by Dale Brown
the air lock leading to the crew cabin. Ignoring the biting cold,
he stripped off his gloves and snowsuit as the air lock pres-
surized, then removed his oxygen mask and helmet, opened
the forward air lock door, and entered the launch-control com-
partment. "Status!" he called out excitedly.
"M-9 is running hot and true," the launch officer replied.
"Altitude eighty thousand feet, twenty-nine miles downrange.
Datalink active." The officer handed Sun a messageform.
"This came in for you while you were aft, sir. Message from
headquarters. "
Sun took the messageform but did not bother to look at it-
FATAL TER RAI N 15
he was too excited about the launch. He watched in childlike
fascination as the tracking numbers changed, moving his finger
along a chart following its position as the missile zoomed
northeastward. It was running perfectly.
Minutes later, the M-9 was approaching its target-Tung
Ying Dao, what the rebel Nationalist government on the Chi-
nese island province of Formosa called Tungsha Tao. Tung
Ying Dao was a large archipelago of islands and reefs in the
South China Sea, claimed by Taiwan, about midway between
the southern tip of Formosa and Hainan Island, almost two
hundred miles east-southeast of Hong Kong. The rebel Tai-
wanese government had erected several military sites on the
largest island, Pratas Island, including U.-made Hawk and
Taiwanese-made Tien-Kung antiaircraft and Hsiung Feng anti-
ship missile sites. The defenses on the island were a great
threat to Chinese ships passing between the mainland and the
South China Sea, especially ships bound for the Spratly is-
lands, the archipelago of islands, reefs, and atolls claimed by
many western Asian nations.
"M-9 reaching apogee," the technicians reported. "Altitude
one hundred fifteen thousand feet, seventy-one miles down-
range-
Admiral Sun touched the sensor control, and in a few sec-
onds several white dots appeared on a dark black and green
background. This was an infrared image of the scene below
from the nose cone of the M-9 missile, beamed to the launch
aircraft via radio datalink. Sun magnified the image to maxi-
mum and could just barely make out the outline of Pratas
Island. Several other large, hot targets, far more intense on the
heat-sensitive sensor than the island, showed as well-these
were target barges with large diesel heaters set up on them,
arrayed around Pratas Island to act as targets for the M-9 mis-
sile.
' But Sun ignored the target barges. Instead, he locked the
targeting bug of the M-9 missile on the northwest section of
Pratas Island, where he knew the missile installations were
located. The senior technician noted this at once: "Excuse me,
Comrade Admiral, but you have locked the missile on the
landmass. .. .,,
"Yes, I know," Sun replied with a sly smile. "Continue
the test. I I
"Our telemetry systems won't record the impact if it strays
16 DALE BROWN
more than twenty miles off course," the tech reminded him.
"How long will we have datalink Contact before impact?"
"It should hold lock all the way to impact," the tech re-
plied, "although terrain or cultural obstructions may block the
signal within approximately eight seconds to impact."
"How far will the missile drift off course in eight seconds?"
-If it stays locked on, it will not drift off course," the tech
replied. "If it breaks lock when we lose the datalink ... it will
miss perhaps by not more than a few dozen meters."
"Then I think we will get all the telemetry we need," Sun
said. "Continue the test."
The closer the M-9 got to its target, the more detail they
could see. Through occasional spats of static and one short
nine-second datalink break as the warhead separated from the
booster section, Sun could start to make out large buildings,
then piers and wharves, then finally individual buildings.
Through long hours of study, Sun knew exactly what he was
looking at, and as soon as the system allowed him to do so,
he locked the warhead on the main barracks building, a two-
story wooden frame structure just a few hundred meters from
the northwestern shoreline of Pratas Island. Sun knew that ap-
proximately a thousand rebel Nationalist soldiers were sta-
tioned on Pratas Island, manning and servicing the antiair and
-ship sites-and he knew that about one hundred Taiwanese
soldiers would be asleep right now in those barracks.
"Twenty seconds to impact," the tech reported. "Uh ...
sir, should we lock on one of the target barges now?"
"Captain, if you dare question my actions ever again, you
will be commanding a garbage detail in Inner Mongolia prov-
ince by tomorrow night," Sun Ji Guorning said in a low voice.
"As far as you are aware, I locked the missile warhead's tar-
geting sensor on the primary target barge, and you saw it lock
on perfectly as expected. Is that clear, Captain?"
"Yes, sir," the technician responded. He watched in horror
as the warhead careened down out of the sky, faster and faster,
never wavering-it had held lock all the way until it passed
below datalink coverage. The last thing they saw on the TV
monitor was the broad, flat roofline of the barracks building.
Even if the warhead started to drift, which it didn't, the war-
head would not have missed that building full of sleeping sol-
diers. The warhead had no explosive charge on board, only
concrete ballast to simulate a 300-pound high-explosive war-
FATAL TE R RAI N 17
head, but such a large object smashing home at over 900 miles
an hour was going to do major damage even without a major
explosion. The devastation would be catastrophic-and the
rebel Nationalists would never know what hit them.
"Excellent test, comrades, excellent," Admiral Sun an-
nounced. "Secure all stations." He remembered the urgent
message from Beijing just then, and fished the messageform
out of his flight suit pocket and read as he continued, "Section
leaders, I expect full reports on any difficulties to me before
we land. Pilot, let us head back to base and--
He stopped dumbfounded, as he read. No, no, this was ini-
possible!
"Cancel that last order, pilot," Sun shouted. "All available
speed to Juidongshan naval base. What is our time en route?"
"Stand by, sir," the pilot responded. Sun was in a daze as
the pilot copilot, and flight engineer pulled out charts and
started computing the new flight planning information. The
three officers looked at each other nervously; then the pilot
turned to the navy admiral lower class and said, "Sir, the naval
base at Juidongshan does not have a runway long enough to
accommodate this aircraft. The closest base that can safely
accommodate us is Shantou, ETE, five-zero minutes. We can
have a helicopter standing by to take you to Juidongshan,
>
ETE--
"Pilot, I did not ask you to fly to Shantou," Sun said an-
grily. "Are the runways and taxiways at Juidongshan stressed
to take this aircraft?"
The copilot looked up the information in the airman's flight
supplement manual id replied, "Yes, sir, the runways can
an
handle us at minimum gross weight. The taxiways and ramp
areas are limited to thirty thousand pounds, so-"
"That is all I need," Sun said. "I do not need you to park
this plane-I only require that you drop me off. You can dump
fuel as you begin your approach to get down to emergency-
landing fuel weight."
"But, sir, the runway is made for only liaison aircraft and
helicopters," the flight engineer said. "It is only five thousand
feet long! Even with only minimum fuel to reach Shantou, our
safe takeoff roll will exceed the runway available by-"
"Lieutenant, I do not care if this plane becomes a permanent
fixture at Juidongshan-I want to be on the ground at Jui-
dongshan in less than a hour. If I am not in a car and on my
18 DALE BROWN
way to headquarters in that time, the next destination you will
be landing at will be a security ice cave in Tibet. Now, go!"
PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARmy NAVY EASTERN FLEET
(TAIWAN OPERATIONS) HEADQUARTERS,
JUIDONGSHAN NAVAL BASE, FUJIAN PROVINCE,
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
SUNDAY, 18 MAY 1997, 2316 HOURS LOCAL
(17 MAY, 1416 HOURS ET)
"Greetings to you, Comrade Admiral Sun Ji Guoming," Gen-
eral Major Qian Shugeng, the elderly deputy commander for
plans of the Military Command Headquarters Targeting Tai-
wain, said in a low, gravelly voice. "It is a pleasure to present
our operational plans to you on behalf of the general staff. I
will now turn the briefing over to my young deputy, Colonel
Lieutenant Ai Peijian. Colonel Peijian has been most helpful
in preparing this briefing for you. He is one of our hardest
workers and a true and loyal son of the Party."
The nearly eighty-year-old general officer waved a withered
hand to tonight's briefer, Colonel Lieutenant Ai Peijian-
" young" in his case meant about age fifty-five-who moved
to his feet and bowed respectfully. "Welcome, comrade, to
our status briefing regarding our standing war plans for the
glorious pacification and reunification with the rebel Nation-
alist Chinese on the island of Taiwan. Before I begin in detail,
I am happy to report that our plans are in perfect order and
await only the command from our Paramount Leader to exe-
cute the war plan. In less than one week, we can destroy the
Nationalists' defenses, capture the Nationalist president and his
key advisors and Kuomintang leadership, and start the process
of reunification under the Communist Party of China."
I 'That will be for me and Comrade General Chin to decide,
Colonel," Sun said, impatiently waving a hand for the briefing
to begin.
Just two minutes into the briefing, Sun knew that not much
had been changed-this was the same briefing he had been
given every two weeks for the past year now. This military
committee-the Operations and Plans Committee, part of the
FATAL TERRA I N 19
Military Command Headquarters Targeting Taiwan, or
MCHTT, based here in Juidongshan-was in charge of con-
tinually revising the war plans drawn up by the Central Mili-
tary Commission, China's main military command body, for
the initial attack, invasion, occupation, and subjugation of the
rebel Chinese Nationalist government on the island of For-
mosa. Every two weeks, the MCHT`T was required to brief the
Central Military Commission or its designated representative-
that had been Admiral Sun Ji Guoming for quite some time
now-on any changes to the war plan made because of force
or command changes on either side.
But it was a farce, typical of the huge, bloated People's
Liberation Army bureaucracy, Sun thought. No member of the
lowly MCHTT would dare make any substantive changes in
the war plans drawn up by the Central Military Commission-
that would be an act tantamount to treason. Colonel Ai was
the commanding officer of the planning division of the
MCHTT, but he was such a junior officer that if he worked in
Sun's office of the chief of staff, his day would be spent mostly
making tea and emptying wastebaskets for all the middle- and
upper-class flag officers there. If the Central Military Com-
mittee wanted any changes made as to how Taiwan was to be
11 reunited" with the mainland, the CMC would tell the chief
of staff, who would tell Sun, who would tell the MCHTT to
make the changes. That process might take six months-six
months spent by each bureaucrat in order to make sure that
his superior wasn't trying to screw him, each bureaucrat mak-
ing sure that the orders made him look good if it worked and
made someone else look bad if it didn't work.
The initial thrust of the attack on the island of Formosa was
to destroy the island's thick air and coastal security units from
long range. Seven fixed bases and ten mobile presurveyed
launch points in east-central China were programmed to launch
up to twenty Dong Feng-15 intermediate- and short-range mis-
siles each on Taiwanese targets per day, that was one hundred
and fifty to three hundred missiles per day, an incredible bom-
bardment. The attacks were programmed to last as long as a
month, but of course would be halted right before the am-
phibious invasion began, or upon the rebel's unconditional sur-
render. The high-explosive missile attacks would be followed
by tactical air strikes to mop up any surviving targets, escorted
by waves of fighters to ensure air superiority and to fight off
20 DALE BROWN
an expected counterattack by Taiwanese air forces. An am-
phibious invasion was deemed unnecessary-the thought be-
ing that loyal Communists on Taiwan would rise up, throw off
their Nationalist oppressors, and welcome the People's Lib-
eration Army ashore peacefully-but the aircraft carrier Mao
Zedong, formerly the Russian carrier Varyag and for a short
time the Iranian carrier Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and its
battle group would be used to ferry troops and supplies ashore
if necessary, while providing air cover against any resistance.
"Hold please, Colonel," Sun finally said. "You show the
employment of seventy-five DF- 15 missiles on Longtian to
launch against Taoyuan and Hsinchu Air Bases on Taiwan."
"Yes, sir ... ?"
"Yet I was briefed two days ago that there has been exten-
sive flooding on Longtian peninsula and that the base and city
are not fully repaired," Sun went on angrily. "The undamaged
missiles were removed and sent to Fuzhou. What forces are
covering Longtian's targets while their missiles are evacu-
ated?"
Colonel Ai seemed stunned at Sun's question. "The evac-
uation was merely precaut
ionary, sir," he responded. "We ex-
pect the missiles to be back at their presurveyed launch points
in just a few days. . . ."
"But then you are in fact telling me that Taoyuan and Hsin-
chu are not really at risk right now," Sun insisted. "You are
saying-"
"Comrade Admiral, Longtian covers the initial bombard-
ment of Taoyuan and Hsinchu," General Lieutenant Qian said
in a loud, irritated voice. "Colonel Ai, continue the briefing-"
"But, sir, I just said there are no missiles at Longtian," Sun
interrupted. Although Qian was senior to Sun, they were both
of equal rank and authority, and it was certainly within Sun's
purview to question anything in this briefing. He turned to
Colonel Ai and asked, "Did you bother to move any bombers
from the interior or from the north to cover those targets?
Zeguo Air Base can perhaps handle twenty or thirty B-6 bomb-
ers; Hangzhou and Fuzhou might be able to handle thirty each
as well. One hundred bombers might be able to cover those
two Nationalist cities until the DF-15s can be replaced at
Longtian. You might be able to get a number of Q-5s to cover
the targets, but it might take a hundred and fifty or, more,
depending on the status of Taiwan's Tien Kung-2 antiaircraft
FATAL TERRAIN 21
missile deployment that was scheduled for this month at Hsin-
chu. But the weather is getting a bit better, so the Q-5s might
have a good chance." Sun paused, regarding Ai. He still
looked absolutely petrified with confusion, his eyes shifting
back and forth from Sun to Qian. "Are you getting any of
this, Comrade Colonel?"
"Yes, sir, " Ai said, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as
if he were choking on his own tongue. But a warning glare from
General Qian got his attention, and he pressed on: "Ah ...
yes, as I was saying, Longtian's DF- 15 missiles will destroy
the air defense bases at Taoyuan and Hsinchu, with secondary
targets at Taipei and Lung Tan available when intelligence
reports the destruction of these two air
facilities-"
"Commde Colonel, are you listening to what I am saying?"
