by James Rosone
Up to this point, the invasion had been proceeding better than expected. Their forces in Los Angeles had done a marvelous job fighting the American Marines, though it did appear the war was about to take a turn for the worse as more and more American soldiers continued to pour into California from other areas of America. Their Special Forces raids in the heart of America via the airlines had also been yielding great results. They had already destroyed several critical rail bridges and tunnels in the cities surrounding the airports where a number of operatives had gotten out through security. The attacks against the transportation infrastructure of America were going to have a long-term effect on the Americans’ ability to defend themselves. However, the optimism of the situation was about to change.
Admiral Hito looked up and saw the PM had finally arrived. “PM, please, if you will come this way. We need to discuss the recent naval battle,” he said urgently.
As the PM walked towards the Admiral, he saw the look of sheer anxiety on the faces of many of the military officers. “What is so important that it could not wait until morning?” demanded Hata, clearly not happy with having been woken up in the middle of the night.
“Prime Minister, there was a major naval battle between our forces and the Americans off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Americans had moved their new battle group called Carrier Strike Group 12, along with their newest battleships and supercarriers to the Pacific several days ago. Three hours ago, the fleets came into range of each other and the battle started,” began the Admiral.
“Near as I can tell Admiral, this battle was a success, we sunk nine American warships,” shot back the PM, not sure why his officers were acting like this was some sort of disaster.
“Sir, there is more. Following our initial attack and success against the Americans, they launched their own assault using their newest super weapons. We had no idea they had these types of weapons, and they were incredibly deadly. They destroyed three of our five carriers and both of our battleships, along with nearly our entire support fleet. What is left of the fleet has retreated to Hawaii.” As the Admiral spoke, he hung his head low, not making eye contact with the PM.
PM Hata began to fill with rage and anger. He had been assured by the PLAN and his own Admirals that the American navy would be defeated, that their navy no longer posed a serious threat if they were to join the Chinese in this war. Now most of their fleet had been destroyed in just one engagement with the Americans...this was unacceptable.
Barely able to contain his ire, the PM yelled, “What happened?!” Then he softened his voice and hissed, “Start from the beginning, Admiral.”
The Admiral stiffened his back and looked the PM in the eyes as he relayed the sequence of the battle and what led to their defeat. “The Americans hacked into our computer systems on the carriers and our battleships. They took the ships’ power systems offline; then they began to disable specific combat systems like the point defense weapon systems. In the battleships, they disabled the railgun turrets. By the time our computer specialist could regain control of the power system and some of the defenses, the battle was well underway and the Americans were already attacking them. The best they could do was turn the fleet towards Hawaii and move as fast as they could to get away from the American guns.”
He pulled up some drone footage to show the PM. “They hit us with two new weapons we were not prepared for. One was their railgun turrets--we have them on our battleships as well, but the American railguns were shooting projectiles significantly larger than anything we thought possible; they also had a range of more than 120 kilometers, which was way beyond what we thought possible. Next, they hit the Chinese ships (and ours) with a pulse beam laser. Here is a video of the laser hitting a Chinese carrier; you can see how it only hits the ship for about five seconds, but cut a hole more than ten meters deep and two meters in diameter. It devastated the ship.”
“As our ships began to turn towards Hawaii, the American fighter drones began to pounce on our ships from the sky. Our support ships luckily did not have their systems hacked, so they were able to shoot down many of the drones, but not before they destroyed a large portion of our support fleet and three of our five carriers.”
PM Hata stood there in silence for a couple of minutes watching the drone feeds and thinking to himself, “If the Americans could do this to our fleet, how much more will they be able to do when the rest of their navy on the East Coast is ready? I fear I have led Japan down the road to ruin.”
“Admiral, this battle has been clearly lost; I need time to think about what this all means and what our next steps are. I am going to go get some food and talk with the Foreign Minister. We will both return to this room in three hours, and I would like a briefing on what the military heads’ recommendations are.” The PM was in a state of shock and resignation as he looked at the military officers standing around him. He knew he should say something inspiring at that moment, but he could not think of anything to say, so he turned around and left the room as he dialed the phone number to his foreign ministers.
Admiral Kawano could not believe he had lost 9,600 sailors in the span of thirty-five minutes. What had been the pride of the Japanese navy was now reduced to two supercarriers and a handful of escort ships. The PLAN had suffered a similar loss in capital ships. His officers were also still in a state of shock at what just happened; they continued pouring over the drone images of the attack to try and determine how this all happened. He knew the Americans had been working on pulse beam lasers and heavier railguns, but had no idea they had moved from experimenting with them to full implementation of them on their next generation warships. If they did not find a way to counter this, then they were going to be in some serious trouble.
What troubled him more was that all the transports were still heading to the American ports. With his naval force unable to protect those ships, a lot of men were going to die before they ever set foot on American soil.
*******
Hours later, Prime Minister Hata and his Foreign Minister Hirohita walked into the Command Center and made their way over to a corner in the room where the briefing table was. Several officers were setting up equipment near the table, while another aid was filling the glasses on the table with water and getting cups ready for tea.
Admiral Hito directed the officers around him to head to the table so they could begin the briefing. Fortunately, they had found some valuable information intermixed with the drone feeds and they were eager to share it. As everyone sat down, Admiral Hito cleared his throat and began to speak to the group. “PM, Foreign Minister, after careful review of the drone feeds of the battle, we have found some useful intelligence that may help us to defeat the advanced American warships. During the battle, our forces and the PLAN carried out what we in the navy call a missile swarm attack. Our ships and aircraft fired a series of waves of anti-ship cruise missiles at the American fleet. The American support ships and their capital ships did manage to destroy most of them, but a small percentage did still get through. During our attack, we managed to destroy three Zumwalt destroyers, four guided missile frigates and one heavy cruiser. That only leaves the carrier fleet with two of their older missile destroyers, three frigates and two heavy missile cruisers to assist their two battleships and three supercarriers.” The Admiral seemed to be boasting about the damage they had inflicted.
The PM seemed puzzled by the Admiral and other officers’ excitement and asked, “I commend our forces in destroying these American warships, but it sounds as if most of their fleet and their capital ships are still intact. What am I missing?”
Seeing that the PM and the Foreign Minister had not grasped the significance of what they had accomplished, the Admiral explained, “Sir, the American capital ships are powerful, but now they are vulnerable to a missile swarm attack. We launched 2,100 anti-ship cruise missiles at them. During that engagement, only 68 of our missiles got through to cause damage, but even those small numbers sank half of their missile screening defe
nse. If we can launch another missile swarm of this magnitude or greater, there is a high likelihood that we can sink their fleet.” The Admiral’s face glowed with a genuine smile.
PM Hata’s face relaxed out of its permanent frown for the first time that day as he finally realized what his officers were saying. Yes, they had just suffered a stinging defeat, but they had also discovered a way to sink this new and powerful fleet. “Admiral, how soon until we can launch another swarm attack like this?”
After calculating in his head for a moment, the Admiral responded, “Sir, we are moving as many anti-ship cruise missiles as we can to Hawaii right now. Our ships that are left can carry and launch 810 missiles; our drones can launch another 340. We believe the Chinese ships can launch a combined 940 missiles. I have a meeting with the PLAN Admiral in two hours to discuss our findings with them. I would like to believe we can coordinate a new attack against the Americans within the next couple of days.”
*******
Over the next two days, the Japanese and Chinese naval forces would work feverishly to bring as many anti-ship cruise missiles to Hawaii as possible. They also moved any available ships and support aircraft that were still available as well. Despite the tremendous loss, the mood of the commanders was now one of optimism.
Meet Me in St. Louis
31 December 2041
Washington, D.C.
Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC)
The President and his staff were still celebrating the great naval battle from the night before when Jose Perez walked in on the celebration with a very somber expression. “Mr. President,” he began. “I’m sorry to sour the mood, but it’s about St. Louis.”
“What happened, Jose?” asked Stein, turning serious.
“Sir, last night a Japanese Special Forces group placed explosives on the supports of the South I-235 bridge near the St. Louis airport…it dropped into the Mississippi. Not only is it stopping road travel there, but it’s also blocking river traffic.”
There was no more happy chatter in the back of the room. Director Perez continued, “It’s not just that, either. In addition to dropping the South bridge, they also dropped the North one, the I-64 bridge and I-70 bridge in downtown St. Louis. Twenty-Three National Guard soldiers who had been guarding the bridges were killed, along with seven police officers. As if the attack against the bridges were not bad enough, another attack group blew up the canal locks along the Chicago River, reversing the direction of the water flow and causing all sorts of pollution to be transported to Northern and Central Illinois.”
These weren’t the first successful attacks by the JDF; recent memories flashed back in everyone’s minds. Two days ago, a major shootout had occurred near the White House as a Japanese Special Forces group attacked and then subsequently destroyed the 14th Street bridge joining Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia across the Potomac River. Using several recoilless rifles, the attack force had also destroyed a section of the rail bridge that crosses nearby before they were killed by an Army unit that responded to the attack. The attack had been so close to the White House that it had reinforced the President’s assumption that Washington DC was not safe as long as enemy Special Forces were still prowling around.
The advisors turned back to business, discussing the attacks against the transportation grid and their potential military and economic impact. The President asked, “So, Admiral Casey, what is the status of the Trinity Program in tracking these guys down?”
“It’s a work in progress, Sir,” replied Casey. “We have managed to track down a large number of hostiles in Miami, Philadelphia and around Victoria, Texas, but obviously, there are still quite a number of them at large. It’s just a matter of time before they trip up though, Mr. President.”
FBI Director Janet Smart added, “We’ve also picked up smaller groups of the JDF Special Forces Group in Atlanta, Phoenix and outside of Gary, Indiana. We are currently utilizing enhanced interrogation methods to help close in on any of their compatriots that they may be able to locate.”
The President nodded.
Mike Rogers, the National Security Advisor, decided to lighten the mood a little. “Sir, I’ve been going over Admiral Casey’s reports from India and Japan. Not only are the cyber-attacks impacting the economies there, but public opinion in those countries has definitely moved against participating in the war in attacking the United States.” General Branson saw an opportunity and chimed in, “Speaking of good news, Sir, we have officially deployed the first Bodarks in Alaska. We’ve set them up behind the Russian and Chinese lines, hoping they will cause as much chaos as possible.”
“So, have we had movement in Alaska, then?” asked the President.
“No, Sir. Not yet. The lines have been well established at this point; it seems that all sides are content to wait until spring before they resume killing each other. Although we’ve definitely lost Alaska, there is a glimmer of hope. After the Russians secured Fairbanks and oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, they withdrew most of their forces, leaving an occupation force to deal with the American militias there. The Chinese also seem to be moving a lot of their troops and heavy equipment to the ports; perhaps they are trying to move them to California.”
The President wondered, “So, speaking of California, how soon do you think we will be able to end the invasion there and restore order?”
General Branson brought up the map of Southern California and the various military divisions and their locations. “We have 121,000 soldiers fighting in Los Angeles against about 148,000 enemy soldiers. As of right now, our intel estimates that an additional 12,000 enemy soldiers are arriving in Los Angeles through the ports every hour. Our naval forces are starting to move towards the ports, once in range they will begin to interdict the enemy transports.”
Zooming in closer to the map of Los Angeles, he continued, “As you can see, we have moved forces throughout the LA basin and encircled the enemy. We now have them blocked in, so they cannot expand their footprint while we continue to move additional forces into the area. We also have several armored divisions arriving now, so we should begin the new offensive shortly.”
Pulling up a different map of the San Francisco Bay area, General Branson explained, “The enemy forces in this area are much smaller in number. They have not moved nearly as many forces into the area, and we have managed to get an airborne brigade to the mouth of the bay and close it off from any additional transports that arrive. Right now, they are holding the area until we can get additional forces to them. We have two armored divisions and three infantry divisions about a day away now.”
“Well, that’s encouraging at least,” said the President. “What about San Diego?”
Branson changed the map again before he began, “Now that we have the enemy contained in LA, we have some of our forces heading down to San Diego. This pocket here is a bit more concerning. The enemy managed to offload six armored divisions and another twelve infantry divisions. They are gearing up to move north and attack our forces currently holding the lines in LA.”
General Adrian Rice took over, giving the Air Force perspective. “Mr. President, as you can see, the JDF and PLAN have ferried over roughly seven hundred fighter drones to provide air support. The Japanese moved 110 F35s, the PLAAF brought in 125 J20s and 90 of their new J39s, their newest stealth fighters. Right now, the skies are a cluster mess. Neither side has air superiority yet, and I’m not sure how long it will be until we can regain control of the skies. The two F41s that survived the ambush with the JDF fleet were destroyed on the ground when Twenty-Nine Palms was bombed.”
“Mr. President,” interjected General Branson, “I would like to pull the other flight of F41s from the air campaign in Alaska and move them back down here. We need the help, Sir.”
President Stein knew Branson was right. However, he also wanted to keep the F41s fighting over Alaska. He was hoping to find a way to get the Air Force into a position where they could maintain air superiority in t
he Klondike without the F41s. Until Operation Pegasus fully got underway, they were going to be months away from building any additional F41s.
“General Branson, before we bring the F41s down, I have a question. What will happen to our operations in Alaska if we do take them away from the forces there?” the President asked, turning to the Air Force Service Commander.
General Rice responded, “Mr. President, the Russians have pulled a lot of their forces out and moved them back to Europe. The Chinese are still giving us a lot of problems though. Our issue is we just do not have enough fighters or drones to fight everywhere. Having the F41s in Alaska has allowed us to beef up our air forces in Europe and now to divert additional forces to California. If we move them, we risk the Chinese being able to break out of our air defenses and launch further attacks in the Pacific northwest. We are moving tremendous amounts of aircraft from across the country to California. We will gain air superiority; we just need to be patient while we get everything in place,” he explained.
The President looked at Branson, “General, I agree with the Air Force on this one. You are going to have to make do with what you have.”
The General shrugged a little, but he decided not to fight the President on this one.
Stein moved on. “Changing subjects, I want to transition to the Pegasus project. Are we still on track?”
General Branson sat down, knowing that his part of the briefing was over. Dr. Peter Gorka came to life as his holographic image began to display from Henry’s tablet. “Yes, Mr. President; Pegasus is still on track. We are going to move forward with the launch in March. We anticipate the mining operations starting within four days of landing on the lunar surface. Our first shipment of Tritium4 will be ready for transport back to Earth beginning in April. We will also have the first delivery of Helium3 available in April as well.”
