Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 06

by Fatal Terrain (v1. 1)

  The Wolverine cruised over the target location and seeded the area with anti-vehicle skeets. Each skeet had a canister that contained infrared sensors and several copper rods. The canister would spin as it was ejected from the Wolverine missile. When the infrared sensors detected a vehicle-size target below, it would detonate a small explosive charge that would instantly melt the copper rod and shoot it at the target. The highspeed slug of molten copper was powerful enough to penetrate the thin steel of heavy trucks or light tanks. Each skeet could fire several slugs at once in all directions, sometimes shooting several slugs into one vehicle.

  The Wolverine missile would fly its preprogrammed flight plan, cruising over the area, dropping decoys, and then dropping skeets over any SAM sites detected. Each Wolverine missile had the capability of destroying dozens of targets on its flight, so with four Wolverine cruise missiles operating in a thirty-by-thirty-mile target box, almost a thousand targets were instantly at risk. The skeets worked their devastating magic with gruesome efficiency. Not only were surface-to-air missile sites at risk, but any hot vehicles within a hundred yards of the skeets were likely targets—troop carriers, transports, supply trucks, even small buildings, anything with a warm core. Once a copper slug burned through the outer layer of its target, it had cooled sufficiently so that the second hard surface it hit caused the slug to break apart instead of burning through. For most targets, this meant that the copper slug first penetrated inside a passenger or crew compartment of a vehicle, ricocheted off a second hard surface, then instantly turned into thousands of bits of bulletlike projectiles that bounced around inside, shredding anything in its path.

  The results of the Wolverine missile’s deadly flight was evident to the crew of the Megafortress as they approached the Chinese coastline. Off in the darkened distance, they could see numerous patches of bright red flashes as the skeets went off, followed seconds later by bright yellow or white flashes as a truck, tank, or other vehicle was hit and destroyed. Many times they saw spectacular secondary explosions, as a skeet activated over a missile or antiaircraft artillery site, causing missiles to explode or entire ammunition magazines to cook off. After each Wolverine missile’s deadly cargo was expended, the missile would do a kamikaze crash into the next SAM site it detected.

  The net result: by the time the Megafortress was “feet dry” over the Chinese coast, more than fifty mobile antiaircraft weapon sites had been destroyed or put out of commission in the area, another three hundred vehicles of all shapes and sizes had been hit—plus over a thousand soldiers and sailors had been killed or injured.

  But the Megafortress wasn’t the heavy hitter in this attack. Following the EB-52 and coming in from several directions at once was a twelve- plane attack formation of Taiwanese F-16 Fighting Falcons. The Republic of China’s F-16s—all but four of their surviving fleet of sixteen—had lagged several minutes behind the EB-52, waiting until the long-range Ilyushin-76 radar plane and the ground-based air defenses had been destroyed before making their move. Spread out over forty miles in six flights of two, the F-16s dashed in at 300 feet above the Formosa Strait, the waves acting as their only terrain-masking feature. But although the air defense sites along the coast had detected the F-16s a full six minutes before they attacked, they could do nothing about it—because the Wolverine missiles were knocking out the missile-control and targettracking radars long before the Chinese defenders could launch a counterattack.

  The EB-52’s Wolverine cruise missiles had destroyed the air defense units and many of the larger vehicles arrayed around Quemoy Bay preparing to invade Taiwan’s Quemoy Island—the F-16 Fighting Falcons’ mission was to destroy or disrupt the estimated three hundred thousand troops getting ready to cross the bay and retake Quemoy for mainland China. Each F-16 carried six 800-pound CBU-59 APAM (AntiPersonnel, Anti-Materiel) cluster bomb units, which scattered 670 one- pound bomblets over a football field-size area. When the CBU-59 releases were computer-sequenced, laying the dispersal footprints end- to-end, the swath of destruction for each F-16 equaled over 350,000 square feet, the size of a suburban shopping mall. Some of the bomblets were fuzed to detonate on impact; others used tiny trip wires that would cause the bomblet to explode if disturbed or if a vehicle passed nearby. All unexploded bomblets would self-detonate after a period of time, anywhere from five minutes to twenty-four hours after being sown. One baseball-size bomblet could destroy a small vehicle, damage a large wheeled vehicle—or kill anyone standing within thirty feet.

  Since the majority of Chinese amphibious and infantry forces ready to invade Quemoy were either traveling in trucks or bivouacked in tents along Quemoy Bay, awaiting orders to begin the main assault, they were caught mostly in the open and fully exposed to the cluster bomb attack. Except for sporadic, unguided antiaircraft cannon and small-caliber fire, the F-16s began their egress from the target area completely unopposed. One Taiwanese F-16 Fighting Falcon was hit by cannon fire and was forced to eject, but not until he flew his stricken fighter east of Quemoy Island, practically into the arms of waiting Taiwanese patrols.

  “Center up on the steering bug, heading two-eight-three, five minutes thirty seconds to the next turnpoint,” McLanahan reported to the Megafortress crew. They had crossed the Chinese coastline forty miles south of Xiamen, over Futou Bay; the new heading would take them south and west of the city of Zhangzhou and along the southern edges of the Boping and Wuyi Mountains. “Minimum safe clearance altitude, five thousand five hundred feet. High terrain twelve o’clock, twenty miles.” They were flying at treetop level using the EB-52’s COLA (COmputer-generated Lowest Altitude), in which the satellite-based navigation system compared its present and projected position, along with airspeed and heading, with a huge database of terrain elevations to compute the lowest possible altitude the Megafortress could fly without hitting any terrain or known man-made obstructions, and without using any radar emissions that might give their location away.

  “Bandits, twelve o’clock, no range, no altitude yet,” Luger called out. “Just popped up ... got a range estimate now, about forty-one miles and closing fast . . . speed five hundred knots. I think we got a couple Chinese Sukhoi-27s in the area, guys—and the son of a bitch might have gotten a look at us.”

  GOVERNMENT HOUSE, BEIJING, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA THAT SAME TIME

  A group of Chinese Communist Party Politburo members had joined Jiang in congratulating Sun Ji Guoming for his service. Jiang continued his praise for Sun, saying to all of his colleagues, “A stroke of genius, igniting a conflict on the Korean Peninsula at the same time as your attacks against the Nationalists. The Chinese Taipei issue certainly does pale in comparison to the prospect of a new Korean War. ”

  “In your address to the world, Comrade President, may I also suggest that you offer to mediate a resolution of the conflict between North and South Korea, and perhaps go as far as to refuse to commit any of our troops to assist President Kim Jong-il if he refuses to participate in negotiations,” Sun suggested. “That might prevent the South from beginning its own offensive. Of course, if the South or the United States attacks the North first, we should threaten to use all of our resources to assist President Kim. The same for the Iranian conflict, if one should develop— we can offer to convince the Iranians to halt any aggression, in exchange for a greater presence in that region.”

  President Jiang was obviously impressed by Sun’s ideas. “I still find it hard to believe,” the Paramount Leader said, “that we have used nuclear weapons against the rebel Nationalists and even against the United States, and we still apparently face no threat of retaliation. What has happened to the vaunted American military machine?”

  “The machine is still there, Comrade President, and it is still powerful,” Sun warned. “That American submarine was probably sitting near Bandar-Abbass for weeks, and no doubt there are American submarines near most of our coastal military bases and ports as well that we have failed to detect—perhaps even with nuclear attack missiles. And if t
he Americans ever get proof that we planted the nuclear explosive on the Independence, we may indeed find ourselves at war with the United States. But as long as Martindale and his generals do not have a clear target, they cannot strike without being labeled as ‘warmongers,’ which is a hated name in America. We must not act rashly, but we must continue to keep the American president unbalanced and uncertain.”

  “Excellent advice, comrade Sun,” Jiang said warmly. At that moment, an aide came up to Sun, bowed to the president, and handed Sun a message. “You have been a trusted and most valuable adviser to me. Your hard work and loyalty have been favorably noted by the Party. ”

  “Thank you, Comrade President,” Sun said. He glanced at the note, then went on, “It is my honor as well as my duty to carry out the wishes of the—” And then he froze in complete surprise and muttered, “What in blazes?”

  “What is it, comrade Sun?”

  “The Quemoy invasion forces at Xiamen Bay are under air attack! ” Admiral Sun Ji Guoming exclaimed. “Air defense sites, missile emplacements, amphibious assault staging areas ... it is a massive attack force! But where? Where did it come from?”

  “What about casualties?” President Jiang asked breathlessly. “Did we stop them? Did we sustain any losses?”

  Sun Ji Guoming read the message carefully, his eyes widening and his jaw slackening further and further as he read. Finally, he responded in a quivering voice, “The air defense sites ... they were hit by precision weapons, some kind of armor-piercing weapon that homed in on our antiaircraft radars. Then more aircraft, believed to be Nationalist F-16 fighter-bombers, flew over and dropped cluster munitions on the infantry staging areas. Casualties are . . . believed to be high.”

  “High? How high? How many casualties?”

  “There is no report, sir,” Sun explained. “This is obviously a preliminary report—”

  “What do you mean, Admiral?” Jiang exploded. “There have been high casualties, but you do not know how many? Where did this attack come from? I thought you told me the rebel Nationalist air force had been destroyed!”

  “It has been destroyed, sir,” Sun said, his mind swirling in confusion. “I am sure of it! We hit every major rebel air base with a nuclear missile, and we have attacked every known alternate rebel air base with gravity weapons. The attack must have come from another base in the region, perhaps South Korea or Japan, perhaps even the Philippines.”

  “But all of those countries pledged not to support the rebels or the United States in any offensive military missions,” Defense Minister Chi Haotian interjected. “They promised that the United States would not be permitted to stage attacks against us from their soil.”

  “Then the attackers must have come from Formosa,” Sun said. “I do not know how they managed to sneak past our radar planes and elude our air defenses, but they cannot destroy all our air forces. My Tupolev- 16 heavy bombers are standing by—I shall order another heavy bombing attack against the rebels, this time attacking their civilian airfields and alternate bases—any field capable of staging F-16 fighter-bomber attacks against us.”

  “It is so ordered,” President Jiang said. “You must execute this mission immediately. We must retaliate against the Nationalists right away.” “Yes, sir,” Sun said, relieved that the president and Politburo members weren’t turning this bad news against him. “I also ask permission to use the entire fleet of Tupolev-26 supersonic bombers to spearhead the attack. If some of the rebels’ F-16 fighters survived our air raids, we must use the high-speed bombers to penetrate their fighter screen and attack the targets.”

  Jiang Zemin hesitated. He did not approve of Sun using the newly acquired Russian-made supersonic bombers—at one and a half billion yuan each, the six Tupolev-26 supersonic bombers and the other weaponry, spare parts, test equipment, and support items necessary to maintain the high-tech machines, purchased from Russia amid great international fear and outrage, represented one of China’s biggest single defense outlays. But Jiang also did not want to appear too reluctant in front of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo members to do all that was necessary to defend the country and subdue all its enemies. If he asked the Politburo for permission to use the Tu-26s, he would probably be refused—but now, with an apparent disaster confronting them, each Politburo member was wondering why Jiang was taking so long to give Sun Ji Guoming the weapons he needed to win. “Permission granted,” Jiang said finally.

  “Thank you, Comrade President,” Sun said. “The rebels will be put back in their place, I guarantee it. This was the Nationalists’ ‘Battle of the Bulge’—it does not represent a change in fortunes for them.” Sun turned and strode purposely out of the chamber, feeling the concerned and dubious stares of Jiang Zemin and the CCP Politburo on the back of his neck.

  President Jiang was immediately joined by General Chin Po Zihong, the chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, who looked at the retreating form of Admiral Sun Ji Guoming with obvious distaste. Jiang motioned for Chin, his foreign minister Qian, and his defense minister Chi to join him in a private office. “I want a full report on this attack, Comrade General,” President Jiang ordered. “This is unthinkable and totally unacceptable!”

  “Yes, Comrade President,” Chin said. “The admiral has clearly lost control of the situation. He thinks that the Americans will simply retreat like scared rabbits. This situation proves how wrong he is.”

  “But his plan seemed to have been working so well.”

  “How so, Comrade President?” General Chin retorted angrily. “Your original orders were for the People’s Liberation Army to return Zhong- gua to its rightful position in the world, with all of the lands taken from us returned and our country unified once again. Despite all our losses, civilian and military, and despite the loss of face we have suffered by using nuclear weapons, have we actually taken any territory away from our enemies anywhere? Our thirteenth province, Formosa, has been blasted into a charred rock. We spent billions of yuan mobilizing our invasion forces, but Sun has not even landed one battalion on either Quemoy or Matsu—he sends his little ‘probes’ out, but he has not mustered the courage to lead the People’s Liberation Army on a true mission, only these long-range aerial bombardments. Now, with hundreds of thousands of our best troops exposed and vulnerable, the rebel Nationalists and their capitalist masters have struck hard against us. We may not have the forces available to accomplish an invasion now. No one is to blame except Sun Ji Guoming.”

  President Jiang was clearly horrified by Chin’s argument. “What can we do?” he asked.

  “The American-led attack on our forces near Xiamen could have come from one place only—Andersen Air Force Base on the American- occupied island of Guam,” Chin said. “Our intelligence clearly showed that several of the stealth-modified B-52 bombers were secretly sent there—no doubt more of them, and other long-range bombers as well, had been dispatched since Sun’s indiscriminate bombardment of Formosa.” He paused, drawing Jiang’s full attention to him; then: “We must destroy Andersen Air Force Base. We must destroy the American bomber base that threatens us.”

  “Destroy an American air base?” Jiang repeated in a horrified voice. “A direct attack against one of America’s most important bases in the Pacific theater? We cannot!”

  “We must, Comrade President,” General Chin said urgently. “Otherwise we will be open to attack at any time by American bombers. We must strike quickly and decisively.” Jiang hesitated, clearly fearful of even thinking of making such a decision. “This is not an act of aggression, Comrade President,” Chin went on. “This is retaliation for their attack against our ground forces. We have the right to defend ourselves against American stealth bomber attacks.”

  “But destroying this base will not stop the American long-range bombers,” Minister of Defense Chi Haotian, who had joined the discussion after Sun had departed in such a hurry, interjected. “We now know that the Americans were able to fly stealth bomber attacks into Iran from their North
American bases.”

  “With Andersen Air Force Base shut down, the Americans will have to use far more resources to attack us,” Chin argued. “We are far stronger than Iran—where one stealth bomber nearly decimated the Iranian military, it would take many more even to begin to affect the People’s Liberation Army. This will only serve to bring all the parties involved to the bargaining table sooner.”

  “I wish I could believe this to be true, General,” Jiang said. “I want to believe that we can accomplish peace by using force.”

  “We have already started on this path, Comrade President,” Chin said in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. “Admiral Sun made a compelling argument, and the decision was made to support his unorthodox plan. He was successful in convincing America’s allies to cease their support. But now his plan has stalled, and the attacks are coming from a colonial base near China that is wholly occupied by the Americans—Sun’s plan did not affect American military operations out of Guam. We must show the Americans that we will not tolerate their slaughter from the skies. We must attack and neutralize Andersen immediately. ”

  “How do you propose to do it, Comrade General?” Minister Chi asked.

  “The best way possible—a missile attack using our Dong Feng-4 intermediate-range ballistic missiles,” Chin said. “We have ten such missiles on alert, headquartered at Yinchuan and deployed throughout Ningxia Huizu and Nei Monggol provinces. I would propose launching all ten missiles at Guam—because of the poor accuracy of our missiles and the strong anti-missile defenses erected on Guam, we may need all of them to neutralize the American military installations on the island. The missiles carry different warheads, depending on the serviceability of the missile itself: most missiles carry a single sixty-kiloton warhead, although some carry a single two-megaton warhead, and the most advanced missiles carry three sixty-kiloton warheads.”