by James Rosone
One of his soldiers yelled back at him, “He just attacked us! Why are you protecting him Luke?”
Now Luke was truly incensed; his vision turned red as his blood boiled over. He signaled for the Russian pilot to stay on the ground for a second while the other soldiers around him looked like they wanted to go right back to beating him. “First off, don’t ever address me by my first name! It’s either Sergeant or Sergeant First Class! Do you understand?!” yelled Luke at the young man, in an effort to snap his brain back into being a soldier and not some vengeance-driven animal.
The soldier lowered his head, realizing he had screwed up. “Yes Sergeant. I’m sorry. I do not know what came over me,” he said.
“I know you all are angry. I understand and respect that--but we are American soldiers. As such, you will not beat a prisoner. This pilot--” he said, pointing down at the Russian, “is just doing his job, just like you and me. He’s not some raghead terrorist. He’s a professional soldier like the rest of us, and you will afford him the same courtesies you would hope to receive as a prisoner. Do you all understand?” SFC Childers lectured, making a point of drilling this fact into their heads.
“This is not how American soldiers should act,” he thought. “I certainly won’t let it happen under my watch.”
“Now, let’s get this guy back to the Tactical Operations Center and let the intelligence guys see what they can get from him,” he said, extending his hand to the Russian pilot to lift him to his feet. The soldiers nodded in agreement, grabbed their weapons and escorted the pilot back to their area with Sergeant Childers in the lead.
*******
Brigadier General (BG) Matt Fenzol was furious. His soldiers had been getting attacked by Russian aircraft for the better part of thirty-six hours. The last three hours saw a dramatic increase in air attacks, and he had little in the way of air defense capabilities to stop them. One of the captains in his operations center told him that one of the Avenger vehicles had just shot down a Su-25 ground attack aircraft a few minutes ago.
The Su-25 Frogfoot was designed to provide close air support, similar to the American A-10 Warthog. These planes carried a number of anti-personnel rocket pods, anti-tank missiles, and 500 lbs. bombs. It was also an armored plane like the A-10, so it could take a lot of damage without being shot down. With near air supremacy, the Russians began using a lot more Su-25 and Su-24 ground attack aircraft against the German and American positions. They had greater quantities of these aircraft, and if they lost a few, it wouldn’t hurt them nearly as bad as tier-one aircraft losses would. Those were being saved for the more dangerous missions and dog fighting against the growing presence of NATO fighters.
As BG Fenzol looked around his temporary command center, he was outraged. He had been promised greater air support several hours ago by those bureaucrats back at EUCOM, and here he was, still getting attacked. “Where the hell is my air cover?!” he yelled at one of his operations officers.
The Major who was running the operations group spoke up. “I just got off the horn with one of the air battle managers in the E-3s. He told me that they have a flight of F-22s that is just now coming on station near Kiev. They should be in orbit now for the next several hours, or until their ordnance is expended.” As he answered, Major Woods couldn’t hide his own disgust that they were not on station an hour ago like they said they would be.
Major Tyrone Woods hated working for General Fenzol. Being a Mormon, he disliked working for a commander who often used curse words and belittled those around him. Everyone in the operations group was doing their best. Three days ago, when they first arrived in Kiev, Colonel Jelanski had been the S3, but he had been killed during one of the many Russian air attacks, along with his deputy and the next person below him—that left Major Woods as the only senior officer left from the S3 office, forcing him to be General Fenzol’s S3 until a higher-ranked guy showed up.
Fenzol didn’t particularly care for his new S3 either, but they had to work together, at least for a while. “I’m not sure our joint US/German command will stand up to the Russian divisions that are amassing less than twenty miles away,” he worried. “The Russians have been hitting us hard with airpower all night and into the morning. It is only a matter of time until they launch their main attack.”
“Major Woods, what’s the status on 2nd and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams from the 1st Armored Division? Are they in Kiev yet?”
“Yes, Sir. We made contact with the 3rd BCT’s S3. They just finished off-loading their tanks on the west side of the city. Lieutenant Colonel Wightman said they were going to get underway and head for our position within the hour. He gave us an ETA of 1300 hours,” Woods said, hoping this might appease his hot-headed commander.
BG Fenzol nodded in approval. “Good job, Major Woods. Stay in contact with them and also see what the ETA of the 2nd BCT is as well. Let them know that the Russians are most likely going to launch their attack shortly. We desperately need their tanks if we are going to hold this position,” he explained.
Brigadier General Matt Fenzol knew he had a reputation as a tough nut, but this was the 82nd Airborne. They were Paratroopers. If people got their feelings hurt or bent out of shape by his hard-charging attitude, then they just weren’t cut out for the Airborne. He turned to his Command Sergeant Major and asked, “What’s the status on the ammunition front?”
In the Army, the three major functions a First Sergeant and Sergeant Major were responsible for were “beans, bullets, and soldiers.” At that exact moment, ammunition was a bigger concern than food. They had been expending a lot of it lately, and the NATO supply lines hadn’t exactly been established yet.
“We are OK for the moment General, but we will need a resupply if the enemy does launch any sort of major attack. We blew through a lot of Stinger and heavy weapons’ ammo trying to shoot down these Russian helicopters and attack planes,” the Command Sergeant Major explained as he spat out a stream of tobacco juice on the dirt floor of their command center.
“Stay on it Sergeant Major. Make sure Supply is getting us what we need,” the general responded, knowing that if anyone could make things happen, it was his sergeant major.
It was time for his officer’s call. He could hear the officers talking and gathering outside the command tent. He needed to get out there and get these guys their orders and make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing before the Russians launched their attack. It was going to be another long, and rough day.
He lifted the flap to the command tent and walked out to a small gaggle of probably 40 officers. These were the troop and company commanders of the various infantry, armor and scout units that made up his temporary ragtag force of roughly 11,000 US and German Soldiers. When the officers returned to their units, they would disseminate the information down to the officers and NCOs who were not able to attend. Someone had to man the shop and keep the soldiers in line.
“Listen up. I know everyone is starved for news of what is going on in the world and with the war in general. I don’t have a lot of news, but I’ll pass on what I do have after we go over today’s plans. The S2 says there are roughly three Russian divisions less than twenty miles from our position, and we anticipate them launching their attack anytime. I want your men to be ready for it. We have also received word, thanks to Major Woods, that 1st Armor’s 3rd BCT should arrive in our lines within the next hour.”
The officers were all smiles at this news. A couple even clapped jokingly. “Calm down guys,” barked the general. “We have more information to push out. Listen, we have been ordered to hold our position while the rest of our NATO allies continue to rush more troops to Kiev. 1st Armor’s 2nd BCT should arrive in our lines by the end of the evening, along with the British 12th Armored Infantry Brigade. That will bring our manpower up to roughly 23,300 soldiers. However, things are going to get rough and nasty before they will get better.”
One of the captains raised his hand, signaling that he had a question to ask.
“Go ahead Captain,” said the general.
One of the captains from the 2nd Cavalry Troop that had folded into this ragtag command was the one to speak. “Sir, my unit has been slugging it out with the Russians since they crossed the demarcation line. I’ve lost nearly half of my soldiers, vehicles, and equipment and we have absolutely no idea what in the world is going on, other than a crap ton of Russians are trying to kill us. Can you give us any insight I can pass along to my soldiers? My guys have tried using their smartphones to get information from the mainstream media, Twitter, and Facebook but as you know, the cell towers have been taken offline since the start of hostilities,” he said, dejected, exhausted, and frustrated.
The general hung his head down for a second collecting his own thoughts. “We were passed along an Intelligence Summary from EUCOM a couple of hours ago. I will go ahead and read off some of it for you guys. Some of this is still highly classified, so no one write anything down. Just pass things on verbally.” He then opened his notepad and brought out the summary he had mentioned. He began to read aloud to them.
“Classified SECRET: Carrier George H.W. Bush sunk by Russian submarines at the entrance to the Black Sea. US Carrier Strike Group sunk eleven Russian submarines and nine Russian surface warfare ships. Navy casualties are listed as high.”
Audible gasps and swearing could be heard by most of the soldiers and officers present. It took a minute for things to quiet down before BG Fenzol continued.
“Classified TOP SECRET/SCI: Russian saboteurs temporarily disabled Europe THAAD missile systems during opening hours of conflict.
Classified SECRET: US Air Force Base Ramstein hit by Russian cruise missile attack. One hundred and forty US aircraft destroyed on the ground.
Classified SECRET: US Air Force Base Spangdahlem hit by Russian cruise missile attack. Ninety US aircraft destroyed on the ground.
Classified CONFIDENTIAL: US Air Force Stealth Bombers bombed Russian National Defense Control Center in Moscow.
Classified CONFIDENTIAL: US Air Force bombs numerous Russia airbases across Western Russia.
Classified CONFIDENTIAL: US Navy destroys Russian Black Sea Fleet base and headquarters.
Classified SECRET: US Navy sinks thirteen Russian submarines in the North Sea
Classified SECRET: Russian submarines sink five US Navy transports in the Atlantic, ferrying equipment from the US to NATO bases in Europe.
Unclassified: US Media reports US Government caught completely by surprise from Russian sneak attack.”
More gasps, cursing and grumbling could be heard from the NCOs and officers as he read off the information. It was a bit of a shock to hear how bad the war was starting out. Most of the men and women present had spent their entire careers fighting Islamic extremists, terrorists, and the Taliban. The Department of Defense had not done a very good job of keeping the force ready and trained to fight a conventional war against a regular well-equipped and determined army. They were paying the price for it now.
“OK, that’s roughly the gist of the report and what’s important. I know it’s not a lot to go on, but it’s the best I can give you guys for the time being. I know it doesn’t sound good, but remember, we are in the first three days of this war. America is just getting started, and we are going to kick the crap out of these Russian bastards. Now, get back to your units and give ‘em hell,” he said as he dismissed his officers. He could see from the looks on their faces, that the news had shaken some of them. It was a lot to take in. He understood; he still couldn’t believe the Navy had lost a supercarrier.
Fake News-ageddon
Minsk, Belarus
Minsk State Linguistic University
In the sub-basement of the Linguistic University, a group of fifty hackers were hard at work on their computer terminals. Each hacker was piped into one of the fastest mainframe supercomputer systems in the world, and maximizing their productivity with dual 32-inch computer screens. The supercomputer had been built in secret over the past twelve months, and only just came online two weeks ago in preparation of Operation Redworm.
Thirty of these hackers were spending close to eighteen hours a day creating and then promoting thousands upon thousands of fake news articles across Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, in what was perhaps the first 21st century information-warfare campaign against NATO.
As Nestor Petyaev, one of the chief hacking supervisors, walked into the room, he felt a sense of pride when he saw the headlines splashed across the screens all around him. “Russia invades Norway and Poland,” sure made for good news--that one had received a lot of clicks. “Fascist German Forces Bomb Ukraine,” had not been quite as successful, but was still making headway.
There were two stories that were taking on a life of their own. Nestor walked over to one of his hackers, and saw several different versions of the headline, “Turkey Withdraws from NATO.” He patted his comrade on the back.
“Ivan, I thought you would like to know that your story is having an impact on the real world.”
“Oh?” asked Ivan with a smile.
“Yes, there are demonstrations popping up all over Turkey. Some of the citizens are marching, demanding that the government not get involved in the war, and counter-demonstrations are urging the government to honor its treaty obligation. Perhaps you can incorporate some of the coverage of the anti-war marches in with your stories?” suggested Nestor.
“Ok, I will get right on that,” answered Ivan, eagerly.
Nestor walked over to another colleague, who was working on a story about the Iranians closing the Straits of Hormuz.
“Igor, did you know that you are actually writing a true story?” Nestor asked jovially.
“What do you mean, Boss?” wondered Igor.
“Well, in response to the press that we have been pushing, the Iranians are actually moving more of their warships to the sea. Our gossip is becoming truth,” smirked Nestor.
“This is great news. I will incorporate some of the real reporting in my next set of articles,” explained Igor, proudly.
The group was also busy posting propaganda videos. They had pieced the footage together from clips given to them from helmet cameras from Spetsnaz raids, frontline soldiers, fighter combat cameras--anything that showed the Russian military winning a battle or air strike against NATO. They also began promoting any videos of the apartment building and subway stations that were accidentally destroyed by the American bunker-busting bomb the night before.
President Petrov had visited the hospitals to meet with the victims and made several appearances on TV, pleading for the Americans and NATO to keep the war conventional and not kill innocent civilians. Those videos were gaining a lot of traction around the world, so they began to run a lot of info pieces on the victims. Their entire goal with pushing this narrative was to show the Americans and NATO as the aggressors and the Russians as the victims. The images of the casualties from the now famous “Moscow Massacre” were compelling.
The video of the US Supercarrier George H.W. Bush sinking was a particularly potent video that had gone viral the second it was posted. The sight of hundreds of sailors being rescued amongst a sea of floating dead bodies was truly horrifying to the American public.
While the media arm continued to propagate their material, a separate group of hackers was breaking into the French, German, Italian, and Spanish transportation systems. They were interfering with train schedules, communications, and traffic signals--anything that would cause chaos and confusion in the Allied nations. Most of their attacks were being carried out through the use of botnets, which would capture Internet of Things (IoT) devices and then slave those devices to act as a collective botnet army in order to accomplish DDoS attacks. When combined, these attacks were causing the electronic infrastructure of the Allies to grind to a halt.
Several of the more gifted hackers in this division were given the particularly hard task of coopting the companies’ Industrial Control Systems (ICSs). In o
ne case, they successfully took control of a train engine on an extremely vital German rail line, causing the engine to burn out while it was in transit. Then they disabled the switching station so that the engineers in the control rooms could not remotely divert trains around the affected track. This caused a series of train delays.
In the US, the hackers took control of the Astoria Gas Generating Station in New York State and forced the generator to spin out of control until it blew up and destroyed the plant. Ten workers were killed, nineteen others injured. The loss of 1,296 megawatts of power was a huge hit to the city of New York and to the state as a whole. The hackers also hit four other power generators, which caused a series of rolling blackouts across much of the East Coast and parts of the Midwest. Power companies were scrambling to get old turbines turned on to pick up the slack and restore power.
While the hackers were sowing chaos on the internet against the NATO members, the disinformation campaign was having the desired effect amongst the population. Public opinion against the war was soaring in Europe, and the US media could not help themselves in trying to pin all the failings of the allies, on President Gates.
To make matters worse, two Spetsnaz teams carried out a devastating attack against two liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals--the Dominion Cove Point LNG depot in Maryland, and the Cheniere's Sabine Pass LNG station in Louisiana. The Spetsnaz members shot their way through the perimeter security of both facilities, and then blew the terminals up using C4 explosives that they detonated remotely. Following the attack, the two attack teams blended right back into the population and disappeared, at least until the FBI could hunt them down.
The destruction of these two terminals cut the US’s ability to export liquid natural gas to Europe by 68%. This was a huge loss, especially considering Europe had been cut off from importing additional LNG from Russia once the hostilities had officially begun. The Continent would now be thrown into a widespread gas shortage.