Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable (World War III Series Book 2)
Page 25
“The base Commander has been relieved of Command, Mr. President. It would appear they gained access to the designs (and thus the location of the site) through a cyber-attack that was conducted against the contracting company that build it. Once they had the blueprints, we suspect it wasn’t hard for them to build a replica of it somewhere in Russia and train for it like we would have,” Branson said hoping his answer might diffuse the President’s anger a bit.
“This is a colossal screw up General. How bad is this going to hurt our efforts in Alaska?” asked the President.
“It is going to stifle our efforts a lot. Right now, most of our airpower in Alaska has been taken offline. The runways have been repaired, and we have limited manned flight operations, but the loss of eight fighter drones-worth of pilots is going to hurt. We are moving drone pilots from all across the US to Alaska right now to fill the gap. It’s going to leave us short-changed in a lot of other places,” the General explained.
The President shot back, “Get this fixed General Branson and General Black. We need to do better in Alaska or we are going to have a serious problem on our hands.”
With that, the meeting ended.
Field of Blood
Day 181
01 June 2041
Kodiak, Alaska
General Jing Zhu stepped off the landing craft on the beach near the city of Kodiak, Alaska. What he saw made his stomach churn; the water around the beach was still red with blood and gore soaked the beach. Bodies could be seen floating in the water and strung all along the beach for as far as they eye could see in both directions. Clearly, the Americans had fought hard for this section of land, and the Chinese had paid dearly to capture this beach head. Off in the distance, General Zhu could hear the rumble of artillery fire and the continuous cacophony of machine gun fire as both sides tried relentlessly to kill each other.
Overhead, the screams of aircraft could be heard as Chinese drones and manned fighters continued to fight for dominance of the skies. General Zhu turned his head slightly and watched as a group of eight attack helicopters headed towards the frontlines. Then he saw a large landing craft drop its front ramp; a large main battle tank came to life and rumbled off of the landing craft and began to head towards the frontlines.
“General Zhu,” an aid said, interrupting his thoughts. “The Command Post is over here; the rest of your staff if ready.”
As General Jing Zhu entered the half blown-out town hall that was now operating as the command post for the ground operations, he saw the commander of the PLAN infantry along with his army commanders present.
He smiled as he began, “Generals, Operation Red Dragon has been a huge success. For the first time in modern history, a foreign army has invaded America. Today marks the end of America and the rise of the Dragon…”
Acronym Key
AFC America First Corporation
AG Attorney General
AI Artificial Intelligence
AIR Advanced Infantry Rifle
AMRAAM Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile
AOR Area of Responsibility
APFV Anti-Personnel Fighting Vehicle
BDA Battle Damage Assessment
BH Battle Helmet
CENTCOM Central Command (located in Tampa, FL, covers the Middle East AOR)
CG Commanding General
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CO Commanding Officer
CP Company Post
COG Continuance of Government
COMSUBLANT Commander Submarine Force Atlantic
CONUS Continental United States
DARPA Defense Advance Research Projects Agency
DHS Department of Homeland Security
DIA Defense Intelligence Agency
DoD Department of Defense
EAM Emergency Action Message
EF Expeditionary Force (Chinese)
EFP Explosively Formed Penetrators
EMP Electromagnetic Pulse
EMT Emergency Medical Technician
EU European Union
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency
FISA Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
HEAT High Explosive Anti-Tank
HUD Heads Up Display
ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
ID Infantry Division
IDF Israeli Defensive Force
IFV Infantry Fighting Vehicle
IIF Individual Identification Frequency
IR Islamic Republic
JSTAR Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile
LNO Liaison Officer
LT Lieutenant
MANPAD Man Portable Missile
MBT Main Battle Tanks
MEF Marine Expeditionary Force
MIRV Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles
MLRS Multiple Launch Rocket System
NAD New American Dollars
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCDC National Control Defense Center
NCO Non-Commissioned Officer
NSA National Security Agency
NSC National Security Council
OCONUS Outside Continental United States
PE Private Equity
PLA People’s Liberation Army (Chinese Army)
PLAAF People’s Liberation Army Air Force (Chinese Air Force)
PLAN People’s Liberation Army Navy (Chinese Navy)
PM Prime Minister
PMC Private Military Corporation
PRC People’s Republic of China
QRF Quick Reaction Force
RA Royal Army (British)
RAF Royal Air Force
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
ROK Republic of Korea (North Korea)
ROKAF Republic of Korea Air Force (North Korea)
SACEUR NATO Supreme Allied Commander
SAEF South American Expeditionary Force
SAM Surface to Air Missile
SCZ Suez Canal Zone
SecDef Secretary of Defense
SD Science Division
SF Special Forces
SFC Sergeant First Class
SLBM Submarine Launch Ballistic Missile
SSBM Nuclear-Powered Ballistic Missile Submarines
SUD Swordfish Underwater Drone
UD Underwater Drone
XO Executive Officer (second in charge)
3C Command, Control & Communication