Holding Their Own: A Story of Survival

by Joe Nobody

  Governor of Florida….

  Governor of Maine….

  The director of the FBI requests an urgent, private call immediately.

  He almost flipped past that last one. Odd, he thought, why would the director make such a request without coming through the normal chain of command and Homeland Security?

  After he left the situation room and was alone with his secretary, the president instructed, “Get me the director of the FBI on the phone please.”

  The director made it clear to the president that he needed to see him, immediately and in private. This was not a matter that could be discussed over the phone. The president started to schedule the appointment for later in the day, but the director would have none of it. “Sir,” he said in a stern voice, “You need to know this information right now.”

  “How soon can you be over here?” the president asked.

  “Sir, I am already in the White House and waiting outside your office,” was the reply. He was shown in immediately.

  Fifteen minutes later, the president sat the three-page briefing on his desk, closed his eyes, and began to rub his temples. He had gazed outside for a few minutes at the well-manicured grounds surrounding the White House, then turned to the director and asked, “How sure are you of this information?”

  “I am positive, sir. There is no doubt. The National Security Administration (NSA) confirmed my inquiries, and while they haven’t put two and two together, facts are facts.”

  The president stood and walked out from behind his desk. The director, as a show of respect, stood as well. The president went to the pair of facing sofas in the Oval Office and sat down, and instructed, “Take a seat, Director. Explain this to me. I need to know the details. What you are telling me is that a foreign power has attacked the United States of America. Not terrorists, not some vague zealot organization, but a foreign country has committed an overt act of war. I need to know the details.”

  The director sat and began.

  “Sir, a Chicago traffic camera captured the license plate number of the truck spraying the VX. The address of the owner was traced to an apartment complex that had been destroyed by a gas explosion and burned to the ground that very morning. We initially thought he was an illegal from Mexico, but one of our agents interviewed a local storeowner and found out that the suspect had an aversion to pork. It seems a mistake by a sacker had caused the man to return the offensive meat and had threatened the storeowner’s life if it ever happened again.

  We then traced every delivery made to the address. He had received tanks of insecticide two days before the attack. We attempted to trace the source of the shipment, but it dead-ended. This was clearly a very professional job. We had almost given up when an analyst on loan from the CIA said he had seen this before. It took a few days, but he found the case file from Iraq in 2009. The exact same method used to originate the shipment of VX had been used before. It was a front for an Iranian weapons shipment.

  We asked the NSA to focus on all cell, email, and phone traffic originating outside of the country and going to the Chicago man’s accounts. It took the supercomputers at Fort Mead a while, but we have matched up identical emails, originated out of MISIRA in Iran and received in Chicago. They were lost in the net for a while, but then at least 23 people in the United States received emails of identical content. We now have hard evidence that 11 of those 23 people were involved in the attacks against us.

  Last night, Border Patrol intercepted a man trying to cross from the US into Mexico. This man finally started talking two hours ago. While he claims that he was working for Al-Qaeda, he identified a picture of a known MISIRA agent in Morocco. Sir, he said the agent was his instructor. He welded the bombs used to drop the bridges and was trying to get back home to Iran.”

  In addition sir, the man in Houston, the alleged “illegal Mexican” was actually from the Middle East. This information has been verified. I believe the man’s truck was to have been used as a weapon by design.”

  The president held up his hand and stopped the director. “How many people know of this?” he asked.

  “I typed the report personally, sir. Just you and I have the entire picture.”

  “Can we backwash it?” asked the president.

  “Yes, sir. I will have other case files assigned to the inquiries made to verify these facts. No one will be able to trace the questions back to the reason they were being asked after I backwash it.”

  “Good. See that it is done, and thank you. I will be in touch soon.”

  “Those rotten sons of bitches,” was all the chairman of the Joint Chiefs could say after finishing the FBI brief. He quickly looked up to apologize to the president and the chief of staff, but both men waived him off.

  “Mr. President, as one of the world’s most knowledgeable experts on warfare, I do not know how to advise you on this situation, sir. My initial reaction as a United States Army officer and a patriot is to roll right over there and kick their sorry asses, but I don’t know how our nation or the world would react to that. Given the events of the last few days, I’m not sure if we can even afford the postage to deliver the threat.”

  The chief of staff chimed in, “General, the political situation here at home requires that this matter, and our response, be handled in a different way. No one will debate that. The president and I have to ask, can we execute ‘Blind Drop’ without any leaks?”

  The general pondered the question, but only for a moment. “Sir, if you were to share this report with the five Air Force officers required to execute the mission, I would stake my life that not a single one of them would ever say a word.”

  The president was staring out the windows again, seemingly lost in thought. He slowly turned, “General, let Iran know we are unhappy with their actions. Deliver the message hard. Let them never forget what happens when the United States of America is attacked. Proceed with Blind Drop as soon as possible.”

  Missouri – August 20, 2015

  Return Fire

  Two days later, a single B2 Stealth Bomber lifted off from its home at Whiteman Air Force Base, 80 miles southeast of Kansas City. After 15 years of war, such flights were so commonplace that any locals awake at that hour would not have paid it the slightest attention. The two-man crew welcomed the mission. They had personally performed many of the pre-flight tasks, normally the duty of the ground crew, in order to keep prying eyes away from its secret purpose. The loading of the special cruise missiles had been especially stressful, however. While both men had flown with nuclear weapons as part of their training, this was their first “real” mission, and both officers were proud that they had been selected to execute it.

  The aircraft’s captain often wondered how he would feel if ever ordered to deploy nuclear warheads against an enemy of the United States. While he had never doubted he would execute those orders to the best of his ability, he had questioned how he would feel afterward. This mission was different in many ways. Being personally briefed by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the secretary of the Air Force was motivating enough, but after he read the justification for the strike, he was eager to execute his orders.

  The jet reached a cruising altitude of 50,000 feet and both crewmembers ran their checklists twice. There really wasn’t much for them to do. A technological marvel, the B2’s computer- controlled systems could almost fly unassisted. The two humans onboard were merely a backup in case the computer systems failed.

  Above the Atlantic Ocean and moving over 12,000 miles per hour, a low Earth Orbit Satellite deployed its solar panels into a 100-foot wide set of wings. Its enormous bank of ultra capacitors began to store the sun’s energy being collected by the panels. Like a battery, the capacitors could store electrical energy, but unlike chemical devices, they could discharge their power at virtually any rate required. The satellite’s purpose required millions of volts of energy.

  The satellite was the best-kept secret in American military history. It had become operational in 200
7, when it was tested for the first time in conjunction with the Israeli Air Force. Israel had bombed the Syrian nuclear reactor being built at Deir ez-Zor. While the world was not particularly shocked that the Israelis had destroyed the facility, what did surprise most military experts was that they got away with it. Syria was equipped with the latest Russian-built anti-air defenses and radars, and their system was considered by many to be one of the best in the world. Israel attacked the reactor using common F-15I aircraft, which should have been detected and shot out of the air before even getting close to the doomed Syrian reactor. As inquiries were made, several different stories were leaked, including such lucidities as “Israeli secret agents had covertly installed a kill switch on the radar when it was being installed in Syria.”

  Of course none of this was true, and most experts knew that tale, as well as many of the other explanations, was ridiculous. The saying that “truth is stranger than fiction” was actually accurate in the case of the Israeli attack. IRISS, an acronym for Inter-wave Radar Integration Suppression Satellite, was a weapon that generated a beam one kilometer wide – from orbit. The beam energized an aircraft’s surface, blocking any radar waves from bouncing back. Harmless to pilots and crew, the beam could be directed to follow a flight of attacking aircraft making even non-stealth units invisible. While the Israeli Air Force didn’t know how the Americans had pulled it off, their aircraft flew to the target without so much as a warning light flashing on Syrian radar screens.

  The United States had used IRISS on very few actual missions. Like any secret weapon, the more it was exposed, the greater chance of its discovery. And of course, once uncovered, counter-measures could be developed. The mission to kill Osama Bin Laden had been an exception. IRISS had been used to plow a road through Pakistani air defenses, opening a corridor for the American helicopters delivering their teams.

  The problem for Blind Drop was not the B2 bomber itself, but the refueling planes required for its long flight toward Iran. Several friendly and unfriendly militaries knew that American refueling tankers flew an identifiable pattern in a predictable number of areas. Additionally, mid-air refueling required the massive airborne gas stations to fly in a very straight line at a very precise speed while they were transferring fuel. It was not difficult to track the big planes when they went into their refueling flight pattern. If no other aircraft was detected on radar, it was a safe bet that a stealth aircraft was being serviced. One could simply trace the line between the tankers and have a surprisingly close vector on the invisible planes.

  During the two wars in the last 15 years, the United States could care less if China, Russia, Great Britain or Japan knew where their bombers were headed. What were they going to do – call the Taliban and let them know a B2 was on the way? This operation, however, was different. No country was to have any evidence or warning of the flight, so IRISS was used to hide the refueling tankers as they met the B2 somewhere over the Indian Ocean.

  After several hours of flight, the B2 started its approach run. The flight and ballistics computers were functioning perfectly as the plane lowered its altitude to less than 100 feet over the Indian Ocean. The doors opened underneath its main fuselage. One by one, two Tomahawk Mark 8 special purpose cruise missiles were launched.

  Initially, the pilots thought that there had been a malfunction when they did not see the normal exhaust flare associated with the Tomahawk’s jet engine. Their instrumentation reassured them that all was well, and the captain remembered that these were very special missiles.

  The Mark 8 was essentially identical to any other Tomahawk except that it was a stealth weapon. The body was coated in a substance that absorbed radar waves, rather than bounce them back. Odd shapes and angles further assisted to reduce its radar signature. Even the relatively small jet engine used to power the missile had its exhaust vented to defeat heat-seeking technology. During the tests at Area 51 in Nevada, one radar operator claimed the Mark 8 bounced back less radar signal than a common house fly.

  As the B2 banked away and headed home, the first missile accelerated to 600 mph. The second missile obeyed its programming and continued at 500 mph until a gap of 150 miles had been established between the two. It then increased its speed to keep pace with its sibling.

  As Tomahawk One crossed into Iranian airspace, a single monitor in the White House situation room indicated the progression of both missiles on a regional map. The president, chief of staff, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs all stood looking over the shoulder of a very attentive Air Force major.

  The missile traveled over the low-lying swamps of the Iranian coast along the Gulf of Oman. Within a few minutes, it began to transverse the valleys of the Zargos Mountains. Its twin continued to follow, precisely 150 miles behind.

  Double Tap Squared

  The president asked, “Can this officer still send a self-destruct message?”

  “Yes, sir,” replied the chairman as he leaned over the monitor. Pointing to a small series of numbers in the corner of the screen, he indicated, “Sir, this is the altitude of the weapon. In a few minutes we should see this number begin to increase rapidly. If we don’t, that means the missile is malfunctioning, and we should self-destruct the weapon.”

  He then looked at the major and asked, “How long before phase two?”

  “Three minutes sir - W94A warhead now armed, sir.”

  The four men watched the screen without comment for the next three minutes. Right on time, the numbers started increasing so rapidly that reading the values became almost impossible. The major’s hand had been hovering over the keyboard, but he noticeably relaxed when the indicator started climbing.

  The chairman looked up at the president. “Last chance, sir.”

  The president continued to stare at the screen and simply said, “It’s a go.”

  Ten seconds later the altitude indicator read 88,000 and paused. On the screen, the small dot that had represented the first Tomahawk changed to a bright white circle.

  “Detonation, sir.”

  “Initial indicators are within one meter of designated target.”

  “Full yield.”

  “Clean burn,” continued the major in a monotone voice.

  In the desert of western Iran, almost 200 kilometers southeast of Tehran, a bright white light appeared in the noon sky. Unless one was looking directly at it, the detonation was hardly noticeable. There was no blast wave, mushroom cloud, or fireball - just a quick, hardly noticeable, white light in the sky for less than two seconds.

  It took less than a thousandth of a second for the electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, to reach the surface of the earth. Trillions of charged electrons crashed into the terrain at the speed of light, creating what could be described as a giant blanket of static electricity.

  For a distance of 400 miles in any direction, anything using or connected to electricity suddenly stopped functioning. Electrical conduits attracted the energized particles of the EMP wave, and surges of millions of volts gathered in electrical wires, contacts, semi-conductors, and circuits. The EMP generated over-voltage charges in virtually all unshielded electronic devices, and this caused them to immediately burn out. Battery-powered watches, automobile engines, elevators, and air conditioners failed. Even if a device were shielded in some way, the electrical power grid failed completely. In Tehran alone, over 80,000 transformers exploded along with every voltage regulator on the city’s power grid.

  The Iranian military and some critical government agencies had fail-over capabilities at many of their locations. Hundreds of circuits switched from primary to backup generators and power systems.

  The second Tomahawk was 12 minutes behind the first. It traveled an additional 50 kilometers north and west of the first missile and began its climb.

  Its detonation ensured that all of the backup capabilities were fried as well.

  In the White House situation room, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs was heard to quietly utter, “Now that’s what you call a double tap.�
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  World Reaction

  In London, Moscow, Beijing, and numerous other capitals throughout the world, important phones began insistently ringing and were immediately answered. Sensors all over the planet had captured the fact that there had been not one, but two nuclear detonations over Iran.

  Satellites were repositioned, and embassies in Tehran were called, mostly without anyone answering. When the initial reports began to drift in, everyone expected the Iranian capital to be a smoldering heap of carbon and glass. As usual, it took a number of hours before the facts became clear.

  Speculation ran rampant. Had the Israelis finally had enough? Had the Iranians been testing a new weapon and simply screwed it up? Had the Iranians pissed off the Russians somehow? The Americans?

  In less than a second, the entire nation of Iran had been transformed into a Stone Age society, and really, no one cared. What did concern many world leaders was that the same might happen to them.

  The Non-United Nations

  Two days later, in an emergency session of the United Nations the Iranian ambassador was given the floor. He started to speak:

  Members of this great body, two days ago, the peaceful Nation of Iran became the second country in history to be attacked with nuclear weapons. Our country has been deeply and gravely injured and for no reason. We are at war with no one. Our armies are only for our defense. We do not occupy any other nation’s territory, nor do we threaten their citizens in any way, yet we have been attacked. The only country to ever be attacked in such a way was Japan. The only other country desperate enough to use these weapons of mass destruction is the United States of America. I stand before you more than a representative of my humble people. I address you, as a fellow human being and citizen of this planet. In recent weeks, the sins of the United States have invoked the wrath of God upon them. The wounded beast has struck out and attacked without reason or logic. This beast could turn on any of you at any moment. Something must be done to contain this great evil, or you could all suffer the same fate.