by Brent Reilly
CHAPTER 81
What Genghis Khan didn’t know is that the Battle for Northern China, as it’d soon be called, actually began a week ago because it takes that long for his relay messengers to reach him from the Bering Strait. Billy timed the American attack so that Genghis would not learn of it before Billy killed him. As it was, a messenger -- flying at maximum speed -- was only an hour from Peking with news of the epic battle.
Billy had been planning this attack for a decade. He had the Americans eliminate everyone in eastern Siberia and Manchuria the last few summers, sent his commanders to learn the future battleground terrain, and sent munition ships to the coast so his marathoners could stockpile bombs.
Days before the Khan’s spy even left Los Angeles, Billy’s marathon divisions flew a thousand clicks to his first fleet. Every thousand clicks they’d use either an island or another fleet as stepping stones until they reached Korea. Billy’s marathoners traveled from Los Angeles to Peking faster than the Khan’s relay messengers, and were still rested enough to fight.
The marathoners were still crossing the Pacific when half a million Americans began the Battle for the Bering Strait. The Americans had slept all day, then bombed them after sunset. The Mongols had been awake all day, then spent all night defending themselves. Both sides numbered half a million, but the Americans averaged twice the endurance, and so could keep more quads in the air. They also had better wands, greater motivation, and the initiative. Munitions ships sailed near to save time, and hospital ships to save lives. Supply ships set up temporary bases along the Alaskan coast, providing food, beds, and medicine. They literally did the heavy lifting.
The first day they fought at parity, but with each day the Americans fielded more and better quads. Within the week they turned air superiority into air supremacy, and had to position several divisions just to catch the Mongols who fled before the inevitable. It’d take another week to clear the bunkers, but it was so worth it to see Genghis Khan lose another half a million quads.
The reason the Khan put so many quads there was to prevent Americans from entering Siberia. What he didn’t know is that one hundred fifty thousand near-marathoners island-hopped down the Aleutians, then flew every five hundred kilometers to a ship, until they reached the Siberian coast. They raced down Manchuria until they reached the supply ships waiting for them near Korea.
The day before the marathoners struck Peking, the near-marathoners bombed the Mongols facing the Koreans, Japanese, and Taiwanese in Korea. The Mongols had practiced against every possible threat.
Except getting attacked from behind.
