Then, early that afternoon, a vast hover-armada had left Mexico. They swung out to sea and roared north. JFC California saw what was happening and sent strike fighters to pick them off. Unfortunately, the hovers had linked fire-control systems. From a distance, the fighters launched air-to-surface missiles, keeping well out of SAM range. The hovers’ integrated air defense system shot down most of the missiles, only losing a modest number of hovers. Then the Chinese swung toward land and hit San Diego. Too many of them were infantry carriers, unloading assault troops. A portion of the hover fleet had continued to La Jolla, landing infantry there and digging in on Interstate 5.
The Chinese continued to fight at night, pushing through Chula Vista, destroying the blocking brigade and linking up with the infantry on the outskirts of San Diego.
On the second day, as fierce conflicts continued along the border fortifications, U.S. armored and mechanized infantry reserves rushed south from LA. Many of these were the mobile units saved by the decision earlier to move them back from the main defensive line. They moved down Interstate 5 and clashed with Chinese advance units in Carlsbad on the coast. For the moment, the U.S. contained the relentless Chinese advance.
The SoCal Fortifications were in serious trouble, however. Like Atlas, they were supposed to be able to carry the world on their shoulders—the military had guaranteed the people that the Chinese would never be able to crack through there. The Blue Swan missiles had changed the equation. There were too many gaps in the line and the Chinese freely expended soldiers to force through dry beachheads. Like a mass of hungry jelly leaking through—particularly in the western portion of the fortifications—the Chinese were encircling the border formations and threatening to devour them.
It had called for a total effort and reorganization from JFC California. Battles raged and American and Chinese alike consumed vast amounts of materieclass="underline" artillery and tank shells, missiles and bullets. The destruction awed the participants. Burning vehicles, smashed fortifications with littered bodies made it a surreal landscape. Modern equipment had turned war into a merciless event. Laser sighting, heavier payloads and computer-assisted fire control produced unprecedented death and destruction. The carnage bewildered the combatants, quickly tiring all but the most hardened.
By the evening of the third day, the Americans had linked up the majority of their locally encircled formations in the SoCal Fortifications and secured their internal lines. It came at the cost of operational encirclement. The JFC of California had formed a large defensive area. But his few counterattacks had failed to dislodge the Chinese soldiers guarding the thrust from Tijuana to San Diego, La Jolla, Encinitas and Carlsbad. It meant that over six hundred thousand American troops were in the process of being cut off from the freeways and rail lines leading to LA. That would make it nearly impossible to send them reinforcements and supplies.
“It’s turning into a giant Stalingrad,” General Alan explained.
Early on the fourth day of battle, the U.S. Air Force reappeared in strength. Desperate American assaults from the air and on the ground failed to reopen I-5. Fifty-three wrecked M1A3s on the freeway showed the futility of the attacks. Instead, the Chinese continued to advance, using bulldozers to shove aside the useless American hulks. The Chinese advance was slower than before. Even so, fresh units and a continuous expenditure of material wore down the defenders.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” General Alan told those in the White House bunker. “The will to fight, to drive through—someone has inflamed the Chinese with a greater determination than we’ve ever seen before.”
If that wasn’t enough, news from the eastern SoCal Fortification had suddenly become ten times worse than the western drive on LA.
In the central to eastern SoCal Fortifications, no Blue Swan missiles had exploded. But now mass Chinese armor had broken through at Calexico. The city was near the eastern edge of the Californian border with Arizona. Instead of encircling the embattled Army Group and possibly annihilating it, the enemy armor had swept north past El Centro and raced for Brawley and the Salton Sea. According to General Alan, it looked as if the Chinese were using the desert to swing well east of the southern Californian urban areas. Instead, they were heading for the pass in Palm Springs on Interstate 10. If the massed armor could break though there, they would find LA nearly defenseless, as those forces had headed south to stave off the Chinese on Interstates 5 and 15. If LA fell now, that would irrevocably trap Army Group SoCal and possibly net the enemy nearly eight hundred thousand American troops.
General Alan explained why the fortifications at Calexico had fallen, showing them with the holo-vid. Like everyone else at the conference table, Anna knew the U.S. could not afford such losses this early in the war. It could mean having to retreat from California altogether.
Anna, President Sims and the others watched a Chinese wave assault. The Chinese attacked the fortifications like a horde of ants,. A steel curtain of enemy shells advanced ahead of the Chinese hordes. Missiles came down on the battered fortification in what must have been thunderous salvoes. Then Chinese died as American machine-gun strongpoints began firing. Mines blew up in a portion of the defenses. Still the Chinese came, hunched like turtles with their rucksacks and in their body armor.
“Look,” the President said, pointing. “What’s happening over there?”
General Alan—Chairman of the Joint Chiefs—nodded at his aide. She adjusted the holo-video. Where the President pointed, it now zoomed larger.
Anna watched in sick fascination. Heavily-armored Chinese—in some kind of exoskeleton-enhanced body armor—fired integral machine guns. The gun was part of the battle-suit. They shot down their own soldiers who had turned and fled from the exploding minefield. A few of those unlucky Chinese fired at their tormenters. One exoskeleton-enhanced soldier staggered backward from the slam of bullets. Once he righted himself, he continued to gun down the “cowardly” offenders.
“Those are Chinese officers killing their own men,” the President said. “Is that correct?”
No one spoke until Anna felt compelled to say, “Yes, Mr. President. If you’ll notice the insignia of the heavily-armored Chinese—the lightning bolt—those are East Lightning officers.”
“Yes?” the President asked. “Is that significant?”
“The soldiers marching over the minefield must belong to a penal battalion,” Anna said. “They are controlled by East Lightning political commissars. Some of the soldiers…it looks as if they’re trying to run away and that is not allowed.”
“Incredible,” the President said. “Why not capture and discipline them, using the soldiers again?”
Anna could have told him that the Chinese had more political offenders than they knew what to do with. In fact, they had too many males in general. Shooting them down like this was much easier and served as a bitter lesson to the others.”
After another few moments, the President nodded to the major.
She adjusted the controls and the holo-vid resumed as before. Despite staggering enemy losses, the wave assault reached the Americans, swamping the defenders. Enemy armor now began to reinforce the attack.
General Alan spoke up. “Word of these wave assaults has spread among our troops. I have seen more than one report of badly shaken morale.”