Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Morally Reprehensible

Twelve hours into the invasion, several thousand PLA militia solders (supported by the PLA’s 14^th Army group) had broken through the American’s outer perimeter and were quickly squeezing close to the U.S. foothold.

After his meeting with the President, General Gardner ordered the 32^nd infantry division and their enhanced humanoid drones to move into Rudong to support the Marines. In addition to ordering the drones in, he also told the infantry division commander to have the drones’ combat AI turned on and programmed to kill every person who did not emit a friendly Individual Identification Frequency (IIF).

Typically, the EHDs were operated by a human, just like the drone tanks and aircraft. A human was always required in the loop because there was a concern about having the drones operate on their own and somehow going rogue. However, the American soldiers operating in the Shanghai area were being slaughtered by the sheer numbers of enemy soldiers that the PLA was throwing at them. The President had determined that something more extreme needed to be done.

The Marines conducting the fighting retreat from the outer perimeter were reporting that the PLA was forcing thousands of civilians to advance in front of their soldiers to act as human shields. The Marines were doing their best to not kill the civilians and focus on the enemy soldiers. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult to do. Then brigade had sent a FLASH message ordering them to engage and kill the civilians. Thornton read the FLASH message a second time, to make sure he fully understood what he was being asked to do. He felt a lump in his throat. He did not like this order one bit.

The orders also told them that the 32^nd infantry division and their EHDs were being deployed shortly. Once deployed, they would take over the operation of clearing the city. A loop of endless thought ran through Thornton’s mind. “This is terrible; now they want us to kill any civilians being used as human shields? This is wrong on so many levels…but can we even survive if we don’t do something? Those PLA soldiers are a miserable excuse for humanity. How can they lead their own people to slaughter?”

Captain Thornton cleared his throat, and motioned for quiet. “Everyone, listen up. We just received a new set of orders from brigade. The PLA is not only deterring the civilians from leaving the area for safety; they are now actively pushing them out in front of their advance as human shields. The outer perimeter has already collapsed, and our forces are retreating. They will arrive our perimeter shortly. Brigade has just sent a FLASH message directly from General Gardner on orders from the President. We are to engage and kill any civilians being used as human shields.” There was an audible gasp in the room. “I know most of you may not like this idea; however, if we do not stop the PLA advance, we are all going to die. We need to hold our landing zone until reinforcements arrive.”

Pausing for a second to take a breath, he then continued, “I was just told the 32^nd infantry division is being deployed to our position, which means they will be delivering thousands of those new enhanced humanoid drones. Once they arrive, we are to let them advance and deal with the PLA and the civilians being used as human shields. They should start to reach us shortly, and will continue to come in until the entire division is here. Our LZ will be one of the primary locations they will be landing at. I know this mess about killing the civilians is beyond horrific, but we have a duty to do, and I need everyone to remember that our lives and those of every other American involved in this invasion is depending on us doing our jobs.”

With his new orders issued and his officers and NCOs acknowledging that they understood, Thornton went back up to the roof of the building he had been using as a headquarters since they first landed. As he arrived at the rooftop, he moved quickly to one of the corners, where several of his men had a heavy machinegun set up.

One of the soldiers looked at Captain Thornton and asked, “Sir, are we really supposed to mow down any civilians we see rushing towards our perimeter?” he probed, clearly distraught with the thought of killing unarmed innocents

Sighing for a second, Thornton sat down next to the Marines and looked each of them in the eye before responding, “These orders are the vilest thing I have ever been tasked with — shoot, the orders are illegal, and against the Laws of War and every rule of engagement we have ever been given or told. If I had my druthers, I’d refuse the order, just as I am sure many of you are thinking of doing. But here’s the deal…the PLA is doing this intentionally. They know our rules of engagement and are trying to use them against us. They are trying to make us second guess ourselves and then overwhelm us with their sheer numbers. We can’t let that happen. If we do, then everyone is going to die and this invasion will fail. We cannot let that happen,” he said, trying to justify what would traditionally be an illegal order.

The Marines thought about it for a few minutes before a young black Marine spoke up for the group, “None of us like these orders, but like you said, Sir, if we do not do it, we are all going to die and this invasion is going to fail. We’ll do it. We will follow your orders, Sir, and we’ll make sure the PLA does not overwhelm our position.” He spoke with such confidence and conviction that all of the other Marines nearby nodded their heads in agreement. This was the only course of action if they were to survive.

Captain Thornton got up slowly and left the machinegun crew to go talk with the other Marines in his Company. He wanted to make sure his soldiers understood the gravity of their situation. It took him close to thirty minutes to visit the majority of his men before the sounds of machinegun fire in the city began to creep closer and louder. Then, small clusters of Marines, first squads and then platoon size groups, began to fall back to their defensive line, shoring up Thornton’s position.

Less than ten minutes after the outer perimeter force fell back to Thornton’s location, the enemy soldiers started to show up. Looking down the street, Thornton’s stomach just sank as he saw throngs of people being forced forward by Chinese tanks, armored personnel vehicles and soldiers with bayonets on the ends of their rifles. It was disgusting to see how callous the PLA was in the treatment of their own people.

Thornton knew what needed to be done and knew he needed to lead by example if he wanted his men to follow such tough orders. While crouched down behind a barrier that his Marines were using, he raised his rifle, took aim and began to fire countless rounds on burst into the crowd of civilians being pushed towards his perimeter. He saw one, then two, then dozens of civilians drop to the ground, dead from his rounds. In seconds of firing his shots, the rest of his company and the Marines from the retreating group began to open fire as well.

A couple of his Marines on the roof tops began firing their anti-tank missiles at the PLA tanks rumbling towards them, taking several of them out. Thornton got on the radio and began calling in for naval gun support. Several Zumwalt destroyers off the coast began to rain down 155mm high explosive rounds across the streets where the PLA continued to lead their own people to slaughter. It was gruesome; thousands of civilians were being slain by the naval gun support and the machinegun fire of his Marines. In less than five minutes, most of the human shields were either dead or wounded, laying on the ground. The PLA infantry then began to advance, using their traditional human wave tactics. It did not take long before the Chinese soldiers were within grenade range, then both sides began to throw dozens of grenades at each other. As company-sized elements of PLA soldiers would rush forward after throwing a volley of grenades at the American lines, one of the Marines would detonate a series of claymore mines, obliterating most of the charging soldiers.

Just as Thornton thought their position was about to be overrun, he looked back to see two Razorbacks arrive on station. They quickly unleashed a torrent of anti-personnel rockets at the charging PLA soldiers, and then proceeded to land. They swiftly unloaded their payload of 16 EHDs each. The EHDs immediately ran towards the perimeter of the Marine positions and began to engage the Chinese soldiers. It was an overwhelming sight to take in — more than two dozen mechanical killing machines were running at full speed while delivering high-speed, accurate fire at the enemy. Once the Reapers reached the perimeter, they quickly advanced past it, with complete disregard for their own safety. The EHDs were after all, drones.

Many of them were being shot multiple times. Some would eventually have a leg or an arm shot off or those that were hit by larger caliber rifles might ultimately lose their head; However, the rest of them just moved forward at a quick pace, methodically killing everything that moved that did not have a friendly IIF. By the time the first group of EHDs had moved twenty meters in front of Thornton’s position, a second wave of drones landed and began to speedily reinforce the first group. Thornton’s men continued to provide fire support for the Reapers, but they were quite frankly in awe of how fast the enhanced humanoid drones were methodically killing and advancing forward.

Ten minutes after the first wave of EHDs had landed and began to make their presence known, the third wave of drones arrived. Thornton received word that a total of twelve waves of Reapers would be flown into his LZ before the end of the day. The rest would be landing at three of the five ports the Marines still had under their control (in the last 90 minutes, the Marines holding on to two of the ports had been overrun and wiped out).

By the end of the first day of the invasion, the Marines and EHDs had regained control of their original perimeter, recovered the two ports they had lost, and secured three more ports. The Reapers had also pushed the PLA back across the Yangtze River and secured most of Nantong. Of the 3,000 EHDs that had been deployed, some 823had been destroyed, but according to their kill counters, they had collectively killed over 33,000 enemy soldiers and nearly 113,000 civilians who had been intentionally placed in the line of fire.

Unfortunately, the Marine force that had landed in Yancheng had been wiped out before any EHDs from the 32^nd infantry division could be rushed forward to assist them. The Marines at Ningbo were nearly wiped out, but 500 Reapers arrived at the last minute. They had helped to create a big enough perimeter for additional forces to land. By the end of the day, some two thousand enhanced humanoid drones had landed at Ningbo and began to push further inland, leaving the Marines to clear the city and surrounding villages.

Sometime around 0230, Colonel Lee pulled up to Thornton’s position in one of the armored jeeps that had been brought ashore several hours earlier. His vehicle had been followed by seven Pershing battle tanks and thirteen Wolverines, which did not stop, but instead pushed beyond them, heading towards Nantong to support the EHDs before they moved across the river. Colonel Lee spotted Thornton walking out of his headquarters and approached him.

“Captain Thornton, we need to talk,” Colonel Lee declared.

“I see you brought some additional armor with you, Sir,” Captain Thornton replied as he observed the armored column moving past his post towards the enemy lines.

Colonel Lee looked at the armored column briefly, then his eyes settled on the enormous amount of dead bodies surrounding Captain Thornton’s position. He could tell they had been hit hard earlier and somehow managed to hold out long enough for the EHDs to land and help them regain control of the area.

Looking Thornton in the eyes, Colonel Lee said, “Captain Thornton, your Company did an amazing job today. You not only held your perimeter against multiple enemy assaults throughout the last 24 hours. You beat back their advances and held on to perhaps the most important LZ in the Shanghai area. I wanted you to know I’m putting you in for a medal again, for you and your men.” Lee heaped some much-deserved praise on his best company commander.

“Thank you for the words of encouragement, but my men and I were just doing our jobs,” he replied feeling almost embarrassed by the adulation and, more importantly, guilty about what they had done to ensure they held their position. “We held, Sir, but I lost a lot of good Marines today. We also killed a lot of civilians, something my men and I were not at all comfortable with.”

“I know. It was a terrible order they issued, but you executed it flawlessly and because of that, you probably saved the entire invasion force in Nantong. If your position had fallen, we would have lost the last three ports and most likely the other LZ,” the colonel asserted, reaffirming the gallant effort of Thornton’s men.

Colonel Lee sighed. “Look, I’m here for more than just a social call and to tell you how good you and your men did today. As you know, we took a tremendous number of casualties. Two of my three battalions were completely wiped out, one at the north port and the other at LZ Liberty. I’ve also lost all three of my battalion commanders. Shoot — the division Commander was killed, and I’m now the most senior officer in the division. On my way over here, I was informed by General Black, the invasion force CG, that I’m being promoted to Brigadier General (BG), effective immediately; they want me to take over command of Third Marines.”

There was a brief pause as Lee allowed Thornton a second to digest before continuing. “As I said earlier, most of the senior officers have been killed; of the three brigades that we have in the division, I’m the only O6 still able to fight. I only have two of thirteen Lieutenant Colonels who are not wounded and able to fight. I’m promoting both of them to full Colonel to take over their brigades. Right now, your brigade has no commander, and your XO was just killed thirty minutes ago. Therefore, I’m promoting you effective immediately to Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) to take over command of your battalion. I’ll send out the official orders to everyone in your battalion shortly.” As he finished his speech, he handed Captain Thornton his new silver oakleaf rank insignias.

Thornton just stood there dumbfounded for a second; then, snapping out of his stupor, he reached out his hand and took the silver oakleaves from BG Lee. They both took a moment to put their new ranks on before Thornton spoke. “Sir, I do not know what to say. I had never thought I would rise above Captain, having been just promoted less than a year ago. What are my orders?”

BG Lee looked at Thornton for a second, then responded, “Look, Joe, I know you are still new to being an officer, and there is a lot you do not understand about being a Lieutenant Colonel, or what is expected of you at your rank and position. You are a fighter. Right now, that is all I need you to be. As we get more reinforcements, I’ll get you a good XO who has experience and that can help you with the administrative parts of being a battalion commander. Right now, I want you to get your battalion organized. Find out how many soldiers you have left that are able to fight, see what equipment you have, where everyone is located, and then send your request for replacements to my staff. I will do my best to get you fully staffed.”

Still in a bit of shock, LTC Thornton responded the only way he knew how to. “Yes, Sir.” Then, wanting to get on with the business at hand, he inquired, “Where do you want me to deploy?”

BG Lee smiled. “That’s the man I need…we have reinforcements coming in constantly; I’m going to start syphoning some of them off and will send them your way to get you back up to strength. Have your unit camp out in your headquarters building and give them some rest. As new units arrive, they will be sent here. Unless something drastic changes, I’ll contact you in six hours with your new order. In the meantime, I need to find out what shape the rest of the division is in.”

“Yes, Sir,” responded LTC Thornton.

BG Lee shook Thornton’s hand one last time, then turned around and walked back towards his armored vehicle and drove off to the next unit.

Thornton stood there for a second, trying to comprehend everything that had just happened. The division must really have been hit hard for them to have promoted Lee to BG and him to LTC. Finally, he shrugged, then turned around and began to walk back into his headquarters building. As soon as he got back to his operations center, he brought everyone else up to speed on his conversation with BG Lee. He also promoted several of his lieutenants to captains and the one other captain to major. He also informed his First Sergeant that he was now the battalion Sergeant Major, until another one showed up.

Over the next hour, Thornton got the rest of his battalion relocated to his position and bedded down for some sleep. As new reinforcements continued to arrive, about a third of them were being syphoned off and sent to his position as replacements, just as BG Lee had suggested. When Lee got back in touch with him later in the day, his battalion had received enough replacements to bring them back up to 85 % strength. The Marines had been told to stand fast in their current positions while the rest of the 32^nd infantry division’s EHDs continued to advance across the Yangtze River.

The Air Force was bombing the enemy positions into oblivion. Between the Air Force and the Naval guns off-shore, the enemy was under continuous bombardment. By the end of the third day of the invasion, the Allies had secured a solid foothold around the Shanghai area and had begun to offload thousands of tanks and other armored vehicles. Hundreds of artillery units began to arrive, and started to add their own muscle to the offensive against the enemy positions. By day five, the Allies had the entire city and the surrounding area of Shanghai completely cut off. Tens of thousands of Allied ground forces were arriving every hour through the ports, beaches, landing zones and at the one airport they had managed to secure.

The Allies had also lost a tremendous number of soldiers. Nearly 68,000 soldiers had been killed, and nearly four times that number wounded. Not all the wounded needed to be evacuated; many could continue to fight on. The Allies had also lost several thousand EHDs, a loss that was going to affect the next several invasions. Because of the daily Allied losses, General Gardner postponed the Taiwan invasion for at least two months. Until the situation in the Shanghai area could be further stabilized, he needed to hold those forces in reserve. The PLA was throwing everything they had at his invasion force in Shanghai, trying to both break the siege and destroy the Allied landing force. However, their forces in Shanghai were trapped and were daily being pounded from the air, sea and ground artillery.