Cyber Warfare and the New World Order: World War III Series: Book IV

by James Rosone

  Planes, Trains, and Taxicabs

  O’Hare International Airport

  Flight 7975, Tokyo, Japan to Chicago, IL

  As Flight 7975 was following their taxi-way directions to the airport terminal, the men of the second battalion of the Japanese Special Forces Group (SFGp) prepared their body armor and weapons for what was certain to be a quick and ferocious engagement once they docked at the terminal. The Company Commander, Katsu Saito, gathered the four platoon leaders together at the front of the plane, and then waved to get everyone’s attention. The men immediately went silent.

  “Ok everyone, let’s review the plan one last time. Platoon One, you will head to the cargo deck of the aircraft and begin offloading all the weapons, equipment and munitions. Several vans will be waiting for us, so just load everything directly into the vans. Then you are to proceed directly to our designated safe houses and secure everything there.”

  “Yes Sir,” replied Platoon One in unison.

  “The rest of the company will break into several assault groups. Squad Two, you are going to head down the tarmac and begin throwing grenades into the engines of every plane that is currently docked at one of the terminals. Cause as much havoc and chaos as you can, then make a break for the Arrivals Deck and jump into the vans that will be waiting to take you to our safe houses.”

  “Yes Sir,” came the refrain.

  “Squad Three--I want you to move swiftly through the airport terminals and then find your way towards the parking garages. Shoot any security personnel that get in your way; however, your goal is not to kill as many people as possible. Your goal is to get out of the airport as quickly as is feasible. You are going to split into four-man teams and head towards a new set of drop cars several miles away from the airport. Change your uniforms right away so that you can blend into the population, and then prepare for your sabotage operations against the American infrastructure. When you are finished, you will hopefully have destroyed or disrupted all of the major bridges, overpasses, railroads and distribution centers within a several hundred-mile radius of Chicago.”

  “Yes, Sir,” came the reply.

  “By distracting the American response on the tarmac with the grenades, and also in the terminal, we should ensure that those offloading our supplies are able to move all of our equipment with relatively little interference. If we have enough weaponry and fighters that make it through unharmed, our success today will mean triumph for many months to come.”

  By the time the aircraft finally docked, the room was filled with adrenaline and anticipation. As the door was being unlocked, the men inside the aircraft began to line up, ready to rush through the open doorway. Timing was going to be everything; they needed to bust out of the airport quickly and not get bogged down by security. The Americans had beefed up their defenses at the major airports when the war started, and there were more than enough police and security personnel at O’Hare to stop his group if they did not move quickly.

  The first several men pushed their way through the exit, throwing the stunned ticketing agent to the ground. She screamed at the sight of men carrying guns, until one of the men punched her in the face to silence her.

  As Sergeant Hiro quickly moved off the gangway, he emerged to find a waiting area full of stunned and surprised Americans waiting for the plane to de-board. He did as he was instructed and spoke loudly and clearly in English, saying, “This is a terrorism drill. Everyone remain calm, and get down on the floor.” At first, the people were stunned, but as additional members of the group emerged from the gangway, people began to comply. The DHS patches on their body armor seemed to be giving them the authority that they needed in that moment to avoid a massive shootout.

  Other people who had not heard his instructions saw men with guns and began to scream. Most people instinctively dropped to the ground with their hands up or over their heads just hoping they were not going to die. The team moved quickly through the international section of the airport without encountering any resistance. Then, as they walked around the corner, two Chicago police officers loaded with full body armor and assault rifles saw them. The officers must have heard some of the screams.

  Upon seeing the officers, two JDF soldiers immediately opened fire, hitting one of them several times in the chest and knocking him to the ground. They missed the second one entirely, and he quickly took cover. The police officer who had been hit was lucky that he was wearing body armor; the rounds didn’t pierce through, and he was able to quickly recover enough from the force of impact to raise his own rifle and take aim at the JDF soldiers. His bullet found its way to one of the Japanese fighter’s shoulders, wounding him enough that he would not be able to fire a gun. However, one of his compatriots quickly took aim at the officer’s head, taking him out of the battle.

  The second police officer started shooting at the JDF team. Several Japanese soldiers began to lay down suppressive fire against the police officer’s position, allowing several other soldiers to advance closer to him. Then they switched roles, and the group that was closer to the officer began to blanket his position with bullets while the other men moved forward. Finally, they were practically on top of the police officer, and they succeeded in killing him.

  During this short and violent engagement with the two police officers, nearly a dozen more TSA and Chicago police officers had converged on the position. Suddenly, they opened fire on the JDF men. Sergeant Hiro knew they needed to move so he yelled at his men, “Blanket the field with bullets!”

  Then he lobbed several hand grenades in the direction of the TSA guards and police officers. Once the grenades exploded, he immediately ordered his squad, “Advance forward!”

  They quickly overwhelmed the stunned guards and officers, killing them before moving forward to the security checkpoint.

  At this point, bystanders were running every which way screaming in terror and just trying not to get hit. One of the TSA screeners had hit the security alarm near their station, sending out a loud emergency alert telling everyone in the airport to immediately get down on the floor; it also announced to security the last known location of the assailants. Soon, additional TSA guards and police officers were running towards the scene.

  Captain Inada yelled at his men, “You need to continue to move quickly! Follow sergeant Hiro’s squad forward. We need to secure the checkpoint as fast as possible and then move to the parking garage!”

  As the rest of his company moved through the checkpoint, TSA guards and police officers began to arrive from all areas of the airport; they quickly opened fire. Several of his soldiers were hit; some were killed outright while others were wounded but still able to continue fighting. They were starting to get bogged down…they needed to keep moving.

  “Sergeant Hiro, have your men start throwing more grenades and lay some smoke grenades down as well!” Captain Inada yelled as he ducked behind a counter. Several rounds slammed into the wall where his head had been just moments before.

  The entire squad began throwing grenades in every direction, along with several smoke grenades and a few flash bangs. Within seconds, his squad sprinted through the checkpoint with Captain Inada and the rest of the company moving quickly behind them. A few minutes later, they were at the edge of the terminal, racing quickly to the parking garage. Once they had arrived, they saw the waiting vans and began to jump into them, speeding off towards their escape.

  Information Overload

  24 December 2041

  Washington, DC

  White House, Situation Room

  Mike Rogers, the National Security Advisor, was receiving intelligence reports from across the country of attacks taking place by Chinese or Japanese Special Forces and complete chaos out on the West Coast. He was still trying to determine what the reports he was receiving about the Japanese all meant; they were still getting distress messages from the Japanese fleet, so the reality of the situation on the ground remained murky. The Japanese Ambassador to the United States was supposed to meet
with the President shortly; hopefully, he would get some clarity after the meeting. Right now, it looked like there might be a split within the Japanese military, with some supporting the Chinese and others still supporting the Americans.

  A Secret Service Agent walked up to Mr. Rogers and said, “Sir, the President would like to speak with you immediately in the Oval Office. Please come with me.” Not sure what to make of this, Mike followed the agent out of the Situation Room.

  He walked in the Oval Office just as the Japanese Ambassador was being rather forcefully ushered out the door by several agents. As he turned to watch him leave, he almost ran into another group of agents that were ushering out the Indian Ambassador. Mike was confused--it just didn’t make sense for both of them to see the President at the same time.

  As Mike entered the room, he looked quizzically at President Stein; he saw in his eyes the fire of burning anger and rage. Then a change came over his countenance; he took a couple of deep breaths and then he transformed into a look of intense sadness. He noticed that Henry’s hair had noticeably turned more gray, even within the last few weeks. The weight of the presidency was sitting heavily on him now.

  “What’s going on, Mr. President?” asked Mike, genuinely concerned.

  The President sighed deeply and then walking over to the chair behind his desk, plopping down like a man who had expended every last ounce of his energy. He closed his eyes briefly, ignoring Mike’s question for just a moment. He thought to himself, “The enemies are truly at the gate. I am not sure we can overcome them this time. We need to find a way to turn this war around. I will not be the last American President; I don’t want to be the man in charge when the country finally collapses.”

  Looking up at Mike, the President signaled for him to take a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk. “No matter how bad things have gotten before, I have still maintained some hope for the future…but I just don’t know if there is a way past it all this time,” he confided.

  “Sir, what just happened?” Mike probed.

  The President reached in front of him to grab a couple of documents, and then passed them over to Mike for review. “This just happened,” he responded.

  As he read both papers in front of him, Mike’s eyes grew wide with terror. “Sir, can this really be true? India and Japan are making a formal Declaration of War against us?”

  “Those are real. It’s true,” replied President Stein solemnly.

  “Sir, we need to assemble everyone right now. The Directors of the FBI, NSA, CIA and Homeland Security, the heads of the armed forces…we need to meet them at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) as quickly as they can arrive.” The PEOC had been reinforced heavily at the start of the Stein Administration and now included an underground tram system that linked it to the Pentagon and another undisclosed location in case the President and his advisors needed to leave the city in secret.

  The President nodded, exhausted. He signaled to one of his agents to notify the appropriate people. Then he summoned his last remaining strength to stand up and walk out the door, headed for the upcoming meeting.

  *******

  A few minutes later, General Branson walked into the room to see Mike Rogers sipping a cup of coffee and the President milking a 20 ounce half frozen Red Bull, deep in thought. When Stein signaled for him to come and sit down, the general knew this was going to be a long one, so he signaled one of the aides to bring him a coffee with two sugars.

  President Stein didn’t waste any time while waiting for everyone else to get there. Once the general had sat down, he began to issue orders right away, “General Branson, I do not feel Washington is as safe as it should be in light of the information I have just received. I want you to double the number of soldiers guarding the Capital.”

  The general sat up even more straightly than he normally did, soaking in each word. The President continued, “I want checkpoints coming and going from the city. I also want you to issue an immediate alert across the country for our military bases to provide military protection to our key critical infrastructure points: railways, bridges, airports, power plants, dams etc. I want this ordered immediately. Please take the time right now to make the calls and make it happen. I will explain more when the others arrive,” the President said indicating he wanted these orders issued immediately.

  General Branson pushed aside the coffee cup that was being brought to him as he pulled out his smart phone and began to issue the alerts and orders to the Pentagon Operation’s Room. As he did, he thought to himself, “Well, the secure network may still be down, but at least the civilian communication systems are working. I should still be able to get this up and running quickly.”

  The President began to pace as they waited for everyone else to arrive. Then he stopped suddenly, and signaled to the head of his Secret Service detail. “George, how many agents do we have on duty at any given time?” asked the President.

  “Sir, we have 105 agents on duty along with 85 Marines. There are also another 60 police officers outside the perimeter. Is there something I should be aware of?” asked his detail chief, with a bit of concern in his voice.

  “George, I was just made aware of a new and immediate threat to our nation. I do not have credible information of a direct attack against the White House or the Capital, but I am not taking any chances. I want you to issue Threat Condition Viking and prepare the White House to repel a possible attack--not an immediate attack, but one that could happen at any possible time. Tell the Marines they are to bring in some heavily-armored vehicles; I want their presence tripled, and they should be equipped in full combat gear. Until the situation stabilizes over the next couple of weeks, I want you to be ready to repel a concerted attack.” The President was so stoic while he spoke that his face seemed to be made of stone.

  A bit alarmed, his detail chief said, “Sir, I will issue the order immediately. If you feel it is this bad, perhaps we should move you to the HIVE and have you work out of there, where we know we can more easily secure your operations as well as the surrounding area.”

  “If we gain more credible information, we will move. Let’s make sure we have some Razorbacks on standby. In the meantime, I do not want to go into hiding unless I absolutely have to.” the President replied.

  With that, the Secret Service agent nodded, lifted his left arm to his mouth and spoke into the microphone in his sleeve. A flurry of activity began to take place all throughout the White House property.

  Twenty minutes later, the Director of the FBI, Janet Smart, walked into the PEOC. Soon afterwards, the Director of Homeland Security, Jorge Perez, and Director Patrick Rubio from the CIA arrived at the same time. They were followed shortly by Attorney General Roberts. The heads of the military branches all came in as a gaggle (there was General Marcy Lynch from the Marines, General Adrian Rice of the Air Force and Admiral Juliano from the Navy--the heads of the Army and the Coast Guard would be joining the group via telecon). The last one to the party was Admiral John Casey, the new Director for the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command.

  They all noticed the increased security at the White House; it would have been hard not to observe that the Marine guards were all now wearing full combat armor, and the Wolverines scattered around the grounds were rather conspicuous. Clearly, the President had increased security. The NSA Director was the one with the best inside knowledge of why the precautions were most likely being made; they had picked up some intel about the Japanese and Indian Ambassadors, and he had a reasonable theory regarding the purpose of their visit earlier.

  As the group of senior advisors arrived in the PEOC briefing room, they all took their seats at the pyramid-shaped table. The President, already seated at the head, surveyed the group briefly before he began the meeting.

  “Thank you everyone for rushing here to the White House. As you all can guess, something major has just happened that, once again, is going to make the war a lot more difficult to win. I have increased securi
ty at the White House, within the capital, and at major infrastructural nodes across the country, until we gain a better understanding of the new threat. I want to bring you up to speed on what has transpired these last five hours. An hour ago, I had a meeting with the Ambassadors of Japan and India, who arrived together. They each handed me an official Declaration of War against the United States. Their reasoning for why they declared war at this point is not going to change the fact that they have already taken hostile actions against our forces and our country.”

  The President saw some people were surprised, others just nodded, knowing this was a possibility. “After consultation with Admiral Casey, and General Gardner out on the West Coast, we have determined that the cyber-attack that temporarily crippled our defense communications system was launched by the Chinese and Japanese cyber warfare groups via our shared communications network with the Japanese Defense Force. The JDF had worked an elaborate rouse to lure our forces into an attack on the Chinese naval forces near Hawaii. This ruse was developed over many months and we fell for it, completely.”

  President Stein locked eyes with Admiral Juliano, then nodded his head, asking him to continue briefing on this point without saying anything. The admiral nodded in acknowledgement. “It appears the Chinese, with the help of our former allies, sunk four of our five Swordfish underwater drones. Then the Japanese and Chinese fleets sank nine of our ten warships, and managed to shoot down four of our six F41 Arch Angel fighters.”

  The room was so silent that the sound of each person breathing suddenly seemed loud.

  Turning to Director Perez from DHS, the President asked, “Jorge, would you please bring everyone up to speed on what has transpired at several of our airports?”

  Director Perez began to lay out the situation. “Gentlemen, Ladies, just before the communications blackout, several dozen commercial aircraft originating from Japan had either landed or were in the final approaches to their landing at some of our busiest international airports. Our best reports of what happened have come out of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and Hartsford-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The plane that landed in Chicago was the first one to arrive and dock at a terminal. Once there, a group of heavily armed Asian men wearing DHS uniforms emerged from the aircraft and made their way through the terminal to the parking garages, where vans were waiting for them to rush them off to what we assume are safe houses.”