Battle Born

by Dale Brown

  "I saw something in the daily report from Chastain's office about a Nevada bomber unit, Air National Guard, I believe, being decertified following some crazy-ass stunts they pulled during an evaluation," the President remarked. "This plan wouldn't happen to have anything to do with them, would it?"

  "I think General McLanahan was conducting an evaluation at that very same unit to determine the suitability of their bomber unit to accomplish his operation," Freeman said. "Given the nature of it, I think the general was looking for a very aggressive, unconventional fighting force to implement this plan."

  "In other words, he was looking for a bunch of military barnstormers-and he found them," the President said with a smile. "Shades of Brad Elliott, all right. I just hope there's an Asia left to implement the plan."

  "Unfortunately, that aspect of General McLanahan's project may not be implemented," Freeman said. "The Air National Guard unit has been decertified and disbanded."

  "Can he do the job with a single bomber?"

  "I think so, sir," Freeman responded uneasily. "We still have a constellation of those small reconnaissance satellites-the ones we know as NIRTSats. At the very least, we can still evaluate the plan with one bomber, add a second when it comes on-line, and then perhaps add a frontline unit or another Guard bomber unit later, if things heat up. Admiral Balboa hasn't signed onto the plan, but he has suggested some alternate strike units from the Navy's weapons and aircraft research labs at Patuxent River and China Lake that can assist if it gets too much for HAWC. But HAWC is ready to go now, so I think it's a good idea to get the plan under way and the forces set up as soon as possible."

  "Then let's do it," the President said. "Let's make it happen, and hope to hell it's not too little, too late."

  MINISTRY OF DEFENSE,

  PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY,

  BEIJING, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

  THE NEXT MORNING.

  The photographs were the most terrible thing Chi Haotian, minister of defense of the People's Republic of China, had ever seen in his life. Even though they were taken from a helicopter more than a hundred meters above ground, the human carnage was clearly visible and dreadful.

  "What was the casualty count again?" Chi asked his aide. The aide looked at the final report and murmured a number. "Speak up, damn you."

  "Four thousand eight hundred thirty-one dead, sir," the aide replied. "Eight thousand forty-four wounded, two hundred missing."

  "And every death should be avenged threefold, sir!" Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Army General Chin Zi-hong said angrily. "It was a dastardly sneak attack, the most heinous I have ever witnessed in my life!"

  "Our president has stated to the world that he will never use weapons of mass destruction again unless we ourselves are attacked with such weapons," Minister Chi said. "We will no doubt be world outcasts for an entire generation for what we did to Taiwan and the United States, and we have no wish to extend that one day longer."

  "So we become the world's whipping boy now?" Chin shouted. "Do we now roll over and play dead and watch as country after country around us arms itself with weapons of mass destruction and uses them against us without provocation?"

  "Calm yourself, comrade Chin," Chi said. "All I am saying is that the president has warned us not to present a plan to him or the Politburo involving first use of special weapons-nuclear, chemical, or biological-unless we are attacked first. I expect you to have contingency plans available in case we are so attacked by the United States, Taiwan, Japan, or Korea. But in response to this unholy atrocity, the president will not accept a plan that uses nuclear weapons. Now speak:* tell me what our response to this tragedy should be."

  General Chin took a deep breath and thought for a moment; then: "Our major concern, sir, is the Koreans' nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons," he said. Chi nodded, urging him to continue. "We know where the major bases are located in North Korea, and we can predict with great certainty where most are located in the South-only a few bases, mostly ex-American bases, have the apparatus to handle them."

  "Full invasion of the South will not meet with approval, comrade General," Chi said. "Although the president and the Politburo support President Kim Jong-il, they will not authorize an invasion of the South below the thirty-eighth parallel. Such an action will certainly create additional world condemnation and action by the United States."

  General Chin shook his head in exasperation. Chi glowered at him. "You need to understand, comrade, that the world is enchanted by a united Korea. That is a very, very powerful force. Our country is trying to regain its rightful place as a world power. As much as we may believe that the fall of Communist North Korea is a disaster to the people and our way of life, we must accept it because the world embraces it. Half the world even believes that the rocket attack against our troops on the border was justifiable; the other half believes it was wrong but nonetheless understandable and excusable. Simple retaliation will not be effective.

  "No. We need a plan to strike at the heart of what is wrong about United Korea. Tell me: what is wrong with United Korea?"

  "Its nuclear weapons, of course."

  "Of course," Minister Chi said. "The world loves United Korea because they won their reunification, but they hate them for not giving up the captured nuclear weapons. We can therefore take away Korea's nuclear weapons and not suffer world condemnation, yes?" A nod of heads around the conference table. "We have already determined that we cannot hope to take all of the weapons, but what is it we can easily take?"

  "Kanggye," General Chin said.

  "Not just Kanggye," Chi said with a pleased smile. "Ten years ago, perhaps, before we put the North Korean missile development program into full worldwide production. But today? You are now permitted to think bigger."

  "The entire province?" Chin asked excitedly. "Do you think the president will approve an operation to take Chagang Do province in its entirety"?"

  Chi Haotian smiled. Kanggye Research Center was one of the former North Korea's most sensitive weapons research centers. Only twenty miles south of the Chinese border, it was originally the site of a Russian-built nuclear reactor, similar to the doomed Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine, constructed shortly after the end of the Korean War. The plant produced some power for North Korea and Manchuria, but its primary purpose was as a uranium-processing plant. The plant had been built in North Korea so Manchuria could take advantage of Soviet nuclear knowledge while the dangerous reactor itself was in North Korea. When the China-USSR split occurred, the facility was taken over by Chinese engineers, with cooperation from Iranian and Pakistani weapons scientists.

  Soon, most of Chagang Do province was converted to weapons research, development, testing, and construction. Chagang Do was the second largest province in the old North Korea and the most sparsely populated. Like the state of Nevada in the United States or Xinjiang province in China, the land was large and inhospitable enough and the population small enough so as to escape attention or scrutiny. Over twenty*research centers, test sites, manufacturing plants, and dump sites made Chagang Do province almost totally uninhabitable and unusable except by the military-and a prime target for any power wishing to capture valuable nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons data.

  Kanggye became one of Asia's top weapons-grade plutonium-producing facilities. The plant was expanded to eventually include building nuclear weapons, from the massive three-megaton WX120 to the artillery-shell-sized ten-kiloton W18. Dozens of weapons had been built at Kanggye and exported all over the world. Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, and Pakistan all had weapons or components bought from Kanggye's laboratories.

  "Of course," Minister Chi said. "Not just the research facility, but we take the production facilities, all the laboratories, the processing centers, the test facilities, and the launch pads, and we capture and hold whatever bases the capitalists still occupy. We will have to secure these areas, of course, so the capitalists do not use them again to build more weapons of mass destructi
on-that means troops, at least three brigades, I'd imagine, for a province that size and with that terrain. We will need to strengthen the air support, set up air defense and surveillance sites, to supply all of our peacekeepers.

  "Then, if Chagang Do province naturally becomes the center for anticapitalist groups forming in Korea, well, I would think that is part of the trials of any government," Chi said, smiling. "After all, the proliferation of opposition groups, some armed, was bound to happen in a societal, governmental, and ideological transition that occurred so quickly and so underhandedly. Who knows? Perhaps a group strong enough and well armed enough will emerge from the wastelands of Chagang Do. Perhaps it will be President Kim Jong-il, perhaps someone with a little more backbone."

  The minister of defense looked around the conference table, his eyes deadly cold. "That is the plan I want, comrades. I want it on my desk before the midday meal, ready to present to the president and the Politburo. And I want you all to remember that thousands of our comrades have died at the hands of the capitalists, and we will do everything in our power to stop this cancerous growth on our frontier before any more of our comrades-in-arms perish."

  SOUTHERN CHAGANG DO PROVINCE,

  UNITED REPUBLIC OF KOREA

  (FORMERLY NORTH KOREA)

  TWO NIGHTS LATER

  The lone soldier advanced quickly but carefully down the railroad tracks. The weather was the worst in days, with a freezing, driving rain and fifty-mile-per-hour winds. The weather made movement almost impossible, but it also provided excellent cover-because he knew the South Koreans were still looking for him.

  It was actually only a matter of time before he was discovered, since there was only so much track in all of North Korea. The question was: could they launch their missile and then make it into northern Chagang Do province, at least another eighty kilometers, before being discovered by the capitalists? It was a race he could not afford to lose.

  Kong Hwan-li, who still proudly considered himself a captain of artillery forces of the People's Army of North Korea, stopped to hide and rest. He then scanned the railway ahead of him with his infrared nightscope, a combination of a high-intensity infrared searchlight and a monocular night-vision scope. It was difficult to do in this weather-he could see reliably only a few dozen meters ahead in the rain-so he scanned as best he could, moved a short way forward to a new hiding place, and scanned again.

  The pride of accomplishment he felt had long since washed away in this cold, driving rain. Two nights earlier he had accomplished an important objective: he and several other Scud and Nodong units had launched an attack on South Korea. Kong had to launch from an unsurveyed site, which meant the accuracy was probably poor, but the launch itself went well and he had managed to escape before being detected by capitalist patrols.

  Now, after two hellish nights on the move, he was ready to strike again.

  He could see the situation didn't look promising long before he reached his objective, but he had to check it out anyway. It was a rail siding about fifteen kilometers southeast of the town of Holch'on. The siding, disguised with maintenance inspection towers and even an old-style coal and water tower for aged steam engines, was a presurveyed missile launch point for the railmobile North Korean missiles. The presurveyed points made launching a ballistic missile fast and easy. Instead of having to mensurate geographical coordinates, elevation, and determine where true north was, all the launch officer had to do was pull onto the siding and punch in the launch point number-the computers would do the rest. The launch point coordinates and elevation had been measured down to the nearest meter, ensuring the best missile accuracy. The siding had thick concrete walls surrounding it to provide some security and protection.

  The South Koreans obviously knew this too, because the siding had been destroyed. Demolition charges had been set under the tracks leading into it, and more charges had been set on one of the concrete walls, toppling it onto the tracks. The main rails were still open, after all, Kong thought, the capitalists still needed them to carry out their invasion-but the presurveyed launch point was useless. He had found this to be so throughout his dangerous trek north toward the safety of China-this was why his first launch had been from an unsurveyed point, guaranteeing a much-degraded launch circular error-but finding this one was doubly disappointing.

  But the second missile was on the erector-launcher, fully functional and ready to go. This one had a 350kiloton nuclear warhead, targeted for Osan. Fused for a groundburst, it would easily dig out the still-functioning Osan Master Control and Reporting Center, the heart of South Korea's military. He had a third missile as well, fully functional and ready to load and fire. His plan was to try and deliver his third missile intact to Kanggye, hopefully under a Chinese military umbrella, and use it as the basis for reconstituting the Army of Free Korea in Chagang Do province and fighting the invaders from the South.

  Kong still refused to call the abomination created by the capitalists the United Republic of Korea. As far as he was concerned, it was still South Korea. And it was not a popular people's revolution that had brought down the Communist government in Pyongyang. The capitalists had perpetrated some kind of elaborate mind control process that made most of the people, including the military, go crazy and turn against their leaders. How else could anyone explain the pockets of resistance still in the North? How else could anyone explain the government-in-exile in Beijing? Thank the stars the Glorious Leader, Kim Jong-il, and most of the Politburo had managed to get out and organize the resistance.

  Kong made his way back through the driving rain to the Nodong missile unit and joined his partner, Lieutenant Kim Yong-ku. Kim had commanded another missile unit, but all of his men had deserted shortly after firing their last missile, so Kim joined up with Kong, which was fortunate, because Kong's crew had also deserted soon after firing the first missile. Being on the run for so long was more than they could take, and it grew harder and harder to forage for food or find sympathetic civilians who might help them. The brainwashing of North Korea, Kong thought, was almost complete. Put a little food in their bellies and blast them with propaganda and some people will believe almost anything.

  Most of the Nodong-1 missile unit was under a maintenance enclosure, but they had still taken the time to put together some simple camouflage. The loaded erector-launcher was covered by corrugated tin and timber as if part of the shelter had collapsed on it, and they piled debris around the engine to make it appear immobilized. Kong met up with Kim in the command car. With the engine shut down to conserve fuel and avoid detection, the command car, with its own self-contained jet power unit, was the most comfortable place on the whole unit. If faced with capture, Kim could also quickly and easily disable the missile from there.

  "Any luck, sir?" Kim asked after double-checking Kong's identity with their own invented tap-code and letting his commander into the cab.

  "Yes-but all of it bad," Kong admitted with a wry smile. "The launch point has been destroyed, completely unusable." He wiped rain from his poncho. "Any contact from our other units?"

  "Unit Twenty reports ready-that was the only contact, sir. There were propaganda broadcasts on the strategic message net, urging us to surrender. They addressed us by name."

  "By name?"

  "By name, rank, and unit number," Kim said. "They even knew that you had promoted me to lieutenant."

  "Bastards!" Kong shouted. "Cowardly spineless traitors!" It was obvious that some of those who had deserted them had reported extensively to the capitalist intelligence officers. This was the worst form of human refuse-not just a coward and a traitor, but an informant too. "Did they say anything indicating they know where we are or where we're heading?"

  "No, sir," Kim replied. "It appears your plan not to reveal any other unit's firing positions has paid off well." He looked proud of Kong, but very worried. "What do you want to do now, sir?" he asked.

  "We are going to launch as scheduled, Lieutenant," Kong said resolutely. "My first impulse i
s to remain here, mensurate coordinates using the GPS, and launch. We have a good hiding place here, and the missile is ready. But this may be our last opportunity to strike hard at the capitalists. Our assigned target is an underground command complex, and we need a direct hit to disable it-missing by even a kilometer may be unacceptable." Kong started doing ballistic calculations in his head: "Our missile flight distance is over seven hundred kilometers. This means if our gyro heading is off just one degree, every meter our launch coordinates are off means our missile will miss by seventy meters, even if the missile gyros run perfectly. That's too many variables. It is unacceptable inaccuracy.

  "Our most accurate shot will be if we march to the spot right beside the launch point. We can handmeasure the distance to update the launch coordinates, and we can use the same heading for gyro alignment and it will be almost perfect." He paused for a moment, then added, "We are three hours to the scheduled coordinated launch time. I think we can start up the engine, march to the siding, elevate, align, and launch our missile right on time.

  "If we stay here, it is doubtful we can cross-check the GPS geographical coordinates with any landmarks in time. That means we launch on handheld GPS coordinates alone, and those could be off by five hundred meters. We'd be safer here and we could do a successful launch, but its accuracy would be very poor. I think we should take the risk and march to the track adjacent to the presurveyed launch point. What do you think, Lieutenant?"

  "I agree completely, sir," Kim said. He motioned to a map on the console. "Unfortunately, this maintenance shed did not have surveyed coordinates listed. I have a few possible bearing swings we could take on terrain features to refine our GPS coordinates, but in this weather it would be impossible to see them. We should march to the launch point as you suggest, sir."

  "Very good," Kong said. "Help me remove our camouflage, and we'll be off."

  It took only thirty minutes to remove the debris from around the train, start up the diesel engine, and get under way. It took less than an hour to reach the section of track near the launch point. Kong, acting as train engineer, slowed down so he could double-check that the switch signal was in the proper position, indicating that he would stay on the main track and not switch to the damaged siding, and so he could stop as soon as he was aligned with the siding.