by Dale Brown
bomb attacks on Taichung and Tainan could be seen as a line
FATAL T E R RAI N 327
of tiny pinpoint flashes of light that streaked across the dark-
ness far below.
"Radar reports rebel fighters launching from Taipei, Ad-
miral," the copilot aboard Sun's H-7 bomber reported. "One
or two at a time, disorganized flights."
"Probably escaping, not coming after us unless one wants
to be a hero looking to try to ram one of our bombers in the
darkness," Sun commented. He never even considered that his
aircraft might be in danger-with those nuclear explosions rip-
ping into the arms and legs of the Nationalist dragon, the rebels
seemed completely defeated already. "In any event, our bomb-
ers will escape. Where are the returning flights of rebel fighters
heading?"
"North, towards Taipei," the copilot responded.
"Excellent," Sun said. The rebel air forces obviously didn't
feel like fighting after learning -that several Chinese bombers
had slipped through their fingers and that their homeland had
just been ripped apart by nuclear and high-explosive bombs.
Chiang Kai-shek International Airport and Sung Shan Air Base
near Taipei were probably the only large air bases surviving
west of the Chungyang Mountains.
They would make easy targets for follow-on strikes. The
third wave of Sun's attack on Taiwan should be launching
now-M-9 mobile ballistic missile attacks from secret pre-
surveyed launch sites in Jiangxi and Zhejiang Provinces. The
M-9 missile had a range of about three hundred miles, and Sun
had targeted at least six missiles on each of the surviving major
civilian and military airfields in Taiwan. The missiles were not
as accurate as bombers, but they did not need to be@the first
two missiles targeted against all but the airfields around Taipei
had nuclear warheads, again programmed for high-altitude air-
bursts so as to spread out the blast effects of the warheads and
minimize radioactive fallout and residue at ground zero.
The volleys of missiles aimed at Chiang Kai-shek Interna-
tional, all non-nuclear, should ensure that the airport could not
be used to launch military strikes against the mainland. Sun
was very careful not to explode any nuclear weapons over
Taipei. The Nationalist capital was still the capital of the prov-
ince of T'aiwan, the twenty-third province of the People's Re-
public of China, and it would not do to kill any loyal
Communist Chinese. He would need the support of the people
328 DALE BROWN
to complete his task of reuniting the island with its mainland
motherland.
In the meantime, an armada of two hundred Q-5 Nanchang
fighters, copies of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich-19 attack
plane, would be arriving from Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhu,
and Wuhan Air Bases to Fuzhou. At daybreak they would
conduct non-nuclear mopping-up strikes against all the Tai-
wanese military bases, loaded with a long-range drop tank and
two 2,000-pound bombs or cluster munitions. One by one, they
would attack any major surviving targets.
Sun wanted more Man H-6 bombers for these attacks, but
he had been allotted only the H-6s used by the People's Lib-
eration Army Navy for this raid-the air force's H-6s were
still held in reserve, committed to long-range nuclear attacks
against targets in Russia, India, and Vietnam. Perhaps after
President Jiang and the Central Nfilitary Committee learned of
his success over the rebel Nationalists, Sun thought, it might
be possible to convince them to let him have the rest of the
H-6s so he could continue the air offensive against Taiwan.
With most of the rebel's long-range air defense radar system
down, the H-6 bombers would stand a better chance against
the surviving Taiwanese air defenses.
Then, he thought happily, perhaps the Paramount Leader
would allow him the honor of destroying China's other re-
gional enemies and adversaries. Defeat was unthinkable at this
moment.
The- nuclear-armed M-9 ballistic missiles easily reached the
military bases on the east side of the island, hittin Lotunig,
Hualien, and Taitung. Sun could see the bright flashes of light
far on the horizon as the missiles hit their targets.-The accuracy
of the M-9 missile was poor, perhaps one-half to one mile
miss distance after a three-hundred-mile flight-poor by most
standards, but perfectly acceptable with nuclear warheads.
Sun never once thought about the devastation he was cre-
ating down there. ne rebel Nationalists were bugs to be
squashed, nothing more. Sun truly believed that the vast ma-
jority of citizens on the island of Formosa wanted to rejoin
their long-lost friends and families on the mainland, and that
the subversive Nationalist government, supported by the ter-
rorist rebel military, was preventing reunification by declaring
their so-called "independence," as if that were possible or
even thinkable. Although most would probably prefer the less
FATAL T E R RAI N 329
intrusive, capitalist society that existed there now., Sun be-
lieved that they would accept a Communist government as
long as all the Chinese people were reunited. Sun was killing
only filthy rebels, not fellow Chinese. If it took a nuclear
weapon to reunite his motherland, so be it.
Sun Ji Guorning did not delude himself-he knew that it
was very unlikely that rocket or bombing raids alone would
destroy even a substantial portion of the rebels' military force.
He knew that the rebels had perfected the art of building vast
underground shelters and hiding huge numbers of troops,.
equipment, and supplies within the eastern mountains. Que-
moy Dao had turned many of their 1950s- and 1960s-era un-
derground shelters into tourist museums, so it was possible to
see the quality construction of some of these complexes-they
were certainly strong enough to withstand any kind of shelling
or bombing, except perhaps for a direct groundburst hit with
a nuclear weapon. Sun had no plans to use nuclear ground-
bursts in any attack. If they had any desire at all to occupy
the land they took back from the Nationalists, it was not a
good idea to make that ground radioactive.
Rumors had been flying for years about huge army bases
underground, where two entire generations of citizens and sol-
diers had grown up and trained. Sun had even heard about
caves cut into the rock big enough to hide a cruiser, or massive
underwater caves turned into submarine pens where the only
access in or out of the base was underwater, as in Sweden. He
dismissed most of these rumors. Anything big enough to house
a capital warship, several submarines, or more than a few hun-
dred men had to be carefully engineered, and that took time,
money, and vast amounts of equipment and manpower-and
that meant security leaks and evidence. In all of Sun's years
in the People's Liberation Army, with al
l the spies they em-
ployed all over Asia and the world, no exact proof had ever
been produced of any legendary rebel underground military
bases.
Admiral Sun switched to his interphone and keyed the mike:
"Continue on course," he ordered. "Notify me when your
attack checklists are complete." He received an acknowledg-
ment from his crew. The H-7 bomber started northward toward
Fuzhou, staying close to the mainland coast in case any sur-
viving rebel fighters tried to take a pass at them. It was ac-
companied by a single HT-6 Man tanker aircraft. After passing
330 DALE BROWN
near Fuzhou, Sun's H-7 and the HT-6 took up a northbound
course, out over the East China Sea.
The attack on Taiwan's major military bases was a great
success, but Sun knew that the real threat to China didn't come
from Taiwan, but from the United States of America. Sun had
managed to keep the area around Taiwan clear of American
aircraft carriers by planting a "backpack" nuclear device on
the USS Independence and detonating it just after it had left
its Japanese port of Yokosuka-and to his immense surprise,
the United States had not retaliated against anyone, not China,
not Japan, not Iran. The nearest American carrier was nearly
a thousand miles away, and intelligence reported that it might
take up stations in the Sea of Japan to defend Japan and South
Korea, instead of moving toward the Formosa Strait to assist
the rebel Nationalists.
America had to be stopped, Sun knew. The United States
had to learn to respect the waters and airspace around China,
as the United States expected other nations to do around its
waters.
But the political leaders around the world, even in China,
did not have the stomach to do what was necessary to ensure
their sovereignty in their own territory when faced with the
threat of domination by the United States. Sun Ji Guoming
knew what must be done, and he knew that he must force his
own political leadership to accept what was right and what
was necessary. There was no choice, no other way.
Admiral Sun switched his radio panel to the Great Wall
satellite communications system again, linking directly into the
Beijing emergency military command center, and asked to
speak with the Paramount Leader again.
"The wrath of the entire planet will be upon the people of
China for what has been done today," President Jiang Zernin
intoned, when he came on the line a few moments later. He
had obviously been informed of the extensive and deadly nu-
clear attack on Taiwan, and the doubt and worry crushing his
every thought was evident in his tired, wavering voice. "Our
lives, our future- will never again be the same."
- The future is now, Comrade President," Admiral Sun said.
"You have seen to that. You have opened the way for us to
reunite our shattered country from the destruction of foreign
imperialism. But there is one more step to be done. Give the
order,.and it will be done."
FATAL T ER RAI N 331
"I cannot do it. It is insanity."
"Comrade, you may rely on me to be the instrument of your
vision," Sun said in a firm, confident voice. Jiang did not order
him to abort the mission or return to base, so he was positive
that Jiang was going to give the order. He was a little hesi-
tant-but who wouldn't be? "I will be the sword of your
promise to the Chinese people. Give me the order, and I shall
accomplish the deed. Afterwards, you may tell the world that
I was an insane man who stole a jet and nuclear weapon at
gunpoint-if you must betray me, so be it. I will always be
loyal to you, to the motherland, and to the Chinese Communist
Party. But this must be done. You know it to be true. We
cannot succeed if the final step is not taken."
"You have done enough, Admiral," Jiang said.
Again, the Paramount Leader was expressing doubts, but he
still did not give the order to abort. "You must tell me to abort
the mission and return to base, Comrade President," Sun said.
"If you do, I will obey. But you will also lose the opportunity
to all but eliminate the Western imperialist-dominated threat
to China's existence. I urge you, sir-no, I demand it. Save
Zhongguo. Save China. Give the command."
There was no response-not even a "wait." A few rno-
ments later, a command post operator relayed an order from
the president to stand by.
Sun continued northward over the East China Sea and, al-
most an hour later, they were just a hundred miles east of
Shanghai. Sun ordered the final refueling to commence, and
thirty minutes later the HT-6 Xian tanker was left with just
enough fuel to return to base at Wuhan. Sun's H-7 Gangfang
bomber turned slightly west and continued into the Yellow
Sea, beginning a descent from 30,000 feet to 5,000 feet, sneak-
ing in under the long-range radar coverage from Kunsan and
Mokpo in South Korea, now less than three hundred miles to
the east. After the attack on the rebel Nationalists, the Amer-
icans and South Koreans would surely be on their highest
states of alert, and any unidentified aircraft flying anywhere
near their shoreline or bases on the Korean Peninsula would
quickly be intercepted.
Although a fully fueled H-7 had an endurance of about
seven hours, Sun could not wait that long to get a response
from Beijing. He would simply fly to his next checkpoint-if
he did not receive approval for the final phase of his plan, he
332 DALE BROWN
would head westbound and land at Wuhan People's Liberation
Army Air Force Base, then begin planning another night of
attacks on the Nationalists. It was important that-
"Attack One, this is Dark Night, respond, please."
"Dark Night, I am listening. Go ahead, please."
"Attack One, you are ordered to proceed. Repeat, you are
ordered to proceed. Do you understand?"
Admiral Sun Ji Guoming wore a smile like a young child's
at his first circus. "Attack One understands," he responded.
"Attack One out." Sun then switched to the interphone and
instructed the stunned bomber crew to carry out the attack
orders.
The attack was simple and completely without threat from
anywhere. From an altitude of 5,000 feet and an airspeed of
240 knots, the H-7 Gangfang bomber flew toward a prepro-
grammed point in the north-central part of the Yellow Sea,
about one hundred miles east of the North Sea Fleet head-
quarters base at Qingdao, and then two long, slender shapes
dropped from their semirecessed spaces in the H-7 bomber's
belly. Three large parachutes deployed immediately from each
object, and by the time the objects were 1,000 feet above the
water, they were both hanging almost exactly vertical in their
chutes, almost all rocking motions stopped. The H-7 bomber
turned westward and accelerated to its maximum speed of
nearly the speed of sound ...<
br />
. . . so it was well clear of the area when the rocket motors
of the two M-9 ballistic missiles ignited. The stabilizer para-
chutes released seconds after the flight computer detected full
power chamber pressure in the rocket motors, and the M-9
missiles climbed rapidly in the night sky. One missile headed
eastward, while the other headed northeast-both over the Ko-
rean Peninsula.
The Republic of Korea AN/EPS- 1 17 air defense radar sta-
tion at Seoul was the first to detect the missile launches, just
seconds after the M-9s crossed the radar horizon, and the U.-
made Patriot and 1-Hawk surface-to-air-missile sites at Inchon
and Seoul were instantly alerted. By the time missile-launch
detection was confirmed, the second missile was out of range
as it headed farther north over the demilitarized zone. The first
missile was tracked and engaged by eight Patriot batteries-
one by one they opened fire with double Patriot anti-missile
missile launches.
FATAL TERRAIN 333
The first two Patriot missiles hit their target, breaking the
M-9 missile into several pieces. The other Patriot batteries con-
tinued to fire at the larger pieces of the Chinese missile-in
all, eight Patriot missiles were launched, effectively chopping
the thirty-foot-long, eighteen-inch-diameter M-9 missile into
pieces no larger than a suitcase. The M-9's nuclear warhead
was hit directly by one Patriot, detonating the high-explosive
fusion initiator portion of the warhead and scattering radio-
active debris over Inchon and the west-central coastline, but
there was no nuclear yield.
The Korean People's Army Air Force of North Korea did
not detect the second M-9 missile until after it had crossed the
coast and was headed down over the center of the Korean
Peninsula. The KPAAF's SA-2 and SA-3 fixed missile sites at
Kaesong and one SA-5 mobile missile site at Dosan were the
only units capable of attempting to intercept the M-9 missile,
but all of these missiles were older, larger, less reliable stra-
tegic air defense missiles and were not designed to shoot down
something as small and as fast as a ballistic missile. Untouched
