by James Rosone
Kawano’s fleet had briefly detected a small American navy surveillance drone, probably from a submarine operating in the area. However, before they could identify the location, the drone had gone offline. While they were still trying to figure out what was going on, one of Admiral Kawano’s intelligence officers walked over to him. “Sir, we just received a transmission from a flight of American F41 fighters. They say they are on the way to assist us.”
Admiral Kawano was briefly startled by the news. He knew it was going to be nearly impossible for their missiles to hit them. In a flash of brilliance, it occurred to him that if he could get the F41s to share their flight data, then his battleships could engage them with their railguns and anti-aircraft missiles. He could also send word to the Americans that he was sending his F35s into the air to help coordinate their efforts against the PLAN. Once the Americans arrived, they could attack the F41s with full force. He issued the orders right away.
Trojan Horse Update
24 December 2041
Downtown Los Angeles
Near the end of World War II, the Japanese had drafted a plan to combat the inevitable invasion of American forces into their country--codename Operation Ketsugo. The name meant “concluding remarks,” and signaled their tenacity to fight to the death, if needed. To General Hidehisa Shinzo, the Commander of the 5th Brigade, it seemed a fitting name for this new offensive against the West Coast of the United States. As his ship pulled into the Port of Los Angeles, he gritted his teeth, eager for battle.
Since the Americans had not deciphered the true intentions of the Japanese forces before they landed, the Port of Los Angeles was relatively easy to secure. Only a few shots were fired by either side; most of the guards surrendered without incident when they saw how hopelessly out-gunned they were. The 5th Brigade was what the Americans called a “heavy” brigade, which meant that along with the typical company elements of reconnaissance, anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, signals and aviation, the group encompassed a tank battalion, three infantry regiments and an artillery battalion. There were 6,500 soldiers in all, each one well-trained, disciplined and full of the zeal and adrenaline that comes from seeing battle for the first time.
At the nearby Port of Long Beach, the Japanese also managed a speedy takeover. There were a few casualties at this facility; a couple of American guards decided to try to be heroes and went completely Rambo. Sadly, this desperate attempt resulted in their swift demise, and did not do very much to inhibit the progress of the Japanese. They did manage to kill four soldiers and wound eight more. As the men pulled the bodies out of the pool of blood to prepare them for a proper burial, the harsh reality of war set in.
The soldiers consolidated their positions, organizing into well-formed groups and preparing to receive the additional reinforcements from the Japanese Defense Force (JDF) and the Chinese Navy (PLAN). So far, everything was proceeding as expected. The JDF and PLAN were headed towards LA and San Diego at flank speed, trying to capitalize on the confusion taking place among their former allies. Because of the cyber-attacks on the cell networks and the internet, the greater public was still unaware of the Japanese attack.
Once the ports were fully secured, General Shinzo prepared to meet with two of his key senior officers. He surveyed the scene as he walked towards a small building that must have been one of the port administrative offices. During this short stroll, he tried to organize his thundering chorus of thoughts. He still had a lot to accomplish within a short window of time; his objective was to secure City Hall and the rest of downtown LA, and then move into the surrounding urban sprawl. He knew that his forces would have to act quickly; it would not take long for the Americans to realize what was happening and dispatch forces to attack his men. His main concern was the Marines Third Division, which he knew to be stationed at Twenty-Nine Palms. They were the most combat-hardened Marine division that the U.S. had, and they were fully-equipped with the new Raptor combat suits. Shinzo knew that they would be a formidable force when the time came.
As General Shinzo entered the building, the smell of cordite and diesel fuel was heavy in the air; all his armored vehicles were lining up near the port exit to begin their task of securing City Hall. He walked over to his commanders. Despite their best efforts to conceal their emotions, he could clearly see their apprehension by their furrowed brows. He knew that both of these men had trained with the Americans in the past, and were now being tasked with attacking some of those very same officers. However, there was no time for emotion, only time for action. He jumped right into the task of the moment.
“Colonel Tenaka, as you know, you are to lead your forces to capture City Hall immediately following this meeting. I want you to convey to your soldiers that they are to put down any resistance that they encounter and secure their target quickly. Then I want you to activate the city’s emergency broadcast system and have it play the following message,” General Shinzo handed Colonel Tenaka a sheet of paper that read, “People of Los Angeles, a Japanese and Chinese invasion force has secured your city. Stay indoors and do not venture into the streets. Do not interfere with our operations, or you will be shot on sight. This is not a test.”
Colonel Tenaka nodded and made a mental note to have one of his most fluent English speakers read the announcement for the recording.
General Shinzo continued. “Colonel Watabe, you are to lead your armored division and an infantry regiment to Riverside and San Bernardino. As you travel, destroy as many bridges and overpasses as you can along your route. You will need to establish a defensive perimeter; the Marines will be bearing down on you very quickly, and you are going to have to find a way to hold out until additional reinforcements arrive. Move some of your tanks onto the third or fourth levels of parking garages to give them a better vantage point and increase their range. Position some of the other tanks in alley ways and behind buildings so that you can surprise the enemy as they approach. Fight house-to-house if you need to, but at all costs you must hold the line until the additional forces reach you.”
Colonel Watabe nodded his acknowledgement. “Sir, exactly how long should we expect to be on our own before the reinforcements approach?”
Some of the Japanese generals would have found this question to be impertinent, but General Shinzo had a good working relationship with Colonel Watabe. Besides, he would have wanted to know the same thing if the roles were reversed. Without missing a beat, he replied, “Colonel, I have spoken with the Chinese Army (PLA) Commander; he has two brigades of heavy tanks, one brigade of light drone tanks and two infantry brigades that will be reinforce you in about eight hours. It will take some time to unload that amount of equipment. As each battalion is offloaded, I’m going to direct them to head to your location.”
Pulling up some information from his tablet, General Shinzo scrolled through some data, then explained, “We also have six attack helicopters that can assist both of your operations. I will hold them back from other actions so they are available to you when you need them. But use them wisely; it will be close to a day before we have more available when the rest of the Air Force finishes ferrying over their aircraft from Hawaii.”
Suddenly, there was the loud rush of several jets roaring over their heads—the colonels nervously looked at the ceiling. Having trained with American military throughout their career, they knew exactly what kind of enemy they would be facing. Not only would the U.S. soldiers be tenacious fighters, but they’d be boiling over with desires for revenge. An awkward moment of silence passed in anticipation.
General Shinzo cleared his throat. Knowing this might be the last time he saw either of these men in person, he looked each of them in the eye and said, “Gentlemen, the future of Japan rides on our success over the next several days. I know we have traditionally been an ally of America, but those days are behind us. We need to do our duty to Japan to preserve our way of life and that of our families. Everyone is depending on us. I expect you to do your jobs and win. Dismissed.”
&
nbsp; All three stood up, and bowed to each other before walking out. Shinzo followed his men out of the building as they each headed off towards their respective commands. He wished them luck…he knew the odds of this invasion being successful were long, but he was determined to succeed.
Twenty minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel Ota (one of Colonel Tenaka’s battalion commanders) was leading his column of twelve Type 29 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) and thirty-four Type 31 infantry fighting vehicles as they passed the exit for Hwy 91 and east Compton. They continued down I-710, towards City Hall and downtown LA. As they drove past an exit, two of his T-31 infantry fighting vehicles made their exit and set up a road block. Once I-710 was secured and cleared of traffic, it would give the JDF and PLA an easy route to move troops throughout the valley quickly.
So far, they had not encountered any resistance. Then again--what could a car or truck really do to stop a sixty-ton main battle tank? Traffic on the highway was light as it was still early in the morning on Christmas Eve; most Americans were either off work for the holiday or traveling out of the city to see family. His column was making good time as they moved along the interstate; however, when they reached I-105 and Morton, the traffic became a bit more of a problem. Ultimately though, this turned into a minor inconvenience; those cars that failed to move out of the way of the armored column were either pushed aside or run over by the tanks.
Once they reached the correct junction, Colonel Ota had to leave one of his tanks and four infantry fighting vehicles behind to make sure they had the key node secured. Stopping the traffic was not very difficult; the hard part was going to be clearing all of the cars that were already on the road off of it.
As Colonel Ota stood in the commander’s hatch of his tank, he could see the expanse of the city as it unfolded before him. It was a beautiful and sprawling city. Tall sky scrapers covered in glass reaching for the clouds in the downtown area gave way to block after block of homes and smaller buildings. He couldn’t help but think to himself, “This is going to be an absolute nightmare for our JDF and the Chinese to try and secure. All of these people…and each one potentially has a firearm. Too bad we aren’t landing in Great Britain instead, where the worst I’d have to fear is a nightstick.”
As his tank raced down the road, he suddenly heard an announcement over the radio. “Colonel Ota, we have a couple of police cruisers approaching our roadblock. Do you want us to engage?”
“Yes, suppress any resistance quickly,” he ordered.
He heard a series of loud booms, and there was an eerie silence for a moment before someone came back on. “Sir, our T-31s made short work of the vehicles and the approaching officers. We did not sustain any casualties or significant damage to our equipment.”
“Excellent. Please continue to use force as needed,” Colonel Ota replied. He was elated that their first encounter had ended so well.
The T-31s were built by Mitsubishi to be a lightweight infantry support vehicle to the T-29 main battle tanks. They were armed with a 30-mm autocannon, four anti-tank missiles, a .50 caliber machine gun above the commander’s hatch, and had the capacity to hold twelve infantry soldiers inside. In contrast, the T-29 main battle tank had a 135-mm cannon able to penetrate the American M1A4 and M1A5’s armor (as well as the new formidable Pershing tanks), but only carried a crew of three: the driver, gunner and tank commander. The T-29 made use of an auto-loader system, similar to the ones that the Chinese and Russian tanks used. This would be their first operational fielding of the new tank round. If it worked well, then it would go into full production and be disseminated to the European front, which was much more of a tank war than Alaska.
As the column of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) continued to race down the roads heading towards City Hall, word must have gotten around; as they crossed the Los Angeles River on East 1st street, they saw half a dozen police cars and several SWAT vehicles blocking the road. Speaking quickly into his headset, Colonel Ota ordered, “Lead vehicle, engage the SWAT trucks with your main gun and continue through the roadblock on your way to south Spring street and City Hall.”
He also radioed his infantry commander. “Have your fighting vehicles engage the road block. I want your last three vehicles in the column to stop, dismount their infantry and clear the rest of the intersection. We need to keep the road clear for additional reinforcements.”
The fighting at the intersection was brief and fierce; the column slowed down to 10 mph as they changed formations from a single file line to an arrowhead with three tanks, followed by three infantry fighting vehicles and then the rest of the group staying in a single file column. The tanks and IFVs used their heavy machine guns to fire on the police and SWAT vehicles and quickly decimated all that was before them, shredding the police officers instantly. None of the lead vehicles had to open up the hatches for the infantry to emerge, and they took no casualties in the brief engagement before plowing through the burning vehicles, continuing their way to City Hall.
Colonel Ota climbed back up through the commander’s hatch again so he could have a better field of view. He looked back briefly at the armored vehicles behind him and saw the black smoke of the vehicles they had just destroyed start to rise into the sky, marking their brief engagement. For nearly a mile, his armored column stretched across the city as they moved quickly through the highway and streets of LA.
Bring Me to Your Leader
24 December 2041
Los Angeles, California
City Hall, Mayor’s Office
Mayor Jose Perez had been the mayor of LA for nearly twenty years. He was not a fan of President Stein; however, he did have to agree that the President had really turned the country’s economy around and that newfound prosperity had greatly benefited his city. In addition, despite the fact that Perez was a lifelong Democrat, the President had been nothing but professional and courteous when dealing with him. He had made many critical infrastructures projects in L.A. a key priority, and had agreed to include several high-speed rail projects in Southern California, with several of them running through LA.
Where he and the President diverged was their opinions concerning the direction of the war and the choice to annex Mexico. L.A. had been the victim of several large terrorist attacks: there was the one that destroyed the police headquarters, the attack against the Universal Studios complex, and several wildfires in and around L.A. county that were most likely arson. Mayor Perez agreed something needed to be done, but was utterly appalled by the President’s nuclear response to the destruction of New York and Baltimore. He was concerned the President’s aggressive actions would bring more countries into the war (and not on America’s side). As the casualty reports began to roll in, the invasion in Alaska began to really frighten him. Tens of thousands of young men and women were being killed each month and it appeared America was losing. He feared the Freedom Party was going to be the death of America.
On this particular day, Jose was frantically trying to finish up some urgent business at the office before he could leave and go home to be with his family for the rest of the holiday. He was doing his best to speed things up so that he could get home to his wife and his German Shepherd, but then his computer started acting up. While he waited for it to restart, he sighed, grabbed his cup of coffee, and flipped on the local news channel. “We are receiving reports of a massive cyber-attack underway against the Pentagon--”
Suddenly, the TV program cut off. It was nothing but static. “Huh, that’s strange,” he thought. “Let me check another channel.”
Before he could hit the menu button on the remote, someone knocked on his door. “Come in,” he said, and placed his coffee back on his desk.
In walked one of his security guards, his police liaison officer and a Homeland Security rep. that he barely knew, Agent Quick. They wasted no time on chit-chat; Agent Quick blurted out, “Mr. Mayor, I have just received a warning from Washington that the Department of Defense communication system has been temporarily disabled
. Just before our communications were cut off, I was told a Chinese airborne force was heading towards San Diego.” He fidgeted while he spoke, like someone who has had one too many cups of coffee.
Police Liaison Officer Jayko didn’t wait for a response to Agent Quick’s information; he knew that the mayor would be very concerned with his intel as well, so he just jumped right in, “Mr. Mayor, we have received confirmation from local officers of gunfire taking place at the ports and at LAX International.
Mayor Perez felt his brainwaves overloading as he tried to process everything he had just been told. For a moment, he looked from one man to the other, then he held up his hand. “Obviously, this all needs prompt attention, but right now, I’d really like to hear more from Officer Jayko about what is going on at the ports.”
“Yes, Sir. One of our officers reported seeing dozens of military vehicles and soldiers being offloaded from numerous cargo container ships at the Port of L.A. and the Port of Long Beach. Another officer reported seeing dozens of what appeared to be tanks being driven off a large vehicle transport ship.”
“Do we have any intel on what they appear to be doing now? Can we tell whose troops they are?” asked the mayor, wringing his hands.
Officer Jayko was distracted; he had cocked his head to one side and appeared to be listening in his earbuds to one of his police units talking on the radio. All the color suddenly left Officer Jayko’s face. “Sir, the group of armored vehicles just left the port and attacked several police officers in the area. They opened fire with machine guns and tank cannons--it is unknown if any of them survived.”