Prelude to World War Three: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America

The Dragon Awakens

Premier Zhang Jinping was on his way to a meeting with the Central Military Commission (CMC) to discuss the plans to finally acquire their lost province Taiwan and to become the supreme power in Asia. The war in the Middle East was becoming a bloodbath; the Islamic Republic had hurt the Americans bad when they destroyed the American 5^th Fleet. The destruction of the 5^th Fleet had given China a few new options that they previously did not believe were possible. With the Americans sending the USS Intrepid battlegroup to the Mediterranean, that meant the US 7^th Fleet with the USS Ronald Reagan would only have the USS John F. Kennedy to rely on, which was located in the Pacific Northwest. With only one US Aircraft Carrier down near the Indonesian Islands, hammering the Islamic Republic, they would not be able to intervene with Taiwan or Guam.

“The only real concern is the American submarines,” thought the Premier.

As the Premier walked into the room to meet with the CMC, he noticed several of the generals in various heated discussions. If there was one major weakness within the Chinese military, it was the various rivalries and the desire for each branch of the PLA to be the dominant branch.

“General Wanquan, are we ready to secure the rest of Asia?” asked the Premier. He took his seat at the head of the table while the rest of the CMC members took their own seats.

“The Army is ready to cross the border and secure Southeast Asia. When the attack begins against Taiwan, our forces will cross into Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. Once these countries have been overrun, our forces will continue south and west until we have Thailand and Singapore. We are ready,” said General Wanquan, the Commander of the PLA.

“My Naval Infantry are ready to secure Guam as soon as you give the order. Our sources have reported that the Americans have not reinforced Guam and appear to be fully occupied with the Islamic Republic. Two battalions of Marines left the Island yesterday to join the battlegroup near Indonesia,” said Admiral Wei Shengli, the Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

“Premier, our original timetable was to attack Taiwan and Guam around the New Year. With the Americans involved in Mexico and now the Middle East, they are stretched thin. My advice is that we move our timeline forward by at least three weeks. With the Americans sending more troops to Israel, they will not have the option of also intervening in Asia, or have the ability to challenge us with the loss of their two supercarriers,” said General Zhang Yang, the Minister of Defense.

“You bring up a good point, General Yang. We will move the timeline forward by two weeks. We should capitalize on their precarious situation before it changes. In the meantime, I want our cyber forces to begin their attacks against the American military and economy. The more problems the Americans are forced to deal with now, the less resources they will have later.

Sgt. Joe Thornton joined the Marines four years ago, looking for adventure and a chance to serve his country like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had done before. They had been jarheads, so it was becoming a family tradition for the Thornton men to join the Marines out of high school or college. Joe had done well, and was promoted to Sergeant just prior to the deployment to the Middle East.

Now he had a squad of leather necks he was responsible for, and within five days, half of his platoon was already dead or wounded. His squad had been flown into the Sinai on one of the Marine Corps new Razorback assault helicopters to secure the city of Ismailia (which was a critical city on the Suez). His company met minimal resistance upon landing, and with support from the Razorbacks, they had quickly secured the city and their portion of the Suez. Securing the SCZ was critical to the defense of Israel as it blocked any possible reinforcements from Egypt and North Africa. It also provided the Navy with several port facilities which could be used to offload more equipment for the Marines.

The newest aerial addition to the Marines was the Razorback assault helicopters. They were a cross between the V-22 Osprey and a Cobra attack helicopter. They sported the same tilt rotary system the Osprey had, except there were two smaller rotors per side, one behind the other, and they were enclosed in an armored ring protecting them from ground fire. They were also considerably smaller and very quiet in comparison to a traditional helicopter.

The Razorbacks’ armament included eight anti-tank Hellfire III missiles and forty-six 2.6 inch anti-personnel rockets on each side, and a front mounted 30 mm railgun that delivered an incredible punch and fire support. It had a crew of two pilots and two crew chiefs, and could carry twelve soldiers into combat. The Razorback was the first fully armored assault helicopter that not only replaced the venerable Cobra gunships, it also replaced the Ospreys as the primary assault helicopter for the Army and Marines. It was a beast of an aircraft, the V22 was 57 ft. in length with a wingspan of 45 ft. and the Razorback was 68 ft. in length and had a 40 ft. wingspan. Being in service for barely a year, there was a limited number of these helicopters available for the Army and Marines, so they were in high demand.

After the initial success in securing the SCZ, Sgt. Thornton’s Company was ordered to assault the IR forces near the strategic city of Be’er Sheva. This city was a crossroad junction leading to many different cities within Israel as well as several highways. The IDF was making a last ditch stand to block the IR advance, and desperately needed reinforcements.

The 2^nd Marines were going to assault and secure the cities of Nevatim on Highway 25 and the city of Hura along Highway 31. This would place most of the Marines behind the main IR forces and would force them to halt their advance on Be’er Sheva. With Marine Aviation support and assurances from Admiral Todd with the 6^th Fleet, MG Lance Peeler (the Commander of 2^nd Marines) was determined to make the IR pay for crucifying captured American Forces. His Marines would disrupt the IR supply lines and force them to have to fight his Marines. The Marine armored units had secured the cities of Eilat and Aqaba, blocking the IR advance into southern Israel. Now it was time to go on the offensive and begin to take the fight to the enemy.

Sgt. Thornton’s Company had assaulted the IR lines at Nevatim, and with support from three dozen Razorbacks, they had quickly destroyed the IR’s armor, IFVs and light drone tanks in the area. They secured the critical highway network supplying the IR’s main force near Be’er Sheva. The Company had been in near-constant contact with the enemy for 72 hours, and it was starting to show; his men were exhausted and so was he. In addition to limited air support and their Razorbacks, there was a self-propelled 155mm Army artillery battalion assigned to support their position, which was facing continuous contact with the enemy. The IR was now starting to use massive human wave attacks.

“Sgt. Thornton, I’m pulling your squad off the line to get some rest. I can’t give your men a long break, but I need to start rotating the squads in the company before everyone drops dead from exhaustion,” said 1st Lieutenant Jack Lee. Jack had taken over command of the company two days ago when the Captain was killed during one of the IR’s suicidal human wave attacks.

“The men will appreciate it — not sure how much longer we can function in our current state. Some of the guys are starting to fall asleep between lulls in the battle and my fear is they won’t wake up fast enough to respond to a new assault,” Sgt. Thornton said while leaning against the wall of his foxhole.

“It’s a problem the entire battalion is facing; that’s why I need to get your squads some rest while we can. We are pulling one squad from each platoon and giving them an hour and a half to sleep before rotating the next group in. We will continue this rotation for as long as possible,” the Lt. said, sounding optimistic about the sleeping plan working.

Sgt. Thornton was glad his squad was the first to get some rest. Before the Lt. left to go inform the next squad, Sgt. Thornton asked, “Sir, do you know when we are going to get some replacements? Half our platoon is nearly gone.”

“There are two thousand Marine Reservists that just landed in Siganella yesterday; word has it they are supposed to start filtering in within the next 48 hours. Of course, that assumes we’ll still be alive in the next 48 hours.”

“If they keep sending these human wave attacks and that constant rocket barrage, you may be right,” said Sgt. Thornton dryly.

The 1^st ID lost Jerusalem after two days of house-to-house fighting through the suburbs. General Gardner had ordered them to fall back to the surrounding hills and suburbs on the West side of Jerusalem. Sgt. Jordy Nelson’s platoon was exhausted and running on fumes. Nearly five days of constant combat was grinding them into the dirt. His company had lost nearly 60 % of their original force by the end of the first day. After unrelenting rocket and artillery barrages, they were quickly faced with nearly 300,000 IR troops fighting to capture Jerusalem. When the 3^rd ID reinforced them four days ago, the 1^st ID had lost nearly 4,200 soldiers of their original 12,300. With the loss of Jerusalem, General Gardner had folded the two infantry divisions together (MG Paul Brown and his staff had been killed in Jerusalem during one of the many IR bombing runs). Both divisions were down to less than 40 % strength, and until reinforcements showed up with additional senior officers, having them operate under a joint command only made sense.

When the US’s 80^th and 81^st Fighter Drone Wings arrived from Italy and Cypress, they immediately made an impact. The drones were slowly beginning to retake the skies over Israel. The ground attack drones had moved to forward airbases in Israel, and despite the airbases coming under rocket and artillery attack, the drones were starting to take a bite out of the IR artillery and rocket forces. The greatest contribution the drones had made thus far was whittling down the IR’s artillery, which had been devastating the allied defensive positions.

The key beneficial factors that the American soldiers had over their IR counterparts was their superior training, infantry weapons and body armor. With some air support, they were finally starting to halt the massive uncoordinated attacks by the IR human wave assaults. Word had spread through the allies that these human wave assaults were civilian volunteers with little in the way of training. They may have had numbers, but they lacked courage and conviction in their cause once the artillery and rifle fire started to cut through their ranks.