by Rosone,James
“In addition to the second front we are going to open up in North America, the Indian government will also announce that they are joining the PAA, along with Indonesia. Both countries will be committing a sizeable portion of their military to the invasion as well. As you can see, the sheer volume of our army will be enough to crush the Americans. Japan will, of course, be given several states to federally administer once America has been defeated.”
As PM Hata sat and watched the video unfold, he couldn’t help but think, “If they can do this to America, how much more can they do to Japan? There is no way the Americans are going to be able to stand up to this large of an Army on their own soil, not while they are fighting in Europe too .”
Out loud, he responded, “You make a persuasive argument. I cannot deny the fact that your army has confounded the Americans and done what most armies have never been able to do--win on the battlefield. Putting aside your loss to General Gardner’s Third Army in the Middle East, your invasion of Alaska has been a resounding success. If I can persuade key members of my cabinet and military go along with this, how soon would you want us to attack the Americans? Would I be able to get some military assistance here in Japan should I need help in keeping control of things? Many people in my country will not be happy that we are betraying the U.S. They may be angry about their unprecedented use of nuclear weapons, but do not mistake that anger as them being willing to easily betray an ally.”
“I can authorize as many PLA soldiers as you would like, should you need them. As for the timeline for when you would attack, we have planned for the attack to take place on December 24th , the eve of their national holiday. Once Japan has formally agreed to join the PAA, we will discuss the attack in greater detail (and what Japan’s part would be) at a later meeting. Of course, your decision to join the alliance would stay secret until December 24th , when you would launch your surprise attack.”
“So once again, history would repeat itself as Japan would launch a surprise attack on America…ironic.”
“Yes, the irony is not lost on me either, but your forces will be able to execute the needed surprise my troops would never be able to achieve.”
There was an awkward moment of silence as PM Hata considered Japan’s entire situation. He took a deep breath before he responded. “All right, I agree. Japan will join the alliance; we will attack the Americans when the time comes. I will begin to identify the people who will be loyal to Japan and marginalize the ones who may cause us a problem.” Hata wanted this meeting to be over. Just because he had made this decision did not mean that he was happy with it.
Premier’s innate stoicism kept him from betraying too much excitement at this victory. “Excellent. Japan will rise with China to become one of the dominant powers of the world and beyond. We’ll continue to coordinate things secretly for the time being. Thank you for your time and for meeting with me.” As he finished his response, he killed the connection.
“You will have to excuse me Minister Yung, I have much to do if I am going to bring Japan in to the fold of the PAA. We can meet at a later date if you would like, or coordinate things through the embassy,” Hata said, indicating he would like to conclude their business for the day.
Standing up, Minister Yung said, “Of course. Please let me know how China can assist you in this transition; we stand ready to provide any support you may need.”
Once he was alone, PM Hata sat down and immediately began to put together a list of people he knew would be loyal to Japan over America. Identifying where people’s loyalties may lie became a lot easier after the Americans nuked the Middle East; they had really alienated themselves from the Japanese people with that attack. That, and their continued insistence that Japan join the war, knowing full well that Japan was not ready and would quickly become occupied by China…but what did America care? They had two great oceans separating them from the rest of the world.
The biggest challenge for PM Hata was going to be identifying who within the Japanese Navy he could trust and count on. Many inside the Navy were chomping at the bit to get in to the war; they wanted to come to the Americans’ aid as quickly as possible. They had conducted decades of joint naval exercises with the US Navy, so they felt a close bond with them. It would definitely take some time to identify who would stay loyal to Japan versus coming to the Americans’ aid.
Russian Reset
14 October 2041
Moscow, Russia
President Fradkov was sitting in his office, reviewing the tentative proposal that Premier Zhang Jinping had sent over. It was audacious. India had agreed to join, and so had Indonesia, now that they had abandoned the Islamic Republic. Fradkov mused, “I like the concept and idea, but do I believe I could get my countrymen to go along with it? Besides, I rule this country--why would I want to yield any of that control to a governing council ?”
Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense, interrupted his thoughts. “Mr. President, I presume that is the Pan Asian Alliance proposal you are reading?”
“It is. I am not one hundred percent sure this would benefit us in the fashion we would like. I do not like ceding our control to a ruling council, even if we would have three members on it,” Fradkov responded as he took a sip of his coffee.
Puchkov thought about that for a moment before answering, “True, but there are some benefits. The pooling of resources and manpower would aid us significantly, particularly in this war.”
Fradkov angrily jumped in, “Speaking of the war, what is going on in Alaska? Why have we not fully secured our sector yet?”
“The war is progressing, but resources are limited in Alaska. We only have so many air and ground units we can employ. Originally, we thought we would not need our entire force, or even our reserves; however, after several months of hard combat, we had to send the rest of our forces forward. Right now, we are going up against the American Marines, who have established a series of firebases and reinforced forts at key points throughout northern and central Alaska. We are having to fight them either one at a time or in small groups--in either case, it has slowed our advance down to nearly a crawl,” Puchkov said as he brought up a number of images and maps on his tablet for the President to view.
Examining the maps, Fradkov asked, “So what can we do to move this along? The Chinese are landing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and if we are not able to secure our objectives, they will secure them on their own and keep all of the gains.” Fradkov did not want to yield any more to the Chinese than necessary.
General Gerasimov, the head of the Russian Military, interjected, “If you would like us to make Alaska the primary front, then we should halt our forces in Europe and focus our resources on Alaska. I could have our objectives secured before Spring if I could divert forces from Europe to the East.”
“How are things going in Europe right now? Are we at a good stopping point where we could shift resources to Alaska?” inquired Fradkov. He was not wanting to lose his gains in Europe, but he was clearly looking for a way to do more in Alaska.
General Gerasimov opened his tablet up and brought up the map section. The holographic image appeared on the table and he began to go over the details of the European front. “First, let me review the ground operations, then the naval operations. We have captured the key objectives to keep NATO off balance: Leipzig, Berlin, and Hamburg. As it is, the EU countries are training a much larger army, and are currently converting their manufacturing over to war-time production. As we all know, this takes time, which is something they do not have. I can switch our priority to Alaska, but prior to doing that, I would like to launch one more major offensive in Europe--not to capture ground, but to destroy as much military equipment as possible by intentionally slugging it out with NATO (as opposed to looking for weak points in their lines to exploit). In destroying more of their materials, we would further slow down the timeframe of when they could launch a counter-offensive.”
“As long as our additive manufacturing can continue to kee
p up with the losses, you are cleared to continue,” replied the President. He coughed the cough of a lifetime smoker before continuing, “What about our naval operations?”
“The naval focus continues to be on the North Atlantic and interdicting the NATO supply ships from North and South America. The navy just received the first twelve underwater drone submarines; they are nearly identical in capabilities to the American SUDs. We also have twenty-two more attack submarines coming online over the next two months. We are slowly starting to strangle Europe as we continue to deplete the NATO navies and supply vessels,” responded Puchkov confidently.
The President smiled slightly before replying, “Excellent. Then I want our focus to shift from Europe to Alaska. If we are able to help the Chinese apply enough pressure to the Americans, we can get them to buckle, and once that happens, they will pull their troops back from Europe. Then the Europeans will truly be on their own and we’ll be able to finish them off.” President Fradkov spoke with a certain giddiness that only comes from assured victory.
Alaskan Autumn
15 October 2041
Central Alaska
The battle for Alaska had raged on for the entire summer and well into the fall, with the lines changing very little after the first month of the invasion. Despite hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers using massive human wave assaults, they had not been able to break through the American lines. Both sides had been sustaining enormous casualties, and neither side wanted to capitulate. The Americans continued to pour tens of thousands of new recruits each month into Alaska, and had filtered in 100,000 soldiers from the SAMF. The South and Central American governments began a second draft, this time conscripting a total of three million additional young men and women to fight in the MNF.
As the first snowflakes began to fall, it became apparent that America was not going to be able to remove the Chinese before the end of the year, when the long winter settled in. They had hoped to bring the Third Army into the fight, but after several months of equipment delays, it was determined they would not be ready to redeploy as an army until closer to the end of the year. By then, the heavy winter snows would have settled in, making any armored advance or assault a lot less likely to succeed.
Meanwhile, the fight in central and northern Alaska between the Russians and US Marines continued to intensify as the Reds began to pour more soldiers into the battle. At first, the Russians thought they had it easy going up against a much smaller Marine force. They quickly found out why the Marines were called “Devil Dogs.” They fought like men possessed.
The Russians were going up against the US 5th Marines; the 5th had been reactivated once the war with the Islamic Republic had started and the President reinstituted the draft. The last time the 5th Marines had been activated was during the Vietnam war back in 1966 (5th Marines were later deactivated in the end of 1969). Now they would be the force defending central and northern Alaska from the Russian invasion. The 5th Marines had grown from their original strength of 19,000 Marines to now 60,000. Three more Marine divisions were currently in training in southern California and South Carolina, and would add their own weight to the fight in the near future.
*******
Sergeant Jake Lancaster was a Marine gunman attached to an infantry battalion on the front lines in Alaska. His job was to provide counter-sniper support and take out any high-ranking Russian officers as they identified them. They had already taken out four Russian snipers in the last three weeks--it was not that the Russian snipers were sloppy at their trade--the Marines just had better equipment to identify where the enemy shot came from, which gave them a very precise frame of reference when searching for the enemy.
One of the Gunnery Sergeants in Alpha platoon had nearly gotten his head shot off while acting as a decoy for his own snipers. The Russian sniper had shot a hole in his battle helmet as he hoisted it above the trench line with a stick…he was understandably a little shaken up. “Sgt. Lancaster, have you found that sniper yet?” he asked through the HUD.
The report from the sniper rifle had given Sgt. Lancaster and his spotter the direction and location of where the shot had come from. It was about 1,600 meters to the left just behind the Russian lines. “Yes Gunny, we have spotted his location. I’m going to be taking the shot shortly; he’s about to reposition and I want to catch him mid-move,” Lancaster replied.
“Roger that. Let us know if you want any suppression fire before you shoot or once you start moving yourself.”
As Sgt. Lancaster looked through his telescopic lens, he saw the enemy sniper slowly backing out of his firing position. He made a few last minute adjustments, and then centered in on the sniper’s head. For a brief fraction of a second, the enemy sniper looked right at Lancaster, just as he pulled the trigger. In an instant, Lancaster’s modified M5 AIR sent a .25mm projectile right into his enemy’s face, exploding it as the sniper’s body went limp. Suddenly, there was movement five meters to the right of the sniper as another soldier moved quickly to find new cover. Lancaster quickly moved his rifle to the new target and fired another single shot, hitting the enemy soldier center mass before he was able to complete his escape to a nearby foxhole.
“Sgt. Lancaster, look to the right twenty-five meters. We have movement in the gun bunker,” said his spotter, who had found them another target.
Lancaster moved slightly to reposition his rifle; he quickly saw two figures manning a heavy machine gun. Suddenly they began to fire in the general vicinity of their location. The bullets began to fly over their heads, hitting nearby tree branches and shredding them into little splinters. He quickly took aim and shot the machine gunner, and then swiftly moved to fire at the assistant gunner. Just as they silenced the machine gun, they began to hear whistling as several mortar rounds began to land nearby. Suddenly, their world went black…a mortar round landed less than five feet from their position, killing them instantly
Too Little, Too Late
October 2041
New Deli, India
It had been nearly ten months since the overwhelming nuclear attack on the Islamic Republic had taken place, and India was still dealing with the nuclear fallout and repercussions of that aggression. Despite the Americans’ best efforts to minimize the fallout, it was unavoidable that India would get hit with a large swath of it because of the jet streams that passed over the Middle East. India had been savaged by nuclear weapons during their several day war with Pakistan in the early 2030s, when both nations had made heavy use of nuclear weapons. The war had quickly escalated from a conventional fight to all out nuclear Armageddon, which resulted in the destruction of Pakistan as a country and a devastated Northern India. Nearly 800 million people on both sides had died in that war.
It was estimated that perhaps as many as ten million people or more may be made sick or have lifelong problems as a consequence of the fallout from this latest American nuclear attack against the IR. President Stein had spoken with the Prime Minister of India on a number of occasions, and had personally apologized for fallout that would have an adverse effect on the people of India. He had even offered to provide medical assistance, should it be needed. The gesture was nice, but it was too little, too late. Public opinion had soured against the Americans, with the vast majority of Indians siding with the Chinese assertion that America was no longer the sole superpower of the world and that the U.S. should not be able to continually make unilateral decisions in their own interests with no thought or consideration for other countries.
Large rallies and protests against the Americans had initially started out as small peaceful rallies, but had quickly grown into tumultuous anti-American rallies with many people shouting their support for China and complete with U.S. flag burning. The mood in the country had changed quickly, faster than the Americans had first thought or realized.
The Chinese had approached the Indian government in the spring of 2041 to discuss a large trade deal between the two countries. India had a large manufacturing base that was
churning out products to be sent to Europe and North and South America. What the Chinese offered was far more lucrative than selling consumer goods to the Allies--China wanted India to turn its manufacturing capabilities towards supporting the Axis powers by manufacturing the tools of war China desperately needed. Chinese factories had no problem producing the needed ground equipment, but what they lacked was shipyards. The Indians, to the contrary, had several large shipyards currently not being used. They also had a large supply of relatively cheap labor to offer as well.
It was slow at first, but by the end of the fall of 2041, India had shifted most of their manufacturing capability over to producing the tools for war, along with all of the munitions needed to sustain and support a multi-million-man army. India and China continued to strengthen their political ties while deepening the divide between India and America. India secretly agreed to join the Chinese-led Pan Asian Alliance. They began to conduct a series of military drills and exercises to prepare them for war. Their formal announcement of joining would take place in November, when their navy and army would set sail for North America to join the Chinese-led invasion.