by Gene Skellig
The full arsenal of Chinese military computer network dominance was being deployed to shut down any threat to WINTER SNAKE. With just a few short days to go before the commencement of the next phase, Colonel Hua had removed all stops, employing more aggressive and destructive programs.
One unintended consequence of the attack triggered by Ken’s computer was that the increased computing activity between a network based in Jinan, China, and the rest of the world was powerful enough to be detected by both the National Security Agency’s supercomputers in Washington and by MI6 International Desk technicians monitoring Chinese computer activity.
In London, they picked up on the intense computing activity between China, the Canadian Arctic, and ASU. There was enough data to consider the events linked. On its own this did not reveal much, but when added to as many as fifty other such bursts of activity, all ending in the destruction of computers and the shutting-down of computer networks with nasty computer viruses, it began to reveal that the Chinese were up to no good.
The MI6 analyst, Squadron Leader Albert Jones informed his supervisor, Mr. Richard Jessup, of the activity.
“Sir, the Chinese have attacked another university, this time in Arizona”.
“Another one,” said Jessup, blandly. “Do we have any information on what their target was, or did they hit another flea with a bazooka?”
“This time, they took out the entire university computer network, with collateral effects into the city at large,” said Jones, slowly, like a detective in a crime novel revealing a crucial piece of evidence.
Jessup's eyebrows rose as he suddenly took more notice. “What triggered this one?” he said.
“Looks like the ASU attack was preceded by 5 microseconds by an attack in the Canadian Arctic, where an internet link in a hamlet of 1,500 or so people was taken out.”
“How does this fit your hypothesis?”
“Seems to be consistent with our working theory that the Chinese are suppressing information and that someone in Canada stumbled upon something the Chinese wanted suppressed. Mind you, one aspect does seem rather odd.. All the other attacks involved academic or other intellectual centers, but – and I hope they won't mind my saying this – I doubt there is anything of value, intellectually speaking, in Kugluktuk.”
“Anything else on this?”
“Well, it looks like the Chinese attacks are becoming less frequent, as though they are succeeded in snuffing-out whatever they were going after.”
“And that’s not good news, is it?” said Jessup, sounding defeated.
“In what way?” said Jones.
“I mean that, in the undeclared internet war we are fighting against the Chinese, they’re winning. They’ve infiltrated our computer systems and the internet with such audacity that it’s as though they are no longer afraid of any repercussions.”
“Yeah, that’s certainly true. They’re a few key-strokes ahead of us. They’ve got an army of technicians actively engaged in every form of computer espionage imaginable.”
“And, more importantly,” Jessup continued, “they’ve infiltrated US and European defense contractors. I read a report the other day that concluded that the Chinese had hacked the defense contractor who'd upgraded the Pentagon’s computer system and the Command and Control computers used by all of the Functional Commands, US STRAT Command, NORAD and some of the deployed Regional Headquarters abroad.”
“Yes, I’ve seen those reports - but do you really think they have a back-door into SIMON?” asked Jones .
“I fear that it is no longer ‘SIMON says’, but ‘Sino-says!’
The two men laughed, but were left feeling less than happy.
“Who knows what the Chinese intend to do with it. So far, it seems to be more of a long term view, positioning themselves for the future, but not aggressively so,” Albert said.
“I'm not so convinced. The fact that little harm has come of it doesn’t mean that no harm is intended. Rather, it appears to me that the Chinese intend to do real harm, but at a time of their choosing. These attacks you are tracking may be just the tip of the iceberg. They’re coming out of the woodwork and actually taking out entire computer networks now! Why would they reveal themselves in this way, unless it’s crucial that they keep something from getting out? We need to find out what they are suppressing. Is there a way to do that?”
“I doubt it,” said Jones. “We won't be able to get any data from the networks that have been attacked.”
“Well, what about contriving data?” asked Jessup.
“Contrive data? How would we do that?”
“By provoking a Chinese attack.”
An excited look of comprehension came over Albert’s face. “You mean set up some kind of bait, such as a workstation at a university that searches for key words until it gets noticed by the Chinese.” He began to think out loud. “And if we pre-program the search items and have them executed by a timed routine, we could track the time of the attack and identify the search items that provoked the attack!”
“Exactly. It’s like sending a foot soldier ahead of the main force to see if he can get a sniper to reveal himself.”
“OK, what level of authority will we have? I mean, we’ll need some sort of permission to conduct an operation that if successful will harm a university.”
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll bring it to the Minister at the afternoon briefing later today. You get a team together to come up with the details of the plan, and be ready to execute it immediately when we have approval. It shouldn’t take more than a day or so. How fast can you write the programs you’ll need?” Jessup asked, in a manner that told Albert this was fast evolving into an Op Order.
“If it’s our new highest priority, I could have it ready by noon tomorrow. With the processing speeds we’ve seen from the Chinese, we have the luxury of throwing an enormous amount of data at them, so we can start with single-word searches, then doubles, then triples. That way we’ll identify the search words that brought out the Dragon. But there’s a risk that a Chinese attack will harm a great many people. We would be culpable.”
“We’ll deal with the fallout if and when that happens, and we’ll have Cabinet level support. What is essential is that when this happens we’ll have the data that proves it was a Chinese attack and we can hold them accountable for it.”
“So what do we call this operation?”
“For now, call it what it is, OPERATION PANDA STING.”
Two days later, Colonel Hua was giving General Bing an update on the revisions they had succeeded in making to the American Joint Integrated Priority Target List, PIPTL, and Russian Glavnii Strategicheskii Speasic, GSS, Main Strategic Target List.
“So when Phase Three begins in just over 68 hours, the first wave of American Missiles will hit 530 of the 890 European targets; 45 of the 137 Canadian targets; 156 of the Central and South American targets; 175 African targets; the 317 special Asian and Chinese targets; and the 1170 targets in Russia. The Russians first volley will take care of the remaining European and Canadian targets; clean up what’s left to hit in India – the new regime in Pakistan gave us a good start there but we still need 150 or so sites hit in India; take care of the Asian targets including 80 Japanese targets, and hit the 24 Australian and New Zealand targets. We’ll have the Russians hit our 280 Asian and Chinese targets. That will leave 2026 Russian warheads to take out the Americans. The last 100 or so of the Russian missiles we can re-target just before apogee, to fine- tune the target list to hit any emerging military targets we missed, such as naval task forces and nuclear submarines.” Colonel Hua paused, allowing the General to look over the disposition of nuclear forces and their selected targets depicted on wall-mounted screens.
To General Bing, looking over the details displayed, it was as though he commanded almost all of the world’s 12,000 high readiness strategic warheads, even if he could not control all 27,000 warheads that could ultimately be brought to bear. General Bing was the most powerfu
l man in the world, and nobody knew it outside of his organization.
“That will leave our 150 short-range missiles for the Asian AOR, and the 220 long-range missiles for emerging targets. However we expect to lose up to a third of these if we don’t use them before the inevitable Russian, American and British response once they realize they have been manipulated.”
“So far, there’s no indication they’re on to us, however they have raised the readiness of their high-readiness strategic forces, and sortied a higher than normal number of ballistic missile submarines. Their reaction to the Indo-Pak war has been exactly as you had planned for when Phase Two began. They are indeed angry bees that don’t know who to sting!” Colonel Hua concluded, looking eagerly at General Bing.
In addition to the information-suppression operation that Colonel Hua had reported on, General Bing also received updates on other aspects of OPERATION WINTER SNAKE. By far the longest briefing was given by Colonel Leung, who updated the assembled military and Party officials that had been brought into General Bing’s fold. The Secretariat of the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army at large were still not aware of WINTER SNAKE; however, leadership within the PLA and many governmental agencies had been recruited by the expanding tentacles of General Bing’s now rapidly expanding network.
The larger his organization became the more he relied on his co-conspirators. Each had been recruited based upon their span of control, areas of influence, and what they contributed to the plan. But, the most important characteristic held in common was ruthlessness. These carefully chosen people were capable of anything in the pursuit of their own interests. They had demonstrated it in different ways, but it was not difficult for General Bing to select who the leaders of the future Chinese world would be. They had to be willing to hold the fate of the world in their hands, and to crush any opposition. They had to be capable of mass-murder on an unprecedented scale.
Once brought into the WINTER SNAKE fold they threw their weight into making their contribution. Some of them saw to the conversion of underground mines into bomb shelters, outfitted with the equipment, systems and stockpiles that would support human life underground for several years, and storage space for the arms and equipment they would need once it was safe to venture forth to re-occupy the surface.
Others saw to the infiltration of Chinese agents at innumerable locations that would be crucial to the building of the New China that would emerge after the war.
Still others were charged with planning for the tasks that were to be carried out just before and just after the start of Phase Three, the Proxy War part of the operation.
For its part, China would claim to be innocent and blame American aggression. Later, when China’s enemies determined that the war had been engineered by China, a massive counter-attack against China would occur. The vast majority of Chinese military bases would be obliterated. The known underground bunkers would be attacked repeatedly, as would major industrial cities and infrastructure.
The flooding from the inevitable destruction of the Three Gorges Dam would likely wipe out the seventy five million Chinese who lived and worked in the largely agricultural region downstream from the enormous dam. This attack on China, which corresponded to Phase IV of General Bing’s Plan, would kill upwards of three hundred million people at the outset, and a further three to four hundred million more in the months that followed.
The Chinese people would bear the greatest number of casualties, losing as many as a billion souls as a result of this war. But this was acceptable to General Bing, as long as the rest of the world lost an equal or greater proportion of their population. The resulting world population would be on the order of five hundred to eight hundred million - at least half of them would be Chinese. The Chinese, under General Bing, would be several steps ahead of everybody else in seizing control of the more viable food producing regions and a long list of strategic locations that would give New China a solid grip on the world after the Nuclear Extinction War.
Among the plans that had been communicated to select units prior to the commencement of war were two very special programs for which General Bing himself drafted the Supporting Plans. The first was called OP PLAN LIWU, or “Gift”; the second was OP PLAN XIAOLONG, “Little Dragon”.
OP PLAN LIWU was a simple plan that was to be carried out by Major General Yang Lee, Commander Second Artillery, who had overall Command and Control of the PLA’s Strategic Rocket Forces. It was not all that expensive, as General Lee could use resources already at his disposal within Second Artillery. His task was simple: build twenty special sea-lift containers with conventional appearance. These containers were to be heavily shielded to hide the nuclear warheads they contained. Eight of the warheads were to mimic those of the Russian land-based SS18 550 kiloton warheads; six were to mimic the 18 kiloton warheads carried on Delta IV ballistic missile submarines; four were to mimic the 205 kiloton warheads of the latest American land-based ICBMs, and the remaining two were to mimic American SLBMs carried on Trident submarines. The devices were to have the American and Russian markings to sow confusion if discovered.
The containers were then shipped by commercial container vessels, moved by rail and truck, and ultimately delivered to rented warehouses or storage space where they sat for a few weeks, in place before the start of Phase Three.
The progress of the containers was easy to track, using the Automated Information System. The AIS was a commercial system that anybody in the world could access to see the position of almost any commercial ship at sea. Using the AIS to track the gifts of OP PLAN LIWU, General Lee didn’t have to install a GPS-based tracking device on the containers. The progress of the twenty containers was illustrated in a few power-point slides, as the gifts made their way to their assigned locations.
The AIS also helped keep track of the 1,330 Chinese and 2,386 chartered bulk cargo carriers and container ships that would bring what would be the last of the pre-war food supplies away from the food producing nations of the world. They also tracked the 1,900 other commercial ships that the Little Dragons were going to seize once they received the Yinglong signal.
General Bing had recruited the highly efficient Admiral Zhen He to coordinate the chartering of the vast majority of Chinese ships and almost one third of the commercial ships of Panama, Korea, Japan and other major shipping nations. It was also his responsibility to infiltrate agents into the ships' crews, to be activated during Phases Three and Four.
Many of these agents had been in place for over a year, establishing reputations as excellent crew members, worthy of training on the most sophisticated systems on their ships. They were trusted with access throughout the ships as they traversed the oceans of the world, month after month.
The AIS was a wonderful tool to see which ships were yet to reach port; which were ready to be loaded with grains, corn, processed foods, meat products, oil, coal and other crucial commodities; and which were already at sea on their voyage to their assigned coordinates. But the real focus was on tracking the twenty containers carrying the gifts to the enemy.
General Bing considered Phase Three to have really begun when the gifts were shipped, as they were impossible to recall or defuse once they left China. However, he decided to go with the actual detonations of the containers as the commencing action of Phase Three, as it would be a more definitive signal.
The other special project was OP PLAN XIAOLONG, “Little Dragon”. Disguised as a motivational program to reward the top personnel in the most prestigious units, the best of China’s armed services were briefed by their Commanding Officers that they had been selected for a two-week holiday abroad. They would be given all-inclusive travel packages which they would enjoy without the interference of their spouses and children. They were required to stay within 5 km of the designated resort, hotel, bed & breakfast or other location, and were free to enjoy themselves within that area. They were also briefed that they may encounter other Chinese military at their resort, and were encoura
ged to befriend them but not to openly discuss the program or the instructions they had been given.
They were also given a special gift, a small porcelain statue. Most of the men and women of the PLA and other services who were given the “Reward Program” briefing recognized the meaning of the piece. It was a small statue of the most prominent of ancient Chinese deities, the Laozi, seated on his throne. Its deeper meanings were intertwined in the Taoism that underlies Chinese spirituality and harkened back to the greatness of Imperial China.
Very few recognized that the face of Laozi had been crafted with a subtle resemblance to General Bing. Those who did understood the role that General Bing was playing by restoring the Three Jewels of the Tao to mankind: Compassion, Moderation and Humility. The Tao was fundamentally a philosophy of harmony through the constant battle between pairs of opposites. Therefore, to bring mankind to the True Path of the Tao, of course, the Western evils - Greed, Profligacy and Arrogance - would have to be defeated. A great Chinese empire would emerge from the ashes of an epic battle for harmony in nature.
The small statue embodied the spiritual and philosophical propaganda that General Bing and his allies had come up with as a way to inspire bravery, sacrifice and zealousness in the spies that they were to send abroad prior to the commencement of Phase Three. A great deal of importance was attached to these icons, and the recipients were duly reverent when first reaching out their meek hands to accept their Laozi statuettes.
Then, in the moment of spiritual epiphany, the soldiers were informed that they were being given a special mission. During their holiday, they were instructed to rent the largest, most rugged vehicle they could find, with HMVW or a large SUV being the recommended type. They were to stock this vehicle with water, camping gear, dehydrated, canned and other long-lived food items, and any fire-arms or other weapons they could get their hands on through local Chinese contacts.