Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Send in the Marines

The Japanese had succeeded in taking America by surprise. The Army and Marines were stretched thin in Europe and Alaska; the US Pacific Fleet had been destroyed a year earlier, leaving most of the West Coast exposed. People had been assured the Japanese would eventually come to America’s aid, then, just as they appeared to come to America’s rescue, they betrayed the U.S. and led the invasion of California. As the first Japanese tanks began to roll off those freighters, the LA police and Orange County sheriff tried to organize a defense; they were not going to lay down to this invading army without a fight, and neither were those civilians who owned personal firearms.

The 3^rd Battalion of the 3^rd Marines (or 3/3 as they called themselves), moved into Riverside, a suburb of LA. As they moved through the various neighborhoods, they could see some artillery and cruise missiles had already landed in the area. As Captain Thornton led his men through the area, he saw a broken swing set, lying on its side next to a blackened crater and several children’s bicycles. That’s when it hit him, “The homeland has been invaded, and nothing is ever going to be the same again.”

Captain Thornton’s company had been ordered to move through Riverside and destroy any enemy forces they encountered. The 3/3 was moving to secure the road junctions just beyond the city of Corona leading in to the LA basin. The Japanese forces in the area had put up stiff resistance as the Marines moved forward, forcing them to fight block-to-block in some areas, and leveling buildings in others. It was dirty close quarter combat that had not been seen on the streets of America before. Fortunately, some neighborhoods had also banned together, using their own personal firearms to attack the Japanese soldiers (who had not anticipated the population being so heavily armed with their own assault rifles). This unfortunately also led to a lot of civilians being killed by enemy soldiers, who were not taking any chances.

The Marines would have moved through the area faster; however, the cruise missile attack had destroyed a large part of the Marines air support elements, forcing them to have to fight with limited air support. The Marines had also lost two battalions of tanks and wolverines just north of Riverside on the San Bernardino freeway. Several other major freeways had been destroyed by Japanese demolition experts, forcing many of the Marine armored units and foot soldiers to have to move through various side streets going through many of the smaller cities leading to LA. To further compound the problem, many civilians who were being caught up in the fighting were now trying to flee eastward, heading away from the battles, further clogging up the road system the Marines were trying to use to bring in additional reinforcements to attack the Chinese and Japanese already in the area.

To their credit, the Japanese forces fighting the Marines were giving ground as needed while doing what they could to slow the Marines progress. They did not want to get caught up in fights they could not win. Their only goal was to buy time for additional forces to arrive and to be offloaded in the ports. As hundreds of thousands of people began to escape the city, it quickly became nearly impossible for the Marines to move enough of their heavy forces to the front lines to begin recapturing LAX and the ports, which were being used to ferry in thousands upon thousands of enemy reinforcements.