Red Tide: The Chinese Invasion of Seattle (Occupied Seattle Book 1)

by Christopher Kennedy

  “She did that on the way back,” said Top. “We didn’t have any problems on the way in. We made it across I-5 and over the fence without anyone noticing us. The hardest problem was just keeping our bearings in the forest. We had to stay close enough to the roads to be able to see where we were going. It was a risk that someone would see us, but we were able to make it to the field.” He paused.

  “And, what did you see?” prodded the XO.

  Top shrugged. “Well sir, it ain’t good. The Chinese have taken the base. I don’t know how they did it; I don’t know how they got here. I only know two things; the Chinese are here, and they are here in force. There are tanks on the airfield, as well as anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles.

  “Good ones, too,” chipped in Suzi. “I couldn’t get close enough to see if they were the Russian S-300 or S-400 series of missiles, but I can tell you, they are bad news for anyone that tries to come here through the air.”

  “Yeah, they’re bad news; it’s also bad news for us getting any sort of weapons from the armory,” added Top. “We went by the armory, and the Chinese have it locked up tight, with patrols and klieg lights so that no one can sneak up on the facility. Whatever we decide to do, we’re going to have to do it with whatever civilian weapons we can scrape together.”

  “OK, that sucks, but isn’t too unexpected, based on what’s going on at the front gate,” commented the XO. “I think we’ll have to call it a night, and I’ll go brief the CO and see if we can get a hold of anyone higher in the chain of command. Why don’t all of you bunk here tonight so that I can reach you if needed. If you hear from anyone else, grab them if possible.”

  With that, the XO left.

  “Hey, Top,” said one of the twins. “I know someone that has some weapons we can use. What about that buddy of yours that lives up in the mountains? Didn’t he have a pretty big armory of modern weaponry? Suppose he’d share with us?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he would,” said Top. “He hates commies even more than he hates authority. I’m sure he’ll want to know about what’s going on. I’ll give him a call.”

  Onboard Diceman 125, 100 miles Northwest of Seattle, WA, 0030 PDT

  “It looks like we’re going to get a shot at either the tanker or the AWACS before it lands at Sea-Tac airfield,” said Lieutenant Colonel Dave “Smoke” Sanchez. Before they had lost contact with Focus 105 the AWACS had given them the direction to go to find the Chinese aircraft, and they had been able to lock up one of the planes at a distance of about 175 miles, so Smoke thought that it was probably one of the bigger aircraft.

  “Have you heard anything else from Focus?” asked one of his wingmen, Major Charles ‘Tractor’ Massey. “A little more info wouldn’t suck.”

  “No I haven’t,” said Smoke, “and I doubt we will. We’re going about 700 miles an hour faster than they are, so it is way behind us. We’re on our own with this one. At least this time we know we’re at war and that there are stealth fighters ahead of us; they’re not going to get us as easily as they did Sassy and Skeeter.”

  “How close do you want to get to shoot at them?” asked Tractor. “They’re getting pretty close to Sea-Tac.”

  “Well, I haven’t had any indications that we’re being tracked by any of the Chinese SAM systems yet,” said Smoke, “although there are some located a long way away to the south. The only search radar I see is a SPY-1D radar, off one of the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. We’re at 100 miles now; I was planning on about a 95 mile shot.”

  “Roger, that,” said Tractor.

  The distance to the Chinese AWACS clicked down to 95 nautical miles. As the target was slow and non-maneuvering, Smoke judged that it was in range and prepared to fire on it. Before he could, though, he was distracted by a burst of flame, slightly to the left of the nose of the aircraft. It almost looked like a rocket launch, he thought, and it was rapidly followed by a second, a third, and then a fourth. He immediately recognized that missiles were being launched, and as they turned to point in the Raptors’ direction, that they had been launched at him. It didn’t make any sense—the only radar on that line of bearing was the SPY-1 radar. Was the U.S. Navy shooting at him?

  He realized that he didn’t have time to think about it. “Missile launch, left of the nose!” he screamed into the radio. “Separate and scram north!” Gone were any thoughts about shooting down the Chinese AWACS; the only thing important now was getting his division’s aircraft out of harm’s way.

  USS Shoup (DDG-86), Everett Naval Station, WA, 0035 Pacific Daylight Time

  “Fire!” commanded Commander Gao Qiang. The Executive Officer of the PLAN destroyer Kunming, Commander Gao had been promoted to be the new Commanding Officer of the Shoup.

  Short and slight of build, he projected an air of confidence as the master chief pushed the button to release the missiles.

  “It was nice of them to leave their IFF on,” said Master Chief Hu Yan from the weapons station. “It made tracking them very easy.”

  “Yes,” agreed Commander Gao, “it also identified them for us. As they were stealth fighters, they would have been hard to see without the IFF identification.” He didn’t know how many there were, as only one had left its IFF on, but he guessed that there were either two or four of them.

  “What do you think, Ashley?” he asked Petty Officer Ashley Lafont, who had helped set up the shots. “Will we hit them?”

  Petty Officer Lafont said nothing; she just stood next to the wall with tears streaming down her face.

  “Cheer up,” said Commander Gao. “You didn’t shoot at them yourself, and they have a fighting chance to avoid the missiles. See, look,” he said, pointing at the radar. “The aircraft is maneuvering. It obviously has seen that we shot at him.” He paused, watching. “Isn’t this fascinating, Master Chief Hu? It is a contest between their stealth technology and their best radar. Five American dollars, Master Chief. Who do you think will win?”

  “I don’t know, sir,” said Master Chief Hu. “We did kind of cheat by using their IFF for targeting. I’m going to guess that the missile wins.”

  Onboard Diceman 125, 100 miles Northwest of Seattle, WA, 0030 PDT

  Most of the aircraft were lucky and their inherent stealth characteristics, combined with their evasive maneuvers, helped them defeat the missiles. The pilot of the third aircraft in the formation, First Lieutenant John “New Guy” Simmons, was new to the squadron and still adjusting to life in Alaska, as well as his new aircraft. He was also unprepared for combat. He didn’t have a ‘Pre-Combat’ checklist yet, and had just tried to do everything that he could remember from his time at the simulators in training. Unfortunately for him, he was the pilot that had forgotten to turn off his IFF. Not only was the Shoup able to track the formation because of him, it was also able to track him once the missiles were launched and to pass on additional tracking data to the missiles in a mid-course update. With a good targeting solution on his aircraft, all four missiles tracked in on his aircraft.

  His aircraft’s stealth defeated two of the missiles; they never saw the aircraft and tracked overhead past him. Two missiles acquired his aircraft, though, and guided in on it. He saw the third missile and expended chaff while maneuvering and was able to break the missile’s lock on his aircraft. In dodging the third missile, though, he never saw the fourth, which also guided on his aircraft and exploded next to it. A piece of shrapnel went through his head, killing him instantly, and the blast blew the aircraft from the sky.

  USS Shoup (DDG-86), Everett Naval Station, WA, 0035 Pacific Daylight Time

  “I hate losing,” said Commander Gao Qiang as he handed the American five dollar bill to Master Chief Hu. He looked at Petty Officer Ashley Lafont, who was now sobbing, and the soldier holding her at bayonet-point. “I think I will need some comforting for my loss. Please escort Petty Officer Lafont to my state room.”

  Commander Gao looked back at the Master Chief as he started to follow them out. “I guess sometimes losi
ng isn’t so bad, after all.”

  Near Mt. Garfield, WA, 0037 Pacific Daylight Time

  “Hello,” mumbled Ryan into the phone. He’d been sleeping.

  “Are the baby SEALs going to bed early now?” asked Top. “The party’s just getting started down here.”

  “Big day, today,” replied Ryan. “I got to blow some stuff up, got shot at, shot down a helicopter; fun stuff. Just trying to get a little sleep so that I can get up and do it all over again in the morning. It looks like it’s going to be a big day.”

  “Oh, so you’ve even heard about everything that’s going on up in your mountain hideaway?” Top inquired.

  “Yeah, the Chinese invaded the mountains and are killing people,” answered Ryan.

  “They’re down here, too,” explained Top. “They’ve taken over Fort Lewis and have a variety of tanks, troops and SAMs here; more than I’ve ever seen.”

  “So, it’s worse than we thought. Well, we were already coming down the mountain tomorrow,” explained Ryan. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow morning, and we can get together and decide what we need to do.”

  “Sounds good,” agreed Top, signing off. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  * * * * *

  “China Invades Taiwan”

  Preceded by a ballistic missile and aircraft bombardment, China invaded Taiwan today. Although the Republic of China government still maintains that it has control over the island nation, the government admits that it will not last long if their allies do not come to their aid.

  Although confirmed information is difficult to obtain, due to the chaos resulting from the attacks, sources are reporting that China began a devastating missile and aircraft bombardment this morning at 5:00 a.m. local time. The bombardment was not confined to the island of Taiwan, as the airfield at Okinawa was targeted as well.

  The invasion also coincided with a power and internet outage that appears to have been nearly world-wide in nature. Authorities have been unable to determine why Taiwan’s power and internet grids failed at the moment the attack was launched, but the loss of both of these systems severely degraded Taiwanese and Allied command and control, resulting in a tremendous loss of coordination among the forces defending Taiwan.

  In addition to the aerial attacks that have rocked Taiwan, there have been numerous reports of ground-based attacks and sabotage at defensive installations. These attacks have been attributed to Chinese Army and Special Forces troops that are believed to have been inserted into the country in the preceding several weeks.

  Defense sources are estimating that the majority of the attacks in the initial barrage were conducted by Chinese DF-15, DF-21 and DF-31 ballistic missiles, with follow-on attacks conducted by Chinese H-6 ‘Badger’ aircraft, employing a variety of bombs, rockets, and cruise missiles. Defense sources are reporting that at least four of the Badger aircraft have been shot down, although they also admit to having lost a number of their own aircraft that were caught unprepared on the ground.

  Although details are sketchy at this time, it appears that a number of Chinese merchant vessels were in fact transporting soldiers that were used in the initial assault to capture key installations, and that several Chinese civilian aircraft were troop carriers, as well. The Taiwanese soldiers are defending their country with every means that they have available, but they are rapidly being overwhelmed as China reinforces its troops on the ground by both land and sea. Without assistance from the United States and its allies, it does not appear that they will be able to hold out very long.

  - World News Online. Posted August 20, 2018 by Susan Clements

  * * * * *

  Epilogue

  White House Situation Room, Washington, D.C., August 20, 0620 EDT

  “Sir, the bottom line is that Taiwan is screwed,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. A big man, he had a big voice and wasn’t afraid to make his opinion known. “Their entire defense plan is for their armed forces to do nothing but hold on until we can get there. Every single ‘Defense of Taiwan’ exercise we’ve ever run has assumed that the United States would lead the defense, as well as throw in the overwhelming majority of the forces. The Taiwanese have some high-quality equipment, but they are completely overwhelmed. Without us, I repeat, they’re screwed.”

  “What about other countries, our allies?” the president asked. “Can we expect some of them to come to the aid of Taiwan until we can get there?”

  “Not freakin’ likely,” the Chairman of the JCS answered. He had analyzed the data and come to a conclusion. “We signed a joint declaration on security with Japan in 1996, but without us, it’s unlikely Japan will do anything. They’ve got some excellent ships and planes, but they’d be overwhelmed, too. At this moment, I’m betting that the Japanese Premier is defining ‘the area surrounding Japan’ clause in the treaty to mean “we’ll defend everything north of Okinawa; Taiwan is right out.” Our allies in the ANZUS Treaty, Australia and New Zealand, are further away and really don’t have the equipment to be a viable threat. Besides, the loss of economic ties with China would probably prevent Australia from doing anything on their own; their economy couldn’t withstand the trauma if hostilities went longer than about a week.”

  “In the past, we’ve exercised with a lot of countries in our ‘Defense of Taiwan’ RIMPAC exercises, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Chile and Peru. The UK would help, but they don’t have any appreciable forces in the area. They’d need time, which Taiwan doesn’t have. Canada would help, but I think they’re unlikely to go wandering across the Pacific with the Chinese sitting 100 miles from Vancouver. South Korea would help if we were there, but without us, they don’t have enough equipment to be able to move anything into the area without uncovering themselves and giving the North Koreans easy access into Seoul. They’re unable to help. That leaves Chile and Peru; too little, too far away, and just not very likely to want to piss China off without the United States there as their big brother to back them up. That only leaves the Russians, who could, I guess, attack mainland China if we could somehow convince them it was in their best interests, and we wanted to start World War III, but failing that, Mr. President, the Taiwanese are screwed.”

  He paused and then said, “For that matter, Mr. President, we’re not a whole lot better off ourselves. We have an entrenched foe, in our cities, holding our citizens as hostages. We don’t have a lot of options to get us out of this cleanly. Maybe we should just give them Taiwan if they’ll agree to go back to China peacefully.”

  “It’s worse than you know,” said the Secretary of State. “The Chinese ambassador just told us that their forces busted into our nuclear arsenal in Bangor and have brought our own nuclear weapons ashore, somewhere in Seattle. They just warned us that any attack into Seattle has the possibility of ‘accidentally setting them off.’ They said that they are ‘high yield,’ but we have no idea what exactly that means.”

  A look of horror filled the faces of everyone in the room.

  “We’re screwed, too,” said the Chairman of the JCS.

  Silence filled the room.

  Finally, one voice spoke, “Maybe not,” said the Chief of Naval Operations, “I’ve got an idea.”

  * * * * *

  The Americans

  Civilians:

  Matt Bennett U.S. Representative from Seattle

  Sam Burton Man with No Cell Phone Service

  Erika Gardner University of Washington Student

  Tom Green Mayor of Seattle

  Adrienne Griffin Daughter of the USS Shoup’s XO

  Stacy Hough Delta Ticketing Agent

  Bill Jacobs President of the United States

  Isabel Maggiano United States Secretary of State

  Juan Mendez Sea-Tac Police Officer

  Barbara Morgan Air Traffic Manager, Seattle ARTCC

  Ryan O’Leary Former SEAL Senior Chief Petty Officer

  George Shelby Washington State Governor

  Sara Sommers
University of Washington Student

  John Thomas Seattle ARTCC Operator

  Jack Turner U.S. Senator from Oregon

  Joey Turner Senator Turner’s Son

  Janet Turner Senator Turner’s Wife

  Military:

  Sergeant Bill Adams Fort Lewis Convoy Driver

  Ensign Patrick Allen Softball Hero

  PFC Mike “BTO” Bachmann Ranger Spotter

  Rear Admiral Dan Barnaby Commander, Navy Region Northwest

  LTJG Steve “Torch/Oscar” Berkman F-18 Pilot

  First Lieutenant Odysseus Bollinger Ranger Company Executive Officer

  Major Jim “Lizzie” Borden USAF 525th Fighter Squadron Pilot

  Petty Officer Ed Brown Air Traffic Controlman, NAS Whidbey Island

  LT Jim “Basket” Case VAQ-131 Naval Flight Officer

  Sergeant Jim “Shuteye” Chang Ranger Fire Team Leader

  Staff Sergeant Patrick “The Wall” Dantone Ranger Squad Leader

  Petty Officer Brad Davis Leader of USS Shoup’s Softball Team

  Captain Johnny Dixon Outlaw 65 Pilot

  LT Raul Espinosa Leader of USS Shoup’s Softball Team

  Captain John Galloway Navy Region Northwest Operations Officer

  LT John “Constant” Gardner F-18 Pilot

  Corporal Austin “Good Twin” Gordon Ranger RAWS Gunner

  PFC Jamal “Bad Twin” Gordon Ranger RAWS Loader

  LCDR Ernie Griffin XO of the USS Shoup

  Chief Dan Hamilton Air Traffic Controlman, NAS Fallon, NV