by James Rosone
As acting President Powers entered the room, the small cadre of military generals and senior advisors all rose. He waved at them to take their seats and made his way to the empty chair at the center of the table, which faced the two TV monitors. The outstations were already up and waiting for him.
Before he spoke, Powers surveyed the room. The looks of concern were evident on the faces of the men and women before him, but he could also perceive their determination and strength.
He looked up at the monitor that displayed the feed from NORAD. “General Tibbets, what’s the damage report from the NSA?” he asked.
With a grim expression, the general replied, “It’s pretty bad, sir. The hit on the business park was made by a Russian Spetsnaz team. They drove a bus to the one building that housed our cyber-warfare analytical cell and blew it up. EOD estimates the bus had to have been packed with probably close to 15,000 pounds of high explosives. They’re still putting out some fires and sifting through rubble as they continue to search for survivors, but presently, it’s looking like around 1,740 people were killed. Probably around twice that many were injured.”
Powers shook his head in disgust. “Was there anything we could have done to prevent this from happening?” he asked.
Letting out a short sigh, General Tibbets replied, “Yes and no. I mean, we could have closed off the business park and essentially turned it into a controlled military facility, but it wasn’t designed for that, so it would have created a disorganized jumble when people tried to come to work. There weren’t specially built entry control points like we have on a military base to accommodate people coming and going.”
The general paused for a second as he searched for what to say. “Since 9/11, the DoD’s had to outsource a lot of our missions to various government contracting companies. The scope and scale of the intelligence mission, data collection, and analysis of said data was just too big for us to handle on our own—so we outsourced it. We could scale up or scale down depending on our needs at the time. It made economic sense to do so. The problem was it also meant we had a lot of important work being done at facilities that aren’t nearly as hardened as some of our critical military bases.”
Jumping into the conversation, CIA Director Marcus Ryerson added, “During the Cold War, the Russians had specialized Spetsnaz teams operating inside the US and NATO countries that had trained to carry out this exact type of operation should a war break out. I think we grew a little complacent over the years and failed to account for the fact that they probably still had this type of operational capability within our borders. I recommend we task the FBI and JSOC to specifically hunt down this unit and any others that might be out there.”
FBI Director Polanski nodded in agreement, and so did General Tibbets.
“OK. Make it happen, gentlemen,” Powers ordered. He took a deep breath and let it out. “Now let’s switch topics and talk about this force down in Cuba. What the heck is going on down there?”
Signaling for a slide to be brought up on their shared screen, General Tibbets explained, “The Russians have been busy using their transport ships to move a lot of Venezuelan troops and military equipment to Cuba. Although most of their equipment is old and outdated and these soldiers are poorly trained and led, they can still kill and cause us some problems. We believe they’re gearing up to try and land some ground forces in Florida or the Caribbean to try and stir up some trouble. They know most of our combat forces are in the Midwest and Northeast. With the Chinese looking like they were going to invade through the Southwest, we’ve unfortunately left the coast of Florida and the Caribbean wide open.”
“If that’s the case, what are we doing about it?” asked Powers.
Admiral Chester Smith had stayed silent but jumped into the conversation at this point. “We’ve moved several of our submarines to a few positions around Cuba. They’ve been given orders to pretty much sink any ship they come across that isn’t American. We also moved a small task force of two Ticonderoga-class cruisers and three destroyers to the Gulf of Mexico. They’re going to work with the Coast Guard and either clear or sink the remaining freighters still in the Gulf.
“We’ve been slowly and steadily hunting down those merchant raiders that hit us during the first day of the war. That task force in and of itself is more than enough firepower to prevent those forces on Cuba from being able to cross the straits to Florida. We’ll keep them bottled up and useless on Cuba.”
Smiling, the acting President responded, “Thank you, Admiral. One less thing to worry about.”
General Markus, the Air Force Chief of Staff, interjected, “The ground forces on Cuba aren’t the real problem, Mr. Vice President—it’s those SAM nests the Russians built up across the island. They make it nearly impossible for us to carry out any sort of air operations across Florida, southern Georgia, and the rest of the Gulf coast. We need to retask some of our air assets from up north to deal with this threat so we can regain our freedom of air movement.”
Powers grunted. He knew the Air Force had been annoyed at him for not allowing them to marshal the needed air assets and bombers to go after the Cuban SAMs. While it was an enormous inconvenience not being able to effectively operate aircraft across the Southeast and Gulf states, the more significant threat had been in the Northeast. Not to mention there had been a considerable need to support the 4th ID in the upper Midwest. However, with the 4th ID now on the way to victory, it might be time to finally deal with this problem in Cuba.
Looking at General Tibbets, acting President Powers asked, “General, do you believe you can detail off enough assets to deal with the Cuban threat without disproportionally affecting our ground operations in the Midwest or the Northeast?”
There was a short pause as the general assessed the situation. “I’ll get with General Markus and we’ll figure something out,” he replied. “We can probably spare some of the air assets he’ll need for a few days, but not much more. I don’t know that we’ll be able to fully remove the SAM threat on the island, but we can probably reduce it.”
Powers nodded. “Generals, what I’d really like to focus on right now is figuring out what we’re going to do to stop the enemy from capturing more of the Midwest,” he said. “Are we going to be able to stop them from capturing Indianapolis, Columbus or Pittsburgh?”
General Pruitt chimed in. “We sure as hell are, Mr. President. The 35th Infantry Division, one of our National Guard divisions, has finally advanced into place around Columbus. They’re going to start moving to contact later today. The 36th Infantry Division has just made contact with the enemy around Indianapolis. They’re linking up with elements of the 101st Airborne and the 1st Cavalry Division. Their added firepower and tanks will be enough to stop those two German-Dutch divisions that have been giving us fits.
“As to Pittsburgh…we’ve repositioned the 82nd Airborne near the city, along with two brigades from the 42nd Infantry Division. Now that we have air support, we’re going to start making short work of these Russian airborne brigades that were trying to make a move on the city—”
Interrupting the general, the acting President asked, “Isn’t the 42nd Infantry Division from the Northeast? Didn’t most of those units desert us?”
Pruitt grimaced at the question. “Yes, sir. We did lose roughly twenty percent of the division due to desertions. This is a National Guard division, so a lot of the folks in these divisions have loyalties to their state and communities. I had doubts about the division prior to the surprise attack on D.C., but after it became known that the President had been killed, along with more than two hundred congressional leaders, the remaining soldiers rallied to defend their country. I’m confident they will remain loyal and they will fight to liberate our country.”
If the generals are happy with their loyalty, then I won’t second-guess them, thought Powers.
“OK, gentlemen. Let’s continue with the rest of the brief, then.”
Secretary of State Haley Kagel, who’d only been
brought to the PEOC that morning, cleared her throat. “If I could speak, Mr. President, I think I may have a solution to our problem with the Chinese forces on our southern border.”
While the acting President was stuck in the PEOC, the Secretary of State had been picked up by one of the Looking Glass planes and had been circling somewhere over the country now for two straight days. They’d done several midair refuelings to stay aloft. If the war continued to stay conventional for another twenty-four hours, then they’d look to stand down the Looking Glass and TACOMO missions.
“OK, Haley, what’s your idea on how to handle China?” Powers inquired.
Smiling, Haley leaned forward in her seat. “India. That is how we handle China.”
Powers raised his right eyebrow. “You’re going to need to be a bit more specific than that, Haley.”
The generals looked perplexed as well. Then General Pruitt smiled mischievously. “What do the Chinese fear more than America?” he asked rhetorically.
Secretary Kagel nodded. “The Chinese are obviously looking to supplant us as the global hegemon by attacking us and participating in this global conspiracy,” she explained. “They don’t care about democracy or whatever crap Secretary-General Behr is spouting off about. They just care about removing us as a Pacific power and as a threat to their 2049 plans.
“The only other country that can threaten China is India. Over the past thirty years, the population of India has doubled. They’ve now outpaced China in population because they never had a one-child policy. They aren’t facing a critical shortage of women for the hundreds of millions of young men coming of age like China is right now.”
General Pruitt interjected, “The Indians also have nuclear weapons and the fifth-largest army in the world. I think the Secretary is right. If we could get the Indians involved, it could cause the Chinese to pause.”
Smiling at the compliment, Kagel added, “That’s exactly what I’m saying, sir. If we can get the Indians to come to our aid, to pose an immediate threat to China—we could potentially get the Chinese to back off.”
Acting President Powers steepled his fingers as he looked down at the table in front of him. This was an interesting proposal. It just might work, he thought.
He returned his eye contact to the Secretary of State. “OK, Haley. You’ve sold me on it. So how do we get the Indians to agree to this?” he asked. Before she could respond, he added, “Also, one other question—suppose we do get the Indians to go along with it and the Chinese do back down—do we really believe they’re going to pack up and move their two army groups back to China from Mexico and Central America?”
“I don’t know how we get the Chinese to pack up their army and go home, but I believe we can work out a deal with the Indians,” Secretary Kagel replied matter-of-factly.
Admiral Smith chimed in. “The Chinese force in Mexico will, in time, be completely cut off from their logistical support system. When that happens, it won’t take them long before they run out of supplies.”
“But they could just live off the land and the local economy,” Kagel responded. “Central America has enough resources to support them, plus a few friendly nations in South America could continue to supply them.”
“Sure, with food and fuel, not munitions,” General Pruitt admitted. “But if they opt to fight, they’ll run into the same situation the UN force is about to in another week. They’re all going to run out of ammunition and then they’ll be toast.”
“So that brings us back to India,” interjected Powers, trying to regain control of the conversation. “What are we going to offer them that will get them to want to risk a war with China? It’s not like we can assist them militarily in that endeavor right now.”
General Pruitt shook his head in disagreement. “That’s not entirely true, Mr. President. The Chinese have committed their navy, air force, and ground force to this UN mission. The bulk of their tier one combat power is in Mexico and Panama, not in Mainland China. They’re currently about as weak and vulnerable as they’ve ever been at home. This is perhaps the one and only chance the Indians will ever have at truly being able to threaten the Chinese in any meaningful way. We could encourage the Indians to make a move on Tibet or some of their other territorial disputes if the Chinese don’t withdraw from this fight.”
Leaning forward in his chair, General Markus, the Air Force General, added, “I think we should go one step further, Mr. President. We should threaten to use tactical nuclear weapons on them if they don’t withdraw.”
Powers did a double take and so did a few others in the room. “You can’t be serious, General Markus,” he remarked. “The situation isn’t bad enough that it warrants us using nuclear weapons, is it?”
General Markus held a hand up. “I’m not saying we should use them on our own soil or in Mexico. Hear me out,” he said. Then he rapidly pulled up a map of Mainland China and pointed to a particular spot on it.
General Pruitt recognized the position immediately. “You can’t be serious,” he retorted. “That would devastate their country.”
Powers looked back and forth between the two generals, perplexed. He didn’t understand what they were talking about.
Secretary Kagel jumped back in. “He’s proposing that if the Chinese don’t back off and leave this UN force and go home, we’ll nuke the Three Gorges Dam.”
Powers crinkled his forehead in surprise. “How would that help our cause if we did that?” he asked, almost sarcastically.
General Tibbets took up the answer. “It would flatten a large portion of their military that’s stationed in the region below the dam—but more importantly, it would devastate the city of Wuhan. Wuhan is like their version of Silicon Valley. It’s also home to several of their defense manufacturers, including one manufacturer that’s responsible for producing the microprocessors used in nearly all of their missiles. Destroying the dam would wipe out a huge part of their defense industry, in addition to probably four or five divisions’ worth of troops and equipment.”
“The loss of life would be catastrophic, though,” Kagel interjected. “I’m not sure it would be worth the political fallout it would create.”
“With all due respect to Secretary Kagel, the invasion of the upper Midwest is already devastating our economy,” General Pruitt countered. “If the Chinese open a second front in the Southwest, they could gut our country and further destroy our own economy. This isn’t the 1980s—we don’t have a multimillion-man army that can fight and win on multiple fronts. We have to pick and choose where we deploy our forces.”
“You’re advocating for the killing of probably more than ten million people, General,” admonished Secretary Kagel, her voice rising to a near yell.
“And if the Chinese open a second front, we may lose the entire war,” General Pruitt retorted angrily. “We may lose the entire country. It won’t matter that we spared a few million peasants in China if we lose our nation in the process. No, I’ll gladly sacrifice ten million Chinese if it means we hold America together.”
“That’s not your call to make, General,” Powers shot back. “It’s mine, and mine alone.”
Acting President Luke Powers shook his head. He needed time to think about this. He couldn’t just unilaterally decide the fate of millions of people like that, even if they were the enemy. The room grew quiet as all eyes turned to look at him.
After a moment, he looked up at Secretary Kagel. “Pursue something with the Indians. Let’s see what kind of bargain we can strike with them…and let’s tell the Chinese that if they do invade, we won’t rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons on their army.”
The generals sat a little taller in their chairs at that comment. Secretary Kagel nodded solemnly. “Yes, sir. I’ll reach out to the Indians and see what we can work out. I will also speak with the Chinese Foreign Minister and convey the potential threat.”
*******
North Atlantic
Vice Admiral Paul Totten stretched out his back
as he surveyed the scene before him in the CIC of the USS Gerald Ford. He had wanted to spend a couple more days amassing his naval forces before he made his move to deal a decisive blow against the UN naval forces, but after the attack on Washington, D.C., and the apparent dire situation on the ground, he’d been ordered to attack ahead of when he wanted to.
Despite the loss of the Truman and the George Washington still undergoing refueling and a complex overhaul, Task Force 100 was still comprised of the carriers Eisenhower, Lincoln, and Ford—more than enough combat power to deal with the joint European-Russian naval force sailing toward the US East Coast.
With eighteen destroyers and six guided missile cruisers, along with over two dozen submarines, Admiral Totten felt reasonably confident of enforcing a blockade of North America. Soon, his ships would be in range of their Tomahawk cruise missiles. Then they’d let the subs advance and finish them off. If anything survived that onslaught, they’d handle them with their aircraft. For now, the doctrine of the day was stay at arm’s length and rely on the Navy’s strength—its Tomahawk missiles and its fleet of attack submarines.
Captain Rory walked up to him and got his attention. “Admiral, the enemy fleet has just passed the tip of Greenland. They’ll be in range of our missiles shortly,” he informed him.
“Very well, Captain. Send a message to the fleet that they are to begin engaging their assigned targets as soon as they’re in range,” replied Totten. “Any further ASW reports?”
Captain Rory nodded. “Yes, sir. The Mitscher got a probable hit on a German sub, roughly one hundred miles in front of the enemy fleet. The Forest Sherman believes they have a probable hit on at least one Russian sub. They’re still working out what class, but based on its noise signature, they say it’s definitely Russian.”