by James Rosone
Of course, the Trinity Program was highly classified, with less than 20 total people in the government knowing about its existence, including the two programmers who built it. There were also several checks and balances built into the program to ensure it would not 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 have broken the briefing down by theaters of operation as requested. The first theater we are going to discuss is Asia,” said Colonel James. Colonel Alisa James was a sharp Air Force officer who had been the Defense Attaché to China just four months prior. Her unique knowledge of Chinese military capabilities 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, or TDF, 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 20% of the invasion force’s ships and shot down over 1,300 Chinese fighter drones. Ultimately, the TDF will have to surrender if they are not reinforced, but at present, they are tying the PLA down and costing them thousands of casualties a day.”
“We have three attack submarines in the area who 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/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 had not 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 have not made a move towards South Korea yet. We are not sure how long this will last. Admiral Libby, the PACOM CG 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 is a separate deal being worked between the Chinese and Japanese, but the Chinese do not 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,” said 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 are 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 12 to 24 hours. The Navy lost four attack submarines in the last 12 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 military civilian casualties and an unknown number of civilian deaths.”
“General Black, can the Marines repulse their invasion?” asked the President, knowing the chances may be small.
“It will be tough, Mr. President. I would 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 did not 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 are 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 airbase in a key position in the Pacific, and our forces will be moved to God only knows what kind of POW camp that the Chinese are running.”
“I will inform the commander on the ground that he is 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; hopefully, the JDF 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 will 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 are 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 as
sets) 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 are pulling another eight out of mothball 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 are 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 regards 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 3D Holograph 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 (PMCs) 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 30 to 45 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 was not 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 is 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 are facing a Chinese military that is close to 40 million strong with their active and reserve force. The Russians have activated their entire reserve, bringing their total force to over 20 million, and the Islamic Republic still has over 6 million troops, despite the losses they are 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 is going to take time to field these new soldiers. In the meantime, we’ve lost over 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 are 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 are not that bad are they? We are about to crush an entire IR army in the Jordan Valley.”
“It’s not that they are 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 will 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 is little we can do to stop the Chinese or Russians from taking Hawaii, 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 unrivalled 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 5,000 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 am President, we will fight this war through to victory. We are Americans; we are not just the greatest country on earth, and 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 and pay for 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 70% 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 have thought they would have baulked at losing money from those markets.”
“They initially did baulk 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 did not go along with the program,” Director Perez said with a smirk.
