Battlefield Pacific

Pacific Invasion

It was nearly dawn. There were only a few clouds in the sky as the first wave of Xian Y-20 transport aircraft steadily moved closer to the drop zone. The predawn light was slowly increasing, revealing the image of twenty transport planes approaching Clark International Airport, formerly Clark US Air Force Base. The sky was about to be flooded with thousands of paratroopers; the next step in the Chinese plan to expand their sphere of control in the Pacific was now fully underway. Once they had captured this critical airport, they would have Chinese soldiers positioned less than one hundred kilometers from the Philippine capital of Manila.

As Captain Ma Qiliang sat in the dimly lit bay of the plane, he could feel the pitch in the aircraft's engines change as they made one final turn, lining themselves up for the big drop.

The jumpmaster called out, “Everyone stand up! It’s almost time to jump.”

The paratroopers dutifully listened and went through their prejump checks of each other’s equipment. A few minutes later, the doors on the side of the aircraft opened. Cool air quickly swirled around the cargo bay, adding to the excitement and thrill of yet another combat jump for this battle-hardened battalion.

Less than a minute after that, the jump light turned from red to green, and the men shuffled out the door for what was now their fourth combat jump since the start of the war. Ma surged forward with the men around him. After hours and hours of being cooped up in the plane with all their equipment tightly packed on their bodies, he was eager to jump and get back on the ground.

As Captain Ma Qiliang leaped from the aircraft, he marveled at the beauty of the morning sun, which had finally crept above the horizon. The air buffeted his face as he flew steadily toward the ground. Seconds later, he felt the sudden jerk as his chute fully opened, and he began a much more leisurely descent to the earth below. Looking around him, Ma could see that all the men in his transport had exited safely and were likewise dangling below their parachutes, traveling toward the airport below.

Captain Ma smiled. Everything was going according to plan. An hour before his paratroopers had entered Philippine airspace, the PLA Air Force and Navy launched a surprise attack, hitting many of the country’s air and naval bases in preparation for the invasion. While those assaults were underway, the three Chinese carriers operating in the South China Sea had launched their own fighters, to clear the skies of potential threats to the airborne forces. Ma’s crew had anxiously listened for updates while waiting to jump, and so far, everything had gone off without a hitch. Once his men had secured the airports, hundreds of Chinese civilian airliners would ferry tens of thousands of PLA soldiers to the Philippines. Captain Ma felt a surge of pride in being a part of this mission.

As the runway got closer, Ma could see five commercial airliners docked at the terminal. Otherwise, the airport appeared quiet. Either there were no flights this early in the day, or they had been grounded once the airport had been made aware of the Chinese invasion. Once Captain Ma reached the ground, he rushed to retrieve his drop bag. He and his fellow soldiers moved to assemble their equipment, and then they were ready to capture their assigned targets.

Ma’s unit had been charged with securing the runways and establishing a one-kilometer perimeter on the east side of the airport. He had been told in no uncertain terms that his group had to complete their mission within three hours, because then the civilian airliners would start arriving with all of the PLA troops. They needed to get as many soldiers in place in the Philippines as possible, before the Allies found a way to intervene and interrupt their plans.

Two hours went by uneventfully. Captain Ma’s company hadn’t met any real resistance. There had been some initial shooting near the terminal, but that had ended just as quickly as it started. Touring his unit’s positions had been a challenge on foot, since his soldiers were spread across a very long perimeter. However, from what he had seen up to that point, he was impressed with how quickly they had set up the fighting positions.

“Good, they’re preparing for the worst,” he thought. He felt that they were prepared to repel any potential attack against the airport.

As Ma was halfway finished with his tour, he heard a truck heading toward him. As it approached, he saw one of his sergeants behind the steering wheel.

“Captain Ma!” the soldier shouted out to him. “I saw this truck had the keys still in it, so I grabbed it. I figured you could use it to check the perimeter more easily.”

Ma grinned. “Now that’s a sergeant who is going to go far,” he thought.

“Excellent idea,” Captain Ma answered. “Good thinking, sergeant. Why don’t you drive us to the next position in our new vehicle?” He climbed in, and the two of them drove on down the perimeter.

A few hours later, Major General Hu, the commander of the PLA’s 43^rd Airborne Corps, scanned the horizon above Clark International Airport with his binoculars. A smile spread across his face as he spotted a long line of Shaanxi Y-9 heavy-lift transports on final approach.

“Excellent. My light-armored vehicles and tanks are finally arriving,” he thought.

He turned to his deputy, Colonel Lei. “When our armored vehicles get offloaded, I want them moved to the perimeter at once,” he ordered. “Once those scout jeeps are ready, send them out to the various positions we’d discussed earlier. I want some eyes and ears out on the roads as far out a possible. No surprises, gentlemen. Get it done!”

Colonel Lei and the others within earshot responded, “Yes, Sir!” and rushed off to fulfill their orders.

Steadily, the line of transports landed and then quickly taxied to the parking apron, where they offloaded their vehicles and added supplies. As the transports were emptied of their cargo and refueled, they lined back up on the taxiway and got back into the air, just as quickly as they could. Now that the airport had been captured, the gravy train of supply planes was on its way.

Major General Hu was pleased with the overall progress of this mission so far. Once he had been read on to Operation Red Storm last year, he had felt an intense burden transferred onto his shoulders — he had to lead and train his corps to be on par with the vaunted American XVIII Airborne Corps. So far, the 43^rd had been a successful branch of his legacy as they fulfilled their role as the lead element in the annexation of Mongolia, and the invasions of Taiwan, Vietnam, and now the Philippines.

In preparing for these operations, Hu knew a critical ingredient to their success would be increasing their heavy-lift capability. The introduction of the Y-20 was a huge step in the right direction. It pained him that he had only had twenty-four of them at the start of the war. Fortunately, they hadn’t lost any in combat up to this point. To his amazement, the manufacturers were now producing an astounding twenty new planes a month, which had already bolstered his starting force to sixty of the planned four hundred aircraft.

Prior to this mission, General Hu had positioned a multitude of aircraft and supplies on Hainan Island, which was a four-hour-and-ten-minute flight away for his cargo aircraft. He calculated that this air-supply bridge would allow roughly two full loads of cargo and troops a day. In addition to the troops the aircraft would be bringing in, they would bring in a vital haul of munitions, food, jeeps, antitank weapons, light-armored tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

Two hours went by, and General Hu happily watched as aircraft after aircraft brought in reinforcements. Eventually, one of Hu’s aides walked up to him. “General, Colonel Tian reports his unit is ready to move. Shall I tell him to proceed?” he asked, holding the radio handset to his chest.

General Hu turned to the young officer. “Have we heard from the aviation squadron yet?” he asked. “Are the helicopters ready to support them?”

The aide shook his head. “Not yet, General. They said it would take another hour to get the helicopters up and running.”

Hu grunted. “Then tell Colonel Tian he may proceed to Manila in an hour, when we have the helicopters ready to support him,” he replied. “In the meantime, I want those helicopters ready to fly at once. No more delays!” he demanded.

He moved to look at a map in the center of the room, which was being constantly updated by his staff as they had updates on the movements of the Philippine forces.

Seeing that a key piece of data was missing, Hu asked, “How many drones do we have operational over our area of responsibility?”

A major, who was in the middle of making the updates on the map, responded, “Five right now. We have two more that will get airborne in the next hour.”

General Hu nodded. “What is the status of Fort Magsaysay airfield?”

“We still don’t have eyes on the base yet,” replied one of the majors nearby. “We’ve dispatched some scout units, so it’ll be a few more hours before we know something.” As soon as he answered the question, the major immediately went back to getting their maps updated with friendly and enemy units.

Fort Magsaysay, also called Fort Mag, was home to the Philippine 7th Infantry Division, along with their military training center, and they were the one immediate threat that could shut down General Hu’s airport operations. While the PLA Air Force and Navy made sure a few cruise missiles paid the base a visit, General Hu was still concerned that if left alone, they’d rally their forces and threaten to shut down his operations before he could get them fully up and running.

Hu flagged down his deputy. “Colonel Lei, I want Colonel Luan’s brigade to head for Fort Mag once they’re ready,” he ordered. “Have them bring a battalion from the 129th Artillery Regiment to provide them with fire support.”

Colonel Lei looked at a clipboard, which had the arrival times of the various units and transports that were being ferried in from the mainland. He wanted to see if the units his boss had requested had already arrived. “It’ll be at least three more hours before that element will be ready, Sir,” he explained. “Several of the transports carrying the artillery regiments guns are just now landing.”

“That’s fine,” General Hu responded. “Just make sure Colonel Luan knows he’s to head to Fort Mag when his artillery support is ready.”

The waves of transports and civilian airliners continued to land in a dizzying frenzy. “This is going to be a long day,” thought the general.

Major Achmad Basry was leery about the Chinese intentions with his country. While he had no say in what his government agreed to, the prospect of joining the Chinese in their war against the Americans was not sitting well with him. When he had been told his engineering battalion was moving to the Island of Natuna, Basry became even more concerned. He really had no idea what was going on.

The Island of Natuna was a large island that sat in the South China Sea, and it essentially shielded the entrance to the Malacca Straits and the critical port of Singapore from the rest of the South China Sea. If the Americans or Australians were going to travel into the South China Sea, then they were going to have to get past this island to do it. After Major Basry’s battalion finished building up the island with surface-to-air missile sites and anti-ship missile launchers, it would be nearly impossible for the Americans to attack Kalimantan or Sumantra without first capturing this island.

It took nearly a week for most of their heavy equipment to arrive. Once it did, they were ordered to get the island's runway expanded and ready to receive fighter planes. Then they were supposed to build launch points for anti-ship missiles throughout the island. Basry’s unit began the process of building aircraft revetments along the taxi strip, along with several new bunkers, which would be used for storing munitions.

Then one morning, just four days after starting construction, a Chinese cargo plane had landed at the airport. Seeing that he had been given no heads-up about their arrival, only Major Basry and a couple of his soldiers met them when the plane landed. Nearly two dozen Chinese military soldiers exited the aircraft. As soon as they had deplaned, the aircraft turned around and sped off down the runway, heading back to wherever it had come from.

A Chinese colonel came up to Basry. With barely any introduction at all, he said, “I’m now in command of the island. Other aircraft will arrive within the hour.”

They talked less formally for a few moments; Basry learned that his new compatriot was named Colonel Chen. All of a sudden, Chen insisted that Major Basry show him what they had done up to that point. As the Chinese soldiers inspected the various positions they had constructed, Chen became visibly angry at the lack of progress they had made.

“When the rest of my troops arrive, we’ll make use of your equipment and get this base operational at once. I’ll need your forces to help my men identify various defensive positions on the island that will need to be fortified. We don’t have a lot of time to turn this island into an impregnable fortress. Do you understand?” Colonel Chen barked.

Major Basry simply nodded, accepting his new position as a servant to the new Chinese overlords.

President Xi observed the controlled chaos below him in the operations room. The planners and operations officers and sergeants scurried about, updating map displays on their computers, which in turn projected those changes on a master map that was being projected on a nine-foot-by-nine-foot monitor. They were twelve hours into the invasion of the Philippines, and frankly, he could not have been happier with how things were playing out. The heavy financial investments they had made into the PLA Airborne Forces were, once again, paying exceptional dividends.

The 43rd Corps had not only captured the old American Clark International Airport — they had decisively crushed the surrounding Philippine Army units that had tried to repel them. Looking at the map, he could see a steady stream of transports strung out from Hainan Island to Clark Airport, bringing more troops and equipment. Likewise, the seaborne invasion by the PLA naval infantry was going extraordinarily well. They had secured several large ports that were critical to the offloading of more tanks and other heavy equipment.

It was now going to be a race against time. Xi knew they had a limited window to capture and secure as much of the Philippines as possible before the American Navy was able to wreak havoc on their ability to supply their forces by sea.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi approached President Xi with a smile on his face. “Mr. President, I have good news to report,” he said, moving closer to Xi so only he would hear him speak.

“I take it you’ve heard from our Asian brothers in Malaysia and Thailand?” asked the president.

“Yes. The Malaysian prime minister has reluctantly agreed to join the Eastern Alliance. I spoke with the PM, and he has said their military will be at our disposal. Although, he did emphasize their limited ability to operate outside of their national border,” he replied.

During the Xi’an meeting, the group of world leaders who had now aligned themselves against the West had collectively agreed to call themselves the “Eastern Alliance.” The People’s Republic of China was still a communist nation, albeit with capitalist tentacles, but still communist at its core. The Russian and Chinese promulgation of techno-communism across social media was proving to be incredibly effective, and the name of their new alliance was getting around on social media. It was all really resonating.

Xi nodded and smiled at the good news. “And the Thais? Have they come around, or are we going to need to send troops across the border to hasten their decision-making process?”

“Troops will not be needed. The Thais have also reluctantly agreed to join the alliance. However, I have a serious problem that perhaps Chairman Zhang would be better suited to handle. While the Thais have agreed to join us, I fear their only reason for doing so is so that they can pass intelligence on to the Americans. As you are aware, the CIA has an extensive presence in Thailand.”

Chairman Zhang, who had joined the conversation, nodded in agreement of the foreign minister’s assessment of Thailand. “I concur. The Thai government is going to be a problem. With your permission, I’d like to move to replace the Thai leaders with people we can trust. I also believe we’re going to need to conduct a purge of their senior military leaders. They’ve trained with the Americans for decades, and they’re going to have loyalties to them. We need to make sure that bringing Thailand into the fold isn’t going to create a security nightmare for us.”

Thinking about what his two senior advisors had said, Xi wanted to caution them against going too hard on the Thais. “Gentlemen, I appreciate the concerns you’ve brought up, but please keep in mind that we want Thailand to be not just a military member in our alliance, but also an economic asset. Thailand has a burgeoning manufacturing base, and we need to leverage that as we expand our military production. If we turn the Thai people against us through heavy-handed tactics, we risk a public uprising. I want to remind you that we’ll get more cooperation and support with honey than we will with vinegar. Try the soft approach first. If it fails, then we’ll adjust. Is that understood?” Xi ordered, staring down Chairman Zhang to make sure his Head of State Security understood his role and position.

With the rapid-growing success of Operation Red Storm and the recent formation of the Eastern Alliance, Xi didn’t want Chairman Zhang to think he was more important than he was. Everyone was replaceable, and since Zhang’s protégé Wu had been captured and summarily killed by Islamic terrorists, he hadn’t been himself. He was losing his edge, and that could cause a person to make mistakes.

Zhang bowed in deference. “Yes, Mr. President,” he responded. “We’ll go with the soft approach as you suggested.”

Xi nodded, although he knew that underneath, Zhang was probably not happy with his suggestion being overruled.

The next couple of months would prove challenging as the members of the alliance worked on unifying their economies and military forces to defeat the West. The Americans had been hard at work building a global alliance to challenge them, and they were also mobilizing their entire economy for war. Once they were fully retooled, they would be hard to beat.

Brigadier General Alan Morrison of the 1st Brigade in the Australian Army was not pleased with the progress of his forces in building up the island’s defenses. The engineers had done a superb job in preparing the airport to receive the Royal Australian fighters that were now on the island, but they were falling behind in getting the other critical areas of the island fortified. With the formation of the Eastern Alliance, it was now becoming imperative that Australia prime themselves for a possible invasion.

Sighing briefly, Brigadier General Morrison placed the thick sheaf of reports he had been reviewing on his desk. He looked up at Lieutenant Colonel Kilroy Newman from the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment or 5 RAR. The 5 RAR would handle the defense of Dili and the airport there, critical to maintaining control of East Timor.

“Colonel Newman,” he began, “how are the defenses for the city coming along?”

Newman shifted in his chair as he swatted at a fly that had been buzzing around him. “They’re forming up nicely, Sir,” he replied. “We’ve identified the likely avenues of attack against the city, and the engineers have devised a series of fortifications to defeat them. My only concern is our ability to keep the Chinese Navy and Air Force from pummeling us from the air.”

Morrison grunted. “I have the same concerns,” he responded. “A large portion of our air-defense systems was deployed to support the Americans on the Korean Peninsula. I have been assured, however, that the twelve F/A-18s and the Navy should be sufficient to defend the island. They’re even sending us a squadron of F-35s, which should be arriving today.”

Newman just shook his head in disgust. “We should be preparing these defenses at home, not on East Timor. The PLA could just as easily leave us alone here and invade Darwin, and we’d be powerless to stop them.”

Morrison yawned briefly as he reached for his coffee cup before looking his infantry commander in the eye. “1st Brigade isn’t on East Timor to prevent the PLA from capturing the island. We’re here to protect the Air Force, so they can keep the enemy away from Darwin.” His tone implied that Newman should already have known this.

“I suppose you’re right, Sir,” Colonel Newman acknowledged. “However, I do wish we had more surface-to-air missile systems to protect the island.”

“Ah… you’re just mad because you thought our brigade would miss out on the war in Korea, and now that we’re deployed to Timor, you think we’ll be marginalized again. We will get our chance to get into this war, Colonel — just make sure your battalion is ready when it happens,” Morrison replied with a bit of heat to his voice.

Lieutenant Colonel Newman was a newly promoted commander who wanted to prove himself. The outbreak of World War III was certainly one way for him to prove his mettle as a military commander. Morrison liked his industriousness; he just needed to make sure his young commander stayed focused and on task.

“Our time will come,” Morrison thought. “Of that I have no doubt.”

The sky was beautiful with not a cloud around, perfect for flying. Lieutenant Daniel Lacey, call sign “Raptor,” guided his F-35 Lightning through the sky at 25,000 feet above the Flores Sea, east of Bali, Indonesia. Below them was the deep blue open, rippled by small whitecaps from the waves. Sitting in the cockpit of this multihundred-million-dollar warplane, Lieutenant Lacey couldn’t help but be in awe of his surroundings. His new helmet incorporated technology that allowed him to see all around him as if he were seated on the front of the plane, whipping through the air with nothing around him; it gave him an unparalleled situational awareness.

When the 3^rd Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF, had arrived on East Timor the day before, their command had told them they would be going up daily to go hunting for the enemy. When the Indonesian government decided it wanted to join the Eastern Alliance, the Australian government made the decision that they would leverage their F-35 stealth fighters to go after their new enemy’s air force. They would work to neuter the Indonesian military in hopes of making them a nonfactor in the Asian war.

When the order came down, Captain David Blake, call sign “Tiger,” had volunteered to lead the first “hunting expedition.” The next morning, Captain Blake and his wingman, Lieutenant Lacey, were given the honor of flying the RAAF’s first official combat mission with the new F-35 Lightning. Now they were headed toward the Indonesian island of Bali and see what they could find.

Suddenly, they received incoming communications from the radar control operator on the RAAF E-7A Wedgetail airborne radar control aircraft. “Tiger Flight, this is Eagle Eye. We’re tracking two Indonesian Hawk 200 aircraft, approximately 140 kilometers from your position. They are loitering over the Bali Airport. How copy?”

“Finally, we’re going to get to see some action,” thought Lacey. Other than the beautiful scenery, they had had forty minutes of nothing but boredom on their maiden combat flight.

“This is Tiger Flight. That’s a good copy,” responded Captain Blake. “We’ll head in that direction. Vector us in as we get closer and send us the targeting data. We’ll engage them from range.” Tiger grinned; he was eager to enter the fight.

Twenty minutes went by as their fighters continued to cruise ever closer to the unsuspecting enemy fighters. Steadily, they came into range of their AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. The airborne radar aircraft that had been vectoring them toward the enemy Hawks sent the final targeting data they needed.

“Raptor, I’m going to fire off my first missile at target 003,” announced Tiger. “I want you to fire at target 004, five seconds after I fire mine. We’ll loiter in the area and make sure the missiles find their marks. If they miss, then we’ll engage them with another set of missiles. Is that understood?” Since the Indonesians had no idea they were in the area, and they weren’t actively trying to evade enemy radar or SAMs, he wanted to take this first engagement a bit slower and by the numbers.

“Copy that, Tiger. Standing by for your order,” replied Raptor, trying to contain his excitement and nervousness.

“We’re birds of prey… about to score our first victory,” Raptor thought privately.

A minute later, the silence was broken. “Fox Three, missile away,” Tiger announced, initiating the countdown to when he’d fire his own missile.

The first missile ignited as soon as it had dropped free of the internal weapons bay and shot out quickly after the enemy aircraft. Lacey then depressed the firing button on his flight stick. He felt his fighter lift a bit in altitude as his own missile dropped from the weapons bay and raced toward the enemy.

The two of them watched for a couple of minutes as the missiles streaked toward the Indonesian planes, getting closer to their prey with each passing second. Then, the Hawks detected the incoming threats and took evasive maneuvers. They accelerated and dove for the ground, hoping they could lose the missiles in the ground clutter. Unfortunately for them, the missiles had gotten too close to them before they had detected the threats. The missiles quickly entered their terminal speed and slammed into both warplanes.

“Score! We got them, Tiger!” yelled Raptor excitedly over the radio. They had officially achieved the first air-to-air kills for the Royal Australian Air Force of World War III.

“Settle down, Raptor,” Captain Blake chided. “Maintain radio discipline. We’ll celebrate tonight with the rest of the squadron. Right now, we need to focus on getting back to base without getting shot down. You can bet the enemy is going to know we’re operating in the area and look to find us with their SAMs.” He did his best to hide his own level of excitement so that they could make it back to base safely.