by Adam Yoshida
At 4:17PM the Paul Ignatius and the The Sullivans began to fire some sixty Tomahawk Cruise Missiles at Hickam Field with the objective of disrupting flight operations there. In firing these shots, Jacobson would later record, she felt a curious sense of relief.
"It was," she would write, "a strange feeling. I think that I had always known that it would come to this and it felt good to finally have the thing underway."
USS George H.W. Bush, Near Hawaii
Admiral Tompkins watched as the dance between his air patrol and the incoming F-22s continued.
"The strike from TF 42.2 is away," reported an aide standing next to him in the Bush's CIC.
"Very good," said Tompkins quietly as he watched the progress of the electronic dots on the screen in front of him. The key now was for his fighters to manoeuvre the attackers into close-quarters combat. The F-22 Raptor was the most advanced aircraft that men had ever built but, in a dogfight, it had no special advantages.
"Should TF 42.3 get underway?" asked another officer.
"Yes, immediately," ordered Tompkins as he watched the symbols on the screen grow ever-closer together.
19th Fighter Squadron, Near Oahu
As the squadron neared the formation of ships, it became necessary for them to accelerate and change course in order to evade attack from the oncoming waves of Navy fighters. The squadron leader led the main body of the F-22s as they increased their speed to more than twice the speed of sound and began to bear down upon the formation of amphibious ships that served as their designated target.
The sudden increase in their speed caught the Navy pilots flat-footed and they were forced to change their own courses and rapidly accelerate in order to follow. The only weapon possessed by the F-35 whose effectiveness was guaranteed against the stealthy Air Force planes were the GAU-22 gun pods mounted underneath each, meaning that it was necessary for them to close to extremely close range with their prey before they could engage. The same held true for the SuperHornets now launching from the decks of both carriers, though with the added wrinkle that the F/A-18 was certainly vulnerable to the missiles carried by the F-22s.
At a range of some thirty nautical miles – well within the range of their payload but outside that of the point defenses of the ships below, the Air Force squadron increased their altitude to some 40,000 feet and slowed to just under the speed of sound. As soon as this was achieved they released their bombs against the Iwo Jima and the nearby USS John P. Murtha , a San Antonio -class LPD.
Guided to their destination by the Global Positioning System the two hundred and eight Small Diameter Bombs flew towards their targets on the seas below. Using conventional bombs against moving targets at sea, obviously, was a less-than-ideal arrangement and the ships were able to begin immediate evasive manoeuvres. The JDAM had the capability of using a laser to provide it with terminal guidance against its target but, nevertheless, this was a usage of the weapon that had never been fully tested. The planners hoped to make up for this deficiency by using so many of the things. The bombs formed a virtual cloud, saturating the air over both the Iwo Jima and the Murtha . The point defenses of both vessels attempted to engage the threat, but they were designed to deal with missiles, not bombs. In the end, some fourteen of the bombs struck the Iwo Jima and eleven hit the Murtha . In neither case were the blows instantly fatal. Onboard the Iwo Jima , damage control parties were able to contain the damage relatively quickly with minimal casualties. The same could not be said for the Murtha , where fires raged out of control. The ship had to be abandoned two hours after the attack with the loss of some forty-six sailors and Marines.
The 19th Fighter Wing did not escape from their initial attack run unscathed. The manoeuvres required to release their weapons allowed the force of F-35s to catch up with the F-22s and begin to engage them with cannon fire. Two of the $200 million fighters were destroyed before the squadron was able to accelerate and begin to make a run for the protective Surface-to-Air missile batteries of home. However, when they were just two-hundred miles from their destination, word filtered up to the men of the 19th that "home" would have to be somewhere else for at least a little while.
USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002)
The USS Lyndon B. Johnson was the last of her particular line of while elephants to be built. The Zumwalt -class Destroyer was all that remained of a once-ambitious project to remake the Navy's force of surface combatants for the 21st Century that had run aground amidst a storm of changing requirements, procurement politics, and the traditional cost-per-unit death spiral that afflicts major defense projects with high development costs when the total order is drastically cut. Once the three ships of the class were actually constructed, no one had really had any idea what to do with them, so they had been assigned to the Pacific Fleet.
One of the central features of the Zumwalt -class ship was the Advanced Gun System, a new 155mm weapon designed to fill the naval gunfire support gap created by the retirement of the Iowa -class Battleships. The Lyndon Johnson and her sister ship, the Michael Monsoor , had never had a chance to fire their guns in anger, as none of the handful of conflicts and interventions in recent years had required them to utilize their unique abilities. Now, some thirty-one kilometers off the Big Island of Hawaii, both ships were finally called upon for the first time.
The cruise missile strikes on Hickam Field had done only minimal damage to the base itself. However, when combined with a steady trickle of follow-on missiles, they were enough to render flight operations at least somewhat hazardous. That was all that Admiral Tompkins and the Seventh Fleet needed. Intelligence had already alerted the rebel fleet to the fact that Hilo International Airport had been set up to serve as a fall-back base in the event that Hickam was rendered unusable.
Carefully-implemented radar cross-section reducing features made the two Zumwalt -class Destroyers incredibly difficult to detect, allowing them to move into coastal waters undetected. Once this was successfully accomplished, the final steps of the operation were simply a matter of patience.
The Michael Monsoor and the Lyndon Johnson watched carefully and waited for the F-22s to begin their landing at Hilo. Weapons and fuel, they knew, had been pre-dispersed to there and to other locations around the Hawaiian Islands in the hope that the stealth fighters, combined with what soldiers the government had on the ground, might prove to be a rapier-like weapon that would ward off the landing of the fleet. Shelters to protect the aircraft against cruise missile attacks had been dug and generous quantities of surface-to-air missiles – a weapon that that government favored because they did not require a large number of personnel to man – had been liberally scatted in defense of every possible refuge in order to make carrier-based air attacks prohibitively costly.
All of the Patriot missiles scattered around Hilo, however, were of no effect when the guns of the Destroyers opened up on the airfield as landing operations got underway. Each of the twin turrets mounted by the ship contained firepower equivalent to a full battery of artillery. Within a few minutes, the shells began to rain down upon the airport at a rate of forty shells per minute. For ten full minutes a blizzard of artillery fire coated the airport, with some four hundred twenty-four pound explosive rounds crashing down upon the ground, with one concussive thud after another filling the air.
When the shelling stopped, fully seven of the precious F-22s were burning wrecks scattered around the airport and some sixty-one people, a mix of both military personnel and civilians, were dead.
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam
Admiral Myers took the news calmly. Though fifteen of his F-22s had survived – and there were still a handful of other aircraft scattered in the immediate area, it was clear that attempting to hold the base against a determined attack would be impossible. Given this, the Admiral picked up his phone and did what he believed his duty required of him.
"This is Admiral Myers," he said, "activate Contingency One."
On the Admiral's order, evacuation alerts were sou
nded at every facility of military significance located within the Hawaiian Islands. Personnel at these bases were led on a frantic scramble as individuals who were in the know as to what was about to happen frantically led them on.
The engineers who had done the work were incredibly thorough. Explosives were set at key points and multiple redundancies were built into almost every installation. Given the very nature of the task at hand there had been no reason to hold anything back.
Eleven minutes after the Admiral had issued his first order, the first explosion shattered an Air Force fuel depot. The explosion blew apart and then set alight an aviation fuel storage depot, turning the sky black. Within seconds the first explosion was followed by the first of what, ultimately, would turn out to be hundreds of others.
In a matter of minutes, Admiral Myers had accomplished what Admiral Nagumo had singularly failed to do some eight decades earlier: he destroyed every major facility and resource that might have been of use in refitting, repairing, and resupplying the Pacific Fleet.
The Admiral stood reflectively at the window, looking at the increasing cloud of smoke and flecks of fire that shrouded the sky over the base.
"If the rebels still want this fucking place," he said, "then they can have it."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Game On
Halifax, Nova Scotia
On they came, one great container ship after another, each bringing with them a fearful cargo. Brigadier General Alan Jefferson shuddered as each of the monsters drew up to the dock, knowing what the arrival of nearly 100,000 European soldiers meant for the future of both his country and himself. If there had been any question – after the Great Mutiny and Second Pearl Harbor – as to whether it would come to all-out war, the matter was certainly settled now. The rebels might have agreed to a negotiated settlement with fellow Americans, but they would never make any deal with an illegitimate President who invited foreign soldiers to American soil to kill Americans.
The European officers who Jefferson worked with in organizing the unloading of the ships and the transportation of the men, equipment, and materiel to assembly areas in the West were incredibly professional and impressive, yet the General could not help but feel that they had a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation.
Global media – including those portions of the American press that was widely read in global circles – largely depicted the rebels as a gang of toothless, inbred, socially backward hicks bankrolled by a handful of avaricious billionaires. The European soldiers, backed by these assurances, were confident that they – combined with the loyalist American forces – would swiftly whip the rebels and thus remove the last obstacle to the creation of a new progressive America (and with that the final obstacle to a new progressive world).
"I never thought that I would be in the Army," a pretty young Hispanic woman said in an ad playing on a television that Jefferson walked past, "but I never thought that people with guns would try and take away my rights. Not in America."
Jefferson shook his head sadly. The Federal Government in Washington had responded to the collapse of the portions of the military under its control by reactivating the Army of the United States, the organization to which draftees had notionally belonged in both World Wars and throughout the Cold War up until the end of the draft. To date the government had not introduced conscription, preferring instead to attempt to recruit short-term volunteers with gender and race-based recruiting approaches that were often less-than-subtle. To date these efforts had managed to gain the government the better part of a million volunteers – and more than a few officers had jumped at the rapid wartime promotions that the AUS offered, but Jefferson hated to think of what would happen to those people the first time they faced real combat.
The last of the cargo belonging to the 1st Panzer Division was being unloaded now. The General lifted his tablet up and buried his face in the manifest as he walked near the dock, hoping that he would fail to catch the attention of Generalmajor Kurt Hausser, the commander of the Division.
"General!" shouted Hausser as soon as he saw Jefferson. Jefferson walked forward for a few feet before Hausser shouted for a second time.
"General Jefferson!" he yelled, waving his hands in the air. With a sigh, Jefferson stopped and lowered his tablet.
"General Hausser," he said, with a nod.
"General," said the German, "I hate to be a bother, but I must tell you that we are falling entirely behind our timetable for the unloading of our equipment. Given that we have a very ambitious schedule to meet, this just won't do."
"I understand that," replied Jefferson, "and the men under my command are working as fast as they can..."
"Yes, but the way that they are working, we won't have this equipment on the road nearly in time to meet your President's schedule."
"We are working as fast as we can. We cannot defy laws of physics," said Jefferson.
"We would never do things this way in Germany. The level of disorganization here is palpable," said Hausser.
"Perhaps the laws of physics are different in Germany," said Jefferson, "but we are doing the best that we can."
"Bah," rambled the German, "I think that the people here would do well to remember why they are here and what is at stake, not simply to look at this as an ordinary offloading of cargo. We are here to make a new world together."
Beijing, People's Republic of China
"Welcome to China, Mr. King," said Li Ying, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, as he extended his hand to a haggard-looking Augustus King.
"Thank you," mumbled King.
"I hope that you have found your accommodations satisfactory," said Li.
"They were. Thank you. I was able to catch up on some much-needed sleep," lied King, who had spent the entire previous night reviewing figures.
"Now," continued King with a wry smile, "you should understand that I am not, in any sense, an official representative of the government of the United States. I am here simply as a representative of the Praetorian Corporation and in a private capacity as an American citizen."
"Naturally," said Li, leaning back in his chair.
"That being said, as a patriot, I have – of course – very strong opinions as to current events in my own country."
"And China," replied Li, "as a friend of America, has always been eager to help."
Temporary Seat of the United States Government, Cheyenne Mountain, CO
"My fellow Americans," began Acting President Terrance Rickover from the podium set up in the former NORAD facility at Cheyenne Mountain, "I come before you tonight to speak about the continuing crisis that has engulfed our country and, indeed, the entire world.
"In the United States Congress – and now as the Acting President of this nation – my paramount objective has always been to safeguard the liberties of our people and to defend our Constitution. We – we of the Congress and those in the government who have remained loyal to the Constitution – have not acted with any other considerations – either personal or partisan – in mind.
"Yet, in spite of our best efforts at maintaining the peace, we now indisputably find ourselves at war. Indeed, not only at war but embroiled in the worst of all possible wars – a civil war that pits American against American. Given the enormity of this event, a decent respect for the opinion of mankind and of our fellow citizens impels us to state the reasons for this and to tell you how long that this will go on for.
"How did we get to here?
"My fellow citizens, we are where we are today because our government has failed. The framers of the Constitution designed a system of government where interest was meant to be balanced against interest and where the liberties of the people were to be secured by tension between those interests. That system was broken because, for far too long, the letter and the intent of our Constitution was ignored by those who wished to transform our government into a system for the transfer of wealth between persons and regions. What many of those who
supported this transformation, often for noble and humanitarian reasons, failed to recognize is that wealth is synonymous with power. The concentration of power over all of the wealth of the nation in the hands of the Federal Government – and effectively in the hands of the Executive – meant the concentration of all political power in the hands of the Federal Government as well. Once this happened, some sort of reckoning became inevitable because the demands of all of the interest groups exceeded the ability of the government to pay. Power is inherently corrupting and it was inevitable that those with it would use force to save themselves before they would voluntarily give up control. Ultimately, this required them to destroy our liberties.
"Now, there are those who accept this. Those who accept that the Federal Government was out-of-control and that it was violating the liberties of the people, but who question our response to these established facts.
"Could we not, they ask, simply have waited until the next election? Was it necessary to attempt the impeachment of the President and to, in so doing, trigger the response that occurred?
"Well, to those I ask: how, under the circumstances, could we trust that the election would be conducted fairly and the results would be expected? We all remember the great scandals of the re-election of Mr. Obama. We remember how the IRS was turned against American citizens and how the media colluded with the President to cover up the betrayal of soldiers and diplomats who did under our flag at Benghazi. We know that that was only the beginning. We know that it only got worse from there. When Mr. Bryan's predecessor responded to a financial crisis by simply ignoring the law or when Mr. Bryan chose to use obscure and absurd interpretations of the law to throw his opponents in jail... When Mr. Bryan sanctioned the disruption of the proceedings of the Congress by a violent mob. All of these things followed one upon the other. The unchecked lawlessness of the executive demanded that we resist. And so we did.
