Battlefield Russia

World on Fire

The midterm elections were finally over, and by all accounts, President Foss should have been elated. Traditionally, the ruling party tends to lose seats in the election. However, when it became known who was responsible for the assassination of Gates and the political motivations behind the attack, the election had turned decisively in Foss’s party’s favor, giving them a supermajority in both the House and the Senate, at least for the next two years.

Still, Foss was immensely saddened by the turn of events. He had personally never envisioned himself becoming President. He’d wanted to be the guy behind the scenes helping to get things done, not the primary political target of the opposition party and the relentless personal attacks by the pundits and other talking heads in Washington and around the country.

“I have no idea how Gates was able to weather this kind of public beratement, let alone this catastrophic war that is consuming the world,” he thought.

He looked down at the report in front of him to distract himself but ended up scratching his head in confusion. He still couldn’t understand what could possibly make the Indian government willingly choose to join the Eastern Alliance. It made no economic, military, or political sense.

He read through the bullet points and the highlighted portions of the brief. The overarching tone of the report suggested that the alignment of India with the Eastern Alliance had more to do with the perception that the US and Europe were in a considerably weakened state, and that if Russia and China pushed hard enough, the West would collapse, leaving them as the new world powers. By joining the Eastern Alliance, India must have believed that they were throwing their lot in with the winning side and stood to gain from an American defeat.

Before he could finish reading through the details, his Chief of Staff, Josh Morgan, walked into his study. “Are you ready for our guest?” he asked.

The President nodded, knowing he’d probably get more answers from the people he was about to meet than from reading a report put together by the CIA. Josh had pulled some strings to make this consultation happen so quickly.

In walked Aneesh Dayal, the US Ambassador to India, Vivek Chopra, a prominent businessman from New York who was deeply involved in the Indian-American community, and Neal Biswal, a cofounder of a major Silicon Valley IT company.

President Foss stood and walked toward his guests. He shook their hands and gestured for them to take a seat on the couches and chairs in the center of the room. He had wanted to meet with them in his private study as opposed to the Oval Office because he wanted the setting to be informal and more inviting. He needed honest answers if they were going to figure out how they were going to handle India.

“Thank you all for meeting with me on such short notice,” he said.

A steward finished pouring everyone the drink they’d requested, and a sandwich tray was also brought in and placed on the table in front of them. It was lunchtime, and Foss figured breaking bread with people, even those who adamantly disagreed with his politics, was a way to open things up.

“When the President requests a meeting to speak with you, you meet with him,” Vivek replied with a smile as he helped himself to a half an egg sandwich.

The President returned the smile briefly. “I’m struggling with some aspects of this war,” he began. “Mainly, how did America find itself at war with India? We’ve traditionally had good relations with India. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what happened that changed that dynamic.”

“I’m not a good person to ask that question, Mr. President,” answered Neal Biswal. “Most of my friends and employees were killed when the nuclear missile hit the Bay Area. The only reason my family and I are alive is because we were vacationing at Disney World in Florida when the attack happened. I believe this war started because your predecessor was a bloviating idiot who didn’t know what he was doing. I think India is at war with America because they see America as a global threat to world peace, and after our defeats in Europe and Asia, they saw an opportunity to pile on and take us out.” Neal Biswal spoke with anger and heat. His beliefs, and those of his company, were well known to the President, but Foss had still wanted his perspective.

“You don’t believe North Korea or China bear any blame for launching the nuclear weapon that destroyed Oakland?” the President bristled. Although he’d known what to expect from Neal, he was still shocked that the man before him blamed Gates for the destruction of Oakland when he had done everything in his power to save it.

Holding a hand up in surrender, Neal clarified his response. “You’re right. Gates didn’t launch the missiles at America, and I know the military did its best to try and shoot them down. I guess I’m just mad that of all the missiles to get through our missile defense shield, the Bay Area ended up taking it on the chin.”

“We’re all irate about that, Neal,” said Ambassador Dayal. “It could’ve been a lot worse if the interceptors hadn’t hit the other missiles though. We could have lost New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and a few other cities.”

The President allowed Neal to vent for a few minutes, nodding as he listened. When he had said his piece and gotten some of his anger out of his system, the President moved in to prod for more information.

“Neal, you’re a businessman, and you seem to have a good grasp on the politics of what’s happening. When the Indian government first joined the war against us, the situation looked bleak for America. However, a year has passed, and the tides of the war have changed. Their military suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Russian Far East, and they’ve sustained heavy losses in Europe. Do they still believe they can defeat America? That they’re still on the right side of history in this war?”

Neal leaned back in the chair for a second to think. “I don’t have a lot of contact with people back in India, for obvious reasons, but I believe the initial optimism about a quick victory has evaporated. I think the reality of what it would take to fight and defeat the United States has started to set in. The initial war hawks in the Indian government and military are now facing the reality that their allies, Russia and China, are not in nearly as strong of a military position as they first believed they were.”

“I agree,” confirmed Vivek. “I think the initial optimism the government had about dethroning the US evaporated when their forces were soundly defeated in Siberia. I have some family living in Mumbai, and they tell me the average person on the street believes the war is a huge mistake. When the casualties from the battle were made known, a lot of people took to the streets to protest the war. They had been led to believe the war would be won quickly, and America was all but defeated — that it would be India, Russia, and China who would dominate the world. That belief has been shattered. I suspect when the casualty reports are released from the European battles that are taking place right now, any support within the government for the war will further evaporate.”

Foss took the information in while he formulated his next question. “OK, so if what you all are saying is true, and I have no reason to believe it’s not, how should we try to convince them to end their involvement in the war? I’d rather not have to launch cruise missiles at them, or potentially land troops near their borders. So how do we persuade them that staying in the war any further is not going to end well for them?”

There was a brief pause before Ambassador Dayal responded. “I propose we make them an offer. Give them an opportunity to end their involvement in the war peacefully, now. If they choose not to, then we start to use the Navy to launch cruise missiles at key aspects of their economy that are specifically supporting their war effort. Right now, the casualties they’re suffering are far away from their borders. If they start to lose people at home, that might be the needed catalyst to force real change.”

The President thought about that for a minute. He agreed with the ambassador’s assessment. It was time to make the Indian government an offer to end the war or face a further escalation.

Following the lunch and continued conversations with his guests, President Foss went to the next meeting, eager to hear what his spy agency had to report. When he entered the PEOC, he saw CIA Director Jedediah “JP” Perth, Tom McMillan, his National Security Advisor, Admiral Peter Meyers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Secretary of Defense Jim Castle all eagerly waiting for him. This meeting was intentionally being kept small. Once the President had taken his seat, Josh, his Chief of Staff and senior advisor, took a seat next to him and the meeting began.

“Sir, I’ve called this meeting to brief you on the latest developments with Operation Strawman,” JP said, urgency in his voice. “I received a crucial message from our source in Moscow. There’s been a major development, and we need to discuss it with you now.”

The others squirmed a bit in their chairs, unsure of what awaited them.

“For the sake of the war, I hope you are reporting good news to us because my analysts are becoming increasingly concerned that Petrov may start to use his WMD in the very near future,” said SecDef Castle. He narrowed his eyes at JP.

President Foss surveyed the faces in the room. They seemed as genuinely concerned with Castle’s statement as he felt. The Russians had kept the war conventional up this point, but with the continued losses forming an ever-tightening noose around Petrov’s neck, that could change.

Foss signaled for JP to continue. “Alexei Kasyanov, the political leader of the Russian resistance we’ve been cultivating to take Petrov’s place, has been holding secret meetings with certain regime members as he’s sought to build out his coalition of support against Petrov. We know the FSB Director, Ivan Vasilek, was executed by Petrov a short while ago for the failure of the British deception and for the progress of the war. His replacement, Lieutenant General Grigory Sobolev, has been a bit of an unknown to us. However, one of the men Alexei has apparently recruited to his side is a man by the name of Major General Oleg Zolotov. He’s head of the Russian FSO, which is essentially the Russian version of the Secret Service.”

This last part got President Foss’s ears to perk up a bit as he realized this was one guy who truly had access to Petrov on a regular basis and was one of the few people allowed to be armed around him.

“He secretly met with General Zolotov the other day, and the general intimated that an effort to replace Petrov was not only possible but should be carried out sooner rather than later. He also told Alexei that General Sobolev was willing to support a coup against Petrov and sue for a separate peace from China and India with the Allies if he could personally secure and retain power,” JP explained.

The group was silent for a moment. Tom McMillan commented, “On the surface, this sounds great. However, I fear we’d be changing out one dictator for another one. How is Sobolev going to be any better than Petrov? Right now, we’re probably months away from defeating Russia. I’m not sold on this just yet.”

Jim Castle interjected, “I say we go for it, and here’s why. We’re about to capture St. Petersburg, and the British are leading an effort in northern Russia that is driving on Moscow even as we speak. General Cotton is about to launch a several-hundred-kilometer-long offensive to drive the remaining Russian and Indian forces out of Ukraine and move on Moscow. As the war gets closer to Moscow, Petrov is going to become more desperate — so will his generals. His military leaders will advocate for the use of tactical nuclear weapons against our forces, or at least chemical or biological weapons. It’s the only way he can stop our offensive. If backing Sobolev to take Petrov’s place ends the war and removes the credible threat of the Russians using nuclear weapons, then I believe we should take it.”

The room stayed silent for a moment. President Foss contemplated what Castle had just said. He had known the possibility of Russia using their nukes was out there, but no one had really given it a lot of credence before now, especially after how aggressive President Gates had been in his response to the destruction of Oakland. He looked up at the ceiling, saying a prayer that he would make the right decision at this juncture. Then he told the men in the room his counterproposal to Sobolev.

Later that evening, well past dinner, President Foss finished reading a long proposal from his cyberwarfare advisor, Katelyn Mackie, on what actions she advocated for in India. President Gates had still been formulating what he wanted to do with India when he’d been killed, so Foss hadn’t had a lot of precedent to go on. Up until now, he’d been hesitant about going after India too hard as he’d hoped a peaceful solution could be found. However, after his afternoon lunch with several prominent Indian Americans, he realized he hadn’t given India nearly as much attention or effort as he probably should have.

Katelyn had come up with a unique proposal that would limit the loss of life and hopefully get the message across to the Indian government that continuing the war would result in further debilitating attacks. Her plan centered around the rail industry; according to her research, a total of 8.26 billion passengers used the rail system in India annually, which meant the country was heavily dependent on this sector. President Foss shuddered in horror as he looked at photos of how horrifically overcrowded the commuter trains in India were. As he continued to read, Foss learned how vital India’s rail system was in moving the war munitions that India produced, as well as the workers who commuted to produce the ordnance.

Of the 121,407 kilometers of rail tracks in the country, 49 % were electrified, and through collaboration with a team of locomotive engineers in France, Katelyn’s team had identified a vulnerability within the 2x25kV autotransformer system used in the Indian railways. By inserting a malicious code into a component of this system during one of the automated patch updates Indian Railways performed on a weekly basis, they had already successfully infected the electrified portion of the rail line with their code. All Katelyn needed was permission to initiate the attack, and India would lose access to half of their rail lines. The proposed cyberattack wouldn’t destroy India’s rail infrastructure or cause significant loss of life, but it would shut down the sector until the damaged components could be replaced, which could take them months, maybe even a year or more.

Foss had to smile at the ingenuity of the plan. Part of him wished that he knew more about cyberwarfare so that he could have come up with the idea on his own. Then a sobering thought hit him. “If we can do this to India, I have to imagine China, Russia, or India could do this to us too,” he realized. He made a note to discuss vulnerabilities in the homeland with Katelyn Mackie later.

He put his pen behind his ear for a moment as he thought over the implications of the proposal, and then he scribbled his signature on the authorization form to allow Katelyn’s team to initiate the cyberattack. He placed the completed document and the brief in his “Out” bin.

President Foss had a chuckle at himself. Here he was initiating a complex cyberattack while utilizing what was arguably a very archaic filing system for his paperwork. “They have their methods and I have mine,” he thought.

With the final tasks for the day complete, it was time for Foss to collapse and get a few hours of shut-eye before he had to get up and do it all over again the next day.