by James Rosone
“I want everyone to enjoy this evening and the comraderie of your fellow sailors and marines. Those on shift tonight will be replaced by their commanding officers at the end of your shift for four hours while everyone enjoys a few extra hours of sleep in the morning. Starting tomorrow, we are going to be working longer and harder than ever before to get this fleet ready for combat. We will reach the Panama Canal in 67 hours at flank speed, and we will be in range of attacking the PLAN fleet within six days.”
“We do not have a lot of time left to get our ships ready for combat. I want everyone to know that your nation and I are counting on you to be ready. I have full confidence in your abilities; we will win this coming fight. The men and women you see around you will be the guiding force in turning the war in our favor. Please take a few minutes to pray and give thanks for everything that we have been given, and trust that your commanders have your best interests at heart. That is all.”
The media director had a few small edits and wording changes to the speech, but otherwise it was ready to be broadcast to the crew. The entire fleet would hear the message just before their Christmas dinner.
Rude Awakening
26 December 2041
London, Great Britain
10 Downing Street
The political and military leadership of Great Britain had been following the latest developments of the war and the invasion of California with rapt attention and shock. They could not believe the Japanese had betrayed the Allies like this and were leading the invasion of California. There were images all over TV and streaming on the Web of millions of residents fleeing San Diego, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area as refugees; the sight was shocking and horrifying. Nearly ten thousand civilians had already been killed across the three major cities from cruise missile attacks and the fighting currently underway.
The massive flow of refugees fleeing the warzone was hampering the American military from getting forces into the cities to repel the invaders, and had stopped additional reinforcements from arriving. The American President had gone to the airways to assure the American people that the military would soon repulse these invaders and that Japan and India would pay a steep price for their betrayal. Images were being shown of General Gardner’s American Third Army moving from their bases across Colorado, Utah and Nevada heading towards California. The President had declared that all 1,300,000 soldiers of the Third Army, as well as their armored vehicles were on their way to California and would retake these iconic cities.
The Prime Minister pulled away from the images on the television and turned to the Director of MI6. “George, you’ve always been one for candor. How bad is it really in America right now?”
The other members in the briefing room all looked at George to see what he had to say. “Good and bad sir.”
Annoyed at the cryptic and unhelpful answer, PM Blair shot back, “Please, elaborate a bit for us, will you?”
Snickering could be heard by a few of the military men as they saw the director stiffen a bit. He was not very well liked; he had been one of the few senior members of the British government to dismiss the idea that Russia was going to invade the EU, citing the same logic as the EU intelligence services (who were claiming that the Russian economy was too tied to Europe to risk a military conflict). He had been proven utterly wrong, but had still managed to cling on to power.
“Sir, the Americans have restored their military communications systems again, so in that respect things are looking up. They can effectively communicate with their ground and air forces. Unfortunately, in the invaded cities they are having a hard time getting reinforcements to the fight with the refugees clogging the roads. The ground war in Alaska has finally become a stalemate now that winter has moved across the state, making it hard for the Russian and Chinese armies to effectively attack the American defenses there, so at least they can focus solely on these new invasions.”
The MI6 director was not telling them anything more than what the media was already providing. Feeling frustrated at the lack of information provided, Admiral Sir Mark West, First Sea Lord, felt he needed to interject. “Prime Minister, the war in the Pacific and on the West Coast is about to change dramatically in the next week. President Stein ordered the secretive American Carrier Strike Group 12 to set sail for the West Coast in order to retake the Pacific. Admiral Juliano just provided us with a brief on their mission and shared the details of the new Reagan class carriers and the new Web class battleships. They have also agreed to share the designs with us, if we wish to pursue building them ourselves.” Sir Mark West was clearly hoping the PM would be interested in building one of these new revolutionary warships; he spoke as a child who is hinting about a new toy they would like for Christmas.
The PM was still feeling rather irritated with his intelligence director, and chided him. “George, you seem distracted; I want to know about what is going on in Japan and India at the end of the meeting. Please collect yourself and be prepared to provide a more detailed response than what you just gave us.”
George nodded to acknowledge the PM, and then he began to look through some of his notes, writing down a few specific points to bring up.
Looking back to the First Sea Lord, the Prime Minister inquired, “Sir Mark, I am not familiar with these new ships; would you please bring us up to speed on them now that they have shared the details with you?”
Smiling, Sir Mark happily complied. “Sir, the Reagan class carriers are a completely new design. They have the command island in the center of the ship with runways on all sides of it. The ship is 100 meters longer in length than their current carriers, 65 meter wider, and 36 meters taller. The carrier can accommodate 36 F35Cs and 150 fighter bomber drones, along with Razorbacks. The defenses on the ship are incredible. They have 32 20mm anti-aircraft/anti-ship railguns surrounding the edge of the flight deck. Just below the flight deck, the ship has two twin-mounted five-inch anti-ship railguns, one on each side of the ship; these have a range of 143 kilometers at a flat trajectory--”
The PM interrupted, “--How were they able to increase the railgun range that much? I thought the railgun only had a range of--at best--39 kilometers.”
“The Americans incorporated the new Angelic reactor, providing the carrier with enough power generation capability to power one quarter of Great Britain. The increased energy, along with a five-foot increase in barrel length, allows them to shoot the projectile significantly farther than previously possible. The real power of the fleet though is going to be the new Web class battleships,” the Sea Lord explained giddily.
“Let me guess--it also has this new railgun as well?” Blair asked with a wry grin on his face. He was rather amused by watching the Sea Lord (who was normally a very serious and dry person) become this excited about something.
“Yes, it has two-twin turret railguns, but these guns are ten-inch guns with the same range. The ship also has two pulse beam laser turrets, which are capable of engaging aerial targets as far away as 439 kilometers out and enemy ships up to 132 kilometers away, which is basically the limit due to the curve of the horizon. They shared some data on the pulse beam; it shot an eight-inch hole through a ship they were using for target practice. The ship also carries six hundred cruise missiles and has a myriad of anti-aircraft and missile defense systems. Sir, these four new ships are going to single-handedly destroy the Chinese and Japanese fleets once they get in range. Once they secure the ocean along the West Coast and Alaska, the Axis forces there are going to wither and die.”
The group continued to talk for a while about these new ships and what they would mean for the war effort going forward. Finally, PM Blair turned to the MI6 Director and asked, “George, are you ready to brief us on what is going on in India and Japan?”
Trying to reassert himself, the Director replied, “Yes Sir, there is a lot of information to share. As you may be aware, the Americans are now waging a cyber-war against India and Japan. One of my top analysts believes that the Indian fin
ancial system may collapse within the next few weeks; the Americans have caused all the ATMs in the country to empty, creating havoc throughout the cities as people tried to grab as much ‘free’ money as possible. Then, rumors spread on the internet about a new bank tax and possible insolvency of several of the major banks. People have been trying to withdraw as much money as possible from their accounts, and I am getting reports that this run on the banks may result in the government closing all of the banks by later today in order to prevent a full run on the banking system. Of course, that would only further fuel the disinformation the American hackers have been spreading everywhere.”
The Sea Lord flipped to a different slide on his tablet as he switched topics. “The situation in Japan is still taking shape; the cyber-attacks there appear to be slightly different. The Americans have gone after the financial system there as well, but they have also attacked a lot of the Internet of Things (IoT) integrated items; this has affected the communications system, among other things. The systems that control the digital glasses people often wear was taken offline. They also disabled the automatic vehicle driving systems within the major cities, effectively disabling a large portion of the vehicles in Japan from being used until they patch the system. To further complicate the transportation system, the Americans disabled the rail systems by attacking the electronically controlled engines and forcing them to burn out.”
The PM was amazed at the ability of the Americans to effectively disable these two countries’ digital capability. “Clearly, the Americans have improved their cyber capabilities since the beginning of the war. This is an impressive display,” he remarked.
Turning to one of his generals, the PM asked, “General, what is the status of our forces here in Europe with regards to the new attack against the Americans?”
All eyes turned to the general, hoping he had good news to share as well. “Sir, 300,000 new soldiers from the South American Multi-National Force have just arrived in France and England. The Americans had also sent us an additional 20,000 soldiers to replace the ones they’ve lost during the last several months of fighting. Right now, we have the Russians contained; they cannot break out of their current lines, nor can we break through. That situation will change in the next couple of months as more of the new German and French tanks come on line and the Americans send some of those new F41 Arch Angel fighters. Our goal right now is to hold our positions and continue to consolidate our gains while we plan for another offensive in February or March,” the general explained.
The prime minister thought for a minute before responding, “General, perhaps it is time we reconsider launching a new attack against the Russians, but not along our current battle lines. Let’s consider a plan to hit northern Norway, with the goal of driving on Murmansk. That northernmost Russian naval base leads to the White Sea and the heart of the Russian navy.”
“We could, PM, but we would need to look at late spring to conduct an attack like that. Most of that area is frozen over during the winter, so moving troops, vehicles and ships would be extremely challenging. I can have our planners put together an invasion plan, but I would like this to be in conjunction to a spring offensive along the western front as well. This way, we can catch them off guard.”
“Excellent, then let’s move forward with the planning phase. We’ll evaluate the strategy in a couple of months once your planners have had time to put things together.”
With the needed updates completed, the PM ended the meeting and everyone moved to execute their orders.
New Directive
26 December 2041
80 Miles Southwest of Los Angeles, California
Admiral Tomohisa Kawano’s fleet was now in range of launching their heliborne assault forces to reinforce their troops already fighting in the city of LA. It was critical that they hold the city and its port facilities long enough for the invasion force to arrive and bring the follow-on troops coming from Japan, China and India. As they neared the coast, several of the ships began to take aim at the coast, providing fire support to the JDF soldiers desperately trying to hold their ground against the US Marines.
One of the communications officers walked towards the Admiral, signaling that he needed to talk with him. “Sir, Admiral Xi from the PLAN has sent us new orders.” As he spoke, the officer handed the Admiral the newest directive from the PLAN fleet.
The Captain of the Carrier, Nagasaki, saw the exchange and walked over to Admiral Kawano to ask, “What do they want us to do?” He was curious to know what the “new masters” had in store for them. Not all the officers in the fleet were happy about turning on the Americans and attacking them like they had. Captain Nagasaki had honored his orders, but he was not happy about it. He also feared what would happen to his fleet and to Japan once the Americans rebounded from their treachery.
Admiral Kawano forgave the intrusion of his senior captain and explained, “Admiral Xi wants us to offload our ground forces as quickly as possible, and then prepare to join them as they head towards the Panama Canal and attack the American carrier group that is close to traveling through it.”
Admiral Kawano could see the concern in his officer’s eyes; the PLAN had been able to successfully defeat the American Seventh Fleet at the outset of the war, but the Americans had built a new series of warships and none of them knew what they were going to be like. They only knew that they were going to incorporate a lot of new technology that they had not been privy to, even when they were allies. He didn’t judge his captain for those feelings though; he felt the concern too. Instead, he tried to bring him back into the process, asking, “Captain, how soon until our transports can dock at the ports and we turn our attention to the new threat?”
Nagasaki sighed before responding, “Sir, the transports are already moving ahead of the fleet as we speak; they will be docking in the ports within the next three hours. Once they are in the port, we can turn the fleet to join the PLAN after they have offloaded their invasion forces.” As he spoke, the Captain resigned himself to the fact that they were going to have to fight the US navy toe-to-toe and hope for the best.
Suddenly, one of the action officers walked towards their little group and announced, “Sir, one of the destroyers has detected an American submarine in the area and is engaging it. The sub apparently fired off a series of torpedoes at the transports and one of the cruisers….”
Their jaws hit the floor in genuine surprise.
On my Mark, Engage
26 December 2041
Off the coast of San Clemente, California
Captain Hughes had guided the USS Utah as close to the path of the JDF transports as possible without giving away his position. Their goal was to fire a spread of torpedoes at the transports and get a shot off at the Japanese cruiser guarding them. Those transports were bringing troops, tanks and other material to support their ground forces in LA; if the Utah could send a few of them to the bottom, then maybe they could give the ground forces a better fighting chance of repulsing the invasion.
Looking at his XO, Captain Hughes said, “Commander Mitcham, do we have a firing solution yet on those ships?”
Receiving a nod from his weapons officer, Commander Mitcham replied, “Sir, we have four torpedoes targeting the freighters, one each. The other two are targeted at the guided missile cruiser escorting them. We are ready to fire when you give the order,” he said nervously.
The tension in the air was immense; once they fired their weapons, the Japanese would know where they were. Their sonar technicians had already detected two enemy submarines in the area, in addition to the five destroyers with the Japanese fleet and the rest of their anti-submarine helicopters. The chances of them surviving this attack were slim, and they all knew it. They also knew they had a duty to try and stop the enemy troops from landing in America, if at all possible.
Looking at the men and women manning the Con, the captain could see fear in their eyes, but also anger and determination to avenge their fallen brethren. Captai
n Hughes steeled his own nerves and ordered, “Fire all tubes!”
“Tubes one through six are firing! One, two, three, four, five, six. All tubes fired. Torpedoes are tracking their targets,” one of the sailors said as he read off the times to impact.
Without missing a beat, the Captain yelled, “Chief of the Boat, take us down to five hundred feet! Launch the decoy now and get us out of here!”
As the Utah began to dive, they deployed their submarine decoy, which was essentially a large torpedo that was designed to sound just like the Utah at a higher rate of speed. This would make it appear to the enemy sonar operators that the Utah was trying to flee the area. If all went well, they would go after and attack the decoy and the Utah would be able to slip away to fight another day.
Within a minute, several enemy torpedoes were in the water heading towards the decoy. Just as the men of the Utah thought they might have escaped, a Chinese submarine who had been monitoring the area spotted the Utah as she descended to below 500 feet. The Chinese sub was less than 5,000 meters away from the Utah when they fired two torpedoes at nearly point blank range. The Utah was still reloading her own torpedo tubes, so they were unable to fire back. Within two minutes, the Chinese torpedoes zeroed in on their mark and struck the Utah, imploding her hull and killing everyone on board.
Another Beach Invasion
26 December 2041
Oceanside, California
Corporal Chang had recovered from his wounds during the beach invasion of Anchor Point and was once again back with his old unit. He had also been promoted to Sergeant and now commanded the entire platoon, along with a lieutenant who had just been assigned to their company. Word had it they were going to be the lead element landing on the beach near the Marine Base, Camp Pendleton. Chang had never fought the American Marines before. He fought the American Army soldiers in Alaska, and they were tough as nails. He had been told the Marines fight like devils. He thought that hard to believe because the Americans he fought in Alaska fought like men possessed, and they were Army soldiers. If the Marines were supposed to be tougher, then he was not sure he wanted to meet them.
