by James Rosone
Tan could smell the cordite and sulfur from the rifle fire, followed by the feces and urine from the dead bodies he now found himself surrounded by. Seeing no one else left alive in the room, Tan walked over to the computer terminal. He pushed the dead American out of the chair, letting his body fall in a heap on the floor amongst the shell casings and blood. Then he grabbed a couple of tissues from his pocket and wiped the blood and brain matter off the computer monitor so he could see it.
One team of snowmobiles was headed toward the phased radar array they’d come to blow up. The other group was moving in on the building their intelligence briefer had said was the operations room, directly behind the radar building. After a couple of seconds, he realized that two armored vehicles were heading toward the team that was speeding toward the radar—Tan grabbed his radio and sent that team a quick warning.
With his work here done, Tan pulled the pin on two thermite grenades and tossed them to either side of the building as he exited. Once they’d exploded, he grabbed the corpses of his two dead comrades and placed them in one of the American JLTV vehicles. He took the knife from one of his friend’s pockets, pulled out one of their Siberian Tiger playing cards, and stabbed it to the outer wall of the building he’d just torched, leaving their unit’s calling card behind.
As Tan drove the American vehicle toward the radar building, the sounds of battle intensified. When he made it over the top of the slight hill he’d been climbing, he saw the 105-foot-tall building that enclosed the world’s largest phased array radar system. This tall but unassuming structure fed information to NORAD and US Space Command about ground- and submarine-launched missiles across much of Asia, as well as all space-based objects that passed through its massive arc of coverage.
As he approached the building, Tan saw that one of the American JLTVs had several of his comrades pinned down. He floored it a bit more, until he was within a hundred meters of the Americans. They didn’t respond to his approach, most likely assuming that he was there to reinforce them.
Tan climbed out of the driver’s side of the vehicle and climbed back into the rear of the truck. He was just about to move up to the turret when he spotted something. He smiled and reached for the AT4 rocket he’d found. Tan flipped the turret hatch open and climbed up. Pulling the safety pin off the AT4, he aimed it at the JLTV that was firing on his comrades and depressed the trigger.
Pop…swoosh…BAM!
The truck exploded. The Americans in the other gun truck turned around with a look of shock and confusion on their faces at what had just happened. Tan grabbed the machine gun mounted on the turret and let loose a string of bullets at them. Several of them scattered for cover while a couple more were mowed down.
Tan’s comrades, who moments earlier had been completely pinned down, now joined the fray. Together they finished off the remaining airmen still shooting at them.
With the immediate threats neutralized, the two teams went to work completing their mission. One of the teams blew open the door to the building that housed the phased array while the other group proceeded to breach the main building where the radar operators were located.
A flurry of shots rang out as the Chinese soldiers moved through the building, killing the operators inside. Tan knew that in the meantime, the other group would apply explosives to the radar equipment inside the massive structure.
When they were ready to leave, the remaining team members climbed into Tan’s vehicle and the other JLTV that hadn’t been blown up. The group quickly made their way off the little base to head for their next target. As they left the air station, one of the soldiers depressed the red button on the remote detonator.
Behind them, a massive explosion blossomed in the darkness.
Mission accomplished, Tan thought with satisfaction.
Despite the loss of half of their Special Forces group, they had effectively blinded the Americans’ ability to monitor sea and ground-launched ballistic missiles, as well as any space-based weapons and satellites over much of the Asian continent.
*******
Cavalier Air Force Station, North Dakota
One of Rip’s fellow Special Forces soldiers broke the early-morning quiet. “I’ve got movement,” he announced. “Three SUVs moving down County Road 89. They just passed mile marker twelve.”
Rip looked through his own night vision goggles, scanning until he spotted what looked like three Chevy Tahoes moving at a rapid clip toward the base.
He grabbed his radio receiver and pushed depressed the talk button. “Hellboy to Reaper Five. We’ve got confirmation of the target. You’re cleared to engage.”
Ten thousand feet above them, an MQ-9 Reaper drone was loitering, steered by a UAV pilot at Creech Air Force Base nearly a thousand miles away.
“Reaper Five to Hellboy. That’s a good copy. I have three Chevy Tahoes passing mile marker eleven. Is that the right target?” The drone pilot had to confirm before he fired off his Hellfire missiles.
“Yes, that’s the target. Take ’em out!”
Rip watched and waited as the group of SUVs continued to get closer and closer to the radar installation.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
Three deafening explosions ripped through the darkness. The flaming blasts briefly turned the scene into a spectacular display of precision firepower.
“Reaper Five, Hellboy. Good hit. Continue to stay on station. There may be additional hostiles in the area.”
“That’s a good copy. Returning to station. From our vantage point, we don’t show any additional vehicle traffic within a twenty-mile radius of your position.”
Smiling, Rip felt a certain level of satisfaction at having just prevented a major attack that could have debilitated his nation’s early-warning radar system.
*******
February 6, 2021, 12:41 a.m.
NORAD Facility
General Tibbets had just lain down on the couch in his office to take a much-needed nap. As of today, they were officially three weeks into this civil war and UN-led invasion of his country, and the unrelenting tempo was exhausting.
How could this have happened to our country? he wondered as he tried to calm his mind for some rest.
Tibbets would have paid good money for twenty-four hours of uninterrupted sleep. He needed a chance to rest his mind and allow his body to unwind from the constant stress of his position. He hadn’t left the mountain or seen his wife in nearly four days.
I can’t go on like this indefinitely, Tibbets realized. He made plans to try and escape back to his home in the near future.
Tibbets knew he’d been pushing himself too hard. The twenty-plus-hour days and lack of sleep, exercise, and proper diet were all taking their toll on him physically and mentally. The truth was he had a hard time allowing himself a chance to relax when so many men and women were fighting and dying on the front lines. A big part of him felt that if they couldn’t have a break, then neither should he.
His mind had just slipped into a dreamless sleep when his office door suddenly burst open. He practically jumped off his couch, ready to attack whoever had stormed his office.
Seeing the startled look on the general’s sleepy face, the intruding Air Force major immediately declared, “Sir, I apologize for not knocking. I’m so sorry to disturb you.”
General Tibbets half-growled. “This had better be good,” he said grumpily. “I told everyone I didn’t want to be interrupted for at least four hours.”
“Sir, the Special Forces team we placed near Cavalier Air Force Station just took out those Chinese Special Forces the NSA said was going to attack the facility.”
Crap. The attack is really going to happen today, he thought. Tibbets stood up and immediately started walking to the watch center. “What about Clear Station?” he asked. “Please tell me it’s still operational.”
The major shook his head as they walked together down the hallway. “We received a message from them a few minutes ago, saying they were under some sort of attack.
Their QRF was moving to engage, but then the base went silent, and the radar feed cut out. Eielson launched their QRF, but they are still twenty minutes out.”
As he entered the cavernous room that constituted the watch center, General Tibbets immediately confirmed that their radar coverage over much of Asia was gone. With Thulu Station, Beale, and Cape Cod having gone down at the outset of the war, they were now essentially operating in the dark. This left them utterly open to a sneak attack by either Russia or China. Tibbets said a prayer that their few remaining satellites continued to stay functional.
General Tibbets heard the watch officer on duty, Colonel Jessup, issuing orders. “Someone send a message over to STRATCOM to scramble their birds. I want additional global hawks launched. See if we can reposition some of our satellites to plug the holes in our coverage until we can figure out what the heck is going on.”
Tibbets strode over. “Jessup, talk to me. What’s happening?”
Jessup, a rising star in the space operations side of the Army, turned to face the general. “Sir, approximately forty-two minutes ago, one of our SOSUS sensors detected a Type-94 Jin-class ballistic missile submarine pass near our Wake Island monitoring facility. We immediately ordered a Poseidon to go hunt it down and sink it. Then our PAVE PAW radar system at Clear Air Station went down, and we got a report that Cavalier Air Station was in the process of being attacked by what appeared to be a Chinese Special Forces team. While I had a runner go wake you up, I authorized the Special Forces on the ground to engage the enemy before they could reach the base. A Reaper drone just blew up the three SUVs carrying the assault team.”
Tibbets nodded. “Good job ordering that assault team to be taken out with the Reaper, Colonel.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “So, do you think everything that’s happening is a precursor to them hitting us with some sort of ballistic missile attack?”
“It’s what I would do if I were them,” Jessup responded, a look of concern on his face.
Just then, a flashing red light turned on, and a voice came on over the PA system. “Ballistic missile launch detected.”
Tibbets cursed to himself. “This is it, the big attack,” he muttered. He’d barely been able to get brought up to speed and now this. It was all happening too fast.
“Someone find out what kind of missile that is and where it’s going!” demanded Jessup.
A few seconds went by before one of the satellite operators responded. “We have another bird coming online now. Should have data on the missile location momentarily.”
For roughly twenty seconds, they saw several missile tracks appear to come from the ocean near Wake Island, where they had detected that Chinese boomer sub. Then the satellite went offline before they could confirm the type and number of missiles.
“What the hell happened to our satellite?” barked Tibbets.
“It looks like it was just taken out—probably by a ground-based laser,” one of the specialists replied.
Tibbets popped his knuckles angrily. He knew he needed to get more information about what was going on before he called the President. Whether or not those missiles were nuclear and where they were headed would make a huge difference in determining how they responded.
“Sir, that P-8 that was heading over to engage that enemy submarine is giving us a visual report of six subsurface missile launches,” called out another officer who was also monitoring the situation. “They’ve just released their torpedoes and should have the enemy sub taken care of shortly.”
For the moment, Tibbets waved off the naval success. “Where are those missiles heading now?” he barked.
“We’ll know in three more minutes,” called out one of the communication officers. “We have another satellite coming over the horizon. Some of our Arleigh Burkes on picket duty around Hawaii will also be able to start transmitting some telemetry shortly. We’re in the process of repositioning one of our E4 aircraft to fill the communications gap from the loss of the satellites.”
While they waited for more data to stream in, Tibbets worked on getting the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon spun up on what was going on. He also ordered the Secret Service to work on getting the President woken up.
“Telemetry’s starting to come up!” shouted one of the officers at a computer terminal.
Data finally streamed in to them as the coms gap started to get filled in. Jessup and Tibbets both turned to look at the big board, which was now tracking the missiles. Two of them appeared to be turning to head on a westward track, while the other two were now headed on an eastward trajectory. The last two missiles appeared to have split off from their formation, with one heading south while the other headed north, still gaining altitude as they raced toward their intended targets.
An Air Force captain sitting at one of the computer terminals turned to look at the general. “We’ll have definitive targeting data on these missiles in a couple of minutes from the Pine Gap facility. Right now, it appears four of the missiles are headed for Guam and Hawaii. I’m not sure about the other two—there isn’t an obvious land target further north or south of where those missiles are headed.”
One of the naval officers suddenly stood up. “Sir, the Roosevelt strike group is north of Hawaii. That missile heading north could be meant for them.”
“The Reagan strike group is to the south. They could be trying to take out our carriers in one swoop,” another officer said.
A stream of obscenities flew out of Tibbets’s mouth. “Get me the President!” he barked. “And close the blast doors. Move us from DEFCON 3 to DEFCON 2.”
Warning. Missile Launch Detected.
The automated alarm blared out a new warning for them to worry about. This missile launched appeared to originate from Manzanillo, Mexico. Seconds later, the alarm blared a third time.
Warning. Missile Launch Detected.
To their collective horror, they saw a single missile track emanate from Base 22 in Taibai, Central China—the primary nuclear weapons storage facility for the PLA Rocket Force and where their main ICBM base was located.
“What the hell? Where are those missiles headed, and what type are they?” demanded General Tibbets. He watched in horror as the new missile tracks were being plotted on the big screen for them to watch. He felt a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead as he realized this was likely a major nuclear attack underway.
“Pine Gap’s starting to get some telemetry readings on those submarine-launched missiles. They’re CSS-N-14s, sir. It’s definitive—those are nukes, not conventional warheads.”
Pointing at the two tracks rising in altitude and beginning to take a separate arc over the American Southwest, Tibbets demanded, “What type of missiles are those and what are they targeting?”
“This is STRATCOM,” said one of the technicians from the Omaha base, speaking through a telecom. “Those missile launches from Mexico are confirmed Dongfeng 26s. Sensors confirmed they are carrying nuclear warheads.”
“What about that new launch from the Mainland?” demanded Tibbets.
An Air Force major was on the phone with his counterpart at the Pine Gap facility in central Australia. For the briefest of moments, everyone waited for his response to the general’s question. He pulled the receiver down to his shoulder and looked up at the general. “The single launch from Taibai is a Dongfeng 31A. It’s one of their long-range ICBMs. This one is headed for Pine Gap, and it appears to be nuclear as well.”
Colonel Jessup smacked his fist into his hand angrily. “The Chinese are looking to take us out in the Pacific,” he remarked to Tibbets, just above a whisper.
Tibbets cursed under his breath.
Just as they were starting to collect all the information they needed to brief the President, more of the satellites that had been providing them with real-time intelligence over Asia blinked out of existence. Then several of their satellites providing communications and surveillance over the continental US went offline, leaving them entirely in the dark.
“What the hell just happened, people?” General Tibbets roared.
Colonel Jessup started barking at some folks for answers. Then he made a beeline over to a station being manned by an Army NCO who was responsible for maintaining their UHF, VHF, and FM ground radios.
“Sergeant, patch us through to STRATCOM, the Pentagon, and the White House through our backup system now,” Jessup ordered. The sergeant speedily began the process of making contact with those parties via their alternate communication protocols.
Tibbets turned to the officer who, moments ago, had had the President on the line. “Is he still there?”
The young man nodded. “Yes. This line is a dedicated hardline.”
“I’ve got STRATCOM on the radio,” called out the Army sergeant as he made his first successful connection.
Tibbets walked over and was handed the radio receiver before the sergeant went back to work, trying to raise the Pentagon.
“Talk to me, Norman,” Tibbets said gruffly.
“They just took our satellites out. That’s why we’ve lost communications,” General Norman responded. “We think they hit them with a DDoS attack, because Cavalier Air Force Station is still showing them in orbit. I’ve directed CyberCom to figure out what the hell is going on, and the NSA is working on a counterattack right now.
“In the meantime, I’m switching the national command authority over to our alternate systems while we scramble some RC-135 Rivet Joints out of Offutt Air Force Base. I’ve also ordered the E-4 NEACPs to get airborne and help fill in the gaps. Give me fifteen minutes, General, and I’ll have most of our capabilities back up and running.”
“Norman, get the Looking Glass airborne and scramble our TACAMO planes,” Tibbets ordered. “This appears to be a first strike, and I have no idea if we’re going to have more missiles raining down on us soon or not. We’re not going to get caught flatfooted like we did on the first day of the war.”
I can’t believe this is happening, General Tibbets thought. The whole thing seemed like a nightmare unfolding. Two nuclear powers on a collision course could see the world destroyed multiple times over if things couldn’t be brought back under control.