Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

Before the Law Takes a Break

President Stein was walking towards the Situation Room with Monty, talking about the recent success in the Middle East and concerned with the situation developing in Asia. As the President sat down, the meeting began quickly. General Branson kicked things off.

“Mr. President, I would like to start the briefing by going over the situation in the Middle East first, then transition to Europe and end with Asia.”

The President smiled and nodded towards General Branson for him to continue.

“The Israelis have the Chinese army surrounded, although intelligence shows another large Chinese naval force approaching the port of Kuwait. It would appear they are going to offload another large army group, but they will not be able to form quickly enough to help their comrades. The IDF Commander has asked if we may be able to help them by taking possession and control of the Chinese prisoners once they have surrendered,” General Branson said as he looked to the President for guidance.

Henry looked up from his notes and said, “Convey to the Israelis that we will take possession of the prisoners, but we request that they provide at least half of the security force needed to guard them. We will look to relocate the prisoners back to the US until the end of the war. I would like Attorney General Roberts to identify suitable locations for us to intern them.”

AG Roberts wrote a couple of quick notes before looking up and asking, “Am I to assume I can use them to help build these facilities as well?”

“Yes, use them as you see fit; let’s put them to work on the various projects that need to be done. Perhaps we should use them to help with the salvage and cleanup operations in New York and Baltimore,” the President directed.

“Yes, Mr. President. My office will work with the rest of the NSC team to find the best use for them,” the AG said finishing a few notes.

General Branson resumed his brief. “In the north, the Russians are caught between a rock and a hard place. Their supply lines have been cut off, along with the fastest routes of retreat. They have also pulled their MiG40s back to bases in Turkey, so they are not able to smother our aircraft and the frontlines like they had previously done. Our fighter bombers are now going after any and all fuel tankers we can find to further limit their options.”

General Gardner, who was attending the briefing via the holograph, interjected, “Mr. President, I am moving the last of my reserves to finish encircling their army. Once we have them surrounded, it will then be a matter of tightening the noose and forcing them to surrender. I firmly believe when the Russians capitulate, the IR is going to collapse quickly. We will finally be able to start to apply more direct pressure to them. The issue we are running into right now (and it is starting to become a serious one) is munitions. We are running out of artillery rounds and heavy machine gun ammunition.”

“Another point of order I need to address is equipment — not for my army group but for the IDF. Reinforcements are pouring into Israel from all over the world; their numbers are really starting to swell. As they finish additional IDF training, they are being filtered into the rest of the line units; however, they do not have the gear that they need. Is there any additional armor, artillery and rifles we can equip them with?” asked General Gardner, looking for support.

Eric Clarke, the Secretary of Defense, spoke up, “We are working on the munition problem right now. We have twelve aircraft that should be arriving from Europe with ordinance, and about ten freighters a couple of days later. That’s the best we can do. To address your equipment problem, we are going through the various vehicle and aircraft boneyards, refurbishing everything and getting them combat ready. Most of the equipment is dated, but it will still work, and it will still kill well enough. As for rifles, we are cranking out M5 AIRs and HUDs at a high rate, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Gardner’s face softened a bit, knowing that his needs were going to be met. “Any equipment we can get them, they will use. Thank you for the emergency resupply of artillery rounds.”

General Branson regained the President’s attention. “I’d like to move on to Europe. As of right now, we have the Russians stopped at the German border and in Austria. They have taken the Czech Republic and the entire Balkan region, with the exception of most of Albania and Greece. It was a real slaughter though in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Romania; their armies virtually collapsed. The Russians were not taking a lot of prisoners. We may have to fall back further into Germany if the EU is not able to get additional reinforcements to the frontlines.”

The President was curious what the issue was, since the fighting was taking place on the continent and not having to move troops nearly as far as the US was having to. “What is the hold up? Why is it taking them so long to get troops to the frontlines?” asked the President.

Branson sighed before continuing, “The issue is, they are keeping a large force near Brussels and the French border. It is as if they are already anticipating losing Germany and working on their next line of defense.”

“General Wade, what are your thoughts?” asked the President. General Wade, the SACEUR Commander in Brussels, was also attending the briefing via the 3D holograph.

“Sir, General Branson summed it up well. The Germans are fighting ferociously to keep the Russians out of their border along with the Dutch, but the rest of the EU forces, mainly the French, Belgians and Spanish, are digging in a secondary defensive line along the German/French, Belgian and Dutch borders. I’m having a hard time getting Chancellor Lowden to release the French, Belgium and Spanish Armies. They are also holding the Spanish forces in northern Italy, despite their needs up north.”

“What about the British, are they able to commit any forces to the continent?” asked the President curiously.

General Wade sighed again and said, “Unfortunately no. They have already committed three armored divisions with 70,000 troops. They have 25,000 soldiers in Iceland right now, and their main focus is on protecting the North Atlantic, Greenland-Iceland gap. The Russians have made numerous naval attempts to break through, but thus far have been repulsed. Their ground force is only about 250,000 soldiers. They have another 250,000 in training but it will take time before they are ready. Right now their main concern is defending their Island and the fighting in Norway — not the continent.”

President Stein knew this was going to be a problem long before the war started. “Generals, we knew this was a possibility; the EU army does not have a history of working together or being ready to defend their homeland. General Wade, how long can your forces hold out?” asked the President.

“If the Russians do not push hard, we can hold for a while longer. The problem we are facing is that the warm weather of summer almost certainly signals a new Russian offensive; once that happens we will most likely have to fall back. I believe we can make a stand at the French border, but there is no way we can hold all of Germany if the Russians really come at us,” General Wade responded, knowing this may not have been the answer the President wanted to hear.

“Thank you for your candor. I’m going to place a call to PM Blair and see if I can convince him to commit some additional forces to help you out. In the meantime, I want you to plan on a delaying defensive action if you do have to retreat through Germany. Make sure they pay for every yard, and then hold the line in France if that is what it comes down to. As you know, we have millions of men and women in training. We will have the force necessary to recapture whatever they take in time. I also want you to try and override the Chancellor and get those French and other forces into the fight. Remind them that they are part of NATO, and those forces fall under NATO Command and control, not national command and control,” said the President forcefully. “If I have to get involved, I will, but I would like this to get sorted out at the NATO level without me having to threaten them in order to get them involved in the war.”

General Branson saw the President was clearly getting incensed with the EU Chancellor, and wanted to change topics quickly before the President went down one of his anti-European tangents. He quickly changed the holograph maps to display the North Pacific, with a number of areas highlighted on it. “Mr. President, moving to Asia — the Chinese are nearly ready to make their move on Alaska. The intelligence we have seen from our sources and drones in Japan have identified six of their supercarriers and hundreds of additional ships and transports. At this point, it is only a matter of time before they set sail for Alaska. It’s about a two-week journey by sea once they leave. At present, the Navy has strung some of the approaches with mines, and we are mining all of the potential harbors and landing zones.”

The invasion of Alaska was a near certainty; the question had been when it would occur. It now appeared that the invasion would take place sometime in May of 2041, which meant that the Chinese would want to try and complete their operation before the end of the summer season. The President knew that if the Chinese were able to establish a secured foothold throughout the winter, then they would use it to launch their next offensive down into the rest of the country in the spring of ‘42.

The President had ordered nearly 400,000 troops to Alaska over the past four months to get them ready for the invasion. “What is the status of the defenses?” asked the President, curious to know how ready the army was.

“We have a two-pronged strategy for our forces in Alaska. The first is to meet them at the beach. As we identify the shores they will hit, we will shift forces to meet them. We are already readying the potential landing locations and fall back positions. This first strategy will bloody them, and prevent them from having an easy landing. We’ll give them a warm American welcome. The likely beaches are already being fortified with defenses, which will be heavily reinforced once it becomes clear where the Chinese are going to commit their forces,” Branson said while showing various images of the defenses under construction.

“The second strategy is for us to fight a continued delaying action of attack, a counter-attack strategy. We will stay in near constant contact with them, but continue to fall back. Our units will rotate troops in to the frontlines and various fall back positions, allowing them to gain some rest while the enemy is constantly having to fight. We are going to bleed them dry in Alaska,” General Branson said as he read off the talking points from his tablet.

“When the winter comes, we will continue to fight. The war will turn a bit more asymmetrical during the winter, and we will employ a lot more sniper operations, but they will get no reprieve during the winter. The guys at DARPA have come up with some sort of new sniper drone we plan to test in Alaska. I only bring it up because if it works, this will be a great addition to every infantry company to have on top of the existing surveillance drones. Come spring of ’42, we will have one million more troops ready, another 3,600 Pershing tanks, and an additional 2,500 Wolverines.”

“Do not forget the new Raptor suits; those are going to make a huge difference for our guys,” the President said, eager to start getting more of the newer tech involved.

General Branson added, “We take possession of the first 50,000 Raptor suits in June; we have the troops identified and are starting their initial training. These troops will be ready for combat in August.”

Director Rubio of the CIA interjected, “It’s going to be a tough fight, Mr. President. The intelligence we are getting from those mini satellites are really starting to pay off. We are seeing a massive troop movement in Russia as well; they are moving their invasion force into position. It truly is disappointing that we do not have the naval power to go after these fleets. There are hundreds of transports and other ships involved in this invasion, and we just do not have the naval capabilities to attack them.”

Admiral Juliano the Chief of Naval Operations spoke up, saying, “I have ordered nearly all of our submarines to the North Pacific. The British are also sending four submarines as well. Everyone knows the Swordfish drones are still in production. There is only so much that the Navy can do right now. The two Swordfish drones that we have are already proving their weight in gold, but we only have two. We have three new attack submarines being completed in July; we’ll have another five more completed by the end of the year. We have to remember it takes close to two years to manufacture a submarine.” The Admiral spoke in a defensive tone.

The President let out a slow sigh, “The issue always comes back to not having enough ships, submarines, cruise missiles, tanks and so on. The de Blasio Administration and others really screwed up our military and our ability to defend the country, haven’t they?” said the President with a bit of despair, speaking to no one in particular.

“They certainly didn’t help, but just like America of 1941, the economic giant of America has been awoken. We need a bit more time to ramp up production, and in time, we are going to crush them,” replied Eric Clarke with defiance in his voice. “We may not crush the Chinese or Russians this year, Mr. President, but by God we will.”

Stein knew everyone was nearing the end of their ropes and the pressure just kept on coming. “All right, let’s move to domestic matters. John, can you go ahead and give us a quick update?” asked the President.

Attorney General John Roberts was exhausted; his department had been working feverously to stabilize Mexico and to bring law and order back to so many small and large cities in America. The integration of the Trinity program into everyday counterterrorism efforts had greatly increased the FBI’s effectiveness in identifying and preventing acts of terrorism and sabotage; however, it had also created an enormous backlog in both the FISA court and the regular judicial court system. Tens of thousands of cases needed to be brought before a judge, and there was a critical shortage of justices.

Between the Russians, Chinese and the IR, they had really done a number on the American civil service sector with their targeted assassinations and killings. It was fortunate the Trinity program identified these individuals quickly so they could be stopped, but the initial damage had been done. Aside from identifying, nominating and appointing new judges, his office also had to help the White House identify candidates for the Supreme Court. It was imperative that the country’s judicial systems get back up and running as soon as possible. The President was adamant about the country returning back to a Constitutional Republic. His detractors had been likening him to a dictator or King because of the extraordinary actions he had been taking as of late. However, in all fairness, all the actions the President had been taking were authorized under the various defense authorizations, acts, and existing laws; very little had been done through executive order.

John Roberts rubbed his temples, trying to wake himself back up after a long couple of months of long hours. Having mentally prepared himself, he responded, “Yes, Mr. President. As you know, the Trinity program has significantly reduced crime across the country. The issue is judges. We have been identifying and nominating magistrates as fast as possible. Next week we will be sending your office five candidates for nomination to the Supreme Court,” AG Roberts said with as much energy as he could muster.

The President saw his staff was tired and realized this was going to lead to mistakes. They needed rest. “Listen, I know there is a lot of work and we are all under immense amounts of pressure. However, you all need to take care of yourselves as well. I want everyone to find a way to take a 48-hour break. I do not care what you have to do to make this happen, but you all need sleep and some down time. We are going to start making errors and bad decisions if people do not start to get rested. So consider this an order,” the President said as he dismissed the meeting.