United States Invaded (15 page)

Captain Aguilar is thinking to himself,
“That went better than I expected, we won’t be able to repaint them, not enough time and it will raise too many questions. We’ll have to rely on our approach speed and IFF to confuse the Americans.”

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Cruising at 45,000 feet and flying at 535 MPH ground speed, Air Force One is flying to Europe. Tonight it’s being escorted by four US Air Force F 22 Raptor fighters. Each is armed with two short range and two long range air to air missiles. The Raptor is the world’s most-advanced fighter. The fighters have orders to keep everyone away from Air Force One. They’ve been authorized to use force if necessary to ensure the President doesn’t encounter any threats.

President Brownstone, Paul, Dave, Rash, Ted, Randy and Sara are sitting in the conference room discussing how the next few days are going to unroll. Sara is in mid-sentence when the alarms in Air Force One sound, the conference room door is pushed open, two Secret Service agents enter the room, the alert phone rings next to the president. Every mouth in the conference room closes in mid-word. President Brownstone picks up the red handset, “President Brownstone here.”

“Mr. President, General Sanders, CICNORAD, we have an NUDET (Nuclear Detonation) in America.”

“WHAT? Please repeat that, I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Mr. President, to repeat, this is General Sanders, CICNORAD, we have an NUDET in America.”

The conference room is deadly silent. No one wants to say what’s on their mind.

“General, where was it? Was there any indication of a launch?”

“Mr. President, the NUDET was just outside Minot North Dakoda. At one of our Minuteman silos.”

“Are you telling me, it was one of our warheads?”

“Sir, on the surface it appears something happened during routine
maintenance in
the silo. The technical crew arrived without any issues; they had the correct daily code word and password. The security team following them didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. The crew in the launch capsule was watching the techs open the silo, they reported everything looked normal when all of a sudden the warhead exploded. It went off with a full yield of 350 KT. The silo, and everything within a 5 mile circle is gone. There is a fallout cloud moving to the east. On my authority, I’ve placed all of our forces on DEFCON 2.”

“General, please send us all of the information as soon as you get it.”

The staff in the conference room is shocked, Ted says, “I don’t buy this, we’ve never had an accident like this in 50 years. I’d like to have the backgrounds on all of the techs double checked.”

Before Ted can continue, the pilot calls the President, “Mr. President, we have received orders to assume DEFCON 2, no drill. The Navy is sending up four Hornets to increase our escort strength. What are your orders?”

“Major, how much fuel do we have? Can we turn back and make it?”

“Sir, we can do so if you decide within the next thirty minutes.”

“Major, alert our escort, turn around; we’re going home. Tell the escort to be alert for anything out of the ordinary. Tell them to take no chances.”

“Yes sir.”

“Mr. President, communications, we have an urgent call from President Puten.”

“Put him on.”

“President Puten, I assume your calling about the nuclear explosion.”

“President Brownstone, yes I am. Why did you break the test treaty? This is the first time in 50 years one of us has exploded a weapon above ground. This is a very serious breach. The peace loving people Russian people are extremely concerned by this overt display of hostility.”

“President Puten, it wasn’t a test, nor was it an underground test that went wrong, it was an accident. I don’t know what happened yet. I’m turning around and heading back to Washington, DC, as soon as I learn what happened I contact you.”

“President Brownstone, I understand that one of your missiles blew up in its silo. Do you lack the most-basic security on your WMDs? Please, I hope you’re not going to tell me your nuclear weapons are live and armed in their silos?”

“President Puten, our weapons are not armed in their silos, like yours, ours require release codes and the missile must be at certain locations in space before the warhead arms.”

“Then can you explain how your weapon exploded?”

“Right now I can’t. We’re on our way back to get the details. As soon as I get to the bottom of what happened I’ll contact you.”

“Mr. President, I have no option but to put my strategic forces on Red Banner alert 1. We have to protect ourselves from your potential unexpected firing your missiles at us. I really pray you didn’t set off the explosion so that you can launch a surprise attack at the Motherland while claiming it was an accident. Mr. President, if our satellites see one of your missile's launch from anywhere, we will assume you’re launching a preemptive attack on us. We’ll respond in force and destroy America. I will accept no excuses; one missile launching will cause to launch on warning. We will turn America into radioactive dust pile.”

“President Puten, it’s not safe to have a launch on warning policy. Any satellite or computer can make a mistake, or its software can crash if you launch we are going to have to launch, we’ll jointly destroy the world.”

“Our computers wouldn’t mistake a launch for one of your software errors. Do you think we allow Maxsoft to write our operating systems?”

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“Mr. President, what happened in America? I thought our team was supposed to create a dirty bomb, not explode the warhead. None of our people escaped. I think the FSB gave our team leader the wrong codes and information.”

“General, I’ll look into what happened.”

President Puten hung up the telephone with Marshal of the Russian Federation. Puten looked at the Russian Foreign minister, smiling, he said, “That was a very good plan. Dead men tell no tales, none will ever be found, they were all turned to dust in the wind.”

“Now let’s push the United Nations to take action against the irresponsible Americans.”

Chapter 11

Air Force One starts a banking turn of 180 degrees to return to Washington, one of the F22s notices four new fighters quickly climbing towards Air Force One from low altitude. “Raptor one to Raptor flight, four unknowns rising quickly on course 280, speed Mach .85, Raptor  three and four check them out, if they cross within fifty miles of the boss take them down, repeat, Raptors three and four, you are weapons free if they cross fifty miles.”

Rash looks up from his laptop, “Mr. President, the drug cartel has increased the bounty on you $100 million to $500 million. Sir, the Secret Service, issued a report they found the truck that was used for the mortar attack against the House. They were able to pull three fingerprints that led them to a group used by the cartels as enforcers. The Secret Service is concerned that the attempts on your life will increase with their new bounty.

Ted looks up from his tablet, “Crap, this is going to cause every nutcase in the world to come out into the daylight. Are we ready for this?”

Rash responds, “As if they’re not already out, how about the mortar attack against the House before we left?”

Before the President or anyone else can respond, the phone in the conference rings with the pilot’s ringtone.

“Pilot to the conference room.”

“Major, this is the President, what’s up?”

“Sir, you and everyone in the conference with you ought to buckle up, we may be taking hard evasive action, we have four bogies rising from low altitude headed for us. Raptors three and four are going to check them out.”

“Isn’t the Navy sending additional escorts?”

“Sir, the planes we thought were the Navy aren’t. Somehow someone got their hands on the Navy’s IFF code.”

“Major, thanks, the Raptors will get them; nothing flying can beat a Raptor when in its element.”

“Mr. President, I hope so, because I’m on this plane with you.”

“Major, have you ever seen the report when Raptors battled F15 Eagles?”

“No sir, can’t say that I have.”

“Last year at Red Flag in Nevada, the Raptors shot down every plane they faced. As long as the Raptors stayed more than 20 miles away, they never lost. Whoever the boogies are, they’re going to get a big surprise very soon. They won’t even see the Raptors before the AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium Range Anti Air Missile) arrive taking the boogies down. The F15s, which were our first line and best fighter before the Raptor, lost every encounter. The closest competitor the Raptors had was the new Eurofighter, and even then, the Eurofighters had to be within twenty miles to have a chance.

The two Raptors turn towards the incoming flight of four unknowns. They accelerate to Mach 1.5 without using their afterburners.  Raptors can super-cruise, flying supersonic without having to use their afterburner, saving fuel. The Raptor’s radar and IR sensors can “see” the incoming fighters before the Spanish Hornets see the Raptors. The F22s are true stealth fighters. “Raptor 3 to lead”

“Go three.”

“Flight of four Hornets, repeat flight of four Hornets, looks like C models, live rounds under the wings, wearing Spanish markings, they are not responding to any calls, not even on Guard.”

“How close are they to the fifty mile line?”

“Almost there.”

“Light ‘em up, maybe that will scare them off.”

“Lead, no joy, still coming, they just crossed the fifty mile line.”

“Take them down, repeat, take them down, weapons are free.”

Each Raptor locks up two of the incoming fighters with their AIM 120D air to air missiles. The AIM 120D missiles carry both an internal radar and IR sensor. The missiles also have a home on jam mode in case their target tries to jam their sensors. Each pilot says, FOX 1 twice, as they press their firing button two times. Each Raptor launched two guided air to air missiles at the incoming Hornets. The Spanish fighters are late spotting the incoming missiles; the AMRAAMs give off very little in the way of exhaust smoke. They are very hard to see when they’re coming directly at you. When the Spanish pilots’ threat warning systems sound an alert to say there are incoming missiles targeted at the Hornets, it’s already too late. No matter what the Spanish pilots try, they can’t avoid the incoming missiles. Each missile strikes their assigned target, each of the four fighters explode before their pilots can eject. Their dream of sharing the $500 million reward dies with them.

“Raptor lead to Air Force One, splash four, repeat splash four. Looked to be Spanish Hornets.”

“Raptor lead did you say Spanish Hornets?”

“That’s an affirmative.”

“Lead, thanks, keep your eyes open, the boss said there may be others hunting for us.”

“Good, I’d like a chance to bring a couple down.”

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“Harold, I thought the explosion in North Dakoda was going to be a dirty bomb, not a full up nuclear explosion.”

“Nanny, it’s a shame isn’t it? All of those poor people killed. Thousands of acres covered in fallout. Much of the land America is fracking is now unusable. I wonder how this accident happened. I think we should issue a statement of support for the Americans.”

“Harold, I know you’re pulling my leg. We agreed to a dirty bomb. There’s no way I could ever condone setting off a full nuke. What the hell happened? If this is ever to be traced back to us, people around the world will tear us apart. Our plan was to set off the warhead as a dirty bomb, and then issue a statement demanding the USA disarm. The dirty bomb would make the silo unusable for fifty years. That’s all we were going to do; it wouldn’t have killed anyone.”

              “Nanny, a dirty bomb wasn’t going to be enough to convince the world that American nuclear weapons are a danger to the world. I’m holding a press conference in an hour where President Puten and I are going to ask the United Nations to forcibly disarm the Americans.”

“Harold, was it an accident or did the Russians intentionally set off the warhead?”

“Nanny, what does it matter? The deed is done. I really don’t know what they planned. Knowing Puten, I wouldn’t put it pass him. The troops Puten sent to Minot, are gone. They were turned into gas at the site of the explosion.”

“Does Puten know?”

“I’m sure he does.”

“So he killed his people?”

“That’s my guess. He didn’t want any witnesses.”

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An hour later Presidents Puten and Reid hold a video press conference. Kicking off the conference are satellite images of the devastation from the 350KT warhead. The silo is a blackened hole in the ground, the area around the silo has been blasted clean of everything. Nothing remains at ground zero. Fires are burning out of control miles from the silo. 30% of the city of Minot is burning. The images Reid and Puten display show people lying where they fell, the destroyed buildings, horribly burned people wandering in circles, most have no eyes, having been melted, as has their nose and ears. Hundreds are burned black. Lines of ambulances are trying to make their way to Minot. The roads surrounding Minot are covered installed cars and trucks. One advantage of the ground burst is very limited EMP, the pulse created much less damage than it would have had the warhead exploded above the city. Electronics were destroyed in a small circle of 35 miles surrounding the silo.