Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable (World War III Series Book 2)

by James Rosone

  Drone Attack

  Day 180

  31 May 2041

  The Sky Above Anchorage

  Lieutenant Daniels was a drone fighter pilot. He had just been transferred to Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks after completing drone flight school four days earlier. Daniels was controlling an F38A fighter drone; his squadron was tasked with providing cover for the F38B ground attack drones that were supporting the infantry as they tried to repel multiple landing invasions.

  Daniels heard his squadron commander sign in and began to give them a quick message before the squadron moved as a group to engage the hundreds of fighters heading in their direction. “Men, listen up. I know most of you are fresh out of flight school and this is your first real combat mission. It’s OK to be nervous and doubt yourself, but trust your training and remember this is the real deal. There are tens of thousands of soldiers on the ground depending on us to succeed, so our ground attack planes can provide the close air support they desperately need. Remember your training--I cannot stress that enough. Your preparation works, and so do the tactics we are about to employ. If your fighter is shot down, I want you to grab another and get back in the fight.”

  As Lieutenant Daniels’ squadron began to head towards Anchorage, they began to detect hundreds of enemy fighter drones and manned Chinese aircraft. “All right. Our squadron has been directed to engage the fighter drones; one of the other squadrons is going to engage the manned aircraft. We will be in range to launch our AMRAAMs in three minutes. Everyone is to launch your missiles, one after the other, and then accelerate to get into knife range and engage with your sidewinders. Once we go weapons free, you and your wingman are on your own, understand?”

  “Yes sir,” they all replied in unison.

  The pilots continued to position their aircraft to engage the Chinese. Daniels’ squadron consisted of twenty-four drones; each pilot had three spare drones at the base, ready to be moved to the runway as soon as the pilot was ready to use it. The F38A was a powerful fighter drone; Without having to worry about the survivability of a pilot, the aircraft was able to incorporate some incredible new designs that allowed the aircraft to maneuver on a dime. It had a range of 520 miles, could travel at speeds of up to Mach 3, and carried a 20mm railgun for air-to-air combat. It was armed with six AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, which could engage an enemy aircraft as far away as 90 miles at a speed of Mach five. It also carried six Sidewinder 4 short-range heat seeking missiles, which had a range of 15 miles. The aircraft had an advanced suite of electronic countermeasures and defensive systems to assist in its survivability.

  The squadron was engaging about 80 Chinese drones that were trying to secure the air over Kodiak Island. Daniels’ aircraft came into AMRAAM range just as his squadron began to release the first volley of missiles. Daniels toggled a couple of switches and released his six missiles towards their targets, when all of a sudden his warning alarms began to go off. His aircraft was being targeted by multiple enemy drones, who simultaneously fired their own missiles at him and his squadron. His aircraft now had five enemy missiles heading towards it. He hit the after burn, bringing his aircraft to its maximum speed as his wingman maneuvered to stay next to him. The two of them were going to bring their aircraft up to maximum speed and then begin to jink and pull a few other maneuvers as they closed the gap between themselves and the Chinese.

  As Daniels followed his training, he was surprised to see that all of the missiles that had been fired at him missed when he conducted a series of tight turns and jinks designed to make it impossible for a missile to continue to track his aircraft, especially in light of his suite of countermeasures. Suddenly, he was within 15 miles of the remaining Chinese aircraft, and he began to cycle through his last remaining missiles. Just as Daniels’ last missile left his aircraft, he was hit by machine gun fire from a fighter that had somehow gotten behind him. In seconds, Daniels’ fighter drone was ripped apart by bullets and at the speed it was traveling, it lost control. He immediately disconnected from the drone and activated another that was now leaving the secured bunker and moving towards the runways.

  In less than sixty minutes in the air, nearly all 24 of the drone fighters in Daniels’ squadron had been shot down, but not before shooting down 73 enemy fighter drones. Most of the pilots were in the process of piloting their second drone out to the runways or just taking off when the building’s alarms went off. A loud explosion could be heard nearby, and suddenly, a lot of machine gun fire. It sounded as it if it was coming from the floor above them, which was the Operations Room. That was the room where a lot of the analysis and fighter operations were conducted from.

  A guard ran into the room and shouted to everyone, “Russians have infiltrated the building! They are on the floor above! Everyone, get your sidearm ready!”

  BOOM! An explosion could be heard just outside the secured door, and suddenly, several objects flew into the room. Daniels had just enough time to realize the flying circles were hand grenades before one bounced off the wall near his pod, exploding and killing him instantly.

  A 90 man Spetsnaz team had infiltrated the base perimeter, and began to attack several buildings before the base security knew they had penetrated the boundary defenses. Another team of Spetsnaz began to rain down 120mm mortars on the runways, which were now lined with fighter drones being prepared for takeoff. As the rounds began to land amongst the drones, they started a chain reaction of explosions, causing numerous secondary explosions. Their ordinance started to add to the chaos. The Russians knew exactly where the fighter drone pilots were operating from; they had long ago stolen the blueprints of the building from the contracting company that had built it. They painstakingly planned and prepared their mission around accomplishing two main tasks: 1) disabling the runway for hopefully 24 hours, and 2) attacking and killing the various drone pilot squadrons.

  They were going to attack all eight squadrons worth of pilots and destroy the equipment. One after another, each building was successfully penetrated; the people inside were killed and then the buildings were destroyed. With the attack a success, the Spetsnaz teams were done, and began to exit the structures to head towards the base perimeter and the safety of the surrounding woods they had staged the attack in. Unexpectedly, several Razorback helicopters arrived on the scene and began to engage the Russians. The Quick Reaction Force (QRF) quickly wiped out the attacking group, which had very little in the way of cover to hide behind and no heavy weapons or missiles capable of disabling or destroying the armored helicopters.

  In the thirteen-minute attack, the Russians had lost all but four members of the Spetsnaz team, but had killed the pilots and operational staff for all eight drone squadrons on the base. They had also substantially damaged the runway, making it impossible to use for at least a half day. This would prove disastrous for not just the American fighter drones in Alaska, but also for the manned aircraft; most of the pilots flying over Alaska originated from this airbase. The Russians had nearly neutralized the American airpower in the first day of the invasion.

  After the Shock and Awe

  Day 180

  31 May 2041

  General Black’s Headquarters

  General Black was sitting at his desk, looking at a tablet with the losses from Eielson AFB, and he could not believe his eyes. The Russians had somehow snuck a large enough attacking force through the base defenses, and knowing exactly where the drone pilots were operating out of, had shut down the whole fleet. They took out the guards and destroyed the entire facility in less than fifteen minutes. General Black had specifically selected Eielson to be the primary launch point for the drone squadrons because it was far enough away from the invasion fleets that it would not be coming under direct enemy missile attacks.

  The next report was from sector one, in Nome, Alaska. The Russians had busted their way off of the beaches and it looked like they were about to break through the second line of defense. Reports were showing that a limited number of Russian soldiers
were using the new exoskeleton suits. Of course, the entire Spetsnaz team that attacked Eielson was using them. Reports of Spetsnaz teams popping up all over Alaska were starting to come in. He had to get in touch with his Special Forces commander and have him assign the appropriate teams to hunt them down. He could not have dozens of Russian Special Forces operating in his rear area.

  Putting one tablet down and picking up another, General Black began to look through the battle report from Kodiak Island. In less than four hours, they had secured twenty miles inland from the beach, and may have the rest of the island secured within the next four to five days if they continued advancing at their current pace. General Black had a message sent to the commander on the island to have his men try to hold out longer. The more time that passed with the Chinese invasion fleet this close to the coast, the more danger they were in from land based attacks. The Navy was now starting to hit the Chinese with hundreds of smaller attack craft that would swoop in swarms and launch a volley of anti-ship missiles. The goal was to overwhelm the carrier defenses with anti-ship missiles while coordinating the attack with land-based aircraft and short range land-based anti-ship missiles. The beach areas needed to hold the line for 48 hours to give the Navy and Air Force enough time to coordinate a massive strike against the fleet.

  General Black’s Chief of Staff, Major General Cooper, walked into the general’s office and said, “General Black, the Eielson base Commander is on the line when you are ready.”

  General Black sighed and motioned for MG Cooper to take a seat. His JAG and J3 also walked into the room, and took a seat at the round table in the general’s office. “Brigadier General Miller, we’ll keep this meeting as short and to the point as we can. I want to know how in the world a 90+ man Spetsnaz team was able to penetrate so deep into your base, identify the drone squadrons and wipe them out without alerting your security forces?” asked Black in his gruff Marine style.

  “Sir, we are still trying to determine how they were able to identify the drone squadrons so quickly. From the time the base perimeter sensors went offline until the time they attacked the squadrons was less than five minutes. We immediately scrambled our QRF to the location. Right now, we are working off of the assumption that either someone gave them the location, or they acquired the blueprints from the construction company who built it. We were made aware that that company had a cyber breach about fifteen months ago when we began building the location.”

  He continued, “The Russians were using those new exoskeleton combat suits, which is probably how they were able to move so quickly and carry the weapons and explosives that they did. At first, the QRF was concerned with neutralizing the mortar team that was hammering the airfield. By the time we received the notice that the squadrons were under direct attack, the QRF was already engaging the mortar teams. We released the second QRF team, when they arrived on scene, the damage to the squadrons had already been done.”

  “General, this is simply unacceptable. I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how one of our most important assets to this war was left so undefended that a Spetsnaz team was able to not only gain access it, they were able to slaughter all the pilots, staff and destroy the facility within nine minutes of entering the base.” He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing, “Brigadier General Miller, I am relieving you of Command, effective immediately. I have your replacement inbound as we speak, along with several additional SF teams which will begin to hunt down the rest of the Spetsnaz teams operating in your AOR.”

  “Sir, I understand your frustration, but losses happen in war. The Russians got lucky; it was not incompetence,” BG Miller said in protest, clearly taken aback that he was being relieved of his command.

  “General, I comprehend your shock and frustration. However, you were charged with guarding one of the most important pieces of our national defense, and you failed to protect it. Perhaps it was luck on the Russians part, but it happened on your watch. You are being reassigned back to the Pentagon. Please do not take this as a slight against you. We are giving you the opportunity to redeem yourself in D.C.,” the General said as he tried to lessen the blow to BG Miller and ended the call.

  “Well, that went well. Hopefully, he will do better at the Pentagon,” said MG Cooper.

  Looking at General Cooper, General Black said, “Cooper, I need a frank assessment from you. How are things shaping up in sector one?”

  Pulling some information up from his tablet, Cooper said, “Shaky, but as expected. Aside from the debacle at Eielson, everything is turning out about as good as we suspected and planned for. They hit us hard today; what we did not anticipate was how many Spetsnaz teams they would be able to infiltrate behind our lines. The same goes with Chinese SF units. The Chinese and Russians hit us with those new exoskeleton combat suits with their first and second wave of landings. We were not surprised by them, but they performed incredibly effectively. Most of our forces are fighting in their third lines of defense. Once they lose those lines, the next lines of defense are typically fifteen to twenty miles further back.”

  “Do we know when they are going to make their main landings near Homer and Seward?” asked General Black.

  “Probably in the next three to five days. We believe they want to fully secure their current gains before advancing again,” said MG Cooper.

  General Black thought for a moment, trying to determine if they needed to adjust their strategy yet, or if they should continue to stick to the plan for the moment. “Gentlemen, I have a video call with the National Security Staff and the President in ten minutes. I would like you to sit in as well, in case I need you to provide some information. Please take a few minutes to get any new updates you need, and be prepared to brief it should I call on you,” Black directed before dismissing his inner circle to prepare for the Presidential briefing.

  *******

  President Stein walked into the Situation Room and saw the entire staff was already there and ready. Henry signaled for one of his aides to bring him a fresh Red Bull (the President was beginning to live on these things with all the long hours he had been working since the start of the war). His doctor said he was going to have a heart attack if he did not cut back on the caffeine, but this was one vice he simply could not give up given the current state of affairs.

  Stein took his seat at the head of the table and signaled for the briefing to begin.

  General Branson stood up and walked over to one of the monitors and began his brief, “Mr. President, we are now 19 hours into the invasion of Alaska. The Russians have successfully landed around 38,000 troops in sector one; they have also parachuted around another twelve thousand paratroopers all across sector one. Right now they have several dozen or more Spetsnaz teams running around in central Alaska, causing all sorts of problems with our logistical networks. General Black sent a few dozen of our own SF teams to try and hunt them down.”

  “Sector two has been hit hard, we have lost most of the Aleutian Island chain and the rest of the Peninsula. General Black does not expect to hold them for more than a few more days. We never really had any intentions of being able to stop them there; it was really only meant as a defensive and asymmetrical fight to tie down Chinese Forces. Unfortunately, it does look like they are going to capture Kodiak Island a lot sooner than we had hoped. Our goal was to hold the island for at least a month, tying down nearly a hundred thousand soldiers--”

  The President interrupted to ask a question, “--What happened? Why are they not going to be able to hold the position for much longer?”

  General Branson brought up some various drone feeds showing the fighting on the beach; images could be seen of hundreds of PLAN infantry moving from their landing vehicles and quickly sprinting across the shore right into a number of American defensive positions. “They move so fast,” commented Director Jorge Perez, the DHS Secretary.

  “The PLAN infantry received priority status for their new exoskeleton combat suits. As we can see, these suits really provide th
eir soldiers an advantage. They can advance and move quickly, making them harder to shoot. They closed the gap between their positions and ours fast. They were able to move through the first line of defense rather hastily. They slowed down a bit at the second line of defense, and have been stopped at the third for the time being.”

  General Branson continued, “We’ve slowed them down by using sheer numbers. So far, they have not landed enough soldiers yet to be able to punch through our third line of defense. That will change in a day or so, once they start to land their light drone tanks and IFVs. I also have a piece of bad news to report.” Branson had some trepidation about this next part; he knew the President was going to be livid.

  “A Spetsnaz team was able to penetrate the base perimeter at Eielson AFB and attacked the drone squadrons. Unfortunately, they destroyed all of the drone piloting pods and killed all the pilots. We also lost nearly two thirds of all the fighter and bomber drones at the base. We are sending new pilots and additional drones and piloting pods to Eielson. It’s going to be a couple of days until they are operational again. In the meantime, we are going to be focusing on our manned fighters for the time being to provide the bulk of the air cover over Alaska.”

  The President put down his Red Bull in mid drink and said, “How in the world did they penetrate the base defense and wipe out eight squadrons of pilots and equipment? That’s a lot of critical people they killed in one swoop.” From his tone of voice and facial expressions, he was clearly beyond angry.