Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

All is Not Quiet on the Western Front

The war in the Middle East ground to a halt shortly after the New Year. The Islamic Republic had several governing districts secede from the nation, taking Egypt and all of the African provinces and regrouping them to form the North African Confederation. The new country was led by a liberal Muslim leader who wanted nothing to do with the Caliph and his radical brand of Islam. Their leader denounced the actions committed by Caliph Mohammed, and bemoaned that the world had been led to war, that 300 million Muslims had died, and that the Kaaba had been destroyed.

The new North African Confederation immediately sought a separate peace agreement with the United States and Israel, and were granted one. Their new focus was on restoring order and communications throughout the country and reestablishing food supplies to their starving and dying nation. Tens of millions of people had been left homeless and destitute from the nuclear attack America had rained down on them. Fallout was everywhere, and the transportation system was a mess. Most of the region had also suffered from electromagnetic pulse damage as well, further complicating their recovery.

Millions were being relocated to Cairo now that the radiation from the neutron bomb had dissipated, alleviating some of the displacement crisis. Aside from the EMP damage, the infrastructure in Cairo had been largely left intact. Of course, there were over ten million dead and decomposing bodies throughout the city that needed to removed and either buried or burned. The city had been abandoned for nearly a month after the bomb went off; now it was being repopulated as refugees poured in from around the country.

The rest of the IR continued the war, along with the Russians and Chinese. Neither side wanted to commit additional forces to capturing Israel and removing the Americans from the region, nor did they want to admit defeat. The war had settled into static lines, with trenches and fixed positions being developed. Israel had regained its original territory, plus a ten-mile buffer zone inside of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Sinai, along with the Suez Canal. The Chinese reinforced their position and maintained 290,000 troops in the region, while Russia had withdrawn troops and left 310,000 in place while they focused their efforts on Europe.

The US continued to maintain a force of 560,000 troops in Israel and assisted the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in training the hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world that had joined the IDF militia forces. As the militia units became more proficient, they were integrated directly into the IDF. The US had also been providing the IDF with thousands of older military vehicles and equipment from the various Army boneyards. The equipment was not modern by any means, but it was free, armored, and still functional enough to shoot and kill with it.

The IR still possessed nearly one million troops in and around Amman; the civilian volunteers that had swelled their ranks to nearly three million a few months prior had been transferred into the regular army and were in various training facilities spread throughout the Republic. The IR was still committed to the war; they just were not actively fighting or looking to advance conflict until they were able to rebuild their army and air defense capability.

Through the help of the militias, the IDF had swelled to over 800,000 soldiers. The Allies’ plan was to restart offensive operations at the end of spring, allowing the Israelis enough time to fully equip and train their forces. This time they would defeat the IR, and finally knock them out of the war entirely.

Europe, on the other hand, was a complete mess. Aside from nearly two months of blizzards, the Russians had captured Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia, Slovenia, half of the Czech Republic and nearly all of Poland. The fight now was centered in Austria, Germany and Croatia. The Americans had finally been able to get enough troops sent to Europe to aid the EU in stopping the Russians, but they lacked the military equipment to push the Russians back and liberate the captured territory. Britain had succeeded in stopping the Russians from capturing Iceland or being able to push their fleet out into the North Atlantic, but were unable to do much to stop the Russians from capturing the Scandinavian countries of Finland and Sweden. They were still fighting the Russians in Norway with the Norwegian military, and had managed to bog the Russians down. The British had also transferred two armored divisions to Europe to help in the defense of the continent.

China had captured all of Southeast Asia and was invading Malaysia and the Philippines. They had left the Koreans alone, according to their agreement, at least for now. Japan remained neutral, despite their insistence they were going to join the war. American human intelligence sources had learned that Japan planned on staying out of the war for at least another six months. They had drafted two million conscripts that needed training; they were also finalizing the completion of a dozen missile cruisers and two additional carriers. President Stein was not convinced, and had ordered the military to do what they could to move as much armor and heavy equipment from Japan to Alaska. The goal was to relocate close to 70 % of US Forces from Japan to shore up the Alaskan defense.

Under the advisement of his national security team, President Stein began to build up the defenses in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. China had successfully captured everything they wanted in the Pacific, with the exception of Australia. It was believed by the intelligence community that they may turn their sights towards Alaska and the Pacific Northwest instead of Australia. The Chinese needed oil, natural gas and mineral resources to fuel their economy. These were all items the US had in abundance in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The military had moved the newly created American First Army (which would consist of 750,000 troops once they completed their military training) to the Pacific coast of the country. As more soldiers completed their military training, they would form the Second Army, which would consist of 750,000 soldiers and move to cover Alaska and the Pacific Northwest as a deterrent to any potential Chinese aggression.

The United States as a whole was still recovering from the loss of New York City and Baltimore. Most of the residents that needed to be relocated had been moved to new cities around the country or to various temporary lodging established by FEMA to help the victims. The weather, of course, was causing all sorts of logistical and recovery problems. Despite the challenges, the government and the American people were determined to help each other and to recover from this horrific attack.

The economy was one of the few bright spots. The US had reached as close to full employment as possible with the massive rebuilding of the Armed Forces and the thousands of infrastructure and construction projects across the country. With the loss of Manhattan and large chunks of New York listed as a hot zone, a new city needed to be built. Several sites were being considered for ‘New Manhattan,’ but nothing had been settled upon just yet. In addition to the thousands of construction projects, the military was still recruiting heavily and would swell to over eight million personnel, with another three million more to enter service by the end of the following year.

Wall Street had moved its operations to Chicago, consolidating with the Chicago Mercantile exchange. More importantly, people had jobs, and overall, they were high paying jobs as the economy continued to roar. With the loss of trade between the US and China, there was an enormous demand for products and consumer goods that used to be produced in Asia and now needed to be produced at home in the US (and to a large extent, South America and England).

As the boom continued, the provinces in Mexico began to return to normal and stabilized. There were still incidents of violence and guerrilla activity, but the Mexican people had good, high paying jobs due to the numerous infrastructure projects, and really began to see an improvement in their own communities as a result. This made it more difficult for the insurgency to continue as more and more people realized they did not want to go back to the way it used to be prior to the Americans getting involved. Their lives and the lives of their children were now significantly better than they had been under the old Mexican regime.

The FBI, US Marshal Service and the DOJ had completely revamped their entire police training program, and with significant assistance from several private contracting companies, were training 10,000 new police officers per month in Mexico. These new police officers were given mentors from American law enforcement to help guide them, and they learned how to develop a good community presence and a working relationship that was absent of the corruption that was so rampant under the old regime. There were large rewards issued for individuals that the intelligence community had identified as criminal and insurgent leaders, which placed additional pressure on those causing trouble.

Throughout the recovery, the US government continued to operate underground until the threat of a potential Russian nuclear attack was defused. President Stein and President Fradkov agreed to keep the war conventional. However, just as the government was about relocate back to the White House, several Spetsnaz teams began to attack older Presidential bunkers, and even managed to kill a number of high ranking Congressional leaders.

The attack on the Vice President had infuriated the American public. The U.S. had had enough of the attacks against their political leaders and civilians; most people had now resorted to openly carrying firearms, making it more challenging for law enforcement to determine if an attack was about to happen or there was just a group of armed citizens protecting their families as they went to the Mall. With assistance from the Trinity program, several Spetsnaz teams were rooted out, and eventually captured or killed. Now that the threat was reduced, the President wanted the government to relocate back to Washington D.C. on April 1st. It was time to return the government functions back to the Capital.

The administration’s secretive Trinity program was proving to be the most complex and intrusive surveillance program ever developed. It had identified over 12,000 foreign agents operating in the US in one capacity or another, and enabled the FBI and DHS to apprehend these individuals, limiting their covert actions. The level of crime across the country had also dropped immensely as police were now receiving accurate and timely shared intelligence from the Trinity targeting data for specific high crime activities across the nation, such as murders, rapes and gang-related violence.

As the President walked through the hallway on his way to the last national security briefing in the HIVE, he couldn’t help but think to himself how silly it had been for him to have initiated the COG and moved the entire government underground. Between the political assassinations and terrorist attacks, it seemed like the right decision at the time. Perhaps it was the right call, but maybe they should have returned to Washington sooner. President Stein walked into the Situation Room and signaled for everyone to remain seated while he walked around and took his seat at the head of the table.

“Let’s get this meeting started. Where do things stand in Europe?” asked the President, looking at General Branson.

“Yes, Mr. President. General Wade is currently on track to start his spring offensive. He’s received 2,500 M1A4 battle tanks that we took out of mothball and refurbished, adding to the 4,000 he currently has. He also received our latest supply of Pershing tanks straight from the factory. He now has 900 Pershing tanks, which should be more than enough for his army groups to push the Russians back,” General Branson explained.

“Our latest round of basic training recruits has also arrived in Germany; our troop count in Germany now stands at 1.2 million, divided into two Armies, although we are still extremely short on combat vehicles and other war materials. The bulk of those soldiers are being leveraged as light infantry for the time being.”

The President smiled and realized that for the first time in the last three months they were finally going to hit the Russians and push them out of Western Europe. This war was devastating the EU, and so was the war with China. Global trade and shipping had all but stopped, with all sides sinking each other’s shipping. “This is excellent news general, please let General Wade know he is to begin his offensive as soon as he believes they are ready. I want the Russians pushed out of Poland by the end of summer,” commanded the President.

Secretary of State Jim Wise jumped into the conversation to add, “Mr. President, I have news about Japan that I believe we should discuss. It may change some plans in Europe.”

Everyone turned to look at Jim and then to the President. “Ok, then please go ahead Jim, and let us know what you have heard from them,” the President said.

“Mr. President, the Japanese told me they have a high level agent in the PLAN, and this agent passed along some information about a future operation the PLAN is currently preparing to execute. Their agent said the PLAN has relocated most of their amphibious assault crafts and troop carriers to the East China Sea for a big amphibious assault.”

“Are the Chinese finally going to move against the Japanese?” inquired the President. He was thinking it would be poetic justice if Japan was invaded and then asked for help just as the U.S. had demanded that the Japanese abide by the mutual defense pact, which they had so far failed to do.

“No, Mr. President. The Chinese have explicitly told the Japanese they would be invaded if they do not remain neutral in the war. Right now the Japanese are content to remain neutral, and the Chinese are content to let them stay that way for the time being. What their agent said is that the Chinese are planning a massive naval assault against Alaska and the Pacific Northwest,” Jim said, a bit anxious about the information he was sharing.

General Branson jumped in and asked “Do we know where in Alaska they are planning to invade or how many troops will be involved?”

“Before I answer that, the news does get worse. The Russians will also be sending an expeditionary force of 250,000 troops as well. The Chinese, on the other hand, are going to be invading with an army of five million soldiers. They told me the primary target for the Russians is Nome, Alaska, while the Chinese will be going for the port facilities at Seward before advancing on Anchorage and then on to the state of Yukon, British Columbia, and Washington State.”

General Branson sat back and thought for a minute about what had just been said, as did the President. “This does change the picture in Europe, doesn’t it General Branson?” inquired the President.

“Yes, Mr. President, it does. General Wade’s offensive will need to rely on a steady supply of reinforcements from the States as recruits finish basic training. He will also require a steady supply of armor and other military vehicles. If we are shipping everything from the production line to Europe and his forces, then we will not have the equipment or force needed here to defend the Homeland,” General Branson said, ensuring he looked everyone in the eye to confirm that they understood exactly how bad this threat really was.

Sighing deeply, the President asked, “How much time do we have before this planned invasion, and what is the CIA’s assessment of this?”

Director Rubio spoke up, “The CIA does believe the information to be credible. The various troop movements, ships and so on is consistent with preparations for an invasion. As to the timeline, the Japanese source says it will happen within the next 30 to 45 days. Our sources also believe that timeline is accurate as well.”

“Then we do not have much time, do we?” pondered the President aloud. “What are your suggestions gentlemen?”

General Branson signaled to speak first, saying, “Mr. President, I recommend we move quickly to get as much of our equipment and troops out of Japan and to Alaska as possible. We also have 400,000 new recruits coming out of basic and advanced training in two weeks. I move that we send them all to Alaska and begin building up the defenses. We will also need to move additional mobile laser systems and mobile railguns once the roads start to clear from the snow. These blasted blizzards are really hurting our ability to build up any sort of defenses.”

General Rice the Air Force Chief of Staff added, “We have 400 fighter drones being delivered from the factory next week. I will order all of them to Alaska. That will bring our manned aircraft to 300 fighters and our fighter drones to 1,100. I know the Navy has been hit pretty hard, but if they can focus their subs in the Alaskan waters that would greatly aid our defense.”

Admiral Juliano knew he had to do something; his submarine force has been getting hammered. The Chinese had sunken five submarines in the last three weeks in the South Pacific. “I can transfer three subs from the South Pacific, but that is about it. I only have seven operational attack submarines in the Pacific; I’ve lost twelve subs in the last three months, five in the last three weeks. I can move three of our cruise missile subs, but with the laser defense systems that they have, I am not convinced they will be very effective. Right now they are causing havoc, hitting their shipping lanes, which of course are less protected than their carrier fleets.”

Knowing he needed to offer more, Admiral Juliano decided this meeting was a good time to bring everyone up to date on a secret navy initiative to reclaim the waters of the Pacific. Taking a deep breath before continuing, Admiral Juliano explained, “There is a new weapon that we have been developing for some time that we believe could be a game changer. It’s our new Swordfish Underwater Drone or SUD. It’s going to be the first of what we hope to be many UDs we are currently developing—”

The President interjected to ask, “—Is this something that can or will be able to deployed in the next thirty days?”

“Yes, Mr. President. We have two of them completed; one of them just completed its test trial and is currently being moved to Anchorage as we speak.”

“I think I was briefed about this when it was still a concept. Can you bring us up to speed on this Admiral Juliano?” asked the Secretary of Defense.

Juliano opened a file on his tablet and began to play several test videos and demos of how the new weapon would work. “Essentially, the SUD is an underwater Reaper Drone. It has a speed of 70 knots, a depth of 2,000 meters, and an unlimited range. It carries eight of our new advanced anti-ship torpedoes.”

The President raised his hand for the Admiral to pause for a second and interpolated, “Tell me more about these anti-ship torpedoes and how they are different than the ones we are currently using on our submarines.”

Knowing the President might ask this, Admiral Juliano pulled up the dimensions of the current torpedoes and the new torpedoes. “As you can see, the newer torpedoes are much smaller, about 1/3 the size of the current torpedoes, but they are significantly faster and have a much longer range. The newer torpedoes have a 60-mile range giving the attacking submarine, or in this case SUD, a much higher survival rate. The newer torpedo uses a new detonation chemical component which makes the torpedo three times as explosive. It also uses a much newer AI targeting software, so once the torpedo is launched, it has the approximate GPS and depth of the target it was fired at and proceeds towards it without an active sonar. Once the torpedo gets within two miles of the target’s last known position, it activates its sonar, but at that range, it’s too late for the target to evade.”

“This new torpedo sounds amazing,” the President said. “So, how are we going to make use of it now?” asked the President, eager to find a way to employ it quickly.

“We still have a few bugs to work out in the new torpedo. Some of them have been failing to detonate on impact; we are not 100 % sure what is causing the failure, but we hope to have it worked out over the next few months. As to why they are not on our current subs, presently the torpedo does not fit on them. Our new submarines being built going forward are going to use the newer torpedo, which we are calling the Hammerhead. The SUDs will also use the Hammerhead, and so will our anti-submarine helicopters and aircraft starting at the end of the month. We presently only have a small stockpile, and they have been allocated for the two SUDs that we have,” the Admiral said, while going over the inventory numbers and the projected monthly delivery numbers from the factory.

“How soon could we retrofit our existing fleet of submarines to use them?” asked General Branson.

“We are already working on that right now; the older Los Angeles attack submarines that we are taking out of mothball are having their torpedo tubes retrofitted to use the Hammerheads while they are in dry docks getting the rest of their upgrades completed. The timing of this works out well because they needed to be in dry dock to have their sound proofing upgraded, along with their propeller screws. We anticipate having eight of them ready for service starting in June and will have eight more a month coming into service until all forty-four have been brought out of mothball,” the Admiral said with a smile.

The President smiled from ear to ear and said, “Admiral this is great news. Absolutely wonderful. How many of the new SUDs are going to be coming online per month as well?”

“We have the first two right now; we are supposed to receive a total of eighty of them over the next three years. I am working with the contracting company to expedite them, but some of the materials needed for them are also being heavily used by the Pershings.”

General Branson jumped in to say, “We will have to stick to that timeline then Admiral. The Pershings are far too important right now to cut back on their production. The Chinese and Russians both have a new MBT coming online soon that we have not seen yet.”

“I have to agree with the general on this one Admiral; we will have to stick to the timeline the manufacturer is giving you then. I’m not ready to shift resources away from the Pershings. We are still working on solving the material problem,” The President concurred.

The Admiral paused for a moment, not sure if he should bring up the following topic or not. “I had heard from one of my science advisors that some of the rare materials that we use in the new armor for the Pershings can actually be found on the Moon in the asteroids. If that is the case, then is there any way we can collectively find a way to acquire more of it? I mean, if this material is so rare and yet so vital to our military equipment, how can we obtain more of it so we can ramp up our production?” asked Juliano, hoping he didn’t sound crazy.

The President was actually surprised to hear the Admiral ask this question, and clearly wanted to discuss this more, but his own science advisor was not in the room to facilitate that discussion. “You bring up a good point. I believe we will have to have that discussion at a later date when I can bring in the chief scientist who is leading that effort presently. Professor Rickenbacker is at one of our other facilities right now.”

Turning to look at Monty, the President directed, “Monty, arrange for a special science briefing with the Professor to bring us up to speed on some of the new technologies they have been working on. Let’s see if we can do this sometime next week. Also, gentlemen, this meeting that you will be invited to will be “eye’s only.” No aides, no notes and no recording devices,” the President said secretively.

A chorus of “Yes Sir” could be heard as the President turned back to General Branson. He wanted to continue with the briefing. “Gentlemen, we have limited resources right now; we need to figure out how we are going to defend Alaska and British Columbia. If the Chinese are able to establish a base of operations and a foothold there, they will flood troops and material in by the millions, positioning them to invade the rest of the country. We need to buy time until we can produce more military equipment and get more recruits through training” the President directed.

General Branson pulled up some maps of some different areas in Alaska and began to address the group, saying, “We may need to give ground to buy more time. We can plan on putting up one blistering attack and try to prevent the initial landings, but if they are successful then we will need to pull our forces back and try to turn this into an asymmetrical war of attrition. We are building multiple layers to our defensive lines throughout Alaska and British Columbia, but as you know, the blizzards have been hampering this effort a lot.”

“One good note — we have the training facilities up and running, turning out a hundred thousand soldiers a month for the South American Expeditionary Force. We anticipate having this force ready for deployment as its own Army by the end of summer. If the situation warrants it, then we can use them in Alaska instead of Europe,” General Branson said, sounding very optimistic about their chances in Alaska and the overall war effort.

“We still need to make a decision on Europe. Do we continue with our offensive in the spring or do we continue a defensive action and focus on Alaska?” asked the Secretary of Defense.

The President knew a decision about Europe and the Middle East needed to be made, so he took charge. “I want General Wade to hold off on his offensive. Tell him to hold in place. This will give the EU more time to grow their military and their military manufacturing capability. Use everything that we have to hold Germany and keep the Russians at bay. If General Wade believes he needs to launch a limited offensive to do that then he may, but unless the entire Russian front falls apart, he is to hold Germany and not get sucked into Eastern Europe. Tell General Gardner he is to proceed with his offensive. I want the IR knocked out of the war so we can focus on these other theaters. Once his heavy combat operations are done and it moves to an occupation, we can look to move some of his heavier armor units to Europe and bolster our forces there.”

Everyone in the room rose as the President stood up to leave the room, and quickly began putting into motion the plans they had just discussed.