Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Meet Me in St. Louis

The President and his staff were still celebrating the great naval battle from the night before when Jose Perez walked in on the celebration with a very somber expression. “Mr. President,” he began. “I’m sorry to sour the mood, but it’s about St. Louis.”

“What happened, Jose?” asked Stein, turning serious.

“Sir, last night a Japanese Special Forces group placed explosives on the supports of the South I-235 bridge near the St. Louis airport…it dropped into the Mississippi. Not only is it stopping road travel there, but it’s also blocking river traffic.”

There was no more happy chatter in the back of the room. Director Perez continued, “It’s not just that, either. In addition to dropping the South bridge, they also dropped the North one, the I-64 bridge and I-70 bridge in downtown St. Louis. Twenty-Three National Guard soldiers who had been guarding the bridges were killed, along with seven police officers. As if the attack against the bridges were not bad enough, another attack group blew up the canal locks along the Chicago River, reversing the direction of the water flow and causing all sorts of pollution to be transported to Northern and Central Illinois.”

These weren’t the first successful attacks by the JDF; recent memories flashed back in everyone’s minds. Two days ago, a major shootout had occurred near the White House as a Japanese Special Forces group attacked and then subsequently destroyed the 14^th Street bridge joining Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia across the Potomac River. Using several recoilless rifles, the attack force had also destroyed a section of the rail bridge that crosses nearby before they were killed by an Army unit that responded to the attack. The attack had been so close to the White House that it had reinforced the President’s assumption that Washington DC was not safe as long as enemy Special Forces were still prowling around.

The advisors turned back to business, discussing the attacks against the transportation grid and their potential military and economic impact. The President asked, “So, Admiral Casey, what is the status of the Trinity Program in tracking these guys down?”

“It’s a work in progress, Sir,” replied Casey. “We have managed to track down a large number of hostiles in Miami, Philadelphia and around Victoria, Texas, but obviously, there are still quite a number of them at large. It’s just a matter of time before they trip up though, Mr. President.”

FBI Director Janet Smart added, “We’ve also picked up smaller groups of the JDF Special Forces Group in Atlanta, Phoenix and outside of Gary, Indiana. We are currently utilizing enhanced interrogation methods to help close in on any of their compatriots that they may be able to locate.”

The President nodded.

Mike Rogers, the National Security Advisor, decided to lighten the mood a little. “Sir, I’ve been going over Admiral Casey’s reports from India and Japan. Not only are the cyber-attacks impacting the economies there, but public opinion in those countries has definitely moved against participating in the war in attacking the United States.” General Branson saw an opportunity and chimed in, “Speaking of good news, Sir, we have officially deployed the first Bodarks in Alaska. We’ve set them up behind the Russian and Chinese lines, hoping they will cause as much chaos as possible.”

“So, have we had movement in Alaska, then?” asked the President.

“No, Sir. Not yet. The lines have been well established at this point; it seems that all sides are content to wait until spring before they resume killing each other. Although we’ve definitely lost Alaska, there is a glimmer of hope. After the Russians secured Fairbanks and oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, they withdrew most of their forces, leaving an occupation force to deal with the American militias there. The Chinese also seem to be moving a lot of their troops and heavy equipment to the ports; perhaps they are trying to move them to California.”

The President wondered, “So, speaking of California, how soon do you think we will be able to end the invasion there and restore order?”

General Branson brought up the map of Southern California and the various military divisions and their locations. “We have 121,000 soldiers fighting in Los Angeles against about 148,000 enemy soldiers. As of right now, our intel estimates that an additional 12,000 enemy soldiers are arriving in Los Angeles through the ports every hour. Our naval forces are starting to move towards the ports, once in range they will begin to interdict the enemy transports.”

Zooming in closer to the map of Los Angeles, he continued, “As you can see, we have moved forces throughout the LA basin and encircled the enemy. We now have them blocked in, so they cannot expand their footprint while we continue to move additional forces into the area. We also have several armored divisions arriving now, so we should begin the new offensive shortly.”

Pulling up a different map of the San Francisco Bay area, General Branson explained, “The enemy forces in this area are much smaller in number. They have not moved nearly as many forces into the area, and we have managed to get an airborne brigade to the mouth of the bay and close it off from any additional transports that arrive. Right now, they are holding the area until we can get additional forces to them. We have two armored divisions and three infantry divisions about a day away now.”

“Well, that’s encouraging at least,” said the President. “What about San Diego?”

Branson changed the map again before he began, “Now that we have the enemy contained in LA, we have some of our forces heading down to San Diego. This pocket here is a bit more concerning. The enemy managed to offload six armored divisions and another twelve infantry divisions. They are gearing up to move north and attack our forces currently holding the lines in LA.”

General Adrian Rice took over, giving the Air Force perspective. “Mr. President, as you can see, the JDF and PLAN have ferried over roughly seven hundred fighter drones to provide air support. The Japanese moved 110 F35s, the PLAAF brought in 125 J20s and 90 of their new J39s, their newest stealth fighters. Right now, the skies are a cluster mess. Neither side has air superiority yet, and I’m not sure how long it will be until we can regain control of the skies. The two F41s that survived the ambush with the JDF fleet were destroyed on the ground when Twenty-Nine Palms was bombed.”

“Mr. President,” interjected General Branson, “I would like to pull the other flight of F41s from the air campaign in Alaska and move them back down here. We need the help, Sir.”

President Stein knew Branson was right. However, he also wanted to keep the F41s fighting over Alaska. He was hoping to find a way to get the Air Force into a position where they could maintain air superiority in the Klondike without the F41s. Until Operation Pegasus fully got underway, they were going to be months away from building any additional F41s.

“General Branson, before we bring the F41s down, I have a question. What will happen to our operations in Alaska if we do take them away from the forces there?” the President asked, turning to the Air Force Service Commander.

General Rice responded, “Mr. President, the Russians have pulled a lot of their forces out and moved them back to Europe. The Chinese are still giving us a lot of problems though. Our issue is we just do not have enough fighters or drones to fight everywhere. Having the F41s in Alaska has allowed us to beef up our air forces in Europe and now to divert additional forces to California. If we move them, we risk the Chinese being able to break out of our air defenses and launch further attacks in the Pacific northwest. We are moving tremendous amounts of aircraft from across the country to California. We will gain air superiority; we just need to be patient while we get everything in place,” he explained.

The President looked at Branson, “General, I agree with the Air Force on this one. You are going to have to make do with what you have.”

The General shrugged a little, but he decided not to fight the President on this one.

Stein moved on. “Changing subjects, I want to transition to the Pegasus project. Are we still on track?”

General Branson sat down, knowing that his part of the briefing was over. Dr. Peter Gorka came to life as his holographic image began to display from Henry’s tablet. “Yes, Mr. President; Pegasus is still on track. We are going to move forward with the launch in March. We anticipate the mining operations starting within four days of landing on the lunar surface. Our first shipment of Tritium4 will be ready for transport back to Earth beginning in April. We will also have the first delivery of Helium3 available in April as well.”

As everyone was listening to Dr. Gorka speak, on another screen they could see video clips of what the lunar operation would look like. Henry Stein thought to himself, “I don’t think I can really get used to this — the future is really here.”