by gerald hall
Chapter Fourteen:
Combined Islamic Army Headquarters
Paris, France
January 26, 2045
The heads of the two Islamic super-states waging jihad on what was left of the non-Muslim world met to plan what they expected to be the turning point in the battle against their greatest adversaries. Along with the two leaders were several of the Islamists’ senior military commanders.
“It is a pleasure to meet with you again, praise Allah.” Mohammed al Hussain Sultani, the leader of the Arab Brotherhood said.
“Indeed, your actions in Europe and Africa have thrown the infidels back on their heels. This has complemented our own successes in South American and the North American West Coast. For the first time in centuries, we truly have the upper hand in our fight to make all of this world ‘Dar Es Salaam’.” Declared Emir Suparman Asegaff, the leader of the Pacific Caliphate.
“Allah has shown much favor to our efforts there. As a result, our holy warriors are now clearing out the last resistance in the northwestern parts of Ireland and Scotland. We have also sent troops to Iceland. The infidels there quickly capitulated after the handful of American soldiers were killed by our warriors. Within a few weeks, all of Europe will have fallen to us.” Colonel Hassan al Bari. Sultani’s military liaison explained.
“This is excellent news. I understand that you are about to undertake a new attack on the Alliance to rob them of some of their spy satellites in space that have plagued our operations?” The Emir asked.
“Yes, we have decided to take this action so that our planned invasion of the North American east coast will be far more likely to succeed. We are beginning with decoy air strikes that are already moving out as planned even as we speak. By now, the Americans will have spotted them using their damned spy satellites.” Colonel al Bari replied.
“You are tracking their spy satellites’ transmissions and sending the data to your special mission fighter group, correct?” Asked Emir Asegaff.
“Yes, Your Excellency. We will have very accurate location information on these satellites very soon. Our aircraft are already in the air and waiting for the order.” Colonel Abdulbek Khanov replied as he stood to the side of the conference room. Colonel Khanov was one of the few Chechen’s to have been trained to play Russian combat aircraft. What the Russians did not know was that Colonel Khanov’s true loyalty was not to Russia but to his god Allah and to the Chechen people. That eventually led to the defeat of Russia by Chechen jihadists in the service of the Caliphate. Now, Colonel Khanov led much of the Arab Brotherhood’s Air Force, including all of the aircraft that had been salvaged from the Russian Air Force and brought back into service.
“When you have the precise locations of the American satellites, have your people immediately launch their weapons. They will no longer be able to use their satellites to spy upon us or to provide information to the Jews or the Persian infidels. We will finally be able to crush those enemies in addition to the Americans.”
“Are you not concerned by the reports of the infidel’s having kinetic weapons in space that can be used to strike our forces, Your Excellency?”
“I believe that if the Americans had such weapons available for use, they would have already used them. They have used a thinly veiled threat to deter us from striking at their spacecraft for long enough. We will not be stopped by an American bluff any longer from doing what we must do.”
“Yes, Your Excellency. The attack will be done as soon as possible. Praise be to Allah.” Colonel Khanov solemnly answered.
A few hours later, sixteen former Russian Air Force MiG-31D Foxhound interceptors launched from Nasosnaya airbase near the city of Sumqayit in Azerbaijan. These aircraft had originally been from the 786th Fighter Regiment based in Pravidinsk but had been relocated after the aircraft had been refitted and their aircraft retrained for a special mission.
Each of these aircraft carried a 95M6 antisatellite missile that had been developed by the Russian missile but never fielded. After takeoff, the sixteen aircraft made zoom climbs that took them to over twenty-thousand meters altitude. At a designated point, the interceptor aircraft launched their missiles at eight targeted satellites. Two missiles were allocated for each target to ensure destruction. The Foxhounds then returned to their base in anticipation of further missions.
General Mohammad Tonga, the head of the Pacific Caliphate military reported to the Emir shortly afterwards, “The mission has been completed with total success against the enemy targets.”
Chapter Fifteen:
White House Oval Office
Washington, DC, Eastern Alliance
January 26, 2045
“Ma’am, we’ve lost three of our surveillance satellites in the last two hours. This included two of our Program Gemini birds. Based on what appear to be clouds of debris in the orbits where the satellites had been located, we believe that they have been shot down by enemy forces.” A shocked looking Neil Johnson told President Harper.
“Do we know how the satellites were shot down? I know that the Chinese had fielded anti-satellite weapons as had the Russians in the past.”
“We can’t be absolutely certain at this point. But our analysts believe that our satellites were shot down by air-launched anti-satellite weapons. There were no indications of surface launches of any possible anti-missile missiles that we have been able to discern. There are no energy-based anti-satellite weapons existing that would cause the sort of catastrophic destruction that our satellites suffered.”
Johnson was looking down at the datapad that he always carried to meetings when an alert message suddenly appeared. The look of dismay on his face grew even more pronounced as he looked up once again to speak to President Harper.
“We’ve gotten additional reports. There have now been five more of our satellites that have been hit. The debris fields from the destroyed satellites threaten to impact more than thirty other military and civilian satellites as well.”
“Well, get our people as well as the folks from NASA to start trying to move those satellites that are in danger as well as any other of our military birds that you believe might be targeted next. What have we lost so far?”
“Ma’am, our imagery, signals intelligence and military communications satellite constellations have all been heavily degraded. We have also lost some of our ability to provide worldwide GPS coverage. If we are lucky, we may be able to reconstitute segments of our imagery and communications coverage using civilian assets. But our ability to eavesdrop on enemy communications is down to just one satellite now. So we will only have sporadic coverage for signals intelligence. If we lose any other satellites due to impacts from the debris field, we will be blind, deaf and dumb beyond two or three hundred miles outside of our borders. We will have to try to reconstitute as much coverage as we can using high-altitude UAVs equipped with sensors and communications relays.”
“Is there any indication that the Islamists know anything concrete about Project Gemini? We had never formally announced its existence, only vague hints of having the potential ability to strike from orbit. Also, how will the Islamists maintain their own satellite navigation systems?”
“Since a variety of satellites were targeted, not just our Gemini birds, I would have to assess that our adversaries are not fully aware of the scope Program Gemini and the location of all of the Gemini satellites. Otherwise, the Gemini birds would have all been targeted. Over fifty-percent of the Gemini constellation remains operational.
We believe that the Islamists are using the old Russian GLONASS and Chinese Beadou global positioning satellite networks in addition to what is left of our GPS network. That probably gives our adversaries relatively accurate navigational information.”
“Well, the Islamists have crossed a line here by attacking our satellites. We are going to hit them back hard in retaliation. But we need to take some other measures as well to preserve certain other space assets.”
“What do you need to have done,
Ma’am?”
“I want you to contact NASA and have them immediately send this message to the Mars Colony. ‘Initiate Operation Refuge.’ I just hope that they can accomplish this in time.”
“What is Operation Refuge, Ma’am?”
“We are asking the colony on Mars to send one of their ships to transport Space Station Freedom from orbit here to Mars. It is apparent that the space station is no longer safe from attack. I am not going to just wait for someone in the Caliphate to launch a missile at it. To do so is to condemn to death, every single man and woman up there now. At least this way, the space station can still serve a useful purpose and have some degree of security as well.”
“That will mean an end to power transmission to our receiver stations in the Plains and the Mojave Desert, won’t it, Ma’am?”
“I’m afraid so. I know that it is going to be hard on the innocent people behind enemy lines out there to have their power supplies cut. We are going to lose some power generation capacity as well. But you know why I have to do this. At least, we will also be hurting the Caliphate as well. They will have to find at least a partial replacement for the power supplied by our space station to keep the cities running. Maybe maintaining that power feed to the West Coast would have given the space station some additional security. But I just can’t take that chance any longer. We will also have to rely on Bigalow Aerospace’s Space Station Bravo as our orbital way station after Operation Refuge is initiated.
In any event, the Martians certainly could use the extra power. They have been struggling for decades trying to make do with a few power generator systems. There are more power generation systems in the pipeline for them, but every little bit more helps in their struggle to remain viable.”
“Of course, Ma’am. It’s just a very big move for us to pull off. It also has to be pretty risky. Space Station Freedom is a huge structure now. It wasn’t really designed to be moved, especially over one hundred millions miles.”
“Well, if there are any people anywhere in the universe who can figure out how to do this, those Martians will be among them.” Allison said with a huge, confident smile.
“This is true, Ma’am. I would still suggest that we move the space station and any of our surviving strategic orbital assets into higher orbits to the extent possible. This would make it more difficult for them to be targeted.”
“I concur. Besides, the fact that a higher orbit will make it easier for the Martians to move Space Station Freedom out of Earth orbit when the time comes. But before the space station finally leaves orbit, it will play a key role in our retaliatory strikes against the Brotherhood and the Caliphate. After all, the United States has always said that attacks upon its orbital assets were going to be treated as though the attacks were made on American soil itself.”
“We are going to have to send up some additional fuel for the ship that moves the space station to Mars. The Martians are obviously going to have to run their engines more to push that mass around.”
“Do whatever you have to do to make this happen, Neil. You will have my support for your choices in this matter.”
“You know about the space station’s other capabilities beyond its sensors and communications, Ma’am?” The National Security Advisor asked.
“Yes, Neil. But we won’t be able to use those capabilities without surely sacrificing all of the men and women on the station. The Caliphate will not hesitate to fire a nuclear weapon at the station if they realize that it has the capability to drop kinetic weapons on terrestrial targets, much less shoot down ballistic missiles and satellites. The irony is that we just don’t have the assets to protect the station so that it can protect us. The Martians just might though. In any event, the decision has been made.”
“What are you planning on doing with the station’s Thor projectiles, Ma’am?”
“I am going to donate them to the jihadists as a parting gift. I don’t think that they will like these gifts very much, however.” The President grimly smiled.
“Do you have any concerns that the Arab Brotherhood and Pacific Caliphate might use this as an excuse to conduct retaliatory strikes against us, Ma’am?”
“They might. But I rather doubt that they can do much worse to us than what they are already doing. They want to conquer us. They really can’t do a hell of a lot more to us without inheriting a scorched landscape that will not be of any use to them at all. Now, maybe they don’t care about that. But I think that they would much rather have us relatively intact if and when they put their feet down upon the neck of the last free American on Earth.
But if we hit them hard enough, we give ourselves a chance of our nation surviving. It still may not be a big chance. But we are not just going to lie down and let them walk all over us while not using the tools that we have available to hit our enemies without destroying our own world at the same time.”
“Then let’s get this operation started, Ma’am. We are going to need some help from the Martians to get the station into a higher orbit. But we do have a Martian transport in orbit around Earth right now. As usual, it brought a gravity drive shuttle to ferry equipment and personnel on and off our world.”
“Very good. If you need a little Presidential nudge to get the Martians to agree to this, please let me know. To be completely honest, I don’t think that they will mind helping us at all though.”
“We have just received a request from the Eastern Alliance for use of some of our space assets. The US President has decided to send Space Station Freedom to a place of safety with us. She was reasonably concerned that it would soon become a target for Caliphate missiles. It still had to be a very hard decision for her.” Deborah told the rest of the Martian Council in a quickly arranged teleconference shortly after receiving President Harper’s message.
“I’m sure that it was. But the Eastern Alliance didn’t have any defenses at all available for the station’s protection. Just how are they getting the platform to us?” Arthur asked.
“The station is going to be transported by one of our interplanetary ships. We have several vessels available within a few days travel of Earth, including Renown. The space station’s crew will be transferring about our ship for the journey so that they will be protected against cosmic radiation. They should all arrive in Martian orbit in about eight months. This includes all of the space power system components that had been installed on it.”
“If we are going to be able to take advantage of the power from the SPS segment, we are going to have to build a microwave receiver station then.” Timothy Clarborne noted.
“I’m sure that we can manage that, Tim. We just have to squeeze it into the growing list of urgent requests for resources, energy and manpower that we already have.” Arthur replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
“I know that we have a lot of different demands on our available resources, but another source of clean energy for the colony has to be a priority. With that energy, we can do so much more to fulfill all of the other requirements in the long run.” Sandy Merriweather-Clarborne, Timothy’s wife added.
“That is true. With enough energy, raw material, time and imagination, we can build just about anything.” Arthur said with a quick smile.
Less than twelve hours later, the head of the Alliance Space program and the National Security Advisor had consulted with Martian authorities and had received permission to implement the President’s request.
“We are getting a bit of a mission change, it seems” Captain Colin Whittaker, commander of the Mars Colony spaceship Renown, told Alyssa Drake, the ship’s engineer. Alyssa was the only other person on the bridge and currently awake on the ship. All of the Renown’s other six occupants were sleeping in therapeutic torpor for the duration of the journey to save food and life support. In spite of the improvements to the engines of the Martian interplanetary ships, it was still a long journey to travel from Mars to Earth.
“What are we going to do? I know that our original mission was to pick up modul
es from the Eastern Alliance and Israel on this run.” Alyssa asked Colin. He was one of the few polymaths that continued flying interplanetary missions. The others were all busy with projects on or around Mars.
“Oh, we will still be doing that, my friend. But we are also going to be bringing something else home as well. The Alliance has asked us to transport Space Station Freedom to Mars orbit. We just happen to be the next ship to arrive back to Earth since the request was made. So we have been tasked with the mission. This was something that all of us have been anticipating for a long time anyway. So we already have all of the assets necessary to accomplish the task including the new multipurpose docking interface.”
“We won’t be able to travel back to Mars as quickly if we are bringing the entire space station with us, will we?”
“No. So we are going to spending a lot more time sleeping on the way back home, I’m afraid. But we will have a lot more company along the way.”
“I guess that we will be using our NERVA engine for a lot more of the trip as well because of the extra mass that we will be pushing. “
“Yes, we will. We will still be using our Mini-Magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion drive for our sustainer propulsion. But the M2P2 drive just will not provide us with enough push by itself. Otherwise, we would be spending an extra four months in space on the way to Mars. So, the Alliance is providing us with a lot more reaction mass for our NERVA drive so that we can get up to speed.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Even while asleep, an extra four months in addition to the usual time that it takes to travel to Mars is a very long time to be away from home. It is a shame that we had not gotten the opportunity to be refitted with one of the new fusion drives to replace our NERVA engine.”
“I know. Those needed to go to our deep space probe ships because of what they have been tasked to do for the colony. We just have to wait on the space station to fold up its solar array for movement. Oh, there is one other thing that the folks down at the Eastern Alliance want us to wait on before we boost ourselves and our cargo towards Mars.”
