Battlefield China

by James Rosone

  Xi walked in the entrance followed by his detail, and they escorted him down the hallway toward the kitchen in the back. Once there, they moved to a storage room in the back, where a secret entrance was located. There were two other entrances to the facility, but they were both located at other, more prominent and well-known military facilities used for radar and communications. The Chinese had done their best to make sure that the Americans had only known about those official entrances. That way, if a bomb actually did attack them there, it would have little chance of actually penetrating to the depth needed to get at the complex itself.

  Once inside the tunnel, the entourage headed down the corridor until they reached a large service elevator. One of the guards entered a randomized code, then placed his hand on a biometric scanner before placing his eye against another biometric device that scanned and compared his iris image with the image on file. Once all of these checks had been completed and verified, the elevator activated and began its journey from the bunker below up to meet them.

  A few minutes went by as they waited, then a soft ding sounded, and the door opened. A handful of additional heavily armed soldiers greeted them at the door, startling Xi’s security detail, who pointed their guns at the men.

  “We’re just here to verify who you are and that you have authorization to be here,” the soldiers explained. When President Xi’s guards lowered their weapons, the soldiers saw the president. They quickly waved off the standard secondary biometric verifications they normally would have performed on each person entering the elevator.

  Xi calmly walked to the center of the spacious elevator, and his security detail and the soldiers filled in the space around him. Xi felt that this was a rather cavernous elevator considering the secretive nature of its location. It wasn’t like this was a major supply elevator—but then again, with few entrances and exits in and out of the facility, he suspected they made heavy use of each to ferry in the massive amount of supplies needed to sustain such an operation.

  When the door opened, Xi’s security detail led the way to the central operations room while the soldiers resumed their guard positions at the elevator entrance. Upon entering the operations room, Xi saw a flurry of activity. Soldiers and civilian contractors scurried around the facility, getting it ready to take over operations of the war from the central command center in the bowels of the Ministry of National Defense HQ in the August First Building.

  “General Yang isn’t messing around,” thought Xi. He realized the general was planning on the Americans going after China in retaliation for their use of nuclear weapons.

  Foreign Minister Wang Yi walked up to him with a broad smile on his face. “Mr. President, it’s good to see you. Come this way.” He gestured for Xi to follow him past the operations center to a large meeting room where many of the CMC generals and other senior cabinet officials were milling about, talking amongst themselves and fixing their tea and food that one of the chefs from the kitchen had just brought in.

  Turning to look at Xi, Wang commented, “I’m so glad General Yang has come around to your initial proposal about using our nuclear weapons. I truly believe this is going to turn the war around for us and finally bring the Allies to the negotiating table.”

  Laughing before he replied, Xi said, “You mean your proposal to use nuclear weapons, don’t you?”

  Wang raised an eyebrow at the reference but smiled as he replied, “I think we all know there isn’t really an alternative if we want to end this war without a complete surrender.”

  “Have the Americans broken through our defenses in the Jinzhou District yet? The last report I received before I went to sleep last night was that they were making another large push.”

  Wang shook his head. “No, not yet. Believe it or not, they still haven’t made it past the Great Wall. They’ve been somewhat reluctant in blowing new holes through it, so they’ve been largely focused on trying to air-assault forces across it and behind our lines, in hopes of getting us to give up the defensive line.”

  Since Xi had liquidated many of his senior staff a few months ago, along with most of the senior generals who had previously been running the Central Military Committee, Minister Wang had taken it upon himself to be as up-to-date as possible on what was happening with the war.

  “I wonder if he’s positioning himself to take over if I die,” mused President Xi. China didn’t have a formal line of ascension, and Xi knew that Wang was not particularly fond of General Yang.

  As the two of them entered the briefing room, Xi surveyed everyone present. The conversations quickly ended in deference to his presence. Right away, he noticed the absence of one key figure, his Sun Zu—General Yang was not present. Turning to one of Yang’s deputies, he inquired, “Where is General Yang?”

  The colonel looked a bit nervous. He had obviously been asked the question a few times by the other men in the room. “I just spoke with General Yang about ten minutes ago. He said he was delayed in leaving the August First Building.”

  Xi crinkled his brow at the news; he had hoped to get this briefing going so they could get the ball rolling. It sickened him to think about using nuclear weapons on their home soil, but he couldn’t think of any other way to destroy the Allied armies steamrolling their way across the country.

  “Did he say what the delay was or when he’ll be here?”

  The deputy nodded. “Yes, Mr. President,” he answered. “There was an Allied bombing raid hitting the capital just prior to your arrival. He wanted to wait until the enemy bombers had left before he ventured out of the bunker to head here. He told me to let you know that he’d be approximately ninety minutes late, but that General Liang could proceed with the brief in his absence. General Yang said it was more important that everyone get secured here in the mountain before we released the weapons.”

  “Well I’m glad someone is making sure the military and government are safe before this attack happens,” Xi thought. The Americans would surely come after them.

  “OK, then tell General Liang to proceed. We have a lot of information to go over,” Xi said. Then he moved to take his seat and indicated that the others should as well.

  *******

  G103 Highway, En Route to Xiang Shan Command Center

  “Sorry about the traffic, General. Perhaps we should have taken one of the helicopters,” said Captain Cho, his head of security. Then he chided the driver for letting them get boxed into the traffic gridlock.

  “It’s OK, Captain. I called ahead to General Liang, letting him know we’ve been delayed. I would much rather be late to a meeting and stuck in traffic then risk being shot down by an Allied fighter,” he asserted. Everyone instinctively looked up at the ceiling of the armored Mercedes-Benz vehicle.

  They had two other vehicles in their little convoy, one in front of them and one behind. Despite having their flashing lights and the occasional siren on, they still found themselves stuck in the tail end of the Beijing morning rush hour.

  Of course, the air raid on several military buildings across the city had caused another wave of panic in the metropolis. This was the third such raid on the downtown part of the capital in the last two months. The Allies were clearly tightening the noose on the communist government as the remnants of the Chinese Air Force continued to be hunted down and destroyed.

  Sitting in the backseat of the armored luxury sedan, Yang felt nauseous. “What have I done?” he thought.

  The urge to vomit became uncontrollable, and Yang lurched forward, grabbing at the door handle. Despite the protests of his security detail, he pushed the door open. He only made it one step out of the vehicle before doubling over and puking all over the pavement. His body retched uncontrollably several times until he had fully emptied his stomach of what little contents it had had.

  Captain Cho handed him a handkerchief, which he took. He wiped at the spittle and vomit on his chin. He blew his nose, and then he suddenly felt a tremor. The ground shook like a mini-earthquake. A sudden BOOM broke th
rough the noise of honking horns and angry shouts of commuters stuck on the road. The sharp crack through the air was then replaced with a low, deep rumbling sound before the noise quickly faded.

  Before anyone could react to what they had just heard and felt, a second, louder BOOM ripped through the city, nearly knocking them to the ground as the earth beneath them shook violently. As they attempted to steady themselves, a loud rumbling noise grew. A large ominous-looking plume from a blast several kilometers away began to rise into the morning sky.

  Yang suddenly felt a pull on his shoulder and a voice shouting at him. He couldn’t quite make out what was being shouted or who was shouting it because everywhere he looked, he saw people pointing and screaming, then running. A fraction of a second later, he was pulled into the back of the sedan.

  Captain Cho started yelling at the driver. “I don’t care if you have to ram the cars in front of you—find a way out of this traffic jam! Head back to the August First Building immediately!”

  *******

  24,000 Feet above Beijing

  Colonel Rob “Pappi” Fortney slowly began to go through the arming procedure to release their B61 Mod-12 earth-penetrating nuclear bomb. Twenty-seven years in the Air Force had prepared him for the technical aspect of this task. After all, the B-2 stealth bomber was originally designed to penetrate Soviet airspace to deliver a nuclear first strike or counterstrike against the Russians. What all his military training had not prepared him for was the moral argument raging in his mind over what his superiors had ordered him to do.

  Having completed the arming process for the first nuclear bomb, Pappi moved to preparing the second bomb. Technically, he could have prepared both bombs at the same time—the targeting computer and onboard weapons system did allow it—but he felt he had a duty to ensure that each bomb was made individually ready. As the flight leader for his two bomber raids, he didn’t want the other crew to be burdened with the responsibility of using a nuclear weapon. No, he and Double D would do their best to bear that burden for them.

  Breaking the silence, Double D turned to look at Pappi. “Are we really doing this?” she asked. “Dropping not one but two nuclear bombs on Beijing?”

  A brief moment of silence ensued as Pappi thought about his response. It should have been automatic, but he hesitated, which caused him to feel both anger for allowing his emotions and thoughts to override his trained response, and shame that he felt anger for not responding right away. It was a valid question, a moral question. But he also knew the answer, and he accepted and understood the justification for why they were doing what they were doing.

  “Yeah, Daniels, we are. We’re going to do our jobs to end this damn war once and for all,” he said.

  In that instant, he suddenly felt a surge of adrenaline, of strength, resolve, duty and honor he hadn’t felt a few minutes earlier. “Maybe I just needed to utter the words aloud,” he thought.

  For her part, Daniels just nodded in acceptance. “You really think this will end the war?”

  “If we’re successful, I think it will. If we fail, well, then I guess we’ll probably be dropping a few more of these bad boys before the war is over.”

  “How do you stay so calm on a mission like this?” asked Daniels. “I feel sick to my stomach. I mean, I know we train for these types of missions, but really—when’s the last time a bomber crew dropped a nuclear bomb?”

  Pappi chuckled at the question, eliciting a dirty look from his copilot. “I’m sorry. I forgot this is your first airframe you’ve flown in combat. The last time we dropped a nuke was the first day of the Second Korean War, remember?”

  “Oh man, I completely forgot about that. Now I feel like an idiot,” she exclaimed. Her cheeks flushed red, and it was obvious she was grateful that only the two of them had heard her question.

  “It’s OK, Daniels,” Pappi assured. “I was still recovering at Walter Reed when it happened, but I knew the crews. That was a tough day, but they got through it, just like we will. As to how I stay calm…who says I’m calm? I’m still nervous, Daniels, I’ve just been doing this longer than you.”

  The two of them rode a little while longer in silence, the soft hum of the engines and the electronic sounds of the aircraft the only noise present.

  “Why did you name our bomber Black Death?” asked Daniels. It seemed like she’d been saving that question up for some time.

  “It’s actually pretty simple when you think about it. I named it after the color of our bomber and the fact that wherever we travel, death follows. From the day this bomber was ready to fly, we’ve been test-flying it over enemy skies, dropping bombs. Unlike my previous bomber, this airframe has never known peace. It’s been an instrument of destruction from its very first mission,” he replied.

  Before either of them could say anything further, several warning systems began to blare a danger signal.

  “I’m showing dozens of enemy radars lighting up across the city,” Daniels said nervously.

  “It’s OK. They’re going after the Viper pilots. Let them do their job; they’ll suppress the radars before they become a possible problem for us,” he gently reassured her.

  Leading the charge ahead of them were three dozen F-16Vs or Vipers, specially equipped to go after the enemy’s air defense systems. Attacking Beijing was always a risky venture, since it boasted the most layered and integrated air defense system in the world. Following the Vipers were fifty F-35s, which were slated to target dozens of government and defense buildings throughout the city. The large raid prior to their nuclear attack was part of the elaborate ruse that would ensure General Yang would be late in arriving at the Xiang Shan Command Center. It was imperative for him to have a valid reason in being delayed so his cover would hold, and so he wouldn’t be exposed to this elaborate and desperate gamble to end the war.

  “Crap, that’s a lot of enemy SAMs,” Daniels commented. They watched their radar screen light up with enemy missiles being firing at the raiding party.

  “Yeah, they’re really throwing the kitchen sink at them, aren’t they?” asked Pappi.

  They watched as dozens of missiles sped quickly toward the Vipers. It looked like even a few of the F-35s were taking evasive maneuvers. Steadily, they watched as many of the missiles missed their marks. Unfortunately, they also saw more than a handful of the Vipers disappear from the radar screens. Even three of the F-35s went offline, indicating they’d been shot down as well.

  “This is turning into a costly raid,” Pappi thought. Nine Allied fighters had been downed so far, and they were only halfway into the raid.

  “Five minutes until we’re over the target,” Daniels said, doing her best to stay focused on the mission and not the inordinate number of enemy missiles being fired at the raiding party flying ahead of them.

  Pappi started getting the bomber ready to release their deadly cargo. He pressed a few buttons on the weapons system, completing the arming sequence on the nukes as Daniels descended to their optimal drop altitude and speed.

  Seeing that they were now ready for weapons release, Pappi said a quick prayer for luck as he depressed the bomb release button on the first bomb. Instantly, the aircraft lifted; dropping 800 pounds of ordnance certainly made a difference. With their first 50-kiloton nuke away, they continued their cruising speed and altitude for another thirty seconds before Pappi released the second bomb.

  He quickly closed the outer bomb doors, and once the lights showed green, he gave a quick thumbs-up to Daniels, letting her know to increase their speed and get them out of the area.

  “Raider One to Henhouse. Bombs away. Both bombs successfully released. Stand by for detonation,” he radioed in to their headquarters.

  This was the first time they had ever broken radio silence during a bombing mission. Normally, they’d carry out their bombing mission and not let anyone know their status until they were out of enemy airspace. In this case, however, their superiors needed to know if they’d made it to the target and released the
ir bombs.

  Anxiously they waited, hoping their targets had hit home and were successful. Then again, when dropping a 50-kiloton bomb on a target, they didn’t necessarily need to hit it spot-on like a precision-guided strike. Still, they needed to get the bomb in close enough proximity to the hidden entrance so it would have the best chance of punching through the hundreds of feet of rock before detonating its warhead. Once the first warhead went off, the second would sail right in through the newly created hole before it had a chance to collapse in and would make it further into the core of the mountain before detonating. This would ensure that no matter how deep or reinforced this bunker system was, it would be destroyed, and with it, the leaders of the People’s Republic of China.

  Having already turned the bomber back toward home, Pappi and Double D made sure the window curtains were fully closed to block out the blast light. Given this nuclear strike was happening during the day, even though it was underground, there would still be some light leakage, especially from the second detonation.

  Suddenly their radar screen went fuzzy for a second and their radio communications cut out before returning, letting them know the first bomb had successfully gone off. Seconds later, their instruments let them know a nuclear flash had just occurred, as once again, their radar and comms blacked out for a second before returning to normal.

  Pulling the curtains back, Pappi demanded, “We need to turn the bomber, so we can look back at the city.” He needed to see what had happened with his own eyes. Looking out to the west, he saw a rising plume from the side of a mountain—the kind of plume that only a nuclear bomb could create.

  “Man, would you look at that,” he said. “I’ve seen videos of what a nuclear bomb looks like after it’s gone off, but I never thought I’d see one in real life and know that I was responsible for it.”

  Daniels fought back her emotions, wiping her face to hide her crying.