by Andy Farman
Nikki needed the distraction more than her RIO; the situation in Washington DC was too confused for any solid news. Her parents, younger brother and sister had been in the city, taking in the sights and visiting ‘The Wall’ in Constitution Gardens, where more than a few of her Fathers friends and comrades names were carved. The crisis in the lead up to the war had not deterred her parents, they did not run scared like lesser mortals had after 09/11 and weren’t going to allow anything effect their day to day lives. The seven-day trip had been planned last Christmas and they had arrived in the capitol three days before. The hotel they were staying at was on Pennsylvania Avenue.
High above the fleet an E-2C Hawkeye kept an eye beyond the horizon whilst an E-3 Sentry out of Japan was providing early warning of air attack for the country and also had the John F Kennedy group in sight. Neither early warning system could see the air groups of the Kuznetsov and Mao awaiting word to launch or the Il-76 tankers arriving on station from the Russian mainland and PRC.
What they could see though were the A-50s with heavy escorts probing for the USN and RN combat groups, lost by the satellites and submarines.
Aboard HMS Hood the captain was trying to set up an attack on the enemy carriers, but he had a problem. His sonar department had on three occasions detected a fleeting submerged contact. It could be the submarine that sank the USS Cheyenne but then again it was as likely to be any of the anomalous contacts that are caused by sea life and echoes from afar. He didn’t like the impulse he felt to look over his shoulder constantly and had decided to go looking for it.
HMS Prince of Wales had turned southeast, the plan now being to join with the John F Kennedy group. The Russian submarines had missed her but stumbled upon the John F Kennedy instead. The St Petersburg class diesel boat Irkutsk was watching and reporting when discovered by the American ASW assets. In the distance the Oscar class missile boat Admiral Dumlev was listening to the hunt but unable to intervene in throwing off the hunters.
Oblivious to all the military activity in the area was an elderly English couple, they had not abandoned plans to reach Alaska but they would not be stopping off at Russian ports along the way.
Near Cottonwood, South Dakota, USA: Same time
With the removal of the vast majority of ICBM sites in accord with SALT, the missile silos had been imploded with explosives and the pumping station deprived of power, allowing water to flood the underground facilities. However, large hardened subterranean facilities still remained, although with different functions to their original design.
Ellsworth AFB, control centre # D-1 off Interstate 90, has a deep shaft leading to a wide circular passage, running west below a low hill to a large facility that was now, temporarily, an alternative seat of government for the United States of America. The vice president had relinquished the role of Commander in Chief once the doctors had signed off on the president who was now in videoconference with other, similar facilities that housed the various arteries of a government in time of war.
When the army engineers got through to the kitchens, the president had refused to budge until those trapped with him had been evacuated first.
The sight that had greeted him, on emerging into the grounds had stopped him in his tracks. Sealed into an environment suit as he was, had added a surreal touch to the experience. Hiroshima had come to visit Washington DC, and the view from the helicopter that took him to a field hospital had reduced him to silence.
The doctors who had examined him were concerned by his uncommunicative state, answering yes, no, don’t know, in a dull voice; the shrink was going to have to do an assessment anyway but they let him know their concerns.
After the prodding and probing of the medical doctors came the probing and prodding of the ‘trick cyclists’, he endured it for an hour before erupting.
“Doctor, I sure did wet the bed, hell I wet it every other night until I was four years old…in fact that second god damned ink blot you showed me looks a lot like a peed-on mattress!” The psychiatrist was scribbling away furiously when the president reached over and snatched the pad. He looked briefly at was written.
“How in the hell do you suppose that my current state of mind has anything to do with pre-pubescent trauma and possible child abuse!” The pad hit the far wall of the large tent where the session took place. “My Father tanned my hide when I needed it…I do not happen to ascribe to the current thinking that children are subject to the same rules as adults…an adult is a person who has reached maturity and is fully developed…does that sound like a four year old who set alight to his father’s den after being told the dangers of matches?” The presidents senior secret service agent had entered on hearing the outburst and seen the president angrier than he ever had done before. Without looking up the president had held up a hand, halting him as he leant across the collapsible table, separating shrink from patient. “Call me quaint and old fashioned, why don’t you, but perhaps, just perhaps…my present state of mind may be due to my nation’s capital city getting wasted, while I was present…and not because I got spanked at age four…you halfwit!” The target of his ire was trying to find words and failing.
“Sign me off as fit and get back to psychoanalysing poodles, young man…and do it now!”
The flight from the MASH by Marine TAV-8B Harrier, with the mid-air tanking’s had gone a long way to restoring his equilibrium. It was his first ever flight in a combat jet and after a few minutes into the flight he had enthused over the machine, chatting with the colonel who chauffeured him.
The formal transition back to C in C had been accomplished once he’d arrived in the hardened bunker.
“Henry, what’s the situation?”
General Shaw was a thousand miles away but his expression spoke for him, before he even opened his mouth.
“Mr President, I’m glad you made it out, sir…the PRC, Russian’s and their allies attacked immediately after the Washington bomb was detonated, on the dot of 9am, Washington time.” General Shaw cleared his throat and continued.
“At Pearl we lost two destroyers, USS Tempest Creek and the USS Andy Croy to mines placed by divers. Both sank at their moorings but they are salvageable. In the East, the naval airbases on Japan and Okinawa came under missile attack, we got just over half but we lost a fleet tanker, the Killington, at Yokosuka and Bonhomme Richard took damage when she blew. We lost shore installations and the ‘Bonnie’ is out of action and in need of major repairs. On Taiwan the PRC staged commando raids by Special Forces before the bomb at the capital blew, and missile attacks on the hour were followed in by airborne drops at T’ai-chung AFB. After last light they began amphibious landings at T’ai-Hsi and the other side of the Cho-Shui river. They have established a beachhead and secured the port, sir.” The general knew the time to defeat a landing once it was on the beach, was there, on the beach, when the troops had only the ammunition in their pouches. Once an enemy got his logistics ashore it got far harder.
“At T’ai-chung air force base, the ROC have the buildings while they have the field. The airborne landing caught them on the hop…caught us all on the hop, I guess I owe that guy from Langley an apology, anyway…the first wave lost momentum and the second wave got chewed up by ROC SAMs. So far there has been no third wave and a mechanised battalion of ROC troops has reinforced the AFB. The Taiwanese are about to start beating on the bridgehead, ships and port with air strikes combined with a naval effort.
Singapore is calling for help but I think they have gone sir…if I say so myself Mr President, it was a pretty damned gutsy move and the PRC pulled it off. A lot depends on whether the countries between cooperate with the PRC. They are reliant on air and sea supply, if we cut that then we starve them out. Malaysia has so far made no international noises but they have troops on the move. They may not be kissing cousin’s with Singapore but they have been good neighbours.”
“What about the rest of Asia and the Far East, Henry?”
“Sir, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailan
d, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam…. It’s the same story, we know they have been approached diplomatically and all of them are mobilising, we don’t know if they are going to fight, join or stay neutral. The Philippines we are sure of, they told China to take a hike and expelled the PRC embassy along with the Russian Federation and allies. They are mobilising too.” He referred to something on a wall off screen before continuing.
“First blood at sea goes to Australia, they captured a mini sub and some commandos doing the preliminary marking for a landing. While they prosecuted the mother ship they came under attack from a third sub…sank it and forced the mother ship to the surface where they made a fight of it. Scratch two PRC naval assets. Australia is worried though; they have a lot of coastline but small army, navy and air force. Granted that not even the PRC have the ability to land at the back end of nowhere and cross the interior, but they are a logical target if the PRC are driving for a Pacific empire.”
The president was deep in thought for a while and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs paused.
“Where did this happen?”
“A bay south of MacKay, Queensland…a hell of a way from anything major, though” Henry added, puzzled at the location.
The president however was less interested with the reasoning behind that particular location and more interested in anything else the PRC had been up to.
“I take they are starting a search for other landing sites that may have been prepared, General?”
Henry Shaw nodded in affirmation.
“Okay, let’s move on. Have we sunk their damn carriers yet?”
“Sir, that is in hand. At present they are sticking close to land, and we have only John F Kennedy in that part of the Pacific at the moment, that’s why we wanted the Brit Prince of Wales to stay on. We are handicapped by lack of real time Intel. NSA promise to have completed the debugging of the system anytime now and we are gambling on it being back in time to assist fleet ops. While they are up north they cannot assist at Taiwan, of course.” The president did not look happy, but Shaw continued.
“We have a tenuous lead on their carriers, just one submarine in contact with them. Their carriers are the Damocles Sword that hangs over us. The threat has to be neutralised before we deal with the rest of it.”
“And what if the satellites aren’t back up?” queried the president. “When did we last have their carriers position?”
“Twenty-six hours’ ago, HMS Hood is weapons free now, they will be in too close to transmit, and possibly already setting up an attack.” The general turned a page before carrying on.
“ USS Constellation was in Hawaii until last week, it will be three days before she is in range to begin offensive operations. John C. Stennis was midway back to San Diego and she is turned about now. The Nimitz is still in refit, but she is now being rushed back. In short, it will be three days until another carrier group can intervene. A month before all of them are on station. HMS Prince of Wales is an ASW carrier, intended for convoy work in the Atlantic. Her Sea Harriers are for fleet defence but they have an anti-ship role too. We put some Phoenix’s, AIM-54Bs aboard and they have retrofit the airframes to carry them, it is not a Harrier weapon so the PRC will have a shock if…or rather when they come looking.
“What about Europe, what is the story there?”
“The Red Army…we started calling them that again, sir…”
“May as well, I suppose…sorry, carry on Henry.”
“The Red Army has three main thrusts, one into Belarus from Russia, another building in The Ukraine, ready to go through Poland and a third has curved through Rumania, Slovakia and into the Czech Republic from The Ukraine. That one, on the face of it looks as if it could hook north into Poland, but it is a feint, they are going to go west sometime today, into Germany, even though they had recon units cross into Poland.”
The president leant forward.
“How do we know?”
“The Brits are facing the Czech border, they were busy last night, lots of patrols out and the SAS raided a regimental command post inside the Czech Republic. What they found there was corroborated by an officer snatched in Germany, turned out to be a generals son.”
“I heard there was a battle yesterday, Russia invaded Belarus a couple of days ago and they locked horns yesterday, so my pilot told me?”
“In the early afternoon, the Belarus forces that went over to Russia spearheaded the invasion. The loyal Belarus had a defence line along the Dnieper/Byerazino rivers; the Red Army beat on it with massed prolonged artillery before starting their assault. The Belarus air force attacked as the enemy were trying to force the river but the Russians got in amongst them using the Belarus IFF codes of the day; the Belarus have only a few airworthy airframes left now. They held their armour back until we could assist in the air… that happened last night. We took losses in the air but the Belarus counter attacked with armour before withdrawing to their next defence line.”
“And what were those losses we took?”
“NATO lost three Tornadoes, three Jaguars, all RAF. Two Super Mirage from the French, five F-16s, two were Belgian, three were ours, as were three F-15s, two B-52s and two F-117A Nighthawks.” General Shaw finished reading from a list in front of him and looked at the screen.
“How did we do, Henry?”
“That thrust has been blunted sir, they are going to have to reconstitute before they can resume the advance, say…three days.” He turned a page.
“We destroyed, in the air and on the ground. Five of their A-50 AWACS, thirty-four combat aircraft and a lot of armoured fighting vehicles, logistical vehicles and personnel…no numbers as yet.”
The president pursed his lips.
“Convoys, tell me how it is going and is there anything we can divert to the West Coast?"
The general frowned.
“1st Armoured, 9th and 22nd Mechanised are either in the terminal stages of loading or afloat. 5th Armoured got snarled up in the exodus from Texas City, they are over a day late and haven’t uploaded yet. The first convoy is on the way, with a heavy escort. The Canadian 1st Corps is also afloat and their first convoy leaves at last light today…what are you thinking sir?”
“I am thinking that the PRC were not a factor when we put this together and we are going to need Australia as a base to assist Taiwan, Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines. Either way, the PRC needs Australia and it needs to be denied to them.” The president looked apologetic.
Henry Shaw blew out his cheeks and was looking not into the screen but thousands of miles away. Eventually he looked back at the screen.
“You know of course that you will not be getting any Christmas cards from the planning and logistics staff this year, Mr President?” he then went on.
“I agree that Australia needs help, but we are now at war with the two other super powers, we are very over stretched. I have already started the reactivation of the reserve fleet and AMARC, the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Centre in the Sonora Desert is reactivating what they can. The VP authorised it and the next two levels of call-up…you realise sir, we are going to have people screaming to bring the troops home, to protect the homeland?”
The president turned to an aide, requesting he contact the Australian prime minister and the British prime minister.
“Okay, Henry…I wanted you to go and make your planning staffs wish they had voted for the other guy, get the 5th turned around and headed west, get shipping into ports ready to move them to Australia. I am going to ask Her Majesty’s government for permission to do just that, okay?”
“Yes Mr President.”
“And Henry, I need a full brief on dispositions in Europe in two hours’ please?”
General Shaw nodded and his screen went blank.
“DDI…you’re up, what’s hot and what’s not?”
North Pacific Ocean: 1324hrs, same day.
Lt Fu Shen took a deep breath and advanced the throttles to the stops. Two miles away the Kuznetsov air gr
oup was launching, using that carriers ski slope deck’s assistance to get airborne with their heavy loads.
Fu Chen was pressed back into his seat as the catapult launched him down the deck and the Su-27 got itself airborne without his help. “What a rush!”
Climbing to join the rest of his squadron and top off his tanks, there were sixty-two Russian and Chinese combat aircraft in the air, and all were bound for the Prince of Wales group with its nine Sea Harriers.
Charlie Whiskey 01, the USS Curtis Wilbur’s UH-60B, Sea Hawk ASW helicopter, was dipping its sonar for the umpteenth time that day. There was a sub here, they had it hemmed in with sonar buoys and they had been chasing the damn thing all day. It had to snorkel sooner rather than later, at best bet they had been down fourteen hours’. There were three helicopters at any one time prosecuting the contact. The thermal layer below the ocean’s surface was fluctuating, making it harder to detect the diesel submarine, which ducked in, above and below the layer.
“I got a faint contact on buoy twelve…” The sonar operator informed the pilot. The buoy was at the centre of their north-south line and Charlie Whiskey raised its dipping sonar once more, headed east and dipped again.
“Ok, I got a faint contact at 023’…I’m going below the layer…firming up, we got us a submarine on the sprint, heading 287’, 260 feet.”
“Raise the dipper…standby…drop, drop, drop…one away!”
A Westinghouse, Mk-50 lightweight torpedo dropped clear of the Sea Hawk, its 750lb bulk splashing below the surface.