The second compound used on the assault was BZ. Experimented with by the Americans in their war in Southeast Asia, BZ was quickly discarded as militarily useless by the U.S. Army. The Chinese tested it and thought otherwise. BZ acts on acetylcholine in the nerve endings. It disrupts the high integrative functions of memory, problem solving, attention, and comprehension. At high doses, it produces delirium, destroying a soldier’s ability to perform any military task. It also is more difficult to treat, requiring sustained medical attention with a drip IV or several shots over a period of hours. Because of this, the Chinese planned to use BZ in large doses on the invasion beaches and in areas where reserve forces were known to be.
The last agent used in quantity during the assault was d-lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD. Extremely effective at very small doses, absorbed through both inhalation and on contact with the skin, this agent was a stimulant of the central nervous system. LSD causes excessive nervous system activity. It floods the cortex and other higher regulatory centers with too much information. This flooding makes concentration difficult and causes indecisiveness and an inability to act in a sustained, purposeful manner. For this reason, and because there was no known way to counteract the agent (other than time) LSD was chosen as the agent for the assault on Taipei. While the EMP attack was probably more than enough to take away the eyes, ears and voice of the leadership in Taipei, the LSD follow-on assault also took away the mind, destroying the enemy’s ability to think rationally.
Overall, the Chinese were very pleased with their unconventional warfare planning efforts. They estimated that the actual civilian fatalities caused by a combined EMP/incapacitating agent assault would be less than 2,000. The EMP attack would decapitate a modern, information-age society. It would also make it very difficult for the Taiwanese to wire large sums of money out of their nation’s banks to overseas locations. The use of incapacitating agents could easily be spun by Beijing’s propagandists as simply a variation on tear gas and other routine civil disturbance control measures. Non-lethal in principle, these agents would preserve as much of the Taiwanese people and economic engine as possible while simultaneously adding to Beijing’s “internal matter” cover story. They also hoped the minimal amount of deaths would lower the response from Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul.
Dugen heard some faint “pops” overhead. He knew these would be the chemical warheads exploding over the airport. Delivered by the solid fueled M-9 rocket, each warhead was filled with 800 pounds of phenothiazine compound packaged into hundreds of small aerosol cans. As the warhead reached the target area, it split open and dispersed the cans, which immediately began spraying the agent as they fell to earth on streamers. If inhaled, the compound would begin to work in minutes.
The M-9 missile, known as the Dong Feng (East Wind)-15 employed a Western manufactured GPS-based terminal guidance system. This commercially based system improved the missile’s accuracy by greater than a factor of three, giving it a circular error probable of less than 300 feet (CEP is defined as a 50 % likelihood of a missile or bomb landing within a given circular or oval area).
With an intact Taiwanese early warning defense system, the follow-on attack by the M-9 missiles might have faced some opposition. But the E-bomb strike destroyed Taiwan’s missile early warning radar that was to give the defenders a 90 second reaction time. Unfortunately, even with a 90 second warning, the American-supplied Patriot PAC-2+ would only achieve a four in ten chance of intercepting the missile’s warhead — and by then, the missile would be close enough to the target that its load of chemical agent would still disperse over much of the target area.
Dugen looked at his watch again. By now the entire airport area should have been blanketed by the incapacitating agent. He went on the 747’s intercom system, his voice muffled and tinny from the voice meter of the protective mask, “Attention men of Jia Battalion, we are about to begin the reintegration of the renegade province of Taiwan into China. You know your assignments. You have trained and rehearsed very hard. You are the best soldiers China has ever produced.” Dugen’s enthusiasm was buoyed by his finding out, only an hour before, that his mission was not to be a diversion, but the lead assault in a massive air landing effort.
Dugen paused, took a large gulp of filtered air and exhorted, “On my signal now, ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, go, go, go!”
At each emergency exit, Dugen’s troops pulled open the hatches and triggered the automatic inflatable slides. Because sharp-edged military equipment would quickly snag and deflate the slides, the soldiers were equipped with thin plastic sleds to protect the slides.
The visual image of tough, heavily armed commandos sledding down plastic ramps as if they were at a water park was too much for the intoxicated ramp workers. The one with the fire extinguisher stumbled away, sensing danger and feebly reacting to it. The other three pointed at the soldiers and giggled uncontrollably.
Dugen’s soldiers hit the ground running. Dugen had devised a special tactic for the initial phase of his operation. He had 19 commando teams of ten men each in the first wave of the assault. Each team had a specific objective. Some teams also had one or more follow-on missions. The other 19 teams each trailed a lead team, having the same mission as the first if the first was unable to complete its mission. As a secondary role, the follow-on teams used plastic zip lock tabs to bind the arms and feet of any military, police, security or official personnel they encountered. Dugen held four teams in reserve to meet unforeseen challenges. The remaining eight soldiers were part of Lieutenant Colonel Chu Dugen’s command group.
By the time Dugen hit the tarmac, about half of his soldiers were already in operation. Because wearing a protective mask hides one’s identity and distorts the voice, Dugen had every commando wear a coded number on the mask’s front and on the back of the rubberized hood. Dugen’s number was 0001. His Executive officer was 0002. The squad leader of commando team two was 0201, etc. In this fashion, his entire team knew exactly who was in charge on the scene — and who everyone was — key hurdles when fighting in a chemical weapons environment.
Not one shot had been fired yet. Dugen was encouraged. They might even run ahead of schedule.
Dugen looked out from underneath the jumbo jet’s massive cluster of center landing gear at the runway. He immediately saw a huge problem, rather, five huge problems that dozens of rehearsals hadn’t taken into account: scattered about on CKS International’s runways were five commercial jets. These aircraft, if not moved, would effectively deny the army the use of the airfield he had worked so hard to get. Dugen had to think quickly.
He decided to commit his reserve early. He called for his reserve leaders — men instructed not to leave earshot until assigned a mission, “Reserve squad leaders!” Four men ran to Dugen’s position under the aircraft. Dugen suddenly felt very vulnerable, having a tactical conference under the belly of a fuel and ammunition-laden 747 in the middle of an invasion. Another oversight from the rehearsals.
“I need you to tow those aircraft off the runways. Cluster them near the terminal. The tow vehicles ought to work (Dugen remembered the short technical briefing on the effects of the E-bomb they gave him just before takeoff). If you need technical help, grab some of the airport workers. They should still be able to talk. Treat them nicely. Tell them you’re from the army and you’re here to help. Any questions? Go!”
For some reason, Dugen was more at ease. He had encountered a problem and believed he had the means to solve it. A challenge-free operation meant he was missing something. He set to work clearing the airport for the Chinese army forces that were due to fly in within the hour.