Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Trojan Horse Update

Near the end of World War II, the Japanese had drafted a plan to combat the inevitable invasion of American forces into their country — codename Operation Ketsugo. The name meant “concluding remarks,” and signaled their tenacity to fight to the death, if needed. To General Hidehisa Shinzo, the Commander of the 5th Brigade, it seemed a fitting name for this new offensive against the West Coast of the United States. As his ship pulled into the Port of Los Angeles, he gritted his teeth, eager for battle.

Since the Americans had not deciphered the true intentions of the Japanese forces before they landed, the Port of Los Angeles was relatively easy to secure. Only a few shots were fired by either side; most of the guards surrendered without incident when they saw how hopelessly out-gunned they were. The 5^th Brigade was what the Americans called a “heavy” brigade, which meant that along with the typical company elements of reconnaissance, anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, signals and aviation, the group encompassed a tank battalion, three infantry regiments and an artillery battalion. There were 6,500 soldiers in all, each one well-trained, disciplined and full of the zeal and adrenaline that comes from seeing battle for the first time.

At the nearby Port of Long Beach, the Japanese also managed a speedy takeover. There were a few casualties at this facility; a couple of American guards decided to try to be heroes and went completely Rambo. Sadly, this desperate attempt resulted in their swift demise, and did not do very much to inhibit the progress of the Japanese. They did manage to kill four soldiers and wound eight more. As the men pulled the bodies out of the pool of blood to prepare them for a proper burial, the harsh reality of war set in.

The soldiers consolidated their positions, organizing into well-formed groups and preparing to receive the additional reinforcements from the Japanese Defense Force (JDF) and the Chinese Navy (PLAN). So far, everything was proceeding as expected. The JDF and PLAN were headed towards LA and San Diego at flank speed, trying to capitalize on the confusion taking place among their former allies. Because of the cyber-attacks on the cell networks and the internet, the greater public was still unaware of the Japanese attack.

Once the ports were fully secured, General Shinzo prepared to meet with two of his key senior officers. He surveyed the scene as he walked towards a small building that must have been one of the port administrative offices. During this short stroll, he tried to organize his thundering chorus of thoughts. He still had a lot to accomplish within a short window of time; his objective was to secure City Hall and the rest of downtown LA, and then move into the surrounding urban sprawl. He knew that his forces would have to act quickly; it would not take long for the Americans to realize what was happening and dispatch forces to attack his men. His main concern was the Marines Third Division, which he knew to be stationed at Twenty-Nine Palms. They were the most combat-hardened Marine division that the U.S. had, and they were fully-equipped with the new Raptor combat suits. Shinzo knew that they would be a formidable force when the time came.

As General Shinzo entered the building, the smell of cordite and diesel fuel was heavy in the air; all his armored vehicles were lining up near the port exit to begin their task of securing City Hall. He walked over to his commanders. Despite their best efforts to conceal their emotions, he could clearly see their apprehension by their furrowed brows. He knew that both of these men had trained with the Americans in the past, and were now being tasked with attacking some of those very same officers. However, there was no time for emotion, only time for action. He jumped right into the task of the moment.

“Colonel Tenaka, as you know, you are to lead your forces to capture City Hall immediately following this meeting. I want you to convey to your soldiers that they are to put down any resistance that they encounter and secure their target quickly. Then I want you to activate the city’s emergency broadcast system and have it play the following message,” General Shinzo handed Colonel Tenaka a sheet of paper that read, “People of Los Angeles, a Japanese and Chinese invasion force has secured your city. Stay indoors and do not venture into the streets. Do not interfere with our operations, or you will be shot on sight. This is not a test.”

Colonel Tenaka nodded and made a mental note to have one of his most fluent English speakers read the announcement for the recording.

General Shinzo continued. “Colonel Watabe, you are to lead your armored division and an infantry regiment to Riverside and San Bernardino. As you travel, destroy as many bridges and overpasses as you can along your route. You will need to establish a defensive perimeter; the Marines will be bearing down on you very quickly, and you are going to have to find a way to hold out until additional reinforcements arrive. Move some of your tanks onto the third or fourth levels of parking garages to give them a better vantage point and increase their range. Position some of the other tanks in alley ways and behind buildings so that you can surprise the enemy as they approach. Fight house-to-house if you need to, but at all costs you must hold the line until the additional forces reach you.”

Colonel Watabe nodded his acknowledgement. “Sir, exactly how long should we expect to be on our own before the reinforcements approach?”

Some of the Japanese generals would have found this question to be impertinent, but General Shinzo had a good working relationship with Colonel Watabe. Besides, he would have wanted to know the same thing if the roles were reversed. Without missing a beat, he replied, “Colonel, I have spoken with the Chinese Army (PLA) Commander; he has two brigades of heavy tanks, one brigade of light drone tanks and two infantry brigades that will be reinforce you in about eight hours. It will take some time to unload that amount of equipment. As each battalion is offloaded, I’m going to direct them to head to your location.”

Pulling up some information from his tablet, General Shinzo scrolled through some data, then explained, “We also have six attack helicopters that can assist both of your operations. I will hold them back from other actions so they are available to you when you need them. But use them wisely; it will be close to a day before we have more available when the rest of the Air Force finishes ferrying over their aircraft from Hawaii.”

Suddenly, there was the loud rush of several jets roaring over their heads — the colonels nervously looked at the ceiling. Having trained with American military throughout their career, they knew exactly what kind of enemy they would be facing. Not only would the U.S. soldiers be tenacious fighters, but they’d be boiling over with desires for revenge. An awkward moment of silence passed in anticipation.

General Shinzo cleared his throat. Knowing this might be the last time he saw either of these men in person, he looked each of them in the eye and said, “Gentlemen, the future of Japan rides on our success over the next several days. I know we have traditionally been an ally of America, but those days are behind us. We need to do our duty to Japan to preserve our way of life and that of our families. Everyone is depending on us. I expect you to do your jobs and win. Dismissed.”

All three stood up, and bowed to each other before walking out. Shinzo followed his men out of the building as they each headed off towards their respective commands. He wished them luck…he knew the odds of this invasion being successful were long, but he was determined to succeed.

Twenty minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel Ota (one of Colonel Tenaka’s battalion commanders) was leading his column of twelve Type 29 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) and thirty-four Type 31 infantry fighting vehicles as they passed the exit for Hwy 91 and east Compton. They continued down I-710, towards City Hall and downtown LA. As they drove past an exit, two of his T-31 infantry fighting vehicles made their exit and set up a road block. Once I-710 was secured and cleared of traffic, it would give the JDF and PLA an easy route to move troops throughout the valley quickly.

So far, they had not encountered any resistance. Then again — what could a car or truck really do to stop a sixty-ton main battle tank? Traffic on the highway was light as it was still early in the morning on Christmas Eve; most Americans were either off work for the holiday or traveling out of the city to see family. His column was making good time as they moved along the interstate; however, when they reached I-105 and Morton, the traffic became a bit more of a problem. Ultimately though, this turned into a minor inconvenience; those cars that failed to move out of the way of the armored column were either pushed aside or run over by the tanks.

Once they reached the correct junction, Colonel Ota had to leave one of his tanks and four infantry fighting vehicles behind to make sure they had the key node secured. Stopping the traffic was not very difficult; the hard part was going to be clearing all of the cars that were already on the road off of it.

As Colonel Ota stood in the commander’s hatch of his tank, he could see the expanse of the city as it unfolded before him. It was a beautiful and sprawling city. Tall sky scrapers covered in glass reaching for the clouds in the downtown area gave way to block after block of homes and smaller buildings. He couldn’t help but think to himself, “This is going to be an absolute nightmare for our JDF and the Chinese to try and secure. All of these people…and each one potentially has a firearm. Too bad we aren’t landing in Great Britain instead, where the worst I’d have to fear is a nightstick.”

As his tank raced down the road, he suddenly heard an announcement over the radio. “Colonel Ota, we have a couple of police cruisers approaching our roadblock. Do you want us to engage?”

“Yes, suppress any resistance quickly,” he ordered.

He heard a series of loud booms, and there was an eerie silence for a moment before someone came back on. “Sir, our T-31s made short work of the vehicles and the approaching officers. We did not sustain any casualties or significant damage to our equipment.”

“Excellent. Please continue to use force as needed,” Colonel Ota replied. He was elated that their first encounter had ended so well.

The T-31s were built by Mitsubishi to be a lightweight infantry support vehicle to the T-29 main battle tanks. They were armed with a 30-mm autocannon, four anti-tank missiles, a .50 caliber machine gun above the commander’s hatch, and had the capacity to hold twelve infantry soldiers inside. In contrast, the T-29 main battle tank had a 135-mm cannon able to penetrate the American M1A4 and M1A5’s armor (as well as the new formidable Pershing tanks), but only carried a crew of three: the driver, gunner and tank commander. The T-29 made use of an auto-loader system, similar to the ones that the Chinese and Russian tanks used. This would be their first operational fielding of the new tank round. If it worked well, then it would go into full production and be disseminated to the European front, which was much more of a tank war than Alaska.

As the column of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) continued to race down the roads heading towards City Hall, word must have gotten around; as they crossed the Los Angeles River on East 1^st street, they saw half a dozen police cars and several SWAT vehicles blocking the road. Speaking quickly into his headset, Colonel Ota ordered, “Lead vehicle, engage the SWAT trucks with your main gun and continue through the roadblock on your way to south Spring street and City Hall.”

He also radioed his infantry commander. “Have your fighting vehicles engage the road block. I want your last three vehicles in the column to stop, dismount their infantry and clear the rest of the intersection. We need to keep the road clear for additional reinforcements.”

The fighting at the intersection was brief and fierce; the column slowed down to 10 mph as they changed formations from a single file line to an arrowhead with three tanks, followed by three infantry fighting vehicles and then the rest of the group staying in a single file column. The tanks and IFVs used their heavy machine guns to fire on the police and SWAT vehicles and quickly decimated all that was before them, shredding the police officers instantly. None of the lead vehicles had to open up the hatches for the infantry to emerge, and they took no casualties in the brief engagement before plowing through the burning vehicles, continuing their way to City Hall.

Colonel Ota climbed back up through the commander’s hatch again so he could have a better field of view. He looked back briefly at the armored vehicles behind him and saw the black smoke of the vehicles they had just destroyed start to rise into the sky, marking their brief engagement. For nearly a mile, his armored column stretched across the city as they moved quickly through the highway and streets of LA.