The Tiger and the Dragon

by Stephen Makk

  “You finally got him Nikki. Don’t worry Frank, it’s an old issue, you are about to hear the oracle.” Nikki turned and stared at them with a determination.

  “We can’t defeat them as they are. United in a common goal, to take Taiwan. We must split them asunder. What do the so called People’s Party fear the most?” The table was quiet.

  “Power,” she clenched her fist, “power, the loss of it. The country descending into chaos. What keeps them in power? What is it that they dare not lose. Their nuclear genie. Their weapons. Without those, the rest will crumble away, not quickly maybe. But it will crumble.” She took out her Tablet and brought up a map of southern China. She placed her finger down.

  “There,” she pointed to a large island off southern China, “Hainan. That’s were their nuclear Genie lives. Their SSBN base.”

  She leaned over and placed her fists on the table. “We’re going to threaten it, attack it. They can’t lose it, never, never. Whatever PLAN assets that are needed will be sent. Guess where they have a big bunch of them right now? The Straits of Taiwan. You know what? If Hainan is threatened half of those fuckers will sail south. We can pick those Mothers off one by one. Am I wrong Larry?” Larry sighed.

  “It’s possible, but it’ll be defended as it is, we have to apply some heavy stuff.”

  “I agree, we can ask the USAF to lend a hand too. When they’re done combing their hair,” she looked to Nathan, “you have to lean on COMSUBPAC.” He nodded.

  “Anyway,” said Larry, “don’t they have some mountain-based ICBM silos up north somewhere?”

  Nikki sat at the table. “Yes, in Hebei province just 60 or 70 miles north of Beijing. They call it the underground Great Wall, it’s a network of tunnels under Hebei’s mountains. Apparently, they have railways to transport the missiles through the tunnels. China doesn’t have that many nukes, not like us and the Russians. We do have all the possible launch entrances located. They know it’s vulnerable to a nuclear strike, they would retain missiles after a strike there but not a huge amount. Although it would be a near suicide mission, Taiwanese and US troops could land to get into the tunnels and cause mayhem. They’d probably use gas and thermobaric weapons. This tunnel network is a threat, but a second-rate threat.”

  Frank Pike smiled and scratched his neck.

  “You didn’t hear this from me Chaps. But we looked at this place from the ground and by satellite some years ago. The ground deployments we used were probably MI6 people, Chinese recruited to work against the PRC. We have access to a great many of these people from Hong Kong, we still have a swing there. It’s very strongly rumoured, and hush hush,” he tapped the side of his nose, “that GCHQ has infiltrated their communications with this place.”

  “GCHQ?” Nathan frowned.

  “Our NSA,” smiled Frank. Nathan stood.

  “Bring up a map on the large monitor Nikki.” The island appeared on screen. He stood before it.

  “OK, so it’s Hainan that’s their centre of nuclear gravity. How do we hammer the place?”

  Chapter 11

  Taichung City.

  THE PLA’S 1st Amphibious Mech division, and 164th Marines were making progress pushing into the city. Much of their men and equipment was now ashore, with resupply underway. Attrition was high, a landing ship carrying most of the 1st Amphibious Mech’s armour and much of their artillery had been sunk by a JASSM missile and two others damaged in F18 attacks and missile strikes. Many Frigates and Destroyers were sunk or out of action. But the core of the PLAN task force was intact.

  A few F18’s were shot down, but the damaged ones were diverted to Chiayi airbase 40 miles to the south, as Taichung City’s airport was under attack and in danger of being overrun.

  But resistance ashore was building in strength. Down the 7 and 8th highways the ROC Army 10thArmy Corps with its Mechanized infantry brigade and Armor Brigade were offering stiff resistance east of the city. Close air support by the ROC air force and the Apache helicopters slowed the advancing PLA units. The 8th Army Corps had advanced up highways 3 and 21 and now were starting to press the invaders from the south.

  OFFSHORE, CAPTAIN CHAO of the Luyang III class Destroyer Chengdu, read the command printout from Fleet headquarters with growing unease. He flushed up with a furious expression. His Executive officer glanced at him.

  “Sir, what’s the matter?”

  “Damn fools. This has to be the Political idiots in Beijing insisting on this.” He passed the command slip to the XO.

  “They’re more accustomed to licking politburo ass than to war.” Chao slammed his fist on the nearest bulkhead, a nearby operator looked up alarmed.

  “This is a warship not a troop ship.”

  The XO wore a look of disbelief. “We don’t have spare manpower for this.”

  “Fleet knows that, Chao glared, the Admirals aren’t stupid. But the politicians are. Shit.” The Captain walked the line of monitors in the darkened room, each with a crewmember operating it. He placed his hands behind his back and paced with head hung low. He soon returned to the XO.

  “I’m going to get the Chief of the decks to choose, he has some experience, he used to be a Marine. Take the Conn XO.” Chao left the control room. He knew it must be going very badly ashore, that it had come down to this desperate measure.

  AROUND ONE HUNDRED sailors gathered on the stern flight deck. The Chief of the decks and the Captain stood inside the hanger facing aft and the crew.

  May was stood alongside Captain Chao with Commander Long. The Chief of the decks had briefed her personally not long ago. She’d been horrified and still was, but she couldn’t show it. Not in front of the crew.

  “Fellow crew members,” announced Captain Chao, “we have received an order from Fleet command. Chengdu is to provide a company of sailors to the 164th Marines ashore. We have chosen you to represent our ship. You will be led by Commander Long, he will be Company commander and Lieutenant Commander Tang Li will be second in command. You will be issued with all our QBZ-95 assault rifles, other weapons will be issued by the Marines once ashore. Blue camouflaged clothing will be issued to anyone who needs it, we have 20 Kevlar helmets aboard, the rest will be issued by the Marines.

  Your duty is to reinforce the Marines in the fight to liberate Taiwan from the illegal regime. We will soon rendezvous with a landing ship and one of its landing craft will take you ashore. I know that you will do Chengdu and the Navy proud.”

  May Hsin had thought of appealing to the MSS to intervene, but she wasn’t who she said she was, and it could open a can of worms. She had to go ashore and play grunt with the Marines. She’d be leading men to fight against her own countrymen who’d no doubt try to kill her as one of their enemies. What a Goddamn pig’s breakfast.

  They were soon ashore, where they received extra helmets ammo, grenades and two heavy machine guns. The supply Sargent told them where to find the 124th Marines, they had to walk for a time but eventually clambered on to some resupply trucks bound up the road to the east. This part of the city was a mess. Cars and trucks had been burning. Buildings damaged, soldiers and civilian bodies on the road. Artillery shells flew both ways with a screaming whine, aircraft flew over dropping bombs. One landed about two hundred yards away, the sound and shock wave was like nothing she’d ever seen or heard before. They dismounted, and the local Marines fell on the truck like locusts, filling sacks with weapons ammunition and food.

  A Major appeared with a camouflaged tired dirty face, he’d been in battle, there was no mistaking it. Although outranked by Commander Long the Major ignored this.

  “Welcome to the asshole of Taiwan. You’ll be attached to 2 Battalion, Colonel Yu is your commander. Their task is to take the bridges over this shit pot of ditch they call the Da’an river. Up there,” he thumbed over his shoulder, “it’s defended by a Taiwanese Mech unit and a foreign unit we’ve identified as American Rangers. Don’t worry they’re aren’t many of the foreign bastards as they rarely fire. He didn’t add that wh
en they did, it was usually a hit, fire wasn’t wasted.

  “Get up there and you’ll be allocated a slot.” He spit on the roadside. “Good luck Navy.”

  May took a dislike to him. His voice had dripped with disdain at her service. The thought suddenly flicked into her mind. These are all my enemies, I’m not PLAN. Don’t identify with them you damn fool.

  “Tang,” Commander Jin Long took her to one side, “neither of us signed up for this. We’re not soldiers, were sailors but we must play our part. My Father would laugh at this. Apart from the fact that I’m here doing this stupid fool of a job. He’d be banging heads together.”

  “What does your Father do Jin?” She knew he was Politburo but played dumb.

  “He’s in the Politburo.”

  “What?” she pretended to be shocked. “He is?” Jin nodded and looked to the ground. He looked up at her with sad eyes.

  “This,” he waved his hand around is the opposite of what he wants.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I can’t say Tang, I can’t tell you.” He stood straighter.

  “Let’s get the men together, we have a bridge to take. We’ll divide the company into two, you take the righthand wing.”

  She stood before her men. “We have an objective, the bridge, let’s go.” They advanced up the hill taking whatever cover they could at the roadside. A few rounds started to zip by from the Rangers up the road, men returned fire. “Not so much,” she shouted, “wait until you see them.” May advanced slowly up the road, keeping her head down, one of her men got on his knees to fire, he got three rounds off when his face erupted in a red mess. He fell.

  “Come on move up Chengdu.” What the hell was she doing?

  They advanced but were taking fire and casualties at a horrifying rate. She heard explosions from across the road. That would be Jin’s men taking grenade or mortar fire. Minute by minute yard by yard they moved up the hill towards the bridge. The fire and the casualties mounted. What she assumed must have been a mortar bomb landed twenty yards to one side. As she raised her head, she saw what looked like a pizza in front of her. She looked again in horror, the bloody pizza had tufts of black hair and an eye staring back at her. Good God she realised, it’s the inside of someone’s head. The fighting went on for more than an hour, casualties mounted. She heard the gunfire and heavy rounds hitting the other side of the road. May had taken cover in a broken-down shed, she knew they hadn’t the manpower to take the bridge, they had caused casualties among the enemy but not enough. What did she do? Men, Chengdu’s sailors, scurried over from the left hand side of the road. A man half fell into the shed. It was him. “Jin. Jin what happened?”

  The bloodstained Commander tried to smile. “We got pushed back, too many, fire too heavy.”

  “Jin what do we do?” May asked frantically. “What?” she pushed up her helmet and wiped the hair from her eyes.

  May knew the Taiwanese and American troops here were too strong for them and more would follow them.

  Here she was fighting her own countrymen. She was on the losing side, which was good, but it could cost her life itself. What a Goddamn nightmare.

  USS STONEWALL JACKSON. East of Orchid Island, Taiwan.

  THE WAR COMMITTEE MEETING had gone on for hours and clearly had many more hours to go yet. Both boats had gone to periscope depth to reduce visibility. Communications had been sent to the Pentagon and replies had not yet been received.

  Nathan stood. “Don’t know about you, but I’m a fixin to get me some vittles. You coming down the galley Frank?” he put on a rarely used Southern Drawl.

  “Yes, I think I will.”

  “Before you do. Do you want to sleep on board tonight, we’ve got stuff to do and I think it’ll run into tomorrow? Go to the control room and get the XO to flash a periscope message to your boat.”

  “Right.” Frank left for the control room. In the Galley they ate mid rats, egg omelette and bacon, and then got to their bunks and slept.

  The following day the communications had come in from State side. The planning went on with Yulin naval base on Hainan being the focus.

  The base itself is on the south coast of the Island of Hainan in Yalong Bay.

  Frank Pike pointed at the map. “Inside this big steel door covering the underwater pen they have at the base. There’ll be an SSBN inside I assume.”

  “More than one we think,” Nikki brushed her hair back. “The caverns could hide up to 20 nuclear submarines based on reconnaissance satellite passes. The pens probably house nuclear ballistic missile submarines, so yes. The Department of Defense has estimated that the PLAN will have five Type 094 nuclear ballistic submarines operational each capable of carrying 12 JL-2 ICBM’s. Frank, this is their main base.”

  Frank nodded.

  “Ok, so this underground complex is their basket of shiny new eggs. What do you do when your eggs are in one basket and it’s under threat?” Pike looked around the table, “that’s right, you disperse.”

  “Right,” said Nikki, “we get them as they leave the pen.”

  “That is one very protected base,” grinned Nathan, “in Yalong bay, limited access. It’s tough. Outside yeah we have a chance. But out there they disperse quickly.” Nikki stood, hands on hips.

  “Nathan, do we have any sea mines?” He shook his head.

  “No, we did, but they were offloaded to make way for the Pointers.”

  “We do,” Frank brightened, “Stonefish. They’re launched from a torpedo tube or can be dropped by aircraft,” Pike frowned, “but getting into the bay to lay them would be tough, it’s still a large bay. We’d have a chance near the exit. But one detonation and the Chinese Mine disposal ships would be all over the place.”

  “Frank,” asked Nikki grinning, “can these Stonefish be carried by say a couple of divers using slings and lifting bags?”

  “Yes, they have lugs, I’d say so, hard bloody work but possible.”

  She sat and took a drink of her coffee then grinned.

  “Then we can spoil Uncle Joe Chinaman’s day. Here’s how we do it.”

  Chapter 12

  Chief Innes walked down the main companionway and into the control room.

  “Sir, you wanted to see me.”

  Nathan looked up from his monitor. “Ahh Innes, good. We’ve got a task for you. Have you ever been on one of His Majesties warships?”

  “What Sir?”

  “I didn’t think so. You’ll be transferring over to HMS Bellerophon for a short while, take your diving equipment. You’ll join one of their divers on a mission. We’ve surfaced, you’ll find a boat party on the deck. They’ll take you and Commander Pike over there. Good luck Innes and enjoy your swim.”

  “Yes Sir.” Innes took his dive bag up to the deck, there was Commander Pike in the inflatable. Another crew member arrived with his tanks. The boat made its way over to the SSN floating two hundred yards away in the sunshine.

  ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON Pike helped him down the sail and onto the companionway with his equipment. “Right Innes follow me.” Pike walked off astern and paused outside of a cabin. “Are ye awake Mr Marr?”

  A sleepy voice answered. “Ohh, yes Sir, just...” A sailor in shorts and a tee shirt appeared.

  “This is Chief Petty Officer Innes of the USN.” He faced Innes and gestured to the sailor at the door. “Sergeant Marr, Royal Marines. He’s SBS, Special Boat Service, they’re similar to your SEALS, although you wouldn’t guess. He functions as our boat’s diver. I’ll brief you on the mission. You plan it, and then the pair of you can let me know how you’re going to do it.” Pike left the pair of them, it was time to dive the boat and get to the Chinese coast.

  The two divers sat in the Galley and set to work. Forty minutes later they were ready. Pike joined them.

  “Sir, Stonefish is heavy,” Marr pointed to Innes and himself, “so we’re going to deploy the sled. We’ll sling two of them under it and make our way just short of the doors. From there we’ll use li
fting bags to get them in position one at a time. I’ve spoken to the Weapons Officer and he says programming them the way that,” Marr looked at Innes, “what’s he called on your boat? Nik?”

  “Nikki, a female Lieutenant.”

  “Yes, programming them the way she wants it is fine, and we can link the two together, so we get a bigger bang.”

  “You ok with that Innes?”

  “Yes sir, he’s showed me the sled and briefed me on how it works. We have similar way’s of working too, so it should be Ok.”

  Pike smiled. “Let’s give them a kick in the bollocks. When you’re done get some sleep, in the morning get the detail soaked up and get Weaps to programme the Stonefish. We’ll go in after dark tomorrow night.”

  INNES SAT ON A LONG Spearfish torpedo in the torpedo room up in the bow. The Weapons officer had an inspection cover open on a Stonefish mine, he held a handheld electrical device connected to it. “There we go, that’s both done now. It’ll do what you want now. I’ve also connected the firing mechanism so two is slaved to one. Big explosion when it senses its quarry.” The Stonefish looked like a short torpedo but with a flattened front end.

  “So, let me get this right Sir, Lieutenant Kaminski was adamant about this. It will ignore an SSN or any other boat but explode if it detects an SSBN?”

  “That’s right boyo.”

  “So, we get these things up near the doors and they do the rest?”

  “Yep, two 660lb warheads of Aluminised PBX, that’s like two Spearfish going off. Those two would sink the Battleship Bismarck.” Weaps turned to Marr.

  “Have you told him about the USS 2? You are going into Yulin, they’ll have a couple on patrol.”

  Marr shook his head. “Not yet. Let’s go back to the Galley, get a brew. Then I’ll tell you.”