INVASION USA (Book 2) - The Battle For New York (56 page)

“That will be the start of the battle. Get the container ships into the off-loading facilities as quickly as possible. Our ground troops should be ready and our engineers will be there to welcome the container ships. Admiral, since we don’t have tugs to help the ships berth, tell them to be careful and to follow the simple berthing plan we have given them. Make sure that the container ship with the 1,500 Red Special Guards ready to scale down her sides goes in first, just in case.”

Orders were communicated, and ships began to creep forward again inch by inch, as the massive engines powered the great ships forward and the whine of jet engines could be heard several flights below as the chairman looked down to survey the action on the flight deck. He was extremely excited for the first time in his life.

*****

“We see heat spots increasing on the carrier deck, and we are descending to 2,500 feet,” stated the radar engineers in Blue Moon as she hung in the air above Morrisville Airport, the 400 men below ready to fire on any incoming aircraft once the enemy opened fire. “Roger that,” replied Colonel Patterson. “Immediately after the last fighter takes off, get her down onto the ground, into the prepared snow-walled area, get her propellers stopped, and get the white tarps over her. Gentlemen, I believe you will have five minutes once their missiles are scrambled by us and go into space before they come in with guns blazing. All anti-aircraft commanders around Morrisville only—open fire once the first missile is released, or you have visual.”

“All harbor troops, I’ve been told of ship movement, and the five container ships are edging forward. Do not fire on any shipping until ordered. I repeat, no harbor gunfire until my direct order. Please confirm that!” Hundreds of radios replied with their confirmation. “I believe that all five ships will dock on either side of that one Global Terminal area. The snipers will be ordered to fire once the first ships are secure and our guys are safely out of harm’s way. A message to our official welcoming party at the terminal, my old friend Comrade Wong at the terminal—if the war out here hasn’t started and it’s safe for you to do so, go out and wave to the men on the container ships. Get dozens of your large welcoming silver helium balloons into the air and look happy. We want to entice the other ships in ASAP and the balloons will help screw up their aiming systems.”

“We have the first aircraft off the carrier,”
reported Blue Moon.
“We are going into final approach and will land once they form up and come towards us. Have fun guys, enjoy it! Out.”
The aircraft dropped down to 1,500 feet and turned onto very short finals, less than a mile out and literally dropped out of the sky towards the runway. Once down, she would shoot straight into her little hideaway surrounded by snow walls ten feet high and large white tarpaulins would be draped over her. She was no match for the incoming fighters.

One by one the fighters took off. The first aircraft turned right, out to sea and then came over the aircraft carrier at 500 feet as the 12th one left the steel runway and rose up to join them. The rest, 17 aircraft, were already being lifted up to the flight deck from below and being prepared for take-off, as were three helicopters that would go in and survey the harbor for any form of shipping, or a surprise ground attack.

“The American aircraft is landing,”
stated the first Chinese fighter pilot on their radio frequency as he noticed the C-130 getting lower and lower on his modern radar screen.
“Permission to destroy the aircraft?”

“Permission granted”
was the reply, and he toggled the switch and two of the world’s most modern Russian missiles left his aircraft and sped towards Blue Moon, 15 miles ahead.

“Missiles hot,”
the forward radar position on the other tower of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge reported to the colonel and Lee Wang. Still at McGuire with all the other pilots and aircraft ready to go, Lee activated the scrambling software he and Carlos had designed a couple of days earlier.

The Chinese fighter pilot was surprised to see his rockets suddenly turn skywards and begin to go vertical, not something he had expected. He ordered his next two aircraft to fire their missiles at the C-130, which was now only 500 feet above the ground. They locked their missiles onto her and four new missiles sped forward, yet also went vertical following the heat ejections of the first rocket motors towards space.

“Missile malfunction,”
reported the pilot over the radio.
“Changing to heat-seeking missiles, two locked and launched,”
he said calmly as his next two shot forward and the C-130 landed. Three seconds later the missiles lost their target as dozens of silver balloons were released from the airfield ten miles ahead and hundreds of already warm military engines were started to mess up the missiles’ telemetry. One of the missiles went into an old truck driving down the road a couple of miles in front and the other into an empty burned-out strip mall where some form of fire must have been smoldering.

“Missile failure,”
reported the lead aircraft. “
It looks like an airfield where the American aircraft went in and we are starting to get return fire from units on the ground,”
as a couple of aircraft easily dodged the Sidewinders aimed at them.

“Go in and destroy the airfield with the rest of your missiles at close range,” was the reply from the Air Force commander as he looked towards the container ships cruising a mile in front of the rest of the stationary naval flotilla. They would be under the bridge in about ten minutes. All was still quiet as he watched his three helicopters take off from below him and turn towards the bridge.

“We have three helos incoming. Keep your heads down—no movement, no firing—and make sure they can’t see you. Look like snow, guys, and bury deep,” ordered the colonel as he saw the helicopters coming towards him.

Now only five miles from the airport, the wing commander in the lead J-10 aircraft ordered his fighters to lock onto targets as suddenly a wall of tracer bullets erupted from near the airfield in front and came towards them, blowing up the aircraft to his left just as he ordered the aircraft to split up and fire at anything that moved below them. Missiles were locked onto the hangars, which had been emptied for the occasion and had coal stoves inside each of them omitting heat. The buildings were like saunas inside. Several missiles left their launchers as dozens of lines of cannon tracer came up to meet them. A couple of the missiles flew straight into the wall of incoming fire and exploded, which rocked the lead aircraft.

The fighters banked to the left and right, some going higher, some diving to get closer to the ground when everybody on the airfields began firing as fast as possible. Two aircraft erupted into balls of flame as they were hit and several of the empty hangars blew up as the missiles reached them.

“Take out anything hot you can find,”
ordered the wing commander as his aircraft suddenly shuddered underneath his seat and then watched as his right wing began to fall apart and separate itself from the rest of the aircraft. His ejection seat worked fast and he was out of the aircraft seconds before it began its death dive, exploding just before it hit the ground. His parachute opened several seconds before he hit the roof of a flat building, breaking his right leg on impact and knocking him out.

At the same time, the helicopters came in low over the bridge and Colonel Patterson ordered two groups of five Mutts units armed with a TOW missile on each to be uncovered on the road several hundred yards south and north of the bridge, to take out the three helicopters only half a mile away flying just above his height above the right tower of the bridge. The helicopter pilots would be able to see their deployments pretty soon, as well as the men on the towers from this close a range.

All three of the helicopters immediately tried to dodge the incoming missiles, but this was close range shooting and the TOW missiles followed their movements. Colonel Patterson felt the shock waves of the exploding helicopters as all three blew up less than 300 yards from him.

“Well done, Mutts. Men, run! Get out of there. I’m sure the ships immediately located your jeep positions. Run!” the colonel shouted. He saw dots of light as several of the ship’s guns fired and seconds later both areas where the old jeeps stood exploded into orange balls of flames. “Hold your fire around the harbor!” he ordered, as he trained his binoculars onto the firefight going on 20 miles away at the Morrisville Airport.

*****

“Why did our helicopters explode?” shouted the chairman to his Air Force commander as the two frigates 300 hundred yards away began firing at the shoreline.

“They were hit with missiles from either side of the bridge, but the Americans are now history,” he replied, as they all saw large fireballs climb skyward on both sides of the bridge.

“Don’t hit my bridge, Admiral,” warned the chairman. They watched as the first container ship reached the bridge, was not attacked, and carried on into New York Harbor.

*****

The fighting at the airport was in full force. Most of the hangars were burning and the remaining seven fighters were spending much of their time dodging tracers and incoming missiles from every direction. Another J-10 aircraft exploded and several vehicles on the ground exploded as they were hit by cannon fire.

The men on the ground had fared reasonably well. Missiles went into the empty hangars as planned, destroying one or two guns that were too close. But now that the airfield was on fire, the enemy fighter began to take out the ground fire with what they had left. The cannons on the ground were red hot as rounds were fed into them as fast as they could, and the men behind the sights followed the aircraft a couple of miles out as they turned and came in firing cannons in return. Another two were hit as several more ground units exploded. There were just too many vehicles to aim at.

Suddenly the fighters pulled away and the gunners followed them as they retreated back to their ship, hitting one more aircraft before the area went silent.

“Morrisville, your kills and losses, please?” asked Colonel Patterson, as he saw several dots getting closer from the smoky area that was the other battle zone.

“Morrisville reporting,”
stated someone whose voice Patterson didn’t recognize.
“Commander took a direct hit. I counted seven aircraft down and one left with oil pouring out of its ass.”

“Roger, I have it visual. It just went into the ground,” replied the colonel. “I count four returning to the mother ship. Harbor area, do not—I say do not—fire at the returning aircraft until I give direct orders. Morrisville, continue. Over.”

“I’ve seen about 15 direct hits down here. The C-130 is okay and we have the two medic trucks driving through the airport gates. Every airport building is destroyed. Over.”

“Well done, guys! You did a good job,” commended the colonel to whomever he was speaking. ”Get your wounded sorted out fast, you only have ten minutes max. Blue Moon, get airborne. Morrisville airfield, prepare for a second round of incoming as she gets airborne. Out. Bridge spotters, a sitrep please?”

“All five container ships have passed under the bridge and are currently two miles from the Global Terminal. There are hundreds of soldiers on board. We see four aircraft returning to the carrier, which is still about two miles out and we believe that others are about to take off. Without our airborne eyes, we can’t tell so precisely. Over.”

As the spotter said that, another fighter took off from the carrier and headed out to sea. It would take Blue Moon another five minutes to get airborne, and this time they didn’t know where the aircraft would be heading, but at least eight were history.

“The two destroyers are moving this way,”
added the observation post on the other tower.
“It looks like they are all slowly turning to head in.”

“Okay, guys, we are about to warm up around here,” stated Colonel Patterson. “Harbor troops, you heard that the container ships are swarming with Charlies. Snipers, you will be ready to fire once I give the order. You should be well in range in about ten minutes. Make each round count.”

On the buildings around the Global Terminal, 300 snipers had regrouped from the roadways around the harbor and airport areas and now each one was ready for the incoming ships with mountains of ammo and each one was within 1,000 yards of the terminal depot.

*****

“What happened to our fighters?” demanded an angry chairman, as he only saw four fighters line up to land. Another 12 had taken off and were now circling over the ships as they turned towards the bridge to follow the container ships into New York harbor.

“I don’t know,” replied the Air Force commander. “I assume that we hit their main Air Force airport, as it was extremely well defended.”

“We will go back once we have taken their harbor and destroy everything around there. Can those defenses attack our aircraft over the harbor?” asked the chairman.

“No, Comrade Chairman,” was the reply. “The air base is at least 20 miles away and too far to be of any trouble.”

“Get those fighters over the harbor bridge. I want air cover as we go in. You can get the remaining fighters off the ship as soon as these others come in,” he ordered.

There were only five more fighters that were ready, and the Air Force commander wanted to wait to get all nine off together. By that time, he reckoned he would know all the strengths of the opposition forces and then take them out. He had missed the information that the other naval ships were now heading for the harbor. He felt that they were moving, but the aircraft carrier had to wait, pointing north to get the last two aircraft aboard, still flying in from the south.

The two Chinese frigates quickly entered the harbor under the bridge, their guns bristling in all directions as they arrogantly swept in under the bridge at 20 knots and kept to the main shipping lane in the middle of the river.

*****