WAR (11 page)

              “Rash, I really appreciate you joining us this evening. I can imagine how busy you must be. Do you know if there’s any truth to the story that local militias are fighting the Russians in Las Vegas?”

              “Sean, I can confirm they are actively fighting alongside the LEOs in Vegas, and I hear, only a rumor, mind you, there are two militias fighting the Russian Special Forces in Virginia. I can confirm there are three militias helping fight the fires and treat the wounded at the Navy bases in Norfolk and Yorktown. I’m NOT suggesting every armed citizen take up arms. We only know of two points of invasion. If every armed American went outside with their weapons looking for Russians, we could end up with American killing American by accident. The Marines are about to enter Las Vegas; the Air Force has total air superiority over both the Virginian Peninsula and Las Vegas. I repeat the only confirmed invasion locations are the Virginian Peninsula and Las Vegas. President Rand is asking everyone to avoid these two areas. Please don’t enter these two areas as you may be mistaken as a terrorist, Russian or LSA.”

              “Rash, thank you very much. Where are you heading now?”

              “I’ve been asked to meet with the Presidents at the White House.”

              “Are you going to assume the position of Press Secretary again? Everyone knows the existing Press Secretary was a temp pending President Rand’s choice being confirmed.”

              “Sean, I don’t know what President Rand asked to see me about. He also asked to see you which is why I invited you to breakfast in the White House.”

              “I thank you again for the invite. If the previous few hours are any indication of what’s coming, I might still be on the air during breakfast tomorrow. No matter what happens this evening, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

              “Thank you, Sean.”

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              The USS John Warner SSN 785, slowly followed two of the Russian submarines into the Atlantic.  She stayed 2,000 yards behind the Russian boats where they’re deaf; this is called staying in their baffles. The following boat had to be very careful because Russian submarine commanders typically spun their boats around in a 360-degree circle to check if anyone was following them. The act of quickly spinning the boat around to check their rear area is called a Crazy Ivan. Captain Richard Bell captain of the USS John Warner had all four of his forward torpedo tubes loaded with mark 48 mod 7 advanced torpedoes. Two were locked onto each of the Russian boats in front of him. He asked sonar, “Sonar, Captain, when was the last time either of our friends ahead of us pulled a Crazy Ivan?”

              “Captain, sonar, it’s been 25 minutes.”

              “Weapons, Captain, I want to fire on both boats in two minutes, fire two fish at each, reload all four tubes with Mark 48s. Since we’re so close, release the safeties on the fish.”

              “Aye sir, in two minute's fire two at each boat.”

              “OOD, Captain, when we fire I want to launch a decoy and two noise makers, turn 40 degrees and emergency dive.”

              “Aye sir.”

              Two minutes later four US heavyweight advanced Mark 48 torpedoes leap out of their tubes, two are targeted against each Russian boat. They only have to cover 2,000 yards; the torpedoes are almost at their targets before the Russian submarines realize they are under attack. The Russian boat to port starts to dive, the one to starboard starts to rise, both react too slowly, all four mark 48s strike their targets. The 650 pound warheads in each mark 48 easily rip through the double hulls. The submarine on the starboard side, which was rising, makes it to the surface before it slides under the waves for good. The incoming water is too heavy for the sub’s limited ballast to overcome. The USS John Warner comes around to see if another attack will be required. “Captain, sonar.”

              “Sonar, Captain, go ahead.”

              “Both targets destroyed; both have imploded.”

              “Excellent, that doesn’t go far enough for revenge but it is a good first step.”

              “Radio, Captain, report two down.”

              “Yes sir.”

              America’s revenge against the Russian attack has just started.

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              Colonel Grover and his team are driving from their drop zone in North Western LA County to Beverly Hills. Their target is the LSA Gray House. Grover says, “It’s almost spooky how dark it is. It’s been years since I was last in Southern California. However, I never remember it like this. Not even at 0-dark-thirty were the major freeways empty. There're almost no cars on the streets or highways. Without electrical power, they can’t charge their electric cars, which I why I’d never own one.”

His team holds back laughs and nods their heads in agreement of not owning an electric car. One of the men says, “Nothing beats cubic inches, I like the muscle cars from the late 1960s, I own two GTOs, a ’69 and a ’70 Judge.”

The men chant, “Here comes da Judge.”

A sergeant asks, “Colonel, any news from the conditions back home?”

Colonel Grover silently nods, saying, “It’s not good. I got a text that the Russians with the help from the LSA, invaded Las Vegas and Norfolk. At last count, the Navy took a beating; four carriers torpedoed plus a couple of cruisers and destroyers. A Russian spec ops team struck the Navy weapons depot in Yorktown, Virginia. The entire area is a burning mess. I think President Rand is waiting to hear from us before he orders a counterattack.”

              “Colonel, do you think he’ll resort to a nuke attack?”

              “Could be. I know President Brownstone is in the White House working with President Rand, and President Cruise is on his way to the House.”

              One of his team says, “Man, I’d hate to be the one who pissed those three off. Brownstone has no sense of humor. I don’t know about Cruise and Rand, but I have friends who served under Brownstone. They said he’s a tactical genius but also has no sense of humor. Step on his toes, and he’ll swat you.”

              Colonel Grover replies, “Actually he has a great sense of humor. It’s his dark side you don’t want to see. At his core, he’s one of us. He’s a Marine inside out. Step on his toes and it’s an accident, say you’re sorry and no harm, no foul. Step on his toes on purpose and he’ll most likely cut yours off all the up to your balls.”

              The team smiles and nods in agreement.

“Guys, I’m going to find us a place to park and do a recon a few blocks from the Gray House. I expect the Russians are providing security for the Gray House.” The team slowly enters Beverly Hills when they see police and DepLIES roadblocks ahead of them.

              Grover says, “That answers the question how tight the security around the Gray House is. They’re not letting anyone into the area. We’re going to turn around and think about another way to access the Gray House.” The team slowly turns around, two blocks to the west they pull into an empty shopping center’s underground parking lot where they can’t be seen.

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              Russian Federation President Grameniko calls his commander of Space Technology, “Colonel, I assume you’re ready to carry out your mission?”

              “Yes Mr. President. We have calculated the trajectories; we will be deorbiting three old and very heavy satellites targeted at their new NSA facility in Utah. The new building is over 300,000 meters of space. At least one of the satellites should hit and completely destroy the building.”

              “Colonel, you may launch your mission, we’ll issue a urgent press release that a couple of our older satellites have struck each other and are going to fall from orbit, since both are powered by small nuclear reactors people shouldn’t approach them if they see one on the ground. These things happen all of the time. The Americans won’t think anything unusual about this.”

              “Mr. President, old satellites fall out of orbit all of the time. No one's going to think a thing about them. Sir, we even have a standard form we use for the reporting of the deorbiting satellites.”

              “Colonel, excellent, release your standard form. Make sure it reaches the Americans before the birds strike their building. I want to see their new facility completely destroyed within the next couple of hours.”

              “Yes sir.”

              The world doesn’t think anything of the Russian press release; the world has grown used to such information. Newspapers, electronic and streaming news organizations, don’t even report them any longer. Almost every organization ignores the release that is usually filed in the ‘circular file’ since 70% of the planet is covered in water. Little did they know these old satellites were deorbited on purpose and targeted on a specific building.

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              An aide rushes into the White House Situation Room, “Mr. Presidents, something very unusual just happened.”

              Presidents Brownstone and Rand look up from the conference table where two colonels have laid out a street map of Las Vegas. President Rand looks up asking, “What’s unusual?”

              “Sirs, the Russians just issued a press announcement saying some of their Zenit reconnaissance birds are coming down.”

              “Why is this unusual?” Asks President Rand.

              President Brownstone responds while sitting down in one of the chairs that line the wall of the Situation Room, “Mr. President, satellites don’t usually come down by themselves and not without warning that their orbit is decaying. To have more than one deorbit at the same time smells really fishy. My guess is they are using the satellites as space weapons. We should ask NASA to plot their course. My gut is screaming we’re about to get hit.”

              President Rand asks, “Can they guide them like a missile? If they hit something will they do a lot of damage?”

              Colonel Brick of the US Air Force responds, “Sir, somewhat, it depends on what they’re aiming at. They should be able to hit a city or some other large facility. Pinpoint accuracy is out of the question.”

              Colonel Whitehead says, “Sirs, the Zenit is powered by a small nuclear reactor, if it strikes a city, it’ll be similar to a dirty bomb going off. Its core is plutonium, very deadly stuff.” Before Colonel Whitehead can continue, the alert tone sounds followed by a red banner message rolling across the bottom of the monitor in the Situation Room, “Russian satellites falling towards Utah.”

              President Rand says, “Shit, they're after the NSA facility. They plan to take out the new NSA HQ and data center.”

President Brownstone picks up the handset on the conference table telling the operator, “Please connect me with Admiral Benson, NSA. Tell him its condition red one.”

“Mr. President, this is Admiral Benson, sir, it’s been a while, what’s causing a red one?”

“Admiral, you have to shut down your facility, transfer everything you can to the mountain and get your people away from the building as quickly as you can. There’s a couple of Zenit’s falling out of space towards you.”

“Mr. President, we have 1 million square feet here, we have twenty thousand people that work here. How much time do we have?”

“Admiral, time is something you don’t have. Get them out, when you’re in a safe place call us back in the Situation Room. I’d estimate you have less than twenty minutes, please get your people out and move them away from the building. The Zenit’s use a plutonium reactor. If they hit your building, they’ll spread highly radioactive plutonium all over the area.”

“Yes sir.” Admiral Benson hangs up the handset which connects him directly to the President, he picks up a telephone handset, he presses the number one button which connects him to everyone in the main building and those in the bunkers that were built under the building. “RED ALERT, RED ALERT. EVERYONE MUST STOP WHAT THEY’RE DOING AND LEAVE THE BUILDING AT ONCE. MOVE AWAY FROM THE BUILDING AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE WE ARE UNDER ATTACK. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. RED ALERT RED ALERT. PER STANDING ORDERS, TRANSFER ALL FILES TO LOCATION M1.”

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In the White House Situation Room, Colonel Whitehead asks, “Sirs, should we make plans to arm ‘Thor’s Hammer?’”

President Rand sits down; he looks around the room slowly nodding his head, “Colonel, I don’t think we have a choice. Issue the arming orders to the mountain. Tell them target ‘Zebra Moscow.’”

President Brownstone asks, “Colonel has ‘Thor’s Hammer’ ever been tested against a real target?”

“Mr. President, no. As you know, there’s not supposed to be any weapons in orbit. We launched the targeting module and hammers as part of a new communications constellation. The birds are all black; they shouldn’t show up on anyone’s radar or IR. The hammers are going to come as a large surprise to President Grameniko.”

President Brownstone replies, “Paul, may I suggest you target their strategic assets versus the command bunkers? If we take out the command bunkers, their silos and missile boats may think we attacked Russia and launch their weapons at us. If we use the ‘Hammers’ to take out their strategic weapons, they’ll have nothing left to strike us back with. If Grameniko isn’t reasonable after being declawed then, you can issue the Zebra order.”