Operation Red Dawn and the Siege of Europe (World War III Series Book 3)

by Rosone,James

  Allen used his HUD to alert his platoon sergeant. “Sergeant Jenkins, have the men focus on taking out the infantry in the exo suits. They are advancing fast!”

  LT Allen began targeting an enemy soldier himself with his rifle. He spotted a Russian about 600 meters away, moving quickly and methodically; he was running from one area of cover to another, firing a few shots at Allen’s line as he ran. Paul used his sights to hone in on him; he squeezed the trigger, sending a .25mm projectile towards the man at Mach 5 speeds. The Russian was hit in the chest and flew several feet backwards off of his feet; soon he was lying dead on the ground being trampled over as dozens of his comrades moved past his limp body.

  Seeing that even more soldiers in exoskeleton suits were rushing his position than anticipated, Allen’s heart began to race again. He used his HUD coms to call to the platoon TOC, “Requesting additional artillery support to our front positions. Have the Razorbacks on standby. We’ve got hundreds of exoskeletons headed our way, and I am starting to see waves of Russian tanks forming up.”

  Checking his platoon’s status in his HUD, Paul could see that he had five soldiers injured and one soldier dead. The Russians were still getting closer, despite them picking off guys at maximum range.

  As more artillery rounds began to land amongst their lines, the number of wounded and killed soldiers began to tick up. The Russians had now closed the distance to less than 200 meters away, and were still coming strong. Several of the light drone tanks began to speed ahead of the infantry, hoping to slash through Allen’s lines and cause further problems for his fighters. As they drew within 75 meters of the American positions, several of Allen’s soldiers lifted up their AT6s and fired off their anti-tank rockets. In seconds, four of the thirteen light drone tanks attacking their positions were destroyed, while the remainder continued to advance. As the drones moved to within 25 meters of their position, several additional infantrymen produced more AT6s and fired another volley of rockets at them, destroying another five more of the nine drone tanks. The remaining four drones blew through his lines and made their way for targets further behind Allen’s position. He quickly radioed in the threat to the company TOC and battalion, and returned his focus to the steady advance of the Russian infantry.

  There were hundreds, if not a thousand infantrymen advancing on his position. They continued to pick them off with incredible accuracy, but they continued to progress, nonetheless. Like a relentless wave beating against the shore, they just kept coming. Soon they had advanced to within 25 meters of their position, and now both sides began throwing grenades at each other.

  There was no room for doubt; the time to bug out and move to their second line of defense was right then, at that moment. LT Allen yelled over the HUD, “Everyone, fall back to the secondary positions and get ready to blow your claymores!” He hoped that they could all hear him over the growing cacophony of gun fire and explosions. As Allen got up to move to the next line, he was suddenly hit by half-a-dozen bullets and thrown on his back. Fortunately, the Raptor suit absorbed the hits, and they did not penetrate his armor, but the impact sure knocked the wind out of him. Time was of the essence though, and he had to move. He quickly injected himself with a shot of adrenaline from within the suit, and then moved swiftly to his fallback position.

  Turning around to shoot at his pursuers, Allen jumped into his new foxhole and then immediately looked for the claymore mine clicker. He found three of them near the edge of the foxhole and grabbed them. In seconds, he was clicking through each detonator, setting off a chain of claymore anti-personnel mines in front of his position. Thousands of ball bearings were thrown like an iron wall against the attackers. He probably killed more than thirty enemy soldiers in that instant.

  Seconds later, he was up shooting again at the attackers, assessing his surroundings. What he saw almost made his stomach turn. Blown apart bodies were strewn all over the place. The mines had torn the Russian soldiers apart as they advanced on him. There was no one left of the attacking force, at least for the moment. Ducking down in his foxhole again, he began to determine how many of his men were left and where they were. As he checked through his roster and blue force tracker, he could see only twelve of his soldiers had survived thus far; nearly a dozen lie wounded at their original defensive position, but there was no way they were going to be able to go back for them. Hundreds of additional Russian soldiers were advancing to fill the void of those that had recently been killed by the platoon’s latest round of claymore mines.

  “Everyone that can hear me, I want you all to fall back to my position. We are going to try and bugout back to rally point Charlie. Now, move like you want to live!” he barked over the HUD. In a matter of minutes, what was left of his platoon had rallied to his position and they began to move as a group to the next rally point. Hot on their heels was the next wave of Russian soldiers. This time they were moving a little more slowly and cautiously as they approached the now empty foxholes and trench lines.

  When the engineers were building the foxholes and trenches, they knew that they might have to sacrifice those positions at some point, so they had placed enough C4 in each of them to kill or maim any enemy soldiers unfortunate enough to be close by. Allen kept waiting for the Russians to reach a predetermined point when this weapon would be most useful. Without batting an eye, Allen pressed the red button on the remote detonator one of the engineers had given him. A series of loud explosions could be heard behind them as they moved quickly now to the rally point.

  As they closed in on rally point Charlie, which was nearly five kilometers from their position, they began to see other members from their battalion show up on their blue force trackers. At least they wouldn’t be alone. Once there, they saw what was left of the battalion--not much, unfortunately. In total about one hundred and eighty-six soldiers had made it out. Their next orders were to move on into Fairbanks and join the rest of the division for their next defensive stand. This would be their last battle before they would fall back to the southeastern side of Fairbanks and catch their rides out of the area.

  As they approached Fairbanks, they quickly saw the fortress the engineers had been building. This was going to be a house-to-house street fight through the city of Fairbanks. There was would be a total of 4,645 soldiers from the 32nd Infantry Division, who would have to try and hold the city for as long as possible. They had originally thought they would have closer to 6,000 soldiers, but casualties had been significantly higher than they anticipated. Two hours after arriving and getting set up in the buildings that Allen’s group of twelve soldiers would defend, the advanced elements of the Russian infantry began to arrive.

  At first, it was just a few soldiers taking shots at each other; then the artillery rounds began to land. Standing on top of one of the buildings looking towards the action, Allen and his platoon sergeant could spot dozens of Russian light drone tanks, supported by dozens of infantry fighting vehicles and a few of their venerable T14 Armatas.

  They heard over the battalion net a call for whatever air support was left in the area and asked that they focus their effort on the T14s and then the light drone tanks. The infantry could handle the IFVs with their anti-tank rockets. Soon they saw five Razorbacks leave the area of Lad Army Airfield and begin their short trek to the edge of Fairbanks. Within minutes, they were on station and quickly decimated the Russian armor. They were laying a world of hurt on the Russian infantry. This would be their last support mission; they were going to rearm one more time and then begin their journey back to the Marine positions where they would rebase.

  With the last bit of their air support gone, they were officially on their own. What was left of their self-propelled artillery was moving further down the line towards the Marine positions. Once they found a good firing position that could still support them, they would radio in. Allen had what was left of his company spread out across two low-rise buildings controlling the intersection of Airport Way and University Avenue. He had several soldiers pos
itioned in the buildings and forest surrounding the area. Their goal was to establish a good crossfire to prevent the road from being used. Several other platoons were spread out ahead of them and to their flanks. Most of the defense of the city would be broken down by small units, platoon size elements spread throughout the city. The goal was to bleed the Russians as they moved in to the city.

  A local Alaskan militia unit had also been raised; they had close to 1,500 volunteers who agreed to help the soldiers defend the town and turn it into a real meat grinder. There would be a soldier or militia man behind virtually every building, block and road in the city. Fairbanks and Anchorage were going to be a real test for the Alaskan militia. It would also be the first time a militia force had fought on American soil since the war of 1812. The Russians and Chinese were about to get their first experience at what it would be like trying to occupy an American city with a populace that is heavily armed.

  As Lieutenant Allen sat in the Mt. McKinley Bank with his platoon sergeant, SFC Jenkins, waiting for the action to arrive, he hurriedly stuffed an MRE in his face and wondered how they had survived the past twenty-four hours. His Raptor suit was scarred from the shrapnel and bullets that had hit him. He was also filthy, covered in mud. All he wanted to do was take the suit off and get a hot shower. Unfortunately, the only thing he could take off right now was his helmet and let his head feel some freedom from the suit. “Sergeant Jenkins, what do you think our chances are of surviving another day?” asked Allen, in a way that was clearly joking at their misfortunes.

  Jenkins chuckled in good humor. “Well, sir, you are our good luck charm. You survived the beach landing, the battle of Susitna and the last twenty-four hours. Not to mention the battle of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. I reckon you are at least indestructible. As for the rest of us…I think we are all up a creek without a paddle.” Jenkins laughed at his own joke as he spoke.

  Sighing and sitting back against the wall, Allen was deep in thought. He had survived a lot of battles that not a lot of others had. Maybe his luck was starting to run out. Maybe today would be his last day…or maybe he’d live to see another day. Only time would tell.

  Off in the distance, they could hear the Russians inching closer to their position. The last report had the Russians at least a mile down the road. They were hitting heavy opposition as they entered the city. The house-to-house, block-by-block fight had started. Despite heavy losses, the Russians kept sending soldiers, IFVs and tanks into the meat grinder that was Fairbanks. They needed to capture the city, even if they had to destroy it in the process. The airport, the Army Airfield and the Air Force base down the road were going to be critical positions for their future operations.

  As the fighting continued to move closer with each hour, Allen’s men grew pensive as they waited for what felt like a death sentence, staying behind to defend the city like this. So far they had seen very few soldiers moving past their position or joining them. Several of the returning soldiers said their comrades had been completely overrun and did not have a chance to retreat. Others spoke of incredible bravery as one or two soldiers would stay behind and fight to the death while the rest of them retreated to fight another day. The hostilities were intense and brutal. Most of the combat was taking place less than twenty meters apart. Lots of hand grenades were being thrown in each direction. A number of soldiers had jerry-rigged claymore mines to the walls of some of the buildings overlooking the street, and when a number of Russians would rush the building or move through that area, they would detonate the explosives, wiping out entire squads of enemy soldiers before they even knew what had hit them.

  Three hours had gone by and the Russians were still close to a mile away from LT Allen’s position. Soon though, Paul started to see a trickle of American soldiers starting to fall back to his platoon’s position. Nearly ninety soldiers joined his twelve men as they started to ready new defensive positions and re-arm. A truck had dropped off a couple of crates of claymore mines for them. Most had plenty of ammo, but they were starting to run low on grenades and claymores.

  As nightfall loomed, the Russians had finally pushed their way to within half a mile of their position. As the Russians sensed victory, they rushed in several additional divisions of soldiers. Now they were attacking from three different points of the city, putting the squeeze on the defenders. By midnight, a call came across the Battle Net for everyone to fall back to the vehicles; the division was going to bug out. It took close to half an hour for his men to get ready to withdraw; they wired up a lot of booby-traps for the Russians, and also made sure to pass along as many claymores and grenades as they could to the surviving militia men who were going to stay behind.

  The Russians knew the Americans were withdrawing, but did nothing to stop them or interfere with their efforts. After losing nearly 3,431 soldiers and three times that number wounded in a day, they were just happy the Americans were leaving. This was the first time they had gone up against an entire division using the Raptor suits. During the two days of combat, they had suffered some horrendous casualties just getting to the city, and then the house-to-house fighting was spectacularly brutal.

  Russian soldiers had told each other stories of how they had shot an American in a Raptor suit and he just got back up and kept shooting like nothing happened. One Russian comrade said he fired nearly an entire thirty-round magazine into one soldier before he finally killed the American. If more American divisions started to field the Raptor suits, then this war was going to get a lot bloodier than it already had been.

  The 32nd Infantry had earned the reputation as one of the most elite divisions in the Army after their battle in Fairbanks. They had faced off against nearly 240,000 Russian soldiers with just 12,000 men. They had suffered nearly sixty percent casualties, but had bought enough time for the engineers to seriously destroy the infrastructure in northern and central Alaska. Now it was time for them to withdraw with the Marines, get to safety, and await their next assignment.

  Plans of Betrayal

  November 2041

  Japan

  Prime Minister Yasuhiro Hata had spent the last couple of months vetting and replacing a number of senior military leaders, ensuring that each and every one was loyal to Japan and would do as their government directed. He had to ask for the resignation of some, and the reassignment of others to get his key people in place. The final preparations were being made to ready the fleet and the JDF. They had the sealift capability to move up to 35,000 soldiers and their equipment. Currently, these soldiers and the navy were being led to believe that they would be attacking the Chinese fleet at Pearl Harbor and conducting a landing to secure the island from the Chinese.

  PM Hata had also coordinated with the PLA to have twelve thousand soldiers and equipment hidden inside of several roll-on, roll-off cargo containers. Instead of bringing thousands of Toyota, Nissan and Honda vehicles to the Port of Oakland and Port of Los Angeles, they would be offloading air defense systems, light drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. The soldier’s orders were to secure the ports and then expand the perimeter as far out as they could until reinforcements began to arrive.

  As part of the surprise attack, there would be nearly sixty commercial aircraft arriving in the US from Japan. They had all been timed so they would all be on the ground at the same time; once they pulled up to the terminal, they would then unload fully armed Special Forces who would do what they could to destroy as much of the airport as possible before they changed in to civilian clothes and faded into the American population. Each aircraft would carry a total of sixty Special Forces soldiers and plenty of explosives. Their secondary mission (after causing a lot of havoc at the airport) was to begin conducting sabotage operations across the American infrastructure. This included blowing up railroad bridges, highway overpasses and tunnels. This would dramatically hurt the Americans’ logistical capabilities.

  The key to making this operation succeed was complete and absolute secrecy. All of the Special Forces soldiers
and JDF personnel who would be involved in the initial invasion were separated from the rest of the Japanese forces, and were conducting special training to keep them occupied and get them ready for the real deal. The JDF Task Force, which included their aircraft carriers, new battleships and 35,000 additional soldiers, would turn away from the Chinese naval task force and head right for the West Coast of America once the assault at the airports begin. Their objective would be to secure Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland. Only Los Angeles had a military contingent near them, and they would be handled by the Chinese PLAN infantry, who would be launching a full-fledged beach assault against Camp Pendleton and the various naval bases in San Diego. If things went according to plan, they would control the ports and a large chunk of Southern California by the end of the New Year.

  Thor and the Bodark

  Mid-December 2041

  White House Situation Room

  President Stein was starting to get desperate in the war against Russia and China. The Russians and Chinese had officially captured the majority of Alaska and forced US Forces to withdraw to Slana, Alaska along Route 1. They had suffered some horrific losses…goodness only knew how they were going to replace them all. To add further insult to injury, the heavy snowfalls that Alaska is known for had finally started. The only good thing about the harsh winters of Alaska was that it would most likely halt any future operations until spring.

  Despite these recent losses, there was good news in the world. NATO had defeated the Russians in central Germany, forcing them to retreat to the German/Polish border where they had established a new line of defense. NATO was in no shape to continue pushing the Russians out of Poland, so they hunkered down for the winter and continued to train more soldiers for a spring offensive.