Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Tung and Shinzo

Major General Hidehisa Shinzo was starting to feel overwhelmed in his role as the operational ground commander of the invasion of California. Nearly half of the units he landed with four days ago had either been killed or captured by the American Marines rushing towards the city from the Marine Base at Twenty-Nine Palms, and now they were having to deal with the Army airborne units as well. The port would have been lost a day ago, if they had not unloaded that PLA heavy tank brigade and the aviation unit that came along with them. A battalion of Pershing battle tanks nearly broke through their lines in Anaheim Hills.

In the last ninety-six hours since the start of the invasion, they had offloaded nearly 98,000 soldiers, 1,200 armored vehicles, and 800 main battle tanks. The Japanese Air Force and PLAAF had ferried over 620 fighters and ground attack aircraft from Hawaii to the various airports in and around LA. However, their foothold in the city was still tenuous at best; the Marines were still pouring in like water around every strongpoint they had established around the city. Fighting was fierce and constant in most of the suburbs. So far, they had managed to keep the Marines away from the ports, but it was only a matter of time at this point.

He had watched President Stein address the nation a couple of days ago, saying the entire American Third Army was heading to California and would soon throw the invaders back into the sea. This is what General Shinzo had warned his superiors about; if they did not get enough reinforcement into the city before the American Third Army arrived, then the invasion was doomed to fail. Another 60,000 soldiers were going to be offloaded today at the port while 15,000 more flew in by commercial air. It was a race to see who could get more troops to LA. Tomorrow, the first wave of transports from Indonesia and India would start to arrive. General Shinzo had not fought alongside soldiers from either of these nations before, so he did not know how well they would fair against the Americans. Time would tell.

Seeing General Shinzo deep in thought, General Zi Tung of the People’s Liberation Army walked up to him and bowed. “General Shinzo, are you all right?” he inquired.

General Zi Tung had just arrived; he was supposed to take over command from General Shinzo. Tung had fought against General Gardner in the Middle East before being wounded and flown back to China. That was several months before the Chinese were defeated by General Gardner. He was then given command of a PLA Corps in Alaska and had helped lead the PLA in capturing Anchorage. Now he had been transferred to California and was going to be the joint forces commander for the Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Indonesian forces in California. This was a great honor, and not one Tung took lightly. If he failed, chances were that he would be executed or at least placed in exile; if he won though, he might be able to secure a position on the ruling committee as one of the great Chinese generals.

“Ah, General Tung, it is great to finally meet you in person. Yes, I am quite well. I am looking over the maps and the intelligence we are receiving, trying to figure out what General Gardner is going to do next and what we can do to stop him.”

Tung nodded before responding, “General Shinzo, you have done a superb job leading the invasion up to this point. I know you feel as if you have betrayed the Americans, but they turned their backs on Japan and the rest of the world when they committed genocide against the Muslims in the Middle East. The collapse of America is for the betterment of mankind, not the end of it. Japan is on the right side of history in this war,” Tung said, praising Shinzo.

Then he let the hammer drop. “General Shinzo, I am here to take over as Commander for all Axis forces in California. I would like to know if you would be willing to take over as the ground commander for the joint Chinese/Japanese First Corps once they are fully unloaded and ready to move?” General Tung was trying not to insult his counterpart; he knew that General Shinzo was probably the best ground commander in California, and he wanted to use his skills to his advantage.

The Joint First Corps was going to be a 45,000-person armored and mechanized infantry unit. To counter the American Pershing tanks, the Chinese and JDF had developed a new tank round for use by the Type-29 JDF main battle tank and the new PLA Type-43 main battle tank. Both tanks used a 135mm main gun, but the new projectile incorporated the same armor component that the Pershing tanks used into a penetrator. Essentially, the new tank round was a glorified lawn dart that was made of the same armor as the Pershing tanks, traveling at speeds of 4,000 feet per second. Once it hit the Pershing, it would punch right through its armor and bounce around inside, killing the crew. Or it would blow a hole right through the Pershing so fast it that would cause a massive vacuum, collapsing the lungs of the crew members inside. The advantages that the Pershing had had up to this point were its range and its armor. However, in a close-in city and urban warfare fight, the Pershing would not have a range advantage, and the new penetrator would remove any advantage from the armor. The leader of the Joint Corps was bound to witness some marvelous victories.

General Shinzo was swelling with pride. “It would be my honor to lead the joint force in attacking the Americans,” he said. Then his face changed to a somber expression, “…I do hope you understand, General Tung, that our time to beat the Americans is slowly coming to an end, so we have to act quickly.”

Somewhat stunned by General Shinzo’s pessimistic attitude but willingness to fight on despite it, General Tung asked, “What did you mean by that statement? I would caution you not to express such defeatist statements in front of the men.”

“General Tung, the Japanese do not view talk like that as defeatist; it is a statement of fact to spur us on to the action needed to win before it is too late. What I mean is that the American President announced two days ago on television that the entire American Third Army is heading to California to ‘throw the invaders back into the sea.’ The American Third Army consist of 1,300,000 soldiers. That is significantly larger than our invasion force. It will still take them several days for most of the units to arrive, but once they do, they will push us into the sea if we are not able to secure enough of the strategic points in the valley leading into Los Angeles County. There are currently 90,000 Marines at Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Base, not more than sixty miles from here.”

“One of my lead tank elements reported they encountered a battalion from the 2^nd Cavalry Division earlier this morning. That division had been in Colorado three days ago; now they are in California. I need your help in marshaling the needed forces to re-capture these areas and reinforce them so we can hold the valley while reinforcements continue to arrive. I also need our air forces to attack the columns of enemy tanks and armored vehicles driving to California. No matter how many aircraft we lose, we need to attack them while they are on the road and destroy the streets and rail infrastructure heading into California,” General Shinzo explained. He spoke with conviction as he pointed to several different locations on the map.

General Tung thought to himself for a moment before responding, “They were right about General Shinzo; he is a very smart and astute military commander. Perhaps I should keep him here with me.”

Tung acknowledged, “General Shinzo, you bring up some great points. I can see why the military leadership believes you to be one of the rising stars in the JDF. You are smart, and clearly see the second and third order effects of decisions. It also seems that you anticipate the enemy well. I have also fought against General Gardner in the Middle East, so I know what it is like to go up against him (as well as General Black); both commanders are tough and smart adversaries. The battle for California will not be easy, and it will cost both of our nations a lot of men. But it is just one part of the greater global chess game being played. We need to continue to bleed the Americans dry of forces and material. Especially here in California.”

“I want you to take command of the First, and the Second Corps and implement the strategy and plan that you just discussed. I will coordinate with our reinforcements, the PLAAF and PLAN to bring in the support and supplies you need to win. You need to deliver though. The PLA does not accept defeat, and it is imperative that we hold our gains here in California.” Tung spoke with a toughness in his voice.

“If you can get the PLAAF to attack the American reinforcements and specifically destroy the rail and highway systems leading into California, we can hold our ground,” Shinzo said with determination in his eyes.