Winter Kill 2 - China Invades Australia

by Gene Skellig

  The crowd began to argue, and shout questions.

  Raising his voice, Ox continued.

  “No. The Royal Australian Army won’t be coming to our aid. We’re on our own. You and I, we are the army; it’s a come-as-you-are fight. Whatever’s left of the army is likely doing everything they can to get this situation sussed, responding to the devastation in the cities that were nuked, and mobilizing and dispersing whatever forces they can. But even if we had not been caught by surprise – as we clearly were – our armed forces, God love them, would have been overwhelmed by the scale of this thing. So they need us to back them up, and fight alongside ‘em.

  “So we’ve got two choices. One, grab your loved ones and evacuate inland, as far as you can from wherever the Chinese are. And I recommend you get on with this right away. There’s no shame in running for your lives – save your loved ones and live to fight another day. But you don’t have much time. From what we saw in Port Macquarie, they are following a well-orchestrated plan, and moving like clockwork.

  “The second choice, the one I have made, is to stand and fight. We have to move as fast we can, bugger them up, slow them down. Hit them hard now, before their reinforcements have a chance to deploy and lock this region down.”

  “How do we do that?” asked one man.

  “Go home, pack up your hunting gear, camping gear, and as much food and water as you can, and mobilize your community. Set up road blocks on all the roads. This one behind me would be my first priority,” he said, pointing in the direction of the road behind him, and adding as he turned back to the crowd, “…and start killing any Chinese that come up the road.”

  Sergeant McCreary looked down the road, imagining a column of Chinese soldiers headed his way.

  “What about attacking them in Port Macquarie?”

  “Maybe, if you can get enough men together. But you are up against crack troops. These are their Special Forces, you understand? Not conscript soldiers like we faced with the Iraqis in the First Gulf War. These guys won’t surrender, and they probably won’t take prisoners, either.”

  Ox turned to face Sergeant McCreary. “If I were you, I would send a patrol car out to the intersection of Highway One and Thirty-Four. And send another farther up 34, to the outskirts of Port Macquarie, to get some eyes on the town. If the Chinese don’t move out right away, then we could set up some sort of choke point, try to contain them. If we lose Highway One that will trap a lot of people who need to be evacuated. We should move everybody to the west, up Highway 34.”

  The crowd began chattering, discussing what Oxley had said. Then one spoke up, quieting the group again as reality began to sink in. “So we’re all there is? A bunch of retirees and farmers?”

  “Look, Mate, do you have a rifle? If you do, go now and get it, and come back here with your kit and some tuck. We’ll tell you what to do. If not, bugger off and find some other way to be helpful – help with the evacuation or gather food and supplies that the evacuees will need when they get farther inland. Whatever you like, Mate, but just get on with it,” Ox said, getting tense as the minutes ticked by.

  Nobody moved for a few moments, and nobody spoke. It was as if they were transfixed, not by fear, but by the incomprehensible choice – engage in a life and death struggle or abandon their homes and flee to the west.

  Oxley understood that the townsfolk needed to be told what to do, and decided that he would have to be the one.

  “Alright then!” He shouted, with his old military voice. “I’ll make it easy for you. Until I am relieved by proper military authority, on the authority of my former military service, I hereby declare martial law on this region and appoint myself as commander of the resistance in this sector. Sergeant McCreary, send a car out to the coast road and establish an Observation Post. Now!” He commanded. “You two!” he said, pointing at two men who had brought their rifles and looked ready for a fight, “You go with one of McCreary’s lads and back him up until reinforcements arrive. Now MOVE!” he shouted, loud enough to get the men into high gear.

  Without further delay, a corporal and constable from the NSW Police Force and the two civilians Ox had pressed into service and two others who had decided to go along to help, all headed out, the police interceptor leading and two pick-up trucks following.

  The sudden activity broke the crowd up somewhat, with many people heading for their cars, either to evacuate their loved ones or to retrieve weapons and kit – or both.

  Twenty four hours later, Oxley, McCreary, and two dozen men from Wauchope were dead; the town of Wauchope abandoned before a single Chinese soldier had set foot in it.

  In his headquarters at Newman Senior Technical College, Colonel Ma swiftly typed his first day’s Situation Report and passed it to General Leung for approval.

  After reading the SitRep, the general smirked: “Why have you put in so much detail about the skirmish on the coastal road? Do you really think General Bing really cares how much resistance the local farmers were able to put up? All he will care about is that we achieved all of our Day One objectives. We captured the Aerial Port of Disembarkation without any losses, other than the seven Dragonflies who wound up dead at the Control Tower and that one Little Dragon who’s gone missing. We seized the armory and captured assault rifles, handguns, ammunition and other equipment of their 41st Battalion; we captured Local Area Command for the state’s police forces, and their firearm registry – that’ll sure make it easy to track down and seize the firearms the locals have in this sector – and we have established bed-down facilities for my Brigade. All in all, I’d say we’ve accomplished our Day One tasks, wouldn’t you? So why bother putting in all that crap about the spirited defense that some local cops and civilians threw together at the cross-roads?”

  “Because, General, it was not according to plan,” the Colonel responded. “Yes, we have seized the operational centers of gravity here, and we now dominate one important line of communication, the coastal road, but we lost eight men in that skirmish. They should not have been able to hold us off for the eighteen hours that they did, and we should have been able to push much farther inland, at least as far as the next town, Wauchope, with motorized patrols.”

  “But that was not our Day-One Objective, it was a Discretionary Objective – a ‘would be nice’ – not part of the overall timetable, and we were prepared to take far heavier losses, don’t forget.”

  “True, General, but those estimates were for enemy defensive action, such as shooting down some of our civilian-pattern air transports, like what happened in some other sectors. But I’m telling you, from experience, those civilians fought like professionals there. I think we are in for a much tougher fight here than we expected.”

  “Well, you can leave it in if you like, but take out that part about the hostages. We don’t need to advertise that their surrender was only after we started executing those children at the petrol station. No need to put that in the official record.”

  “But General, that was done on your orders, not mine.” The Colonel had been disgusted by the General’s order; he considered it beneath an honorable soldier.

  “Colonel, do you want to join them? I think the mass grave is still open. The General’s face was tight and his voice thick with anger. “I’m sure we can find some space for you in amongst the women and children, and those local heroes you are so impressed with.”

  Colonel Ma thought about it for a moment. Would it be better to take a bullet in the back of the head now, or go along with this madness for even one more day? But when he thought about his wife and son, who would be punished if he strayed from his duty, no matter how repugnant it now appeared, he knew what he had to do.

  “Consider it deleted, General. And congratulations on your great victory today,” Colonel Ma said, fawning humility in the required manner.

  The general smiled, truly ignorant of the hollowness of the praise. He was that intoxicated with the power that had been placed in his hands.

  8

>   ROPE-A-DOPE

  At 3:10 AM on May 20th the heat and humidity in Darwin was still oppressive. However, Major Blakely did not even notice the relative coolness of the air-conditioned briefing theatre being used as the Command Post for EXERCISE ROPE-A-DOPE. He strode right past the outer ring of senior NCOs and junior officers, taking center stage and interrupting the presentation being made by the General from Land Combat Readiness Center, 1st Division Royal Australian Army, out of Brisbane.

  Major Blakely’s voice rang clearly throughout the room. “General Davis, I’m sorry, Sir, but I have to cut you off. We’re at war,” Major Blakely said simply.

  The General was offended by the interruption. “Major Blakely, I don’t know how you Yanks run things in your exercises, but here in Australian we preface our exercise inputs with ‘Exercise, Exercise, Exercise.’”

  To some of the men in the room it was their first major combined exercise, and to some extent at least, everybody in the collection of American, Indian and Australian units were still struggling to find their asses – even with both hands – so there were more than a few ‘deer in the headlights’ looks from the audience. For some of the junior officers from the MAGTFA, like the eager young platoon commander, Lieutenant Jarvis, the expression was quickly replaced by the “can do” expression they wore when concealing their confusion behind a warrior’s mask.

  Jarvis and the other young Marines ramped up their listening and watching, gathering in all the new information with a razor sharp focus which they had developed in the ‘trial by fire’ that was the life of a junior officer in the Marine Corps.

  But Major Blakely was not concerned with their reaction, nor the Australian General’s increasingly red face. He knew he had to treat the portly Australian with respect, but had absolutely no fear of the man.

  “Sir, this is not an exercise inject. The exercise is over! We are at war! More importantly, we are all in a great deal of danger,” Blakely said, taking up a firm stance in the middle of the stage and speaking loud enough for the entire audience to hear his every word. “Now you can go and check with your own military, or you can sit down and shut up, and let me tell you – all of you – what we know at this time. With your permission, General,” he added, giving the general a chance to recover from the shock.

  “This better not be some kind of crazy way to run an exercise, Major. But go ahead, you have the floor.”

  “Thank you, General,” Pausing only for a moment, Major Blakely looked into the eyes of some of the more senior, command-grade officers from the Australian and Indian militaries, and his US Marine Corps peers from the MAGTFA.

  “When you all left your cell-phones, Blackberries and other electronic devices at the entrance to this facility you entered a black hole. Right now, many of your commands, your staff, and so on are undoubtedly trying to reach you. So in a couple of minutes, when I am done, I suggest that go to the commissionaires at the entrance and retrieve your communications devices, or get to a work-station and contact your chain of command to verify what I am about to tell you. But for the next couple of minutes, nobody leaves this room,” he said, ominously, just as a number of armed Marines took up positions at the exits from the theatre. Blakely had a captured audience.

  Immediately there were sounds of zippers and snaps being undone as over sixty military professionals took out their field note pads, binders, or ‘junior general’ binders, to take notes.

  “I’ve just received confirmation that the United States is at Defense Condition One. We are under nuclear attack by the Russian Federation. Anchorage and Honolulu were the first American targets hit, along with Inuvik, Frobisher Bay and Winnipeg in Canada. At this time a full retaliatory strike is underway, which President Parker ordered before evacuating from Washington DC.” Blakely paused for a moment, but nobody interrupted. He thought momentarily of his brother, Matt, stationed at the Mount Weather bunker where President Parker would have evacuated to.

  “Missiles are hitting targets throughout the United States, and our missiles will begin striking the Russian Federation within the next twenty minutes.”

  The general from the Land Combat Readiness Centre could not hold his tongue any longer. “Major, what is your source of information. I mean, how can I be sure you are not being spoofed or led down the garden path, and where is Colonel Ferebee, anyhow?”

  Blakely turned to face him. “Sir. Colonel Ferebee will be joining us in a moment. I was with him in the Comms Center, on a direct line to the 3rd Marines, when the news broke.” Turning back to the group at large, Blakely continued. “We were actually in a secure conference call with the Commanding Officers of the 3rd and 1st Marine Divisions when the first reports came in. I personally heard Colonel Wagstaff in Okinawa, Colonel O’Leary in Honolulu, and Lieutenant Colonel Crowe at Camp Lejeune confirm the reports of inbound missile tracks. The tracks were being reported by USSTRATCOM and passed to the component commands, so what we overheard in our teleconference was taking place live, and fully authenticated in the 3rd Marines Operations Center,” Blakely explained. “Then we lost Honolulu. Colonel O’Leary’s voice simply cut out, mid-sentence, but there was a lot of shouting in his Ops Centre just before we lost them. So we conferenced-in another Marine unit on Oahu, who reported visual sighting of a mushroom cloud over Honolulu. We then raised USPACOM on another secure line, and were given a very hasty, verbal, Fragmentary Mobilization and Dispersal Order directly from Admiral Gaines.

  “At this time we have no indications as to why the Russian Federation would start a war with us. There were no indications of any tensions, however the war is real, and it’s moving swiftly. While General Mobilization and Dispersal Order has been given to all US Military units throughout the globe, no specific orders have as yet made their way to us from USPACOM or any other higher headquarters, and our comms with them have since gone down – probably saturated.

  “Colonel Ferebee is consulting with American and allied Marine, Naval and Air Force units in this region, to get a sense of our main weight of effort, but his preliminary orders to me, which I am to pass on to all of you, are as follows.”

  “SITUATION. The United States, and in all probability, our allies and friends throughout the world, are at war with the Russian Federation. Atomic weapons have been used against us, and a full retaliatory strike is in progress. Our initial assessment is that all military installations are potential targets of our enemies. Nuclear, Chemical and Biological attacks, as well as conventional warfare attacks, cyber-warfare, sabotage, espionage and other forms of warfare are either underway or considered imminent.

  “MISSION. The mission of all American forces in Australia is three-fold: First, Dispersal and Force Protection: we are in Survive To Operate mode as of this minute. Second, Assembly and Force Generation: MAGTFA will mobilize and draw in additional American and allied units as available within the Australian AOR and operate within an ad-hoc Combined Joint Task Force structure of Brigade or greater strength, as able. Third, Force Employment: after liaising with American and allied forces in this AOR and on order from Higher Headquarters, MAGTFA will commence expeditionary or defensive combat operations.

  “EXECUTION. With all haste, all units of MAGTFA and any Australian or allied units authorized by their command elements to do so, shall use EXERCISE ROPE-A-DOPE, hereby re-designated OPERATION ROPE-A-DOPE as a template around which PHASE ONE, Force Protection and Dispersal, will be carried out except that all timings shall be compressed such that H-Hour shall be 03:45hrs local time, or 1815hrs Zulu. All units must be Oscar Mike by 03:45 hours or earlier if able. That’s less than thirty minutes from now. All personnel and units not already included in the original ROPE-A-DOPE Op Order shall grab your deuce gear, any additional kit, rations, ammunition or other combat stores that you can lay your hands on, and disperse using any vehicle you can get your hands on. We will be using the Robertson Barracks Parade Square as an ad-hoc assembly area and strive to be Oscar Mike immediately after the high-readiness units and other
participants in ROPE A DOPE depart.”

  “Logistics and other support personnel, throw open the stores and abandon record keeping. Facilitate the issue of additional weapons and ammunition, MOPP gear, vests and so on for anybody, American or allied, who does not have all their kit, and then evacuate your post by 0430 hours at the latest.

  “Rendezvous assembly area will be as per ROPE A DOPE or as directed by military police, Recon Platoon, Fox Company, in vicinity of Mount Bundy airstrip and the Bundy Creek maneuvering range, two kilometers west of the hamlet of Adelaide River. That’s 113 km south of us here in Darwin.”

  Major Blakely eyeballed Lieutenant Jarvis from the Recon Platoon of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, and got a silently mouthed ‘HUA’, embracing his specific task.

  Blakely then looked at his watch. “Marines, you have now twenty five minutes to pass these orders down the chain of command, and have your men Oscar Mike ASAP.

  “Anybody with questions, stay back,” he said. The door opened and Colonel Ferebee stormed into the room. Commanding Officer MAGTFA, Colonel Ferebee joined Blakely at the front of the now highly tense group of men.

  “Why are you all sitting there, Marines?” Ferebee barked at the men. “Major Blakely has given you my Orders. Use the exercise plan to fill in the holes. This is a Survive to Operate situation – perfect for the Marines! Now MOVE!” he commanded.

  “HUA!” Chaos erupted as the MAGTFA officers and SNCOs swarmed out of the theatre to track down their subordinates and begin the urgent dispersal out of Robertson Barracks.