Battlefield China

Chapter 8 Project Enigma

The tension in the room was so thick, it felt like it could literally be cut with a knife. General John Bennet and General Roy Cutter exchanged a nervous look as the President’s Chief Cyberwarfare Advisor, Katelyn Mackie, finished briefing them and General Cutter’s division commanders on the “eyes only” program named Project Enigma. Months of planning for the invasion of mainland China had just changed in the blink of an eye.

General Bennet was the first to speak. “Ms. Mackie, the Pentagon, NSA, DIA and CIA are one hundred percent certain that these new UAVs are being built out of the Guangdong Province? We’re about to start our ground invasion of the area shortly. I’ve already scrapped our old invasion plans to secure this province as ordered by the SecDef — I want to make sure there are no more major changes to our invasion plans.”

The other generals stared at her in silence, waiting to hear her response.

“Yes, General Bennet. Our source within the program has verified it,” she confirmed. “He’s been a reliable source and very accurate. There are a series of manufacturing plants in and around the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. The UAVs are being built in the general area of the international airport and over in Shayao District, maybe ten kilometers to the east of it. The capture of this province, General, will in all likelihood knock the Chinese out of the war. It’s their industrial heartland and where most of their aerospace industry is located.”

“Do we have a firm timeframe on when our satellites are going to go down yet?” asked one of the other generals.

“I’m afraid we don’t know the exact date, only that they will, and soon. In anticipation, we’re moving forward with deploying as many of our UAVs and contingency equipment as possible.”

One of the G6 officers from the group responsible for the ground forces communications systems added, “Fortunately, the Pentagon has kept a large stockpile of older yet still effective communication systems. The older systems may not be able to handle as much data volume, but they will still allow our forces to communicate, coordinate and relay information. I spoke with my counterpart back at the Pentagon, and they’re moving a lot more UAVs to our location from Europe. Losing the satellites is going to hurt, but it won’t cripple us like it might have two or three years ago, before we figured out a workaround for all the Russian and Chinese jamming and cyberattacks that happened at the beginning of the war.”

A few of the other generals nodded. Unlike the Iraqis and Afghanis, the Russians and Chinese had proven themselves to be fairly adept at electronic jamming. However, when the US’s military satellites had started to get blown up at the beginning of the war, the American military had quickly switched over to their backup radio systems, so the solution had been proven to work at least once already, even if it wasn’t an entirely effective patch to the problem.

The Marine Commander, General Cutter, gruffly added, “My concern is with being able to call in for accurate airstrikes. We need effective communications when the fighting starts hot and heavy. So many of our current systems are digital, transmitting large quantities of data, and I’m worried our older systems may not be as capable of handling the load that’s going to be placed on them.”

Katelyn Mackie sighed. “Generals, I know this is going to be hard, but let’s look at the tradeoff. We are gaining complete access to the PLA’s communication system. If the PLA is sending reinforcements or preparing for a massive attack, you’re going to know about it in advance. You’ll be able to move troops around to deal with them or lay an ambush, knowing exactly where the enemy will be.” She paused for a second to let that sink in before continuing. “We can’t stop what they’re about to do. We were fortunate enough to learn about it far enough in advance that we’ve been able to prepare for it. Had it happened without our knowing about it, it could have lost us the war. As it is, it may be the very thing that wins it for us.”

The group sat there in silence for a moment, thinking.

General Bennet finally broke the stillness. “OK, I accept that I can’t do anything to change the crappy situation we’re about to find ourselves in. I can’t even imagine how badly this is going to screw up the rest of the global economy or our own country, but I have to focus on the military side and do what I can to defeat the enemy and end this war as swiftly as possible. That said, let’s talk about what I’m going to need from you.”

Katelyn nodded as she picked up her pen, ready to write down whatever he mentioned.

“Ms. Mackie, once the PLA destroys the global satellite infrastructure and we find ourselves listening in to everything they’re talking about, I’m going to need a team of folks dedicated to tracking and identifying where China’s nuclear weapons are located. I need confirmation of their silos, and I need to know where their mobile launchers are on a continuous basis. There’s going to come a point in this war where the PLA leadership will recommend the use of nuclear weapons to save face from a major defeat or surrender. When that decision has been made, we’re going to need to know exactly where their weapons are located so we can take them out before they can use them.”

Katelyn and Secretary Castle nodded. “General Bennet, consider your request granted,” she said. Her confident response silenced any further objections.