by Rosone,James
The President asked, “What are we doing to ensure we continue to hold this position?”
“We are rotating the 12th Infantry Division out of the line and sending them to Ft. Benning to receive training on the new Raptor combat suit. Once they are trained, we are going to send them back to Cooper Landing and the Susitna Defensive line, and hope that they are enough to stop the Chinese juggernaut. Following their training, we will pull another division from the line and repeat the process. We need to hold those two anchor points, or our defensive positions in Alaska will become unsustainable.”
The DHS Director, Jorge Perez, interjected, “Do we have enough military forces in the State? Are we able to send them additional reinforcements?”
“Well, I’m not for accepting the surrender of the IR; However, it does mean we will have substantially more soldiers and equipment that we can send to Alaska. We have four additional divisions completing their advanced training over the next two weeks. We had allocated three of them to head to Europe and the Middle East, with one heading to Alaska. I can shift them around now and send one to Europe and the other three to Alaska. Our bigger problem is maintaining air superiority. Our fighter drones are slightly better than theirs, mostly due to our ECM capability--but they have numbers on us. Plus, their J38 (which is essentially a fifth generation Su-38) is a real killer. The Chinese took the Russian aircraft and really improved upon it a lot.”?
“It always seems to come down to numbers, doesn’t it?” mused Monty with a bit of a sigh.
General Branson wanted to reassure everyone in the room. “We knew at the start of this war that the statistics would be against us. The Chinese have 2.3 billion people, and over the last six months alone, their Army has recruited an additional ten million soldiers. Given, most of these soldiers are green-- not nearly as trained as ours nor as equipped as ours. However, they don’t have to be, they just have to overwhelm us with their numbers. We have some new weapon systems coming online here shortly; the Wolverine will be ready to deploy to Alaska and Europe in a couple of weeks, and the new Raptor suits are in as well. The first ten Archangel fighters will be ready in a month. As long as we can keep the Chinese from securing a permanent foothold in North America, our oceans will continue to be an advantage to us.”
The President stood and signaled for everyone to stay seated; he walked around his chair and stood behind it, leaning over it slightly and resting his hands on top of it. “General Branson is right; we need to stay the course. This war is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. We need to continue to do what we are doing; we cannot lose hope or our will to fight.”
He stood up a little straighter as he prepared to make an announcement. “I am also going to start making more regular speeches about the war. Starting every other Monday afternoon, I will hold a one-hour press conference with General Branson where I will go over the successes of the war. On the opposite Monday, I will be holding a press conference with Joyce Gibbs and Jeff Rogers to discuss the economy, jobs and infrastructure projects. As everyone knows, we are going to rebuild New York City and Baltimore from the ground up in new locations (since their present locations are unfortunately going to be unlivable for some time to come). I would like to detail the progress on these projects to the American people. The point is, these meetings are to inspire our nation with hope, and assure them that their government is doing everything in its power to protect them and to end this war, on our terms. With that said, I will get off of my soapbox and let everyone get back to their tasks. Dismissed.”
The energy in the room was high after the closing statement by the President. The senior staff were starting to get beaten down with the burden of running the war and everything else, especially in light of the horrific casualties that were still pouring in. Nearly 103,000 Americans had been killed in the Middle East, close to 34,500 Americans had lost their lives in Europe thus far, and 24,543 Americans had died in the Pacific. In less than eight weeks of combat operations in Alaska, another 22,352 more Americans had already been killed. These were just the KIAs; the number of wounded was significantly higher. For a war that was less than nine months old, it was proving to be the bloodiest war in American history. They needed something to believe in again.
*******
Same Day
White House, Oval Office
Secretary of Treasury Joyce Gibbs walked into the Oval Office to meet with the President, Jeff Rogers (the Senior White House economic advisor), and Monty, the President’s Chief of Staff, to discuss the state of the economy. Fortunately, she had good news to talk about. There was legitimate reason to be optimistic; the economy was really starting to run on all cylinders. With the absence of Asian manufacturers, products still needed to be built and those products were now being made in America, South and Central America, the EU and the UK.
The America First Corporation (AFC) was a real boon for the country. As a sovereign wealth fund, it had helped stabilize social security and provided for a secured retirement for aging American workers. A person who worked their whole life could now rely on a social security retirement of $35,000 a year if they retired at 67, and $42,500 annually if they retired at age 73. AFC was also providing hundreds of millions of dollars a year for free college education for students who chose to pursue certain degrees in career fields where there was a national shortage such as nurses, doctors, engineers and other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degrees.
The New American Dollar (NAD), was once again the world’s reserve currency now that it was backed by gold, silver and platinum. Many countries who were not aligned with the Axis powers had switched their reserve currencies from Chinese dollars to the NAD as it had become a more stable currency. The US had also effectively wiped out its debt shortly after the war started. The government had seized all Russian, IR and Chinese government monies that were in US financial institutions at the start of the war, along with those of any shell companies that were associated with their governments. This included monies, buildings, land, companies, houses, cars, yachts, and other items of value. Once they had been seized and retitled, the government began to slowly liquidate these assets among private investors and American citizens. Victims from the IR’s terrorist attacks and those who received some sort of collateral damage during Chinese and Russian military operations in America were also receiving money as compensation from the seized assets. It was a small step in trying to correct the many wrongs the Axis powers had inflicted on the American people.
As Joyce walked into the room, she could see everyone was already seated and ready. She walked over to the couch and sat next to Jeff Rogers, opening her tablet.
The President nodded towards the Secretary of Treasury. “Joyce, it’s good to see you again. Jeff was just bringing us up to speed on a number of items. It appears we are going to have another good economic quarter.”
“Yes Mr. President, it does,” Joyce said while skimming through some notes. “Mr. President, I would like to speak with you about the new war bonds. As you know, we are financing some of the war through the war tax, the confiscation of assets from the Axis powers, and war bonds. I would like to propose we kick off a new war bond initiative by bringing in celebrities from across the country, along with some personal visits from you and the Vice President.”
“Right to the point, I always liked that about you Joyce. I agree, let’s see who we can get from Hollywood to help run the war bond drive and I will, of course, make myself available as well. I believe the Vice President has fully recovered from his injuries, so we’ll get him involved as well. How many bonds do we anticipate needing to sell each month, rough estimate?” asked the President.
“As many as we can, but in reality, the war is burning through $4.31 billion a day. With the national debt paid off, we could run a new deficit, but I would rather not do that. Thanks to the war tax that Congress passed a couple of months ago, I think we can avoid that. I know you caught some flak for it, but that $3% sales tax is essenti
ally covering the increased spending at the moment.”
“The fact that Alaska is being invaded by the Chinese has really started to hit home with most folks. Foreign troops are on American soil and beating our own soldiers has sent a chill down their collective backs…and they should be scared,” said Jeff Rogers.
“The situation will change once some of our newer weapon systems start to show up on the battlefield,” Monty countered, trying to keep the mood of the meeting positive.
A Problem with Math
06 July 2041
Tel Aviv, Israel
Third Army Division HQ
Colonel Joshua Richter had been General Gardner’s aide decamp since the start of the war in the Middle East; he had served with the general on and off throughout his career as an infantry officer and was being groomed to one day become a division commander. Richter caught his boss’ attention to give him an update. “General Gardner, the Secretary of Defense’s aircraft just landed, he’ll be here in about 30 minutes,” Richter said.
The Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs were on their way to Tel Aviv, along with the SACEUR. The goal of this meeting was to discuss the occupation and the next strategy for defeating the Russians. Third Army now had 560,000 extremely battle-hardened soldiers, desperately needed in Europe. The Israeli Defense Force had also grown significantly, reaching 800,000 soldiers. The question now was where to redeploy the Third Army--how many soldiers from the IDF could they get to help assist in Europe or Asia?
“Excellent. Let’s go join General Wade in the conference room while we wait,” Gardner said, leading the way. Colonel Richter went with the general wherever he went, ready to take notes and issue orders for the general.
As the two officers walked in to the conference room, they saw General Wade in a heated discussion with one of his officers. “Sorry gentlemen…would you like us to come back?” asked General Gardner as he slowly came into the room.
They immediately stopped talking, and there was a moment of awkward silence. “No that’s ok. We were just talking about strategy and what to do in Europe to stop the Russians,” said General Wade.
“What’s the issue? Perhaps we can help you out before the VIPs show up,” said Gardner.
“I’m sure you’ve seen our read-ahead. The issue we are facing is one of numbers. The Russians have such a huge advantage in armor, light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. I’m not even sure your additional armor is going to make much of a dent in it.” General Wade looked like he had been beaten down by the war in Europe.
General Gardner walked over to the center of the table and activated the holographic map. He pulled up the pre-brief slides from SACEUR and began to study the map and the enemy unit strengths. He squinted a little as he concentrated, looking for weaknesses in their lines. Just then, the Secretary of Defense, Eric Clarke, and General Branson, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, arrived and walked into the room with their aides and staff in tow.
General Branson walked towards the other two generals and held out his hand to shake theirs, saying, “Generals, it’s sincerely good to see you both. I am so happy we were able to arrange a meeting where we could have our primary battlefield commanders discuss strategy directly with us as opposed to through these holographic images.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” General Gardner replied, shaking the Joint Chief’s hand. The two Generals had worked together a number of times in the past, and though they were both infantry officers, General Gardner had pursued a career that led him to spend more time as a field commander and less time as a politician.
Eric Clarke, the SecDef, walked over and joined in the conversation, “It’s good to see you both as well. I’m glad to see that you all have made it. I know it’s been a rough war, and you all are busy and exhausted.”
“That it has been. Speaking of making it, I don’t know if you heard that we did officially determine that it was poison that killed my predecessor days before the invasion,” General Wade responded as he moved to his seat at the table.
Eric didn’t look surprised. “We thought so. In any case, I’m glad you have been able to take over smoothly. You have done a marvelous job trying to herd all of the cats and dogs that make up NATO and still manage to keep the Russians from gobbling all of Europe up,” the SecDef said with genuine gratitude. Clarke was liked by a lot of people in the military. Though he had never served himself, he really listened to his military commanders and deferred to them when it came down to significant military strategy, weapons, personnel and the needs required to win the war. He was not a micromanager like a lot of the previous SecDefs had been.
After some coffee, tea and other refreshments were brought in, the group of military leaders sat down at the conference table and began to get down to business.
The SecDef opened the conversation by saying, “Generals, the President is incredibly pleased with everyone and the results we have achieved thus far. That said, the war is far from over…we may be entering a more dangerous period than what we just left. The Islamic Republic has surrendered, and for that, we are eternally gratefully for your efforts in driving home this victory, General Gardner. I know the President and I have not always agreed with your methods, but we cannot dispute the results you have achieved.”
“As we look to transition, there are several things that need to take place. Right now, I need you to reassign 250,000 of your men for occupation duty. They do not all need to be combat troops, but they need to be able to perform the full range of occupation duties as needed and ensure we do not have a problem later on. I’ll leave you to figure out the composition of those forces. Next, I’ll need you to also leave behind an additional 35,000 soldiers here in Israel. They will essentially be your Quick Reaction Force (QRF) for the occupation and help secure Israel and assist with the reconstruction efforts that I am sure are already underway now that the war is officially over.”
Clarke looked at the rest of the generals in the room and then at General Gardner before he continued. “You had your meeting with the IDF a few hours ago; I won’t get a chance to meet with them until later today. How did your meeting go?” The SecDef was curious to know what he might be walking in to.
“The meeting went great; they have agreed to participate in the greater war against both the Russians and the Chinese. When I asked for a troop commitment, they said they could lend 250,000 soldiers, mostly combat arms. They are committing 90,000 soldiers to the occupation. About 210,000 will stay on active duty, and the rest will be placed back in a reserve status so they can begin to rebuild their country. They are currently working out the details on how to move nearly 2,800,000 civilians back to Israel from Southern Europe and the US.” General Gardner was all smiles since he had essentially gotten exactly the troop numbers the SecDef and the President were looking for.
General Branson was also smiling from ear to ear, excited to hear that Israel would continue to support their US allies in the war against the Russians. “I will speak with the President, but I believe we can use some of our civilian airlift capacity to help the Israelis in relocating their people back to Israel. I know the President is going to sign an agreement tomorrow bringing Israel into the Grain Consortium, which will give them preferential buying power for food stocks. He is also working on an aid package, mostly building materials and such.”
The SecDef replied, “This is all good news General. Now, on to more pressing matters. Europe and Alaska--we’ll discuss Alaska first.”
Changing the holographic map, the battle of Alaska came into focus. “As you can see, the Chinese have pushed our forces back to Cooper Landing. This is our last line of defense around southern Alaska. Fortunately, General Black has turned it into a real meat grinder for the Chinese. To the north, we have the Susitna defense, which thus far is holding out against a massive PLA army.” Eric sighed before continuing. “The PLA have landed a total force of around 330,000 soldiers on the Aleutian Peninsula, with most of them head
ing to the Susitna defensive line. In the south, they have a total force of around 290,000 soldiers attacking Cooper Landing. Now we expect these numbers to double over the next two months, and then double again by the end of the year. Right now, we are estimating they will have a total force of around 2.3 million soldiers on Alaskan soil by December.”
General Gardner broke into the conversation, adding, “It would almost make more sense for my Army to redeploy back to the US and get ready to go fight the Chinese than it would to move to Europe. If we lose Alaska, then the Yukon, BC, then the other northern states will easily fall. If the Chinese are able to spread themselves out, we could have a thousand-plus mile border or more to have to defend,” he said.
General Branson just nodded, “You are correct. We came to the same conclusion on our flight over here.”
General Wade looked a bit concerned at the thought of losing the Third Army; he had been counting on them. “Am I losing the entire Third Army, or just part of it?” he asked dejectedly.
“You are losing the entire Third Army,” General Branson said, matter of fact. “You are gaining all of Third Army’s air support, along with the Israeli reinforcements. Third Army will have air support via NORTHCOM and General Black’s forces in Alaska.” Branson signaled for Gardner to hold his objections for just a second longer.
