Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Battleships

An intelligence officer walked onto the bridge and handed Stonebridge a memo. “Admiral, this message just came in from NSA. They said the JDF fleet has been taken offline and is dead in the water. We should conduct our attack now before they are able to bring their systems back online.” The officer waited for the Admiral to finish reading the report and issue his next set of orders.

“Now it’s time for some American justice,” thought the Admiral to himself.

Stonebridge turned to Captain Mason and directed, “Captain, order your attack aircraft to engage the enemy fleet immediately.” Then he turned to his operations officer and said, “Captain Lacey, order the battleships to launch their missiles and continue at flank speed until they are in range of the enemy fleets ships with their laser and railgun turrets. Once they are within range, they are to engage the enemy at will.”

Admiral Stonebridge looked back at the holographic map and the distances between the two fleets; the gap was closing quickly as the Americans were moving at flank speed towards the enemy. The Chinese and JDF continued to move towards the Americans to get their battleships in range to use their main guns, unaware of what awaited them.

Captain Jeremiah Wright had just completed his twenty-first year in the US Navy and his second year as the Captain of the USS Iowa Battleship. He had been selected to be the Captain of the Iowa after completing his assignment as the executive officer of the USS George H.W. Bush just months before it had been destroyed in the Pacific by the Chinese during the opening engagement of World War III. He had felt terrible about the loss of his previous ship; he knew a lot of the officers and enlisted personnel on board that had died, so it’s sinking hit home. He had lost over a hundred people he considered to be close friends. His assignment to the USS Iowa had been a blessing and a curse. He had needed time to emotionally heal and grieve the loss of so many friends; he had gotten that in a way because he had been sidelined from participating in the war up to that point while he worked on getting the USS Iowa ready for battle for more than 18 months.

Now, as Captain Wright stood in the CIC of America’s most powerful warship ever built, he felt almost god-like at the power and sheer destruction he was about to unleash on America’s enemies. His orders were to target the Chinese Supercarriers and battleships and leave the Japanese ships for the drones to destroy. With the cyber-attacks crippling the Japanese fleet, his real concern was the Chinese navy.

He turned to his weapons officer, “Commander Lewis, do we have a firing solution on the first Supercarrier?” he asked.

Lewis replied, “Yes, sir, we do. We have both weapon systems locked in right now. Do you want to hit them with the railgun or the laser?” he asked with a grin.

“First, let Admiral Stonebridge know we are ready to fire and make sure everyone can see the drone footage. Let’s hit the first carrier with the railguns. Then we’ll hit the second carrier with the pulse beam and see which one has the most effect.” Captain Wright had been told by Admiral Stonebridge that President Stein himself was going to be watching the battle, so he wanted to impress.

The communications officer replied, “All outstations are reporting ready, and the various feeds from the drones are coming in nice and clear.”

Looking at the men and women in the CIC, Captain Wright ordered, “Commander Lewis, FIRE guns one through four!”

There was a slight increase in the mechanical hum of the ship as the reactor increased power and then an ear-piercing SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, as the four railguns fired one projectile each at the Chinese Supercarrier one hundred and eighteen miles away. It took nearly a minute for the projectiles to fly the distance to the Chinese fleet, and then the rounds hit the carrier. They saw on the drone feed the impact against the side of the carrier, causing it to rock heavily to one side before it righted itself from the impact. Initially, there was a somewhat small entry hole into the hull, and then a massive explosion detonated as the projectile flew through the ship and out the other side. The projectile was traveling so fast when it hit that the shockwave caused a huge section of the hull on the opposite side to blow right open. Critical sections of the ship started to catch fire and explode. The carrier was still floating, but clearly had suffered a critical hit. Flames burst out of the entrance and exit holes where the projectile had been.

Captain Wright looked at his weapons officer and ordered, “Fire a second volley.”

The USS Iowa shook a second time as the main guns fired a second volley of projectiles at the Chinese warship. When the second round hit the carrier, it shook violently. Several additional explosions erupted, and the carrier began to rip apart. Within minutes, the carrier began to list heavily to one side and started sinking quickly. An audible gasp could be heard in the CIC as the men and women watching saw the ship start to roll over on its side and quickly descend below the waves.

“Commander Lewis,” barked the Captain. “Fire the lasers at the second carrier!”

The reactors of the Iowa began to spool up again, and this time the ship’s two pulse beam lasers discharged. Upon hitting the ship, each laser burned a three-foot round hole into the hull of the ship, just below the flight deck. Within seconds, the laser had ignited the fuel and weapons used for the drones, causing significant damage and secondary explosions.

“Commander Lewis, have the gun battery aim for the waterline, and let’s see if we can sink that ship with the next shot,” the Captain ordered.

Commander Lewis nodded, then picked up a phone to talk with the targeting officers for the laser battery, who quickly made the requested adjustment. The second laser shot impacted the carrier, burning a hole several feet below the waterline and causing the water surrounding the new hole in the hull to quickly bubble away until the laser turned off. In seconds, a huge rush of water could be seen swooshing into the vacant hole left by the laser. In less than a minute, the ship began to tilt heavily to one side as the flames from the drone fuel and ammunition continued to rage.

Admiral Stonebridge came on to the fleet PA system, “Impressive show, Captain Wright. It’s time for both battleships to fire at will now. We need to begin to systematically destroy the Chinese fleet while the carrier drones fly in to finish off the Japanese.”

The battle lasted less than thirty minutes. In that time, the Japanese lost three Supercarriers, their two prized battleships, and their entire support fleet. The Chinese recognized what type of weapons they were being hit with, and the ships that were left immediately began to sail away from the American fleet as fast as possible to try and get out of range of the American super weapons. Three of the four Chinese Supercarriers were destroyed, while the fourth sustained a hit from the Wisconsin’s railgun, causing significant damage. Only three other Chinese surface ships escaped the battle as they ran quickly towards the waters of Hawaii.