by James Rosone
When Vice President Foss had been sworn in as the new President following the assassination of Gates, he’d brought his own chief of staff with him and replaced Gates’s man. It wasn’t that he hadn’t liked Gates’s Chief of Staff; he’d just wanted his own guy in the position. Josh Morgan was someone he’d worked with for many years, and he felt comfortable with him.
“I guess that’s our cue,” the President said. He, Tom, and JP got up and followed Morgan to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, or PEOC. It had been unofficially dubbed “the war room” for a few months now, since nearly all the meetings in there revolved around the world war.
Walking to the elevator that would lead them to the subterranean room, Foss couldn’t help but marvel at how the engineers had had to build the new addition to the White House. With so many changes in technology, from fiber optics to wireless technologies, the Situation Room and the presidential bunker had gone through some major overhauls.
Walking into the PEOC, the President saw that his military leaders and advisors were standing next to their chairs, waiting for him to arrive. As Foss took his seat at the head of the table, everyone sat down. Then he motioned for Admiral Peter Meyers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, to proceed.
The admiral stood and cleared his throat. “Mr. President, this is your evening brief of the war and where the situation currently stands. There are several key decisions that require your approval. I’ll go over those decision points as we reach them,” he said. Then he went through a quick outline for the briefing before beginning his presentation in detail, which was something President Foss had insisted upon. He was not a fan of the more freewheeling discussions that President Gates had been known for, and he preferred everything to be much more formal and organized.
Eventually, Admiral Meyers brought up some images of Europe on the screens. One map showed the latest Russian offensive, and where their army was driving toward. “The Russians launched their Armored Fist Campaign seven days ago. As you can see, the offensive was able to punch a hole in our lines at these three points,” explained Meyers, using a laser pointer to bring attention to the problem areas. “Presently, the Russians’ offensive has stalled in front of Rzeszow, Poland, roughly 160 kilometers from Kraków. In the north, the Russians broke through the French positions near Lublin. They’re falling back to a new defensive position roughly 60 kilometers from Warsaw. We’ve moved a joint Dutch-German brigade to reinforce the line there. We should be able to contain them roughly one hundred kilometers southeast of Warsaw while the French division regroups.
“In the north of Poland and Lithuania, we managed to stop the Russian offensive before it was able to really get going. Once we caught wind of their plans, we specifically went after the enemy’s fuel dumps. Without diesel and gasoline, their offensive ground to a halt before it really got going.”
The President interjected, “If you guys were able to knock out their fuel dumps in the north and this prevented their offensive from progressing there, then why were you not able to do the same thing in the south, where their larger army group is located?”
Admiral Meyers tipped his head to the side. “Mr. President, the army group in the south had significantly higher concentrations of surface-to-air missile systems and other air-defense assets,” he explained. “With the introduction of the Indian Army to the war, we’re facing a lot stiffer air defense. The Russians also concentrated a lot of the Indian armor units with their main offensive in the south, which greatly bolstered their offensive capability. We’ve moved the Ninth Army Group to stop the Russians in the south. With the bulk of V Corps comprising armor and mechanized infantry, they should have the armored force to handle the Russian and Indian armor units.”
The President grunted and then nodded.
Admiral Meyers paused a second. “Sir, with your permission, I’d like to move forward with inserting a Special Forces unit near the Caspian Sea to go after the Russian oil and natural gas pipelines,” he asserted. “We’d like to go after their ability to move the product to their factories. This will further grind their economy to a halt and reduce the likelihood they can sustain their offensive.”
President Foss looked at Meyers for a second, turning to gauge the mood of the other generals before replying. “I’m concerned that if we do this, the Russians will retaliate by hitting our pipelines in Alaska or the Midwest,” he began. “It’s bad enough that they blew up the petroleum facility in New York—that attack killed over 800 civilians. Besides, how would we even get our Special Forces or Navy SEALs to the Caspian Sea?”
“We would send a Romanian SOF unit in to make the attack. It would be them and the Georgians,” Meyers explained.
Tom jumped into the conversation. “And exactly how are you going to get the Azeris to allow a Georgian unit to operate off their coasts? Don’t they hate each other?”
“I believe you are mixing the Georgians up with the Armenians,” the President’s Chief of Staff asserted. “The Armenians and the Azeris are the ones that hate each other. The Georgians and the Azeris get along just fine.”
“Ok. Let them be the ones to carry out the attack,” said the President hesitantly. Then he unfolded his arms before changing the topic. “I want to move to Taiwan,” he said. “How are the landings progressing?”
The staffers changed the maps to show Taiwan. The scene looked like a hot mess with a swarm of red and blue icons all over the place and arrows to match.
Clearing his throat before proceeding, Admiral Meyers began, “Forty-eight hours ago, we began the liberation of Taiwan. The force we landed in Taitung City on the southeast side of the island has secured our first beachhead. The Australian Army captured the city while our paratroopers secured the enemy air base and the city airport. The paratroopers are now moving to secure the mountains that overlooked the valley and city below. Once this area is captured, it’s going to create a safe corridor for us to position ground-attack aircraft and helicopters. It’ll also provide us with a buffer zone to start landing more heavy armor units. As we get more troops ashore, they’ll move up Highway 9 and the coastal highways to link up with our northern force.”
Meyers hit a button to zoom into a different area of the map. “Moving to the landings further north—we hit Yulan County with multiple landing points, so our forces wouldn’t be bunched up.” He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Our forces are taking a beating there right now, Sir. We’re two days into the landings, and the Marines have only captured roughly a kilometer inland in some areas, and as far as six kilometers in others. We’re in the process of moving more naval and air assets to support the ground attack now—”
The President interrupted, “—What’s the holdup? Why are our forces still stuck on the shoreline?”
“The city of Yulan sits in kind of a low-lying basin if you will. On nearly all sides, it’s surrounded by large ridgelines and mountains. The PLA has built a series of bunker complexes throughout this area, and they’re able to rain down a lot of death and destruction on our forces. Our Marines have to fight their way to the ridgelines and mountains, and then fight their way into these bunker and tunnel complexes to clear them out. It’s going to take us a little while to root them out and secure the area. Depending on how many soldiers the PLA wants to commit to this battle, it could take us several weeks or even a month,” he replied.
The President squirmed in his seat uncomfortably, then seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.
After an awkward pause, the President had a look as though a lightbulb had just gone off in his head. “Admiral, when my father was in World War II, he said they had some guys in their unit that used to use flamethrowers against these bunker complexes,” he explained. “I don’t mean to micromanage, but are we using some of these older weapons that worked well during the past wars to help solve this problem?” Foss clearly wanted to look for a way to contribute to the effort rather than just giving permission for the generals to do something.
General Kyle Stirewalt, the Chief of Staff of the Army, jumped in to answer this question before anyone else could. “We are using some of the older weapons of the past, Mr. President. However, we also have some newer stuff we are using as well. I will admit, at first, we didn’t realize how difficult of a problem these bunker complexes would be. We’d been hitting them with bunker-busting bombs, but some of these complexes are dug so deeply into the mountains that they aren’t easily destroyed. While we may demolish an entrance or outer bunker, we haven’t been effectively striking deep inside them. Short of using a nuclear-tipped weapon, it’s hard to reach that far down. So, yes, Sir, we have started to reissue flamethrowers again—albeit, much safer and better versions of those weapons, but yes, we are reissuing them. Another new weapon we’re also looking at using is gas.”
The President stiffened when Stirewalt mentioned the word gas, but he didn’t stop the general from speaking, and neither did anyone else.
“We’re going to try an experiment down in the south to see how it will work,” the general explained. “The type of gas we’re going to test is called SP-5. When a person breathes it in, it immediately renders them unconscious for several hours. It won’t kill them, but it will put them to sleep for a while. Our intention is not to slaughter everyone inside the bunker if we can avoid it, but rather to render them incapacitated until our troops can get inside and take them prisoner.”
Foss let out a short breath and smiled once he learned the general wasn’t proposing they use some sort of WMD. He would’ve shut that down in a New York minute if that had been Stirewalt’s intention. But a gas that would render a person incapacitated until they could be taken prisoner, that was something he could live with, especially if it saved American lives.
“OK, General, you have my permission to move forward with that option,” Foss responded. “However, I want to know immediately how effective it is, understood? If it does work, let’s see if we can look to incorporate it in some other manner that might allow us to incapacitate the enemy elsewhere. Perhaps we can find a way to end this war soon without it getting any further out of control.”
Foss turned to eye Admiral Meyers. “What are we going to do about India? They’ve sided with the Eastern Alliance, and that’s a problem for us. With India and China inexplicably working together now, nearly half of the world’s population is now at war with the West. Our troops are already fighting each other in the Russian Far East and now in Europe. What are our options?”
Katelyn Mackie, the President's Chief Cyberwarfare Advisor, responded, “We’re working on that right now, Mr. President. Our hackers are going after their logistical network and doing what they can to infiltrate their network-connected technologies to shut down various segments of their economy. We’re pinpointing our efforts to disrupt the production of war materials that are dependent on one or more components—for example, a special computer component used in a surface-to-air-missile that’s also used in a tank, or an aircraft. If we’re lucky, we can cause a shortage of the part, or hamper the production of the part entirely. We’re also looking for ways to insert malware code or kill codes into the software or hardware of the components of these types of systems. It’s a very technical process, but it will have an effect on their ability to produce their war materials and to sustain the war long-term.”
Admiral Meyers added, “While the introduction of Indian troops in Russia has complicated things, I’d like to note that we handed them a crushing defeat in Siberia over the summer. I won’t dismiss their impact in Europe, but it’s been a year since former president Gates reinstituted the draft. It had been slow at first, getting troops trained and to the front lines. However, they’re now starting to show up in much larger numbers. In Siberia, our forces have hunkered down for the winter. We’re still sending replacements for the losses they took, but they’re nearly back to one hundred percent strength. In Korea and northern China, we’ve also suspended our offensive operations for the time being. We’re consolidating our gains and continuing to hit them with precision-guided strikes with our B-2s and B-1s.
“Our focus now is on supporting the liberation of Taiwan, and Russia,” Meyers continued. “The US Ninth Army in Europe has now surpassed 280,000 soldiers. The Fifth Army, which is still marshaling in France, has now reached 195,000 soldiers. This latest attack by the Russians and Indians is a last gasp, a desperate gamble on their parts to put us on defense. We may lose ground, but it’ll be recaptured in the coming months. The Russians know that, and the Indians know that,” he concluded.
Josh Morgan’s left eyebrow rose conspicuously. “If they know that, then why are they launching this offensive?” he retorted. “Why wouldn’t they try and hold those forces back to defend their border and make our counterattack more costly?”
“The same thing was asked during the Battle of the Bulge during World War II,” Meyers responded. “In reality, the Nazis would have been better served by using those forces to defend the Rhine. They could have prevented the Allies from crossing the river for many more months. Instead, they chose to launch this last major offensive in hopes of cutting our forces off in the Low Countries, to grab the supplies at Antwerp, and to throw the Allied army into disarray. They truly believed that offensive would have altered the course of the war, or at least put them in a better position to negotiate a peace deal. I believe the Russians and Indians are of the same mindset with this current offensive. If they can divide our forces and thrust deep into Europe, they believe they’ll be able to fracture the Alliance further and give them a better position at the negotiation table.”
“The only way we’re ending this war is when Petrov surrenders,” Foss reiterated. “I agree with President Gates—the Petrov regime needs to be removed and a new government installed, one that is willing to be a part of the global community and not a belligerent bully.”
He paused for a moment, looking at the tired and worn out faces of his military advisors. He knew they were doing their best with what they’d been given. The fact that they’d somehow held the military together after all it had been through was a testament to their skill and ingenuity. As he stood, he added, “You all have done an amazing job executing the war. Please pass along my thanks to the others, and let’s end this war…Tomorrow is election day, a day that may force us to make some changes in how we prosecute the war. One year from now starts the next presidential election cycle. I know it’s a tall order, but I’d like us to work toward concluding this war by this time next year. The last thing our nation and the world needs is a sustained global war during a US presidential election.” With that, President Foss stood and left the room to attend to other matters of state.
From Georgia, With Love
Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan
Russian Federation
The weather had recently turned cold and miserable in the relatively sleepy seaside town of Makhachkala. Major Gogaza pulled another cigarette out from his pack, stopping briefly while he cupped his hands against the wind to light it. He took a long pull to make sure the tobacco stayed lit. Gogaza let the smoke fill his lungs and reveled in the feeling as his body absorbed the nicotine. Then he continued his leisurely walk near the trainyard. Looking past the fence, he saw the petrol tanks and the network of pipes that connected them to the offshore oil rigs in the Caspian Sea.
Major Gogaza made a mental note of the security around the facility, noting the pair of soldiers casually walking a German shepherd along the perimeter. The fence itself was nothing too remarkable—a single-layer fence roughly six feet in height with three strings of barbed wire in a forked pattern on the top. It was designed to look tough, but it wouldn’t keep an intruder out. Returning his gaze to the sidewalk and street he was meandering down, Gogaza spotted a small coffee shop and decided this would be a good place to stop and observe the guard schedule for a while.
Seeing an empty seat next to the front window, he slipped into the café and placed his windbreaker on the chair, along with a copy
of the local paper. He then placed an order for a macchiato and a local baked delicacy and settled into his seat to read the daily paper. Gogaza spent a total of 72 minutes there. To be safe, he ordered a refill on the macchiato and downed a second pastry. While he was there, he noted that a pair of guards walked past the perimeter with a dog roughly twenty minutes apart. He stayed long enough to see four pairs of guards and dogs walk past the fence at nearly the exact same interval, with almost no variation.
Major Gogaza smiled to himself. “These guys are either bored or sloppy,” he thought.
After leaving the café, Gogaza took a very meandering route back to the house that had been rented for his team to use for this operation. The structure was dilapidated, but it would serve its purpose of not attracting attention to the ten Georgian Special Operations soldiers who were staying in it.
*******
Three days went by as Major Gogaza’s team surveilled the target of their operation. They developed a series of plans and discussed everything that could go wrong with each scenario. Then they constructed and ran through the alternative plans. It became clear that the best way for them to gain entry into the facility and accomplish their mission in the stated timeframe was for them to cut a hole in the fence near a section of shrubs on the northern side of the facility, then move quickly to place their explosives at the base of the storage tanks. A separate two-man team would infiltrate at a different point and look to blow up the pumping station to the pipeline.
Gogaza pointed to three of his team members. “You three will need to stay behind to provide sniper overwatch on this small crest,” he ordered, pointing to a map. “It has a perfect vantage point to observe the fence we will be breaching.”
