Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

The Beatings Will Continue until Morale Improves

Lieutenant Paul Allen and his beat-up company of infantry had been pulled back to the unincorporated township of Tetlin Junction, which sat at the split between Highway 5 and Highway 2. Most of the US Forces left in Alaska had been pulled back either to this point or further down the Peninsula towards Vancouver. Allen’s company had fought hard in Fairbanks, but ultimately it was a losing cause. The Russians had too many men and the Chinese had dislodged the American stronghold further south. For the time-being, Alaska was lost. Now their objective was to keep the enemy bottled up in this frozen wasteland in order to keep them from capturing the Canadian states and pushing further down into the Pacific Northwest.

The mood of the soldiers was low. They had lost many of their comrades, and they had suffered defeat in the war in Alaska after enduring nearly six grueling months and hundreds of thousands of casualties. Then, just as Christmas was about to arrive, the media had started to report on a major invasion of California by the Chinese and the brutal betrayal of Japan and India as both nations officially declared war against the US.

The rumor mill was rampant in the 12^th Infantry Division; some soldiers were reporting that LA and San Diego had fallen to the enemy, while others bragged that the Marines had pushed the invaders back into the sea. Eventually, a message was sent down from General Black, the First Army Commander, detailing the events of the past several days and explaining the current situation. Once the soldiers knew what was going on, a lot of things settled down as they knew the Third Army was in-route to California and would crush the invaders. Many soldiers had already fought with General Gardner in the Middle East; they felt confident in America’s chances with him at the helm on the West Coast.

Now that it was New Year’s Day, there was a special lunch for the men and women at the Tetlin Defense. While they ate, they watched videos of what military experts were calling the largest naval battle since World War II. The footage of the two new American battleships in action was awe-inspiring. They were massive futuristic looking ships and the display of their weapons against the joint Chinese/Japanese fleet was incredible. They shredded the enemy fleet, forcing the remaining ships to flee back to Hawaii. Per the Pentagon, the Carrier Strike Group was going to sail up the coast to San Diego and Los Angeles and assist the Army and Marines in crushing the enemy invasion force. Their help would go a long way toward recapturing the territory lost during the Christmas Day invasion.

Following the celebration, Lieutenant Allen was informed that he was being promoted to Captain and taking over command of his company. He was also invited to a high-level briefing being given at brigade headquarters. Unbeknownst to the officers in attendance, the division commander, a one star general, was also with their brigade commander to discuss a new secret weapon. During the briefing, they were shown images and then videos of the newest drone weapon that would be used in Alaska, the Bodark. What they saw terrified and excited them at the same time.

When Allen looked at the Bodark for the first time he was not impressed; then it transformed from a large rock-like form into a Werewolf looking creature with red glowing eyes, razor sharp claws and a howling shriek that caused a shiver to run down his back. The general explained how the Bodark was a mythological creature in Russian folklore. The goal in creating this new weapon was instilling psychological terror. As more and more units were built, the plan was to drop thousands of them behind the lines to wreak as much havoc as possible.

As Allen left the briefing room, he was glad his forces would not have to deal with facing a new weapon like that. They had seen enough horrific things in their lives; they did not need to add fictitious mythical creatures to their repertoire of frightening memories. Some of the new guys in his company were disappointed that their battalion was not being rotated back to the States to go fight in California. He had to remind them that less than a few hundred miles away were hundreds of thousands of Russian and Chinese soldiers spoiling for a good fight. Their chance at combat would come soon enough. As it stood, the 12^th ID was going to hold this position until spring and then see what the higher-ups had planned for them.