by James Rosone
“Relax, Blain, you aren’t going anywhere,” Noah said with a chuckle. “The President has told me a lot about you, and I’ve done a lot of digging on your background prior to your being appointed the NSA by President Alton. Everyone on both sides of the aisle says you’re a straight shooter. You tell it like it is, no matter what the politics are. A senator, who shall remain nameless, said you were an excellent pick for NSA because you didn’t bring any political baggage to the position.
“I’ll admit—I wanted Maria to pick someone else, but she was insistent that we keep you around. She said you two had served together in the Army and in Iraq, that you two had a bond that only soldiers knew. My only request, Blain, is don’t screw this up for her. Aside from being the first woman elected President, she has a lot she wants to accomplish this first term. I’ve been brought on to help her achieve those aims. I’ll make sure you always have access to her; just don’t do anything to impede her goals, OK?”
Blain nodded, a serious look on his face. “You can count on me, Noah. My only goal in life right now is to defeat those who attacked our nations and bring about a swift and just end to this war.”
“OK, boys, now that you two have that out of the way, let’s talk about this new proposal, Project Meteor Halo, that Admiral Thiel put on my desk last night for some light reading,” said President Delgado jovially. “And let’s not forget this next-generation air-dominance fighter plane you guys brought up during the briefing earlier.”
Blain almost grimaced at the mention of Project Meteor Halo. His expression didn’t go unnoticed by Noah or the President.
“I take it you aren’t a big fan of this Project Meteor Halo?” prodded Noah with a raised eyebrow.
“I understand the need and purpose for it,” said Blain. “I’m leery of the consequences of pushing forward with something like this.”
The President leaned forward in her chair. “Why don’t you go over your concerns, then?”
Blain sighed. “First, we have this uneasy détente of sorts with the Chinese in regard to satellites. Neither side wants to move us back to the Stone Age of communications. At the same time, we know the Chinese super-AI is thriving and probably only getting more powerful by having access to the satellite network. Removing it would, in theory, limit the AI’s power, reach, and growth.”
“So, what’s the problem?” Noah pressed. “All of this sounds like a good thing to me.”
“The problem is, once we start taking out satellites, they’ll take ours out as well,” Blain explained. “It’s to be expected. But what it will also mean is we’ll have created a massive cloud of debris up there—debris that will spread and grow, debris that will eventually hit everything up there. The folks at NASA call it the Kessler effect or Kessler syndrome. Once that cascading effect happens, we won’t be able to stop it. We could create a debris field so large that it might prevent us from reestablishing a new satellite constellation or ever traveling back to the moon once this war is behind us. It also means we’ll almost certainly lose GPS, satellite communications, weather satellites, and anything else that relies on satellite use.”
President Delgado didn’t say anything but seemed to understand the gravity of everything she’d just been told.
Blain added, “I’m also very concerned with how this will affect the nation’s economy, our infrastructure, and our supply chains if we lose GPS and satellite communications.”
No one spoke for a minute. Noah shared a nervous glance with Maria. He finally said, “That is an interesting predicament, Blain. When I looked over the project, the part of it that fell under Halo mentioned the use of ground-based lasers as a means of trying to mitigate the mess they knew they’d be creating in space.” He paused. “I thought I had read somewhere about some project back in the 1990s that mentioned the same thing—essentially using lasers to act almost like a brush to cause the debris to spin or cause it to fall into the earth’s atmosphere, where it would get burned up.”
President Delgado turned to look at Noah with a raised eyebrow. “Wow, talk about a piece of useless trivia that suddenly might have some value. Where did you hear about something like that?”
Noah laughed at the compliment. “I used to watch a lot of Jeopardy! I also read a lot about a lot of things.”
“I read that in the report as well,” Blain stated. “I’ve been putting together a very long and detailed request for further information for the Meteor Halo group to answer before I’d presented the idea to you. I had hoped to have that fleshed out a bit more before you became aware of it, but clearly the military did an end-around on me to get you to action it. They’ve been pushing to get aggressive with this AI for a while.” Blain was clearly a bit frustrated that they’d gone around him.
Delgado saw his frustration and reached a hand over to touch his. “I’ll speak with Admiral Thiel and tell him these kinds of things need to get vetted through you first before they hit my desk. I’ll make sure they know all roads to me lead through you.”
Blain smiled, nodding at the show of support.
“OK, Blain, you’ve brought up enough points that I think this needs to be further vetted before we move on it. Let me know when you have the answers you’re looking for, and we’ll talk about it then. In the meantime, what can you tell me about this new aircraft?”
Blain grabbed a folder he’d been carrying in his satchel. Placing the folder marked Top Secret on the table, he opened it and began to explain. “This new aircraft is called the F/S-36 Archangel.”
“F/S? What do you mean by that?” Noah asked before Blain could go much further. He snatched up the photo of the sleek-looking plane to examine the image more closely.
“Uh, sure. So F denotes the aircraft as a fighter. A means attack, kind of like the F/A-18 means it’s a fighter-bomber or how the SR-71 meant Strategic Reconnaissance. In this case, the F/S means fighter spaceplane,” Blain explained. “It’s listed as such because the aircraft has a maximum altitude of roughly one hundred thousand feet, which places it in the lower middle of the mesosphere of the atmosphere. The Archangel is the first such aircraft that’ll be able to operate at those kinds of altitudes. More than that, this thing is a hypersonic aircraft that also leverages hypersonic weapons.”
The President lifted an eyebrow at that. “So, this plane will basically be able to fly above the enemy surface-to-air missiles and drop bombs on them from near space?”
Blain smiled. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but essentially, yes. The plane can carry bombs, but that’s not what it’d be using. A while back, there was a program called ‘Rods of God.’ It basically involved placing these twenty-meter-long rocket-assisted tungsten rods on a satellite in space. We could then have the satellite aim at a hardened underground bunker or a target that was heavily defended and release the rod from space. The rod would fall through the atmosphere, gaining in speed. Once in the upper atmosphere, a rocket on the back would power up and help the rod accelerate to speeds of up to Mach 20 or roughly fifteen thousand miles per hour. When it hit the target, it’d be like hitting it with a three-hundred-kiloton nuclear warhead, only without any of the nuclear fallout.”
Noah just shook his head in amazement as Blain explained how the weapon worked.
“The Archangel has a similar weapon called Thor’s Hammers. They’re roughly three and a half meters long and twenty-four inches in diameter. They’re also rocket-assisted. However, because they aren’t being dropped from space, they won’t reach speeds of Mach 20 like the original Rods of God program. They will, however, still hit speeds of seventy-five hundred miles per hour. It’s still like hitting a target with a small nuke or a very large bomb. However, the real value of the Archangel isn’t so much the kinetic free-fall weapons as its ability to fly through heavily contested airspaces and deliver a precision strike.”
Blain passed out some photos of what the Thor’s Hammers looked like, along with some other images of the aircraft. “What Admiral Thiel was mentioning earlier in the briefing wa
s us utilizing the aircraft to start going after the enemy’s surface-to-air missile platforms, particularly the ones that are protecting the remaining Chinese naval ships. Once those ships have been destroyed and we’ve thinned the air defenses out using this aircraft, then we’ll be in a position to oust the PLA once and for all from our sphere of influence.”
“Damn. This sounds like the game changer we’ve been looking for,” President Delgado remarked.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mass Mobilization
One Week Later
White House
Washington, D.C.
Blain sat on the couch closest to the President. She was seated in the chair between the senior political leaders of the nation. Judging by the looks on everyone’s faces, the gravity of the situation Blain had just briefed them on had finally sunk in.
“How is any of this even possible?” the Senate Minority Leader asked as he looked up from the briefing notes Blain had provided in disbelief and shock.
“I think the bigger question to ask is what can be done to turn things around and right this ship before we all go under?” the Speaker of the House opined.
The President’s Chief of Staff, Noah Medici, put his notes down and looked at Blain. “Mr. Wilson, as the previous president’s National Security Advisor, can you explain to us why the previous administration hadn’t done more to deal with this threat and prepare the nation for war? It’s as if he simply gave up the last couple of months he was in office.”
Blain winced at the accusation but held his tongue. He knew Noah was under an immense amount of pressure right now. The Senate Minority Leader didn’t hold back in her response as she accused the previous administration of pursuing a utopian domestic agenda instead of preparing the country to stand up against the rise of China.
Before the political leaders could dig their heels into their partisan positions, Blain tried to intervene. “Excuse me—if I may say something. Can we please keep in mind that this war we now find ourselves fighting is a war that has been planned and orchestrated by the world’s most advanced supercomputer? While I understand the desire to blame the previous administration and I am certainly not going to make excuses for President Alton, we have to collectively understand that this AI has engineered everything that has happened up to this point to bring us to this very position—”
The Congressional Minority Leader interrupted, “I still don’t fully understand how any of that is possible, Mr. Wilson. I know you’ve gone to great lengths to explain it, I just don’t understand how a computer could have done that.”
President Delgado finally weighed in. “Regardless of how we got here or whose fault it is, we’re here now, and we have to deal with this problem. Blain has explained the seriousness of the situation and what needs to happen to turn this thing around. It’s now up to us as the heads of the government to make the tough decisions. The economy is obviously ravaged from the virus—an intentional position this Chinese super-AI placed the world in. Couple that with their unprecedented surprise attack on our military during the opening hours of the war, and that brings us to where we are now. While some may disagree, I don’t think the previous administration could have done much better, knowing what I’ve come to learn about how this AI Jade Dragon appears to work. What I’m asking all of you to do right now is put aside your political differences and come together as one voice to lead our country back to victory in this war.”
Blain saw the President pause just long enough to look each of the political leaders in the eye before she looked at him. She gave him a subtle smile before continuing. “Mr. Wilson, would you please go over your suggestion for what we should tackle next?”
He nodded. “Madam President, with regard to the war, I have to agree with the Joint Chiefs about a full mobilization of our country for war. I recommend you give a live broadcast to announce a national call to arms and request for every person that’s physically able and willing to answer the nation’s call to volunteer to join the armed forces. We should set a goal of raising a military force of ten million people.”
Blain held a hand up to forestall the immediate objection he saw coming and then continued. “Ten million is the higher end of what Admiral Thiel recommended, but it got me to thinking that we could use this large force for more than just defeating the Chinese. Of the ten million soldiers, I’d like to recommend that one million of them be designated to support domestic operations here.”
“What do you have in mind, Mr. Wilson?” asked Senator Andrew Hordestead, the leader of the Senate.
“The virus ravaged our first responders, leaving us with a critical shortage of EMTs, paramedics, LPNs, and police officers. I believe a portion of the people we’re going to draft could be placed into civil affairs units designated to help fill in and augment the gaps in our inner cities and rural communities,” Blain explained.
“That’s actually a brilliant idea, Madam President,” Medici confirmed. “It would go a long way towards meeting the needs of the two areas of the country that have been hit the hardest by the virus.”
Speaker Tony Isaacs stuck his chin out as he spoke in his thick New Englander accent. “I can see the merits of this proposal, even if I think it’s a slippery slope to use our military like this. What I’d like to know is how are we going to pay for it all?
“Our nation is essentially bankrupt. Look at the insurance industry. In our country alone, COVID-24 has now killed sixteen million people. My son works at a life insurance company and he was telling me the amount of money that has been paid out for all these deaths is going to put many of these firms out of business. We’re talking firms like MetLife and Liberty Mutual, multibillion-dollar businesses. Then you add in an unemployment rate of fourteen percent and a population that’s still scared of catching this virus even after they’ve been vaccinated—I’m just not sure how we can fund this massive military mobilization while still keeping the lights on.”
“You bring up a good point, Speaker Isaacs,” Medici confirmed. “However, I think now is the time for us to move boldly with some of the ideas that both you and Senator Hordestead have both spoken about in the past. If there were ever a time for us to make radical economic and political change, it’s right here and right now.”
Blain saw the President lift an eyebrow at her Chief of Staff’s comment. Delgado didn’t hesitate for a second. “I think Noah is right. Our two political parties have argued over some of these third-rail items for decades, and as a result, we’ve never solved them. So let’s start solving them now so we can position the country to win this war.”
She stood. “It’s noon. Let’s break for lunch and then resume our conversation. Blain, if you’ll stay back for just a moment.”
Noah then led the congressional leaders and some of the White House policy team to another room, where everyone would have lunch together and continue their discussion.
*******
Once the room was clear, Delgado turned to Blain. “If we move forward with this massive mobilization and revamping of our financial and economic system, do you think we can still stop this Chinese juggernaut?”
Blain saw a look of real uncertainty and concern on her face. It was a rare expression for her, and it caught him by surprise. When people saw her on TV, on the campaign trail or working a room, she always exuded confidence and strength. It had been a key aspect of her campaign too. But at the end of the day, she was, after all, only human.
Blain took a breath in before he replied. “If I were talking with President Alton or Vice President Vicki Jackson, then I would be a lot less confident in our ability to beat this machine. But I think you’re the trump card the AI wasn’t counting on. During the campaign and the height of the pandemic, you kept your cool—just like you did all those years ago in Iraq, when our convoy was ambushed.”
Blain looked away for a moment. There wasn’t a day that went by where he didn’t think about the two other soldiers that had died in that Humvee.
St
eeling his nerves, Blain narrowed his eyes as he looked at his commander-in-chief. “I think we can stop this AI, Madam President. But it’s going to require our country to sacrifice and work together at an unprecedented level. You may need to use your executive powers and the Defense Production Act to get Boeing and the other aerospace and automakers to halt civilian production for a few years to focus solely on military manufacturing. If our intelligence folks are right about China’s next move in Asia, then we don’t have much time left to begin preparations to protect ourselves, let alone help our allies.”
The President sighed audibly. It was just the two of them. She reached over and grabbed his arm and squeezed it. “We’ll figure it out, Blain. You just keep doing your best and help me guide this nation through this perilous time.”
Blain smiled. “You can always count on me, Maria. We just need to get the economy turned back on and our people mobilized. We can do this.”
The two of them walked towards the exit to join the others for lunch. Before they entered, she whispered to him, “Tell Admiral Thiel to move forward with the Archangels. I’ll handle the country and the politicians; he just needs to win this damn war before the end of my first term.”
*******
Soto Cano Air Base
Comayagua, Honduras
The Bell V-280 Valor sliced silently through the dark sky over the Honduran jungle. As the minutes ticked by, the twelve soldiers and single airman of ODA 7322 were now only minutes away from touching down.
The crew chief turned to look at Captain Thorne. “We just crossed the El Salvadorian border. We’re three mikes out.”
Nodding at the news, Thorne turned to his guys and held up three fingers. They each nodded and held up three fingers in return.
When Thorne looked forward into the cockpit of the helicopter, he saw some instrument panels lit up and the two soldiers at work. One guy, probably the copilot, was looking at a map and then comparing it to the digital readings he was getting.
