbers. The Russians would be advancing into Poland and the rest of the EU with 8,000 or more main battle tanks and light drone tanks. As good as the Leopard was, it wouldn’t last long against numbers like this. General Schoen knew his best chance of success was to see if he could get an American Pershing battalion to integrate with his tanks division.

Schoen was a rising star in the German Army. He was young, just 39 years of age, and the absolute picture of what you would expect a German general to look like. Tall, blond hair, blue eyes, muscular, and good looking, but under the extremely polished and well-starched exterior, the man was also a military genius. He had trained with the Americans at the Army’s Fort Benning Armor School and participated in numerous armored training exercises with the Americans, both at the Fort Irwin National Training Center and at the US Army Joint Military Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany.

Word had it that Germany was building a new battle tank using the American advance armor and railgun technology. The question was, would it be completed in enough time to make a difference? Intelligence also said the Russians had a new tank that might make its own appearance in the near future.

General Schoen directed his division to start heading toward Warsaw. Once there, they would offload their tanks and other armored vehicles and begin moving them to various marshaling points, where he could quickly deploy them against the Russians. He wanted to get his scouts and antitank units deployed as soon as possible; the key was going to be identifying the likely enemy approaches so that the engineers could determine the best-prepared positions to send the tanks and grenadiers.

The EU leadership might not believe the Russians were going to invade, but after hearing General Wade’s speech and seeing the intelligence himself, Schoen wanted to get his division into the field and deployed as soon as possible. This would be the first time the German Army would be deployed in Europe to fight against another army since World War II. General Schoen was determined to show the world and the Russians that, despite not having been involved in any recent wars, the German war machine was something to still fear. The Fatherland was retooling for war, this time as America’s ally.

The 13th Panzer Division was moving toward Rzeszow to the south of General Schoen, which was approximately 45 miles west of the Ukrainian border. This was one of the two most vulnerable points for Russian attack—the other was the Lublin-Warsaw gap, which was where Schoen concentrated his forces. The 13th Panzer Division consisted of two extra brigades of grenadiers (mechanized infantry) and light antitank drones instead of the heavier Leopard 3Cs. This was a good equipment setup for the area they were guarding, which was loaded with mountain ranges, impassible ridges and rock formations. Combat in this area would certainly turn into close-in fighting. On the other hand, the Lublin/Warsaw gap was relatively flat country, ideal for fast-moving tanks. General Schoen placed carefully plotted tank traps in this area, preparing for the first of several tank battles. In addition to controlling the Lublin-Warsaw gap, Schoen was the area commander and was directing the 10th and 13th Panzer Divisions in order to stop the Russian armored advance.

The Polish Army was going to focus their defense in the north near Bialystok on the Belarus border. Their army was heavily equipped with German-made military equipment, including Leopard 3C tanks, so integrating with the German divisions in Poland was not going to be a problem. The Poles and Germans knew they could give ground for a time, but they were determined to make the Russians pay for each kilometer of ground they took and ensure they kept the Russians out of Germany. If they failed their mission, the industrial machine of Germany, which was the backbone of the EU, would likely fall. Then there would be no hope of producing the tools of war needed to win the ultimate victory.

There was still no sign of the French or Belgian units yet; they were supposed to join the Polish forces in the north and provide them with additional support. In addition to the 10th and 13th Panzer Divisions, Germany was moving three divisions of infantry to shore up defensive positions in and around the major cities in eastern Poland.

Chapter 11

Tipping Point

Day Twenty-Four

22 December 2040

Northwest Virginia

Presidential HIVE

The President and his advisors had been monitoring the political situation in Asia and Europe intensely since Stein had ordered an overwhelming nuclear response against the IR. The Chinese media came out with an official statement, insisting that the war remain conventional and agreeing to no longer use nuclear torpedoes or any other form of nuclear weapons. They also said that if the US hit China with a neutron bomb, they would respond with their own colossal nuclear response. The war of words continued to heat up as President Stein had the Secretary of State convey that any nation who used nuclear weapons against the United States would face a similar response to the retribution the IR had just received.

The leaders of the European Union were still in a state of shock at the sheer destruction that the IR had inflicted on New York and Baltimore. They were then further aghast at President Stein’s response; over one hundred and ten million people had been killed, and more than a hundred cities were decimated. They felt that the Americans had responded too harshly in retaliation, not to mention the environmental catastrophe they had just unleashed—thousands of tons of dust particles were being thrown into the upper atmosphere. In an effort to keep his allies appeased, President Stein made it clear that the United States would refrain from further use of nuclear weapons in the war, unless one was used against America or American forces again.

In addition to the possibility of further use of nuclear weapons, the President was still very concerned with the domestic attacks. The IR had masterfully infiltrated Special Forces and intelligence agents into the country, and they had recruited thousands of American Muslims and Muslim immigrants to conduct terror attacks against the country. This had unfortunately led to more American Muslims joining in to be a part of what they thought was a real chance at a revolution in the country. As a result, hundreds if not thousands of reprisals began against American Muslims, the vast majority of whom had absolutely nothing to do with the terror attacks. The violence between the Muslim and non-Muslims in the country had risen to the point where the President had addressed it directly in several briefings. He was hoping to get the American people to calm down and to trust the justice system to handle the threats. Stein encouraged those who were concerned to report suspicious activity to the authorities and let them deal with it.

In the HIVE, the senior advisors were meeting to discuss the recent developments. The President sat down across from the DHS Secretary and jumped right into business. “Director Perez, have we identified any additional IR or Chinese cells in the last couple of days?” The President was hoping they had finally rooted out the last of them.

“Within the first two hours of the Trinity Program going live, we apprehended forty-six suspected IR operatives in Dearborn, Michigan. We caught them prior to their execution of a massive attack. One of the prisoners said their goal was to encourage a Muslim uprising in Dearborn and Detroit and then support them with weapons and explosives. We captured over 1,200 assault rifles, nearly 8,000 pounds of Semtex, fourteen MANPADs, and three dozen explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs—the kind that punch right through our armored vehicles. It was a huge success for DHS and the Trinity Program,” reported Director Perez.

Breathing a sigh of relief at finally catching a big break, the President replied, “This is a big deal. I want this brought up during the press briefing. See if there is some footage we can release as well. The public needs to know that we’re apprehending these terrorists and seeing real results. Has the Trinity Program identified any other significant threats yet?”

Secretary Perez continued, saying, “We have. There were sixty-seven Chinese nationals identified that had been working in a variety of jobs in the energy and utility sector. We now believe they may have been directly involved in the massive communications blackout with the Uninet routers and switches. The program also identified 1,385 military officers and NCOs across all branches of the military that have ties in one fashion or another to the PLA, Russia and the IR. All of these individuals had Top-Secret clearances and worked in sensitive areas within the military—”

General Branson interjected, “—We’re going to put them on trial for treason as well. Sorry for the interruption, Director Perez.”

The Director nodded and continued, “In addition to the military members, 3,456 government civilians and 856 government contractors have been arrested. Not all of these individuals had ties to the PLA; some had ties to the Russians and the IR. Everyone detained is going to be charged and tried for treason once all the evidence has been collected.” Director Perez smiled with pride, feeling vindicated after having pushed so hard to make this controversial program operational.

“Where do we stand on getting the communications grid fully restored?” asked the President’s Chief of Staff.

Director Perez brought up another slide with some additional information regarding the various status updates and explained, “As of right now, we have about 75% of the grid operational again. There are still some issues with data speed, but that will get resolved as more of the routers are replaced and upgraded. We’re finally starting to get the parts we needed from the UK. It’s now more of an issue of replacing the burnt-out switches and routers throughout the grid. It’s going to take some time. The aerial drones and aerostat blimps are helping to plug the holes and gaps in the grid for the time being.”

The President smiled. He was impressed by the ability of his staff to see the problem and find a way to quickly solve it. This close collaboration between the private sector and Allied and partner nations was key to getting the country’s communication system back in operation.

Leaning forward, the President praised his team. “Director Perez, your team has done an outstanding job getting the communications network back up and running. I’m also glad you put forth a strong case for going live with Trinity. I was skeptical about using such an intrusive surveillance program, and I know others in the room were as well. However, no one can dispute the results, or the speed with which it found these traitors within our midst. I want this program to stay ‘eyes only’ and keep the circle of people that know about it small. The less people that know about this the better.”

The President’s Chief of Staff asserted, “We need to get these successes in the press. Lord knows the people need something; they’re still reeling from the destruction of New York and Baltimore. That said, people are pretty pumped up about our nuking the living daylights out of the IR. Everyone knew someone who died in the vicious attacks,” Monty said, surveying the group.

“Jim, how are the Europeans taking all of this?” asked the President, wanting to get a sense of the political situation with his allies.

“Like everyone else, they were shocked by the IR nukes in New York and Baltimore. They were also horrified at our response. They are saying we went overboard and should have shown some restraint. They are also crying foul about the environmental damage this is going to cause,” Jim said, knowing the President would have gone further if the others hadn’t insisted on limiting the conventional nuclear attack. Stein had wanted to unleash more than a thousand nukes, hitting the entire Islamic Republic from North Africa and the Middle East to Asia.

The President was concerned about the environmental damage the nukes had caused but found himself saying, “Perhaps they can show restraint when one of their cities is nuked. Are they mobilizing their forces yet? Will they be able to provide any sort of defense?” The President was clearly not expecting a satisfactory response.

General Branson moved to answer the question. “Mr. President, they’ve mobilized their entire reserve force. Germany is really stepping up. They just announced the conscription of three million additional soldiers, not that they’ll make a difference for at least six to twelve months.”

A holographic image of General Wade came to life. From his European post, he had been participating in the meeting via conference call. Now he interjected, “The EU is still in the process of pulling their active forces out of the cities and reequipping them with their combat equipment. The only units that are ready right now are the German 10th and 13th Armored Divisions and the Polish Army. Both German divisions have the latest Leopard 3C model tanks and will be more than a match for the Russians. The Germans are also mobilizing three infantry divisions to begin setting up defensive positions in and around some of the major Polish cities. The Poles, for their part, are moving most of their armor and mechanized forces to the north and trusting the Germans to hold the center. The EU forces in Poland, Hungary and Romania have all been placed on alert and moved to their marshaling points. For the first week, they will be on their own until the Fifth and then later the Sixth Army are ready.”

The President butted in to ask, “Will the German divisions be enough?”

“These are their two best divisions. General Schoen is the area commander, and he’s by far their best field general. I’m confident they will hold the Russians for a few days, long enough for us to get at least part of the Fifth Army to the German border and ready to fight,” General Wade replied, his face set like flint.

Changing maps on the holographic display, General Branson began showing the North Atlantic and the British sector. “The Brits are going to secure Iceland and Norway. They will focus heavily on interdicting the Russian Navy and ensuring the sea lanes between North America and Europe continue to stay open. They’re also going to be providing a large portion of the air support over Europe, since most of our airpower is still in the Middle East.”

Eric Clarke, the SecDef, interrupted to add, “We have 1,200 fighter drones fresh from the factory. They’re being formed into new fighter wings and will be sent to Europe within the next three days. It’s still going to be close to a month, maybe two, until we have most of the aircraft from the boneyards ready to go. Even then, we lack trained pilots. We’ve shortened the training period for our pilot program, but that means our pilots will be less trained and experienced when they go into battle. We are also calling back into service a lot of retired pilots who used to fly these aircraft when they were still on active duty.”

General Branson was used to the SecDef adding information during his brief and continued on as if it never happened. “They will get their experience, just like the infantry will—through direct combat. The additional fighter drones and aircraft from the boneyards will help, especially the 500 A-10s. Those are incredible tank busters. My concern is that we have heard rumors that Russia has a new fighter, the MiG40. We’re not sure of its capabilities, but from what we have heard, it uses some sort of new technology that makes the aircraft virtually invisible to the naked eye. If that’s the case, then this new fighter is going to cause us some major problems.”

Sighing deeply, the President felt another migraine coming on. “Gentlemen, what I need to know is—do we have sufficient forces to hold on to our gains in the Middle East and prevent Russia from capturing Europe? If not, then this is the time to bring up any issue.”

Everyone in the room sat silently thinking for a moment about what the President had just asked. It was a good question that needed to be addressed before hostilities with Russia really started. Eric sat back in his chair and exhaled forcefully, then leaned forward, surveying everyone at the table before responding.

“Mr. President, we’re at a tipping point right now. We’ve just stabilized the situation in the Middle East, and that could change quickly if the Russians or Chinese decide to throw more troops into the mix. We have North Africa and the Strait of Gibraltar that still need to be secured, and then we have Europe.”

The world was finally at a critical moment where the dictatorial regimes finally had the military and economic advantage over the democratic governments of the West. The decline of the US as a global influencer and the rise of China, Russia and a united Middle East had given them the edge they had longed for. After nearly seventy years of planning, China finally had the technological and military might to not just challenge the US but potentially strip them of their superpower status. As China secured Southeast Asia, their attention would likely turn to mineral-rich Alaska and the fertile farmlands of the American West Coast.

The Secretary of Defense spoke up for the group, saying, “Unless some miracle or an act of God happens, and the EU Army is able to mobilize and stop the Russians, I don’t believe we’ll be able to hold Europe for more than six months. It’s going to take us close to twelve months to field an army strong enough to defeat the Russians, and that assumes those forces won’t be needed to reinforce the Middle East, Australia or our own West Coast.”

The President knew Eric was right—there was only so much the US could do with the current forces and equipment they had at hand. The military boneyard near Tucson was already being scavenged for equipment that could be reactivated, and so too was the Navy’s Ghost Fleet. The President needed time—time to allow the American economy to deliver the tools of war needed to win. However, it was time that the democracies of the world did not have.

“You bring up some good points Eric. We can only defend and win if we prioritize our theaters of operation,” responded the President. He looked down at his tablet for some information before continuing. “What we need to do right now is to determine which combat zones we will divert most of our resources to, and then focus on establishing a delaying action in the others.”

General Branson saw this as his opportunity to step in and provide his military opinion. “Mr. President, I recommend we finish operations in the Middle East. The Russians and Chinese have forces there, but that theater isn’t going to be their main area of operations. Let’s secure and stabilize that region so we can relocate those forces to Europe.

“Next, I recommend that we move Asia to the backburner. I hate the idea of abandoning Asia, but until our carrier forces are built back up and Japan joins in, we’re not going to be in a position to take China on and win. With that said, I recommend we continue to build up a defensive force in Australia and move to withdraw all forces from Japan and relocate them to Alaska. The Klondike is incredibly vulnerable to both Russia and China, and those forces in Japan could be the difference in deterring or preventing an attack there.

“I also recommend that we begin a full evacuation of the Hawaiian Islands. The Chinese will certainly make a move for them. Once cut off, the civilian population on the island would begin to die off. The island also has limited military value because the naval and air facilities there have been wrecked by the Chinese sneak attack there. We are preparing our military forces to fight a guerilla war on the island and establish a continuous surveillance operation of the facilities once they do fall to the Chinese, but there’s nothing we could do for the civilians. I recommend we begin a forced evacuation of the residents immediately, while we still have time.”

Secretary of State Jim Wise spoke up. “This is not going to look good in the public eye, Mr. President. I understand the need to prioritize the various theaters of operation, but it will appear that we are abandoning Asia and essentially surrendering to China. Is there some way we can continue to keep some sort of military pressure on the Chinese?”

Eric understood Jim’s concern as well and added, “He’s right, Mr. President. It will appear that we are surrendering to China and ceding Asia to them. However, if we keep our submarine forces and the Navy involved in Asia, sinking Chinese shipping and going after other soft targets, then we can keep the public and the Chinese from believing we have ceded Asia to them.”

General Branson concurred. “These are good points, Mr. President. I have to agree with their assessments. It is important we make the Chinese believe we haven’t completely surrendered the fight to them, especially in light of our withdrawal from the Hawaiian Islands, if we do in fact move forward with that plan.”

The President knew the next two weeks were going to be critical to the direction of the war and its outcome. The decisions being made right now would have a profound impact on the future history of the world. “Then it’s settled. Asia will be moved to the backburner until we can defeat the IR and Russia. I want everything done to secure Israel and knock the IR out of the war immediately. Find a way to cripple them—starve them into submission if need be—but make sure that we bring that war to an end, or at least to a point where they’re no longer a threat.

“I also want a decision from the Japanese. Are they going to honor their defense pact with us and get involved in the war or not? If they choose not to honor the agreement, then I want General Branson to move forward with the full withdrawal of US forces from Japan to Alaska. We will not protect Japan from China if they aren’t willing to honor their defense agreement, nor will we allow the Japanese to intern our forces for the duration of the war,” the President said emphatically.

*******

Following what was probably the most important meeting of the war, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs immediately began to get things moving. Sixty thousand soldiers who had just completed training were being transferred to Australia to add to the 48,000 troops already stationed there. They would comprise the bulk of US forces in Australia. 11,000 Marines were sent to Alaska to aid the Army in defending critical naval and land points that could be used by either Russian or Chinese forces, and they began to build a host of defensive forts and positions all throughout the Klondike. All other US forces shipped to Israel to assist General Gardner’s Third Army.

Chapter 12

The Lion Licks His Wounds

Day Twenty-Five

23 December 2040

Islamic Republic Command Bunker beneath Riyadh

The Islamic Republic had been hit hard by the American nuclear response. The damage was still being assessed and communications across the Republic were sporadic at best. They had communications with their army in Amman, but little else was functioning.

“What is the status of our military? Do we still have a combat-effective force?” asked Caliph Mohammed.

Zaheer Akhatar, the Caliph’s personal advisor, laid out the news. “Our forces in Amman were unscathed by the American attack. We still have nearly three million regular and civilian militia forces ready for combat, though we lack the supplies for a long campaign. The rest of the Republic is in tatters. Our scientists, along with those from Russia and China, determined that the Americans used some sort of new bomb called a neutron bomb. When it detonates, it causes very little in the way of damage to the target. Rather, it emits a lethal dose of radiation to everyone within a thirty-mile radius, and of course emits a massive EMP. Near as we can tell, the Republic was hit with five of these devices. They hit Istanbul, Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad and Tehran. These attacks were quickly followed up with 143 nuclear strikes, hitting every power plant, hydroelectric dam, major seaport and logistical node in the entire Republic. The one exception was the province of Kuwait; the Chinese and Russian warships destroyed the American MIRVs targeting that area. The Americans also destroyed our largest one hundred cities.

“On a good note, the Chinese and Russian Navy was able to destroy forty-two nuclear missiles before they hit their targets. They are also connecting slave cables from their ships to our electrical grid to start providing localized power in parts of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman.”

Caliph Mohammed sat in his chair for a minute, trying to digest what he had just been told. He stood up, motioning for everyone else to stay seated while he paced back and forth for a couple of minutes to try and decide what to do next. As he returned to his chair, he turned to his advisors and asked, “What options do we have left? Is the war still winnable?”

General Rafik Hamza, the overall commander of the IR military, knew the only option left was surrender, but he dared not suggest it. They had taken a calculated risk that the Americans would back down in light of the destruction of two of their cities. The introduction of a neutron bomb to the equation changed things immensely. Also, these missiles that the Americans used appeared to be the same as the ones that had hit them at the outset of the war. Their spies had told them that those were experimental missiles and that the US did not have any more…they could not have been more wrong. If they were now mass-producing these missiles, then the Republic did not have much time left to either win the war or surrender. They had also not taken into consideration the potential loss of their top one hundred cities and their entire infrastructure.

The room was silent for a few awkward moments. Knowing someone had to deliver the bad news, General Hamza began, “Caliph Mohammed, we can continue to attack the American and Israeli forces through Jordan with our remaining forces and the supplies that we have left. When the Chinese and Russian forces move into position, we can begin a second offensive with them.”

“I gather from the tone of your voice that this is not how you would like to proceed?” asked the Caliph.

All eyes turned toward General Hamza to see what he would say next.

Rubbing his temples briefly, he said, “Caliph, we made a calculated risk that we could survive a nuclear strike by the Americans. We were wrong. We did not anticipate the use of a neutron bomb or the destruction of our top one hundred cities. Our entire infrastructure—dams, power plants, bridges and roads—are being systematically destroyed by American drones now that our laser defense system is offline. We have no power practically anywhere in the Republic. Worse still, in many places, we have no water.”

He took a deep breath, knowing that he was about to risk his life with his next statement. “Caliph, I recommend that we pursue a cease-fire—not a peace agreement, a cease-fire. We can continue the war in a few months once the Russians attack the Americans and the Chinese continue their expansion. This will buy us time to pick up the pieces of the Republic and retain control of the country we have fought so hard to create.”

The Caliph sat back in his chair for a moment before responding. “Thank you for your direct and clear recommendation. We did make a calculation, and we were wrong. I happen to agree with you. I believe we should pursue a cease-fire. However, what do we do with China and Russia? The Chinese already have an army group moving toward Amman, and Russia will have the Second Shock Army move down through Syria. What should we tell them?” asked the Caliph with a bit of uncertainty.

“This is an interesting question. I am not sure how they will respond. The Chinese will demand that we continue the war; the Russians will as well,” General Rafik acknowledged.

“There is an alternative. We can continue the war and go along with them, but just not commit our forces as aggressively as we have. Rather than continue to attack with our full force, we use the most minimal amount of forces possible while we focus on trying to hold on to the land we have. We are still allowing the Chinese and Russians to use our land as a launch point, and we will be supporting them, but our focus will be on rebuilding our infrastructure and country,” said Talal bin Abdulaziz. He was hoping everyone else understood his point.

Muhammad bin Aziz, the Minister of Industry, interjected, “Caliph, the Chinese have several ships in port right now in Kuwait. The Americans have not attacked them, and the ship captains have agreed to provide us with short-term power. We still have a laser defense battery operational there, and I would like to get it back online and then get the power plant nearby repaired. Once it’s repaired, we can have our additive manufacturing plants, the 3-D printing plants, operational. They can start producing the parts we need to get our power grid back online and get our laser defense systems running. The Russians are also sending dozens of their advanced S500 surface-to-air missile systems. They are going to start establishing them throughout the country to try and help us get the American drones and fighters off our backs. Then we can prepare the area for their forces as they move into our lands.”

The Caliph got up and began to pace once again while he thought about what his advisors had suggested. If they did not restore power to the country and reestablish order, the entire Republic could spiral out of control and they could lose the country. “Talal and General Rafik, please get in contact with the Americans and see if we can get a 96-hour cease-fire while we work out the details of a truce. I also want you to get in touch with the Chinese and Russians. Let them know that we are going to sue for a cease-fire to buy ourselves some time. They are welcome to continue to use our facilities and access our territory. Any assistance they can provide to us would be greatly appreciated.”

Following the meeting, the Islamic Republic asked the Israelis and Americans for a four-day cease-fire while they worked out the details of a longer-term truce. The IR used this time to get several of their laser defense and SAM systems back online and secure a small bubble so that their manufacturing could start to replace destroyed power and transmission equipment. It was going to be critical to reestablish their power grid and restore order within the country. The Russians also began to provide the IR with several dozen mobile laser defense systems, reducing the effectiveness of Allied cruise missile and air attacks against the remaining IR infrastructure.

The Chinese First EF and the Russian Second Shock Army began to move toward Israel and the Allied forces, setting up the second battle for Israel.

Chapter 13

A Very Un-Merry Christmas

Day Twenty-Six

24 December 2040

10 Downing Street, London

Underground Command Bunker

Prime Minister Stannis Bedford and the Allies knew the Russians were going to launch their attack against the EU on December 25. What they did not know was what time of day the skirmish would start. Rather than waiting for the hammer to fall, at midnight on the 24th, the Prime Minister ordered the military to initiate a covert attack against the known Russian positions before they were able to begin their aggressions.

In the deep dark trenches of the ocean floor, the submarines of the Royal Navy launched torpedoes toward eight Russian submarines that they had been shadowing the last several days since leaving their port in Murmansk. The Russians had been moving their subs into the North Atlantic in preparation for their invasion of the EU; their goal had been to attack the Allied shipping lanes and stop additional troops and materiel that were being moved from the US to Europe. However, within minutes, the Royal Navy had destroyed a total of fifteen Russian submarines, completely dashing their hopes of launching their own surprise assault.

At the same time, the Royal Air Force JF35 stealth fighter bombers and B5 stealth bomber drones began hitting Russian fixed-based laser defense and S500 SAM systems, along with sixteen forward airfields. The Russian air defense systems were able to shoot down twenty-nine of the forty-five B5s and twenty-one of the eighty-six JF35s, but not before they successfully destroyed their targets, creating a temporary wide hole in the Russian air defense.

With the newly created gap in security, the Americans fired 4,300 cruise missiles at the Russian First and Third Shock armies and targeted dozens of power plants across Western Russia. They also hit a dozen more laser defense systems, along with one hundred and thirty-two mobile laser defense vehicles. The Russians managed to destroy nearly half of the cruise missiles and two-thirds of the attacking drones; however, several hundred tanks and other armored vehicles were destroyed by the American missiles.

The Russians, eager for revenge, immediately launched their offensive. Three thousand Spetsnaz soldiers began destroying bridges, dams, dikes, power transmission nodes, and cell towers throughout the EU and Great Britain. One-third of the Netherlands and Belgium began to flood as the dikes keeping the seawater at bay began to wreak havoc on the country. With one phone call, the Russians also activated all of their assets to engage in targeted assassinations. One thousand, three hundred and twenty-one EU government officials were murdered within the first several hours.

The first four hours of Christmas saw some of the most intense combat that Europe had seen since the height of World War II. Thousands upon thousands of manned fighters and fighter drones were engaged in aerial combat, vying for control of the skies of Europe. While the battle in the clouds was taking place, nearly five thousand Russian main battle tanks and twelve thousand light drone tanks began to move across the borders of Russia into Romania, Hungary and Poland. In total, four million Russians advanced across Europe, led by the famed General Kulikov.

*******

When the Russian Third Shock Army crossed the Polish border, they immediately ran into heavy resistance from the German 10th Panzer Division. General Schoen had prepared his positions well, knowing exactly where the Russians would advance. With the cover of Allied drones and air support, he struck fast and hard.

The main tank battle took place at a crossroad between Highway 63 and Highway 19, just south of Lukow at a city called Radzyń-Podlaski. General Schoen had moved 430 Leopard 3C main battle tanks and 530 Puma antitank infantry fighting vehicles to this position. Each Puma carried eight antitank guided missiles, a 30mm autocannon and six infantrymen. The Germans fought courageously and with all their might against the Russians and blunted their initial assault. The German infantrymen savaged the Russian armored vehicles as they advanced near any of the Polish cities. During the 24-hour running tank battle, 1,124 Russian tanks were obliterated. In comparison, the Germans lost just 243 tanks and 343 Pumas before they fell back to the city of Garwolin, ten miles south of Warsaw. The German Army was once again proving to be a formidable foe.

*******

General Wade still hadn’t unpacked his bags when the fighting had begun. The British had presented their plan to him to hit the Russians hard and blunt their preemptive strike. With war a near certainty, there was no need to wait to be attacked. General Wade had agreed and persuaded President Stein to give the go-ahead. When the British had attacked, General Wade had hit the Russians with nearly every cruise missile he had available. They had the element of surprise, so there was no reason to hold anything back.

As General Wade looked up from the desk he was sitting at, Major General Bryant from the British Royal Army walked in with a battle damage assessment (BDA). “Were the raids successful?” asked the SACEUR.

Major General Charles Bryant was the NATO liaison officer for the Royal Army and was responsible for coordinating the RA and USA ground and air forces in Europe. He was also General Wade’s new XO. With the death of the previous SACEUR CG, General Wade had been relying on General Bryant a lot.

“We hit them hard. BDA shows we destroyed three hydroelectric plants and five other power plants. Another six were heavily damaged. It’s going to cause some rolling blackouts and wreak havoc on their communications and logistical networks. We also hit their rail and bridge networks pretty hard. Twelve of their airfields are temporarily taken out as well.”

“Excellent. At least we scored some immediate hits before everything kicked off. How are we faring in the air war?” General Wade asked cautiously.

Bryant glanced down at his tablet and cycled through a few slides to get to the information he was looking for. “It’s still touch-and-go right now. We are starting to see those new MiG 40s we’ve been hearing so much about, and the Su-37 is as fearsome as we thought it would be. They are tearing through us right now.”

General Wade had been afraid the new MiG and Sus might do this. “How bad are they hitting us?”

“We’ve shot down three MiGs and ninety-two Su-37s, at a loss of seventeen JF35s and one hundred and twenty-three of our F-38 drones.”

General Wade knew these types of losses were not sustainable, particularly if the Russians had a large quantity of these new MiGs. He thought to himself, How many of these do they have?

Putting his thoughts into words, he said, “These are not maintainable losses. Do we know where the aircraft are flying out of? Is it possible for us to try and launch a raid on the airfields?”

“No, Sir. We have not identified where they are flying out of yet. The issue that the pilots and intelligence are having is that the MiG is technically invisible. As in, they literally cannot see the aircraft.”

“I remember reading about that in one of the intelligence briefs. What are we doing about it?”

“The one weakness to the MiG is its heat signature. The rest of the aircraft operates at such a low temperature in comparison to its exhaust that it stands out when using a specialized Doppler radar system. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of these specific types of instruments in Europe, nor do we use them in our missiles.”

“I want more of these radars brought in from the States immediately. Also, get in touch with some reps from the manufacturers and see if they can figure out a way to get them incorporated into our heat-seeking missiles. Get on the horn with whoever you need to, and get more of these radars in theater immediately.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“How is the rest of the air war going with the drones?” Wade asked.

The Allies had nearly 12,400 fighter drones and 1,900 manned fighters in Europe. At the start of the war, the Russians had nearly 17,000 fighter drones and 3,600 manned aircraft. The primary advantage the Allies had was their railgun defensive systems. Both sides had fixed and mobile laser defense and missile systems, but only the Allies had railguns.

“It’s too early to determine how the air war is shaking out. Right now, the First Shock Army is rolling over the Romanian and Hungarian armies. We’ve directed both armies to fall back to their defensive positions as we speak. The Third Shock Army is being slowed down by General Schoen and the German 10th and 13th Panzer Divisions at Rzeszow, Lublin, and Radzyń-Podlaski. During a running 24-hour tank battle, they destroyed over 1,200 Russian tanks before falling back to just 10 miles south of Warsaw.

“The bigger concern we’re seeing with some of the drone fighter squadrons is cyber-attacks. Not all of the squadrons are being affected, but in one instance, the entire squadron’s fighter drones simply went offline and crashed before the technical folks could figure out what was happening,” General Bryant said, a bit concerned with the report.

General Wade was very concerned about cyber-attacks as well. The IR had used them in Mexico and caused a lot of communications problems for his forces there. Those issues were supposed to have been fixed, and thus far, it appeared that the secured military communications grid “battle net” hadn’t gone down. However, the Air Force apparently still had some vulnerabilities in their drones that would need to get sorted out.

“I’m also getting some reports from the civilian sector of massive cyber-attacks taking place all across the EU. Water treatment plants are being turned off, or in some cases destroyed. Some of the power plants are going offline and there are all sorts of other issues hampering daily life. But this issue with the Air Force drones is concerning. If we don’t fix that, we may not have anything left to save. Any word from the Air Force on what they’re doing to fix the problem?” asked General Wade.

“Before I came in here, I spoke with a colonel in the cyberwarfare division who said they believe they have identified the problem and are working to close the vulnerabilities as we speak. He also said we should expect many more cyber problems as the war progresses.”

“Great,” Wade replied sarcastically. “Well, stay on this. Actually, assign one of your deputies to make this his top priority. I need you focused on helping me run and coordinate the ground and air war right now. Make sure your deputy gets in touch with our NSA LNO and tell them they need to get this fixed, or the Russians will be all over our tanks.” General Wade sat back down and signaled for General Bryant to sit as well. An aide walked in a second later with a cup of tea for General Bryant and a cup of black coffee for General Wade.

Wade knew things were going to get dicey. He also knew the EU Army had to hold the line for at least two weeks before the American Fifth Army would be at 100% strength and able to take the Third Shock Army head on. They were stripping the Sixth Army of all of its equipment and personnel in order to get the Fifth Army operational immediately.

Bryant and Wade continued to discuss the ground war and how it was impacting the civilian populace. “I know it may seem like things are falling apart quickly, but I assure you they will start to stabilize over the next forty-eight hours as the Russians start to run out of steam. The Reds are explosive in their attacks, but they lack the ability to sustain them. We just need to hold the line for a couple of weeks. The Fifth and Sixth Armies are coming.”

The US had rerouted ninety Pershing tanks that had originally been heading toward Israel to reinforce the Fifth Army. General Gardner was not happy about losing such valuable MBTs but understood the need for them in Europe if Fifth Army was going to have a chance at stopping the two Russian Shock Armies. The US had also agreed to a 96-hour cease-fire with the IR after the nuclear attacks; the halt had given General Gardner’s Third Army a chance to consolidate their gains in Israel and gave his forces a chance to rest.

Chapter 14

Korean Peninsula

Day Twenty-Seven

25 December 2040

South Korean Presidential Briefing

With the withdrawal of US forces from South Korea, the Koreans were feeling a bit apprehensive. The North was saber-rattling again. China had been gobbling up the entirety of Southeast Asia; it was only a matter of time until they decided to finish the Korean War. South Korea had to act, and act soon, if they were going to secure their future.

Young Hee Guen-hye had been President of South Korea for less than two years. In that timeframe, she had directed the military to prepare for a preemptive military strike against North Korea. Knowing that China was going to make a move against Asia at some point, she wanted to make sure they could prevent Seoul from being destroyed in the opening hours of a war with the North. North Korea had positioned over 15,000 artillery pieces aimed directly at South Korea’s capital. If the artillery weren’t taken out in the opening hours of a conflict, then the city and the people that lived within it would suffer horrific casualties.

When the Americans had withdrawn, all 495,000 South Korean active and reserve troops had been called up and placed on ready alert along the entire border with North Korea. The South Korean Air Force was flying additional fighter aircraft over the country, and the Navy had moved most of their ships to sea. The nation was as ready for war as they were going to get.

Since South Korea didn’t possess nuclear weapons like the North, they had developed a small stockpile of chemical and nerve agents, geared toward a specific type of offensive operation. The preemptive strike would involve South Korea hitting the entire North Korean lines with artillery shells and rockets filled with VX nerve gas and sarin. The goal was to overwhelm the defenders quickly with a chemical attack. While they were dealing with the initial shock of such an attack, the Republic of Korea Air Force would begin to napalm all known artillery and rocket positions, destroying the equipment. This would quickly be followed up by the ROK Army advancing in their own chemical suits across the front lines and securing the enemy positions, removing the threat of the North’s artillery against Seoul.

This attack would require an immense amount of VX and sarin gas to be used quickly. The ROK artillery barrage would last for five minutes before the Air Force would swoop in with their own payload. The ROK Air Force would also hit every known nuclear weapons site in an attempt to destroy the North’s ability to launch their nuclear missiles. This would be the largest chemical weapons attack since World War I, and President Young Hee Guen-hye hoped they would be able to destroy a large enough portion of the North’s army to get them to surrender quickly. It was risky using chemical weapons; her hope was they could knock the North out of the war fast enough that they would not be able to use their nuclear weapons against the South.

After much deliberation and discussion, it was agreed that the attack would begin on December 26. This would give them twenty-four hours to get everything ready, and hopefully keep the North from finding out until it was too late. The longer they delayed in launching the attack once it had been agreed upon, the higher the likelihood of the plan being discovered.

Chapter 15

Decision Point

Day Twenty-Seven

25 December 2040

Presidential HIVE, Northwest Virginia

It was Christmas in the underground bunker, and the President wanted nothing more than to visit the troops in Israel or Europe. However, it was deemed far too dangerous for the President to travel. The recent political assassinations by Chinese intelligence agents and Special Forces against American elected officials had been very successful in the initial days of the war, until the Trinity Program was activated. With the Russians now in the war, there was a lot of concern of potential Russian direct-action units trying to assassinate the President, or worse, take him hostage. Seventeen US senators and eighty-four Congressional leaders had been assassinated over the last three months—this was just at the federal level. The Chinese, IR, and now the Russians were trying to sow as much chaos, confusion and fear as they could by going after the American leadership structure, waging complete and total war on the US and its way of life.

As the President walked through his quarters and into the underground presidential offices of the HIVE, he couldn’t help but notice that, despite the world being at war, the presidential staff had still found time to decorate the facility for Christmas. The President invited the troops guarding the facility perimeter to be rotated in for a Christmas lunch and dinner served by the President, his family and his staff.

After serving the last round of soldiers their Christmas dinner and talking with as many soldiers as he could, the President walked into the Situation Room for the scheduled briefing at 2000 hours and took his seat at the head of the table. Once he was situated, he signaled for the meeting to begin. He glanced at the agenda in front of him, which included the cyber-attacks to the country’s communication infrastructure, the Trinity Program, the civil violence problem, and disaster recovery efforts underway in New York and Baltimore.

Director Jorge Perez from DHS began, “Merry Christmas, Mr. President, and to everyone here. I have a brief update on the cyber-attacks we have been experiencing and an update on the fixes that have been made. With a lot of help from both the UK and Australia, our major phone, internet and data providers are once again operational. There were some brief rolling blackouts from the utility companies that had been affected, but they’re shorter and less frequent now as we bring more power plants back online. We expect to have the power grid back to 100% capacity within the next the month. The internet, phone and data exchanges are also back up and running at 100%. We attribute about 12,300 deaths to the cyber-attack. We arrived at this number by looking at the number of 911 calls during a similar timeframe that would have resulted in a death had emergency personnel not been able to get to a patient or respond to a car crash, break-in, etc. We also added in the number of people who died at various hospitals and nursing home across the country from the rolling blackouts. This number could conceivably have been much higher.”

The President just shook his head in disgust.

Director Perez continued, “We have replaced the destroyed routers and switches to get everything back up and running, but it will still take many months to replace and repair everything. With AT&T and other phone and internet providers operational again, we have returned operational control of Verizon back to the company. The government has successfully switched our service provider over to Verizon as well and will diversify that service once the other companies’ infrastructures are fully repaired. As for the utility companies, by and large, they were not affected by the current wave of cyber-attacks. Similar cyber-attacks continue to originate from China, but not nearly in the volume they had been. We attribute that to the cruise missile strike in Shanghai that destroyed the PLA’s main cyberwarfare headquarters.

“We are seeing an uptick in cyber-attacks from Russia now that they’re in the war. Presently, none of the cyber-attacks are penetrating anything vital, and they’re being shut down as soon as they’re detected. I’m sure the NSA can give you a better picture of our offensive cyber-attacks and how effective they are—I’ll leave that for their brief. It would appear our concerted efforts to reinforce our cyber defenses and harden the power grid against cyber-attacks have really paid off.”

Changing images on the screen, Director Perez went on, “Mr. President, the recovery effort in New York and Baltimore continues to run relatively smoothly. We continue to relocate the injured people to various hospitals and cities around the country, just as the plans called for. People whose homes are in the hot zones and are too close to the blast site to return are being relocated to a city of their choosing, and assistance is being provided. We’ve expended $600 million NAD in the last week. We will need another $16.2 billion NAD for the remainder of the year for the resettlements, and another $52 billion NAD for recovery and cleanup operations.”

The President interrupted, “—Monty, ensure Speaker Fultz knows Director Perez is going to be contacting his office for a supplemental budget increase. Make sure they get the funds they need and let’s get an oversight group involved to ensure the money is getting to the right people.”

“Yes, Mr. President. I’ll send him a message following the meeting,” Monty responded, tapping a short note on his tablet.

President Stein was pleased at the incredible response time with which FEMA and DHS had deployed to the disaster zones. The planners for this type of disaster had really put a lot of thought into how people would be evacuated and treated, and they hadn’t neglected to plan for what to do with refugees and resettlement. Obviously, people who lived in the hot zones couldn’t go back to their homes, so some sort of compensation plan needed to be developed. FEMA had established a process that would take the fair market value of an individual’s home and then add $75,000 for personal belongings and pay that to the affected person, minus the mortgage on the property. This enabled the banks to recover their loans, freed the displaced families of debt for homes they could no longer use, and gave them enough cash so that people could purchase the necessities to start over.

“Please continue, Director, and thank you for keeping us up to date on the recovery. It is important that we take care of our people,” the President said with sincerity in his voice.

“As of twelve hours ago, when we updated the search parameters, the Trinity Program had identified 496 individuals with ties to Russian intelligence. We have FBI units detaining them now for questioning. Our main concern is the intercepts we decoded a few hours ago. Several Spetsnaz teams located in the US have received orders to begin carrying out attacks. We have no idea what the targets are or how many people are involved; that’s why the FBI is detaining those individuals I mentioned earlier,” Director Perez said.

The President was concerned about this last statement. America had already suffered enough domestic and political attacks. The last thing the country needed was further nasty surprises. “Director Perez, please continue to do whatever is necessary to apprehend these individuals. I want the CIA, DIA, and NSA to identify some potential targets, then quickly draft a plan to beef up security at those locations. We need stability while we focus on the recovery of New York and Baltimore and the war overseas.

“What is the status of our operations in Europe?” asked the President, changing topics.

General Branson stood up. “Mr. President, the situation in Europe is tense and fluid. The Russians have moved their army groups into Hungary and Romania and are pushing EU forces to their fallback positions faster than we had planned for. The Poles and Germans are holding the line a little better. They’ve managed to stop the Third Shock Army near Warsaw. The EU is pouring tens of thousands of troops into Poland.”

Changing some images on the holograph, General Branson continued. “We’re starting to see those new MiG40s and Su-37s, and they are tough. Right now, no one has full air dominance over the battlefield, but it’s not looking very good for the Allies.”

General Adrian Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff, broke in to add, “The MiG40 is a tough aircraft, but they’re limited in number. Right now they’re taking control of the high-altitude fight; however, when they come down closer to the ground, that’s when we have scored a few hits with our railguns. We found a weakness in the aircraft’s stealth system—it’s the heat it emits. The problem is, we can only spot them using a specialized Doppler radar, which we are short of on the battlefield and have never integrated into our air-to-air missiles before.”

“Well, if that’s the case, let’s definitely get more of these specialized radars to Europe. Whatever we need to take control of the skies, let’s get it done, gentlemen,” dictated the President.

“Yes, Sir,” came the response.

“How much longer until the Fifth Army is ready to kick the Russians out of Poland?” asked Stein.

“Soon, Mr. President. We have redirected 90 Pershings to them, and another 210 will arrive within the next month. Right now, they’ll make use of the M1A5s we still have in circulation. We’ve brought another 2,200 M1A4s out of mothballs and hope to have them combat-ready within the next 60 days,” General Branson said.

General Wade’s holograph came to life as he said, “One important item to note, Mr. President, is a recent cyber-attack against some of our fighter drone squadrons. My Air Force and NSA LNOs have told me they’ve identified the problem and are working on a solution, but this could become a serious issue if the Russians or the Chinese can find a way to bring down more of our drone operations.”

General Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff, jumped in. “We are aware of the problem, Mr. President, and we’re currently working on a new software patch and incorporating some additional network security protocols. We believe they gained access to the drone networks via an insider threat. One of the senior NCOs and two officers who worked in the drone program network security branch were recently apprehended as a result of the Trinity Program. Now that we know how the attacks originated, we are confident we can permanently fix it.”

The President was relieved to know they had identified the problem and it was currently being resolved. He also knew there wasn’t much that could be done in Europe just yet—troops, battle plans and defensive operations were all underway. The only course of action right now was to let things play out and give his generals the latitude they needed to make their military decisions.

“General Branson, General Rice, I’m not going to micromanage the air war. I want my generals to have the ability to make the choices on the ground. I do want to be informed and kept in the loop. I may offer a suggestion or advice here and there, but just as in Mexico and Israel, I will leave the actual tactics and strategy to you.”

As the President looked at his commanders, he could see the apprehension leaving them. Henry continued, “General Wade, we’re going to switch to the Middle East theater now. If you need to leave, we will understand.”

“Thank you, Mr. President, for your vote of confidence, and I will step out now. I will continue to keep the Security Council and General Branson apprised of our operations.” Then his holograph disappeared.

General Branson changed the maps and slides over to the Middle East. “General Gardner, are you still with us?” asked General Branson before continuing.

“Yes, Sir. I’m still here and ready to provide my update,” General Gardner said as his holographic image appeared.

“Very well, please continue,” requested the President.

“As you know, Mr. President, the Second Shock Army has moved out of Turkey and is transiting through Syria and Lebanon as we speak. Our air forces continue the battle for the skies; neither side has really taken a decisive advantage in that area as of yet. We anticipate our ground units making contact with the Russians within the next 24 hours. I’ve moved half of my Pershing tanks to meet them, and I’m confident we will hold them within the ten-mile buffer zone we’ve established between the Lebanon and Syrian borders with Israel.” Images were shown of US, Israeli and Russian units as they were moving toward a convergence.

“The Chinese First Expeditionary Force has arrived near Ammon. They’re under a blanket of mobile laser and SAM defense systems, so for the moment, the Air Force hasn’t been able to attack them much. They appear to be getting ready to make their own offensive push, which will most likely coincide with the Russians. We believe they’re going to try and go after the port facilities in the Red Sea and will also try to make a play for Sinai. We’re unsure of whether or not the IR will launch another offensive into the Jordan Valley with their remaining forces in and around Amman. Right now, intelligence is actually suggesting that they may, but the attacks won’t be very serious. Intelligence intercepts are showing that the IR is desperately trying to disengage while they work on reestablishing power to the country in order to regain control of their remaining cities,” General Gardner explained. He placed his tablet on his desk and looked up for questions.

The President was intrigued by this last statement and asked, “So you believe the IR may attack and forgo this peace agreement, yet they wouldn’t put their entire effort into attacking like they did in their previous offensive operations?”

“Yes, Mr. President. Our nuclear attack hit them hard, apparently harder than they’re letting on or want to believe. Right now, only a small portion of the Republic actually has a functioning power grid. With most of the country in the dark, they’ve lost communications, and essentially control of large portions of the Republic. Unless they’re able to reestablish that control soon, the rest of the country may fall into anarchy as both food and water shortages become critical to nonexistent,” General Gardner said in response. More images were shown of Chinese and IR military units and areas of the IR that were currently without power.

Jim Wise, the Secretary of State, saw an opportunity and jumped in, adding, “Mr. President, with the country in disarray, this could give us a limited opportunity. Most of the IR is broken down into governing sections with a regional deputy Caliph that reports to Mohamed Abbas. If we were able to establish contact with the regional deputy Caliphs, we could offer them a separate peace agreement if they break away from the central government and form their own country.”

The President sat back in his chair for a moment while a few others in the room discussed the possibility of such an event happening. It certainly did present a unique opportunity, and one they should explore. After some thought, he replied, “I believe there is some merit to this idea. If we can somehow divide the IR and get the governing regions to break off from the central government, then perhaps we can get the entire Republic to collapse. It would eliminate one of the Axis powers.”

Secretary Wise added, “I can have my people begin reaching out to them immediately through various back channels. If any of them are amenable to an agreement, I will let the group know.”

“Excellent, then please move forward with your plan, Jim.” The President smiled for the first time during the meeting.

Stein wanted to know what the situation was with the rest of Israel and with their government, and asked Secretary Wise to bring them up to speed, along with General Gardner.

Secretary Wise spoke first. “The Israeli government is still working out of Tel Aviv; they actually never left, staying put even during some of the heavier fighting taking place outside the city itself. They’re still evacuating people from the country that aren’t part of the reserves to Cyprus and Italy.

“Of note, several pro-Israeli paramilitary camps have sprung up in the US and Europe. In Europe, nearly 25,000 people have signed up to join these groups and receive military training before heading to Israel to help fight. Similarly, in the US, there have been an overwhelming number of people wanting to volunteer to go fight in Israel. Close to 200,000 have volunteered at these camps so far. Right now, DHS is keeping them under a close watch but isn’t actively saying they cannot support Israel in this manner.”

Before this conversation could go further, the President interjected, “—Jorge, I want these groups left alone. If American Christians or American Jews would like to join these groups and fight for Israel, then please let them do so. I do want a full registration of who they are and when they leave, but no action is to be taken against them. Israel is a strong ally of ours, and if people wish to come to their aid, then they’re free to do so. I would like to encourage them to join our military if they want to fight, but I will not have the government stand in the way of them joining Israel if they so choose. Is that understood by everyone?”

“Yes, Mr. President,” came the response in unison.

“However, we will let the Israelis worry about how they’re going to move them to Israel; that’s something we will not divert our military efforts from to help,” the President added.

Changing gears again, the President asked, “General Gardner, what’s the status of the Israeli army?”

General Gardner’s holograph appeared again and spoke. “They’re still fighting. Once their entire reserve force was called up, their numbers swelled to over 600,000. They lost nearly 260,000 in the Jordan Valley and the fight for Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We have most of their forces deployed now in Southern Israel on our right flank and in the center against Amman. The only Israeli units in the North in any serious numbers are several armor brigades. We want to crush the Russian armor units first, and then redeploy our armor units to the South to handle the Chinese. With the IR not looking like they are going to get really serious right now, it relieves a lot of pressure on our center.

“With the additional reinforcements I’ve been receiving, my force now stands at 560,000. I still have 460 Pershing tanks and another 1,454 M1A5 tanks. I’m facing 4,500 Russian tanks and another 4,000 Chinese tanks, so the odds are a bit long, but I think we can hold. Our equipment is better,” he added with confidence.

“General Gardner, do your forces have everything you need to defeat the Russian and Chinese army groups?” asked General Branson.

“Yes, Sir. We have everything necessary to hold Israel. If you want me to defeat them, I’m going to need close to double the number of troops. As the Air Force is able to wrestle control from them, the situation will turn out a little better. Our big concern is making sure our supply lines aren’t cut off. The Russian Navy is going to start to run havoc on our shipping lanes if they break out of the Bosporus and the Aegean Sea. Before the Russians move into Istanbul, I want to drop an airborne brigade to secure the straits and then fill it to the brim with sea mines.”

Stein liked the idea of sending an airborne unit in to secure Istanbul. If they could secure it and mine the straits, they could bottleneck the Russian Black Sea Fleet before they would be able to break out and do some real damage. “I agree, General Gardner. Have a brigade secure the city, and drop as many mines as we can spare into the straits. Let’s see if the Greeks will send some troops in and help us secure these targets,” the President ordered.

*******

During the following three days, the battle lines in Europe and the Middle East changed dramatically. The Russians had secured most of Romania and laid siege to Bucharest. They’d captured the majority of Hungary and were preparing to invade the Balkans. The Poles and Germans continued to hold the Russians around Warsaw, forcing a bloody house-to-house fight on the outskirts of the city. General Schoen was proving to be a worthy adversary for General Kulikov. The suburbs around Warsaw were being heavily destroyed as German and Polish soldiers fought for each house and block of the city. The Russian offensive had ground to a halt for the time being while they continued to advance around the city and try to cut it off.

With Istanbul being a virtual ghost town after the neutron bomb attack, US forces and 30,000 Greek soldiers quickly secured the city before the Russians or the IR were able to get any serious forces there. Within 24 hours, the Allies were in complete control of Istanbul and began to heavily mine the straits. Dozens of railgun systems were also strategically placed in and around the city and the waterways. Unfortunately for the Americans, while the loss of Istanbul did hurt the Russians, the Reds already controlled several large ports on the Black Sea, so the defeat didn’t cripple their operations in the Middle East.

After moving in and securing Istanbul, the Greek soldiers began to clear the city of the dead. Every house and street was littered with dead bodies that were well into the decomposition state. The Greeks began to dig mass graves outside the perimeter to bury the dead. The soldiers tried to identify people as best they could. The ones that could be named were given separate graves; the ones that couldn’t be were lumped into mass grave sites. It was a terrible job, but something that had to be done before disease began to run rampant throughout the city. Forty-five thousand additional Greek soldiers arrived in Istanbul to assist in both establishing new defenses for the city and the clearing of the millions of dead bodies.

Greece also initiated a massive draft and moved to arm roughly 500,000 men and women. They were going to receive two weeks of basic training—just enough to learn how to shoot, identify rank and engage in basic infantry tactics—before they would be sent to shore up defenses in Turkey and their border with Macedonia and Albania. Serbia also began to arm tens of thousands of their civilians in an effort to defend their border with Hungary and Romania as the Russians continued to advance toward them.

As the Reds continued to move their army group through Syria and Lebanon, they eventually ran into the American Third Army. General Gardner’s troops were tired, but they were battle-tested and ready when the Russians arrived. Despite being outnumbered, the American Pershing tanks proved their weight in gold. The Reds controlled the high-altitude air war, while the Americans controlled the lower-altitude fight. This was both a blessing and a curse for the Americans; they were able to provide better ground support than the Russians, but the MiG40 was still able to drop precision bombs from high altitude, hitting critical targets and remaining largely immune to Allied air defense systems for the time being. They managed to destroy a number Pershings, turning the ground war into a war of attrition rather than the fast-moving mobile tank war Gardner had hoped for.

With the situation being bogged down in the North with the Russians, the Chinese launched their invasion of Southern Israel. Despite the heavy losses the Israelis had sustained, they were holding the line. The Chinese had not fought a serious foreign army thus far, so their troops were simply ill prepared to fight a determined and battle-tested foreign army like the IDF.

The Israeli and American forces stopped the Chinese just outside of Eilat, keeping them from gaining access to the critical port facilities nearby. The problem faced by both the Russian and Chinese forces was that they simply didn’t have enough troops to properly exploit any breakthroughs or opportunities. The Chinese started their operation with 250,000 soldiers, while the Russians had 350,000. With the IR not fully committing their entire army to the fight, the Axis powers did not have enough troops to push the Americans out of Israel once General Gardner had been fully reinforced.

The Israelis also had 25,000 Jews from Europe join the IDF militia forces, and close to 200,000 more volunteers had been raised from the US. The Israeli Air Force was working through the logistics of how they were going to move these additional people from the US to Israel, where they could be integrated into other Israeli units.

Chapter 16

WMD Unleashed

Day Twenty-Eight

26 December 2040

Seoul, South Korea

At 0400, in the early hours of the morning, the ROK Army launched their surprise attack on North Korea. Five thousand artillery pieces and hundreds of rocket launchers began to fire their deadly cargo of sarin and VX gas all across the North Korean front lines. They chose to hit the North Koreans with two different types of chemical attacks, as each one acted slightly differently than the other. It was hoped that the dual attack would be more effective and harder to defend against. Though the North Koreans were known for their stoic nature, screams of agony echoed across the quiet of the early morning. The ROK Air Force immediately began to engage North Korean radar sites and surface-to-air missile sites, punching holes in their air defense system for the bombers to fly in and drop more chemical and gas bombs. This enabled the ROK bombers to swoop in and deliver a death blow to the second echelon of soldiers—they hit them with thousands of sarin and VX laden bombs, from the front lines to as far back as fifty miles.

In the first ten minutes of the attack, the ROK Army had effectively disabled nearly 70% of the enemy artillery crews while the Air Force began to drop cluster bombs and napalm on the equipment, utterly destroying it. As the North Koreans tried to respond to the opening salvos, they found themselves completely immersed in sarin and VX gas. The vast majority of soldiers either were unable to don their chemical protective gear or lacked the gear entirely. Then the ROK Air Force began to pound them from the air, destroying their air defense systems and further diminishing their ability to respond to this surprise attack.

At the end of the first hour, the ROK Army began to advance all across the front lines, encountering little in the way of resistance. What they saw was horrifying. Tens of thousands of twisted and disfigured bodies of those who had not been able to secure their chemical protective gear lined the battlefield. What minor conflict the ROK Army encountered was uncoordinated and lacked sufficient force to stop their advance.

*******

With the army advancing across the front lines and deeper into North Korea, the air force immediately began to attack every known and suspected missile site that might house the North’s nuclear missiles. Hundreds of bunker-buster bombs and missiles were used against these positions in an attempt to neutralize the North’s only real trump card, their nuclear arsenal.

By 1800 hours, the ROK Army had advanced to Pyongsan, nearly 30 miles inland from the border. Slowly, the North Korean Army was responding to the invasion and tried to mount a defense. However, each time the North would amass their forces, they were immediately attacked by artillery and air force units, which dropped more sarin gas on their positions. One of the true weaknesses of the North Korean Army was that they had not actively planned or trained to fight in a chemical war because they had nuclear weapons. The South had, because the Americans always trained as if it was a certainty that chemical warfare would occur.

Despite the relentless human wave attacks by the North, they could not stop the ROK Army from advancing toward Pyongyang. The South was relentless in their use of chemical weapons, and by the end of the first day of the Second Korean War, the South had utilized the same quantity of chemical weapons that had been employed during the first year of World War I. Nearly 300,000 North Korean soldiers were killed by the chemical attacks.

By the third day of the Korean War, the ROK Army was at the outskirts of Pyongyang and showing no signs of stopping. The North Koreans were desperate and indeed had attempted to launch their nuclear missiles. However, due to the quick thinking of two ROK pilots in the area, they were able to identify the silos as they were being opened and engaged them. They demolished both silos before the missiles could be launched. After blasting Pyongyang with sarin for nearly four hours, the ROK Army moved in and secured the capital as the North Korean government fled to China. What tattered elements were left of the North Korean Army quickly surrendered.

While the world was appalled at the massive use of chemical weapons by the South Koreans and the sheer loss of life, which, including civilians, had grown to over one million—there was no denying that they had effectively blocked the use of nuclear weapons by the North. Essentially, the Korean War had ended within 96 hours. The South quickly sued for a separate nonaggression pact with China, who agreed, so long as South Korea provided no military assistance or support to the Americans in the Chinese war against the US. After consultation with the Americans, the South Koreans agreed to the Chinese terms. For the first time in nearly 90 years, the Korean Peninsula was once again united.

Chapter 17

Southern Negotiation

Day Twenty-Nine

27 December 2040

Brasilia, Brazil

Secretary of State Jim Wise and Secretary of Defense Eric Clarke arrived in Brasilia in a small unmarked private jet for a meeting with the president of Brazil, Michel Rousseff, and his national security staff and senior military leaders. President Stein had spoken with President Rousseff at length about their country joining the war and furthering their economic integration. Eventually, the Brazilian president agreed to meet with Secretaries Wise and Clarke to discuss what role Brazil and the other South American countries might have.

The harsh winter in Washington, D.C., had been taking a toll on the aging body of Secretary Wise, so as he stepped out of the plane, the warm weather of South America felt like a sweet kiss upon his face. The armored SUV and escorts arrived right on time to take them to their meeting. After a short thirty-minute drive, they arrived at the President’s home to address the awaiting group.

Brazil had benefited greatly from the Grain Consortium, selling large amounts of food products to Asia prior to the war starting. With those trading partnerships terminated, they were starting to see the ill effects of this bad news in their first quarter GDP numbers. The United States had stepped in, placing massive manufacturing orders for steel, copper and manufactured goods that they used to purchase from Asia. This shift would help grow Brazil’s manufacturing base, and with any luck would turn the tide of the country’s economy.

The President of Brazil was waiting for his American guests at the front door when their vehicle arrived. He walked down the path to meet them and with genuine warmth said, “Welcome to Brazil.” He extended his hand to shake each of theirs. “Please come with me. We have some food and drinks set up for you in the library. The others are already in there waiting for us.” The President led his visitors through the spacious mansion to the library, which was equally grand. The room had vaulted eighteen-foot ceilings, with rows of bookshelves and paintings of famous Brazilian artists and other national icons all along the walls.

After everyone exchanged pleasantries and had some appetizers, President Rousseff motioned for everyone to find a seat around the large table that had been brought into the library for their meeting. A technician finished setting up the holographic presenter in the center of the table, and Secretaries Wise and Clarke both uploaded their briefings.

“Gentlemen, I appreciate your traveling to Brasilia to speak with us. I know both of you are incredibly busy men. Please, if you can begin, tell us what it is that President Stein is requesting from Brazil,” said the President graciously.

“Mr. President, ministers and generals. We appreciate your willingness to speak with us and thank you for all that Brazil has done to help the United States in perhaps our greatest hour of need. As President Stein has conveyed to you, we are in need of assistance once again, and we are turning to you as an ally and friend.” Secretary Wise gauged the room for their initial reactions to his statement, trying to identify those who might pose obstacles.

“As you know, last week the Islamic Republic detonated two nuclear bombs on American soil. While you have likely seen the footage of the devastation on the news, there is still information about the extent of the damage that we haven’t shared with the American public. We will be explaining the following in a press conference this evening, but we’ve determined that the structural damage to most of the skyscrapers, harbor, bridges, and surrounding boroughs, both in New York City and in Baltimore, is completely beyond repair. For safety, the remnants of any surviving structures will need to be torn down and bulldozed. There is no salvaging what was left.”

As the videos showed the extent of the structural and human losses, Jim could see on their faces their shock and horror at the damage that they were witnessing.

“The casualty numbers right now stand at close to four million dead, with nearly eight million more injured and homeless. As you can see, the damage is nearly catastrophic. The cities of New York and Baltimore will have to be abandoned and sealed off until the radiation can be cleaned up and cleared. This may take a decade or more to complete.”

President Rousseff interjected, “America has our deepest condolences on the loss of life. This truly was a barbaric attack against a civilian target. What can Brazil do to help America?”

Jim cleared his throat before continuing. “America cannot fight this war on our own any longer. As you know, Russia just declared war on the Allies the other day and has begun a massive invasion of Europe. The Chinese continue to conquer one country after another in Asia, and right now there’s little that can stop them. We are asking that Brazil, along with the other South American countries, join the European Union, Great Britain, Israel, Australia, Canada and others in this war against tyranny.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs jumped into the conversation. “Brazil is already producing massive amounts of munitions, weapons and other materiel that America and the Allies need for the war. What more can Brazil offer America that we have not already given?”

The Minister of Defense interjected, “Troops, the Secretaries of Defense and State are here to ask Brazil to start to participate militarily, am I right?”

Eric Clarke, the SecDef, answered, “Yes, that is what we are here to ask. We need soldiers, sailors and airmen to help us defeat the Axis powers.”

President Rousseff nodded slowly and then surveyed his advisors and ministers before saying, “Secretary Clarke, while we certainly wish to assist you, Brazil does not have a large military right now. We also do not have the support structure to manage a large military right now. We could provide armed support, but it would be limited.”

“We recognize this, and we have a proposal we would like to make. First, we would like to request what forces you do have available be immediately sent to support NATO in Europe. Second, we would like to request that Brazil begin an immediate mobilization within your country for war—”

Before Secretary Clarke could finish his sentence, several ministers began to grumble, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs interrupted, “—Sir, the Axis powers are not directly threatening Brazil or South America. If we start a countrywide mobilization, they may perceive us as a direct military threat. Brazil does not live under the antiballistic laser missile defense bubble that America and Europe have.”

Eric tried to regain control of the meeting before he lost it completely. “We recognize that. We would immediately begin construction of over two dozen fixed-site missile defense systems in South America, and would augment them with numerous mobile laser defense systems and a series of railgun defensive systems. America would extend our same missile defense technology to Brazil and South America.”

The President signaled for everyone to quiet down and let him speak. “Assuming we went along with this plan—exactly how many soldiers are you requesting of Brazil?”

“Mr. President, America is asking for an expeditionary force of 600,000 soldiers,” the SecDef said.

For a moment, the room was completely silent. Then, suddenly, it burst into loud conversation among the various minister and advisors, with the President trying to gain control of the room. After nearly ten minutes of a heated discussion, Clarke and Wise signaled that they would like to address the group again.

“Gentlemen, we realize this is a large commitment, and that it represents a lot of young men and women we are asking your nation to place in harm’s way. This war is a turning point in history. The Axis powers have a military force of over twenty million soldiers; if we don’t band together now, then it may be too late to stop them. If the Allies in Europe and America are defeated, there will be no one to help South America when the Chinese and Russians come for you. We must unite now, before it is too late.”

“We understand the threat. This is just a lot you are asking of us. I do not believe we have the ability to train and support such a large force,” said the President, looking to his military advisors for support. They nodded in agreement.

“We have thought about that as well, and President Stein has some ideas on how to address that. The US would send you 7,500 military trainers and advisors to help establish five new military training bases here in Brazil. Each new training base would have 1,500 military advisors who would train this expeditionary force. We propose that the training for these soldiers would last ten weeks and be focused on specific military professions. One base would be dedicated to training men and women who will be filtered into various military support functions. Upon completion of their basic training, they would be sent to the US to attend their specific military support duties—medical, supply, administration etc. Three of the training bases would focus on training combat arms career fields. The fifth training base would be designated for officer and senior NCO training. They would attend the same combat training everyone else receives. However, their final three weeks would be geared toward leadership and command training.” While SecDef Clarke spoke, he was showing them via holograph the various types of training facilities that they had envisioned.

“Each week, a new class of 5,000 recruits would start training, and as the pipeline of trainees starts to fill, the bases would churn out 5,000 new soldiers at the end of ten weeks and each week thereafter. At this pace, it would take six months to train the 600,000 soldiers for the expeditionary force once the training begins. We would frontload the training for the soldiers who will need additional military training in the US so that they would complete their advanced training by the time the rest of the force is ready. Following the six-month train-up period, the expeditionary force would receive thirty days of leave and then report back for a series of two-week training exercises. After that, they would then be prepared for deployment.”

The President and his military advisors continued to examine the information Secretary Clarke presented before the Brazilian Minister of Defense asked the question, “Where would this expeditionary army be deployed to?”

“Right now, we’re not 100% sure. It will be the middle of August before they’re ready to deploy. A lot will depend on what the situation looks like in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. They could be deployed to the Middle East as an occupation force so that we could transfer the American Third Army to Europe or Asia, or they could be deployed to Europe to assist NATO. We’ll have a clearer picture as we get closer to that timeframe. President Stein is also open to suggestions for where you would like to see them deployed as well,” the SecDef said.

“Let me ask a more practical question. How are Brazil and the rest of South America supposed to equip or pay for this expeditionary force?” asked the Minister of Finance.

“The President has authorized me to provide the export/import and manufacturing licenses to build the myriad of armored vehicles and other military equipment that will be needed. This will create tens of thousands of high-end manufacturing jobs for your country. In addition, because of the cost required to support and sustain this expeditionary force is substantial, the US Department of Defense will be responsible for paying the salaries of the force and will purchase the required military vehicles and aircraft being produced by Brazil at 15% above cost,” Clarke finished.

“I assume there will be a similar training program for the pilots for these aircraft as well?” asked the Chief General of the Brazilian Air Force.

“The individuals identified for pilot training will be sent to the US for training at our facilities; they will be integrated into the American Air Force for the duration of the war and will be transferred back to Brazilian national control once the war is over. We will not train a separate Air Force or Naval Force in addition to the ground force. The ground force will receive all of its air and naval support from the US. Essentially, Brazilians who want to join the air or naval arm of the expeditionary force can do so; they will just be integrated into the American air or naval forces for the duration of their enlistment or the length of the war, whichever comes first,” Clarke said, hoping this addressed their concerns.

“How long will this expeditionary force be required to serve?” asked the Minister of Defense.

“They will be required to serve for the duration of the war, or for four years, whichever is shorter,” Secretary Clarke answered.

“Is this same offer being made to the other South American countries as well?” asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“Yes, we’re seeking a total of one million soldiers to form the South American Expeditionary Force. We’ll be asking the other countries to contribute a similarly sized force, though most of the manufacturing of the equipment needed would take place in Brazil, pending your joining the Coalition.”

“So, if we do not join and Argentina does, then the manufacturing goes to them?” asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“That would be correct. Brazil is our biggest supporter, and we wanted you to have the first chance at this offer,” said Jim Wise.

“Gentlemen, we need some time to discuss this privately. I would like to ask that you take a break to freshen up or get some sleep and then meet us for dinner in four hours. We will have an answer for you after the meal,” said the President, concluding the meeting.

*******

As Clarke and Wise left the room, they walked to an outside patio so that they could soak up some sun while they drank a glass of fresh tea. “Do you think they’re going to join?” asked Eric, looking to get another perspective.

“I believe so. That is, unless the Chinese have already approached them and made a better offer. However, I believe that at this point, South America is too heavily tied to the American and EU economies to just cut ties and join the Axis powers,” Jim replied, though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

“If they do, it’s going to be a herculean effort to get this expeditionary force trained. Not only do they not have the facilities built, they would still have to draft the needed soldiers,” Eric said, not sure if they had bitten off more than they could chew.

Jim thought for a moment before responding, “We can bring in more private military contractors to help augment your soldiers.”

“That only works to a certain extent. Besides, the PMCs are already stretched thin. It’s not like people’s enlistments are ending while the war is going on. We’ve stop-gapped everyone for the time being,” said Eric.

“You know that’s going to become very unpopular if this war continues for several more years,” Jim retorted. He remembered what it was like during the Iraq War in the 2000s when the Bush Administration had put a stop loss in place to keep the Army numbers up.

“I know. Our plan is that for anyone whose eight-year active and inactive reserve enlistment is up, we offer them a $50,000 tax-free bonus per year that they reenlist, plus a one grade promotion. The number of people who are nearing or are at that actual enlistment mark is actually rather low. Several years ago, we phased out the two- and three-year enlistment and went to a four-year enlistment with four years in the National Guard or Reserves. The Guard and Reserves activations have also been increased from eighteen months to thirty-six months, until we have enough active-duty units to fully replace them.” Eric took a long drink of his tea before he added, “This was a problem during the Iraq War in the 2000s as well. Too many National Guard and Reserve units were being activated, and it was seriously impacting the families of these men and women, not to mention their employers. The situation is not lost on us. As a corresponding active-duty unit completes their training and receives their combat equipment, we are rotating those citizen soldier units back to the US. It’s just going to take some time, like everything else.”

“I’m glad to hear that you are taking this issue seriously. My grandson, Tyler, is in the Wisconsin Army National Guard; my son says he is doing good, but he’s not sure when their unit will be rotating back to the US.”

Eric looked at the man sitting next to him as if for the first time. “Jim—I had no idea your grandson was in the military. Where is he currently stationed? What does he do?” Eric asked, genuinely concerned.

“He’s a staff sergeant in the 126th Field Artillery Battalion, part of the 57th Artillery Brigade. They’re currently deployed in Israel. His unit arrived there a few weeks after the war started,” replied Jim with pride in his voice. He pulled out his cell phone and showed Eric several pictures of Tyler. There were a number from his wedding and a few of him with some of the soldiers from his unit in Israel.

“Do you talk with him much?”

“He called me once a few weeks back to say happy birthday, and to let me know he’s doing OK. I offered to help him get reassigned to the US, but he said he couldn’t leave without his unit. He said it would look bad, and he couldn’t just leave them when they needed him.” Jim’s eyebrows furrowed while he talked—he couldn’t hide his concern.

“If you want, I can look into having his unit reassigned. Since they’re an artillery unit, I’m not sure I could pull them off the line entirely. We’re desperately short when it comes to artillery.” Eric sat there thinking for a few minutes. “Tell you what—if the Brazilians do join the Coalition, we’re going to need to pull some combat units to do all of the training down here. I could arrange for his unit to be one of the ones pulled if you’d like me to have him moved to a less dangerous place.”

Jim sighed before responding, “I appreciate the offer…maybe. You know the President has been pretty adamant about making sure special favors aren’t being pulled for senior officials and their family members. I would hate for him to find out I had my grandson’s unit pulled for my own selfish reasons,” he said.

“He certainly hasn’t been making friends with the ultra-wealthy and politically connected people in the country. He had me personally ensure that every member of the Congress and Senate who has an eligible son or daughter was drafted and placed in a line unit. During one of our planning meetings, he said this would be unpopular, but he was determined that every eligible citizen, including the wealthy and politically connected, must serve in this war. You should see the emails and phone calls I get from some of my friends who still work in banking and business. They all ask if I can get their son or daughter a deferment or at least ensure they won’t see combat.”

“What do you tell them?” asked Jim. He was curious now.

“I tell them what the President told me—everyone must serve, especially the wealthy and politically connected who have benefited so much from our country. The President promised that this war would not be fought on the backs of the lower and middle classes of the country.”

“I’ll bet that goes over really well,” said Jim as he chuckled.

An aide walked up to Jim and Eric and asked if they could please join the President and his staff in the library again. They both got up and followed him back into the mansion and to the library.

“Secretary Clarke, Secretary Jordan, please come join us for a toast if you will. We have discussed your offer, and though some of my ministers and advisors disagree, we have come to the conclusion that you are right. It is time for South America to do its part and join the Allies. We also want to thank you for choosing Brazil to head up the Coalition. We are honored to be a part of this chapter of the world and on the side of the Americans and those who love freedom,” President Rousseff said with a smile on his face as he raised a glass of champagne.

*******

The Secretaries of State and Defense flew on to meet with the Argentinians, Peruvians, Chileans and Colombians, gaining their acceptance to join the Coalition and participate in the newly created South American Expeditionary Force. In time, this expeditionary force would swell to a little over one million soldiers and could grow significantly larger if need be. It would take close to ten full months before this new army was ready to deploy.

Chapter 18

Crash Course

Day Thirty

28 December 2040

Southern Israel—US Marine Positions

Gunnery Sergeant Thornton had just finished cleaning his M5 AIR when one of his junior sergeants walked into the tent with a handful of new replacements. “Sergeant Thornton, I was on my way back from headquarters when I was told these ten Marines were our replacements. This is Corporal Lewis; he’s the senior guy with the replacements. The rest are outside the tent, if you want to speak with them,” Sergeant Miller said.

Sergeant Thornton sat there for a moment. “Corporal Lewis, have you or any of the other guys with you seen any combat?”

“No, Sergeant. I’m a reservist. The rest of the guys are either fresh from boot camp or were working noninfantry positions before we were all shipped out,” Corporal Lewis said, knowing that wasn’t the answer Sergeant Thornton was hoping to hear.

“I appreciate your candor, Corporal. Take a seat, and I’ll bring you up to speed a bit before handing you off to one of the other sergeants. I’m going to filter your replacements evenly among the squads. I’m not sure if you know or not, but our platoon had a 63% casualty rate. We were part of the first wave to hit the Suez, and then we spent the next three weeks fighting the IR north of Eilat.” Corporal Lewis’s face looked nervous, and a bit scared. Sergeant Thornton remembered feeling that same way, right before they’d left the troop carrier for the Suez.

“The most important thing that I can tell you is to stay alert and listen to those who have been here longer. These IR guys aren’t taking any prisoners, and neither are we. They attack in massive human waves when they do attack, so be ready when that happens. Now they say we’re facing the Chinese. Well, I’ve never fought the Chinese before, so I can’t give you any words of wisdom with them. Just remember your training. Fight like a man possessed, and remember, there is no surrender. They will crucify you,” Sergeant Thornton said in an icy tone. He could see on Corporal Lewis’s face that he was still digesting what he had been told and didn’t care for it one bit.

“Word has it we’re going to be moving back to the front lines around midnight. There’s supposed to be a possible Chinese assault sometime tomorrow, so they want us to reinforce the Israeli positions. Once you get to your assigned squad, get your fire team ready for action and try to grab a couple of hours of sleep. If you have any further questions, ask your squad sergeant, and they’ll provide you with whatever information they know,” Sergeant Thornton concluded. He dismissed the newly arrived corporal, who was still in a state of bewilderment.

By 0500 the following morning, Gunnery Sergeant Thornton’s platoon had been filtered into a short network of trenches and foxholes that the Israelis were using. His group of fifty-four Marines had been integrated into an Israeli company holding this part of the Eilat line in the ruins of Aqaba, a city that had been mostly turned into rubble with the back-and-forth fighting between the Israelis, Marines and IR forces. When the Chinese had attacked, the Allied forces had fallen back to the ruins and turned them into a defensive network and trap to prevent the Chinese from moving into Eilat or the rest of Southern Israel.

At 0530, the Chinese began to bombard the ruins of the city and the Allied positions with artillery and rocket fire. The explosions were kicking up a storm of dust and smoke; however, through the haze, Gunny Thornton could see Chinese infantry units moving forward toward their lines. When his eyes focused a little harder, he could make out that the advancing infantry was fortunately not equipped with the new exoskeleton combat suits. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that at least they were going up against the regular PLA infantry. Those suits would have given the advancing horde a huge physical and technical advantage over the Allies. Luckily, only a limited number of the Chinese Naval Infantry units had them, and so far, they had only been used in the Pacific. Gunny Thornton found himself wishing that he had an exoskeleton suit—rumor had it that the Army and Marines were going to be bringing their own suits to the fight soon.

Thornton began issuing orders to the rest of his men. “Stand by to engage the enemy. We need to wait until the new targets have been acquired in our HUDs.”

The Gunny linked the images his heat imaging scope had identified with his HUD so that the rest of the platoon could see what he was seeing.

Grabbing the attention of the appropriate Israeli counterpart, he instructed, “There’s a pending infantry attack. Follow our lead when we start to engage the enemy. Since you guys don’t have the HUDs, we’ll be showing you where the targets are.” Although the IDF was starting to receive the same HUD and M5 AIRs the US was using, not all of the units had them yet.

“Acknowledged,” was the only reply. This particular IDF fighter was not exactly the conversational type.

There were a few tense moments of waiting. As the Chinese infantry came to within 200 meters of their positions, Gunny Thornton shouted, “Open fire!”

Within seconds, sixty-plus Chinese infantry collapsed dead in their tracks. The M5 advanced infantry rifle was an incredible killing machine; it had a range in excess of 2,000 meters and fired a .25mm projectile at speeds of Mach 5. It was the only tactical infantry railgun rifle in the world. The power pack attached to the buttstock of the rifle could provide enough power to fire 2,500 projectiles, or ten magazines, and had a digital counter on it that could help a solider keep track of when the battery pack needed to be replaced. The projectiles traveled at such a high speed that they were able to penetrate all forms of body armor and lightly armored vehicles.

Once the Marines opened fire, the Israelis joined in, adding their own weapons to the fray. While dozens of Chinese soldiers were being mowed down, half a dozen light drone tanks started to move forward from around the rubble of what used to be the Radisson Blue hotel. The tanks stopped briefly and began to fire high-explosive rounds at the Marines and IDF while more Chinese infantry moved forward.

Gunny Thornton saw in his HUD that several of his Marines had been killed by one of the light drone tanks. “Someone get those AT6s and take out those tanks!” yelled Thornton to his antitank team. The AT6 was the sixth generation of antitank rockets used by American infantrymen; it was three feet in length and fired a one-shot, high-explosive antitank rocket. It could destroy most main battle tanks and was extremely effective against light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. It was the perfect antitank weapon for the light infantry.

Whooossshhh…three rockets raced away from the Marine lines and headed straight for the Chinese light tanks.

BAM!...Boom!

All three rockets struck their targets, and the tanks immediately began to explode as their ammunition started to cook off.

Red and green tracers and thousands of bullets flew through the air, crisscrossing back and forth between the Marines, IDF and Chinese as the infantry continued to advance. Slowly and steadily, the Chinese soldiers pushed forward until the two groups were within fifty meters of each other, throwing grenades and shooting each other up close and personal. While the Marines and IDF soldiers were heavily engaged with the Chinese soldiers to their immediate front, a massive human wave of soldiers was forming further behind the Chinese lines.

The whistling of artillery could be heard as the Chinese began to land additional high-explosive rounds amongst their own soldiers in an attempt to kill more Marines and Israeli soldiers. Their horde rushed forward. Somehow the Marines and Israelis had managed to recover from this latest round of attack. They started killing off the remaining Chinese soldiers in front of them. Before another minute had gone by though, they looked up to see a massive swarm of new soldiers screaming at the top of their lungs, headed right for them.

Thornton immediately got on the radio. “This is Gunny Thornton. We need artillery and mortar support now! Engage in predetermined pattern Bravo,” he shouted to the company’s artillery LNO.

Hitting the button on his BH, he switched over to address his men. “Engage them from maximum range, and be prepared for hand-to-hand combat if necessary.”

Just as the Chinese got to within 200 meters of the Marines position, dozens of artillery and mortar rounds started to land all around the Chinese soldiers, decimating their ranks. Bodies were being flung around like rag dolls as 155mm artillery rounds and 81mm mortar rounds continued to rain down on the Chinese. As the fighters got closer to the Marine positions, it quickly became apparent they were really going to have to fight them hand-to-hand.

During the equipment refit several weeks ago, the Marines had been issued World War I-style trench knives, which amounted to brass knuckles with a six-inch blade for close quarters fighting. The trench knives were strapped to the left or right boot of the Marine, depending on which hand was dominant. Some Marines even carried one on each boot. As the Chinese neared their positions with their bayonets fixed, the Marines parried their lunges and reached for their trench knives. The fighting quickly devolved into primal bloody combat as the Israelis and the Marines grappled for their very lives.

After nearly three hours of fighting and ten minutes of hand-to-hand conflict, the Chinese fell back to their old positions under the cover of a short artillery barrage. Up until now, the PLA hadn’t fought against a well-trained and determined enemy. They were starting to find out just how tough the Americans and Israelis really were as thousands of their fellow countrymen lay dead, wounded and torn apart all across the ground between their positions and the Americans.

By the time the battle was over, Gunny Thornton could see he was down another nine Marines killed and nineteen injured. Of the nineteen wounded, twelve had to be moved back to the aid stations and would not be returning. His platoon had just gone from fifty-two Marines to twenty-four. He reported his losses to headquarters and requested additional reinforcements or a replacement platoon be sent forward. The Israelis still had close to a hundred able-bodied soldiers, though they had taken close to ninety casualties as well.

Gunny Thornton’s platoon was ordered to fall back to battalion headquarters with the rest of the company. Another platoon was moving in to their position. One of the three remaining officers in the company had been killed, while another had been wounded, leaving the newest officer, a second lieutenant who had only been with the company for five days, in charge.

*******

As Thornton sat with his platoon cleaning their weapons after the morning fight, a major walked toward him. He realized the man was his old lieutenant, Jack Lee. “Sir, it’s good to see you. Congratulations on the promotion. A major now, eh?” Gunny Thornton said with a warm smile and a handshake. No one dared salute an officer near the front lines. It identified them as someone important and made them a target for snipers.

“It’s good to see you too, Joe…I’m glad you’ve made it through all this. Our company has taken so many losses since we arrived here last month,” Major Lee replied.

“It has been rough, but we’re still here. What brings you over to my platoon?” asked Thornton.

“Well, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?” asked Major Lee.

“Ah. Give me the good news. I’ve had plenty of bad news lately.”

Smiling, Major Lee said, “Congratulations, you’ve been given a battlefield commission. You’ve officially been promoted to first lieutenant.”

With a look of surprise and eyes wide as saucers, he managed to stammer, “What? I was just promoted to gunnery sergeant.”

Knowing Thornton might not be happy with a commission, Lee went on to explain the decision. “The Marines have taken some terrible losses, and you know that as well as anyone else. We’ve also lost a lot of officers. Your company is a case in point. You should have five officers in your company; instead you only had three, and all were replacements. Now you’re down to one, and he’s a brand-new guy fresh out of officer training school. You are a damn good Marine, Thornton. When asked who I would promote to officer out of your company, you were top of my list. That’s why you’re being promoted to first lieutenant. You’ll be taking over command of the company. I’m promoting two more senior NCOs in the company as well. We need more officers and NCOs…right now, we’re short on both,” Major Lee said. There was just a hint of sternness in his voice, enough to convey that he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Joe could see that Major Lee might just be a little annoyed at him for not being more excited about this promotion. He had probably stuck his neck out to get him moved up the ranks, and now it might appear that he had been wrong. Joe moved to correct the direction of the conversation. “Thank you for the promotion, Sir. I didn’t mean to come across as ungrateful. I was just a bit surprised.”

Major Lee was relieved Thornton wasn’t going to make a bigger issue out of this and continued, “It will be an adjustment, but I’m confident you’ll rise to the challenge and lead your company. You’ll need to make sure you attend the daily command briefings or send someone in your place. I’m transferring a senior first sergeant to your company to help you out with the administrative part. He knows you’ve just been promoted, so you don’t need to explain anything to him. I also wanted to let you know that you’ve been awarded three medals: a Silver Star for combat action during the battle for Be’er Sheva, a Bronze Star for action during the capture of the Suez Canal, and the Purple Heart for that shrapnel you got in your arm during the battle for Be’er Sheva. We’ll try to hold a ceremony for everyone being awarded medals in the near future.”

“Wow, thank you, Sir. I’m not sure what to say to that, other than I was just doing my job, and so were my Marines,” First Lieutenant Thornton replied.

“A lot of Marines did their duty, and a lot of them are going to be recognized for it. Before I leave, I have one more piece of bad information I need to give you. Our battalion is being moved to the rear to be reinforced. Once we’ve received our replacements, we’ll be shifting positions and moving north as an antitank unit to support the army as they fight the Russians.”

“Well, it’s not as bad as I thought—fighting Russians or fighting Chinese doesn’t really matter. Either one can kill you just the same,” Thornton said, resigned to their fate.

With the business of promoting Thornton done, Major Lee moved on to find the other two NCOs he was turning into officers as well. The Marines had lost close to 5,548 personnel and another 12,321 were too injured to fight since the start of the war in Israel. Senior NCOs and officers were in short supply, which was why battlefield promotions were being awarded quickly as new replacements continued to arrive. Lieutenants who showed promise and initiative were being promoted to take over companies, or in Jack Lee’s case, his battalion.

Chapter 19

The Coming Freeze

30 January 2041

Poznan, Poland

General Schoen’s Headquarters

General Schoen’s 10th Panzer Division had held the Russians for over a month. They had conducted attack and counterattack operations against the Russian Third Shock Army and successfully slowed the Russians down but not stopped them. The 13th Panzer Division had been mauled pretty badly in the south of Poland and was being consolidated into the 10th under General Schoen. The German and Polish armies had lost control of Warsaw and Krakow, along with two divisions of German light infantry in the process.

The Polish had lost most of their army near Bialystok when the Third Shock Army was able to break through the German 4th Infantry Division and had surrounded 82,000 Polish and 32,000 German soldiers. They held out for five days of heavy fighting before surrendering to the Russians, collapsing the Polish northern defensive positions. The Russians were now less than twenty miles from the German border, with only the 13th Panzer Division left between them and Germany. The American Fifth Army was still consolidating east of Berlin to go on the offense but had detached the 12th Armored Division to reinforce General Schoen. The 12th Armored Division was the one American division that was made up solely of the new Pershing tanks. These tanks were beasts and more than capable of engaging a numerically superior force and defeating it. The division was also augmented with an artillery brigade, which consisted of the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled 155mm artillery, and the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), which could fire twelve rockets in less than forty seconds. One M270 vehicle could saturate one square mile with high-explosive cluster munitions or antitank bomblets or mines. With one battalion of MLRSs and two battalions of M109A6 Paladins, the division had a serious punch to it.

With the addition of the American 12th Armored Division, General Schoen had been able to stop the Russian advance for the moment. Then the winter storms had blown in with a flurry and shut down all military operations.

*******

Over the past decade, the global climate had changed due to the Indian-Pakistan nuclear war. The conflict had blown an immense amount of dust particles into the atmosphere. This caused global temperatures to drop three full degrees Fahrenheit and increased the size of both the north and south polar caps. It had changed the weather enough that some once-fertile lands now had shorter growing seasons and others had longer growing seasons with the shifts in the jet stream.

During the Indian-Pakistan war, there were over 150 nuclear weapons used, each in the 10-kiloton to 30-kiloton range. Most were ground-burst detonations, which sent far more dirt particles into the air than a traditional air burst. New York and Baltimore had each been hit by 50-kiloton warheads, both ground bursts, throwing tremendous amounts of dust into the atmosphere. The United States had responded by hitting North Africa and the Middle East with over 130 nuclear warheads in the range of 100 to 300 kilotons, all of which were air bursts, since the President had wanted to minimize damage to the environment. Fortunately, the neutron bombs didn’t leave any fallout beyond their initial lethal radiation, considering these were significantly larger nuclear weapons.

The increased fallout from the American bombs had thrown an enormous volume of particulates into the upper atmosphere. The results were even worse where they had been used over desert and more arid land. This soon began to wreak havoc on the environment and actually dropped the global temperature another five degrees Fahrenheit. Where it used to be in the upper nineties in Florida during the summer, it was now in the upper eighties. This drop in temperature and change in the jet stream, in addition to the immense amount of moisture thrown into the atmosphere from the New York bomb as it detonated in the harbor, had caused dozens of blizzards across the Northern hemisphere.

In February and March of 2041, numerous epic whiteout snowstorms struck the battlefields of Europe, in many cases forcing the battles to grind to a halt. Most of the Allied and even Axis equipment could operate in a blizzard, but the logistics of trying to coordinate large-scale armies through blinding snow that was accumulating at speeds making it nearly impossible for supply vehicles to move forced the warring parties to hunker down and wait out the weather. Fortunately, the meteorological conditions were giving the Allies the time they needed to continue moving armored forces and equipment into southern France and England.

The Sixth and Seventh Armies were still forming and using the blizzards to their full advantage. It would still be near the end of summer before these two armies were at 100%, but they could be used significantly sooner if need be. Alaska and the Pacific Northwest were also getting hammered with snow. This was slowing down the Army Corps of Engineers’ ability to build the intricate defensive network they needed to repel any potential invasion by China or Russia.

Chapter 20

Spetsnaz

Three Months Later

26 March 2041

Boeing Aircraft Plant Kansas City, Kansas

Vice Presidential Speech

Vice President Michael Kern had been on a public speaking tour across the US, rallying support for the war and encouraging the American people. Kern had known Henry Stein for nearly twenty years before they had run for public office together. Kern had been a partner at a law firm that worked with President Stein’s corporation as it evolved and grew over the years. Stein had made most of his money in real estate and urban development, turning blighted neighborhoods into family friendly locations with lots of parks and green spaces. He had also become quite adept at investing and had started a private equity company that was separate from his real estate business. As one business grew, so did the other, until Stein’s PE company reached $4.8 billion in holdings. He’d timed the market right during the economic collapse in the 2020s, and while everyone was selling their stocks off, his PE company had gone on a buying spree, and so had his real estate company. When the economy did turn around, he had netted his investors a whopping 428% return in two years.

President Stein had picked Kern to be his VP because he wanted someone with a business law background. One of the first priorities and responsibilities given to VP Kern was to streamline the government rules and regulations governing the economy. Overregulation had stifled economic growth and made it harder for businesses to remain profitable; it was a jobs killer that needed to be corrected. Kern was a charismatic man and an exceptional public speaker, with an ability to connect with people, even in a large crowd. With the war moving into its fifth month, the President wanted his VP out among the people, growing the Freedom Party’s reputation and cultivating a positive environment despite the war and the high casualties.

VP Kern had been making a televised speech at the newly expanded Boeing aircraft plant in Kansas City, KA. Boeing had added 4,600 new high-paying manufacturing jobs to the city and had plans to double that number by the end of the following year. With the horrific aircraft losses occurring in the Middle East and Europe, the demand for F22s, JF35s, and the entire suite of fighter and bomber drones was enormous. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman couldn’t handle the demand either, even though both companies had begun expanding their own manufacturing capabilities. This particular Boeing plant was going to be responsible for producing the latest Boeing fighter drones. The government had recognized that drones were faster and cheaper to produce, so they had placed an order for 16,000 units to be delivered as soon as possible.

*******

While VP Kern was making his televised speech, a team of eight Spetsnaz soldiers began to set their ambush site for the VPs motorcade. The VP was traveling with the Secretary of Transportation, so being able to kill them both was a bonus. The night before the motorcade was to travel this particular route to the airport, one of the Spetsnaz members had attached several blocks of C-4 plastic explosive to the manhole covers along the VPs route. The explosion would destroy the lead vehicle and blow a hole in the road, making it impossible to pass. Then a second detonation 50 yards behind the first would occur, completely trapping the motorcade.

Once the motorcade was trapped, the plan was for several members to engage the vehicles with RPG7s and two heavy machine guns. If all went according to plan, the attack should take three to five minutes, tops. This particular Spetsnaz team had been designated to conduct political assassinations. They had already managed to kill a US senator and one Supreme Court justice. They had nearly been captured during their last mission and had barely escaped. They spent the last five weeks lying low at a country farm in Missouri, until their handler had contacted them and given them the details for the VPs trip to the Boeing plant. They had exactly three days to move to the target location, identify how they would attack Kern, and figure out how they were going to get away.

It was a tough assignment—one they were not sure they would survive. Then again, the opportunity to assassinate the Vice President was too big not to take the chance. That was after all, the height of their glory and their legacy, to hit the most influential target possible. After surveying the routes to and from the airport, they determined that the Secret Service would most likely use the frontage road along the interstate on their way to the airport because the interstate had had one lane closed for construction. Too many dangers could be hidden in a construction site for the Secret Service to take a chance driving along it; they would opt for the frontage road.

This smaller parallel route was flanked with some small industrial buildings and a forest preserve on the opposite side. This window provided them with the best position from which to launch an attack, hopefully allowing them to escape via the heavily wooded area. With the attack mapped out, now they just had to wait.

*******

“That was a great speech, Mr. Vice President,” said one of his aides as he took the VP’s jacket from him before entering the SUV for the airport.

“Thank you, Richard. I sometimes wonder if my speeches get repetitive,” said the Vice President as he ducked his head and entered the limousine. “Is the plane ready to go?” Kern asked the security detail in the vehicle with him.

“Yes, Mr. Vice President. We should be at the Lockheed plant by 4 p.m. We’re still on schedule,” replied one of the Secret Service agents. The convoy then left the Boeing plant and began to head toward the airport. The procession headed down a frontage road, just off the highway that ran along a densely wooded area. The Secret Service wanted to avoid the construction along the interstate.

As VP Kern was looking at his notes for the next speech, he began to change a few things around. Suddenly, he heard a loud explosion, and the vehicle abruptly stopped, causing him to scratch over his notes. Looking up, he saw the lead vehicle in their motorcade was on fire and there was a huge hole in the center of the road. Less than a second later, a second explosion happened, this time behind them. Just as the vehicle started to accelerate for the sidewalk in front of a small industrial building, they began to take heavy machine-gun fire. At first, the bullets didn’t penetrate the vehicle, but within seconds, that soon changed; the engine and the front seat section of the vehicle were riddled with bullets. One of the agents quickly opened the side door of the vehicle and pushed the VP out of the vehicle to the sidewalk. Seconds later, the Secretary of Transportation’s body was barraged with bullets, killing him instantly.

Whooshing sounds could be heard as RPG rockets flew into several of the support vehicles in the motorcade, causing them to explode and killing the occupants. More machine-gun fire came from several of the Secret Service agents, intermixed with what sounded like two heavy machine guns and several assault rifles. The VP tried to stand, following one of the agents to the door of a building near them, and was hit by several rounds to the chest and legs. He quickly fell in a heap and, to the eyes of the Spetsnaz team, appeared dead. Just as quickly as the fire fight had started, it ended. The team quickly abandoned their weapons as they disappeared into the woods they had been hiding in and made a run for their getaway vehicle.

Fortunately, the VP had been wearing a bulletproof vest under his suit. The vest had stopped the rounds—the VP had collapsed from the sheer concussion of the rounds hitting him and the pain of the two bullets that had torn through his right leg. One of the shots had nicked an artery; he lost a lot of blood before the Secret Service agent nearby was able to tie a tourniquet, saving his life.

Kern was quickly flown to a local area hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. After a week in the ICU, another week at a stepdown unit, and a month at a rehabilitation facility learning how to walk again, he would make an almost complete recovery. However, he would always have to use a cane from here on out.

Despite massive police canvassing of the area, the Spetsnaz team that carried out the attack was not found. The attack on the VP’s motorcade reinforced the threat the various Spetsnaz teams posed and the need for their immediate capture. Unlike the Islamic Republic, the Russians targeted only military and government officials, not the general public.

Chapter 21

All is Not Quiet on the Western Front

31 March 2041

HIVE, Northern Virginia

National Security Briefing

The war in the Middle East ground to a halt shortly after the New Year. Several governing districts seceded from the Islamic Republic, taking Egypt and all of the African provinces and regrouping them to form the North African Confederation. The new country was led by a liberal Muslim leader who wanted nothing to do with the Caliph and his radical brand of Islam. Their leader denounced the actions committed by Caliph Mohammed and bemoaned that the world had been led to war, that 300 million Muslims had died, and that the Kaaba had been destroyed.

The new North African Confederation immediately sought a separate peace agreement with the United States and Israel, and they were granted one. Their new focus was on restoring order and communications throughout the country and reestablishing food supplies to their starving and dying nation. Tens of millions of people had been left homeless and destitute from the nuclear attack America had rained down on them. Fallout was everywhere, and the transportation system was a mess. Most of the region had also suffered from electromagnetic pulse damage as well, further complicating their recovery.

Millions were being relocated to Cairo now that the radiation from the neutron bomb had dissipated, alleviating some of the displacement crisis. Aside from the EMP damage, the infrastructure in Cairo had been largely left intact. Of course, there were over ten million dead and decomposing bodies throughout the city that needed to be removed and either buried or burned. The city had been abandoned for nearly a month after the bomb had gone off. Now it was being repopulated as refugees poured in from around the country.

The rest of the IR continued the war, along with the Russians and Chinese. Neither side wanted to commit additional forces to capturing Israel and removing the Americans from the region, nor did they want to admit defeat. The war had settled into static lines, with trenches and fixed positions being developed. Israel had regained its original territory, plus a ten-mile buffer zone inside of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Sinai, along with the Suez Canal. The Chinese reinforced their position and maintained 290,000 troops in the region, while Russia had withdrawn troops and left 310,000 in place while they focused their efforts on Europe.

The US continued to maintain a force of 560,000 troops in Israel and assisted the Israeli Defense Forces in training the hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world that had joined the IDF militia forces. As the militia units became more proficient, they were integrated directly into the IDF. The US had also been providing the IDF with thousands of older military vehicles and equipment from the various Army boneyards. The equipment wasn’t modern by any means, but it was free, armored, and still functional enough to shoot and kill with it.

The IR still had nearly one million troops in and around Amman. The civilian volunteers that had swelled their ranks to nearly three million a few months prior had been transferred into the regular army and were in various training facilities spread throughout the Republic. The IR was still committed to the war; they just weren’t actively fighting or looking to advance conflict until they were able to rebuild their army and air defense capability.

Through the help of the militias, the IDF had swelled to over 800,000 soldiers. The Allies’ plan was to restart offensive operations at the end of spring, allowing the Israelis enough time to fully equip and train their forces. This time, they would defeat the IR and finally knock them out of the war entirely.

Europe, on the other hand, was a complete mess. Aside from nearly two months of blizzards, the Russians had captured Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia, Slovenia, half of the Czech Republic and nearly all of Poland. The fight now was centered in Austria, Germany and Croatia. The Americans had finally been able to get enough troops sent to Europe to aid the EU in stopping the Russians, but they lacked the military equipment to push the Russians back and liberate the captured territory. Britain had succeeded in stopping the Russians from capturing Iceland or being able to push their fleet out into the North Atlantic but had been unable to do much to stop them from capturing the Scandinavian countries of Finland and Sweden. They were still fighting the Russians in Norway with the Norwegian military and had managed to bog the Russians down. The British had also transferred two armored divisions to Europe to help in the defense of the continent.

China had captured all of Southeast Asia and was invading Malaysia and the Philippines. They had left the Koreans alone, according to their agreement, at least for now. Japan remained neutral, despite their insistence they were going to join the war. American human intelligence sources had learned that Japan planned on staying out of the war for at least another six months. They had drafted two million conscripts who needed training; they were also finalizing the completion of a dozen missile cruisers and two additional carriers. President Stein was not convinced and had ordered the military move as much armor and heavy equipment as they could from Japan to Alaska. The goal was to relocate close to 70% of US forces from Japan to shore up the Alaskan defense.

Under the advisement of his national security team, President Stein began to build up the defenses in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. China had successfully captured everything they wanted in the Pacific, with the exception of Australia. It was believed by the intelligence community that they might turn their sights toward Alaska and the Pacific Northwest instead of Australia. The Chinese needed oil, natural gas and mineral resources to fuel their economy. These were all items the US had in abundance in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The military had moved the newly created American First Army (which would consist of 750,000 troops once they completed their military training) to the Pacific coast of the country. As more soldiers completed their military training, they would form the Second Army, which would also consist of 750,000 soldiers and would move to cover Alaska and the Pacific Northwest as a deterrent to any potential Chinese aggression.

The United States as a whole was still recovering from the loss of New York City and Baltimore. Most of the residents that needed to be relocated had been moved to new cities around the country or to various temporary lodging established by FEMA to help the victims. The weather, of course, was causing all sorts of logistical and recovery problems. Despite the challenges, the government and the American people were determined to help each other and to recover from this horrific attack.

The economy was one of the few bright spots. The US had reached as close to full employment as possible with the massive rebuilding of the armed forces and the thousands of infrastructure and construction projects across the country. With the loss of Manhattan and large chunks of New York listed as a hot zone, a new city needed to be built. Several sites were being considered for “New Manhattan,” but nothing had been settled upon just yet. In addition to the thousands of construction projects, the military was still recruiting heavily and would swell to over eight million personnel, with another three million more to enter service by the end of the following year.

Wall Street had moved its operations to Chicago, consolidating with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. More importantly, people had jobs, and overall, they were high-paying jobs as the economy continued to roar. With the loss of trade between the US and China, there was an enormous demand for products and consumer goods that used to be produced in Asia and now needed to be produced at home in the US (and, to a large extent, South America and England).

As the boom continued, the provinces in Mexico began to return to normal and stabilize. There were still incidents of violence and guerrilla activity, but the Mexican people had good high-paying jobs due to the numerous infrastructure projects, and as a result, they really began to see an improvement in their own communities. This made it more difficult for the insurgency to continue as more and more people realized they didn’t want to go back to the way things used to be prior to the Americans getting involved. Their lives and the lives of their children were now significantly better than they had been under the old Mexican regime.

The FBI, US Marshals Service and the DOJ had completely revamped their entire police training program and, with significant assistance from several private contracting companies, were training 10,000 new police officers per month in Mexico. These new police officers were given mentors from American law enforcement to help guide them, and they learned how to develop a good community presence and a working relationship that was absent the corruption that had been so rampant under the old regime. There were large rewards issued for individuals that the intelligence community had identified as criminal and insurgent leaders, which placed additional pressure on those causing trouble.

Throughout the recovery, the US government continued to operate underground until the threat of a potential Russian nuclear attack was defused. President Stein and President Fradkov agreed to keep the war conventional. However, just as the government was about relocate back to the White House, several Spetsnaz teams began to attack older presidential bunkers and even managed to kill a number of high-ranking Congressional leaders.

The attack on the Vice President had infuriated the American public. The US had had enough of the attacks against their political leaders and civilians. Most people had now resorted to openly carrying firearms, making it more challenging for law enforcement to determine if an attack was about to happen or there was just a group of armed citizens protecting their families as they went to the mall. With assistance from the Trinity Program, several Spetsnaz teams were rooted out and eventually captured or killed. Now that the threat was reduced, the President wanted the government to relocate back to Washington, D.C., on April 1. It was time to return the government functions back to the capital.

The administration’s secretive Trinity Program was proving to be the most complex and intrusive surveillance program ever developed. It had identified over 12,000 foreign agents operating in the US in one capacity or another and enabled the FBI and DHS to apprehend these individuals, limiting their covert actions. The level of crime across the country had also dropped immensely as police were now receiving accurate and timely shared intelligence from the Trinity targeting data for specific high-crime activities across the nation, such as murders, rapes and gang-related violence.

As the President walked through the hallway on his way to the last national security briefing in the HIVE, he couldn’t help but think to himself how silly it had been for him to have initiated the COG and moved the entire government underground. Between the political assassinations and the terrorist attacks, it had seemed like the right decision at the time. Perhaps it had been the right call, but maybe they should have returned to Washington sooner. President Stein walked into the Situation Room and signaled for everyone to remain seated while he walked around and took his seat at the head of the table.

“Let’s get this meeting started. Where do things stand in Europe?” asked the President, looking at General Branson.

“Yes, Mr. President. General Wade is currently on track to start his spring offensive. He’s received 2,500 M1A4 battle tanks that we took out of mothball and refurbished, adding to the 4,000 he currently has. He also received our latest supply of Pershing tanks straight from the factory. He now has 900 Pershing tanks, which should be more than enough for his army groups to push the Russians back,” General Branson explained.

“Our latest round of basic training recruits has also arrived in Germany. Our troop count in Germany now stands at 1.2 million, divided into two armies, although we’re still extremely short on combat vehicles and other war materiel. The bulk of those soldiers are being leveraged as light infantry for the time being.”

The President smiled and realized that for the first time in the last three months, they were finally going to hit the Russians and push them out of Western Europe. This war was devastating the EU, and so was the war with China. Global trade and shipping had all but stopped, with all sides sinking each other’s shipping. “This is excellent news, General. Please let General Wade know he’s to begin his offensive as soon as he believes they’re ready. I want the Russians pushed out of Poland by the end of summer,” commanded the President.

Secretary of State Jim Wise jumped into the conversation to add, “Mr. President, I have news about Japan that I believe we should discuss. It may change some plans in Europe.”

Everyone turned to look at Jim and then to the President. “Ok, then please go ahead Jim, and let us know what you’ve heard from them,” the President said.

“Mr. President, the Japanese told me they have a high-level agent in the PLAN, and this agent passed along some information about a future operation the PLAN is preparing to execute. Their agent said the PLAN has relocated most of their amphibious assault craft and troop carriers to the East China Sea for a big amphibious assault.”

“Are the Chinese finally going to move against the Japanese?” inquired the President. He was thinking it would be poetic justice if Japan was invaded and then asked for help just as the US had demanded that the Japanese abide by the mutual defense pact, which they had so far failed to do.

“No, Mr. President. The Chinese have explicitly told the Japanese they would be invaded if they did not remain neutral in the war. Right now, the Japanese are content to remain neutral, and the Chinese are content to let them stay that way for the time being. What their agent said is that the Chinese are planning a massive naval assault against Alaska and the Pacific Northwest,” Jim said, a bit anxious about the information he was sharing.

General Branson jumped in and asked, “Do we know where in Alaska they’re planning to invade or how many troops will be involved?”

“Before I answer that, the news does get worse. The Russians will be sending an expeditionary force of 250,000 troops as well. The Chinese, on the other hand, are going to be invading with an army of five million soldiers. They told me the primary target for the Russians is Nome, Alaska, while the Chinese will be going for the port facilities at Seward before advancing on Anchorage and then on to the state of Yukon, British Columbia, and Washington State.”

General Branson sat back and thought for a minute about what had just been said, as did the President. “This does change the picture in Europe, doesn’t it, General Branson?” inquired the President.

“Yes, Mr. President, it does. General Wade’s offensive will need to rely on a steady supply of reinforcements from the States as recruits finish basic training. He will also require a steady supply of armor and other military vehicles. If we’re shipping everything from the production line to Europe and his forces, then we won’t have the equipment or force needed here to defend the homeland,” General Branson said, ensuring he looked everyone in the eye to confirm that they understood exactly how bad this threat really was.

Sighing deeply, the President asked, “How much time do we have before this planned invasion, and what’s the CIA’s assessment of this?”

Director Rubio spoke up. “The CIA does believe the information to be credible. The various troop movements, ships and so on are consistent with preparations for an invasion. As to the timeline, the Japanese source says it’ll happen within the next thirty to forty-five days. Our sources also believe that timeline is accurate.”

“Then we don’t have much time, do we?” pondered the President aloud. “What are your suggestions, gentlemen?”

General Branson signaled to speak first, saying, “Mr. President, I recommend we move quickly to get as much of our equipment and troops out of Japan and to Alaska as possible. We also have 400,000 new recruits coming out of basic and advanced training in two weeks. I move that we send them all to Alaska and begin building up the defenses. We’ll also need to move additional mobile laser systems and mobile railguns once the roads start to clear from the snow. These blasted blizzards are really hurting our ability to build up any sort of defenses.”

General Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff, added, “We have 400 fighter drones being delivered from the factory next week. I will order all of them to Alaska. That will bring our manned aircraft to 300 fighters and our fighter drones to 1,100. I know the Navy has been hit pretty hard, but if they can focus their subs in the Alaskan waters, that would greatly aid our defense.”

Admiral Juliano knew he had to do something, because his submarine force had been getting hammered. The Chinese had sunk five submarines in the last three weeks in the South Pacific. “I can transfer three subs from the South Pacific, but that’s about it. I only have seven operational attack submarines in the Pacific; I’ve lost twelve subs in the last three months, five in the last three weeks. I can move three of our cruise missile subs, but with the laser defense systems they have, I’m not convinced they’ll be very effective. Right now, they’re causing havoc, hitting their shipping lanes, which of course are less protected than their carrier fleets.”

Knowing he needed to offer more, Admiral Juliano decided this was a good time to bring everyone up to date on a secret Navy initiative to reclaim the waters of the Pacific. Taking a deep breath before continuing, Admiral Juliano explained, “There’s a new weapon that we’ve been developing for some time that we believe could be a game changer. It’s our new Swordfish underwater drone, or SUD. It’s going to be the first of what we hope to be many UDs we are currently developing—”

The President interjected to ask, “—Is this something that can be deployed in the next thirty days?”

“Yes, Mr. President. We have two of them completed—one of them just finished its test trial and is being moved to Anchorage as we speak.”

“I think I was briefed about this when it was still a concept. Can you bring us up to speed on this, Admiral Juliano?” asked the Secretary of Defense.

Juliano opened a file on his tablet and began to play several test videos and demos of how the new weapon would work. “Essentially, the SUD is an underwater Reaper Drone. It has a speed of 70 knots, a depth of 2,000 meters, and an unlimited range. It carries eight of our new advanced antiship torpedoes.”

The President raised his hand for the admiral to pause for a second and interpolated, “Tell me more about these antiship torpedoes and how they’re different than the ones we’re currently using on our submarines.”

Having known the President might ask this, Admiral Juliano pulled up the dimensions of the current torpedoes and the new torpedoes. “As you can see, the newer torpedoes are much smaller, about one-third the size of the current torpedoes, but they’re significantly faster and have a much longer range. The newer torpedoes have a 60-mile range, giving the attacking submarine, or in this case the SUD, a much higher survival rate. The newer torpedo uses a new detonation chemical component that makes the torpedo three times as explosive. It also uses a much newer AI targeting software, so once the torpedo is launched, it has the approximate GPS and depth of the target it was fired at and proceeds toward it without an active sonar. Once the torpedo gets within two miles of the target’s last known position, it activates its sonar, but at that range, it’s too late for the target to evade.”

“This new torpedo sounds amazing,” the President said. “So, how are we going to make use of it now?” asked the President, eager to find a way to employ it quickly.

“We still have a few bugs to work out in the new torpedo. Some of them have been failing to detonate on impact. We’re not 100% sure what’s causing the failure, but we hope to have it worked out over the next few months. As to why they’re not on our current subs, presently the torpedo doesn’t fit on them. Our new submarines being built going forward are going to use the newer torpedo, which we’re calling the Hammerhead. The SUDs will also use the Hammerhead, and so will our antisubmarine helicopters and aircraft starting at the end of the month. We presently only have a small stockpile, and they’ve been allocated for the two SUDs that we have,” the Admiral said while going over the inventory numbers and the projected monthly delivery numbers from the factory.

“How soon could we retrofit our existing fleet of submarines to use them?” asked General Branson.

“We are already working on that right now. The older Los Angeles attack submarines that we’re taking out of mothballs are having their torpedo tubes retrofitted to use the Hammerheads while they’re in dry docks getting the rest of their upgrades completed. The timing of this works out well because they needed to be in dry dock to have their sound proofing upgraded, along with their propeller screws. We anticipate having eight of them ready for service starting in June and will have eight more a month coming into service until all forty-four have been brought out of mothballs,” the admiral said with a smile.

The President smiled from ear to ear and said, “Admiral, this is great news. Absolutely wonderful. How many of the new SUDs are going to be coming online per month as well?”

“We have the first two right now, and we’re supposed to receive a total of eighty of them over the next three years. I’m working with the contracting company to expedite them, but some of the materiel needed for them are also being heavily used by the Pershings.”

General Branson jumped in to say, “We will have to stick to that timeline then, Admiral. The Pershings are far too important right now to cut back on their production. The Chinese and Russians both have a new MBT coming online soon that we haven’t yet seen.”

“I have to agree with the general on this one, Admiral. We’ll have to stick to the timeline the manufacturer is giving you then. I’m not ready to shift resources away from the Pershings. We’re still working on solving the materiel problem,” the President concurred.

The admiral paused for a moment, not sure if he should bring up the following topic or not. “I had heard from one of my science advisors that some of the rare materiel that we use in the new armor for the Pershings can actually be found on the moon in the asteroids. If that’s the case, then is there any way we can collectively find a way to acquire more of it? I mean, if this materiel is so rare and yet so vital to our military equipment, how can we obtain more of it so we can ramp up our production?” asked Juliano, hoping he didn’t sound crazy.

The President was actually surprised to hear the admiral ask this question and clearly wanted to discuss this more, but his own science advisor wasn’t in the room to facilitate that discussion. “You bring up a good point. I believe we’ll have to have that discussion at a later date when I can bring in the chief scientist who’s leading that effort presently. Professor Rickenbacker is at one of our other facilities right now.”

Turning to look at Monty, the President directed, “Monty, arrange for a special science briefing with the professor to bring us up to speed on some of the new technologies they’ve been working on. Let’s see if we can do this sometime next week. Also, gentlemen, this meeting that you’ll be invited to will be ‘eye’s only.’ No aides, no notes and no recording devices,” the President said secretively.

A chorus of “Yes, Sir” could be heard as the President turned back to General Branson. He wanted to continue with the briefing. “Gentlemen, we have limited resources right now. We need to figure out how we’re going to defend Alaska and British Columbia. If the Chinese are able to establish a base of operations and a foothold there, they’ll flood troops and materiel in by the millions, positioning them to invade the rest of the country. We need to buy time until we can produce more military equipment and get more recruits through training,” the President directed.

General Branson pulled up maps of some different areas in Alaska and began to address the group, saying, “We may need to give ground to buy more time. We can plan on putting up one blistering attack and try to prevent the initial landings, but if they are successful, then we’ll need to pull our forces back and try to turn this into an asymmetrical war of attrition. We’re building multiple layers to our defensive lines throughout Alaska and British Columbia, but as you know, the blizzards have been hampering this effort a lot.

“One good note—we have the training facilities up and running, turning out a hundred thousand soldiers a month for the South American Expeditionary Force. We anticipate having this force ready for deployment as its own army by the end of summer. If the situation warrants it, then we can use them in Alaska instead of Europe,” General Branson said, sounding very optimistic about their chances in Alaska and the overall war effort.

“We still need to make a decision on Europe. Do we continue with our offensive in the spring, or do we continue a defensive action and focus on Alaska?” asked the Secretary of Defense.

The President knew a decision about Europe and the Middle East needed to be made, so he took charge. “I want General Wade to hold off on his offensive. Tell him to hold in place. This will give the EU more time to grow their military and their military manufacturing capability. Use everything we have to hold Germany and keep the Russians at bay. If General Wade believes he needs to launch a limited offensive to do that, then he may, but unless the entire Russian front falls apart, he is to hold Germany and not get sucked into Eastern Europe. Tell General Gardner he is to proceed with his offensive. I want the IR knocked out of the war so we can focus on these other theaters. Once his heavy combat operations are done and it moves to an occupation, we can look to move some of his heavier armor units to Europe and bolster our forces there.”

Everyone in the room rose as the President stood up to leave the room and quickly begin putting into motion the plans they had just discussed.

Chapter 22

Operation Red Dawn

Day 122

3 April 2041

Moscow, Russia

National Control Defense Center

The National Control Defense Center (NCDC) facility was just down the road from Red Square. The NCDC was a massive edifice that had replaced the older Ministry of Defense building in the mid-2020s. This center could control all military activities around the globe and run the entire economy and country if need be. Once the world powers had agreed to keep the war conventional, President Fradkov had begun to spend more and more time at the NCDC. The facility boasted a nuclear shelter in the basement and was connected to a number of other critical locations throughout the city via underground tunnels as well.

The war in Europe and the Middle East was going about as well as they had hoped for up to this point. Russia had secured all of its former satellite countries and was devastating the EU. The Americans might have stopped them at the German border, but that would change with the coming summer offensive. In the meantime, the MiG40s were causing havoc among the Allied air forces. The only thing preventing Russia from having full control of the skies was the limited inventory of MiG40s available.

The Allies were slowly figuring out how to track and identify the new MiGs, which had led to several of them being shot down. For the moment, Russia controlled the high-altitude fight—everything above 15,000 feet. Below that level, the Doppler radars the Americans had would guide the laser defense systems or railguns in the area to their location. Fortunately, the MiG could also carry six guided bombs, enabling them to attack Allied laser and railgun systems from a high altitude. If the radars on the lasers or railguns could detect the bomb fast enough, they could engage and destroy it; however, the percentage of successful hits was typically around 30%, still making the effort to attack them more than worthwhile.

*******

President Mikhail Fradkov walked into the war room in the basement of the Kremlin to discuss the war effort, the summer offensive and the Alaskan invasion: Operation Red Dawn. “Generals, please be seated. We have a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it. How are the invasion plans going with the Chinese?”

General Gerasimov, the head of the Russian military, began his brief. “We have eight additional troop carriers and two roll-on/roll-off transports at our port in Vladivostok. We have 1,800 main battle tanks and 2,400 light drone tanks in port ready to go. The plan calls for the Chinese to conduct a massive missile and air attack for several hours before the invasion starts, in order to pound the American positions a bit before the landings.

“We have 300,000 troops ready to go when the Chinese are ready to move. Operation Red Dawn should start on May Day, the first of May. The Chinese plan on invading at nine different locations along the Alaskan coast, which will draw away most of the American Air Force. We believe we should have the upper half of Alaska secured by the end of summer, before most of it becomes impassable due to the weather. We will also be inserting several thousand Spetsnaz units throughout Alaska to attack their airfields, supply depots and critical communication nodes throughout central and northern Alaska.” The general spoke with an air of confidence that bordered on arrogance as several images of airfields and communication targets were shown.

With Operation Red Dawn starting to draw more resources away from the European theater, Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense, needed to determine what they wanted to do in the Middle East. So, he boldly interrupted the discussion. “—Generals, Mr. President, we need to discuss our strategy in the Middle East. Intelligence indicates the Americans are going to start a new offensive shortly, and prior to that happening, we need to determine our strategy. Are we going to send more reinforcements and launch a counteroffensive, or are we going to withdraw our forces and use them somewhere else?”

President Fradkov had initially wanted to destroy the Americans and Israelis, but that had been proving harder to achieve than they had originally thought. The Middle East was turning into a meat grinder, and the question was—how much longer did Russia want to continue to fight in it? If the Americans hadn’t committed so many troops to defending Israel, Russia never would have committed so many troops to the Middle East. At this point, the fight was forcing the Americans to battle on more fronts than they were effectively able to do.

“Generals, the fight in the Middle East is a fight we need to stay committed to, as it ties down immense amounts of American resources. These are assets they cannot commit to Europe, or soon to our operations in Alaska. We will reinforce the Second Shock Army as appropriate. Is that understood?” questioned the President.

“Yes, Sir.”

Wanting to get back to the European front, the President wished to discuss the new tank that they had been developing and how soon it could be ready for action in Europe. “Minister Puchkov, what is the status of our new battle tank? Is it ready for action?”

Minister Puchkov opened some folders and started displaying some pictures, video and stats of the new T41 main battle tank on the holographic display. “The T41 is going through its trial runs right now. The blizzards have been slowing some of these tests down, but we have determined that the main weapon functions to our satisfaction. The issue we are still trying to work out is the power supply. The T41 is a tank, but it is a very slow and cumbersome vehicle that will rely heavily on other support vehicles around it in its current iteration. Right now, the top speed of the T41 is roughly 22 miles per hour, and it has a range of about 200 miles.”

Not happy with these numbers, the President asked, “Why is the vehicle so slow and cumbersome? This is not what was briefed last month. Back then, everyone said this new tank could keep up with our armored forces and would be a good counter to the American Pershing tanks. What has changed since our last discussion?”

“The power generation changed. The tank can fire just ten shots before it needs to idle and recharge for about an hour. Each individual shot requires about fourteen minutes of recharge before firing again. We thought we could get about thirty shots from the battery pack before it would need to idle, but once we started to test the laser against the Pershing’s armor, we learned we were wrong. The energy used by the laser needed to be increased by some 300% for it to penetrate the Pershing’s armor. This dropped the number of shots the battery could hold. To augment this, we had to build a new, larger power generator, which in turn meant a redesign of the rear mount. All of these changes added an extra ten tons of armor and weight to the vehicle that was not in the initial design,” answered Minister Puchkov.

“Mr. President, if I may—I would like to suggest that we send the T41 back to the designers to figure out how they can better integrate these new design changes. I don’t want to have some unreliable new tank on the battlefield, or worse, taking up production capacity and materiel,” said the Commanding General for the Russian Armed Forces.

“I agree. Let’s send the T41 back to the drawing board. I want a new prototype ready in 90 days, something that incorporates these new design requirements,” the President said as he ended the meeting.

Chapter 23

Trifecta

Day 125

05 April 2041

Amman

Axis Powers Command Center

The Russian commander for the Second Shock Army was meeting with his Chinese counterpart and the IR military leadership to discuss the pending operation. They knew the Americans were going to launch an offensive soon, and they wanted to launch a spoiler attack to throw them off balance. The challenge was going to be determining how to attack an Allied army that had now swelled to over one million troops with a force close to that same number. When launching an assault, it was best to have a five-to-one advantage, which they clearly would not have.

General Abdullah Muhammed was the overall military commander for the IR in Israel. He knew the Russians and Chinese wanted to launch a new offensive, but they lacked the numbers to make it successful. That meant the IR would have to bear the brunt of the manpower used in this next offensive. “General Lodz, I agree that the Americans are going to launch a new offensive, probably in the very near future. I am authorized to commit up to one million IR regular army forces, but that is the extent that I can pledge. Any more and we lose the ability to even prevent the Allies from invading our own lands.”

“General Muhammed, I understand your concerns, and they are valid. We will accept your contribution, but I would like to have operational control over them so that I can coordinate their attacks properly with ours,” General Lodz said, knowing this was a bit of a reach.

Having realized already that this request might come, General Muhammed had already made his mind up to agree. The IR had already fouled up the first invasion and lost nearly 1.5 million troops. If the Russians believed they could do better, then perhaps it would be best for them to take the lead. “I am reluctant to agree to this; however, we share the same goals, and I want to see the Allied army crushed before it can gain in strength any more than it already has,” General Muhammed responded.

General Fang, the overall military commander for the Chinese First Expeditionary Force, saw this as an opportunity to get some additional forces for his own army group. His reinforcements were still a month away, and the Russians wanted to launch this new offensive immediately, not wait for Chinese reinforcements. “General Muhammed, if I may. China would like to request a much smaller contribution of forces from the IR. We are going to make a push for Southern Israel and attempt to cut them in half, whence we can then take control of the Suez. We would like the IR to commit 200,000 troops to our effort,” Fang requested, hoping he could strike a deal, especially since he had asked for one-fifth the number of troops.

“General Fang, the IR appreciates everything the Chinese have done to help us. Because of this, I will grant your request. You will receive 200,000 IR reinforcements and their commanders will report to your chain of command for the duration of the operation,” General Muhammed replied, having already anticipated this entreaty as well. The Chinese had assisted the IR tremendously these past four months, so there was no real way he could turn down their invitation and not insult them.

“Excellent, then we will begin to issue orders to the respective units and prepare for the coming attack. The offensive will begin in four days. We need to move quickly, as our intelligence sources say the Americans plan to start their offensive in five. We need to throw them off balance before they are able to get organized into their offensive formations. I also have two additional squadrons of MiG40s en route to our positions in Turkey; they will begin providing high-altitude air cover and precision bombing of the enemy laser and railgun positions just as they have been doing in Europe. This will limit the Allied air support capability and increase the likelihood of our success. My military planners will send the details to your staffs immediately so you can plan accordingly.” General Lodz was authoritative as the overall area commander. Muhammed and Fang both nodded in compliance and left for their respective commands.

General Lodz had been General Kulikov’s executive officer for several years prior to being promoted and given command of the Second Shock Army. General Lodz was a brilliant tactician and military leader. He had led the modernization efforts to turn the older Shock Army concept into a 21st-century killing machine, heavily incorporating the use of drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

*******

The following four days were a flurry of activity as hundreds of thousands of troops began to move to their various jump-off points and the MiG40s arrived. The increased MiG activity had an immediate impact; four MiGs had been shot down during the preparations, but they had shot down sixty-eight Allied aircraft and destroyed five laser defensive sites and twelve mobile railgun antiaircraft systems.

The arrival of additional MiG40s was a complete surprise for the Allies, who had only been dealing with them in limited numbers in Europe, not the Middle East. The Allies’ worst fear was starting to come to fruition; enough MiG40s were being produced that the Russians could now field them in two active war theaters in greater numbers. Unbeknownst to the Allies, the two squadrons of MiG40s were actually part of the European group. The Russians had transferred two of their five squadrons to the Middle East specifically to support the upcoming operation. They would be returned to Europe once the campaign was completed. The Russians were still only able to produce thirty aircraft a month, which barely kept up with the losses. It would be another three more months before production levels would reach sixty aircraft a month, and a year before it would reach 120 a month.

The Russian offensive started off like all Russian attacks; there were immense amounts of artillery and rocket attacks, quickly followed by scores of tanks and mechanized infantry in their wake. The MiG40s were in the sky and quickly downing Allied aircraft, trying to attack the Russian armor units and bombing mobile railgun and laser systems as they found them. The goal was to use the artillery and rockets to draw the laser and railgun systems out into the open, then destroy them with direct munitions from several of the MiG40s, which were designated purely for bombing missions, while the other MiGs were hunting for Allied aircraft.

The assault was swift and vicious, as most Russian attacks were, and was followed up by an attack from the Chinese six hours later. The goal was to distract the Allies and draw additional forces to the north to deal with the Russians. Then the Chinese would launch their own attack in the south against a weaker Allied flank.

Chapter 24

Modern Trench Warfare

Day 126

07 April 2041

Near the Lebanon Border

Sergeant Jordy Nelson’s company was part of the 1st Infantry Division, 1st Brigade, which had been in Israel since the start of the war. The 1st ID had been involved in every major battle that had taken place, from the invasion of the Jordan Valley and the siege of Jerusalem to the counterattack to retake Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. After a short break in the fighting, the 1st ID was pulled from the line and given thirty days to rest and regroup as new reinforcements arrived. By the time this reprieve had taken place, the entire division had suffered a casualty rate of 62% either killed or wounded. The division was a shell of its former self and as new replacements arrived, the division would regain in strength and be moved back to the frontlines.

Sergeant Nelson had started the war as an E-5 sergeant. During the reorganization and rest period, he had been promoted to sergeant first class E-7 and given command of a full platoon. They were now assigned to the front lines in Lebanon, facing off against the Russians.

Jordy Nelson had joined the Army after high school, just as his brother had done two years prior. They came from a low-income family with no way to pay for college, so they had joined the military to get the GI Bill and pursue their dreams of college after their four years were up. Jordy had made good use of the college courses being taught on base and nearly had 30 credits completed. When they offered him a $35,000 reenlistment bonus for two more years, he couldn’t resist. Knowing a war was on the horizon, most soldiers were reenlisting and taking the money rather than waiting to be called back up from the inactive ready reserves. His brother had already served his eight years and now had a cushy job working for AFC.

As SFC Nelson was walking along the defensive network that his platoon had established, he was impressed with the progress they had made. Their battalion had been assigned to defend this ridge about a month ago, and they had been hard at work ever since. The ridgeline was covered in dense green trees and undergrowth. The valley below it was also covered in the same lushness, and had there not been a war going on, it would have been beautiful. For now, it just presented an obstacle to their defensive effort.

Once they had established their reinforced trench lines, foxholes and machine-gun bunkers, the men immediately began to clear the underbrush and trees for up to four hundred meters in front of their positions. Rows and rows of barbed wire, antitank objects, tank mines and Claymore antipersonnel mines were laid throughout the four-hundred-meter kill zone. They had also preregistered artillery and mortar positions, so if the Russians did advance, they were ready for them.

One of the most unique and game-changing weapons of the war was the railgun. The M5 AIR fired a .25mm round. The venerable M2 .50-caliber heavy machine gun (or Ma Deuce as the infantry called it) was augmented by the new heavier railguns, which fired a 20mm antitank projectile. This round could penetrate armored personnel carriers and all but the heaviest of Russian tanks. Unlike the railguns used by American tanks, these heavy infantry weapons didn’t have the barrel length to generate the needed speed to penetrate the heavy armor of Russian main battle tanks. Despite this, they were incredibly effective at blunting an infantry attack. Unfortunately, the railgun itself, the ammunition and the power pack for it were not just heavy but difficult to move, which was why they were used in fixed positions and not carried as a heavy weapon like the old .50-cal machine guns were.

The platoon had established multiple heavy railgun and .50 cal positions aimed at covering their fields of fire and likely armored approaches. Word on the street was that the Army was going to start a new offensive soon; however, their group would not be joining. Their orders were to stay and man the defensive line. If the Russians did get frisky, they would be ready for them.

It was a bright and beautiful day with the birds singing and the smells of spring fresh in the air. One of Nelson’s junior NCOs was walking toward him and asked, “Sergeant Nelson, some of the guys just got back with the extra ammunition you requested. They also picked up a few cases of grenades. You really think the Russians may try to attack before the new offensive?”

Thinking for a moment before responding, he replied, “I think it’s possible. The Russians aren’t stupid. They probably know something’s up, and they may try to launch a spoiler attack. I heard those new MiG40s are here now in even greater numbers. If that’s true, then you can bet they’re getting ready for something.” Privately, Jordy thought it was a certainty that the Russians would launch a spoiler attack, just as the IR had done right before the Americans were going to declare war on them last November. He had seen the US do the same thing if they thought it would blunt an enemy attack.

“Yeah, I heard the same thing about those new MiGs when we were back at the supply depot. I suppose you may be—”

“INCOMING, EVERYONE DOWN!” someone yelled.

Within seconds, heard the whistling shrieks of incoming artillery and rockets from the Russian lines beyond the horizon. Everyone dove into the trench lines and prebuilt bunkers as the rounds began to hit all across the ridgeline that their defensive network was built upon.

Round after round thrashed the ridge and the kill zones in front of their positions, turning a beautiful, luxurious valley forest into a moonscape wasteland within minutes. The ground shook with every rocket and artillery round, making it feel as if there was an earthquake. The roar of the explosions and the continuous concussions from the blasts was numbing to the soldiers in the machine-gun bunker Nelson had moved into. After thirty minutes of shelling, the Russian artillery and rockets moved to positions further behind SFC Nelson’s position to hit the reserve and follow-on units. That was when the Russian infantry and armored vehicles began to show up.

Sergeant Nelson peered through his binoculars to see wave after wave of armored vehicles, tanks and infantry a couple of miles away, moving toward their positions. He immediately began shouting orders to his platoon and his radio operator.

“Get those heavy guns ready to start attacking those armored vehicles! I also want artillery to start hitting those pre-positioned targets. We need to break up their formations and start to thin them out before they get too close.” Nelson had a sense of urgency in his voice. The particular bunker Nelson was operating out of was designated as the company’s forward artillery post. They were responsible for coordinating the artillery and mortar fire for the company as they had one of the best vantage points of the trench line and the bunkers.

As friendly artillery impacted in the midst of the Russian tanks and infantry, the projectiles destroyed a number of tanks and other armored vehicles, blowing tracks off the vehicles. Some lucky hits blew the turrets off the tanks. As the rounds exploded, Nelson could see several infantrymen being thrown into the air like ragdolls and others ripped to shreds by shrapnel. Then the heavy railguns opened fire, demolishing numerous light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Several Russian infantrymen were cut apart by the heavy guns; legs, arms and heads were ripped apart from the soldiers’ bodies as the fast-moving 20mm projectiles were devastating even when they did not directly hit a person. Just being nearby when a round flew by at Mach 5 was enough to tear a limb right off the body.

When a 20mm railgun round hit a light tank or light armored vehicle, it created a small entry hole and either bounced around inside the vehicle, killing everyone in it, or, in most cases, passed right through the other end of the vehicle. When it passed through the vehicle, it created a high-pressure vacuum that would crush the lungs of the individuals inside the tank and, in some cases, suck objects out the other end. It was a cruel but effective weapon, and since it emitted no smoke or flash when fired, it made it hard to identify where the rounds were coming from.

For twenty-five minutes, the Russians advanced toward their position under artillery and direct support from their tanks, until they were just about to enter the 400-meter kill box. At that moment, the Russian attack began to falter and then halted all together. It was at that moment the Russian artillery and rockets began to once again rain down on their positions, intermixed with smoke rounds to screen the Russian advance.

Sergeant Nelson had his platoon switch their HUD views so they could see through the smoke. As their HUDs cleared through the smoke, they saw the Russian armor and infantry advancing into their prepared kill zone and begin to activate the various mines.

SFC Nelson began to detonate various antitank mines as he saw armored vehicles either rolling over them or getting near them, disabling and destroying numerous vehicles while injuring the nearby infantry. The sound of the heavy railguns, the M5 AIR and .50-cals could also be heard as the men of his platoon aggressively repelled the invaders. The sound of the battle was deafening.

Despite the “hell on earth” being rained down on both sides, the Russians continued to advance until they were less than 50 meters from the American lines. The fighting was about to turn into hand-to-hand combat as the Russians rushed their positions. Soldiers reached for trench knives and bayonets, killing each other in a very personal manner. It was at that moment that SFC Nelson received a radio call for his platoon to destroy the heavy railguns and fall back to their secondary defensive positions. Next to each railgun position was a thermite grenade. The order was to pull the pin and ensure the grenade was over top of the gun and battery unit. The heat from the grenade would essentially melt the gun and make it unserviceable.

As SFC Nelson made his way out of the bunker and directed the soldiers around him to their secondary positions, he saw a group of Russian soldiers advancing quickly toward them. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired several short bursts, hitting several of them, but not before one of them threw a grenade at them. The grenade landed right next to five of his soldiers. One of the new privates who had joined their platoon only four days earlier jumped on the grenade just as it exploded. The soldier died instantly but saved his fellow soldiers. Several of the fighters around Nelson began to engage more and more Russian soldiers as they jumped into the trench line below them. It was time for Nelson and his men to make a break for it back to their secondary fighting position before they were overrun.

After three hours of intense combat, the Allies had to abandon their first line of defense. Within the following hour, they would be forced to abandon the second line as well. An Israeli armored division finally moved forward and engaged the Russians, forcing them to stop their attack. Two more Israeli infantry divisions and one American tank division with Pershings also moved to engage the Russian armored thrust and managed to blunt the rest of their attack.

The Allies had lost eight miles of land and all of their fixed defensive positions, but they had finally stopped the Russian advance. The Reds had hit their line with three armored and five infantry divisions. They had overwhelmed the 1st ID with an eight-to-one ratio, mauling them as they absorbed the brunt of the initial Russian offensive.

Chapter 25

A War of Attrition

Day 126

07 April 2041

2nd Marine Expeditionary Force

Near Hastor Ashbod Airbase

First Lieutenant Thornton’s company had been stationed near the Hastor Ashbod Israeli airbase following 75 days of continuous combat. The battalion needed time to decompress, reorganize and integrate their new replacements. Lieutenant Thornton was sitting in the battalion command tent, along with the other company commanders, when word come down that the Russians and Chinese were launching a new offensive. Their battalion had been planning to move to their own jump-off position within 24 hours for General Gardner’s offensive when the Russians and Chinese launched their spoiler attack.

Major Lee walked into the tent after talking on a command phone with his own higher-ups. “Marines, as you all have heard, the Russians and Chinese are launching a preemptive attack. Our guys in the north are getting hammered hard by the Russians. The 1st MEF is also getting blasted by the Chinese in the south. We’ve been ordered to reinforce the Army and the Israelis in the north. I know we’re closer to the 1st MEF, but apparently the Chinese aren’t hitting them nearly as hard as the Russians are.

“As of right now, the Russians have plowed through our entire defensive line in the north. The 1st ID suffered 30% casualties within the first six hours of combat and has been forced to fall back. Intelligence says the Russians are advancing with their entire force and a group of about one million IR troops as well. You all know the drill—have your companies ready to move within the next two hours. We roll out in support of an armor unit, so be ready. Dismissed.” As Major Lee finished his speech, his officers quickly got up and began to head toward their units and infantry fighting vehicles.

The 2nd MEF had been heavily reinforced after their brutal mauling during the first 60 days of the war. They now had 60,000 Marines, along with 300 Pershing tanks and 800 M1A4 tanks. It took the battalion three hours to reach the edge of the battlefield, and what they saw reminded them of the first few weeks of the war. Off in the horizon, they could visualize hundreds of artillery rounds and rockets being destroyed by the railgun and laser defensive systems. Despite the valiant defensive efforts, hundreds of missiles and artillery rounds were impacting the American and Israeli positions. The sounds of tank rounds and the rumbling of explosions was nearly constant. It was a cauldron of death that they were driving into.

“Lieutenant Thornton, this is Echo 1. We are passing through the Israeli forces now and moving along the edge of the ridgeline, Jericho 1,” said the lead scout vehicle in Thornton’s company.

“Continue to move forward and be alert. See if you can find a defensive position for the battalion to hunker down,” Thornton said to his scout leader.

Thornton’s company was the lead element for the battalion of Pershing tanks they were escorting. His infantry battalion had been filtered into an armored brigade that was moving to engage the Russian armored units. Their mission was to provide infantry support to the Pershings and act as scouts to find the enemy and identify ambush positions.

The scouts continued to move along the edge of the ridgeline until they spotted half a dozen Russian tanks and dozens of infantry vehicles moving forward. They were currently engaging a dozen or so Israeli tanks that had just passed through ten minutes earlier. The scout leader found a good position, just shy of the top of the ridge, that would give them a clear field of fire without silhouetting them against the top of the ridgeline and making them easy targets for Russian tanks. The scout leader radioed in the position, and the battalion, led by Thornton’s company, began to move into their new defensive position and set their trap.

Less than an hour after the battalion set up their positions and kill zones, a column of Russian infantry vehicles supported by some additional tanks made their way toward the Israeli positions, which took them right across Thornton’s kill zone. They held their fire until the enemy vehicles had moved to the end of their kill zone.

“Open fire!” ordered Thornton.

The entire battalion opened fire as soon as Thornton’s company did…the fight was over within five minutes. Multiple enemy infantry vehicles and tanks were destroyed before they could be pulled back. The Russians managed to destroy several Marine tanks, including three Pershings, when a pair of MiG40s arrived on scene above their positions. The Russians called in artillery and rockets to pound the battalion positions and hold them in place while another Russian armored battalion maneuvered around the ridge to get behind the Marines. The Israelis, seeing the tank battle taking place not far from their positions, also joined in and began sniping Russian tanks and IFVs as they tried to maneuver around the Marines.

The Marines had anticipated a Russian move like this and had a pair of Razorbacks on standby in case. Minutes later, both Razorbacks arrived on scene and began to engage the Russian tank battalion. In just a few minutes, they had destroyed nine enemy tanks and seven infantry fighting vehicles. Unfortunately, several MiG40s were also in the area and swooped down from their high-altitude perch to launch a pair of air-to-air missiles, destroying one of the Razorbacks and badly damaging the second. A half dozen surface-to-air missiles jumped after the low-flying MiGs, destroying one while the other managed to get away.

After three attempts by the Russians to capture the Marine positions, the battalion fell back to another position that the scouts had found for them. They immediately did their best to disengage and fall back to their next ambush location and repeat the process. They would duplicate this progression four more times before they were relieved and told to fall back deeper into Israel. Their primary objective was to engage and then disengage the Russians, sapping them of their strength and constantly starting and stopping their offensive. As this played out, various IDF and other American armor units continued to maneuver around the Russian flanks, hitting them repeatedly and whittling their numbers down while rotating fresh Allied units into the fight.

Chapter 26

Bloodbath at Megiddo

Day 128

09 April 2041

Damascus, Syria

General Lodz’s Headquarters

The Russian offensive was going better than they had anticipated. The arrival of two additional squadrons of MiG40s had made a tremendous difference. They continued to loiter high above the battlefield, and as laser or railgun defensive systems were identified by Spetsnaz units or scouts, the MiGs would engage them with guided munitions, exterminating them. Soon after they were destroyed, attack drones or helicopters would move into the area and attack the Allied armor and infantry positions. It was a somewhat slow process, but it was proving to be very effective.

The Russians had advanced into Israel and were fighting for control of Acre on the Mediterranean and Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. Their goal was to capture the critical port facility of Haifa, and then the critical road junction at Nazareth. This would put them in a good position to drive down deeper into Israel and potentially capture Tel Aviv.

The Chinese, by contrast, had not broken through the Allied defensive line in the south at all, though they were tying down a lot of Allied forces, which otherwise would have been thrown against the Russians. It was for this reason that General Lodz wasn’t furious with his Chinese counterparts for not proving to be better fighters. As long as they continued to hold dozens of Israeli and American divisions in place, those divisions couldn’t be used against his own forces.

“Where do we stand with the battle right now?” General Lodz asked the senior IR general on his staff.

“We’re close to a breakthrough right now. The problem is, we’re grinding through your Russian armor units. I believe it’s time to throw in my IR troops and save your reserve forces to follow in behind them,” the IR general replied, eager to get the Muslim army involved again.

“Hmm…go ahead and send in eight divisions from your force to hit Acre. I want that city captured and our forces in Haifa by the end of tomorrow. I also want your forces to secure Megiddo as well. It’s a critical road junction that we need to control. Is that understood?”

“Yes, General. It will be done,” replied the general, immediately turning to issue orders to the officers near him.

In the following days, 160,000 additional IR infantry joined the 260,000 Russians attacking Acre and broke through the Allied positions. The Allies quickly fell back again, this time close to Hadera, to establish their next defensive line. Additional Israeli troops and militia units moved into the area to help the American Army and Marines try and stop the 420,000 troops bearing down on Tel Aviv. The battles around Megiddo and Haifa were turning into a real bloodbath on all sides as more and more troops, tanks, artillery and air support were being poured into the battles.

Casualties once again rose with each new offensive. In nearly four days of heavy fighting, the Americans had suffered 13,458 soldiers killed and three times that number wounded. Israel was once again turning into a meat grinder as the number of Americans killed since the start of the war in Israel now exceeded 100,000 KIAs with five times that many wounded.

Chapter 27

Redirect

Day 130

11 April 2041

Washington, D.C.

White House Situation Room

The President was starting to get worried. The new Russian offensive in Israel had dislodged the Israeli and American positions in the north of Israel, and now they were bearing down on Tel Aviv. The Americans had suffered another 68,000 casualties between those wounded and killed, the Israelis 92,000. The arrival of additional MiG40s in Israel was proving to be disastrous for the Allies. They were losing laser and railgun defensive systems, opening the Allied armored units up to Russian and IR air attacks.

In spite of the battlefield losses, the US economy was finally starting to produce the tools of war in the quantities needed now that they were focusing on one theater of operations and not spread across all three. The Americans were producing 400 Pershing battle tanks a month, and in those numbers, they would have enough to field the entire Army and Marines with them in eighteen months. The vehicle chassis was also being used in two new armored vehicles, an armored personnel carrier that could transport twelve infantrymen into battle, and a light drone tank and antipersonnel fighting vehicle (APFV), or Wolverine as it was now officially being called. The Wolverine was the newest drone vehicle to enter military service and could fight and function alone or in hunter-killer groups, much like the animal it was named after. It had a medium railgun that could take out other enemy tanks and multiple smaller railguns ideal for attacking enemy infantry. The vehicle was still six months away from first delivery but would be a game changer when it does arrive.

On the domestic front, the Trinity Identity Intelligence program had aided in the apprehension of thousands of Russian, Chinese and IR intelligence operatives and sympathizers. This greatly reduced the level of sabotage, assassinations and terrorist activity within the country. From the start of operations in Mexico, nearly 82,300 civilians had been killed by various terrorist attacks and targeted assassinations within the US.

The program also began to work on tackling other areas of high crime in America. This improved apprehension rates of criminals, reducing crime across the country. It also began to overpopulate the American prison system, which ironically provided an opportunity. Nonviolent prisoners were immediately moved into work gangs and began building defensive positions on the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest, freeing up thousands of military engineers and soldiers for other critical duties.

Despite the war and massive government spending, the seizure of IR, Chinese and Russian assets, properties and businesses was paying for the war. It had also virtually eliminated the national debt. The challenge faced by America now was how to protect the West Coast and win the wars in Europe and the Middle East. The US mainland had 1.3 million soldiers in various units. The military still had another four million civilians to process through basic training, and another five million more that needed to be drafted. Twenty additional military training bases were being opened to increase the training capacity. Wounded soldiers from the various theaters were being reassigned as drill sergeants once they had recovered from their wounds. Then there were the Central and South American multinational armies that needed to be trained and equipped as well.

To further compound the training and equipment problem, the Middle East was once again turning into a black hole for equipment and troops. Every time things appeared to stabilize, a new offensive would start and the losses would pile up. Europe had been fought to a standstill, with horrific losses on all sides until the blizzards forced a halt to the killing. Fortunately, the war hadn’t turned nuclear, but how long could that possibly last?

*******

As the President entered the Situation Room and walked to the head of the table, he couldn’t help but notice the grim faces on his military and civilian advisors. He could tell the state of affairs abroad must be dire.

“Gentlemen, I assume by looking at you that things must be pretty bad,” the President said, trying to appear optimistic.

Mike Williams, the National Security Advisor, broke the silence. “They certainly could be better, Mr. President. General Gardner has established a new defensive line, and they appear to have stopped the Russian advance. They took some serious casualties, but so did the Russians and the IR.”

“It’s those blasted MiG40s. They’re chewing our fighters and laser defense systems up,” General Branson grunted, clearly irritated.

General Adrian Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff, jumped into the conversation, saying, “We have a new radar being deployed right now that will change the situation. We’re equipping the JF35s, F22s and our fighter drones with them now, along with our air-to-air missiles and the laser and railgun radar systems. It’s going to take a few months to get this new piece fielded to every unit and aircraft. However, once it’s completed, the MiG40 will show up on radar screens like a commercial airliner would. We will retake the skies.”

The President had always liked General Rice; he was always optimistic, and no matter how bad the situation seemed to get, he found a way to solve problems. He was also the first Air Force General to rise through the ranks from the scientific track. He wasn’t a fighter pilot, though he did have his commercial pilot’s license. Rather, he was an Air Force researcher who specialized in drone fighter design and low-earth-orbit spacecraft.

“Excellent, General Rice. You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that we have a viable working solution for countering the MiG40. Soon the Russians will be able to mass produce these aircraft, and if we don’t figure out how to challenge them, we’re really going to be in trouble.” Before turning away from General Rice, the President asked one other question. “Have we found a way to solve our satellite communications problem yet? This constant shooting down of our satellites and drones is becoming a problem.”

“We’re still working on that. Right now, we’re looking at miniature satellites that are the size of a baseball. The challenge we have is that although they are small, they can still be destroyed by a ground-based laser. We’re currently designing them to look like the space debris that’s already in Earth’s orbit, and we’ve been launching them in mass, using the space debris as a means to hide them,” General Rice explained as he used his tablet to bring up an image of what he was talking about.

Mike Williams, the National Security Advisor, let out a soft whistle. “That is an ingenious approach—rather amazing if you ask me. How soon could something like this be in place?”

“We believe shortly, maybe a month. We have our 3-D printers working on them right now. We want to launch them from one of our high-altitude spy planes so that the delivery vehicle won’t have far to travel before dispersing them. We hope we can get enough of the satellites dispersed before the Russians or Chinese figure out what we’re doing and start to engage the area. To help provide cover for the operation, we’re going to launch a couple of missiles at some larger space debris in the area to make the Chinese and Russians think that perhaps we are just trying to clear the debris so we can place a satellite in that area,” Rice elaborated.

“I like it, General. Please continue, and keep us apprised. If we can get satellite communications and real-time surveillance operational again, this will greatly aid the war effort,” the President said with excitement.

Sensing a pause coming soon, General Branson brought up one more point. “Mr. President, before we break—I would like to bring up the issue of Japan. As of right now, Japan is not going to come to our aid. With that said, I would like to move additional cargo aircraft to Japan immediately and evacuate as much of our critical equipment and personnel to Alaska and British Columbia as soon as possible. There are also three roll-on/roll-off cargo ships in port, not far from our naval station. They are there to move Toyota and Nissan cars from Japan to the US. I would like to recommend that we commandeer these ships and use them to transport a large majority of the heavy armor and equipment that we brought from Korea to the West Coast. We would, of course, compensate the ship owners, but for a short period of time, we would need to take possession of the ships.”

“I understand the logic in moving the personnel and equipment, but why do you want to commandeer a ship that you know will cause a political uproar in Japan?” asked the President.

“Right now, we don’t have enough of these ships on the West Coast, and frankly, if we don’t move those tanks and other vehicles soon, they’re likely to get stuck in Japan. The Chinese fleet hasn’t sailed yet. Once it does, we won’t be able to move that equipment, and chances are the Japanese will look to intern our forces and equipment for the duration of the war,” Branson explained.

“Jim, what are your thoughts?” asked the President, wanting to get his Secretary of State’s opinion.

“Right now, Mr. President, it’s a bit tricky. The Japanese are in a hard spot. They aren’t ready to stand up to the Chinese, even with our help. I believe if we act on this, we should let them know so that they don’t throw up a lot of roadblocks. They can make a public stink about it to save face, but they will let us do it,” Jim replied. He knew that the President wanted to avoid a problem with the Japanese but felt that this could be a workable solution as long as they left them an out.

“Jim, get with the Japanese and make sure this plan will work. General Branson, move forward with your plan,” the President directed.

Chapter 28

Chinese Manifest Destiny

Day 140

21 April 2041

Beijing, China

Central Military Committee Command Bunker

The Chinese had consolidated their gains in Southeast Asia, securing Thailand and Singapore. They used these countries as jump-off points to invade Malaysia and the Philippines, further securing their hold on the South China Sea and the Malacca Straits. Prior to the war, nearly 95% of the world’s shipping had passed through this region. As the Chinese secured more territory, they established new military bases and defensive networks in order to ensure that China would retain their newly won territories should the US or any other nation try to evict them.

The situation between China and Japan began to heat up once the Chinese learned of the American attempts to move their military force out of Japan to Alaska. The Reds issued an ultimatum to Japan—either intern the remaining US forces in Japan and sign a nonaggression pact, or be prepared to be invaded. Although in the past, the Japanese had been known to be fearsome warriors, they capitulated to the Chinese demands with relatively little resistance, and 11,345 American soldiers, sailors and airman were interned for the duration of the war. Fortunately, before the Chinese had caught on, the US had already moved the majority of their aircraft, naval ships and heavy equipment out of Japan to Alaska. The loss of troops would certainly hurt, but not nearly as much as the loss of equipment would have.

The Chinese continued the preparations for their offensive on Alaska. The invasion force would sail for Alaska on May 1 and arrive on May 15. This would provide the Chinese with the most optimal weather to conduct their assault and complete their objectives before the winter closed in and cancelled any further major offensive operations. Operation Red Dragon was on schedule.

The war in the Middle East was heating back up again. The Russians had made some significant breakthroughs and were pushing forward near Tel Aviv. They had asked for additional Chinese reinforcements to be sent so they could finish the Israelis and Americans off. The PLA agreed to send an additional 300,000 soldiers to the Middle East.

The Reds also sent an additional 250,000 troops to their bases in Africa. The Premier had decided that it was now time for them to exert their muscle in Africa and start their conquest of East and South Africa. The Americans were in no position to stop them, and with the invasion of Alaska happening soon, the Americans would be powerless to stop them. It was time for China to assume its position as the preeminent global superpower.

*******

Premier Zhang Jinping gathered with his senior advisors and military leaders in the Command Bunker to discuss strategy. First, he looked to Admiral Wei Shengli, the commander of the PLAN, and asked, “Are we ready to begin the invasion against the Americans?”

“We are ready, Premier. The attack will commence on schedule. We will have six of our seven aircraft carriers with the invasion force. Once we have secured a beachhead and several of the airports, the PLAAF will begin ferrying in thousands of fighter drones and manned fighters.”

During the 2020s and 2030s, the Chinese had started construction of six super carriers as they began to build out their blue-water navy. The Russians had provided a lot of expertise in building aircraft carriers, and the Chinese had also stolen a lot of the designs via well-placed spies within the American shipbuilding companies and through the rampant use of cyber-espionage. They had quickly incorporated the latest in American technology into these ships, as well as some of their own. During the fifteen years it took to build their blue-water navy, they had conducted numerous naval training exercises through both the Russian and US Navy partnership programs. Now these bastions of Chinese achievement were going to be put to the test.

“I have 150,000 naval infantry that will secure multiple beachheads for the PLA. These soldiers will be using the new exoskeleton combat suits. This will be our first major use of them. If they work as well as they are supposed to, then we will look at equipping the entire army with them,” Admiral Wei Shengli said, confidently showing an image of what the new exoskeleton suits would look like.

General Fang Wanquan, the Commander of the PLA, jumped in at this point to ensure his thunder was not lost. “Premier, I have 4,400 light drone tanks and 3,800 main battle tanks in the following landings, along with 400,000 troops. I have another 1.6 million follow-on forces and 4,000 more main battle tanks that will arrive once we have secured our foothold. We will conquer Alaska by the end of the summer and begin moving down into British Columbia to threaten the American West Coast. During the winter months, we will move another two million more troops into Alaska,” bragged General Wanquan, swelling with pride.

For nearly a hundred years, the rivalry between the PLA, PLAN and PLAAF had only grown. Each service believed they were the true protectors of the PRC. Their constant bickering and vying for attention and preference from the Premier was very annoying to their leader. At times, this caused a lot of problems for the PRC as the three groups seldom wanted to work together; this caused a host of coordination and collaboration issues that the Americans seldom had to deal with.

“Before this meeting ends, what was the outcome of the meeting our agents had with their Central and South American counterparts?” asked the Premier.

Clearly, no one wanted to give the bad news to the Premier. General Wanquan stepped forward to give it. “Premier, the meetings did not go well for us. Central and South America, with the exception of Bolivia, have chosen to join the Allies in declaring war against the PRC and have already formed a multinational army, which the Americans are going to train and equip. Our agents were able to estimate how many soldiers will be allocated to this multinational force, and we believe that they have collectively committed one million men and women to this new army, though that number could go much higher, if needed.” He waited for the scolding he thought he was sure to get from the Premier.

However, the Premier only sighed before he replied, “It was a long shot getting them to join the Axis instead of the Allies. They already have their Grain Consortium, so it was going to be challenging getting them to leave that in favor of fighting against the Americans.”

Jinping continued, “Admiral, I want more of our submarine forces sent to their waters. If they want to be a part of the war, then let’s work on sinking their navy and commercial shipping. We may not be able to directly threaten their countries now, but that does not mean we cannot hit them with a few cruise missiles from time to time to remind them they chose the wrong side.”

With that, the meeting was dismissed.

Chapter 29

STEM

Day 144

25 April 2041

Northern Virginia

The HIVE, 44th Floor—Science Division

The President had arranged for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, his National Security Advisor, and his Chief of Staff to be read into this presidential-level “eyes only” science brief. He needed counsel and advice from his trusted circle on what technology they should pursue and how they could employ it in the war.

All four men arrived by helicopter from the White House and went through several security checkpoints before they arrived at the 44th floor of the HIVE, which was the secured Science Division (SD) floor. This floor and the one above it were where DARPA had some of their greatest secret projects currently in progress. Away from the prying eyes of the public, and with extremely limited access to their floors, let alone the HIVE itself, their work was truly clandestine.

As the President walked up to the final checkpoint, he saw Professor Michael Rickenbacker, the Director of Special Projects. “Professor, it’s good to see you. I hope you have some good news for us today,” said the President as he shook his hand.

Smiling at the President, Rickenbacker replied, “I see you brought some people with you for this briefing. Are you sure you want to loop them into this?” he asked, a bit skeptical of the guests.

“Yes, I believe it’s time for some additional people to be brought into the circle of trust. I need their counsel and advice, and more importantly, I need their perspective on how we can implement these new technologies to help us win the war.”

After leading everyone into a small briefing room, the professor sighed for a moment as he turned down the lights and activated the holographic image display unit at the center of the table. “The information and programs I’m about to discuss with you are highly secretive. There are less than a few hundred people who even know about the main project, and less than five people who know about all of the projects combined. We did this for secretive purposes, but also to ensure we had no bleed-over between projects.

“The first project we are going to talk about is a technology called EmDrive.” said the professor to the four men in the room. “Have any of you heard of it before?”

The Secretary of Defense looked around the room first before answering, “I believe you’re talking about a power or thrust source that uses a resonant cavity to produce thrust without propellant. Correct?”

“That’s partially right, yes. We’re essentially talking about electromagnetic propulsion. Using an EmDrive device, we make an object float, change directions and accelerate or decelerate very quickly. If the device is built into an aircraft, the pilot would activate its engine and then the plane would start to hover or float. As power would be applied to the engines, the aircraft would begin to move in any desired direction. Using several directional engine ports, the aircraft would be able to climb, descend, accelerate or stop in seconds.” Seeing the puzzled look on their faces, the professor brought up the image of a very advanced and futuristic-looking fighter aircraft.

“This fighter, which we’re calling the F41 Archangel, leverages an EmDrive propulsion system. It burns no fossil fuels and doesn’t emit the type of heat a standard fighter does. It can start, stop and turn on a dime and accelerate to speeds of Mach 10,” the professor said with a smile on his face.

“Essentially, you’ve created a scramjet technology that needs no external fuel source and has one heck of a steering system, right?” asked Erik Jordan, the Secretary of Defense, skepticism in his voice.

The professor smiled at Mr. Jordan. “That’s exactly what it can do. But it can do much more than that. We can incorporate essentially this same type of propulsion into virtually all of our current aircraft and increase their speed and maneuverability tenfold. The implications of this technology, just in the transportation sector alone, are amazing. We can also incorporate this into our space program, which is where we would see the greatest advancements,” Professor Rickenbacker explained. He didn’t get to talk about what he did very often, so he couldn’t hide his delight. His face beamed with an almost devilish grin.

General Branson broke into the discussion. He wanted to talk further about the space implementations of this technology. “How else could this be used?” he asked.

“Right now, the Allies, and the world in general, lack a certain type of resource that can really only be obtained from asteroids or other types of space rocks. The specific materiel, Veldspar, has been found in abundance on the moon. When it’s refined down, it creates a specialized materiel called Tritium-4, which is what we use in our armor for the Pershings and Razorbacks. Presently, we’re creating a synthetic version of this materiel, but it’s costly, time-consuming, and resource-intensive. This hadn’t been a problem in the past, because we never needed it in the quantities that we presently require.” Bringing up a new slide deck with charts and images, Professor Rickenbacker proceeded to show everyone their solution to this problem.

“Mr. President, one thing I would like to gain from you today is your approval to move forward with Operation Pegasus, which is DARPA’s and the AFC’s lunar mining operation,” he requested.

Examining the information, the President asked, “Bring us up to speed on that project again and I will give you a decision. This is going to require a reallocation of some valuable resources, so I would appreciate some input from everyone.”

Changing some images, the Professor began, “Operation Pegasus is a lunar mining operation that, frankly, we have been developing for decades. We continue to update it if there is a significant technology change that could make it a reality or lower the costs. The EmDrive and the Angelic power source have made this operation a truly cost-effective reality. Leveraging the EmDrive, the travel time from Earth to the moon would be cut down to two days. That includes taking off and landing on both surfaces.”

The National Security Advisor broke in to ask, “Excuse me, you said Angelic power source? Can you tell us more about this?”

“Yes, I call it Angelic as the power source is nothing short of amazing. It’s essentially a cold fusion reactor. I’ll discuss the reactor in greater detail in a short bit, if we can continue on with Pegasus.” He didn’t wait for permission but quickly continued.

Showing an image of a spacecraft, he explained, “What we propose is to build a multipurpose ship to initiate the operation. The vessel you’re looking at is what we’re calling the Hulk. It’s 5,100 feet in length, 400 feet in height and 300 feet in width.”

The National Security Advisor let out a short whistle, saying, “That’s a big ship to construct. Are you proposing to build that in space or here on Earth?”

“We would build the ship here on Earth. Because the ship would use the EmDrive, it would be able to power itself into space without any problem and return to Earth if needed. The intent of this ship is to essentially build a self-contained mining operation. Building the ship would be broken down into several operations. The first would be the cargo bay. This section would carry the equipment and vehicles needed to start the mission. It would also carry with it the equipment needed to build a small modular building and two bio-domes. The modular building would be 200 feet by 800 feet, with an eight-foot ceiling. Connected to this central building would be two bio-domes on either side. The bio-domes would be used to grow food and start to establish some initial food production to support and sustain a permanent outpost. This modular building would be expanded with additional bio-domes, which we would incorporate with each successive transport load from the Earth to the moon.” Rickenbacker showed a short video of the process he had just explained.

“The next compartment in the Hulk is the rock crusher. This section can actually be fed externally once the ship has been anchored to the lunar surface. Once the rocks are crushed, they will be separated from the actual ore. The ore will then be moved internally to a small smelter, where it will be melted down into unrefined blocks of Tritium-4. The Tritium-4 will then be loaded onto the transports and sent back to Earth for further refinement and incorporation into our industrial needs. This would effectively solve our Tritium-4 problem and increase our manufacturing capability exponentially. The weapons systems we’ll be able to build with this essentially unlimited supply of Tritium-4 would be incredible.”

General Branson spoke up first, saying, “I’m not a manufacturing expert, but I suspect this ship of yours, the Hulk—it’s going to require a lot of resources that would otherwise go toward our Pershings and Razorbacks?”

“It would require us to suspend production of them for the next six months while we used the synthetic Tritium-4 to build out the ship,” Rickenbacker replied, deadpan as could be.

Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, decided to break in. “We can stop production of the Pershings and increase production of the older M1A5s, but we cannot stop production of the Razorbacks. They are more important right now than even our tanks. My suggestion is we go ahead with this project, Mr. President. The gap in Pershings is going to hurt, but like the professor said, having an unlimited new supply of Tritium-4 would, in the long run, change the course of the war. The question is—can we protect this ship during takeoff and while it’s en route to the moon and stationed on the lunar surface? Also, can we protect the transport craft that will need to travel to and from the Hulk with the materiel we need?”

The President looked to Rickenbacker for the answer.

“We can, if we time our launches and landings to keep the Russian and Chinese ground-based lasers from optimal attack trajectories. Given that both countries have been working with directional mirrors on aircraft to increase their laser attack capabilities to go beyond the horizon, this could become a problem. But they are still experimental for the moment. The other thing to remember is that the Hulk will be built with a Tritium-4 exterior hull and refractive armor. As long as we know the frequencies their lasers are operating on, which we do, we can modulate the armor frequencies so the laser hits are harmless.” The Professor produced another short clip that showed exactly what he had explained and how the entire process would work.

Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor, praised their presenter. “I am truly impressed, Professor. Every possible question we have asked, you have a ready answer and an illustration to explain it in laymen’s terms.”

Rickenbacker chuckled before responding, “I gave this brief to the others on this team. We came up with a lot of possible questions and then prepared answers for you.

“Well, gentlemen, not to appear rude, but like I said, we do need an answer on whether to move forward with production immediately.”

“Professor, I am impressed to say the least. Unless anyone has an objection, the project is approved and given top priority above all other projects. With the exception of the Razorbacks, the Pershing program will be suspended for the time being until the Hulk is completed. Your AFC LNO will have full authority and support to get production going as quickly as possible, and for all equipment needed to make this project a reality,” the President directed.

“Thank you, Mr. President. This is going to require a lot of manpower…we’re looking at close to 140,000 people in all to work on the varying aspects of the project. Our AFC LNO said he can shift people around and make it work though,” the professor said confidently.

Now that Operation Pegasus had been approved, the professor continued. “The next piece of technology I want to discuss with you is this…”

The professor pulled out a small spool of cabling and passed it to the group. “I would like to draw your attention to this materiel. This substance is twenty times stronger than steel or any other matter known to man. It is also the materiel that is going to make the space elevator a reality. If we are able to establish a platform base in high earth orbit, then we can establish a space lift. This elevator will enable us to move great amounts of materiel to and from Earth; it would be the cornerstone of a permanent base.”

Before going down the rabbit hole the space elevator would be, the President wanted to get back to the new fighter design and low-orbit aircraft. “Professor, the space elevator concept is amazing, and I want you to continue to pursue it. However, we have a war we need to win now, so please discuss the EmDrive technology again and how we are going to incorporate it into our current military equipment?” directed the President.

“As you wish, Mr. President. Once we had sufficient supplies of Tritium-4, we would begin to replace our jet propulsion engines with EmDrive propulsion. The EmDrive propulsion uses no fuel and runs purely on hydrogen or water. We simply divert more power from the reactor to increase the speed, and likewise decrease the amount of power drawn from the reactor in order to slow it down. This is a propulsion system that will work in the atmosphere, in orbit and in space.

“The idea of fighter aircraft being able to incorporate this technology sounds incredible. How soon we can get a working prototype going?” the President asked warmly.

“The technology is complex, but something that we have the capability to build. I’d like to be optimistic and say we can have it completed in a couple of months, but it may be closer to a year. It really depends on how much of our resources and manpower is put into it,” said the professor.

Monty broke into the conversation saying, “Mr. President, the Boeing plant that Vice President Kern was visiting when he was nearly assassinated could be used. It’s a new plant and has increased security.”

“Get with the manufacturers and find out if that plant can work. We need to get a working prototype built immediately, and that might be best done at our Skunkworks facility in Nevada. Once the bugs are identified, then we can get it into full production,” the President directed.

Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, provided counsel on this subject. “The key to getting this aircraft into production, Mr. President, is going to be not making the structure of it more complicated than it needs to be. We should look at developing two versions: one a pure drone, and the other a manned aircraft. See which one works the best, and then go in that direction.”

“Make it happen Eric…please, continue, Professor,” directed the President, not wanting to get too far off course from the presentation.

Trying to remain patient, Rickenbacker continued, “There are a couple more inventions I would like to go over with you as well. Two are something we can use now to help us win the war, and the other is something that will enable the US to not just reach for the stars, but to conquer them.”

General Branson interjected, saying, “Let’s focus on the first couple that can be used immediately. We need to win this war before we can think of anything that could be used in the private sector or to dominate space.” Branson did his best not to come off as abrupt or disrespectful.

“Yes, General. The first is, as of two days ago, we successfully tested our first limitless energy reactor. It’s essentially cold fusion. This is the Angelic power source I mentioned earlier.”

“That is incredible,” the Secretary of Defense said, knowing that if this type of technology were miniaturized, it could completely change the battlefield.

“Right now, the device is about the size of a reactor used in a nuclear-powered plant, except that this apparatus could power not just a city but an entire state. We believe we could build a version about three times as large and power a full quarter of the entire country. But this is only half the story. This new technology also gives us the ability to build a fully functional plasma laser. Not only that, we can miniaturize the weapon to fit on the new aircraft we’re going to build,” said the professor with excitement in his eyes and voice. “The things we will be able to do with this new technology are truly amazing.”

The men in the room all generally agreed that this was a stupendous step forward and that the project should continue to be advanced.

General Branson changed the topic. “What about the cybernetics, and this new Raptor combat suit I’ve heard about?”

Rickenbacker seemed a bit alarmed that General Branson knew anything about the cybernetics or Raptor suit. Those were closely guarded secrets. “I was going to mention those next, but since you’ve brought them up, the Raptor combat suit is similar to the exoskeleton combat suit our Special Forces and the Chinese and Russians are currently using. The difference between the Raptor and the current models the Reds are using is that our version also incorporates a suite of cybernetic implants. These grafts give the user a host of new capabilities the exoskeleton suits never could hope to achieve.

“Let’s start with the suit itself. The ensemble encases the operator in an environmental and bullet proof shell. Each suit is fitted to its operator, so it’s nice and snug like a diver’s suit. It has its own filtration system that allows the operator to regulate their body temperature, in case they’re operating in the heat of the Middle East, or in the tundra and mountains of Alaska. It can also operate in a chemical or WMD environment. It has radiation shielding, which will also make the suit perfect for space operations down the road. In the meantime, one could wear the suit and move through a radiation hot zone and survive just fine.

“If for some reason the armor is penetrated and the person inside is shot, or shrapnel rips a hole in it and the operator is injured, the suit will self-seal up to an inch-wide hole. It will also fill the person’s wound with an antibiotic gel that will both stop the bleeding until the injury can be properly addressed and numb the area so the operator can continue to focus on the job at hand without getting distracted by the pain. The suit also has several self-injections to apply, if needed. One is adrenaline—it has up to five adrenaline shots that can be applied and refilled. It also has up to two morphine shots—one to relieve the pain, and a second one in case help is a long way off or if the operator is too injured and wants to self-terminate.” The professor showed some videos of the suit in action.

“The suit provides the person inside with the ability to lift up to five times their body weight, run up to 35 miles per hour, and jump as high as 30 feet. The suit weighs 250 pounds and uses a variety of new polymers and nanofiber technology, which gives it flexibility and speed and makes it lightweight. The power for the suit is geothermal, so the body heat and movement of the operator actually regenerate the suit.” Professor Rickenbacker was almost giddy with excitement. “This new type of geothermal energy is going to have a host of new civilian applications once the war is over.”

Not wanting to miss something, General Branson asked, “Where do the cybernetics come into play?”

“Ah, yes. Well, there are two versions of the suit. The standard issue, which uses no cybernetics, and then the advanced version, which incorporates them. The standard issue can do everything we just talked about and all of the other functions that you see on the display. The enhanced suit that incorporates the cybernetics enables the operator to integrate their mind into the operating system of the suit and the targeting system. Essentially, it allows an operator to see and engage targets faster than someone could without a cybernetic implant. The implant connects at the base of the skull and interfaces with the neurons in the brain that allow a person to process images and threats.”

“The implant also allows the operator to push the limits of the suit to the max. Instead of being able to run 35 miles per hour, someone using the implants could easily hit 50 or 60 miles per hour. They can do this because their body becomes completely fused with the suit for the duration that they are connected. We’ve tested it, and the results are amazing. However, not everyone is able to integrate with the cybernetic implant. Some people’s bodies reject it; others are simply not able to control it. So, in this regard, the cybernetic implants are still a little ways off from full implementation.”

Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, saw the Raptor suit as a means of being able to even the odds for the American forces, particularly in regard to the troops in Alaska, who would soon be facing an army of nearly five million—and who knew how many of them would be equipped with the Chinese and Russian exoskeleton suits.

“How soon can we get the standard Raptor suit into production and begin training our troops on them?” asked the Secretary of Defense, eager to get a new technology operational quickly.

Rickenbacker handed a tablet to Eric with the full specs needed to build the Raptor and a training program for how to use it. “This should help. It’s fully ready to be fielded now. We’ve actually been working on this project in one form or another for nearly three decades. The exoskeleton the Special Forces have been using was second generation. This is now the fifth generation of that same technology. Where the first two generations were not a fully enclosed system, this is, and that is why this system is going to be so much more advanced compared to anything the Chinese or Russians have.

“You can begin building them immediately, but they will take time. You can construct most of it using 3-D printers, but training a soldier on how to use it is going to be the challenge. There’s no way around that particular problem,” Rickenbacker explained.

Knowing they had been in the meeting for nearly five hours, the President indicated to the group that their session was coming to an end. “Professor Rickenbacker, you have given us a lot of food for thought and certainly provided us with some new technologies to look at. When we get back to the White House, I’m going to start bringing others into the loop on the Raptor combat suit, the EmDrive propulsion system and the F41. We need to get these three pieces of technology into the war immediately. I want you to be available when the time comes to answer questions by some of the engineers from the major producers in the country,” the President directed.

Rickenbacker agreed, and then the men parted company.

Chapter 30

Saving Samson

Day 145

26 April 2041

Tel Aviv

Third Army Headquarters

The Russian offensive had finally been stopped, just south of the city of Haifa at the Carmel Mountain National Park and stretching to just north of Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee. The fighting was nearly constant and intense up until that point; all sides had lost tens of thousands of soldiers a day during the fighting. The Israelis were beginning to consider more drastic measures to defeat the Russians, having decided that if the Russians broke through their last line of defense and reached Megiddo National Park, they would activate their Samson protocol, the use of nuclear weapons. Just as the Biblical character for which this protocol was named had mustered his last bit of superhuman might to push out the columns of a Philistine building and collapse it upon all inside, this maneuver of last resort would destroy the enemy, but possibly also themselves in the process.

The Israelis knew that with modern-day laser defense systems, ballistic missiles would have no chance of hitting their targets. So instead of conventional mines, the IDF had buried dozens of cobalt-laden nuclear devices along the Israeli border and several at key points inside of Israel. If it appeared that the country was lost, then they could detonate these devices and forever eradiate the land. They also had their Jericho bombs, which were smaller nuclear devices in the 1-kiloton to 10-kiloton range. These bombs were buried all across Israel and could be detonated on enemy forces as the IDF continued to fall back.

General Gardner was aware of the protocols and the bombs in play. He had argued for time and patience with the Israeli government to not use such weapons. Entreating them, he pleaded, “The Americans are here in force and are not going to leave. We have time…we could grind the Russians and IR down. The US has already nuked the IR hard, so there is no reason to destroy the Holy Land with nuclear bombs as well.”

Ultimately, the IDF commanders heard what Gardner had to say, and he had won the argument, at least for the moment.

General Gardner called this new meeting of his division commanders to hear some ideas from them on how they could push the Russians back. “Generals, as you know, I have called you together to hear some of your thoughts for how we can dislodge the Russian positions. I am handing the floor to you, so please, let’s begin,” the general directed.

Major General Kennedy, the 3rd Infantry Division commander, was the first to speak. “General, I appreciate the opportunity to share some ideas. As you know, the Russians have dug in pretty good at this point. They made their lunges as far as they could and then settled in while they consolidated for the next attack. I believe we need to find a way to get in their rear area and threaten their supply lines. Once their forces are drawn away to deal with their tail, we can launch our own counteroffensive across the entirety of Israel. We would hit the IR near Amman, the Chinese in the south and the Russians in the north. Then we could throw the entire Axis off balance with an airborne assault.” Kennedy had prepared a holographic map of his strategy and displayed it for the room to view as he spoke.

After twenty minutes of discussing the idea, General Gardner said, “I like the thought, but I’m not sure we have enough airpower right now to support that. Plus, the MiG40s are still causing a lot of problems for us. The JF35s are just now starting to take them on with the new radars. I’m concerned that if we sent airborne troops in to attack their supply lines, we might lose a number of transports before they even get over their drop zones. Do you have any ideas on how we make this work without losing a lot of aircraft to the MiGs?”

Kennedy thought for a moment before responding. “Sir, historically, during the invasion of Normandy and other airborne operations, we lost aircraft and men. Despite those casualties, we still managed to land a large enough force that we were able to cause significant problems. Perhaps if we used the Razorbacks instead of cargo transports to do the insertion, we might be able to reduce our losses, at least in the higher-risk areas. If we swarmed the skies with drones and then the Marines joined in to conduct an amphibious assault, we could bring enough force to make a difference.”

Major General Lance Peeler, the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force commander, liked the idea. He put in his own two cents, “Sir, my Marines could make a landing north and south of Beirut and capture the city and the highway leading to Chtaura inside Lebanon. This would place a 60,000 man blocking force in their rear area. If the 101st Airborne is able to land all around the Beirut area, that would cause enough of a distraction that my Marines might be able to capture the area with minimal casualties. Once 82nd Airborne captures Chtaura, then we have them cut off. That places 100,000 troops at their rear that are equipped with armor support.”

Before agreeing to move forward with this plan, General Gardner clarified, “Essentially, we’d be launching our own version of MacArthur’s Battle of Inchon, where he landed forces behind the Chinese and North Koreans to recapture Seoul and cut them off from their supply lines. Does everyone like this plan, or does someone else have another they would like us to consider?” He looked around the room for any dissent.

Major General Twitty, the 1st Armored Division commander, spoke up. “I like the plan. If the Russians feel they’re going to be cut off from their supply lines and encircled, they’ll pull back, and perhaps we could even get them to fall back to Damascus. My only concern is that if we do this, we need to see it through to the end no matter how many casualties we take, and we may take a lot. This would be our one big chance to crush the Russians in the Middle East and knock the others out of the war as well.” He slammed his fist on the table for emphasis.

“Very well, then. We will move forward with this plan and staff it through the chain of command. I will consult with the IDF and ensure they shift forces around to fill in the gaps as we advance. We will go for broke, gentlemen. Make sure your commanders know that this is it; there will be no second chances. Either we’re going to win and finish them off, or this war is going to drag on a lot longer. We may even lose Israel if we take too many casualties and are defeated. I want you all to hit them hard and win. Dismissed!”

With that said, the group broke up and the various generals went back to their divisional commands to begin preparations. The invasion and offensive operations would take place in six days, which was not a lot of time considering all of the moving parts. Fortunately, the Navy had complete control of the waters in this area and had the amphibious assault ships needed already in port. The vessels were only moving about 55 miles up the coast to drop off the Marines, so it wasn’t a long jaunt by any means. It was fortunate in this case that Israel was a small country. It meant that shifting forces and aircraft around wouldn’t be nearly as big of a challenge as if they were carrying out the same type of attack in Europe or Asia.

*******

Major Lee looked at his company commanders as they stood in a circle under the helicopter flight deck of one of the many Marine assault ships off the coast of Lebanon. Sensing a momentous occasion on the horizon, he began to address them about the battalion’s assignment for the invasion.

“Lieutenant Thornton, Alpha and Bravo Company are going to air-assault in and secure the Beirut International Airport. You are the OIC for the airport operation. I want your company to take the terminal, the tower and the main section of the airport. Bravo Company is going to secure the southern end of the airport, which is where the Russians are encamped. Charlie and Delta Companies are going to air-assault into the Golf Club of Lebanon, just north of your position, and secure it for a medical battalion that will arrive in the seaborne invasion group. The brigade is going to set up their headquarters at your location once you have the airport secured.

“I’m going to establish our battalion headquarters initially with Charlie Company and will then transition to the airport once Brigade arrives. Because our two locations are less than a mile apart, Delta Company will be your quick-reaction force if you need additional reinforcements. Charlie Company will continue to hold the golf course and provide security for the medical battalion. Once you have established control of the airport, a few dozen air transports are going to land and offload a company of light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. An aviation battalion will also arrive and get the airport ready to receive and launch a few squadrons of Razorbacks.

“It’s imperative that you secure the airport as quickly as possible; those follow-on forces will arrive ninety minutes after you land,” Major Lee said, looking Thornton directly in the eyes. “This entire operation is a major risk. We have to secure the city, airport and seaport for the armored forces, or we’re going to find ourselves in a world of hurt when the Russians turn their attention toward us. Remember, there are nearly 50,000 Russian soldiers in and around this area and another 150,000 in Damascus, not that far from our objectives.”

In addition to doubling the size of the MEF, each company was doubled in size, which meant a company could accomplish a lot more now than they used to. “My men will get it done, Sir. They’re pretty wired right now, and I’ll make sure they stay wound up. We all know this is the opportunity to knock the Russians out of the war,” Lieutenant Thornton said with conviction. The glint in his eyes showed an iron will and no lack of determination.

*******

Two hours later, Lieutenant Thornton’s company was in the air heading toward the Beirut airport. The Army Rangers were already in the city, securing half a dozen key bridges for the armor units and other strategic targets throughout the city. The 101st Airborne was landing airborne troopers east of the city via hundreds of Razorbacks and was forming up to secure their corridors and targets. The 82nd Airborne parachuted in at Chtaura, hitting the Russian supply depots and blocking any reinforcements from Damascus. With nearly 60,000 airborne troops dropping from the sky and 40,000 Marines assaulting from the sea, this was the largest airborne assault since the Normandy invasion of France during World War II.

Lieutenant Thornton’s company came into sight of the airport as they flew over dozens of Marine landing craft and vehicles hitting the beaches below. Dozens of green tracers started to reach out for his Razorback as they continued to fly toward the airport. The pilot took evasive action and counterfired a slew of antitank missiles and rockets at the targets that had been shooting at them. One of the crew chiefs swiveled his mini-gun toward several of the buildings as the aircraft got closer to landing, and he raked the buildings with bullets to keep the enemy heads down while they landed. As they neared the landing zone, the Razorback took several hits, jarring it a bit. Luckily, the Razorback was so heavily armored that the rounds bounced harmlessly off the protective covering.

The Razorback began to flare as it landed. Lieutenant Thornton yelled to everyone in the cabin. “Start identifying targets and take them out fast! Shoot and move, and do it quickly!” he yelled as he readied himself to jump once the craft leveled out.

Within seconds, they were on the ground and coming under heavy enemy fire. One of Thornton’s men was hit in the face and fell to the ground in front of him, dead. Seconds later, an antitank rocket flew from one of the nearby buildings and struck the Razorback just as it was starting to gain altitude…it blew up instantly. The explosion threw Lieutenant Thornton to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. He lay on his back for a few seconds to regain his composure and breathe before getting back up and leading a charge with his men to the buildings from where the rocket had originated. They needed to get off the taxiway; they were sitting ducks out in the open like this.

As Thornton ran toward the building, he had his rifle at his shoulder and was firing while moving. His HUD continued to identify new targets as it was able to distinguish friend from foe through the blue force tracker his men used. He continued to fire round after round as he and his men advanced to the buildings and then into the terminals. Once inside the terminal, they began to stack against the walls of one of the hallways. They then cleared the rooms one at a time as the platoons made their way through the terminals, hallways, and other rooms they encountered. Russian soldiers were everywhere.

The control tower had a small hallway that connected it to the rest of the terminal. It also had an exterior exit, which was where the Marine team immediately headed. They wanted to avoid entering it through the terminal, fearing that that entrance might be a trap. As the team headed for the control tower, they were met by heavy machine-gun fire, killing several Marines.

While the remaining Marines were getting into position to breach the tower, a Russian soldier threw a satchel out of one of the windows in the tower toward the jarheads below. The Marines saw the bag charge and immediately scattered, which enabled the Russian machine gunners to once again pummel the American forces. Then the satchel exploded, killing and wounding the rest of the Marines who had been in its vicinity.

The Russians had very cleverly set up several heavy machine guns and a couple of snipers in the tower at various levels. Despite the tower not being a very large structure, it provided the Russians with enough cover to cause the Marines a lot of trouble securing the airport. Having lost nearly two squads trying to secure this one objective, the platoon sergeant had three of his Marines pull out their AT6 rockets in order to destroy the tower.

The Marines were also coming under a lot of sniper fire from buildings next to the airport, forcing them to extend their perimeter farther beyond the airport than where they had originally wanted to attack. The dilemma for the jarheads was that they were operating under a short timeframe to secure the airport. Follow-on forces were on their way, and though the C17s could land under enemy fire, it would be better if they didn’t. The Russians were everywhere. They fired relentlessly, killing a number of Thornton’s men despite the losses they were taking.

After ninety minutes of continuous fighting, building to building, room to room, and expanding the perimeter beyond the airport, they finally secured the area. Lieutenant Thornton called the battalion headquarters and requested the QRF be sent to his position and for several medevacs. His company had taken heavy casualties capturing the airport, and so did Bravo Company, which had the southern end of the airport, where the Russian Air Force housed its personnel.

In addition to securing the airport and the perimeter, they also had to move numerous destroyed and disabled vehicles from the runway and taxiways. The Russians had moved as many vehicles as possible to prevent aircraft from landing on the runways, in addition to blowing up several large holes in its surface. Fortunately, a couple of front-end loaders from an engineering unit were brought in by helicopter thirty minutes after the first Marines attacked the airport. They immediately began to move dirt to fill in the holes and helped to move the numerous damaged and disabled vehicles blocking the runway, getting it ready to receive aircraft. A few dozen Air Force controllers and other personnel also arrived with the engineers and began to coordinate initial air operations.

Major Lee came on the radio and to give his congratulations. “Lieutenant Thornton, good job on securing the airport. Brigade has twelve Razorbacks inbound to your location, with additional troops and equipment. That flight of transports I told you about is inbound as well, so look for them and make sure nothing happens to them,” he said, and he quickly signed off the radio. Thornton could hear a lot of machine-gun fire over the radio and assumed the major was still in the process of securing his own position.

“Sergeant Miller, get on the radio and let Bravo Company know we have transports and Razorbacks inbound. He needs to make sure the runway is secured and protected, understood?” Thornton called to his radioman.

Ten minutes later, several medevac helicopters landed and began to evacuate the dead and wounded. Minutes after they left, twelve Razorbacks joined the tarmac, along with their aircrews and additional equipment. Thornton ran out to one of the Razorbacks and met the brigade commander Colonel Ladd and his staff; they spoke briefly before Thornton pointed in the direction of the terminals for them to head toward. “Sir, we’ve secured the terminals and the airport, Terminal B is the least shot-up area for you to set up, if you would like.”

The colonel nodded as his staff followed Thornton to the terminal. As they entered the corridor, the colonel saw a number of dead Russian soldiers and spent shell casings from a mountain of gunfire. Clearly, this area had been fought over. Within ten minutes of landing, the colonel was in charge and directing operations.

Several Air Force personnel joined the Marine Headquarters group and began to direct several C17s as they began their final approach. The planes were taxiing to offload light drone tanks and munitions for the Razorbacks on one of the taxiways and then preparing to take off again and head back to Cypress to pick up the next load.

Once the light drone tanks were offloaded, they headed toward the base perimeter and linked up with a platoon from Bravo Company, which was going to accompany them to their next objective. It was important to get the light tanks into the fight as soon as possible and get this area of the city and airport secured as quickly as it could be. A lot of aircraft and equipment was about to start moving through this airport.

After the flight crews for the Razorbacks established their own air operations, several of them took off, heading toward the city to provide additional close air support to the Marines, moving their way through it. There was continuous artillery and heavy machine-gun fire emanating from the city center and the east side of the city as the Marines continued to move inland from the various beaches from which they had invaded. The Russians were forcing the Marines to fight house-to-house and were turning the city into a meat grinder.

A fourth wave of Razorbacks landed and offloaded a full battalion of fresh Marines along with a battery of 155mm Howitzers, which immediately began to provide fire support as soon as they were set up. The additional Marines relieved Bravo Company just as Major Lee and the Battalion Headquarters arrived at the airport. It was now time for the battalion to consolidate and await their next assignment.

*******

The sky above Chtaura was abuzz with aircraft activity. Hundreds of drones and manned fighter aircraft were engaged in combat with dozens of MiG40s in an effort to provide cover and protection for the sixty-plus C17s carrying paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne, who were preparing to jump. Private First-Class John Mitchell stood up in the C17, getting ready to jump with the rest of his company, when the aircraft suddenly veered to one side and then descended quickly. The jumpmaster yelled, “Everyone to get ready to jump!”

Then the pilot came on over the PA, and announced, “There are enemy MiGs in the area. Repeat, enemy MiGs are in the area. Everyone is to jump immediately!”

The jump light went from red to green, and then the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne jumped out of the plane one after the other, passing the jumpmaster at the door.

As PFC Mitchell fell, his parachute opened quickly and he dropped his pack below his feet to dangle until he landed. As the company descended to the airport below, he saw hundreds of parachutes all around him. The C17 his company had just jumped out of had taken a direct missile hit from a MiG, which had blown the left wing clean off. The aircraft caught fire and spiraled to the ground before crashing into the hills below, creating a huge fireball. It didn’t look like anyone from inside the aircraft had been able to make it out before it exploded.

While PFC Mitchell descended steadily toward the ground, he grabbed his rifle and took aim at the Russians on the ground, who were now only a few thousand feet away. Several Russian soldiers aimed their heavy machines up toward the paratroopers and opened fire. Suddenly, the sky was filled with green tracers crisscrossing back and forth across the sky.

PFC Mitchell took aim at a cluster of soldiers manning one of the machine guns while he continued to float down to below 500 feet and then opened fire. He quickly dispatched the soldiers he had targeted at the helm of the machine gun, only to be cut apart by a different machine gun crew. His lifeless body continued to drift to the ground until it landed in a heap.

*******

The fighting was intense during the first four hours of the battle for Chtaura. The Russians fought hard and gallantly but were outnumbered by the airborne troopers. The M5 AIR and HUD system that the Americans used was perhaps the most superior combat rifle system ever developed. It provided the American soldier with the tactical advantage and gave him a rough average of five-to-one kill ratio. The Americans quickly captured the Russian supply depots and blew them up. They immediately began to establish multiple defensive positions along the major supply routes, highways, and air corridors that the Russian planes and drones were using, making it hard for the Reds to keep their forces in the surrounding areas supplied. They had established their blocking force, preventing Russian reinforcements in Damascus from being able to assist their brothers-in-arms in Beirut.

By the end of the first 36 hours, the Americans had secured an 18-mile-long defensive line from Beirut, Lebanon to Zahlah, Syria. This effectively cut the Russians off from their entire supply line system and blocked any reinforcements they might have been able to receive from Turkey and the Black Sea. As the Americans began to dig in to their new defensive positions, the Russians were left with some hard choices. They already had nearly 300,000 troops in Israel, along with 500,000 Islamic Republic forces. What should they do? If they stayed, they risked being surrounded, but if they fell back to Damascus, where their reserve force was, they would lose all of the hard-fought ground they had gained so far.

With the successful invasion and airborne assault, General Gardner ordered an additional 90,000 soldiers from his reserves to be sent to Beirut, and an all-out offensive against the entire enemy line. The Israelis launched a massive assault from the Jordan Valley, and began to push the IR back toward Amman. The Americans had been equipping the IDF with the same M5 AIR and HUD system that the American soldiers were using, giving them the same tactical advantage that the American soldiers currently enjoyed.

The Chinese were caught off guard by the initial counterattack from the American and Israeli forces. They rushed their reserves forward, believing this was just another defensive ploy by the Allied forces. Unbeknownst to the Chinese, the Americans had cut the Russian supply depots and supply lines off from their main force. They were also unaware that the Israelis were attacking through the Jordan Valley with nearly 600,000 soldiers. However, the Israelis had no intention of attacking Amman directly. Their goal was to cut deep behind the Chinese lines, and then swing south and behind the Chinese forces, surrounding them while they were fully engaged with the Israeli and American forces to their front. At that point, the Chinese would either be forced to surrender or be wiped out. The grand objective was to either capture or destroy the Chinese Army, along with the Russians. Once that was accomplished, they could drive the IR out of Jordan and push toward Riyadh, Baghdad, and Kuwait City. So far, General Gardner’s plan was working.

*******

The conflict in Mexico was not often mentioned in the media or widely talked about by the average person on the street. With the wars in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe raging on, the people generally didn’t have the attention span to think about another potential problem. However, some Islamic Republic Special Forces units were still operating in Mexico, and they were doing a good job of creating chaos whenever possible. By and large, the country’s conflict had tapered off. More and more people in Mexico were finding work, and many were being drafted into the American army. The government had already drafted 1.6 million Mexican young men and women, ranging in age from 18 to 38, into the US military. Most of these draftees were being deployed to the conflict in the Middle East and Europe, with less than 200,000 of them being deployed stateside.

More than 70% of the population was on board with being a US territory and enjoyed the benefits of being a part of America. While the conflict was winding down, the military continued to draw down forces and shift them to the other conflicts. The private military corporations continued to stay and provided security for the DOJ, DHS, FBI, and other government agencies as they continued to expand their footprints.

The cartels had been nearly eradicated during this time period. The few Special Forces units still operating in Mexico were hunting them down relentlessly. Plus, the DOJ and DHS had placed a huge bounty on their heads. It was becoming hard for them to continue to hide, let alone run their operations. When it came to dealing with the cartels, there were no rules being followed. Unlike the old Mexican government, which had been powerless against the cartels, or in some cases colluding with them, the Americans hunted them down relentlessly.

*******

The war in the Middle East had gone from bad to suddenly great. The Beirut invasion had proved to be a resounding success, similar to MacArthur’s landing of troops at Inchon during the Korean War. The Israelis had broken through the IR forces near Amman and swung around behind the Chinese Army to the south. They had cornered the Chinese against the Red Sea and now had them completely surrounded. The Israeli artillery was giving the Chinese the fight of their lives, pounding them relentlessly 24/7. General Gardner believed the Chinese would be forced to surrender within the next day or two, as they had nowhere to go and not nearly enough strength left to fight their way out of their position.

The Russians had initially chosen to keep their army in Israel and drive again toward Tel Aviv, relying on their forces in Turkey to engage the Americans in Lebanon. They broke through the American and Israeli lines once again and came within eight miles of Tel Aviv, but ran out of steam and supplies. Unfortunately for them, while the main army was attacking Tel Aviv, General Lodz, the Russian commander, was seriously injured in an artillery attack. The extent of his injuries was such that he had to be flown back to Russia for medical treatment. The US Navy and Air Force pummeled the army in Lebanon with massive amounts of air attacks, effectively stopping the Russian relief army group that had been attacking from Turkey.

Prior to the MiG40s being rebased to Turkey, they had scored over 253 fighter drone kills and 127 piloted aircraft kills, all while losing only 23 of their own number. Despite the enormous loss in aircraft by the Allies, they were able to destroy much of the Russian armored forces and prevented their relief army from breaking through the American defensive lines. The Russians and their supply lines continued to stay cut off. General Gardner was quick to seize on the tactical defeat of the Russians and absence of General Lodz and moved to encircle the remaining Russian Army.

Chapter 31

Before the Law Takes a Break

Day 150

01 May 2041

Washington, D.C.

White House Situation Room

President Stein was walking toward the Situation Room with Monty, talking about the recent success in the Middle East and concerned with the situation developing in Asia. As the President sat down, the meeting began quickly. General Branson kicked things off.

“Mr. President, I would like to start the briefing by going over the situation in the Middle East first, then transition to Europe and end with Asia.”

The President smiled and nodded toward General Branson for him to continue.

“The Israelis have the Chinese Army surrounded, although intelligence shows another large Chinese naval force approaching the port of Kuwait. It would appear they’re going to offload another large army group, but they won’t be able to form quickly enough to help their comrades. The IDF commander has asked if we may be able to help them by taking possession and control of the Chinese prisoners once they have surrendered,” General Branson said as he looked to the President for guidance.

Henry looked up from his notes and said, “Convey to the Israelis that we will take possession of the prisoners, but we request that they provide at least half of the security force needed to guard them. We will look to relocate the prisoners back to the US until the end of the war. I would like Attorney General Roberts to identify suitable locations for us to intern them.”

AG Roberts wrote a couple of quick notes before looking up and asking, “Am I to assume I can use them to help build these facilities as well?”

“Yes, use them as you see fit. Let’s put them to work on the various projects that need to be done. Perhaps we should use them to help with the salvage and cleanup operations in New York and Baltimore,” the President directed.

“Yes, Mr. President. My office will work with the rest of the NSC team to find the best use for them,” the AG said, finishing a few notes.

General Branson resumed his brief. “In the north, the Russians are caught between a rock and a hard place. Their supply lines have been cut off, along with the fastest routes of retreat. They have also pulled their MiG40s back to bases in Turkey, so they aren’t able to smother our aircraft and the front lines like they had done previously. Our fighter bombers are now going after any and all fuel tankers we can find to further limit their options.”

General Gardner, who was attending the briefing via the holograph, interjected, “Mr. President, I am moving the last of my reserves to finish encircling their army. Once we have them surrounded, it will then be a matter of tightening the noose and forcing them to surrender. I firmly believe when the Russians capitulate, the IR is going to collapse quickly. We will finally be able to start to apply more direct pressure to them. The issue we are running into right now, and it is starting to become a serious one, is munitions. We are running out of artillery rounds and heavy machine-gun ammunition.

“Another point of order I need to address is equipment—not for my army group but for the IDF. Reinforcements are pouring into Israel from all over the world; their numbers are really starting to swell. As they finish additional IDF training, they’re being filtered into the rest of the line units. However, they don’t have the gear that they need. Is there any additional armor, artillery and rifles we can equip them with?” asked General Gardner, looking for support.

Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, spoke up, “We’re working on the munition problem right now. We have twelve aircraft that should be arriving from Europe with ordnance, and about ten freighters a couple of days later. That’s the best we can do. To address your equipment problem, we’re going through the various vehicle and aircraft boneyards, refurbishing everything and getting it combat-ready. Most of the equipment is dated, but it will still work, and it will still kill well enough. As for rifles, we’re cranking out M5 AIRs and HUDs at a high rate, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Gardner’s face softened a bit, knowing that his needs were going to be met. “Any equipment we can get them, they will use. Thank you for the emergency resupply of artillery rounds.”

General Branson regained the President’s attention. “I’d like to move on to Europe. As of right now, we have the Russians stopped at the German border and in Austria. They’ve taken the Czech Republic and the entire Balkan region, with the exception of most of Albania and Greece. It was a real slaughter though in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Romania—their armies virtually collapsed. The Russians weren’t taking a lot of prisoners. We may have to fall back further into Germany if the EU isn’t able to get additional reinforcements to the front lines.”

The President was curious what the issue was, since the fighting was taking place on the continent and they weren’t having to move troops nearly as far as the US was having to. “What’s the holdup? Why is it taking them so long to get troops to the front lines?” asked the President.

Branson sighed before continuing, “The issue is, they’re keeping a large force near Brussels and the French border. It’s as if they’re already anticipating losing Germany and are working on their next line of defense.”

“General Wade, what are your thoughts?” asked the President. General Wade, the SACEUR commander in Brussels, was also attending the briefing via the 3-D holograph.

“Sir, General Branson summed it up well. The Germans are fighting ferociously to keep the Russians out of their border along with the Dutch, but the rest of the EU forces, mainly the French, Belgians and Spanish, are digging in a secondary defensive line along the German-French, Belgian and Dutch borders. I’m having a hard time getting Chancellor Lowden to release the French, Belgium and Spanish armies. They’re also holding the Spanish forces in northern Italy, despite their needs up north.”

“What about the British? Are they able to commit any forces to the continent?” asked the President curiously.

General Wade sighed again and said, “Unfortunately, no. They have already committed three armored divisions with 70,000 troops. They have 25,000 soldiers in Iceland right now, and their main focus is on protecting the North Atlantic Greenland-Iceland gap. The Russians have made numerous naval attempts to break through, but thus far have been repulsed. Their ground force is only about 250,000 soldiers. They have another 250,000 in training, but it will take time before they are ready. Right now, their main concern is defending their island and the fighting in Norway—not the continent.”

President Stein had known this was going to be a problem long before the war had started. “Generals, we knew this was a possibility. The EU Army does not have a history of working together or being ready to defend their homeland. General Wade, how long can your forces hold out?” asked the President.

“If the Russians don’t push hard, we can hold for a while longer. The problem we’re facing is that the warm weather of summer almost certainly signals a new Russian offensive; once that happens, we’ll most likely have to fall back. I believe we can make a stand at the French border, but there’s no way we can hold all of Germany if the Russians really come at us,” General Wade responded, knowing this might not have been the answer the President wanted to hear.

“Thank you for your candor. I’m going to place a call to PM Bedford and see if I can convince him to commit some additional forces to help you out. In the meantime, I want you to plan on a delaying defensive action if you do have to retreat through Germany. Make sure they pay for every yard, and then hold the line in France if that’s what it comes down to. As you know, we have millions of men and women in training. We will have the force necessary to recapture whatever they take in time. I also want you to try and override the Chancellor and get those French and other forces into the fight. Remind them that they are part of NATO, and those forces fall under NATO command and control, not national command and control,” said the President forcefully. “If I have to get involved, I will, but I would like this to get sorted out at the NATO level without me having to threaten them in order to get them involved in the war.”

General Branson saw the President was clearly getting incensed with the EU Chancellor and wanted to change topics quickly before the President went down one of his anti-European tangents. He quickly changed the holograph maps to display the North Pacific, with a number of areas highlighted on it.

“Mr. President, moving to Asia—the Chinese are nearly ready to make their move on Alaska. The intelligence from our sources and drones in Japan has identified six of their supercarriers and hundreds of additional ships and transports. At this point, it’s only a matter of time before they set sail for Alaska. It’s about a two-week journey by sea once they leave. At present, the Navy has strung some of the approaches with mines, and we’re mining all of the potential harbors and landing zones.”

The invasion of Alaska was a near certainty; the question had been when it would occur. It now appeared that the invasion would take place sometime in May of 2041, which meant that the Chinese would want to try and complete their operation before the end of the summer season. The President knew that if the Chinese were able to establish a secure foothold throughout the winter, then they would use it to launch their next offensive down into the rest of the country in the spring of 2042.

The President had ordered nearly 400,000 troops to Alaska over the past four months to get them ready for the invasion. “What is the status of the defenses?” asked the President, curious to know how ready the army was.

“We have a two-pronged strategy for our forces in Alaska. The first is to meet them at the beach. As we identify the shores they will hit, we will shift forces to meet them. We’re already readying the potential landing locations and fallback positions. This first strategy will bloody them and prevent them from having an easy landing. We’ll give them a warm American welcome. The likely beaches are already being fortified with defenses, which will be heavily reinforced once it becomes clear where the Chinese are going to commit their forces,” Branson said while showing various images of the defenses under construction.

“The second strategy is for us to fight a continued delaying action of attack, a counterattack strategy. We’ll stay in near constant contact with them but continue to fall back. Our units will rotate troops in to the frontlines and various fall back positions, allowing them to gain some rest while the enemy is constantly having to fight. We’re going to bleed them dry in Alaska,” General Branson said as he read off the talking points from his tablet.

“When the winter comes, we’ll continue to fight. The war will turn a bit more asymmetrical during the winter, and we’ll employ a lot more sniper operations, but they’ll get no reprieve during the winter. The guys at DARPA have come up with some sort of new sniper drone we plan to test in Alaska. I only bring it up because if it works, this will be a great addition to every infantry company to have on top of the existing surveillance drones. Come spring of 2042, we will have one million more troops ready, another 3,600 Pershing tanks, and an additional 2,500 Wolverines.”

“Don’t forget the new Raptor suits—those are going to make a huge difference for our guys,” the President said, eager to start getting more of the newer tech involved.

General Branson added, “We take possession of the first 50,000 Raptor suits in June. We have the troops identified and are starting their initial training. These troops will be ready for combat in August.”

Director Rubio of the CIA interjected, “It’s going to be a tough fight, Mr. President. The intelligence we’re getting from those mini satellites is really starting to pay off. We’re seeing a massive troop movement in Russia as well; they’re moving their invasion force into position. It truly is disappointing that we don’t have the naval power to go after these fleets. There are hundreds of transports and other ships involved in this invasion, and we just don’t have the naval capabilities to attack them.”

Admiral Juliano, the Chief of Naval Operations, spoke up. “I’ve ordered nearly all of our submarines to the North Pacific. The British are sending four submarines as well. Everyone knows the Swordfish drones are still in production. There’s only so much the Navy can do right now. The Swordfish drones we have are already proving to be worth their weight in gold, but we only have two. We have three new attack submarines being completed in July, and we’ll have another five completed by the end of the year. We have to remember, it takes close to two years to manufacture a submarine.” The admiral spoke in a defensive tone.

The President let out a slow sigh. “The issue always comes back to not having enough ships, submarines, cruise missiles, tanks and so on. The de Blasio administration and others really screwed up our military and our ability to defend the country, haven’t they?” said the President with a bit of despair, speaking to no one in particular.

“They certainly didn’t help, but just like America of 1941, the economic giant of America has been awakened. We need a bit more time to ramp up production, and in time, we’re going to crush them,” replied Eric Clarke with defiance in his voice. “We may not crush the Chinese or Russians this year, Mr. President, but by God we will crush them.”

Stein knew everyone was nearing the end of their ropes, and the pressure just kept on coming. “All right, let’s move to domestic matters. John, can you go ahead and give us a quick update?” asked the President.

Attorney General John Roberts was exhausted—his department had been working feverishly to stabilize Mexico and to bring law and order back to so many small and large cities in America. The integration of the Trinity Program into everyday counterterrorism efforts had greatly increased the FBI’s effectiveness in identifying and preventing acts of terrorism and sabotage. However, it had also created an enormous backlog in both the FISA courts and the regular judicial court system. Tens of thousands of cases needed to be brought before a judge, and there was a critical shortage of justices.

Between the Russians, Chinese and the IR, they had really done a number on the American civil service sector with their targeted assassinations and killings. It was fortunate the Trinity Program identified these individuals quickly so they could be stopped, but the initial damage had been done. Aside from identifying, nominating and appointing new judges, his office also had to help the White House identify candidates for the Supreme Court. It was imperative that the country’s judicial systems get back up and running as soon as possible. The President was adamant about the country returning to a constitutional republic. His detractors had been likening him to a dictator or king because of the extraordinary actions he had taken as of late. However, in all fairness, all the actions the President had been taking were authorized under the various defense authorizations, acts, and existing laws; very little had been done through executive order.

John Roberts rubbed his temples, trying to wake himself back up after a long couple of months of long hours. Having mentally prepared himself, he responded, “Yes, Mr. President. As you know, the Trinity Program has significantly reduced crime across the country. The issue is judges. We have been identifying and nominating magistrates as fast as possible. Next week we will be sending your office five candidates for nomination to the Supreme Court,” AG Roberts said with as much energy as he could muster.

The President saw his staff was tired and realized this was going to lead to mistakes. They needed rest. “Listen, I know there’s a lot of work and we’re all under immense amounts of pressure. However, you all need to take care of yourselves as well. I want everyone to find a way to take a 48-hour break. I don’t care what you have to do to make this happen, but you all need sleep and some downtime. We’re going to start making errors and bad decisions if people don’t start to get rested. So, consider this an order,” the President said as he dismissed the meeting.

Chapter 32

Armageddon

Same Time

Megiddo, Israel

1st Infantry Division

SFC Nelson’s company had been reinforced with forty-eight new replacements and was sent right back into the meat grinder that was the front lines near the city of Megiddo—or, translated into English, Armageddon. The fact that one of the major battles was taking place at this historical end times location wasn’t lost on the men and women fighting there either. The Russians were putting up heavy resistance, moving hundreds of tanks and armored infantry fighting vehicles into the area.

A flight of five Razorbacks swooped in from behind the American lines and let loose a barrage of hellfire antitank missiles at the incoming tanks. As the Razorbacks flew in for a second pass, a Russian antiair laser system zapped one of the Razorbacks, cutting a hole right through it before the aircraft exploded. Within seconds, two more Razorbacks were shot down. The other two got away. Despite the loss of three critical aircraft, they had accomplished their mission of stopping the Russian armored advance by destroying more than sixty armored vehicles.

As SFC Nelson looked over the battlefield, all he could see was the burning husks of what had once been fearsome Russian battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Thousands of Russian soldiers were still intermixed with the destroyed vehicles firing at his battalion. Their objective was simple: advance across the battlefield and make direct contact with the Russian infantry. The American counterattack was now in full swing. It was now time to tie the Russian units down while other armor units advanced around their flanks and closed off any chance of retreat.

As Jordy Nelson advanced, he saw hundreds of red and green tracers flying back and forth between the two opposing groups. Soldiers on both sides were being hit, some dropping dead before they even knew what happened to them while others fell to the ground languishing in pain, screaming for a medic or their mothers. The slow whistle of artillery could be heard, and he wasn’t sure if the rounds were friendly or incoming. Nelson knelt down next to a rock and a tree stump while he took aim at the enemy and began to engage them.

The built-in HUD and targeting system with the M5 AIR were amazing. With the 5x zoom he could see targets up to 250 meters away and engage them easily. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of Russian and IR soldiers, frantically digging foxholes and firing back at his soldiers and the rest of his battalion.

Within ten minutes, Nelson had gone through two 250 round magazines. His power pack was at 47%—still good for at least another magazine and a half. Checking his HUD, Nelson saw his platoon had seven KIAs and thirteen WIAs. The medics were working on the wounded guys, pulling them behind cover and then moving them back to the rear area, where they could be medevacked to a hospital.

SFC Nelson switched his radio frequency from the company net to his platoon net and addressed his group. “Everyone, listen up. That Russian gun emplacement has been causing us a lot of grief since we got here. It’s time we take it out. First and second squad are going to provide covering fire while third and fourth squad advance. We’re going to move forward to that debris pile about 20 meters in front of our current positions. I want heavy suppressive fire when we move, understand?”

“Sergeant, how close do we need to get before we can just use our AT6s and take that position out?” asked one of the soldiers in the platoon.

“We need to advance at least 50 meters before we use them. I want us to get close so that once it goes down, the platoon is ready to advance on that trench line,” SFC Nelson responded.

Captain Chantilly came over the company net and said, “Everyone, the artillery guys are about to drop a few rounds on the enemy. I want everyone to be ready to advance to the enemy trench line once the barrage ends. Battalion wants us to go on the offense for a while. Be ready to advance.”

Dropping to the First Platoon net, Captain Chantilly spoke to the platoon and SFC Nelson, saying, “I heard your plan to engage the enemy gun position, and I agree, we need to take that thing out. I wanted to let you know that I called in the artillery to assist you guys, and the rest of the company will follow your lead. Good initiative, First Platoon! Out.”

Smiling, Nelson was happy that someone had recognized the need to take that gun position out. Finally, the Company would be going on the offensive rather than sitting still and getting shot at. “All right, everyone, you heard the captain—same plan as before. We just wait for the barrage to finish and then we advance.”

The artillery continued to whistle overhead as it flew through the air, this time impacting all around the enemy gun positions and defensive trench line. A mixture of ground and airburst rounds could be seen and heard as they hit all along the Russian positions. Nelson could only imagine how many soldiers were being killed or maimed by this barrage. As soon as the bombardment started, it ended. That was when the platoon, and then the company, advanced.

Within seconds of advancing, the remaining Russians in the defensive line began popping up from their foxholes and trenches to engage the Americans. Nelson could hear bullets zipping past his head. He quickly hit the dirt. Immediately, he brought his rifle to bear and quickly identified a soldier in a foxhole, shooting away at his platoon. He took aim and fired, hitting the soldier in the face and turning his head into a bright red mist.

Checking his HUD quickly, he saw his platoon had taken a couple of casualties but was advancing in good order. Within a couple of minutes, they had moved forward to within 30 meters of the Russian defensive positions. Soldiers on both sides began throwing grenades at one another. Then the captain came over the radio and ordered the entire company to charge the positions immediately and overwhelm them. Everyone stood up and began to yell as loudly as they could, charging into the enemy positions. In seconds, Sergeant Nelson was nearing a foxhole with two Russians in it. He fired a quick burst from his gun, killing both men. He jumped into the foxhole with their dead bodies. Bullets could be heard whistling overhead, and others were slapping the dirt around his position.

Nelson took a second before popping his head up to see where the firing was coming from. He saw three other Russians in another foxhole about 20 meters to his right. They were now focused on some of his platoon mates to their front, so Nelson grabbed one of the grenades from his vest, pulled the pin and threw it in their direction. He quickly grabbed a second grenade and threw it at them as well. The first grenade landed a little short of their position but caused them to duck. The second grenade landed near the edge of their foxhole and went off just as two of the enemy soldiers had poked their heads up to begin firing again. Nelson took aim with his rifle and took the third soldier out. In seconds, his platoonmates had made it to the position and jumped in for cover.

The company had pushed the Russians back, forcing them to give up their defensive positions. The ground around the area was littered with dead American and Russian soldiers. The wounded began to cry out for medics and help. Medics and doctors began to move from one wounded soldier to another, triaging to see which ones they could help, and making comfortable the ones that were too far gone.

The Russians, unlike the IR, made the Israelis and Americans pay in blood for every inch they gave. The Israelis were probably the most fearsome fighters out of all the countries in the battle, and why shouldn’t they be? This was their country, and they knew that if the Arabs won, their families would be killed. The Arabs had already killed hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians during the first days and weeks of the war. It was wholesale genocide. In response, the Israelis were taking no prisoners in this war. The Americans had been abiding by the rules of the Geneva Convention, until hundreds and then thousands of American prisoners and wounded soldiers had been crucified on crosses and the IR had nuked New York and Baltimore. It was then that the Americans had thrown the rule books away, and it became a very dirty and brutal war of either life or death. Surrender was not an option for either side.

Chapter 33

Alaskan Blues

Day 152

03 May 2041

Nome, Alaska

Nome Airport

Private Lopez hated Alaska. From the first day they had arrived in Nome two weeks ago, it had been miserable. It was cloudy, raining most of the time and the temperature stayed in the mid-fifties. The weather had finally started to get better, but all they had done since they’d arrived was dig trenches, build bunkers and prepare machine-gun nests. Now his platoon was working on building several antitank ditches and wiring them up with explosives.

Word had it a Russian invasion force had already set sail for Nome and was expected to arrive within the next two weeks. Their lieutenant kept telling them they had to hurry, that they did not have much time left to get the city and airport ready to defend, but Private Lopez wondered what the point was. This was a small airport in the middle of nowhere Alaska. The real fight was going to be down near Anchorage.

Chapter 34

Stronghold

Day 152

03 May 2041

Anchor Point, Alaska

Sergeant Paul Allen had been transferred to the 12th Infantry Division, XI Army Group, Second Army, in Alaska after he had recovered from his wounds a month ago. He had been part of the 1st Infantry Division and had been wounded during the battle of Jerusalem. After taking several bullets to the chest and surviving, he had been promoted to sergeant and transferred to a brand-new infantry division, the 12th, to help form the new NCO cadre and bring some combat experience to the group. Close to half of the NCOs and officers had been previously wounded in the Middle East or Europe, and rather than being transferred back to their old units, they were becoming part of the nucleus of the new infantry divisions being formed in the US.

Anchor Point, Alaska, was a small town, but it controlled the inlet leading to Anchorage, making it a critically important area to defend. If the Chinese wanted to secure Anchorage by sea, then they were going to have to dislodge the American positions at Anchor Point and Homer. The engineers had been building numerous reinforced trenches, bombardment bunkers and gun emplacement positions for the 20mm heavy railguns. These railguns were going to be the primary land-based weapon in preventing the landing craft from getting ashore.

Two kilometers behind the primary defensive positions at the beach was a secondary defensive stronghold. The engineers were building defensive positions that were between two and four kilometers apart. They were ensuring the Chinese infantry would have to fight every position, one at a time, in order to clear the peninsula to get at Anchorage. The fight for Alaska was going to be a bloody one. If the Chinese and Russians thought they could invade America and find a weak and defenseless population, they were in for a real surprise. Dozens of civilian militia units had also formed and were being armed by the military as well. They were being given specific hit-and-run targets to go after, while the regular army focused on the main enemy units. With tens of thousands of US soldiers arriving in Alaska a day, this fight was shaping up to be one of the nastiest of the war.

Chapter 35

Quadrant Identification

Day 152

03 May 2041

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska

General Tyler Black, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, stepped down from his duties at the request of the President to take over command of the newly minted American Second Army. He would now become the overall commander of the defense of Alaska and the West Coast. General Black had been in Alaska for four weeks, preparing the defenses from Nome, the Yukon Delta, and the Aleutians Island Chain, to Kodiak Island and the more densely populated areas of the mainland such as Homer, Seward and Anchorage. It was a daunting challenge considering more than 40% of his army was still on paper and not a reality yet.

When General Black arrived four weeks ago, there had been 160,000 troops currently in Alaska. Nearly 600,000 additional troops had been assigned and ordered to Alaska but still hadn’t completed basic combat training. Convoy after convoy of troops, infantry fighting vehicles, tanks and light drone tanks were constantly arriving in Anchorage from Seattle. Twelve thousand, five hundred troops were arriving by air via commercial charter and military transports daily. Anchorage was becoming an enormous military encampment. Many of the Marine and Army divisions were still being formed as soldiers and Marines continued to arrive daily from basic training and advanced military training schools.

The next challenge, aside from the forming of the numerous divisions, was transportation and logistics. Moving divisions and their equipment to—in some cases—extremely remote locations throughout Alaska was proving to be a challenge. Ensuring those units were supplied and properly equipped was going to be the enduring logistical nightmare, especially once hostilities began. Intelligence said the Chinese fleet had set sail, meaning he had less than twelve days to finalize his troop deployments and prepare for what would be a truly enormous defensive effort.

General Black broke the Alaskan theater down into three quadrants. The top half of Alaska, which included Prudhoe Bay, Fairbanks and Nome, was quadrant one. Quadrant two included the entire Yukon Delta National Park and the Aleutians Island chain, including the Kodiak Islands. Quadrant three included everything from Homer to Denali National Park, and the eastern half of the state.

Quadrant one was being run by a major general with three divisions. 85,000 troops spread through a myriad of fire bases and combat outposts guarding strategic locations and infrastructure. Quadrant two was being managed by a major general as well, and had five divisions, or 150,000 troops. This group had the most actual land to defend, and the most beaches to have to repel the invaders from. They also had Kodiak Island to protect, which was a key strongpoint at the mouth of the inlet leading to Anchorage. Quadrant three was commanded by a lieutenant general and eight divisions, with 235,000 troops altogether. This was the most populated area of the state and had the most critical infrastructure, such as road and rail networks, to defend. It was also the key to gaining access to the rest of the Canadian States and the lower half of the US. Additional troops from the rest of the country would continue to arrive even after the invasion started, but this would be the starting American defense force for the Russian/Chinese invasion of America.

Chapter 36

Rescuing Berlin

Day 155

06 May 2041

Berlin, Germany

Field Marshal Dieter Schoen’s Headquarters

Major General Dieter Schoen had been promoted to Field Marshal, giving him his fourth star as a general. His defensive efforts in Poland had bought the German/EU and Allied armies the time they needed for the American Fifth Army to assemble and engage the Russians. It was the emergence of the Fifth Army that ultimately stopped the Third Shock Army from capturing Berlin. The Allies were now trying to determine if they were going to fight for Berlin and turn it into a bloodbath like it had been during World War II, or if they were going to declare it a free city and hope that the Russians occupied it peacefully.

Marshal Schoen’s army had been reinforced with an additional three hundred main battle tanks, bringing his total Panzer force up to 680 again. He had also been given a full battalion of Pershing battle tanks, which was really giving his army a big boost. Berlin had been turned to rubble during the Second World War, and turning it back into rubble wasn’t something anyone in Germany wanted to have happen again. The new plan General Wade was promoting was for Schoen to pull his forces back to Brandenburg, west of Berlin. The hope was that this would draw General Kulikov’s Third Shock Army around Berlin to the open flat country near Rathenow, Germany. In these flatlands west of the city, they might have a better chance in a tank battle of either seriously hurting the Russians or stopping their attack.

If their initial attack failed, then the fallback plan was to regroup at Stendal on the west side of the Elbe River and make their stand there. With nearly three million Russian troops invading Germany, and two and half million soldiers attacking through Southeastern Europe, the American and European armies were starting to buckle under the pressure. After significant pushing and outright threats from President Stein, Chancellor Lowden had released control of the rest of the EU and national armies and allowed them to be controlled by NATO. The bulk of the forces were being sent to the mountains of Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and the German Alps to block the Russians from gaining entry into Southern Europe.

The Allies controlled the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea, preventing the Russians from conducting a direct seaborne landing. The Reds could and often did parachute small numbers of forces into Italy to conduct raids and guerilla operations, but they lacked the capability to conduct a large-scale airborne assault as the Allies had done.

The Russian offensive in Europe was coinciding with their attack in the Middle East and their massive invasion fleet’s movement toward Alaska. Their operations in Europe were going well, with the Allies having been pushed back to the outskirts of Berlin. Operations in the Middle East had started out great, and they had nearly broken through to Tel Aviv before the Allies launched their surprise airborne and seaborne invasion of Lebanon. The Second Shock Army had a reserve contingent in Damascus and Aleppo, but both forces had been defeated by the Allied blocking force. Now the Russians had to make a hard choice: they could either give up the gains they and the Islamic Republic had made in capturing most of northern Israel, or they would face the real possibility of being surrounded and completely cut off from any reinforcements.

General Lodz was a dynamic Russian general, and his loss was felt immediately. His deputy commander took over, but he either ignored the intelligence of the Allied strength at his flank or thought he could go for broke and end the war. Either way, he decided to advance when he should have retreated. Now the Second Shock Army was in danger of being surrounded and cut off. If that happened, then chances were they would be forced to surrender—but not before they ran out of ammunition. They would bleed the Americans and Israelis before they had to throw in the towel.

*******

With the Allied decision made to declare Berlin a free city and withdraw, Marshal Schoen began the immediate work of moving his forces west of Berlin. His new post was in an area that he had identified to be a good location for one of the decisive tank battles of the war, a nice flat patch of land with the River Elbe to his back. The American Fifth Army had 620 Pershing main battle tanks and 2,800 of the older venerable M1A4 MBTs. Couple that with a fighting force of nearly 760,000 combat troops, and they were a superior force, despite being outnumbered nearly four-to-one.

The advantage the Russians had was in their MiG40s, which were still wreaking havoc on the Allied air forces and their drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The Russian drone IFVs were particularly nasty. The Allies called them Lemmings because they were small, about the size of a Ford F-150, and traveled in small packs, typically following a lead drone. They were lightly armored but carried two 7.62mm machine guns mounted on a lowered armored turret and an upper turret with a single 30mm gun used for destroying light armored vehicles. They ran somewhat autonomously of their owners, in that the drone pilot would program in the directions of where to go, and the drone would drive itself to that location. If it encountered resistance along the way, it would either stop to engage the opposition if it was substantial, or it could drive right through it. The drones had an automated targeting system that leveraged cameras, motion tracking, body temperature and a sophisticated AI that assisted the drone pilot. Typically, a drone pilot could manage three to five drones fairly easily, which was another reason why they were often referred to as Lemmings, blindly following their masters.

Drones and the use of AIs in the drones was really changing the way wars were being fought. The Americans held a slight advantage in fighter jet drones, railgun technology and the infantry railgun rifles and HUD systems. Where the Americans were behind was drone tanks, IFVs, manned fighter aircraft, additive manufacturing, shipbuilding and an industrial network that had been on a war footing for years. The American and EU governments and economies were behind the eight ball; neither economy was on a war footing and it was going to take time to convert. Both militaries were also behind in recruiting and training the needed force to challenge the Axis powers of the Islamic Republic, Russia, and China. At this point, their adversaries had had both their economies and their military forces on a war footing for several years before the conflict of World War III had even begun.

Chapter 37

Smile for the Cameras

Day 165

16 May 2041

Washington, D.C.

Rose Room, the White House

Fox News Interview of President Stein

After months of requests by the networks for a one-on-one interview, the President finally agreed to a two-hour interview with John Blume of Fox News. John was a well-known journalist who hosted Special Report on Fox. Fox News was probably one of the friendlier networks to the Stein administration, but that wasn’t why the President agreed to talk with him. The President knew an interview like this would be a chance for him to continue to make the case for the Freedom Party as the party of growth, and to assure the American people that the war was winnable and progressing well, despite the losses occurring in Germany and the Middle East.

“Good evening, this is John Blume, and I’m here with President Henry Stein to discuss domestic and overseas issues in this special segment of Special Report,” John said as opened the show.

“Mr. President, under your leadership, the US economy has made quite a turnaround. The country had gone from twenty percent unemployment or higher to less than three percent, and essentially there is now a critical shortage in labor, particularly with the current draft going on. Do you attribute that growth to the war, or to something else?”

President Stein responded, “I attribute the economic growth to a government functioning within the guidelines of the Constitution. The Freedom Party stands for just that—freedom to choose to be who you want to be in this country, and freedom to work for yourself if you choose to. For decades, our country had been saddled with regulations and rules that made it impossible for an entrepreneur to succeed. The bulk of American corporations had their headquarters overseas because of taxes and regulations. This was killing our economy. We also needed tax reform, a remonetizing of our currency and a reform of our social programs to make them financially viable.

“The unemployment really began to drop once we began to put people to work through the Reconstruction and Modernization Act of 2037. Millions of jobs were created through this program and the America First Corporation. People were suddenly getting hired, or in some cases, receiving multiple job offers. AFC has proven to be an incredible boon for the American people, not just because of the jobs it provides but also the revenue it has generated for the federal government. It has made Social Security solvent, and we’ve even been able to increase Social Security payments to ensure that every American retiring through it will receive a minimum yearly retirement of $40,000 if they retire at sixty-seven and $52,500 if they retire at seventy-three.”

John countered, “I would like to go back to the remonetizing of the debt. Some would identify your remonetizing of our currency as one of the reasons we’re at war with China. How do you respond to that?”

The President replied, “This war is about power, resources and land. It has nothing to do with our monetary policy. China wants to conquer Asia, and as we can see, they are in the process of conquering Africa as well. Russia wants to occupy and control the EU. Their empire would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and place over 750 million people under the rule of the new Communist state they have established. The Islamic Republic wants to impose Islam as the dominant religion across the world. They conducted a genocide of the Israeli people, as well as anyone who did not agree with their brand of Islam. As we have already seen, they have killed nearly one million Jews in Israel alone. They crucified over 3,000 US servicemen and women and cut the heads off our dead soldiers and placed them on pikes. They are barbaric. This war is about tyranny. Will we stand by and let the forces of evil in this world prevail, or will we stand up, united by freedom to do something about it?”

John Blume seemed a little taken aback by this answer. He continued, “The United States has already suffered the loss of over 200,000 men and women killed. How many more losses do you believe the American people will accept before they demand an end to the war?”

Without missing a beat, President Stein replied, “You mean how many more casualties will it take for America to surrender? That’s essentially what you are asking.”

Obstinately, Blume retorted, “I didn’t say surrender—I just said an end to the war.”

President Stein smiled at the lack of logic in his counterpart’s response and explained, “The Axis powers will accept nothing less than our complete surrender. Some will argue that that isn’t true, but let me ask you this. Are you willing to give up our Constitution for the sake of peace? As long as I am President, America will never surrender. To capitulate means to give up our rights as Americans. It means we give up our Constitution, and I will not allow that to happen. I will also not sacrifice our Allies and all of Europe for the sake of appeasing the political left in our country. This war is barely six months old, and already people on the left are wanting to give up. Let’s not forget that our country was savagely attacked. Our soldiers were being crucified and their heads cut off and placed on spikes. We were further nuked, killing nearly six million civilians…and people want talk about ending the war? We will end the war when we have won it. Mark my words, the American manufacturing and ingenuity has only just awakened. Our economy, and our military, will see this war through to victory.”

Changing topics, John continued, “It would appear that Alaska is about to be invaded by the Russians and Chinese. What are you doing to ensure we don’t lose one of our states? This is, after all, the first time America will have been invaded by a foreign power in force since the War of 1812.”

The President replied, “I assure you, and the American people, the military is doing everything they can to protect this country and Alaska. As the commander-in-chief, I am working to ensure our military has every resource they need to win this fight. I have the utmost confidence in our generals and military commanders—”

Blume interrupted, “—Even General Gardner? The general who destroyed the Al Aqsa Mosque?”

Stein didn’t get flustered. He calmly responded, “I did not agree with, or authorize, General Gardner’s destruction of one of Islam’s holiest sites. That said, General Gardner has done a superb job of defending Israel and moving us that much closer to defeating the Islamic Republic, the country that nuked New York and Baltimore.”

The President continued, “I also want to release a new piece of news. As of an hour before this interview started, the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the Middle East has officially surrendered, and so has the Second Shock Army. It won’t be long before our armies are driving through Riyadh. We have General Gardner and the US Third Army to thank for that, along with our ally, the Israeli Defense Force.”

The interview went on for some time as the President continued to assure the American people that the war was moving in the right direction. The bottom line was that the country was recovering from the nuclear attack, and the economy was stronger than ever. At the end of the day, most Americans were going to be content with the fact that they had decent jobs and money in their pockets.

Chapter 38

The Invasion Begins

Day 180

31 May 2041

Nome, Alaska

Operation Red Dawn

As the Russian fleet approached the city of Nome, Alaska, they encountered the Navy’s new Swordfish underwater drone for the first time. The drone was able to launch four torpedoes before the Russians even knew it was in the area. It sank a troop carrier and damaged one of the two Russian carriers. The other two torpedoes hit an ammunition ship and a troop transport, sinking both ships.

The Russian fleet began to launch a massive missile barrage in coordination with the carrier air wings, heavily damaging the airport and city of Nome. While the bombardment was underway, hundreds of smaller amphibious landing craft were making preparations for the first Russian seaborne invasion of America.

While the amphibious landing was taking place, the sky was being filled with drones and aircraft vying for control of the battlespace. Dozens of transport aircraft were dropping thousands of Russian paratroopers deep behind enemy lines to sow as much confusion and chaos as possible. As the first wave of infantry hit the beaches, they met heavy resistance from the American positions near the coastline. The battle for the beach raged on for nearly three hours. It wasn’t until the Russians landed their third wave of forces, intermixed with tanks, that they broke through the American positions.

The shore and several hundred meters inland were littered with the dead and dying. Hundreds of bodies could be seen floating in the water and crashing against the shore as the waves continued to push their lifeless bodies against the sand and rocks. The water became red from their blood.

Once the beach area was lost, the Americans began a quick retreat to their secondary positions. The troops returning from the coast were exhausted, beat-up, dirty, and low on ammunition. They passed through the secondary defensive line and the troops assigned to defend it, giving them as much information about the oncoming Russians as they could before they were loaded into waiting vehicles and driven to the third line of defense, where they would re-form and prepare to meet the Russians once again.

Chapter 39

Clash for the Kodiak

Day 180

31 May 2041

Kodiak Island

The massive Chinese fleet began their final approach to Alaska, with their next stop being Kodiak Island. A smaller PLAN fleet and landing force were securing the Aleutian Island chain and peninsula, while the main fleet sailed closer to Kodiak and the inlet that would lead them to Anchorage. The goal was to secure Kodiak Island and turn it into a land base and logistical hub for the main invasion of Alaska. They needed to secure the city and the airport nearby; then they could move on and capture Shuyak Island State Park, Ushagat Island in the center of the channel, and Kachemak Bay State Park. Once these locations had been secured, the Chinese Navy would begin to ferry in millions of PLA soldiers and equipment. From there, a gravy train of supplies and troops would be sent from China directly to the front lines.

As the fleet moved closer, the five Chinese supercarriers began to launch their air wings of drones and manned fighters to begin battling for control of the skies. While the fighters were mixing it up in the air with the Americans, the Naval Task Force began a massive rocket and missile barrage of the entrenched American positions throughout the state parks, islands and Anchorage itself. Hundreds of amphibious landing craft were disembarking from their motherships and began heading toward the beaches and various landing sites in a massive and well-orchestrated invasion.

As the landing craft neared the city of Kodiak, they started to receive enemy fire from numerous heavy railgun positions. Short-range rockets and mortars were starting to be launched by the hundreds as the invaders continued to get closer and closer to the shoreline.

Corporal Chang stood in the leading vessel, wearing his specialized exoskeleton combat suit. He was ready to kill Americans. This was Chang’s first time using this new combat suit, and he was eager to see if it lived up to its reputation. It was also his first time facing the Americans. From everything he had heard, the Americans fought like men possessed by devils. He had been told this would not be an easy landing, and that he should not take the Americans for granted as an easy foe to defeat. They all knew the First EF had been defeated in the Middle East—no one wanted to repeat that history.

The PLAN infantry had been given priority to receive the suits first, since they would be leading the amphibious assault against America. The suits gave their users an incredible advantage over their adversaries. Aside from being able to run at close to 30 mph and lift nearly 2,000 pounds, the suit’s wearer was sheathed in the newest generation of Dragon Skin body armor. This was the same body armor that the American soldiers used. The blueprints had been stolen years ago, and the Chinese had seen no need to change the name. The name fit its design. The Dragon Skin was essentially bulletproof against all modern-day assault rifle ammunition, with the exception of the Americans’ new M5 AIR. The soldiers’ arms, legs and necks were still somewhat exposed, leaving the suit vulnerable in certain areas.

As Chang’s landing vehicle got closer to the targeted site, they began to take heavy enemy fire. Dozens of bullets bounced off the armored shield on the front of the landing vehicle; the craft itself was bounced around by artillery and mortar rounds landing nearby. Geysers of water spouted and soaked the troops on the landing vehicles from nearby misses. Fire and shrapnel would consume others who weren’t so lucky. Chang looked through one of the bullet proof window slits in the landing craft to catch a glance at the shore. What he saw was nothing short of spectacular horror.

Tracer rounds could be seen crisscrossing between the landing craft’s heavy weapons and those of the Americans entrenched near the shore. It was like watching a laser show, with the sheer volume of terror being unleashed between the two sides. Rockets continued to hammer the American positions while heavy mortars and artillery continued to land amongst the amphibious fleet that was nearly to the shore now.

A voice came on the radio, barely audible over the growl of the engines and machine-gun fire, to let Chang’s squad know they were about to make landfall and that they should be ready to exit the rear of the vehicle quickly because they wouldn’t be sticking around very long. The landing vehicle needed to head back to the mothership and pick up the next wave of soldiers. Suddenly, the vessel hit the gravelly beach, and the back door dropped down for Chang’s ten-man squad to exit the vehicle and make for their objectives. Chang’s squad had been assigned three gun emplacement positions to secure before moving inland to engage other targets.

While they were exiting the rear of the vehicle, a mortar round landed nearby and exploded. It knocked Chang off his feet and threw him a couple of feet back into the water. The rest of his squad began to fire their rifles at the American positions and advanced in good order, just as they had been drilled and trained to do. Chang quickly got to his feet and ran after his squad. Just then, the landing vehicle began to back up where Chang had been just seconds earlier. The roar of all of the machine guns and explosions was almost deafening. As Chang neared a disabled Chinese tank that his squad was using for cover, he ordered them to advance to the first gun emplacement 100 meters to their front. Two of the soldiers in his squad moved forward ten meters while the remainder of the squad provided covering fire.

When the first two had moved ten meters and found cover, they dropped down and began providing covering fire along with the rest of the squad as two more advanced. Within seconds, the American gunners quickly saw what was happening and turned their machine guns toward Chang’s advancing squad. While Chang’s crew was advancing toward the gun emplacement, four other squads began to advance as well. The machine-gun crew was manning a .25mm machine railgun, spitting out nearly 600 rounds a minute. They swept their gun back and forth between the advancing groups, hitting some while missing others. Other men in the trenches were also sending tremendous volumes of fire in their directions as well.

Several of Chang’s men along with men from another squad got within 30 meters of the gun emplacement and the trench line. All of a sudden, a massive explosion occurred and blew eight Chinese soldiers apart. The Dragon Skin armor generally did a good job of protecting the core of a soldier’s body; however, the explosion ripped their legs and arms right off. The screams they made as they thrashed around on the ground, calling for help, were horrendous. The Americans had detonated three Claymore landmines they had put into place earlier. A nearby lieutenant ordered everyone in the area to advance at once toward the gun emplacement and try to overwhelm the defenders.

As the soldiers in the area rose to advance, the machine railgun came alive again, cutting dozens of soldiers down. The exoskeleton suits enabled the Chinese soldiers to advance quickly toward the American lines. As they got within 20 meters of their positions, the Americans triggered another series of Claymore mines, killing and maiming dozens of additional Chinese soldiers. In seconds, Chang was in the American position and found himself face-to-face with an American soldier. Chang quickly brought his gun to bear and was able to shoot the American in the face, exploding his head before he was able to use his M5, which would have cut through Chang’s body armor.

Chang called out to the others in his squad to form up around him as they continued to clear the trench network they were currently in. An American jumped out from one of the bomb bunkers and threw a grenade toward Chang and his men. Without thinking, one of Chang’s soldiers jumped on the grenade just as it exploded. The soldier died immediately, but he had saved half a dozen of his fellow soldiers. One of Chang’s men charged the American bunker, while another soldier shot his grenade gun into the entrance. A small explosion could be heard, along with the quick bursts of several machine guns from both Chang’s men and the remaining Americans in the bunker. In less than a minute, the conflict was over, and Chang’s men began to shift their focus to their next objective.

Chapter 40

Drone Attack

Day 180

31 May 2041

The Sky Above Anchorage

Lieutenant Daniels was a drone fighter pilot. He had just been transferred to Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks after completing drone flight school four days earlier. Daniels was controlling an F38A fighter drone, and his squadron was tasked with providing cover for the F38B ground attack drones that were supporting the infantry as they tried to repel multiple landing invasions.

Daniels heard his squadron commander sign in and began to give them a quick message before the squadron moved as a group to engage the hundreds of fighters heading in their direction. “Men, listen up. I know most of you are fresh out of flight school and this is your first real combat mission. It’s OK to be nervous and doubt yourself, but trust your training, and remember, this is the real deal. There are tens of thousands of soldiers on the ground depending on us to succeed so our ground attack planes can provide the close air support they desperately need. Remember your training—I cannot stress that enough. Your preparation works, and so do the tactics we’re about to employ. If your fighter is shot down, I want you to grab another and get back in the fight.”

As Lieutenant Daniels’s squadron headed toward Anchorage, they began to detect hundreds of enemy fighter drones and manned Chinese aircraft. “All right. Our squadron has been directed to engage the fighter drones. One of the other squadrons is going to engage the manned aircraft. We’ll be in range to launch our AMRAAMs in three minutes. Everyone is to launch your missiles, one after the other, and then accelerate to get into knife range and engage with your sidewinders. Once we go weapons free, you and your wingmen are on your own, understand?”

“Yes, Sir,” they all replied in unison.

The pilots continued to position their aircraft to engage the Chinese. Daniels’s squadron consisted of twenty-four drones. Each pilot had three spare drones at the base, ready to be moved to the runway as soon as the pilot was ready to use it. The F38A was a powerful fighter drone; without having to worry about the survivability of a pilot, the aircraft was able to incorporate some incredible new designs that allowed the aircraft to maneuver on a dime. It had a range of 520 miles, could travel at speeds of up to Mach 3, and carried a 20mm railgun for air-to-air combat. It was armed with six AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, which could engage an enemy aircraft as far away as 90 miles at a speed of Mach five. It also carried six Sidewinder 4 short-range heat-seeking missiles, which had a range of 15 miles. The aircraft had an advanced suite of electronic countermeasures and defensive systems to assist in its survivability.

The squadron was engaging about 80 Chinese drones that were trying to secure the air over Kodiak Island. Daniels’s aircraft came into AMRAAM range just as his squadron began to release the first volley of missiles. Daniels toggled a couple of switches and released his six missiles toward their targets, when all of a sudden his warning alarms went off. His aircraft was being targeted by multiple enemy drones, who simultaneously fired their own missiles at him and his squadron. His aircraft now had five enemy missiles heading toward it. He hit the afterburner, bringing his aircraft to its maximum speed as his wingman maneuvered to stay next to him. The two of them were going to bring their aircraft up to maximum speed and then begin to jink and pull a few other maneuvers as they closed the gap between themselves and the Chinese.

As Daniels followed his training, he was surprised to see that all of the missiles that had been fired at him had missed when he’d conducted the series of tight turns and jinks designed to make it impossible for a missile to continue to track his aircraft, especially in light of his suite of countermeasures. Suddenly, he was within 15 miles of the remaining Chinese aircraft, and he began to cycle through his last remaining missiles. Just as Daniels’s last missile left his aircraft, he was hit by machine-gun fire from a fighter that had somehow gotten behind him. In seconds, Daniels’s fighter drone was ripped apart by bullets, and at the speed it was traveling, it lost control. He immediately disconnected from the drone and activated another that was now leaving the secured bunker and moving toward the runways.

After less than sixty minutes in the air, nearly all 24 of the drone fighters in Daniels’s squadron had been shot down, but not before shooting down 73 enemy fighter drones. Most of the pilots were in the process of piloting their second drone out to the runways or just taking off when the building’s alarms went off. A loud explosion could be heard nearby, and suddenly, a lot of machine-gun fire. It sounded as it if it was coming from the floor above them, which was the operations room, where a lot of the analysis and fighter operations were conducted.

A guard ran into the room and shouted to everyone, “Russians have infiltrated the building! They’re on the floor above! Everyone, get your sidearm ready!”

BOOM! An explosion could be heard just outside the secured door, and suddenly, several objects flew into the room. Daniels had just enough time to realize the flying circles were hand grenades before one bounced off the wall near his pod, exploding and killing him instantly.

A 90-man Spetsnaz team had infiltrated the base perimeter and begun to attack several buildings before the base security knew they had penetrated the boundary defenses. Another team of Spetsnaz rained down 120mm mortars on the runways, which were now lined with fighter drones being prepared for takeoff. As the rounds landed amongst the drones, they started a chain reaction, causing numerous secondary explosions. Their ordnance started to add to the chaos. The Russians knew exactly where the fighter drone pilots were operating from; they had long ago stolen the blueprints of the building from the contracting company that had built it. They had painstakingly planned and prepared their mission around accomplishing two main tasks: disabling the runway, hopefully for 24 hours, and attacking and killing the various drone pilot squadrons.

They were going to attack all eight squadrons’ worth of pilots and destroy the equipment. One after another, each building was successfully penetrated; the people inside were killed and then the buildings were destroyed. With the attack a success, the Spetsnaz teams were done and began to exit the structures to head toward the base perimeter and the safety of the surrounding woods, where they had staged the attack. Unexpectedly, several Razorback helicopters arrived on the scene and engaged the Russians. The quick-reaction force quickly wiped out the attacking group, which had very little in the way of cover to hide behind and no heavy weapons or missiles capable of disabling or destroying the armored helicopters.

In the thirteen-minute attack, the Russians had lost all but four members of the Spetsnaz team but had killed the pilots and operational staff for all eight drone squadrons on the base. They had also substantially damaged the runway, making it impossible to use for at least a half day. This would prove disastrous not just for the American fighter drones in Alaska, but also for the manned aircraft. Most of the pilots flying over Alaska had originated from this airbase. The Russians had nearly neutralized the American airpower in the first day of the invasion.

Chapter 41

After the Shock and Awe

Day 180

31 May 2041

General Black’s Headquarters

General Black was sitting at his desk, looking at a tablet with the losses from Eielson AFB, and he couldn’t believe his eyes. The Russians had somehow snuck a large enough attacking force through the base defenses and, knowing exactly where the drone pilots were operating from, had shut down the whole fleet. They had taken out the guards and destroyed the entire facility in less than fifteen minutes. General Black had specifically selected Eielson to be the primary launch point for the drone squadrons because it was far enough away from the invasion fleets that it wouldn’t come under direct enemy missile attacks.

The next report was from sector one, in Nome, Alaska. The Russians had busted their way off the beaches, and it looked like they were about to break through the second line of defense. Reports were showing that a limited number of Russian soldiers were using the new exoskeleton suits. Of course, the entire Spetsnaz team that had attacked Eielson was using them. Reports of Spetsnaz teams popping up all over Alaska were starting to come in. He had to get in touch with his Special Forces commander and have him assign the appropriate teams to hunt them down. He couldn’t have dozens of Russian Special Forces operating in his rear area.

Putting one tablet down and picking up another, General Black began to look through the battle report from Kodiak Island. In less than four hours, they had secured twenty miles inland from the beach and might have the rest of the island secured within the next four to five days if they continued advancing at their current pace. General Black had a message sent to the commander on the island to have his men try to hold out longer. The more time that passed with the Chinese invasion fleet this close to the coast, the more danger they were in from land-based attacks. The Navy was now starting to hit the Chinese with hundreds of smaller attack craft that would swoop in swarms and launch a volley of antiship missiles. The goal was to overwhelm the carrier defenses with antiship missiles while coordinating the attack with land-based aircraft and short-range land-based antiship missiles. The beach areas needed to hold the line for 48 hours to give the Navy and Air Force enough time to coordinate a massive strike against the fleet.

General Black’s Chief of Staff, Major General Cooper, walked into the general’s office and said, “General Black, the Eielson base commander is on the line when you’re ready.”

General Black sighed and motioned for MG Cooper to take a seat. His JAG and J3 also walked into the room and took a seat at the round table in the general’s office. “Brigadier General Miller, we’ll keep this meeting as short and to the point as we can. I want to know how in the world a ninety-plus man Spetsnaz team was able to penetrate so deep into your base, identify the drone squadrons and wipe them out without alerting your security forces,” Black said in his gruff Marine style.

“Sir, we’re still trying to determine how they were able to identify the drone squadrons so quickly. From the time the base perimeter sensors went offline until the time they attacked the squadrons was less than five minutes. We immediately scrambled our QRF to the location. Right now, we’re working on the assumption that either someone gave them the location, or they acquired the blueprints from the construction company who built it. We were made aware that that company had had a cyber breach about fifteen months ago, when we began building the location.”

He continued, “The Russians were using those new exoskeleton combat suits, which is probably how they were able to move so quickly and carry those weapons and explosives. At first, the QRF was concerned with neutralizing the mortar team that was hammering the airfield. By the time we received the notice that the squadrons were under direct attack, the QRF was already engaging the mortar teams. We released the second QRF team, but when they arrived on scene, the damage to the squadrons had already been done.”

“General, this is simply unacceptable. I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how one of our most important assets to this war was left so undefended that a Spetsnaz team was not only able to gain access it, they were able to slaughter all the pilots, staff and destroy the facility within nine minutes of entering the base.” He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing, “Brigadier General Miller, I am relieving you of command, effective immediately. I have your replacement inbound as we speak, along with several additional SF teams which will begin to hunt down the rest of the Spetsnaz teams operating in your AOR.”

“Sir, I understand your frustration, but losses happen in war. The Russians got lucky—it wasn’t incompetence,” BG Miller protested, clearly taken aback that he was being relieved of his command.

“General, I comprehend your shock and frustration. However, you were charged with guarding one of the most important pieces of our national defense, and you failed to protect it. Perhaps it was luck on the Russians’ part, but it happened on your watch. You are being reassigned back to the Pentagon. Please do not take this as a slight against you. We’re giving you the opportunity to redeem yourself in D.C.,” the general said, trying to lessen the blow to BG Miller, and ended the call.

“Well, that went well. Hopefully, he’ll do better at the Pentagon,” said MG Cooper.

Looking at General Cooper, General Black said, “Cooper, I need a frank assessment from you. How are things shaping up in sector one?”

Pulling some information up from his tablet, Cooper said, “Shaky, but as expected. Aside from the debacle at Eielson, everything is turning out about as well as we suspected and planned. They hit us hard today. What we didn’t anticipate was how many Spetsnaz teams they would be able to infiltrate behind our lines. The same goes with Chinese SF units. The Chinese and Russians hit us with those new exoskeleton combat suits with their first and second wave of landings. We weren’t surprised by them, but their performance was incredibly effective. Most of our forces are fighting in their third lines of defense; once they lose those lines, the next lines of defense are typically fifteen to twenty miles further back.”

“Do we know when they are going to make their main landings near Homer and Seward?” asked General Black.

“Probably in the next three to five days. We believe they want to fully secure their current gains before advancing again,” said MG Cooper.

General Black thought for a moment, trying to determine if they needed to adjust their strategy yet, or if they should continue to stick to the plan for the moment. “Gentlemen, I have a video call with the national security staff and the President in ten minutes. I would like you to sit in as well, in case I need you to provide some information. Please take a few minutes to get any new updates you need, and be prepared to brief it should I call on you,” Black directed before dismissing his inner circle to prepare for the presidential briefing.

*******

President Stein walked into the Situation Room and saw the entire staff was already there and ready. He signaled for one of his aides to bring him a fresh Red Bull; the President was beginning to live on these things with all the long hours he had been working since the start of the war. His doctor said he was going to have a heart attack if he didn’t cut back on the caffeine, but this was one vice he simply couldn’t give up given the current state of affairs.

Stein took his seat at the head of the table and signaled for the briefing to begin.

General Branson stood up and walked over to one of the monitors and began his brief, “Mr. President, we are now nineteen hours into the invasion of Alaska. The Russians have successfully landed around 38,000 troops in sector one, and they have also parachuted around another twelve thousand paratroopers all across sector one. Right now, they have several dozen or more Spetsnaz teams running around in central Alaska, causing all sorts of problems with our logistical networks. General Black sent a few dozen of our own SF teams to try and hunt them down.

“Sector two has been hit hard; we have lost most of the Aleutian Island chain and the rest of the Peninsula. General Black doesn’t expect to hold them for more than a few more days. We never really had any intentions of being able to stop them there. It was really only meant as a defensive and asymmetrical fight to tie down Chinese forces. Unfortunately, it does look like they’re going to capture Kodiak Island a lot sooner than we had hoped. Our goal was to hold the island for at least a month, tying down nearly a hundred thousand soldiers—”

The President interrupted to ask a question. “—What happened? Why are they not going to be able to hold the position for much longer?”

General Branson brought up various drone feeds showing the fighting on the beach. Images could be seen of hundreds of PLAN infantry moving from their landing vehicles and quickly sprinting across the shore right into a number of American defensive positions. “They move so fast,” commented Director Jorge Perez, the DHS Secretary.

“The PLAN infantry received priority status for their new exoskeleton combat suits. As we can see, these suits really provide their soldiers an advantage. They can advance and move quickly, making them harder to shoot. They closed the gap between their positions and ours fast. They were able to move through the first line of defense rather hastily. They slowed down a bit at the second line of defense, and have been stopped at the third for the time being.”

General Branson continued, “We’ve slowed them down by using sheer numbers. So far, they haven’t landed enough soldiers yet to be able to punch through our third line of defense. That will change in a day or so, once they start to land their light drone tanks and IFVs. I also have a piece of bad news to report.” Branson had some trepidation about this next part—he knew the President was going to be livid.

“A Spetsnaz team was able to penetrate the base perimeter at Eielson AFB and attacked the drone squadrons. Unfortunately, they destroyed all of the drone piloting pods and killed all the pilots. We also lost nearly two-thirds of all the fighter and bomber drones at the base. We’re sending new pilots and additional drones and piloting pods to Eielson. It’s going to be a couple of days until they’re operational again. In the meantime, we’re going to be focusing on our manned fighters for the time being to provide the bulk of the air cover over Alaska.”

The President put down his Red Bull mid-drink and said, “How in the world did they penetrate the base defense and wipe out eight squadrons of pilots and equipment? That’s a lot of critical people they killed in one swoop.” From his tone of voice and facial expressions, he was clearly beyond angry.

“The base commander has been relieved of command, Mr. President. It would appear they gained access to the designs, and thus the location of the site, through a cyber-attack that was conducted against the contracting company that built it. Once they had the blueprints, we suspect it wasn’t hard for them to build a replica of it somewhere in Russia and train for it like we would have,” Branson said, hoping his answer might diffuse the President’s anger a bit.

“This is a colossal screw-up, General. How bad is this going to hurt our efforts in Alaska?” asked the President.

“It’s going to stifle our efforts a lot. Right now, most of our airpower in Alaska has been taken offline. The runways have been repaired, and we have limited manned flight operations, but the loss of eight fighter drones’ worth of pilots is going to hurt. We’re moving drone pilots from all across the US to Alaska right now to fill the gap. It’s going to leave us shortchanged in a lot of other places,” the general explained.

The President shot back, “Get this fixed, General Branson and General Black. We need to do better in Alaska or we are going to have a serious problem on our hands.”

With that, the meeting ended.

Chapter 42

Field of Blood

Day 181

01 June 2041

Kodiak, Alaska

General Jing Zhu stepped off the landing craft on the beach near the city of Kodiak, Alaska. What he saw made his stomach churn. The water around the shore was still red with blood, and gore soaked the beach. Bodies could be seen floating in the water and strung all along the coastline for as far as they eye could see in both directions. Clearly, the Americans had fought hard for this section of land, and the Chinese had paid dearly to capture this beachhead. Off in the distance, General Zhu heard the rumble of artillery fire and the continuous cacophony of machine-gun fire as both sides tried relentlessly to kill each other.

Overhead, the screams of aircraft could be heard as Chinese drones and manned fighters continued to fight for dominance of the skies. General Zhu turned his head slightly and watched as a group of eight attack helicopters headed toward the front lines. Then he saw a large landing craft drop its front ramp; a large main battle tank came to life and rumbled off the landing craft, heading toward the front lines.

“General Zhu,” an aide said, interrupting his thoughts. “The command post is over here. The rest of your staff is ready.”

As General Jing Zhu entered the half-blown-out town hall that was now serving as the command post for the ground operations, he saw the commander of the PLAN infantry, along with his army commanders.

He smiled as he began, “Generals, Operation Red Dragon has been a huge success. For the first time in modern history, a foreign army has invaded America. Today marks the end of America and the rise of the Dragon…”

From the Authors

Miranda and I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. We are currently working on the fourth book of the Falling Empires Series. We also recently released two children’s books about PTSD—if you know someone who struggles with that battle, we hope that they might be able to use these books as a resource.

While you are waiting for our next book to be released, we do have several audiobooks that have recently been produced. All six books of the Red Storm Series are now available in audio format as is our entire World War III series. Interview with a Terrorist and Traitors Within, which are currently standalone books, are also available for your listening pleasure.

If you would like to stay up to date on new releases and receive emails about any special pricing deals we may make available, please sign up for our email distribution list. Simply go to http://www.author-james-rosone.com and scroll to the bottom of the page.

As independent authors, reviews are very important to us and make a huge difference to other prospective readers. If you enjoyed this book, we humbly ask you to write up a positive review on Amazon and Goodreads. We sincerely appreciate each person that takes the time to write one.

We have really valued connecting with our readers via social media, especially on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RosoneandWatson/. Sometimes we ask for help from our readers as we write future books—we love to draw upon all your different areas of expertise. We also have a group of beta readers who get to look at the books before they are officially published and help us fine-tune last-minute adjustments. If you would like to be a part of this team, please go to our author website: http://www.author-james-rosone.com, and send us a message through the “Contact” tab. You can also follow us on Twitter: @jamesrosone and @AuthorMirandaW. We look forward to hearing from you.

You may also enjoy some of our other works. A full list can be found below:

Nonfiction:

Iraq Memoir 2006–2007 Troop Surge

Interview with a Terrorist (link to audiobook here)

Fiction:

World War III Series

Prelude to World War III: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dawn and the Siege of Europe (link to audiobook here)

Cyber Warfare and the New World Order (link to audiobook here)

Michael Stone Series

Traitors Within (link to audiobook here)

The Red Storm Series

Battlefield Ukraine (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Korea (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Taiwan (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Pacific (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Russia (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield China (link to audiobook here)

The Falling Empires Series

Rigged (link to audiobook here)

Peacekeepers

Invasion (available for preorder, release date November 25, 2019)

Vengeance (available for preorder, release date February 17, 2020)

Retribution (release date TBD)

Children’s Books:

My Daddy has PTSD

My Mommy has PTSD

For the Veterans

I have been pretty open with our fans about the fact that PTSD has had a tremendous direct impact on our lives; it affected my relationship with my wife, job opportunities, finances, parenting—everything. It is also no secret that for me, the help from the VA was not the most ideal form of treatment. Although I am still on this journey, I did find one organization that did assist the healing process for me, and I would like to share that information.

Welcome Home Initiative is a ministry of By His Wounds Ministry, and they run seminars for veterans and their spouses for free. The weekends are a combination of prayer and more traditional counseling and left us with resources to aid in moving forward. The entire cost of the retreat—hotel costs, food, and sessions, are completely free from the moment the veteran and their spouse arrive at the location.

If you feel that you or someone you love might benefit from one of Welcome Home Initiative’s sessions, please visit their website to learn more: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/

We have decided to donate a portion of our profits to this organization, because it made such an impact in our lives and we believe in what they are doing. If you would also like to donate to Welcome Home Initiative and help to keep these weekend retreats going, you can do so by following this link: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/donate/

Abbreviation Key

AFC             America First Corporation

AG              Attorney General

AI              Artificial Intelligence

AIR             Advanced Infantry Rifle

AMRAAM       Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile

AOR             Area of Responsibility

APFV           Anti-Personnel Fighting Vehicle

BDA             Battle Damage Assessment

BH              Battle Helmet

CENTCOM     Central Command (located in Tampa, Florida, covers the Middle East AOR)

CG              Commanding General

CIA             Central Intelligence Agency

CO              Commanding Officer

CP              Company Post

COG             Continuance of Government

COMSUBLANT         Commander Submarine Force Atlantic

CONUS         Continental United States

DARPA         Defense Advance Research Projects Agency

DHS             Department of Homeland Security

DIA             Defense Intelligence Agency

DoD             Department of Defense

EAM             Emergency Action Message

EF              Expeditionary Force (Chinese)

EFP             Explosively Formed Penetrators

EMP             Electromagnetic Pulse

EMT             Emergency Medical Technician

EU              European Union

FBI             Federal Bureau of Investigation

FEMA           Federal Emergency Management Agency

FISA           Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

HEAT           High-Explosive Anti-Tank

HUD             Heads-Up Display

ICBM           Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles

ID              Infantry Division

IDF             Israeli Defensive Force

IFV             Infantry Fighting Vehicle

IR              Islamic Republic

JSTAR                  Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile

LNO             Liaison Officer

LT              Lieutenant

MANPAD       Man Portable Missile

MBT             Main Battle Tanks

MEF             Marine Expeditionary Force

MIRV           Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles

MLRS           Multiple Launch Rocket System

NAD             New American Dollars

NATO           North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NCDC           National Control Defense Center

NCO             Non-Commissioned Officer

NSA             National Security Agency

NSC             National Security Council

OCONUS       Outside Continental United States

PE              Private Equity

PLA             People’s Liberation Army (Chinese Army)

PLAAF         People’s Liberation Army Air Force (Chinese Air Force)

PLAN           People’s Liberation Army Navy (Chinese Navy)

PM              Prime Minister

PMC             Private Military Corporation

PRC             People’s Republic of China

QRF             Quick-Reaction Force

RA              Royal Army (British)

RAF             Royal Air Force

RFID           Radio Frequency Identification

ROK             Republic of Korea (North Korea)

SACEUR       NATO Supreme Allied Commander

SAEF           South American Expeditionary Force

SAM             Surface-to-Air Missile

SCZ             Suez Canal Zone

SecDef                Secretary of Defense

SD              Science Division

SF              Special Forces

SFC             Sergeant First Class

SLBM           Submarine Launch Ballistic Missile

SSBM           Nuclear-Powered Ballistic Missile Submarines

SUD             Swordfish Underwater Drone

UD              Underwater Drone

XO              Executive Officer (second in charge)

3C              Command, Control & Communication

Operation Red Dawn and the Siege of Europe

Book Three of the World War III Series

By

James Rosone & Miranda Watson

Copyright Information

©2016, 2019, James Rosone and Miranda Watson, in conjunction with Front Line Publishing, Inc. Except as provided by the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Triumphant Landing

Chapter 2: Walls and Trenches

Chapter 3: Battle at Anchor Point

Chapter 4: Changing Tactics

Chapter 5: British Situation Room

Chapter 6: Red Square

Chapter 7: Tank Pressure Cooker

Chapter 8: Brains of the Operation

Chapter 9: Sky Full of Drones

Chapter 10: Killjoy

Chapter 11: Decisions in the Dark

Chapter 12: Occupation Offer

Chapter 13: Unintended Consequences

Chapter 14: A Problem with Math

Chapter 15: Raptor Rapture

Chapter 16: DARPA

Chapter 17: Smart and Bored

Chapter 18: Trying to See Eight Moves Ahead

Chapter 19: F41 Flight

Chapter 20: HULK

Chapter 21: Interrogator

Chapter 22: Teach and Train

Chapter 23: SecDef Pow-wow

Chapter 24: Peddling a Pan Asian Alliance

Chapter 25: Bait and Switch?

Chapter 26: Russian Reset

Chapter 27: Alaskan Autumn

Chapter 28: Too Little, Too Late

Chapter 29: European Tide Shifts

Chapter 30: Grid Attack

Chapter 31: Fighting Retreat

Chapter 32: Plans of Betrayal

Chapter 33: Thor and the Bodark

Chapter 34: Sinking SUDs

Chapter 35: Mirages

Chapter 36: A Day to Live in Infamy

Chapter 37: West Coast Landing

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key

Chapter 1

Triumphant Landing

1 June 2041

Kodiak, Alaska

As General Jing Zhu stepped off of his boat and onto the shore near Kodiak, Alaska, he felt the breeze against his face; the texture of the stones beneath his feet, the metallic smell of the blood poured out from all the dead, and the rumbling sounds of machine gun fire in the distance all made him feel the thrill of being lucky to be alive. The Americans had not succeeded in stopping his men; he was filled with confidence and pride.

He was ushered into the temporary command center, which was nothing more than the ransacked remains of a blown out town hall. The setting was not quite as glorious as he had hoped, but he would not be deterred. Jing Zhu had waited for this day his whole life. As he entered the room, the others stood, bowing slightly as was their custom.

“Generals, Admiral,” he began. “For the first time in modern history, a foreign army has invaded America. Today marks the end of America…and the rise of the People’s Republic of China.”

*******

Once the ceremony of the moment was over, the work of making the building an acceptable site for the new headquarters began. Numerous communications and computer technicians began to rummage through the ruins, setting up various computer screens, holographic communications systems and what seemed like miles of wiring. Engineers started erecting a roof over the destroyed portions of the building, shoring up the various support beams to ensure the building would be a safe location for the management of the war effort, at least until the series of underground bunkers that were planned could be constructed. General Zhu walked over to Admiral Lang Xing, the overall PLAN naval infantry commander, and asked, “What is the status of our forces at the frontlines?” He was trying to get a feel for the current situation.

Over the past decade, Lang Xing had meticulously studied the United States Marines’ amphibious program and their training exercises. He had modeled the PLAN naval infantry tactics around the Marines and drilled his forces relentlessly for years, weeding out those who could not hack it, and fine tuning his military force. When the plans for Operation Red Dragon were drawn up, it was clear the Chinese would need a large amphibious capability if they were to secure a beachhead for the PLA and their heavier equipment to get on shore. Admiral Xing had created an amphibious landing force of nearly 180,000 soldiers, the best soldiers of any branch. During the first four months of the war, his troops had gained experience fighting in Taiwan, Guam and the Philippines. Now they were leading the invasion of America.

“General Zhu, my naval infantry has dislodged the Americans on the beach and cut through their second line of defense three kilometers inland. They are currently engaging the Americans about ten kilometers inland at a much more substantial defensive position. Our light tanks are helping, but we now need the much thicker armor of the PLA’s heavy tanks. We will require additional artillery and air support to break through their defensive works.”

Pulling up some images on his tablet, Lang Xing continued, “As you can see, they also have heavy artillery that appear to be sliding in and out of hiding locations in the mountains.”

General Zhu studied the maps, images and video for a few minutes, thinking to himself, “The Americans have been very busy preparing this position for our eventual arrival.”

Zhu responded aloud, “Admiral, the PLA is landing heavy tanks and artillery as we speak. I want your naval infantry to begin withdrawing as new PLA units move forward over the next twenty-four hours. I want your forces to reorganize and prepare for the next landings at Anchor Point, Homer and Seward and the drive towards Anchorage. The Americans are probably going to be defending these landing zones with many more soldiers. I will need your forces ready for the next landings,” General Zhu directed.

“Yes, General. My men look forward to leading the way,” the Admiral replied.  He smiled to himself, knowing that his naval infantry had thus far performed to perfection.

*******

Over the next three days, the PLA landed 190,000 soldiers on the Alaskan shores, and began to phase out the naval infantry so they could be used for the next critical seaborne landing. As additional heavy tanks and artillery were brought aground, the American positions came under increasing pressure from the PLA. They had held the line, despite numerous human wave and armored assaults, but that would only last for so long. American casualties continued to mount, with no means of evacuating them to the mainland.

The Americans had known for several months that the Chinese would try to capture Kodiak Island, and had built a series of heavy defensive networks about ten kilometers inland from the shore along the various ridges and low lining mountain ranges. Most of these defensive positions were independent of each other, but they were all built to provide each site with both direct and indirect fire support to help defend each other. With heavy railguns, artillery and mortars, the Americans could rain down indirect fire all across the approaches to their positions, making it incredibly difficult to attack without taking substantial casualties. Aside from the various trench positions, the engineers had built numerous reinforced bunker positions to allow the defenders to ride out enemy bombardments and quickly man their fighting positions when needed. Tunnels had been dug beneath most of the strongholds, allowing the defensive commanders to shift soldiers from one defensive firebase to another without the enemy knowing what was happening.

Major General Justin Daily and his 58,000 soldiers needed to hold Kodiak Island for as long as possible. As long as they remained on the island, the Chinese could not use it as a base of operations for their aircraft or supplies. American 155mm artillery pieces could hit nearly every position on the island. The PLAN and PLAAF had yet to identify all of their positions despite the relentless bombing and artillery barrages they hit the Americans with. As artillery scouts would identify a supply transport heading to the beach to offload their cargo, they would call in a couple of well-placed artillery rounds to destroy it and then quickly pull the artillery guns back under cover.

Chapter 2

Walls and Trenches

4 June 2041

Kodiak, Alaska

Private First Class (PFC) Lenny Peters had joined the Army right after the war had been declared against the Islamic Republic. He had an older brother who had joined the Navy several years earlier and was one of the sailors who had died during the IRs surprise attack against the 5th Fleet in the Red Sea. Lenny had been working for the American First Corporation and had a good paying job; his parents were distraught over his decision to leave his position to join the Army. However, he felt he needed to do something to avenge the loss of his brother and get some payback.

After completing basic combat training, Lenny had been assigned to the 2nd battalion, 3rd brigade, 12th Infantry Division as part of an 81mm mortar team. They arrived on Kodiak Island in March of 2041, and immediately began construction of their defensive positions with the Army Corps of Engineers. Despite it being winter, the island had been spared from the extreme weather that much of Alaska had experienced; as of yet, Kodiak Island had not had a heavy blanketing of snow. This enabled a lot of work to still be done on the island. Lenny’s platoon had been assigned to build a series of five-foot-deep trenches, bunkers, machine gun nests and mortar pits. As the winter turned to spring, they began to clear trees and identify pre-targeted positions for their mortar tubes. The plan was for them to fire several rounds from their first position and then rotate to their next position. This way they would not attract counter-battery fire, and if they did, they would be long gone from that position and firing from another one. Their sergeant had them build five mortar pits, thinking that should be enough. However, during the first three days of the invasion, three of the five had been destroyed. When they were not conducting fire missions, their sergeant had them rebuilding the demolished mortar pits. They were conducting dozens of fire missions a day, sending hundreds of mortars at the Chinese.

Over the past two days, the Chinese counter-battery fire was starting to become more effective, and they had lost nearly half of the soldiers in their platoon. They had also seen a difference in the forces they were facing. The first day it was clear they were fighting Chinese naval infantry; those soldiers were equipped with exoskeleton combat suits and fought more as individual teams rather than large clusters. During the second day of the fighting, they began to be swarmed by human wave attacks, overrun by just the extreme number of fighters. They reported their observations to higher headquarters. Their sergeant came back and told them, “The naval infantry is probably gearing up to invade the next set of islands, or maybe the mainland.”

The fighting was gnarly and bloody, raging nearly non-stop since the Chinese had invaded. Slowly and steadily, the PLA had captured one firebase after another, despite the valiant efforts of the division to repulse them. The PLA’s heavy use of artillery and human wave assaults were starting to take their toll. The American lines continued to shrink.

Chapter 3

Battle at Anchor Point

4 June 2041

Anchor Point, Alaska

Staff Sergeant (SSG) Paul Allen was a twenty-one-year-old young man from Wisconsin. He had joined the Army after graduating high school during the American military build-up. His main objectives in volunteering were to get the $25,000 signing bonus and GI Bill to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering once his four-year commitment was done. SSG Allen had been transferred to the 32nd Infantry Division, XI Army Group, Second Army, Alaska after recovering from the wounds he received while fighting as part of the 1st Infantry Division in the battle over Jerusalem. He had managed to survive several bullet wounds to the chest, and after going through several surgeries and physical rehabilitation, he was ready to continue his service to his country. His wounds had afforded him a promotion to Staff Sergeant, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart medal. Now his experience was being put to good use in helping form the NCO leadership of the new 32nd Infantry Division. Close to half of the NCOs and officers had been previously wounded in the Middle East or Europe--rather than returning to their old units, they were becoming part of the nucleus of the new infantry divisions being formed in the US.

Paul missed his friends from his old unit and tried to stay in touch with some of them as best he could. They had been together during the initial invasion of Mexico, and then through the war in Israel. He knew they were fighting the Russians now, and he was glad to see that several of them were still alive after the last major battle. A couple of them had not been so lucky…this saddened him greatly. He had lost so many good friends during these past eight months. It was a lot to take in for a twenty-one-year-old man. On top of the loss of his comrades in arms, SSG Allen was dealing with tragedy on the home front. Both of his parents had been killed in Baltimore while visiting his sister and her husband for Christmas. No one could have predicted that the IR would detonate a nuclear bomb in the city. Paul still had two brothers, both living in Madison, Wisconsin, where they were from, but the weight of the grief SSG Allen carried was beginning to wear like a heavy anchor around his soul.

Since arriving in Alaska six weeks ago, Paul had been assigned as the platoon sergeant until their new Sergeant First Class completed his advanced NCO career development course. The Army was trying to run as many of their NCOs through these advanced courses as they could when the soldiers were not actively in combat (they were doing their best to rebuild and expand their NCO cadre after so many losses and the massive expansion of the military). Paul’s company had been assigned to Anchor Point, less than a few miles from Homer, Alaska. They had the unenviable task of defending the several mile-long beach front from the Chinese. It was anticipated that the Reds would land their troops all along the peninsula to secure it for their eventual assault on Anchorage and the rest of Alaska. It was up to the men of the 32nd Infantry Division to stop them.

An engineering battalion had assisted them in developing a series of integrated trenches, machine gun nests and bunkers to ride out the eventual Chinese bombardments. They knew the Chinese naval infantry would be using their new exoskeleton combat suits, so to slow them down they had designed a number of obstacles and mazes of concertina wire that would force them to have to navigate into carefully designed kill boxes. Thousands of landmines, claymore anti-personnel mines and other explosives had been woven all across the beaches and the first several hundred meters inland. They had also set up numerous anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns and missile systems in their defensive network. The 9th Armored Division deployed a battalion of Pershing main battle tanks, and the engineers dug a number of tank berms for them to hunker down in. A tank would usually fire a couple of shots from one berm, and then quickly move to the next one, rotating between locations to avoid shooting from the same position too many times and being easily identified.

When the construction of this well-laid trap was complete, SSG Allen had looked at their work, stretching back to see the entire landscape. He smiled confidently, thinking to himself, “When the Chinese do eventually land their forces on Anchor Point, they will be in for a surprise.”

General Black had positioned nearly 60,000 soldiers on the Peninsula, along with 400 tanks. It was important to bog the Chinese down on the beaches for as long possible and to bleed them dry. The Reds could only bring a limited number of soldiers with them for the invasion. Preventing them from establishing a strong foothold was key to keeping them out of Alaska. That was why General Black had spent so many resources on turning Kodiak Island and Anchor Point into the fortresses they had become. It would take time for the Chinese to ferry troops from the mainland to Alaska, and the longer they could keep the Chinese from establishing a forward base of operations, airports and seaports, the better the chances were of eventually repulsing their invasion before the weather turned back to the Americans’ favor with the arrival of winter.

Despite the best-laid plans, the past three days had been horrific for the soldiers of the 12th Infantry Division. The Chinese fleet had parked their ships offshore, and were launching volley after volley at the American coastline. Though most of the attacks were taking place on the Aleutian Peninsula and Kodiak Island, Anchor Point and Homer were starting to be bombarded on a regular basis. Since the Americans still did not have visual contact with the Chinese landing craft, most of the soldiers continued to ride out the bombardments in their various bunkers, turrets and machine gun bunkers, reading books, praying, writing letters to home or simply sleeping, waiting for the inevitable.

On the second day of the invasion, several Chinese ground attack aircraft and drones started to bombard the trench networks, only to be shot down quickly by the various air defense systems. The battle for the skies above Anchorage continued to rage as hundreds of drones and manned fighter aircraft continued to fight for dominance. This limited the volume of air strikes that could hit Anchor Point and Homer, but did little to dissuade the Chinese navy from using their naval guns.

It was not until the fifth day of the arrival of the Chinese invasion fleet that the soldiers of the 32nd Division started to see the first sign of a potential landing force. Several Chinese destroyers moved into the bay of Anchorage and sailed to within a mile of the shore to start providing more direct fire against some of the heavier fixed American defenses. The Reds started sending out a few smaller vessels ahead of the group as bait; as the Americans would fire on the ships, the Chinese were quickly identifying the camouflaged gun emplacements and counter-attacking those targets.

As the destroyers moved into position and began to open fire, several 155mm artillery guns that had been leveled to act as shore battery guns opened fire, engaging the destroyers. A handful of 20mm railguns also joined the fray, adding their own firepower to the short engagement. From a distance it looked like a laser show as the tracer rounds, missiles and explosions shook both the land and ships. The ships being shot at were quickly becoming riddled with holes and began to sink quickly as the railguns cut right through their armor igniting ammunition stores and fuel. In less than ten minutes, three of the five Chinese destroyers had been sunk in the shallow waters, while the other two destroyers limped back to deeper waters and the rest of the fleet. When the Chinese invasion fleet did make their move on Anchor Point, they were going to have to fight through a well-established fortress at the head of the bay of Anchorage.

By the end of the sixth day, the PLA had successfully landed and secured most of the Kachemak Bay State Park and began to set up hundreds of 152mm artillery pieces and a variety of rocket artillery. It was at this point the artillery duels began in full force, with the Chinese firing thousands of artillery and rockets at Homer and Anchor Point while the American artillery did their best to conduct counter-battery fire. The PLAAF had also established nine small airfields along the Aleutian Peninsula, ferrying in hundreds of fighter and bomber attack drones from Mainland China. With the defeat of a large portion of the American fighter and bomber drones at Eielson AFB in Fairbanks during the first day of the invasion, the Americans were slowly losing control of the skies over Homer and Anchor Point. With the air war starting to tilt in the Chinese favor, they began to conduct more precision bombing of Anchor Point, hitting a number of the artillery and heavy gun emplacements and some of the Pershing tanks. It would not be long now until the Chinese launched their landing force.

*******

In the early morning hours of the seventh day of the invasion, the PLA, PLAAF and PLAN launched a massive artillery, missile, naval and air bombardment at the Anchor Point peninsula. The assault lasted for several hours; as dawn drew near, the PLA shifted their attacks to hit the peninsula with hundreds of smoke rounds, adding a heavy layer of dense visual cover to the moonscape defensive lines. The American commanders on the ground knew this was probably when the PLAN would launch their amphibious landing and begin to secure the peninsula for the eventual assault and capture of Anchorage. Despite the heavy smoke bombardment, the American commanders could see right through it; dozens of miniaturized surveillance drones were launched into the air, feeding the data collected by their thermal cameras to the displays in their helmets.

Using the cover of smoke and the bombardment, the PLAN had maneuvered dozens of cruisers, destroyers and frigates into the channel to provide cover fire. Now hundreds of landing craft and thousands of amphibious assault vehicles were swarming towards the beach. As the commanders saw the images of the sea vessels headed their way, they quickly grabbed their coms, “The Chinese are in full-out landing assault pattern. Be prepared to engage!”

*******

As Paul sat inside of his command bunker eating an MRE (Meals, Ready to Eat), he couldn’t help but admire the beauty in his surroundings. Despite the beach in front of his position being ringed with concertina wire and other obstacles, you could still see the mountains off in the distance across the bay. The waves were lapping against the gravel shore and the seagulls were squawking as they flew around the coastline. Soon this area would be turned into a cauldron of death, but for right now, it was peaceful.

As he munched on the jalapeno cheese sauce and crackers (his favorite part of the meal), his blissful reflection was interrupted. His HUD suddenly became a loud barrage of instructions being barked at him. He shoved the remainder of his crackers and cheese into his pocket (he wasn’t about to waste those, he had traded for them in the first place), and sprang into action. His platoon was to man the two heavy machine gun nests and the one hundred meters of trench line that connected them both. After receiving his orders, he started handing out instructions of his own. “Listen up, platoon! The Chinese are headed our way. Time to man the battle stations! Stop whatever you are doing, grab your gear, leave the bunkers and get to your assigned position now!”

His platoon had four .50 M2 machine guns in each of the two bunkers and two M134 7.62mm Miniguns. Two of the M2s were aligned to the right of the bunker, providing a ninety-degree arc of covering fire along the beach and the second bunker his platoon manned. The other two machine guns covered the left side of the bunker with the same ninety-degree arc covering the other machine gun first platoon manned and part of their trench line. In between both M2s was the venerable M134 Minigun. The M134 was a belt fed, electrically operated rotating six-barrel machine gun that could be set to fire between 2,000 and 6,000 7.62mm rounds a minute. Both of these machine guns were old in comparison to the more advanced M5 AIR, but their rate of fire and ability to defend the beach were all that mattered. All of the bunkers had been designed to provide each other interlocking fields of cover, so as the landing craft got near the beach they could engage them. Then, as the enemy came ashore, they would rake the beach with heavy machine gun fire. In the rear of the bunkers were built several magazine holds for all of the ammunition for the heavy machine guns. There were 750,000 rounds for the M2 and nearly 2,500,000 rounds for the M134. Despite several days of heavy bombardment, the bunkers were still intact--damaged albeit, but still functional.

SSG Allen continued handing out orders, “Those of you manning the trench line—keep your heads down until the Chinese land the first wave of troops. There is no need to expose yourselves until absolutely necessary. The bunkers will draw most of the enemy fire until the soldiers in the trenches have to engage the troops coming ashore.”

SSG Allen was standing in one of the bunkers, watching through a spotter scope as the wind blew most of the smoke away from their view of the water. Suddenly, he saw hundreds of landing crafts and vehicles heading towards the beach to his front. “Echo Five, this is Bunker 34. We have visual of hoards of Chinese landing crafts headed our way. Requesting immediate fire support, over.”

“Bunker 34, this is Echo Five. We copy. Fire mission on its way.”

Within minutes, artillery and mortar rounds started to hit numerous predetermined points in the water several hundred meters in front of the beach. Some of the landing crafts exploded as an artillery or mortar round scored a direct hit; others were sloshed around by near misses.

As the landing crafts neared the beach, SSG Allen ordered, “Soldiers with the .50s—time to open fire. Start taking them out.”

“FGM-148 Javelins, start firing!” came the next call. The Javelins were fire-and-forget anti-tank missiles, with a longer range than the venerable AT6 rockets. They were guided missiles, which gave the soldiers the power to correct their flight path if needed.

A few moments later, several landing craft reached the beach, and then suddenly, as if appearing from thin air, there were hundreds of PLAN infantry in their exoskeleton combat suits rushing towards the American soldiers with superhuman speed and agility. SSG Allen felt his stomach drop through his knees. “Everyone, engage the Chinese on the beach! Kill them all!”

The M2s and M134s began to traverse back and forth across the beach, decimating the ranks of the PLAN. As the one-inch diameter rounds of the .50 hit their targets, they severed arms and legs, and absolutely shredded the Chinese body armor. Soldiers were literally being ripped apart. The miniguns were devastating the remaining Chinese soldiers rushing the beaches. The volume of fire was awe-inspiring for the defenders as they could see entire squads of Chinese soldiers simply cut apart by the two Miniguns working in tandem. The soldiers manning the trenches began engaging the enemy infantrymen as quickly as they identify a target.

Several of the sergeants manning the various claymore anti-personnel mines started to detonate them as small clusters or groups of enemy soldiers started to coordinate their attacks against the American positions. Across the beach and trench line, there were airburst explosions from artillery and rockets throwing shrapnel everywhere. The cacophony of high explosives, machine guns, grenades, missiles and rockets was numbing.

SSG Allen tapped one of his heavy machine gunners on the shoulder and pointed towards a target. The gunner moved his gun towards a landing craft just as the front door dropped and opened fire. He quickly walked his stream of bullets through the entire landing craft as Chinese soldiers were desperately trying to crawl over the sides of the craft to get away from the slaughter. Within seconds, the machine gunner had killed nearly everyone in that landing craft before setting his sights on the next closest Chinese vehicle bringing more soldiers to the beach. While one soldier began to reload the M2, another soldier began to pour a bucket of water slowly across the red hot barrel. They did not have time to change the barrels, so they needed to cool the gun so it wouldn’t melt and become unserviceable.

Dozens of Chinese soldiers were getting bogged down in the concertina wire and the various anti-personnel obstacles that the engineers had placed in their paths. Several PLAN soldiers were trying to cut a hole through the wire when an artillery round exploded ten feet above the ground, throwing shrapnel and body parts everywhere. Despite the enormous losses the Chinese were taking; SSG Allen could see the enemy was starting to get off of the sandy beach and move inland. He was starting to get a little nervous. The Chinese appeared like a plague of locusts, consuming and destroying everything in their path.

Trying to remain positive, Paul continued to relay calming words of encouragement to the men and women in his platoon. It had been nearly twenty-five minutes since the first Chinese soldiers landed on the beach, and it was a bloodbath.

SSG Allen could see on his HUD that eight soldiers of his fifty-two-man platoon had been killed; another eleven more were injured and currently being treated by the medics. A couple of the wounded were being moved back to the second line of defense, while the others were being treated and thrown back into the fight. Near Bunker 34 (the machine gun bunker SSG Allen was directing his platoon from) was a steel door that led to a tunnel that went to the second trench line 500 meters behind them. Every fifty meters, the tunnel made a short right or left turn, preventing the enemy from being able to fire down the entire tunnel or shoot a rocket down it. If it appeared that their position was going to be overrun, this would be the tunnel where the platoon would attempt to make their great escape. When the last soldier closed the door, there were several heavy bolts that would lock the door in place, and at the end of each tunnel section there was a charge that could be detonated, imploding that portion of the tunnel and preventing the enemy from being able to use it.

While SSG Allen was watching the medics move two wounded soldiers to the rear, he looked up and saw the third wave of landing craft heading towards their position. Paul contacted the company commander on his HUD, “Captain Shiller, this is SSG Allen; the Chinese are continuing to bring in additional landing craft. We need an air strike or additional artillery support to help take them out!”

“Copy that Allen. I will try to get some air support, but artillery will be our best option.”

“I’m not sure we can hold up against a third wave, Sir,” Paul responded. “We more or less stopped the first wave at the beach. The second wave has made it past the beach and is nearly at our current position. A third wave will likely overrun us…”

“A platoon of Pershing Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) and several armored personnel carriers are moving up to your position. Hold the line; support will be there soon!”

*******

Sergeant John Porter moved his Pershing MBT right behind Bunker 34 as he was directed to and immediately began to engage the landing craft and amphibious vehicles heading towards the beach. Porter could not believe his eyes; the horizon was covered with landing craft. He took a deep breath, then turned to PFC Higgins, his tank operator. “It’s time for us to start engaging targets; as I call them out, you begin to fire.”

“Roger.”

Porter keyed his sights in until he identified an amphibious assault craft. “Fire!” he commanded.

“Firing,” Higgins responded.

In quick succession, Porter’s tank began to engage one craft after another, destroying them swiftly. In just moments, they had taken out twelve landing craft before they could get to the beach.

Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked a nearby location, filling their chests with the reverberation of the sound vibrations. Once Porter had recovered from the shock, he grabbed his scope and saw that to their left, Sergeant Louis’ Pershing had exploded from a direct hit.

Several more blasts rocked Porter’s tank as Chinese destroyers began engaging his tank. Porter was about to give the order for them to reposition when the tank was impacted with a direct hit. In an instant, the cabin was on fire. Sergeant Porter just could not get the hatch open fast enough…the tank exploded.

*******

SSG Allen’s bunker shook as the battle tank near them exploded. Additional ship and artillery rounds began to hit their bunker, rattling everyone in it. He was amazed at how many landing vehicles and amphibious vehicles had been destroyed by the tanks within just a few minutes of their arrival; it was tragic that they were destroyed so quickly. Fortunately for SSG Allen and his team, none of the rounds from the naval guns were flying at a flat enough trajectory to hit the gun slits in the bunker. The PLAN infantry had also made several attempts to hit their position with RPGs, but they had not gotten lucky so far.

PFC Gomez turned from his scope to provide an update, “SSG Allen, the third wave is getting ready to land, it looks like our tanks took out a few dozen of the larger landing crafts before they were destroyed.”

“Private Gomez, shift fire from the beach to those landing craft that are heading towards Bunker 33,” SSG Allen ordered.

“On it, Sergeant!”

Gomez shifted the .50 back to the water and fired a stream of rounds into one of the amphibious vehicles that was closing in on the beach. After firing a few dozen rounds into the vehicle, it exploded, killing all of its occupants. Gomez redirected fire to the next landing craft as it started to exit the water, driving up on the beach. Just as the vehicle dropped the rear ramp, it exploded; several PLAN infantrymen came running out of the vehicle on fire. Gomez quickly gunned them down.

As the third wave of naval infantry hit the beach, they quickly began to join their brethren, who had hunkered down behind anything that would stop a bullet. Suddenly, a massive surge of infantry began to rush Bunker 33 and the trench near it. SSG Allen saw a rather brave Chinese soldier jump up with an RPG7 and fire it at Bunker 33. His shot was perfectly aimed, and it hit the gun slit, exploding into the bunker. Within seconds, there was a small explosion inside of the bunker and the guns went silent. At that moment, SSG Allen yelled at Gomez, “Shift fire! Lay into them before they reach the bunker and trench line.”

The minigunner also redirected fire to the bunker. She cut down several dozen Chinese soldiers in the span of a couple of seconds. Unfortunately, a number of Chinese soldiers launched themselves into the trench line and began fighting the Americans in hand-to-hand combat before Gomez or the minigunner could mow them all down.

One Chinese soldier threw a satchel charge into the back entrance of Bunker 33. Seconds later, it exploded, blowing flame and smoke out through the gun slits. The bunker was thoroughly destroyed as additional naval infantry continued to rush the trench line.

With one bunker down, it meant that SSG Allen’s bunker was now exposed. He looked down and saw the Chinese rushing his position. He quickly detonated the last of his claymore mines, wiping out dozens of enemy soldiers. Allen stepped out of his bunker and fired a green flare in the sky, letting the second line of defense know their lines had been penetrated and to signal to his own platoon it was time to bug out.

The remaining soldiers in SSG Allen’s platoon began to run down the escape tunnel for safety. SSG Allen stayed behind longer to seal the bunker door just as the last soldier made it in, then he ran for the escape tunnel. He blew the charge in the bunker, destroying it behind them. After he reached the first turn, he detonated the second charge, destroying the first part of the tunnel to ensure no Chinese soldiers could follow behind them. As the remains of his platoon emerged from the tunnel, they were welcomed by defenders who praised them for their valiant effort at the beach. They had succeeded in slowing down the Chinese advance and effectively wiped out the first two waves of their assault.

Thoughts raced through Paul’s mind. He felt lucky to have survived, and grateful that close to half of his platoon had made it out with him. The images of the battle raced through his head, overloading him with gruesome scenes. These pictures at the beach and in front of the bunker would haunt him for the rest of his life; thousands of PLAN infantrymen had been wiped out trying to secure his platoon’s two bunkers and trench line.

*******

Today was the day the PLAN was going to begin its final amphibious assault. They had handed over Kodiak Island to the PLA and reformed up at sea, ready for their last attack that would pave the way to Anchorage. Corporal Chang, like the other soldiers, was nervous about the coming assault. The Army, Navy and Air Force had been pounding Homer and Anchor Point peninsula for days. Rumor had it, several destroyers had been sunk when they got too close to the peninsula. A number of the soldiers in Chang’s squad wondered how their lowly landing vehicles would get close enough to the beach if the shore guns had defeated a couple of destroyers.

Everyone’s coms came to life at the same time, “Board the amphibious assault vehicles and landing crafts. Move quickly! Our time to invade has arrived.”

Chang and his squad boarded the landing craft along with the rest of their platoon; his squad was towards the back of the craft which meant they would be the last off. He realized that this was not a good place to be if he wanted to get to cover quickly. Everyone performed their final checks on their exoskeleton combat suits and equipment as the landing craft moved away from the troop transport and started to form up with the other ships. Steadily, the group of landing crafts began to navigate around the channel until they could see Anchor Point in the distance.

Chang lifted himself slightly above the lip of the landing craft to sneak a peek at the beach. He saw hundreds of rockets and artillery rounds impacting all along the shore, sending geysers of sand, dirt and other materials into the sky. As his boat advanced towards the beach, he saw flashes of light from several well-hidden bunkers on the beach reach out and destroy several of the vessels around him. Red tracers (like lasers) could be seen crisscrossing the water, hitting several vehicles; some rounds bounced off harmlessly while others penetrated the lightly armored landing craft, causing some of them to explode.

As Chang’s landing craft neared the beach, he readied himself and did a check on his exoskeleton suit. He reminded his squad mates of their objective, “Men, we are assigned to take out the machine gun bunker to the right of our landing craft once we hit the beach. You have your weapons—satchel charges and RPG7s. Our goal is to disable or destroy our target as quickly as possible to make way for the second and third waves to advance.”

The soldiers had been told to expect the Americans to have heavy M2 .50 machine guns in the bunkers, but none of them were anticipating the two M134 miniguns as well. As their landing craft neared the beach, several machine gun rounds hit the front ramp and bounced off. Within seconds, the ramp dropped. Chang’s platoon began to rush forward with the rest of the swarm, trying to advance quickly towards the beach. As they were running, one of the heavy machine gunners turned their sights towards his platoon. Within seconds, nearly a dozen men in his platoon had been mowed down by the heavy guns. Chang knew he had to get his squad to some cover quickly or that heavy machine gun was going to cut them apart. Suddenly, Chang heard a loud buzzing sound and saw what looked like a flickering laser reach out from the bunker in front of him and massacred an entire platoon to his left. He had never seen one of the American miniguns used at a beach invasion and could not believe how fast the platoon had been wiped out. They desperately needed to take out those bunkers before they were all killed.

About 100 meters in from the shoreline was a bank where the sand ended and the grass began. As Chang looked up at the horizon to the small dips and rises in the ground past that point, he could see rows of torn and partially destroyed concertina wire and obstacles, spaced about ten meters apart. PLAN infantrymen were rushing these obstacles, doing their best to either destroy it or cut open wide holes for others to follow through. Several of the armored amphibious landing vehicles did their best to plow through as much of the defensive line as they could before they were destroyed by enemy railguns, mortars and artillery. Their sacrifice was heroic, and probably the only thing preventing the first wave of the assault from being completely wiped out.

Chang moved along with his squad through the various obstacles. They all did their best not to get cut down by enemy fire, and took advantage of as many opportunities to shoot back at the Americans as they could. They were managing to plow along at a fair clip, considering the immense amount of crossfire. In an instant, an explosion occurred near Chang that was so powerful, it picked up the soldier behind him and threw him at Chang’s back. Chang fell flat on his face. He groaned; his nose was partially filled with sand, but the concussion from the blast had stunned him enough that he was powerless to move in that instant. For a brief moment, he lost consciousness. When he came to, he struggled to push the soldier off of his back. As he heard the thump of the man rolling off of him, Chang could see that he was clearly dead.

Looking back, he saw several members of his squad thrown around, some were moving slowly, recovering from the shock, and others were not moving at all. One of the soldiers had stepped on a landmine; it had nearly taken the entire squad out. He was reeling from the shock of it all.

Another loud explosion brought Chang back to reality. He quickly glanced to his left and saw that further down the beach, sand, dirt, and body parts were being blown into the air as several artillery rounds hit the beach. Seconds later, Chang was back on his feet. He yelled at his squad, “Continue to advance to the embankment for cover! And try to take that gun bunker out!”

Hundreds of other Chinese soldiers in their new exoskeleton combat suits were also moving quickly through the obstacles, rushing for the embankment and the sense of shelter. Chang was nearly to the embankment with his squad and the rest of his company when a series of explosions in front of the embankment went off. Several of the claymore anti-personnel mines had been triggered; the concussion was so strong that Chang was hurled backwards into several of his soldiers.

Each of the claymore mines had released 480 steel balls as it detonated, like a shotgun at very close range. As Chang recovered from the blast, he felt a twinge of pain in his left arm, and a throbbing in both of his legs. He looked down and saw that he had been hit by a couple of the steel balls in the arm; each of his legs had taken at least one round as well. He could not immediately get up, so he quickly crawled to the embankment, which was less than 50 meters in front of him. When he looked back, he saw that only three members of his squad remained from the ten men that had been with him when they left the landing craft. When his comrades realized that he was injured, they ran to him and dragged him by the shoulders to pull him further into the embankment. One of the soldiers began to work on his injuries with Chang’s first aid package, while the other two engaged the American soldiers in the trenches. They were about 150 meters from the bunker.

“I wrapped your injuries at tight as I could, and used the cream as we were taught,” one of the soldiers said to Chang.

“Thank you for the help Private. Take your RPG and try to see if you can hit the gun port of that machine gun bunker to our left. We have to try and take it out or no one is going to make it.” They each had an RPG7 with them, and a total of four rockets each. Chang knew the RPG could not destroy the bunker, it was too heavily reinforced. His hope was to hit the firing slit; the explosion of the RPG would travel inside the bunker and potentially destroy the gun or kill the Americans manning it.

As Chang looked back over the beach, he saw the third wave was already starting to hit the beach. He also saw dozens of bodies bobbing in the water all around burnt and blown out amphibious vehicles and landing craft. The beach itself was covered in bodies: some were stuck in the concertina wire, others were missing limbs or even half of their bodies from the various mines, and some were simply blown to bits by the mortars and artillery rounds that had landed in their midst. As he watched, he witnessed more soldiers getting cut down by those machine gun bunkers. He knew they had to be taken out.

One of the privates popped up long enough to fire his rocket at the bunker. Unfortunately, it impacted about two feet below the gun slit. The second private jumped up to fire his rocket, but was hit by several bullets from the Americans in the trench line in front of them. He died instantly.

Chang grabbed the RPG from his fallen brother-in-arms and slithered several feet down the embankment. He waited a moment to make sure that no enemy fire was aimed in his direction, and then he propped himself up to take aim at the bunker. He knew that the rocket would fall a little as it flew, so he set his sights just slightly above the gun slit. He fired the RPG, and then quickly ducked just as a stream of bullets and tracers flew over his head. When he did look up, he saw that his rocket had hit the gun slit and the machine gun had gone silent. Then smoke started emanating from within the bunker as it started to pour out of the gun slit. They had done it; they had accomplished their mission.

With the machine gun bunker now silent, hundreds of naval infantrymen rushed through the paths that had been made for them by the first two waves of the assault. They moved quickly to close the distance between them and the American soldiers in the trenches. Several rounds of claymore mines were detonated by the Yankees as the Chinese soldiers rushed forward, but without the second bunker, the lines were being overrun by sheer manpower.

Suddenly, dozens of Chinese soldiers were jumping into the trenches, fighting hand-to-hand with the Americans. Chang took another rocket from one of the dead privates and reloaded the RPG. He fired another round at the second gun position to their right. Chang saw a soldier open a side door briefly and fire a flare into the sky. Not knowing what this green glow meant, Chang took one more shot with the RPG, aiming at the steel door he had just seen the soldier shut; he was hoping to take him out.

Suddenly, the remaining American soldiers still in the trenches ran to the bunker and opened the now severely damaged steel door. In mere seconds, they were all inside the bunker. The Americans tried to close the door as best they could after Chang had hit it with the rocket. Seconds later, several Chinese soldiers blew the door open and rushed the entrance of the bunker. As they did, the entire thing exploded, killing everyone in it and injuring other soldiers nearby.

Chang looked to the two privates left in his squad. “Well done, soldiers! Continue on with the rest of the company while I wait for the medic to come and further address my injuries.”

Without any hesitation, they immediately moved forward, joining the rest of the naval infantrymen and advancing past the first trench line towards the second line of defense much further back.

As Chang looked at the carnage that was before him, he thought to himself, “If every battle with the Americans on their homeland is going to be like this, we are going to need a lot more men.” He had to give the Americans credit, they fought like savage dogs. They had made the Chinese pay dearly to take this land from them.

On the coastline, several larger landing crafts pulled up to the shore and opened their doors to offload a heavy main battle tank. “We sure could have used those things to help take out the gun positions,” thought Chang to himself. As the tanks moved across the beach, they ran over dozens of dead bodies as well as those of the wounded who could not get out of their way fast enough.

Immediately after the MBTs offloaded, a wave of medical personnel sprang forward and immediately went to work tending to the wounded and loading them back on to several of the landing craft that were still at the beach. As additional soldiers and medics advanced to Chang’s position, an officer came up to him and angrily asked him, “Why did you not advance with the rest of your company?”

Chang simply pointed to the bloody bandages on both of his legs, and a medic ran up to him. The officer hurried off and started to yell at another batch of soldiers he had found near the American trenches.

Chang was loaded onto a stretcher and moved to a landing craft, which then headed back to sea and to the troop transports. Chang’s part in the war was over for the time being.

*******

The PLAN infantry had secured Homer and Anchor Point, dislodging the Americans after twenty-one hours of continuous combat. They had moved ten kilometers inland before they were finally stopped by a battalion of American Pershing MBTs and several battalions of the older, yet still venerable, Abrams Tanks.

In the battle for Anchor Point, 14,373 American soldiers had been killed, wounded, or found to be missing. However, the PLAN naval infantry had been effectively destroyed as a fighting force. They had lost 41,235 soldiers who were killed, missing or wounded during the battle before the PLA began to land their force and assume the role of attacker. The PLAN had started the Alaskan campaign just three weeks prior, with 150,000 soldiers fully equipped with the new exoskeleton combat suits. Between the battles of Kodiak Island, the Aleutian Peninsula and the battle of Anchor Point, they had lost 86,438 soldiers. The PLA, by contrast, had lost less than 43,000 up to this point, but they still had not fully dislodged the American defenders from Kodiak Island.

*******

Dr. Dewei Zhong was in a holding pattern off shore. He would be part of the last group to reach Anchor Point. The first wave of doctors were Tieh Ta practitioners, who specialized in trauma injuries; they triaged the patients and would get to work setting broken bones and treating the soldiers who had lost limbs. The Tieh Ta practitioners would also offer to assist those who were too far beyond treatment in ending their lives peacefully. Dr. Zhong had mixed feelings about this practice, but Buddha had been tolerant of monks who had committed suicide in such cases, and so he kept his mouth shut and followed along, knowing that those who received such an offer were struggling under great suffering.

As Dr. Zhong waited offshore, he smiled to himself thinking about how much more equipment the Americans would need in order to do his job. He was quite sure that death rates with the American doctors would be at least double what theirs were with the limited amount of equipment they had under their budget. Dewei didn’t need all of those fancy gadgets in order to do his work. He could simply look at a patient’s face and their tongue and have a very good idea of whether or not infection had spread in the body, if IV fluids would be necessary, and which medicines would be of greatest use in restoring balance to the body.

While he was reflecting, his landing craft suddenly bumped into the shore, and he almost lost his balance as his ship lurched forward. Once everyone caught their footing, they all rushed forward as one unit, lugging their bulky bags of supplies. As more and more of the scene came into view, Dr. Zhong was no longer smiling…what unfolded before him was horrific, even past the limits of what he had imagined in his mind. The sheer enormity of the agony in front of him was overwhelming. There was hardly a place to stand where there wasn’t blood or the remnants of a soldier blown apart by an explosion. Dewei took a deep breath; if he allowed himself to think about it all, he was going to become useless. He needed to calm himself and focus on what was immediately in front of him.

Dr. Zhong set to work; once he started working with the patients, the automaticity kicked in, and he was able to be effective and swift. He moved steadily from patient to patient, administering a combination of traditional Chinese herbal medications and Western drugs, dressing wounds, starting IVs, and motioning to the medical transporters when a patient was stabilized enough to move back to the ship. Hours went by in what seemed like minutes, and then suddenly all of the wounded were cleared from the beach. Dewei returned to the boat, accompanying a patient who was not quite as stable as the rest.

As they took off towards the Middle Kingdom, Dr. Zhong continued his work. There would be very little sleep until they returned home and were relieved by other practitioners. Dewei moved swiftly from patient to patient, feeling the temperature on different parts of their body and giving instructions to assistants who would add or take away blankets. Dr. Zhong was a little more liberal with the pain medications than most of his colleagues; he knew that his fellow Chinese service men were very stoic in nature and that most would not ask him for assistance, but he felt that easing their suffering would be one way to bring better karma to himself. His movements were like a well-rehearsed dance; he did not waste time or energy, but steadily moved along, caring for others well into the night.

The final ships would come to collect the bodies of the dead, so that their families could give them a proper burial. If a soldier’s body was too damaged to be returned to the family, the family was given a set of their dog tags, along with any cremated remains that might have been collected. The Chinese believed that this dignity in passing would help ensure that the souls of the departed would continue to look after and care for their loved ones after their death.

Chapter 4

Changing Tactics

14 June 2041

White House, Situation Room

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Branson, had been discussing the casualties and the state of the war in Alaska with Eric Clarke (the Secretary of Defense) for close to half an hour before the start of the national security meeting with the President. Slowly, other members of the President’s national security team were filtering in with their aides in tow. They were reviewing their portions of the brief with their aides as they prepared for the grilling the President usually put his team through. Henry Stein was usually tough but fair in the meetings; he wanted unfiltered information about the situation on the ground. He typically did not get directly involved in the minutia of decisions, but he certainly wanted a clear picture of what was happening. Having served in the Second Iraq war and worked in the Department of Defense for many years before starting his own business, he had an adept understanding of the complexities involved in both fighting a war and the bureaucracy of managing one.

*******

In the Oval Office, President Stein sat in his chair talking with his Chief of Staff, Michael Montgomery (or “Monty” as he was usually called). They had been talking about domestic priorities and issues with Jeff Rogers, the Senior White House Economic Advisor, and Secretary of Treasury, Joyce Gibbs, before the National Security meeting. Secretary Gibbs had been reviewing the state of the economy.

“As you know, Sir, the US has been experiencing exponential growth the past five years since you have taken office. The America First Corporation (AFC) has been a boon for the U.S.A. As millions of Americans have been hired for reconstruction and infrastructure jobs all over the nation, the country has begun to turn around.” Jeff reviewed various charts and metrics with more detailed information, and Henry couldn’t help but start to daydream during the explanation. The President had established AFC to become a sort of sovereign wealth fund for the country, allowing it to leverage the various resources on federal lands all across the country. The money being generated by AFC was being used to shore up Social Security and help fund other aspects of the federal government in addition to providing hundreds of thousands of jobs. AFC was the only company allowed to mine and drill on federal land. They also planted fruit and nut trees along federal freeways and highways all across the country. It beautified the highways across America and again provided tens of thousands of jobs and tens of millions of tons of food a month.

Monty brought his boss back to reality as he asserted, “The economic news is good, Mr. President. Despite the draft and the fighting in Alaska, the economy continues to remain strong.”

“The economy is doing well enough, but we are still not producing enough materials needed for the war. The fighting in Alaska is chewing through equipment at a faster rate than we can replace it. The Russians are picking up their offensive again in Europe and General Gardner wants to invade the IR,” responded the President with a sigh as he sank a little deeper in his chair.

Knowing that getting depressed about the situation was not going to make it any better, the President quickly readjusted to a better thinking posture, resolving himself to find a solution. “I believe we are starting to run late for the National Security briefing; let’s head down and see what they have for us. When we are done, I want to return back to this discussion and figure out how we can increase manufacturing.”

“Yes Mr. President,” they responded.

Henry stood up and began to walk towards the door.

Monty quickly followed the President out of the Oval Office and was thinking about that very question. The auto-industry had retooled their manufacturing plants months ago to crank out tanks and other armored vehicles at a record rate. The massive transition to additive manufacturing was starting to revolutionize the entire manufacturing sector. The U.S. could mass produce the materials needed to build a fighter drone in less than ten days. The goal was to get that number down to five. General Motors was working on being able to do the same thing with most of the component parts for the Pershing battle tanks and other infantry fighting vehicles. America just needed time to make the tools needed to win this war.

The President strode into the Situation Room, signaling for everyone to stay seated as he walked to the head of the table and sat down. As Monty took a seat next to him, he began, “Let’s talk domestic issues first if we can, then transition to the war.” As he spoke, the President looked towards Jorge Perez, the Director for Homeland Security. At meetings like this, the President would often “call an audible,” changing the order of the agenda; this forced everyone to be ready to give their portion of the briefing at any given time.

Jorge Perez had been the Director for Homeland Security since the President first formed his cabinet. He probably would have retired at the end of President Steins first term to slow down and take a job in the private sector, but the terrorist attacks had become a blight in the country, and then the war broke out, and he felt he could not leave his position at such a critical moment. “Mr. President, we have identified ninety-three additional foreign intelligence operatives across the country. Most of them worked for the Russians, with a few belonging to China. They were probably activated once the invasion began.” As Director Perez spoke, several slides were shown with images of the more valuable individuals that had been detained.

“Most of the detainees were in the process of committing some act of economic or military sabotage to our forces operating in Alaska or British Columbia. We are working with the FBI to obtain as much information from them as possible about their plans as well as the names of any other individuals they may be working with,” Perez said as he nodded towards FBI Director Jane Smart in acknowledgement.

Director Smart took her cue to continue. “As of right now, we have identified a couple of additional people they had contact with. The Trinity Program identified them, and we moved in as soon as the information was vetted. We have added several new names and search parameters to the program, so we should start to see some additional leads in the coming days.”

Switching topics, Jane continued, “As to the protesters, we are seeing an uptick in demonstrations against the war across a number of major cities and metropolitan areas. By and large they are peaceful; the individuals who do try to incite violence are quickly being identified and if they were not actively engaged in felony crimes, they are given a choice between jail time and serving in the military. With such a high percentage of young people in the military or working, we are not seeing as many people on the streets as we have in the past.”

The President thought for a moment before responding, “Thank you Jorge and Jane. I know these are trying times. I appreciate your efforts in continuing to maintain the peace and protecting the civilian populace. Let’s move on to the war updates then.”

General Branson took this as his cue to start his portion of the brief and brought up the holographic display of the Alaskan theater of operations. “Mr. President, the situation in Alaska continues to be precarious and fluid at the moment. The Chinese have fully secured the Aleutian Peninsula, and have begun construction of dozens of airfields as well as reconstruction of the various port facilities they’ve captured. We are now starting to see a steady stream of aircraft and drones being flown in from China to these new airfields and a proportional increase in the number of air sorties against our own forces. Our satellites have also spotted several large troop and equipment transports heading to Alaska, so it would appear their second wave of reinforcements is now in transit,” the General explained as he brought up images of the convoy.

“Our forces on Kodiak Island officially surrendered five hours ago. The commanding general and his forces held the island for two weeks, inflicting significant casualties--”

The President interrupted, asking, “--How many of our soldiers surrendered?”

“About 11,400 in all; the rest of the force was killed in action. We anticipate the prisoners being moved back to China in the near future,” Branson said.

“General, see if the Chinese would entertain a prisoner swap. We have nearly 209,000 Chinese prisoners from the Middle East; see if they are willing to swap prisoners at say, 5:1, but go no higher than 7:1. If we can get our soldiers back, I want to get them back,” the President directed.

“Yes, Mr. President,” Branson replied as he nodded towards one of his aides who made a note of the request. Next, the general brought up the images of Anchor Point, Homer and Seward. “Mr. President, as you can see, the Chinese have secured most of the Anchor Point Peninsula, but not before suffering heavy casualties. The 32nd infantry was assigned to defend the beaches and the towns of Homer and Seward. We held the Chinese at the beach for nearly six hours before they finally broke through the first line of defense. It took them a full day to break through the second line of defense and three more days to break through the third line. They have been battling now for nearly ten days at our fourth line of defense.”

Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, interjected at this point saying, “The Chinese are taking horrific casualties, yet they continue to steamroll through our force. We estimate the PLAN naval infantry, which led the invasion, have lost nearly 120,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing in the last fifteen days. The PLA has landed about 130,000 soldiers on the Peninsula now and that number grows by 30,000 a day. On the Aleutian Peninsula they have landed nearly 350,000 soldiers, as well as a large portion of their armored forces.”

The President saw the concern on Eric’s face and could see the others in the room were troubled as well. “Everyone, we knew going into this that the Chinese would sacrifice tens of thousands of soldiers, maybe even hundreds of thousands, in order to gain a foothold in North America. Our plan has always been to make them bleed and sacrifice land for time. Nothing has changed. We all have to remember that now that the Chinese are fully committed in Alaska (and the Russians too for that matter), the logistical war is now going to come into play. The Russians and Chinese have a limited sealift capability. They can only move so many men and material to Alaska and their other fronts. This capability is going to become strained and as it does, that is when we are going to start to cripple them.” The President knew that the American Navy was going to have to shoulder the larger burden of stopping the Chinese.

Seeing as the topic had shifted to his area of expertise, Admiral Juliano, the Chief of Naval Operations, spoke up. “Sir, we believe we have identified the problem with our new torpedoes and they have been fixed. Our two Swordfish Underwater Drones (SUDs) have successfully maneuvered to our naval facility in Washington and are being refitted with the updated Hammerhead torpedoes. They will soon be back on their way to Alaska and the Chinese supply lines. Our intent is to use them to specifically go after the Chinese roll-on, roll-off transports and the larger commercial shipping container ships that they are using to transport fuel and munitions. Each sub can carry eight torpedoes, and we are confident these subs will start sinking ten to sixteen ships a month, maybe more.”

“When do the additional SUDs start to come on line, Admiral?” asked Monty.

“We will have a total of ten SUDs by the end of the year, and that number will triple the following year.”

The President changed the topic of conversation to ask, “So, what is the situation with the Russians in northern Alaska?”

General Branson brought up a new set of holographic images, displaying the Russian advances. “Like the Chinese, the Russians have advanced off of the beaches and are starting to move inland. We have pulled most of our troops back to their secondary defensive positions. As the Russians advance, they are going to encounter a series of fortified positions, blocking every major avenue into the heart of Alaska on their way towards Fairbanks. The Marines are keeping them busy in the artic portion of Alaska and will be heavily engaged in central Alaska.”

“Our ground operations are going as expected; the first several days were a bit rocky but as planned and predicted, things are turning out just as we thought they would with the exception to the air campaign. Our loss at Eielson hurt. We have fortunately kept the Chinese and Russian air assets from attacking the base while we rebuild the drone squadrons. We’ve also expanded drone operations at three different airbases in the U.S.; they will soon start to participate in a lot more air operations in Alaska.”

“We’ve flown in 350 additional fighter drones and another 130 F22s to Eielson. We have successfully regained control of the skies over central and arctic Alaska. We are building two new drone airbases at Whitehorse in the Yukon territory; these new bases will be solely drone bases, with the fighter pilots operating out of bases in the southern States. This will minimize the potential loss of our critical pilots.”

“All right, General Branson, we are starting to get a little deeper into the weeds than I would like to go at the moment. I’ll leave the rest of the details to you and your fellow generals. I just want to know that our strategic plan is still on track, and it appears that it is. How are things fairing in the Middle East with General Gardner and his forces?” asked the President.

“General Gardner’s forces have been consolidating all along the Israeli/Jordan border. They have successfully secured all of Lebanon and captured Damascus. Now they are starting to push out and secure the rest of Syria and plan on stopping near the Turkish border. The Israelis are ready to move on Amman and push the IR forces there back. Right now they are waiting for General Gardner and his staff to finalize the next offensive plan and occupation strategy. I’ve talked with General Gardner at length, and he believes Third Army and the nearly 800,000 IDF forces could capture Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq before the end of the year. The question is--do we want them to move forward with this offensive or hold in place?” asked General Branson.

“What are everyone’s thoughts on this?” asked the President, wanting to get a consensus.

Mike Williams, the President’s National Security Advisor, spoke first saying, “We need to finish the IR off. They started this war and are responsible for millions of civilians killed across the country. Not to mention the two nuclear devices in Baltimore and New York City. If we leave them alone, we only allow them time to rebuild their country with help from the Chinese, and they will once again be a problem for us. We need to crush them now while they are weak and getting weaker by the day.”

Jim Wise, the Secretary of State, added, “I agree with Mike. We need to finish our war with the IR. Before General Gardner and the Israelis attack, we could make one final offer to the IR leadership to surrender. I am not certain they would accept it, but if we can convince them to surrender, we could bring the war with them to an end much sooner without losing tens of thousands of additional soldiers.”

The Director of the CIA, Patrick Rubio, spoke next, “The IR is in complete disarray. They are trying to hold down the country as best they can right now, but with power knocked out across most of the republic and communications limited, they are starting to lose control of the country. They are maintaining most of their military force around Amman, which is keeping them from using valuable resources to restore control to the rest of the country. I believe if we were to offer them terms of surrender they can live with, we could get them to accept it.”

“What are the terms you suggest we offer them?” asked the President, his curiosity now peaked.

“They are in desperate need of food; we could offer them a few hundred tons of food a month for, say three years, while we work with them on demilitarizing their economy and country. They would be allowed to maintain a military force for defensive purposes, but we would remove their ability to wage war beyond their borders. We would also remove their nuclear weapons and other WMD capabilities as well as their ability to produce these types of weapons,” Director Rubio said.

“I believe if we approached some of the senior military commanders, we may be able to convince them to remove Mohammed Abbas, particularly if we offer them this deal and perhaps some cash on the side. It would be best if we could get the regime to implode from within via an internal coup; that would be better than continuing the war and losing more soldiers and equipment,” Rubio said as he sat back in his chair waiting for the counter-arguments to be made. It did not take long.

General Branson cleared his throat before speaking. “I have to disagree with Director Rubio. We need to so thoroughly crush the IR that they will never challenge us again or Israel. If we support a coup, all we swap out is a radical theocracy for a military junta that will re-arm and rebuild to challenge us again in another decade. No, we need to absolutely crush them and then remove their ability to wage war again,” Branson stated passionately as he surveyed the room.

The President looked at the faces of everyone at the table before speaking, “There is merit in both of your ideas and we should look at both options. General Branson, continue with the military option. Pound the tar out of them from the air and continue to do what you can to make their lives as miserable as possible. Director Rubio, put out some feelers and see if any of their senior military leadership may be open to a potential coup. I want to look at both options Gentlemen.”

“Let’s move on to Europe. Where do we stand?” asked the President, wanting to move the meeting forward.

General Branson changed the maps on the holograph display. The portions of Europe that were Allied territory were colored in light blue, and the area controlled by the Russians was a light red shade. At different points on the map there were designations for the various units that were fighting, as well as information about how they were doing in their most recent skirmishes.

“Mr. President, General Wade is looking to orchestrate one of the largest tank battles since World War II, just west of Berlin. His goal is to lure them in and deal a decisive blow, knocking them back to Poland or even the Ukraine.” Branson showed the plans for the upcoming battle as he talked.

He continued, “It’s a tricky battle as our forces do not have full air supremacy over the battlefield. Once the Russian army is fully committed, General Wade plans on using the bulk of his A10 Warthogs and Razorbacks to attack the enemy tank formations before committing all of his Pershings and M1A5 Abrams. While his forces are conducting a full frontal assault against the Russian lines, Field Marshal Schoen will lead his Panzer divisions in a massive attack against the Russian southern flank. The British and French armor units will attack the Russian northern flanks. If they are successful, they will have effectively destroyed the Russian armored forces in Europe.”

The President asked, “What happens if they are not successful? How will this affect our forces in Germany?”

Knowing this question was coming, General Branson brought up General Wade’s alternate scenario on the display. “Mr. President, as you can see here, our forces would be in a tough spot, and so would the rest of the Germans, French and British. We may end up losing most of Germany.”

“Yet General Wade believes this is the best course of action?” asked Mile Williams, the National Security Director.

“If our forces stay on defense, then they will be assaulted and be in a constant state of reacting to the Russians, rather than forcing the Russians to react to our attack. The Pershings are an incredible offensive weapon, but remaining still has made them sitting ducks against the MiG40s.” Branson showed some images of Pershings that had fallen prey to the attacks of the MiGs before he continued, “The General wants to get them into the war where they can do some good, rather than continue to lose a steady stream of them daily to high altitude bombing runs.”

The President knew his military commanders were chomping at the bit to go on the offensive. America had been attacked mercilessly the last nine months and had suffered some horrendous losses--not to mention the nuclear bombs detonating in New York and Baltimore. However, the military was stretched incredibly thin right now. With the new offensive happening in Alaska, it was going to be difficult to contain the Chinese there, let alone keep an offensive line in both the Middle East and Europe replenished with fuel, munitions, food, equipment and replacement troops. The country was still retooling for war, and it was going to take time to draft and train a several million-person military from scratch.

“General Branson, I understand the issue facing General Wade and his forces in Europe. I appreciate the effort that went into developing these plans and the effort that has been made to position forces for this trap. However, I want General Wade to keep his offensive on hold. He may conduct limited offensive operations as needed to keep the Russians from penetrating his lines, but nothing more. Right now, we cannot afford to take a chance on losing most of Germany. The EU countries need time to continue to mobilize their forces and the Germans need time to crank out their new battle tanks and other military vehicles. We simply do not have the resources available to support his offensive right now,” the President explained.

He continued, “With the operations going on in Alaska, nearly all of our new soldiers coming out of training and our equipment coming from the factory floors is going to General Black’s forces. That said, I do want General Gardner to continue with his offensive against the IR. Unless Director Rubio is able to work out some sort of deal with their military leadership, General Gardner should continue as planned and move to occupy the country. What additional forces do we have available to send him right now?” asked the President.

General Branson looked through his tablet and pulled up some information. “We have three divisions completing their final train-up and equipment loadouts. We were going to send them to General Black’s group in Alaska. One is a tank division while the other two are mechanized infantry divisions.”

“What forces will General Gardner need most right now for his offensive?” asked the President.

“Presently, he has the needed forces for his offensive; if we send him additional reinforcements, it will help him during the occupation. I recommend sending him the two mechanized infantry divisions. He has armor but he’ll need more infantry if he is to capture and hold territory,” Branson explained.

“Then redirect those two divisions to the Middle East and get that tank division to Alaska,” the President directed before continuing, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve kept everyone here long enough. Please execute your orders and be ready to provide an update tomorrow at the same time.”

With that, the meeting ended.

*******

Dr. Travis Perino had a home in Baltimore before the nuclear attack. If he closed his eyes, he could still picture the beautiful view of the harbor during the summer (he would often walk there with his dog after a long shift). When the bomb was detonated, he had been on vacation in Jamaica, so he had survived, but his condo, his co-workers, his dog…everything was destroyed. It felt strange to him to not be able to go back and see it for himself; he understood that the radiation was dangerous and that “closure” was probably not the best reason for him to grab a HAZMAT suit and head to ground zero, but still, he wanted to mourn what was lost in a better way than watching news coverage of the event.

As a psychiatrist, Dr. Perino felt that he had something to offer to those that survived this horrible tragedy, so he left his tropical paradise on the first flight out and headed to Richmond, Virginia, which was one of the major hubs where the injured were being taken. Many were clearly in a state of shock, so overwhelmed by their experience that they couldn’t even function. In such cases, Travis would sit by the patient and calmly reorient them to where they were; he did have a way of speaking to people that would bring a sense of peace, and he didn’t rush any of the patients that were unable to speak. They would begin to recover with time and reassurance.

He worked with the nurses to lower the stimuli in the rooms for some of the more distressed patients; all of the beeping from IV machines, lights and general noise from so many people rushing about was quite distressing. Like many who enter a “caring” field, he poured himself out for those around him, never stopping to think about his own needs. It was only at the end of the day, when he was all alone in a hotel room and everything was quiet, that he would fall into a pool of his own grief.

Months later, he was still caring for those who had been affected by this terrible tragedy. He had stayed in Richmond to set up his own practice there; now those he was seeing were mostly dealing with the ongoing effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The signs were obvious: recurrent flashbacks or nightmares, insomnia, a heightened state of alertness/guarding, and triggering events that caused the person to go into “fight or flight” mode. His father had been a veteran of the second Iraq War, so he had seen it all firsthand. It was actually part of what had made him want to become a psychiatrist in the first place.

Back then, his Dad had been treated by doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs, who basically just shoved him full of pills and sent him on his merry way. However, those medications were not without their side effects, and his father would often complain of headaches or seem to space out in the distance, unable to focus on the people in front of him. Sometimes, the VA would mess up his medication shipment and he wouldn’t get his pills in time; those medicines aren’t meant to be stopped cold turkey, and his father would lash out like someone who is a mean alcoholic. One day his mother had enough of the whole thing, and the two of them split.

Dr. Perino wanted to be a different kind of doctor. Yes, psychiatrists can prescribe drugs to help heal the mind, and he did, but he would also work with his patients on other forms of therapy as well; eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) was probably the most useful treatment, but he also did cognitive behavioral therapy, taught coping strategies, and would generally do whatever it took to help get the patient back into a normal life again.

Listening to all of these stories of horrific experiences around Baltimore was taxing, however, and Travis had to do a lot of work with himself at the end of the day to let go of everything he had heard so that he would not hold on to it and carry it like a stone around his neck. He hadn’t always been a runner, but he took it up to help himself de-stress. When the breeze was blowing and there was a steady swish of his feet, he could almost entirely block out all of the tragic things that he had heard about. Otherwise, he usually had to have on some music or television shows of some kind to drown out the scripts of the truly awful things he heard from the survivors.

He almost hated to admit it, but he was glad that the U.S. had responded with all of those nuclear weapons. While he knew cognitively that resentment is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person will get hurt, he was truly angry over this unprovoked attack that had shattered the lives of so many. When he heard another story of a mother who lost her child in the blast while she went to work ten miles away, he wanted the IR to pay for their sins.

*******

At the University of South Florida in Tampa, Dr. Rosanna Weisz had served a relatively quiet and happy life, finally achieving tenure as a humanities and history professor. The university had a greater need for teaching history classes, but it was really the humanities that made her excited to get up in the morning; she loved to pour over books about art history, poetry, and philosophy. She was a simple creature in many ways, finding great happiness in a good cup of coffee, an intellectual conversation or an impressionist painting. Two years ago she had lived out her ultimate dream when she was able to visit Claude Monet’s gardens in France and then backpack through Europe, taking pictures of many of the sites and historical places she had taught about for so many years.

Despite being a history professor, she had more or less stayed out of politics. She did vote, but she was not especially loyal to one party over the other, and she usually made her choices mostly on the basis of personal merit instead of how they aligned to a strict set of ideological standards. However, this war was changing her day by day.

Dr. Weisz had been utterly horrified when Baltimore and New York had been bombed; she immediately donated money to some relief funds and helped organize a blood drive at USF. She wished that she could do more, but she was not trained in any sort of first aid or counseling of any kind, and her skills in French and Latin weren’t going to be especially handy for this situation. She wasn’t exactly a part of any specific religion, but she considered herself to be spiritual, and believed in a higher power (even if she couldn’t quite agree that God was the deity described in the Bible); in her own way, she would pray for all those who were suffering.

When the United States retaliated against the Islamic Republic with nuclear weapons, she was not surprised; however, the scale of the response was beyond anything that she could have imagined. Rosanna was crushed at the sheer loss of human life, and the immense suffering that had become a plague on this planet. She did not believe that evil should beget evil. She began to think of all of the families on the other side of the world that had been crushed by the actions of the U.S. government, and though she was not often the type to cry, she set her head down on her desk and used up a few tissues with her tears.

As she composed herself and pulled her hair back out of her face, she saw an inspirational quote from Gandhi that she kept on her desk, “Be the change that you want to see.” She thought to herself, “What change do I want to bring?” In that moment, she realized that she needed to work to prevent any future such tragedies from occurring in the world. She wanted to work to create policies that would garner more peace for the nation and the rest of the planet. Dr. Weisz did something in that moment that she had never done before, and decided to become more than just a casual participant in politics. She set to work on plans for a political movement towards peace.

For months now, this meek, normally quiet professor had been working in her downtime to organize marches and demonstrations. A friend of hers helped her to set up a website, and suddenly her thoughts were starting to gain some publicity and some traction. She was very careful to make sure that all of her events were peaceful and civil. Anything else would have defeated the purpose of her efforts. She always started any speech with the same line, “I want to thank you for being here today; I am very grateful to live in a country where we can love our nation and still disagree with our leadership.”

Chapter 5

British Situation Room

10 Downing Street, London, England

16 June 2041

British Prime Minister Stannis Bedford had been monitoring the Chinese advances in Alaska with a bit of concern. The casualties that the Chinese and Americans had been taking were horrendous and frightening. The Americans were fighting with all their grit for their homeland while the Chinese continued to pour more and more soldiers into the meat grinder that was the Alaskan front. Bedford knew the mounting casualties in Alaska meant there would be fewer and fewer American resources allocated to Europe, which would make stopping the Russians that much harder.

Stannis was walking down to the Situation Room (located deep under the residence) to meet with his senior military advisors and get an update on the war and the next steps. He signaled for everyone to remain seated as he walked into the room, and made his way to the center of the table to take his seat. He saw General Sir Michael Richards, the British Army Chief of the Defense Staff; he was in charge of the overall British Defense Forces. Admiral Sir Mark West was there as well; he was the First Sea Lord and the man in charge of all naval forces. Seated next to him was General Sir Nick Wall, Chief of the General Staff for the Army, and last but not least was Air Chief Marshal, Sir Andrew Trenchard from the Royal Air Force.

These were the men responsible for the Defense of the British Isles, and for better or worse, most of Europe. Also in attendance were several individuals from the EU defense staff: General Volker Naumann, Chief of Staff of the EU Army, General Dieter Kessler, the senior Field Commander for all EU Military Forces, and their boss, Minister of Defense, André Gouin. The Americans would term this gathering of senior military leaders as a “coming to Jesus” meeting that was long overdue. The level of coordination and cooperation between the EU, British Forces and the Americans was not what it should be, and the war effort was suffering as a consequence.

Bedford sat down at the table and looked briefly at his tablet. He nodded towards an aide to bring up the holographic map of the front lines across Europe and the North Sea. “Gentlemen, thank you all for being here and for agreeing to meet with my military commanders. As you all are aware, the Chinese and Russians have launched a massive invasion of the American homeland in Alaska. This means that the Americans will not be prioritizing their war effort in Europe for some time. I spoke with President Stein a few hours ago, and he informed me that they will be playing defense in Europe while they focus on finishing off the IR in the Middle East and attempting to stop the Chinese and Russians from breaking out of Alaska. That means it will be upon us to take the lead in Europe.”

“I have spoken with General Wade, the SACEUR Commander, and he has told me that he has approximately 860,000 US Forces in Europe and does not expect to receive many more forces for the foreseeable future. He has been ordered to defend Germany at all cost, but to limit his offensive operations until things stabilize in Alaska or the IR surrenders. I have spoken with General Sir Richards about our military force, and right now, we have 80,000 new recruits finishing training over the next two weeks and another 80,000 more the following month.” The PM nodded towards General Sir Richards as he continued.

“Tomorrow we will be announcing another military draft; we are going to conscript two million men and women into uniform and will begin training them as quickly as possible. Minister Gouin, what is the EU currently doing as far as troop additions? How soon will the EU be ready to assume a larger military role?”

Gouin was a pragmatic man, and had been arguing for an increase in defense forces for several years now with Chancellor Lowden. Unfortunately, those pleas had fallen on deaf ears until it was too late. Clearing his throat before he responded, Minister Gouin replied, “As of yesterday, Chancellor Lowden issued an emergency draft across the EU member states to raise the size of the EU military, and he has asked all member states to increase the size of their own state-run militaries. Spain has announced that they are drafting 400,000 people immediately, France is drafting 800,000, Germany is drafting 2.2 million, and the Italians are adding 500,000. The EU army will be increased by 600,000 once the draft has been completed. However, it will still be months before these new soldiers will be trained and ready for battle. Under the current military training programs, it will take close to three months for the first batch of soldiers to complete their training. So we are looking at graduating about 210,000 soldiers every four weeks starting in two months.”

General Dieter Kessler added, “The EU army has officially been released to my full command as of three weeks ago from Chancellor Lowden. I have begun coordination with General Wade, and my force of 600,000 soldiers is currently moving to reinforce the German army in Austria and the Italian army in Slovenia. This is where General Wade wants our army to hold the line. I am confident that my soldiers can do that, and I do apologize that our Chancellor had not released our forces sooner, but we are here now and will start to take the Russians on.”

General Sir Nick Wall joined the conversation. “The past is the past; we must focus on the present if we are to have a future. General Wade has said that his force, along with the bulk of the German army, will be able to hold the Russians at bay in the Berlin area. They have ceded the city to them rather than destroy the metropolis in the process of trying to defend it. General Wade and Field Marshal Schoen are looking to engage the bulk of the Russian armored forces near Berlin in the near future. We will be assisting them in that effort by providing two additional armored divisions and a massive increase in air support once the operation gets underway.” General Wall highlighted the battle plans on the holographic map, along with the disposition of the enemy force.

Minister Gouin felt the need to reassure his British colleagues. “PM Bedford, I know there has been a lot of tension between our governments since the start of the war. I cannot change or fix the past, but I can assure you that I am now fully in control of the EU’s military effort and things are going to change. We are fully committed to stopping the Russians and will not leave this to the individual states’ armies to do on their own. Any help or assistance we can provide, we will.”

PM Bedford sat back in his chair for a second taking in everything his EU colleagues had just said and was satisfied with their response. “Thank you Minister Gouin and Generals for meeting with us and for assuring us of your intentions. The UK is ultimately a small island nation, and there is only so much we can do. If the Germans had not retooled their economy for war and been such tenacious fighters, I think we would be having a much different conversation. As it stands, I believe there is still time to prevent the Russians from conquering Europe…We know what needs to happen, so let’s end the meeting on a high note and move forward with a renewed resolve to work together and defeat the Russians,” the PM said as the meeting concluded.

*******

The war in Europe had been picking up steam again as the weather turned from spring to summer. The MiG40s continued to cause havoc in the air for the Allies, though the new radar systems the Americans were employing were starting to turn the tide. The Russians continued to pour hundreds of thousands of soldiers into Poland, the Balkans and Hungary, readying themselves for the summer offensive. It was just a matter of when, not if, they would attack. In the meantime, the Allies continued to prepare themselves to meet a numerically superior force.

Chapter 6

Red Square

16 June 2041

Moscow, Russia

National Control Defense Center

Once it became clear that the war with the Americans, the European Union and the United Kingdom was not going to turn nuclear (or at least not yet), President Fradkov moved all military operations and activities back to the National Control Defense Center (NCDC) facility, just down the road from Red Square. The NCDC was a massive edifice that replaced the older Ministry of Defense building in the mid-2020s. For months, the war effort had been run out of the Presidential Command Bunker under the Kremlin, but as the war continued to drag on, moving the operations to the NCDC became more of a necessity; the number of personnel needed to manage a global war was immense, and this was the only facility that could truly meet this need. This center could control all military activities around the globe and run the operations of the entire economy and country (there was also a nuclear shelter in the basement and underground tunnels connecting it to a number of critical facilities throughout the city). President Fradkov began to spend more and more time at the NCDC.

President Fradkov walked through a series of doors, hallways and checkpoints until he finally arrived in the bowels of the NCDC where the war was being run. As he arrived, his generals and their staff jumped to attention like a bunch of school children who have been caught misbehaving by a strict librarian. He signaled for them to resume their duties and to take their seats. Fradkov sat at the center of the table and said, “Generals, we have a lot to discuss; let’s begin. Where do our operations in Alaska stand?”

General Gerasimov, the head of the Russian military, began the briefing, “Mr. President, Operation Red Dawn has been a resounding success for our forces. Our initial landings at Nome and all along the western coast of Alaska have gone according to plan. Our insertion of dozens of Spetsnaz units in central Alaska have yielded significant results as well. One of our teams conducted a daring raid against Eielson Air Force base in Fairbanks, resulting in the destruction of six squadrons of drone pilots. They effectively eliminated nearly 70% of all American air force operations in Alaska for nearly 24 hours. This enabled the Chinese and our forces to quickly secure our initial objectives.” As he spoke, General Gerasimov showed a number of aerial images of the damage done to the air base.

Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense, interjected, “We should have Prudhoe Bay and the rest of the Alaskan oil fields secured within the next four weeks. General Gerasimov’s forces have moved quickly, securing the majority of Red Dawn’s primary and secondary objectives.” Puchkov nodded towards the general in acknowledgement. “We have landed 190,000 soldiers, and are currently expanding several of the airfields that have been secured. We are now in the process of establishing several new ones. The majority of our helicopters have arrived, increasing our air assault capabilities significantly. I do not believe we are going to need to use our reserve force any time soon.”

General Gerasimov inserted, “As you are already aware, the goal of the forces in Alaska is merely to support the Chinese invasion by securing the central and artic territories of Alaska, and the new Canadian States. They are not going to invade further south or support the Chinese beyond this limited scope. Once the initial objectives have been secured, we will leave a residual force of 80,000 soldiers and then move the remainder of our forces back to the Western Campaign.”

Fradkov was elated to hear that things were starting to go their way in Alaska. The first three days of Operation Red Dawn were a bit dicey. The Americans had inflicted significantly more casualties at the various landing zones than they had anticipated. The Russian forces were facing the American Marines in central and northern Alaska; they were well dug-in and had prepared a multi-layer defense.

“Well then, let’s move on to talk about Europe. How are things shaping up?” asked Fradkov.

“The loss of the 2nd Shock Army near Damascus has certainly hurt us, but it will not deter our advance into Europe or affect our invasion of Alaska. With the fall of Romania, the EU has lost its one oil-producing member, which of course makes them completely reliant on American oil and natural gas. As we continue to capture more territory, the noose around the EU’s neck will begin to tighten.”

General Gerasimov pulled up a map on the display before he continued. “As you can see here, the 3rd Shock Army is concentrating their forces in Poland and the eastern half of the Czech Republic, preparing for a summer offensive. The 1st Shock Army has consolidated in northern Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and central Austria (now that Vienna has fallen). The plan is for the 1st Shock Army to pivot the bulk of their force from Southeastern Europe and advance through northern Austria in an attempt to seize Salzburg and threaten Southern Germany, the industrial heartland of Germany and the EU.”

The General could have used graphics to demonstrate the movement of troops, but he preferred to use large sweeping motions of his hands for dramatic effect as he spoke. He continued, “The 2nd Shock Army is going to advance across two points: the first, central Germany towards Dresden and Leipzig, and the second, to the North of Berlin. They will drive to Hamburg, the deep water shipping port so critical to keeping the NATO forces supplied. The northern half of Germany is relatively flat, which plays to our advantage in terms of using our tanks. We have given this attack the codename Operation Red Anvil.”

“As we speak, General Kulikov has already put into motion the beginning of Operation Red Anvil. The bombardments of the frontlines are taking place now, and his armored forces will begin to advance in seventytwo hours.”

Fradkov pondered, “This will be the largest armored assault in history, won’t it?”

“Yes, Mr. President.” Minister Puchkov puffed out his chest with pride.

“Well…I guess that leaves us with the IR--our misbehaving stepsister.”

No one wanted to speak to this point. The Russians had been paid nearly $3 Trillion NAD by the IR over the last ten years to build up and train their military force. The investment had caused an economic revival in Russia; however, despite the amount of equipment sold to the IR (and the years of training and mentoring the Russian military provided), the IR had nearly destroyed their entire military within seven-months (granted, they had been in constant combat with the Israeli and American Forces).

Puchkov dared to answer. “Well, sir, the IR possesses all of the world’s most modern equipment to defeat the Israeli and American Forces; however, what they lack is an experienced officer and NCO cadre, not to mention a military ethos and warrior culture like that of the Israelis and Americans. If nothing else, we all know the Americans and Israelis to be exceptional military fighters--fearless in combat, and able to operate effectively in large and small units. For all the training that we and the Chinese have provided, the one thing that we simply cannot instill in the Arab Army is the character and attitude required by a true warrior. By and large, the IR Army operates in more of a mob mentality…this becomes disastrous when a unit or group leader is killed during a battle or engagement.”

General Gerasimov picked up from here. “Fortunately for us, the Middle East campaign is not really a primary theater of operations; rather, it was meant to tie down American Forces and prevent them from employing those resources in Europe, or having the necessary forces to prevent our Russian-Chinese joint invasion of Alaska. We continue to maintain 150,000 troops in central and northern Turkey and a blocking force in the Caucuses. Most of these armies were loosely scattered across key strategic locations in Turkey to protect the Black Sea. Our situation there is stable at this time, and we have to consider our position there to be at a standstill.”

President Fradkov was not at all upset by this response. Instead, he pulled out a bottle of vodka to share. Things were going very well for him and his comrades.

Chapter 7

Tank Pressure Cooker

19 June 2041

Brandenburg, Germany

The 2nd Armored Division (2AD), also known as the “hell on wheels” division (they were given the nickname by General Patton himself back in World War II); it was one of many WWII divisions being reactivated to form the American 5th and 6th Armies in Europe. 2AD was one of only two divisions equipped solely with the venerable Pershing Main Battle Tanks (MBT)s in Europe. They had not seen combat as their sister division, 12AD, had at the German border. Their last battalion of tanks came in a week ago; they were finally ordered to move forward, just as the Russians began their massive bombardment of the frontlines. Anticipation hung in the air.

Within the 2AD, Colonel Mica Aaron, was the 66th armor regiment commander-- the second highest ranking officer in the division, next to the commanding general. He was a career officer, and a graduate of the Army’s prestigious West Point. Colonel Aaron had been a brigade commander during the invasion of Mexico, and was in line to get his General’s Star in the near future. When the Army reactivated the 2AD, he had been selected to be the brigade commander for one of just five Pershing brigades in Europe. Being single, he was able to devote his entire life to the Army and his trade, armored warfare. When it came to tank combat strategies, he was the best in the Army.

Intelligence indicated the Russians were going to start a robust summer offensive within the next couple of days, so the 66th AR was being deployed near Brandenburg to stop a potential Russian armored thrust. Since Berlin had been turned into a ‘free city’ to avoid having it torn to pieces in a house-to-house fight, it was now just a big obstacle in the way of both sides’ armored groups as they maneuvered to attack each other without getting caught in the city. Colonel Aaron had 192 Pershings, 260 infantry fighting vehicles, and other armored support vehicles in his brigade (such as the armored ambulances, ammunition carriers, fuel tankers, etc.). His unit was facing at least two Russian armored divisions that had between 600 and 900 T14 and T38 MBTs (along with their support vehicles)…that meant nearly 4:1 odds against them.

Lieutenant Colonel George Lewis was the 66th AR’s executive officer (XO); during the invasion of Mexico he had served as a battalion commander for Colonel Aaron…now he was being groomed to take over as brigade commander as soon as his promotion to Colonel came through. As LTC Lewis walked towards the Command vehicle, he could hear the artillery in the distance start to slacken. After nearly three days of being bombarded, the brigade was starting to get antsy waiting for the eventual tank battle that was shaping up to be one of history’s most epic tank conflicts.

The IFV that was acting as the Command vehicle was crammed with computer screens, radios, and soldiers, all attentively watching events around the brigade unfold. LTC Lewis spotted Colonel Aaron and signaled for him to exit the vehicle so he could pass along the information he had just received from Division HQ.

Colonel Aaron cut straight to the chase, “LTC Lewis, anything of interest from division?”

“Sir, the drones and signals intelligence are reporting a massive troop and armor movement by the Russians. It is believed that once the artillery bombardment stops, the Russians will begin to advance,” LTC Lewis said.

Looking back into the Command vehicle, Colonel Aaron asked one of his Captains, “Are the drones showing any armored movements towards our position yet?”

Zooming out with the drone camera that the Captain was controlling, he quickly looked for signs of new enemy activity. “Sir, I am starting to see at least one brigade-sized armor element moving forward. Behind that unit are a number of others lining up. It looks as if they are getting ready to launch their offensive.” The Captain was clearly a bit nervous as he spoke, drumming his fingers faster and faster as he continued.

Colonel Aaron wasted no time. “Looks like division was right, order the tanks into their fighting positions now!”

Turning back to LTC Lewis, he directed, “I want you to get to the alternate Command Post and be ready to take over in case my CP is taken out, OK?”

“Yes Sir! We’ll be ready, and I’ll continue to monitor the armor units moving towards us. If we spot anything unusual, we’ll let you know.” Then LTC Lewis turned and began to run towards the vehicle that would take him to the alternate CP. The brigade ran two active CPs--in case one was destroyed, the other could pick things up and continue the fight without a loss in leadership continuity. This was something that had worked extremely well in Israel, where CPs and military leadership were constantly being killed. The casualty rate among officers and senior NCOs had been horrific, resulting in a lot of battlefield promotions, much like had occurred during World War II. This strategic decision to have an alternate means of running operations had proven to be a key factor in defeating the IR, so all throughout Europe, all the major battle headquarters were enacting this approach.

*******

Staff Sergeant Marshal was the tank commander (TC) for Alpha Twelve, one of four Pershing tanks in second platoon, Alpha Company. SSG Marshal had just received word to move forward to their firing positions and be ready to engage the Russian MBTs that should be to their front. As they moved their tanks into the berm, PFC Tanner (who was manning the tanks’ targeting computer) said in an excited voice, “Enemy tanks identified! Four-miles to our front.”

Typically, when a tank unit establishes a defensive position, engineers will carve an embankment out of the terrain for the tanks to pull in to. This type of position keeps the majority of the tank protected, and only exposes the turret. This way, a tank can fire between two to four shots at one location and then back out of that spot and move to the next berm, repeating the process for as long as the battle lasts. This keeps the tank from becoming a stationary target and turning into a bullseye for artillery and air strikes.

SSG Marshal began to issue orders to the rest of his crew. “Prepare to engage!” he directed

Within seconds, the platoon commander (PC) called in on the coms, “Engage the enemy tanks now!”

At this point, the Russian tanks were advancing quickly across the countryside, trying to close the distance between their lines and the American positions in order to get within range of their own guns. The Pershings, with their railgun, had an enormous reach advantage over their Russian counter-parts. In flat and open terrain, the Pershing could hit targets as far away as twenty miles.

“Target identified! Russian T14 MBT,” yelled PFC Turner.

“Fire!” shouted SSG Marshal.

A low winding sound could be heard as the railgun charged and then--BOOM! The projectile was launched from the barrel at Mach 10, creating an immediate sonic boom. Soon, dozens of sonic booms could be heard as the rest of the platoon began to engage the Russians.

“Target identified. T15 IFV,” said PFC Turner. His voice sounded calmer now that they had engaged and destroyed half a dozen tanks.

“Fire!” Marshal ordered. “Gunner, fire at will. I’m going topside to get the machine gun ready to support our infantry.

The Russians fired dozens of their new artillery smoke rounds at the American lines. These projectiles had a special chemical in them that greatly reduced thermal images within the smoke. The Russians and Americans had recently developed similar weapons as a means of defeating each other’s thermal scopes. Alpha Company had destroyed nearly 67 T14s before the Russians started to plaster the American tank lines with smoke canisters. The smoke was starting to have a serious effect on the Pershings…their rate of fire began to drop significantly. Russian T15 IFVs rushed forward with the tanks to get their infantry units as close to the American lines as possible; they were hoping to engage the Pershings with their anti-tank missiles. As the battle moved away from a long-distance shooting match between the tanks and anti-tank missiles, the Russians began to get close enough for their IFVs to start engaging the American infantrymen a hundred yards or so in front of the Pershings.

As the smoke finally started to clear, SSG Marshal saw several T15 IFVs heading directly towards the infantrymen positioned in front of his tank. He quickly sent a message to Tanner to have him focus on the closer IFVs and then go after the tanks once the immediate threat was taken care of. Just as Marshal finished sending his message, he saw an anti-tank missile leave its launcher, heading right for him. He quickly ducked into the turret, just as the projectile hit their armor. The missile didn’t penetrate the armor, but the impact shook everyone up inside the tank. Turner recovered quickly, and destroyed all three IFVs before their tank was hit by another enemy tank round. This time, the projectile bounced off the armor.

“Driver, back us out of here and go to the next fighting position now!” yelled Marshal. He did not want to become a sitting duck. Just as their tank pulled out of its position, several artillery rounds hit the berm. Had they stayed there even ten seconds longer, they would have been utterly destroyed.

They continued on in their fight, firing several times and then weaving along to their next location. As they pulled into their fourth firing position of the day, a T14 fired a Sabot round, hitting their left track. The impact destroyed the track wheel and crushed the track itself. They were now stuck, half in and half out of their new firing position.

“Guys, we’re trapped! Turner, keep firing and take out those IFVs; we need to support the infantry. Driver, I want you out of the vehicle to get on the machine gun turret, so we can start providing cover to the infantry,” Marshal said as he lifted the commander’s hatch to start using the M2 .50 mounted on the turret. With the vehicle out of commission, there was no reason to have the driver sit in the tank with nothing to do.

SSG Marshal saw dozens of Russian infantry moving closer to the American lines. They were firing feverishly at the Americans, trying to keep their heads down while others advanced. Marshal turned the M2 towards the largest group of soldiers he saw, which were about 300 yards away, and immediately began to engage them, sending two to five second bursts from the M2. The .50 caliber slugs punched right through the trees and other objects the Russian infantry were using for cover. Just as Marshal turned to say something to his driver (who had crawled up to join him using the machine gun located above the gunner’s hatch), his head exploded and his body went limp, falling back into the tank. He had been hit by a Russian sniper.

*******

Sergeant Trellis and Private First Class Ye were forward observers for a self-propelled artillery battalion that was assigned to support the 66th AR. They were operating in Alpha Troop area, where they could provide artillery support to both Alpha and Bravo Troop.

“Here they come,” said PFC Ye as he spat a stream of tobacco on the ground near his boot. He never took his eyes off the enemy tanks heading towards them.

“I see them. Let’s call in the first set of rounds and get those tankers to button up. No need to make their life any easier,” Sergeant Trellis responded as he reached over to grab the radio handset.

Speaking into the handset, Trellis advised, “This is Ghost 2, we have eyes on enemy tanks…count is roughly sixty…request one round high explosive (HE) at grid…”

“This is Reaper 6. We copy. One round HE…grid….” acknowledged the voice from the Fire Direction Control (FDC) vehicle, which coordinated all of the fire missions for the battalion.

“Shot out…” confirmed the FDC a minute later. This meant that the round was on its way.

“Splash,” said the FDC, thirty seconds later. The artillery round was now less than five seconds away from impact.

“Splash out,” replied Sergeant Trellis, watching the area where the round should impact.

BOOM! The round landed exactly where they wanted, a couple hundred yards in front of the enemy advance.

“Round right on target. Fire for effect. WP, three rounds out,” said Trellis, calling in the next round of artillery fire. White phosphorus (WP) rounds were designed to ignite in an airburst about a hundred feet above their intended target; they would force the enemy tank commanders to duck back inside their tanks and button them up, in order to avoid getting burned by the WP in the air. The effect of this attack would be that the enemy commanders would not be able to see and identify targets as easily.

“Reaper 6, targets hit. Adjust fire. Drop 500 meters, adjust 200 meters to the right…fire three rounds HE ground impact out,” said Trellis. This new artillery strike he was calling in was closer to the Bravo Troops’ position.

“Sergeant Trellis, we need to move. That’s three firing missions in this position,” advised PFC Ye. He quickly moved to the driver’s side door and opened it, climbing in.

“You are right. Let’s ditch this taco stand before the Russians throw a few rounds our direction,” Trellis responded as he quickly moved around to the passenger seat. Just as he was closing the door, they heard a loud whistling noise, and before either of them could react, three artillery rounds exploded near their vehicle, shredding it with shrapnel and instantly killing the two of them.

*******

LTC Lewis watched on the monitor as the Russians continued to advance. He was surprised to see them continue to rush forward despite the horrific losses they were taking. Nearly an entire tank battalion had been wiped out in the first five minutes of the engagement, and a second and then third tank battalion took their place. The Russians were trying to overwhelm the American tanks by rushing as many of their own tanks and IFVs as possible.

Suddenly, the radio in LTC Lewis’s helmet came alive, and he saw an image of Colonel Aaron. “Lewis, it looks like the Russians are about to break through Alpha Troop’s position. I’m calling in additional artillery and I’m going to see if we can’t get a few Razorbacks as well. I need you to guide Delta Troop into Alpha’s position and plug that hole,” Colonel Aaron ordered.

“Roger that Sir. We just sent a couple of drones to Alpha’s position, so it shouldn’t be a problem,” Lewis responded, signaling for one of the staff officers to send a message to Delta Troop to tell them to move forward.  In the meantime, they revved up their own tank to join the fray.

Colonel Aaron had held one of his tank company’s back as a mobile reserve force in order to plug up any holes in their defensive line. Now it was time to call in an artillery strike. Colonel Aaron signaled for his FIST officer (Fire Support Team). The FIST officer’s job was to coordinate artillery missions for the Regiment from his own artillery battalion along with the Forward Observers assigned to the various Troops. After losing several forward observers, the FIST Liaison Officer (LNO) immediately called in an Arrowhead strike.

Essentially the Arrowheads were “smart” munitions, meaning they could be fired in the general vicinity of the enemy, and as the round would complete its arc heading back towards the objective, it would begin to identify specific targets. In milliseconds, the round would distinguish between a tank and an IFV, and would automatically target the tank unless it were programmed to do otherwise. It would even calculate which of the surrounding tanks had the least amount of armor and move to attack that tank first. As the round neared the target, it would detonate the first shape charge, which would hit the top of the turret or engine compartment. This first charge was meant to activate the tank’s reactive armor, leaving a hole where it once was; then the second shape charge would fire into the newly created gap in the reactive armor and punch right through the turret into the crew compartment. This entire process would happen within milliseconds, with devastating effectiveness.

As soon as the artillery battalion fired off a three-round barrage, they quickly began to move to their next firing position. Russian counter-battery fire started to land where they had just been. Knowing that the Americans may have moved quickly, the Russians began to saturate the area with artillery fire, finding one of the self-propelled artillery vehicles and destroying it and two other support vehicles. The constant counter-battery fire from the Russians was making it incredibly difficult for the American artillerymen to support the tanks and infantry who were fighting tooth and nail on the frontlines.

After eight hours of fighting near Brandenburg, the Americans had to withdraw and cross the Elbe River, where they would make their next stand. Colonel Aaron’s brigade had started the battle with 192 Pershings; so far they had lost 49. However, his brigade had destroyed 492 T14s and 590 T15 IFVs. They had effectively destroyed two entire Russian brigades while sustaining a casualty rate of 25%.

*******

The UK’s 16th Air Assault Brigade (AAB) was Britain’s rapid response unit, much like the American 82nd Airborne Division. The 16th AAB was rushed to the Elbe River once it became clear that the Americans were going to have to retreat across it. They had been held in reserve in case this situation became a reality, and now it had. Their objective was to provide maneuver and fire support to the armored and mechanized infantry units as they moved across the various bridges and pontoon bridges before the engineers dropped them.

Sergeant Michael Stonebridge was a sniper with the reconnaissance section of the Pathfinder group. His spotter, Corporal Brent Scott, had been assigned an over watch position several hundred meters behind one of the bridgeheads. Their objective was to take out enemy infantry as they approached the area, or call in what they were seeing to their higher headquarters.

They positioned themselves under their ghillie suits (special sniper suits designed to camouflage these soldiers with the grass in the surrounding area, to the point that they would be virtually invisible while still). They began to deploy their spotting scope and their L115A3 sniper rifle. The L115 fired a .338 cartridge and had an effective range of 2,000 meters. For their operation, they had a 25x scope with a suppressor to help reduce the muzzle flash of their rifle when it was fired.

As they laid prone in their fighting position, they could hear the rumble of the battle move closer and closer to their position until they spotted the first sign of the American units retreating. At first, it was a collection of ambulances carrying the wounded; then came a battalion of self-propelled artillery, who quickly fired off a barrage of rounds once they crossed the river before scurrying behind the 16th AAB’s position. Then came several battalions’ worth of light and mechanized infantry; the soldiers looked exhausted and beat up, but determined to continue fighting. They immediately took up defensive positions all along the shoreline and began to prepare for the next assault. The final group to cross the bridges were the heavy armor units. Nearly four dozen Pershing MBTs made it across the river before the remaining Pershings still on the enemy side of the bank began to return fire and engage the advancing Russian units. Slowly and steadily, they all made it across the river before the engineers blew the bridges apart just as Russian Infantry Fighting Vehicles and other armored vehicles appeared at the outskirts of the city.

Sergeant Stonebridge immediately began to search for targets; his spotter found several soldiers positioning an anti-tank missile system on the roof of a building several blocks away from the bridge. It was a long shot, maybe 1,900 meters. He carefully took aim, adjusted for wind, moisture and every other aspect one does when preparing to fire a shot from maximum range. Their target was not the soldiers themselves, but rather the equipment they were setting up. A soldier could be replaced if killed--a critical piece of equipment could not. Stonebridge found what he was looking for, the laser guidance box on the missile system. He closed his other eye, let out a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. In the flash of a second, he saw the bullet hit the guidance box, exploding it into pieces. The Russian soldier who had been looking through it also died immediately.

As more and more Russian vehicles and soldiers poured into the area, the snipers found themselves in a target-rich environment. They quickly fell into a routine, firing four or five shots from one position before moving to another one and then repeating the process.

Chapter 8

Brains of the Operation

NATO Headquarters

Brussels, Belgium

The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Aaron Wade, was sitting in his office reading over battlefield reports when Major General Charles Bryant from the British Army knocked on the doorframe and then entered his office. MG Bryant was the senior British LNO to NATO, and General Wade’s right-hand man. General Wade had been the SACEUR Commander for only two days when the war with Russia started on Christmas Day of 2040. MG Bryant had been critical in helping General Wade make a successful transition to NATO, since he had previously been the CENTCOM Commander.

“Sir, we are starting to get the final numbers from the Russian offensive near Brandenburg. We are also updating the maps with enemy unit locations and strengths. I really think you should see this Sir,” MG Bryant said, indicating to General Wade that he should come with him to the main briefing and map room.

Sighing deeply, General Wade nodded and got up from his chair; he began to follow Bryant down the hall to the Operations Center (OC). This was the room where all of the major decisions for NATO were taking place. The room was large; it was shaped almost like an amphitheater, with rows of desks that descended in a semi-circle down towards the platform stage at the bottom. Along the front wall of the room were enormous screens, broken down into several feeds. The first was a massive colored map with NATO and Russian ground unit identifiers, along with their strengths and dispositions. The second was the same type of color-coded map, except this one showed NATO and Russian air units. The third screen was reserved for FLASH messages, drone feeds or briefings, and the fourth was the naval situation.

Seated in each row of the amphitheater was a Senior LNO from each of the NATO member nations that had air, ground and naval combat units actively involved in the fight. There were also other specialists such as Special Forces, Communications, Cyber, Public Affairs and Military Police. From this room, the entire war effort was being run and coordinated; General Wade could issue a command and have that nation’s military respond immediately without delay. The location had been established within the first few weeks of the war. Germany had nearly been lost during the first month of the war because of delays in France, Spain and Belgium; this situation was rectified quickly once President Stein, PM Bedford and Chancellor Mueller from Germany got involved and established a clear chain of command and a location to serve as the OC.

“General Wade, as you can see from the map near Brandenburg, the Russians have pushed our forces to the Elbe River. After crossing the river and setting up our next defensive line, we blew up all of the bridges that cross the Elbe, across all of Germany. The Russians are going to capture Dresden, and they look to be pushing towards Leipzig. In the north they are pushing past Perleberg along Highway 14 heading towards Hamburg. I don’t need to tell you how big a blow losing Hamburg would be.” As General Bryant walked General Wade through the Russian advance, units and likely objectives, it was clear the Russians were trying to cut Germany up into thirds, making it significantly harder for NATO to defend against their attacks.

General Wade thought for a minute before responding, “We need to stop their advance towards Hamburg; we cannot lose that deep-water port right now. Here is what I want you to do…”

General Wade began to use his laser pointer. “I want to focus our aircraft, in particular our Razorbacks, in the north. Pull aircraft from the other fronts, along with all of our Razorbacks. I want to attack the Russians with everything we have in the north. I also want as much of our artillery as we can spare to be moved north in order to engage the Russians as well.” He began to highlight a number of units, and drew a line for where he wanted each of them to be directed.

He continued, “The 12th AD has joined forces with the German divisions, and is fighting the Russians in central Germany near Leipzig. Since the Russians are not looking to move across the Elbe, I want the 2nd AD moved north to cross the Elbe at Lauanburg and advance to attack the Russians. They are going to take some losses, but I want them to hit the Russians hard in order to stop their advance. They will have nearly all of the Razorbacks in Europe (and the vast majority of our aircraft) to support them. Ensure that the artillery continues to advance with them as well,” General Wade said.

“Sir, I recommend we also send the British King’s Royal Hussars, the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR). They are near Hamburg right now; rather than leaving them there to defend the city, I’d like to have them advance with the 2nd AD,” MG Bryant advised.

Looking through the information and then back at the map, General Wade thought a minute before responding, “Yes, send them as well to support the 2nd AD. Their 620 MBTs will be greatly needed. Oh--by the way, isn’t that Britain’s most famed tank regiment?” asked General Wade.

Smiling, General Bryant replied, “Yes sir it is. It’s also the oldest tank unit in the world.”

“Excellent, then begin to issue the orders. At the rate the Russians are moving, they are going to be at the outskirts of Hamburg in the next couple of days. We need to start our counter-attack before then. Can the 2nd AD and the Royal Hussars be ready to attack in 48 hours?”

“If the Hussars lead the attack, then yes, the 2nd AD can follow right behind them and pass through their lines once their regiments are all across the Elbe.”

“Excellent, then make it happen. I also want our air forces to start pounding the tar out of them immediately. We need to try and slow them down a bit,” General Wade said as he indicated the meeting was over. “I need to get something to eat before I collapse from exhaustion. I’m heading to the mess hall--would you like to join me?”

“I’ll meet you there in a few minutes; I want to get these orders issued first,” Bryant said.  He immediately began to get things moving by signaling for a number of the various LNOs to come gather around him.

“I’ll see you there then,” Wade replied as he turned and began to leave the OC to head to the mess hall. The NATO headquarters had an exceptional Dining Facility (DFAC) for the thousands of people who worked there; today the DFAC was serving skirt steak with baked potatoes. It was just the kind of “brain food” that General Wade needed.

Chapter 9

Sky Full of Drones

20 June 2041

Lakenheath, England

Royal Air Force Base

Major Theodore Cruse (aka ‘Cruiser’) had just been promoted to Flight Commander of 2nd Flight, 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 5th Fighter Wing stationed at Lakenheath. He flew the Air Force’s F38A fighter drone aircraft, which had become the mainstay aircraft for the Air Force in the war. Cruse had joined the Air Force through the ROTC program at the University of Texas in Austin as a means of paying for his degree in aeronautical engineering. His long-term goal was to go into aircraft design and work for one of the big aircraft manufacturers. While on active duty, he had also been working towards his Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering and aircraft design as well. With school and all of the officer training and flight courses, Cruse had yet to find time to have a girlfriend, instead focusing his limited time and energies on achieving his dreams. Then the war broke out, and he suddenly found himself flying near constant combat missions, first in Mexico and then in Europe against the Russians. So far, he’d lost three fighter drones while having shot down twenty-three enemy fighter drones and nine manned fighters, including one MiG40. This made him one of the first Aces in his squadron (and one of the few pilots) to have shot down a new Russian MiG. For his achievements thus far, he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bronze Star.

On this the 200th day of World War III, Major Cruse was informed that his flight had been chosen to receive the new F41 Archangel fighter drone, which would be ready for service in thirty days. The F41 Archangel fighter would be the first fighter to leverage the new EmDrive propulsion system. After receiving his initial briefing on the new drone’s capabilities, he could not wait to start training on the new platform. The pilots in his flight were pretty excited about being the first to receive the new aircraft as well.

After returning back to the squadron bay from their briefing about the F41, their Commander walked into the room and quieted everyone down so he could speak. “Listen up everyone. I know you all are excited about our new aircraft, but we have a high priority mission. The ground pounders are preparing for a massive counterattack against the Russians, starting in twelve hours. The Reds have been on a tear lately, heading towards Hamburg and central Germany. I want to draw your attention to the display.” The Colonel turned on the briefing monitor in the day room and brought up a map of Germany, showing the current Russian offensive.

“Our squadron has been assigned to fly fighter cover for the ground attack aircraft and Razorbacks. They are going to be going after the Russian armor to try to butter them up before our armored forces start their counterattack. I want you all to turn in and get some sleep; we start flying in nine hours, and it’s going to be a long couple of days. I’ll see you guys in flight operations in seven hours. Dismissed.” The Colonel signaled for everyone to stop what they were doing and get some rest. They would be getting little sleep over the next several days while the counterattack was underway.

Seven hours later, Major Cruse walked into the flight operations center and found the rest of his pilots there waiting. He walked over to the briefing lectern and began, “All right men, you all know the drill. We’ll form up over London before heading across the Channel and take up our position over Brussels. Once we get the go ahead, we’ll head towards Hamburg and begin to aggressively patrol the area for enemy MiGs. Chances are, we are going up against MiG40s, so be ready for them. Our fighters have been equipped with the new radars and missiles, so we should see them just like any other aircraft. Also, our missiles should be able to track them. This will be our first engagement using the new radar and missiles, so let’s hope they work.” As he spoke, the Major looked each of his pilots in the eye.

“Remember, the guys on the ground are counting on us to keep those MiG40s off their back. If your aircraft gets shot down, grab another from the reserve pool. Each pilot will have two drones available in the reserve pool, which will be loitering over Brussels.”

Because the F38As were drones, a second and third set of drones were going to be flown to what the Air Force had established as an aerial drone pool, which usually idled a couple hundred miles away from a major air operation. This enabled the pilots to activate a new drone from the pool and get back into the fight quickly. The advent of fighter and bomber drones had completely revolutionized the way air combat was being fought; the drones were more maneuverable, and carried more weapons and fuel, which gave the pilots a much greater ability than the previous manned aircraft could offer. The Air Force still flew the F22 Raptors and the JF35 Joint Strike Fighters, though the reliance on drones in the future was clearly written on the proverbial wall.

As the briefing ended, the pilots began to walk towards their flight pods and complete their pre-flight checklists. The flight pods looked very similar to flight simulators, though they were much smaller, more like an actual cockpit. As the drone flew and made tight turns, dove or climbed, the pod would mimic the maneuver, giving the pilot the very real sense that they were actually flying in an aircraft. The pod would even simulate the feeling of a missile or bomb detaching from the aircraft and the sounds and sensations of the onboard machine gun being fired. Making the pod feel as real as possible helped the pilots to react just as they would in a real aircraft, and kept everything from feeling so detached like a video game. This greatly enhanced the survivability of the drones and made them that much more lethal.

Within half an hour, Major Cruse’s flight was airborne and loitering 40,000 ft. above London. Once all the aircraft were there, they began to move as a group to Brussels and wait for their orders to begin their patrol over Hamburg and the surrounding area.

“Major Cruse, this is flight operations. Do you copy?” asked a male voice over the HUD.

“This is Flight Leader Cruse. Go ahead, over.”

“Your Flight has been cleared to begin patrolling over Hamburg; you are to patrol at 45,000 feet and engage any hostiles you identify. You are not to descend below 15,000 feet. Ground systems will be attacking enemy aircraft below that altitude. Do you copy?”

“Copy flight operations. We are advancing to Hamburg. Will maintain patrolling altitude of 45,000 feet. Will not descend below 15,000 feet, out.”

Turning his coms to the rest of his flight, Major Cruse directed “All right gentlemen and ladies, we just received our go order. We are to begin patrolling above Hamburg at 45,000 feet; no one is to descend below 15,000 feet. Ground systems will engage enemy fighters below that ceiling. Acknowledge.”

“Copy that,” said the pilots as the group began to maneuver their aircraft to the new altitude and heading.

Fifteen minutes after arriving above the skies of Hamburg, the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft that was operating two hundred miles behind their position spotted several dozen drones, along with at least ten MiG40s heading towards Major Cruse’s flight. Within minutes, that number rose to over 120 drones and 20 MiG40s and 50 Su38s. The Russians were starting to flood the sky with drones and fighters as they spotted the massive armada of ground attack fighters and helicopters heading towards their ground forces. The battle for the skies was about to heat up again.

Major Cruse activated his Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) and began to engage a MiG40 that was maneuvering to attack one of his flight mates. He toggled his missiles and activated two of his AMRAAMs and fired. Both missiles leapt from his drone and began to head towards the MiG. At first the MiG pilot appeared to ignore the missiles, assuming that his stealth abilities would win out just as they always had in the past. Unfortunately for him, just as he realized it was not going to work, both missiles impacted against his aircraft, blowing him to pieces. This was the first air-to-air engagement with the new AMRAAMs and the radar systems that had been specifically designed to go after the new MiG40s. Within minutes, their effect was made known--all 20 MiG40s were shot down in quick succession before the Americans switched over and began to engage the enemy drones and Su38s. After nearly two hours of air-to-air combat and two additional drones, Major Cruse’s squadron was ordered back to their bases in England. The American and British Air Forces lost 342 F38A drones, 63 F22s and 57 JF35s. The Russians had lost 58 MiG40s, 196 Su38s and 432 SU39FD or Fighter Drones. The Allies had not won the day, but they had provided enough air cover for 250 Razorback helicopters, over 350 F38B ground attack drones and 210 A10 Warthogs to maul the Russian armored advance as it headed towards Hamburg, just as the American and British counterattack began in earnest. The Russians had lost over 1,400 MBTs, 2,800 LDTs and 3,000 other assorted armored vehicles and IFVs.

Chapter 10

Killjoy

21 June 2041

Cooper Landing, Alaska

While the American and British counteroffensive was taking place in Europe, the fight for Alaska against the Chinese and Russians continued unabated. The Americans had fought tooth and nail for every inch of land they gave up on the Anchorage Peninsula, finally falling back to a series of defensive works established at Cooper Landing on Highway 1 in the Chugach State Park. This location was just miles away from the city of Anchorage itself. The inlet leading to Anchorage was so heavily mined, the Chinese decided against moving any ships through it until after the PLA had captured Anchorage and they could bring in proper minesweeper ships to make the channel usable again.

On June 10th, the PLA had begun to land a large force of armor and troops on the west side of the channel across from Kalgin Island (once the Americans lost the city of Sterling along Hwy 1, it created an opening for them to move in). This second offensive force was having to fight through a lot of rough terrain; numerous American firebases and other defensive works were making the journey to Anchorage slow and bloody. The ideal way to get at Anchorage was along Highway 1 and then cut behind the city, sealing it off from any reinforcements while the Navy and Air Force continued to pound them into submission. Their ultimate goal was to secure from Eureka to Valdez, effectively cutting Alaska off from the rest of the country. Then they could focus on rooting out the remaining Americans left in the State before advancing into the Canadian States and the rest of America.

The 12th Infantry Division, like the other divisions on the Peninsula, had fallen back to the massive defensive fortifications that the Corps of Engineers had built in Cooper Landing. The engineers had built several hardened trench lines along the approach to the low-lying mountain ranges. These trenches had multiple heaving gun emplacements, lined with M134 Miniguns, M2 .50 Cals, and 20mm Railguns. At the base of the mountain, the Army Corp of Engineers had constructed a small series of tunnels and tracks, mounting over a hundred 155mm Howitzers to the tracks so that they could fire several rounds and then retreat back under the protection of the mountain.

Once the enemy fought their way through to the base of the mountain, they would have to capture a series of trench lines and fortifications all the way up to the top of the mountain and into the valley on the other side, and then repeat the process again until they had cleared all five mountain ridges. General Black had over 180,000 soldiers defending this position while additional soldiers prepared the next layer of defenses further back around Palmer. If it looked like the Chinese were going to break out, then the rest of his forces in Anchorage would make a hasty retreat so as to not be cut off and surrounded. The same would go for the troops defending the mountain lines along Susitna, 20 miles west of Anchorage.

With the new radar and missiles systems that could track the Russian MiG40s, the number of high altitude precision bombings against the American laser and railgun defensive systems was finally coming to an end. This had been a serious problem; in the last six months, US Forces had lost nearly 60% of their anti-air, anti-missile defensive systems. The Allies had yet to achieve or maintain anything close to air superiority since the start of the war until the new radar had been built.

*******

SSG Paul Allen had done his best to keep the soldiers in his platoon alive and to stop the Chinese from capturing Alaska. Unfortunately, his platoon had been mauled; while they had started out with 56 soldiers at the outset of the invasion, they were now down to 17. They had become a shell of their former self. The 12th Infantry Division had been pulled from the line and reorganized as new units and soldiers continued to arrive from the rest of the country. During this reorganization, the division took some time to recognize the bravery of the soldiers and units who had defended the landing beaches against the PLAN. SSG Paul Allen had been awarded the Army’s Distinguish Service Cross for his actions during the initial beach invasion, one medal below the Congressional Medal of Honor. Three other soldiers from the division had received the same medal as Paul, along with nearly four dozen Silver Stars and over 150 Bronze Stars with V device for Valor.

Because SSG Allen had close to sixty college credits completed, he had been given a battlefield promotion to 1st Lieutenant, making him the executive officer for the company and the 2nd Platoon Commander (PC). His battalion had been selected to receive the new Raptor combat suit, which was finally set to make its debut. The 12th Infantry Division was going to be pulled off the line while two battalions at a time would be rotated back to the US to be equipped and trained on the new suit before being sent back to Alaska.

US manufacturers had been working overtime to produce the Raptor combat suits to get them into the fight as quickly as possible. The training to become proficient in their use had been determined to be around one week, with a second week to learn how to use it with a weapon and a soldier’s additional combat equipment. The plan was to rotate several battalions at a time through training, and then slowly integrate them back in to the war. The highest priority for the Raptor suits was the Alaskan front, with the 12th Infantry Division being the first division to receive them. The US could not let the Chinese establish a long-term base of operations in North America. Having to fight on two additional continents was straining the US’s ability to fight and win.

Captain Tim Shiller walked up to Lieutenant Allen. “LT, I just received word from battalion; they are pulling us from the line tonight before the Chinese start their attack. They want to get us to Ft. Benning immediately,” he said with a hint of a smile.

“You’re just glad we won’t be here when the Chinese launch their next offensive against this place,” Allen said with a smirk of his own.

“Aren’t you? We’ve gone through enough hell these past six weeks. We need a break, some good steaks, women and beer. All of which we’ll be able to get at Benning while we complete our training,” replied Shiller.

Paul thought for a minute before adding, “Yeah, but as soon as we get the new suits, they are going to throw us right back into the meat grinder. You saw the specs on the new suits. They are going to throw us headfirst at the enemy, thinking we will be invincible, which you and I both know--we aren’t.”

Laughing, Tim retorted, “You’re a real killjoy, you know that Paul? Go inform the rest of the men; we are leaving in half an hour. They are trucking us back to Palmer airport in an hour.”

With that, Lieutenant Allen turned and walked towards the day room where most of the Company had been relaxing while they waited to find out if they were going to be moving to the Cooper Landing defenses or somewhere else. He signaled for everyone to be quiet so that he could speak. After the bantering calmed down, he announced, “Listen up everyone! We are pulling out of here and being driven to Palmer Airport. Before you guys start to speculate; we are being sent as a battalion to Ft. Benning to receive training on the new Raptor combat suit.” The room suddenly erupted in cheers and jeers as they realized they were going to be leaving the combat zone and heading back to the “real world,” even if it was only for a few weeks.

“Hey not to be a spoilsport in all of this, but once we receive the new suits and are determined combat ready, you can bet that we will be deploying back here and you can bet your paycheck we will be leading a counteroffensive against the Chinese.” Now the room filled with groans.

“On the bright side, when we do get a night off, first round’s on me boys,” Allen said to the joy of his soldiers.

Chapter 11

Decisions in the Dark

20 June 2041

Japan

The Japanese government was caught between a rock and a hard place with not a lot of options available to them. To date, they had not upheld their defense agreement with the Americans, aside from providing some intelligence and surveillance activity of the Chinese. In May, they were forced to intern the remaining American Forces in Japan or face a military reaction by the Chinese. To prevent the Chinese from viewing them as a threat, Japan signed a non-aggression treaty, which formally ended their mutual defense agreement with the US. Japan had conscripted nearly one million soldiers and began a doubling of their navy, but these efforts would take time to come to fruition; in the meantime, they had to defend their island with the forces they had at hand.

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Hata had been in power now for five years. He had become the PM right after President Stein had won his first election, and had developed a good working relationship with the American President. Japan had benefited greatly from the U.S. economic revival and from the Grain Consortium. The export of American natural gas had also helped to fuel Japan’s own economic revitalization of sorts. Despite some angst among his own political party, PM Hata had been instrumental in the modernization of the Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF) and the navy. With the rise of the Chinese military and navy, it became imperative that Japan be able to defend itself.

When China launched their surprise attack against America, Japan had almost joined the war immediately. However, it was the threat of immediate invasion by the Chinese (along with the destruction of the American Fifth Fleet in the Red Sea, and the American Seventh Fleet at Pearl Harbor) that prevented the Japanese from immediately coming to the Americans’ aid. During the first several days of the war, the Chinese had effectively removed American naval power from the equation in the Pacific, leaving Japan isolated and alone.

Both sides had agreed to leave each other alone for the time being. As China gobbled up Southeast Asia, the Japanese continued to build up their own forces. Once the Chinese had launched their invasion of Alaska, it became clear to the leaders of Japan that America was not going to be able to come to their aid should the Chinese turn their military attention towards them. With the Russians laying siege to Europe and America being invaded, it was time for Japan to reevaluate their standing with China and the U.S. and make sure they are going to be on the winning side of this growing global war.

What really changed the tide, turning Japan away from a position of supporting America, was the overwhelming nuclear response to the destruction of New York and Baltimore. The government had expected the Americans to respond with nuclear weapons; what they did not expect, was the near destruction of the entire Islamic Republic. Over 650 million people had been killed in the nuclear holocaust, and this was simply something the people of Japan and the government could not support. They publicly denounced the attack immediately and even offered medical aid to the IR. This further strained the American/Japanese relationship, but resulted in improved relations with China.

When China had approached the Japanese government about the creation of a greater Pan Asian Alliance, the idea had intrigued them. A loose confederation of nations that would rule Asia and lead the world into the 21st and 22nd centuries had a great appeal to PM Yasuhiro Hata. It could be his legacy achievement, bringing great glory, power and prestige to Japan. The cost to joining this alliance though was the complete betrayal of their friend and ally, America. If they opted to not join, then they would be frozen out of the new PAA economy, currency and potentially face military action.

After a lot of internal consideration, the PM and several of his closest friends, advisors and key members in the government, made the decision to secretly join China in the creation of this confederation. The young emperor of Japan had even gone along with the idea. The thought of Japan being able to be a leader in the greater Pan Asian Alliance was very appealing, even to an emperor who did not have a lot of political power. His spiritual guidance and support would go a long way towards convincing the rest of the population that this was in the best interest of Japan.

Chapter 12

Occupation Offer

25 June 2041

Riyadh, Islamic Republic

Central IR Command Post

The state of the IR was near chaos across most of the country, with the exception of Indonesia. The IR had limited electric power and intermittent rolling blackouts were plaguing the Republic; fortunately, several Chinese nuclear-powered ships and a single nuclear-powered Russian cruiser were still in the Gulf and providing power to the IR. It had been six months since the US had carried out their overwhelming nuclear attack across the IR. It had resulted in the provinces of North Africa seceding from the Caliphate in a side deal they made with the Americans. The country was further hurt by the near total destruction of their critical infrastructure, highway and rail systems along with the vast majority of their major ports. There were critical food and water shortages across nearly every major city, with tens of thousands of people dying from thirst and hunger weekly.

Talal bin Abdulaziz was the Foreign Minister for the IR. He had been the one to contact the White House and the President when Caliph Abbas made his demands to President Stein and then detonated a second nuclear device in America. The Caliph had made a calculated risk that the IR could survive a nuclear exchange with the Americans… he was wrong. The Americans had hit the IR with five 25 Megaton neutron bombs that effectively killed over 250 million people; another 200 million more people were killed in the subsequent conventional nuclear attack and another 200 million would eventually die from radiation poisoning. The loss of so many additional troops and equipment during the second invasion of Israel further compounded the losses for the IR.

Recently, Talal had been contacted by the American Secretary of State with an offer to end the war. Jim Wise had called him on a secure line and calmly laid out the details, “Talal, we know that your country is suffering greatly. We would be willing to accept an unconditional term of surrender from the IR; the U.S. would even provide the Republic with 100 million tons of food a month, for the next three years. In return, you would have to surrender your nuclear arsenal and terminate your military alliance and base rights with both Russia and China. In addition, there would be a 30-mile radius of land around the Israeli border where there would be an Israeli and American military occupation and monitors. You would be allowed to maintain a military force, of course, but one that is no larger than what is needed for territorial defense and internal security.”

At first Talal dismissed the offer. “There is no way that the Caliph would agree to this,” he replied.

Unabated, Jim Wise had replied, “Well, please think about it. We will give you some time to consider, but don’t take too long; this offer may not be on the table if you wait too much before making your decision. I will send you an official dossier on the details of my proposal.”

Talal couldn’t help but think about the offer; having spent the better part of a week mulling it over, Talal wondered if it might be best to inform the Caliph of the offer and see if he couldn’t perhaps persuade him to accept. The IR as a country was falling apart; if they did not do something soon, they were going to lose the country regardless.

Huseen ibn Abdullah Al Gubayel, the Director of Intelligence, pulled Talal aside as they were getting ready for a briefing. “The American and Israeli armies are starting to amass on their border. It appears that they will invade in the coming weeks.” He seemed nervous, and he never seemed nervous. “There is little the army can do to stop it, despite whatever protests you may hear from General Rafik Hamza.”

“What do you suggest?” asked Talal.

“Islam can still conquer the world; we will just need to wait,” he argued.

Talal sat at the briefing table, waiting for the Caliph to enter the room. Everyone from the governing council was present, and judging by the looks on their faces. they all knew the IR was doomed. It was just a matter of time.

Caliph Muhammad Abbas walked into the room and took his seat at the head of the table in his diamond and jewel encrusted gold chair.

He cleared his throat before beginning, “Council members, we have much to discuss today. The state of our Republic is not going to survive unless we make some tough decisions.” Caliph Abbas turned to look at his Minister of Industry, Muhammad bin Aziz. “What is the current state of our economy and infrastructure?” he asked.

“The Americans continue to bomb our bridges, rail and road junctions, with little to stop them. Every time we turn on our radars to attack their drones and aircraft, they are quickly destroyed. We have successfully shot down over 150 drones in the last two weeks, but they far outnumber our radar stations. Our losses are just not sustainable.”

He took a deep breath before he continued, “As to our economy, we have rolling brownouts throughout the country. We have restarted all of our deactivated power plants, but each time a new one comes on line, the Americans quickly attack or destroy the infrastructure needed to transmit the power. Our only effective production taking place is in the Kuwait region and parts of Iran near the coast. The Russian and Chinese naval ships there have been extremely effective in engaging the American drones and cruise missiles that get near them. I wish I had better news to report, but I do not,” said Minister Muhammad as he lowered his head.

Turning to his Foreign Minister, the Caliph inquired, “Minister Aziz, what additional aid can the Russians provide us to help get our power restored and stop the Israeli and American air forces from continually destroying our infrastructure?” He was hoping to hear some good news.

Minister Aziz brightened a little, responding, “My Caliph, the Russian Foreign Minister said they can increase food shipments to the Republic via Iran and through Azerbaijan. They can ship us roughly 5 million tons’ worth of food products monthly. They are also going to send thirty mobile anti-missiles, and anti-aircraft laser defensive systems (along with the crews for them). Their goal is to help us establish a defensive pattern that should protect southern Iraq, Kuwait and most of Iran, allowing us a chance to rebuild our industrial capabilities. As for additional military aid, they said there is no additional military aid they can provide beyond the laser defensive systems. Their war in Europe is now their primary focus.”

The Caliph thought for a moment, “This will certainly help, but without military aid to stop the Allied air forces, they are going to continue to pound us into the stone age.” Aloud, he sounded much more optimistic as he replied, “This is good news; we can work with what they are willing to provide. What about the Chinese?”

General Hamza was not sure if his reply would satisfy the Caliph. “Now that the Chinese have landed the majority of their ground forces in Alaska, they said they can send an aircraft carrier battle group to the Arabian Gulf. They will have multiple anti-aircraft ships with them; they will be able to provide a lot of aircraft support while we rebuild our air force in Iran. As for ground forces, they are capturing numerous countries in South and Central Africa while the U.S. appears to be distracted with their main focus now in North America. Therefore, the Chinese have no additional ground forces they can send to us.”

“What about food and other aid?” asked Talal, the Foreign Minister.

“They are not able to send us this type of aid at this moment,” he replied.

General Rafik Hamza added, “Caliph, this aid and support is appreciated, but it will not stop the Israeli and American forces who are now, as we speak, readying to invade our country. There is very little we can do to stop them from capturing Amman or driving further into Saudi Arabia. They have already captured Damascus and appear to be readying an advance into Northern Iraq.”

Knowing the military situation needed to be discussed, Caliph Abbas moved the discussion in that direction. “You bring up some major concerns. What are your suggestions?”

“Sir, I recommend that we withdraw our forces to three major points: Fallujah, Mosul and Riyadh. We can turn the cities into fortresses and fight the American and Israeli forces house-to-house if need be,” General Hamza said, showing some of his plans on the holographic map for the council members to see.

Clearing his throat and signaling to speak, Talal thought this was as good a time as any to bring up the American proposal. “My Caliph, council members. I was contacted by the American Secretary of State not long ago. He offered us terms of surrender and I would like to brief them to you.” Talal hoped he had not just signed his death warrant.

General Hamza was shocked. His face went through a gambit of emotions quickly as he looked surprised, then hurt, and then curious to know what had been offered.

Caliph Abbas on the other hand, had only one reaction. He seethed with anger and broke out into an anti-American, anti-Israeli tirade before he calmed down enough for General Hamza to intervene on Talal’s behalf. “Caliph, I believe we should at least hear the offer before we turn it down.” He looked around the room for support; several heads nodded in agreement, while a couple of members dismissed this notion altogether.

“What are the terms then?” demanded the Caliph.

“Yes, my Caliph. The Americans broke their offer down into incentives and requirements. I will go through the requirements first, and then the incentives, which I believe everyone will be interested in knowing about.” He pulled out his notes before continuing, “Their demands were as follows:

1) The surrender of all nuclear weapons and end our nuclear program, both military and civilian

2) A 30-mile buffer zone of land around the Israeli border, along with the removal of all Arabs and population living within that buffer zone. The Zionists will actually pay NAD 25,000 to each person above 18 years of age who is being evicted (snickers could be heard from this statement)

3) The demobilization of our military, turning it into a defense force meant only to protect our borders and provide internal security

4) An immediate termination of our military alliance with China and Russia. This would include the removal of all their forces from our territory and access to it

5) The IR would have an Israeli and American military occupation and observers for a period of fifteen-years to ensure our compliance with the terms of the surrender

6) An occupation force of 250,000 soldiers, which would be phased out over the fifteen-year period would be spread throughout the country to ensure our compliance. They would establish several permanent military bases, which would be handed over to us at the end of the occupation.”

“Hmm…so these are their demands,” said the Caliph, who definitely did not seem at all excited by the idea. “What are their incentives?”

“They are actually quite generous. They would provide the IR with 100 million tons of food products of our choice each month for three years, and then 50 million tons of food products for another twelve years. Their military engineers and contractors would also work with ours to reestablish power throughout the country. However, they also insist on our full support to protect their facilities and occupation forces. They said this would limit the need for them to intervene and find insurgent forces on their own” explained Talal, waiting to hear the overwhelmingly negative response that he believed was coming.

The room remained silent for a few seconds while everyone digested what Talal had just told them. General Hamza was the first to speak. “Caliph, the Chinese and Russians are limited in the assistance they can provide us. Our army is in tatters and our people are starving and dying of thirst. We are coming into the height of summer; things are only going to get worse. This is honestly not that bad of a deal.”

Muhammed bin Aziz, the Minister of Industry, added, “If they are willing to provide us engineers and personnel who can help get power reestablished throughout the country, then we should take their offer. The war is lost, let’s not lose the country too.”

“Enough of this talk of surrender! We have fought too hard to give up now. You all are traitors for even thinking of surrendering!” screamed General Omar Rafi, the Special Operations Commander. He looked to his Caliph for support.

Admiral Jaffa Mustafa slammed his fist on the table, spilling a glass of water, “General Rafi is right. I have sacrificed my entire naval force, over one hundred and fifty thousand sailors. We have nearly destroyed Israel and cost the Americans dearly. I say we continue to fight and bleed them dry.”

Talal knew if he wanted this deal to succeed then he needed to intervene quickly. “Caliph, Israel has been virtually destroyed. More than half of their population has been killed. The Americans lost two aircraft carriers and their entire 5th Fleet. We have killed over one hundred thousand American soldiers. We need to look at the long picture and know that this fight, this battle may be over, but the war is not. If the Chinese and Russians do defeat the Americans, then we can restart the war. If the Communists are defeated, then we abide by the terms of the surrender and we rebuild our economy. We restart our military after the occupation ends. Right now we need to focus on saving the country and remaining in power.” Talal was very calm and matter-of-fact, contrasting greatly with his screaming counterparts.

The Caliph thought about what Talal said, realizing he was right. He still did not want to surrender though. It just went against everything he had worked towards and every fiber of his being. He turned to Zaheer Akhatar, his personal advisor, and asked, “What are your thoughts?”

Zaheer sighed deeply before responding, “The thought of surrendering churns my stomach, but Talal brings up some good points. We have to be pragmatic at this point my Caliph. We have control of a unified Middle East right now. We need to maintain that control and if we wait until the Americans invade, then chances are we will not only lose, we will lose control of the country and the power we now hold. We have all sacrificed too much to lose the nation we worked so hard to create. I recommend we accept the agreement and rebuild our country.” Zaheer and Caliph Abbas had been friends for decades; they had been the ones that developed and executed the plans to unite the Islamic world. His advisor’s words carried weight with the Caliph.

Abbas mulled over his thoughts, “Zaheer is right. We may have lost this war, but we can still win the ideological war as long as the Americans do not break our country up.”

The Caliph announced his choice to the group. “Everyone, you all have provided sound counsel. We have forever changed America and brought the war to their own streets. We have also thoroughly destroyed Israel, and it will be decades before they recover, if they ever do.” Turning to Talal, he said, “Talal, I want you to respond to the Americans. let them know we would like to discuss the terms in greater detail, but in general, we are going to agree to them.”

The meeting ended, with some members of the counsel incensed beyond words, and Talal shocked at how he had managed to survive this briefing almost entirely unscathed.

Chapter 13

Unintended Consequences

26 June 2041

Washington, DC

White House Situation Room

Secretary of State Jim Wise was elated. It was a longshot trying to persuade the Islamic Republic to surrender. The military, of course, would rather keep the war going and thoroughly crush them. Jim, however, wanted to end this war so all of America’s effort could be shifted to fighting the Russians in Europe and repulsing the Chinese invasion in Alaska.

As Jim walked into the Situation Room, he saw the various generals and national security advisors discussing the surrender. All eyes turned towards him. “You really did it this time,” Mike Williams, the National Security Advisor, said in a jovial voice.

Smiling, Jim sat down. “It’s not signed just yet, but you have to admit Mike--being able to shift those forces to Europe and Alaska is going to greatly aid our cause.”

“I’m still against this agreement. They are just going to rebuild and we’ll be stuck dealing with this again in 15 or 20 years,” General Branson said in a not-too-congenial tone.

Just as the groups with differing points of view were about to start arguing the merits of the plan, the President and his Chief of Staff walked into the room.

“I can see that not everyone is happy about the news,” the President said after quickly assessing the facial expressions of everyone in the room as he sat down.

General Branson spoke up first, saying, “It’s not that we are not happy about the surrender; we just feel we will end up fighting this same war again later. The surrender leaves their government intact; the Caliph will use the time to rebuild, and we will end up repeating this conflict all over again.”

Secretary Wise jumped in, “Not necessarily. First, we will have an occupation force in the country, as well as observers. As long as we do a good job of monitoring them, they will still take several decades to rebuild after the occupation. In the meantime, we have 15 years to help mold and change the IR from the inside out.”

“Gentlemen, I asked everyone to pursue their specific courses of actions. The military was ready to invade, and the State Department secured the IR’s surrender.” The President signaled for one of his aides to bring him a Red Bull; he was still living on caffeine to get through the 20 hour days. Despite the President’s own time in the military as a young man, he had never developed the habit of drinking coffee; he just didn’t care for the taste of it.

“We are going to move forward with the surrender. The IR has agreed to our terms, terms that everyone in this room came up with and agreed to. General Branson, I want you to have General Gardner determine what units he wants to leave behind for occupation duty and a garrison for Israel. I want the rest of his force made ready for combat operations against the Russians and Chinese.”

Sighing slightly but still compliant, the general replied, “I will issue the order immediately.” Wanting to change the subject, he inserted, “We should talk about Alaska, Mr. President.” He pulled up the holographic map of Alaska and the situation there. “As you can see, the Chinese have disembarked a large armored force near Susitna. We have a large defensive garrison there, so it will take the Chinese some time to get past them. They have also pushed our forces on the Anchor Point Peninsula back to Cooper Landing. This is a very defensible position, with several mountain ranges providing a layered defensive network for us. We have to hold it. If we lose that section, then they will be able to get in behind Anchorage, and more importantly, they will be able to drive straight across the lower portion of the state to Yukon and cut our entire Alaskan force off.” The map showed several potential strategies the Chinese forces were expected to use and how they would affect the continued operations in Alaska.

The President asked, “What are we doing to ensure we continue to hold this position?”

“We are rotating the 12th Infantry Division out of the line and sending them to Ft. Benning to receive training on the new Raptor combat suit. Once they are trained, we are going to send them back to Cooper Landing and the Susitna Defensive line, and hope that they are enough to stop the Chinese juggernaut. Following their training, we will pull another division from the line and repeat the process. We need to hold those two anchor points, or our defensive positions in Alaska will become unsustainable.”

The DHS Director, Jorge Perez, interjected, “Do we have enough military forces in the State? Are we able to send them additional reinforcements?”

“Well, I’m not for accepting the surrender of the IR; However, it does mean we will have substantially more soldiers and equipment that we can send to Alaska. We have four additional divisions completing their advanced training over the next two weeks. We had allocated three of them to head to Europe and the Middle East, with one heading to Alaska. I can shift them around now and send one to Europe and the other three to Alaska. Our bigger problem is maintaining air superiority. Our fighter drones are slightly better than theirs, mostly due to our ECM capability--but they have numbers on us. Plus, their J38 (which is essentially a fifth generation Su-38) is a real killer. The Chinese took the Russian aircraft and really improved upon it a lot.”?

“It always seems to come down to numbers, doesn’t it?” mused Monty with a bit of a sigh.

General Branson wanted to reassure everyone in the room. “We knew at the start of this war that the statistics would be against us. The Chinese have 2.3 billion people, and over the last six months alone, their Army has recruited an additional ten million soldiers. Given, most of these soldiers are green-- not nearly as trained as ours nor as equipped as ours. However, they don’t have to be, they just have to overwhelm us with their numbers. We have some new weapon systems coming online here shortly; the Wolverine will be ready to deploy to Alaska and Europe in a couple of weeks, and the new Raptor suits are in as well. The first ten Archangel fighters will be ready in a month. As long as we can keep the Chinese from securing a permanent foothold in North America, our oceans will continue to be an advantage to us.”

The President stood and signaled for everyone to stay seated; he walked around his chair and stood behind it, leaning over it slightly and resting his hands on top of it. “General Branson is right; we need to stay the course. This war is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. We need to continue to do what we are doing; we cannot lose hope or our will to fight.”

He stood up a little straighter as he prepared to make an announcement. “I am also going to start making more regular speeches about the war. Starting every other Monday afternoon, I will hold a one-hour press conference with General Branson where I will go over the successes of the war. On the opposite Monday, I will be holding a press conference with Joyce Gibbs and Jeff Rogers to discuss the economy, jobs and infrastructure projects. As everyone knows, we are going to rebuild New York City and Baltimore from the ground up in new locations (since their present locations are unfortunately going to be unlivable for some time to come). I would like to detail the progress on these projects to the American people. The point is, these meetings are to inspire our nation with hope, and assure them that their government is doing everything in its power to protect them and to end this war, on our terms. With that said, I will get off of my soapbox and let everyone get back to their tasks. Dismissed.”

The energy in the room was high after the closing statement by the President. The senior staff were starting to get beaten down with the burden of running the war and everything else, especially in light of the horrific casualties that were still pouring in. Nearly 103,000 Americans had been killed in the Middle East, close to 34,500 Americans had lost their lives in Europe thus far, and 24,543 Americans had died in the Pacific. In less than eight weeks of combat operations in Alaska, another 22,352 more Americans had already been killed. These were just the KIAs; the number of wounded was significantly higher. For a war that was less than nine months old, it was proving to be the bloodiest war in American history. They needed something to believe in again.

*******

Same Day

White House, Oval Office

Secretary of Treasury Joyce Gibbs walked into the Oval Office to meet with the President, Jeff Rogers (the Senior White House economic advisor), and Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff, to discuss the state of the economy. Fortunately, she had good news to talk about. There was legitimate reason to be optimistic; the economy was really starting to run on all cylinders. With the absence of Asian manufacturers, products still needed to be built and those products were now being made in America, South and Central America, the EU and the UK.

The America First Corporation (AFC) was a real boon for the country. As a sovereign wealth fund, it had helped stabilize social security and provided for a secured retirement for aging American workers. A person who worked their whole life could now rely on a social security retirement of $35,000 a year if they retired at 67, and $42,500 annually if they retired at age 73. AFC was also providing hundreds of millions of dollars a year for free college education for students who chose to pursue certain degrees in career fields where there was a national shortage such as nurses, doctors, engineers and other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degrees.

The New American Dollar (NAD), was once again the world’s reserve currency now that it was backed by gold, silver and platinum. Many countries who were not aligned with the Axis powers had switched their reserve currencies from Chinese dollars to the NAD as it had become a more stable currency. The US had also effectively wiped out its debt shortly after the war started. The government had seized all Russian, IR and Chinese government monies that were in US financial institutions at the start of the war, along with those of any shell companies that were associated with their governments. This included monies, buildings, land, companies, houses, cars, yachts, and other items of value. Once they had been seized and retitled, the government began to slowly liquidate these assets among private investors and American citizens. Victims from the IR’s terrorist attacks and those who received some sort of collateral damage during Chinese and Russian military operations in America were also receiving money as compensation from the seized assets. It was a small step in trying to correct the many wrongs the Axis powers had inflicted on the American people.

As Joyce walked into the room, she could see everyone was already seated and ready. She walked over to the couch and sat next to Jeff Rogers, opening her tablet.

The President nodded towards the Secretary of Treasury. “Joyce, it’s good to see you again. Jeff was just bringing us up to speed on a number of items. It appears we are going to have another good economic quarter.”

“Yes Mr. President, it does,” Joyce said while skimming through some notes. “Mr. President, I would like to speak with you about the new war bonds. As you know, we are financing some of the war through the war tax, the confiscation of assets from the Axis powers, and war bonds. I would like to propose we kick off a new war bond initiative by bringing in celebrities from across the country, along with some personal visits from you and the Vice President.”

“Right to the point, I always liked that about you Joyce. I agree, let’s see who we can get from Hollywood to help run the war bond drive and I will, of course, make myself available as well. I believe the Vice President has fully recovered from his injuries, so we’ll get him involved as well. How many bonds do we anticipate needing to sell each month, rough estimate?” asked the President.

“As many as we can, but in reality, the war is burning through $4.31 billion a day. With the national debt paid off, we could run a new deficit, but I would rather not do that. Thanks to the war tax that Congress passed a couple of months ago, I think we can avoid that. I know you caught some flak for it, but that $3% sales tax is essentially covering the increased spending at the moment.”

“The fact that Alaska is being invaded by the Chinese has really started to hit home with most folks. Foreign troops are on American soil and beating our own soldiers has sent a chill down their collective backs…and they should be scared,” said Jeff Rogers.

“The situation will change once some of our newer weapon systems start to show up on the battlefield,” Monty countered, trying to keep the mood of the meeting positive.

Chapter 14

A Problem with Math

06 July 2041

Tel Aviv, Israel

Third Army Division HQ

Colonel Joshua Richter had been General Gardner’s aide decamp since the start of the war in the Middle East; he had served with the general on and off throughout his career as an infantry officer and was being groomed to one day become a division commander. Richter caught his boss’ attention to give him an update. “General Gardner, the Secretary of Defense’s aircraft just landed, he’ll be here in about 30 minutes,” Richter said.

The Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs were on their way to Tel Aviv, along with the SACEUR. The goal of this meeting was to discuss the occupation and the next strategy for defeating the Russians. Third Army now had 560,000 extremely battle-hardened soldiers, desperately needed in Europe. The Israeli Defense Force had also grown significantly, reaching 800,000 soldiers. The question now was where to redeploy the Third Army--how many soldiers from the IDF could they get to help assist in Europe or Asia?

“Excellent. Let’s go join General Wade in the conference room while we wait,” Gardner said, leading the way. Colonel Richter went with the general wherever he went, ready to take notes and issue orders for the general.

As the two officers walked in to the conference room, they saw General Wade in a heated discussion with one of his officers. “Sorry gentlemen…would you like us to come back?” asked General Gardner as he slowly came into the room.

They immediately stopped talking, and there was a moment of awkward silence. “No that’s ok. We were just talking about strategy and what to do in Europe to stop the Russians,” said General Wade.

“What’s the issue? Perhaps we can help you out before the VIPs show up,” said Gardner.

“I’m sure you’ve seen our read-ahead. The issue we are facing is one of numbers. The Russians have such a huge advantage in armor, light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. I’m not even sure your additional armor is going to make much of a dent in it.” General Wade looked like he had been beaten down by the war in Europe.

General Gardner walked over to the center of the table and activated the holographic map. He pulled up the pre-brief slides from SACEUR and began to study the map and the enemy unit strengths. He squinted a little as he concentrated, looking for weaknesses in their lines. Just then, the Secretary of Defense, Eric Clarke, and General Branson, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, arrived and walked into the room with their aides and staff in tow.

General Branson walked towards the other two generals and held out his hand to shake theirs, saying, “Generals, it’s sincerely good to see you both. I am so happy we were able to arrange a meeting where we could have our primary battlefield commanders discuss strategy directly with us as opposed to through these holographic images.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” General Gardner replied, shaking the Joint Chief’s hand. The two Generals had worked together a number of times in the past, and though they were both infantry officers, General Gardner had pursued a career that led him to spend more time as a field commander and less time as a politician.

Eric Clarke, the SecDef, walked over and joined in the conversation, “It’s good to see you both as well. I’m glad to see that you all have made it. I know it’s been a rough war, and you all are busy and exhausted.”

“That it has been. Speaking of making it, I don’t know if you heard that we did officially determine that it was poison that killed my predecessor days before the invasion,” General Wade responded as he moved to his seat at the table.

Eric didn’t look surprised. “We thought so. In any case, I’m glad you have been able to take over smoothly. You have done a marvelous job trying to herd all of the cats and dogs that make up NATO and still manage to keep the Russians from gobbling all of Europe up,” the SecDef said with genuine gratitude. Clarke was liked by a lot of people in the military. Though he had never served himself, he really listened to his military commanders and deferred to them when it came down to significant military strategy, weapons, personnel and the needs required to win the war. He was not a micromanager like a lot of the previous SecDefs had been.

After some coffee, tea and other refreshments were brought in, the group of military leaders sat down at the conference table and began to get down to business.

The SecDef opened the conversation by saying, “Generals, the President is incredibly pleased with everyone and the results we have achieved thus far. That said, the war is far from over…we may be entering a more dangerous period than what we just left. The Islamic Republic has surrendered, and for that, we are eternally gratefully for your efforts in driving home this victory, General Gardner. I know the President and I have not always agreed with your methods, but we cannot dispute the results you have achieved.”

“As we look to transition, there are several things that need to take place. Right now, I need you to reassign 250,000 of your men for occupation duty. They do not all need to be combat troops, but they need to be able to perform the full range of occupation duties as needed and ensure we do not have a problem later on. I’ll leave you to figure out the composition of those forces. Next, I’ll need you to also leave behind an additional 35,000 soldiers here in Israel. They will essentially be your Quick Reaction Force (QRF) for the occupation and help secure Israel and assist with the reconstruction efforts that I am sure are already underway now that the war is officially over.”

Clarke looked at the rest of the generals in the room and then at General Gardner before he continued. “You had your meeting with the IDF a few hours ago; I won’t get a chance to meet with them until later today. How did your meeting go?” The SecDef was curious to know what he might be walking in to.

“The meeting went great; they have agreed to participate in the greater war against both the Russians and the Chinese. When I asked for a troop commitment, they said they could lend 250,000 soldiers, mostly combat arms. They are committing 90,000 soldiers to the occupation. About 210,000 will stay on active duty, and the rest will be placed back in a reserve status so they can begin to rebuild their country. They are currently working out the details on how to move nearly 2,800,000 civilians back to Israel from Southern Europe and the US.” General Gardner was all smiles since he had essentially gotten exactly the troop numbers the SecDef and the President were looking for.

General Branson was also smiling from ear to ear, excited to hear that Israel would continue to support their US allies in the war against the Russians. “I will speak with the President, but I believe we can use some of our civilian airlift capacity to help the Israelis in relocating their people back to Israel. I know the President is going to sign an agreement tomorrow bringing Israel into the Grain Consortium, which will give them preferential buying power for food stocks. He is also working on an aid package, mostly building materials and such.”

The SecDef replied, “This is all good news General. Now, on to more pressing matters. Europe and Alaska--we’ll discuss Alaska first.”

Changing the holographic map, the battle of Alaska came into focus. “As you can see, the Chinese have pushed our forces back to Cooper Landing. This is our last line of defense around southern Alaska. Fortunately, General Black has turned it into a real meat grinder for the Chinese. To the north, we have the Susitna defense, which thus far is holding out against a massive PLA army.” Eric sighed before continuing. “The PLA have landed a total force of around 330,000 soldiers on the Aleutian Peninsula, with most of them heading to the Susitna defensive line. In the south, they have a total force of around 290,000 soldiers attacking Cooper Landing. Now we expect these numbers to double over the next two months, and then double again by the end of the year. Right now, we are estimating they will have a total force of around 2.3 million soldiers on Alaskan soil by December.”

General Gardner broke into the conversation, adding, “It would almost make more sense for my Army to redeploy back to the US and get ready to go fight the Chinese than it would to move to Europe. If we lose Alaska, then the Yukon, BC, then the other northern states will easily fall. If the Chinese are able to spread themselves out, we could have a thousand-plus mile border or more to have to defend,” he said.

General Branson just nodded, “You are correct. We came to the same conclusion on our flight over here.”

General Wade looked a bit concerned at the thought of losing the Third Army; he had been counting on them. “Am I losing the entire Third Army, or just part of it?” he asked dejectedly.

“You are losing the entire Third Army,” General Branson said, matter of fact. “You are gaining all of Third Army’s air support, along with the Israeli reinforcements. Third Army will have air support via NORTHCOM and General Black’s forces in Alaska.” Branson signaled for Gardner to hold his objections for just a second longer.

“General, we are going to have your entire army rotate back to the US as a whole unit, at least what’s left of it after you detail off the occupation force. You, and portions of your force are going to be conducting victory parades all throughout the country. Following the parades, your army will then be given a full thirty-days of leave before we reconstitute your force in the Pacific Northwest. We are also going to outfit your infantry forces with the new Raptor combat suits and the new Wolverine IFVs. When your forces do enter the war in Alaska, your army will be fielding the newest in military equipment. You are also going to be facing several million Chinese soldiers and we are expecting you to not just defeat them, but drive them back into the sea. Once in place, we will begin a phased withdraw of General Black’s Second Army so his group can go through the same refit.”

General Gardner was going to object, but held his tongue for a minute thinking about the global situation. He took a moment to look at the map before returning back to face General Branson and the SecDef. “I understand the situation is not looking good in Alaska. It is not looking good in Europe either. My entire army could be the difference in defeating the Russians quickly or dragging the war out for a lot longer.”

The SecDef knew Gardner would have objections, but it was his job to make him see the bigger picture. “Gary, the war with Russia is going to have to continue without your army. Your air units will make a tremendous difference, but the situation at home is far more serious. We cannot allow the Chinese to land millions upon millions of soldiers in North America. If they are able to do that, then we are in serious trouble. Your army is the most battle tested army we have right now, and once outfitted with the newest equipment, it will be our most lethal. We are going to leave most of your equipment here with the Israelis while the armored units are moved to Europe. Your entire army will be completely refitted with the newest equipment. We also have the Central and South American Multi-National Force that is starting to complete their training. We are going to slice off half of them to Europe, while the other half will be integrated with your army. This is a huge manpower increase, nearly 550,000 soldiers in addition to the 750,000 US soldiers that your army will be increased to. You will be commanding the largest single American army in its history.”

Very few people ever called General Gardner by his first name, Gary, but the SecDef did so in an attempt to break through the military man’s defense. They needed him on board with this plan, and more importantly, they desperately needed him to help work some sort of miracle and defeat the Chinese, just as he had defeated the IR twice in Israel.

General Gardner knew that ultimately the SecDef was right; he just did not want to leave Europe to the backburner. But if Alaska fell, then the situation back home would get significantly worse. “I understand the situation now. Are things really that bad in Alaska?”

The SecDef held his hand up to stop General Branson from speaking, and looked directly at General Gardner as he replied, “The situation is much worse, General.” He sighed and sat back for a second before continuing, “If the Russians break out of Alaska, we are essentially destroyed in the Pacific Northwest. The President placed all of our eggs in one basket in Alaska--not that he had much of a choice. Right now, if they break out, the entire Yukon, British Columbia, and the rest of the Canadian States are completely open. We have virtually no military forces in those areas that could slow down the Chinese juggernaut. We have roughly 35,000 troops in Washington State, which has no hope of stopping the Chinese.”

General Branson jumped in at this point. “We are graduating 30,000 new troops every week, but they are green--very little in the way of NCO or officer experience. We are forming new divisions as fast as we can, but we can only train so many troops at a time, let alone equip them with modern weapons and equipment. Bringing your army home gives us 360,000 combat-hardened veterans and a backstop in case the Chinese do break through Alaska before your army is ready. You are going to receive an immediate 550,000 troops from the Multi-National Force (or MNF as we call them) and 30,000 new troops a week from training. We want to hold your army back until you reach a troop strength of 1,250,000 soldiers, and then unleash you on the Chinese.”

The SecDef continued, “Intelligence is showing a massive Chinese Task Force heading for the Hawaiian Island. We’ve evacuated the civilian population and left behind a nasty guerrilla force for them to deal with, compliments of the Marines and Special Forces. But we anticipate them securing the port facilities and airport (or what’s left of them from that nuclear torpedo they hit us with during the first days of the war). They are reconstituting the PLAN infantry force, which led the invasion of Alaska. We are leaving you with a lot of footage and reports of the naval infantry for your people to study. Our intelligence shows that the PLAN is moving forward with expanding its force to 600,000 and is currently training that force right now. We anticipate them being ready for combat by the end of the year, maybe sooner.”

Colonel Richter, General Gardner’s aide, asked, “Do they have the sealift capability to support such a force?”

“That is a good question Colonel; as of right now no. They can only support about 160,000 troopers at a time. Everyone accuses China of being a cut-and-copy nation-- and frankly they are. They took our designs for our Marine Expeditionary Force, our amphibious assault ships and vehicles, and replicated them. They virtually hit us with our own equipment. They are expanding the capability rapidly. We just learned the other day that China and India have officially signed a non-aggression-pact, freeing up hundreds of thousands of soldiers and equipment they had been holding back in case they needed them against the Indians. To further complicate things, the Indians are going to start producing ships and other materials that the PLA needs for their war.”

General Wade snorted.  “Why would the Indians support the Chinese and not the Allies? The Grain Consortium is selling them tens of millions of tons of food stocks a week.”

“Because their economy is still a wreck, and the orders the Chinese are able to place are going to be a huge economic boon to the Indian government. We are actively working with them right now to see if they will sever that activity and support the Allies instead, but we doubt they will,” said the SecDef angrily. “The loss of the Fifth and Seventh Fleets mean we have virtually no naval force in the Pacific or Indian Oceans, so they view China now as the dominant power in the region and want to stay on their good side.”

“As long as they do not actively join the war on the Axis side, I think we can handle it; there are ways for us to slow down their economy if need be (such as cyber-attacks). The main thing is, we cannot afford a war with two nations whose population is above two billion people. China is bad enough,” said General Wade.

Looking at his watch, the SecDef interjected, “Generals, I have to meet with the Israelis, and I need to prepare for that conference. I am going to leave you all to your tasks and new orders; please implement them immediately. General Gardner, I look forward to seeing you back in Washington, D.C. soon. You’ll be bouncing back and forth between your Command HQ in Washington State and DC for a bit, so you may want to invest in some airplane pillows.” The SecDef chuckled as he got up.

With that, the various commanders left for their commands to begin implementing the President’s orders and directives. General Gardner began the immediate task of identifying the units that would stay behind.

Chapter 15

Raptor Rapture

30 July 2041

Tel Aviv, Israel

3rd Marine HQ

The 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force (3rd MEF), were finally relieved of their position in Damascus following the IR surrender. The entire 3rd Marines had been selected to stay with General Gardner’s Army and rotate back to the US for a rest and refit before moving north to attack the Chinese and drive them back to the sea. For the men of the 3rd Marines, this decision could not have come at a better time. They were tired, dirty, beat up and downright ready for a long-overdue break. They had been fighting for nearly a year, first in Mexico and then rapidly deployed to the Middle East for an incredibly fast and intense war, resulting in several million people killed in direct combat.

1st Lieutenant Thornton had started the war as an E5 Sergeant; he was given a battlefield promotion to E7 Gunnery Sergeant, and then given a battlefield commission to 1st Lieutenant as the leadership in his battalion had been nearly wiped out. He had just gotten done with a staff call with Major Lee, the battalion commander (well, technically, he was now Lieutenant Colonel Lee, since he had just recently been promoted).

“Thornton, I know that you are getting ready to have some time off, and it is well-deserved, but we are going to need for you to complete an officer familiarization course after your leave. Lest you think we are singling you out, all of the battlefield-promoted officers and NCOs will be attending one of these courses. Even though the 3rd MEF may only be returning home for a short time, now we need to normalize some of our more traditional training.”

“Also, congratulations are in order. You are being promoted again, this time to Captain; your new rank will be more befitting of your position as Company Commander. With the Corps still dangerously short on officers and senior NCOs, you are also going to be functioning as the battalion executive officer (XO) in case something happens to me or I need to be taken offline.”

“Yes sir, thank you sir,” replied Captain Thornton. He had made the mistake of making a less-than-grateful response to a promotion once before; he wouldn’t make that error again.

Once he digested his own promotion, Captain Thornton had to pass along some news to the rest of the company.

“Listen up ladies and gentlemen. You all know that we are going to be headed out of this hole and headed home for some R & R.”

Whoops filled the room.

Thornton signaled for the room to quiet down. “Well, we are all getting 30 days at our homes of record. Following the R & R, we will reform up and start attending two weeks of various professional development training courses. Then we have four weeks of intensive training on the new Raptor combat suit, and finally a two-week field training exercise (FTX) in the new suits. From there, the 3rd MEF will continue to train at our home station for another month before deploying forward to California to await further orders.”

The men of the Company were excited; they had just survived a horrific year. Many of their friends and comrades had not been so lucky, and now it was time to return home, rest and recuperate before preparing for a new fight. This fight would be different from the others; it was a fight to defend the actual homeland on U.S. soil. Many of the Marines were ready to go fight the Chinese now; the adrenaline junkies inside them were chomping at the bit to get back into the fight.

Most of the longer combat veterans, however, knew the war would still be there waiting for them after their leave, so they were more focused on enjoying the downtime before the killing began again in earnest.

Chapter 16

DARPA

15 September 2041

Operation Pegasus

Once the Chinese main army reached the American defensive positions at Cooper Landing in the south of Alaska, and Susitna in the north, they established their own lines of defense and began to settle in while the rest of their army and equipment was offloaded. The PLAAF continued to establish more manned and fighter drone airbases across the captured portions of Alaska, while the Russians continued to fight for control of northern and central Alaska. Because the U.S. Marines had established a wide network of firebases all throughout key strategic areas of central and northern Alaska, it was forcing the Russians to have to take them out one at a time if they wanted to continue to advance further into the interior of Alaska.

The reprieve from the continuous Chinese assaults was both a blessing and a curse. It provided US Forces the time needed to bring in additional reinforcements and refit General Gardner’s Third Army, but it also meant the Chinese had more time to offload hundreds of thousands of soldiers and armored equipment. The PLA forces in Alaska now stood at 950,000 soldiers, with more arriving each week.

Despite months of heavy fighting in the air, neither side had established full dominance of the skies. Just as the PLAAF and Russians were starting to secure the air war, the Americans began to introduce the newest and most advanced fighter ever seen. The Archangels (F41s) with their EmDrive propulsion and “angelic” power system. The U.S. had few of these aircraft in service; the material requirements to build one was immense, but so too was their impact on the war thus far. America had not lost a single F41, and had already shot down over 430 drones and 93 manned fighters with just ten of these aircraft in service.

Leveraging the new angelic power system, the F41 was the first aircraft to make use of an air-to-air laser. When enemy drones or fighters would fire a missile, the F41 would simply shoot the projectile down and then target the enemy fighters or drones, destroying them at ranges as far as 150 miles. Because the F41 did not run on a conventional fuel system, they could stay aloft for as long as the pilot and weapons systems could handle, making them a very unique weapon (particularly if they could be produced in greater quantities).

What American defense manufactures lacked were the rare earth elements needed in a host of advanced manufacturing. These rare elements were becoming harder and harder to come by, with China owning nearly 90% of all known rare earth element deposits. The need for America to be able to extract lunar minerals was becoming more and more apparent as the war continued. The Moon contained a host of these rare elements, along with a new mineral called Veldspar, which could be found in the asteroid rocks that impacted the Moon quite often. The Veldspar could be refined down to create Tritium4, which was a critically rare element that right now was being synthetically produced, albeit in small quantities.

With the advent of the angelic power system and the EmDrive propulsion system, the President directed DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to develop a prototype deep space mining starship that could leave and reenter Earth’s orbit and fly to the Moon with the specific intent of locating these rare elements and bringing them back. The angelic power source would provide the power needed to run the first continuous thrust propulsion system. Once in space, it would leverage an improved ion engine that could propel the craft from Earth to the Moon in 16-hours. Once on the Moon’s surface, the mining astronauts would immediately begin the process of establishing the first lunar base of operations and begin to identify, move and process the required materials and then arrange them for transport back to earth.

DARPA had been tinkering with the designs for such a ship for decades, and once the appropriate power source had finally been identified, they immediately set to work on building a craft around it. The ship was called the HULK, mostly because of its size. The ship would be 5,100 feet in length, 400 feet in width, and 600 feet in height, broken down into multiple cargo holds and an onboard smelter.

The ship would be run by a crew of six engineers, three communications specialists, two navigators and four other members to include the pilots. It would also carry twenty space miners from a company called Deep Space Industries, who would manage the smelter and actual mining operations. Because most of the ship would be automated, the large ship could get by with just fifteen full-time crew members to run the actual day-to-day operations. It also had a decent sized living and recreation area built in for the crew and miners to live in, and a set of laboratories, in which the scientists on board could conduct their space research and experiments. It could also be configured to carry any number of different types of cargos and equipment loads. A similar version for actual deep space exploration was also in development.

When the initial design had been shown to the President and his science team in July, he had immediately signed his approval to move Operation Pegasus forward. The construction of the HULK started immediately in Kentucky, and would take approximately nine months to complete. The location had been chosen because of its close proximity to a number of other manufacturing sites; plus, the President had promised to bring additional manufacturing to Kentucky to augment the loss in coal jobs.

During the past four years of the Stein Administration, the President had stayed true to his word on revamping the American energy program by expediting the conversion of coal-fired plants to natural gas and increasing the use of solar, wind, geothermal and wave energy. Of course, this transformation also meant a lot of Americans in the coal industry had lost their jobs, and the President was determined to ensure every one of them was able to cross-train into another career field, paid for by the government.

In collaboration with Deep Space Industries, DARPA had developed, a rock crushing machine that could bust up rocks in the near zero-gravity found on the surface of the Moon. The plan was for several Moon excavators to gather the identified minerals and then bring them to be broken down; once crushed, the ground materials would move through a conveyor belt system into a specialized loading bay where the materials would be processed through an onboard smelter and then turned into an initial refined material ready for transport back to the U.S.

In collaboration with DARPA, SpaceX had built a smaller cargo ship, which would gather the refined material and transport it back to the US before returning back to the Moon for another pick up. The smaller cargo ship was 1,200 feet in length, 200 feet in width and 300 feet in height, and built purely for hauling cargo. It could transport up to 120 tons of refined material from the Moon to the earth. It would also be used to transport necessary supplies from Earth to the Moon on its trips up. Key scientists had estimated that once the mining operations were fully operational, and materials started to consistently arrive on Earth, the defense manufacturers would be able to produce upwards of 1,000 Pershings and 200 F41 fighters every month.

Of course, the U.S. would not be watching anything in the daily news cycle about all of these space missions for quite some time, because the hope was that by keeping the whole operation clandestine, America would finally have a true leg up on their adversaries. All of the scientists and astronauts that were directly involved in the project had been assigned Secret Service details, and had been required to sign nondisclosure forms longer than the Great Wall of China.

Many of the scientists involved in Operation Pegasus were single, career-minded individuals who were able to leave for some time and easily explain their absence as business trips. Dr. Karl Bergstrom, who would be the lead geological astronaut in charge of planning the excavations on the surface of the Moon, did have a wife and two children. He felt horrible about it, but he had led them to believe that he was in the CIA; it was the only way to really explain why they were also being assigned Secret Service protection. His wife Amy, who was an independent and adventurous sort of woman, decided that the best way to handle this intrusion in her life would be to move to a more remote town in the mountains, where she could homeschool the children and work on her botany experiments in peace. While she didn’t know the full truth of the situation, Amy did know that her husband’s sacrifices were for the good of the nation; that was enough to keep her going.

The communications were a bit spattered (no Skype or FaceTime sessions would be available for them, even during the training period while he was still in the United States), but Karl did the best he could to send messages back home, and he would even sometimes create videos of himself reading books to send back for the children. Every time he would come back home, he would be surprised by how much his children had grown; these sacrifices were deep (like many made by members of the military and their families throughout generations), but they were crucial to ending the conflict in the world. Karl dreamed of a day in which his children would no longer live in a planet at war.

*******

To further hamper the American war efforts, the Chinese continued to unleash wave after wave of cyber-attacks across all aspects of American life. Since the Chinese’s successful attack against the American communications grid at the outset of the war, the government had quickly broken the energy grid down into dozens of smaller nodes to ensure that no one node or group of nodes could cause a cascading event that could spread across the entire nation. The Chinese had continued to target the grid on multiple occasions; some nodes had been taken down, temporarily knocking out power to a single state (or a portion of a state), but that was it.

The US was also waging a cyber war against China; however, they were not having even a shred of the amount of success that the Chinese had been having in disrupting the American way of life.  So, to play to their strengths, the U.S. was trying another way to combat these attacks; whenever an opportunity presented itself, the US Navy would launch a series of Tomahawk cruise missiles at the locations where the cyber-attacks were originating from. In some cases, they were successful and hit the targeted compound, but at other times the cruise missiles were shot down before they hit their mark.

*******

The Navy’s Swordfish Underwater Drones (SUDs) were also starting to have a greater influence in the Pacific. The Navy still only had a small number of these underwater drones, but they began to seek out and hunt specifically for PLAN transports, fuel tankers and cargo ships. The four SUDs in operation were sinking (on average) nine ships a month, which was starting to have an impact in the volume of supplies and equipment the PLA was receiving in Alaska.

While the Americans had introduced the SUDs in the Pacific, the Russians had introduced a very similar type of underwater anti-ship drone in the Atlantic. Like the SUDs, the Russians only had a limited number of these underwater vessels, but they were becoming extremely effective in finding enemy ships and sinking them. This was starting to cause a shortage in materials and other essential equipment needed for the war in Europe as key transports were starting to be sunk.

The war in Europe had become bogged down in Germany; the Russians had captured large portions of eastern Germany, while the Allies sustained their hold on the rest of Germany, as well as the region down through Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. The Russians continued to train hundreds of thousands of new soldiers, and kept the pressure on the Allies; they had not been able to force a breakout since their initial attack that captured Berlin and nearly captured Hamburg.

Chapter 17

Smart and Bored

16 September 2041

National Security Agency

Neven Jackson was a twenty-three-year-old computer hacker who worked for the National Security Agency (NSA). He was not here by design; he had hacked the FBI database as a prank when he was a freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and he had been caught. He thought he had shielded his activities, but he had missed something, and as a consequence, he was arrested and given a choice--either work for the government as a paid hacker, or go to prison for a very long time.

Neven, preferring a life outside of barred walls, had chosen to go to work for the NSA, and he had spent the last several years playing defense against Russian and Chinese hackers who were becoming more and more sophisticated in their attacks. Since the start of the war, he had been transferred to the “Red Team” and been given full permission to hack in to any sector of the Chinese economy and military systems and cause as much havoc as he could. This opportunity was like a dream come true. During the first several months, he had successfully shut down the power in two provinces for several days, caused the ATMs in one city to empty all of their money, and completed a number of other malicious activities.

Today, however, was a special day. Two weeks ago, he had been assigned the task of infiltrating the Chinese exoskeleton combat suit program, and yesterday he had successfully found a backdoor in to the source code (it was too bad that the Russians used a different operating system, or else they would really have something going). He had spent the better part of the day writing a zero-day code to be placed in the exoskeleton suits’ operating system. Once the update was sent out by the program developers, this code would be dispersed to all of the combat suits that received the update. The code would then lie in wait, ready for it to be activated. Upon sharing his discovery with his superiors, they had worked with him to develop a special surprise. The next time the PLAN infantry attacked the Americans using these suits, they would suddenly find that the entire left or right side of the suit had been essentially disabled. This would confuse the ranks, making them think that the suits were experiencing mechanical problems, and throwing the scent off away from the real issue of a software problem. When the PLAN infantry did attack, their entire attacking force would suddenly find themselves stuck in malfunctioning exoskeleton suits at the worst possible moment. Of course, this attack could only be used once so finding the best opportunity to use it was going to be critical.

Chapter 18

Trying to See Eight Moves Ahead

17 September 2041

Washington, DC

White House Situation Room

The President was becoming nervous after reading through the various intelligence reports and summaries of the numbers of Chinese troops arriving each week and their grand totals. As of that moment, there were nearly one million enemy soldiers on American soil. Now there were reports that millions more were on the way, and President Stein was unsure if even the mighty Third Army could stop them; they were still close to sixty days away from being fully ready for combat after their R & R and training, and no one knew how many more Chinese soldiers would be on American soil by then. General Black (the Second Army Commander, and overall Commander for all US Forces in North America) was doing his best to keep the Chinese bogged down. Thus far, his efforts had kept the Chinese from being able to break out of Alaska, but that would only last for so long.

The President sat at the head of the table with the rest of his National Security team and his senior military advisors trying to ascertain what their next move should be. “General Scott, what is the DIA’s assessment of what the Chinese may do next?” asked the President, wanting to get a better picture of the Pacific and Asia.

Lieutenant General Rick Scott prepared to speak. He had been the Director for the Defense Intelligence Agency for nearly three years; however, he and the President had a very checkered past. He had nearly been fired in the opening days of the war with China because of his disregard of what his other intelligence departments had been warning him about with regards to the Chinese. LTG Scott had believed (like many others) that the Chinese had too many economic ties with the US and Europe to risk an open war. Like everyone else on that ill-fated date, he was proven wrong when the Chinese launched a massive surprise cyber-attack against the American communications grid, taking AT&T, Sprint and many other internet and cable providers down for nearly two months. Verizon was the only internet and data provider who had survived the Chinese cyber-attack; they had essentially prevented the entire government and country from what would have been a full economic collapse. The CIA and the Joint Counterterrorism Task Force (JCTF) had also missed the warning signs of an imminent attack by China; it was for that reason alone LTG Scott was not relieved on the spot--that and his ability to work with British Telecom and Verizon to quickly get America’s cell phone and data providers back online in two months. He had been redeeming himself ever since.

LTG Scott finished his preparation as he brought up some images from his tablet to the holographic map at the center of the table for everyone to view. “Mr. President, there are two items of concern. The first is the massive troop movement we are seeing in the North China Sea; it would appear they have assembled a convoy of nearly 280 troop transports. Each transport can carry 3,000 troops; if they load them up with only troops, then they will be bringing 840,000 fresh troops to Alaska.”

Audible sighs and groans could be heard throughout the room. “The second area of concern is the activity we are seeing in Hawaii. The Chinese have spent the last two months doing a lot of repairs to the facilities there, and they have repaired all of the runways on the island. They presently have a garrison of 20,000 PLA soldiers there, and they were just augmented by 30,000 PLAN infantry. The PLAN is currently moving their entire amphibious assault capability to Hawaii, along with four of their five carriers from Alaska. They have started a massive airlift of their PLAN infantry from the Mainland to Hawaii as well,” LTG Scott explained as he showed more images of what was transpiring.

“Are you suggesting that the Chinese are planning another amphibious assault, possibly against California or somewhere along the West Coast?” asked the SecDef Eric Clarke.

“Yes Mr. Secretary, it would appear so.” Scott replied.

The President looked around the room and asked, “Any suggestions on where they may be heading and what we should do about it?” He was hoping to hear some good ideas from his brain trust.

Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA, chimed in, “If I were a guessing man, I would say they will look to land their troops in the Pacific Northwest, most likely in Oregon or Seattle. This would put them in position to cut off our entire force in Alaska and put our guys in to a terrible position for retreating.”

“You don’t think they would go for Los Angeles?” inquired General Branson, curious to know his logic in his assumption.

“No, I think they would like to avoid the urban areas and focus more on defeating our Army rather than capturing a symbolic trophy. We can trade land for time and maneuverability; they are most likely going to look to defeat our armies and then have free range.” Director Rubio said.

The President asked, “Can we shift our SUDs to focus more around Hawaii and help to keep that amphibious group from going too far?”

Admiral Juliano, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) spoke up, “We can, Mr. President, but I doubt it will make that much of a difference; we just do not have the numbers. Personally, I do not believe the Chinese are going to launch another amphibious assault. I know the intelligence says otherwise, but the logistical capability of the PLAN does not support it. The PLA is chewing through resources in staggering numbers in Alaska. The PLAN support ships are having a hard enough time trying to keep up with them. Throw in another 840,000 soldiers into that mix, and they will be thoroughly overwhelmed. They just do not have the logistical capability to support two landing zones like that.”

“So you think this is a diversion?” inquired the President.

“I do. I believe they are going to send their PLAN infantry to Hawaii and train them hard for a few months, making us think and believe they are going to launch another landing. In doing so, they will force us to tie up hundreds of thousands of soldiers and precious materials on the West Coast, as opposed to having them engaged in the fighting in Alaska. They know we rotated the Third Army in, and this is their attempt to neutralize General Gardner by having him chase a ghost invasion that will never happen.” The CNO was very matter-of-fact in his response.

Director Rubio interjected, “Mr. President, I have to disagree. If we do not take this threat seriously, they could potentially cut our entire force off in Alaska, and if we send General Gardner’s army in as well, then we have little in the way of forces that can be used to defend the West Coast.”

The Admiral quickly cut in, “I understand your concern, Director Rubio, but the logistics do not lie; they could land those forces, but they would run out of fuel and munitions within a week. Then they’d have a large amphibious force on the ground with no ammunition. This is meant as nothing more than a distraction to tie our forces down.” The Admiral was speaking with great force and conviction to hammer home his point. “Furthermore, it’s not your people who are going to have to do the fighting Director. Our intelligence does not support the information the Agency has been pushing, and we categorically disagree with it as fiction.” This last point was made in quite a sharp tone towards the CIA Director, to a point that the room suddenly filled with awkward silence.

Lately there had some friction between the Services and the Intelligence Community (IC). The CIA and DIA had really fouled up the intelligence about the IR prior to their sneak attack, and then again had been completely wrong about the Chinese. The Services had developed a real dislike for the IC outside of their own intelligence channels, and often brushed their assessments off or disregarded them entirely. The Army, Navy and Air Force shared intelligence seamlessly as they fought hand-in-hand; this intelligence sharing stopped or was reluctant when it came to disclosing anything with the CIA. Despite the fact that the NSA and DIA were military-run organizations, the Services still did not trust them because of their ties with the CIA. This distrust of each other’s intelligence was becoming more apparent during each of the National Security Council meetings, and it was going to need to be addressed.

The President raised his hand to stop the parties from bickering further. “I agree Admiral; the PLAN logistics do not support a second large-scale invasion. However, that does not mean we can just ignore the PLAN infantry build-up in Hawaii either. For right now, we will not shift men or material around to the West Coast; we will move some air assets to attack their ships if they venture away from Hawaii, but that is it. Our main focus has to be on stopping the Chinese in Alaska and pushing them into the Sea,” the President spoke with force and conviction in his voice, which commanded respect and attention from both parties. “I want one of our two F41 flights to be focused on defending the West Coast and harassing the Chinese efforts over Hawaii, while the other flight continues to stay engaged in Alaska. As soon as the third flight of F41s is complete, they are to head to Europe. We may not be able to commit a lot of ground reinforcements to Europe, but we can send them additional air support as it becomes available.”

Shifting in his seat before continuing, the President redirected, “I want to discuss Japan and India next. I have a feeling more is going on between China and India than we would like to believe, and frankly, I’d like to know what the heck the Japanese are doing as well.”

Director Rubio pulled some information from a folder on his tablet and brought it up for the group. “With regards to India, we do believe there is more going on. Since the non-aggression agreement was signed, the Indians have started construction of 86 new troop transport ships, 19 amphibious assault transports, 46 new attack submarines and two supercarriers. All of these appear to be of Chinese design and specifications. In addition to the naval ships, they have started manufacturing the Chinese main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, munitions and other tools needed for war.”

LTG Scott added, “Their ground forces have also started a series of training exercises. Most of them appear to be armored and urban warfare exercises, which leads us to believe the Indians may not stay as neutral in this war as we had hoped. Albeit, we have not intercepted any information suggesting they are going to join the Chinese, or obtained any human intelligence on that matter just yet, but their training cycle, type of training, military manufacturing and increases in the size of their military suggest that they are at least planning on a future military engagement.”

The room sat silent for a minute digesting what they had just heard. Could it be possible that India would join Axis powers and turn on the Allies?

The President made a sour face before adding, “This information about India is troubling to say the least. The last time I spoke with the Indian PM, he was short and curt with me. He had expressed his outrage at our use of nuclear weapons against the IR. He further voiced his anger at the fallout that was landing across India. When I communicated with our Ambassador to India last week, he said they had seen a massive uptick in anti-American demonstrations. I believe we should plan on the Indians joining the Axis at some point, and continue to pray they do not. We should look at using cyber-attacks against any manufacturing production that is being used to support the Chinese war effort. No need to let them off the hook entirely.”

Clearing his voice and then taking a couple of gulps from his Red Bull, the President asked, “What about Japan? What are they doing?”

LTG Scott shifted the map screen away from India and zoomed in to show Japan. “As of right now, we believe the Japanese are still planning on sitting out the war. They continue to train and modernize their forces; they have two additional carriers completing construction this month as well. It will bring their total carrier count up to five.”

Director Rubio interjected to add, “On this front, I believe we have some better information. One of our sources within the defense ministry said that they have been ordered to ramp up plans for attacking the Chinese fleet at Hawaii.” (Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the CIA and the American government, this high level source was not just a spy for the Americans, but a double agent for the Chinese. He had been feeding China intelligence about the American and Japanese relationship since the start of the war, which had greatly enabled the Chinese politically to counter every move the Americans attempted to make to strengthen their relationship or convince the Japanese to join the Allies.)

Perking up at this piece of information, Admiral Juliano asked, “What exactly are the Japanese proposing to do, and when will they reach out to us formally?”

“I am not 100% sure yet on both accounts; our agent only said that plans were in the works for the Japanese to attack the Chinese fleet assembling in Hawaii. The logic behind the attack is that if they can cripple the Chinese fleet there, then it relieves a lot of anxiety about them being able to launch an invasion of the Japanese home front.”

The President smiled and said, “This is good news indeed. Will we have any of our carriers from the Atlantic that might be able to participate?”

Admiral Juliano glanced down at his tablet and flicked through a few tabs to find the one he was looking for before answering. “As of right now, we have two supercarriers coming out of mothball this month, two more by the end of the year. We will not have a fully operational support fleet though until around the end of the year. Right now, all of our ships coming out of mothball and the shipyards are staying on the East Coast where we can protect them, until we can put together a large enough fleet.”

“We have the 6th Fleet still operating in the Mediterranean, and one carrier battle group operating in the North Sea, trying to keep the Russian fleet bottled up. I’m afraid we do not have a fleet ready to sail to the Pacific just yet in order to support any operation the Japanese may have planned,” the Admiral said, clearly disappointed.

The President looked saddened as well. “Let’s look to move our SUDs over to the Hawaiian area when and if this plan does pan out. Maybe we can get lucky and score a few critical hits; in the meantime, let’s keep those SUDs sinking transport and fuel tankers. If no one else has any major points to discuss, let’s end the meeting here, and we’ll meet back again in a couple of days for our next update, unless something major happens,” said Stein.

He stood to end the meeting, but Admiral Juliano moved to grab his attention. “Sir…not to be impertinent, but there is still something that we need to discuss.”

“Oh? What would that be, Admiral?”

“It’s Dr. Rosanna Weisz, Sir,” replied Juliano. “Her protests are starting to gain quite a lot of traction. She has another one scheduled here in DC in two weeks. We don’t want the war to be lost in the tide of public opinion.”

“I see,” the President responded. “What would you propose that I do in this situation?”

The Admiral straightened up (even more than his usual strict military posture) and asserted, “Sir, I think you should come out hard against this group. You can’t let these people walk all over you; you have to show them that you are the one in power.”

Director Rubio was aghast, “Mr. President, with all due respect to my colleague, I cannot imagine that would go well. Simply telling someone what not to think only makes them want to think about it more. It’s like saying, ‘Don’t think about yellow elephants,’ and suddenly, that’s all you can think about. If you come at them harshly, it will only legitimize their position and give them more publicity.”

“I see your point, Pat. Do you have any suggestions?”

“I don’t know, Mr. President…I do concede that this is becoming a real issue. It wouldn’t be such a problem if Dr. Weisz wasn’t so…well…reasonable. She’s about the most intelligent and non-crazy protestor I have ever seen.”

The President furrowed his brows for a brief moment before turning to his Chief of Staff. “Monty, I want you to set up a meeting with Dr. Weisz and myself before this next protest. Bring her to the White House and give her a nice tour, and then let me meet with her personally. No cameras. I think I know what to do.”

“But sir, by meeting with her directly, aren’t you legitimizing her claims?” dared Admiral Juliano.

“If I want to slow this waterfall, I’m going to have to go to the source,” replied the President. “We may have differing opinions, but if she truly is reasonable, I think I can at least bring us to a mutual understanding.”

Admiral Juliano had said his piece, and so he deferred to the judgment of his Commander-in-Chief. The President dismissed the group, and then turned to walk out of the Situation Room.

Chapter 19

F41 Flight

21 September 2041

Alaska

Susitna Mountain Range

12th Infantry Division

Lieutenant Paul Allen and his platoon had completed their training in the new Raptor combat suit several weeks ago and had redeployed back to Alaska. The Raptor was really unique; it leveraged a newer armor technology that was both lightweight and flexible. It was also a fully closed environmental suit, which meant it could operate in a host of different environments. The soldiers trained for weeks in the new combat suits, trying to become familiar with how to operate them while using their M5 AIRs and other equipment. Now they were prepared, and had been sent back to the fight at Susitna Mountain Range.

The Susitna defensive line was a massive fortified position carved into the low-ranging mountains of the area and was one of the last major obstacles the Chinese needed to capture in order to secure Anchorage. The Americans knew this, and had built a multi-layered defensive network of trenches, tank ditches, traps, and other obstacles meant to funnel enemy armor into pre-determined kill zones. General Black knew the importance of this position and had placed nearly 185,000 troops in this one defensive position alone. Another 60,000 troops were held in reserve, and a mobile QRF of 45,000 troops was nearby as well. General Black also had 900 Pershing MBTs and 2,200 of the older M1A4 MBTs in the area as well. To the left and right flank of the mountain range was relatively flat terrain, which made it great tank country when not covered by the deep snow that usually falls in this particular area of Alaska five out of twelve months of the year.

Once the 12th Infantry Division (12th ID) had completed their initial training on the Raptor, they had been redeployed to the Susitna gap along with the new Wolverine Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The Wolverine was the newest IFV in the American arsenal, and was built specifically to augment the Pershing MBT. The Wolverine had the same chassis as the Pershing (and the same armor system), making it a very tough nut to crack. It had a 20mm anti-armor railgun turret and two twin barrel automated .25mm railguns; one mounted in the front of the vehicle just below the 20mm turret, and the second mounted in the rear above the troop carrier compartment. All three railgun systems could be used in either air or ground mode, enabling the vehicle to operate as not just an anti-armor/personnel killer, but also as an air defense platform. The IFV provided not just exceptionally armored protection to the twelve infantrymen it carried, but was an extremely lethal offensive and defensive weapons package.

The 12th ID was primed for combat when the word finally came down about the counter-offensive. The Chinese had been hitting the American lines relentlessly for the past five days. Now it was time for the Americans to introduce the Raptor and the Wolverine to the battlefield.

Captain Shilling came over the battle net saying, “Lieutenant Allen, the battalion is going to move forward in five minutes. Have your vehicles ready to move and stay frosty. They may be expecting us to attack soon.” With that, he abruptly dropped off the net.

Allen thought to himself, “Great. Nothing better than attacking an enemy who knows your about to attack him. This is already a cluster mess, and we haven’t even started this offensive.”

“Listen up everyone,” Allen said over the platoon battle net, his voice managing to carry well over the low hum of the vehicles’ electric engines. “We are moving out in five minutes. I want Sergeant Liner and Sergeant Lipton’s vehicles to stay in air-attack mode through most of this attack. Your vehicles are responsible for engaging any and all incoming artillery, mortars, missiles and rockets heading towards the platoon and company’s vehicles and positions. The rest of you, continue to look for armored vehicles and infantry and take them out. Those of you manning the twin machine guns, stay alert on those guns and engage any missile teams you see. If we have to dismount and engage the enemy, then remember your training and kill ‘em all.”

Outside the vehicle was a buzz of activity, as hundreds of Wolverines and Pershings began to spin up their engines and prepare to start what was going to the largest tank battle ever on American soil. Over 3,000 M1A4 Abram MBTs would be joining the fray as General Black made the first big attempt to push the Chinese back from the Susitna line.

*******

Major Theodore Cruse’s “Cruiser” flight had completed their training on the new F41 Archangels and had been flying combat operations over Alaska now for nearly two weeks. In that timeframe, they had shot down more enemy aircraft and drones than the Allies had in the previous six months. The F41 was about the size of an F18 Super Hornet, though it was shaped a lot more like an elongated diamond. Because the aircraft leveraged the new EmDrive propulsion, it could take off vertically or from a runway. It would also accelerate from zero to near Mach 10 in seconds, and stop in almost the same time. The aircraft could turn on a dime and had a ceiling of low earth orbit. It also leveraged a refractive armor casing that could deflect laser hits, giving the aircraft the ability to operate in nearly all environments. Where the aircraft was vulnerable was against conventional missiles and shrapnel. The aircraft was incredibly technical, complex and fragile, so if an explosion managed to detonate near it, debris could easily destroy the aircraft. It’s speed and maneuverability were what kept it alive.

“Cruiser, are we going after that Chinese carrier yet or what?” asked Flapjack, one of the other F41 pilots in Captain Cruse’s flight. Lieutenant Jordan Mina (aka “Flapjack”) got his name because he ate twelve pancakes in one sitting during flight school at the local IHOP. The name had stuck ever since.

“Not yet. Our objective today is to clear the skies as best we can for the ground pounders. We have F38Bs and A10s providing ground support and about 90 F38As for air support with us. Stay on your toes guys; this offensive is important,” Cruse replied.

“Angel Flight, Angel Flight, this is Overlord,” called out the flight commander for the AWACS aircraft that were flying over Seattle. Her group had been coordinating part of the air battle over Alaska.

“Go ahead Overlord,” replied Cruse, waiting for their orders.

“Angel Flight, we are tracking 250 bandits heading to Susitna towards our ground units. There is a separate air group forming up over the Chinese carriers that is heading towards our ground attack aircraft as well. We are vectoring you in to attack the enemy fighter aircraft heading towards our ground units. You are weapons free to engage.”

“Copy that Overlord. We are receiving the data and coordinates now. Angels are moving to engage,” said Cruse. He was eager to get his flight of five F41s into the action.

“Ok everyone, you heard the woman. Let’s move to engage those enemy fighters quickly; I want them destroyed at range, and for you to cycle through targets as fast as you can. The pilot with the most kills today wins $1,000 NAD from me,” he said to cheers. Everyone began to line their aircraft up for their attack runs.

The F41s were about 400 miles away from their targets at a remote airbase; they were going to accelerate to Mach 10 for a short period of time and then slow down to a near stop once they were within range of their lasers. They would fire a handful of shots, and then move about 70 miles in a different direction to another attack point and reengage the enemy. This maneuver would be played out over and over again to ensure no enemy planes or missiles were able to get within range of their aircraft.

*******

Air Force Captain Dana Archer (Overlord) watched the radar screen at her console, tracking the five Archangels as they began to engage the enemy aircraft climbing to attack the Americans. Her AWACS aircraft was responsible for running the air-combat operation for the American offensive. This strike was going to be the largest attack of the war and as such, there were several AWACS on duty this morning to assist in handling the enormous air traffic that was starting to fill the air.

Captain Archer was an air battle manager, she was responsible for identifying targets for the manned and drone fighters and then directing them to their targets. Fighters and drones on all sides usually run passive radars rather than active radars when flying combat operations. This is done for several reasons: first, an active radar lights your aircraft up like a Christmas tree for enemy surface-to-air-missiles or SAMs and enemy aircraft running in passive mode. Second, passive mode allows your aircraft to fly through undetected unless someone turns on an active radar. Once the radar is active, it can then detect enemy aircraft in the area. All sides make heavy use of AWACS type aircraft to identify and then guide their sides fighters or drones to the enemy. This enables your aircraft to sneak up on the enemy before they know you are there.

*******

Back on the ground, Lieutenant Allen’s platoon was fighting its way to the Chinese positions while trying to stay close with the tanks. They had taken out dozens of Chinese anti-tank missile teams as they got closer to the Chinese lines. As their vehicles approached the enemy ranks, the Chinese soldiers began to retreat and scatter. The Wolverines cut the enemy soldiers down as they tried to run. As the Reds retreated, the MBTs and Wolverines quickly moved in behind them to both secure the Chinese positions and to chase down the retreating soldiers.

Captain Shiller received a message from Battalion that his Company was to stop, dismount and secure the Chinese defensive position for the follow-on forces. Shiller contacted his officers. “Lieutenant Allen, the Company is stopping here. We just received orders to secure the area,” he said over the HUD.

“Roger that Sir. Stopping now, and securing the area. Any other orders, Sir?”

“Negative, and good luck Lieutenant.”

Turning to look at the guys in the vehicle with him, Allen quickly found SFC Jenkins, his platoon sergeant. “Jenkins, new orders. We are stopping here with the platoon. The Captain wants us to secure the trench and bunker complex that we just drove over for the follow-on forces,” Lieutenant Allen announced. He was not too thrilled with having to leave the safety of the Wolverine, despite the protection the Raptor suit offered.

SFC Jenkins just nodded and began to bark at the privates around him to exit the vehicle and begin to set up a perimeter. Lieutenant Allen radioed his other squads and made sure they knew the new orders and began to secure the enemy positions. The vehicles would continue to stay in the area; half of them would switch over to anti-aircraft mode, while the others continued to stay in ground mode to protect the infantry.

The vehicles stopped just past the bunker and trench lines, which were still smoldering from the recent assault. Dead Chinese soldiers, equipment and charred vehicles could be seen strewn in every direction; these were the remnants of a fierce and deadly battle. Aircraft, drones and hundreds of helicopters could be heard flying overhead, engaged in their own aerial dance of death.

As Allen exited the Wolverine, he could see a battalion’s worth of tanks moving across the trench line his unit had just cleared. In an instant, two Chinese soldiers emerged from one of the smoldering bunkers and fired an anti-tank rocket at one of the tanks, disabling it. “Sergeant Jenkins, get some soldiers to that bunker immediately!” Allen yelled. “Have the troops start to clear the rest of them out. We can’t lose anymore tanks!”

Five additional Chinese soldiers popped up from the ruins of a smoldering bunker and began to engage the soldiers near Lieutenant Allen as they dove for cover and began to return fire. Allen quickly raised his own rifle and fired a couple of well-placed shots, taking one of the Chinese soldiers out while his compatriots ducked back into the bunker. In an instant, a dozen of his soldiers in their new Raptor suits moved rapidly to secure the bunkers and trench lines. Within seconds, one of the machine guns in the partially destroyed bunker began to open fire on his men causing them to dive behind cover again. Fortunately, the gunner in the Wolverine nearby was paying attention, and she turned the turret towards the bunker. She fired a single round from the anti-armor railgun, obliterating the bunker. The other soldiers quickly moved forward and threw a couple of grenades in for good measure.

Slowly, the platoon cleared the rest of the bunkers with grenades. Several enemy soldiers surrendered, but they were few and far between. Most soldiers either retreated or fought to the death rather than be captured.

As the battle continued to rage on around them, the sounds of the tanks and artillery fire continued to move further and further away from their position. It sounded like the 4th of July fireworks display from back home, only these weren’t fireworks. Bombs, rockets and mortars were exploding, killing and maiming people by the thousands an hour. Two hours after they secured the area, they spotted a large column of friendly light infantry moving towards their position. Within a few minutes, an officer identified himself to Allen’s men and asked who was in charge. He was quickly directed to Lieutenant Allen’s position.

The Major began to walk quickly toward Lieutenant Allen and the Wolverine he was standing next to with his platoon sergeant. “Lieutenant Allen I presume?” he inquired.

“Yes Sir. Are you my relief, Sir?” asked Allen in a hopeful tone. He wanted to get his men back into the main fight with their Raptor suits.

“That I am; I’m the battalion commander of the 3/5 light infantry,” the Major responded. Curiosity took hold and he asked, “So are these the new Raptor suits we’ve been hearing about? How do you like them?”

Realizing that his small platoon was the only ones wearing the Raptor suits, Paul suddenly felt out of place among the hundreds of regular infantry moving towards them in their standard body armor.

“They are actually pretty great. Several of my men were shot while securing the area but the suit protected them. We took no injuries at all, which was amazing,” Allen said feeling good about the accomplishment of his platoon.

“That is remarkable. Not sure when my battalion is going to get them, but I hope soon. So--back to business. Is there anything we should know about before your platoon leaves the area?” asked the Major, trying to get a better picture of what was going on.

“We captured a few prisoners; I have them over there near that blown-out bunker. They really put up a fight in those bunkers, so we had to level quite a few of them. Right now, our battalion is still moving with the tanks. They are about five miles in that direction. I’d work on getting this position ready to defend against another Chinese assault, in case we have to fall back. I don’t expect that to happen, but my vehicles have been engaging a lot of air targets lately, so I’d be prepared for anything.” Allen did his best to give a good run-down of the situation and what to possibly expect.

Nodding as he made a couple of notes, the Major spoke on his mic to several of his officers, giving them instructions to relieve Allen’s men and take possession of the prisoners. He also ordered his men to begin clearing the trenches of the dead bodies and to start to prepare a new defensive line. “Thank you Lieutenant for the information and your assessment. My men and I appreciate it. We’ll have this place ready to meet the Chinese if they try and come back around,” he said confidently. Then he turned around and began to walk towards the rest of his men, barking orders.

“Sergeant, get the platoon back into the vehicles; it’s time for us to go catch up to the rest of our comrades,” Allen said.

*******

In the air, the F41s were having a huge impact as they continued to clear the skies of enemy drones and manned fighters. The F38B fighter bombers and Razorbacks continued to hammer the Chinese armor units, despite taking some heavy losses from Chinese surface to air missile (SAM) sites. In spite of the valiant effort by the Air Force, the ground war did not go nearly as well.

There were several moments where it looked like the Americans were going to break through and drive the Chinese back to the beaches; then additional reinforcements would show up and plug the holes in their lines. The fighting between the infantry and the armed forces was incredibly intense, with thousands of soldiers on both sides dying each hour as the fighting raged on.

The tank battle between the American and Chinese armored forces continued for nearly two days before the Americans were forced to withdraw when the Chinese reinforcements started a massive counterattack. The Americans had dealt a serious blow to the Chinese (who up to this point had thought that they would be able to drive the Americans out of Alaska by the end of summer), but in the end, they were just outnumbered by the sheer volume of tanks and drones the Chinese were able to throw at them. It did not take long before the Chinese were able to push the Americans back to the Susitna defensive line, right where the Americans had initially begun their summer offensive.

Chapter 20

HULK

25 September 2041

London, Kentucky

Pegasus Spaceport

Operation Pegasus was proceeding at a rapid rate. With priority manufacturing and materials, construction of the HULK was moving along. The first several modules had been completed, and the front half of the ship was starting to take shape. The men and women who would be piloting the craft were currently in training at the Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers in Florida and Texas. A second group of volunteers was also in training for the second HULK that would be completed approximately twelve months after the first one.

Dozens of new manufacturing plants were under construction that would support both the construction of the HULK and the habitation modules that would be continually built and sent to the lunar surface. Space X’s new transport craft was nearly fifty percent complete; they were also going to build a second transport, so at least two of them would be in service. That way they could continually bring modules and required materials to the lunar surface for those who would be living there, and return Tritium4 back to Earth, which was critical to the war effort.

The space port itself was turning into a magnificent structure; it had a landing and launch pad for the HULK and the transport craft that would be moving between the Earth and the Moon, along with several loading and unloading docking stations. Everything was being built to move the ships through a very efficient assembly line like process to minimize the amount of time the crafts would be required to stay on Earth before returning back to the stars. There was also a massive maintenance bay that was under construction. There was a terminal with a beautiful control tower being built as well. In time, people would be able to move to the lunar surface and live there full-time. Right now, the only people who would be allowed to live on the lunar surface would be those working on the mining operation and about 100 scientists of various disciplines who would be studying the effects of humans living in space and terraforming.

President Stein already had his eyes set on Mars; once the war on Earth had been won then he would focus the country’s efforts on not just establishing a permanent colony on the lunar surface, but also on Mars. There were also designs for several deep space reconnaissance ships as well. These explorer ships would be sent to find other habitable planets and moons that could support life, and send the data back to earth. There were separate initiatives underway to explore some of the asteroid belts in the solar system to determine if they might contain any valuable minerals as well. It was highly suspected that these asteroids could be mined and reduce the need for mining activities on Earth. This could only have been made possible through the development of the EmDrive system and the improved Ion engine. The Angelic power system (which was essentially cold fusion) was also the core enabler for these technologies. For the first time in history, man was finally in the position to expand beyond earth.

*******

Dr. Weisz was just finishing her tour of the White House; she had to admit that she found herself in awe when she was actually able to step into the Oval Office. So much history had happened here. It was something she had never dreamed she would ever be able to do in her lifetime. She certainly had never expected to meet directly with the President of the United States. However much she disagreed with him, she could not turn down the opportunity to talk to him face-to-face.

The young female tour guide (who reminded Dr. Weisz of her students) brought her to some of the back rooms that were a bit more non-descript. “This is where you will wait for the President. Is there anything that I can get for you? A coffee perhaps?”

“Well, I certainly won’t turn down coffee,” Rosanna replied.

She looked around the room nervously, trying to go over her game plan in her head. The seconds seemed like hours, but really it was only a few minutes before President Stein walked into the room, larger than life, and shook her hand.

“Mr. President,” she said, “It is a great honor to meet you.”

“I am likewise honored to meet you, Dr. Weisz,” replied the President. She certainly hadn’t been expecting that response. A look of credulity was not very well-concealed on her face. The President smiled in response. “You see, I’ve listened to your speeches. While I fundamentally disagree with you on a few factual points, it is very clear that you do love this country, and you are a patriotic American. That is someone I can respect, even when we don’t think all of the same things.”

“Mr. President, I am humbled that you would ask to meet with me in person. However, this nice tour and your kind words aren’t going to change my opinions of the world and the horrible things that have happened.”

“Nor would I expect them to, Dr. Weisz. What I hope it does convey is that I am taking you seriously,” responded the President. Then he turned to open a folder in front of him.

“You have a PhD in humanities, correct?”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“And you also teach a number of history classes, as I understand it.”

“Yes Sir.”

“So tell me, what is your understanding of why President Truman chose to use atomic weapons in World War II?”

She felt like a student defending her thesis again. “Well, the answer to that question is complex. There were a number of issues at play. Some feel that nuclear weapons were used as a show of force to deter the Soviet Union, who were becoming increasingly threatening. Others feel that the public mood in the United States had shifted away from supporting the war, so Truman was looking for a way to end the war quickly…there are various factors.”

The President nodded. “Those answers are not entirely inaccurate, and may have contributed to the decision, but I would like to submit a piece of history to you.” He handed her an old type-written document on yellowing paper.

She wasn’t sure what she was looking at. The President explained, “This is the estimate from General MacArthur of how many casualties there would be in a continued ground war against Japan.”

Then she could see various military groups identified and the number of men anticipated lost on the right. The total at the bottom was over one million possible lives lost.

The President continued. “What you don’t see here is that the anticipated loss of life for the Japanese was over seven million. I do not take the use of nuclear bombs lightly; however, at the end of the day, there were about 200,000 deaths compared to about eight million casualties.”

Those words sunk in…there was a moment of solemn silence. “Sir, I can appreciate that. However, the response from the IR’s attack on our cities was so asymmetrical--surely you must feel some sympathy for the human toll of this tragedy…” Dr. Weisz was hoping for even just an inkling of acknowledgement of her point of view.

“I do. It keeps me up at night, many nights. Honestly, I keep playing it over, wishing the circumstances were different, but when I do, I ultimately come to the same conclusion. You see, there is another picture that keeps haunting me.” He pulled another photograph out of his folder; it was a horrific scene of mass carnage on the battlefield. Bodies were literally in heaps on top of each other. “What you are looking at here is a scene from the battle in Israel. These images were never made public in interest of human decency, but the Islamic Republic sent wave after wave of soldiers to attack us. Many of them were not well trained, and some were not well armed. Caliph Abbas simply has no regard for human life whatsoever. He had his political objective, and he did not care how many pawns were sacrificed on the altar of his success. I know so many died in nuclear explosions, but at the end of the day, I feel that I prevented further carnage, not just of our people, but of theirs.”

Dr. Weisz was deep in thought. She wasn’t exactly sure what to make of all of this. There was a silent pause while the President gave her a moment to ponder it all.

“Do you know Leon Trotsky, Dr. Weisz?”

“I am familiar with some of his works, yes.”

“He made a statement that I still find very true. He said, ‘You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.’ I know that these few minutes we’ve had together may not have changed your mind about what has happened, but I hope you will see that there was more to my decision than just revenge.”

“I certainly have a lot to think about, Sir.”

Chapter 21

Interrogator

1 October 2041

Fort McCoy, Wisconsin

US Army Prisoner of War Internment Camp III

During World War II, Ft. McCoy had been used as a Germany POW camp, in addition to a basic training facility. Now history was repeating itself, and the old National Guard base was reactivated to be an active duty military training facility alongside the POW camp, just as it had been in the 1940s. Ft. McCoy was located in the middle of Wisconsin, in a relatively low-populated area of the state, which made it ideal for a POW camp. The base was also training 12,000 new army recruits at any given time, graduating 1,000 new soldiers a week from their twelve-week basic combat training course.

Ft. McCoy did not house all of America’s POWs, but it did house the prisoners identified as having some sort of intelligence value. Prisoners not being deemed as having intelligence value had been turned over to other POW camps that worked with DHS to provide tens of thousands of prisoners to be used on various work gangs and projects all across the US. The prisoners farmed their own food and carried out a variety of other physical labor services as both a means of keeping them occupied while also helping to rebuild the various areas inside America that had been damaged or destroyed in the war.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CW4) Josh Schafer was the senior military interrogator at Ft. McCoy. He was also the XO for an interrogation detachment from the 201st Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, 109th Military Intelligence Battalion. They had thirty-six military interrogators, nine DoD civilian interrogators, and forty-five contract interrogators to handle the 25,000 Islamic Republic, Russian and Chinese POWs currently being held at Ft. McCoy.

CW4 Schafer had just received a new high-value prisoner from Alaska, a Russian Colonel who had been an armored brigade commander before he was captured by US Special Forces. The men that brought him in kept laughing about how he had been captured while he was relieving himself in the woods, not far from his Command vehicle. The SF unit in question had been shadowing the brigade headquarters, and was in the process of preparing to ambush it when they spotted the commander walking in the woods alone. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, they grabbed him and then proceeded to ambush the headquarters unit.

The Russian Colonel had quickly been transferred to a rearguard unit, who had him transferred to Ft. McCoy once he accidentally made mention of the new Russian main battle tank and how it would crush America. Now it was incumbent on CW4 Schafer, to find out as much information as he could about this mystery tank. After spending a couple of hours looking over all of the intelligence and information available on the good Colonel, Schafer felt he was ready to meet him and begin to assess his new prisoner.

Schafer had been an interrogator for sixteen years; he had a BS in psychology and an MA in International Studies. During his career so far, he had fought in the Mexican invasion, and had interrogated numerous Islamic terrorists for the war effort. He had originally been assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division in Israel, but he had been wounded and sent back to the US to recover. Upon recovering from his shrapnel injuries, he was reassigned to the 109th MI battalion and sent to Ft. McCoy. This was his third month at Ft. McCoy, and already he had conducted over 150 interrogations and obtained an incredible amount of intelligence, particularly about the IR military leadership structure and who was loyal to the Caliph versus their country of origin. He was adept at sifting out the radicals versus the pragmatic military leaders. This information was critical in determining who the US and IDF could work with during the occupation, and who was going to present a long-term problem for them. By assessing who could safely be trusted as team players during the occupation of the IR, the U.S. was going to have much greater chance of keeping the peace.

Now it was about finding out what the next steps the Chinese and Russians were up to. CW4 Schafer pushed his chair back away from his desk and computer, grabbed his notepad and tablet, and signaled to his analyst and interpreter that it was time for them to walk to their interrogation booth and get things prepared for the interrogation. Their prisoner was going to be brought to them in about thirty-minutes, giving them plenty of time to get things ready. As they walked out of the Interrogation Control Element (ICE)--the building the interrogators and analyst operated out of when not working with the prisoners--they made their way across the street to the interrogation building. The structure that housed the interrogation booths was connected to the actual POW camp, making easy access to move the detainees in for questioning. Inside were thirty state-of-the-art interrogation booths, which were in use nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Each booth had a separate viewing room connected to it with a one-way mirror (this allowed for rule-keeping monitors to see the interrogation as it was happening). The rooms also had a number of high-tech pieces of equipment that greatly improved the interrogation process. There was a thermal camera, which helped to monitor the prisoner’s body temperature and spikes in perspiration that occur when a person is nervous or lying. In addition to the thermal imaging, there were also half a dozen mini-cameras observing the prisoner; these cameras were looking for any ticks or tells the detainee might have. With the aid of computer software, micro-expressions could be judged to catch eyelid quivering when nervous, slight movements of the lips that might indicate lying, and the dilation of pupils to indicate genuine surprise. CW4 Schafer said a little “thank you” in his head to President Stein as they walked into the room; it was due to his emphasis on improved equipment that he was able to enjoy all of the technology he had at his disposal.

As Schafer and his analyst got their equipment and room set up, their interpreter began to look over the various questions and points of discussion they were going to discuss with the prisoner. This way, he could ask questions for clarification before the interrogation started if he needed to. The thirty-minutes went by quickly, and before long, a knock could be heard at the door, letting them know their prisoner had arrived. The Colonel was wearing the traditional yellow jumpsuit that all prisoners wore; his name and rank were sewn on to the front and back of his jumpsuit, so he could be quickly identified.

Colonel Dimitri Petkovic was the 13th Guard’s Tank Regiment Commander, part of the 4th Guard’s Kantemirovskaya Division (one of several elite Russian armored divisions). He was a career officer who was being fast-tracked to become a division commander until his capture. As he sat down, he thought to himself, “If only I hadn’t waved off my protective detail that evening…all I wanted was a few minutes to relieve my bowels in peace.” Images of his capture were flashing through his head, and he felt himself being thrown to the ground, gagged and tied up with zip ties. He remembered a series of explosions as they left; the Special Forces must have destroyed his headquarters unit.

Colonel Petkovic was optimistic about the possibility of being broken out of prison by his own Spetsnaz, or escaping on his own, until he was flown from a small firebase to Fairbanks and then to northern Wisconsin. So far, his treatment had been better than expected; he had been given medical attention when he needed it, and he was fed three meals a day. He had made the mistake of mentioning the new Russian tank and how it was going to destroy the Americans to a fellow prisoner, who must have told the Yankees (the Americans had placed several of their interpreters among the prison population to gather intelligence inside the camp; this had proven extremely useful). This little slip-up was probably why he had been flown to Wisconsin instead of staying in Alaska. Petkovic thought to himself, “It doesn’t matter. The Americans will ultimately lose the war; the numbers are against them no matter what new technology they create.”

The Colonel had been at Ft. McCoy for five days, nearly all of it spent in isolation. What little he had seen of the base when he was driven from the airstrip to the prison camp, did amaze him. He saw thousands of American men and women conducting physical training and other types of military training. Clearly, the Americans were trying to train a new army, but it was too late. The Russian and Chinese alliance had already trained millions of soldiers and were in the process of training millions more. He knew that as soon as his division’s objectives would have been completed, he would have been heading back to the Western front to be equipped with the new T41 battle tanks. The Chinese were also training five million soldiers, specifically to assist the Russians in Europe. He felt certain of the inevitability of the victory on his side.

As Petkovic walked in to the interrogation room, he was not afraid. Of course, he was determined to do his best to resist; he had received interrogation resistance training, and he had been told that the Americans would not use torture, so that relieved most of the anxiety he might have felt. As the Colonel oriented himself to this new room, he saw a man in his late thirties standing before him.

“Hello, Colonel Petkovic. You can call me Mr. Smith.”

Petkovic was sure that this name was an alias, but that didn’t matter.  There was an interpreter in the room with him, and a third person, a woman who sat in the back corner at a desk with a laptop. He assumed the woman was there to take notes for the interrogator, who looked all business. The interrogator shook his hand, and offered him some coffee or a bottle of water. Petkovic accepted both and thanked “Mr. Smith.” There was no reason to be rude.

Schafer knew that they were going to be talking for several hours, and one trick of the trade that he had learned was to humanize the detainee and his relationship with him. This would make it easier to develop rapport, and enable him to obtain the information he was looking for. He had the prisoner sit down, and then began to attach several wires to his hand, finger and chest.

“Colonel Petkovic, I am going to attach several sensors to your body; these will help us determine if you are lying or telling us the truth.”

“This is a lie detector?” asked Petkovic curiously as he looked at the instruments.

“Yes and no. We use the data to determine if you are telling the truth or hiding something. If you are less than truthful, I will know.” Schafer was very matter-of-fact.

“All I am obligated to provide you with is my name, rank and service number,” the Colonel said sarcastically.

Josh smiled before responding, “Technically, that is true. However, there are a lot of incentives I can provide to you that would make your stay here at the camp a lot nicer and more enjoyable, if you are willing to cooperate.”

Petkovic sighed deeply before he replied, “What could you possibly offer me that would make me want to betray my country?”

“If you are willing to talk openly with me, then I can have you moved to a single person room, complete with TV rights and room service. You can pick what you would like to eat, and each meal will be delivered to your room, or you may eat in the cafeteria with the other prisoners who have chosen to cooperate.”

“Those prisoners will never be allowed to return back to Russia; they would be shot for treason,” said Petkovic in a serious manner. The tone of his voice implied that he knew from personal experience what happens to people that the State determines to be traitors.

CW4 Schafer had heard this before, and had a response ready. “You should know that when the war is over, those who want to stay in the US will be allowed to do so. Those who wish to return back to their country will be swapped for our prisoners.”

Having presented the situation, Josh switched gears. He sat down and began to look through his questioning guide to start the interrogation. “Tell me about the T41 tank. What makes it so special?” Schafer actually had no idea if the tank was going to be called a T41; he was guessing at the name and figured this is most likely what it would be called.

“Hmm, so they know what the tank is going to be called. I wonder what else they know about it?” thought the Colonel.

“I have nothing to say,” replied Petkovic with a look of determination.

Immediately, Schafer could see in Petkovic’s eyes that he was going to be a problem; he was not going to talk easily. He thought to himself, “That’s fine. I still have my ways of making you talk.”

With a mischievous grin developing, Schafer answered, “That’s fine.”

Signaling for the guards to return, he directed them to hold Petkovic in his chair so he could not move. Then he lifted a syringe from a small black case that he had in the cargo pocket of his military trousers.

Petkovic’s eyes went wide with fear and surprise.

“I had hoped we could have a normal conversation, two military professionals discussing a host of topics. However, if you want to be obstinate, then we have our ways of making you talk. I am going to inject you with something that is going to make every nerve in your body feel as if it is on fire. It is going to be excruciatingly painful. Fortunately, the pain can be immediately turned off if I inject you with a counteracting drug. However, I will only do so if you are willing to answer my questions truthfully.” Schafer spoke in a cold detached voice. He had the look of someone who had done this many, many times before.

Prior to the outbreak of World War III, the President had authorized a secret military interrogation manual and a program that incorporated the use of pharmaceutical interrogations, using drugs to facilitate the cooperation of a detainee. There were two main drugs they used. The first, the “fire drug,” would indeed cause the nerves in the detainee’s body to feel as though they were burning in scorching flames. The second, the “lucidity drug,” was very similar to a medication often given to patients before surgery to relax them, Ativan. It quickly loosened the mind’s ability to resist. After some interrogation trials on US Special Forces and Navy Seals, the military had found that if you give the fire drug first, the lucidity drug worked even better (because the individual’s mind would have been exhausted from dealing with the fire drug). Part of the qualification process of being able to administer this type of interrogation required the interrogator to have gone through the process themselves. This ensured that the interrogator knew the type of pain the prisoner was being subjected to.

Petkovic was given the first drug, and within seconds, it felt like his entire body was burning from the inside. He started to scream, and tried to wrestle himself free from the guards who held him firmly in his chair. However, their grip was firm, and they were unmoved by his cries for help…they had clearly seen this done a number of times before. After nearly ten minutes of not answering the interrogator’s questions, the Colonel finally gave in. “I will cooperate, Mr. Smith!” he cried. “Just take the pain away!” he pleaded.

Schafer gave him the counteractive drug, and then quickly injected him with the lucidity drug. Within seconds, he could see in Petkovic’s eyes that he was feeling relief and was ready to talk. Schafer calmly sat back down at the table. “So, tell me about the T41. What type of gun does it have?”

With the lucidity drug in his system, Petkovic responded almost immediately as if his sub-conscious had been laid bare. “It uses a pulse beam laser.”

“How many shots can it fire a minute?” asked Josh, wanting to establish a rhythym.

“Two.”

“How long until it needs to be recharged?” queried Josh.

“It can fire a total of fifteen shots before it needs to recharge.”

“And how long does it take to recharge?” Schafer continued.

“It takes three minutes to recharge enough energy to fire a single shot; the laser can fire a shot every thirty seconds. It can fire through its charged battery in six minutes, but then it takes forty-five minutes to return back to full charge.”

“What are the dimensions of the T41?” Schafer asked, continuing to roll through the questions on his list.

Petkovic continued to answer question after question for nearly four hours before Schafer ended the interrogation. Josh had obtained all the information he needed on the T41, and now it was time to write up the Intelligence Information Report (IIR) and get this information out to the greater intelligence community so they could decide what further information they would like from Petkovic.

Chapter 22

Teach and Train

4 October 2041

Twenty-Nine Palms, California

Third Marine Headquarters

Following the various victory parades and time off, the Marines of the Third Marine Division reformed at their desert training facility in California, Twenty-Nine Palms. The division was conducting a series of armored training exercises and mountain warfare training, in preparation for their eventual deployment to fight the Chinese and Russian soldiers in Alaska. Fifth Marines, which was already fighting in Alaska, had sent several dozen advisors to help them get ready and to instruct them on what to expect when they arrived. They learned that the Chinese were making heavy use of artillery and armored forces in Alaska, much more so than they did with their forces in the Middle East.

The challenge US Forces were facing in dealing with the Russian and Chinese soldiers was one of numbers. Despite the tactical advantage the American soldiers held with the integrated HUD system and the M5 AIR, the Chinese relied heavily on overwhelming manpower. They would routinely overrun units and just move through them with human wave assaults. They would attack with waves of light drone tanks, supported by their heavy tanks, and then follow up with a sea of humanity and send in multitudinous infantry. While American armor was, more often than not, able to deal with the Chinese armor, the infantry would get overwhelmed, and this would force the American positions to fall back. Had the Americans not established such formidable defensive positions at Susitna and Cooper Landing, Alaska would have been lost many months ago. As it stood, it was only a matter of time until these positions collapsed. They were being bombarded nearly 24/7, and attacked by enemy drone bombers on a daily basis. The air defense capabilities simply could not keep up.

The introduction of the F41 had probably given these defensive positions new life. Despite their small numbers, they were making a huge impact, going after enemy ground attack drones and drone bombers.

Equipment updates were important, but the updates in key personnel were going to be essential in winning the war as well. Major General Lance Peeler had just been promoted to Lieutenant General, and given command of all Marine Forces on the West Coast. Despite being promoted, LTG Peeler was still going to retain command of Third Marines for the time being, until his duties required him to relinquish that control. His main focus right now was getting his Marines ready to fight the Chinese. His division had been given their replacements, and they were finally sitting at 100% strength. Now they were focused on training and preparation for their eventual deployment with General Gardner’s Third Army. Third Marines had been assigned the task of helping the Army get the new South American Multinational Force (SAMF) from South and Central America ready to participate in the war. One of the key training areas the Marines focused on was marksmanship. They were especially drilling on firing discipline, as well as small and large unit maneuvers. In the type of fighting they would be facing against the Chinese and Russian forces, these tactics were going to be critical to know inside and out, as well as how to coordinate them with their colleagues.

LTG Peeler had been given six weeks to get the SAMF ready to fight. The Army had assigned one armored division to work with the SAMF on tank and armored warfare tactics, something General Gardner was an expert at. While the training continued, new divisions fresh from basic combat training continued to filter in to the Army and were rotated immediately in to the field training exercises. Third Army was growing in strength at a rate of 30,000 new soldiers a month, and had just broken the magic number of one million Soldiers and Marines.

In addition to the Third Marines, LTG Peeler was in the process of training three additional 60,000 man divisions for future combat operations. The Marine base at Camp Pendleton, near Oceanside, CA, was a buzz of activity. They were responsible for the training of three divisions of Marines, with nearly 5,000 Marines completing basic and advanced infantry training every week. They were quickly rotated to Twenty-Nine Palms, where they trained with the large maneuver elements before being sent to their individual assignments or deployed as replacements.

After thirty days of R & R, Captain Thornton was relaxed and ready to get back to work. While on leave, he had spent some of his time in Key West doing some scuba diving and fishing, unwinding those thoughts in his head away from the war and the military. Now it was time to get back to the business at hand, training his Marines for their eventual deployment to the frontlines. One of the key things Thornton had learned during his near-constant year of combat was the importance of being able to fire and maneuver while taking enemy fire. Because the Chinese made heavy use of human wave assaults, it was imperative to keep your head up and place well-aimed shots at the enemy, as opposed to hiding in your foxhole or popping up and down like a gopher. This was hard to teach a soldier as most people’s instinct is to duck when they start to hear bullets flying nearby or over their heads. Thornton taught his Marines, “Remember, the enemy is just as scared as you are, and if you can throw more lead downrange at him or her, you might be able to get them to duck instead.”

The other area of focus was to practice training with the new Wolverine armored vehicle. It was a much improved upon vehicle from the traditional Marine Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs); the Wolverine was impervious to small arms fire and could deflect most RPG rockets, which made it very versatile. The railgun system could operate in air or ground attack modes, making the Wolverine a truly multi-purpose fighting weapon. It was perfect for providing light infantry the support they needed or accompanying the tanks for infantry support.

Thornton had his finger on the pulse, listening to as much information as he could about the battle to come. From what he could tell, they were in the fight of their lives once they arrived in Alaska, so he did his best to teach his Marines not just tactics and techniques, but mental readiness.

Chapter 23

SecDef Pow-wow

5 October 2041

Washington, DC

White House, Oval Office

Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, had arrived early for his meeting with the President. The offensive operation in Alaska had not gone well, despite the enormous losses they had inflicted on the enemy. The Chinese just kept coming. The President was clearly starting to get concerned because if the Army could not stop the Chinese in Alaska, then chances were, they were going to break through their defensive line at some point and secure the entire state. That would be not just a political disaster for the President, but an enormous military one as well.

Julie Wells, the President’s secretary, signaled to Eric. “The President will see you now.”

Eric walked in to the Oval Office and saw the President sitting down on one of the couches, with one of his trademark Red Bulls nearby. The President looked tired and worn out, the stress was apparent in his face. The President normally looked determined and calm under pressure, clearly he was not feeling that way today.

Walking into the room, Eric moved to shake the President’s hand, and then quickly took a seat across from him. “Mr. President, I assume you have read the executive summary of the Susitna battle report?” asked the SecDef.

Looking up at Eric, the President said, “I have; I must say I am disappointed. We had given General Black 20,000 Raptor combat suits, all of our Wolverines, and the first batch of F41s, yet still he was unable to drive them back.” Looking down at the notepad again, and then back at Eric, he quipped, “He used 450,000 soldiers in his offensive, didn’t he?”

“He had, Mr. President; they sustained some pretty heavy casualties as well.” Eric was not sure if this directly answered the boss’s question.

“We’ve sustained 93,000 KIAs in Alaska, another 191,000 wounded. These kinds of casualties are not sustainable in a defeat. If we had pushed the Chinese out of Alaska, then this would have been acceptable, but as it stands, we have only weakened our position there significantly. What is our next course of action Eric?” asked the President pointedly.

Pulling up a holographic map from his notepad, Eric began to point to several mountain ranges and national parks. “We are beginning construction of two new defensive positions; one at the Denali National Park Preserve, and the second at the McKinley Park Reserve. These positions are all along Route 1, and are stationed at strategic locations to provide us the best possible defensive situations. There are very few routes in and out of Alaska because of its treacherous mountain ranges and the heavy snows.” Eric sighed deeply before continuing, “I have also ordered the construction of a series of defensive positions in the Yukon and upper parts of British Columbia. It may become necessary that we fall back further before the end of winter or next summer.”

The President made eye contact that was almost aggressive, and pointedly said, “That is unacceptable. Our soldiers are now better equipped; they have better tanks and body armor, and we finally have an aircraft that rivals the MiG40. We cannot continue to lose more ground like that. What about the new recruits we are training?” Henry was clearly not happy, and was fishing for alternatives.

“We have thirty military training schools operational right now; each is turning out 1,000 troops a week. We are essentially training a new division every week. It is going to take time to get the men we need. The Chinese started this war with a six-million-man army; our sources now say they have drafted another ten million. The DoD is just not capable of fighting a war against both China and Russia at the same time. We really need the Europeans to fight their own war so we can pull our troops back home where they are desperately needed.” As the SecDef spoke, he was not very confident that even bringing all the troops back from Europe would be enough.

The President knew Eric was doing all he could; he also knew that the DoD had been extremely depleted when he took office, and despite four years of heavy funding, they were only just now starting to get up to speed. His next response was a bit calmer, more measured. “Here is what I want to have happen then. Tell General Wade that the force he has is what he has. No more reinforcements are going to be sent to Europe. As units dwindle in strength, he is to combine them with other units, because there will be no more replacement soldiers sent. Second, all of the wounded that return from Europe are to be filtered into the new basic training facilities to help train up the new units and provide them with much needed experience and expertise. Third, I want us to expand the military training facilities. I want to ramp up training; we need to move it up from 30,000 a week to 50,000. I don’t care how many National Guard and Reserve facilities need to be federalized and reactivated. Make it happen…and construct new basic training facilities if needed. I don’t want to resort to forming militia units, but if we lose Alaska and they start to threaten the rest of the country, that may need to happen.”

Eric could see that Henry was returning back to his normal self again as he began to dictate orders. The President was, if nothing else, an organizational genius. He surrounded himself with people who possessed the same quality, which was probably why America had not collapsed from the challenges that had been thrown at it.

“I’ll get on it right away Mr. President. Have we heard anything new yet from the Japanese about them joining the war effort?” asked Eric.

“Secretary Wise said he does not believe they are going to come to our aid or join the war effort. As a matter of fact, the only assistance they have offered is jack and squat. They are happy to keep selling their cars and other goods in America though…at least they are ordering tens of millions of tons of food products through the Grain Consortium. We believe they may be stocking up in case the Chinese decide they want to start a blockade of the West Coast,” Stein answered dejectedly.

Despite the Navy introducing the SUDs to the Pacific, the Chinese Navy remained dominant in the North and Central Pacific. The Navy was slowly destroying the Chinese submarines, which had been a priority to clear out; now they were starting to shift focus to the shipping container ships and fuel tankers. This would hopefully hurt the PLA’s logistical efforts and slow their progress down in Alaska.

The President expanded the holographic map of Alaska to include most of Asia, and then clicked on India. “What concerns me most, Eric, is India. I just read an intelligence report (and also received some cables from Jim Wise at State) about what India is up to. They have agreed to assist the PRC economically; they have begun to manufacture their fighter drones, and to transport ships and other war materials that they are having a hard time replacing quickly. To further add to this, the Indian government--which already maintains a two-million-man army--has just announced an increase in their military force to nearly four million. That means that they are doubling their army. The question is why?”

“Perhaps they are just concerned about China--I mean the PLA did gobble up all of their neighbors, and the IR is now an occupied country,” Eric responded, hoping this might calm the President’s concerns.

“You may be right. In any case, the Indian army is incredibly outdated. Thank you for your efforts Eric. It means a lot to have people I know I can count on right now in these trying times.

The meeting ended with Eric heading towards the door and Katelyn Williams and Jeff Rogers walking in for the next meeting.

“Good afternoon Eric” they said as he left; he returned the greeting.

Motioning for them to sit, the President wanted to get down to business quickly. He had a telecom with the Prime Minister of Britain and Chancellor Lowden of the EU in a couple of hours, and he still needed to eat lunch.

Chapter 24

Peddling a Pan Asian Alliance

10 October 2041

Beijing, China

Central Military Committee Meeting Room

Premier Zhang Jinping was reading over the final proposal for the Pan Asian Alliance that the Chinese government was going to pursue with the remaining countries in Asia, along with India, Japan and Russia. The trick was how to arrange a ruling committee that incorporated senior officials from all of the members (India, Russia and Japan with China) that everyone could agree on and accept. The Pan Asian Alliance was a dream of Premier Zhang’s for many years. It was not until the start of World War III that he saw a real opportunity to make it a reality. The combined armies, economy and people of these nations would rule the world and lead it in to the 22nd Century and beyond.

The Americans had made it easier to form this alliance after their brutal use of nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic. It was rather ironic that the IR detonating two nuclear devices in America had worked to China’s advantage like nothing else could have. The nuclear hot war had shaken the military and political alliance between Japan and the United States. It had also created a rift between the Indians and Americans; since both Japan and India had been on the receiving end of a nuclear war, they were aghast at the complete disregard for human lives displayed by the American leader. In a single day, President Stein had ordered the death of over half a billion people in response to the death of six million Americans.

India had just recently agreed to support the PRC economically by providing China with various materials they needed for the conflict, and opening their manufacturing up to produce the machines of war needed to win. Premier Jinping was close to securing an agreement with India to join the Pan Asian Alliance. Even after their losses in their own nuclear war, India still had a massive population that could add strength to the union; India had nearly 1.4 billion people and an army of two million soldiers. Of course, once they joined, their military would be greatly enhanced and expanded with state-of-the-art equipment and additional soldiers.

Japan was still gearing up for war; they had thus far stayed neutral, though it appeared that they may join the war against China. That, however, changed when America unleashed hundreds of nuclear missiles on civilian targets all across North Africa and the Middle East. Publicly, Japan continued to relay to their American allies that they were still months away from being able to join the war, but secretly, they had been meeting with the Chinese. PM Jinping had special plans for Japan, pending they joined the alliance.

Zhang looked up from his papers, and saw General Fan Changlong, the vice chair of the CMC, and the man in charge of the PLA. “General Changlong, what are your thoughts on the Pan Asian Alliance?” asked the Premier.

Knowing this was a political test of his loyalty, the general thought about the question for a second before responding. In theory, he liked the idea, but in practicality, he was against it. It would be hard to get the other generals of the PLA on board with it, unless some sort of major concession was made. No one would want to relinquish power. With these conflicting thoughts racing through his head, he responded, “I believe it has merit. The question is--how do we get the others in the government to go along with it?” By responding this way, the general was also sort of fishing to see if there would be a concession offered that he could support.

“That is a good question. I had thought that we would run the alliance much like we run the CMC, by establishing a ruling committee. The smaller countries would each have one member on the committee, and India, Japan and Russia would each have three members on the committee—and of course China would have four, one more than the others. Decisions would be made through majority vote among the committee members, as it is done now through the CMC,” the Premier said, believing this should be enough of a compromise to gain the support of the PLA.

Thinking briefly about what Jinping had just said, General Changlong realized this would completely marginalize the current CMC and the PLA. “What about the PLA? How would you handle them with this new committee?”

Knowing this would be a critical question to answer, the Premier had his answer ready. “Ah, yes. Two of the four members from China would be members of the PLA, the third position would be my responsibility as the Premier, and the fourth would rotate between the directors within the PRC. This would still give the PLA a heavy voice in the committee, while letting the civilian government still have equal power. How the other countries would choose their members is of no concern to China.”

As Jinping spoke, he saw a slight smile on his general’s face. In that moment, he knew he had the backing of the PLA to move forward with this proposal to the other countries. Of course, no one would know about Japan joining until the last minute…Japan was going to be China’s Trojan horse.

Chapter 25

Bait and Switch?

13 October 2041

Tokyo, Japan

Office of the Prime Minister

The Prime Minister of Japan, Yasuhiro Hata, was in a tough position. Their strategic ally, the United States, had suffered a string of military disasters in the Pacific, culminating with the loss of their military base in Guam, the destruction of the Seventh Fleet, and the loss of the Hawaiian Islands. South Korea had ended their war with the North and had united the Peninsula; then they quickly received a non-aggression treaty with China in exchange for staying neutral in the war. Of course, Korea could not offer the Americans any real military support of significance, so their non-involvement would not turn the tide of the war in the Pacific. That, however, was not the case with Japan. PM Hata struggled with the decision of who to support.

Since the start of the war, the PLAN had maintained a strong naval presence around the Japanese waters. The PLAN had threatened to attack the American bases on Japanese soil again if they did not intern the U.S. forces. It pained the Premier to do so, but he ordered all American Forces in his country to be interned, and he did not come to the aid of his allies when they needed Japan the most.

During the opening hours of World War III, when the Chinese had initially attacked America, they began by disabling the American air and naval stations in Japan; they had shown how easily they could penetrate the Japanese air defenses. A lot of changes had been made to ensure this did not happen again, but it had already rattled the military leaders of Japan. They were no longer as confident as they once were that they could prevent the Chinese from dominating the skies above Japan.

Still, the PM had Japan prepare for war, conscripting one million additional men in to the Japanese Defense Force (JDF). The navy had just completed construction of two additional aircraft carriers, bringing the total number to five. Albeit, these carriers were small by American and Chinese standards; however, they could still carry four dozen aircraft, which was more than enough to threaten a carrier battle group. The real strength of the Japanese Navy though rested with their modern day battleships, which could carry 600 missile interceptors and 550 land and sea capable cruise missiles. These ships were designed with the sole intention of defeating the PLAN supercarriers and providing the Japanese Navy with a versatile weapons platform. The Japanese had three of these behemoths in service, with no additional ones scheduled for construction.

Today was a day that the PM had been dreading for some time; he would attend a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister and a virtual meeting with the Chinese Premier Jinping to discuss what would ultimately be the future of his nation. This was the day he would have to decide which path his nation will ultimately take--stand with America in her greatest hour of need, or join the Chinese juggernaut and finish the U.S. off.

PM Hata was shaken from his world of deep turbulent thought as the Chinese Foreign Minister, Fang Yung, walked in to the room. He bowed towards the PM at an appropriate depth to indicate his respect before walking over to him. “Prime Minister Hata, it is good to see you. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” said Fang.

The Prime Minister returned the bow before speaking. “I hope your covert travel here was not too inconvenient.” He attempted to muster up all of the genuineness he could in that statement, although he did not mean a word of it. In all reality, he hoped it was a terrible trip in to Japan, having to sneak his way across the border so as to not be seen by the American spies.

“This is an important meeting, so it was no trouble at all. Please, let me set up the secured holographic device so I can connect us with Premier Jinping. He is eager to speak with us.”

Hata tried very hard to conceal the sigh he let out before he responded.  “Yes, let’s get him connected. We have much to discuss.”

Within a couple of minutes, the holographic device came to life, and the image of the man who was possibly the most powerful man in the world, the Chinese Premier, appeared.

“Prime Minister Hata, it is good to see you. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us, even if it is in secret for now,” said Premier Jinping.  “I will get straight to the point. We are moving forward with the creation of the Pan Asian Alliance. I can tell you that Indonesia, Russia and India will be members; we would like to add Japan to that list. Our collective populations will now exceed four billion people; our combined military forces are in excess of twelve million soldiers, with another eight million more in training.” The Premier let PM Hata in on this bit of military intelligence, hoping that the sheer enormity of those numbers would sink in.

After pausing for dramatic effect, the Premier continued, “As you know, the PAA will be run in a similar manner to how we run the CMC here in China; each primary nation (which, of course, Japan would be one) would have three members on the central committee. The committee would, of course, control and run all of the countries that are part of the PAA. Decisions would be made by majority vote of the committee members, and would be binding to each member country. The smaller countries that join the PAA would only have one member represented on the committee.”

Premier Jinping stopped for a minute to see if PM Hata had any questions. As he did not, the Premier continued, “We are forming this confederation to better coordinate our economies, our currencies and our military organizations. We are also going to be moving to a crypto-currency, similar to Bitcoin, which will help us regulate our currencies a lot better. As you know, we would like Japan to be a part of this greater confederation--you are, after all, an Asian nation. What questions do you have that I may be able to answer?” asked the Premier. He wanted to get down to the meat of the negotiations.

Hata thought for a minute before responding, “I understand the proposal, and I agree in principle that a Pan Asian Alliance would benefit all of Asia. That said, you are asking us to not only turn our backs on our ninety-year alliance with America, but to launch a surprise attack on the West Coast. Even if I wanted to agree to this, I am not confident I could get my military leaders to agree to your proposal. I would have a revolt within the defense force.” PM Hata had a slight tremble of concern in his voice.

“I appreciate your situation, and I understand this would be a hard sell. Can we agree that joining the PAA and Confederation would be in Japan’s best interests at this junction in the war?” the Premier asked, wanting to start establishing some common ground with the Japanese PM.

“America is down, there is no denying that. Between your efforts and the Russians, you have really crippled the Americans. I will say this; if it is one thing the Americans are extremely good at, it’s finding a way to come from behind and win. They have been known to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on more than one occasion. Why do you believe so strongly right now that America can be fully beaten? They are conducting a massive retooling of their economy and the rumors we have heard of their advanced weapon systems are amazing, if true.”

Jinping was ready with a response. “For a moment, let us put aside the argument of honor; as we know Japan has already betrayed America when you cast aside your initial defense agreement. In that situation, you made the best possible choice, considering the circumstances. I will be as direct and blunt with you as I can--if any of the information I am going to share with you makes its way to America, I can assure you there will be some severe consequences. That said, we have nearly two million soldiers on Alaskan soil, and we have another three million more waiting to be transported to North America. We also have another six million more men and women in military training right now who will be ready for service over the next twelve months. It is true that the Americans are starting to edge ahead of us in some weapon systems, but it comes down to numbers. For every eleven Chinese soldiers an American kills, there is a twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth soldier to take their place. We are also going to open up a second front in North America by launching an invasion of the West Coast. As you can see, the Americans are going to die a death by a thousand cuts.” As he spoke, the Premier shared a video slide of the potential military operations that were planned.

“In addition to the second front we are going to open up in North America, the Indian government will also announce that they are joining the PAA, along with Indonesia. Both countries will be committing a sizeable portion of their military to the invasion as well. As you can see, the sheer volume of our army will be enough to crush the Americans. Japan will, of course, be given several states to federally administer once America has been defeated.”

As PM Hata sat and watched the video unfold, he couldn’t help but think, “If they can do this to America, how much more can they do to Japan? There is no way the Americans are going to be able to stand up to this large of an Army on their own soil, not while they are fighting in Europe too.”

Out loud, he responded, “You make a persuasive argument. I cannot deny the fact that your army has confounded the Americans and done what most armies have never been able to do--win on the battlefield. Putting aside your loss to General Gardner’s Third Army in the Middle East, your invasion of Alaska has been a resounding success. If I can persuade key members of my cabinet and military go along with this, how soon would you want us to attack the Americans? Would I be able to get some military assistance here in Japan should I need help in keeping control of things? Many people in my country will not be happy that we are betraying the U.S. They may be angry about their unprecedented use of nuclear weapons, but do not mistake that anger as them being willing to easily betray an ally.”

“I can authorize as many PLA soldiers as you would like, should you need them. As for the timeline for when you would attack, we have planned for the attack to take place on December 24th, the eve of their national holiday. Once Japan has formally agreed to join the PAA, we will discuss the attack in greater detail (and what Japan’s part would be) at a later meeting. Of course, your decision to join the alliance would stay secret until December 24th, when you would launch your surprise attack.”

“So once again, history would repeat itself as Japan would launch a surprise attack on America…ironic.”

“Yes, the irony is not lost on me either, but your forces will be able to execute the needed surprise my troops would never be able to achieve.”

There was an awkward moment of silence as PM Hata considered Japan’s entire situation. He took a deep breath before he responded. “All right, I agree. Japan will join the alliance; we will attack the Americans when the time comes. I will begin to identify the people who will be loyal to Japan and marginalize the ones who may cause us a problem.” Hata wanted this meeting to be over. Just because he had made this decision did not mean that he was happy with it.

Premier’s innate stoicism kept him from betraying too much excitement at this victory. “Excellent. Japan will rise with China to become one of the dominant powers of the world and beyond. We’ll continue to coordinate things secretly for the time being. Thank you for your time and for meeting with me.” As he finished his response, he killed the connection.

“You will have to excuse me Minister Yung, I have much to do if I am going to bring Japan in to the fold of the PAA. We can meet at a later date if you would like, or coordinate things through the embassy,” Hata said, indicating he would like to conclude their business for the day.

Standing up, Minister Yung said, “Of course. Please let me know how China can assist you in this transition; we stand ready to provide any support you may need.”

Once he was alone, PM Hata sat down and immediately began to put together a list of people he knew would be loyal to Japan over America. Identifying where people’s loyalties may lie became a lot easier after the Americans nuked the Middle East; they had really alienated themselves from the Japanese people with that attack. That, and their continued insistence that Japan join the war, knowing full well that Japan was not ready and would quickly become occupied by China…but what did America care? They had two great oceans separating them from the rest of the world.

The biggest challenge for PM Hata was going to be identifying who within the Japanese Navy he could trust and count on. Many inside the Navy were chomping at the bit to get in to the war; they wanted to come to the Americans’ aid as quickly as possible. They had conducted decades of joint naval exercises with the US Navy, so they felt a close bond with them. It would definitely take some time to identify who would stay loyal to Japan versus coming to the Americans’ aid.

Chapter 26

Russian Reset

14 October 2041

Moscow, Russia

President Fradkov was sitting in his office, reviewing the tentative proposal that Premier Zhang Jinping had sent over. It was audacious. India had agreed to join, and so had Indonesia, now that they had abandoned the Islamic Republic. Fradkov mused, “I like the concept and idea, but do I believe I could get my countrymen to go along with it? Besides, I rule this country--why would I want to yield any of that control to a governing council?”

Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense, interrupted his thoughts. “Mr. President, I presume that is the Pan Asian Alliance proposal you are reading?”

“It is. I am not one hundred percent sure this would benefit us in the fashion we would like. I do not like ceding our control to a ruling council, even if we would have three members on it,” Fradkov responded as he took a sip of his coffee.

Puchkov thought about that for a moment before answering, “True, but there are some benefits. The pooling of resources and manpower would aid us significantly, particularly in this war.”

Fradkov angrily jumped in, “Speaking of the war, what is going on in Alaska? Why have we not fully secured our sector yet?”

“The war is progressing, but resources are limited in Alaska. We only have so many air and ground units we can employ. Originally, we thought we would not need our entire force, or even our reserves; however, after several months of hard combat, we had to send the rest of our forces forward. Right now, we are going up against the American Marines, who have established a series of firebases and reinforced forts at key points throughout northern and central Alaska. We are having to fight them either one at a time or in small groups--in either case, it has slowed our advance down to nearly a crawl,” Puchkov said as he brought up a number of images and maps on his tablet for the President to view.

Examining the maps, Fradkov asked, “So what can we do to move this along? The Chinese are landing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and if we are not able to secure our objectives, they will secure them on their own and keep all of the gains.” Fradkov did not want to yield any more to the Chinese than necessary.

General Gerasimov, the head of the Russian Military, interjected, “If you would like us to make Alaska the primary front, then we should halt our forces in Europe and focus our resources on Alaska. I could have our objectives secured before Spring if I could divert forces from Europe to the East.”

“How are things going in Europe right now? Are we at a good stopping point where we could shift resources to Alaska?” inquired Fradkov. He was not wanting to lose his gains in Europe, but he was clearly looking for a way to do more in Alaska.

General Gerasimov opened his tablet up and brought up the map section. The holographic image appeared on the table and he began to go over the details of the European front. “First, let me review the ground operations, then the naval operations. We have captured the key objectives to keep NATO off balance: Leipzig, Berlin, and Hamburg. As it is, the EU countries are training a much larger army, and are currently converting their manufacturing over to war-time production. As we all know, this takes time, which is something they do not have. I can switch our priority to Alaska, but prior to doing that, I would like to launch one more major offensive in Europe--not to capture ground, but to destroy as much military equipment as possible by intentionally slugging it out with NATO (as opposed to looking for weak points in their lines to exploit). In destroying more of their materials, we would further slow down the timeframe of when they could launch a counter-offensive.”

“As long as our additive manufacturing can continue to keep up with the losses, you are cleared to continue,” replied the President. He coughed the cough of a lifetime smoker before continuing, “What about our naval operations?”

“The naval focus continues to be on the North Atlantic and interdicting the NATO supply ships from North and South America. The navy just received the first twelve underwater drone submarines; they are nearly identical in capabilities to the American SUDs. We also have twenty-two more attack submarines coming online over the next two months. We are slowly starting to strangle Europe as we continue to deplete the NATO navies and supply vessels,” responded Puchkov confidently.

The President smiled slightly before replying, “Excellent. Then I want our focus to shift from Europe to Alaska. If we are able to help the Chinese apply enough pressure to the Americans, we can get them to buckle, and once that happens, they will pull their troops back from Europe. Then the Europeans will truly be on their own and we’ll be able to finish them off.” President Fradkov spoke with a certain giddiness that only comes from assured victory.

Chapter 27

Alaskan Autumn

15 October 2041

Central Alaska

The battle for Alaska had raged on for the entire summer and well into the fall, with the lines changing very little after the first month of the invasion. Despite hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers using massive human wave assaults, they had not been able to break through the American lines. Both sides had been sustaining enormous casualties, and neither side wanted to capitulate. The Americans continued to pour tens of thousands of new recruits each month into Alaska, and had filtered in 100,000 soldiers from the SAMF. The South and Central American governments began a second draft, this time conscripting a total of three million additional young men and women to fight in the MNF.

As the first snowflakes began to fall, it became apparent that America was not going to be able to remove the Chinese before the end of the year, when the long winter settled in. They had hoped to bring the Third Army into the fight, but after several months of equipment delays, it was determined they would not be ready to redeploy as an army until closer to the end of the year. By then, the heavy winter snows would have settled in, making any armored advance or assault a lot less likely to succeed.

Meanwhile, the fight in central and northern Alaska between the Russians and US Marines continued to intensify as the Reds began to pour more soldiers into the battle. At first, the Russians thought they had it easy going up against a much smaller Marine force. They quickly found out why the Marines were called “Devil Dogs.” They fought like men possessed.

The Russians were going up against the US 5th Marines; the 5th had been reactivated once the war with the Islamic Republic had started and the President reinstituted the draft. The last time the 5th Marines had been activated was during the Vietnam war back in 1966 (5th Marines were later deactivated in the end of 1969). Now they would be the force defending central and northern Alaska from the Russian invasion. The 5th Marines had grown from their original strength of 19,000 Marines to now 60,000. Three more Marine divisions were currently in training in southern California and South Carolina, and would add their own weight to the fight in the near future.

*******

Sergeant Jake Lancaster was a Marine gunman attached to an infantry battalion on the front lines in Alaska. His job was to provide counter-sniper support and take out any high-ranking Russian officers as they identified them. They had already taken out four Russian snipers in the last three weeks--it was not that the Russian snipers were sloppy at their trade--the Marines just had better equipment to identify where the enemy shot came from, which gave them a very precise frame of reference when searching for the enemy.

One of the Gunnery Sergeants in Alpha platoon had nearly gotten his head shot off while acting as a decoy for his own snipers. The Russian sniper had shot a hole in his battle helmet as he hoisted it above the trench line with a stick…he was understandably a little shaken up. “Sgt. Lancaster, have you found that sniper yet?” he asked through the HUD.

The report from the sniper rifle had given Sgt. Lancaster and his spotter the direction and location of where the shot had come from. It was about 1,600 meters to the left just behind the Russian lines. “Yes Gunny, we have spotted his location. I’m going to be taking the shot shortly; he’s about to reposition and I want to catch him mid-move,” Lancaster replied.

“Roger that. Let us know if you want any suppression fire before you shoot or once you start moving yourself.”

As Sgt. Lancaster looked through his telescopic lens, he saw the enemy sniper slowly backing out of his firing position. He made a few last minute adjustments, and then centered in on the sniper’s head. For a brief fraction of a second, the enemy sniper looked right at Lancaster, just as he pulled the trigger. In an instant, Lancaster’s modified M5 AIR sent a .25mm projectile right into his enemy’s face, exploding it as the sniper’s body went limp. Suddenly, there was movement five meters to the right of the sniper as another soldier moved quickly to find new cover. Lancaster quickly moved his rifle to the new target and fired another single shot, hitting the enemy soldier center mass before he was able to complete his escape to a nearby foxhole.

“Sgt. Lancaster, look to the right twenty-five meters. We have movement in the gun bunker,” said his spotter, who had found them another target.

Lancaster moved slightly to reposition his rifle; he quickly saw two figures manning a heavy machine gun. Suddenly they began to fire in the general vicinity of their location. The bullets began to fly over their heads, hitting nearby tree branches and shredding them into little splinters. He quickly took aim and shot the machine gunner, and then swiftly moved to fire at the assistant gunner. Just as they silenced the machine gun, they began to hear whistling as several mortar rounds began to land nearby. Suddenly, their world went black…a mortar round landed less than five feet from their position, killing them instantly

Chapter 28

Too Little, Too Late

October 2041

New Deli, India

It had been nearly ten months since the overwhelming nuclear attack on the Islamic Republic had taken place, and India was still dealing with the nuclear fallout and repercussions of that aggression. Despite the Americans’ best efforts to minimize the fallout, it was unavoidable that India would get hit with a large swath of it because of the jet streams that passed over the Middle East. India had been savaged by nuclear weapons during their several day war with Pakistan in the early 2030s, when both nations had made heavy use of nuclear weapons. The war had quickly escalated from a conventional fight to all out nuclear Armageddon, which resulted in the destruction of Pakistan as a country and a devastated Northern India. Nearly 800 million people on both sides had died in that war.

It was estimated that perhaps as many as ten million people or more may be made sick or have lifelong problems as a consequence of the fallout from this latest American nuclear attack against the IR. President Stein had spoken with the Prime Minister of India on a number of occasions, and had personally apologized for fallout that would have an adverse effect on the people of India. He had even offered to provide medical assistance, should it be needed. The gesture was nice, but it was too little, too late. Public opinion had soured against the Americans, with the vast majority of Indians siding with the Chinese assertion that America was no longer the sole superpower of the world and that the U.S. should not be able to continually make unilateral decisions in their own interests with no thought or consideration for other countries.

Large rallies and protests against the Americans had initially started out as small peaceful rallies, but had quickly grown into tumultuous anti-American rallies with many people shouting their support for China and complete with U.S. flag burning. The mood in the country had changed quickly, faster than the Americans had first thought or realized.

The Chinese had approached the Indian government in the spring of 2041 to discuss a large trade deal between the two countries. India had a large manufacturing base that was churning out products to be sent to Europe and North and South America. What the Chinese offered was far more lucrative than selling consumer goods to the Allies--China wanted India to turn its manufacturing capabilities towards supporting the Axis powers by manufacturing the tools of war China desperately needed. Chinese factories had no problem producing the needed ground equipment, but what they lacked was shipyards. The Indians, to the contrary, had several large shipyards currently not being used. They also had a large supply of relatively cheap labor to offer as well.

It was slow at first, but by the end of the fall of 2041, India had shifted most of their manufacturing capability over to producing the tools for war, along with all of the munitions needed to sustain and support a multi-million-man army. India and China continued to strengthen their political ties while deepening the divide between India and America. India secretly agreed to join the Chinese-led Pan Asian Alliance. They began to conduct a series of military drills and exercises to prepare them for war. Their formal announcement of joining would take place in November, when their navy and army would set sail for North America to join the Chinese-led invasion.

Chapter 29

European Tide Shifts

October 2041

Europe

By the fall of 2041, the Russians had been fighting the American and European armies for nearly five straight months. The Germans had managed to produce their new Leopard IV tanks, leveraging the same railgun technology that the Americans used in their Pershings. The British were also catching up, completing their Challenge IV tanks. Just as the Allies had finally gained the upper hand, the Russians unveiled the first tank to make use of a pulse beam laser. The laser on the new tank had an effective range of nearly 60 miles, which was 20 miles farther than the Allies railgun could reach, and it could also be used in air defense mode. As Josh Schafer had learned, the weakness in the T41 was its energy consumption. Despite this, the emergence of this new tank made an immediate impact on the battlefield as the tank could sit back behind the attacking force and snipe at Allied tanks while the Russian T14 Armatas and T38s moved forward to engage and overwhelm the Allies.

October 1st proved to be a bloody day for the Allies; the Russians had launched a full frontal assault against the entire Allied line. They made use of over 12,000 tanks and 50,000 infantry fighting vehicles, backed up by nearly 200 of their new T41 pulse beam tanks. Despite a valiant effort by General Wade’s 5th and 6th Armies, they were forced to withdraw back to the Rhine River, sacrificing most of Germany. The Allies managed to hold southern Germany and the areas around the Fulda Gap and Frankfurt, but they had lost Hamburg and most of the northern territory in the country to the Russians. With a large bulge in their lines, the Allies were having to make some tough decisions. They could continue to fight and defend southern Germany, but they might lose the Netherlands and Belgium in the process.

The British, for their part, had moved most of their ground forces to join with the French in defending the low countries, in order to help relieve the Americans from having to defend most of Europe on their own. With the war turning into a bloody slugfest in Alaska, the US was just not training soldiers fast enough in order to send reinforcements to Europe to stop the Russian advance and also effectively deal with the invasion of Alaska. General Branson had argued with the President to shorten the basic combat training for new recruits from twelve weeks back down to eight so that they would have additional soldiers to send to Europe as well as to Alaska, but the President had insisted upon keeping it at twelve weeks, arguing that a better trained soldier would kill more enemy soldiers than just sending them to the front right away.

The 2nd Armored Division (otherwise known as the “Hell on Wheels division”) was given the task of launching a counter-offensive with Field Marshal Schoen’s Panzer divisions. The Germans had produced one full armored division’s worth of the new Leopard IV tanks, 280 in total. They would be complimented with the 2nd AD and their 520 Pershings. They would be supported by two mechanized infantry divisions as they attempted to break through the Russian lines and tear in to their rear positions, which would stop their continual advance.

The divisions had maneuvered around Frankfurt under heavy air cover to the German city of Fulda. For decades, NATO Forces had trained to fight the Soviet army at the Fulda gap; now they would put those plans into action as they moved their divisions to attack position. The initial assault would be supported by nearly 600 F38A fighter drones, 350 A10 Warthog ground attack aircraft, and 400 F38B ground attack drones. The goal of the air force was to hammer the Russian tanks and create a hole for the 2nd AD to punch through for their attack. At approximately 2a.m., the aircraft began to engage the Russian positions. As this was happening, the armored divisions began to spool up, getting ready to launch their attack.

Despite advancements in technology and the modernization of the Russian army, the Americans still owned the night. Nearly every major American operation started between 0100 and 0400 in the morning. Generally speaking, it is significantly harder to coordinate a massive movement of troops and vehicles in the dead of night than it is in the day; however, the Americans trained extensively in night operations to the point that they almost functioned better as a unit in the dark of night than during the daylight.

As the ground attack planes began to wreak havoc on the Russian armored units near Hofbieber and Hunfeld (10 kilometers north of Fulda), the 2nd AD launched into action like a coiled spring. They hit the Russian lines at nearly 50mph, blowing right past the first line of defense, and swiftly moving directly in to the reserve units, who were still recovering from the air attacks. Field Marshal Schoen’s divisions followed the 2nd AD’s advance and began to roll the Russian lines up across a 15-kilometer front. They continued to move rapidly along Route 84, heading straight for the Russian supply depot at Eisenach. By 0500 hours, four hours in to the attack, 2AD had captured Eisenach and was pushing past it towards Erfurt, with their ultimate target of capturing Leipzig. Once they had pierced their way through the Russian garrison at Eisenach, there was little in the way of resistance as they headed along Route 4 to Route 9, which would lead them right to Leipzig.

The Air Force was providing near-constant air cover over the advance, minimizing the effects of the Russian Air Force as they attempted to attack the American armored units. The 230 Razorback helicopters were supporting 2AD, dropping Army Rangers all along the route at critical junction points in advance of the armored units. As the Razorbacks found enemy armor units, they engaged them relentlessly.

The German divisions split off from the Americans and headed to Kassel Gottingen along Route 7 to block a Russian counter-attack, while 2AD continued their advance towards Leipzig. The challenge for 2AD was as that they advanced, their supply lines would continue to stretch, and since they were not stopping to engage every Russian unit they came across, they needed to bring a lot of their supplies, fuel, tank munitions and the like with them as they advanced. As the Razorbacks dropped off their loads of Army Rangers and expended their munitions, they would return to pick up another group of infantrymen and head back out to their next drop points. The Americans were going to try and saturate the area with platoon size elements from Fulda to Leipzig, mostly along the major supply lines.

While this was taking place, the rest of NATO launched their own counter-attack all across the Russian lines. If their plan worked, the Russians would be forced to withdraw from most of Germany or face the possibility of one of their Shock Army’s becoming cut off and surrounded. It would be tough for NATO to keep an 800,000-man army group contained for long, but they could inflict significant casualties. They key to getting the Russians to withdraw was to leave the Russians an exit path for their forces to escape, and hope they would take it.

*******

During the following twenty-four hours, the Russian 1st Shock Army, which had led the invasion of Germany, suddenly found themselves with one American armored division situated in Leipzig, and three German divisions between them and Leipzig. Faced with this reality, General Kulikov made the decision to order a full withdrawal of Russian Forces, just as NATO was launching their counter-attack across the lines. Now it was incumbent upon his field commanders to conduct a fighting retreat and hold some semblance of order as they fell back to the Elbe River, where they would make their stand. As units continued to withdraw, General Kulikov did order the destruction of as much critical infrastructure as possible in the major cities. This included dropping bridges, and imploding subways, rail hubs and factories. If they were going to have to yield most of Germany back to the Allies, then they would do their best to leave them with rubble.

*******

Colonel Mica Aaron, the 66th armor regiment commander (66th AR), sat in a chair outside of his command vehicle, taking a few minutes to eat an MRE before Commander’s call, the nightly meeting where he issued new orders and information from division down to his battalion commanders. His regiment had been the tip of the spear when the 2nd AD attacked the Russian lines. Twenty-four hours later, his regiment had entered the outskirts of Leipzig and had moved quickly through the downtown, making their way to the northern suburbs before settling in to a defensive position. Colonel Aaron immediately ordered his air defense units to fan out and set up their operations. He did not want to get his tanks mauled by Russian aircraft or helicopters. He had already lost one third of his tanks in the last twenty-four hours. He could not afford to lose any more, or his regiment would become combat ineffective.

One of the captains stepped away from his computer terminal inside the command vehicle and signaled for his boss’ attention. “Colonel Aaron, the Mayor of Leipzig is at the perimeter; he has asked to speak with you. He said he has some urgent information for you.”

Sighing and sort of grunting as he was forced to put his MRE down, Colonel Aaron turned towards his Captain and ordered, “Send him forward. This had better be good…he’s interrupting my dinner.” It had been nearly a day since he had had time to eat anything, and his body was starting to feel tired and worn out without fuel to keep him going. One can only survive on coffee for so long.

The Mayor of Leipzig was a short man; he approached Colonel Aaron and held his hand out to shake his. “Colonel, the people of Leipzig cannot thank you enough for liberating us from the Russians. I have some important intelligence to share; some of our police officers have spotted a Russian armored unit moving towards the eastern part of the city. So far they have counted twelve enemy tanks, but there could be more.” The mayor was eager to relay his information to the American soldier, hoping he was not too late to make a difference for his city.

Turning away from the mayor for a minute, Colonel Aaron directed his comrade, “Captain Tully, have the drones move towards the eastern part of the city. See if you can spot some Russian armored units. Also, get on the radio to the battalion in the local area and have them dispatch some tanks to investigate the area. I do not want enemy tanks to infiltrate our lines.” He turned back to the mayor to thank him for his information.

The mayor was then escorted back to his vehicle. Several soldiers followed him in an armored vehicle back to city hall; the squad would work as a liaison between the police, mayor’s office and the regiment to help relay potential threats to the regiment and to the division as a whole.

*******

Captain McQueen was the commander of Alpha Company, one of the tank companies that was part of the 66th AR. He had just received orders for his company to move to the northeastern side of Leipzig to identify and engage what appeared to be a Russian company-sized unit of tanks and light armored vehicles. As they drove their tanks through the main streets of the outer suburbs of Leipzig, they eventually identified the enemy line. They were lying in ambush on the other side of a river, adjacent to a bridge. His company had not been seen yet, so he ordered his tankers to move in to the side streets as he attempted to find another way across the bridge, at a better angle from which to engage them. His sent word to the infantry platoon that was with him to dismount their vehicles and set up a perimeter around the area.

Over the next twenty minutes, his tanks filtered into various firing positions, each identifying a different target to engage. Just as he was about to give the order to fire, a Russian attack helicopter appeared out of nowhere and fired an anti-tank missile at one of his tanks. Before anyone could react, the helicopter ducked behind a building and the missile streaked away, heading towards the tank. Within a fraction of a second, the tank’s anti-projectile system activated, and fired a barrage of small tungsten balls in the direction of the missile. Fortunately for the tank crew, the missile was shredded before it could impact against them.

It was in that instant Captain McQueen ordered his tanks, “Open fire!” They quickly destroyed six enemy tanks and began to look for new targets.

Suddenly, four more Russian attack helicopters appeared and fired off a volley of four anti-tank missiles each. Now his six tanks had sixteen missiles heading towards them. McQueen quickly began to engage the helicopters with their railgun, hitting one of them and causing it to spit smoke and flame out of one of its engines. One of the infantrymen attached to his company emerged from the side of an alleyway and fired off a Stinger4 missile, hitting one of the helicopters and blowing it out of the sky. The remaining two helicopters quickly ducked for cover. The sixteen missiles continued to streak towards the tanks at lightning speed. The tanks’ anti-projectile systems began to go to work, throwing a wall of tungsten between them and the incoming missiles. Thirteen of the sixteen missiles were destroyed; however, the remaining three missiles impacted against three of McQueen’s tanks.

One tank survived relatively unscathed as the missile hit the front armor (which is the strongest part of the tank). Another tank was not so lucky, as the projectile landed near the roof and the entire vehicle exploded in a ball of flames. The third tank was hurt but not destroyed, sustaining minor damage to one of its tracks.

Then Russian infantry from across the river began to open fire on the Americans’ position with heavy and light machine gun fire. Several of the American infantrymen were hit by the initial volley, and screamed out for a medic. Captain McQueen quickly grabbed his radio. “This is Captain McQueen. We have encountered the Russian positions, and we are under fire by tanks, infantry and attack helicopters. I need the QRF to get over here now and bring a Medevac for my wounded soldiers!”

His battalion Commander responded, “Copy that McQueen. The QRF is in route to your position, and we are sending an ambulance to collect the wounded. Artillery support is available if needed.”

“Acknowledged,” replied McQueen. He quickly had his tanks move to a secondary position until additional help arrived; after they had reinforcements, they would try and attack the Russian unit on the other side of the bank again.

Every moment seemed like a century as they paused in anticipation. It took twenty minutes for the QRF and the ambulance to show up. Two of McQueen’s soldiers had died from their wounds, waiting for the ambulance. He was seething on the inside that a helicopter had not been available; had there been one, then his men might have survived.

The QRF was certainly something to be grateful for, however. It came equipped with six more Pershings and two platoons of infantry. They quickly formulated their new plan of attack; they would hit the other side of the river first with a barrage of smoke rounds, swiftly followed up with several high-explosive airburst rounds. Then they would have one of the infantry fighting vehicles race across the bridge, quickly accompanied by one of the Pershings. If the bridge did not blow up, then the rest of the Pershings would race across it to support the lead element.

After coordinating their artillery strike, they readied themselves in their vehicles, waiting for the rounds to land and signal the start of the attack. Meanwhile, the Russians on their side of the river bank were shooting anything that moved…they were jumpy. An American spotter drone had discovered five additional tanks and twelve light-armored vehicles lying in wait on the other side of a number of buildings. They quickly relayed that information to the tankers below, giving them a bird’s eye view of where the enemy was hiding. Then, the screams of the artillery rounds flying over their heads began to sound. Seconds later, the smoke rounds began to detonate, throwing dozens of smoke canisters everywhere. This was followed by a barrage of twelve high-explosive rounds detonating over the Russian positions, killing a number of their infantrymen and destroying several light armored vehicles.

McQueen issued the order to his vehicles, “Move out!” In an instant, one of the American IFVs darted across the bridge unchallenged; then a Pershing quickly followed suit and began to engage the hidden Russian vehicles. Since they had survived their deadly game of chicken, a second Pershing rushed across the bridge to support his platoon mate. As a third Pershing was about one third of the way across the bridge, there was a sudden and loud explosion…the entire bridge was blown apart. The Pershing fell in to the river below and quickly sank until its antennas were all that could be seen. The river itself was not very deep; however, it was nearly impossible for the tanks to travel down the bank, into the river and up the other side.

Now McQueen had an IFV and two Pershings trapped on the other side of the bank. Using the spotting drone, he had his FIST LNO provide direct artillery to support to their comrades. Hopefully, this would keep them alive long enough for him to find another way across the river.

Looking at a map, he saw a park not too far from their location, where the river appeared to run through. McQueen was banking on the depth of the river being much lower there, passable for his tanks and IFVs to cross. Once across, they could maneuver behind the Russian units and finish them off, rescuing their trapped comrades. He ordered his Company and the QRF to follow his vehicle on their way to the park. Upon entering the grounds, they saw exactly what they were hoping for--a low lying bank on both sides of the river as it narrowed through the park. He ordered the vehicles to advance across the river and immediately fan out, looking for enemy soldiers and vehicles.

It was a strange sight, seeing three dozen armored vehicles tearing through a city park, running over park benches and anything else that got in their way. They quickly forded the river and immediately began to move to contact with the Russians. Scanning the images from the spotter drone, they could see that the Russian armored vehicles had changed to a new position, but were still in the same general area. Within minutes they had maneuvered around behind the Russian units, and had begun to engage them. They quickly set a loose perimeter and had the Russians surrounded, with the river bank to their backs now.

The battle was violent and quick, with the majority of Russian vehicles being completely destroyed. The Americans captured 63 prisoners, most of them wounded. All told, McQueen and the QRF had lost four Pershings, six IFVs and twenty-one soldiers killed, with another nineteen wounded. It had been a tough skirmish and they had really flattened this little area of the city in the process, but at the end of the day, they had secured their objective and removed a potential threat to their rear area and supply lines.

Chapter 30

Grid Attack

31 October 2041

Ft. Meade, Maryland

Neven Jackson had found a way into the Chinese exoskeleton operating system and placed a zero-day malware protocol in place to disable them at the worst possible time, during an invasion when many thousands of soldiers would be wearing them. Now he had been given the task of supporting the NATO counter-attack in Germany against the Russians.

Neven was a gifted hacker, something of a prodigy. He also got bored quickly if he was not challenged, so his superiors had dreamed up a new experiment for him. He was to hack into the Russian air defense system and bring it down. He had two days and an unlimited supply of energy drinks and M&Ms to accomplish this task. In just five hours, he had found his way in. It was complicated at first, but once he found out who built the system, he looked around until he found a supplier to the air defense company who did not have a very good IT security structure but still had access to the systems. He had hit pay dirt with this one. Not only did the supplier have access to the defense contractor, it had nearly unfettered access. This was almost too easy.

He quickly navigated through the various security systems, ensuring that he was covering his tracks with each successive move, deleting logs and digital footprints as he weaved his way through the net. After spending nearly an hour looking through the various programs and projects with a Russian linguist sitting next to him, they found the specific program they were looking for. With a few clicks of his mouse, he was in. Neven alerted his supervisors, “Hey, I’m in. What do you want me to do now?”

His boss had thought this project was going to be nearly impossible, but somehow Neven had managed to break through the system in less than six hours. Now they had to coordinate with a few others and determine what in the air defense system they wanted to attack and when. It would do no good to take the system down if the Air Force and Navy were not ready to exploit the vulnerability.

The intelligence at hand revealed that the Russian air defense system for the country was broken down into various sectors, so they were able to develop a more precise cyber-attack. The goal was not to take down the entire Russian air defense; this would cause the Russian government to go into a panic, and potentially escalate the war from a conventional one to nuclear warfare, which they wanted to avoid. Instead, they would take down the air defense zones covering Germany, and then place backdoor access and zero-day malware in every other air defense zone across Russia. When the time was right, they could shut down an air corridor for aircraft or cruise missiles to fly through, undeterred. However, that attack would have to wait.

On the morning of the NATO offensive, Russian air defense operators all across Germany suddenly saw their computer screens go blank and then turn back on to show massive air armadas flying in from across the North Sea and Denmark, and then across Southern Europe. Just as the operators were scrambling all available aircraft to those locations, their screens flickered again and the images were suddenly replaced with a photo of David Hasselhoff, shirtless, laying on the ground with a bunch of puppies. The Russian operators did not know what to think or do.

The cyber-attack against the air defense grid had worked marvelously; it took the Russians nearly sixteen hours to get their backup system up and running. In that timeframe, the NATO air forces had mauled the Russian armored units all across Germany, destroying numerous enemy air bases and shooting down hundreds of enemy aircraft. The air campaign had been a huge success, making it possible for Field Marshal Schoen’s Army Group and the 2nd AD to punch a massive hole through the Russian lines and secure a new line that stretched all the way to Leipzig. This forced the 1st Shock Army to have to fall back to the Potsdam area, sacrificing months’ worth of gains they had previously made.

Chapter 31

Fighting Retreat

November 2041

Alaska

By the end of October, the Chinese had managed to land nearly two million soldiers in Alaska. Prior to the full onset of winter, the Chinese had made one final hard push to capture the Susitna defensive line and the mountain ranges at Cooper Landing. During the ten-day battle that ensued, the Chinese were able to break through the Susitna line and drive the Americans back to the outskirts of Anchorage. With their northern flank collapsing, General Black was forced to withdraw his forces at Cooper Landing in order to avoid having them being surrounded and cut off. He ordered a full retreat of the American Second Army, falling back to the eastern most part of Alaska and the State of Yukon.

Despite a valiant effort by the 5th Marine Division, they were ordered to withdraw with the rest of the Second Army so that they did not get cut off. The Russians had been nowhere near capturing Fairbanks, but with the loss of Anchorage, it would not be long before the Chinese were able to roll up and cut off the Marines from being able to retreat. Being a Marine himself, General Black was not about to leave behind an entire Marine division.

*******

General Black had pulled the Second Army back to Glacier View, about 40 miles east of Anchorage. He had also pulled the 5th Marine Division to Cartwell to act as a blocking force while the 12th Infantry Division moved to Fairbanks. They were hoping to keep the Russians busy while the engineers continued to destroy Route 2 and implode several of the mountain passes, making it much more difficult for the Russians to transport their army or supplies. Since the 12th was the one division that was fully equipped with the Raptor combat suits and the new Wolverine IFVs, it would be incumbent on them to buy the engineers the time they needed to complete their work and then conduct a fighting retreat down to Cartwell in order to link up with the Marines.

Lieutenant Allen did not feel comfortable at all with their new assignment. Their division was essentially being thrown out there as a glorified speed bump against a Russian army that outnumbered them by nearly 28:1. The Russians had shifted their focus from Europe to Alaska, which meant more troops and resources had arrived in Alaska over the last few months. As the Marines pulled out, the Russians slowly moved in.

Lieutenant Allen’s platoon had been given a hilltop a couple of miles away from the Fairbanks Airport to defend. Below them was the road junction between Route 2 and Route 3, a key throughway for moving around the interior of Alaska. Their platoon would be one of the first sections to be hit when the Russians showed up. As the remaining Marines moved through their lines, they passed along as much information as they could about the Russians they would be facing. They learned that several of the Russian units were using their own exoskeleton suits.

Allen immediately ordered his platoon to begin digging in, setting up prepositioned artillery plots, claymore anti-personnel mines and plenty of ammunition. Fortunately, an engineering platoon joined them and immediately began to construct a number of artillery bunkers. Intelligence said they probably had a couple of days, maybe a week at most before they could expect to see Russian units starting to show up in force. The engineers dug out several “hull down” positions for the Wolverines to settle into so they would have some protection from the inevitable artillery while still being able to provide accurate ground and air defense support.

Within a day, Russian drones, fighters and helicopters were spotted flying within the air defense zone; with their fifteen-mile range, the Wolverines put their railguns to work to create a virtual shield in the sky. The Russian aircraft retreated; they returned in short bursts to launch standoff missiles and cruise missiles to attack the American positions. Fortunately, the Wolverines were easily able to shoot the projectiles down as they flew.

Five days into their defensive operation, Allen’s platoon encountered their first Russian soldiers. The spotters determined that this was a small platoon, no more than forty fighters; they must have been there as a sort of probing force, scouting out the area. That small of a group barely put up any fight to Allen’s crew in their exoskeleton suits; however, it was only a matter of time before more soldiers arrived.

SFC Jenkins approached the back of the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) to see if he could find Lieutenant Allen. Jenkins thought the LT was a good guy--a lot younger than he was, but so were most soldiers in the army these days. At least the LT had seen plenty of combat, so Jenkins was pretty confident that he knew what he was doing when he gave orders. Unlike most of the new lieutenants who had just graduated ROTC or were being rushed through officer training school, at least the mavericks (the guys who received battlefield promotions) knew what they were doing.

As Jenkins turned the corner around a cluster of computer consoles, he spotted LT Allen talking to his CO. He walked over towards him to get his attention. “Excuse me Lieutenant, our scouts have spotted a large unit of soldiers heading towards our position. The First Sergeant said to come get you.” As he spoke, SFC Jenkins pulled out a fresh cigarette.

Every time LT Allen faced a battle, he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his body; his heart started beating faster, his hands became sweaty, and it felt like butterflies were flitting through his stomach. He wasn’t a coward, but he had a healthy respect for the seriousness of the situation. He tried to conceal these reactions; as he turned back to Captain Shiller, he was as cool as a cucumber. “It looks like I better get back before the fireworks start, Sir. Is there anything else I should know before I head off?”

Captain Shiller shook his head. “Just remember, we have very limited air support. Rely mostly on your artillery. I’ve been assured that if we really need air support, there are some Razorbacks in the area that we can call in. However, they are limited in number, and they are supporting the entire front. It will really depend on what you are facing as to how quickly and how much support may arrive. Good luck, and hopefully I’ll see you at the next commander’s call tomorrow, if they don’t hit us too hard today.”

The Captain turned and began to bark orders to the soldiers nearby to get ready for the pending attack.

As Allen and the SFC Jenkins walked quickly back to their platoon positions, Allen asked, “Where is the First Sergeant now?”

“He’s at bunker one; he was making sure everyone had eaten when the report came in from the scouts.” Jenkins read through some information on his tablet before continuing, “They have spotted about a brigade-sized element heading our way. It looks to be about one armor battalion and two light infantry battalions. One of the infantry battalions appears to have the exoskeleton suits—that’s going to hurt. At least the others are just regular infantry.” SFC Jenkins continued puffing away on his cigarette as they walked, snuffing it out with his boot as they got closer to the frontlines. He realized that there was no reason to give up his position to a sniper by walking around with a lit up cigarette. Besides, he would have to be suiting up with his helmet shortly.

“Are these tanks something we should worry about, or can the Wolverines handle them?” asked Allen. He wondered if they were going to need that air support already.

“They appear to be T14 Armatas--not the T38s or T41s--so we should be fine once they start to show up,” Jenkins said confidently.

The T14 Armata was a formidable tank. It first came on to the scene back in the 2010s, but it had gone through several generation upgrades through the years. However, despite using reactive armor, it still could not stop a 20mm projectile traveling at Mach 10, which made it vulnerable to American attack.

As the two of them approached bunker one, they could see the First Sergeant talking on the radio to the scouts. Off in the distance, they could hear the low rumble of the enemy tanks as they approached through the valley.

When they got a little closer, they could hear what the First Sergeant was saying. “Copy that. Sending artillery to Tango 5 and Tango 7. Standby.” Then he picked up a different radio handset and began to relay the information to the Fire Support Team LNO. Within a couple of minutes, they could hear the distant sound of three artillery guns firing; seconds later, they could hear the whistle of the rounds as they flew over their heads headed towards the pre-determined targets.

Off in the distance, they could hear the explosions as the artillery rounds began to land on the other side of the valley. They could see several glowing fireballs rise high into the sky, indicating direct hits on tanks, fuel tankers or ammo carriers.

The radio crackled to life, the scouts came over the wire, “Gun bunnies, direct hit! Fire again, same trajectory.”

The First Sergeant picked up the radio set again and called the FIST, “Last rounds were direct hit. Fire for effect. Intermix the rounds with WP and airburst rounds.” This call to fire for effect meant that the entire battalion of eighteen guns would fire between three and five rounds each to blanket the area.

Within seconds, they could hear what sounded like a freight train flying over their heads heading towards the enemy positions. They could hear the concussions as the rounds began to impact on the other side of the valley. Shortly after the barrage was launched, a second set of whistling could be heard; the Russian artillery guns began their counter-battery fire, trying to hit the American guns that had just savaged their armored counter parts. The battle for Fairbanks had started in earnest.

A few minutes later, the lead enemy vehicles could be seen coming around the bend. They were no more than five miles away, and began to fan out into the valley heading towards their position. Artillery smoke rounds began to land all through the valley, blanketing it in a thick canvas of grey clouds that hung heavy to the ground, covering the advance of the enemy armored vehicles, tanks and infantry. Inside the Wolverine IFVs, the gunners quickly switched to their thermal imaging so that they could track the Russian tanks and IFVs heading towards their position. They quickly began to engage the enemy ranks.

Russian anti-tank missile teams began to fire off dozens of missiles in an attempt to take out the Wolverines. Fortunately, most of the Wolverines were in a hull down position, leaving only their turret exposed. As the missiles approached the Wolverines, the anti-tank missiles sprang into action, creating a veritable wall of protection approximately 1,000 feet away from the American lines.

Lieutenant Allen shouted at his soldiers, “Put on your helmets, and close up your suits, now! It’s time to show the world why the 32nd INF was the best in the world.”

In short order, hundreds of Russian soldiers were within five hundred yards of their position, desperately trying to close the gap to get in range of their own weapons. Wave after wave of Russian infantry charged across the valley with the support of their tanks and IFVs. Artillery cover was continuous, keeping the Wolverines so busy defending their positions that they barely had time to launch into offensive mode.

The first hour of the battle was pure murder; the Russian infantry had no chance of getting close enough to the American positions to utilize their weapons before they were being systematically picked off. The HUD system in the Raptor suit, along with the M5 AIR, enabled the Americans to identify and kill the enemy at ranges as far as 600 meters; this was well beyond the range of the Russian infantry. It was not until the Russians began to blanket the area with so much artillery fire that even the Wolverines couldn’t keep up with shooting down all the incoming rounds down that things began to change.

Within a couple of hours, several of Allen’s Wolverines had been taken out by artillery or one of the many waves of anti-tank missiles. Steadily, the Russian artillery and anti-tank missile waves were finally starting to work their way through the Wolverine anti-missile screen and score a lot more direct hits against Allen’s defensive positions. Several of his bunkers were destroyed; dozens of soldiers were starting to get wounded as artillery rounds continued to land amongst their positions. Unless they received some serious help soon, they would be forced to withdraw back to another defensive position, ceding to the Russians a key piece of ground leading into Fairbanks.

Just as the situation was starting to look dim for Lieutenant Allen’s platoon, three Razorback helicopters swooped in low over the ridgeline to their left flank, and fired off a barrage of anti-personnel rockets and hellfire anti-tank missiles before ducking back below the ridgeline and moving off towards Ladd Army Airfield near Ft. Wainwright. This overwhelming barrage of missiles devastated the Russian advance, and forced them to retreat and regroup.

Lt. Allen seized on this opportunity to evacuate his wounded men and women from the front and reorganize their positions before the Russians came back. They needed to hold their position a little longer if possible.

Twenty-four hours after the first major attack against their lines, the rest of the Russian army began to arrive outside of Fairbanks. There was an increase in air activity, and a steady hammering of artillery against their positions. Allen knew this was going to be a tough battle ahead, and was determined to make the Russians pay for every inch of America they tried to take.

Through the display on his HUD, Allen received word that the engineers at the next position were almost done with their work. This meant that they could fall back soon and join the rest of the Marines in a fighting retreat out of the area to the next defensive position at Mt. McKinley. They just had to hold for two more days.

The Russians started their final assault against Lieutenant Allen’s position shortly after dawn. A massive artillery barrage vibrated the very fabric of the sky as it rushed towards the Americans. Then, wave after wave of light drone tanks and infantry, many of them using their own exoskeleton suits, swarmed towards Allen’s position. The infantrymen in the exo suits moved quickly, and needed to be the first ones taken out.

Allen used his HUD to alert his platoon sergeant. “Sergeant Jenkins, have the men focus on taking out the infantry in the exo suits. They are advancing fast!”

LT Allen began targeting an enemy soldier himself with his rifle. He spotted a Russian about 600 meters away, moving quickly and methodically; he was running from one area of cover to another, firing a few shots at Allen’s line as he ran. Paul used his sights to hone in on him; he squeezed the trigger, sending a .25mm projectile towards the man at Mach 5 speeds. The Russian was hit in the chest and flew several feet backwards off of his feet; soon he was lying dead on the ground being trampled over as dozens of his comrades moved past his limp body.

Seeing that even more soldiers in exoskeleton suits were rushing his position than anticipated, Allen’s heart began to race again. He used his HUD coms to call to the platoon TOC, “Requesting additional artillery support to our front positions. Have the Razorbacks on standby. We’ve got hundreds of exoskeletons headed our way, and I am starting to see waves of Russian tanks forming up.”

Checking his platoon’s status in his HUD, Paul could see that he had five soldiers injured and one soldier dead. The Russians were still getting closer, despite them picking off guys at maximum range.

As more artillery rounds began to land amongst their lines, the number of wounded and killed soldiers began to tick up. The Russians had now closed the distance to less than 200 meters away, and were still coming strong. Several of the light drone tanks began to speed ahead of the infantry, hoping to slash through Allen’s lines and cause further problems for his fighters. As they drew within 75 meters of the American positions, several of Allen’s soldiers lifted up their AT6s and fired off their anti-tank rockets. In seconds, four of the thirteen light drone tanks attacking their positions were destroyed, while the remainder continued to advance. As the drones moved to within 25 meters of their position, several additional infantrymen produced more AT6s and fired another volley of rockets at them, destroying another five more of the nine drone tanks. The remaining four drones blew through his lines and made their way for targets further behind Allen’s position. He quickly radioed in the threat to the company TOC and battalion, and returned his focus to the steady advance of the Russian infantry.

There were hundreds, if not a thousand infantrymen advancing on his position. They continued to pick them off with incredible accuracy, but they continued to progress, nonetheless. Like a relentless wave beating against the shore, they just kept coming. Soon they had advanced to within 25 meters of their position, and now both sides began throwing grenades at each other.

There was no room for doubt; the time to bug out and move to their second line of defense was right then, at that moment. LT Allen yelled over the HUD, “Everyone, fall back to the secondary positions and get ready to blow your claymores!” He hoped that they could all hear him over the growing cacophony of gun fire and explosions. As Allen got up to move to the next line, he was suddenly hit by half-a-dozen bullets and thrown on his back. Fortunately, the Raptor suit absorbed the hits, and they did not penetrate his armor, but the impact sure knocked the wind out of him. Time was of the essence though, and he had to move. He quickly injected himself with a shot of adrenaline from within the suit, and then moved swiftly to his fallback position.

Turning around to shoot at his pursuers, Allen jumped into his new foxhole and then immediately looked for the claymore mine clicker. He found three of them near the edge of the foxhole and grabbed them. In seconds, he was clicking through each detonator, setting off a chain of claymore anti-personnel mines in front of his position. Thousands of ball bearings were thrown like an iron wall against the attackers. He probably killed more than thirty enemy soldiers in that instant.

Seconds later, he was up shooting again at the attackers, assessing his surroundings. What he saw almost made his stomach turn. Blown apart bodies were strewn all over the place. The mines had torn the Russian soldiers apart as they advanced on him. There was no one left of the attacking force, at least for the moment. Ducking down in his foxhole again, he began to determine how many of his men were left and where they were. As he checked through his roster and blue force tracker, he could see only twelve of his soldiers had survived thus far; nearly a dozen lie wounded at their original defensive position, but there was no way they were going to be able to go back for them. Hundreds of additional Russian soldiers were advancing to fill the void of those that had recently been killed by the platoon’s latest round of claymore mines.

“Everyone that can hear me, I want you all to fall back to my position. We are going to try and bugout back to rally point Charlie. Now, move like you want to live!” he barked over the HUD. In a matter of minutes, what was left of his platoon had rallied to his position and they began to move as a group to the next rally point. Hot on their heels was the next wave of Russian soldiers. This time they were moving a little more slowly and cautiously as they approached the now empty foxholes and trench lines.

When the engineers were building the foxholes and trenches, they knew that they might have to sacrifice those positions at some point, so they had placed enough C4 in each of them to kill or maim any enemy soldiers unfortunate enough to be close by. Allen kept waiting for the Russians to reach a predetermined point when this weapon would be most useful. Without batting an eye, Allen pressed the red button on the remote detonator one of the engineers had given him. A series of loud explosions could be heard behind them as they moved quickly now to the rally point.

As they closed in on rally point Charlie, which was nearly five kilometers from their position, they began to see other members from their battalion show up on their blue force trackers. At least they wouldn’t be alone. Once there, they saw what was left of the battalion--not much, unfortunately. In total about one hundred and eighty-six soldiers had made it out. Their next orders were to move on into Fairbanks and join the rest of the division for their next defensive stand. This would be their last battle before they would fall back to the southeastern side of Fairbanks and catch their rides out of the area.

As they approached Fairbanks, they quickly saw the fortress the engineers had been building. This was going to be a house-to-house street fight through the city of Fairbanks. There was would be a total of 4,645 soldiers from the 32nd Infantry Division, who would have to try and hold the city for as long as possible. They had originally thought they would have closer to 6,000 soldiers, but casualties had been significantly higher than they anticipated. Two hours after arriving and getting set up in the buildings that Allen’s group of twelve soldiers would defend, the advanced elements of the Russian infantry began to arrive.

At first, it was just a few soldiers taking shots at each other; then the artillery rounds began to land. Standing on top of one of the buildings looking towards the action, Allen and his platoon sergeant could spot dozens of Russian light drone tanks, supported by dozens of infantry fighting vehicles and a few of their venerable T14 Armatas.

They heard over the battalion net a call for whatever air support was left in the area and asked that they focus their effort on the T14s and then the light drone tanks. The infantry could handle the IFVs with their anti-tank rockets. Soon they saw five Razorbacks leave the area of Lad Army Airfield and begin their short trek to the edge of Fairbanks. Within minutes, they were on station and quickly decimated the Russian armor. They were laying a world of hurt on the Russian infantry. This would be their last support mission; they were going to rearm one more time and then begin their journey back to the Marine positions where they would rebase.

With the last bit of their air support gone, they were officially on their own. What was left of their self-propelled artillery was moving further down the line towards the Marine positions. Once they found a good firing position that could still support them, they would radio in. Allen had what was left of his company spread out across two low-rise buildings controlling the intersection of Airport Way and University Avenue. He had several soldiers positioned in the buildings and forest surrounding the area. Their goal was to establish a good crossfire to prevent the road from being used. Several other platoons were spread out ahead of them and to their flanks. Most of the defense of the city would be broken down by small units, platoon size elements spread throughout the city. The goal was to bleed the Russians as they moved in to the city.

A local Alaskan militia unit had also been raised; they had close to 1,500 volunteers who agreed to help the soldiers defend the town and turn it into a real meat grinder. There would be a soldier or militia man behind virtually every building, block and road in the city. Fairbanks and Anchorage were going to be a real test for the Alaskan militia. It would also be the first time a militia force had fought on American soil since the war of 1812. The Russians and Chinese were about to get their first experience at what it would be like trying to occupy an American city with a populace that is heavily armed.

As Lieutenant Allen sat in the Mt. McKinley Bank with his platoon sergeant, SFC Jenkins, waiting for the action to arrive, he hurriedly stuffed an MRE in his face and wondered how they had survived the past twenty-four hours. His Raptor suit was scarred from the shrapnel and bullets that had hit him. He was also filthy, covered in mud. All he wanted to do was take the suit off and get a hot shower. Unfortunately, the only thing he could take off right now was his helmet and let his head feel some freedom from the suit. “Sergeant Jenkins, what do you think our chances are of surviving another day?” asked Allen, in a way that was clearly joking at their misfortunes.

Jenkins chuckled in good humor.  “Well, sir, you are our good luck charm. You survived the beach landing, the battle of Susitna and the last twenty-four hours. Not to mention the battle of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. I reckon you are at least indestructible. As for the rest of us…I think we are all up a creek without a paddle.” Jenkins laughed at his own joke as he spoke.

Sighing and sitting back against the wall, Allen was deep in thought. He had survived a lot of battles that not a lot of others had. Maybe his luck was starting to run out. Maybe today would be his last day…or maybe he’d live to see another day. Only time would tell.

Off in the distance, they could hear the Russians inching closer to their position. The last report had the Russians at least a mile down the road. They were hitting heavy opposition as they entered the city. The house-to-house, block-by-block fight had started. Despite heavy losses, the Russians kept sending soldiers, IFVs and tanks into the meat grinder that was Fairbanks. They needed to capture the city, even if they had to destroy it in the process. The airport, the Army Airfield and the Air Force base down the road were going to be critical positions for their future operations.

As the fighting continued to move closer with each hour, Allen’s men grew pensive as they waited for what felt like a death sentence, staying behind to defend the city like this. So far they had seen very few soldiers moving past their position or joining them. Several of the returning soldiers said their comrades had been completely overrun and did not have a chance to retreat. Others spoke of incredible bravery as one or two soldiers would stay behind and fight to the death while the rest of them retreated to fight another day. The hostilities were intense and brutal. Most of the combat was taking place less than twenty meters apart. Lots of hand grenades were being thrown in each direction. A number of soldiers had jerry-rigged claymore mines to the walls of some of the buildings overlooking the street, and when a number of Russians would rush the building or move through that area, they would detonate the explosives, wiping out entire squads of enemy soldiers before they even knew what had hit them.

Three hours had gone by and the Russians were still close to a mile away from LT Allen’s position. Soon though, Paul started to see a trickle of American soldiers starting to fall back to his platoon’s position. Nearly ninety soldiers joined his twelve men as they started to ready new defensive positions and re-arm. A truck had dropped off a couple of crates of claymore mines for them. Most had plenty of ammo, but they were starting to run low on grenades and claymores.

As nightfall loomed, the Russians had finally pushed their way to within half a mile of their position. As the Russians sensed victory, they rushed in several additional divisions of soldiers. Now they were attacking from three different points of the city, putting the squeeze on the defenders. By midnight, a call came across the Battle Net for everyone to fall back to the vehicles; the division was going to bug out. It took close to half an hour for his men to get ready to withdraw; they wired up a lot of booby-traps for the Russians, and also made sure to pass along as many claymores and grenades as they could to the surviving militia men who were going to stay behind.

The Russians knew the Americans were withdrawing, but did nothing to stop them or interfere with their efforts. After losing nearly 3,431 soldiers and three times that number wounded in a day, they were just happy the Americans were leaving. This was the first time they had gone up against an entire division using the Raptor suits. During the two days of combat, they had suffered some horrendous casualties just getting to the city, and then the house-to-house fighting was spectacularly brutal.

Russian soldiers had told each other stories of how they had shot an American in a Raptor suit and he just got back up and kept shooting like nothing happened. One Russian comrade said he fired nearly an entire thirty-round magazine into one soldier before he finally killed the American. If more American divisions started to field the Raptor suits, then this war was going to get a lot bloodier than it already had been.

The 32nd Infantry had earned the reputation as one of the most elite divisions in the Army after their battle in Fairbanks. They had faced off against nearly 240,000 Russian soldiers with just 12,000 men. They had suffered nearly sixty percent casualties, but had bought enough time for the engineers to seriously destroy the infrastructure in northern and central Alaska. Now it was time for them to withdraw with the Marines, get to safety, and await their next assignment.

Chapter 32

Plans of Betrayal

November 2041

Japan

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Hata had spent the last couple of months vetting and replacing a number of senior military leaders, ensuring that each and every one was loyal to Japan and would do as their government directed. He had to ask for the resignation of some, and the reassignment of others to get his key people in place. The final preparations were being made to ready the fleet and the JDF. They had the sealift capability to move up to 35,000 soldiers and their equipment. Currently, these soldiers and the navy were being led to believe that they would be attacking the Chinese fleet at Pearl Harbor and conducting a landing to secure the island from the Chinese.

PM Hata had also coordinated with the PLA to have twelve thousand soldiers and equipment hidden inside of several roll-on, roll-off cargo containers. Instead of bringing thousands of Toyota, Nissan and Honda vehicles to the Port of Oakland and Port of Los Angeles, they would be offloading air defense systems, light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The soldier’s orders were to secure the ports and then expand the perimeter as far out as they could until reinforcements began to arrive.

As part of the surprise attack, there would be nearly sixty commercial aircraft arriving in the US from Japan. They had all been timed so they would all be on the ground at the same time; once they pulled up to the terminal, they would then unload fully armed Special Forces who would do what they could to destroy as much of the airport as possible before they changed in to civilian clothes and faded into the American population. Each aircraft would carry a total of sixty Special Forces soldiers and plenty of explosives. Their secondary mission (after causing a lot of havoc at the airport) was to begin conducting sabotage operations across the American infrastructure. This included blowing up railroad bridges, highway overpasses and tunnels. This would dramatically hurt the Americans’ logistical capabilities.

The key to making this operation succeed was complete and absolute secrecy. All of the Special Forces soldiers and JDF personnel who would be involved in the initial invasion were separated from the rest of the Japanese forces, and were conducting special training to keep them occupied and get them ready for the real deal. The JDF Task Force, which included their aircraft carriers, new battleships and 35,000 additional soldiers, would turn away from the Chinese naval task force and head right for the West Coast of America once the assault at the airports begin. Their objective would be to secure Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland. Only Los Angeles had a military contingent near them, and they would be handled by the Chinese PLAN infantry, who would be launching a full-fledged beach assault against Camp Pendleton and the various naval bases in San Diego. If things went according to plan, they would control the ports and a large chunk of Southern California by the end of the New Year.

Chapter 33

Thor and the Bodark

Mid-December 2041

White House Situation Room

President Stein was starting to get desperate in the war against Russia and China. The Russians and Chinese had officially captured the majority of Alaska and forced US Forces to withdraw to Slana, Alaska along Route 1. They had suffered some horrific losses…goodness only knew how they were going to replace them all. To add further insult to injury, the heavy snowfalls that Alaska is known for had finally started. The only good thing about the harsh winters of Alaska was that it would most likely halt any future operations until spring.

Despite these recent losses, there was good news in the world. NATO had defeated the Russians in central Germany, forcing them to retreat to the German/Polish border where they had established a new line of defense. NATO was in no shape to continue pushing the Russians out of Poland, so they hunkered down for the winter and continued to train more soldiers for a spring offensive.

Monty walked in to the Oval Office and interrupted the President’s glassy-eyed gaze into a world of spinning thoughts. “Mr. President, the generals and the rest of the staff are ready in the Situation Room.”

Looking up, Henry replied, “Thank you, Monty. Let’s get going then.” The President got up from his desk and followed Monty towards the Situation Room.

As they walked in to the room, they took their respective seats and the meeting began.

General Branson was the first to speak, “Mr. President, General Black has sent his final tally of their losses. It’s pretty bad. We lost several tank divisions, and the 32nd infantry (which was our only infantry division equipped with the Raptor suits) suffered a sixty percent casualty rate during their defense of Fairbanks.”

“Did the 32nd hold up as well as we thought they would?” asked the President, curious to know if the Raptor suits really made a big impact on the battlefield.

“They did, Mr. President. Their 12,500 soldiers withstood a Russian army of 230,000 soldiers for nearly forty-eight hours. They inflicted around 41,000 casualties on the enemy, compared to the seven or so thousand that they lost. If we could equip more divisions with the suits it would make a huge difference in the war in Alaska.” General Branson spoke with pride in his voice; he was elated by the accomplishments of the 32nd.

Wanting to get a better grasp of the overall situation, the National Security Advisor spoke up and asked, “What was General Black’s total casualty count?”

Branson’s face fell into a disappointed wince as he replied, “General Black suffered 213,000 casualties during the last ten days. He assures me that his army is still combat effective, and will hold the Russians and Chinese at the next defensive line.”

The President broke in to add, “Look, we knew he was going to take some heavy casualties; he’s facing over two million enemy soldiers. As long as he can continue to hold them at the next defensive line, that is all that matters for the time-being. What I want to talk about is this Japanese Task Force that just left their home ports.”

Admiral Juliano signaled that he would like to speak to this question. General Branson nodded towards him to continue. “Mr. President, the Japanese Task Force has officially left port and will be in striking range of the Chinese fleet and the Hawaiian Islands a few days before Christmas. We moved our SUDs into the area to support them when they begin their attack.”

“Will their task force be enough to defeat the PLAN in the area?” asked the President, not totally confident in the Japanese’s naval capability.

“When they prepare to attack the PLAN, we will have both flights of our F41s in the area to support them. We will also have four of our five SUDs there to engage the PLAN fleet as well. I am confident that our combined force can destroy the three PLAN supercarriers,” said Juliano confidently.

“Where do we stand with the Third Army? When are they going to be ready, and where do we deploy them?” asked the President.

General Branson took this question, “The Third Army has reached 1,250,000 soldiers in strength. All of their tank divisions are equipped with the Pershings and the new Wolverine infantry fighting vehicles. Seventy percent of his soldiers have been equipped with the Raptor suits as well. They’ve been conducting a lot of training exercises, getting everyone up to speed and ready to face the Chinese and Russians. As to where we should deploy them, right now our plan is to move them to join General Black’s First Army around March. This will hopefully give them a month to do the formal hand over of the area while Alaska is still buried under heavy snow. Once the snow thaws, then Third Army will begin their offensive and hopefully drive the invaders out of Alaska.”

“So in the meantime, what are they doing now? And what are we doing with the new soldiers who are completing basic training each week now that they are at 100% manning?” asked the President.

The Secretary of Defense, Eric Clarke, spoke up to answer the President, “Right now Third Army is training. They will continue to prepare until it is time for them to deploy. As to the new soldiers, they are continuing to form new divisions. These divisions are then conducting a months’ worth of training against one of the Third Army divisions and will be consolidated in Washington State. General Gardner established his Army headquarters at Nellis Air Force Base. He wants to position Washington State for First Army to form up, which makes sense. Right now, General Gardner has Third Marines training at Twenty-Nine Palms, California, and the bulk of his other divisions are training in Colorado, Utah and Nevada.”

Continuing, the SecDef explained, “The Marines continue to crank out a new 20,000-man division every six weeks. We are holding two divisions on the West Coast right now to support the Japanese assault against the Hawaiian Islands. Once they drop their initial assault force, the ships will head to San Diego to load up the Marines and ferry them over.”

The President smiled. He felt good about their chances in the war now that Japan was finally going to come to their aid. With the Japanese neutralizing the Chinese navy, it would then be a logistical war of attrition, which was one the Americans could win. They were, after all, fighting on home turf. “Excellent, Eric. I am glad we are finally starting to catch a few breaks. When Third Army takes over in Alaska, I want us to see what troops we will have available to send to Europe. Perhaps we can finish that fight off while we continue to battle the Chinese.”

“Before everyone leaves, I want a brief update on Operation Pegasus. How are we going to protect the ship once it takes off, and more importantly, how are we going to protect the lunar base?” asked President Stein. He hadn’t gotten firm answers to these important questions thus far, and he wanted something he could stand on before ending the meeting.

The new Director of Science and Technology, Dr. Peter Gorka, responded to this question in his deep baritone voice. “Mr. President. We have developed a series of nasty surprises for the Russians and the Chinese should they try to attack the HULK while it is in flight or at the lunar base. I will discuss the defenses on the HULK first; aside from the suite of electronic countermeasures, we have two laser batteries on the fore and aft section of the ship. These lasers can effectively engage targets in the atmosphere as far out as 150 miles. In space, they can hit targets as far as 350 miles away. They will more than be able to protect the HULK as it transitions from earth to space.”

Bringing up some holographic images from his tablet, Dr. Gorka continued, “This is what we propose for the lunar base. Prior to landing on the Moon’s surface, the HULK will deploy two satellites that will orbit opposite of each other around the Moon. This will provide complete coverage of the Moon for communications to earth and the lunar surface, but more importantly, will provide a defense for the base. The satellites are equipped with a pulse beam laser, which can engage any objects heading towards the lunar base or near any of our spacecraft within its range. We are working on building a couple dozen more of these satellites to place in ultra-high earth orbit. Our hope is to be able to use these satellites to help us gain control of the skies by sniping enemy aircraft from space.”

“We are also working on developing another project called Thor, which is essentially placing special laser-guided projectile spears in space and then guiding them as they reenter earth’s orbit to hit enemy positions anywhere on the globe,” he said with a devilish grin.

The room sat in silence for moment as they sat there in awe of some of the weapons that were being developed, marveling at how far things had come in just the last few years.

The President was first to speak, “This is amazing, Dr. Gorka. Between you and Professor Rickenbacker, we have developed some of the most advanced weapons ever seen. We are going to need them if we are going to win this war, that is for sure. Thank you for the update, are there some other weapon systems you would like to bring us up to date on?” asked the President eager to see if his director of S&T had anything else up his sleeve.

Dr. Gorka nodded, and brought up an image that again silenced the room.

The Secretary of Defense spoke up first. “What the heck is that thing? A rock?” The picture at the moment did appear very much like a rock, but with a million tiny triangles all over it.

Dr. Gorka smiled that devilish grin of his. “What you are looking at is the dormant position of our newest fighters. This appearance allows us to catch the enemy completely off guard.” Then he clicked a button to continue the presentation. The “rock” transformed into what appeared to be a weaponized werewolf, complete with fangs and glowing red eyes. Several of the advisors actually gasped—the psychological impact of the metamorphosis was truly fear-inspiring. “This…is the next generation in combat infantry. Like our flying drones, they do not require a pilot to be seated inside of the device, which allows us to reduce casualties. We have based this model off of the Russian werewolf legends, and are calling it the Bodark. It is made out of very strong alloys, and has been designed with claws and crushing mechanisms that can even cause damage to a tank at close range. For distance, the Bodark can use the lasers embedded in the eyes or the hands to attack. Should the battery begin to run low, it can return to the dormant rock shape to recharge with its micro solar energy cells.”

National Security Advisor, Mike Rogers, whistled. “Holy….”

The President’s eyes were wide. “Dr. Gorka, this is truly impressive. Back when I was fighting in the Second Iraq War in the 2000s, we used to dream about the day that we would have unmanned drones fighting, but we never thought of anything like this.”

Mike Rogers had contained his shock, and asked the practical questions, “So, how soon until it is ready? And how many of them can we produce?”

“Normally, we would do a years’ worth of testing and evaluation; however, we plan on skipping that and just field testing them in actual combat. Right now we have five prototypes. We plan to begin testing in Alaska in January. Once we make sure they work as they should, which we’ll know within the first couple of outings, we can start to ramp up production. A lot of the manufacturing can be done using 3D printing, which will help immensely. We should be able to field the first 500 of them by the end of February and about 1,000 a month starting in March. It will take close to a couple of weeks of training with each operator before they will be ready.”

The meeting continued on for another hour as they discussed more details. They eventually finished their briefing, and the President asked if everyone would like to join him and his wife for dinner--it was last minute, of course, but it was coming up on supper time and Henry thought to himself, “Why not reward everyone with food and a social hour with the Commander in Chief? They’ve certainly earned it.”

The month of December was going to be a pivotal month for the Allies, one that might make or break the war. Tonight was a time to put all of that aside and just enjoy each other’s company.

Chapter 34

Sinking SUDs

Japanese Naval Task Force

300 miles away from Hawaii

Admiral Tomohisa Kawano was the Task Force Commander for the Japanese surprise attack that was heading towards the American West Coast. Two months ago, he had been a Vice Admiral and loyal supporter of the Prime Minister--after discovering the fleet admiral would not lead the navy to attack the Americans, he suddenly found himself in command of the fleet. The Prime Minister said the future of Japan was in his hands; they had to succeed or things with China might not turn out so well for Japan. Admiral Kawano was loyal to Japan and to the Prime Minister, but he had a bad feeling about attacking the Americans. He had trained for nearly two decades with the American navy, and had quite a few American friends. He had always enjoyed working with the Americans. He also feared the retaliation the Americans would unleash on Japan (especially after the nuclear holocaust they released on the Islamic Republic). That was truly barbaric what they had done.

He knew America might be down right now, but they certainly were not out of the war, despite what the Chinese may think or say. The Americans always seemed to find a way out of a tough situation and emerge stronger and meaner than ever. He just hoped that in delivering a devastating surprise attack, he might be able to help secure a quick victory and perhaps a ceasefire. Their objective was to sink the American SUDs as soon as they identified them and then turn the fleet towards Los Angeles and support the landing of the 30,000 troops he was escorting.

Because Japan was still an ally of the US, they had access to certain US Defense systems used specifically by the US Navy. Leveraging this access, Chinese and Japanese cyber experts were going to launch a new wave of cyber-attacks against the American Department of Defense. The first thing they were going to do was black out the American satellites and communications over the Pacific. They needed to blind the Americans and then trick their computers into believing that a great air battle had taken place over Hawaii and that the Japanese had lost. Then they would turn tail and rush towards the American shoreline and the “protection” of the American airpower.

The next wave of cyber-attacks would be against the communications system on the West Coast. They would shut down cell and internet service, hampering communications. This would be followed up with a fake mobilization order for the Marines at Camp Pendleton to deploy their forces to San Diego to repel a fake Chinese airborne assault. The few military computer systems that would be allowed to stay online would be tricked in to believing that somehow the Chinese had snuck in hundreds of transport aircraft and were dropping thousands upon thousands of paratroopers around the San Diego area. While the Marines would be in transit and moving away from their base, the Japanese battleships would launch a devastating cruise missile attack against them, catching most of them out in the open as they moved to engage the fake Chinese paratroopers.

The battleships would then launch a second barrage of cruise missiles at Camp Pendleton, with the aim of destroying the remaining soldiers in garrison there. The PLAN would have their amphibious assault force hit the beaches at Pendleton and move to destroy and then secure the last vestige of Marine power on the West Coast. The Japanese would land their ground force in Los Angeles and move to secure the major ports and airports before moving on to control the various valley entrances leading into the city. Their objective was to hold the area until the second wave of Chinese soldiers would be able to land. With full control of the airports, the goal for both China and Japan would be to transport thousands of soldiers quickly via commercial aircraft to bolster their force before the Americans could react.

It was believed that within three weeks they should have enough armored vehicles and infantry to push any American Forces in the area back and consolidate their gains. With an invasion force on the West Coast, the Americans would not be able to send any additional reinforcements to fight the Chinese and Russian army in Alaska. This would ultimately result in the collapse of the Alaskan front and open the entire top half of America to the invasion.

As Admiral Kawano’s task force began to get closer to the Hawaiian Islands and the PLAN task force, they made contact with the American Navy, who was still oblivious to what was about to happen to them. They began to coordinate the positions of their SUDs with the Japanese so they could “best attack the PLAN task force.”

As the SUDs began to move in to firing position against the PLAN fleet, Japanese anti-submarine helicopters (which had been following the SUDs from the air) dropped a series of torpedoes on the SUDs in an attempt to destroy them. They used Chinese torpedoes in order to mask that they had been dropped by the Japanese.

Two of the SUDs were completely destroyed, while the other two SUDs managed to evade the Chinese torpedoes. Chinese submarines, which had been lying in wait, also fired their own torpedoes at the surviving SUDs, quickly destroying them (but not before two of the Chinese submarines were destroyed by the SUDs). Unbeknownst to the Chinese and Japanese at the time, there had been a fifth SUD in the water, which had been lurking further behind the Japanese task force in hopes of identifying any Chinese submarines that might appear and try to attack the Japanese capital ships. Their surveillance caught the sheer betrayal on the part of the Japanese.

The SUD operator immediately signaled for one of his superiors to come to his station so he could report what he had just seen and recorded. As they were putting together information and reviewing it for the fourth time, the building they were operating out of in Bangor Trident Base, Washington State, was blown up before they could send their report to anyone.

As it turns out, the cleaning crew at this building (who had been cleaning the facility every night for years), were actually Chinese spies, who had been waiting patiently to carry out one specific mission. They had smuggled in a liquid explosive (not hard to do among all of the standard cleaning products) and assembled a device under the flooring panel in the center of the room, near one of the garbage cans they would frequently empty. A timer inside the device would remove the separation between the two active chemicals, creating a volatile mixture that was primed for explosion. A second timer would detonate the device. The Japanese had fed these Chinese spies all of the intelligence they would need about exactly when the attack on the SUDs would occur; their hope was to destroy the building and all of its personnel at the same time as the attack in Hawaii. The Chinese had already carried out a number of sabotage attacks in Washington State the previous week; this would help to belay any suspicion of Japanese involvement.

Once Admiral Kawano confirmed that the first wave of cyber-attacks and the sabotage against Bangor Naval Base had been completed, he immediately ordered his fleet to change course and head towards their intended targets at flank speed. All that mattered now was making sure they were in position at the right time to carry out the next phase of the attack.

He also had his operations center contact the Americans and send the following message, “May Day! May Day! We are breaking off our attack. The PLAN ambushed us and destroyed a large number of our aircraft. We are headed at full speed toward the American shore, so that you can provide friendly air support, if needed.”

The US Navy sent their reply, “Acknowledged. We are ready to provide whatever support is needed.”

Admiral Kawano smiled. He knew that it would not be long now before the American communications were taken down in the next wave of cyber-attacks. However, they were not out of the woods yet. At top speed, it was going to take them at least a day before they were in striking distance of US military installations, and closer to two days before they could begin to land their forces. He would try to position his ships as close as possible to the West Coast before revealing the true nature of their arrival.

Chapter 35

Mirages

22 December 2041

Arlington, Virginia

Pentagon Situation Room

One of the majors monitoring a mirrored NORAD radar screen that was set up to watch the West Coast nearly jumped out of his seat, yelling for his superior to come quickly to his workstation. A Colonel walked over to his desk, annoyed that one of his young majors had made such a scene by freaking out over whatever he had seen.

“What the heck is the problem, Major?!” the Colonel barked, then looked down at the screen, and his eyes became wide as saucers.

“Get me the General, immediately! Major, have you confirmed this with NORAD yet?” he asked, clearly shaken by what he was seeing.

Several other officers and senior NCOs came over to the station, just as the Major brought his screen up to the wall projector for everyone in the room to see. What they saw was incredible. Somehow, the Chinese had managed to get an air armada of nearly three hundred transport craft and hundreds of fighters less than a hundred miles west of San Diego, and they were heading right for the coast.

The commanding general of the watch came out of his office and immediately took charge of the situation. “Get on the radio with our airbases on the West Coast, and scramble all available fighters to San Diego. Also, get on the F41s to head in that direction now.”

Immediately, officers and NCOs in the room began calling various military installations in the area directly to warn them of the impending attack and to see what they could do to get ready.

A captain signaled to the general that he had the base commander at Pendleton on the phone. He grabbed the line. “This is General Sheldon, the watch commander at the Pentagon. We are watching a massive air armada of Chinese airborne troops heading towards San Diego from the west. You need to mobilize as many Marines as you can, as quickly as you can, to head to San Diego and engage those airborne troopers. We can’t lose the naval facilities in San Diego, do you understand?” Despite being in complete shock at the situation, the general spoke with a firm controlled voice. This was no time for uncertainty.

The base commander paused for the briefest moment, processing what he had just heard before replying, “Yes, Sir. We will get everyone on the road within the hour. I’ll be in touch.” He hung up the phone.

General Branson walked in to the room with his aides and other staff. “General Sheldon, what in the tarnation is going on?”

“We are still compiling all the information, but from what we can tell, the Chinese somehow bypassed our detection so far, and they snuck a few hundred transports and fighters right past us and are flying them right for San Diego. They are on path to drop their airborne over the naval facilities, between Pendleton and the City. We are still trying to piece this together with the report we got from the Japanese task force and the loss of our SUDs,” General Sheldon said, scratching his head.

Just as they were trying to piece everything together, the computer systems throughout the Pentagon and the rest of the Department of Defense went down. Then the communications systems went down, further adding to the confusion.

“What in the blazes just happened?” asked General Branson to anyone who could hear him above the chaos.

A Major, who was manning one of the communication workstations, was first to speak up. “Sir, it would appear that we are under a coordinated cyber-attack. I’m bringing up the backup system right now, and we will get a better picture in a moment,” he explained as he pulled a secondary computer out of a case and plugged it into the system.

It took the major a few minutes to get his system up and running and start scanning the network. In the meantime, someone had gotten a hold of the NSA via one of the secured cell phones operating on a separate network for this very situation. The NSA was reporting a massive cyber-attack against the entire DoD communication system. The NSA Director told General Branson they should have the Pentagon and the rest of the DoD facilities back up and running within the hour, but it was going to take some time before they got things on the West Coast sorted.

General Branson signaled for everyone to quiet down so that he could speak to the room. “All right everyone, we should have our communications back up and running within the hour. What I want to know is--how are we going to get in touch with our forces on the West Coast right now? We need to alert them of what is heading their way.

A Colonel, who had just entered the room as General Branson began talking, spoke up. He was from the J6, which is the communications group within the Army, and so he had experience to draw from. “General, we had a similar problem last Christmas when the Chinese launched their surprise attack. After that happened, we had all of the military bases install some of their older ultra-high-frequency (UHF) radio systems as a backup. We have already made contact with General Gardner’s headquarters and told him what we were seeing. He is issuing orders to the various Marine divisions in the area to move to engage the paratroopers now. He is also having one of his corps move from Colorado to California as we speak.”

Turning towards the Colonel, General Branson replied, “Excellent work, Colonel. Make sure your guys are also in contact with the Situation Room at the White House and continue to keep them up-to-date. We need to figure out what the heck is going on and soon. General Sheldon, you are back in charge; I need to get to the White House and brief the President.” With that crisis on auto-pilot, General Branson didn’t stick around for the details. He turned and began to leave the room. He was on his way to the helicopter pad to take the short hop to the White House.

*******

As General Branson exited the helicopter and walked towards the door leading to the entrance of the White House, he was greeted by Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff. The two walked while Monty talked. “General, we heard from the NSA that the DoD communications system is under a cyber-attack right now. We also heard that the West Coast appears to be getting hit a lot worse than the rest of the DoD. The President is in the Situation Room waiting for you and some others to get here.”

“I’m glad you guys are somewhat up to speed; I have more information being sent to the command post right now,” Branson responded as they turned the corner and came to the entrance of the briefing room. Other senior officials were also arriving from around Washington D.C., either via motorcade, underground tunnels or helicopter.

Walking into the room, he could sense the energy, excitement and anxiety of everyone in the room. They had been through this before when the Chinese launched their surprise attack against the US last Christmas and destroyed the Pacific Fleet. Within a few minutes, most of the senior staff were present and the President ordered the room sealed so they could begin.

“All right, I know we are under a massive cyber-attack--who can tell me where it’s coming from? How long is this going to last? What systems are being affected, and most importantly, what does this all mean?” spouted the President.

The Deputy Director of the NSA spoke first. “Mr. President, we have identified the attack as having come from Japan, though it appears their systems were breached by the Chinese and then they used their access to gain entry into our systems and hit us. As of right now, we know the attack against the DoD communications system is separate from the second attack that is taking place across the DoD on the West Coast.”

“The attack on the DoD communications system will be fixed within the hour. It was a simple attack, but will take a bit of time to purge the servers and bring everything back online. This attack was meant more to blind us for a short period of time. What the Chinese did not count on was our installment of UHF radios across our bases, specifically to handle a situation like this. The second attack, which is focused on the West Coast, is a bit more severe. That attack has issued hundreds of false deployment orders, FLASH messages and all sorts of other efforts designed to scatter our forces and cause a lot of confusion. We believe this is being done to support a large military operation that is currently underway. I believe General Branson can bring us up to speed on that better than I can,” the Deputy Director said as he nodded towards the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

All eyes turned towards the senior military man in the room. “Mr. President, I will start with what I know from the beginning, leading up to the cyber-attack. The Japanese began their assault on the PLAN task force near Hawaii. We do not have all of the details from the attack as the first wave of cyber-attacks began to hit us at the start of the fight. Our SUDs reported being attacked by Chinese anti-submarine helicopters operating in the area. Four of the five SUDs were destroyed, and before we could find out what happened from the data on the fifth one, the control room at Banger Naval Base in Washington State was blown up by an explosive device from within. It’s believed to have been a sabotage attack by PLA sleeper agents that the Trinity program must have missed. We received a message shortly afterwards from the Japanese task force commander saying they had been ambushed by a large number of submarines and enemy aircraft. He said they lost one of their carriers and a battleship and were abandoning the attack and heading for the safety of the West Coast. That was all we received before our entire communications grid went down,” Branson said.

Before the President could ask a question, General Branson signaled for everyone to hold on as he had more information to deliver. “Just before the systems went out at the Pentagon, our satellites had detected a massive air armada off the West Coast, near San Diego. We have no idea how it got there, or where exactly it came from. We had counted around 300 military transport craft, along with nearly that many fighter escorts. It looks to be about a 12,000-man airborne division and they are headed towards our naval facilities in San Diego. We have to assume the PLAN infantry in Hawaii are on the way to San Diego and this is the initial force to hold the area until they can arrive.”

Although no one groaned aloud, there was a palatable painful reaction to the general’s news. Branson charged ahead, “We have used the UHF to alert General Gardner of the situation, and he is aware. We also alerted the commander at Pendleton, and he said he would have his Marines on the way to San Diego as soon as possible. General Gardner was sending orders to Third Marines to start heading to LA. They are currently fielding the Raptor suits along with the Wolverine IFVs. They are the most combat ready and hardened group we have on the West Coast. He also ordered one of his corps from Colorado to immediately begin to head to California. It’ll be at least six days before their entire force arrives, but once they do, they will add about 350,000 soldiers.”

The President spoke first, saying, “This is another colossal screw up General. How in God’s green Earth were they able to fly that many aircraft this close to our shores without us even seeing it? Then we have the Japanese task force getting its butt kicked and heading towards the West Coast for safety. Can we at least get our F41s over there to start giving us some real-time intelligence and engage those transports?” The President’s face was red with anger as he spoke.

“The F41s are being scrambled as we speak, and will be over the area within the next hour. We should have more intelligence then. In the meantime, we are moving our forces around to engage them,” Branson said, trying to reassure his Commander-in-Chief that the military had the situation under control.

Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA, interjected, “Mr. President, this may be the invasion force our analyst had been warning about,” he said.

Admiral Juliano still could not believe the PLAN could launch such an invasion. He did not believe they had the logistical capability to pull it off. Now he was starting to have some doubts. What worried him the most was the loss of the four SUDs and the destruction of the command center controlling them. They had no idea right now what the fifth SUD had seen or what was really going on…something else just did not seem right with the Japanese task force. They had more than enough firepower to destroy the PLAN in the area. Their new battleship alone packed a huge punch, and they had both of them present. He needed to get down to the bottom of this and soon.

The President turned towards Director Rubio and responded to his assertion. “You may be right, Pat. I honestly did not think they had the logistical capability to pull something like this off, but then again, who would have thought they could fly their transport craft completely under our nose like they have. Right now, I want answers people. Figure it out and let’s meet back here again in the next two hours. I want an update then.”

“Yes Sir,” echoed the room.

The President got up and left the room; he needed to go for a walk to clear his head. He had to figure out what to do next, and that was going to require some alone time to think.

*******

Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada

Third Army Headquarters

General Gardner walked in to the command center abruptly. In his usually booming voice, he bellowed, “Ok, people--what in the world is happening out there? How in the heck did the PLAAF manage sneak over 500 aircraft in to American airspace?”

A Colonel who was in charge of managing the airspace for Third Army spoke up. “Sir, the Chinese hit us with a major cyber-attack; they blinded us, and then when we did see something they were suddenly heading towards San Diego. We’ve sent a FLASH message to get the F41s airborne. They are scrambling them now as we speak.”

Sighing before continuing on, General Gardner replied, “All right, here is what I want to have happen. I want General Smith’s Sixth Corps to begin moving from Colorado to LA immediately. Tell him he has to be in LA with his entire Corps in five days. I don’t care what he has to do, but he needs to have them there immediately. Next, I want Third Marines at to move immediately to a position between LA and Camp Pendleton. I want them standing by to support whatever happens next. I also want LTG Peeler on the phone as soon as possible. He’s the on-scene commander in California, and I need him to take charge of the situation until I can get my headquarters moved. We are going to pack everything up and move to Twenty-Nine Palms immediately. I want the HQ up and running in twelve hours, understood people?!”

“Yes Sir!” responded the men and women in the room.

Chapter 36

A Day to Live in Infamy

Japanese Naval Task Force

2,100 miles away from Los Angeles

Admiral Tomohisa Kawano’s fleet was still a long way off from California, but the cyber-attacks had bought him some time. He had just received a message that the Americans had restored their DoD communications system across the country, with exception of the West Coast. The report also said the Americans had scrambled their F41 hyper sonic fighters to intercept the fake transports and fighters. Once they discovered it was fake, they would immediately report their findings, which meant he had precious little time until it was discovered that his task force was not retreating to the West Coast, but was rather the vanguard of a massive PLAN invasion force.

Their intelligence indicated that a large force of Marines had moved from Camp Pendleton to the initial drop zones and was awaiting the Chinese paratroopers, who would never show. His task force was now in range of their cruise missiles, and he was ordered to launch them at the Marine force, which was out in the open and completely unprepared to defend against such an attack. With a bit of uncertain reluctance, he gave the order to launch 150 cruise missiles at the Marine positions. He then gave the order to launch another 200 cruise missiles at Camp Pendleton, and 100 cruise missiles at the naval facilities in San Diego. If the Americans were able to get their radars operational within the next three hours, they would be able to identify and engage the incoming cruise missiles and would know they came from the Japanese task force. If not, then the likelihood is they would assume the missiles came from the PLAN task force.

While this was taking place, their surprise invasion against the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Oakland had just started. In addition to the port attacks, thirty civilian Boeing 787s landed at thirty different major air hubs across the country at essentially the same time. As they taxied toward their positions within the terminal, they would unleash the greatest Trojan horse attack against America in their history. Today was truly going to go down as a day that would live in infamy as President Roosevelt had once said on December 7th, 1941, 99 years ago.

Chapter 37

West Coast Landing

24 December 2041

Port of Los Angeles

While the DoD was experiencing a massive cyber-attack against their communications network, twelve Japanese freighters had arrived at the Port of Los Angeles over the past four days. Since December 24th was Christmas Eve and the Japanese did not celebrate that holiday, they used that day to launch the greatest sneak attack in American history. They started to unload their freighters, taking over control of several unloading shipping containers filled with military equipment and munitions, and connecting the roll-on, roll-off bridges to the ships. Within twenty minutes, they had unloaded nine infantry fighting vehicles and three tanks. Next came a dozen light drone tanks followed by nearly three thousand soldiers per ship. They quickly began to unpack their gear and vehicles, getting them ready for combat. A platoon’s worth of troops and one IFV along with a mobile air-defense vehicle moved to each corner of the port to establish an initial air defense umbrella over their operations.

At first the sight of military vehicles driving around inside the port did not attract attention; the few workers slogging it out during the holiday had seen this before. What attracted attention was the markings on some of the vehicles and uniforms. Many of the vehicles and soldiers had Japanese flags identifying them, which made sense, since Japan was an ally. However, some of the vehicles had the Chinese flag on them, and America was at war with China. So why would Chinese vehicles be inside the port?

Some of the port security guards moved towards the soldiers to identify who they were and ask their intentions…they were quickly shot and killed. Once the first shots were fired, the on-scene Japanese Commander ordered his forces to move quickly to secure the rest of the port and prepare to move to their secondary objectives.

*******

Port of Oakland

An Army officer who was assigned to the Port of Oakland to assist with the loading and offloading of military equipment was flagged down by some port security officials.

“Hey, are we expecting any Japanese soldiers and equipment to arrive?” they asked.

. Surprised and caught off guard, the Captain responded, “I was not made aware of any Japanese military forces heading to the U.S. We had better go check it out.” He strapped on his side arm, got into the port security vehicle, and drove with them to the location where they had sighted the Japanese soldiers.

When he arrived, he was amazed at how many soldiers had landed, and how quickly they had established a perimeter. They had cut off a large portion of the port with concertina wire, stationed several light armored vehicles at various points, and had begun to set up a number of anti-air guns and missile systems. Not sure what was going on, he quickly tried to place a phone call to his superiors to report what he was seeing…only, his cell phone gave him nothing but, “Sorry, we are unable to complete your call at this time. Please try again later.” The network was down.

As he approached one of the entry points, he saw the soldiers manning it quickly raise and point their weapons at him. The Captain quickly raised his hands up in a show of peace, hoping to not get shot. As he stood there, several Japanese soldiers advanced towards him quickly. One of them yelled at him, “Get on the ground with your hands on your head! Get down and don’t move!”

In shock, he stood there for a moment, unsure what to make of the request. Japan was supposed to be an ally, not an enemy. The Japanese soldier shouted the order a second time. The Captain quickly complied with their request, and within seconds soldiers were on top of him, taking his weapon and zip-tying his hands together before they brought him to his feet and marched him off.

The Captain made several angry pleas, “Please, what is going on? Why are you doing this?” When he wouldn’t be quiet, he was hit in the stomach with the butt of a rifle.

The Trojan Horse had arrived.

From the Authors

Miranda and I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. We are currently working on the fourth book of the Falling Empires Series. We also recently released two children’s books about PTSD—if you know someone who struggles with that battle, we hope that they might be able to use these books as a resource.

While you are waiting for our next book to be released, we do have several audiobooks that have recently been produced. All six books of the Red Storm Series are now available in audio format as is our entire World War III series. Interview with a Terrorist and Traitors Within, which are currently standalone books, are also available for your listening pleasure.

If you would like to stay up to date on new releases and receive emails about any special pricing deals we may make available, please sign up for our email distribution list. Simply go to http://www.author-james-rosone.com and scroll to the bottom of the page.

As independent authors, reviews are very important to us and make a huge difference to other prospective readers. If you enjoyed this book, we humbly ask you to write up a positive review on Amazon and Goodreads. We sincerely appreciate each person that takes the time to write one.

We have really valued connecting with our readers via social media, especially on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RosoneandWatson/. Sometimes we ask for help from our readers as we write future books—we love to draw upon all your different areas of expertise. We also have a group of beta readers who get to look at the books before they are officially published and help us fine-tune last-minute adjustments. If you would like to be a part of this team, please go to our author website: http://www.author-james-rosone.com, and send us a message through the “Contact” tab. You can also follow us on Twitter: @jamesrosone and @AuthorMirandaW. We look forward to hearing from you.

You may also enjoy some of our other works. A full list can be found below:

Nonfiction:

Iraq Memoir 2006–2007 Troop Surge

Interview with a Terrorist (link to audiobook here)

Fiction:

World War III Series

Prelude to World War III: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dawn and the Siege of Europe (link to audiobook here)

Cyber Warfare and the New World Order (link to audiobook here)

Michael Stone Series

Traitors Within (link to audiobook here)

The Red Storm Series

Battlefield Ukraine (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Korea (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Taiwan (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Pacific (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Russia (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield China (link to audiobook here)

The Falling Empires Series

Rigged (link to audiobook here)

Peacekeepers

Invasion (available for preorder, release date November 25, 2019)

Vengeance (available for preorder, release date February 17, 2020)

Retribution (release date TBD)

Children’s Books:

My Daddy has PTSD

My Mommy has PTSD

For the Veterans

I have been pretty open with our fans about the fact that PTSD has had a tremendous direct impact on our lives; it affected my relationship with my wife, job opportunities, finances, parenting—everything. It is also no secret that for me, the help from the VA was not the most ideal form of treatment. Although I am still on this journey, I did find one organization that did assist the healing process for me, and I would like to share that information.

Welcome Home Initiative is a ministry of By His Wounds Ministry, and they run seminars for veterans and their spouses for free. The weekends are a combination of prayer and more traditional counseling and left us with resources to aid in moving forward. The entire cost of the retreat—hotel costs, food, and sessions, are completely free from the moment the veteran and their spouse arrive at the location.

If you feel that you or someone you love might benefit from one of Welcome Home Initiative’s sessions, please visit their website to learn more: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/

We have decided to donate a portion of our profits to this organization, because it made such an impact in our lives and we believe in what they are doing. If you would also like to donate to Welcome Home Initiative and help to keep these weekend retreats going, you can do so by following this link: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/donate/

Abbreviation Key

AAB             Air Assault Brigade

AFC             America First Corporation

AMRAAM       Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile

AR              Armor Regiment

AWACS         Airborne Warning and Control System

BC              British Columbia

CENTCOM     Central Command

CMC             Central Military Commission

CNO             Chief of Naval Operations

CP              Command Post

CW4             Chief Warrant Officer 4

DARPA         Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DFAC           Dining Facility

DHS             Department of Homeland Security

DIA             Defense Intelligence Agency

DoD             Department of Defense

ECM             Electronic Countermeasures

EMDR           Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

EU              European Union

FDC             Fire Direction Control

FBI             Federal Bureau of Investigation

FIST           Fire Support Team

FTX             Field Training Exercise

HE              High Explosive

HQ              Headquarters

HUD             Heads Up Display

HUMINT       Human Intelligence

IC              Intelligence Community

ICE             Interrogation Control Element

ID              Infantry Division

IDF             Israeli Defense Force

IFV             Infantry Fighting Vehicle

IIR             Intelligence Information Report

IR              Islamic Republic

JCTF           Joint Counterterrorism Task Force

JDF             Japanese Defense Force

KIA             Killed in Action

LAV             Light Armored Vehicle

LDT             Light Drone Tanks

LNO             Liaison Officer

LT              Lieutenant

LTC             Lieutenant Colonel

LTG             Lieutenant General

MBT             Main Battle Tank

MEF             Marine Expeditionary Force

MI              Military Intelligence

MIT             Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MNF             Multi-National Force

MG              Major General

MRE             Meals Ready to Eat

NAD             New American Dollar

NATO           North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NCDC           National Control Defense Center (Russian Pentagon)

NCO             Non-commissioned Officer

NORTHCOM          Northern Command (covers North American operations and nuclear defense)

NSA             National Security Agency

NSC             National Security Council

OC              Operations Center

PAA             Pan Asian Alliance

PC              Platoon Commander

PFC             Private First Class

PLA             People’s Liberation Army (Chinese Infantry)

PLAAF         People’s Liberation Army Air Force (Chinese Air Force)

PLAN           People’s Liberation Army Navy (Chinese Navy)

PM              Prime Minister

POW             Prisoner of War

PRC             People’s Republic of China

PTSD           Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

QRF             Quick Reaction Force

RPG             Rocket Propelled Grenade

RTR             Royal Tank Regiment

SACEUR       Supreme Allied Commander Europe

SAM             Surface to Air Missile

SAMF           South American Multinational Force

SDF             Self Defense Force

SFC             Sergeant First Class

SSG             Staff Sergeant

SUD             Swordfish Underwater Drone

TC              Tank Commander

TOC             Tactical Operations Center

UHF             Ultra-High-Frequency

USF             University of South Florida

VA              Department of Veterans Affairs

WP              white phosphorus

XO              Executive Officer

2AD             2nd Armored Division

12AD           12th Armored Division

66th AR     66th Armor Regiment Commander

Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Book Four of the World War III Series

By James Rosone and Miranda Watson

Copyright Information

©2017, ©2019, James Rosone and Miranda Watson, in conjunction with Front Line Publishing. Except as provided by the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: USS Utah

Chapter 2: Angels in Flight

Chapter 3: Trojan Horse Update

Chapter 4: Bring Me to Your Leader

Chapter 5: Bird or Plane?

Chapter 6: This Is a Test

Chapter 7: Convergence

Chapter 8: Don’t Shoot the Messenger

Chapter 9: Delayed Mobilization

Chapter 10: Reckoning

Chapter 11: Feel the Heat

Chapter 12: Planes, Trains, and Taxicabs

Chapter 13: Information Overload

Chapter 14: Send in the Marines

Chapter 15: One if by Land, Two if by Sea

Chapter 16: Rude Awakening

Chapter 17: New Directive

Chapter 18: On my Mark, Engage

Chapter 19: Another Beach Invasion

Chapter 20: Zero Day Arrives

Chapter 21: Breathe Through the Pain

Chapter 22: Fall Back

Chapter 23: A Man, A Plan, A Canal--Panama!

Chapter 24: Tung and Shinzo

Chapter 25: Analyze This

Chapter 26: Vampires During the Day

Chapter 27: Don’t Forget to Turn out the Lights

Chapter 28: Battleships

Chapter 29: In the Middle of the Night

Chapter 30: Meet Me in St. Louis

Chapter 31: The Beatings Will Continue until Morale Improves

Chapter 32: A Man Named Bucky

Chapter 33: Brazilians in Germany

Chapter 34: Plotting Revenge

Chapter 35: Showdown Looming

Chapter 36: Heading Towards the Midnight Zone

Chapter 37: Difference of Opinion

Chapter 38: Heavy Burden

Chapter 39: Ultimatum

Chapter 40: Battle for the Skies

Chapter 41: Disrupting Traffic

Chapter 42: No Hotel California

Chapter 43: Launch

Chapter 44: Back from Vacation

Chapter 45: Misaligned Priorities

Chapter 46: Geepers, Reapers

Chapter 47: Honey Pot, Not so Sweet

Chapter 48: The New Colonizer of Africa

Chapter 49: Liberators

Chapter 50: The Man No One Was Supposed to See

Chapter 51: Negotiator in Chief

Chapter 52: Mr. Speaker

Chapter 53: Space Exports

Chapter 54: Whose Side are We on?

Chapter 55: Thompson’s Last Mission

Chapter 56: Maps and Schemes

Chapter 57: Controlled Chaos

Chapter 58: Hold the Line

Chapter 59: They Are All Bad Choices

Chapter 60: Morally Reprehensible

Chapter 61: Taiwan’s Role

Chapter 62: A New World

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key

Chapter 1

USS Utah

24 December 2041

700 Miles West of California

Captain Hughes was feeling irritated; as a military man who had had years of punctuality violently punched into his brain, it really sent a bristling feeling up his spine to be running late for anything. Of course, it wasn’t his fault that his submarine, the USS Utah was the last vessel to make it to Hawaii. The sub had sustained some damage to its targeting system while battling Chinese destroyers off the coast of South Africa, and they had to stop while it was repaired for two days before making their way to San Diego to re-arm. They had made up a lot of time on their long journey from the South Atlantic Ocean to the Californian West Coast, but that didn’t stop Hughes from feeling like he wanted to punch a wall.

“Chief of the Boat (COB), can we make any further increase in speed?” asked Hughes.

“No, Sir. We are maxing out our capacity. Anything more and we will begin to cause damage,” replied the COB.

Captain Hughes popped all his knuckles, and then took a deep breath. He was eager for action. They were still several hundred miles away from the fleet of U.S. cruisers, SUDs, destroyers and frigates that were ready to engage the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) off the coast of Hawaii.

To try and calm himself down, he reviewed the battle plans again. The Japanese ships would attack the PLAN from the northwest of the Hawaiian Islands, and then the Americans would surround the fleet from the southeast. Like a shark catching the scent of blood in the water, he was eager for the hunt.

Patience was not Captain Hughes’ strongpoint. Even though they were still too far away to participate in the action, when the appointed time of attack arrived, he rushed over to the monitoring stations to get the most updated information about the situation on the frontlines.

What he heard was nothing short of chaos. The Japanese fleet began to send a flurry of messages.

“May Day, May Day! There were unknown Chinese submarines in the water! Please assist!” called one JDF Captain over the radio.

“We are taking fire from Chinese aircraft! Significant damage to our ship!” shouted another.

A third voice cried, “Attention! Cruise missiles have just been launched at us! Our hull is beginning to take on water. Performing evasive maneuvers to make it to the coastline.”

Captain Hughes could not imagine a scenario in which the Japanese forces would be so horribly beaten down so quickly. “Was our intel on the Chinese capabilities that far off?” he wondered.

He turned to the screen where they had the visual link established with the SUDs, but just as he directed his eyes that way, several torpedoes streaked towards the submarines. Then the video feeds cut out.

Hughes turned to Petty Officer Jack Davis, who manned a different readout. “Davis, can you tell whether the SUDs made it through the attack?”

Jack furiously typed for a moment as he tried to clarify the data he was looking at. “Sir, two of the SUDs were definitely destroyed. A third was badly damaged, but still holding together as far as I can tell. The fourth SUD seems to have disappeared from the face of the Earth.”

“Well, get to work Petty Officer! I want to find out what happened as soon as possible,” barked Hughes.

“Yes, Sir,” responded Davis. His fingers moved so quickly on the keyboard that it practically created smoke.

Suddenly, they received a radio transmission from the operator of the missing SUD. “Captain Hughes, if you can hear me, our readouts show that we’ve been attacked by three Chinese submarines. Wait…now also detecting several torpedoes that were dropped via helicopter…”

“What just happened, operator?” demanded the Captain.

“Sir, we’ve lost all transmissions from the SUD. It’s been destroyed,” he stammered.

Time stood still for just a moment as that information sunk in; Captain Hughes was lost in a quagmire of thoughts. 1t Petty Officer Nguyen jolted him out of that nebulous swirl of contemplation. “--Sir, we cannot detect any torpedoes headed towards the location where the Japanese fleet was supposed to be. We are still pretty far away, but our advanced sensors should have been able to pick up something.”

“Let’s send up a surveillance drone immediately,” ordered the Captain. “We need to have as much visual and electronic intelligence of what is going on as possible.”

The Utah rose to a depth of 40 ft. and launched their surveillance drone. This small solar-powered device could stay aloft indefinitely (if needed) and follow the Utah to provide continual surveillance and relay communications to other surface ships. As the drone gained altitude, it activated its long-range radar, capturing a picture of what was going on with the Japanese fleet and US naval ships in the area.

To their surprise, they did not see a swarm of Chinese aircraft or cruise missiles heading towards the Japanese fleet; it looked like the Chinese were only closing in on the small contingent of eight American ships. They could tell that those American ships were desperately trying to fight off the attack, but the numbers were clearly against them. They were going to be sunk. Something was still not adding up…

Suddenly, the communications link they had just established with the American ships was cut off before they could connect with them.

“Captain, we just lost contact with our drone and with the SUDs as well. We were receiving a message from them, but the transmission just cut off,” reported Commander Mitcham. He tried to maintain composure, but some of the color had gone out of his cheeks, making him appear ghostly as he spoke.

Captain Hughes was not one hundred percent sure what it all meant, but he had a bad feeling in his gut, so he ordered the ship to dive. “Chief of the Boat, take us down to depth 500 feet and get us under the thermal plain.”

The Chief of the Boat (COB), barked some orders to the sailors driving the boat. Over the PA system, a voice suddenly barked, “Dive! Dive! Dive!” Everyone braced themselves for the sudden jolt, and then the ship lurched downward.

Captain Hughes pulled his Commanding Officer (XO) over to the side and leaned in closer to his ear so only he could hear him speak. “Mitcham, go down to the Coms room and see what’s going on. We need to figure out what in the world is happening, understood?” directed the Captain.

The XO quickly asked, “You think the Chinese just knocked our communications out?”

“I’m not sure; it could just be a system glitch and those guys back in San Diego didn’t correctly fix it, but I want to make sure we know what’s going on before the rumor mill starts and people start to get nervous,” replied the Captain, running his fingers nervously through his hair.

“Ok, I’ll head over now,” the XO whispered as he headed off on his mission.

Out of nowhere, the Emergency Action Message (EAM) turned on and began to spit out a message. Lieutenant Commander Grady, the intelligence officer was nearby and grabbed the note as soon as it was done printing and walked it over to the Captain. “Captain, this isn’t good,” Commander Grady said as he showed the captain the EAM:

****FLASH****COMSUBPAC****FLASH****

SSN-801, DEFENSE COMMUNICATIONS UNDER CYBER ATTACK. REVERT TO UHF FOR COMMUNICATIONS. PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY AIR FORCE AIRBORNE TROOPS HEADING TOWARDS POINT LOMA AND SAN DIEGO. JAPANESE NAVAL TASK FORCE HEAVILY DAMAGED, RETREATING TO LOS ANGELES. TAKE UP STATION 25 MILES OFF OCEANSIDE, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND STANDBY FOR FURTHER ORDERS. END.

****FLASH****COMSUBPAC****FLASH****

The Captain looked over the EAM, digesting what it all meant. From what they saw with the limited drone data, the Japanese task force had not been attacked and it was the American task force that was being wiped out. None of this made any sense.

Looking at Commander Grady, the Captain said, “This just doesn’t jive. The message says the Japanese were attacked and are retreating to L.A.--but before our drone was taken offline, we couldn’t see any signs that they had been damaged at all. We picked up the same messages from the JDF COMSUBPAC, but the drone’s radar and other sensors couldn’t find any sign of this supposed battle. What are your thoughts?” asked the Captain.

Commander Grady paused briefly before he responded, “Sir, I agree, none of this makes sense. Before the drone feed cut out, we were analyzing what was going on with the Japanese fleet. What we saw was the JDF fleet turning away from Hawaii and heading towards L.A. at what appeared to be flank speed. The JDF continued to emit distress calls saying they were under attack, but we could not detect what confrontation they were talking about. Another strange thing my analyst reported was that he saw several JDF anti-submarine helicopters heading back towards the carriers. Back-tracing their flight tracks, it places them right on top of our SUDs just as they were reporting being under attack by Chinese torpedoes and being destroyed.”

Commander Grady cleared his throat before he continued, “My other analyst was looking at the PLAN fleet, and she saw the ships had changed direction from heading towards the JDF to a track that would take them to San Diego…they were also heading at flank speed. Sir, my guys need a bit more time to make a full case, but I believe we may have just been sucker-punched by the JDF and the PLAN.” His fists clenched tighter as he spoke, an unconscious expression of his anger.

Despite the mounting evidence, Captain Hughes looked surprised by Commander Grady’s implication. He responded in a very calculated manner. “I think you are right… you need more time to analyze the information before making a call like that. We need to be one hundred percent certain before we make that assumption. In the meantime, we will move towards Oceanside at best speed and get on station. I want to have an officer’s meeting in the wardroom in one hour. You have until then to determine what in the blazes just happened, Commander.”

Nodding in agreement, Grady answered, “Yes, Sir. We’ll get this figured out sir. Sorry if I was jumping to a conclusion before I had all the facts.”

Not wanting to discourage his newly promoted Commander, the Captain countered, “No, it’s not your fault. I just want to make sure everyone has all the full details of this cluster mess before we make a decision that could cost us all our careers. Attacking an ally is no small step.”

*******

Almost an hour had gone by, and still no one really knew what had happened until Commander Mitcham called from the Coms room.  “Captain Hughes, we’ve been able to regain control of the surveillance drone by using the Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) system. Once we re-established connection, we moved the drone closer in the direction of the JDF fleet to see what was going on. We’ve been able to determine with certainty that the Japanese fleet did not sustain any damage or losses; they are still moving at flank speed towards Los Angeles.”

“Sir,” he continued, “We also saw wreckage and life boats in the vicinity of where the America frigates and destroyers had been when they were attacked. A couple of PLAN ships were nearly to them already, and will probably pick them up, interning the crews as POWs for the remainder of the war.”

The Captain turned to Commander Grady, “After we relay this information to the COMSUBPAC, it’s time to call the meeting of the senior officers to discuss what our next steps are.”

The pow-wow lasted for twenty minutes as they pieced all the information together. Finally, the Captain spoke up, “So, I think we all collectively agree that the JDF must have sunk the SUDs using Chinese torpedoes to make it look like the Chinese were really the attackers. The question remains--was this the action of a rogue JDF Admiral, or did Japan just officially join the war on the side of the Axis?”

“That about sums it up, Sir,” replied the COB. “I’m not sure we will be able to come to a 100% conclusion on that one. Should we go ahead and use our drone to send our assessment off to the COMSUBPAC?”

“Yes, go ahead. I want you to also request permission to engage the JDF Fleet. We are closer to them than the PLAN fleet.”

“Roger that, Captain.”

Chapter 2

Angels in Flight

24 December 2041

Groom Lake, Nevada

Major Theodore Cruse’s flight of F41 Archangels had relocated to the Groom Lake Region (commonly referred to as Area 51) two days ago, after a reporter from the Boston Globe wrote a piece that mentioned that the F41s were flying out of Minot, North Dakota. Their team had changed Air Force bases a couple of times to try and keep the Russian and Chinese intelligence guessing at their location. America did not have many F41s, so the few they did have needed to be protected at all costs.

Colonel Leed walked into the flight operations room and found Major Cruse talking with one of the intelligence operations officers. He approached him quickly and signaled to get his attention before he interjected, “Major Cruse, we just received an emergency message via the UHF system, scrambling your flight to head towards Hawaii to assist the JDF fleet that is currently engaging the PLAN. Apparently, the Chinese got the jump on them and they are in trouble. The message also said we lost four of our underwater drone subs, so we have lost all real-time information and intelligence of what is going on right now.” The colonel was visibly sweating as he spoke.

The other officers near Cruse who had overheard the conversation were dumbfounded by the announcement. The Air Force had worked up an ironclad plan to support the JDF fleet’s amphibious assault of the Hawaiian Islands. Now it appeared that fleet was in shambles.

Major Cruse digested the announcement and then turned around to alert the rest of his officers and get them to their aircraft. It took them twenty minutes to get their flight suits on and get the F41s ready airborne. Once in the air, they immediately began heading towards Hawaii at maximum pace. Even at top speed, it was still going to take the flight of six F41s close to two hours before they would be on station and able to assess the situation.

Major Cruse immediately began to try and get in touch with the JDF fleet via the UHF system until their digital links could be re-established. After several attempts, they were finally able to let them know they were about two hours away from their position and would be on station shortly to assist them. After about five minutes, the JDF responded back, asking if Major Cruse could share their flight information and tracking signal so they could monitor their progress and share information with them as it came available. Not knowing that the JDF had just turned on the Americans, Major Cruse agreed and established a real-time tracking link of their location to help better coordinate the fleet defenses.

*******

400 miles east of Hawaii

Thus far, Admiral Tomohisa Kawano’s fleet had pulled off the greatest surprise attack in history. The PLA hackers had been able to use their access to the American Defense Communication System to take it down and massively disrupt communications on the West Coast of America. The PLAN had launched a massive missile attack against the ten American ships that were heading towards the JDF fleet to assist them. The U.S. Task Force consisted of four guided missile frigates, three destroyers and one guided missile cruiser--a formidable group, but no match for the PLAN fleet on their own. All but one of the ships was sunk in the attack; however, one of the guided missile cruisers managed to escape, taking only minor damage, and headed at full speed back towards San Diego.

Kawano’s fleet had briefly detected a small American navy surveillance drone, probably from a submarine operating in the area. However, before they could identify the location, the drone had gone offline. While they were still trying to figure out what was going on, one of Admiral Kawano’s intelligence officers walked over to him. “Sir, we just received a transmission from a flight of American F41 fighters. They say they are on the way to assist us.”

Admiral Kawano was briefly startled by the news. He knew it was going to be nearly impossible for their missiles to hit them. In a flash of brilliance, it occurred to him that if he could get the F41s to share their flight data, then his battleships could engage them with their railguns and anti-aircraft missiles. He could also send word to the Americans that he was sending his F35s into the air to help coordinate their efforts against the PLAN. Once the Americans arrived, they could attack the F41s with full force. He issued the orders right away.

Chapter 3

Trojan Horse Update

24 December 2041

Downtown Los Angeles

Near the end of World War II, the Japanese had drafted a plan to combat the inevitable invasion of American forces into their country--codename Operation Ketsugo. The name meant “concluding remarks,” and signaled their tenacity to fight to the death, if needed. To General Hidehisa Shinzo, the Commander of the 5th Brigade, it seemed a fitting name for this new offensive against the West Coast of the United States. As his ship pulled into the Port of Los Angeles, he gritted his teeth, eager for battle.

Since the Americans had not deciphered the true intentions of the Japanese forces before they landed, the Port of Los Angeles was relatively easy to secure. Only a few shots were fired by either side; most of the guards surrendered without incident when they saw how hopelessly out-gunned they were. The 5th Brigade was what the Americans called a “heavy” brigade, which meant that along with the typical company elements of reconnaissance, anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, signals and aviation, the group encompassed a tank battalion, three infantry regiments and an artillery battalion. There were 6,500 soldiers in all, each one well-trained, disciplined and full of the zeal and adrenaline that comes from seeing battle for the first time.

At the nearby Port of Long Beach, the Japanese also managed a speedy takeover. There were a few casualties at this facility; a couple of American guards decided to try to be heroes and went completely Rambo. Sadly, this desperate attempt resulted in their swift demise, and did not do very much to inhibit the progress of the Japanese. They did manage to kill four soldiers and wound eight more. As the men pulled the bodies out of the pool of blood to prepare them for a proper burial, the harsh reality of war set in.

The soldiers consolidated their positions, organizing into well-formed groups and preparing to receive the additional reinforcements from the Japanese Defense Force (JDF) and the Chinese Navy (PLAN). So far, everything was proceeding as expected. The JDF and PLAN were headed towards LA and San Diego at flank speed, trying to capitalize on the confusion taking place among their former allies. Because of the cyber-attacks on the cell networks and the internet, the greater public was still unaware of the Japanese attack.

Once the ports were fully secured, General Shinzo prepared to meet with two of his key senior officers. He surveyed the scene as he walked towards a small building that must have been one of the port administrative offices. During this short stroll, he tried to organize his thundering chorus of thoughts. He still had a lot to accomplish within a short window of time; his objective was to secure City Hall and the rest of downtown LA, and then move into the surrounding urban sprawl. He knew that his forces would have to act quickly; it would not take long for the Americans to realize what was happening and dispatch forces to attack his men. His main concern was the Marines Third Division, which he knew to be stationed at Twenty-Nine Palms. They were the most combat-hardened Marine division that the U.S. had, and they were fully-equipped with the new Raptor combat suits. Shinzo knew that they would be a formidable force when the time came.

As General Shinzo entered the building, the smell of cordite and diesel fuel was heavy in the air; all his armored vehicles were lining up near the port exit to begin their task of securing City Hall. He walked over to his commanders. Despite their best efforts to conceal their emotions, he could clearly see their apprehension by their furrowed brows. He knew that both of these men had trained with the Americans in the past, and were now being tasked with attacking some of those very same officers. However, there was no time for emotion, only time for action. He jumped right into the task of the moment.

“Colonel Tenaka, as you know, you are to lead your forces to capture City Hall immediately following this meeting. I want you to convey to your soldiers that they are to put down any resistance that they encounter and secure their target quickly. Then I want you to activate the city’s emergency broadcast system and have it play the following message,” General Shinzo handed Colonel Tenaka a sheet of paper that read, “People of Los Angeles, a Japanese and Chinese invasion force has secured your city. Stay indoors and do not venture into the streets. Do not interfere with our operations, or you will be shot on sight. This is not a test.”

Colonel Tenaka nodded and made a mental note to have one of his most fluent English speakers read the announcement for the recording.

General Shinzo continued. “Colonel Watabe, you are to lead your armored division and an infantry regiment to Riverside and San Bernardino. As you travel, destroy as many bridges and overpasses as you can along your route. You will need to establish a defensive perimeter; the Marines will be bearing down on you very quickly, and you are going to have to find a way to hold out until additional reinforcements arrive. Move some of your tanks onto the third or fourth levels of parking garages to give them a better vantage point and increase their range. Position some of the other tanks in alley ways and behind buildings so that you can surprise the enemy as they approach. Fight house-to-house if you need to, but at all costs you must hold the line until the additional forces reach you.”

Colonel Watabe nodded his acknowledgement. “Sir, exactly how long should we expect to be on our own before the reinforcements approach?”

Some of the Japanese generals would have found this question to be impertinent, but General Shinzo had a good working relationship with Colonel Watabe. Besides, he would have wanted to know the same thing if the roles were reversed. Without missing a beat, he replied, “Colonel, I have spoken with the Chinese Army (PLA) Commander; he has two brigades of heavy tanks, one brigade of light drone tanks and two infantry brigades that will be reinforce you in about eight hours. It will take some time to unload that amount of equipment. As each battalion is offloaded, I’m going to direct them to head to your location.”

Pulling up some information from his tablet, General Shinzo scrolled through some data, then explained, “We also have six attack helicopters that can assist both of your operations. I will hold them back from other actions so they are available to you when you need them. But use them wisely; it will be close to a day before we have more available when the rest of the Air Force finishes ferrying over their aircraft from Hawaii.”

Suddenly, there was the loud rush of several jets roaring over their heads—the colonels nervously looked at the ceiling. Having trained with American military throughout their career, they knew exactly what kind of enemy they would be facing. Not only would the U.S. soldiers be tenacious fighters, but they’d be boiling over with desires for revenge. An awkward moment of silence passed in anticipation.

General Shinzo cleared his throat. Knowing this might be the last time he saw either of these men in person, he looked each of them in the eye and said, “Gentlemen, the future of Japan rides on our success over the next several days. I know we have traditionally been an ally of America, but those days are behind us. We need to do our duty to Japan to preserve our way of life and that of our families. Everyone is depending on us. I expect you to do your jobs and win. Dismissed.”

All three stood up, and bowed to each other before walking out. Shinzo followed his men out of the building as they each headed off towards their respective commands. He wished them luck…he knew the odds of this invasion being successful were long, but he was determined to succeed.

Twenty minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel Ota (one of Colonel Tenaka’s battalion commanders) was leading his column of twelve Type 29 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) and thirty-four Type 31 infantry fighting vehicles as they passed the exit for Hwy 91 and east Compton. They continued down I-710, towards City Hall and downtown LA. As they drove past an exit, two of his T-31 infantry fighting vehicles made their exit and set up a road block. Once I-710 was secured and cleared of traffic, it would give the JDF and PLA an easy route to move troops throughout the valley quickly.

So far, they had not encountered any resistance. Then again--what could a car or truck really do to stop a sixty-ton main battle tank? Traffic on the highway was light as it was still early in the morning on Christmas Eve; most Americans were either off work for the holiday or traveling out of the city to see family. His column was making good time as they moved along the interstate; however, when they reached I-105 and Morton, the traffic became a bit more of a problem. Ultimately though, this turned into a minor inconvenience; those cars that failed to move out of the way of the armored column were either pushed aside or run over by the tanks.

Once they reached the correct junction, Colonel Ota had to leave one of his tanks and four infantry fighting vehicles behind to make sure they had the key node secured. Stopping the traffic was not very difficult; the hard part was going to be clearing all of the cars that were already on the road off of it.

As Colonel Ota stood in the commander’s hatch of his tank, he could see the expanse of the city as it unfolded before him. It was a beautiful and sprawling city. Tall sky scrapers covered in glass reaching for the clouds in the downtown area gave way to block after block of homes and smaller buildings. He couldn’t help but think to himself, “This is going to be an absolute nightmare for our JDF and the Chinese to try and secure. All of these people…and each one potentially has a firearm. Too bad we aren’t landing in Great Britain instead, where the worst I’d have to fear is a nightstick.”

As his tank raced down the road, he suddenly heard an announcement over the radio. “Colonel Ota, we have a couple of police cruisers approaching our roadblock. Do you want us to engage?”

“Yes, suppress any resistance quickly,” he ordered.

He heard a series of loud booms, and there was an eerie silence for a moment before someone came back on. “Sir, our T-31s made short work of the vehicles and the approaching officers. We did not sustain any casualties or significant damage to our equipment.”

“Excellent. Please continue to use force as needed,” Colonel Ota replied. He was elated that their first encounter had ended so well.

The T-31s were built by Mitsubishi to be a lightweight infantry support vehicle to the T-29 main battle tanks. They were armed with a 30-mm autocannon, four anti-tank missiles, a .50 caliber machine gun above the commander’s hatch, and had the capacity to hold twelve infantry soldiers inside. In contrast, the T-29 main battle tank had a 135-mm cannon able to penetrate the American M1A4 and M1A5’s armor (as well as the new formidable Pershing tanks), but only carried a crew of three: the driver, gunner and tank commander. The T-29 made use of an auto-loader system, similar to the ones that the Chinese and Russian tanks used. This would be their first operational fielding of the new tank round. If it worked well, then it would go into full production and be disseminated to the European front, which was much more of a tank war than Alaska.

As the column of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) continued to race down the roads heading towards City Hall, word must have gotten around; as they crossed the Los Angeles River on East 1st street, they saw half a dozen police cars and several SWAT vehicles blocking the road. Speaking quickly into his headset, Colonel Ota ordered, “Lead vehicle, engage the SWAT trucks with your main gun and continue through the roadblock on your way to south Spring street and City Hall.”

He also radioed his infantry commander. “Have your fighting vehicles engage the road block. I want your last three vehicles in the column to stop, dismount their infantry and clear the rest of the intersection. We need to keep the road clear for additional reinforcements.”

The fighting at the intersection was brief and fierce; the column slowed down to 10 mph as they changed formations from a single file line to an arrowhead with three tanks, followed by three infantry fighting vehicles and then the rest of the group staying in a single file column. The tanks and IFVs used their heavy machine guns to fire on the police and SWAT vehicles and quickly decimated all that was before them, shredding the police officers instantly. None of the lead vehicles had to open up the hatches for the infantry to emerge, and they took no casualties in the brief engagement before plowing through the burning vehicles, continuing their way to City Hall.

Colonel Ota climbed back up through the commander’s hatch again so he could have a better field of view. He looked back briefly at the armored vehicles behind him and saw the black smoke of the vehicles they had just destroyed start to rise into the sky, marking their brief engagement. For nearly a mile, his armored column stretched across the city as they moved quickly through the highway and streets of LA.

Chapter 4

Bring Me to Your Leader

24 December 2041

Los Angeles, California

City Hall, Mayor’s Office

Mayor Jose Perez had been the mayor of LA for nearly twenty years. He was not a fan of President Stein; however, he did have to agree that the President had really turned the country’s economy around and that newfound prosperity had greatly benefited his city. In addition, despite the fact that Perez was a lifelong Democrat, the President had been nothing but professional and courteous when dealing with him. He had made many critical infrastructures projects in L.A. a key priority, and had agreed to include several high-speed rail projects in Southern California, with several of them running through LA.

Where he and the President diverged was their opinions concerning the direction of the war and the choice to annex Mexico.  L.A. had been the victim of several large terrorist attacks: there was the one that destroyed the police headquarters, the attack against the Universal Studios complex, and several wildfires in and around L.A. county that were most likely arson. Mayor Perez agreed something needed to be done, but was utterly appalled by the President’s nuclear response to the destruction of New York and Baltimore. He was concerned the President’s aggressive actions would bring more countries into the war (and not on America’s side). As the casualty reports began to roll in, the invasion in Alaska began to really frighten him. Tens of thousands of young men and women were being killed each month and it appeared America was losing. He feared the Freedom Party was going to be the death of America.

On this particular day, Jose was frantically trying to finish up some urgent business at the office before he could leave and go home to be with his family for the rest of the holiday. He was doing his best to speed things up so that he could get home to his wife and his German Shepherd, but then his computer started acting up. While he waited for it to restart, he sighed, grabbed his cup of coffee, and flipped on the local news channel. “We are receiving reports of a massive cyber-attack underway against the Pentagon--”

Suddenly, the TV program cut off. It was nothing but static. “Huh, that’s strange,” he thought. “Let me check another channel.”

Before he could hit the menu button on the remote, someone knocked on his door. “Come in,” he said, and placed his coffee back on his desk.

In walked one of his security guards, his police liaison officer and a Homeland Security rep. that he barely knew, Agent Quick. They wasted no time on chit-chat; Agent Quick blurted out, “Mr. Mayor, I have just received a warning from Washington that the Department of Defense communication system has been temporarily disabled. Just before our communications were cut off, I was told a Chinese airborne force was heading towards San Diego.” He fidgeted while he spoke, like someone who has had one too many cups of coffee.

Police Liaison Officer Jayko didn’t wait for a response to Agent Quick’s information; he knew that the mayor would be very concerned with his intel as well, so he just jumped right in, “Mr. Mayor, we have received confirmation from local officers of gunfire taking place at the ports and at LAX International.

Mayor Perez felt his brainwaves overloading as he tried to process everything he had just been told. For a moment, he looked from one man to the other, then he held up his hand. “Obviously, this all needs prompt attention, but right now, I’d really like to hear more from Officer Jayko about what is going on at the ports.”

“Yes, Sir. One of our officers reported seeing dozens of military vehicles and soldiers being offloaded from numerous cargo container ships at the Port of L.A. and the Port of Long Beach. Another officer reported seeing dozens of what appeared to be tanks being driven off a large vehicle transport ship.”

“Do we have any intel on what they appear to be doing now? Can we tell whose troops they are?” asked the mayor, wringing his hands.

Officer Jayko was distracted; he had cocked his head to one side and appeared to be listening in his earbuds to one of his police units talking on the radio. All the color suddenly left Officer Jayko’s face. “Sir, the group of armored vehicles just left the port and attacked several police officers in the area. They opened fire with machine guns and tank cannons--it is unknown if any of them survived.”

The room was deadly silent as the reality of the situation sunk in. The mayor was the first to speak. “We need to find out where those vehicles are going. We also need to get the police assembled to respond to this threat. Agent Quick, are there any government troops or forces in the area that can assist us?”

The DHS Agent instinctively grabbed his phone to try to place a call and quickly realized that the phone systems were still down. “Sir, it would appear the phone system is not in operation. I’m not sure we can let anyone know what is going on right now.”

Mayor Perez felt that the agent had not adequately answered his question so he asked again. “Agent, are there any government forces in the area that can help us right now?” His voice grew louder and more agitated as he spoke.

Agent Quick looked up at the mayor as if this was the first time he had heard the question. “Um, yes sir, there are troops in the area,” he replied. Turning to Officer Jayko, Quick continued, “If one of your officers can get a message to the base commander at the LA Barracks, he can alert the Air Force base there. They can send an emergency message via the UHF radios to other military bases in the area. We also have some Marines and Navy Seabees at Port Hueneme and Point Magu, near Ventura,” Quick explained, regaining his composure.

Mayor Perez seized on this glimpse of hope. “Officer Jayko, get a message to the Police Command Center to send a messenger over to the base and request assistance. Also, ask if they can send any forces to the mayor’s office while we try to coordinate some sort of defense,” he directed.

“Yes, Sir,” he replied. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said as he began talking to his counterparts in the police through his radio earpiece, turning his body to the side to concentrate on the conversation.

While Officer Jayko was talking, Jose paused for just a few seconds, wading through the sea of thousands of conflicting thoughts. Suddenly, an idea came to him, and he signaled to get Jayko’s attention. “We also need to send an emergency message throughout the city, telling people to stay indoors,” he ordered.

“Copy that,” Officer Jayko responded, then continued talking on the radio.

When he had completed his exchange, he turned back towards the mayor. “Sir, I was able to speak with the police chief; he said they are calling in every available officer they have and are sending them to City Hall and try to organize some sort of defense.”

As the mayor and the various law enforcement officials in the city scrambled to organize some sort of defense of the city, the Japanese and Chinese soldiers and their armored convoy continued to head towards City Hall, shooting and killing anyone that got in their way.

Chapter 5

Bird or Plane?

24 December 2041

Catalina Island, California

After the destruction of the Seventh Fleet at Pearl Harbor and Japan, the U.S. Navy was concerned that the PLAN might be able to move ships close to the West Coast and attack the naval facilities and critical infrastructure along the shoreline. They identified thirty positions where anti-ship railguns systems could be built to deter any coastal approach by the PLAN; they could also be used to shoot down any incoming cruise missiles. Battery Twenty-Six on Catalina Island was part of this series of railguns emplaced around the various approaches to Los Angeles.

The sailors at Battery Twenty-Six were busily manning their positions, like any other day. Seaman Paul Rodgers was coming on his shift, relieving the night guard, when he suddenly heard some loud explosions in the distance.

“What was that?” exclaimed Seaman Arturo Gomez, the night guard.

“I don’t know…let’s find out,” Rodgers replied. The two men scanned the coast around them for signs of any kind of smoke or unusual action.

Gomez finally asserted, “It must be coming from L.A. There is no sign of activity here on Catalina Island.”

Rodgers moved his head like a dog listening to a strange noise, then interjected, “Hey, do you hear that? It sounds like helicopters.”

The two men put their hands above their eyes to block the sun and see if they could try to catch a glimpse of where the sound was coming from. In the distance, there were indeed a few choppers on the horizon.

“Is that a Japanese flag?” Gomez asked. “That seems a bit odd. Why would they be out here?”

“Hey--they just turned to head towards our facility,” Rodgers stammered, confusion in his voice.

“What the--Rodgers, they are coming in for an attack run!” He slapped the warning alarm button on the wall next to him in the guard tower, and they both grabbed their weapons. Seconds later, the tower was completely ripped apart by the nose gun of the incoming helicopter. As the chopper continued on, it launched a few missiles at the railguns.

In less than a minute, the two helicopters moved further down the island to the next gun position. In mere moments, they had succeeded in destroying the two anti-ship railguns at their fortified position. As they moved to attack the next railgun site on the island, the crew was prepared for an incoming attack. One of the sailors reacted quickly, and fired off one of the shoulder-mounted surface-to-air-missiles. The projectile whistled violently into the air, hitting one of the Japanese helicopters just as the gunner onboard fired one of his own missiles. The other JDF helicopter launched three missiles at the Americans and then quickly ducked behind a bend in the terrain, preventing the sailors from counter-attacking. With the cat out of the bag, it was going to be a lot harder taking out the remaining gun positions.

Within an hour of the first attack, five other groups of attack helicopters had destroyed their targets, reducing the number of anti-ship railgun positions along the coast from thirty to just six (only sacrificing seven helicopters for their efforts). Those six railgun sites would be targeted by a small contingent of PLA Special Forces, which had been offloaded at the Port of LA. The JDF needed to destroy all the gun batteries before fleets and transports started their seaborne approach to LA and San Diego. The next twelve hours were going to be critical to the success of the seaborne invasion.

Chapter 6

This Is a Test

24 December 2041

Los Angeles, California

NBC Broadcasting Office

The Los Angeles police department was the first to arrive at the scene. As they were unsure of what they would meet there, they decided to send in a SWAT team in full tactical gear. The receptionist at the desk, a man in his mid-twenties with spiked hair and trendy clothing, had possibly never seen a gun except on TV; he screamed like a four-year-old girl when they entered the building. One of the SWAT guys put his finger to his lips as if to say. “Shhh,” and then walked over to him.

“Sir, have any soldiers entered the building before us?” asked the officer.

The man fanned himself for a second, then stammered, “Uh, uh, no. You guys are the only ones with guns here.”

“Ok, look, we advise you to evacuate the building as quickly and as orderly as possible. Please put your protocol in effect for a fire or a bomb threat so that everyone will leave with the least amount of panic. Advise everyone to take back streets and not freeways and find a safe spot to shelter in place. They might need to stay indoors for a few days.”

The man was now sweating profusely. He grabbed a swig from a bottle of water. “What in the world is going on?” he screeched.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I honestly don’t have time to explain. I need to know which floor the Emergency Alert System broadcasts from.”

“Uh, uh, the fifth floor.”

“Thank you,” he replied. The officer waved over a couple of security guards to loop them in on evacuating the building, and then he joined his colleagues, who had already hopped the turnstiles for security badge entrance. They knew that during a fire or bomb threat protocol, everyone would be headed down the stairs, so they all piled into two elevators and headed up to the 5th Floor.

As the elevators continued upwards, they could hear the speaker overhead forcefully announce, “Attention! There has been a bomb threat. Please proceed to the stairs and exit as orderly as possible. You are advised to proceed by back roads to the nearest safe location and shelter in place. This is not a drill!”

One of the guys in the elevator chuckled, “That must have been one of the security guards, because I don’t think that dude at the front desk could have managed that.”

They all laughed for a second. Then the elevator beeped for the fifth floor, and they all went right back to game face.

The doors were opening slowly for some reason. They could hear two men arguing. “There is no way this is real. It is never real! I’m taking the elevator.”

“I’m telling you, I’ve been here fifteen years and I’ve never heard them announce it that way--”

At the sight of the SWAT team, both men looked at each other and quickly spoke at the same time, “Let’s take the stairs.” They were gone before you could blink.

The officers made their way down the hall. One young woman, who had been carrying a very large armful of scripts, panicked when she saw the SWAT team headed towards her and created a paper waterfall all over the floor. She turned and ran.

The SWAT team continued advancing, and finally located the room marked “Emergency Alert System.”

Several team members stationed themselves by the door, grabbing desks and other furniture to give them some cover if needed. A few more SWAT members picked strategic places along the hall to defend their position. Only three of them went inside.

“Ok, Rita, where’s those instructions?” asked Ben, one of her colleagues.

Pulling papers out of her pocket, Rita replied, “I’ve got it right here.”

The three of them started to get to work changing settings on the various equipment. A knob here, a switch there—a few minutes later, everything was ready. They started to record their message.

“This is not a test. Los Angeles is under attack by foreign armies. Go indoors and stay inside until further notice--”

Gun shots were fired down the hall. They paused the recording and grabbed their guns.

“We’ve got hostiles!” shouted one of the guys outside. “They keep coming! Get ready for a party!”

Rita and her two colleagues took cover behind a desk. The noises outside got louder and louder. First there was a crescendo of flying bullets. Then someone from the SWAT team must have thrown a grenade, because there was a very loud explosion down the hall. Then there was a very loud hissing sound. Rita got as low as she could to peer underneath the legs of the desk. A large cloud of smoke was crawling along the floor toward her.

“Cover your mouths!” she cried.

As the gas continued to advance into the recording studio, all three of them suddenly started coughing and sneezing. Everything burned. “My eyes!” yelled Ben, wiping frantically at tears streaming down his face.

All the other noises suddenly stopped, and what was left was a chorus of coughing and groans of agony. A team of Japanese soldiers with gas masks walked into the room, completely unaffected by the tear gas in the air. The SWAT team members were too incapacitated to fight back, so they lifted their hands in surrender. The JDF zip-tied their arms behind their back and moved them downstairs--they were prisoners of war now. The soldiers broke the windows open and waited for the smoke to dissipate. They had their own message to record.

Chapter 7

Convergence

24 December 2041

Pacific Ocean, 200 miles East of the Japanese Fleet in Hawaii

The Japanese were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Major Cruse’s group, Angels’ Flight, made up of F-41 Archangels. They could have a fighting chance against them, but it would all depend on the Americans playing into their little ruse. Most stealth fighter planes do not engage their radar, because doing so would make them visible to other planes in the area; instead, they usually utilize the services of Navy ships with high-powered radar or dedicated planes that fly above to send verbal messages to them when an enemy is spotted (commonly referred to as AWACs). The JDF needed the Americans to believe that they would be functioning as their AWACs in order to get them to share their GPS locations and make them an easy target.

Katoshi Abe, one of the JDF radar officers, established connection with Major Cruse in an effort to finalize this plan. “Angels’ Flight, this is Aries Five. We are going to be your airborne radar and controller. Please acknowledge.”

“Aries Five, this is Major Cruse, Angels’ Flight. We acknowledge; can you please send us a view of the region?” Without their radar on, Major Cruse and his flight really had no idea of what was in the area.

The AWAC operator send them a datalink showing a large group of PLAN aircraft starting to assemble over their fleet, probably preparing to attack the JDF fleet again. It looked like a squadron of F35s from the JDF fleet were assembling to help the Americans engage them as well.

“Angels’ Flight, you are directed to link up with the F35s and provide air support and missile defense for the fleet. Please acknowledge,” said the Japanese radar operator.

“I acknowledge. Angels’ Flight moving to join the fleet defense; please keep us updated with radar images.” Major Cruse wanted to ensure they had a steady datalink of what the AWACs were seeing in real-time. As they moved closer to the Japanese fleet, they could see a lot of dark smoke coming from the fleet location. Without having any reason to be suspicious at this point, Major Cruse assumed that the smoke was from battle damage the fleet had suffered (instead, the JDF fleet was busy generating black smoke in order to make it appear that they had been damaged).

Cruse addressed his flight, knowing that his enthusiastic fighter jocks were itching for a fight. “All right, listen up guys, we are going to provide missile defense for the fleet down there; you can see they already took a lot of hits, so let’s do our best to make sure they don’t take any more. Also, if you can get a shot off at any of the PLAN aircraft that get in range, take it. Let’s move Angels, and make these guys pay.”

As they moved into position, Major Cruse saw F35s moving forward; he assumed they were there to engage the PLAN aircraft as they maneuvered to their own positions. Unknown to him, as they continued forward, another flight of F35s took off from the carrier below and maneuvered behind them. Suddenly, without warning, the F35s fired multiple missiles at them. Within milliseconds, several of the ships below them launched rockets at them as well.

Major Cruse’s missile alarms were jarringly loud, jolting him into a reality that he never imagined. The electronic countermeasures on his F41 turned on automatically and performed minor technological miracles to try and jam the enemy missiles. When Cruse regained his senses, he frantically radioed his flight, “Angel Flight, this was a trap! Try to get away and fly back to the rally point two-hundred miles away!”

As Major Cruse began to engage his EmDrive, his aircraft shook ferociously; he had been hit by one of the F35’s machine guns. He turned his aircraft hard and went to maximum speed just as several missiles whistled past his aircraft. He activated his rear-view camera so that he could look at the scene behind him as he flew away; he almost immediately regretted this decision because he witnessed three of his fighter pilots murdered in the blazing flames created by the missile swarms. Another one of the Archangels took several hits and began to smoke badly as it spiraled down to the sea; fortunately, he did see the pilot eject, and the chute opened. However, if he were not killed by the Japanese, he would become a prisoner of war, which was not a fate he wished upon anyone. Only one other F41 was able to escape the fray and join him at the rally point. Stunned, they immediately terminated their links with the JDF fleet and AWACs.

“What the blazes just happened, Cruiser? They just blew our guys right out of the air!” exclaimed Flapjack, the only other pilot to escape.

“I have no idea--I think my aircraft is hit, but I’m not showing any warning signs. Do you see any damage?” asked Major Cruse, concerned that his aircraft might not make it back home.

Scanning Major Cruse’s aircraft, Flapjack replied, “I see a couple of bullet holes along the wing, but it does not look like they hit anything critical. I’d suggest that you not go hypersonic right now though, just in case it might rip the wing off.”

Cruiser signed in relief.

“Can we go back and engage those guys? We can easily take out a lot of those JDF fighters.”

Major Cruse took a second to think through his response. “No, we need to head back to base and quick. Without an AWACs, we have to light up our radars to see them. The last thing I want to do is let the PLAN and JDF know our location again. Our advantage has always been our speed and ability to go unseen.”

Major Cruse was still a little stunned and shaken by what had just transpired, and it occurred to him that he could have died. That was the closest he had ever come to being blown up or shot down, and it really rattled him. For a moment, he was lost in his thoughts before he could focus on the task at hand. A world passed by in a moment before he resumed giving out orders. “We need to get a message back to headquarters of what just happened. They need to know that the JDF fleet is hostile, that we lost four F41s, and we are now returning back to the base.”

“Major, if they can get an AWAC up over California, I could stay airborne and try to reengage them,” replied Flapjack, eager for revenge.

“No Captain,” replied Cruse. “I won’t allow you to go back on your own…that would be a suicide mission. We’ve lost enough men today.”

Chapter 8

Don’t Shoot the Messenger

24 December 2041

Los Angeles, California

L.A. Barracks

The base at L.A. Barracks was quite small; over the last few decades it had been cut down until it became a research station that held only about 350 men and women. Despite its small capacity, this little gated community unknowingly shined as the only real beacon of hope in rallying a military response to the invasion.

The guard at the gate spotted a police squad car driving a little too fast towards their entrance, and became alarmed that someone might have stolen the car to try to ram the front access point. He flashed a light at the car, and it slowed down mere milliseconds before he pushed the button to release the cement anti-ramming barriers. The cop car screeched to a halt, and the police officer inside started yelling frantically at the guard.

“I need to get to a UHF radio NOW! There is a foreign army invading Los Angeles!”

The guard was too stunned to respond for a moment. He started to mumble something about needing to see the officer’s ID, and the cop got a little agitated.

“--Look, I know you need to do your job. Here’s my badge, but you need to let me in!” He threw his badge at the guard.

The guard was practically in a trance, but hit the button to lift the divider so that the squad car could go through.

“Thank you. Now where can I find a UHF radio in here?” the officer bellowed.

“Umm, if you go to this first building on the right, someone there on the first floor should have one,” the guard stammered.

“Great,” said the officer, calming down. “You might want to call your boss. Pretty sure you guys are going to need back-up really soon.”

He sped off down the road, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. When he arrived at the outdated building in front of him, covered in peeling paint, the officer didn’t waste any time. He ran up to the first soldier he found. “Ma’am! Ma’am!” he yelled, waving his arms. “I need a UHF, as fast as you can get me to one! L.A. is under attack!”

She was startled, but ushered him to a room nearby where all the coms were. “What in the world is going on?” she asked as she messed with the buttons to get the UHF radio ready to go.

“I’m sorry, but there’s really just no time,” the cop shot back.

A loud explosion ripped through the air, coming from the direction of the gate. “Oh, for the love--are they really here already?” the officer quipped. “We don’t have much time. You might want to grab a weapon,” he directed, pulling his own gun from his holster.

“About that…most of us here on base aren’t armed,” the soldier responded. “You wouldn’t happen to have an extra, would you?” she asked.

The police officer grabbed the piece from his ankle holster and handed it to his newfound comrade-in-arms. The sound of gunfire increased in volume, filling the air like a bad garage drummer.

The conflict did not last long. The Japanese and Chinese forces overwhelmed the small base with several tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. They barely met any resistance. The police officer did manage to get out a short message to Camp Pendleton and Twenty-Nine Palms to let them know that the city and the ports were under attack by a foreign army, but he did not make it through the ensuing shootout.

Chapter 9

Delayed Mobilization

24 December 2041

Twenty-Nine Palms, California

Third Army Headquarters

General Gardner’s helicopter was approaching Twenty-Nine Palms Marine base and all they could see was chaos on the ground. Several long lines of armored vehicles and tanks could be seen lining up along the main gate, getting ready to move out. Marines were running everywhere, checking equipment, loading water and other supplies they were going to need as they moved quickly to get their force on the road. As Gardner’s helicopter landed, a Marine Colonel walked forward snapping a quick salute, then guided the general towards a waiting vehicle that would take them to see Lieutenant General (LTG) Peeler, the Marine Commander on the West Coast and the Commanding General for the Third Marines.

As the vehicle moved throughout the base towards the command center, General Gardner still did not fully understand what was going on. The intelligence they were getting was spotty at best. One report said that the PLAN had snuck several container ships and roll-on roll-off ships into the Port of LA and Long Beach, while another said the soldiers appeared to be Japanese. A third report he received gave an account that Japanese naval task force that was attacking the PLAN fleet outside of Hawaii was mauled and retreating to LA for coastal protection. A fourth account relayed that PLA airborne troopers were heading to San Diego along with a large contingent of PLAAF fighters. He wasn’t sure what was true and what wasn’t at this point. All these conflicting reports had led to a delayed response time in going to San Diego--they had already sent the order to leave and then called everyone to stay twice.

“Sir!” a voice rang out. “You need to come to the operations center. I’ve just received word from the flight of F41s that went to Hawaii. Major Cruse says that they were ambushed by the Japanese. Four of their six aircraft were shot down!”

General Gardner was troubled; they were still only able to use the UHF radios and microwave systems while the tech guys tried to figure out how to bring their digital communications back online. He rushed over to see if he could gain anything more from a firsthand account.

As General Gardner walked into the operations center, the Marine guards snapped a salute and opened the sealed doors. LTG Peeler looked up and waved for General Gardner to come to him urgently. “Sir, I’m talking with Major Cruse from the F41 flight that was tasked with coming to the Japanese aid. You need to hear this. Major Cruse, General Gardner has just arrived. Can you relay what you saw again,” requested General Peeler.

General Gardner leaned towards the microphone as one of the communications NCOs switched it over to speakerphone, signaling for the general to speak towards it. “Major Cruse, this is General Gardner. I’m the Third Army Commander and the Commanding General in California. I need a frank assessment of what is going on,” Gardner said in his usual gruff tone.

Major Cruse was a bit taken back for a second. He was just talking to a Lieutenant General, and now he was talking directly to “the” General Gardner. Gardner was a living legend in the military--he was on the frontlines of defeating the IR, Chinese and Russians in the Middle East. He shrugged off this star struck moment to respond. “Yes, General. My flight had been coordinating our actions with the JDF task force. They told us that they had sent a squadron of F35s up to attack the PLAN fleet, and the PLAN had also sent aircraft up to meet them, so we thought everything was normal. As we were approaching, another flight of F35s took off from one of the carriers and maneuvered in behind us. Then without warning, they fired on us. Four of my fighters were blown up before they had a chance to respond. Only two of us got away. We would have stayed and attacked them, but we had no AWAC support to guide us to our targets or share their radar screens. If we activated our radars it would give away our positions to both fleets.”

“Major, you did the right thing; your aircraft are too valuable to lose in a futile effort like that. I am sorry your men were ambushed like that. From your firsthand account and some of the other reports we are getting, it would appear the Japanese have betrayed us and joined the Chinese. Any additional information you can provide us, Major?” asked General Gardner in a much softer tone.

Thinking for a minute, he responded, “Yes, Sir. Just prior to the attack and throughout the engagement, my aircraft recorded the events. I can’t transmit it because the digital communications system is still down, but we have the footage of the fleet and what transpired,” Cruse said with some optimism that they may still be able to help.

The intelligence officers (and, in particular, the navy liaison officer with Gardner’s staff) indicated that this would be extremely valuable. “Major Cruse, can your aircraft divert and land here at Twenty-Nine Palms? We need that video immediately!”

“Yes, Sir. We are about twenty minutes away.”

“Major, before we discontinue this call, I want you to fly over Catalina Island, the Port of LA and the rest of the way to Twenty-Nine Palms. Fly low and slow enough so we can get some good images, but do not let your aircraft get targeted or destroyed. Understand?” inquired Gardner. He was hoping to obtain as much visual intelligence as possible.

“Yes, Sir. We’ll be at the base in less than twenty minutes with your images,” Cruse said, signing off.

He angled his aircraft to get a better vantage point for their cameras. The F41s’ cameras had been set up to record engagements for future training purposes and to help with identifying their kills; Major Cruse was very grateful in this moment that they existed.  He broadened the camera view; they could see a wide view of the ground below as they flew a little lower and slower over the areas of interest to record what they were seeing. The images could be played back in slow motion or frame-by-frame. Once they were cleaned up, they would provide invaluable intelligence of what was going on.

Back on the ground, LTG Peeler was in the middle of stating the obvious. “General Gardner, if the Japanese have joined the Chinese, then we are in a lot of trouble on the West Coast.”

General Gardner was lost in thought for a moment.  “The Japanese let the PLA hackers use their link with our defense communications to launch a cyber-attack on our systems. Then the Japanese docked dozens of freighters, carrying troops, tanks and other armored vehicles. The PLA is landing an airborne force near San Diego, and right now, we have no navy ships to stop any of it.”

Snapping out of this depressing moment, Gardner sprang into action. “General Peeler--first, what is the status of the Marines at Pendleton? Are they on the road to San Diego to meet that PLA airborne force? Second, how soon are your Marines here going to be able to move on LA and engage the Japanese and PLA forces?”

LTG Peeler looked at one of his logistics officers, who quickly brought up the blue force tracker showing the progress of the Pendleton Marines. “They are nearly ready to leave to their base. They will engage the paratroopers shortly, probably after they have landed; it’s taken some time for them to get everyone assembled and get their equipment ready. As to the Marines here, they are rolling out of here in twenty minutes. I already have eight scout platoons on their way to LA and the surrounding area to start gathering information. I’m not sure of enemy air defense capabilities yet, so I’m holding my Razorbacks in reserve to support my Marines when they need them,” Peeler said as other Marines brought in even more information reports from the scouts.

After a couple of quick minutes, LTG Peeler handed the reports over to General Gardner, saying, “The scouts identified a number of air defense vehicles and missile systems around the port area and moving to a couple of other strategic positions. An armored convoy was also spotted heading towards City Hall in the downtown area. We got a short message from the LA Barracks that they were under attack as well before the message cut out. The radio operator said they could hear a lot of shooting in the background. Another report spotted nearly a dozen attack helicopters moving to various positions along the coast and to Catalina Island. One of the scout platoons reported one of the helicopters attacking one of our anti-ship gun batteries.”

“This is not good, Peeler. We need to do what we can to protect those gun positions. If they all go down, it will leave the entire coast open to a seaborne invasion,” Gardner said as he waved a hand across the map of Southern California.

“Does anyone know when we are going to get our communications back again?” blurted out a frustrated colonel nearby to no one in particular.

A young-looking Marine sergeant sitting near a bank of computers overheard the remark and responded, “Colonel, I believe we may have the communications system up shortly. I am in contact with a hacker team at the NSA right now on my computer, and we are working on isolating the malware and rerouting some of the data links and ports. After we finish rerouting one more port, NSA is going to restart the system. It will take about twenty minutes to reboot, and maybe another thirty or so minutes to verify that the malware has been isolated and we should be back up and running.”

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became a bit more optimistic about things. With communications back up and running, they would be able to coordinate the ground and air operations a lot more effectively. The older radio systems were still working, but they were a lot less effective. There was no way to send videos or other large packets of information, and they were more susceptible to jamming. Also, the newer military vehicles and aircraft did not come equipped with them. Still, right now, they were the only thing keeping the DOD up and running while the NSA and US Cyber Command worked to remove the malware that had taken down the digital system.

Chapter 10

Reckoning

24 December 2041

Los Angeles, California

City Hall, Mayor’s Office

Jose was nervous. Cell phones were still down; he had no way to contact his wife. He peeked out the blinds; a group of squad cars was now parked outside his building, creating a blockade.

The mayor turned to Officer Jayko. “So, are our defenses here all set up then?” he asked.

“As best as they can be under the circumstances, yes Sir,” he replied.

Mayor Perez paced back and forth nervously. Minutes that seemed like hours melted along. Jose was lost in thought. “Is there anything else that I can do right now? What am I forgetting?” he wondered.

A loud pop broke the silence. To Jose it sounded like a car backfiring. He rushed to the window to see what it was. He was greeted by the unpleasant sight of Japanese and Chinese infantry fighting vehicles and tanks, rushing towards his position. That initial pop was followed by several more as each side began to open fire.

“Sir, get down!” yelled Officer Jayko, grabbing the mayor and pulling him to the floor.

Just as he was hitting the deck, the mayor saw a rocket being launched towards the police officers below. The building shook as the projectile exploded. Jose shuddered; the police were clearly outgunned.

The mayor was not a particularly religious person; he hadn’t been to church except for Christmas and Easter in a very long time. However, in that moment, he realized that it was very likely that his death was imminent, and he began to pray fervently for forgiveness. Then he grabbed a pen and wrote a quick note to his wife. “Querida, I know that I have not been the man that you deserve, but I do love you with my whole heart. I want for you to be happy in this life.” There was so much more to say, but he just couldn’t think of the words. This would have to do. He put the note in his pocket.

There was a long, raucous pause. The curiosity in Jose wanted to know what was going on, but at the same time, he was just trying to block everything out.

The noises got closer. It sounded like there might be gunfire down the hall. The mayor checked his surroundings; he was already situated behind a desk. He reached up and grabbed a lamp to use as a weapon. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Everything else faded away for a moment.

The JDF had been outside the office door, unable to enter because of the barricade of furniture that Officer Jayko and his colleagues had put in front of the door. Finally, someone came up the stairs with a battering ram, and they were inside within mere seconds.

Officer Jayko managed to take out two of the Japanese soldiers immediately as they entered the door. He ducked lower behind the desk as they returned fire. One of the other police officers popped up from behind the mayor’s armchair long enough to get off a couple of shots; he managed to severely injure two Japanese soldiers, but he paid for it with his life. His limp body slumped down next to the mayor.

Adrenaline flooded through Mayor Perez’s veins, but he was strangely very focused. As the JDF soldiers suddenly surrounded him, guns pointed at him, he knew one thing--he wasn’t going down without a fight.

Jose grabbed the gun from the fallen police officer next to him and shot at the closest Japanese soldier. Somehow, even though he had never fired a gun in his life, he managed to hit the soldier in the head. It was his last and final act. The JDF opened fire, and he was gone.

Chapter 11

Feel the Heat

24 December 2041

Pacific Ocean, approaching the West Coast

Admiral Kawano was about to rip someone a new one. He had made the order to launch those cruise missiles at the Marines in Camp Pendleton hours ago, but clearly, they hadn’t been fired yet. He hated it when he had to repeat instructions. He stormed over to the room where the coordinates were inputted, and opened the door abruptly. Before he could yell at any of his men, one of his officers stepped forward, bowed hurriedly and then held out his hand in front of him as if to say, “Wait.”

“Sir, I know, the missiles have not been launched. However, your orders specifically stated that we were to wait until the Marines mobilized so that we could catch them out in the open, and all of our intelligence shows that they haven’t moved out yet. We don’t know why they are delayed. Do you want us to change the order?”

The admiral let out a deep breath. His rage had simmered down slightly, but he was still aggravated. Now that he was a little less irate, he pulled the officer aside and spoke to him quietly so that he could save face with his men.

“Why didn’t you come to give me an update on the status of the launch?”

“Sir, I am deeply sorry, and I humbly apologize. There was an error in the targeting system as well, and I was very focused on fixing that issue so that when our intelligence changed, we could launch the cruise missiles immediately. We had only gotten that system online recently. I admit that I lost track of time,” he said, hanging his head low.

The Admiral did not want to kick a wounded puppy. “Apology received. Next time, just keep me more up-to-date if there are delays.”

“Yes sir,” replied the officer, clearly relieved to have been spared humiliation in front of his men.

“Carry on,” responded the Admiral, more loudly so this time his fellow soldiers would hear. Then he walked out of the room and got back to other tasks at hand.

Chapter 12

Planes, Trains, and Taxicabs

O’Hare International Airport

Flight 7975, Tokyo, Japan to Chicago, IL

As Flight 7975 was following their taxi-way directions to the airport terminal, the men of the second battalion of the Japanese Special Forces Group (SFGp) prepared their body armor and weapons for what was certain to be a quick and ferocious engagement once they docked at the terminal. The Company Commander, Katsu Saito, gathered the four platoon leaders together at the front of the plane, and then waved to get everyone’s attention. The men immediately went silent.

“Ok everyone, let’s review the plan one last time. Platoon One, you will head to the cargo deck of the aircraft and begin offloading all the weapons, equipment and munitions. Several vans will be waiting for us, so just load everything directly into the vans. Then you are to proceed directly to our designated safe houses and secure everything there.”

“Yes Sir,” replied Platoon One in unison.

“The rest of the company will break into several assault groups. Squad Two, you are going to head down the tarmac and begin throwing grenades into the engines of every plane that is currently docked at one of the terminals. Cause as much havoc and chaos as you can, then make a break for the Arrivals Deck and jump into the vans that will be waiting to take you to our safe houses.”

“Yes Sir,” came the refrain.

“Squad Three--I want you to move swiftly through the airport terminals and then find your way towards the parking garages. Shoot any security personnel that get in your way; however, your goal is not to kill as many people as possible. Your goal is to get out of the airport as quickly as is feasible. You are going to split into four-man teams and head towards a new set of drop cars several miles away from the airport. Change your uniforms right away so that you can blend into the population, and then prepare for your sabotage operations against the American infrastructure. When you are finished, you will hopefully have destroyed or disrupted all of the major bridges, overpasses, railroads and distribution centers within a several hundred-mile radius of Chicago.”

“Yes, Sir,” came the reply.

“By distracting the American response on the tarmac with the grenades, and also in the terminal, we should ensure that those offloading our supplies are able to move all of our equipment with relatively little interference. If we have enough weaponry and fighters that make it through unharmed, our success today will mean triumph for many months to come.”

By the time the aircraft finally docked, the room was filled with adrenaline and anticipation. As the door was being unlocked, the men inside the aircraft began to line up, ready to rush through the open doorway. Timing was going to be everything; they needed to bust out of the airport quickly and not get bogged down by security. The Americans had beefed up their defenses at the major airports when the war started, and there were more than enough police and security personnel at O’Hare to stop his group if they did not move quickly.

The first several men pushed their way through the exit, throwing the stunned ticketing agent to the ground. She screamed at the sight of men carrying guns, until one of the men punched her in the face to silence her.

As Sergeant Hiro quickly moved off the gangway, he emerged to find a waiting area full of stunned and surprised Americans waiting for the plane to de-board. He did as he was instructed and spoke loudly and clearly in English, saying, “This is a terrorism drill. Everyone remain calm, and get down on the floor.” At first, the people were stunned, but as additional members of the group emerged from the gangway, people began to comply. The DHS patches on their body armor seemed to be giving them the authority that they needed in that moment to avoid a massive shootout.

Other people who had not heard his instructions saw men with guns and began to scream. Most people instinctively dropped to the ground with their hands up or over their heads just hoping they were not going to die. The team moved quickly through the international section of the airport without encountering any resistance. Then, as they walked around the corner, two Chicago police officers loaded with full body armor and assault rifles saw them. The officers must have heard some of the screams.

Upon seeing the officers, two JDF soldiers immediately opened fire, hitting one of them several times in the chest and knocking him to the ground. They missed the second one entirely, and he quickly took cover. The police officer who had been hit was lucky that he was wearing body armor; the rounds didn’t pierce through, and he was able to quickly recover enough from the force of impact to raise his own rifle and take aim at the JDF soldiers. His bullet found its way to one of the Japanese fighter’s shoulders, wounding him enough that he would not be able to fire a gun. However, one of his compatriots quickly took aim at the officer’s head, taking him out of the battle.

The second police officer started shooting at the JDF team. Several Japanese soldiers began to lay down suppressive fire against the police officer’s position, allowing several other soldiers to advance closer to him. Then they switched roles, and the group that was closer to the officer began to blanket his position with bullets while the other men moved forward. Finally, they were practically on top of the police officer, and they succeeded in killing him.

During this short and violent engagement with the two police officers, nearly a dozen more TSA and Chicago police officers had converged on the position. Suddenly, they opened fire on the JDF men. Sergeant Hiro knew they needed to move so he yelled at his men, “Blanket the field with bullets!”

Then he lobbed several hand grenades in the direction of the TSA guards and police officers. Once the grenades exploded, he immediately ordered his squad, “Advance forward!”

They quickly overwhelmed the stunned guards and officers, killing them before moving forward to the security checkpoint.

At this point, bystanders were running every which way screaming in terror and just trying not to get hit. One of the TSA screeners had hit the security alarm near their station, sending out a loud emergency alert telling everyone in the airport to immediately get down on the floor; it also announced to security the last known location of the assailants. Soon, additional TSA guards and police officers were running towards the scene.

Captain Inada yelled at his men, “You need to continue to move quickly! Follow sergeant Hiro’s squad forward. We need to secure the checkpoint as fast as possible and then move to the parking garage!”

As the rest of his company moved through the checkpoint, TSA guards and police officers began to arrive from all areas of the airport; they quickly opened fire. Several of his soldiers were hit; some were killed outright while others were wounded but still able to continue fighting. They were starting to get bogged down…they needed to keep moving.

“Sergeant Hiro, have your men start throwing more grenades and lay some smoke grenades down as well!” Captain Inada yelled as he ducked behind a counter. Several rounds slammed into the wall where his head had been just moments before.

The entire squad began throwing grenades in every direction, along with several smoke grenades and a few flash bangs. Within seconds, his squad sprinted through the checkpoint with Captain Inada and the rest of the company moving quickly behind them. A few minutes later, they were at the edge of the terminal, racing quickly to the parking garage. Once they had arrived, they saw the waiting vans and began to jump into them, speeding off towards their escape.

Chapter 13

Information Overload

24 December 2041

Washington, DC

White House, Situation Room

Mike Rogers, the National Security Advisor, was receiving intelligence reports from across the country of attacks taking place by Chinese or Japanese Special Forces and complete chaos out on the West Coast. He was still trying to determine what the reports he was receiving about the Japanese all meant; they were still getting distress messages from the Japanese fleet, so the reality of the situation on the ground remained murky. The Japanese Ambassador to the United States was supposed to meet with the President shortly; hopefully, he would get some clarity after the meeting. Right now, it looked like there might be a split within the Japanese military, with some supporting the Chinese and others still supporting the Americans.

A Secret Service Agent walked up to Mr. Rogers and said, “Sir, the President would like to speak with you immediately in the Oval Office. Please come with me.” Not sure what to make of this, Mike followed the agent out of the Situation Room.

He walked in the Oval Office just as the Japanese Ambassador was being rather forcefully ushered out the door by several agents. As he turned to watch him leave, he almost ran into another group of agents that were ushering out the Indian Ambassador. Mike was confused--it just didn’t make sense for both of them to see the President at the same time.

As Mike entered the room, he looked quizzically at President Stein; he saw in his eyes the fire of burning anger and rage. Then a change came over his countenance; he took a couple of deep breaths and then he transformed into a look of intense sadness. He noticed that Henry’s hair had noticeably turned more gray, even within the last few weeks. The weight of the presidency was sitting heavily on him now.

“What’s going on, Mr. President?” asked Mike, genuinely concerned.

The President sighed deeply and then walking over to the chair behind his desk, plopping down like a man who had expended every last ounce of his energy. He closed his eyes briefly, ignoring Mike’s question for just a moment. He thought to himself, “The enemies are truly at the gate. I am not sure we can overcome them this time. We need to find a way to turn this war around. I will not be the last American President; I don’t want to be the man in charge when the country finally collapses.”

Looking up at Mike, the President signaled for him to take a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk. “No matter how bad things have gotten before, I have still maintained some hope for the future…but I just don’t know if there is a way past it all this time,” he confided.

“Sir, what just happened?” Mike probed.

The President reached in front of him to grab a couple of documents, and then passed them over to Mike for review. “This just happened,” he responded.

As he read both papers in front of him, Mike’s eyes grew wide with terror. “Sir, can this really be true? India and Japan are making a formal Declaration of War against us?”

“Those are real. It’s true,” replied President Stein solemnly.

“Sir, we need to assemble everyone right now. The Directors of the FBI, NSA, CIA and Homeland Security, the heads of the armed forces…we need to meet them at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) as quickly as they can arrive.” The PEOC had been reinforced heavily at the start of the Stein Administration and now included an underground tram system that linked it to the Pentagon and another undisclosed location in case the President and his advisors needed to leave the city in secret.

The President nodded, exhausted. He signaled to one of his agents to notify the appropriate people. Then he summoned his last remaining strength to stand up and walk out the door, headed for the upcoming meeting.

*******

A few minutes later, General Branson walked into the room to see Mike Rogers sipping a cup of coffee and the President milking a 20 ounce half frozen Red Bull, deep in thought. When Stein signaled for him to come and sit down, the general knew this was going to be a long one, so he signaled one of the aides to bring him a coffee with two sugars.

President Stein didn’t waste any time while waiting for everyone else to get there. Once the general had sat down, he began to issue orders right away, “General Branson, I do not feel Washington is as safe as it should be in light of the information I have just received. I want you to double the number of soldiers guarding the Capital.”

The general sat up even more straightly than he normally did, soaking in each word. The President continued, “I want checkpoints coming and going from the city. I also want you to issue an immediate alert across the country for our military bases to provide military protection to our key critical infrastructure points: railways, bridges, airports, power plants, dams etc. I want this ordered immediately. Please take the time right now to make the calls and make it happen. I will explain more when the others arrive,” the President said indicating he wanted these orders issued immediately.

General Branson pushed aside the coffee cup that was being brought to him as he pulled out his smart phone and began to issue the alerts and orders to the Pentagon Operation’s Room. As he did, he thought to himself, “Well, the secure network may still be down, but at least the civilian communication systems are working. I should still be able to get this up and running quickly.”

The President began to pace as they waited for everyone else to arrive. Then he stopped suddenly, and signaled to the head of his Secret Service detail. “George, how many agents do we have on duty at any given time?” asked the President.

“Sir, we have 105 agents on duty along with 85 Marines. There are also another 60 police officers outside the perimeter. Is there something I should be aware of?” asked his detail chief, with a bit of concern in his voice.

“George, I was just made aware of a new and immediate threat to our nation. I do not have credible information of a direct attack against the White House or the Capital, but I am not taking any chances. I want you to issue Threat Condition Viking and prepare the White House to repel a possible attack--not an immediate attack, but one that could happen at any possible time. Tell the Marines they are to bring in some heavily-armored vehicles; I want their presence tripled, and they should be equipped in full combat gear. Until the situation stabilizes over the next couple of weeks, I want you to be ready to repel a concerted attack.” The President was so stoic while he spoke that his face seemed to be made of stone.

A bit alarmed, his detail chief said, “Sir, I will issue the order immediately. If you feel it is this bad, perhaps we should move you to the HIVE and have you work out of there, where we know we can more easily secure your operations as well as the surrounding area.”

“If we gain more credible information, we will move. Let’s make sure we have some Razorbacks on standby. In the meantime, I do not want to go into hiding unless I absolutely have to.” the President replied.

With that, the Secret Service agent nodded, lifted his left arm to his mouth and spoke into the microphone in his sleeve. A flurry of activity began to take place all throughout the White House property.

Twenty minutes later, the Director of the FBI, Janet Smart, walked into the PEOC. Soon afterwards, the Director of Homeland Security, Jorge Perez, and Director Patrick Rubio from the CIA arrived at the same time. They were followed shortly by Attorney General Roberts. The heads of the military branches all came in as a gaggle (there was General Marcy Lynch from the Marines, General Adrian Rice of the Air Force and Admiral Juliano from the Navy--the heads of the Army and the Coast Guard would be joining the group via telecon). The last one to the party was Admiral John Casey, the new Director for the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command.

They all noticed the increased security at the White House; it would have been hard not to observe that the Marine guards were all now wearing full combat armor, and the Wolverines scattered around the grounds were rather conspicuous. Clearly, the President had increased security. The NSA Director was the one with the best inside knowledge of why the precautions were most likely being made; they had picked up some intel about the Japanese and Indian Ambassadors, and he had a reasonable theory regarding the purpose of their visit earlier.

As the group of senior advisors arrived in the PEOC briefing room, they all took their seats at the pyramid-shaped table. The President, already seated at the head, surveyed the group briefly before he began the meeting.

“Thank you everyone for rushing here to the White House. As you all can guess, something major has just happened that, once again, is going to make the war a lot more difficult to win. I have increased security at the White House, within the capital, and at major infrastructural nodes across the country, until we gain a better understanding of the new threat. I want to bring you up to speed on what has transpired these last five hours. An hour ago, I had a meeting with the Ambassadors of Japan and India, who arrived together. They each handed me an official Declaration of War against the United States. Their reasoning for why they declared war at this point is not going to change the fact that they have already taken hostile actions against our forces and our country.”

The President saw some people were surprised, others just nodded, knowing this was a possibility. “After consultation with Admiral Casey, and General Gardner out on the West Coast, we have determined that the cyber-attack that temporarily crippled our defense communications system was launched by the Chinese and Japanese cyber warfare groups via our shared communications network with the Japanese Defense Force. The JDF had worked an elaborate rouse to lure our forces into an attack on the Chinese naval forces near Hawaii. This ruse was developed over many months and we fell for it, completely.”

President Stein locked eyes with Admiral Juliano, then nodded his head, asking him to continue briefing on this point without saying anything.  The admiral nodded in acknowledgement. “It appears the Chinese, with the help of our former allies, sunk four of our five Swordfish underwater drones. Then the Japanese and Chinese fleets sank nine of our ten warships, and managed to shoot down four of our six F41 Arch Angel fighters.”

The room was so silent that the sound of each person breathing suddenly seemed loud.

Turning to Director Perez from DHS, the President asked, “Jorge, would you please bring everyone up to speed on what has transpired at several of our airports?”

Director Perez began to lay out the situation. “Gentlemen, Ladies, just before the communications blackout, several dozen commercial aircraft originating from Japan had either landed or were in the final approaches to their landing at some of our busiest international airports. Our best reports of what happened have come out of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and Hartsford-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The plane that landed in Chicago was the first one to arrive and dock at a terminal. Once there, a group of heavily armed Asian men wearing DHS uniforms emerged from the aircraft and made their way through the terminal to the parking garages, where vans were waiting for them to rush them off to what we assume are safe houses.”

Janet Smart queried, “So, to confirm, these were definitely Japanese Special Forces?”

“Yes, absolutely,” replied Jorge, pulling up a picture of a dead body next to a Japanese SFGp unit patch.

He continued, “While making their way out of the terminal, they encountered several of our airport security teams and a massive shootout followed. The police and TSA anti-terrorism groups engaged the enemy soldiers and killed several of their members, but not before taking heavy casualties themselves. Surveillance cameras and eye witness reports lead us to believe that close to 70 of the attackers did manage to escape the airport and make it to vans that were waiting for them in the parking garage. Police forces were able to intercept two of those vans before they left the property of the airport, which resulted in another shootout. They managed to keep those soldiers contained until help was able to arrive and then they finished them off.”

Mike Rogers asked, “So how many of them were killed in that shootout? I mean, I just want to know how many armed JDF guys are loose near the city of Chicago.”

“There were about a dozen soldiers in the vans that we took down, so I guess that leaves about 58 of these men still out there,” Jorge replied. He took a swig of water from the bottle in front of him, and then continued with the briefing, “After the extraordinary events that took place, the TSA agent in charge of O’Hare made a call to alert all U.S. airports and advise them to either deny the landing of all flights from Japan, or delay their arrivals to the terminals so that additional security forces could get in place. Additional quick reaction forces and police units were immediately rushed to the airports as well.”

Jorge gestured towards Admiral Rice, “We have the Air Force to thank for a huge win here.”

Rice nodded, “Yes indeed. Our fighter jets were able to intercept six commercial aircraft attempting to land in New York, New Jersey, Detroit, Seattle, San Diego and Houston. They shot them down. The planes crashed near the airports, causing some damage resulting in some civilian casualties, but we are certain that those planes held additional Japanese Special Forces.”

Director Perez picked the briefing back up, putting a map on the holographic screen. “Nine other commercial aircraft were able to land and dock at other airport terminals. In four of the locations that they landed (Philadelphia, Miami, St. Louis, and Phoenix), a large percentage of the JDF forces were able to make it through the airports after fighting their way through the security forces. We estimate between 40-50 SFGp survivors at each location. The other five groups were thoroughly pinned down at the airports of Boston, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis and San Francisco and are currently being engaged. We believe that they will shortly be completely wiped out.”

Jorge changed the map and then continued, “We were tracking additional aircraft heading to other major metropolitan airports, but it appears that four of the Japanese pilots caught wind of the situation on the ground and rerouted to smaller municipal airports. As you can see on the maps, we had airplanes land at Gary, Indiana, Prescott in Arizona, Richmond, Virginia, and Victoria, Texas. Unfortunately, security at those sites had not been reinforced, and the SFGp was able to unload their troops there, almost without incident. Since these were not planned landing sites, there were no vehicles waiting to help them escape, so they stole maintenance vans to transport themselves away from the airports there. And Admiral Casey, before you ask--yes, we do have BOLOs out on those vans.”

The image switched again and Admiral Rice picked back up. “Two other aircraft were identified by our air defense systems and shot down while they were headed to other municipal fields. Those locations were more remote, and the airplane wreckage did not cause any casualties or major property damage based on our most recent assessments.”

Janet Smart stepped in, “All of the pertinent FBI offices have been alerted of hostiles in their area, and have begun to dispatch military units to all of the areas with orders to capture or kill these enemy forces.”

While most of them had already gained some knowledge of these events, they all had been missing pieces of the puzzle. Everyone just sat there stunned for a moment before people broke out into conversation, slowly raising their volume until they were trying to speak over each other to be heard. The President held a hand up for Monty, his Chief of Staff, to not interrupt their chatter and whispered, “Let them get it out of their systems for a minute, then we’ll bring everyone back to the task at hand.”

After a few minutes of controlled chaos, the President stood up and smacked his right hand down on the table with a loud crack to get everyone’s attention. “Enough. Everyone please be quiet while we sort through the information and formulize our plans on how we are going to respond. Thank goodness, at least the battle lines in Alaska have stabilized and the Russians have halted their operations in Europe after being pushed out of Germany…but any actions that don’t require boots on the ground would obviously be highly preferred.”

Director Smart from the FBI was the first to speak, “Mr. President, I believe the first thing we need to do is change the parameters of the Trinity program to now include all known Japanese government workers and as much of their defense forces as we have files on.”

Attorney General Roberts barely contemplated before he responded, “Agreed. I would recommend that we implement this strategy immediately.”

The President nodded, then pronounced, “Let’s make it happen.”

General Branson piped up, “We can provide all of the biometric dossiers of the Japanese military members that have trained with the American forces over the last forty years.”

Admiral Juliano quipped, “That decision to covertly collect biometric data whenever we conduct a training exercise with a foreign national partner is looking better and better.”

Admiral John Casey agreed, “The NSA will be very glad to have any additional information to help track these guys. We will add whatever you give us in terms of photographs or other data; it should increase our ability to find them quickly. It shouldn’t be too long before their faces show up on one of the CCTVs or security cameras across the country, and now that we are going to flag them as enemy combatants, they won’t be able to buy any new supplies here, as they won’t have functioning national identity cards. If someone does try to use a card that they previously obtained, we will pick that up right away.”

FBI Director Janet Smart spoke in the manner of a fan meeting a celebrity. “This Trinity program really is amazing. It has done such a great job of identifying foreign terrorists operating in America since the outset of the war. I’m really amazed by its ability to predict those who are going to become Russian or Chinese collaborators before they do any real damage.”

The President was happy with this course of action, but there was so much more ground to cover. He turned to Admiral Casey and Director Rubio and asked, “Two questions--1) how soon will we have our government communications systems back in operation, and 2) what can the CIA and NSA do inside of Japan and India immediately, now that they have chosen sides?”

Admiral Casey jumped in first, saying, “Mr. President, the Japanese and Chinese hit us with several types of cyber-attacks. The first was a quick denial of service (DDoS) attack, overwhelming the system with a bunch of useless data until the network came crawling to its knees. This attack was quickly followed up with a nasty malware virus that began to propagate quickly from one directory to the next, erasing everything. Then several key nodes were locked out using a new type of crypto-locker we have not seen before. Couple that with several power transformer nodes being taken offline and it caused a lot of chaos for us. That said, we have already managed to resolve most of the major issues on the East Coast and throughout Midwest.”

He took a deep breath, then continued, “Where we are still having some problems is on the West Coast and with our satellites. We have been planning for this type of attack for a while now, so at least we had the UHF radios up and running. We anticipate having the West Coast cell network and our satellites to be operational within the next four or five hours. We need to restart several servers and install a lot of backup information. Nothing that can’t be fixed…at least we won’t be offline for days like we were at the outset of the war,” the Admiral pronounced confidently. He had explained just enough of the technical details to ensure that everyone in the room understood what the NSA was doing and how.

The Director of the CIA spoke up next, “Mr. President, we have several black ops teams operating inside of both countries. In the case of India, I remember we looked for ways to go after their physical infrastructure. They have several key dams and dike systems; if destroyed, these would cause considerable economic and property damage. We can assume they are going to go after our infrastructure, so we should make it clear we can hurt them far worse than they can hurt us.”

The President objected. “While I’m OK with disrupting flow of travel and distribution channels that the country may have, I do not want a humanitarian crisis on our hands because millions of people are killed by a faulty dam or suddenly lack clean drinking water. I want you to hit whatever economic nodes that you can while reducing loss of life, understood?”

“Yes, Mr. President,” replied Director Rubio. “In the case of Japan, I also recommend we carry out some similar attacks; however, in Japan, I believe there are other opportunities. The population is not going to be fully on board with turning their backs on us and joining with the Chinese. I believe we can work with their opposition groups to help form partisan groups that can carry out attacks against the government.”

Admiral Casey smiled. “Those are good starters, but I think the NSA can do better,” he said. “We have a contingency plan for almost every nation as far as points of attack…” He briefly rummaged through the files on his tablet until he found what he wanted. “Some of our mission planners thought there was a chance that either India or Japan could turn on America and join the Chinese, so they inserted some nasty malware into several areas of their economy. When you give us the order, we can bring those countries down to their knees,” the Admiral said with a wicked grin. Casey clearly liked inflicting apocalyptic scenarios on America’s enemies.

“Tell us more about what that would entail” directed the President.

“Sir, India is a softer target, so I will talk about them first. Our first step would be to collapse their banking system. We are going to do that by creating an artificial run at the bank by spreading some stories through social media campaigns about the banks not having enough money to cover everyone’s accounts. The story would also explain that the government needed to collect additional funds in order to pay for the war, so they would create a bank tax of 25% to fund India’s efforts, and collect the money by seizing people’s assets like Cypress did back in the 2010s. This would obviously cause a run on the banks. Of course, all of this will be fake news, made up to generate chaos.”

Admiral Casey was smiling at this point and clearly thoroughly enjoying the discussion. He continued, “As the run on the banks begins, our first malware attack will start. The ATMs throughout the country will immediately begin to dispense all their money until they are empty. In addition to the mass chaos this would cause at the scene of each of the machines, with the ATMs across the country suddenly empty, it would be much more difficult for anyone to be able to get any other money. Following that attack, the malware would move through the banking network, hitting each of the banks with a massive denial of service (DDoS) attack. Anything that is hooked up to a network, from printers to building thermostats, computers to fax machines, even some of the administrators’ cars, all of the “internet of things” (IoT) items will be DDoS’ed into oblivion, unable to function under the large amounts of data we will use to flood the streams. Finally, within our roster is a worm that will burn through all the personal checking and savings accounts’ electronic balances. The only way they will be able to restore people’s accounts will be through their off-site backup systems. At that point, it won’t really matter if they can restore the accounts or not. The chaos that will ensue will be sheer madness.”

Admiral Casey made a swirling motion with his hands that seemed to announce that he was wrapping up this portion of his talk. “Within a week of the financial attacks, we could turn the lights off on several of their manufacturing provinces. Not the entire country (though we could), but as you say we want to shut down their ability to support the war, not destroy the country and kill the population,”

The President raised his hand to interrupt the Admiral and ask a question, “Admiral, thus far, I agree with your plan to cripple their financial system. I authorize you to move forward. However, I do not want you to turn the lights off to the manufacturing districts. Too many people would be killed in a grid collapse like that. What I want your hackers to do is find a way to cripple the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems in those factories—that would disrupt the flow of electricity in a very pinpointed fashion. You may take down the power in those provinces just long enough for your hackers to cause serious physical and electronic damage to the factories.” Before the Admiral could launch a protest the President added, “This war is against their government and military, we are not going to go after their population unless they go after ours. Is that understood?” asked the President.

Nodding in agreement, the Admiral continued, “For Japan, we have a different surprise in store for them. As you know, we have made remarkable strides in cyber warfare the last twelve months. We’ve worked with the tech companies and have developed some nasty surprises. First, I will address the Japanese navy as they pose the most pressing threat to our country and forces. We were able to insert a couple of zero-day malware systems inside the propulsion systems of their carriers. When activated, the malware will cause their turbines to burn out and disable the ships’ propulsion and power systems. We also have the same virus in their railgun systems on their battleships. We may have given them the railgun technology (which I am sure they have now given to the Chinese), but not before we laced it with malware that would make it impossible to use once we activate it.”

The President interrupted, “So essentially, you can turn most of their fleet off at the flick of a switch?”

“Basically, yes. That is, once we regain our defense communications system. That should happen within the next hour or so. We’ve isolated the malware they introduced and are currently rebooting the various systems to get our communications up and running again.”

The President nodded, then motioned for him to continue along his original train of thought. “Mr. President, moving on to the economic aspect of Japan. Like India, we have gained access to their banking system as well as their communications system and their entire country’s electrical grid. The Japanese have made heavy use of the Internet of Things (IoT) over the past three decades, integrating everything from their cars, homes and every aspect of their daily lives into the digital world. We plan on turning it off. Not everything, just parts of the economy that will make life hard on the average citizen, with the promise to turn it back on once their government surrenders.” Admiral Casey had a smug look on his face. He sat back, satisfied with the plans he had presented.

Casey had only been the Commander of NSA and US Cyber Command for six months. Prior to that he had worked in various cyber warfare areas within the US Navy and had also worked with several Silicon Valley tech companies for several years, honing his skills in cyber-warfare and writing multiple military manuals and white papers on the subject. He was an obvious choice to become the NSA Commander after the previous commander died from a heart attack. Though he was very young for his position, he was smart, and more importantly, he was cunning and ruthless in defeating America’s enemies. He had turned a small cadre of US hackers at the NSA into a powerful group of individuals with access to nearly unlimited resources, totally dedicated to the electronic destruction of America’s enemies. The only thing restraining them was President Stein, who wanted to keep the war confined to combatants and the government, and not the civilian populous.

“Admiral Casey, I want you to move forward with the financial attack in India and Japan. I want you to hold off on attacking the Japanese navy until we can coordinate an attack with the navy. I want our guys to hit them when they are most vulnerable,” the President directed.

“Yes, Mr. President,” replied Admiral Casey. He would have to be satisfied with what had been approved, at least for now.

The President looked at his military service chiefs and General Branson and asked, “What is the situation on the West Coast? Let’s start with the Air Force.”

General Adrian Rice, the Air Force Chief of Staff brought up some information on his notepad and paired it to the holographic display in the center of the table. “Mr. President, as you know, we lost four of our six F41s that were sent to aid our former allies near Hawaii. We still have one other flight of F41s that is currently providing fighter support to Alaska. It is imperative that we keep them on that mission; our situation in the Northwest is precarious, to say the least. Right now, the two F41s we have left on the West Coast are going to be used in a reconnaissance role, providing us with real-time visual intelligence once the satellites are back up and running.”

General Rice brought up another slide on the presentation. “We are short aircraft everywhere. We just completed refurbishing 70 F15s and 68 F16s from the boneyard. We had planned on moving them to support our forces in Alaska, but I am now having them rerouted to our air bases in California to bolster our forces there. If the NSA can cripple the Japanese carriers, then our air assets in California should be able to eliminate any air defenses that the JDF and Chinese manage to establish and hammer the invasion force.” General Rice spoke confidently as he showed several quickly drawn-up scenarios.

“Thank you, General Rice. I look forward to reading your full weekly update in a couple of days. Let’s move to the Marines next,” the President said as he turned towards the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

General Marcy Lynch was the first woman to make four-star general in the Marines and now was the first female commandant of the Marine Corps. She had been a protégé of General Tyler Black (the previous commandant) before he was asked to take command of the First Army just prior to the Chinese/Russian invasion of Alaska. General Lynch was a dynamic leader with a warrior’s heart and intellect to match. Thus far, she had been doing a remarkable job increasing the training capacity of the Marines and integrating that force with the latest in military technology.

Looking at the President, General Lynch brought up several disturbing images on the screen and began to explain what they were looking at. “Mr. President, I just received these images and a SPOT report of what happened to my Marines while Admiral Casey was providing us his brief. The reports of the Chinese airborne force that were heading to San Diego have now been proven to be false. As you know, we had ordered the base commander at Camp Pendleton to dispatch as many Marines as he could to the landing zones. He sent a force of nine thousand Marines with a second force of eight thousand more Marines two hours later to San Diego and our naval facilities in the area. Within thirty minutes of arriving at the various locations and beginning preparations to defend the area, they were hit by hundreds of cruise missiles. The missiles appear to have originated from both the Chinese and Japanese fleets that are currently heading towards the West Coast.”

An audible gasp was heard by several people in the room and the sudden realization of what this meant. General Lynch continued, with a slight tremble in her voice, “Our local radar systems identified the Chinese cruise missiles, and the laser and railgun systems immediately began to engage them. They destroyed nearly 96% of the 540 cruise missiles the Chinese launched. What the radar systems did not detect was the 560 missiles that the Japanese fired--at least not until it was too late. They did manage to shoot down about 230 of the cruise missiles, but the rest got through--”

Admiral Juliano interrupted to add, “--I’ve just gotten another update while General Lynch was speaking. They’ve hit us hard, Mr. President. I have a partial report that says our facilities on Coronado were heavily hit. The Fleet headquarters on Naval Base San Diego has been pretty much wiped out. So was our naval air station on North Island. Fourteen of our ships in port have also been heavily damaged.” He sighed then blurted out, “They nearly wiped out our West Coast naval capability, Mr. President.”

General Lynch interjected to finish talking. “--Mr. President, before you respond, I do not have casualty figures just yet, but they are going to be high. My Marines were out in the open when the attack happened. They appear to have also hit Camp Pendleton pretty hard, but I have not received a full report of how bad it was.”

The President just sat back in his chair for a minute digesting what he heard. The rest of the room began to come alive with chatter as people began to check their tablets for additional updates and any other information being sent to them. Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff and personal friend, leaned in to be closer to the President asking him, “Sir, are you all right?”

His thoughts were swirling, “This is just too much information all at once. Crud, my migraine is starting to come back--I don’t have time to deal with a migraine. I need to take a break and lay down for a few minutes.”

The President stood up, which got the attention of everyone in the room. “OK here is what we are going to do. The situation right now is too fluid and changing too fast for us to formulate a strategy and respond to this new situation. Right now, we are just reacting, and we need to start anticipating what they are going to do next and make them react to us. Clearly, we need more information to start making good decisions here.”

The President continued, “I don’t really see that I will be of use to you until we have some more information about what the situation is on the ground, so I am going to take a break from the meeting to go eat dinner with my wife while you sort some things out. In the meantime, I will have dinner brought down here while you continue to work and consolidate the information coming in.”

“I am going to come back down here in two hours, and I would like the following information to be ready. 1) I want confirmation that our cyber-attacks have been initiated and are underway. 2) I want the best possible damage assessment of this recent cruise missile attack. 3) I want to know where and what the Chinese and Japanese fleets are doing and what we can do to counter them. 4) I want a full report of what is going on in Oakland and LA… Please coordinate with whomever you need to and have this information ready when I return.” With his instructions issued, the President proceeded to leave the PEOC and let his senior military leaders and cabinet members to do their jobs.

Monty began to follow the President out of the room when the President turned and said, “Monty, I need to spend some time alone with my wife and rest for a short bit. I’m getting another migraine, which I absolutely cannot afford to have right now. I want you to stay down here and manage the information and workflow. Guide them if need be, but we need to right our ship quickly.” Henry spoke with confidence, knowing that Monty could fill in for him for the next couple of hours.

Monty was becoming concerned for his lifelong friend as these migraines appeared to be happening more often. “Yes Sir. Perhaps you should call for the doctor. We cannot afford to lose you even for a couple of days if something more serious is going on.”

“I appreciate your concern; I will set aside some time to talk with the doctor tomorrow and see what he has to say.” With that, the President left the PEOC to return to the residence and have a quiet dinner with his wife.

The information pouring in to the PEOC over the following two hours was nothing short of disastrous. The Marines had suffered some horrific casualties as they were mostly caught out in the open during the attack. Thousands of civilians had been killed by the cruise missiles as well. The Coronado bridge had also been destroyed, along with the police headquarters. The City of San Diego was a mess. Camp Pendleton had been hit extremely hard, killing thousands of Marine recruits and severely damaging the base facilities. In LA, two battalions of the Third Marines had been nearly wiped out by several cruise missiles and several buildings and the airstrip at Twenty-Nine Palms had been hit as well, killing several hundred additional Marines and soldiers and destroying dozens of Razorback attack helicopters and other aircraft.

When the President returned to the PEOC two hours later, he was feeling much better; although he was not one to take medication for a headache normally, his wife had convinced him that the state of the free world was at stake, and he had acquiesced. He was quickly brought up to speed and new orders were issued for the navy to dispatch the newly created Carrier Strike Group 12 (CSG-12 which was a consolidation of CSG-10 and CSG-11) to cross the Panama Canal and destroy the Japanese and Chinese carrier fleets.

This new strike group consisted of three Supercarriers: two of the newly designed Reagan class carriers and one of the older Nimitz class that had been reactivated from the Ghost Fleet along with a lot of other mothballed ships. The Reagan class carriers were enormous. At 1,350 feet in length with a flight deck width of 376 feet and 290 feet in height, the carriers displaced 140,000 tons, making them the largest warship in the world. The strike group also had twenty escort ships, including two of America’s newest battleships, the USS Iowa and the USS Wisconsin, named after the two famous World War II battleships. The President was not playing around.

Chapter 14

Send in the Marines

24 December 2041

Riverside, California

The Japanese had succeeded in taking America by surprise. The Army and Marines were stretched thin in Europe and Alaska; the US Pacific Fleet had been destroyed a year earlier, leaving most of the West Coast exposed. People had been assured the Japanese would eventually come to America’s aid, then, just as they appeared to come to America’s rescue, they betrayed the U.S. and led the invasion of California. As the first Japanese tanks began to roll off those freighters, the LA police and Orange County sheriff tried to organize a defense; they were not going to lay down to this invading army without a fight, and neither were those civilians who owned personal firearms.

The 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marines (or 3/3 as they called themselves), moved into Riverside, a suburb of LA. As they moved through the various neighborhoods, they could see some artillery and cruise missiles had already landed in the area. As Captain Thornton led his men through the area, he saw a broken swing set, lying on its side next to a blackened crater and several children’s bicycles. That’s when it hit him, “The homeland has been invaded, and nothing is ever going to be the same again.”

Captain Thornton’s company had been ordered to move through Riverside and destroy any enemy forces they encountered. The 3/3 was moving to secure the road junctions just beyond the city of Corona leading in to the LA basin. The Japanese forces in the area had put up stiff resistance as the Marines moved forward, forcing them to fight block-to-block in some areas, and leveling buildings in others. It was dirty close quarter combat that had not been seen on the streets of America before. Fortunately, some neighborhoods had also banned together, using their own personal firearms to attack the Japanese soldiers (who had not anticipated the population being so heavily armed with their own assault rifles). This unfortunately also led to a lot of civilians being killed by enemy soldiers, who were not taking any chances.

The Marines would have moved through the area faster; however, the cruise missile attack had destroyed a large part of the Marines air support elements, forcing them to have to fight with limited air support. The Marines had also lost two battalions of tanks and wolverines just north of Riverside on the San Bernardino freeway. Several other major freeways had been destroyed by Japanese demolition experts, forcing many of the Marine armored units and foot soldiers to have to move through various side streets going through many of the smaller cities leading to LA. To further compound the problem, many civilians who were being caught up in the fighting were now trying to flee eastward, heading away from the battles, further clogging up the road system the Marines were trying to use to bring in additional reinforcements to attack the Chinese and Japanese already in the area.

To their credit, the Japanese forces fighting the Marines were giving ground as needed while doing what they could to slow the Marines progress. They did not want to get caught up in fights they could not win. Their only goal was to buy time for additional forces to arrive and to be offloaded in the ports. As hundreds of thousands of people began to escape the city, it quickly became nearly impossible for the Marines to move enough of their heavy forces to the front lines to begin recapturing LAX and the ports, which were being used to ferry in thousands upon thousands of enemy reinforcements.

Chapter 15

One if by Land, Two if by Sea

25 December 2041

Norfolk Naval Station, Virginia

Rear Admiral Michael Stonebridge was the youngest Admiral in the Navy at just 41 years of age. He had distinguished himself as the Captain of one of two American ships that had survived the nuclear attack against the American Fifth Fleet by the Islamic Republic in the Gulf of Aiden at the outset of the war. His guided missile cruiser had sustained heavy damage, but also managed to destroy six IR naval vessels, including two submarines. During the fighting, they shot down 84 missiles and destroyed 31 enemy drones. After being hit by four enemy anti-ship missiles and sustaining heavy casualties, they were forced to limp away along with the lone surviving destroyer (which had also sustained heavy damage). It took nearly fourteen hours to control the fires that threatened to send their ship to the bottom of the ocean. Stonebridge’s leadership was definitely one of the key reasons that so many of his sailors had survived that confrontation. Upon returning to the U.S., Captain Stonebridge had been awarded a purple heart (with V device for valor) and the Medal of Honor. He was also promoted to Rear Admiral for his heroic defense of the Fifth Fleet.

Several months later, as a newly minted Admiral, his task force assisted the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales in the fighting against the Russian Navy in the North Atlantic and the North Sea as they attempted to push forward and disrupt the supply lines to Europe. Admiral Stonebridge’s task force of guided missile cruisers and three Zumwalt-guided missile destroyers helped to defeat a Russian surface fleet in the North Atlantic as the Russians tried to push past the NATO fleet between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The French carrier that had been a part of the task force, the Charles de Gaulle, was destroyed during the engagement, and the HMS Queen Elizabeth had been severely damaged. Admiral Stonebridge was awarded his second purple heart after this skirmish; his ship had been hit by several cruise missiles during the fray, and he broke his left arm and lost a finger on that left hand. He had also received the Navy Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Faroe Islands; because the NATO forces managed to hold the line, the Russians had not been able to break out into the Atlantic, giving the Allies a huge win.

After recovering from his wounds, Admiral Stonebridge was given his second star and given command of CSG-12, arguably America’s most powerful strike group. Admiral Stonebridge was a dynamic leader and not afraid to get his hands dirty. He could often be found in the flight maintenance deck helping the mechanics conduct routine maintenance on the drones or mentoring young seamen and junior non-commissioned officers during weekly professional development training. He was a sailors’ sailor and cared about the men and women he was commanding.

Admiral Stonebridge’s work had now brought him to be stationed on the USS New York, just off the coast of Virginia. As he sat at his station, reviewing some emails on his tablet, the captain of the ship, Captain Baker, walked briskly up to Admiral Stonebridge to bring him the latest personnel report. “Admiral, we are still missing about 223 people with only an hour left before we pull out of port. What do you want to do about the missing men?” It was a question he asked rather facetiously, having already resolved to leave them behind if they missed the deadline.

“Under normal circumstances, I would leave them behind and write them up for missing the recall. However, we were not scheduled to leave for another six more days and most people have been on leave for the holidays. I still want the fleet to pull out of port and begin to head towards the canal; then we can dispatch several helicopters and aircraft standing by here in Norfolk to fly the missing individuals out to the fleet as they continue to arrive. We are going to need everyone for this mission.”

Captain Baker had not expected that response. He found that his mouth had kind of hung open while the Admiral spoke. He quickly checked his facial expression and then nodded in agreement. “Yes sir.”

“Are the contractors still coming with us?” asked Stonebridge. The fleet still had several technical systems that needed to be completed before the ships were technically ready for combat, and the navy had enlisted civilians to help speed up the repair process in order to get things rolling.

“Every contractor that was working on the ships has agreed to accompany us to Panama, and directly into combat if we need them. They all want some payback for what the Japanese just did to our forces.”

A broad grin spread across the Admiral’s face, “Excellent, Captain. When we get underway, I want the defense systems run through their paces, and make sure we are not going to have any further issues with them. We are going to need them soon.”

Captain Baker could see that Admiral Stonebridge kept glancing down at his tablet, so he left him alone to finish up his emails while he went back to getting the ship ready to leave.

Once he finished getting his Christmas message written, the Admiral moved down to his quarters, where the media team was waiting for him. He wanted to get a video pre-recorded now rather than giving it live. Once the ship was out to sea, he was going to need to hold a series of meetings with various department commanders within the ship and the fleet as a whole; he was going to have to hit the ground running.

“Admiral, we are ready to begin when you are,” said the Lieutenant Commander who was the media department chief for the fleet. The Admiral nodded and began his prepared speech.

“Merry Christmas my fellow sailors and marines, and to the civilians who have volunteered to accompany us on this dangerous mission. As we prepare for combat, I want everyone to take some time to remember those who have been lost this past year and to be thankful that we are still alive and able to fight for our country. I am grateful for those of us whose families are safe, and that we have been given the opportunity to bring vengeance and retribution to our enemies. 2040 and ‘41 have been rough years for the Navy and our country. We have lost a lot of friends and family members, and our country has been invaded twice. Not since the war of 1812 has America’s very survival been at stake. We have been punched, sucker-punched, and kicked while we were down. President Stein said it best in his Christmas Day address to the nation a few hours ago, ‘America has been given a bloody nose and a kick to the teeth.’ Unfortunately for our enemies, the military giant that is America has been rousted from its slumber, and soon we will be taking the fight to the enemies’ own homelands.”

Pausing for a second and looking at the sailors in the room with him, he continued, “Carrier Strike Group 12 is the most advanced naval fleet the world has ever seen. Group 12 is anchored by the carriers New York and Baltimore in remembrance of our two great cities that were destroyed by the IR, and with the strength of their memory, we are going to destroy the PLAN and JDF fleets.”

“I want everyone to enjoy this evening and the camaraderie of your fellow sailors and marines. Those on shift tonight will be replaced by their commanding officers at the end of your shift for four hours while everyone enjoys a few extra hours of sleep in the morning. Starting tomorrow, we are going to be working longer and harder than ever before to get this fleet ready for combat. We will reach the Panama Canal in 67 hours at flank speed, and we will be in range of attacking the PLAN fleet within six days.”

“We do not have a lot of time left to get our ships ready for combat. I want everyone to know that your nation and I are counting on you to be ready. I have full confidence in your abilities; we will win this coming fight. The men and women you see around you will be the guiding force in turning the war in our favor. Please take a few minutes to pray and give thanks for everything that we have been given, and trust that your commanders have your best interests at heart. That is all.”

The media director had a few small edits and wording changes to the speech, but otherwise it was ready to be broadcast to the crew. The entire fleet would hear the message just before their Christmas dinner.

Chapter 16

Rude Awakening

26 December 2041

London, Great Britain

10 Downing Street

The political and military leadership of Great Britain had been following the latest developments of the war and the invasion of California with rapt attention and shock. They could not believe the Japanese had betrayed the Allies like this and were leading the invasion of California. There were images all over TV and streaming on the Web of millions of residents fleeing San Diego, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area as refugees; the sight was shocking and horrifying. Nearly ten thousand civilians had already been killed across the three major cities from cruise missile attacks and the fighting currently underway.

The massive flow of refugees fleeing the warzone was hampering the American military from getting forces into the cities to repel the invaders, and had stopped additional reinforcements from arriving. The American President had gone to the airways to assure the American people that the military would soon repulse these invaders and that Japan and India would pay a steep price for their betrayal. Images were being shown of General Gardner’s American Third Army moving from their bases across Colorado, Utah and Nevada heading towards California. The President had declared that all 1,300,000 soldiers of the Third Army, as well as their armored vehicles were on their way to California and would retake these iconic cities.

The Prime Minister pulled away from the images on the television and turned to the Director of MI6. “George, you’ve always been one for candor. How bad is it really in America right now?”

The other members in the briefing room all looked at George to see what he had to say. “Good and bad sir.”

Annoyed at the cryptic and unhelpful answer, PM Bedford shot back, “Please, elaborate a bit for us, will you?”

Snickering could be heard by a few of the military men as they saw the director stiffen a bit. He was not very well liked; he had been one of the few senior members of the British government to dismiss the idea that Russia was going to invade the EU, citing the same logic as the EU intelligence services (who were claiming that the Russian economy was too tied to Europe to risk a military conflict). He had been proven utterly wrong, but had still managed to cling on to power.

“Sir, the Americans have restored their military communications systems again, so in that respect things are looking up. They can effectively communicate with their ground and air forces. Unfortunately, in the invaded cities they are having a hard time getting reinforcements to the fight with the refugees clogging the roads. The ground war in Alaska has finally become a stalemate now that winter has moved across the state, making it hard for the Russian and Chinese armies to effectively attack the American defenses there, so at least they can focus solely on these new invasions.”

The MI6 director was not telling them anything more than what the media was already providing. Feeling frustrated at the lack of information provided, Admiral Sir Mark West, First Sea Lord, felt he needed to interject. “Prime Minister, the war in the Pacific and on the West Coast is about to change dramatically in the next week. President Stein ordered the secretive American Carrier Strike Group 12 to set sail for the West Coast in order to retake the Pacific. Admiral Juliano just provided us with a brief on their mission and shared the details of the new Reagan class carriers and the new Web class battleships. They have also agreed to share the designs with us, if we wish to pursue building them ourselves.” Sir Mark West was clearly hoping the PM would be interested in building one of these new revolutionary warships; he spoke as a child who is hinting about a new toy they would like for Christmas.

The PM was still feeling rather irritated with his intelligence director, and chided him. “George, you seem distracted; I want to know about what is going on in Japan and India at the end of the meeting. Please collect yourself and be prepared to provide a more detailed response than what you just gave us.”

George nodded to acknowledge the PM, and then he began to look through some of his notes, writing down a few specific points to bring up.

Looking back to the First Sea Lord, the Prime Minister inquired, “Sir Mark, I am not familiar with these new ships; would you please bring us up to speed on them now that they have shared the details with you?”

Smiling, Sir Mark happily complied. “Sir, the Reagan class carriers are a completely new design. They have the command island in the center of the ship with runways on all sides of it. The ship is 100 meters longer in length than their current carriers, 65 meter wider, and 36 meters taller. The carrier can accommodate 36 F35Cs and 150 fighter bomber drones, along with Razorbacks. The defenses on the ship are incredible. They have 32 20mm anti-aircraft/anti-ship railguns surrounding the edge of the flight deck. Just below the flight deck, the ship has two twin-mounted five-inch anti-ship railguns, one on each side of the ship; these have a range of 143 kilometers at a flat trajectory--”

The PM interrupted, “--How were they able to increase the railgun range that much? I thought the railgun only had a range of--at best--39 kilometers.”

“The Americans incorporated the new Angelic reactor, providing the carrier with enough power generation capability to power one quarter of Great Britain. The increased energy, along with a five-foot increase in barrel length, allows them to shoot the projectile significantly farther than previously possible. The real power of the fleet though is going to be the new Web class battleships,” the Sea Lord explained giddily.

“Let me guess--it also has this new railgun as well?” Bedford asked with a wry grin on his face. He was rather amused by watching the Sea Lord (who was normally a very serious and dry person) become this excited about something.

“Yes, it has two-twin turret railguns, but these guns are ten-inch guns with the same range. The ship also has two pulse beam laser turrets, which are capable of engaging aerial targets as far away as 439 kilometers out and enemy ships up to 132 kilometers away, which is basically the limit due to the curve of the horizon. They shared some data on the pulse beam; it shot an eight-inch hole through a ship they were using for target practice. The ship also carries six hundred cruise missiles and has a myriad of anti-aircraft and missile defense systems. Sir, these four new ships are going to single-handedly destroy the Chinese and Japanese fleets once they get in range. Once they secure the ocean along the West Coast and Alaska, the Axis forces there are going to wither and die.”

The group continued to talk for a while about these new ships and what they would mean for the war effort going forward. Finally, PM Bedford turned to the MI6 Director and asked, “George, are you ready to brief us on what is going on in India and Japan?”

Trying to reassert himself, the Director replied, “Yes Sir, there is a lot of information to share. As you may be aware, the Americans are now waging a cyber-war against India and Japan. One of my top analysts believes that the Indian financial system may collapse within the next few weeks; the Americans have caused all the ATMs in the country to empty, creating havoc throughout the cities as people tried to grab as much ‘free’ money as possible. Then, rumors spread on the internet about a new bank tax and possible insolvency of several of the major banks. People have been trying to withdraw as much money as possible from their accounts, and I am getting reports that this run on the banks may result in the government closing all of the banks by later today in order to prevent a full run on the banking system. Of course, that would only further fuel the disinformation the American hackers have been spreading everywhere.”

The Sea Lord flipped to a different slide on his tablet as he switched topics. “The situation in Japan is still taking shape; the cyber-attacks there appear to be slightly different. The Americans have gone after the financial system there as well, but they have also attacked a lot of the Internet of Things (IoT) integrated items; this has affected the communications system, among other things. The systems that control the digital glasses people often wear was taken offline. They also disabled the automatic vehicle driving systems within the major cities, effectively disabling a large portion of the vehicles in Japan from being used until they patch the system. To further complicate the transportation system, the Americans disabled the rail systems by attacking the electronically controlled engines and forcing them to burn out.”

The PM was amazed at the ability of the Americans to effectively disable these two countries’ digital capability. “Clearly, the Americans have improved their cyber capabilities since the beginning of the war. This is an impressive display,” he remarked.

Turning to one of his generals, the PM asked, “General, what is the status of our forces here in Europe with regards to the new attack against the Americans?”

All eyes turned to the general, hoping he had good news to share as well. “Sir, 300,000 new soldiers from the South American Multi-National Force have just arrived in France and England. The Americans had also sent us an additional 20,000 soldiers to replace the ones they’ve lost during the last several months of fighting. Right now, we have the Russians contained; they cannot break out of their current lines, nor can we break through. That situation will change in the next couple of months as more of the new German and French tanks come on line and the Americans send some of those new F41 Arch Angel fighters. Our goal right now is to hold our positions and continue to consolidate our gains while we plan for another offensive in February or March,” the general explained.

The prime minister thought for a minute before responding, “General, perhaps it is time we reconsider launching a new attack against the Russians, but not along our current battle lines. Let’s consider a plan to hit northern Norway, with the goal of driving on Murmansk. That northernmost Russian naval base leads to the White Sea and the heart of the Russian navy.”

“We could, PM, but we would need to look at late spring to conduct an attack like that. Most of that area is frozen over during the winter, so moving troops, vehicles and ships would be extremely challenging. I can have our planners put together an invasion plan, but I would like this to be in conjunction to a spring offensive along the western front as well. This way, we can catch them off guard.”

“Excellent, then let’s move forward with the planning phase. We’ll evaluate the strategy in a couple of months once your planners have had time to put things together.”

With the needed updates completed, the PM ended the meeting and everyone moved to execute their orders.

Chapter 17

New Directive

26 December 2041

80 Miles Southwest of Los Angeles, California

Admiral Tomohisa Kawano’s fleet was now in range of launching their heliborne assault forces to reinforce their troops already fighting in the city of LA. It was critical that they hold the city and its port facilities long enough for the invasion force to arrive and bring the follow-on troops coming from Japan, China and India. As they neared the coast, several of the ships began to take aim at the coast, providing fire support to the JDF soldiers desperately trying to hold their ground against the US Marines.

One of the communications officers walked towards the Admiral, signaling that he needed to talk with him. “Sir, Admiral Xi from the PLAN has sent us new orders.” As he spoke, the officer handed the Admiral the newest directive from the PLAN fleet.

The Captain of the Carrier, Nagasaki, saw the exchange and walked over to Admiral Kawano to ask, “What do they want us to do?” He was curious to know what the “new masters” had in store for them. Not all the officers in the fleet were happy about turning on the Americans and attacking them like they had. Captain Nagasaki had honored his orders, but he was not happy about it. He also feared what would happen to his fleet and to Japan once the Americans rebounded from their treachery.

Admiral Kawano forgave the intrusion of his senior captain and explained, “Admiral Xi wants us to offload our ground forces as quickly as possible, and then prepare to join them as they head towards the Panama Canal and attack the American carrier group that is close to traveling through it.”

Admiral Kawano could see the concern in his officer’s eyes; the PLAN had been able to successfully defeat the American Seventh Fleet at the outset of the war, but the Americans had built a new series of warships and none of them knew what they were going to be like. They only knew that they were going to incorporate a lot of new technology that they had not been privy to, even when they were allies. He didn’t judge his captain for those feelings though; he felt the concern too. Instead, he tried to bring him back into the process, asking, “Captain, how soon until our transports can dock at the ports and we turn our attention to the new threat?”

Nagasaki sighed before responding, “Sir, the transports are already moving ahead of the fleet as we speak; they will be docking in the ports within the next three hours. Once they are in the port, we can turn the fleet to join the PLAN after they have offloaded their invasion forces.” As he spoke, the Captain resigned himself to the fact that they were going to have to fight the US navy toe-to-toe and hope for the best.

Suddenly, one of the action officers walked towards their little group and announced, “Sir, one of the destroyers has detected an American submarine in the area and is engaging it. The sub apparently fired off a series of torpedoes at the transports and one of the cruisers….”

Their jaws hit the floor in genuine surprise.

Chapter 18

On my Mark, Engage

26 December 2041

Off the coast of San Clemente, California

Captain Hughes had guided the USS Utah as close to the path of the JDF transports as possible without giving away his position. Their goal was to fire a spread of torpedoes at the transports and get a shot off at the Japanese cruiser guarding them. Those transports were bringing troops, tanks and other material to support their ground forces in LA; if the Utah could send a few of them to the bottom, then maybe they could give the ground forces a better fighting chance of repulsing the invasion.

Looking at his XO, Captain Hughes said, “Commander Mitcham, do we have a firing solution yet on those ships?”

Receiving a nod from his weapons officer, Commander Mitcham replied, “Sir, we have four torpedoes targeting the freighters, one each. The other two are targeted at the guided missile cruiser escorting them. We are ready to fire when you give the order,” he said nervously.

The tension in the air was immense; once they fired their weapons, the Japanese would know where they were. Their sonar technicians had already detected two enemy submarines in the area, in addition to the five destroyers with the Japanese fleet and the rest of their anti-submarine helicopters. The chances of them surviving this attack were slim, and they all knew it. They also knew they had a duty to try and stop the enemy troops from landing in America, if at all possible.

Looking at the men and women manning the Con, the captain could see fear in their eyes, but also anger and determination to avenge their fallen brethren. Captain Hughes steeled his own nerves and ordered, “Fire all tubes!”

“Tubes one through six are firing! One, two, three, four, five, six. All tubes fired. Torpedoes are tracking their targets,” one of the sailors said as he read off the times to impact.

Without missing a beat, the Captain yelled, “Chief of the Boat, take us down to five hundred feet! Launch the decoy now and get us out of here!”

As the Utah began to dive, they deployed their submarine decoy, which was essentially a large torpedo that was designed to sound just like the Utah at a higher rate of speed. This would make it appear to the enemy sonar operators that the Utah was trying to flee the area. If all went well, they would go after and attack the decoy and the Utah would be able to slip away to fight another day.

Within a minute, several enemy torpedoes were in the water heading towards the decoy. Just as the men of the Utah thought they might have escaped, a Chinese submarine who had been monitoring the area spotted the Utah as she descended to below 500 feet. The Chinese sub was less than 5,000 meters away from the Utah when they fired two torpedoes at nearly point blank range. The Utah was still reloading her own torpedo tubes, so they were unable to fire back. Within two minutes, the Chinese torpedoes zeroed in on their mark and struck the Utah, imploding her hull and killing everyone on board.

Chapter 19

Another Beach Invasion

26 December 2041

Oceanside, California

Corporal Chang had recovered from his wounds during the beach invasion of Anchor Point and was once again back with his old unit. He had also been promoted to Sergeant and now commanded the entire platoon, along with a lieutenant who had just been assigned to their company. Word had it they were going to be the lead element landing on the beach near the Marine Base, Camp Pendleton. Chang had never fought the American Marines before. He fought the American Army soldiers in Alaska, and they were tough as nails. He had been told the Marines fight like devils. He thought that hard to believe because the Americans he fought in Alaska fought like men possessed, and they were Army soldiers. If the Marines were supposed to be tougher, then he was not sure he wanted to meet them.

As their ships approached the coast of California, they received the order for them to suit up and move to their landing craft. They were going to be hitting the beaches of Camp Pendleton before the end of the day. For some reason, there was a lot of urgency to get the ground troops ashore; the Admirals must have known something they were not willing to share with the rest of the men.

Chang looked over his platoon and saw a lot of green faces. He also saw a lot of hardened combat veterans who had fought in Alaska and lived to tell about it. This would be their third beach assault of the war, and hopefully their last. The platoon loaded up into the landing craft, and soon they were on their way to the beach. From what Chang could see, the beach looked like it was not prepared to repel an invasion; this was good news. They might land unopposed. No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than the whistling of artillery could be heard as artillery shells began to explode all around their landing vehicles. As they got closer to the beach, they could start to see the silhouettes of Marines moving into fighting positions along the top of the rise, about two hundred meters away from the shore.

Using his binoculars, he could see these Marines were also equipped with their exoskeleton suits, though theirs looked to be a fully enclosed suit. As they neared the beach, they could start to hear the familiar sound of machine gun fire intermixed with explosions and yelling. Lots of yelling. Suddenly, the landing craft hit the beach and the rear ramp dropped. The platoon immediately began to run through the back ramp and headed towards the low rise at the end of the beach.

Chang also began to run towards the beach, yelling at the soldiers in his platoon to keep advancing and secure their objectives. The platoon ran as fast as they could, ducking and dodging as best they could through the hailstorm of gunfire being rained down on them. Dozens of soldiers were being hit, some getting back up and firing back at the Marines, others just simply dropping to the ground, dead. Chang raised his rifle as he ran and began to fire at the Marines. Suddenly, dozens of claymore mines were triggered and nearly three platoons of soldiers in front of Chang’s group were shredded to pieces.

He dropped to one knee and sighted in on a small group of Marines manning a heavy machinegun. He fired several rounds, hitting one of the Marines in the face, killing him instantly and wounding the other two Marines near him. Without missing a beat, those two other Marines he had hit got right back up and began firing at him and the men around him. He thought to himself, “Their armor must be stronger than we thought. This is not good.”

One of the Chinese destroyers came closer to the shoreline and began to provide direct fire support, hitting several of the Marine heavy machinegun locations and other strongholds that the PLAN infantry was having a hard time securing. Chang’s platoon made it to the edge of the beach and proceeded to fight several of the Marines who stood their ground in hand-to-hand combat. He shot one of the Marines several times in the chest, only to see that Marine pull out his pistol, shooting and killing two of Chang’s men. He put several bullets into the Marine’s face shield, finally killing him.

That first wave of Marines lost the beach quickly; they did not have nearly enough time to prepare a proper defense that could stand up to the PLAN infantry like the American Army soldiers had done in Alaska. Chang looked back at the beach and saw bodies everywhere. Then he saw the second and third wave of Marines starting to move towards the beach. Just as the PLAN soldiers began to run up the beach to reinforce his men’s position, the soldiers started to stumble and fall. At first it was just one or two, then it was everyone he was looking at. He thought for a second, “Maybe the Americans just hit us with some sort of chemical weapon.” However, as he looked around, the men weren’t dying, they just could not move in their suits. Just as Chang went to stand up and try to help some of them get to cover, his suit suddenly stopped responding. He couldn’t stand. In that moment, he knew something bigger was going on.

Chapter 20

Zero Day Arrives

26 December 2041

Ft. Meade, Maryland

NSA Headquarters

Neven Jackson was drinking his second 16 oz. Rip It energy drink and eating some chicken wings when his boss, Colonel Jeff Blount, walked in and interrupted his blissful meal. “Neven, you need to be ready to activate your zero-day virus on the Chinese exoskeleton suits soon. The Chinese are going to be launching a massive beach invasion along several points in California. It’s go time.”

Colonel Blount escorted him and another hacker to the command center that was monitoring the various landing sites. As Neven walked into the room he couldn’t help but be impressed (this was the first time the colonel had brought him into the command center). He quickly showed him and his friend Milo two open seats near some of the airmen who were controlling the various drone feeds that were bringing up real time images of the invasion on the beaches. As Milo and Neven took their seats, they saw explosions taking place across the shore. In between the various blasts, they could see what appeared to be soldiers being thrown into the air like rag dolls. Some of them had legs or arms simply ripped right off.

Milo asked one of the sergeants, “How many people are in each of those landing vehicles?”

The sergeant replied, “The armored vehicles carry ten soldiers and have a crew of three; the landing craft can carry as many as thirty men, and the larger hovercraft can carry close to one hundred people, or several armored vehicles.”

As they watched the scenes unfold, Neven couldn’t help but realize he was witnessing the death of hundreds of Chinese soldiers. In the past, Neven had never seen the results of his hacking actions, just read about them. Now he was going to witness the entire scene live.

Colonel Blount turned to Neven and Milo and said, “It’s time to activate the virus.”

Neven’s fingers began to tap away on the keypad in front of him; he was opening various windows while Milo began accessing the backdoor they had established so Neven could begin dropping in the various activation codes. Glancing up from his monitor, Neven saw the first wave of Chinese soldiers hit the beach; he was amazed at how fast the enemy soldiers moved across the beach in the exoskeleton suits. He was also appalled to see how fast many of them were being killed by the Marines trying to defend the beach.

“Neven, when the second wave of soldiers hits the beach, we need you to activate the code. Our Marines are going to get wiped out if you guys cannot turn their suits off.” Jeff was normally a big tough guy, but as he spoke, there was genuine concern in his voice.

Neven and Milo could tell the situation was very tense. These men and women were scared that the Chinese might succeed--what would that mean for the war? Though Neven had never really been scared before, he was starting to feel a bit nervous.

As Milo opened the backdoor, Neven brought up the files and execution codes that would disable the exo suits. They saw the second wave of landing craft and vehicles hit the beach and thousands upon thousands of new soldiers began to rush up the beach. It was scary to think that so many men with guns were storming an American beach, trying to kill Americans.

Colonel Blount turned to Milo and Neven, directing, “It’s time gentlemen. Turn their suits off.”

With that, Neven hit the enter key on his computer and saw that the code had been accepted. He looked up at the monitors and waited to see if the suits would turn off. At first nothing happened. Then, sporadically a couple of suits started to fail, then seconds later all the suits began to seize up. At first it was funny to see the soldiers simply fall over as their suits were disabled. Then after a few minutes, it appeared the Chinese figured out the suits were not going to work so they began to climb out of them. They once again resumed their charge up the beach to join the rest of their comrades.

Neven looked at Colonel Blount and said, “Sir, I thought this would stop them. What did I do wrong?”

Colonel Blount responded with uncharacteristic compassion in his voice, saying, “Neven, you did not fail. What you just did is give our guys a fighting chance to win. We knew the Chinese would leave the suits and continue to fight, but without their suits the odds of our guys winning went up significantly. Now the Chinese must fight as regular old-fashioned infantrymen while our Marines and Soldiers attack them using the Raptor suits.”

Neven felt better that he and Milo had not failed, but as they sat there together in silence watching the battle unfold on the monitors, he couldn’t help but feel sick to his stomach as he watched thousands upon thousands of Chinese and American soldiers battle it out, in some cases engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

As the battle raged on, a new drone feed was being shown. This one was looking at the Port of LA and Long Beach, which showed dozens of large transports and container ships offloading tanks, troops and helicopters. These were clearly Japanese soldiers that were also a part of the invasion. The drone zoomed back out, and they got a glimpse of smoke and fire in a number of different locations. There were two ships near Santa Monica Island that were on fire and not moving and then there were hundreds of smaller little fires throughout LA and the surrounding cities.

Milo leaned in towards Neven and whispered nervously, “It looks pretty bad out there, do you think we are going to lose California?”

“I’m not sure Milo, but it seems like they might. If we do, I think America is in serious trouble.”

Chapter 21

Breathe Through the Pain

26 December 2041

Apple Valley, California

Third Army Headquarters

General Gardner’s left hand was throbbing; the medic had asked if he wanted some pain medication for it, but he had declined. He needed to keep his wits about him, so he would have to endure the pain for the moment. General Gardner had relocated the headquarters element of his command to a National Guard Armory in Apple Valley after Twenty-Nine Palms had been hit by a dozen cruise missiles. The Command Post he had been working out of along with Lieutenant General Peeler had been hit; the attack killed a number of his staff and General Peeler’s staff as well. His Marine Commander had been seriously injured, and was taken to the base hospital while General Gardner tried to have the XO located so he could take over command of the Third Marines.

The missiles that hit Twenty-Nine Palms had devastated the base. Several columns of Marine tanks and infantry fighting vehicles had been destroyed, along with 32 Razorbacks and a lot of the ground support aircraft. The Air Force lost 109 aircraft at March Air Force Base alone. The Japanese cruise missiles had also hit Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.

Gardner had to admit, the Japanese had really blindsided them. As he tried to plan what the next possible actions were, he was distracted by his own pain. “My hand is really throbbing,” he thought. “I may need to take a pain killer just so I can focus…I think I might even lose that finger.”

Snapping himself out of these thoughts, General Gardner barked at his operations officer. “Colonel Mason, what is the status of the beach invasion at Pendleton and San Diego?” (Colonel Mason had been the J3 executive officer or XO when they arrived at Twenty-Nine Palms. His boss, Major General Pina, had been killed during the cruise missile strike, so for the time being he was General Gardner’s J3 or Operations Chief.)

“Sir, the Base Commander reports the Chinese have broken through the beach and are currently fighting all throughout the base. He has been slowly moving most of his troops to Oceanside, where they are going to make the Chinese fight house-to-house. He has also established the blocking force you requested at Pala Mason and I-15.”

Showing a new image with data overlaid on it, Colonel Mason moved to San Diego, “Sir, the PLAN infantry have secured most of the naval bases in San Diego and the harbor. There is currently sporadic fighting taking place throughout the downtown area and around the Navy SEAL training facility. The SEAL Commander there said they should be able to hold out for a while, so long as the Chinese do not bring any heavy naval gun support.”

“I hope those SEALS are able to hold out; unfortunately, I doubt we are going to be able to get them any reinforcements any time soon. What about downtown LA? How are things going?” asked Gardner.

Colonel Mason grimaced slightly as he pulled up the latest reports. He explained, “Things are not nearly as good as we would like to have seen by now. The problem we are running into is the mass number of residents trying to flee the city. We have over one million people, either in vehicles or on foot, all trying to use the main highways and the side roads leading away from the city. Meanwhile, our armored vehicles and soldiers continue to try and get to the port. To make matters worse, the JDF carriers are now in range of using their aircraft and they have been strafing the civilians who were trying to flee. I’m sure they are doing this in part because they know that our forces will stop to render aid and it further slows our progress.”

An idea seemed to pop in Colonel Mason’s head, and he changed topics for a moment. “A suggestion that came from that one of my NCOs was for us to temporarily stop the advance into the city and just focus on using our transport trucks and helicopters to evacuate as many people as possible to get them out of our way.”

“Hmm, that is a thought. However, we cannot leave our forces already in the city to die on the vine while we work on relocating hundreds of thousands of people,” Gardener responded. He turned to his Air Force LNO, “Colonel Drewing, how soon can we gain air superiority?”

Colonel Drewing looked at General Gardner with a disappointed looked, saying, “Sir, I would say maybe another day, two tops. The Navy says the JDF carriers are starting to head south, so if that’s true, then the number of enemy aircraft over the city will drop significantly. We lost a lot of aircraft at March, Nellis, and the naval air station in San Diego. We’ll get air superiority, but it won’t be for at least twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”

Gardner took a deep breath, during which time he seemed to process millions of possible scenarios in his mind. “All right. Here is what we are going to do then. Colonel Drewing, what aircraft we do have, I want them to focus on hitting the enemy air defense systems they have established. We need to take them down so our helicopters have a better chance of survival. Colonel Mason, have our soldiers dismount from the trucks and move into the city and reach their objectives on foot. Use the trucks to move as many civilians as possible to San Bernardino. We need to get them out of our way so our tanks can get through. Second, I want to get our Razorbacks to start ferrying in as many soldiers and marines as possible to their objectives (or as close to them as they can). We have to get at those ports or we are going to be up a creek without a paddle.”

“Yes, Sir,” both colonels replied.

General Gardner looked down at the holographic map again. “Mason, how soon until the Blackjacks arrive?” (The 2nd Armored Brigade from the 1st Armored Division also known as the Blackjacks was the closest heavy armored brigade General Gardner had, and he wanted to get them into the fight soon. The Marines had several battalions of Pershing main battle tanks, but the Blackjacks and the rest of the division had 900 of them--more than enough to steamroll through whatever the JDF and Chinese had on shore.)

“The lead elements are about six hours away; the rest of the division should arrive in San Bernardino in about 16 hours. They will be ready to advance into the city in about 24 hours.”

Gardner grunted an acknowledgement. “What’s going on with our forces near City Hall and the downtown area? Also, have we been able to get some eyes on the ports yet?”

“Unfortunately, Sir, we lost City Hall and the surrounding area. Our troops put up one hell of a fight in the city, but just as we thought we had the enemy on the run, two battalions of heliborne troops from the JDF Marines arrived and reinforced their troops on the ground. We did shoot down seven troop helicopters and four attack helicopters--”

The Air Force LNO interjected, “--We also lost five F38A fighter drones and two A10 Warthogs in the battle as well.”

General Gardner let out a quiet groan.

Colonel Mason continued with his brief. “Sir, what’s left of the soldiers we sent in have fallen back several blocks further to the east and are hunkering down and waiting for reinforcements. They took some pretty heavy casualties.”

“Why are we not sending more Razorbacks into the city to provide our guys with more support?” asked Gardner huffily.

“We have, Sir. We’ve lost thirteen Razorbacks in the last three hours alone, bringing more troops into the city and evacuating casualties out,” Colonel Mason said, exhaustion dripping from his voice.

Seeing the frustration and exhaustion on the faces of his officers around him, General Gardner said, “Look, I know everyone is tired and frustrated right now. We are going to have to deal with this one problem at a time. You all know what needs to be done, and I know I cannot snap my fingers and make things better. What I need from you is to take a deep breath, calm yourselves down and put your thinking caps on. We need to reason through this problem; come up with ideas on how we are going to get more troops into the city in a coordinated manner and defeat this invading force. Intelligence says there are over forty freighters and transports lining up to unload their troops and tanks at the port. Time is not on our side. Just focus on the task at hand and do not let your anger or frustration get the better of you. I need to go call General Branson and see if we can get some additional help. In the meantime, execute the orders you’ve been given.”

With that, General Gardner picked up his secured smartphone, left the room, and began to call General Branson.

General Branson was not keen on the idea of using the limited supply of X59 scramjet cruise missiles to hit the port facilities on the West Coast. “Gardner, you have to understand,” he explained. “The US is still in short supply of these missiles--the manufacturers only produce between ten and fourteen a month. The President has been wanting to build up the inventory of them to launch a massive cruise missile attack against the Chinese ship building industry in order to cripple the PLA’s ability to replace the losses in the PLAN fleet. So far, we have managed to build up a supply of about eighty-seven missiles, but President Stein directly expressed that he was reluctant in using them against the ports.”

General Gardner shared some not-so-choice words with his compatriot. Branson shrugged it off though. “Look,” he said. “The new American Carrier Strike Group is going to be entering the Pacific soon. At that point, CSG12 could secure the ports in a week, two weeks at the most, and then we can use the cruise missiles to cripple the PLAN and starve their forces in Alaska.”

Clearly, General Gardner’s mood did not improve after that phone call.

Chapter 22

Fall Back

26 December 2041

Corona, California

Near the Junction of Highway 91 and Highway 71

Captain Thornton’s company had been fighting all out for the last five hours, and they had finally pushed the Japanese to the canyon entrance leading to Anaheim Hills and Los Angeles. The combat had been brutal; just as they thought they had mopped up the remnants of a Japanese infantry company, dozens of helicopters landed nearly 400 additional Japanese Marines not far from their position. As they moved to engage the new arrivals, seven Japanese main battle tanks also showed up, providing direct fire support. This forced Thornton to have to order his men to disperse and try to find a way around the enemy positions so they could destroy the tanks from the rear. His company was taking heavy casualties, but they continued to press on.

It took them close to two more hours, but they were finally able to force the Japanese to fall back to Anaheim Hills. Despite numerous requests for air support and artillery support, none was available. This lack of assistance meant they were not able to get around the heavy tanks and the two additional companies of Japanese light infantry. Thornton’s men were now facing close to 800 troops and seven main battle tanks along with two dozen light armored support vehicles. His men were busy using their anti-tank missiles and rockets, slowly grinding down the number of enemy armored vehicles.

Lieutenant Colonel Lee had called Thornton for about the third time, trying to get a status update. “Hey Thornton--has your company broken through the lines yet?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, Sir, but without air support, we are stuck. The Japanese are not going to bust through our position, but we do not have enough men to overwhelm the enemy force.”

Lee attempted to encourage him. “I understand, honestly, but do whatever you can to try. The Army has an armored Calvary division arriving later in the day. Tomorrow, you will have heavy armor support.”

Thornton didn’t care about tomorrow; his Marines were dying now, and they needed more support. Unfortunately, none was coming at least until tomorrow. “What was it they used to tell us in Boot Camp? Ah, yes. ‘Semper Gumby’ Marines.”

Chapter 23

A Man, A Plan, A Canal--Panama!

28 December 2041

Panama Canal

As the USS New York exited the Panama Canal, the ship moved to join the rest of the battlegroup. The remaining three ships of the group were set to pass through the canal over the next few hours, and would join their fellow sailors as they prepared themselves to meet the joint Chinese and Japanese fleets sailing south from California to meet them. The naval battle that was brewing up along the Pacific coast of Mexico was gearing up to be the largest sea battle between modern naval forces since World War II.

Captain Baker approached Admiral Stonebridge in the Combat Information Center (CIC) to get his attention. “Admiral, we have the latest intelligence on the enemy fleet. The Chinese and JDF are merging their fleets and starting to make their way towards us. With both fleets moving towards each other, we will be in striking range of them with our anti-ship lasers and railguns within three days. Our fighters will be within range of each other in two days.”

Placing his coffee cup down on the table as he looked up at Captain Baker. “How long until we are in range of launching our cruise missiles?” asked the Admiral, wanting to be the one to draw first blood.

Baker smiled before responding, “We will be in range in about eight hours; then it’ll take the cruise missiles close to three hours’ flight time before they hit the fleet.”

Thinking about his strategy for a minute, the Admiral had an epiphany that it might be better if they did not attack first. Maybe they should draw the enemy in closer, let them expend their cruise missiles against his superior defenses, and then cut them apart. “Hmm, on second thought,” he said, “I want to wait to launch the cruise missiles until tomorrow. I want more time for our subs to get in range before we launch them. Then the submarines can launch their attack once the enemy fleet is fully engaged with their own cruise missiles; hopefully this will give us an opportunity to overwhelm them,” Stonebridge said as he pointed at a few sections on the map of where he wanted his ships to be when the attack began.

Captain Baker mulled over this change in strategy for a moment. “Sir, if we launch the cruise missiles tomorrow at 2100 hours, they will arrive around 0100 in the morning. Close to half of their fleet will be asleep; this will also put us in range to use our attack drones. We can also have our aircraft attack at the same time the cruise missiles and submarines are hitting them.” As Captain Baker spoke, he moved a few aircraft, submarine and cruise missile icons around on the map to illustrate his idea.

“The one thing I do not like about this scenario is that we are going to get hit first,” the Admiral said.

“We will, but we also know what direction the missiles are going to come from. We can move our destroyers and cruisers forward to act as a picket screen and have the battleships move in front of us. When we do spot the missile launches on the satellite readouts, we can scramble our fighters to go missile hunting as well.”

Thinking for a minute and taking a long sip of his coffee, the Admiral surveyed the map, trying to calculate how much damage his fleet would possibly sustain. It was hard to determine if it was worth the risk of waiting to let the enemy strike first so that he could launch a three-pronged attack.

“I generally do not like the idea of letting the enemy get the first punch in. That said, our attack against their fleet is going to be a lot more effective if we hit them with all three elements as opposed to using a piecemeal approach. If we are going to do this, then let’s have the fleet move to their battle stations and be ready to repel the attack when it comes. I need to send a message to the Pentagon and let them know what we are going to do. Admiral Juliano said we have to keep them fully appraised of any changes from our original strategy.” Stonebridge was not happy about the thought that others, several thousand miles away from him, could potentially override his tactical decisions.

Chapter 24

Tung and Shinzo

28 December 2041

Port of Los Angeles

Japanese Command Center

Major General Hidehisa Shinzo was starting to feel overwhelmed in his role as the operational ground commander of the invasion of California. Nearly half of the units he landed with four days ago had either been killed or captured by the American Marines rushing towards the city from the Marine Base at Twenty-Nine Palms, and now they were having to deal with the Army airborne units as well. The port would have been lost a day ago, if they had not unloaded that PLA heavy tank brigade and the aviation unit that came along with them. A battalion of Pershing battle tanks nearly broke through their lines in Anaheim Hills.

In the last ninety-six hours since the start of the invasion, they had offloaded nearly 98,000 soldiers, 1,200 armored vehicles, and 800 main battle tanks. The Japanese Air Force and PLAAF had ferried over 620 fighters and ground attack aircraft from Hawaii to the various airports in and around LA. However, their foothold in the city was still tenuous at best; the Marines were still pouring in like water around every strongpoint they had established around the city. Fighting was fierce and constant in most of the suburbs. So far, they had managed to keep the Marines away from the ports, but it was only a matter of time at this point.

He had watched President Stein address the nation a couple of days ago, saying the entire American Third Army was heading to California and would soon throw the invaders back into the sea. This is what General Shinzo had warned his superiors about; if they did not get enough reinforcement into the city before the American Third Army arrived, then the invasion was doomed to fail. Another 60,000 soldiers were going to be offloaded today at the port while 15,000 more flew in by commercial air. It was a race to see who could get more troops to LA. Tomorrow, the first wave of transports from Indonesia and India would start to arrive. General Shinzo had not fought alongside soldiers from either of these nations before, so he did not know how well they would fair against the Americans. Time would tell.

Seeing General Shinzo deep in thought, General Zi Tung of the People’s Liberation Army walked up to him and bowed. “General Shinzo, are you all right?” he inquired.

General Zi Tung had just arrived; he was supposed to take over command from General Shinzo. Tung had fought against General Gardner in the Middle East before being wounded and flown back to China. That was several months before the Chinese were defeated by General Gardner. He was then given command of a PLA Corps in Alaska and had helped lead the PLA in capturing Anchorage. Now he had been transferred to California and was going to be the joint forces commander for the Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Indonesian forces in California. This was a great honor, and not one Tung took lightly. If he failed, chances were that he would be executed or at least placed in exile; if he won though, he might be able to secure a position on the ruling committee as one of the great Chinese generals.

“Ah, General Tung, it is great to finally meet you in person. Yes, I am quite well. I am looking over the maps and the intelligence we are receiving, trying to figure out what General Gardner is going to do next and what we can do to stop him.”

Tung nodded before responding, “General Shinzo, you have done a superb job leading the invasion up to this point. I know you feel as if you have betrayed the Americans, but they turned their backs on Japan and the rest of the world when they committed genocide against the Muslims in the Middle East. The collapse of America is for the betterment of mankind, not the end of it. Japan is on the right side of history in this war,” Tung said, praising Shinzo.

Then he let the hammer drop. “General Shinzo, I am here to take over as Commander for all Axis forces in California. I would like to know if you would be willing to take over as the ground commander for the joint Chinese/Japanese First Corps once they are fully unloaded and ready to move?” General Tung was trying not to insult his counterpart; he knew that General Shinzo was probably the best ground commander in California, and he wanted to use his skills to his advantage.

The Joint First Corps was going to be a 45,000-person armored and mechanized infantry unit. To counter the American Pershing tanks, the Chinese and JDF had developed a new tank round for use by the Type-29 JDF main battle tank and the new PLA Type-43 main battle tank. Both tanks used a 135mm main gun, but the new projectile incorporated the same armor component that the Pershing tanks used into a penetrator. Essentially, the new tank round was a glorified lawn dart that was made of the same armor as the Pershing tanks, traveling at speeds of 4,000 feet per second. Once it hit the Pershing, it would punch right through its armor and bounce around inside, killing the crew. Or it would blow a hole right through the Pershing so fast it that would cause a massive vacuum, collapsing the lungs of the crew members inside. The advantages that the Pershing had had up to this point were its range and its armor. However, in a close-in city and urban warfare fight, the Pershing would not have a range advantage, and the new penetrator would remove any advantage from the armor. The leader of the Joint Corps was bound to witness some marvelous victories.

General Shinzo was swelling with pride. “It would be my honor to lead the joint force in attacking the Americans,” he said. Then his face changed to a somber expression, “…I do hope you understand, General Tung, that our time to beat the Americans is slowly coming to an end, so we have to act quickly.”

Somewhat stunned by General Shinzo’s pessimistic attitude but willingness to fight on despite it, General Tung asked, “What did you mean by that statement? I would caution you not to express such defeatist statements in front of the men.”

“General Tung, the Japanese do not view talk like that as defeatist; it is a statement of fact to spur us on to the action needed to win before it is too late. What I mean is that the American President announced two days ago on television that the entire American Third Army is heading to California to ‘throw the invaders back into the sea.’ The American Third Army consist of 1,300,000 soldiers. That is significantly larger than our invasion force. It will still take them several days for most of the units to arrive, but once they do, they will push us into the sea if we are not able to secure enough of the strategic points in the valley leading into Los Angeles County. There are currently 90,000 Marines at Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Base, not more than sixty miles from here.”

“One of my lead tank elements reported they encountered a battalion from the 2nd Cavalry Division earlier this morning. That division had been in Colorado three days ago; now they are in California. I need your help in marshaling the needed forces to re-capture these areas and reinforce them so we can hold the valley while reinforcements continue to arrive. I also need our air forces to attack the columns of enemy tanks and armored vehicles driving to California. No matter how many aircraft we lose, we need to attack them while they are on the road and destroy the streets and rail infrastructure heading into California,” General Shinzo explained.  He spoke with conviction as he pointed to several different locations on the map.

General Tung thought to himself for a moment before responding, “They were right about General Shinzo; he is a very smart and astute military commander. Perhaps I should keep him here with me.”

Tung acknowledged, “General Shinzo, you bring up some great points. I can see why the military leadership believes you to be one of the rising stars in the JDF. You are smart, and clearly see the second and third order effects of decisions. It also seems that you anticipate the enemy well. I have also fought against General Gardner in the Middle East, so I know what it is like to go up against him (as well as General Black); both commanders are tough and smart adversaries. The battle for California will not be easy, and it will cost both of our nations a lot of men. But it is just one part of the greater global chess game being played. We need to continue to bleed the Americans dry of forces and material. Especially here in California.”

“I want you to take command of the First, and the Second Corps and implement the strategy and plan that you just discussed. I will coordinate with our reinforcements, the PLAAF and PLAN to bring in the support and supplies you need to win. You need to deliver though. The PLA does not accept defeat, and it is imperative that we hold our gains here in California.” Tung spoke with a toughness in his voice.

“If you can get the PLAAF to attack the American reinforcements and specifically destroy the rail and highway systems leading into California, we can hold our ground,” Shinzo said with determination in his eyes.

Chapter 25

Analyze This

29 December 2041

Ft. Meade, Maryland

US Cyber Command

Admiral John Casey was pouring over the intelligence information reports from the previous night and comparing them to the global picture of the war. Three of his best contractors (who specialized in military operations) and his two most trusted intelligence officers were also sifting through the information and the maps, trying to piece together the bigger picture of what was going on with the worldwide conflict.

One of the contractors blurted out, “This doesn’t make sense. Why would the Chinese stop attacking in Alaska? They have the upper hand there.”

Another contractor said, “Think about it for a second. Look at the units in Alaska. Over the last month, they have rotated out some of their best frontline units and moved them to support the California invasion. All of the new Chinese units and reserve units are being sent to Alaska, and their combat veterans are being redeployed to California. The forces in Alaska are clearly meant as a distraction at this point to tie down our resources and troops. They control everything of value; now they just need to make sure we continue to think they are going to pose a threat,” he explained, pointing to charts and maps as he spoke.

A smart young major from the Marines interjected, “My concern with these unit rotations is not that they are all going to show up in California, but that some of them may be used to invade Washington State.”

The room erupted in grumbles and murmurs, as others clearly disagreed with his assessment.

“No, hear me out. The Russians just moved all their amphibious troop ships to this point here in Alaska. My money says they are loading up troops and will ferry them down to Seattle. Think about it…we have very few forces in Seattle, and now with the invasion of California, what forces we have in Seattle are being sent to California to try and retake the ports in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Another contractor jumped in, “It’s an idea. If we start to see all the troop transports and other support ships move from Oakland and LA up to Alaska to pick up more soldiers, then you might be right. Until that happens, even with the help of the Russians, they do not have enough sealift capability or support ships to make it happen.” He was somewhat flippant in his dismissal of the Marine’s idea.

The third contractor (who had not said anything up to this point) broke into the conversation to add, “What everyone is missing is what the Indians and Indonesians are doing. Both countries have sent troops to participate in the California invasion, we already know that. But what we have not talked about is the massive troop movements showing up on our satellites to the Chinese railheads. These forces are moving by rail to Russia. Thus far, the Indians have not made a move against our forces now occupying the Islamic Republic, but all indications are they are moving hundreds of thousands of soldiers to Russia, then possibly on to Europe. If that is the case, then our forces in Europe are going to be in some serious trouble come spring.” He sat back in his chair, waiting for the information to sink in.

Admiral Casey finally chimed in with his own thoughts, “I believe Russia and China are trying to distract us by attacking everywhere, knowing if they hit us in enough different places, they can bleed us dry. What we have to figure out is how we can hit them hard enough to take them out of the war without them going nuclear.”

Everyone nodded.

Casey continued, “I have an idea and I want you all to vet it and see if it is possible. As everyone knows, we are systematically destroying Japan and India electronically. The US has a limited supply of X59 scramjet cruise missiles, which the President currently wants to use to destroy several major Chinese port facilities being used to build PLAN naval ships and super carriers. What if we used those cruise missiles to destroy key rail bridges linking China, India and Russia together in Siberia? How would that impact the logistics of the war? Also, if we hit the Three Gorge Dam in China, how bad would that hurt the Chinese?”

Casey didn’t wait for a response, instead plowing on to the next tactical point. “I want you guys to look at how we can go after their transportation industry and how we can systematically destroy these countries from within. I do not care how many civilians may be killed in these attacks or because of them; I want you to consider all angles and find a way to defeat them before they tear our country apart. I want your ideas ready by the end of this week.”

“Yes sir,” the group responded.

Admiral Casey then got up from the table and left to go check on his next think tank group to see what they had come up with. That was the one that was systematically destroying Japan electronically...Casey may have been slightly too happy to learn about how his enemies might be suffering.

Chapter 26

Vampires During the Day

30 December 2041

100 Miles off the Coast of Mexico

“Vampires! Vampires! Vampires!” yelled one of the petty officers in the CIC as the radar screens started to show one, then dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of cruise missiles heading towards the American fleet. Immediately, the fleet’s automated defense system began to take over, slaving every ship in the fleet to the central command at the heart of the fleet, the USS New York, the flagship of the fleet. Admiral Stonebridge would now be able to control all of the ships’ defense and targeting systems.

The carriers immediately began to launch their drone fighters to get them heading towards the missiles to engage them. The missiles were still several hundred miles away, but they were closing that distance fast. As the naval attack came into range of the first ships in the strike group’s screening force, the frigates, destroyers and cruisers began to engage them with their railguns and anti-missile interceptors. A curtain of projectiles was flying at the thousands of missiles streaking in towards the strike group. Dozens of missiles started to disintegrate as they were shredded by the railgun projectiles, while others were destroyed by the missile interceptors. As the ships desperately fought to destroy the waves of incoming fire, several of them started to find their marks, ripping through the frigates and destroyers. Fireballs appeared as the missiles ripped through the hulls and superstructures of the ships like hot knives through butter. As the enemy swarm overwhelmed the outer screen of the strike group, the heavy cruisers and battleships began to throw up their own wall of projectiles, missile interceptors and point defense lasers, engaging as many missiles as their systems could target.

Several anti-ship missiles plowed into the two heavy battleships, the pride of the American Navy. To everyone’s amazement, they sustained little damage. The reactive armor added to the battleships had held, and the ships just shrugged off the hits, only sustaining superficial damage to the exterior structure. As the final wave of missiles flew towards the three carriers of the American fleet, they disintegrated in a hail of railgun projectiles and laser point defense systems.

America had learned a hard lesson early in the war when they had found out that the carrier fleets were vulnerable to a missile swarm attack. It had been a difficult lesson to accept at the time, but now it was paying off through the new design of the carrier fleet’s defensive systems. The JDF and PLAN had just thrown over 2,100 anti-ship cruise missiles at the American fleet, and all but 62 missiles had been destroyed. The Americans did sustain damage, losing three destroyers, four frigates and one cruiser to the missile swarm. However, all three carriers survived with no damage, and the battleships (which packed most of the fleet’s heavy firepower) had taken little damage. The core of the fleet was still intact despite the losses, and now they were moving into their own strike range; soon the JDF and PLAN would feel the wrath of American ingenuity.

Chapter 27

Don’t Forget to Turn out the Lights

30 December 2041

Ft. Meade, Maryland

NSA Headquarters

Neven Jackson and his partner in crime Milo had received a lot of congratulations from the bosses at the NSA for their successful hack of the Chinese exoskeleton suits during the PLAN beach invasion of Oceanside. The Chinese had still captured Camp Pendleton and San Diego, but they had suffered horrific casualties and lost the ability to use their exoskeleton combat suits until their programmers could figure out how to remove Neven’s malware and get the suits operational again. Neven and Milo had even been invited for lunch with President Stein as a reward for a job well done.

Meeting the President was not something high on either of their minds. As hackers, their natural inclination was to have little respect for authority figures, let alone the President. However, after their lunch, they both walked away with a better understanding of Stein, and may have even started to see him as a real person. For a politician, the President had a very strong grasp on cyber warfare and cyber security, something neither of them expected from any president. They also felt a renewed purpose to not let the country down after seeing how their direct efforts were affecting the war.

Colonel Jeff Blount may have been a little jealous of Milo and Neven’s facetime with the President. He walked into their little hacker fiefdom on a mission, and with barely any gesture to politeness, bluntly asserted, “Ok gentlemen, sorry to disrupt the joyful reverie of your ‘lair,’ but it’s time for you to launch your next malware attack. We need you to move against the Japanese Fleet off the Pacific Coast of Mexico.”

As the drone feed was directed to their large screen monitors, they could see that the naval battle between the joint Chinese/Japanese fleet and the Americans was well underway. They saw the missile swarm heading towards the Americans and thought for certain the fleet was finished. To their surprise, they saw hundreds and then thousands of enemy missiles being destroyed, reducing the swarm into a manageable flock.

Several bright flashes could be seen as multiple American ships were hit. Then numerous large explosions occurred.

“What was that?” asked Neven, as he began work on another screen.

Colonel Blount was almost callous as he responded, “That was 291 people being killed. Those ships just blew up.”

As the missiles converged on the battleships and carriers, it seemed that they were all but destroyed.

The Colonel walked to the front of the room, standing in front of the monitors. Then he announced, “Now it is our turn. I need you guys to go in through your established backdoors and turn the Japanese ships off. We know you cannot access the Chinese ships; our fleet will handle them. Disable the JDF ships and let’s finish this battle, bringing the war one step closer to victory.” Then he walked to the side of the room to let the hackers do their work.

Neven pulled another Rip It out of the fridge near his work station, turned on his favorite music and began to type away. Neven was working on three different twenty inch monitors while reclining in a soft leather chair with his headphones on, and Milo was setting up the malware that would jump from the JDF fleet to the PLAN and begin to bog down their communications system with a concerted DDoS attack from every IoT device in the JDF fleet.

As Neven moved from folder to folder, system to system within the carriers and battleships of the JDF fleet, he began to activate a series of viruses and crypto-locker protocols that would shut down the carriers and battleship and then summarily lock them out of their systems when they tried to reboot them. The ships would effectively become dead in the water, unable to move or defend themselves when the American fleet started to carry out their counter attack. It was going to be a bloodbath.

Chapter 28

Battleships

30 December 2041

100 Miles Off the Coast of Mexico

An intelligence officer walked onto the bridge and handed Stonebridge a memo. “Admiral, this message just came in from NSA. They said the JDF fleet has been taken offline and is dead in the water. We should conduct our attack now before they are able to bring their systems back online.” The officer waited for the Admiral to finish reading the report and issue his next set of orders.

“Now it’s time for some American justice,” thought the Admiral to himself.

Stonebridge turned to Captain Mason and directed, “Captain, order your attack aircraft to engage the enemy fleet immediately.” Then he turned to his operations officer and said, “Captain Lacey, order the battleships to launch their missiles and continue at flank speed until they are in range of the enemy fleets ships with their laser and railgun turrets. Once they are within range, they are to engage the enemy at will.”

Admiral Stonebridge looked back at the holographic map and the distances between the two fleets; the gap was closing quickly as the Americans were moving at flank speed towards the enemy. The Chinese and JDF continued to move towards the Americans to get their battleships in range to use their main guns, unaware of what awaited them.

*******

Captain Jeremiah Wright had just completed his twenty-first year in the US Navy and his second year as the Captain of the USS Iowa Battleship. He had been selected to be the Captain of the Iowa after completing his assignment as the executive officer of the USS George H.W. Bush just months before it had been destroyed in the Pacific by the Chinese during the opening engagement of World War III. He had felt terrible about the loss of his previous ship; he knew a lot of the officers and enlisted personnel on board that had died, so it’s sinking hit home. He had lost over a hundred people he considered to be close friends. His assignment to the USS Iowa had been a blessing and a curse. He had needed time to emotionally heal and grieve the loss of so many friends; he had gotten that in a way because he had been sidelined from participating in the war up to that point while he worked on getting the USS Iowa ready for battle for more than 18 months.

Now, as Captain Wright stood in the CIC of America’s most powerful warship ever built, he felt almost god-like at the power and sheer destruction he was about to unleash on America’s enemies. His orders were to target the Chinese Supercarriers and battleships and leave the Japanese ships for the drones to destroy. With the cyber-attacks crippling the Japanese fleet, his real concern was the Chinese navy.

He turned to his weapons officer, “Commander Lewis, do we have a firing solution on the first Supercarrier?” he asked.

Lewis replied, “Yes, sir, we do. We have both weapon systems locked in right now. Do you want to hit them with the railgun or the laser?” he asked with a grin.

“First, let Admiral Stonebridge know we are ready to fire and make sure everyone can see the drone footage. Let’s hit the first carrier with the railguns. Then we’ll hit the second carrier with the pulse beam and see which one has the most effect.” Captain Wright had been told by Admiral Stonebridge that President Stein himself was going to be watching the battle, so he wanted to impress.

The communications officer replied, “All outstations are reporting ready, and the various feeds from the drones are coming in nice and clear.”

Looking at the men and women in the CIC, Captain Wright ordered, “Commander Lewis, FIRE guns one through four!”

There was a slight increase in the mechanical hum of the ship as the reactor increased power and then an ear-piercing SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, as the four railguns fired one projectile each at the Chinese Supercarrier one hundred and eighteen miles away. It took nearly a minute for the projectiles to fly the distance to the Chinese fleet, and then the rounds hit the carrier. They saw on the drone feed the impact against the side of the carrier, causing it to rock heavily to one side before it righted itself from the impact. Initially, there was a somewhat small entry hole into the hull, and then a massive explosion detonated as the projectile flew through the ship and out the other side. The projectile was traveling so fast when it hit that the shockwave caused a huge section of the hull on the opposite side to blow right open. Critical sections of the ship started to catch fire and explode. The carrier was still floating, but clearly had suffered a critical hit. Flames burst out of the entrance and exit holes where the projectile had been.

Captain Wright looked at his weapons officer and ordered, “Fire a second volley.”

The USS Iowa shook a second time as the main guns fired a second volley of projectiles at the Chinese warship. When the second round hit the carrier, it shook violently. Several additional explosions erupted, and the carrier began to rip apart. Within minutes, the carrier began to list heavily to one side and started sinking quickly. An audible gasp could be heard in the CIC as the men and women watching saw the ship start to roll over on its side and quickly descend below the waves.

“Commander Lewis,” barked the Captain. “Fire the lasers at the second carrier!”

The reactors of the Iowa began to spool up again, and this time the ship’s two pulse beam lasers discharged. Upon hitting the ship, each laser burned a three-foot round hole into the hull of the ship, just below the flight deck. Within seconds, the laser had ignited the fuel and weapons used for the drones, causing significant damage and secondary explosions.

“Commander Lewis, have the gun battery aim for the waterline, and let’s see if we can sink that ship with the next shot,” the Captain ordered.

Commander Lewis nodded, then picked up a phone to talk with the targeting officers for the laser battery, who quickly made the requested adjustment. The second laser shot impacted the carrier, burning a hole several feet below the waterline and causing the water surrounding the new hole in the hull to quickly bubble away until the laser turned off. In seconds, a huge rush of water could be seen swooshing into the vacant hole left by the laser. In less than a minute, the ship began to tilt heavily to one side as the flames from the drone fuel and ammunition continued to rage.

Admiral Stonebridge came on to the fleet PA system, “Impressive show, Captain Wright. It’s time for both battleships to fire at will now. We need to begin to systematically destroy the Chinese fleet while the carrier drones fly in to finish off the Japanese.”

The battle lasted less than thirty minutes. In that time, the Japanese lost three Supercarriers, their two prized battleships, and their entire support fleet. The Chinese recognized what type of weapons they were being hit with, and the ships that were left immediately began to sail away from the American fleet as fast as possible to try and get out of range of the American super weapons. Three of the four Chinese Supercarriers were destroyed, while the fourth sustained a hit from the Wisconsin’s railgun, causing significant damage. Only three other Chinese surface ships escaped the battle as they ran quickly towards the waters of Hawaii.

Chapter 29

In the Middle of the Night

30 December 2041

Tokyo, Japan

Prime Minister’s Official Residence

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Hata was asleep with his wife when a knock at the door woke him out of his slumber. As he fumbled with the covers and placed his feet on the floor, he reached for a robe and slowly walked to the door just as the knocking started again. “Shhh--you are going to wake my wife. What is so urgent that it could not wait until morning?” PM Hata asked the military officer standing in front of his bedroom door.

“Sir, I was told by Admiral Hito to come and get you. He said to tell you there has been a major naval engagement with the Americans in the Pacific,” the officer muttered. He seemed to be completely out of breath.

“Perhaps if the officer hurried that much to see me, the situation is truly serious,” thought the Prime Minister.

“Tell the admiral I will be over shortly,” Hata responded aloud. “I am going to get dressed,” he said, and he closed the door, not waiting for a reply.

Twenty minutes later, PM Hata walked into the operations center in the bowels of the PM’s offices and saw several military officers talking animatedly around a holographic map while others were reviewing several different drone feeds. The room looked every bit the military headquarters it had turned into these past few weeks since the start of the war with America.

Up to this point, the invasion had been proceeding better than expected. Their forces in Los Angeles had done a marvelous job fighting the American Marines, though it did appear the war was about to take a turn for the worse as more and more American soldiers continued to pour into California from other areas of America. Their Special Forces raids in the heart of America via the airlines had also been yielding great results. They had already destroyed several critical rail bridges and tunnels in the cities surrounding the airports where a number of operatives had gotten out through security. The attacks against the transportation infrastructure of America were going to have a long-term effect on the Americans’ ability to defend themselves. However, the optimism of the situation was about to change.

Admiral Hito looked up and saw the PM had finally arrived. “PM, please, if you will come this way. We need to discuss the recent naval battle,” he said urgently.

As the PM walked towards the Admiral, he saw the look of sheer anxiety on the faces of many of the military officers. “What is so important that it could not wait until morning?” demanded Hata, clearly not happy with having been woken up in the middle of the night.

“Prime Minister, there was a major naval battle between our forces and the Americans off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Americans had moved their new battle group called Carrier Strike Group 12, along with their newest battleships and supercarriers to the Pacific several days ago. Three hours ago, the fleets came into range of each other and the battle started,” began the Admiral.

“Near as I can tell Admiral, this battle was a success, we sunk nine American warships,” shot back the PM, not sure why his officers were acting like this was some sort of disaster.

“Sir, there is more. Following our initial attack and success against the Americans, they launched their own assault using their newest super weapons. We had no idea they had these types of weapons, and they were incredibly deadly. They destroyed three of our five carriers and both of our battleships, along with nearly our entire support fleet. What is left of the fleet has retreated to Hawaii.” As the Admiral spoke, he hung his head low, not making eye contact with the PM.

PM Hata began to fill with rage and anger. He had been assured by the PLAN and his own Admirals that the American navy would be defeated, that their navy no longer posed a serious threat if they were to join the Chinese in this war. Now most of their fleet had been destroyed in just one engagement with the Americans...this was unacceptable.

Barely able to contain his ire, the PM yelled, “What happened?!” Then he softened his voice and hissed, “Start from the beginning, Admiral.”

The Admiral stiffened his back and looked the PM in the eyes as he relayed the sequence of the battle and what led to their defeat. “The Americans hacked into our computer systems on the carriers and our battleships. They took the ships’ power systems offline; then they began to disable specific combat systems like the point defense weapon systems. In the battleships, they disabled the railgun turrets. By the time our computer specialist could regain control of the power system and some of the defenses, the battle was well underway and the Americans were already attacking them. The best they could do was turn the fleet towards Hawaii and move as fast as they could to get away from the American guns.”

He pulled up some drone footage to show the PM. “They hit us with two new weapons we were not prepared for. One was their railgun turrets--we have them on our battleships as well, but the American railguns were shooting projectiles significantly larger than anything we thought possible; they also had a range of more than 120 kilometers, which was way beyond what we thought possible. Next, they hit the Chinese ships (and ours) with a pulse beam laser. Here is a video of the laser hitting a Chinese carrier; you can see how it only hits the ship for about five seconds, but cut a hole more than ten meters deep and two meters in diameter. It devastated the ship.”

“As our ships began to turn towards Hawaii, the American fighter drones began to pounce on our ships from the sky. Our support ships luckily did not have their systems hacked, so they were able to shoot down many of the drones, but not before they destroyed a large portion of our support fleet and three of our five carriers.”

PM Hata stood there in silence for a couple of minutes watching the drone feeds and thinking to himself, “If the Americans could do this to our fleet, how much more will they be able to do when the rest of their navy on the East Coast is ready? I fear I have led Japan down the road to ruin.”

“Admiral, this battle has been clearly lost; I need time to think about what this all means and what our next steps are. I am going to go get some food and talk with the Foreign Minister. We will both return to this room in three hours, and I would like a briefing on what the military heads’ recommendations are.” The PM was in a state of shock and resignation as he looked at the military officers standing around him. He knew he should say something inspiring at that moment, but he could not think of anything to say, so he turned around and left the room as he dialed the phone number to his foreign ministers.

Admiral Kawano could not believe he had lost 9,600 sailors in the span of thirty-five minutes. What had been the pride of the Japanese navy was now reduced to two supercarriers and a handful of escort ships. The PLAN had suffered a similar loss in capital ships. His officers were also still in a state of shock at what just happened; they continued pouring over the drone images of the attack to try and determine how this all happened. He knew the Americans had been working on pulse beam lasers and heavier railguns, but had no idea they had moved from experimenting with them to full implementation of them on their next generation warships. If they did not find a way to counter this, then they were going to be in some serious trouble.

What troubled him more was that all the transports were still heading to the American ports. With his naval force unable to protect those ships, a lot of men were going to die before they ever set foot on American soil.

*******

Hours later, Prime Minister Hata and his Foreign Minister Hirohita walked into the Command Center and made their way over to a corner in the room where the briefing table was. Several officers were setting up equipment near the table, while another aide was filling the glasses on the table with water and getting cups ready for tea.

Admiral Hito directed the officers around him to head to the table so they could begin the briefing. Fortunately, they had found some valuable information intermixed with the drone feeds and they were eager to share it. As everyone sat down, Admiral Hito cleared his throat and began to speak to the group. “PM, Foreign Minister, after careful review of the drone feeds of the battle, we have found some useful intelligence that may help us to defeat the advanced American warships. During the battle, our forces and the PLAN carried out what we in the navy call a missile swarm attack. Our ships and aircraft fired a series of waves of anti-ship cruise missiles at the American fleet. The American support ships and their capital ships did manage to destroy most of them, but a small percentage did still get through. During our attack, we managed to destroy three Zumwalt destroyers, four guided missile frigates and one heavy cruiser. That only leaves the carrier fleet with two of their older missile destroyers, three frigates and two heavy missile cruisers to assist their two battleships and three supercarriers.” The Admiral seemed to be boasting about the damage they had inflicted.

The PM seemed puzzled by the Admiral and other officers’ excitement and asked, “I commend our forces in destroying these American warships, but it sounds as if most of their fleet and their capital ships are still intact. What am I missing?”

Seeing that the PM and the Foreign Minister had not grasped the significance of what they had accomplished, the Admiral explained, “Sir, the American capital ships are powerful, but now they are vulnerable to a missile swarm attack. We launched 2,100 anti-ship cruise missiles at them. During that engagement, only 68 of our missiles got through to cause damage, but even those small numbers sank half of their missile screening defense. If we can launch another missile swarm of this magnitude or greater, there is a high likelihood that we can sink their fleet.” The Admiral’s face glowed with a genuine smile.

PM Hata’s face relaxed out of its permanent frown for the first time that day as he finally realized what his officers were saying. Yes, they had just suffered a stinging defeat, but they had also discovered a way to sink this new and powerful fleet. “Admiral, how soon until we can launch another swarm attack like this?”

After calculating in his head for a moment, the Admiral responded, “Sir, we are moving as many anti-ship cruise missiles as we can to Hawaii right now. Our ships that are left can carry and launch 810 missiles; our drones can launch another 340. We believe the Chinese ships can launch a combined 940 missiles. I have a meeting with the PLAN Admiral in two hours to discuss our findings with them. I would like to believe we can coordinate a new attack against the Americans within the next couple of days.”

*******

Over the next two days, the Japanese and Chinese naval forces would work feverishly to bring as many anti-ship cruise missiles to Hawaii as possible. They also moved any available ships and support aircraft that were still available as well. Despite the tremendous loss, the mood of the commanders was now one of optimism.

Chapter 30

Meet Me in St. Louis

31 December 2041

Washington, D.C.

Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC)

The President and his staff were still celebrating the great naval battle from the night before when Jose Perez walked in on the celebration with a very somber expression. “Mr. President,” he began. “I’m sorry to sour the mood, but it’s about St. Louis.”

“What happened, Jose?” asked Stein, turning serious.

“Sir, last night a Japanese Special Forces group placed explosives on the supports of the South I-235 bridge near the St. Louis airport…it dropped into the Mississippi. Not only is it stopping road travel there, but it’s also blocking river traffic.”

There was no more happy chatter in the back of the room. Director Perez continued, “It’s not just that, either. In addition to dropping the South bridge, they also dropped the North one, the I-64 bridge and I-70 bridge in downtown St. Louis. Twenty-Three National Guard soldiers who had been guarding the bridges were killed, along with seven police officers. As if the attack against the bridges were not bad enough, another attack group blew up the canal locks along the Chicago River, reversing the direction of the water flow and causing all sorts of pollution to be transported to Northern and Central Illinois.”

These weren’t the first successful attacks by the JDF; recent memories flashed back in everyone’s minds. Two days ago, a major shootout had occurred near the White House as a Japanese Special Forces group attacked and then subsequently destroyed the 14th Street bridge joining Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia across the Potomac River. Using several recoilless rifles, the attack force had also destroyed a section of the rail bridge that crosses nearby before they were killed by an Army unit that responded to the attack.  The attack had been so close to the White House that it had reinforced the President’s assumption that Washington DC was not safe as long as enemy Special Forces were still prowling around.

The advisors turned back to business, discussing the attacks against the transportation grid and their potential military and economic impact. The President asked, “So, Admiral Casey, what is the status of the Trinity Program in tracking these guys down?”

“It’s a work in progress, Sir,” replied Casey. “We have managed to track down a large number of hostiles in Miami, Philadelphia and around Victoria, Texas, but obviously, there are still quite a number of them at large. It’s just a matter of time before they trip up though, Mr. President.”

FBI Director Janet Smart added, “We’ve also picked up smaller groups of the JDF Special Forces Group in Atlanta, Phoenix and outside of Gary, Indiana. We are currently utilizing enhanced interrogation methods to help close in on any of their compatriots that they may be able to locate.”

The President nodded.

Mike Rogers, the National Security Advisor, decided to lighten the mood a little. “Sir, I’ve been going over Admiral Casey’s reports from India and Japan. Not only are the cyber-attacks impacting the economies there, but public opinion in those countries has definitely moved against participating in the war in attacking the United States.” General Branson saw an opportunity and chimed in, “Speaking of good news, Sir, we have officially deployed the first Bodarks in Alaska. We’ve set them up behind the Russian and Chinese lines, hoping they will cause as much chaos as possible.”

“So, have we had movement in Alaska, then?” asked the President.

“No, Sir. Not yet. The lines have been well established at this point; it seems that all sides are content to wait until spring before they resume killing each other. Although we’ve definitely lost Alaska, there is a glimmer of hope. After the Russians secured Fairbanks and oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, they withdrew most of their forces, leaving an occupation force to deal with the American militias there. The Chinese also seem to be moving a lot of their troops and heavy equipment to the ports; perhaps they are trying to move them to California.”

The President wondered, “So, speaking of California, how soon do you think we will be able to end the invasion there and restore order?”

General Branson brought up the map of Southern California and the various military divisions and their locations. “We have 121,000 soldiers fighting in Los Angeles against about 148,000 enemy soldiers. As of right now, our intel estimates that an additional 12,000 enemy soldiers are arriving in Los Angeles through the ports every hour. Our naval forces are starting to move towards the ports, once in range they will begin to interdict the enemy transports.”

Zooming in closer to the map of Los Angeles, he continued, “As you can see, we have moved forces throughout the LA basin and encircled the enemy. We now have them blocked in, so they cannot expand their footprint while we continue to move additional forces into the area. We also have several armored divisions arriving now, so we should begin the new offensive shortly.”

Pulling up a different map of the San Francisco Bay area, General Branson explained, “The enemy forces in this area are much smaller in number. They have not moved nearly as many forces into the area, and we have managed to get an airborne brigade to the mouth of the bay and close it off from any additional transports that arrive. Right now, they are holding the area until we can get additional forces to them. We have two armored divisions and three infantry divisions about a day away now.”

“Well, that’s encouraging at least,” said the President. “What about San Diego?”

Branson changed the map again before he began, “Now that we have the enemy contained in LA, we have some of our forces heading down to San Diego. This pocket here is a bit more concerning. The enemy managed to offload six armored divisions and another twelve infantry divisions. They are gearing up to move north and attack our forces currently holding the lines in LA.”

General Adrian Rice took over, giving the Air Force perspective. “Mr. President, as you can see, the JDF and PLAN have ferried over roughly seven hundred fighter drones to provide air support. The Japanese moved 110 F35s, the PLAAF brought in 125 J20s and 90 of their new J39s, their newest stealth fighters. Right now, the skies are a cluster mess. Neither side has air superiority yet, and I’m not sure how long it will be until we can regain control of the skies. The two F41s that survived the ambush with the JDF fleet were destroyed on the ground when Twenty-Nine Palms was bombed.”

“Mr. President,” interjected General Branson, “I would like to pull the other flight of F41s from the air campaign in Alaska and move them back down here. We need the help, Sir.”

President Stein knew Branson was right. However, he also wanted to keep the F41s fighting over Alaska. He was hoping to find a way to get the Air Force into a position where they could maintain air superiority in the Klondike without the F41s. Until Operation Pegasus fully got underway, they were going to be months away from building any additional F41s.

“General Branson, before we bring the F41s down, I have a question. What will happen to our operations in Alaska if we do take them away from the forces there?” the President asked, turning to the Air Force Service Commander.

General Rice responded, “Mr. President, the Russians have pulled a lot of their forces out and moved them back to Europe. The Chinese are still giving us a lot of problems though. Our issue is we just do not have enough fighters or drones to fight everywhere. Having the F41s in Alaska has allowed us to beef up our air forces in Europe and now to divert additional forces to California. If we move them, we risk the Chinese being able to break out of our air defenses and launch further attacks in the Pacific northwest. We are moving tremendous amounts of aircraft from across the country to California. We will gain air superiority; we just need to be patient while we get everything in place,” he explained.

The President looked at Branson, “General, I agree with the Air Force on this one. You are going to have to make do with what you have.”

The General shrugged a little, but he decided not to fight the President on this one.

Stein moved on. “Changing subjects, I want to transition to the Pegasus project. Are we still on track?”

General Branson sat down, knowing that his part of the briefing was over. Dr. Peter Gorka came to life as his holographic image began to display from Henry’s tablet. “Yes, Mr. President; Pegasus is still on track. We are going to move forward with the launch in March. We anticipate the mining operations starting within four days of landing on the lunar surface. Our first shipment of Tritium4 will be ready for transport back to Earth beginning in April. We will also have the first delivery of Helium3 available in April as well.”

As everyone was listening to Dr. Gorka speak, on another screen they could see video clips of what the lunar operation would look like. Henry Stein thought to himself, “I don’t think I can really get used to this--the future is really here.”

Chapter 31

The Beatings Will Continue until Morale Improves

01 January 2042

Tetlin Junction, Alaska

Lieutenant Paul Allen and his beat-up company of infantry had been pulled back to the unincorporated township of Tetlin Junction, which sat at the split between Highway 5 and Highway 2. Most of the US Forces left in Alaska had been pulled back either to this point or further down the Peninsula towards Vancouver. Allen’s company had fought hard in Fairbanks, but ultimately it was a losing cause. The Russians had too many men and the Chinese had dislodged the American stronghold further south. For the time-being, Alaska was lost. Now their objective was to keep the enemy bottled up in this frozen wasteland in order to keep them from capturing the Canadian states and pushing further down into the Pacific Northwest.

The mood of the soldiers was low. They had lost many of their comrades, and they had suffered defeat in the war in Alaska after enduring nearly six grueling months and hundreds of thousands of casualties. Then, just as Christmas was about to arrive, the media had started to report on a major invasion of California by the Chinese and the brutal betrayal of Japan and India as both nations officially declared war against the US.

The rumor mill was rampant in the 12th Infantry Division; some soldiers were reporting that LA and San Diego had fallen to the enemy, while others bragged that the Marines had pushed the invaders back into the sea. Eventually, a message was sent down from General Black, the First Army Commander, detailing the events of the past several days and explaining the current situation. Once the soldiers knew what was going on, a lot of things settled down as they knew the Third Army was in-route to California and would crush the invaders. Many soldiers had already fought with General Gardner in the Middle East; they felt confident in America’s chances with him at the helm on the West Coast.

Now that it was New Year’s Day, there was a special lunch for the men and women at the Tetlin Defense. While they ate, they watched videos of what military experts were calling the largest naval battle since World War II. The footage of the two new American battleships in action was awe-inspiring. They were massive futuristic looking ships and the display of their weapons against the joint Chinese/Japanese fleet was incredible. They shredded the enemy fleet, forcing the remaining ships to flee back to Hawaii. Per the Pentagon, the Carrier Strike Group was going to sail up the coast to San Diego and Los Angeles and assist the Army and Marines in crushing the enemy invasion force. Their help would go a long way toward recapturing the territory lost during the Christmas Day invasion.

Following the celebration, Lieutenant Allen was informed that he was being promoted to Captain and taking over command of his company. He was also invited to a high-level briefing being given at brigade headquarters. Unbeknownst to the officers in attendance, the division commander, a one star general, was also with their brigade commander to discuss a new secret weapon. During the briefing, they were shown images and then videos of the newest drone weapon that would be used in Alaska, the Bodark. What they saw terrified and excited them at the same time.

When Allen looked at the Bodark for the first time he was not impressed; then it transformed from a large rock-like form into a Werewolf looking creature with red glowing eyes, razor sharp claws and a howling shriek that caused a shiver to run down his back. The general explained how the Bodark was a mythological creature in Russian folklore. The goal in creating this new weapon was instilling psychological terror. As more and more units were built, the plan was to drop thousands of them behind the lines to wreak as much havoc as possible.

As Allen left the briefing room, he was glad his forces would not have to deal with facing a new weapon like that. They had seen enough horrific things in their lives; they did not need to add fictitious mythical creatures to their repertoire of frightening memories. Some of the new guys in his company were disappointed that their battalion was not being rotated back to the States to go fight in California. He had to remind them that less than a few hundred miles away were hundreds of thousands of Russian and Chinese soldiers spoiling for a good fight. Their chance at combat would come soon enough. As it stood, the 12th ID was going to hold this position until spring and then see what the higher-ups had planned for them.

Chapter 32

A Man Named Bucky

01 January 2042

Pacific Ocean, 200 Miles South of San Diego

After the naval victory off the coast of Baja California, Admiral Stonebridge directed the fleet to move up the coast towards San Diego. While the remaining ships of the enemy fleet retreated to the Hawaiian Islands, Stonebridge wanted to go after the now vulnerable transports and supply ships heading to the Californian coast and disrupt the supply of equipment being offloaded at the ports. Though his objective was to destroy the enemy fleet, the more pressing demand from the Pentagon was to hammer the enemy forces in and around the ports.

Captain Baker was deep in thought when Admiral Stonebridge walked up to him and rudely interrupted his daydreams. Without any sort of small talk, he probed, “Captain, how many aircraft do the New York and Baltimore have available?”

Captain Baker jarred himself back to reality quickly and responded, “We have 12 drones and seven F35s down for maintenance; it will be the better part of a day, maybe two, before they are operational. The Carrier Air Group Commander (CAG) reports having 19 F35s ready for combat, another 36 F38As and 42 F38Bs. Are you wanting to send them ahead of the fleet to engage the enemy transports?” asked the Captain quizzically.

Stonebridge smiled for a second before responding, “Yes. It’s going to be another five more hours before the battleships are in range, and I do not want to waste any cruise missiles on trying to destroy their escorts. We need the cruise missiles for land targets. Have our aircraft take out the escorts, and we’ll let the battleships handle the supply ships.”

Walking over to the coms position, the captain asked one of his officers to signal the captain of the Baltimore that the Admiral needed to talk with him immediately. A few minutes later Captain Bruck, the commander of the Baltimore, came on the video link.

Admiral Stonebridge looked at both of his captains, “Gentlemen, we are not out of danger just yet. The Pentagon has ordered us to interdict the enemy troop transports and equipment ships heading to California before we finish off the enemy fleet. To that end, I want you both to order your remaining aircraft to attack the escort ships guarding the transports heading to San Diego and Los Angeles. As we sail closer to LA, we’ll send a second or third wave if necessary to hit the transports heading to San Francisco. Is that understood?” Stonebridge asked.

“Yes, Sir,” they replied in unison.

Within an hour, the air wing of both carriers was heading towards San Diego and the enemy transports. Commander John Buckley (“Bucky”) was leading his squadron of F35s in the direction of the enemy transports. As they neared their targets, they saw dozens of enemy ships queued up, waiting for their turn to dock at the port and offload their cargo. They also saw half a dozen enemy destroyers and frigates, which immediately began to engage the F38B drones as they began to make their combat runs against the ships. Dozens of anti-ship missiles began to streak away from the attack drones heading towards the enemy destroyers and frigates guarding the fleet.

Missile after missile began to leave the various frigates and destroyers as they tried to intercept the incoming anti-ship missiles and counter-attack the American drones. Shortly after the conflict began, a swarm of Chinese J20s began to gather over San Diego and started to head towards the American fighters. Bucky briefly saw the J20s show up on his radar from the AWACs controller before they disappeared. The J20 was China’s version of the American F22 stealth fighter and was exceptional in combat. Like the American aircraft, it was also a stealth aircraft, only visible when taking off or landing, making it very difficult (although not impossible) to track once in the air.

Bucky got on his coms to call his squadron. “I want you all to gain altitude and put some distance between yourselves and the fighter drones. I just saw a group of J20s taking off; let’s use the fighter drones as bait and get them to give away their position while they are engaged with the fighter drones. Each time you locate one of those J20s, I want you to lock onto that target and attack them with your long-range air-to-air missiles.”

“Yes, Sir,” the squadron replied.

The enemy fighter drones began to engage the American drones, and within minutes, drone aircraft on both sides began to fall out of the sky. The enemy J20s heavily outnumbered Bucky’s squadron, but he needed to at least try and thin them out. The fleet was going to be moving his direction soon, and they needed to do their best to gain some sense of air supremacy.

Had the fleet intelligence officers known the enemy air strength, they never would have recommended the carrier air wings attack. They were heavily outnumbered, and not likely to succeed in their mission. It was unfortunate as most of the carrier fighters and ground attack drones would be destroyed during the battle.

After a while in the air, Bucky concluded that their situation was not very optimistic, and got back on his coms to change up the plan. “OK everyone, here is what we are going to do. We have four missiles each; everyone is going to be assigned a target by our AWACs. Once you have a target for your missiles, launch and then immediately go supersonic back towards the fleet. Don’t stick around to see if your missiles were successful or get in closer to engage with the Sidewinders. I want everyone back to the safety of the fleet as quickly as possible.”

The fleets air combat controllers in the AWACs had linked their screens to the C3 surveillance drone that was high above the fighting. The C3 had monitored the takeoff of the J20s and had been tracking them ever since. Using specialized heat scanners, the C3 fed the AWACs controllers the enemy coordinates, and they in turn fed the data to the targeting computers on the F35s. Once all 64 missiles had been assigned intended targets, Bucky’s squadron of 16 fighters began to send the volley of missiles on their way. Within seconds, the J20s (whose radar had spotted the launch) began to fire their own air-to-air missiles at the F35s. Now it was a race to see if the F35s could get back to the laser and missile defense screen of the fleet or not.

As Bucky’s squadron retreated to the safety of the fleet, their 64 missiles scored 19 hits; the remaining missiles were either evaded or ran out of fuel while the J20s performed evasive maneuvers. Bucky’s squadron lost only one aircraft from the enemy missiles before they made it back to the safety of the fleet’s missile defense system. As his squadron landed, they learned that most of the attacking F38Bs had been destroyed during their attack run, and half of the F38As has been shot down while trying to provide air cover for them. The fleet had effectively lost half of their airpower during the battle.

However, they had managed to destroy the remaining enemy frigates and destroyers and sink seven of the 22 transport ships they had engaged. Unfortunately though, if the fleet was going to interdict the remaining enemy cargo and transport ships, they were going to need to get in range of the battleships’ main guns and laser batteries.

Chapter 33

Brazilians in Germany

10 January 2042

Hamburg, Germany

General Eduardo Temer had been the second-in-command of the Brazilian Army when the Americans began to develop the South American Multination Force to fight the Russian and Chinese forces. After being sent to America to participate in several general officer training courses, he was then deployed to Germany to observe and assist General Black and General Gardner’s staff for three-month rotations. The experience was designed to give him a sense of the enemy his army would be fighting, and to gain some experience from working with these two dynamic generals.

Now he had finished training up his MNF, and they had finally been deployed to Europe to bolster the NATO lines. It took nearly a month for the Americans to move the bulk of their military equipment and troops from South America to Hamburg, Germany. After nearly three weeks of unpacking and reorganizing their equipment, they began their preparations to move towards the frontlines. Many of his soldiers experienced a rude awakening when a major snowfall blanketed the countryside; a lot of them had never even seen the cold fluffy flakes in their lives, and now they were going to be asked to fight a war in it.

The NATO lines had stabilized along the German/Polish border one week after the New Year. However, the Russians had been moving men and equipment back to the European front now that they had accomplished everything they set out to achieve in Alaska. With the arrival of the MNF force, the NATO forces were now planning on launching a winter offensive to recapture most of Poland before any Indian reinforcements had a chance to arrive from Russia. The latest intel suggested that the Indian Army would arrive in Poland sometime around April, bringing close to 600,000 soldiers with them.

In Europe, it had taken the better part of a year to recruit and train a sufficient army to stop the Russian advance. Now France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK had the troops and equipment needed to retake the lands captured by Russia early in the war. Shortly after arriving in Hamburg, General Temer was flown via helicopter to Brussels to meet with the NATO Commander and other political leaders. The Allies were going to hold a war council to devise the end-game strategy for the war, much like the Allies of World War II had during the meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin at the Yalta meeting.

As it turned out, Brussels was not his final destination. Once General Temer arrived at the military base, he was ushered into a blacked-out vehicle that drove him to yet another airport. Then he was scurried onto a plane that flew him to a small French island called Saint Anne, not far from the French coastline. This sleepy little island had been taken over by the military just four hours ago, in preparation for the arrival of the leaders of the Allies, so they could meet face-to-face for the first time in nearly a year. Saint Anne had been chosen because of its remoteness and the fact that it could be easily guarded and secured for the twelve-hour meeting. At the end of the gathering, everyone would be flown back to their respective countries to continue with their activities.

Some had questioned the wisdom of having an in-person meeting. With technology, people could just as easily meet virtually and not have to risk leaving their secured facilities. However, President Stein had insisted on the meeting, arguing that technology could never replace a face-to-face meeting or the interaction between participants in a room.

As General Temer exited the aircraft that brought him to the island, there was a vehicle ready and waiting to take him to meet with the other military commanders. General Wade, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) had arrived a couple of hours ahead of General Temer and had already met briefly with President Stein, General Branson and the National Security Advisor Mike Williams. President Stein wanted to give General Wade a heads-up on the conversation they were going to have with the rest of the Allied leaders before the rest of the group arrived.

Soon Prime Minister Bedford and Chancellor Lowden both arrived; everyone stood and exchanged pleasantries and handshakes and then quickly took their seats at the table. Some attendants brought in some drinks and snacks, and then quickly left the room; security personnel then ensured the room was secured and locked.

President Stein immediately got down to business, “Gentlemen, thank you for agreeing to meet in person. I know we could have done this via the holograph system, but I felt a face-to-face meeting was needed as we discuss what the future of the world will look like once the war is over.”

Everyone in the room nodded and appeared ready to listen to President Stein’s suggestions and then offer their own.

Stein brought up an image from his tablet and linked it to the holographic projector at the center of the table. A series of floating maps appeared: one with the current breakdown of nations, one with the current disposition of enemy and allied forces on the global map, and a third map. The third map had a very different looking picture than the first. This map had several countries broken up and others merged. This map, everyone realized, is what President Stein was going to propose be the new world post-World War III.

President Stein began, “For more than one hundred years, the world has been given geographical borders with no regard as to the ethnicities, religions or people who live there. This, I argue, has given rise to numerous wars and tensions across the world and led to many genocides. This is our opportunity to right that wrong and to redraw the borders, taking into consideration the ethnicities, religions and people that will live within them. I do not propose that we impose our form of government or democracy on our vanquished foes, but we will replace the existing countries and borders with ones that will better represent the people living in them.”

Stein paused for a moment to take a sip of his water and to let his proposal settle in for a minute. Then he continued, “It is incumbent upon us to ensure that once this great war has been won, that we do not also sow the seeds of another conflict. I am not going to be so naïve as to believe that this will be the war to end all wars, but we need to be cognizant in how we handle our victory so as not to breed permanent enmity and hatred within our current adversaries, like what happened with Germany at the end of World War I.”

The leaders seemed intrigued; Chancellor Lowden seemed the most amicable to this philosophy, and Prime Minister Bedford would need the most convincing. They talked at length about the implications of what President Stein was suggesting. After several hours of discussing the post-war future, the conversation turned back to the matters at hand. They needed a plan to defeat Russia, China and the other countries that had just joined the war. Without that, discussions of a world after the conflict were meaningless.

Chapter 34

Plotting Revenge

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Joint Chinese / Japanese Naval Headquarters

The remnants of Admiral Tomohisa Kawano’s fleet had limped into port alongside their PLAN counterparts two weeks ago. By the time their engineers and computer specialists could get their power and engine systems operational again, the Americans had nearly wiped them out. Admiral Kawano was able to escape with just two of his five carriers and about a quarter of his support ships. The battle had been a bloody disaster; not since the battle of Midway had the Japanese lost so many ships and sailors in a single battle.

After the battle, Admiral Xi had been recalled to China and replaced by Admiral Ye Shengli, a young, energetic naval officer who was eager to prove his mettle against the Americans. When Admiral Kawano explained the missile swarm plan, Admiral Shengli had become extremely excited to move forward with the attack. After nearly a week of preparation, both fleets had been refitted with anti-ship cruise missiles, and their drones and fighters had received anti-ship missiles as well. It was now time to launch the next assault against the American fleet and return control of the Pacific back to China and Japan.

While the two fleets had been regrouping and preparing themselves, the American fleet had moved up the West Coast and caused complete havoc. Many of the transports bringing troops and supplies to the ground forces had to be rerouted back to Hawaii until the sea lanes could be secured. The situation on the ground for their troops was becoming increasingly perilous as they ran through supplies and failed to bring in more troops. The American Third Army had now surrounded the three invasion sites and was slowly tightening the noose. The Japanese and Chinese needed to regain control of the sea or their invasion force would be doomed.

With little time to spare, the combined fleet left Hawaii and embarked on what they hoped would be the final battle for the Pacific.

Chapter 35

Showdown Looming

12 January 2042

6 Miles Off the Coast of Los Angeles

Admiral Stonebridge had been elated when their battle group had finally been able to choke off the enemy supply ships from feeding the invasion forces. Their ships were now providing direct support to the ground forces, and with the fleet’s cruise missiles, they had destroyed the enemy airfields and any remaining aircraft they had. The Allies now had complete air superiority. It had been touch-and-go at first; the PLAAF had mounted a concerted attack against his fleet as they approached San Diego. However, although they had sustained damage, they had been able to beat back the attackers while inflicting significant losses.

As Captain Baker approached Admiral Stonebridge to bring him the latest images of the enemy fleet, he saw him signal one of the yeomen for a refill of his coffee. “Admiral, the satellites are showing the enemy fleet has put to sea and is heading towards us. What are your orders?” he asked. Baker was hoping that they would leave the coast and head to meet the enemy head on as soon as possible. He desperately wanted to finish off the enemy fleet and avenge his fallen comrades.

Admiral Stonebridge smiled at Captain Baker, and began to examine the images on his tablet. He zoomed in to see the fleet composition. It appeared the entire Japanese/Chinese fleet had set sail. “So, it looks like they want to have one final battle for supremacy of the Pacific,” the Admiral remarked.

He didn’t respond to the question right away; instead, he gazed out the window of the bridge, contemplating the situation. Off in the distance, he could see the sky filled with smoke from numerous fires; aircraft and Razorbacks darted back and forth, attacking ground targets in the city. LA had been a beautiful city prior to the invasion. They had been in the process of building numerous highspeed rail networks linking San Diego, San Francisco and Las Vegas together. It was truly disappointing to see the city now being systematically destroyed through the fighting. Thousands of civilians were being killed daily, caught between the two fighting armies with nowhere to go, cut off from food, water and electricity.

Stonebridge broke free of his thoughts and turned back to face Captain Baker, “Order the fleet to prepare to head towards Hawaii; we are going to finish this fight. Get the air wings ready and let’s begin preparations.”

During the past week while the fleet had been on station off the coast, they had received several new squadrons of F38A and F38B drones (now that air superiority had been achieved, they would not be needed in LA). The navy would need the additional aircraft for the upcoming battles. Fortunately, the Air Force, Navy and Marines operated the same type of drones, so transferring them from one service to the other was not as challenging as one might think.

Looking over the maps one more time, Admiral Stonebridge noted there was a lone Seawolf class submarine not far from Hawaii. He sent a quick order to the ship directing them to position themselves between the two fleets and then lie in wait for the enemy fleet to sail directly over them before engaging the enemy carriers. If they could damage the carriers or even sink one, that would definitely improve his own fleet’s odds.

As the two fleets converged on each other, the tension between those who commanded these great naval armadas continued to grow.

Chapter 36

Heading Towards the Midnight Zone

12 January 2042

100 Miles East of Hawaii

Captain Thompson had taken over command of the Seawolf shortly after the war had started. The Seawolf and many Virginia class attack submarines had been slated for decommissioning as the Navy was moving towards a new more versatile attack submarine and underwater drones. However, when the war broke out, the decommissioning of all submarines was placed on hold, and emergency retrofitting and upgrading began in earnest. The US only had three Seawolf class submarines, and they had already served nearly fifty years. They were good submarines, but they had served their purposes. With the destruction of the Fifth and Seventh Fleets, even the older submarines were once again in great demand.

The Seawolf had spent the better part of a year being upgraded with new electronics and the Navy’s new Hammerhead torpedoes. After a few false starts, the ship was finally ready for combat duty. Captain Thompson and the Seawolf had spent the better part of the past year patrolling the waters of the South Pacific and Indonesia. They had gotten lucky a couple of times and managed to sink several Chinese transports and two destroyers. When the Navy moved CSG12 into the Pacific to engage the joint Chinese and Japanese fleets, they had been ordered to head to Hawaii to standby for further orders.

They arrived on station just after CSG12 had won the first battle and had carefully monitored the enemy fleet as it returned to the Hawaiian waters. Captain Thompson wanted to get his ship into the action and attack the enemy ships, but he continued to hold his position until he received further orders. Now Admiral Stonebridge had finally given them a new directive, positioning themselves between Hawaii and the path of the approaching CSG12 to lie in wait for the approaching Japanese and Chinese ships. Once they converged on their location, they were to strike at will. Thompson was high on the rush of adrenaline. He couldn’t wait until those carriers traveled over their position so that he could spring the trap on them.

Chapter 37

Difference of Opinion

12 January 2042

Tokyo, Japan

It had been a little over three weeks since the Chinese Japanese fleet had been nearly wiped out by the new American super weapons. Following the near annihilation of the combined fleet, the support ships and carriers that had survived escaped and returned to the safety of the Hawaiian Islands. In the subsequent days after their return, Admiral Tomohisa Kawano of the Japanese Navy and Admiral Hong Xi of the People’s Liberation Army Navy had been ordered back to Japan to review a new battle plan being proposed by their superiors.

At first, Admiral Kawano was not sure if the new plan, which called for an enormous missile swarm attack, could work. Admiral Xi, on the other hand, whole-heartedly supported the scheme. He sternly insisted, “If enough aircraft and ships can fire the same number of anti-ship missiles as we used during the first naval battle, we can overwhelm the American missile defenses, especially considering the number of American support ships that we already destroyed.”

Admiral Kawano, still not confident in the chance of success, proposed, “We should also consider the use of tactical nuclear weapons or nuclear-armed torpedoes.”

PM Hata was aghast that a Japanese Naval Officer would even suggest the use of such a weapon, but the Chinese appeared to be willing to consider it. Hoping to get ahead of this before disaster struck Hata argued, “We cannot seriously be considering this idea. Any use of nuclear weapons would result in a swift and overwhelming response by President Stein. The American leader has already shown that he has no qualms about unleashing the United States’ nuclear arsenal on anyone that uses these weapons against them. Are you all forgetting the holocaust of the Middle East and North Africa? I cannot believe that anyone’s memory could be so short-sighted.”

A rather nerdy-looking junior Japanese officer dared to address the group. “May I suggest that we incorporate the new micro-drones we have been secretly developing over the last several years?”

All eyes turned towards this unknown officer, and Admiral Kawano shot back, “Please elaborate.”

“We have been creating micro-drones for use in our naval operations. Originally, they were intended to counter the PLAN, but now that we are allies, they could obviously be used against the Americans.”

“Ok, but how do they work?” asked Kawano, irritated.

“One of our drone bombers would drop the micro-drone pod; once in freefall, it would open to release ten micro-drones. Those drones would then begin to race towards their pre-programmed targets, exploding once their proximity sensors indicated that they were close enough to their mark.”

Everyone in the room sat there silently thinking for a moment before one of the PLAN officers inquired, “How many of these micro-drone pods does Japan have right now?”

The young officer replied, “We have 50 of them built right now, so that would give us 500 of these micro-drones. I should also note; the drones can be programmed to emit the same electronic signature as either an aircraft or just about any type of missile. We could set them to appear to be much larger anti-ship cruise missiles, which would trick the American defenses into thinking they pose a greater threat than they actually do. The Americans’ targeting AI would automatically assign the micro-drones a higher priority for engagement, causing them to expend limited resources on a red herring instead of destroying the actual missiles.”

Following this revelation, the group quickly agreed that the micro-drones would be used in the missile swarm attack. The JDF and PLAN also agreed to send as many additional aircraft to Hawaii as they could to aid in launching the anti-ship cruise missiles. They also began the process of moving as many cruise missiles as possible. They had no idea when the American fleet would move on Hawaii, so time was not on their side. If they did not move quickly, then they might lose control of the Pacific.

Chapter 38

Heavy Burden

14 January 2042

Near the coast of San Diego, California

Admiral Michael Stonebridge was being hailed an American hero for the near destruction of the joint Japanese and Chinese fleets, but what people had quickly forgotten was that nearly 1,100 American sailors had also died during the battle, making it one of the costliest naval engagements of the war. Stonebridge hadn’t forgotten though, the weight of every sailor lost hung on him each day.

The Admiral tried to suppress thoughts of depression by burying himself in his work; the only way to get through each day was to put one foot in front of the other. While Stonebridge was drinking his coffee in the CIC, an intelligence officer walked up to him, handing him an intelligence intercept from the NSA. As he read the report, his eyes grew wide with alarm.

He looked up at the young officer and asked, “Do we have any of the specifics on this new micro-drone weapon?”

The young officer shook his head, “No, Sir, but I suspect their designs are probably based off our own micro-drone project. I have asked several of the weapons officers to research the issue so they can provide a brief on what these weapons may be like and how we can prepare to deal with them.”

The Admiral thought to himself, “Now this is a sharp officer; we need more forward thinkers like him in the Navy.”

Aloud, he replied, “Lieutenant, that is a great idea. Thank you for taking the initiative in getting this going. Please let the Captain and the other officers know, and we will have a briefing about this tomorrow during Commander’s Call. Tell the weapons officers they have until then to finalize the brief.” Then he dismissed the young officer so he could finish his coffee and draft a personal email to his wife.

He missed his wife severely; the past few years had been incredibly hard for him. Besides all of the sailors that he had just lost, he was still mourning the loss of all his old friends that he had gone through the Academy with in his youth. Beyond that, his eldest son had also been wounded while serving on occupation duty in Saudi Arabia last month. His son, who had managed to become a captain and a company commander in the Marines, had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had been traveling from one city to another when his vehicle had been hit by an Improvised Explosive Device, killing two of the four people with him. Fortunately, it looked like his son would fully recuperate from his wounds, but for the time being, he was on a long road to recovery. The Admiral was having a hard time not being able to see his son while he was in the hospital and then at a skilled nursing facility; the urgency of their deployment had prevented him from being able to see him.

Captain Mason could see that Admiral Stonebridge was deep in thought as he approached him. “Admiral, I am sorry to interrupt. General Gardner would like to know if we can stay on station for another two weeks while the rest of the Third Army continues to arrive in the area--on the other side of things, Admiral Juliano and General Branson from DC want to know how soon we can begin to sail on Hawaii and finish off the enemy fleet there. How would you like to proceed?”

Admiral Stonebridge sighed before responding, “Thank you for breaking me from my thoughts…we do need to make this decision soon. How many aircraft is the fleet short of right now? Also, what are your thoughts on our ability to effectively defend against a missile swarm attack?” He wanted a better idea of their defensive capability before he made the decision.

The captain looked through some files on his tablet before responding, “Sir, we are short 48 manned aircraft and 143 drones. We can probably get replacements from the forces in California prior to our leaving. As to the drone swarms, that is a good question. With the loss of nine of our support ships, I am not sure we could effectively defend against another major missile swarm. I think we would take a lot of hits.”

“That is a bit of a problem then. I’m sure you saw that NSA intercept. The enemy is planning a nice little welcoming party for us when we get closer to Hawaii. What are your thoughts on how we can overcome this?” asked Stonebridge, looking for ideas.

“Sir, we could request F41 support for this specific engagement. Also, the President has not changed our directive with regards to the use of nuclear torpedoes. We have a Seawolf class submarine off the coast of Hawaii, conducting surveillance. We could order them to use a nuclear torpedo against the enemy carriers once they have left the harbor and move to engage us. With more of the enemy carriers and support ships out of the picture, the number of anti-ship missiles they will be able to launch will be significantly reduced,” Mason suggested.

Admiral Stonebridge shot Captain Mason a very icy look with his already blue eyes. “No!” he exclaimed. “We will not use nuclear weapons. Our situation is not that desperate that we need to use a nuclear torpedo or weapon to win. I want a message sent to Captain Thompson, the CG of the Seawolf, asking them to engage in a second attack using conventional torpedoes. Tell him that he is to do anything he can to damage the enemy carriers. I will make the case to the President that we need the F41s for this mission. We will rely on them and their laser weapons systems to help us defeat the enemy drone swarms. Unless directed by the President, I will not use nuclear weapons.”

Stonebridge was visibly angry; you could see his blood pulsating through a vein on his forehead that was suddenly very noticeable. He had seen what those weapons could do up close and in person. His ship had survived a nuclear attack, but so many of his friends had died because of them. He would not be party to the use of such a brutal weapon.

“I did not mean to overstep,” Captain Mason said, trying to calm the Admiral down.

Stonebridge took a deep breath. “No, it’s OK. You are only looking for ways to protect our fleet. There are just some lines we should not cross. Nuclear weapons have been used enough in this war, I do not want to be the reason for why additional nukes are used.” As he spoke, he realized he might have over-reacted a bit. The vein near his temple slowly became a bit less obvious. “I will make the call to the President now; have everyone ready for the Commander’s Call tomorrow and we’ll discuss our plan in detail.”

“Yes, Sir,” Captain Mason replied. With his orders issued, he turned to leave.

*******

The following four days were busy for the fleet. Admiral Stonebridge did obtain permission to use the only remaining squadron of F41s for the attack. The F41s would fly off from the carriers, so they could be brought to bear immediately. They would loiter high above the fleet and be used for the sole purpose of engaging enemy missiles heading towards the fleet. Their added firepower would greatly increase the survivability of the fleet. Their effort, along with the additional attack from the Seawolf, should make enough of a difference to turn the tide in their favor.

As the fleet set sail for Hawaii, the apprehension among the sailors was high. A lot was riding on the ability of the Seawolf to damage or sink the remaining PLAN and JDF carriers and the F41s’ ability to shoot down the inevitable missile and drone-swarm that was coming. Once the immediate threat had been neutralized, then the F38B attack drones and F35s could be sent in to attack the enemy fleet.

Chapter 39

Ultimatum

18 January 2042

Hawaiian Islands

In the dimly lit command center of the USS Seawolf, Commander Ramos approached Captain Thompson saying, “Sir, the enemy fleet is nearly on top of us right now. The carriers are approaching quickly.”

Captain Thompson looked at the face of his XO and just nodded. Surveying the Command Center, the captain could see the nervous looks on the faces of the men and women around him. They all knew that this was the moment they trained for, but it was hard not to think that these might be their final moments on this earth.

Turning to his weapons officer, Thompson asked, “Do we have a firing solution on the carriers?”

The weapons officer looked up at the Captain and nodded. “Everything is ready, Sir,” he replied.

The tension on the bridge was palpable; the crew were eager to attack the enemy capital ships but also scared and nervous that once they open fire, they may only have minutes left to live.

Looking at his XO, the Captain insisted, “Please go over our escape plan again.” He wanted to make sure they had fully determined how they were going to slip away once they had unleashed their deadly cargo of torpedoes.

The XO activated the attack and evasion plan on the holographic display. It immediately began to show the preplanned scenario. “Once the torpedoes are in the water, we are going to launch our two decoys: one will dive while heading East at ten knots, the other will dive heading Northeast at eighteen knots. The smokescreen should distract the enemy long enough for us to silently slip away. While the decoys are going, we are going to dive to our maximum depth at five knots and then go silent.” Commander Ramos spoke with confidence; he firmly believed that their plan was sound and would give them their best chance of success.

After running the scenario through in his mind, the captain nodded in acceptance. He paused for a moment, then looking to his weapons officer he ordered, “Fire all tubes! Chief of the Boat, launch the decoys and begin our dive!”

The crew had been prepared for the past twenty minutes to fire their torpedoes. Now that the order had been given, the tension in the room lifted; they knew their fate had been sealed and now it was up to them to outfox the enemy lurking all around them.

Within seconds, the entire sub began to shudder as all eight of their torpedoes left in quick succession. Then the two decoys left the sub and began their high-speed pursuit away from their current position. The Seawolf lurched downward, beginning its descent to its maximum depth, hoping to go unnoticed.

The torpedoes raced towards their targets quickly while the targeting AI determined where the weakest point in the target ships were and steered the torpedoes towards those points. As soon as the enemy fleet detected the incoming projectiles, they immediately sprang into action; multiple destroyers launched decoys, hoping to lure some of the torpedoes away from the carriers. Other ships began launching torpedoes of their own to go after the firing location of the American submarine. Several helicopters also dropped some of their own torpedoes on what they thought was the sub’s location.

The water under the enemy fleet became a buzz of activity with nearly a dozen torpedoes racing after various targets. Within a few minutes, two of the American torpedoes hit one of the destroyer’s decoys; the targeting AI had taken the bait. Seconds later, two other torpedoes hit one of the Chinese carriers, blowing an enormous hole along the keel of the ship. The remaining four torpedoes locked onto an individual carrier and exploded their ordinance directly under the ship, ripping a hole in the center of the hull and causing part of the ship to collapse into the newly created vacuum before the water rushed in to fill the gap.

The carriers shuddered from the impact of the explosion. It was not long before the lower decks of the capital ships started to fill quickly with water; the crew and damage control parties began to lock down the various compartments of the ship in order to try and save the undamaged parts. Hundreds of sailors were being sealed off below decks as they desperately tried to get beyond the quarantined decks. In minutes, the capital ships came to a complete halt as the damage control parties attempted to stabilize them.

In short order, the Chinese and Japanese torpedoes found and destroyed the Seawolf’s two decoys. Following their destruction, the anti-submarine helicopters began dropping sonar buoys as they tried to determine if they had succeeded in chasing off any additional submarines.

Captain Thompson looked around the Command Center and felt a sense of relief sweep through the crew. They had carried out an incredibly dangerous mission and seriously damaged the enemy fleet, and it looked like they were going to live to tell about it.

Turning to the COB, the Captain ordered the ship to continue their slow and steady course away from the enemy fleet. A quick call from the sonar room determined that the enemy fleet was looking for them about forty miles east of their current location. They had also determined that there were two enemy submarines in the area, but could not pin down their location. The Captain directed the sonar room to continue to monitor the enemy subs and ensure they stayed clear of them. He wanted to get their ship away from the enemy fleet for the moment and reposition to attack again in another twelve hours.

*******

The JDF/PLAN fleet had left the safety of Pearl Harbor ten hours ago, and had begun to sail towards the enemy. Admiral Kawano knew this was going to be the final naval battle of the war. They would either defeat the American navy once and for all, or they would have to accept that America could not be invaded, at least not from the West Coast.

As the fleet made their way towards the Americans, alarm bells began to ring. One of the action officers began to shout, “Warning! Incoming torpedoes!”

Admiral Kawano’s carrier began evasive maneuvers, moving as quickly as a ship of their size could; they also deployed their drone decoys, in hopes that the enemy torpedoes might go for them. Several minutes went by, and then Kawano saw two explosions from one of the PLAN supercarriers. It appeared to have been hit by two separate torpedoes, one near the engine room in the rear of the ship, and the other under the keel.

Seconds later, Admiral Kawano felt the floor beneath him lift up…then his feet slammed down on the deck as gravity returned. He heard a deep rumbling through the ship and felt it quiver from what must have been the impact of a torpedo. The lights in the CIC flickered out and then came back on as the emergency generator kicked on.

“What in the blazes just happened?!” yelled one of the officers.

Admiral Kawano knew exactly what had happened; he figured that the torpedo had impacted along the keel, and if they were lucky, the ship might survive. “How bad is the damage?” He barked in a loud voice, trying to be heard over the murmuring of the others in the room.

One of the damage control engineers in the CIC was speaking quickly on a handheld radio to one of his men below deck. Another sailor was looking at the various systems readouts to try to determine what was still working and what was not.

The engineering officer turned to the Admiral saying, “Admiral, we sustained two torpedo hits. One hit our keel; it appears to have broken the hull in multiple locations. We are taking on a lot of water right now. The crews are trying to seal off the lower decks now in an attempt to keep us from sinking. The second torpedo missed the engineering room, but it hit near the propeller screws. It destroyed two of the three propeller drive shafts. We also have severe flooding happening in the rear of the ship.”

The engineering officer received another message as he spoke and paused to read it. “Sir, one of the officers in the engine room just reported they need to do an emergency shutdown of the reactor. They think one of the hits may have caused a crack in the reactor and they need to take it offline while they investigate.” The officer was not able to hide his concern; his voice trembled as he spoke.

If they had a crack in their reactor and they could not get it under control, then they might have a containment breach. The ship could quickly become irradiated, or worse, the reactor could meltdown. In either case, they would lose the ship.

“Do what you need to do, but we need to save the ship. Is that understood?!” Admiral Kawano yelled at everyone in the CIC. He got up and walked towards the bridge. He needed to see the situation around them with his own eyes and not on a computer screen.

When he got to the bridge and surveilled the fleet around him, he saw one of the PLAN carriers listing hard to one side; it looked like the ship was going to sink. Emergency rafts could be seen inflating all around the ship. Several of the escort ships were moving closer to help pick up the survivors. Looking to his left, he saw his sister ship starting to sit lower in the water as well. When he inquired about it, one of the officers on the bridge said it appeared they had been hit by one torpedo. He was not sure if the ship would sink, but it looked like it was taking on a lot of water by how much lower in the water it was.

Admiral Kawano knew the fleet was in trouble. They had just lost one of their four carriers and it looked like they may lose two more. The loss of the fighters from those carriers would seriously diminish their ability to launch enough cruise missiles to overwhelm the American fleet.

“Sir, Admiral Xi is on the radio for you,” said one of the communications officers as he handed him a handset.

Admiral Kawano could hear a lot of commotion on the other end of the line as he placed the handset to his ear. “Sir, this is Admiral Kawano, what is your situation?”

“Admiral Kawano, we took two torpedo hits. The first one hit our keel; sixty seconds later, a second torpedo apparently hit the exact same spot and nearly ripped my carrier in half. We are going down. I’m transferring over to the carrier Moa. How bad is your ship hit?”

“We are in a similar situation. I believe we can get the flooding under control, but we have a larger problem. Two of our five drive propeller shafts have been destroyed, but worse, it appears we have a crack in our reactor. The engineering room is not sure if they can seal it just yet,” the Admiral responded.

Admiral Xi didn’t say anything for a moment “Admiral…if you are going to lose your ship, then we will need to turn the fleet around and head back to Hawaii.”

Kawano knew that that was the best military decision to make; he also knew it would likely be the end of his military career. The new JDF/PLA command structure did not tolerate failure, no matter whose fault it was.

Two hours went by, and then it became clear that Admiral Kawano’s supercarrier was not going to survive. The crack in the reactor was larger than they had initially suspected. They were able to shut it down, but it would take months of repair to fix. This was time that they obviously did not have. They were also dead in the water with no power.

With the fleet in the predicament they were in, it was determined that all of the mobile ships would have to pick up the survivors and head back to Hawaii. There they would have to prepare to meet the American fleet, hoping that the assistance of land-based aircraft would help their situation.

Chapter 40

Battle for the Skies

20 January 2042

Off the Coast of Hawaii

Admiral Stonebridge surveyed an interactive map display at the CIC. “Captain Mason, I want our aircraft (including the F41s) ready to engage the enemy aircraft and ships as soon as the battleships get in range of Pearl Harbor and the enemy fleet.”

The surprise attack by the Seawolf two days earlier had thrown the entire enemy plan off. One Chinese carrier had been sunk, and a second Japanese carrier had been disabled. The remaining two carriers and their support ships where loitering around Pearl Harbor and would obviously rely on land-based air support. As the US aircraft began to assemble over the American fleet, the enemy air armada also began to gather, preparing to meet them. The Japanese/Chinese forces would be caught off guard once they realized that the F41s had been brought down from Alaska to participate in this fight.

As the American F35s and F38s began to engage the enemy aircraft, the F41s swooped in to attack the enemy from the rear. Then the two American battleships moved into range to use their railguns and pulse beam lasers, and they joined in the fight. The Battle of Hawaii lasted over two hours with thousands upon thousands of anti-ship missiles and drone-swarms being fired at both sides. The F41s immediately made their presence known and began to shoot down dozens and then hundreds of the enemy anti-ship missiles heading towards the American fleet.

The U.S. Air Force, which had also been developing micro-drone technology, was able to provide some useful advice on how to tell the difference between a micro-drone and an anti-ship missile. Within minutes of the battle starting, the radar operators were indeed able to tell the difference between the micro-drones and actual cruise missiles. This was quickly relayed to the AWACs above the fleet and the targeting computers of the American fleet defenses.

Nearly one-third of the contacts being tracked were micro-drones, which were essentially harmless if they impacted against one of the battleships or supercarriers. Had the radar operators not been able to tell the difference between them, then the likelihood of stopping the enemy missile swarm would have been greatly reduced. Hundreds of lives were going to be saved because of this critical intelligence victory.

By the evening of January 20th, the American Navy once again controlled the waters around the Hawaiian Islands. Now it was time to develop a plan on how to recapture the land on the islands; however, that would have to wait until the West Coast had been fully secured.

Chapter 41

Disrupting Traffic

05 February 2042

High Above the Arctic Circle

Major Lia Michaels was the squadron commander for the B5 drone squadron that was going to unleash a major cruise missile raid on the Central Asian rail and road network. Her squadron was tasked with launching their payload of X59 scramjet cruise missiles to go after the Chinese, Indian and Russian rail and bridge networks that connected the three countries in some of the most remote parts of Asia. Major Michaels’ first target was the rail line that cut through the mountains along Lake Baikal in Russia. Her squadron was going to be hitting numerous rail bridges and tunnels that ran along the trans-Siberian rail line connecting China and East Russia in order to disrupt the primary route that the Indian reinforcements were going to travel.

After five hours of flying to her launch site, her missiles had locked onto their targets and in quick succession, she fired her bomber’s four missiles. She turned to head back to the base, but then she heard over the radio that several of her bomber pilots were reporting enemy fighters in the area. Two of her pilots said they had been hit before they could launch their missiles. The other seven pilots reported a successful launch of their missiles, though two more of them were hunted down by enemy fighters and destroyed. The bombing mission was an overall success, but her squadron had lost four of their nine aircraft. Fortunately, they were drones, so none of the invaluable pilots had been lost during the mission.

The goal of the raid was to destroy as much of the transportation infrastructure linking Russia and China together as possible. This would greatly hinder the ability of the Axis powers from reinforcing each other and transporting needed manpower and material. It would also reduce the ability of the Indian army to get involved in any meaningful way in the war.

Chapter 42

No Hotel California

15 March 2042

Downtown Los Angeles, California

Captain Thornton and his company had been fighting Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian and Indian soldiers in the city of Los Angeles for nearly three months. In that timeframe, most of the suburbs that make up LA and the downtown had been torn to pieces by the block-to-block and house-to-house fighting. The enemy knew their situation was hopeless; they were effectively cut off from reinforcements and supplies, yet they would not give up. Many of the Japanese forces his company encountered were surrendering, but the others fought on with a fanatical zeal his Marines had not seen since the battles in Israel. The Chinese knew they had lost this battle, but they were intent on destroying as much of the city and its people as possible.

As the Chinese soldiers lost a block or key portion of a city, they would destroy the sewer system on their way out of the area. In doing this, the enemy was effectively destroying the critical infrastructure of the city. The sewer systems allowed the city to transport water, sewage, and run-off from the rains. This disruption was designed to create an enormous mess for the Americans once they recaptured the city and began the process of rebuilding.

Because of the density of the city, it was difficult to make use of tanks and armored vehicles; they could be used on the roads, but when it came to clearing buildings and houses, the option was to either level them or send soldiers in to clear the structures and then move on. Often homes and buildings were being rigged with booby traps and explosives, which required a lot of engineers to clear them. If a unit clearing a house or building was not cautious, they could end up setting off an explosive, killing or injuring everyone in the squad. It was a terrifying experience for the soldiers having to perform this task.

Captain Thornton was sitting at his Tactical Operations Center (TOC), which was one of his Wolverine armored vehicles that had been converted into a command center. He was watching some drone footage of one of his platoons circling around a small group of enemy soldiers. They had finally cornered this group of fighters after they had ambushed and destroyed one of the Army’s tanks. As the platoon encircled the enemy, he radioed to the lieutenant in charge of the platoon, “LT, hold your men back, we are going to call in a couple of artillery rounds and flatten that building. Once the dust settles, send your men in and make sure they are dead,” he directed.

“Roger that, Captain,” replied the platoon leader.

Several minutes later, multiple artillery rounds flew in and hit the small apartment building, flattening it. The shell of the edifice was still there, although the roof and most of the walls had been blown out. Slowly, he could see his Marines moving forward, sifting through the rubble, making sure the enemy soldiers had been killed. After a few more days of cleaning out the enemy holdouts, the city was largely declared secured. There had been several engagements between the Marines and the enemy soldiers in the sewers, and though most of the enemy had been killed, it was suspected that some may survive and continue to fight sporadically. As far as Thornton was concerned, the city was effectively locked down. The few holdouts would be found and dealt with in time.

Chapter 43

Launch

17 March 2042

London, Kentucky

Despite the war raging on, plans for Operation Pegasus continued to progress and move forward. The minerals and resources of the Moon were greatly needed to create the necessary tools of destruction to win the war. Technology had so dramatically changed the way modern warfare was being fought; the need to stay one step ahead of an enemy was paramount to winning, especially when the odds were heavily stacked against you. The United States and her allies were facing a war against an enemy that had a population of 4.5 Billion people and a manufacturing capability of 63% of the global GDP; trying to win on sheer manpower alone would have been lunacy.

While Dr. Karl Bergstrom and Dr. Peter Gorka walked through the HULK on their final inspection, they could not help but be in awe of what they had helped to build. The HULK had been a secret DARPA project for many decades; it was not until the development of the EmDrive and the Angelic power source that the venture had suddenly become a reality. Working with numerous private entities, NASA, DARPA and the DOD collaborated to build the HULK and the two transport ships that would move between Earth and the mining colony on the Moon. After nearly fifteen months of construction, around the clock building and fabrication by hundreds of thousands of workers, 3D printers and robotics, the HULK had been completed and was ready to expand man’s footprint in the universe.

As they walked through the hallways leading from one room to another, they saw dozens of engineers fastening bundles of wires to various sections of the inner wall, while others came behind them attaching the outer wall, sealing the wire bundles and the other guts of the ship together. It was a mad dash to the finish as the engineers and contractors completed the last details of the ship before the big test the following day.

Dr. Gorka could not contain his glee; the ship he had dreamed of building as a young child had finally come to fruition. In a couple of days, mankind was going to land on the Moon to establish the first of many off-world colonies. He attempted to contain his excitement as he began to examine the equipment that would be used for the mining operations.

That evening, the crew was going to be joined by several VIPs, including President Stein, for a celebratory dinner.  In an unexpected move, the President asked to speak. “Some of you here in this room may not know, but when I was the governor of Florida, I took a flight into orbit with the CEO of SpaceX. From that moment on, I told myself that if I ever became President, I would do everything in my power to establish the first off-world colony and advance the exploration of space. You brave men and women that are here tonight are about to embark on a mission that will change the course of humanity. You will also be carrying with you the hope of the nation as we continue to fight for our survival. I have made a great gamble in dedicating so many resources on this project; please do everything in your power to make it pay off. I wish you all safe travels and Godspeed.”

The following week, the crew boarded the ship to begin their final examinations and preparations. The crew had successfully tested the engines and systems a couple of days ago; now that the equipment had been fully loaded up and the known bugs worked out of the system, it was time to launch.

Captain Luke Rogers still could not believe that he was about to lead the first human effort to colonize the Moon. He had been selected to be a part of this mission four years ago, prior to the start of World War III. He had almost given up his position on the project so that he could join his fellow comrades as they fought in the skies across the world. Many of his lifelong pilot buddies had died during the battles over the Middle East, Europe and Alaska. It had been difficult for him to stay focused on the Pegasus project while his friends were fighting and dying for their country. He had to keep telling himself that his mission was important as well; the country desperately needed the Tritium4 they were going to mine from the Moon if America was going to be able to win.

Captain Rogers had started his career as a pilot in the US Navy nearly 26 years ago; at that time, he had been selected to be an F35C fighter pilot, and excelled at it. He rose through the ranks quickly, until a car accident injured him and killed his wife. He and his wife had never had any children; after her death, he chose not to pursue any other relationships, and instead recommitted his life to the Navy. Due to his injuries, it was determined that he could no longer fly the F35, so he was transferred to the drone program instead. After a month of flying drones, he realized the capabilities of drones was going to eclipse that of manned aircraft, and did whatever he could to stay on the cutting edge of this new field. He quickly transferred to the DARPA Drone X project, and before he knew it, he found himself working on the Pegasus project. As someone who was both a drone operator and ex-fighter pilot, he had the skills DARPA was looking for when they began to search for the flight crew to pilot the HULK.

As Captain Rogers fastened his harness, he looked out the windshield and could see the TV cameras set up, and hundreds of observers outside. It was so strange to him after being sworn to secrecy for so long, but once the HULK launched into space, there would be no way to hide the program’s existence. President Stein hoped that by maintaining the silence for so long, their enemies would not be in a position to attack them or to make any sincere move to stop them. Their clandestine life had now served its purpose; now it was time for openness and celebration to play a role.

America had been through a lot these past two and a half years of war. Millions of Americans had been killed, and the end of the war still seemed years away from conclusion. The fate of Europe continued to hang in the balance and America was now beginning the process of assessing the damage in California and rebuilding the West Coast. President Stein wanted to give the American people and the Allies a sense of hope, of optimism, and a desire to see the war through to its successful conclusion no matter the cost. Captain Rogers and the crew of the Pegasus knew they were going to do exactly that.

The next thirty minutes were going to change the mood and hopes of America and the world. People had suspected that America was pursuing space-based weapons, but the secret of their project had been well kept. President Stein unclassified Operation Pegasus beginning on the day of the launch, and would allow the public to watch the launch as the HULK went into the sky. For security purposes, the video feed of the launch had a ten-minute delay and so did any news of what was happening. The launch of Operation Pegasus was also only announced thirty minutes before it happened, and only a select few were being told where the launch was taking place. This was done largely to minimize the possibility of the Axis powers trying a last-ditch effort to hinder the launch or try to intercept the HULK as it flew into space.

The greatest threat to the launch was from Russia and China, who might attempt to launch missile interceptors or aircraft to try and interdict the HULK as it clawed for altitude and the depths of space. To minimize the likelihood of this happening, the US had moved the battleship USS Iowa to Baffin Bay, between Canada and Greenland. The USS Wisconsin had been moved to Midway Island; both ships had missile interceptors and laser platforms to engage any Russian or Chinese missiles that may try to reach out and hit the HULK as it entered orbit. To counter the possibility of ground-based lasers from Russia or China, the HULK had been built with a modulated armor that would nullify the enemy’s lasers as long as they knew the wavelength the enemy lasers were using. The wavelength information had been stolen, costing many lives to obtain, but they had finally captured the information, just prior to the launch.

Captain Rogers gave the order to the crew, “Prepare for lift off.”

A few moments passed as everyone performed their final checks. Finally, the word came back, “Cross check complete, Captain.”

Rogers looked down at the throttle lever and slowly began to move it forward, applying more and more power to the EmDrive. In seconds, the ship began to lift off the ground and slowly started to gain altitude. As he continued applying more power, the ship began to accelerate forward; then the captain pulled back on the flight controls, pointing the ship at a 75-degree angle towards the heavens above. In less than a minute, the ship had passed Mach 10 and was approaching the outer reaches of the atmosphere.

In less than seven minutes, the HULK had broken free of Earth’s orbit and began to enter deep space in their journey to the lunar surface. They had not encountered any resistance or attempts by Russia or China to stop their journey. Now they had a 22-hour journey to the Moon, where they would make several circles in orbit as they conducted a few surveys and scans of the surface to ensure the pre-identified location was in fact the best location for them to establish their base of operation and begin mining.

As they approached the Moon and began their orbit, Captain Rogers marveled at the sight of the lunar surface; he still could not believe they were about to establish the first extraterrestrial colony. Karl Bergstrom, the geology officer onboard interrupted his thoughts when he came over the radio, telling him, “Captain, during our second pass of the Moon, we found a new location that had a higher concentration of minerals. It has an adequate landing zone.”

“And the surrounding surface?” asked Rogers.

“Sir, it’s flat enough to establish the mining base camp.”

“Well, we knew this was a possibility. Thank you, Karl. I’m going to contact ground command now.”

“Control, this is Captain Rogers. Our geology officer has identified a new location that appears to be more advantageous. I plan on moving forward with changing the landing location of the ship unless we receive a negative response from you in the next four hours.”

There was a moment of static before the reply came in, “HULK, this is Control. You are cleared to adjust your landing, and we want to commend you for finding a better location. Please send the new coordinates for our tracking purposes.”

Once Captain Rogers completed the necessary communications with ground command, he began to address his own crew. “Attention everyone, we have received permission from mission control to proceed with our landing at the new location. Good catch Dr. Bergstrom. We are going to begin our descent now. Prepare for landing.  As Rogers began the descent, the crew became both nervous and excited. This was one of the most dangerous parts of their mission.

Of course, everyone was also excited; this was mankind’s first attempt at establishing a permanent base camp in space. As the HULK descended to the lunar surface, they encountered no significant problems. The ship slowly settled on to the surface of the Moon. Once the ship’s engines had been powered down, it was safe for the crew to move about the ship; they began to get their individual stations set up and collected the various gear into the vehicles in the outer storage bay. There was a moment of realization as they stood there before the door opened; this was not just an adventure, this was going to be their new home.

When the HULK was built, it was designed with multiple storage bays and access points to both the lunar surface and the storage bays themselves. It was a modular design that allowed the crew to reconfigure the openings to be small or large, depending on the need.

The mining equipment consisted of a rock crusher, which would reduce the larger rubble and rocks down to smaller rocks, and a small conveyor belt that would move the debris into large containers that would later be moved to one of the loading bays on the HULK for further processing. There were several additional pieces of mining equipment that would allow the miners to scrape the surface of the Moon for the minerals they were in search of, and excavators to build a mining pit like the ones used on Earth, only they were adjusted to be able to accomplish this with very little gravity. There was also a boring device, which would be used to begin the process of digging out various caverns, tunnels and rooms inside one of the mountain ranges near the camp. The goal of this crew was to prepare a location that would later be developed into a permanent structure and command post.

Once the equipment had been transferred to the lunar surface, the miners and base builders would begin their separate operations. The miners were obviously focused on getting the Tritium4 collected and prepared for transport back to Earth. Once the smaller base product was collected into one of the bays, they would use electricity to smelt it down; this would drastically reduce the amount of space needed to store the unrefined Tritium4. The base builders would immediately begin construction of five temporary biodomes that would be responsible for growing the food that the colony would begin to consume. Several botanists were part of the crew, and their goal was to begin establishing the three garden biodomes that would grow about 60% of the colony’s vegetables, fruits and nuts through hydroponics. Growing food in a low gravity environment was largely an experiment, but it was one that needed to be conducted to determine if a sustainable colony could be built. Another dome would be set up for the purposes of raising chickens; it was unknown whether or not they would be able to thrive and continue to lay eggs in a low gravity environment, but if they were successful in this experiment, it would provide a protein source for the colony’s diet, and also produce a source of fertilizer to assist with farming.

People back on Earth were amazed when they could see live video updates of the what the astronauts were doing daily. They saw the construction of the biodomes, the movement of soil and the cultivation of the hydroponic gardens, chicken coops being built and then chickens being moved into them. They witnessed the beginning of the mining operation, though they were unaware of what specific material was being mined. Watching these awe-inspiring experiences unfold began to revitalize the Allies, and gave hope to a people who were becoming war-weary. It was also a sobering moment for the enemy, because it made the Axis powers realize that America no longer viewed itself as being on the verge of defeat. As big a boon as Operation Pegasus was for the Allies’ industrial centers and people, it was an equally potent propaganda tool against the Axis leadership, people and their military forces.

******

A month after the colony had been established, SpaceX’s transport ship successfully left Earth and made the sixteen-hour flight to the base camp. The transport craft SpaceX had developed was faster than the DARPA-designed HULK; it was also much smaller and sleeker-looking in nature. The ship was designed with the pure intent of transporting cargo and material from Earth to the Moon and back. Upon landing at the colony, the smelted-down Tritium4 was loaded up for the return trip back to Earth.

The very first load of unrefined Tritium4 would produce more pure material than scientists had synthesized up to that point in the war. This first load would enable the US to build 200 new F41 Arch Angels and several thousand Pershing battle tanks. The era of limited production of mission critical aircraft and tanks was over. Now the US manufacturing capability would be running at full speed, producing the most advanced weapons ever developed. The tide of the war would now shift in favor of the Allies.

Chapter 44

Back from Vacation

11 August 2042

Washington, DC

Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC)

Michael Montgomery (“Monty,” the Presidents Chief of Staff) had been busier than usual. After a lot of persuasion and insistence by the President’s doctor, President Stein had agreed to take a short vacation. The President’s health was starting to become a genuine concern as his migraines continued to get worse, often forcing him to have to take time to sleep them off or take some heavy medication while sitting in a dark room with no noise or distractions. The doctors insisted they were stress-induced and not something more severe; it was determined that the President needed to take some down time for the sake of his health. Henry decided to head to his home in Florida, where he could lounge around the pool in his backyard and leisurely read a book. It was hard for President Stein to take time off; the war was still going, and he felt guilty taking a break while the country needed him.

Monty and the Vice President had been handling the day-to-day affairs of the country; the President only inserted himself if something major came up. Fortunately, the week had passed quietly, and now Stein had returned to the capitol. As Monty got everything ready for the afternoon briefing with the President, he couldn’t help but be excited. After years of war, the end was finally in sight.

Admiral Casey walked into the room and made a beeline towards the coffee, making sure to get his fill before the others got to it and drained its content. He was still not 100% sure why the President had invited him and some of the other military leaders to what appeared to be a standard weekly cabinet update. However, like a true man of the military, he thought to himself, “Ours is not to reason why; ours is but to do or die.” He grabbed a seat along the back row of chairs and prepared to do his best to listen.

As Admiral Casey sat down in his chair, his mind wandered to the national security brief he would be giving following this meeting. There was a lot to discuss, particularly with the operations in the Northern Atlantic. Carrier Strike Group 13 (CSG13) had completed construction and a rushed sea trial, this newest American Carrier Strike group would soon be moving towards the North Atlantic. The Navy had also finished completion of 12 Submarine Unmanned Drones (SUDs). Eight of them had been unleashed in the Pacific, with the remaining four sent to operate in the Artic, hunting Russian submarines. The Chinese and Japanese navy had retreated to their coasts, abandoning those forces in Alaska that could not retreat. It was unfortunate that China and Russia had been able to execute a well-run evacuation of their forces from Alaska. The Allies had hoped to trap most of the enemy soldiers in the Kodiak and let them wither on the vine; now those fighters could be redeployed elsewhere.

Admiral Casey wanted to end the war quickly. To him, if winning meant plunging America’s enemies into complete darkness through his teams of hackers, then so be it. However, the President continued to insist that the war needed to be maintained against the enemy government, not its people. As far as Casey was concerned, they were one and the same. Casey was also aware of the Secretary of State’s ongoing efforts to bring the war to an end through a diplomatic process. Although the admiral acknowledged that an end to the fighting would be great news, he was not excited about any situation where the enemy could retain their ability to restart the fighting again in a few years. In his mind, the enemy needed to be defeated, not negotiated with.

Suddenly, the large double doors leading into the PEOC opened, and in walked President Stein with his Chief of Staff in toe. The President looked rested for a change, and he even had a slight tan from his vacation. He walked around the table, shaking a few hands as he worked his way to his seat. Once he sat down at the center of the table, the meeting began.

“Good morning, everyone. It’s good to be back. I’m glad to be here so that we can all discuss the status of the country.” Pausing for a minute, the President looked around at his cabinet members and zeroed in on DHS. “Secretary Perez, where do we stand with capturing the remaining Japanese and Chinese Special Forces units still running around the country right now?”

Perez straightened up in his chair as he responded, “Sir, I’ve had my department working feverously with the FBI and local law enforcement on tracking these individuals down. We believe we are down to just two teams left. One is the unit that landed in Charlotte, North Carolina and the second is the group that originally landed in Phoenix, Arizona. We still do not know their current exact locations.” He put his head down after he finished speaking, knowing that the President was not going to be happy with his response.

Stein was a little taken aback at the way Perez had responded; he decided to take a softer approach. “Why the uncertainty? Do you need additional resources?”

Jorge sighed. “We have the resources we need; they are just good at evading us. We have a wide net, and once they make a mistake, we will catch them. Until they move out of hiding again, there is not a lot of we can do other than to keep a vigilant eye out for them.”

Director Smart, the head of the FBI, interjected to add, “Mr. President, we are close. My agents are tracking down each lead that comes in and it won’t be long before we have them.”

The FBI had been working with DHS on tracking down these groups since they arrived in the country eight months ago. Slowly and steadily, they were either apprehending them or killing them. The Chinese and Japanese Special Forces groups had stuck to military and critical infrastructure targets, refraining from attacking civilians when possible. For that, everyone was grateful.

The meeting continued for another 90 minutes as the various advisors brought the President and each other up to speed on their specific aspects of the government that they managed. The economy was running at full speed, and was as close to full employment as it was going to get. The stock market was still going strong, despite the periodic domestic attacks and the war.

Now that the enemy had been fully defeated in Alaska and California, hundreds of billions of dollars were being poured into the affected areas to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure and housing. Tens of millions of people across California had lost their homes and were living as refugees in their own country; the President had already visited many of the refugee camps, encouraging them and letting them know the government was going to ensure it did everything it could to help rebuild the cities and towns they had fled from during the invasion. The damage to California was extensive; nearly all of the major roads, overpasses and bridges in and around LA, San Diego and Oakland had been destroyed. It was going to take years to remove all the rubble and rebuild what had been lost. The only good thing to come from it was city planners now had the ability to completely redesign the transportation system of these cities and improve upon them with the latest in maglev trains and mass transit systems.

Following the meeting, the President dismissed his domestic and law enforcement advisors so that he could meet privately with the national security and military advisors. Before the second half of the meeting started, Stein had more beverages and some finger foods brought to the room; the President was sort of like a friendly grandma in that he never wanted anyone to work on an empty stomach.

Once everyone had a chance to grab some food, the President began the meeting again. He surveyed the room full of professional killers. “I know these past 90 minutes may have seemed like a waste of your time, and you may be thinking that you really did not need to sit through all these domestic reports and updates of what is going on in the country. I assure you it was not just an exercise in increasing your patience.”

The President saw the looks on his military advisors’ faces, and clearly, they were not impressed. “I wanted you all to be a part of that discussion so that you could remember that this is ultimately what we are fighting for. It is these people’s lives, and a vision for the prosperity of our great country and the world—that is what this is all about. It is not enough that we win this war; we need to also win the peace. That is going to be harder than anything we have ever embarked upon, and I am going to need each and every one of you to push your people harder and farther than ever to not just bring this war to a close, but to push through and win the peace that will follow. We need to identify those who will oppose peace and wipe them out.”

The President saw the faces of these hard men and women soften. Maybe they realized that the challenge he was laying out for them was not just the military one, but what to do after the war had been won. Maintaining the peace and rebuilding the world would be as challenging and fraught with danger as the war has been.

Admiral Casey was the first to break the silence and address the President’s challenge. “Mr. President, the war is still some ways off from being won. While I appreciate the lesson on why we fight and who we are fighting for, the conflict is far from over. The intercepts that we have received from the enemy governments indicate that they plan to continue fighting, despite the battlefield losses.”

This was becoming a source of contention among the military and intelligence leadership. The Chinese had been forced to return their armies back to Asia, and Russia had lost Poland and parts of the Ukraine during the summer offensive in Europe. Despite these defeats, none of these enemy powers were willing to discuss an end to the war. The Indians, on the other hand, had approached the American embassy about a separate peace. The cyber-attacks against their country had begun to so cripple their economy that the government was on the verge of collapse, and many of the provinces had fallen into complete anarchy. The implosion of their financial system and collapse of select portions of their transportation system had nearly ground the country to a halt. Starvation was starting to run rampant through their country as the logistical network needed to move resources from the farms to the city had ground to a halt.

Despite the initial success in the cyber-attacks against the Japanese, they had managed to restore most of their systems within a couple of weeks. The strikes had caused some serious economic damage to Japan, but nothing they could not recover from. What was plaguing Japan now was an internal resistance to the government’s decision to continue to support China and the war against America, despite the devastating naval losses and invasion of California. The Japanese had lost nearly 283,000 soldiers in the first four months of the war; much of their navy was gone. They were now relegated to providing the Chinese manufacturing support for the war and allowing the PLAAF to use their land as forward operating bases to house their aircraft. Once the American SUDs had cleared the waters around Alaska of enemy ships, they had moved to the waters around Japan and were causing havoc on a nation that depended on imports to survive. They were slowly being economically choked out of the war, and the people of Japan had had enough. The reduced rations, consumer goods and continued presence of Chinese soldiers was becoming more than they were willing to tolerate.

The President knew that the Admiral had a point; he needed to bring them into the loop on Project Terminator. “Everyone, this next portion of the meeting is going to be highly classified. Everyone will need to be read onto the program before we continue.”

Everyone’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Admiral Casey’s jaw dropped; there were very few secrets within the government that he did not know about. Clearly, the President still had a few aces up his sleeves. Dr. Gorka and Professor Rickenbacker walked into the room, and everyone shook hands and welcomed them to the room; Casey was particularly excited that whatever the President had in mind involved these two secretive and brilliant men. After a few moments, the President signaled that it was time for them to get the meeting going. Monty opened a vault on the side of the wall in the PEOC and pulled out several folders. Before each person could read the contents inside, they had to sign paperwork swearing them to secrecy.

Once the formalities had been completed, the room was darkened as Dr. Gorka prepared the holograph brief he and Professor Rickenbacker had brought with them.

The President smiled and announced, “Gentlemen, I believe it is now time for everyone to learn about Project Terminator.”

A few of the men in the room snickered at the reference, but everyone was still very eager to see what the President had up his sleeve.

“As you know, the Bodark project had its ups and downs in Alaska. It was our first attempt at using a humanoid drone for combat. It was also a test of a newer system that Professor Rickenbacker had been developing for some time. I will hand the meeting over to him,” the President explained, signaling for the professor to take over.

The professor stood up and began his presentation, switching on the holographic display. As soon as the first image of the new humanoid machine came up, someone let out a whistle; they were all in awe. “Ladies and gentlemen, what we are looking at is the next evolution in modern warfare, the Enhanced Humanoid Drone or EHD. We have named this EHD the Reaper, which seemed appropriate because it will reap death and suffering upon our enemies. The wars fought during the last one hundred years relied heavily on humans waging them. This war, however, has changed that reality. Since the beginning of this conflict, we have used increasing numbers of drones; now we are nearly ready to shape the face of war with the next evolution.”

The professor could see the raised eyebrows on the faces of his audience. They had so many questions written on their faces that they were practically raising their hands, but the professor wanted to press on with his presentation before he allowed the group to respond. “As you can see by the dimensions, the Reaper is about 6’6” and weighs about 340lbs. It is built out of the same enhanced armor our tanks and other armored vehicles are, so it’s a tough beast.”

On the screen, the drone began to run through a variety of scenarios, from loading and unloading the M5 AIR infantry rifle to throwing a grenade. It ran as if it were a human, dropping to a knee to fire a few shots with its rifle before diving behind cover. It moved as if it were a human clone and not some sort of machine.

“Before anyone asks, the machine is not an AI. We have not moved forward in that direction, at least not yet. The Reaper is a drone. It is still operated by an individual.” Another screen was brought up that showed the soldier operating the drone. He was wearing a set of sensors, helmet and other equipment that tied him to the drone.

“Like our fighter aircraft drones, these are also controlled by a human operator, though they do have the option of being turned into a semi-autonomous platform. When the operator needs a break, the drone can be turned on semi-autonomous mode, which turns the drone into a sentry. It will stand guard at its present position and challenge any target that enters its field of engagement. This mode also allows a single soldier to operate several of these drones when used in sentry or guard duty operations. We do have an AI version, but we want to further refine it before we move forward with deploying it.”

The presentation on the screen finished, and Professor Rickenbacker held his hand out to the group with a “bring it on” motion. “Now I will take some of your questions before we move on,” he said.

General Branson, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was the first to ask, “Why were we kept in the dark about this project? This will have a huge impact on the battlefield.” His brows were furrowed and he was obviously somewhat annoyed at not being brought in on the project earlier.

“General, we experienced a lot of challenges and problems with the Reaper last year, and until we were able to iron them out, we did not want to get everyone’s hopes up. We had initially hoped to release the Reaper at the same time as the Bodark; however, we could not establish a secure enough link between the drone operator and the drone itself. When we deployed the Bodarks, we were able to figure out how to fix a lot of the issues that we had been observing. We simply did not want to place the Reapers behind enemy lines before we were sure that we could maintain control of them; to do so would have allowed them to fall into enemy hands.”

Rickenbacker signaled to the Marine Commandant next.

“When do you plan on introducing the drone, and how many do you have ready?” asked General Lynch. The Commandant immediately saw the impact this would have on the coming battles. If this could save more of her Marines from dying, she was all for it.

“Now that we have a steady supply of Tritium4, we have been able to ramp up production of the drone. It’s kind of ironic really; we have EHDs making additional Reapers as we speak--”

One of the generals interrupted, “--Now that is a scary idea, kind of reminds me of a movie I saw as a kid.” A few people snickered, realizing that he was obviously thinking of “The Terminator,” like the project’s name.

“The thought is not lost on us either,” retorted the professor. “However, we have purposefully not gone the route of AI, so the drones will not be able to function beyond a limited protocol without an operator.”

“Back to the question--we have 100 of them right now, 2000 are being built right now, and we will crank out another 2000 a month going forward. Soon, we will be able to produce about 10,000 a month. Presently, 50 of the new drones are slated for the Moon colony as their use in space is almost limitless; the rest are being slated for the war. What we need to do next is identify our potential drone operators and then get them pulled from the line and trained up. We would like to have the first battalion of Reapers ready to deploy within the next 45 days.”

The President signaled for the professor to take a seat, “Gentlemen, the war is about to enter its final stage. By employing this new technology, we are going to bring the war to enemy with as few casualties as possible on our part. I am directing the Secretary of State to issue a final ultimatum to the enemy leaders; they will either surrender and allow the world to return to peace, or we will move the war to the next level and wage unrestricted warfare on their countries, economy and people. Nearly two Billion people have died across the world during the war, and it is time to bring the suffering and killing to an end.”

Mike Rogers, the National Security Advisor, spoke up first, “Mr. President, if we can, I would like to recommend we deploy our first batch of these drones to Japan with some of our Special Forces. The majority of their population now believes it was a terrible mistake to have gone to war with the United States. The support for the government has nearly collapsed, and if we were to help give it a shove, we might be able to topple the government and force one of our enemies out of the war.”

Director Rubio from the CIA cleared his throat and said, “I agree. The situation in Japan is becoming unstable. The people are incredibly suspicious of the government and angry at the loss of their soldiers in California and near Hawaii. Many people in Japan have family and friends in America. The war has placed an enormous strain on the country. My agents believe that if we can provide weapons, explosives and support, many of the disaffected groups would revolt against the government.”

Several others in the room also spoke in favor of supporting a popular uprising against the government. The President also liked the idea of the people being the ones to lead this effort. He had detested the idea of being at war with Japan; the two nations had been close allies and friends for nearly 100 years. The present Japanese government had not only betrayed America, its ally, it had cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of its people. Moreover, the treachery had not achieved anything for their nation.

After a few moments of discussion, the President raised his hand for everyone to be quiet. “I agree that we should move forward with a plan to assist the people of Japan in taking their government back. I want our efforts to focus on helping a popular uprising in Japan succeed. We will need to identify new leaders who are credible with the population that can take over. We also need a plan in place to assist the new government, in case the Chinese decide they do not want to accept Japan’s surrender and leave the Island.”

Chapter 45

Misaligned Priorities

02 September 2042

Tokyo, Japan

Kantei (Prime Minister’s Official Residence)

The situation in Japan had gone from bad to worse since the defeat of the navy off the coast of southern California and then Hawaii. The subsequent surrender of their ground forces in California several months later was a defeat that nearly brought down the government. As it stood, the people of Japan had been demonstrating on an almost daily basis, pleading for an end to the war. The populace was angry with their government for getting them involved in the World War, and they were infuriated by the alignment with China over their traditional ally, the United States.

Foreign Minister Hirohita had just finished a holographic meeting with his Chinese counterpart about the latest protests happening in Tokyo. The Chinese were getting nervous that the government might not be able to maintain law and order, and had offered to send additional troops to Japan, if needed.

Minister Hirohita felt nervous after the conversation. He thought to himself, “I need to talk to the Prime Minister about this. He needs to put down these protesters before the Chinese decide to intervene. I better go find him.”

Unaware and aloof, PM Hata was walking in the gardens behind his residence, enjoying the late summer morning before his day began. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Minister Hirohita walking towards him. “Prime Minister, I have an urgent matter that I need to discuss with you,” he said as he approached the PM, bowing.

“You are disturbing me before our morning meeting. What is so important that it could not wait for our scheduled meeting?” the PM asked, perturbed that he had been interrupted.

Hirohita did not care if he had broken protocol or if the PM was irritated. The country was starting to fall apart around them--this was not the time to focus on routine and personal comfort.

“Sir, I just spoke with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Fang Yung. The Chinese are not pleased at all with our handling of the protesters. They are concerned that we are losing control of things in the cities.” Minister Hirohita spoke with a bit more sternness in his voice than he probably meant to show. He was growing frustrated with the PM’s lack of concern for the situation.

“Hirohita, you are getting yourself too worked up over these protesters,” replied Hata nonchalantly. “People are frustrated, but they were peaceful. There is no threat to the government. Please calm yourself…the people are just upset about the reduced rations. They are young, and they are venting their frustrations. Nothing more. Japan will continue to stay the course with our allies. Now, leave me, and we will continue our discussion during our scheduled meeting.” With that, the PM turned around and continued his walk, leaving his foreign minister speechless.

Unbeknownst to the leaders of Japan, several high ranking military leaders and the Chief of Police for the city of Tokyo were quietly planning a coup to seize control of the government and sue for a separate peace with America. That Saturday evening, nearly two million protesters were gathered in various locations throughout Tokyo, while millions more gathered in other cities across the country, calling for an end to the war.

*******

At the behest of the Chinese, PM Hata had ordered the military into the cities to disperse the protesters and work with the police to restore order. While the military was moving to secure the cities, units loyal to the coup leaders had also silently moved soldiers near the various Chinese forces in Japan, insisting that they were there to protect them from the protesters. The following day, at 0300 in the morning, forces loyal to the former general Tenaka (one of the generals that the PM had relieved of command when he refused to accept the Chinese alliance) were set to strike.

Five heavily armed soldiers walked down the hallway leading to the PM’s residences and ordered the two security guards to stand down or be killed. Seeing that they were heavily outgunned and out-numbered, they placed their weapons on the ground and were quickly apprehended without incident. The soldiers continued to move down the hall and burst through the Prime Minister’s bedroom door, awaking him from his sleep.

Hata instinctively sat up in bed, and demanded, “What is the meaning of this?”

One of the soldiers grabbed him by his pajama shirt and summarily threw him face-down on the floor, zip-tying his hands. His wife, who woke up when her husband was slammed to the floor, screamed in horror to find armed men had intruded their bedroom. Another soldier shouted at her, “Be quiet, or we will arrest you, too!”

“I demand to know what you are doing!” the PM shouted at the soldiers.

One of the men lifted the PM back to his feet and turned him around just as General Tenaka walked into the room. “Prime Minister Hata, they are acting on my orders. You are hereby under arrest and being charged with treason. I am assuming control of the government until a new election can be held,” General Tenaka said forcefully. He then signaled for the soldiers to bring the PM with them. The group walked out of the bedroom and headed towards the armored vehicles that were waiting out front to take them to a more secured facility.

All throughout the country, soldiers loyal to General Tenaka began detaining Hata loyalists and those that supported the war against America. As Tenaka’s men were making arrests across the country, the units that had been placed near the Chinese forces moved quickly to disarm and detain them peacefully. One Chinese Commander suspected that something fishy was going on when several of his units stopped responding to his calls, and he ordered his forces to full alert. A quick standoff ensued, and his forces eventually surrendered once several Japanese attack helicopters showed up. By the early hours of Sunday morning, most of the government officials who had supported PM Hata or been outspoken backers of the war had been arrested.

General Tenaka broadcasted a message to the people of Japan, informing them of the coup and letting them know that he had assumed control of Japan. He encouraged the people of Japan to rally around him and his forces and support an end to the war and the occupation of Chinese forces in Japan.

People took to the streets in joy and celebration that morning. Many of the military units who had not initially involved in the coup quickly lined up to support General Tenaka. The few military units who remained loyal to Prime Minister Hata stood down and were quickly arrested. Even though those men did not want to support the coup against the government, they were not willing to take up arms against their fellow Japanese citizens, and they went into custody peacefully.

General Tenaka announced to the world that Japan was withdrawing from its military alliance with China and Russia, and requested that all foreign troops leave Japan peacefully. He also asked for an end to hostilities between Japan and the United States while a more formal ceasefire deal could be worked out.

The response from China was swift and brutal. The PLAAF and PLA launched a series of cruise missile attacks against multiple Japanese air force bases in the south of Japan. These assaults quickly followed them up with an airborne assault of the Island of Okinawa. Chinese forces also began to move soldiers in to secure Kumamoto, to act as a buffer between the East China Sea and mainland China.

In reaction, General Tenaka immediately ordered the forces loyal to him to fight the Chinese invaders. Despite the recent Japanese betrayal of America, Tenaka also boldly asked for the United States to come to their aid.

Chapter 46

Geepers, Reapers

05 October 2042

North Atlantic Ocean

100 Miles Northeast of the Faroe Islands

Captain Elizabeth Mann had been the Commanding officer of the newest Reagan Class Supercarrier, USS Donald J. Trump, for the past year. Before that, she had spent a year as the executive officer on the USS William Clinton before she was promoted and given command of one of the new supercarriers. It had been a great honor; she had beaten out a lot of other officers for such an important command.

Captain Mann was nervous about this particular mission. Her carrier (along with her sister carrier, the USS Barrack Obama) were escorting the 32nd Infantry Division to invade the Kola Peninsula and the critical Russian naval base of Murmansk. The fleet was going to be sailing deep into Russian territory, and would be attacking what was perhaps their most important naval base in Russia. If the 32nd Infantry could secure the facility and the Peninsula, it might bring the war that much closer to being won. In addition to transporting the 32nd Infantry, she had been told they were also escorting 1,000 of these new humanoid Reaper combat drones. The senior captains were not given a lot of information about them during the pre-deployment brief, other than being told that they were going to change the way ground wars were going to be fought.

The fleet had three attack submarines running about 100 miles ahead of their position, and another two SUDs shadowing them in case any Russian subs managed to slip through their anti-submarine screen. Subs were her greatest concern. The USS Seawolf had managed to sink one of the enemy carrier ships in the decisive battle of Hawaii. She did not want to lose her ship or any other ship in the fleet to a sneak attack from below.

As the fleet continued to move further north into Russian waters, the weather remained cool and the water became choppier. Thus far, they had encountered little resistance from the Russians. The submarine screen had sunk two subs a couple of days earlier, and one of the fleet’s destroyers had also sunk an enemy submarine.

Unfortunately, three coastal raider ships had managed to slip past one of the American destroyer’s surface radars and fired off a volley of anti-ship missiles, sinking one of the destroyers and damaged another frigate. Some of the intelligence officers thought that the Russians had used some sort of new anti-ship radar technology that allowed the small ships to slip past them.

While the fleet continued to move closer to Murmansk, the ground forces that would be operating the new Reaper drones continued to train on them, trying to become as proficient with them as possible before their first big test.

*******

Captain Paul Allen was still getting used to being on a ship. Of course, operating in a virtual reality simulator all day was not making it any easier. Once the Russian and Chinese began pulling the bulk of their forces out of Alaska, the 32nd Infantry Division had been pulled from the line and redeployed to the East Coast. Captain Allen’s brigade had been selected as operators for the new enhanced humanoid drone program. Seeing the Bodarks for the first time at the start of the New Year had been scary; however, the reality of the Reaper drones was nothing short of terrifying. Their flat silver grayish exteriors, menacing looking faces and glowing red eyes were unnerving. These new killing machines were truly science fiction nightmares.

After being selected for the EHD program, his company had spent a week in a classroom learning about the Reaper drones’ functions, how they worked, and what they could do. They spent another week learning basic maintenance of the drone, though the technicians assigned to each drone would handle the day-to-day maintenance. Following the familiarization of the drone, they were introduced to the equipment that would allow them to operate the machines.

The operation of the EHDs was similar in function to other virtual reality systems; there was a circular three-foot round platform that you stood on while wearing a special suit, shoes, gloves and headset. The shoes were frictionless, which essentially allowed the operators to walk or run in place on the platform. The users’ gestures and movements would be matched by the Reaper the soldier was paired to. If the soldier walked, the Reaper walked, if it ran, then the drone ran. When the soldier raised his simulated rifle, the drone would raise its rifle and engage whatever the soldier had placed in his or her sights. The drone was essentially a surrogate, doing the bidding of the soldier without risking the life of the soldier.

Allen’s soldiers had spent three weeks learning to operate in a virtual reality environment: conducting patrols, storming a beach, conducting house-to-house searches and any other combat scenarios that the trainers threw at them. They were given a week of leave to enjoy some downtime before their brigade boarded the USS America and head to Russia. The USS America was a massive amphibious assault ship that could transport 2,000 soldiers and their combat equipment anywhere in the world. Paul had never been on a naval ship before; as he approached the ship, he was amazed at how utterly enormous it was.

After boarding the ship, they were introduced to their new surroundings; the vessel would become their home for the next several months. Unlike the rest of the soldiers in their division, they would not be going ashore. They would be staying aboard the America, operating the suite of virtual reality stations that had been installed throughout the belly of the ship where the landing craft and vehicles used to be stored. Those areas had been converted into a space large enough to hold up to 600 virtual reality stations. The bays had been broken down by battalions and then companies. The aircraft bay was currently filled with the Reaper drones and the maintenance crews assigned to support them.

Because each of the drones were being operated by human beings with biological needs, the army created drone teams. Each team would consist of three drone pilots and three maintenance technicians. The plan was simple; one soldier would operate the drone in four hour intervals and then swap out with a team member. This would enable the drone to be operated twenty-four hours a day while in combat, and give the operators time to rest.

When the pods got dropped off out in the field, there was a whole system set up out there. Several Reaper drones would be activated in sentry mode to guard spare drones and drone parts. In that cluster of pods, there were also be a few that were designated maintenance pods, filled with spare parts and staffed with technicians to repair the Reapers as needed (these soldiers were not there to fight, but solely to support the EHDs in their mission). As drones became damaged or needed repair, a spare drone would be activated until the original was fully functional again. If the technicians were not able to fix one of the Reapers with the spare parts and tools on hand, then it would be flown back to the USS America for a more advanced maintenance crew to work on.

Between the rest of the division using the Raptor combat suits and the Reaper drones, the Russians would have no idea what hit them. It was hoped that the Army would be able to secure this northernmost Russian base and provide the Allies with a platform from which to launch further attacks deeper into the Russian mainland, pulling additional resources away from the frontlines in Eastern Europe.

*******

After nearly two weeks at sea, the invasion force was nearing their launch position. As Captain Allen sat in the briefing room with the other battalion and company commanders, looking over their objectives, he couldn’t help but wonder if they were finally nearing the end of this bloody war. After nearly three years of combat, he was ready to be done with fighting.

The plan for the invasion was simple; the Reapers would be flown in via the Razorbacks to assault the Severomorsk naval base along with regular troops who had been equipped with the Raptor exoskeleton suits. Once they landed, the first wave of EHD pods would be delivered and the Reapers would then begin to fan out and secure the facility. The same process would be replicated all throughout the peninsula as small units in Raptor suits secured various landing sites for the Reaper pods and then let the drones go do the dangerous and dirty work of securing the broader area. Once the port facilities were fully secured, the transport ships would move down the channel to offload the armored vehicles. The Air Force would work on getting the nearby airfields up and running while several squadrons of fighter drones and additional Razorbacks were flown into the area.

With a forward operating base situated deep behind enemy lines, the allies would be able to launch any number of raids against the Russians, and they would have virtually no defense against them. Paul thought the plan sounded simple, but maybe it was too simple. “Typical higher ups,” he thought, “Always making these grandiose plans. I wonder if they realize that the Russians get a vote in the matter, too.”

As Paul walked through the rows of virtual reality pods on his way to brief his company, he couldn’t help but think to himself how detached war was becoming. When World War III had first started, he was a rifleman, a soldier with the first railgun to be used as an infantry rifle. Two years later, he was outfitted with an exoskeleton combat suit. Now he was commanding a company of soldiers who would operate the latest mechanical killing machine, the enhanced humanoid drone, a mechanical clone that would enable his soldiers to throw themselves at the enemy without fear of death. It was strange to think how fast the business of killing had advanced and what the next evolution would entail. While talking with one of the computer technicians, he had heard the military was developing an Artificial Intelligence version of the Reaper drone that would enable the military to drop the drones behind enemy lines and let them operate autonomously, on their own without human involvement. That was truly a scary idea to him and he wondered, “What if the machine decides not to listen to its human masters? What if it becomes ‘self-aware’?”

“Room, Attention!” yelled the Company First Sergeant as Captain Allen walked in.

Paul was still not used to the formality and attention every time he entered a room. He had been an NCO most of his military career. As he surveyed the men and women of his command, he could see the apprehension written all over their faces. This was the first time they would be using the Reapers in combat, and they were carrying a heavy burden; the men and women of the division would be counting on them to successfully secure their objectives. If they did their jobs right, a lot of lives would be saved by not using live soldiers in Raptor suits.

“Listen up, everyone. I know there is a lot riding on our success, but I don’t want you to concentrate on that. I want you to focus on the tasks assigned to each platoon and squad. You worry about doing your specific job, and let others worry about doing theirs. I want you to fixate every thought you have on operating your Reaper...don’t get bogged down by the bigger picture. If you run into a problem, get your squad leader’s attention quickly so we can address it. I spoke with our support company, and they have several computer technicians assigned to our company to help address any problems that may come up.”

Pulling up a holographic map of the area, Captain Allen began to highlight the individual platoon and company objectives. “Things are going to move quickly once we are on the ground. Once our initial mission has been completed, there is a chance we will be given new orders and expected to capture more ground.”

Showing some areas highlighted in red, Captain Allen pulled up more information showing the enemy unit composition. “As you can see, the Russians have moved a brigade of their own soldiers (who are equipped with exoskeleton suits) to the area as well. You can expect these guys to be ready for a fight. The Russians know that if we capture this peninsula, the war is that much closer to being won, so expect them to fight like cats backed into a corner.”

“Remember, just because we are tied to virtual reality simulator equipment does not make what you are about to see, hear, and be a part of any less real. Keep your wits about you, and your head on a swivel. Do not take unnecessary risks, and do what you can to protect your EHD. Oh, and before we leave, I want you to remember one very important thing…we are going to crush them!” he roared to the delight of his men.

With that, he dismissed the troops to their individual commanders and they quickly exited the briefing room to head to their simulator pods. As the soldiers got themselves strapped in, Paul walked over to his own simulation pod and began the process of hooking himself up.

He changed into the skin-hugging jumpsuit that would mimic his every move and allow him to feel what the EHD felt. He put on his gloves and frictionless boots, then stepped onto the simulation platform and began to attach his helmet. Once the power had been activated, he immediately began a quick system check, just as they had been taught.

Shortly after completing his system check, a message was sent across the battalion net, letting them know the helicopters would be lifting off shortly to begin the assault. As Paul looked from left to right, his EHD mimicked his move, and he could see the others in his transport pod doing similar checks. It was strange looking at the other Reapers, each had a name and rank written on its right chest area just as it would have if it were a regular soldier or Raptor suit. What he never got used to seeing was the soft glowing red eyes of the EHD. The lights for the eyes could be dimmed or turned off all together, and typically were darkened when operating at night. However, the physiological warfare folks believed that the soldiers should leave them on all the time, even if it gave away their positions at night. Their reasoning was simple; the strange sight was a powerful cause of intimidation and fear.

A few minutes later, the transport pod began to lift off the deck of the America, carrying the Reapers towards their drop point. Paul couldn’t see that much while the EHD was in the transport pod. Switching channels on his visual input, Allen was able to see what the pilot saw as the helicopter travelled quickly at treetop level. In the distance, Paul saw anti-aircraft fire emanating from the direction of the Russian base and city nearby. Several missiles streaked towards some of the helicopters. He saw a Razorback take a direct hit--it exploded violently.

A few minutes later, Paul saw the airfield his company had been assigned to secure. They were going to be landing towards the tail end of the runway, where the area was cleared of trees. There were no buildings nearby, which is why they had chosen this area to land the EHD pods. It would allow the helicopters enough time to drop the pods and then run back to the America to pick up the next load of EHDs.

In seconds, the transport pod was on the ground, and Paul and his soldiers began to detach the restraints holding their Reapers in place. They quickly began to exit the transport and began to move as squads towards their objectives. Paul was moving with the second squad from first platoon towards what had been identified as the command building for the airfield. The targeting system on the EHD quickly identified several enemy soldiers, who immediately opened fire on the Reapers with their machine guns.

Green tracers could be seen heading towards their position. Paul saw one of his fellow soldier’s EHD get hit with several rounds and fall to the ground. As he ran past the drone, he saw it get back up and continue to fire its rifle; soon it was running towards the enemy position with the rest of his squad. While Allen was sprinting towards his objective, he raised his rifle and shot at a small cluster of soldiers he saw emerging from the building in front of him.

The targeting system on the EHD was amazing. Despite running across rough terrain, the Reaper could keep the rifle stable while tracking whatever target it had identified. Paul found himself awestruck at the integration of the virtual reality technology; the digital and physical world had blurred together in the EHD.

The Russians began to pour more and more soldiers out of the surrounding buildings to attack the Americans. The Russians were truly caught off guard; they had been expecting the Americans to attack them, but had anticipated soldiers in Raptor combat suits. They did not know how to respond to this new threat.

A Russian officer observing the attack from the window of one of the buildings a little farther away from the base headquarters would later write that in his memoirs of the war that when the Americans attacked with their new weapon, it looked like something out of a Sci-Fi novel. He saw a small cluster of soldiers’ attack one of the EHDs and hit it with at least a dozen rounds, only to see the drone get back up and continue to attack. Another drone had been hit by a heavy machine gun, ripping one of its arms off. The drone continued to fight on with it’s one good arm, until the heavy machine gunner hit it with a stream of rounds that eventually disabled the drone.

Within an hour, Paul’s company had secured the airfield and their objectives. Of the 132 EHDs that participated in the attack, they had lost nineteen. Three of the soldiers from their maintenance platoon had been injured when a mortar round landed nearby their maintenance pod; however, aside from their injuries, his company had captured the enemy airfield with no casualties at all. This was a feat that would have cost his company dozens of dead or injured soldiers if they had carried out the attack with only the Raptor suits.

The success of Captain Allen’s company was repeated throughout the peninsula as they continued to take control of each objective the EHDs had been given. By the end of the first day of the operation, they had secured half a dozen enemy airfields, and several small cities and port facilities. The 32nd Infantry Division immediately began to unload the rest of their armored vehicles and tanks as they began the task of turning the peninsula into a forward operating base and launch pad for further deep penetration operations into the Russian heartland. By the end of the first week, they had secured all their objectives with very few casualties. The division had 2,600 EHDs at the start of the operation and had lost 431 to enemy action and 214 to maintenance issues. The first combat test of the EHDs had proven successful and now their implementation across the rest of the army would begin in earnest.

Chapter 47

Honey Pot, Not so Sweet

12 October 2042

Moscow, Russia

It was cloudy and dreary outside. A light mist was starting to fall as Petr Gromley entered the Pivnoi Bar. The tavern was a small, out of the way place that afforded those government officials who did not want to be seen with unsavory characters the opportunity to conduct meetings unnoticed. Mr. Gromley was not comfortable meeting Sasha Petrosky in Moscow, even if this was a secluded backroom bar. There were too many curious eyes and ears in Moscow for Gromley’s liking. He pulled his ball cap down a little lower as he moved to a small table against the wall, not far from the door. He took a seat with his back against the wall, waiting for Sasha to arrive.

Sasha is what people in the intelligence circles called “a honey pot.” She had been specially trained by Russian intelligence to use her looks and sexuality as a weapon for the purpose of gathering intelligence, and to eliminate those her superiors directed her to kill. Sasha was still young at thirty-two years old, and highly intelligent. She had studied economics at the London School of Economics and obtained a Master’s in finance at the Wharton School in Finance by the age of 24. Following a year of specialized training with the Russian SVR, the external intelligence and espionage arm of the FSB (Russian Secret Service), she had been recruited by Goldman Sachs to work as a financial analyst and consultant. This position afforded her favorable placement, and access to a wide range of influential people across the world. Her handler at Goldman Sachs ensured that Sasha had a loose consulting schedule and little oversight, which allowed her to work on a wide variety of opportunities.

Sasha had been on assignment in London, tasked with obtaining information about the American Moon-mining operation. She had befriended the Chief Financial Officer of a British space mining corporation, who had just signed a joint venture agreement with Deep Space Industries, the leading company managing the mining operations for the American base on the Moon. Her company had helped them acquire the funding needed for the joint venture and her “new boyfriend” was only too eager to tell her all about the minerals being mined on the Moon and how the Americans were incorporating the materials into their new armor and technology.

She was finally obtaining the valuable information she had been after, and now she had been called back to Moscow for a secret meeting. She risked blowing her cover; she had to travel through several different neutral countries without drawing suspicion. It was a risk, one she was not happy about having to take.

As she walked into the bar, a place she had frequented during her SVR training many years ago, she spotted Petr. It had been said that Petr was the man behind the rise of President Fradkov and many of the other leaders within the Russian Federation. When she had been told that she would be meeting with Mr. Gromley, she was a bit taken aback. Why would such a powerful man want to meet with her? Not that she had a choice--she arranged for them to meet, and chose this place because it was a hole-in-the-wall place where two people could talk and go relatively unnoticed.

Petr recognized Sasha as soon she walked through the door into the bar. His contacts had been right. She was a very attractive woman, though she was wearing a coat and headscarf that did a good job of hiding her beauty. As she walked up to his table, she greeted him with a soft kiss on both cheeks and then took her seat next to his, as if they were close friends.

Blushing slightly, Sasha said, “It is a pleasure to meet you…but I must say I am not sure why you have asked for me.”

Sizing her up before responding, he told her, “I have recalled you because I have an important mission for you. I need someone of your skillset and trust to do what I am about to ask.”

Her eyes darted about, searching his for any signs or clues of what he meant. Not sure what this cryptic response meant, she asked, “What tasks do you have for me? I cannot be away from my original assignment for very long without drawing suspicion.”

Gromley slid a capsule across the table towards Sasha, who casually picked it up and quickly placed it in her Louis Vuitton handbag. “You are going to be brought to President Fradkov’s Dasha tomorrow night along, with one other woman. Each Wednesday night, he has two whores brought to his Dasha for the evening. We are replacing one of his regulars with you for the evening. He may be suspicious, but you will need to dissuade him from turning you away. Once he has accepted you, you need to swap out one of his Viagra pills with the one I just gave you, without being noticed.”

Sasha thought about the capsule that had just been given to her and what was most likely in it. She did not like the thought of killing the President and being one of two prostitutes in the room with him when the poison took hold.

Seeing her sour facial expression, Petr added, “The poison is time-delayed. It will take 48 hours for it to release in his body. Once it does, it will appear as if he has had a sudden heart attack. You will already be on your way back to London by the time the poison kicks in,” he said, reading her mind.

Gromley handed her a cell phone and a piece of paper with additional instructions on it before leaving. As he got up, he said, “Do this assignment well, and you will go far in the SVR. Screw it up, and you’ll be dead before you know what happened.”

As Sasha watched Gromley walk out of the bar, she was glad she had asked him come to her stomping grounds. This was only the second time she had met Gromley. Few people met him more than once. There were the figure heads in the SVR, who everyone knew, and then there was Petr Gromley, the spy who ran the spies. Very few people could even identify Petr Gromley, but he was probably the most powerful man in the Russian Federation. In many circles, he was only known as “The Shadow,” the unseen powerful force that pulled the puppet strings behind the curtain.

Petr walked down the alley way, ducking into another bar to check that he had not been followed. He exited the rear of the bar, and then slipped into another restaurant, repeating the process before he eventually arrived at the subway station. He boarded two different subways and passed through three different stations before he arrived back at his office, confident he had not been followed. He then resumed his work, transferring generals from one unit to another and dispatching orders for certain military units to be rotated to the capital while others were sent to the front. It was all a well-orchestrated charade to ensure that units loyal to him and his benefactors were in place when Fradkov had his heart attack.

Gromley had helped place Fradkov in power, along with his generals and cronies. Now he was removing them from command because of their incompetence. He had advised against attacking the Americans and Europeans, arguing that they should wait at least a year to let the IR and Chinese weaken America first. Fradkov and his generals would not listen. Now Fradkov wanted to join Premier Jinping’s Pan Asian Alliance. Giving up Russian sovereignty in a vain attempt to save his war was one step too far for the oligarchy who really ran the Russian government to endure. Fradkov needed to be removed and replaced before the war was truly lost. There was still time to make an honorable peace, but not if they waited much longer. The sudden loss of their Artic bases in Murmansk was the final straw.

Chapter 48

The New Colonizer of Africa

12 October 2042

Pretoria, South Africa

Wang Ma was the Chinese Ambassador to the African Confederation; over time, he had become perhaps the most important man on the continent. For nearly four decades, China had been investing heavily into Africa and, in particular, South and East Africa. They had invested in developing industrial ports, heavy rail networks, international airports and other major infrastructure projects. During the 2020s, while the rest of the world was suffering a global depression and food shortages, the Chinese government had been working with their African partners to develop industrial-sized farms and an intricate water system that turned large swaths of previously unusable land into fertile farmlands for commercial farmers.

The Chinese began to cultivate leaders and political parties over the course of several decades, ensuring there were always political leaders and parties that were sympathetic and friendly to Chinese policies and initiatives. The Chinese also encouraged their own citizens to emigrate to the African nations and removed any limits on the number of children a Chinese family could have if they relocated to an African country. After several decades, this had led to a massive Chinese diaspora in multiple African nations; they began to exert immense political and economic sway over these countries.

When World War III broke out, many of these African nations chose to remain neutral. However, once it appeared that America was going to lose, many of these nations chose to join China in declaring war against America. Led by handpicked leaders in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, the African Confederation had been born in March of 2041. With assistance from the PLA, the “African Confed” (as it was being called) began a conquest of their neighbors, with the intent of uniting Africa under one banner, one policy.

While Europe and America were fighting for their very survival against the Islamic Republic, the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic of China, the African Confed had been conquering one African nation after another. By the end of 2041, the nations of Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had fallen. Angola had willingly joined the Confederation and provided the Chinese Navy with South Atlantic naval ports.

By the summer of 2042, when the war in Europe had started to turn against the Russians and the Chinese had lost control of the Pacific, the African Confederation had conquered all of Central Africa and half of Nigeria. The brunt of the fighting taking place on the continent now centered around parts of Cameroon and Nigeria as the Americans and the South American Multination Force began to provide military assistance to the fledgling governments, trying to do their best to fight against this new force.

Ambassador Wang Ma’s purpose in Africa was simple--assist the African Confed in winning their war and in developing a sustainable long-term government and economy that could continue to support and sustain Chinese global dominance. Though Wang had been born in mainland China, he had spent most of his life in Africa. His father was a prominent businessman and had earned billions in mining and railroads; he had helped stitch Africa together through hundreds of thousands of miles of train tracks and brought enormous economic prosperity to the continent by linking their vital mineral resources with the very hungry Chinese manufacturers who would purchase those goods. The railroads he had helped to build also linked the countries together, growing the economies and bringing the people of the continent together. His legacy had helped to cement China as the nation who had brought Africa into the 21st century and beyond.

His son, Wang Ma, not only inherited his father’s wealth, political connections and business, he was later appointed the Ambassador to South Africa and then the African Confederation. He was well liked and trusted by nearly every leader and businessman on the continent, and was considered to be an African, even if he was Chinese.

America, on the other hand, had paid little attention to Africa during the past thirty years, focusing instead on internal domestic problems and their continued antagonistic relationships with the Middle East, Russia and China. This had enabled the Chinese to cultivate a multi-decade long relationship with the current and future leaders of the continent.

Ma’s directive from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ruling committee was simple--guide the African Confederation in their conquest, but prepare them to support China in the war against the Americans if needed. Shortly after the loss of the PLAN fleet near Southern California and Hawaii, it became apparent that Africa would need to play a larger role in the Chinese plans for global dominance. America was slowly taking back control of the Pacific; that much was apparent. What the PRC needed to do, was solidify their hold in Africa and southeast Asia and ensure that no matter what happened, they would be too big for the Americans to conquer.

Wang Ma had worked with the President of the African Confederation to sign a military pact with China, and began construction of a military industrial complex that could support and sustain a modern military. The military forces the Confederation had were merely adequate for the regional conquest they had been undertaking. They were used to fighting other poorly trained and equipped armies. The Allies, however, were anything but poorly trained and equipped.

Ambassador Ma worked with his African counterparts to identify young men and women who could be trained as drone pilots to form the backbone of a new Air Force. Drone aircraft were cheap and easy to manufacture in comparison to an advanced fifth generation stealth fighter. It was also easier to train someone how to operate a drone than a plane. Ma’s counterpart, General Ming, had 100 drone pilot instructors brought to Africa, and they immediately began an aggressive program of training new drone pilots.

Four new military airbases were built, an intense ten-week drone pilot training school was constructed, and the new crop of drone pilots began to be trained. Multiple state-of-the-art 3D printing fabrication facilities were built across the confederation, and the construction of thousands of fighter/bomber drones had begun. The challenge Ma and General Ming faced was finding enough skilled workers who could man these advanced manufacturing plants and repair the machines to keep them operational. Most of 2041 and 2042 was spent training a workforce that could handle these tasks and develop a nucleus of skilled workers who could, in turn, train more people.

President Aliko Dangote had been the leader of the African Congressional Congress during the 2020s, and was the instrumental leader who advocated for the creation of the African Confederation. He had championed this cause for nearly twenty years, advocating for a stronger, unified Africa. He believed the 21st century was going to be the century of Africa, the rise of the continent from its past colonialization and resource pillaging from the West. With aid from the Chinese, Dangote built a grassroots network across many countries, garnering support from every political circle and walk of life he could. He was the young revolutionary leader the continent needed.

When the formation of the African Confederation began to take shape, he was nominated to become the leader of the movement, and later put forward as the nation’s figurehead. He had worked closely with the leaders of China and Russia in developing the needed foundations of a successful government and country. They needed a functioning economy and the ability to feed their own people. Through a myriad of trade agreements, the African Confederation became a major global food producer. This provided the needed counterbalance to the American-led Grain Consortium, which had formed under President Stein.

President Dangote admired President Stein’s rise to power and what he was doing in America. In many ways, Dangote wanted to emulate what he saw Stein doing in America, but he also had to be cautious. Dangote owed his rise to power and the formation of the African Confederation to the Chinese, not the Americans. It was China that had poured hundreds of billions of dollars into infrastructure and education across Africa, not the Americans. It was China who had provided them with the engineers they needed to bring stable and renewable power sources to Africa. Who had established a manufacturing base and increased food production using genetically modified crops and dozens of irrigation projects? China.

Dangote had done what he could to keep the Confederation’s focus on Africa and not the global war being waged against the major superpowers. He was of the mind that Africa would work with whomever won, but that was not to be the case. His Chinese leaders had other plans in mind. While he wanted to focus on uniting Africa under one banner, his Chinese bosses wanted him to train a military force that would be used against the Americans. He had reluctantly agreed and authorized the creation of a new International Force that would serve with the Chinese wherever they deemed necessary.

The Chinese had nearly 260,000 soldiers stationed in the African countries, spread across numerous provinces. They had assisted Dangote’s forces in the capture of many countries and in the institution of law and order. Now, they were being used as military trainers and advisors to train the nearly 850,000-man army he had been told to draft. Most of the people being drafted into the army could barely read and write their name. The Chinese did not seem to care. They had established a dozen training bases, and began to filter the recruits through their training program. By the end of 2041, the PLA had trained 330,000 soldiers. As they completed training, they were quickly moved to the north of the country to fight with other PLA soldiers who were moving in to capture the Horn of Africa and some of the other provinces from the now-defeated Islamic Republic. Clashes with American and Israeli soldiers were becoming more common, but no direct military engagements between the armies had yet been fought. The PLA was more concerned with grabbing land and consolidating their gains.

What concerned Dangote was the treatment of the civilians in the former IR provinces. He knew the PLA could be brutal when they needed to be, but if the rumors were true, then he was horrified. The PLA had been eliminating nearly every civilian in Somalia and South Sudan. Rather than feed the people they were conquering, the Chinese began a process of systematically killing the population off. While China may have been allied with the Islamic Republic, they did not like or agree with the Islamic faith. The People’s Republic of China had been brutal in their treatment of their own Muslims, and now that they were conquering former Muslim lands, they were doing whatever they could to eradicate the religion and the people who practiced it.

President Dangote had already brought the issue up to Ambassador Wa once, and he was quickly told not to concern himself with what the PLA was doing and to focus internally on winning the war with Cameroon and Nigeria. Dangote was not comfortable with how the Chinese were using his soldiers and was becoming less content with the PLA’s ever-increasing control of his own military. His best officers were being transferred into the International Force that the PLA was training at an alarming rate. Secretly, he feared the Chinese would depose him and just assume control of Africa once he had done the hard task of unifying the continent.

Up until that point, the Americans had left the African Confederation alone. They had no real diplomatic ties with the country, and were solely focused on the wars in Europe and on their own soil. However, once the PLAN lost the majority of their naval forces near California and Hawaii, Dangote began to wonder how long the Americans would stay away from Africa. Just when it seemed they had been defeated, they rose from the ashes and squashed their enemy. Would they repeat this history in Africa?

Chapter 49

Liberators

12 October 2042

Washington, DC

Presidential Emergency Operations Center

President Stein was sitting in his chair at the head of the table in the PEOC, listening to the military advisors around the table talk about the next steps in the war. America had been in conflict for three years now. Millions of people had died as war had been brought directly to Main Street, America. At least after a bloody summer campaign in Alaska, the Chinese and Russians had been defeated and had withdrawn the majority of their troops, leaving those that could not be rescued to surrender. Nearly 128,000 Chinese and 83,200 Russian soldiers had been captured once it was clear they were not going to be rescued.

The re-capture of the Hawaiian Islands and Midway Island a month ago meant the American navy was finally back in control of the Pacific. The US had completed construction of two additional Supercarriers and moved them to the Pacific to join the three operational carriers of CSG12. President Stein had appointed Admiral Michael Stonebridge to be the new Seventh Fleet Commander, and directed him to work with General Gardner on developing a plan to liberate Japan and the Pacific from the Chinese.

Admiral Juliano observed that Stein only appeared to be half listening. “Mr. President,” he said, gently tapping the desk and hoping to gain his fully attention. “We have to be realistic in our expectations regarding taking back the Pacific from the Chinese. I know we have just scored two huge victories in recovering Alaska and in seeing a successful coup in Japan, but the liberation of the Pacific is going to take time.”

The President understood the challenges; the Pacific was a big ocean. Despite the defeat of the Chinese fleet, they still possessed dozens of submarines and other surface ships. They had also established a network of military bases throughout the South China Sea that had been turned into missile bases. Penetrating the Chinese missile swarms to get close enough to their shores and industrial heartland was going to be difficult, but not impossible.

“What I want from everyone is a realistic plan of how we are going to bring this war to a close. We have popular uprisings that we are supporting in the Philippines, Vietnam and now Japan. The Chinese will squash these uprisings if we are not able to offer more assistance. What are your suggestions?”

Admiral Juliano jumped in saying, “Sir, I have redirected our SUDs to the South China Sea to start engaging Chinese shipping. We are also going to start placing a bigger emphasis on going after the shipping between the African Confederation and China as well. Not nearly enough has been done to try and sever the mineral and natural resource pipeline between Africa and China that is keeping their factories going. I also believe we should step up our insertion of Special Forces to these countries.”

General Branson agreed. “We need to send more Special Forces to these countries to help. I also think we should increase the number and type of weapons we provide them. The Chinese are deploying their own version of the M5 AIR, so I do not believe we should hold out on providing them to the insurgent forces any longer. These weapons would greatly increase their ability to conduct hit and run attacks.”

“I agree” echoed CIA Director Rubio. “We held these weapons back in the past because we needed them for our own forces. Now it’s time to step up the scale and type of weapons we provide them.”

“All right then,” said the President. “General Branson, Director Rubio, move forward with the new plans, and let’s see what more we can do to help sow some chaos. In the meantime, I want to know--what is our strategy and plan for liberating Japan and the rest of the Pacific? What forces do we need, and when will we have them?”

Admiral Juliano brought up a new image on the holographic monitor for them to look at. “Sir, what you are looking at is our initial plan for re-securing the Pacific. We have four of our new Reagan class Supercarriers and three of our older Nimitz class Supercarriers in the Pacific. We also have four of our Webb class Battleships.” On-screen he also showed the list of cruisers, destroyers and frigates that were also assigned to the Seventh Fleet. It had taken several years, but the navy finally had the ships it needed to take the Pacific back.

“Our plan is to liberate Japan first, then move to assist Taiwan. To free Japan, we are going to need to secure a launch platform from which we can move in air support to help on the main Island. We have identified the island of Hokkaido as our best location to use for housing our aircraft.” A map of the Island was brought up with several identified landing zones, airports and other strategic targets that would need to be secured.

“The assault against the Kola Peninsula in Russia with the EHDs was a resounding success. We are going to use that same strategy to capture Hokkaido. Four of our American class amphibious assault ships are currently being outfitted with EHD simulator pods just like the ship that we used in Russia. These four ships will be able to carry an assault force of 8,000 Reaper drone operators. Once the key objectives have been secured, we will begin to ferry in tens of thousands of Raptor-equipped soldiers to capture the rest of the Island. With the Island under our control, we’ll begin to move in additional men and material and get ready to liberate the rest of the Japan.”

The President looked over the information, and asked several clarifying questions, but in general, he agreed with the premise of the plan. Then he probed about a more pressing issue. “What I want to know is when this plan will be ready to execute?”

General Branson saw this as his opportunity. “Sir, it is going to take time to get everything ready and in position. We anticipate launching the invasion of Hokkaido in February, and then moving to the rest of Japan in May of 2043. At that point, we will have 12,000 EHDs available for the operation, and the necessary ships to support the mission.”

After thinking about the information provided, the President responded, “I’d like to take the rest of the evening to think about it. Why don’t we dismiss the meeting for now, and we can come back tomorrow?”

There were no arguments from the group, so the President returned to the Residence to mull things over.

Chapter 50

The Man No One Was Supposed to See

14 October 2042

Moscow, Russia

The loss of the Kola Peninsula was a heavy blow to Russian morale, and the darkness sat in the air. As President Mikhail Fradkov sat in his office, he was wondering why Petr Gromley had insisted they meet today. Today was not a good day for a surprise visit; he had a strategy meeting with his foreign minister and military leaders to discuss the Pan Asian Alliance. He wanted to see if there was a way for Russia to join the alliance and still maintain their sovereignty. Fradkov knew Gromley and the men he represented were against the deal, but he did not care. He was the President, and this alliance was Fradkov’s way of ensuring he stayed in power despite what Gromley and his benefactors thought or said.

Mikhail had woken up that morning feeling a bit strange. He was more tired than usual, and his heart had been racing all morning. As the palpitations continued, his hands started to feel clammy, and he thought to himself, “I had better check in with my doctor after my meeting with Gromley. Petr had better have a really good reason for insisting on meeting today. I have a busy schedule, and this meeting is an interruption.”

As President Fradkov got up from his desk and began to walk towards the door in his office, the pain overwhelmed him. He grabbed his chest. It felt like an elephant was sitting on him. He could not breathe. He was frozen there for a moment before he realized that he must be having a heart attack; he gasped for air, but could find none. As his world turned black, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was Gromley’s doing.

*******

Petr Gromley’s smartphone vibrated slightly in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw the message; President Fradkov had had a heart attack and was confirmed dead. The President’s doctor would confirm Fradkov had died of a massive coronary arrest, citing “natural causes” and leaving no suspicion that he had actually been assassinated. As Gromley approached the entrance to President’s office (where the other leaders of the Russian government were expecting to meet with Fradkov), he reveled in what was about to take place.

The double doors were opened for him by the President’s personal guard, who had been personally selected by Gromley and his associates. As he walked into the room, he saw General Gerasimov, the Head of Russian Military, LTG Igor Dmitrievich Sergun, Director of the GRU (Russian military intelligence), Sergei Puchkov, Minister of Defense, Nikolai Bortnikov, Director of the FSB, and several other members of the ruling council.

Nikolai Bortnikov was not able to hide his facial expressions when Gromley walked in the door; his eyebrows seemed to reach for the ceiling. He was also the first to speak. “Petr--what are you doing here? We are about to meet with President Fradkov.”

As the rest of the men in the room noticed the half a dozen armed guards standing just outside the office, they all started to look as surprised as Bortnikov.

Gromley barely managed to hide a smile as he sat down at the table cavalierly and addressed the group, “President Fradkov has just suffered a heart attack and died.”

As several of the men gasped in shock, Gromley pulled a pistol outfitted with a silencer out of his jacket, and shot director Bortnikov in the head. Before anyone else in the room could respond in any way, he fired off two more bullets, shooting General Gerasimov and General Sergun, killing them instantly. He motioned to the others, insisting that they stay calm and seated. The guards that had been standing outside the room stepped in and immediately began to move the bodies of the men Gromley had just shot.

Petr calmly walked over to the head of the table, placing the pistol down in front of him as he took a seat. He calmly announced, “A change of leadership has been called for, and I have stepped in to implement it. The rest of you sitting here have been determined to not have been a part of the corruption at the core of this government. You will be allowed to live so long as you do as you are told.”

The others in the room let out a collective sigh of relief.

“It has been determined that I should assume control of the Russian Federation. I have the full backing of the men who matter, and you will either fall in line and support me and this government, or you may leave. If you stay, there is no turning back, and no questioning of my orders.” Petr’s statement made it sound like he was giving everyone a chance to leave...of course, no one left. To leave would have meant a bullet in the back of the head.

Seeing that he had their undivided attention, Gromley snapped his fingers, letting the guards know to send in the others. Eight other men in dark suits, some known and others unknown to the men at the table, walked in and sat down at the empty seats and opened their tablets, ready to begin work.

“Effective immediately, Russia is stopping our work on the Pan Asian Alliance. We are not going to join the Chinese and become a puppet to them. Russia will not surrender its sovereignty to a ruling committee.”

Petr gestured towards a few of the others in the room as he began, “These three men are going to handle the negotiations with the Chinese, and will convey our decision to not continue with the alliance.”

Those three men nodded, and then proceeded to get up and leave the room, heading out to implement their tasks.

“The loss of the Kola Peninsula has placed our country in a precarious position. The Americans have once again surprised the world with yet another breakthrough technology, their enhanced humanoid drone, the Reaper. We have no counter to this new superweapon. We also do not have the ability to create our own version of it, at least not right now with our current technology and available resources.”

One of the newcomers to the room linked his tablet with the holographic display at the center of the table. He immediately brought up several clips of the EHD in action. The group watched as several of them advanced on a Russian machine gun position in the Kola Peninsula, and saw the EHD get hit several times but still continue to advance. In short order, the drone had killed the men operating the gun position and then moved on to the next target.

“Gentlemen, I do not need to explain to you what will happen when the Americans begin to deploy tens of thousands of these drones on our soil. Combing through the footage, we estimate it took our men nearly 50 soldiers to kill or disable one of those drones. These are odds we simply cannot sustain. The war is lost. The question now is--when will we accept that?”

“I am immediately promoting General Viktor Lodz to take over as commander of all Russian military forces. He will oversee the winding down of the war with NATO and bring us an honorable peace we can live with.”

As Gromley was explaining this, one of the other generals at the table, a man who was clearly angry that he had just been passed over as the next in line to take over, asked, “And what if he cannot secure us an honorable peace? Will the war continue?”

Knowing this was also a possibility, Petr had a prepared response. “If General Lodz is not able to secure an honorable peace, then we will remind President Stein and the allies that Russia can and will still bring this war to their streets. We may not be able to use our nuclear weapons as a deterrent or threat like we had in the past, but we certainly can unleash biological weapons and cyber-attacks in perpetuity.”

The general was clearly taken aback by the mention of biological weapons. No matter how bad the war had gotten, President Fradkov and President Stein had come to an understanding that neither side would use weapons that would destroy the people of either nation. This included the use of neutron and biological weapons. The devastation of the neutron weapon used against the IR was still being calculated, and had been responsible for the death of over a hundred million people up to that point.

Petr motioned that he was gearing to wrap up the meeting. “After we announce the death of President Fradkov and my taking over as the leader of the Russian Federation, I am going to call for an immediate 48-hour ceasefire and ask for an opportunity to talk with President Stein directly to determine if we can work out an honorable end to the war.”

They looked solemn but also accepting of the fact that Russia could no longer win the war. The best that they could hope for now was obtaining a ceasefire that allowed Russia to maintain its dignity in defeat.

Chapter 51

Negotiator in Chief

16 October 2042

Washington, DC

The sudden death of President Fradkov and the change of leadership within the Russian Federation sent shock waves throughout the world. The Russian government requested a ceasefire and direct talks between the man who had emerged as the new leader of Russia, Petr Gromley, and President Stein. The key questions being asked in Washington were--who is Petr Gromley, and how did he become the President? No one seemed to know the answers, and this concerned President Stein and his senior staff. How did a seemingly unknown individual suddenly become the President of Russia?

President Stein did ultimately decide to agree to a 48-hour ceasefire and direct talks with President Gromley. As the intelligence community scrambled to learn as much as they could about Petr Gromley, an appointed time for a holographic telecom was set. Twenty-three hours after the ceasefire went into effect, the two leaders would have their first discussion.

As the President sat on one of the two couches in the Oval Office, he stared out the window for a second, collecting some of his thoughts. The President nervously asked Director Rubio, “Have we learned anything more about who Petr Gromley is? I’d like to know a bit more about the man I will be speaking with in a few hours.”

Director Rubio gestured towards a middle-aged analyst he had brought with him to this meeting. “Mr. President, this is Dr. Jason Strom. He’s from our Russian division, and had studied and worked for many years in Russia for us before returning to the US and official cover with the Agency. I will let Dr. Strom brief you on what he has been able to dig up.”

Dr. Strom was clearly anxious about briefing the President. He stammered at first before clearing his throat to start over. “Mr. President, while I was in Russia, I came across the name Petr Gromley only once. I learned that he was a successful businessman, but also had deep ties with the SVR, part of the FSB foreign intelligence arm. There was relatively little information I could compile while in Russia and through my subsequent dive back into his history these past 23 hours; however, we were able to link him to several the major oligarchs that run the various industrial sectors in Russia. We also linked him to several senior military and intelligence officials who are also now in charge of the government. What we found interesting about his connections was how diverse they are. He is well-connected both with Russian power brokers and military leaders, and also with members of the financial sector, both domestic and abroad. For instance, his wife is an active member of the Rothschild family.”

The President digested the information and sat silently thinking about what it meant before asking a follow up question. “So, what you are saying is, this guy is a very well-connected man both in Russia and outside of Russia. He has money, influence and contacts in critical areas within the government. Yet he also appears to have some sort of connection, a deep connection, with the SVR. What was his connection with Fradkov before he died?”

Glancing at his notes for just a second, “Gromley knew Fradkov; they had attended the same military school and college, and they worked in the FSB together for a short period. I have not had enough time with my sources still in Russia to really gain a full understanding of their relationship, but it is safe to say they knew each other for a very long time.” Dr. Strom spoke with increasing confidence as he started to feel more comfortable with briefing the President.

President Stein took a sip of coffee; he was in the process of cutting out his steady diet of Red Bulls. His physician had said they were partly to blame for his headaches, so he had to find another source of caffeine. As the President placed his mug down on the table between his guests, he looked at Director Rubio and asked, “Do you believe there is a bit more to Gromley than we may think? Looking at what I’ve read and now heard from Dr. Strom, Gromley seems to be more of the spy master or chess master, moving players around the board. I find it strange that most of the individuals with whom we know he had strong connections prior to the death of Fradkov, suddenly find themselves in critical positions within the Army. Not to mention the very suspicious sudden deaths of nearly a dozen other figure heads within the government right around the time of Fradkov’s death--it almost seems like his death was planned, but that’s just me speculating.”

Director Rubio nodded in agreement. “I believe you may be right, Mr. President. This could have been an internal well thought out plan. The question then, is if this is, then what is their end state?”

Dr. Strom knew he should probably not say anything since it was clear his section of the brief had concluded, but he could not help himself. “Mr. President, if I could, I believe Gromley’s intensions will be to bring some sort of honorable end to the war. If he truly represents the oligarchs and elites within the country, then they know the war is no longer winnable, at least not without destroying Russia in the process. They have too much to lose in that scenario, and they must have believed that Fradkov would probably never pursue peace.”

The President thought about this for a moment. “You may be right, though I think their decision probably had more to do with the likelihood that Fradkov was going to move forward with the Pan Asian Alliance. Joining the alliance was probably the only way to save his war. Our capture of Murmansk has shaken them to their core, and we are now positioned to strike deep behind their European lines.”

CIA Director Rubio responded, “I think that is a safe assumption, Mr. President. From the intercepts we have from China, they were not going to provide Fradkov with reinforcements or additional military equipment unless he agreed to join the alliance. They had promised him one million PLA soldiers if he agreed to join, and it looks like he was probably going to get Russia to accept the agreement.”

The President let out a soft sigh and looked out the window again, drifting away to a far-away world before returning. “Gentlemen, you both have given me a lot to think about. If you will excuse me, I am going to spend the next hour thinking about this meeting and formulating some questions and potential responses to them.” With that, the President indicated that it was time for them to leave the Oval Office and allow him some time alone.

As President Stein sat at his desk, he began to pen several scenarios out, and wrote some goals he wanted to achieve during the meeting. He also put together a list of demands, if the Russians did want an end to the war.

*******

Two hours later, President Stein walked down to the PEOC to have his virtual meeting with President Gromley. As the President walked into the communications room, he sat down at the center of the table. Just out of sight was General Branson, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Jim Wise, the Secretary of State, Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense and Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA. Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff and senior advisor was seated next to the President with a pad of paper and a pen. The President signaled that he was ready to receive the call. In seconds, a message was sent to the Russians to let them know President Stein was ready to start the meeting.

A minute later, the holographic screen came to life, and a life-size image of President Petr Gromley appeared opposite of President Stein at the table. President Gromley spoke perfect English, and initiated the discussion saying, “Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to meet with me and for the immediate ceasefire. As you know, President Fradkov suffered a massive heart attack. I was asked to step in as interim President until a new election can be held in two years. One of my goals as the new President is to work with you to find a way to bring this war between our nations to an end.”

With the ball now in his court, President Stein now had to decide; did he want to pursue an end to the war then? Or did he want to fight on and end the war on their terms, as an unconditional surrender?

“Thank you for reaching out to me, President Gromley. Congratulations to you on becoming President. I am glad to hear that your government would like to pursue an end to this war. I must tell you; I am not sure Russia is willing to agree to our terms. We have been committed to nothing less than an unconditional surrender of Russia,” Stein said, laying out his initial starting point for these talks. He wanted the new Russian leader to know that America was committed to continuing this war out to its conclusion; they did not need to agree to a peace just yet.

Gromley knew President Stein would want to set his terms. From everything he had read about Henry Stein, he knew he was a shrewd negotiator…tough, but fair. Russia had inflicted some serious wounds on America, and President Stein was going to want America’s pound of Russian flesh in return.

“I am sure you understand, Mr. President; the Russian Federation cannot accept those terms as they are presently laid out. We have suffered some battlefield defeats, but we are far from defeated as a nation. My government’s goal is to end this war and the bloodshed. As you are aware, the reinforcements from our Indian allies have arrived. Their forces have not been committed yet, but their introduction to the European front will have an impact. I would like to negotiate an honorable end to the war and not have to commit them to the defeat of NATO.”

The President shifted slightly in his chair before responding, “Thank you, President Gromley, for being open and more importantly direct. So, let me be direct with you as well, so we can save each other a lot of time and remove any confusion. The Russian Federation, in coordination with the Islamic Republic and the People’s Republic of China, launched a massive surprise attack against the United States, Israel and our NATO allies. This was an unprovoked attack that has claimed the lives of tens of millions of people in the United States and our allied nations. I would like to find a way to end this war with your nation, but it will be on favorable terms to the United States and our allies, or we can continue this war until my forces have either captured or killed you and your government.” Stein spoke forcefully but respectfully.

Gromley shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Mr. President, what terms would you find acceptable?”

“For starters, Russia would need to withdraw all military forces from NATO member territories. Russia would also need to begin an immediate demobilization of your military force, allowing no more than 330,000 active duty soldiers. This number is consistent with your force structure from ten years ago, prior to your military buildup.”

President Stein glanced at his notes very briefly before he continued, “Next, the Russian government would have to take responsibility for any war crimes your forces may have committed in the occupied territories, and pay reparations to the families. The exact amount would be determined by an international tribunal. Russia would also have to agree to an end of the ongoing cyber-attacks, cyber-espionage and cyber warfare being conducted against the United States and our allies. Finally, Russia would have to agree to a ten-year moratorium on any space exploration or space activities.”

Gromley had figured that the President would most likely ask for everything he had just mentioned, with the exception of the space exploration moratorium. That was one area the oligarchs wanted to pursue since the advent of the EmDrive. Once the news had been made public about the American Pegasus project, space exploration and mining had become a top priority of the oligarchs. The mining and exploration possibilities were endless, and the war was the inhibiting factor in allowing Russia to pursue them.

“Mr. President, I can agree to most of these terms. What Russia will not give up is our possession of our former satellite nations, including the Caucus region and the ‘Stan’ countries. We can agree to withdraw our forces from the Scandinavian countries, Eastern Europe and Turkey. Would this return of territory be acceptable?”

Looking to his advisors for guidance, the President saw General Branson, Secretary Wise, and Director Rubio nod their heads. Stein summoned a bit of acting to make himself appear very reluctant as he replied, “We can agree to those terms; Russia can keep the Caucus region and the Stans.”

Gromley continued, “I am not sure I can agree to the force reduction to 330,000 soldiers. We have more than four million men and women in uniform right now. I cannot simply release that many millions of soldiers without experiencing severe unemployment and civil unrest. We can work towards that number over a multiple year period, but I cannot cut that many soldiers overnight.” Petr said as he offered his first bit of resistance to the American President.

President Stein’s advisors just shrugged their shoulders and nodded. “Thank you for that clarification and justification. Let’s agree to a force reduction down to two million soldiers over the next six months, one million soldiers in eighteen months and five hundred thousand soldiers in two years and we leave it at that level,” Stein said, trying to offer a concession.

Gromley and Stein continued to negotiate for an hour about other details of the peace agreement, hammering out the major sticking points leaving the smaller points to their advisors and assistants who would pick it back up later.

Finally, things seemed more or less settled, until Gromley interjected, “Mr. President-- about the space moratorium--the Russian Federation cannot agree to a ten-year moratorium on space exploration and activities. Our government has done many years of research on the EmDrive technology Just as America is now establishing space mining operations, with the war concluded, Russia would like to pursue this opportunity as well. It would be a boon to our economy, and help aid Russia in recovering from this devastating conflict. It would also create a lot of employment opportunities for our citizens in the domestic economy as opposed to in the defense industry,” Gromley explained.

Stein felt caught off guard. “Humph,” he grunted. “My concern with allowing Russia unfettered access into this new frontier is that Russia would use these new-found resources and capabilities to rearm, and once again threaten the free world.” Stein had felt optimistic up to this point, but he was concerned that this might by the sticking point that would kill the whole negotiation.

Gromley assumed President Stein would fight him on this area; he also knew that he needed to assure President Stein that Gromley’s government was not interested in fighting America again. His benefactors wanted to return to making money, and they ultimately just looked forward to not having to constantly watch their backs because of the risk that they might possibly get killed by an American airstrike or Special Forces unit.

“This is a point I cannot negotiate away, Mr. President. I understand your concern and your unwillingness to trust or take my word that Russia will not look to find a way to restart the war. To give you a more steadfast assurance, what if we offered to have American or NATO observers work within our civilian space program? We are not asking for a joint venture, but allowing NATO to observe our civilian program would ensure that we are not militarizing our space industry. We can agree to a ten-year observation regimen. Would that be an acceptable outcome?” Gromley was truly hoping that they could come to an agreement on this area; if Russia was going to turn away from its military economy, then it was going to need to have a new sector of the economy to turn to and the space industry represented that opportunity.

President Stein hated the idea of letting Russia benefit from establishing a civilian space economy and industry. Russia had cost the lives of millions of people, and now they wanted to be rewarded with this new lucrative industry. However, Henry also understood that if an equitable peace was not achieved, it would only lead to further animosity and conflict. The US could continue the war until they had thoroughly defeated the Russians. The challenge was, if they did persist in the conflict, it would probably drag on for another year; hundreds of thousands of soldiers would be killed, and eventually, America and NATO would have to occupy Russia, which would bring its own unique challenges.

President Stein contemplated his options until he made a firm decision; he realized that not everyone would agree with his choice, but he hoped to be able to bring them around after logical explanations. Resolute, he responded, “President Gromley, this is going to be a tough sell. I need to consult with my fellow allied leaders before I give a definitive answer. If we do agree, we would want to have an observation group for at least fifteen years, not ten.”

Knowing that this was probably the best deal he was going to get while still accomplishing his benefactor’s goals, Gromley nodded in acceptance of President Stein’s terms. “If the other allied leaders will agree to these terms, then the Russian Federation will accept them. I understand a lot of other details need to be worked out, and you need to discuss things with the other allied leaders. I would like to request that we extend the ceasefire for the duration of these talks. The fighting can resume if the talks break down, but I would like to put a stop to the killing while there is hope that the war may finally be over.” Gromley hoped to gain his forces a bit of a reprieve. His forces could use the time to shift units around and prepare to restart operations, should the negotiations not progress.

“I am not willing to extend the ceasefire indefinitely. We will prolong the ceasefire for another five more days while I consult with our allies. If we are able to come to a consensus in that time, then we can move to formally end the war at that point. If all parties cannot come to acceptable terms over the next five days, then hostilities will continue,” Stein said forcefully. The two leaders agreed, and the meeting was terminated.

Everyone in the room let out a collective sigh, and then the excitement emerged. The thought of ending the war with Russia in less than five days was something that none of them had thought possible just two days ago. America had been planning for at least another year of conflict with Russia. American factories were now using a nearly unlimited supply of Tritium4; this allowed them to produce nearly 1,000 Pershing tanks a month, and close to 200 of the F41 Archangel fighters. As new fighters were completed, they were quickly being formed into new squadrons and deployed to Europe. With the Chinese defeated in Alaska and California, and Japan having surrendered and now fighting China, the US had moved the bulk of their forces to Europe; not having to fight Russia would allow America to consolidate their forces against the Pan Asian Alliance, and possibly end this war once and for all.

*******

The next five days were a flurry of negotiations between the allied leaders and military advisors as they collectively discussed the terms of ending the war. Most of the leaders agreed that an end of the war should be pursued. Most of Europe had suffered horrendous damage to their infrastructure and economy. Refugees had also become a serious problem as countries scrambled to find enough suitable places to house them; there was also a significant economic strain as many of the refugees required at least some government assistance. As the fighting continued and intensified in Eastern Germany, Poland and southern Europe, more and more people had been displaced from their homes. The idea of stopping this mass humanitarian crisis was very appealing.

The one aspect of the peace terms that the allied leaders were having a hard time agreeing to was allowing Russia to pursue a space program. The EU and UK were reluctant to allow the Russians into the space industry, partially because they also wanted to participate in space exploration and mining, and they did not want the additional competition in the market. President Stein lobbied hard for the proposed international monitoring force that could keep tabs on the Russian program. He also reminded the British and the Europeans that this was a necessary evil if they were to end the war. Stein also reminded everyone of the lessons of World War I; implementing punitive policies against the vanquished foe did not end well then, and no one was eager for a new world conflict.

After three days of intense negotiations, the allied leaders agreed to the terms after adding several provisions to the stipulation about the NATO monitoring group of the Russian space program. With the final details hashed out, President Stein met one last time with President Gromley and laid out the minutiae of the agreement. After many hours of reviewing the document, which surprisingly was only 24 pages in length, President Gromley approved the terms and signed the document. They had effectively just ended the war.

The following day, a news conference was held, announcing to the world that the war between NATO and Russia had officially concluded. While not all the terms of the surrender were revealed, enough of the details were showcased to demonstrate that America and NATO had the upper hand in the negotiations.

The news, of course, was met with harsh rhetoric by the Chinese and the member states of the Pan Asian Alliance, who vowed to fight on despite the Russian treachery. China immediately cut off any ties they had with the Russians, and began to shift large numbers of troops to their northern border with Russia. As the intelligence community continued to monitor the troop movements, it was becoming clear that the Chinese were considering options to attack the Russian eastern territories since the Russian military had little in the way of forces in the area to defend against a possible Chinese invasion. The Allies had also devastated the Trans-Siberian Railway and road network that connected western Russia with their eastern provinces; this would make countering a Chinese move nearly impossible.

The Russians had anticipated something like this happening, and had begun to airlift thousands of soldiers to their military bases in the east. They also had several of their armored divisions withdraw from Poland and the Ukraine, moving these fighters towards their eastern provinces via the road network. As they would encounter a destroyed portion of the railroad, they would repair as they went. The Allies began to be grateful that they had agreed to delaying the drawdown of the Russian military by six months; hopefully, this would allow them time to resolve the situation with China.

The US also began to shift forces back from Europe to the West Coast of America, and all of the EHD Reaper drones were also brought back to domestic territory. New plans for occupying Japan (and assisting them in removing the Chinese) began in earnest. The US would need to use Japan as a base of operations if they were going to consider a ground invasion of China. Secretary of State, Jim Wise, also began secretive talks with Korea. The Koreans had stayed neutral throughout the war, per their agreement with China. Secretary Wise hoped to change that decision once they saw that China was going to be invaded. His hope was to gain approval from the Koreans to allow the US to use their land as another invasion point into northern China.

As hostilities in Europe concluded, Israel, the EU, and the UK began to move soldiers and aircraft to the West Coast of America. They would also participate in the occupation of Japan and the eventual invasion of China. It had been decided nearly a year ago, at the Saint Mary Islands Conference, that China would need to be broken up. No permanent end to the war could be achieved unless China became a less powerful entity.

Chapter 52

Mr. Speaker

22 November 2042

Washington, DC

Capital Building, Office of the Speaker of the House

The Speaker of the House and deputy chair of the Freedom Party, George Fultz, was a close friend of President Henry Stein and his Chief of Staff, Michael Montgomery. The three of these men had fashioned the blueprint for the Freedom Party, and through their business savviness, self-funding, and brute determination, had formed a fierce political machine in Florida that saw them capture the Governor’s office and then the state assembly and senate. Two years after taking the Governor’s office, Speaker Fultz ran for Congress in 2030, and then began the grassroots work with Monty to establish hundreds of field offices across the country. They began to identify congressional districts that they felt they could capture and candidates that shared their same views for the country.

By 2042, the Freedom party had gained control of four-fifths of the governors’ offices and State legislatures. The party had pushed through a lot of changes in federal laws and the Constitution. They limited the role of the Supreme Court back to the original intent of the Founding Fathers, removing their ability to legislate from the bench. No longer would judicial supremacy be allowed. They also changed the tenure of the chief justices. No longer were they life time appointments; they were now limited in their appointments to fifteen years. Following their service on the Supreme Court, they were ineligible to hold any future public office. The decision to move in this direction was met with a lot of resistance from both parties; even some in the Freedom Party disagreed with it. However, the average tenure of a Supreme Court judge is 19.6 years, so establishing a 15-year tenure seemed fair. It also helped to ensure judges would not serve on the bench until they literally died in their seat.

On this Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Speaker Fultz was meeting with Monty to discuss a very important topic. He wanted to restructure the number of years in each Congressional, Senate, and Presidential term, and implement term limits. The Freedom Party wanted to get these changes passed while they still had the votes to do it. They needed to ensure the ideals and principles of the Constitution remained intact long after the supremacy of the Freedom Party.

Monty walked into the Speaker’s Office and saw George standing near the window with a glass of cognac in his hand. As he walked towards George’s desk, he saw a second glass waiting there for him and took it.

“I take it you have something important you want to talk about? That, or we are celebrating something,” Monty said raising the glass of cognac.

George smiled wryly as he responded, “I want to propose some legislation, and I want to know if President Stein will support it or be against it.”

“OK, what legislation are you thinking about?” asked Monty, hoping it wasn’t anything too extreme.

Walking towards the two leather chairs in his office near the fireplace, George took a seat, and signaled for Monty to join him. “I want to redo the legislative terms and term limits of our elected officials.” Monty raised an eyebrow, but didn’t bring forward any objections.

“…I also want to redo the Presidential terms,” added George.

Chuckling softly, Monty downed the rest of his drink and looked for a refill. “For a second there George, I thought you were going to talk about something really ambitious…you really want to move forward with this?” asked Monty.

“I do. The Freedom Party has done a lot for this country. We have given the USA new life and a new start at greatness. However, we may not always be in power. We need to use our influence now while we have it, in order to set our nation on a better path. If we don’t do this, you can bet the government and our elected officials will return back to their old ways. They always do. We need to be the ones that break the cycle.” George said with conviction. He believed Monty and the President wanted this as well. At least he hoped they did. Power can have a strange way of corrupting people.

“George, this has always been a goal for the President and for me as well, you know that. What do you have in mind?” asked Monty, leaning forward.

George tried to read Monty’s response for a second before replying, “First, I’d like to address the Congress. The two-year election cycle can be convenient when you want to get rid of a Congressional member you dislike, but it also presents a real problem. They are always having to campaign and raise money. They spend most of their time fundraising, and not nearly enough hours doing their jobs. This needs to change. I am proposing we change congressional terms from two years to four years. We will also set term limits of no more than five terms. That way a person can only serve a maximum of twenty years; no more of these Washington dinosaurs that hold on to power until they die. As to the Senate, their six year terms will remain, but they will be limited to no more than three terms in the Senate. For the President, I am proposing a more radical change. One seven-year term as President. Typically, most of the President’s first term is spent preparing to run for his or her second term; that mentality needs to end. I know President Stein was never like that, but we need to make sure future presidents are not stuck in that same cycle.” George was excited to have an old friend to share this idea with, especially now that they were in a position of power to make it happen.

Monty sat back in his chair, polished off his second glass of cognac, and poured himself a third. “I like the idea. I know Henry will as well. But I sense you have something else you want to propose? Am I wrong?” Monty had a quizzical look that said he knew Fultz had another trick up his sleeve.

George snickered before answering, “Am I really that easy to read? Yes, I do have one more thing I want to propose. I want to overturn the 22nd Amendment, which as you know, limits the President to two terms. Of course, this will become a moot point after we enact the new legislative terms, but for the time being we need to change it (I think we can get enough governors to vote for the change, as long as they know that this new legislation will make it impossible for future presidents to run for endless amounts of terms). I want to know if you can convince Henry to run for a third term? We have a national election in 2044, which is sooner than one might think, and one of the things I would like to do is propose that we place the new proposed term limits on the ballot and give the people a chance to vote on them at that time. This will add further legitimacy to the change and ensure the term limits are not challenged in the future. Following the election, President Stein would then serve a seven-year term and then be done. But this way, we ensure we have Henry at the helm for seven more years to see our country through the post-war years and our adventure in space.”

“Hmm…that is going to be a big ask. Henry will certainly go along with the ballot initiative, but I am not sure he will want to run for a third term, especially a seven-year term,” Monty said, his voice dripping with regret.

George was a bit taken aback; the President was going to turn sixty in April, he was still more than capable of serving. “Really? You don’t think Henry would want another term? His vision is not complete yet--doesn’t he want to finish the work he has started?”

“It’s not that he doesn’t want to serve any longer. I think he is physically and mentally beat. The war has really taken a toll on him, and I do not know if he can handle another seven more years. I think it might be too much for him,” explained Monty, who was a bit disappointed as well.

Fultz absorbed the information, and though for a moment. “Perhaps he just needs to take another vacation for a little while and rest, plan out what else he wants to do and then make that determination. Can you please convey my message and idea to him? I have a lot of things to get finalized before the end of the year if we are going to get these initiatives on the 2044 ballot.”

Monty nodded, and George indicated that their meeting was done. As Monty got up to leave, he assured Speaker Fultz that he would convey the message to the President and do his best to get him onboard with it.

Chapter 53

Space Exports

15 December 2042

Lunar Base Stargate

Dr. Karl Bergstrom was still in awe of what they had accomplished on the Moon’s surface these last eight months. The SpaceX transports were making a delivery of supplies every six days, bringing back tons of partially refined Tritium4 and Helium3 Isotopes. The mining operation had increased dramatically as well. With each trip from Earth, the transports would bring additional building materials and personnel. It had taken several months to construct the initial buildings on the lunar surface, but now they were complete. The first two structures were the farms; These buildings were 300 meters in length, 260 meters in width, and 75 meters in height; each one provided nearly 75,000 square meters of warehouse space to grow food for the burgeoning colony. The third building was the same size but divided up into different sections to house the livestock (since the experiment in raising chickens had been going well, they were going to try raising goats as well to provide a source of milk and cheese). The key to establishing a permanent colony on the Moon, was establishing a means of producing a sustainable food sources.

Another building was nearly completed; it would be six stories tall, with two subbasement levels. This one was meant to house the colonist workers, and would include a medical facility, cafeteria, communications room and a recreation room. Once completed, it would have room for up to 300 people. Each building was connected by a series of tunnels that enabled the workers to move between buildings and airlocks without having to suit up and leave the facility to enter another one. Though the structure of these edifices had been completed and sealed, it would still be months before the electrical wiring, heating, cooling, water and recycling systems were completed. Each building also had multiple airlocks, which were used for moving materials in and out of storage areas of the facility.

The various engineers estimated that it would be close to two more months until the remaining housing facilities were completed and the additional personnel could start arriving from Earth. Dr. Bergstrom was enjoying his work on the Moon immensely, but his heart ached to see his family. He had hoped that once the new housing structure was completed, he might be able to arrange for his family to move here to be with him. Unfortunately, the answer he was given was “no.” They simply did not have enough room yet to allow people to bring their families with them. Right now, people assigned to the Pegasus Project were expected to serve a one-year term with a 30-day R&R at the six-month mark.

Dr. Bergstrom had been conducting intensive surveys and soil sampling of the Moon, identifying in detail what minerals and resources were located at different points across the lunar surface. Others in his research group were working on designing several heavy factories that would, in time, refine the materials being mined and fabricate additional building materials needed to expand the colony and build additional spacecraft. The construction crew was already hard at work assembling the foundation for multiple new buildings and an adjoining tram system that would link all of the buildings together. It was a massive undertaking, and would take years to complete. Several of the new housing structures were going to be 40 stories in height. The colony would then be able to house around 12,000 people, and would only grow from there.

Heavy deposits of iron, tungsten, copper, magnesium, aluminum and most importantly, water were found in abundance just below the Moon’s surface. There was also Tritium4 and Helium3 isotopes in heavy concentrations. Most of the minerals were relatively close to the growing colony. The long-term goal was to get the various mining operations up and running and build out the factories, refineries, and fabrication facilities needed to make the colony self-sufficient. Eventually, they would be in a position to start constructing equipment for larger space exploration and colonization ships.

Karl enjoyed his work immensely; he was now the world’s leading geologist and the man leading humanity into the stars in search of new minerals and opportunities for humanity to spread beyond Earth. His position had grown beyond just geological work; he was now among the leadership of the colony and a member of the space exploration committee, which was headed by Dr. Peter Gorka, the President’s Chief Scientist. His ideas and suggestions for how America should explore space and what needed to be done to accomplish those goals were being heeded and implemented.

While he felt like he was making a difference for humanity, he felt his family life was starting to suffer immensely. He had been sequestered to work on the Pegasus Project for nearly six years now, only seeing his family for short bursts on weekends, holidays and their yearly vacation. In that time, he had poured his heart and soul into space exploration and mining. While his wife understood his passion and what he was doing for humanity, his children did not. All they knew was that their daddy worked 80 hours a week and was gone for weeks and sometimes months on end. His living on the Colony for a year was really stretching his relationship with his children. His son was seventeen and a senior in high school. He was a smart kid, and all of his classes were now AP classes that he was completing through a dual enrollment homeschooling program with Liberty University. His daughter was sixteen, and like her brother, was also a bit of a prodigy. Both of his kids were well on their way to attending some of the best universities in the world. His son wanted to go into physics, his daughter wanted to be a doctor. He wanted so much to be there for them while they were going through this pivotal time in their lives, but long-distance fatherhood of teenagers was proving to be quite challenging.

Karl was due to head back to Earth in four months, just in time for his son’s eighteenth birthday and graduation from high school. What his son and wife did not know, is that Karl had been working behind the scenes to get his son an internship with Dr. Gorka’s research assistant, Dr. Nikki Travosky. She was scheduled to take his place at the Colony when his one year assignment was completed. Nikki was a leading physicist and was working on developing the next generation in EmDrive propulsion that would allow humanity to explore well beyond the solar system. He was pulling some connections and leveraging his position on the President’s science team to get his son into the MIT Physics program. Because his son had completed so many college credits through his dual enrollment program, he would go to MIT as a sophomore. His internship with Dr. Travosky would give his son an edge over all other students in the same program. He wanted to surprise his son with all of this when he arrived back home in four months. Of course, his wife would kill him once she found out their son’s internship would place him on the lunar surface at the colony, but what an experience it would give his son. He hoped this would do something to bridge the divide that grown between him and his son.

Chapter 54

Whose Side are We on?

20 December 2042

Pretoria, South Africa

African Confederation Headquarters

President Aliko Dangote was starting to grow a bit concerned about his Chinese allies. The recent change in leadership within the Russian Federation had given him pause, and was causing him and some of his military leaders and advisors to question the longer-term feasibility of their relationship with China. With the Allies now focused completely on China, it was only a matter of time until the Chinese economy collapsed and their military was destroyed. The Americans had been attacking dozens of key bridges and dams across the Chinese interior, which was starting to wreak havoc on their ability to govern and maintain control of their population of more than two billion people.

Then there was the war in Africa. The Americans and Europe had not taken an active interest in it just yet, and Dangote wanted to make sure they did not. The Chinese insisted that Dangote continue the war in the Horn of Africa, Central Africa and the Gold Coast. What Dangote himself wanted most was to work on integrating the half of the continent that he currently controlled. The Chinese had been using his soldiers to carry out a genocide of the Horn of Africa; from the reports that he had been receiving from his generals, they were killing nearly everyone that lived in Somalia and Sudan. He tried to concentrate on the bright spots. The war in Cameroon was finally winding down, and his forces had finished off what was left of the government forces there. The war in Nigeria was turning into a stalemate.

President Dangote had been a good soldier. However, he was going to go against his Chinese puppet masters soon. He was going to start working on a peace with the Nigerians after the New Year. His goal was to bring an end to the fighting by February. His forces and the Chinese had two and a half months left to accomplish their tasks before he would unilaterally call an end to the war. He was President of the largest country in the world, but his hold on the country was tenuous at best. On paper, he controlled more than half of the continent; in actuality, he really only controlled the major cities, ports, and mining and oil fields. He needed to produce a functioning government and law and order if he was going to maintain power, and that was not going to happen if his people continued to stay at war.

As Aliko Dangote sat at his mahogany desk in the massive Presidential office, he knew he was going to have to reach out to the Americans soon. He hit the buzzer near his desk for his secretary to respond. A second later a voice came over the speaker, “Can I help you with something, Sir?”

“Please arrange a meeting with my Foreign Secretary.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The meeting had more than one purpose. He planned to make his Foreign Secretary the new American Ambassador. Their current Ambassador was going to be coming home shortly; he had done a good job of keeping the African Confederation low profile and out of the spotlight, but now it was time to begin serious talks with the Americans. Dangote wanted to prevent them from waging their war on his continent. A war he knew he could not win was one that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

Chapter 55

Thompson’s Last Mission

03 January 2043

1,200 feet under the East China Sea

Captain Thompson was on his last combat patrol as the Commander of the Seawolf. He had just received word that he was being promoted to Rear Admiral and would be taking over command of the navy’s submarine training squadron. It was a non-combat role, but one that would give him two years of shore duty and time with his family. It would also position him for his second star, so from that perspective, he thought it was going to be a great assignment.

His ship had survived multiple enemy engagements this year, and as a crew, had the most tonnage sunk of any US submarine. They sunk one of the Chinese Supercarriers (and one of the Japanese carriers) and damaged the others enough that it proved to be a turning point in the battle for Hawaii. Everyone on his ship had been awarded the Bronze Star with V device for Valor. He was given the opportunity to award ten members of the ship the Silver Star and had also presented two Navy Crosses. Captain Thompson himself had been awarded the Navy Cross as the commander of the sub. For their last patrol with him as commander, they had been ordered into the East China Sea, about eighty miles northeast of Shanghai, just off the coast of Qingdao, one of the largest shipping ports in the country.

With Japan neutralized and now functioning as a launch pad for the coming invasion, the Allies were now moving more and more subs and ships into the East and South China Seas, to begin locking down their ports. The Navy had finally cut the Chinese shipping lanes off from the rest of the world and their other captured territories. The Allies had been working hard to cut China off from Africa and the island nations of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. They did not plan on liberating the Philippines or invading Indonesia. Instead, their plan was to isolate them and conduct surgical air strikes against their forces to degrade them over time.

The Seawolf was given the mission of launching a series of cruise missiles at the port and then slipping away to return to their base of operations in Japan. As his sub came to launch depth, he looked at his XO and said, “Ready the missiles, I want to launch them as quickly as possible so we can get out of here.”

“Yes, Sir,” the XO responded.

Captain Thompson continued, “COB, once the missiles have launched, I want us to dive to 900 feet and begin to move away from here at eight knots.”

“Ay, Ay, Sir,” replied the COB.

Turning to his weapons officer, the Captain simply nodded, indicating it was time.

Then he announced, “Fire all missiles.”

It only took seconds, but then the ship shuddered slightly as the blast doors began to blow and a series of cruise missiles began to be ejected from the missile bays. Every three seconds, another blast door opened as a cruise missile was launched, until all sixteen had been fired.

Immediately following the launch of the missiles, the sub began a steep dive, picking up speed until it reached eight knots. “Conn, Sonar--do we have any contacts?” asked the Captain, hoping they were going to make a clean get-away.

There was a pause as they waited for the update. Petty Officer Wilks was listening intensely to his headset and watching the computer screen in front of him. They had not heard any Chinese subs in the last two days, but that did not mean they were not out there. A few minutes later the Captain called asking for an update. “Sonar, Conn--we are not showing enemy submarines in the area,” Wilks said to the Captain.

They all breathed a sigh of relief. Launching their cruise missiles was probably one of the most vulnerable positions a sub could be in.

*******

Twenty minutes after firing their cruise missiles, the Captain was fairly certain they had not been detected, so he ordered the ship to increase speed to 12 knots and deploy the towed sonar array. If an enemy submarine was out there, then chances are the towed array would be able to find them. It looked like his final combat mission of the war was a success.

Chapter 56

Maps and Schemes

09 February 2043

Yokota Air Base, Japan

General Gardner’s Headquarters

Following the coup in Japan, the US Military quickly backed the coup leaders and helped the military seize control of the government and the country. The Chinese, of course, had their own response to the situation. The PLA had 35,000 soldiers in Japan, and those soldiers did their best to attack the government forces and try to hold on to the few military bases they operated on. The PLAAF also sent additional aircraft into the mix. After nearly three months of fighting, the US and the remaining JDF that supported the coup were able to push the PLA off the island. The US Navy put a lot of effort into preventing the PLAN from bringing in more reinforcements; the US lost a lot of ships attacking the remains of the PLAN, but after months of naval engagements, the US had defeated what was left of the Chinese navy and reasserted their dominance of the Pacific.

After the Chinese and Axis powers had been defeated in California and Alaska, General Gardner had been promoted again and given his fifth star. He had now been given overall command of all Allied forces in the Pacific. The last four months had been busy; the US had ferried over a million soldiers and supporting equipment to Japan. With the steady supply of Tritium4, the US had been cranking out F41s as fast as they could. The Air Force now had one 187 of them operating in Japan. They had quickly established air control over Japan and the East China Sea.

General Gardner’s forces in Japan had now reached 1,400,000 soldiers, and were still growing. There was still some resistance domestically from holdouts of the previous government, but they were being hunted down and dealt with. What Gardner wanted to focus on now was how best to invade China and bring a swift end to the war. He was concerned with the casualty numbers, and the last thing he wanted to do was lose hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Of the soldiers that he had in Japan, nearly 230,000 of them were equipped with the Raptor exoskeleton combat suits. He also had 12,000 of the new enhanced humanoid drones and 4,000 trained operators ready to use them.

Intelligence and surveillance of the major cities and probably landing zones of mainland China showed a massive increase in activity. The Chinese were building up their shoreline, and appeared to be turning their cities into fortresses. This was the exact fight General Gardner wanted to avoid. He grumbled to himself, “No one wants to fight in a city; it favors the defenders and it is a lot harder to root out the enemy. Unless I were willing to flatten all the buildings and kill the civilians in them, fighting in a city is going to cost us a lot of lives… I have to find a way to cut China up into manageable chunks.”

He opened a map on his tablet and began strategizing. Shanghai was the first region of concern that he identified; there were nearly eighteen million people living in that metropolis and surrounding area. Intelligence showed the PLA had moved nearly 600,000 soldiers into the area to defend it as well. His second goal was the port city of Qingdao and the rest of the peninsula. Next, he planned to liberate Taiwan. This would allow him to position aircraft, troops and supplies a lot closer to southern China. He also wanted to capture Tianjin, which would put his forces in striking distance of Beijing. The real question was--where should he attack first? Fighting was going to be heavy in all four areas; he needed to figure out where to use the Raptor soldiers and EHDs versus regular infantry wearing standard body armor.

It was still dicey providing air support to the infantry. The F41s could operate at a higher altitude and because of their speed and stealth, the enemy laser and Surface to Air Missile (SAM) batteries were useless against them. The F41s were attacking every laser battery they could find, but they were never going to get them all…the PLA had tens of thousands of SAMs, not to mention shoulder-fired missiles, which were also able to pack a punch. In either case, the invasion was going to be costly.

******

General Tyler Black walked into the operations center and went straight for the coffee stand. He had been awake for nearly twenty hours after visiting several of the battalions of newly-arrived soldiers. He had made it a point to spend at least three days a week touring the various battalions, talking to the soldiers, sergeants and junior officers to get a feel for the mood of the soldiers and their morale. He tried to offer words of encouragement and give them hope that the war was finally ending. He told them the President and General Gardner were in negotiations with the Chinese government, but if they did not surrender, he expected them to do their duty and bring this war to an end.

The war in Alaska had taken a lot from General Black. He had lost so many soldiers, and ultimately, they still lost. If it had not been for the Navy, they might still be fighting the Chinese there. He wanted payback for the invasion of America. He wanted payback for the Chinese providing all the weapons to the IR and starting this war. Too many young men and women had died. Too many more were still going to die if President Stein ordered them to invade.

As he stood there for a minute holding his coffee, he lifted it up to his nose and took a big sniff, letting the aroma fill his lungs before he took a long sip. In seconds, he felt the warmth of the liquid move down into his body; within minutes, he could already start to feel the caffeine slowly starting to kick in. Once he had his fix, he looked around to see if he could find General Gardner.

General Black spotted him talking to one of the Air Force generals and began to walk towards him. He had just finished up his conversation when he saw him approaching. Gardner and then extended his hand, “General Black, it’s good to see you. We have lots to discuss,” he said.

They walked down the hallway towards General Gardner’s office, which sat just off of the operations center. Gardner liked to be near the heart of the war, which these days meant being near the operations center, which was filled with TV monitors of drone feeds, headcams and an endless feed of data from all sorts of sensors and maps.

As they sat down to talk, General Black was the first to speak. “The troops are in high spirits. They are eager to get this fight going, if that is what it’s going to come down to.”

General Gardner smiled for a second as he replied, “That’s good to hear, Tyler.” His face then reverted into a stone-cold, serious expression. “I just got done talking with the President and the National Security Council about twenty minutes ago. We’ve been given the order. We are to begin preparations to invade.”

He paused for a minute to let his long-time friend collect his thoughts before he continued, “The President has given me some leeway in when we can begin the operation, but he wants it to begin within the month. We can pick the date, time and location, but he wants us to move forward with the four-pronged approach we briefed him on.” General Gardner was somber. This was a big decision. They were about to commit millions of soldiers to one last major campaign of the war.

The two generals had known each other on and off again for the last fifteen years, but had really become close over these past five months. When General Gardner was given his fifth star, he immediately requested General Black to be his field commander. General Gardner knew that he was not going to be able to be at the front leading his soldiers as much as he wanted to, and he needed someone he could trust to be in that position for him. He had seen how Black had fought tooth and nail against the Chinese, and he admired that. He had finally found someone as aggressive as he was.

General Black took a deep breath in and then puffed it out as if he were blowing out an imaginary candle. “This is going to be a tough one, Gary. Have you already determined which front we will hit first and what troops we are going to use?”

“Yes. We are going to go after Shanghai. Using the Raptor troops, I want them to hit Nantong first, then cross the Yangtze River and capture Changzhou. I want that area completely sealed off. Then I want to use our airborne and heliborne troops to hit Shaoxing and drive towards Hangzhou on foot with the Wolverines. They need to move fast and secure the docks and the airports. Once the docks are secured, you need to get reinforcements into those guys quick and firm up their position. We are not going to attack Shanghai right away. I want to get the area completely surrounded and cut off from further supply,” Gary explained as he showed Tyler the plan on his tablet map. He went over the numbers of troops, timeline for reinforcements, number of aircraft assigned for ground support as well as helicopters and Razorbacks available. He also went over the direct fire support the Navy would be providing with their battleships.

General Black leaned back in his chair. “That is going to be a tall order, Gary.”. He knew there were a lot of concerns. They still did not have nearly as many Raptor suit troopers as they wanted, and wouldn’t for nearly a year. The private sector was cranking them out as fast as they could, but they could only produce so many a month. Presently, they were manufacturing 150,000 a month.

Gardner nodded, aware of the difficulties. “I’m going to have the Air Force start hitting the rail and road systems in the area tonight. They are also going to start going after the pre-identified targets we went over last week. We will let the Air Force and the Navy pound them for the next three days, then they will shift to our second objective, Taiwan. After the third day of them hammering Taiwan, they will shift their focus back to Shanghai and we will invade. This will hopefully throw them off a bit.”

“When do we hit the other objectives?” asked Black, knowing those attacks would come sooner rather than later. The goal was to overwhelm the PLA by hitting them at multiple points, forcing them to have to pick which front was going to be the priority.

“This is the tough part--hitting the next objectives is going to place an enormous strain on the Navy and our sealift capability. We will hit Taiwan within the next four months, using regular infantry. All of the Raptor troops are going to be needed in Shanghai. They are already going to be heavily outnumbered. As to the other objectives…I am not sure just yet. I want to hit Tianjin with the EHDs. We are going to be seriously outnumbered in that invasion, and I think the drones are going to be our best bet. We will follow them up with regular infantry once they have established a beachhead.”

Standing up and stretching his back, General Black looked his friend in the eye and said, “I know that you’ve done everything you could to prepare for this moment. Now it’s time to put the plan into motion and let the rest of us execute it. We will see it through to victory and bring this terrible war to an end.”

He left General Gardner’s office and began to marshal several the operations officers and senior NCOs around him to get things started. From that moment on, the operations center was beehive of activity as the greatest military invasion in history began.

Chapter 57

Controlled Chaos

12 February 2043

0400 Hours

Rudong, China

As Captain Thornton sat strapped into the seat of the Razorback that would fly him into the port city of Rudong, he just wanted to make it out of this situation alive. He had fought in Mexico, the Middle East, California and now China. He just hoped his luck would not run out on this mission. As he sat there with his helmet on, he could see the men around him looking anxious; some had a blank look, others were ready for a fight. As he sat there looking out the door at the water moving quickly below them, he couldn’t feel that the air was chilling or smell the saltwater below; his exoskeleton combat suit was a fully-enclosed system.

What he was certain of was that they were flying very fast. He could tell by the looks on the door gunner’s face and from the pilot when he first got on that they were nervous. Thornton’s company, along with the rest of his battalion, was going to be flown in from the troop ships offshore and be deposited right in the center of Rudong County, which controlled dozens of smaller docks and ports that were going to be critical to secure if the invasion was going to work. Hundreds of Pershing battle tanks were waiting to be offloaded at those docks, along with thousands of Wolverine infantry fighting vehicles.

His Razorback was flying low and swiftly. He had ridden in the Razorbacks dozens of times, but was not sure he had ever ridden in one that was flying this hastily.  In the distance, he saw waves of Razorbacks. Just behind them, and a little higher in altitude, he saw dozens of additional gunships. The sky was full of helicopters. After nearly fifteen minutes in the air, he could start to see land off in the horizon. It was the pre-twilight hours of the morning, so the land still looked dark and ominous, but he could see shards of light starting to penetrate the night. He knew they were getting close, and things were about to get crazy. He had no idea if he was going to live another five minutes, five hours, or five days. What he did know is life was never going to be the same for everyone on board this helicopter.

Joe did not have to wait long for the silence to be broken. Within a minute of first seeing land, enemy tracer fire began to rise from the ground headed straight for them. The dimly lit green lights grew in size and intensity as they approached his helicopter. Explosions began to shake their craft as they few through the air, Thornton’s heart began to race and his chest tighten up. He knew there was nothing he could do, but that did not relieve the anxiety he was feeling. Their pilot began to deftly evade the enemy fire, moving their Razorback seconds before a missile would have hit them. Joe thought to himself, “This pilot is good.”

As their craft flew over land, the volume of enemy fire began to pick up even more. Joe did not think that it was possible, but the number of enemy tracers flying all around them was so thick that he could not believe he had not already been ripped apart by them. He felt his craft shake multiple times as they began to take some hits. Then an explosion nearby threw the Razorback to one side and then the other; their pilot tried desperately to duck and dodge while also going with the flow.

Joe saw the door gunner, who was sitting about ten feet from him, begin to use his gun. He began shooting at unknown targets at the ground. Joe wished he could shoot at something, anything. He hated being helpless like this, strapped to a seat hoping and praying that he was not killed by some unseen hand before he was able to get on the ground.

They were approaching what he thought was the center of town. The pilot banked hard to one side and let loose a volley of anti-personnel rockets. Seconds later, they jerked to the other side and fired several anti-tank missiles at an unseen target. There was a loud explosion and their Razorback lurched swiftly towards the opposite side. Smoke, began to fill the cabin, alarms began to blare, and he heard several of his men let loose a number of swear words; some shouted out a few prayers. As their craft began to slide out of control, Paul thought for a minute, “Is this it? Am I about to die?”

Then their Razorback slammed into the side of a building and bounced off of it. They thudded hard and crashed into a parking lot next to several mid-sized office buildings. Once the Razorback stopped moving, Joe realized that they were still alive. He could still see smoke, and felt some heat, which meant the Razorback was on fire, but at least for the moment, they were alive. He immediately yelled to everyone in the craft, “Grab your gear and get out!”

In seconds, ten of the men in his squad were off the Razorback and moving to the side of one of the office buildings for cover. Two of his soldiers had been killed in the crash and one of the door gunners had also been killed. The two pilots survived, though they both had some injuries and broken bones. Three of his soldiers ran back to help the wounded and retrieve the dead bodies of his soldiers that died. Thornton began to issue orders, “I want you six to set up a perimeter around our current position.”

“Yes Sir,” they responded.

He turned to his communications sergeant and continued, “We need to let the rest of the company know our location. I want to get a situation report from all of my platoon leaders ASAP.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Thornton loaded a map and found the GPS plot of their location. He saw that they were only a few hundred meters away from their original landing zone. He also discovered one of the Razorbacks carrying his soldiers had been completely destroyed, with no survivors. Two more had been shot down and had casualties but those Marines were on the ground and moving to their objectives. The other two platoons had landed successfully and were moving to secure their targets. Seeing that he was not far from his original objective and looking at his surroundings, Joe opted to move his headquarters to the first floor of the office building they were now using as cover. He ordered second platoon to move to his position and sent his remaining squad members into the office building to secure it and set up spotter positions on the roof. Once the other platoon arrived, they would be relieved.

He needed to get his base of operations established; his objective was to secure a perimeter so they could begin to bring in more soldiers and get some light armored vehicles and mobile anti-aircraft vehicles set up. He had 45 minutes to secure his area before the next wave of reinforcements would begin to arrive, and two hours before eight Wolverine infantry fighting vehicles would be airlifted in.

As he surveyed the area around him, he realized the office buildings were located on the edge of a densely populated residential area. His position was also relatively close to several anti-aircraft heavy guns, which were still shooting away at the Razorbacks and gunships moving around the area. He called the platoon leader for third platoon, gave them the location of the enemy gun position, and directed them to take it out. It appeared to be in the center of several large apartment buildings. It was likely placed there to discourage the Air Force from dropping a bomb on it, killing a bunch of civilians. It was a smart play on the PLA’s part, but his grunts would take it out.

While two soldiers from his headquarters squad began to set up the communications antennas and run the cables back into the reception area of the office building, a dozen PLA soldiers appeared about fifty yards from his position at the corner of the intersection nearby. They immediately began to shoot at him and the soldiers pulling sentry duty.

One of Thornton’s men fired his M203 grenade launcher in their direction, while another soldier moved behind a small brick wall and began to fire controlled bursts from his M5. Joe took cover behind a parked vehicle in the parking lot and took aim at one of the Chinese soldiers. He saw the fighter move to the corner of a building and begin to fire at his men. As he took aim at the soldier, he sighted in on his head and fired a single shot. The man’s head jerked back, and he collapsed where he was standing. Joe immediately began to move on to the next soldier, repeating the process several times. The PLA seemed to be so focused on shooting at the other soldiers behind the building that they had taken over that they did not seem to notice him off to the side, behind a parked car.

Thornton had picked off seven PLA soldiers before anyone began to fire at his position. Seconds later, a Marine gunship flew nearby and fired off several anti-personnel rockets in the direction of the PLA soldiers, blowing them up. Joe saw one enemy soldier get thrown in the air, landing maybe ten feet from where he had just been standing. He saw the man desperately grab for his left arm, which had just been ripped off by the explosion. Joe took aim and shot him in the head, ending his misery.

The attack helicopter that had randomly appeared near them quickly darted off to find another target to attack. Now that the enemy had been neutralized, Thornton and his men continued to clear the area for the follow-on forces that would arrive soon. They needed to push several vehicles in the parking lot to the outer edge and create a clearing for additional helicopters to land. Once they finished, the parking lot would have enough room for two Razorbacks to land at a time.

When Joe walked into the reception area of the office building, he saw his two coms Marines had their laptops up and running and had pulled up the portable digital map board. As he began to study the map board, he learned the current positions of the Marines in his battalion and company. A couple of drone feeds were also being piped in. The drones were identifying pockets of enemy soldiers and overlaying them on the map in relationship to the Marines’ positions. Several red flashing symbols represented the battalions’ primary objectives and targets that had not yet been neutralized, while others were now listed as blue, indicating that they had been destroyed.

Studying the map for a second, he could see that the third platoon had successfully taken out those enemy anti-aircraft guns and were now en-route to his position. First platoon appeared to be bogged down, still trying to accomplish their primary objective. It looked like most of second platoon had been killed after two of the three Razorbacks carrying them had been shot down. The remaining squad of soldiers was still pressing on with their mission, securing a nearby road junction. He was going to need to detail off a squad from third platoon to assist them once they arrived. As he located his fourth platoon, he was able to determine that their first and second squad had secured one of the key bridges near the S324 highway.

An hour after their crash landing, a steady stream of Razorbacks and heavy helicopter transporters began to arrive at Thornton’s position. Nearly four hundred additional Marines arrived, along with eight Wolverines. Captain Thornton’s Company had cleared one of five initial landing zones, to assist the incoming battalions of Marines in securing the rest of the city. The rest of his battalion had secured three ports, which were now being used to offload the more heavily armored Pershing tanks and other armored vehicles that would begin to make their way to Nantong and the Yangtze River.

*******

General Li Zuocheng had been promoted to Eastern Theater Commander two months ago. He knew this was an important promotion because he would most likely be defending against an American invasion, one that could take place anytime. He was not without resources. He had 1,300,000 soldiers to defend nearly 500 miles of shoreline, along with some of the most important industrial cities and sectors in the country. His force was broken down into 82 divisions; 14 of them were heavily armored divisions, while the rest were a mix of mechanized and light infantry division. To augment his force, he had 22 PLA militia divisions, which were lightly equipped and poorly trained infantry.

He knew the Americans were going to launch an invasion of mainland China, the question his officers and planners were trying to decipher was when and where. They knew that Nantong had the majority of the deep water heavy ports in Jiangsu Province, a key foothold to Shanghai; this made it a prime target. The capture of Shanghai and the industrial centers around it would be a big blow to China. General Zuocheng knew the American President wanted to break China up because they had grown too powerful; he could not let that happen.

At 0300 in the morning, one of his aides knocked on his door and woke him up. Li was upset. He had been getting one of the best night’s sleep he had had in the past week. The Americans had been attacking the various airfields in his military district with high altitude bombings and cruise missiles. Most of the cruise missiles were shot down, but the F41s had been modified to now carry two 500 lb. Joint Direct Attack Munitions, an old-fashioned dumb bomb with a specialized GPS and laser-guided nose, and guidable tail fins. It was fortunate that the Americans only had a few hundred of these aircraft, or they could single-handedly dismantle his armored forces. Once it became clear what the Americans were doing, he had ordered his forces to disperse into the cities.

There had been a lull in the bombing the past couple of days as the Americans shifted their bombing attacks to Taiwan. It was during this lull that Li had ordered 34 divisions to the Shanghai area. His gut was telling him the Americans were about to attack. When his aide had knocked on his door, he just knew that the Americans must have launched their assault. After he hurriedly got dressed, he followed his aide down the hallway, to the stairs that would lead to where his operations center was set up.

Several guards at the entrance to the operations center snapped to attention and saluted General Zuocheng as he arrived. He returned their salutes and continued into the nerve center of his command. What he saw when he entered was controlled chaos with officers on the phone obtaining status reports from various sectors, and others analyzing the dozens of live drone feeds being piped in from Rudong and the nearby ports and harbors. He stood there for a second looking at the drone feeds of the Rudong. He saw the sky was lit up with tracers, flying in nearly every direction. He also saw what appeared to be hundreds upon hundreds of helicopters arriving from the direction of the sea, landing in dozens of areas across the city.

One of his generals walked up to him asking, “General Zuocheng, I would like your permission to order the 14th Army to Rudong and Nantong to throw the Americans back into the sea.”

General Zuocheng just nodded his approval, leaving his subordinate to make it happen while he moved over to the PLAAF liaison. “General Feng, I need your forces to start attacking those American helicopters,” he said as he pointed to the drone feeds and radar screens showing hundreds of helicopters and aircraft over the city.

The Air Force liaison replied, “Yes sir. We are scrambling aircraft and drones from across the military district to head towards the Americans now.” The invasion was still in the first hours, so Li knew things were fluid and likely to change quickly. What he did not want to do was make the same mistakes the Germans did during the Normandy invasion. They had not rushed all of their forces to the beach, and by the time they had realized that this was the main Allied attack, the Allies had landed too many soldiers and tanks to be pushed back into the channel.

Zuocheng turned to one of his other generals. “I want the militia divisions rushed forward as well. Have them try and break through to the ports and interrupt the enemy operations.”

Before the general issued the order, he asked, “Sir, the militia units will probably be cut to pieces without armor support. Should we have them wait until the 14th Army is in position to support their advance?”

“No. They are quick and mobile, and we need to get them there now. I know they will be ravaged, but they will buy the 14th time to get into position and hit the Americans with our heavier armored and mechanized forces,” General Zuocheng replied. He had a huge pit growing in his stomach, knowing that tens of thousands of militia soldiers would probably be killed within the next hour.

Chapter 58

Hold the Line

12 February 2043

Rudong, China

“Captain Thornton, Colonel Lee was looking for you,” said one of the sergeants as he walked into the operations room.

Thornton nodded and began to walk towards the door leading to the parking lot helipad. It had been three and a half hours since they landed in Rudong, and things were still very chaotic. His company had secured a suitable landing zone and expanded the perimeter enough to allow follow-on forces to continue to arrive. Helicopters were landing as fast as they could and offloading dozens of soldiers, munitions, water, food and other supplies that they would need. So far, two full battalions of Marines had landed at his landing zone (LZ), and were pushing further into the city. The eight Wolverines that arrived thirty minutes ago were already heavily engaged just a few blocks away.

As Thornton approached Colonel Lee, he could see that he was apprehensive about something. “Captain, there you are. I have some disturbing news….” he started.

Joe sighed. Then, sitting next to the colonel along the brick wall some of his soldiers had used for cover a few hours ago, he asked, “What’s coming our way?”

“Intelligence intercepted a message from the PLA district commander, directing the Chinese 14th Army to head to Rudong and Nantong. They also intercepted some additional orders to the local PLA militia units. I’m not sure why we were not warned earlier; apparently, they intercepted these orders three hours ago. The brigade recon team sent a FLASH message saying they had spotted a massive troop movement heading towards us. Here’s the video image they sent,” he explained, passing a tablet to Thornton.

Looking at the screen, he saw multiple side streets and alleyways crawling with militia. There had to be thousands of them. Thornton handed the tablet back and asked, “How far away are they?”

“They are approaching the brigade perimeter right now. We have several airstrikes inbound right now that will hopefully thin them out. I’ve asked for several additional Wolverines to be dropped. We are going to need a lot more firepower to beat back that mob. Their sheer numbers could overwhelm us if we are not careful,” Colonel Lee stated.

Thornton nodded. After a pause, he asked, “What do you want me to do, Sir?”

“I’d like you to have several heavy machineguns moved up to the roof of the surrounding buildings overlooking the LZ. See if you can’t get a few more barricades built near the perimeter and have them start placing a lot of claymore mines out there. I’m confident they won’t break through our main lines, but we need to be ready to hold the landing zones and ports. I’m going to move to Delta Company’s position next and make sure they are doing the same. You and Bravo Company have the two closest LZs to the frontlines right now.”

Before the colonel could leave, Thornton asked, “When are we getting some heavy armor from the ports?”

“Soon. They should be arriving with the next wave of transports, along with nearly 100 Wolverines. I would expect them to start showing up in a couple of hours, but until then, it’s going to get a bit dicey around here--so be ready,” Colonel Lee said as he got up and walked over to one of the armored trucks, hopping in.

Thornton quickly walked into his command center and began to look over the digital map as it was being updated with the data from the various drone feeds and intelligence reports. The colonel was right; it was not looking very good at the outer perimeter. He immediately called his platoon leaders and sergeants, gave them an update on what was coming their way, and issued new instructions to get their perimeter ready to repel the enemy should they break through the lines. It was imperative that they keep the air bridge into Rudong open.

Chapter 59

They Are All Bad Choices

12 February 2043

Yokota Air Base, Japan

General Gardner’s Headquarters

As the reports continued to flood in from the Rudong and Nantong, it was becoming clearer that the invasion was not going according to plan. They had anticipated stiff resistance by the PLA, but what they were encountering was nothing short of madness. The PLA had started to throw multiple militia divisions at the invasion force while they positioned the 14th Army to join the fray. The battle for Rudong was turning into a complete slaughter--not of the US Marines who were spearheading the invasion--but of the militia forces that were attacking them.

The drone feeds from the battle and some of the videos they had been reviewing from the battle helmets of the Marines was brutal. The number of bodies piling up in the streets and parks was horrific. The Chinese kept throwing more and more militia soldiers at the Marines, despite the endless slaughter. At the same time, the wave-after-wave assaults were starting to inflict a terrible casualty rate among the Marines. What was worse, the PLA was not allowing the civilians to flee the city. They had blocked the roads, clogging the streets up and creating an even worse humanitarian crisis. The General was not going to be pleased with what was happening. The US had been working hard to avoid civilian casualties, but it appeared that the PLA was going to use the people of Rudong, Nantong and Shanghai as human shields.

Major General (MG) Peter Williams walked over to where General Gardner was standing and waited for him to finish speaking with General Black. MG Williams had been with General Gardner since the start of the war in the Middle East over two years ago, and he had continued to remain his executive officer as he transferred from one Command to the next. He had a relatively good understanding of how the general thought, what he wanted to have done and how he wanted things to run.

A minute later, General Gardner turned to MG Williams and said, “I assume you’ve gotten caught up on the reports flooding in?”

MG Williams just nodded and waited to see what his friend would say next. Gardner began, “We are taking significant casualties, even though we are slaughtering their militia forces. It also appears the PLA is using the civilian population as human shields preventing them from fleeing the city,” he said, disgusted.

“I think we should revise our invasion plans and send the EHDs into Rudong,” Williams proposed, hoping Gardner would agree.

“I had wanted to save them for our summer invasion, but I think you may be right. This is a fight that is more suitable for the EHDs. What I’m not sure of is what to do with the civilians. If the PLA is not going to let them flee the area, they are going to get caught up in the fighting. I do not want to limit our ability to provide air or artillery support for fear of hitting civilians,” he stated.

“What are you going to do?” asked Peter, also very concerned about the situation.

“I have a call with the President and General Branson shortly. I am not going to do anything until I have clarity and support from the President.” Gardner checked his watch again; his telecom was going to start in five minutes.

*******

President Stein had been monitoring the progress of the invasion since it started, sifting through miles of information and data feeds in the bowels of the PEOC. Like the others in the room, he was appalled by what appeared to be the senseless slaughter of the PLA militia forces. Now they had to contend with the PLA’s blockading of the civilians from fleeing the cities.

Stein had tried to call President Jinping to implore them not to use civilians as human shields. Unfortunately, Jinping would not take his call. Instead, one of his functionaries told him, “China does not use human shields. We expect the Allies to not intentionally target civilians who are trying to flee the city.”

When General Gardner came on the call, he breathed a sigh of relief. “General, I want you to do whatever is necessary to support our forces on the ground. Obviously, Jinping has no value for human life, using his people as speed bumps and bait. Enough is enough.”

“What do you want me to do about the civilians, Sir?”

Stein responded, “This war has been dragged out long enough. I am not going to lose more soldiers because the PLA refuses to protect their civilians. If you have to kill every civilian in the area to defeat the PLA, then so be it. This war is going to end.”

Chapter 60

Morally Reprehensible

12 February 2043

Rudong, China

Twelve hours into the invasion, several thousand PLA militia solders (supported by the PLA’s 14th Army group) had broken through the American’s outer perimeter and were quickly squeezing close to the U.S. foothold.

After his meeting with the President, General Gardner ordered the 32nd infantry division and their enhanced humanoid drones to move into Rudong to support the Marines. In addition to ordering the drones in, he also told the infantry division commander to have the drones’ combat AI turned on and programmed to kill every person who did not emit a friendly Individual Identification Frequency (IIF).

Typically, the EHDs were operated by a human, just like the drone tanks and aircraft. A human was always required in the loop because there was a concern about having the drones operate on their own and somehow going rogue. However, the American soldiers operating in the Shanghai area were being slaughtered by the sheer numbers of enemy soldiers that the PLA was throwing at them. The President had determined that something more extreme needed to be done.

The Marines conducting the fighting retreat from the outer perimeter were reporting that the PLA was forcing thousands of civilians to advance in front of their soldiers to act as human shields. The Marines were doing their best to not kill the civilians and focus on the enemy soldiers. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult to do. Then brigade had sent a FLASH message ordering them to engage and kill the civilians. Thornton read the FLASH message a second time, to make sure he fully understood what he was being asked to do. He felt a lump in his throat. He did not like this order one bit.

The orders also told them that the 32nd infantry division and their EHDs were being deployed shortly. Once deployed, they would take over the operation of clearing the city. A loop of endless thought ran through Thornton’s mind. “This is terrible; now they want us to kill any civilians being used as human shields? This is wrong on so many levels…but can we even survive if we don’t do something? Those PLA soldiers are a miserable excuse for humanity. How can they lead their own people to slaughter?”

Captain Thornton cleared his throat, and motioned for quiet. “Everyone, listen up. We just received a new set of orders from brigade. The PLA is not only deterring the civilians from leaving the area for safety; they are now actively pushing them out in front of their advance as human shields. The outer perimeter has already collapsed, and our forces are retreating. They will arrive our perimeter shortly. Brigade has just sent a FLASH message directly from General Gardner on orders from the President. We are to engage and kill any civilians being used as human shields.” There was an audible gasp in the room. “I know most of you may not like this idea; however, if we do not stop the PLA advance, we are all going to die. We need to hold our landing zone until reinforcements arrive.”

Pausing for a second to take a breath, he then continued, “I was just told the 32nd infantry division is being deployed to our position, which means they will be delivering thousands of those new enhanced humanoid drones. Once they arrive, we are to let them advance and deal with the PLA and the civilians being used as human shields. They should start to reach us shortly, and will continue to come in until the entire division is here. Our LZ will be one of the primary locations they will be landing at. I know this mess about killing the civilians is beyond horrific, but we have a duty to do, and I need everyone to remember that our lives and those of every other American involved in this invasion is depending on us doing our jobs.”

With his new orders issued and his officers and NCOs acknowledging that they understood, Thornton went back up to the roof of the building he had been using as a headquarters since they first landed. As he arrived at the rooftop, he moved quickly to one of the corners, where several of his men had a heavy machinegun set up.

One of the soldiers looked at Captain Thornton and asked, “Sir, are we really supposed to mow down any civilians we see rushing towards our perimeter?” he probed, clearly distraught with the thought of killing unarmed innocents

Sighing for a second, Thornton sat down next to the Marines and looked each of them in the eye before responding, “These orders are the vilest thing I have ever been tasked with--shoot, the orders are illegal, and against the Laws of War and every rule of engagement we have ever been given or told. If I had my druthers, I’d refuse the order, just as I am sure many of you are thinking of doing. But here’s the deal…the PLA is doing this intentionally. They know our rules of engagement and are trying to use them against us. They are trying to make us second guess ourselves and then overwhelm us with their sheer numbers. We can’t let that happen. If we do, then everyone is going to die and this invasion will fail.  We cannot let that happen,” he said, trying to justify what would traditionally be an illegal order.

The Marines thought about it for a few minutes before a young black Marine spoke up for the group, “None of us like these orders, but like you said, Sir, if we do not do it, we are all going to die and this invasion is going to fail. We’ll do it. We will follow your orders, Sir, and we’ll make sure the PLA does not overwhelm our position.” He spoke with such confidence and conviction that all of the other Marines nearby nodded their heads in agreement. This was the only course of action if they were to survive.

Captain Thornton got up slowly and left the machinegun crew to go talk with the other Marines in his Company. He wanted to make sure his soldiers understood the gravity of their situation. It took him close to thirty minutes to visit the majority of his men before the sounds of machinegun fire in the city began to creep closer and louder. Then, small clusters of Marines, first squads and then platoon size groups, began to fall back to their defensive line, shoring up Thornton’s position.

Less than ten minutes after the outer perimeter force fell back to Thornton’s location, the enemy soldiers started to show up. Looking down the street, Thornton’s stomach just sank as he saw throngs of people being forced forward by Chinese tanks, armored personnel vehicles and soldiers with bayonets on the ends of their rifles. It was disgusting to see how callous the PLA was in the treatment of their own people.

Thornton knew what needed to be done and knew he needed to lead by example if he wanted his men to follow such tough orders. While crouched down behind a barrier that his Marines were using, he raised his rifle, took aim and began to fire countless rounds on burst into the crowd of civilians being pushed towards his perimeter. He saw one, then two, then dozens of civilians drop to the ground, dead from his rounds. In seconds of firing his shots, the rest of his company and the Marines from the retreating group began to open fire as well.

A couple of his Marines on the roof tops began firing their anti-tank missiles at the PLA tanks rumbling towards them, taking several of them out. Thornton got on the radio and began calling in for naval gun support. Several Zumwalt destroyers off the coast began to rain down 155mm high explosive rounds across the streets where the PLA continued to lead their own people to slaughter. It was gruesome; thousands of civilians were being slain by the naval gun support and the machinegun fire of his Marines. In less than five minutes, most of the human shields were either dead or wounded, laying on the ground. The PLA infantry then began to advance, using their traditional human wave tactics. It did not take long before the Chinese soldiers were within grenade range, then both sides began to throw dozens of grenades at each other. As company-sized elements of PLA soldiers would rush forward after throwing a volley of grenades at the American lines, one of the Marines would detonate a series of claymore mines, obliterating most of the charging soldiers.

Just as Thornton thought their position was about to be overrun, he looked back to see two Razorbacks arrive on station. They quickly unleashed a torrent of anti-personnel rockets at the charging PLA soldiers, and then proceeded to land. They swiftly unloaded their payload of 16 EHDs each. The EHDs immediately ran towards the perimeter of the Marine positions and began to engage the Chinese soldiers. It was an overwhelming sight to take in--more than two dozen mechanical killing machines were running at full speed while delivering high-speed, accurate fire at the enemy. Once the Reapers reached the perimeter, they quickly advanced past it, with complete disregard for their own safety. The EHDs were after all, drones.

Many of them were being shot multiple times. Some would eventually have a leg or an arm shot off or those that were hit by larger caliber rifles might ultimately lose their head; However, the rest of them just moved forward at a quick pace, methodically killing everything that moved that did not have a friendly IIF. By the time the first group of EHDs had moved twenty meters in front of Thornton’s position, a second wave of drones landed and began to speedily reinforce the first group. Thornton’s men continued to provide fire support for the Reapers, but they were quite frankly in awe of how fast the enhanced humanoid drones were methodically killing and advancing forward.

Ten minutes after the first wave of EHDs had landed and began to make their presence known, the third wave of drones arrived. Thornton received word that a total of twelve waves of Reapers would be flown into his LZ before the end of the day. The rest would be landing at three of the five ports the Marines still had under their control (in the last 90 minutes, the Marines holding on to two of the ports had been overrun and wiped out).

By the end of the first day of the invasion, the Marines and EHDs had regained control of their original perimeter, recovered the two ports they had lost, and secured three more ports. The Reapers had also pushed the PLA back across the Yangtze River and secured most of Nantong. Of the 3,000 EHDs that had been deployed, some 823had been destroyed, but according to their kill counters, they had collectively killed over 33,000 enemy soldiers and nearly 113,000 civilians who had been intentionally placed in the line of fire.

Unfortunately, the Marine force that had landed in Yancheng had been wiped out before any EHDs from the 32nd infantry division could be rushed forward to assist them. The Marines at Ningbo were nearly wiped out, but 500 Reapers arrived at the last minute. They had helped to create a big enough perimeter for additional forces to land. By the end of the day, some two thousand enhanced humanoid drones had landed at Ningbo and began to push further inland, leaving the Marines to clear the city and surrounding villages.

Sometime around 0230, Colonel Lee pulled up to Thornton’s position in one of the armored jeeps that had been brought ashore several hours earlier. His vehicle had been followed by seven Pershing battle tanks and thirteen Wolverines, which did not stop, but instead pushed beyond them, heading towards Nantong to support the EHDs before they moved across the river. Colonel Lee spotted Thornton walking out of his headquarters and approached him.

“Captain Thornton, we need to talk,” Colonel Lee declared.

“I see you brought some additional armor with you, Sir,” Captain Thornton replied as he observed the armored column moving past his post towards the enemy lines.

Colonel Lee looked at the armored column briefly, then his eyes settled on the enormous amount of dead bodies surrounding Captain Thornton’s position. He could tell they had been hit hard earlier and somehow managed to hold out long enough for the EHDs to land and help them regain control of the area.

Looking Thornton in the eyes, Colonel Lee said, “Captain Thornton, your Company did an amazing job today. You not only held your perimeter against multiple enemy assaults throughout the last 24 hours. You beat back their advances and held on to perhaps the most important LZ in the Shanghai area. I wanted you to know I’m putting you in for a medal again, for you and your men.” Lee heaped some much-deserved praise on his best company commander.

“Thank you for the words of encouragement, but my men and I were just doing our jobs,” he replied feeling almost embarrassed by the adulation and, more importantly, guilty about what they had done to ensure they held their position. “We held, Sir, but I lost a lot of good Marines today. We also killed a lot of civilians, something my men and I were not at all comfortable with.”

“I know. It was a terrible order they issued, but you executed it flawlessly and because of that, you probably saved the entire invasion force in Nantong. If your position had fallen, we would have lost the last three ports and most likely the other LZ,” the colonel asserted, reaffirming the gallant effort of Thornton’s men.

Colonel Lee sighed. “Look, I’m here for more than just a social call and to tell you how good you and your men did today. As you know, we took a tremendous number of casualties. Two of my three battalions were completely wiped out, one at the north port and the other at LZ Liberty. I’ve also lost all three of my battalion commanders. Shoot--the division Commander was killed, and I’m now the most senior officer in the division. On my way over here, I was informed by General Black, the invasion force CG, that I’m being promoted to Brigadier General (BG), effective immediately; they want me to take over command of Third Marines.”

There was a brief pause as Lee allowed Thornton a second to digest before continuing. “As I said earlier, most of the senior officers have been killed; of the three brigades that we have in the division, I’m the only O6 still able to fight. I only have two of thirteen Lieutenant Colonels who are not wounded and able to fight. I’m promoting both of them to full Colonel to take over their brigades. Right now, your brigade has no commander, and your XO was just killed thirty minutes ago. Therefore, I’m promoting you effective immediately to Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) to take over command of your battalion. I’ll send out the official orders to everyone in your battalion shortly.” As he finished his speech, he handed Captain Thornton his new silver oakleaf rank insignias.

Thornton just stood there dumbfounded for a second; then, snapping out of his stupor, he reached out his hand and took the silver oakleaves from BG Lee. They both took a moment to put their new ranks on before Thornton spoke. “Sir, I do not know what to say. I had never thought I would rise above Captain, having been just promoted less than a year ago. What are my orders?”

BG Lee looked at Thornton for a second, then responded, “Look, Joe, I know you are still new to being an officer, and there is a lot you do not understand about being a Lieutenant Colonel, or what is expected of you at your rank and position. You are a fighter. Right now, that is all I need you to be. As we get more reinforcements, I’ll get you a good XO who has experience and that can help you with the administrative parts of being a battalion commander. Right now, I want you to get your battalion organized. Find out how many soldiers you have left that are able to fight, see what equipment you have, where everyone is located, and then send your request for replacements to my staff. I will do my best to get you fully staffed.”

Still in a bit of shock, LTC Thornton responded the only way he knew how to. “Yes, Sir.” Then, wanting to get on with the business at hand, he inquired, “Where do you want me to deploy?”

BG Lee smiled. “That’s the man I need…we have reinforcements coming in constantly; I’m going to start syphoning some of them off and will send them your way to get you back up to strength. Have your unit camp out in your headquarters building and give them some rest. As new units arrive, they will be sent here. Unless something drastic changes, I’ll contact you in six hours with your new order. In the meantime, I need to find out what shape the rest of the division is in.”

“Yes, Sir,” responded LTC Thornton.

BG Lee shook Thornton’s hand one last time, then turned around and walked back towards his armored vehicle and drove off to the next unit.

Thornton stood there for a second, trying to comprehend everything that had just happened. The division must really have been hit hard for them to have promoted Lee to BG and him to LTC. Finally, he shrugged, then turned around and began to walk back into his headquarters building. As soon as he got back to his operations center, he brought everyone else up to speed on his conversation with BG Lee. He also promoted several of his lieutenants to captains and the one other captain to major. He also informed his First Sergeant that he was now the battalion Sergeant Major, until another one showed up.

Over the next hour, Thornton got the rest of his battalion relocated to his position and bedded down for some sleep. As new reinforcements continued to arrive, about a third of them were being syphoned off and sent to his position as replacements, just as BG Lee had suggested. When Lee got back in touch with him later in the day, his battalion had received enough replacements to bring them back up to 85% strength. The Marines had been told to stand fast in their current positions while the rest of the 32nd infantry division’s EHDs continued to advance across the Yangtze River.

The Air Force was bombing the enemy positions into oblivion. Between the Air Force and the Naval guns off-shore, the enemy was under continuous bombardment. By the end of the third day of the invasion, the Allies had secured a solid foothold around the Shanghai area and had begun to offload thousands of tanks and other armored vehicles. Hundreds of artillery units began to arrive, and started to add their own muscle to the offensive against the enemy positions. By day five, the Allies had the entire city and the surrounding area of Shanghai completely cut off. Tens of thousands of Allied ground forces were arriving every hour through the ports, beaches, landing zones and at the one airport they had managed to secure.

The Allies had also lost a tremendous number of soldiers. Nearly 68,000 soldiers had been killed, and nearly four times that number wounded. Not all the wounded needed to be evacuated; many could continue to fight on. The Allies had also lost several thousand EHDs, a loss that was going to affect the next several invasions. Because of the daily Allied losses, General Gardner postponed the Taiwan invasion for at least two months. Until the situation in the Shanghai area could be further stabilized, he needed to hold those forces in reserve. The PLA was throwing everything they had at his invasion force in Shanghai, trying to both break the siege and destroy the Allied landing force. However, their forces in Shanghai were trapped and were daily being pounded from the air, sea and ground artillery.

Chapter 61

Taiwan’s Role

29 June 2043

China

It had been four months since the Allies had invaded mainland China. The invasion of Shanghai had eventually ended in success, but not before it claimed the lives of nearly 136,000 Allied soldiers. The PLA had suffered a debilitating defeat, grinding four separate army groups into the dirt trying to crush the Allied invasion force. The Allied introduction of the enhanced humanoid drones and the large number of soldiers equipped with the Raptor combat suits had proven too much for the PLA to overcome, even with their superior numbers.

However, after the surrender of Shanghai, the PLA had fought the Allies to a standstill. The Allies had a 46-mile bubble around Shanghai that they controlled, but after several attempts to break out, a halt had been called to any further attempts. Once a pause to any further offensive operations had been ordered in the Shanghai region, General Gardner ordered the invasion of Taiwan. The PLA fought ferociously for the first eight days of the invasion, but then their forces collapsed. They began to run low on munitions, supplies, and more importantly, the morale needed to keep fighting. The US employed another 6,000 EHDs in the invasion, and the mechanical killing machines were having their desired effect on the PLA, forcing many of them to just simply give up and surrender.

As the PLA forces in Taiwan began to collapse, the Chinese high command knew they needed to end the war soon or they might have further desertions or surrenders. President Jinping reached out to President Stein, asking for a 72-hour ceasefire to discuss terms of an armistice. After months of horrific combat and casualties on both sides, President Stein agreed to peace talks, selecting Sydney, Australia, as the neutral meeting location. Jinping was reluctant to meet in Sydney, but knew if he did not agree, Stein was the type of man who would continue to fight on, despite how many soldiers he might lose.

Chapter 62

A New World

01 July 2043

Sydney, Australia

QT Sydney Hotel

The Australian government quickly accepted President Stein’s request to secure several downtown hotels and the zone surrounding them for the peace talks with the Chinese. The world was on the cusp of ending the bloodiest war in history, and if the Australian government had to kick out a bunch of tourists from some swanky hotels and ask people in the local area to endure some stricter security for a few days, it was worth it.

The American delegation would be staying at the QT Sydney, a ritzy hotel with cozy meeting rooms that would host the peace talks. The hotel was one of the few locations that could be fully secured to the US Secret Service’s standards as the President had previously stayed at this hotel, just prior to the start of the war. The Chinese delegation would be staying at another luxury hotel just across the street. Both nations’ security advance teams had arrived within 24 hours of the location having been agreed upon. The security teams and the Australian government had less than a day to secure the two facilities before both President Stein and President Jinping would arrive to begin the talks. A lot of work needed to be done with very little time.

*******

As President Stein sat in his office on Air Force One, he was going over several of the main points of the tentative terms of the peace deal the Chinese had sent ahead of time. The President was not surprised by the demands, though he was not about to let the Chinese get everything they were asking for. The question he had to ask was what negotiating points could be given away, and what were the points he absolutely would not bend on.

He looked down at his paper again at the highlighted portion, which discussed the return of Shanghai and the removal of all Allied Forces from mainland China. The Chinese also wanted the Allied forces to leave Taiwan and for China to retain all territorial gains they had made up to this point. This included Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Malaysia and large swaths of east Africa. They also requested that the Allies not attack or intervene with their ally, the African Confederation. The outline of the entreated peace deal also included India, which was part of the Pan Asian Alliance.

It was a nice starting point, but nothing President Stein was going to agree to. With the endless supply of Tritium4 arriving from the lunar base, the US was producing nearly 5,000 EHDs a month. In a few more months, they would have 20,000 of them they could unleash on China. Stein knew he was negotiating from a position of strength; he was willing to let the Chinese keep some of their territorial gains, but he was not about to let them walk all over the US.

As soon as he landed in Australia, the President’s motorcade took him directly to the hotel. Once he arrived, the President immediately went to bed; he had worked throughout most of the flight, and he was now exhausted. He wanted to get a solid eight hours of sleep before his morning meeting began with the Allied leaders to discuss what they would be willing to accept from the Chinese and what their red lines would be. In the afternoon, the two warring parties would meet for the first time and begin the initial discussions. The following day was dedicated to further negotiations. The third day was left open, to allow the parties time to think about the terms that had been offered and handle any last-minute changes. If no deal could be agreed upon by the end of the third day, the warring parties would return to their countries and the fighting would resume.

*******

The following afternoon, President Stein and President Jinping walked into the same room to meet for the first time in nearly five years. The meeting was very private; it was just the two leaders, their personal translators and one advisor per leader; this arrangement was designed to be more intimate and direct, a chance for the two leaders to talk directly and hammer out some of the major points of the peace deal.

As President Jinping walked into the room, he saw President Stein and his two representatives were already seated. They rose when he walked in, and extended their hands as a courtesy. Jinping thought to himself, “President Stein looks tired, like he’s aged an entire decade since our last meeting. He also has a burning rage in his eyes; he is going to be hard to negotiate with.”

As Jinping shook Stein’s hand and then took his seat, he opened the conversation. “Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to a temporary ceasefire while our two nations work out an end to this war.”

President Stein was also reading his opponent; he saw a man who was determined to fight to the death if he was not able to save face and end the war as close to his terms as possible. He thought, “Well, that’s too bad for him. I will wipe China and its people from the face of the Earth if I must.” Aloud, he politely responded, “Likewise, Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to meet to discuss how we can end this terrible war. Shall we begin?” As he finished speaking, he opened the folder in front of him.

The two men talked for nearly thirty minutes about the fate of Taiwan, the Philippines and Southeast Asia. President Stein said he would withdraw his forces from mainland China but the PLA would have to withdraw from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines. The US would cede Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. President Jinping immediately objected to the terms, insisting that they wanted Taiwan returned to China as well as control of Thailand and Malaysia.

President Stein ceded, “We would agree to giving up control of Taiwan if the Chinese agreed to withdraw from Cambodia and divided Vietnam into north and south, with the US retaining control of south Vietnam, and China keeping the north.”

After nearly two hours of horse trading back and forth, President Jinping agreed to the terms President Stein put forth. President Stein then placed one more demand on the table—complete restriction of future space exploration and the militarization of space for a period of time to be determined through negotiations. Jinping knew President Stein might do this; he had heard from sources in Russia that this had been a major sticking point with the Americans. However, unlike the Russians, China was not willing to have a restriction on their opportunity to explore the stars now that the technology for continuous thrust engines had been made.

President Jinping insisted, “China will not give up its ambitions on space, or the ability to mine and establish our own settlements on the lunar surface or elsewhere.”

Stein knew he ultimately could not get the Chinese to walk away from the new frontier now that it had been opened wide up to exploration: mining, settlements, and EmDrive and advanced Ion engine technology was too strong of a draw. His goal was to slow them down, just long enough for America to become a dominant force in space before it had any serious competition from either Russia or China.

Stein proposed, “The Chinese could accept an observation force of your space activities for the next 15 years, or you would have to agree to a full 15-year moratorium on all space activities outside of reestablishing satellite activities.”

Unlike the Russians, China had no intentions of allowing monitors into their space program. The Chinese were much further along in their own developments of the Ion engines and spacecraft design; Although, until the war ended, they could not get their program off the ground.

After nearly four more hours of arguing and going around and around the issue, President Jinping capitulated, and agreed to a fifteen-year moratorium on space activities. He justified that decision by telling himself that he would use that time to rebuild his empire.

President Stein made it clear, “I am more than willing to continue the war. We can always employ space-based weapons to systematically destroy China if you decide not to agree to our terms.” After nearly seven hours of direct talks, the two leaders had agreed to terms that would bring the bloodiest war in world history to an end. The following day, the two leaders and their aides worked out the formal details of the new borders of the countries, reparations to be paid and the process to implement the peace agreement.

*******

Once Air Force One had reached its cruising altitude, the President got up from his seat and began to walk towards the conference room. The rest of his senior staff quickly followed him into the room and took their respective seats. An aide brought in some fresh coffee and snacks for everyone and then quietly left the room and shut the door.

Secretary of State Jim Wise was the first to speak, “Mr. President, I believe some congratulations are in order. The peace talks were a success…this war is finally coming to an end,” he said with a broad smile on his face.

The others in the room smiled and congratulated each other. President Stein just smiled and nodded, lost in thought. “Could it really be over? After nearly five years, and over a billion-people killed, is the end really here?”

Clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention, the President stood up while signaling everyone else to stay seated.

The President began, “Gentlemen, I cannot thank you enough for your steadfast strength and perseverance in guiding me and our great nation through this war. America has lost so much, nearly twelve million people killed and nearly the twice that number injured. Our brave men and women of the Armed Forces, and our civilians as well, have suffered so much in the defense of this great nation and the free world.”

“We are now about to embark upon the next great challenge, winning the peace. We have won the war, no one will dispute that, but we must truly work to achieve peace. We are on the cusp of a new world order, a world that I am determined must be led by America. Over the next several months, Chinese forces will be withdrawing from most of Southeast Asia while our forces begin the withdrawal from mainland China and Taiwan. Not everyone is going to be happy with our ceding Taiwan to the Chinese, especially after having fought so hard to secure it. I hate to use the term bargaining chip, but that is ultimately what Taiwan became. In ceding Taiwan, we liberated the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and what will now become South Vietnam.”

“As Chinese forces leave these countries, our forces will move in. We will provide security and stability to them while we rebuild a new civilian government and security force. I want the Pentagon to begin identifying where we should establish permanent military bases in these countries. We are not going withdraw from these countries and leave an empty void like what was done in the Middle East in the 2010s. We must continue to win the peace if we are to avoid another war in the future.”

The President had been pacing as he was speaking; now he stopped and turned back to his staff, who had been paying rapt attention. “One of the problems we have faced in the past after a war, is that our nation has historically begun a massive demobilization and moved immediately back to civilian life. While this has ultimately been the goal of our forces in the past, it is not going to be my goal. America, and the world, need to have a shared vision for the future.”

One of the advisors in the room asked what everyone was thinking, “What do you have in mind Mr. President?”

Stein believed in his gut that America would eventually win, so he had spent many hours in the quiet thinking about what to do after a victory was achieved. Just as President Truman had established the Marshal Plan at the end of World War II, President Stein needed to establish his own post-world war plan to bring the people of the world back together, this time for a greater cause than nationalism.

He explained, “We are going to lead the world in the colonization of space. It is time for man to begin his next great adventure and expand our presence beyond our own solar system. We have the tools and technologies to make this happen. Now we need to make it a priority. Over the next several weeks, I am going to work with Dr. Gorka, Professor Rickenbacker, and Dr. Bergstrom to develop plans to construct a space elevator, orbital space station and spacecraft construction yard. We will also look for ways to expand our presence on the Moon and plan to start a new colony on Mars, as well as on Europa and other moons in our solar system. It is time mankind moves beyond the earthly squabbles that have led to countless wars across human history. Our future is in the stars, not here on Earth. That is the vision I want to project to the world as we usher in a time of peace, and hopefully, tranquility.”

The room erupted in spontaneous clapping. A global project and vision would not only give the survivors of this great war a chance to move on, it would inspire people to dream big again.

They all broke out into chatter, discussing various aspects of the President’s vision, Eventually, everyone started to leave the briefing room, until it was just Monty and the President sitting there. Monty looked at his long-time friend and smiled. “That was one world-class speech you gave. You really think we can make it happen?” he asked, raising one eyebrow slightly.

The President smiled, then replied, “I think so. We need to at least try. We need to find a way to heal not just our country, but the rest of the world if we are to sow the seeds of long-term peace and not animosity.” Stein was confident for the first time in the future of humanity.

From the Authors

Miranda and I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. We are currently working on the fourth book of the Falling Empires Series. We also recently released two children’s books about PTSD—if you know someone who struggles with that battle, we hope that they might be able to use these books as a resource.

While you are waiting for our next book to be released, we do have several audiobooks that have recently been produced. All six books of the Red Storm Series are now available in audio format as is our entire World War III series. Interview with a Terrorist and Traitors Within, which are currently standalone books, are also available for your listening pleasure.

If you would like to stay up to date on new releases and receive emails about any special pricing deals we may make available, please sign up for our email distribution list. Simply go to http://www.author-james-rosone.com and scroll to the bottom of the page.

As independent authors, reviews are very important to us and make a huge difference to other prospective readers. If you enjoyed this book, we humbly ask you to write up a positive review on Amazon and Goodreads. We sincerely appreciate each person that takes the time to write one.

We have really valued connecting with our readers via social media, especially on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RosoneandWatson/. Sometimes we ask for help from our readers as we write future books—we love to draw upon all your different areas of expertise. We also have a group of beta readers who get to look at the books before they are officially published and help us fine-tune last-minute adjustments. If you would like to be a part of this team, please go to our author website: http://www.author-james-rosone.com, and send us a message through the “Contact” tab. You can also follow us on Twitter: @jamesrosone and @AuthorMirandaW. We look forward to hearing from you.

You may also enjoy some of our other works. A full list can be found below:

Nonfiction:

Iraq Memoir 2006–2007 Troop Surge

Interview with a Terrorist (link to audiobook here)

Fiction:

World War III Series

Prelude to World War III: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable (link to audiobook here)

Operation Red Dawn and the Siege of Europe (link to audiobook here)

Cyber Warfare and the New World Order (link to audiobook here)

Michael Stone Series

Traitors Within (link to audiobook here)

The Red Storm Series

Battlefield Ukraine (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Korea (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Taiwan (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Pacific (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield Russia (link to audiobook here)

Battlefield China (link to audiobook here)

The Falling Empires Series

Rigged (link to audiobook here)

Peacekeepers

Invasion (available for preorder, release date November 25, 2019)

Vengeance (available for preorder, release date February 17, 2020)

Retribution (release date TBD)

Children’s Books:

My Daddy has PTSD

My Mommy has PTSD

For the Veterans

I have been pretty open with our fans about the fact that PTSD has had a tremendous direct impact on our lives; it affected my relationship with my wife, job opportunities, finances, parenting—everything. It is also no secret that for me, the help from the VA was not the most ideal form of treatment. Although I am still on this journey, I did find one organization that did assist the healing process for me, and I would like to share that information.

Welcome Home Initiative is a ministry of By His Wounds Ministry, and they run seminars for veterans and their spouses for free. The weekends are a combination of prayer and more traditional counseling and left us with resources to aid in moving forward. The entire cost of the retreat—hotel costs, food, and sessions, are completely free from the moment the veteran and their spouse arrive at the location.

If you feel that you or someone you love might benefit from one of Welcome Home Initiative’s sessions, please visit their website to learn more: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/

We have decided to donate a portion of our profits to this organization, because it made such an impact in our lives and we believe in what they are doing. If you would also like to donate to Welcome Home Initiative and help to keep these weekend retreats going, you can do so by following this link: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/donate/

Abbreviation Key

AFC             America First Corporation

AI              Artificial Intelligence

AWAC  Airborne Warning and Control

BG              Brigadier General

CAG             Carrier Air Group Commander

CG              Commanding General

CIC             Combat Information Center

COB             Chief of the Boat

CSG12                  Carrier Strike Group 12

CSG13                  Carrier Strike Group 13

COMSUBPAC  Commander of Submarine Forces, Pacific

EAM             Emergency Action Message

EHD             Enhanced Humanoid Drone

FSB             Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (Russian Federal Security Service; FSK successor since 1995)

GRU             Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye (Russian Military Intelligence)

ICS             Industrial Control Systems

IIF             Individual Identification Frequency

IFV             Infantry Fighting Vehicles

IoT             Internet of Things (anything that is connected to a network, from cars to printers)

IR              Islamic Republic

JDF             Japanese Defense Force

LNO             Liaison Officer

LT              Lieutenant

LTC             Lieutenant Colonel

LTG             Lieutenant General

LZ              Landing Zone

MBT             Main Battle Tank

MG              Major General

MNF             Multi-National Force

NSA             National Security Agency

PA              Public Announcement

PEOC           Presidential Emergency Operations Center

PLA             People’s Liberation Army (Chinese Army)

PLAN           People’s Liberation Army Navy (Chinese Navy)

PRC             People’s Republic of China

QRF             Quick Reaction Forces

SACEUR       Supreme Allied Commander Europe

SAM             Surface to Air Missile

SCADA         Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (system controlling electric power transfers along the grid)

SFGp           Japanese Special Forces Group

SUD             Swordfish Underwater Drone

SVR             Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service; post-Cold War intelligence service)

SWAT           Special Weapons and Tactics

TOC             Tactical Operations Center

UHF             Ultra-High Frequency

VIP             Very Important Person

XO              Commanding Officer

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Stage is Set

Chapter 2: Kings and Pawns

Chapter 3: Comrades

Chapter 4: Whole Grains

Chapter 5: Alliances

Chapter 6: Saving the Mounties

Chapter 7: Infiltration

Chapter 8: South of the Border

Chapter 9: Escalation

Chapter 10: America Under Attack

Chapter 11: The Chosen People

Chapter 12: Day Zero

Chapter 13: The Dragon Awakens

Chapter 14: European Craziness

Chapter 15: Operation Red Dragon

Chapter 16: Unholy War

Chapter 17: The Day America Changed Forever

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key

Chapter 1: The Day that Changed the Nation

Chapter 2: The Country Responds

Chapter 3: A Caliph’s Dilemma

Chapter 4: The Phone Rings

Chapter 5: In Other Parts of the World

Chapter 6: Europe Changes Tactics

Chapter 7: The Great Dragon Awakes

Chapter 8: Revenge

Chapter 9: Mobilization

Chapter 10: New Commander

Chapter 11: Tipping Point

Chapter 12: The Lion Licks His Wounds

Chapter 13: A Very Un-Merry Christmas

Chapter 14: Korean Peninsula

Chapter 15: Decision Point

Chapter 16: WMD Unleashed

Chapter 17: Southern Negotiation

Chapter 18: Crash Course

Chapter 19: The Coming Freeze

Chapter 20: Spetsnaz

Chapter 21: All is Not Quiet on the Western Front

Chapter 22: Operation Red Dawn

Chapter 23: Trifecta

Chapter 24: Modern Trench Warfare

Chapter 25: A War of Attrition

Chapter 26: Bloodbath at Megiddo

Chapter 27: Redirect

Chapter 28: Chinese Manifest Destiny

Chapter 29: STEM

Chapter 30: Saving Samson

Chapter 31: Before the Law Takes a Break

Chapter 32: Armageddon

Chapter 33: Alaskan Blues

Chapter 34: Stronghold

Chapter 35: Quadrant Identification

Chapter 36: Rescuing Berlin

Chapter 37: Smile for the Cameras

Chapter 38: The Invasion Begins

Chapter 39: Clash for the Kodiak

Chapter 40: Drone Attack

Chapter 41: After the Shock and Awe

Chapter 42: Field of Blood

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key

Chapter 1: Triumphant Landing

Chapter 2: Walls and Trenches

Chapter 3: Battle at Anchor Point

Chapter 4: Changing Tactics

Chapter 5: British Situation Room

Chapter 6: Red Square

Chapter 7: Tank Pressure Cooker

Chapter 8: Brains of the Operation

Chapter 9: Sky Full of Drones

Chapter 10: Killjoy

Chapter 11: Decisions in the Dark

Chapter 12: Occupation Offer

Chapter 13: Unintended Consequences

Chapter 14: A Problem with Math

Chapter 15: Raptor Rapture

Chapter 16: DARPA

Chapter 17: Smart and Bored

Chapter 18: Trying to See Eight Moves Ahead

Chapter 19: F41 Flight

Chapter 20: HULK

Chapter 21: Interrogator

Chapter 22: Teach and Train

Chapter 23: SecDef Pow-wow

Chapter 24: Peddling a Pan Asian Alliance

Chapter 25: Bait and Switch?

Chapter 26: Russian Reset

Chapter 27: Alaskan Autumn

Chapter 28: Too Little, Too Late

Chapter 29: European Tide Shifts

Chapter 30: Grid Attack

Chapter 31: Fighting Retreat

Chapter 32: Plans of Betrayal

Chapter 33: Thor and the Bodark

Chapter 34: Sinking SUDs

Chapter 35: Mirages

Chapter 36: A Day to Live in Infamy

Chapter 37: West Coast Landing

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key

Chapter 1: USS Utah

Chapter 2: Angels in Flight

Chapter 3: Trojan Horse Update

Chapter 4: Bring Me to Your Leader

Chapter 5: Bird or Plane?

Chapter 6: This Is a Test

Chapter 7: Convergence

Chapter 8: Don’t Shoot the Messenger

Chapter 9: Delayed Mobilization

Chapter 10: Reckoning

Chapter 11: Feel the Heat

Chapter 12: Planes, Trains, and Taxicabs

Chapter 13: Information Overload

Chapter 14: Send in the Marines

Chapter 15: One if by Land, Two if by Sea

Chapter 16: Rude Awakening

Chapter 17: New Directive

Chapter 18: On my Mark, Engage

Chapter 19: Another Beach Invasion

Chapter 20: Zero Day Arrives

Chapter 21: Breathe Through the Pain

Chapter 22: Fall Back

Chapter 23: A Man, A Plan, A Canal--Panama!

Chapter 24: Tung and Shinzo

Chapter 25: Analyze This

Chapter 26: Vampires During the Day

Chapter 27: Don’t Forget to Turn out the Lights

Chapter 28: Battleships

Chapter 29: In the Middle of the Night

Chapter 30: Meet Me in St. Louis

Chapter 31: The Beatings Will Continue until Morale Improves

Chapter 32: A Man Named Bucky

Chapter 33: Brazilians in Germany

Chapter 34: Plotting Revenge

Chapter 35: Showdown Looming

Chapter 36: Heading Towards the Midnight Zone

Chapter 37: Difference of Opinion

Chapter 38: Heavy Burden

Chapter 39: Ultimatum

Chapter 40: Battle for the Skies

Chapter 41: Disrupting Traffic

Chapter 42: No Hotel California

Chapter 43: Launch

Chapter 44: Back from Vacation

Chapter 45: Misaligned Priorities

Chapter 46: Geepers, Reapers

Chapter 47: Honey Pot, Not so Sweet

Chapter 48: The New Colonizer of Africa

Chapter 49: Liberators

Chapter 50: The Man No One Was Supposed to See

Chapter 51: Negotiator in Chief

Chapter 52: Mr. Speaker

Chapter 53: Space Exports

Chapter 54: Whose Side are We on?

Chapter 55: Thompson’s Last Mission

Chapter 56: Maps and Schemes

Chapter 57: Controlled Chaos

Chapter 58: Hold the Line

Chapter 59: They Are All Bad Choices

Chapter 60: Morally Reprehensible

Chapter 61: Taiwan’s Role

Chapter 62: A New World

From the Authors

For the Veterans

Abbreviation Key