“First thing tomorrow morning. The Koreans have been massing troops and tanks along the border ready to move in. From what we are seeing, they may not even realize that General Bryant is halfway there,” said Dortmund.
“The power’s still out, right?”
“Yes, sir. Their fleet can’t even move because they are out of fuel. It would be nice if they just surrendered, but I doubt they will,” said Sir Richard.
“Well, when they find two armies surrounding them, they may think again,” said Hammond. “Now let’s get back to the current problem. We need to start pounding away at those assembly points. Every time they make a move, we hit them. I also want to hit every train line again from Moscow westward. They can’t make a war if we break their toys,” he said. “Remember the Battle of the Bulge? Well, when the allies opened up with their air power, everything kind of folded up. In this case, the Russians are trying to make their own kind of bulge, except this time, we know what’s in the Ardennes. It’s time to break them. I also want drone strikes everywhere their army has a heat source. That usually means mobile kitchens or showers or some kind of barracks. We’re going to make their army’s life miserable. At least more miserable than it already is. Let’s make them all want to go home,” Hammond said.
“That will go along with one other thing in my brief,” said the Intelligence briefer.
Hammond grinned. “Oh! Sorry, we kind of got away from ourselves. What else do you have?” he asked.
“No problem, sir. You just need to know that evidently the Russian Patriarch is raising some hell, no pun intended. We just found out he is communicating with troops in the rest areas and offering assurances that God would look favorably on those who resist the government.”
Hammond got a surprised look. “Well, isn’t that interesting. You think some of the front line troops might be hearing the same thing?”
“I believe it is inevitable, sir.”
Hammond nodded. “Not too bad,” he said.
The entire base turned out to see the bombers take off. Each had been fitted with long range external tanks in addition to their bombs. General Fedinko made his way to the control tower to watch. On signal, the bombers began moving at the far end of the field. One by one, the bombers rose into the sky. The base mechanics had worked up until an hour before to make sure each aircraft would be able to fly. They stood by the now empty hangars and watched them take off.
The bombers rose into the sky and circled the field until all had moved into their positions in the formation. On signal, the formation turned and made one more run over the base.
General Fedinko watched through his binoculars as they began making their last overflight. Suddenly he saw the aircraft begin dropping their bombs on their own base. One plane moved around sharply and dove toward the control tower.
Major Vasiley carefully lined the tower up in his sights. He keyed his radio. “General, I know you are listening. No one should send his people to almost certain death without their approval. You no longer have our approval.” He triggered the bomb release and watched as six bombs dropped free. Banking sharply he saw each of them strike the area around the tower. One struck directly on the glass control center. Climbing back to altitude he called out. “Vulture leader, mission accomplished.”
Colonel Chenik called out to his group. “Radio silence. No one speaks except for me. Form up on me and follow my lead,” he said as he banked his aircraft toward the Allied lines.
“What the hell is this?” asked one of the watchstanders. Several of the people came over to look at his sector. “Sir, it looks like this flight of planes is bombing their own air base,” she said loud enough for all to hear.
Several watched as miniature explosions were seen all along the runways. They also saw the control tower explode and topple to the ground. “Admiral, you better come see this,” the supervisor called out.
Hammond turned and walked back to the table. It was obvious something had happened. There was a cloud of dust all around the air base. He also saw the flight of planes headed toward Poland. “You said something about bombing their own base?”
“Yes sir, they just took off and circled, then they made a run over the base and dropped their bombs,” said the first watchstander.
Hammond turned to a technician. “Would this thing be able to see if these aircraft are carrying weapons?”
“No, sir. We can see them, and define a shape, but the ordnance is under the wings and we wouldn’t be able to tell,” the technician said.
“Get a couple of our fighter squadrons in the air to intercept. Tell them don’t shoot until you verify they are unarmed. They may be trying to defect. If so, they are to escort them to the Warsaw airport. Land them at the civilian airport, not the air base. You got that?” Hammond ordered.
Five minutes later two squadrons of F-35 Lightnings lifted off and made their way toward the incoming Russian formation. It would take an hour to get there, but the outcome might be worth the wait.
***
Colonel Chenik was worried. They were getting close to the battle lines and he knew from experience that the Americans would come out of nowhere. He constantly scanned the skies for a hint of where they might be. He had tuned his radio to the international distress frequency and hoped there would be time to explain. Until then he had to remain silent. The Russian Air Force would be listening as well and if they got to his formation before the Americans, they would pay a heavy price.
The radio crackled to life. “Russian bomber on my starboard side, this is US fighter. We see you are unarmed. Please follow me,” the voice said. Suddenly Chenik saw an F-35 lift up from below him and take a position to his side. The pilot held up a sign that read, in Russian, “defect?” Chenik nodded his head. He saw the pilot say something and very shortly their force was surrounded by the American fighters. The American motioned for Chenik to follow him and took a position in front of Chenik’s plane. For the first time in months Chenik felt relaxed. Vasiley had been right. The Americans seemed to somehow know what was going on. He also seemed to know that the Americans would not fire if they saw they had dropped their bombs. He had now saved the lives of forty good young men and women. It had meant going against his government, but he was sure it was well worth it.
Major Sean Pennick was amazed. He was flying in his B-1 bomber along with the rest of the 9th Bomber Squadron on the way into Russia. That was normal. What wasn’t normal were all the rest of the Allied aircraft in the sky with them. Before today, most of the action he had seen was on the squadron level. They flew in to a specific target, dropped their loads and went home. Today he looked out of the cockpit into a sky filled with aircraft. Below them were German Tornadoes. To the left were French Mirages. To the right were Spanish F-18s. The British were high and to the right, and the Italians low and to the left. High above, he could see the contrails of the B-52s. Today Ivan was going to get pounded.
Checking his link, he could see the others around him and saw the distance to the target. Supposedly it was some major assembly point deep inside Russia. In front of them was a line of fighters. Although they knew that the new cloaking system worked like a champ, it was good to know they were taking no chances. In the brief they explained that the assembly area was massive and that each group was assigned a certain section. His was a tank farm that was supposed to have about a thousand tanks in it. He was carrying 96 GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs. Each had been set up to attack one of the tanks. There were fifteen planes in his squadron that day. That meant they had the ability to take out 1,450 tanks in his squadron alone. That’s why after the raid, they had permission to move along a specified corridor and look for targets of opportunity. It would be a fun day.