Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  She had arranged to run a joint training exercise with her friends who commanded the Australian battle-cruiser. She felt like having a safe and inconspicuous place to land the Interceptor in other parts of the world was a good idea. She had arranged to operate the ship for a few days out of the hanger-bays aboard the battle-cruiser. When she landed onboard the ship in the middle of the Arafura Sea, she was greeted by many of the friends she had made while there, including Commander Briskoll and Sub-Lieutenant Egan. Major Brown was impressed with the relationship Katelyn had with these men of an allied Navy. After a brief inspection of the Interceptor the subject quickly changed to surfing, Commander Briskoll’s two sons and how Petty Officer Sloan was now racing motorcycles professionally instead of cooking the Admiral’s meals. The three Americans onboard the Interceptor were soon the center of attention for the flyers and would-be flyers in the Royal Navy. They were constantly being asked questions about the ship and its capabilities. The crew decided that if these guys were flying around the ocean in a Verron built battle-cruiser then they pretty much knew about what the ship could do. Classified secrets no longer existed onboard the ship. For the next several days the Interceptor pilots took turns flying over the many islands north of Australia and even took a few trips over the Asian mainland, each taking turns practicing landing and taking off from the big cruiser.

  Vice Admiral Zheng was now commander of the Chinese 7th Fleet. After being promoted to his new rank, he was given command of two of the Peoples Liberation Army’s newest and most powerful Varyag Aircraft Carriers, four of her Luyang III class Destroyers and hundreds of other lesser vessels. He was assigned to the heavily disputed waters of the South China Sea and given the task personally by Chief of the General Staff, Chen Bionghe to defend the constantly extending boundaries of Chinese waters. There had been little resistance when they pushed to the Spratly Islands and so, to flex their muscles a bit more, Vice Admiral Zheng was claiming territorial waters all the way to within 100 miles of the Malaysian coast. He knew that no one had a Navy strong enough to resist China’s expansionism and one day he knew that all of Indonesia and the surrounding islands would become a part of China, whether they liked or not. He was standing on the observation deck outside the control room when he received a message from his second in command that an aircraft had been picked-up on radar flying inside their newly claimed restricted flight zone. He wasn’t overly concerned, but did want to make sure that whoever it was, either got authorization from his control center or moved out of the zone.

  Katelyn Verron was in the pilot’s seat with Major Brown at her side. Two other officers were manning the navigation and weapons control systems. The United States and the rest of the world did not recognize the expanded Chinese claim to these international waters, and Katelyn Verron was not in the least concerned when her ships computer indicated that they had just been picked-up on radar by a ship 230 miles to their northeast. She continued to fly toward the radar signal since it was in the path of her intended flight to Taiwan. After about another 10 minutes, a voice came over the radio, first in Chinese and then in broken English, warning the approaching aircraft to divert 200 miles to the southeast to avoid the restricted Chinese fly zone. Major Brown was preparing to alter course when Katelyn halted her and responded in perfect Mandarin by saying, “This is a U.S.A.F. training flight and our navigational computers indicate our operation is over international waters. Your request is denied. We will operate anywhere we please over international waters. Perhaps you cannot read your navigational charts correctly. Recognized Chinese waters are about 1000 miles to your north. I recommend you go protect them.”

  Major Brown looked very nervous. She didn’t understand much Chinese, but knew by the tone of Katelyn’s voice that she was not complying with the demand. One of the men behind Katelyn did speak Mandarin very well and asked, “Please tell me I didn’t hear you say what I think you said. That radio call came from the P.L.A. Navy. Don’t you think it would be best to comply with his request?” Katelyn turned slightly in her seat and asked, “Since when does the United States Air Force take commands from the Chinese Navy while over international waters? Don’t you think that if we keep bending to their demands, they will continue to make more and more demands? It has to stop somewhere or they will claim Hawaii before long.”

  A few minutes later a very demanding voice came on line and bellowed, “This is Vice Admiral Zheng of the P.L.A. Navy. You are violating the no fly zone of Chinese controlled airspace and will be shot down if you do not comply with our flight zone regulations.” Katelyn was back on line immediately, and informed the Admiral, “This is Lieutenant Colonel Katelyn Verron and I don’t much care for the tone of your voice Admiral. We are over international waters on a U.S. training mission and do not acknowledge your Chinese sovereignty over these waters or air space. Until there is a new treaty agreement between Nations, I’ll fly wherever I please. I would highly recommend you move your ships farther north and stop interfering with my mission. I would also like to warn you that if you fire on this aircraft, we will fire back and I don’t think you would like that.” Major Brown and the other non-Mandarin speaking crew members were getting a word by word translation from the Captain who was interpreting what Katelyn just said. Major Brown looked terrified, and said, “Just what do you intend to do if they come through on their promise?” Katelyn reached across Major Brown and activated the ships forcefield, then gave a verbal computer command, saying, “Ship, track any incoming aircraft or missiles. Do not fire unless they first fire on this ship. Any ship or aircraft that does fire on the Interceptor target and destroy.”

  Major Brown looked at Katelyn and shaking her head, said, “I sure hope you’re just calling their bluff. Do you actually intend to fire on the Chinese Navy?” Katelyn smiled and answered, “Only if they fire on me first. You know the rules of engagement as well as I do. The U.S. Air Force does not fire on anyone unless fired on first. We are not in Chinese airspace and they are not in Chinese waters. If there is an international incident, they will be the ones who started it. They have had their way long enough. It is time for them to realize they can’t go around threatening and intimidating people.”

  From behind, Katelyn heard, “We’ve got 8 incoming. Looks like Shenyang J-15s, closing hot and fast.” Katelyn set the windshield magnification and soon saw the sleek Chinese Fighters climbing to her 20,000 foot altitude. She immediately got on the radio and informed the ship below, “I hope you are just sending those up to see who we are. It would be a shame to destroy eight such beautiful planes. Please do your fly-by and return to your ship. We do not need an escort and have no intentions of changing course.” Katelyn brought the Interceptor to a dead stop in mid-air. The eight Fighters flew by her craft and evidently radioed to their ship on a different frequency to describe what they had seen. They circled back around and the navigator behind Katelyn immediately began to freak-out, shouting, “They’ve locked-on! They’ve locked-on!” The first missile launched hit the forcefield just above the pilot’s windshield. The next seven launched were shot out of the sky by 5mm Gatling guns. In an instant, the ships computer acquired targets on all eight Fighters and fired eight FTLs at once. The sky in front of the Interceptor glared as bright as the sun when the pride of the Chinese Air Force vanished from the sky. Major Brown began to mumble, “Oh my God – Oh my God. You just killed eight Chinese fighters.” Katelyn continued her sentence, and added, “Who were trying to kill us.”

  The Interceptor crew was trying to make sense of what had happened. All of them had flown combat missions over Iran, Syria and Afghanistan, but had never faced the finest fighters of China in mass, and had never seen eight enemy planes blown out of the sky so quickly. There was however, no time to think about what had just happened. The ships computer was already targeting two inbound anti-aircraft missiles being fired from one of the Luyang III class destroyers and there was an outbound missile tracking the same trajectory back to where they had come from. The two inbound
s vaporized a mile out. Almost instantaneously there was a bright flash fifty miles to their north where the top-of-the-line Chinese destroyer vanished from the surface of the ocean. With the 100mm whitematter round having a half mile destruction radius, it also eliminated a small 200 foot tender ship and the front half of a submarine escort approximately 830 yards off the ships stern. Those onboard the three ships died instantly. With the sight of his ships being destroyed, Admiral Zheng opened fire on the intruder with missiles from both aircraft carriers and the remaining three destroyers. Major Brown and Captain Wilson panicked while viewing the hundreds of missiles headed their way. A few of the missiles did impact the Interceptors forcefield. One of the missiles that made a direct impact on the ship windshield had been a tactical nuke. Instantly the windshield went completely dark, protecting those inside from the flash of light then returned to normal after the flash subsided, just in time for them to witness the total destruction of two Chinese Liaoning Aircraft Carriers, three Luyang III Destroyers and, unknown and unseen by them, one 400 foot Jin-class nuclear submarine that was escorting the fleet. The four people onboard stared out the windshield where there had once been six ships crewed by thousands of men. For the first time, Navy Lieutenant Herman Cho, who was fourth generation Chinese, but spoke no Chinese, opened-up saying, “Well, there’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!” The others turned to see a smiling face of Cho, who said, “My grandparents escaped Chairman Mao and his executions. I wish they had been here to see this. I have a feeling this mess has just begun.”

  Cho wasn’t wrong. Unknown to them, Chief of the General Staff, Chen Bionghe was in his STOL airplane headed for an inspection tour of the 7th fleet and to commend Admiral Zheng for his outstanding work in securing the extended territories. He had monitored the entire communication between the intruding aircraft and the command deck of Admiral Zheng. It was over before he got there. At first he thought the flashes of light were his ships firing on the U.S.A.F. plane, but, as he lost any sign radio signals, he knew something was very wrong. His pilot flew over the coordinates where the fleet was supposed to be and only spotted a little of the debris on the surface from the one submarine that had been halved. Everything else was gone. Being the rational man he was he did what he felt needed to be done. He sent an encoded transmission to his two nuclear submarines in the Pacific Ocean and gave them the command codes to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against the United States. He would make them pay for destroying Chinese ships.

  He didn’t know that nothing secret remained a secret when a ship built by Verron was in the vicinity, and in minutes, the onboard code encryption program designed by Lucy relayed the message, “A command has just been issued by a Chinese aircraft over the South China Sea to launch a nuclear strike at the U.S. Two Chinese Nuclear submarines 2000 miles off the coast of California are preparing to launch.” Without a word, Katelyn accelerated at top speed toward the estimated location of the subs and sent an alert to the other Interceptor still on the ground at Area 51. Just before she headed northeast towards the U.S. coast, she had the computer locate the source of the encrypted firing command and launched an FTL to its location, Chief of the General Staff, Chen Bionghe, never knew what hit him. Major Brown gave Katelyn a disturbed look and said, “Well, it looks like you’ve just started World War III, I sure hope these Interceptors work like they are supposed to.”

  As Katelyn Verron raced across the South Pacific at over 20,000 mph, she had Major Brown prepping the weapons systems for intercepting Chinese missiles while isolating the missiles point of origin. Lieutenant Cho immediately activated the nuclear signature sensors and high-speed target acquisition and tracking program. Captain Wilson sent the alarm to deploy the second Interceptor and a brief encrypted message to Major General Johnson, with a copy to the crew of the second ship, stating, “At precisely 0946 Zulu: Interceptor I fired upon by Chinese Navy. 0948: Interceptor I returned fired. 0954: P.L.A. Command ordered launch of retaliatory nuclear strike on U.S. Interceptor I in route U.S. West Coast. Deploy Interceptor II immediately. Please notify STRATCOM; will advise.” Captain Wilson knew his message was going to ruin the General’s day and he knew it was not a properly worded message. Approximately 2 minutes later, General Johnson replied to the incoming message, saying, “Interceptor II in air prepared to track incoming ICBMs. STRATCOM at DEFCON 1; please advise when target engaged.” Covering a distance of over 8000 miles in 24 minutes, Interceptor I arrived seconds after the first three ICBMs were launched. Based on their trajectory from the ships computer they were headed for Omaha, Nebraska and STRATCOM, Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida and Norfolk Virginia. The other Interceptor would have to handle them because three more missiles had been launched from the second submarine. Close enough to their first target to use a cruise missile, the sub launched a DH-10 nuclear cruise missile destined for Pearl Harbor and two ICBMs, one for San Diego and one for Los Angeles.

  Tala Verron was headed for Interceptor II with Major Livingston and Lieutenant Cruz. The ship was fully armed at all times now and the crew was scheduled for practice in missile pursuit. Edwards AFB was going to launch half a dozen missiles for them to intercept. When the alarm began to blast across the hanger and tarmac, the crew first believed it to be part of the drill and began running for their aircraft. Tala knew it was the real thing and flashed by them in a sprint and was strapped in her seat firing-up the reactors by the time the others climbed aboard. She received the computer to computer communications from Katelyn’s ship and knew this was the real deal, not a drill, and that three ICBMS were in the air headed her way. With maximum acceleration, the ship shot into the air and was already tracking the first ICBM released. Quickly calculating the trajectory she realized the second missile was her biggest concern since its target of Omaha was much closer. At 48,000 mph and an altitude of 60,000 feet, she headed north across the desert and allowed the computer targeting system to find and fire on the incoming ICBM. Even though an ICBM can reach incredible speeds, they can’t outrun an FTL whitematter missile. As soon as the flash high over Colorado appeared, Tala headed after the other two missiles. She quickly overtook the missile targeting Norfolk and destroyed it high above Ohio, but the last ICBM was also the first fired and was beginning its descent towards Jacksonville, Florida. In a race against the clock, Tala pushed her Interceptor to the max. Flying across half the U.S. in minutes, she acquired the last target over South Georgia as it began to drop from the sky toward the Naval Air Station. The flash from the sky could be seen all over Georgia and North Florida as the last missile vaporized from a perfect FTL strike.

  Interceptor I had to quickly multi-task. The computerized target acquisition released an FTL at the slower moving cruise missile headed for Pearl Harbor even as the Interceptor raced after the ICBM on a short course for LA. Katelyn was flying so fast after the nuke that she almost collided with it as it began to descend on its target. Twelve miles above the surface of the Pacific Ocean and 200 miles off the coast of Los Angeles the sky lit-up so bright it looked like a super nova. Katelyn had no time to slow; she hit the second ICBM eight miles above San Diego. She was glad that the FTL whitematter round completely vaporized its target, or there would have been millions injured from the radioactive fall-out, not only in LA and San Diego, but all across the U.S. Katelyn’s job wasn’t complete. She did a 180 and headed back across the Pacific. Using the reverse trajectory targeting system she acquired the two Chinese nuclear submarines as they were preparing to fire their next volley of missiles. They could only fire three missiles at a time and the tubes were loaded and ready to fire. When the submarines sonar indicated two high speed torpedoes racing toward their subs, the Commander of the two-submarine fleet thought it was some kind of mistake. No torpedo could travel at over 800 mph underwater. He had no idea that the two photon torpedoes from Verron did not obey the laws of physics. Before he could take any kind of defensive or evasive action, both submarines were blown into a million molten pieces. Even at 500 feet
below the ocean the heat was so intense that the men were turned to ash before they would have ever drowned. One ICBM had been launched from the tube and almost to the surface when it was incinerated by the intense heat of the Photon torpedo.

  Katelyn had to make sure that there were no further attempts to launch missiles toward the U.S. She radioed Interceptor II to take-up a defensive position two hundred miles off the coast of Beijing, while she took a position two hundred miles off the coast of Shang Hi. Katelyn then made an unencrypted call to General Dorsey at the Pentagon, informing him, “In one minute you will receive the complete download of the incident over the South China Sea that started this mess and the encrypted Chinese communication commanding the submarines to fire on the U.S. Interceptor I and Interceptor II are in position to retaliate against Beijing and Shang Hi if any further missiles are launched. Immediate nuclear threat has been neutralized. Both nuclear submarines destroyed and all ICBMs’ launched intercepted. Interceptor I and II performed as intended. Recommend DEFCON 2 till further notice; Interceptor I and Interceptor II standing by for your command.”