Ellsworth AFB, control centre # D-1 off Interstate 90, has a deep shaft leading to a wide circular passage, running west below a low hill to a large facility that was now, temporarily, an alternative seat of government for the United States of America. The vice president had relinquished the role of Commander in Chief once the doctors had signed off on the president who was now in videoconference with other, similar facilities that housed the various arteries of a government in time of war.
When the army engineers got through to the kitchens, the president had refused to budge until those trapped with him had been evacuated first.
The sight that had greeted him, on emerging into the grounds had stopped him in his tracks. Sealed into an environment suit as he was, had added a surreal touch to the experience. Hiroshima had come to visit Washington DC, and the view from the helicopter that took him to a field hospital had reduced him to silence.
The doctors who had examined him were concerned by his uncommunicative state, answering yes, no, don’t know, in a dull voice; the shrink was going to have to do an assessment anyway but they let him know their concerns.
After the prodding and probing of the medical doctors came the probing and prodding of the ‘trick cyclists’, he endured it for an hour before erupting.
“Doctor, I sure did wet the bed, hell I wet it every other night until I was four years old… in fact that second god damned ink blot you showed me looks a lot like a peed-on mattress!” The psychiatrist was scribbling away furiously when the president reached over and snatched the pad. He looked briefly at was written.
“How in the hell do you suppose that my current state of mind has anything to do with pre-pubescent trauma and possible child abuse!” The pad hit the far wall of the large tent where the session took place. “My Father tanned my hide when I needed it… I do not happen to ascribe to the current thinking that children are subject to the same rules as adults… an adult is a person who has reached maturity and is fully developed… does that sound like a four year old who set alight to his father’s den after being told the dangers of matches?” The presidents senior secret service agent had entered on hearing the outburst and seen the president angrier than he ever had done before. Without looking up the president had held up a hand, halting him as he leant across the collapsible table, separating shrink from patient. “Call me quaint and old fashioned, why don’t you, but perhaps, just perhaps… my present state of mind may be due to my nation’s capital city getting wasted, while I was present… and not because I got spanked at age four… you halfwit!” The target of his ire was trying to find words and failing.
“Sign me off as fit and get back to psychoanalysing poodles, young man… and do it now!”
The flight from the MASH by Marine TAV-8B Harrier, with the mid-air tanking’s had gone a long way to restoring his equilibrium. It was his first ever flight in a combat jet and after a few minutes into the flight he had enthused over the machine, chatting with the colonel who chauffeured him.
The formal transition back to C in C had been accomplished once he’d arrived in the hardened bunker.
“Henry, what’s the situation?”
General Shaw was a thousand miles away but his expression spoke for him, before he even opened his mouth.
“Mr President, I’m glad you made it out, sir… the PRC, Russian’s and their allies attacked immediately after the Washington bomb was detonated, on the dot of 9am, Washington time.” General Shaw cleared his throat and continued.
“At Pearl we lost two destroyers, USS Tempest Creek and the USS Andy Croy to mines placed by divers. Both sank at their moorings but they are salvageable. In the East, the naval airbases on Japan and Okinawa came under missile attack, we got just over half but we lost a fleet tanker, the Killington, at Yokosuka and Bonhomme Richard took damage when she blew. We lost shore installations and the ‘Bonnie’ is out of action and in need of major repairs. On Taiwan the PRC staged commando raids by Special Forces before the bomb at the capital blew, and missile attacks on the hour were followed in by airborne drops at T’ai-chung AFB. After last light they began amphibious landings at T’ai-Hsi and the other side of the Cho-Shui river. They have established a beachhead and secured the port, sir.” The general knew the time to defeat a landing once it was on the beach, was there, on the beach, when the troops had only the ammunition in their pouches. Once an enemy got his logistics ashore it got far harder.
“At T’ai-chung air force base, the ROC have the buildings while they have the field. The airborne landing caught them on the hop… caught us all on the hop, I guess I owe that guy from Langley an apology, anyway… the first wave lost momentum and the second wave got chewed up by ROC SAMs. So far there has been no third wave and a mechanised battalion of ROC troops has reinforced the AFB. The Taiwanese are about to start beating on the bridgehead, ships and port with air strikes combined with a naval effort.
Singapore is calling for help but I think they have gone sir… if I say so myself Mr President, it was a pretty damned gutsy move and the PRC pulled it off. A lot depends on whether the countries between cooperate with the PRC. They are reliant on air and sea supply, if we cut that then we starve them out. Malaysia has so far made no international noises but they have troops on the move. They may not be kissing cousin’s with Singapore but they have been good neighbours.”
“What about the rest of Asia and the Far East, Henry?”
“Sir, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam… . It’s the same story, we know they have been approached diplomatically and all of them are mobilising, we don’t know if they are going to fight, join or stay neutral. The Philippines we are sure of, they told China to take a hike and expelled the PRC embassy along with the Russian Federation and allies. They are mobilising too.” He referred to something on a wall off screen before continuing.
“First blood at sea goes to Australia, they captured a mini sub and some commandos doing the preliminary marking for a landing. While they prosecuted the mother ship they came under attack from a third sub… sank it and forced the mother ship to the surface where they made a fight of it. Scratch two PRC naval assets. Australia is worried though; they have a lot of coastline but small army, navy and air force. Granted that not even the PRC have the ability to land at the back end of nowhere and cross the interior, but they are a logical target if the PRC are driving for a Pacific empire.”
The president was deep in thought for a while and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs paused.
“Where did this happen?”
“A bay south of MacKay, Queensland… a hell of a way from anything major, though” Henry added, puzzled at the location.
The president however was less interested with the reasoning behind that particular location and more interested in anything else the PRC had been up to.
“I take they are starting a search for other landing sites that may have been prepared, General?”
Henry Shaw nodded in affirmation.
“Okay, let’s move on. Have we sunk their damn carriers yet?”
“Sir, that is in hand. At present they are sticking close to land, and we have only John F Kennedy in that part of the Pacific at the moment, that’s why we wanted the Brit Prince of Wales to stay on. We are handicapped by lack of real time Intel. NSA promise to have completed the debugging of the system anytime now and we are gambling on it being back in time to assist fleet ops. While they are up north they cannot assist at Taiwan, of course.” The president did not look happy, but Shaw continued.