Battlefield Korea

Retaliation and Retribution

Lieutenant Colonel Tyler Scott’s aircraft had just returned to Misawa Air Base, Japan after a successful bombing run over North Korea. They had delivered a series of bunker busting bombs against several suspected nuclear missile sites. As he taxied his B-2 to their hardened bunker, a voice came over the radio.

“Don’t shut down the engines!” the voice ordered. “You are going to do a hot refuel and rearm for an emergency mission.”

Their Emergency Alert Message (EAM) came alive and began to spit out their new orders. The two pilots looked at each other; this was not something either of them expected, though they had trained for this very scenario their entire careers. The EAM system was only used in cases of extreme emergency, or to issue the use of nuclear weapons.

Major Bryan Jordan looked at the code and immediately pulled out their code book. He compared the numbers and confirmed it was a valid code. They then looked at the message to see what their new orders were. As they read the message, they both sat back in their seats for a second, digesting what they had just been ordered to do. Meanwhile, the ordinance teams outside the aircraft wheeled out a B-83 nuclear bomb. This was the largest nuclear bomb still in the US arsenal, with a combined yield of 1.2 Megatons. They could see their fuel gauge now read half full; they would be ready to head to their target shortly.

Then, a voice came over the radio. “Ghost Nine. This is Control. Do you copy?” asked their commander.

“This is Ghost Nine, we copy Control,” Lt. Col Scott responded.

“Ghost Nine, standby for the SecDef,” the voice said. The two pilots looked at each other in surprise. They had never met or spoken with the SecDef. This was extremely unusual for someone this high in the food chain to call them directly.

“Ghost Nine, can you hear me?” asked in a gravelly voice they immediately recognized.

“We copy, Sir.”

“Listen up, Ghost Nine. Ten Chinese-made ICBMs were launched from North Korea at ten US cities. These were MIRV-capable missiles. We managed to intercept 44 of the 45 warheads; however, one detonated over the Port of Oakland. It wiped out the city, and caused significant damage to San Francisco. The President has decided to retaliate against the Chinese for providing the North Koreans with these missiles. We lost one city, and we are going to wipe out one Chinese city in retaliation. One of the other B-2s is currently hitting the North Koreans with nukes in retaliation.”

The two pilots looked at each other, mouth’s aghast. They could not believe an American city had just been obliterated by a nuclear missile. This was like something out of a fiction novel, not real life. The voice of the SecDef continued, “The President and I want to wish you luck on this mission, and let you know that the entire country is depending on you.”

Twenty minutes later, their aircraft was airborne and heading towards China. They took a flight path that would take them over North Korea once again. They had already wiped out the enemy’s air defenses; their best chance of penetrating Chinese airspace was going to be across this border. As they approached North Korean airspace, they received a warning that several nuclear detonations were about to happen. They closed the blinders on their windows and watched their radar scope and instruments. A few minutes later, they saw the screen white out from one, and then multiple nuclear detonations. Once they confirmed that the bombs had detonated and the flash danger was over, they opened their window screens again and saw eight mushroom clouds rising into the air.

The US had hit North Korea with eight 340 kt. bombs, obliterating the North Korean capital along with three other cities and four military targets. The government of North Korea had been essentially wiped out and so had the vast majority of their military leadership, command and communication systems. They were a rudderless country and military at this point.

Within seconds of the American nuclear bombs going off, the search radars all across China began to light up. They were watching to see if any US aircraft or cruise missiles were headed towards them. The Spirit of California moved towards their target, methodically and deliberately crossing into Chinese airspace undetected. They had already carried out six deep-strike missions in Russia and one in North Korea; now they were testing the limits of the Chinese air defense.

It took them roughly fifty minutes to reach their target after the nuclear bombs hit Korea. They were trying to time the two strikes to happen relatively close to each other. Approaching the city at what was now 1040 in the morning, the pilots could see below that the metropolis below was full of life and people were early in the work day. A sinking feeling sat in the pit of their stomachs as the weight of what was about to happen started to sit on them.

When their bomber neared the drop point, they armed their nuclear bomb and prepared to release it. Without allowing themselves too much time to think, they opened their bomb bay doors and quickly released their single bomb. They waited to turn the aircraft until the doors registered as closed, ensuring their stealth capability was still intact. Then they began to turn and head back for home, having delivered America’s response to the Chinese for providing the North Koreans with a MIRV-capable ICBM.

It took the B-83 bomb less than two minutes to fall to 3,000 feet, at which point, the arming mechanism registered that it was at the programmed altitude, sending the signal to detonate. The 1.2 Megaton warhead exploded over the city center of Shenyang, China, the largest city in northern China, with a population of 6.3 million people. The blast wave from the explosion reached out to 10.8 miles from the epicenter, instantly killing 4.87 million people and leaving millions more terribly injured. The firestorm the explosion created would wreak havoc on the surrounding boroughs and countryside, destroying one of China’s most important industrial centers.