Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

Convergence

The Japanese were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Major Cruse’s group, Angels’ Flight, made up of F-41 Archangels. They could have a fighting chance against them, but it would all depend on the Americans playing into their little ruse. Most stealth fighter planes do not engage their radar, because doing so would make them visible to other planes in the area; instead, they usually utilize the services of Navy ships with high-powered radar or dedicated planes that fly above to send verbal messages to them when an enemy is spotted (commonly referred to as AWACs). The JDF needed the Americans to believe that they would be functioning as their AWACs in order to get them to share their GPS locations and make them an easy target.

Katoshi Abe, one of the JDF radar officers, established connection with Major Cruse in an effort to finalize this plan. “Angels’ Flight, this is Aries Five. We are going to be your airborne radar and controller. Please acknowledge.”

“Aries Five, this is Major Cruse, Angels’ Flight. We acknowledge; can you please send us a view of the region?” Without their radar on, Major Cruse and his flight really had no idea of what was in the area.

The AWAC operator send them a datalink showing a large group of PLAN aircraft starting to assemble over their fleet, probably preparing to attack the JDF fleet again. It looked like a squadron of F35s from the JDF fleet were assembling to help the Americans engage them as well.

“Angels’ Flight, you are directed to link up with the F35s and provide air support and missile defense for the fleet. Please acknowledge,” said the Japanese radar operator.

“I acknowledge. Angels’ Flight moving to join the fleet defense; please keep us updated with radar images.” Major Cruse wanted to ensure they had a steady datalink of what the AWACs were seeing in real-time. As they moved closer to the Japanese fleet, they could see a lot of dark smoke coming from the fleet location. Without having any reason to be suspicious at this point, Major Cruse assumed that the smoke was from battle damage the fleet had suffered (instead, the JDF fleet was busy generating black smoke in order to make it appear that they had been damaged).

Cruse addressed his flight, knowing that his enthusiastic fighter jocks were itching for a fight. “All right, listen up guys, we are going to provide missile defense for the fleet down there; you can see they already took a lot of hits, so let’s do our best to make sure they don’t take any more. Also, if you can get a shot off at any of the PLAN aircraft that get in range, take it. Let’s move Angels, and make these guys pay.”

As they moved into position, Major Cruse saw F35s moving forward; he assumed they were there to engage the PLAN aircraft as they maneuvered to their own positions. Unknown to him, as they continued forward, another flight of F35s took off from the carrier below and maneuvered behind them. Suddenly, without warning, the F35s fired multiple missiles at them. Within milliseconds, several of the ships below them launched rockets at them as well.

Major Cruse’s missile alarms were jarringly loud, jolting him into a reality that he never imagined. The electronic countermeasures on his F41 turned on automatically and performed minor technological miracles to try and jam the enemy missiles. When Cruse regained his senses, he frantically radioed his flight, “Angel Flight, this was a trap! Try to get away and fly back to the rally point two-hundred miles away!”

As Major Cruse began to engage his EmDrive, his aircraft shook ferociously; he had been hit by one of the F35’s machine guns. He turned his aircraft hard and went to maximum speed just as several missiles whistled past his aircraft. He activated his rear-view camera so that he could look at the scene behind him as he flew away; he almost immediately regretted this decision because he witnessed three of his fighter pilots murdered in the blazing flames created by the missile swarms. Another one of the Archangels took several hits and began to smoke badly as it spiraled down to the sea; fortunately, he did see the pilot eject, and the chute opened. However, if he were not killed by the Japanese, he would become a prisoner of war, which was not a fate he wished upon anyone. Only one other F41 was able to escape the fray and join him at the rally point. Stunned, they immediately terminated their links with the JDF fleet and AWACs.

“What the blazes just happened, Cruiser? They just blew our guys right out of the air!” exclaimed Flapjack, the only other pilot to escape.

“I have no idea — I think my aircraft is hit, but I’m not showing any warning signs. Do you see any damage?” asked Major Cruse, concerned that his aircraft might not make it back home.

Scanning Major Cruse’s aircraft, Flapjack replied, “I see a couple of bullet holes along the wing, but it does not look like they hit anything critical. I’d suggest that you not go hypersonic right now though, just in case it might rip the wing off.”

Cruiser signed in relief.

“Can we go back and engage those guys? We can easily take out a lot of those JDF fighters.”

Major Cruse took a second to think through his response. “No, we need to head back to base and quick. Without an AWACs, we have to light up our radars to see them. The last thing I want to do is let the PLAN and JDF know our location again. Our advantage has always been our speed and ability to go unseen.”

Major Cruse was still a little stunned and shaken by what had just transpired, and it occurred to him that he could have died. That was the closest he had ever come to being blown up or shot down, and it really rattled him. For a moment, he was lost in his thoughts before he could focus on the task at hand. A world passed by in a moment before he resumed giving out orders. “We need to get a message back to headquarters of what just happened. They need to know that the JDF fleet is hostile, that we lost four F41s, and we are now returning back to the base.”

“Major, if they can get an AWAC up over California, I could stay airborne and try to reengage them,” replied Flapjack, eager for revenge.

“No Captain,” replied Cruse. “I won’t allow you to go back on your own…that would be a suicide mission. We’ve lost enough men today.”