Orbital: This is the Future of War (Future War Book 3)

by FX Holden

  Your attack on Cape Canaveral. Bondarev noted his careful use of the words.

  “But events seem to have overtaken us since you boarded your flight. Look up, Bondarev,” Popovkin said, “and tell me what you see.”

  It was a facile question, but Bondarev indulged him. “I see a ceiling in need of painting, Comrade General.”

  Popovkin managed a crocodile smile. “Very droll. Shall I tell you what I see? I see an RAF Skylon spacecraft parked in a geostationary orbit about one hundred and twenty miles up, directly over this Cosmodrome. I am also informed that US anti-satellite-missile-capable naval and air assets have been moved to alert status. We presume their undersea assets off our coastline have also been placed on alert. And finally, that US news networks are reporting that the US President is expected to make an announcement to his nation in about…” he looked at his watch, “… ten minutes.” For a man staring over an abyss, Popovkin sounded unnaturally calm. But Bondarev could see a bead of sweat on his temple. It was all an act, a performance for his staff sitting around the table. Popovkin continued. “Aerospace intelligence believes this is all a prelude to a nuclear strike in retaliation for the attack on Cape Canaveral. President Avramenko, the Prime Minister and his cabinet have been moved to safety. And now that you are so conveniently here, please, share with me your thoughts.”

  Bondarev had nothing to lose, he realized that. So he said exactly what he was thinking. “I think they are right. I think the US President is going to announce that he has authorized a nuclear strike on a Russian target. The US public will want to see a proportional response to the attack on Florida, and a tactical nuclear strike on a Russian military facility would meet that criterion. A surface vessel or submarine-launched hypersonic cruise missile strike would be the most likely attack vector.” He shrugged. “The likely target? Somewhere remote. Say Kaliningrad, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy … or here.”

  “How boring,” Popovkin said, rising from his chair. “I had hoped you would add to the sum of wisdom in this room, but you have not.” The others rose with him, but Bondarev stayed seated. He doubted there was a seat for him in whatever bunker they were headed for.

  “I do have one observation you may not have considered,” Bondarev said quickly, before they could leave. “If the US President is going on air in less than ten minutes, then the missiles are already flying.” Popovkin paused at the door and Bondarev continued. “A US Waverider hypersonic missile fired from the Black Sea off Turkey would take sixteen minutes to reach Baikonur, so it is probably already on the way. I suggest you run, General.”

  Popovkin glared at him, then looked at the GRU guards who had brought him in. “Put him in a cell here. There is no need to transport him back to Moscow. He can be tried tomorrow and…”

  He got no further. Bondarev had been wrong about the US using a nuclear weapon. But about the rest, he had been right.

  Without any warning, the roof and walls of the command center collapsed on top of them.

  “Bullseye, Captain,” Meany said, watching the feed of their strike on his VR helmet view. The vision had shown a massive detonation deep in the heart of the building complex identified through signals and human intelligence as the nerve center of the Baikonur complex. “NORAD, Skylon. Confirming a successful strike on Baikonur.”

  “Skylon, NORAD. Strike acknowledged. Buckle up, Skylon,” the NORAD controller said.

  Withdrawing manipulator arm. Closing payload bay doors, Angus announced.

  “Received, NORAD. Skylon moving out to 200 miles, we’ll conduct a bomb damage assessment once the dust clears,” Meany said. He pushed up his VR helmet. “That was some serious hurt, ma’am.”

  Hurt? O’Hare had seen plenty of hurt in her time, but probably none more than she’d seen in the eyes of that mother, cradling her unconscious daughter among the flames of the Cape a few days ago.

  “The hurt has just started, Flight Lieutenant,” O’Hare said sadly. “Angus, can you bring up the feed from the White House broadcast?”

  Yes, Captain, do you want BBC, Fox or CNN?

  O’Hare looked at Meany, who shrugged. “BBC, I guess,” she said.

  Anthemic music and then President Fenner’s voice filled the virtual cockpit before his image flickered onto their panoramic display screen.

  “… fellow Americans, and close allies. In the life of a nation, we’re called upon to define who we are and what we believe. Sometimes these choices are not easy. But today as President, I ask for your support in a decision I’ve made to stand up for what’s right and condemn what’s wrong, all in the cause of peace.

  “At my direction, elements of our Navy, Air Force and Space Force have moved into position to address a new threat that I had hoped we would never have to face in my term as President, but which the events of the last few days have shown to be a reality. No one commits America’s Armed Forces to a dangerous mission lightly, but after perhaps unparalleled international consultation, it became necessary to take this action. Let me tell you why.

  “Several weeks ago, without provocation or warning, the Armed Forces of Russia attacked Saudi Arabia with a new type of weapon, called an Orbital Bombardment Platform. The target of that attack was the Saudi oil processing installation at Abqaiq, which was destroyed with the loss of hundreds of lives. Two days ago, the same weapon was used in the attack on Cape Canaveral, which so far has cost upward of 700 lives, with many more seriously injured. Russia claims these incidents were not its doing, that they were the acts of an unmerciful God. However, proof for our assertions was laid out in the United Nations Security Council earlier today. There was no justification whatsoever for this outrageous and brutal act of aggression.

  “The militarization of space in this way is unacceptable. The use of space for anything other than peaceful purposes is unacceptable. No one, friend or foe, should doubt our desire for peace; and no one should underestimate our determination to confront aggression.

  “Today, the United Nations Security Council approved, for the first time in ninety years, mandatory sanctions under chapter VII of the United Nations Charter against one of its member States, Russia. These sanctions, now enshrined in international law, will deny Russia the fruits of its aggression by sharply limiting its ability to either import or export anything of value, especially oil or gas.

  “But we must recognize that Russia may not stop using the weapons it has based in space to advance its ambitions. Russia has created a frightening weapon which contravenes multiple international conventions and shown a reckless willingness to use it. To assume it will not do so again would be unwise and unrealistic.

  “And therefore, the US and its coalition allies are, as I speak, taking action to remove the threat of Russian aggression literally hanging over our heads, once and for all.

  “We have no quarrel with the people of Russia, nor any designs on Russian territory. We will not threaten other elements of the Russian Army, Navy or Air Force. We will not attack defensive Russian missile warning satellites. But whatever offensive military assets Russia currently has in space will be brought down. The bases from which Russia has launched them will be rendered inoperable. What military assets Russia may try to place into space in the foreseeable future will be destroyed.

  “To President Avramenko of Russia, I say this – by your actions, you have forfeited the right to a future in space. You have no place in the stars among peace-loving nations. Russia’s time as a space-faring nation is over.

  “Standing up for our principle is an American tradition. As it has so many times before, it may take time and tremendous effort, but most of all, it will take unity of purpose. As I’ve witnessed throughout my life in both war and peace, America has never wavered when her purpose is driven by principle. And on this August day, at home and abroad, I know she will do no less.

  “Thank you, and God bless the United States of America.” The vision cut to a panel of journalists ready to dissect the address.

  “Cut the TV feed, Ang
us,” O’Hare said. “Bring up the Skylon’s infrared camera, zoom it out to show all of Russia. Windows also for the USA and UK coastal areas for known Russian ballistic missile submarine patrol routes. Notify us of any heat blooms indicative of ICBM launches.”

  Yes, Captain.

  O’Hare turned to Meany. “You realize we could be about to watch the end of the world from 200 miles up in space?”

  “Yes, Captain, but unfortunately, we aren’t up there,” he said grimly. “We’re down here.”

  The Arleigh Burke Flight III-class missile destroyer USS George M Neal was sailing in the company of two older Flight II destroyers in the Western Pacific south of Guam. Onboard was a cable news network camera crew that had been choppered aboard that morning after agreeing to sign a secrecy agreement embargoing them from broadcasting anything until after President Fenner’s speech.

  They had their camera trained on the forward deck of the cruiser as a hatch flew open, and a heartbeat later, there was an enormous flash of light and smoke as an SM-3 Block III anti-satellite missile punched into the air and curved away, leaving a thick white contrail of smoke behind it. Seconds later, another launched. And then another!

  In all, the George M sent six missiles away, racing toward three targets – two Russian Groza satellites and a low earth orbit signals intelligence satellite known as Olymp-M. All three satellites had been allocated to China for secondary destruction if the US attacks were not successful, but Chinese intervention was not needed – four of the six US missiles struck their targets.

  Across the globe, six other Aegis cruisers carried out similar strikes against Russian satellites, and they were broadcast across TV networks around the world in near real time.

  The debris fields created by the US strikes were large and potentially dangerous to other orbiting objects, so the US limited its SM-3 strikes to objects in low earth orbit so that the debris created would decay and fall back to earth relatively quickly, burning up on re-entry. The targeted but very public show of force was deemed to have been absolutely necessary.

  China, in fact, managed the bulk of the anti-satellite offensive with its Parasite system, disabling in the space of the next two hours all remaining Groza units and nearly forty percent of Russia’s GLONASS geosynchronous orbit military communications network. It left the network still capable of communication over the Russian mainland, but communications over Western Europe, Asia and the Middle East were severely disrupted.

  Despite the entreaties of at least one general on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, no Russian early warning satellite or GPS satellite was attacked. To have done so would have been a direct attack on Russia’s nuclear defense capabilities and was certain to have triggered a nuclear response. Despite the attack on the Cape, no Russian population center was targeted, though vision of the strike on Baikonur was released to the media and widely publicized, without the US detailing exactly how it had been delivered.

  Luckily for Russian cosmonauts, none were in space at the time of the US attack, or their manned spacecraft would also have been targeted for destruction.

  At the time O’Hare and Meany were launching their orbital strike, in Dvina Bay off the Russian port of Arkhangelsk on the Arctic White Sea, a US submersible Sea Hunter drone rose from the depths and fired two conventionally armed hypersonic Waverider missiles. Diving immediately for the terrain below them, they hugged the contours of the Northern Dvina River as they raced inland at 3,300 miles per hour, reaching their target 167 miles inland in just over three minutes.

  They hit the main launch complex at Plesetsk Cosmodrome with 2,000 lbs. of BLU-97 Combined Effect Bomblets, which floated down on small parachutes before detonating in a devastating ripple across the Russian space facility, shredding metal, setting fire to fuel tanks, and flaying the flesh from anyone unlucky enough to have been caught out in the open when they hit.

  Within two hours of the President’s speech, Russia had been reduced from two Cosmodromes to none. From military dominance of the domain of space to bare existence. And its Groza orbital bombardment platform had been silenced, permanently.

  What remained unclear, as O’Hare had pointed out, was how Russia would respond.

  Russian Energy Minister Denis Lapikov had a very clear idea of how Minister of Defense Kelnikov felt Russia should respond. He could hear him yelling at President Avramenko up in the front of the Presidential Sukhoi Superjet 100, Russia’s equivalent of Air Force One. They were circling over the Barents Sea northeast of Finland after core cabinet ministers like Lapikov had been bundled into helicopters and rushed to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for a quick departure a few hours earlier.

  Let Kelnikov yell. Lapikov knew the Russian President responded poorly to bullying, but Kelnikov knew no other way. He was not a man for sophisticated arguments. Fat, balding and vindictive, he had wormed his way into the Defense portfolio from the position of Foreign Minister after the coup of two years ago had left him as one of the only ministers still standing. He was proving right now that he was a bad choice, Avramenko had to see that. Or he would, very shortly.

  Lapikov stood, nodded to his aide and gathered his papers. He had been on the satellite telephone all morning – a frustrating experience since, in addition to its declared activities, US Cyber Command was conducting an undeclared war against Russian economic institutions such as Treasury, Agriculture and Fishing, Mining, Economic Development, Industry and, not least, his Energy Ministry. Telephone networks, internal websites, email servers were all being attacked. But significantly, no Defense or police infrastructure, as would be expected if the US intention was one of total war.

  Reaching the front of the aircraft and the President’s offices, he waited with the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Finance, Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs. All were silent, listening to the debate within as they waited to be called in for the cabinet meeting that might well decide the future of mankind. There were no heads of the military services aboard the Presidential aircraft, they were represented by their Defense Minister and their Commander in Chief, the President, but could be conferenced in as needed. Finally, the door was flung open and Kelnikov stood there, flushed and sweating. “Come in,” he said gruffly, as though the meeting was his to convene.

  Lapikov looked immediately at the Russian President, seated at the cabinet table, and saw a deep frown clouding his face. Whether it was concern at what Kelnikov had told him, or anger at Kelnikov himself, Lapikov couldn’t tell.

  “Sit, sit,” Avramenko said, waving at the seats around the small round table. It was a cramped, close environment that lent itself to up close and personal discussion, but thankfully the President did not smoke, so at least the air was clear. The President sat back and looked briefly at Kelnikov. “Tell them what you just told me.”

  Kelnikov dabbed his brow with a kerchief. “They have hit Baikonur and Plesetsk. Both are out of commission. Plesetsk with conventionally armed cruise missiles. Baikonur may have been a tactical nuclear strike…”

  The Interior Minister interrupted him. “There is no evidence of radiation, comrade. It was more likely a conventional weapon, a bunker-busting bomb.”

  Kelnikov did not appreciate the interruption. “Delivered how?” he asked loudly. “By magic carpet to the center of Russia?”

  “Continue, Kelnikov,” Avramenko said. “Please listen, Comrade Ministers, there will be time to speak when you have the full picture.”

  Kelnikov continued. “US and allied forces launched a massive anti-satellite offensive as promised. Mostly sea to space missiles, but using other, unknown attack vectors, perhaps land or space-based directed energy weapons … anyway, we have lost communication with all Groza units, and nearly half of our GLONASS communications network.”

  “Is that all?” Lapikov asked.

  “All?” Kelnikov bellowed. “No, that is not ‘all.’ As you have no doubt experienced, our commercial, industrial and communications infrastructure has been under massive pressure from cyberattack
for the last 72 hours…”

  “Civilian infrastructure,” Lapikov pointed out. “They are going after civilian assets, not military. Economic infrastructure, not defense or security. And since the cyber-attacks started before the incident over Cape Canaveral, we cannot assume that the Americans are behind them. China is a likely source, thanks to your misguided attack on their oilfields!”

  The Interior Minister, Gregor Dzubya, a former Federal Security Service major turned politician, lent his voice to Kelnikov. “It matters not whether the attacks are commercial or military. All attacks which weaken the State must be regarded equally. The Cold War was lost because of economic, not military weakness.”

  “We must respond in kind!” Kelnikov said, trying to build momentum. “They are trying to deny us the use of space as a domain. We can do the same. I have attack submarines off the East and West Coasts of the USA and within range of French Guiana that can deal with the remaining US and EU launch facilities. I have Nudol armed missile destroyers in the North Sea and Atlantic that can target their satellite networks.”

  “Are you seriously suggesting a cruise missile attack on the US Space Force base at Vandenberg?” the Prime Minister, Kirill Shabaev, asked, speaking up for the first time. “Have you forgotten it was we who attacked Cape Canaveral?”

  “After the US and UK began a campaign of unprovoked aggression against our Groza satellite system,” Kelnikov said, turning to the President. “We had not fired a single shot against the US other than in self-defense. The misguided attack on Cape Canaveral by General Bondarev’s mad scientist was unfortunate, but we must react to the US attack immediately, or lose the high ground of space once and for all. Do you want to see US nuclear missiles hovering over Moscow, waiting to drop? If we give up the domain of space, what is next? The seas? The skies?”