Dragon's Fury - Dragon's Breath Part 33

All of them had then moved back into the hills where Hector brought out his remote detonation device in case it was needed.

It was not.

From a distance of two miles, they watched the explosions as the substation was destroyed and as the towers came down. As they crashed to the earth, 10% of the power supply to Southern California was also cut off.

This had a rippling and cascading effect throughout the western electric grid, particularly considering the success of some of Hector's other teams that day. It all amounted to complete power outage that lasted three days to over ten million Americans in the western United States, at a time when fear and chaos gripped the entire country.

But not all of Hector's teams enjoyed such success that day.

March 15, 2006, 18:42 Above the dam 12 miles northwest of Boise, ID Brent was watching the hills and ravines across the canyon from their hilltop. David was watching the near side, down and to the right and to the left of their position on the hill. Both men had normal and thermal night vision scopes for their M-14 rifles, and both men had been well trained in their use.

Brent and David carried Motorola, frequency-hopping, hand-held military radios with which they communicated with the Ada County response team located below them, near the dam. Brent and David were volunteers in a State of Idaho program providing local security to local infrastructure.

The program was called, "Homeland Defenders," and it had been started four years earlier in nearby Gem County. Basically, it called for volunteers from the local population to stand watch over major infrastructure, and augment local law enforcement in protecting them from terrorists. It had been the brainchild of a local citizen in Gem County in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. in September of 2001. The program simply called for the local Sheriff's office to recruit and train volunteers who would stand watch twenty-four hours a day. Eight, three hour shifts of two-man teams at each critical infrastructure were called for. The positions were completely volunteer, meaning there was no pay; but the team members did get the training and they were issued fine thirty-caliber rifles with day and night scopes, which they got to keep.

There had been more volunteers than there were places to guard.

The idea had caught on in Idaho: from several county Sheriffs who adopted it, to the Governor who officially endorsed it in 2004 and implemented it statewide. The next year, the governors of Montana and Nevada did the same thing. This was the program the Director of National Homeland Security wanted to implement nation-wide.

Now, this early evening in Ada County, Brent and David were above their local dam taking their watch.

That watch would end at 9 p.m.

"Holy c.r.a.p, Ada County Three-Seven, this is Sentinel, I've got something!"

David listened for a moment. He had been coming up here three times a week for the last year with Brent, and though they'd seen a few teenagers hiking around and perhaps an occasional local misdemeanor, he'd never heard Brent use this tone.

"Go ahead Sentinel, this is Ada County Three-Seven. State your observations."

Brent continued speaking into the microphone clipped to his lapel.

"Six, no, eight guys. Coming down the slope three hundred yards to the east of the gate at the top of the dam. They're using the military crest on the opposite side away from view of the dam to descend. Four appear to be carrying large duffel bags over their backs, the other four are armed with what appears to be a.s.sault rifles. I'll call them AR-15's."

David scanned his area again, and seeing nothing, he looked over to where Brent was indicating. Sure enough, with the aid of the scope, he could clearly see several men stealthily descending in a manner that would allow them to approach the entrance gate to the facility at the top of the dam un.o.bserved. Right now they were stopped and two of them were using thermal scopes of their own to check out the facility.

"We copy that Sentinel. Be advised. Ada Air One-One is en route. Ada County Three-Seven will interdict as they cross the road. Please advise when they are crossing and provide covering fire if necessary. You are authorized to fire upon any Tango who raises a weapon once the order to stop and surrender is given."

Brent looked at David, knowing that he had heard.

"Okay David, we'll target the shooters. You take any shooter on the left, and I'll take the right. I'll pa.s.s the word to Ada County just before they reach the road, and we'll go from there."

Over the next half hour, and as dusk set in, the eight man team slowly made their way to a position about one hundred yards up the canyon from the gate, holding back in the brush about ten yards from the road.

When they had held that position for another twenty minutes, a.s.suring themselves that they were ready and that no vehicles were approaching, and allowing it to get completely dark, they began to approach the road.

As they reached the road, a spotlight was turned on from Ada County Three-Seven, an armored, four-wheel-drive Swat Team carrier.

"You next to the road, this is the Ada County Sheriff's office, you are surrounded and covered. Throw down your weapons and put your hand in the airnow ."

The response was immediate-three of the shooters raised their rifles. Brent and David fired simultaneously and one of the shooters went down. The others opened fire and took out the SWAT Team light.

What followed was a cla.s.sic night-time firefight. The SWAT team and the terrorists had tracer ammo, so a deadly light show showed positions and aim. Both sides had thermal and starlight equipment to a.s.sist them, so the shots were not entirely wild, though a few wild rounds were directed at the hilltop upon where Brent and David sat. But with Brent and David on the opposite hill commanding the high ground with their M-14 sniper rifles, and with the arrival of Ada Air One-One, the terrorists never had a chance.

In the end, after two Sheriff's deputies were killed, and another two wounded, all eight terrorists had to either be killed or seriously wounded before they would stop fighting. Once this occurred, the Sheriff's deputies began to warily approach the area, while Ada Air One-One spotlighted the location. Before the deputies could get to them, and as Brent and David looked on, the least wounded of the three wounded terrorists quickly used a small hand gun to kill the other two, and then himself.

Later, as Brent and David were debriefed, it became clear what the purpose of the a.s.sault on the dam was intended to do. The duffel bags were filled with 100 pounds of C4 each, and with all the necessary implements to set up shaped contact charges, wire them, and blow out the dam.

Below the dam, in the Boise River valley, over fifty thousand people, the Capitol and the Governor's mansion would have all been at mortal risk from any breach of that dam. Brent and David were justifiably hailed as heroes in Idaho and across the nation. The "Homeland Defenders" program would now easily be established nation-wide after news of its successful implementation in Idaho spread around the country.

March 16, 2006, 07:27 local time Flight Leader, "Spider" Flight, SU-35 320 Kilometers south east of Taiwan South China Sea Commander Ni Hsu reflected on the past fifteen minutes of combat as his flight returned to his carrier, PLAN 1002 Shanghai. So much had happened so quickly.

With twelve SU-30's, eight SU-25's and two SU-35's supported by twelve B6-D bombers and twelve A-5 Fantan strike aircraft, Commander Ni had expected the British task force to be a push over. He had been wrong.

First of all, the Shanghai carrier group had not been able to get in position to launch a strike with its SS-26 Yakhont missiles. Had those missiles arrived just prior to his attack, he was certain that the entire British Task Force would have been destroyed. As it was, they were forced to rely on air-launched missiles alone, which required them to get much closer and forced them to contend with the Harrier air cover over the two British carriers.

His eight air superiority SU-30's should have been more than a match for the Harriers, except he had not counted on the numbers of Harriers that quickly got into the air, or the effectiveness of the AMRAAM missiles they carried. Reflecting back, the ability of the new AEW.7 Sea King helicopter to detect them at two hundred and eighty kilometers as opposed to the one hundred and eighty they had antic.i.p.ated made a significant difference.

What had been a CAP of four had quickly turned into eight Harriers, which were immediately vectored towards his flight. Another eight Harriers quickly replaced the first eight over the two Carriers.

The ensuing dogfight required Ni to employ his other four SU-30's which were supposed to have been dedicated to surface strike missions. The AMRAAM's from the eight Harriers had destroyed six of his SU-30's before they had a chance to engage. Once the remaining SU-30's became involved at closer range, they had been able to down six of the Harriers and sent the other two into a headlong retreat while losing another two SU-30's.

While this had been taking place, the second group of eight Harriers had been vectored towards the twenty-four HY-4 anti-shipping missiles launched by the B6-D bombers. These twenty-four missiles heavily damaged one British Type 42C escort, the York, and sank a Type 23 escort, the Duke. In addition, they necessitated the expenditure of many Sea Dart and Sea Wolf AAW missiles and drew off the Harriers. This left the path open for his strike force to launch its missiles.

Each of his SU-35's carried four AS-11 Kilter anti-radar missiles. All eight of these were launched. At a speed in excess of Mach 2, they attacked the British radar systems, particularly on the two undamaged Type 42 AAW destroyers. Simultaneously, the SU-25's came into range and launched their AS-17 anti-ship missiles. These had been specially configured by the Chinese to operate from their naval SU-25's. Each Su-25 carried four AS-17 missiles. Very quickly, thirty-two mach-two AS-17's were inbound on the British task force. The effect of these missiles was the most devastating.

Twelve of the AS-17's were targeted on the Invincible. Sea Dart AAW missiles accounted for one of these, Sea Wolf AAW missiles accounted for another two, and then the CIWS on the Invincible downed three. But six AS-17's scored on the carrier. As she slowed and then stopped in the water, fires burned out of control all along the flight deck and secondary explosions racked the ship. Another eight AS-17's targeted the HMS Ocean, the new helicopter carrier. Only one of these was destroyed before the Ocean's CIWS accounted for another two. Five missiles impacted the Ocean and left her moving slow in the water and burning.

The last twelve AS-17's were split evenly between the carrier Ill.u.s.trious and the a.s.sault ship Albion.

Having to choose between protecting the carrier or the LPD, most of the defenses were directed at knocking down the missiles targeted on Ill.u.s.trious. Between the escorts and the Ill.u.s.trious' CIWS, this effort was successful and no impacts were scored on the second carrier. But four of the six missiles targeted on the Albion scored direct hits, setting her ablaze from stem to stern. Thirty seconds after these impacts a tremendous secondary explosion broke her back and sent her beneath the waves.

During this attack, another six Harriers from the Ill.u.s.trious ravaged Ni's attack group destroying two more SU-30's, one of his SU-35's and six SU-25's.

The A-5 Fanton attack followed all of this action. Its missiles sank the burning Invincible and the damaged Type 42 escort, damaged another Type 42, and sank a second Type 23 escort. In the process this group lost nine of their aircraft to Harriers returning from their attack on the HY-4 missiles.

Now, as Ni was returning to the Shanghai, he counted the costs. From a total of twenty-two attacking aircraft with his group, he was returning with seven. The land-based air group lost nine aircraft. That was a total of twenty-four high performance attack aircraft for three destroyers, a carrier and an amphibious a.s.sault ship. It certainly had not been a push over, but a great victory nonetheless.

The decimated British task force turned away, trailing dark smoke from the HMS Ocean. Ultimately, it would make good its escape. The Ill.u.s.trious, a Type 42 escort, two Type 22 escorts and the heavily damaged Ocean were all that returned to England. No British help would arrive in Korea.

March 16, 2006, 07:45 local time Fantail of USS Bonhomme Richard 415 Nautical miles ENE of Okinawa Western Pacific JT was not a deeply religious man. Oh, he believed in G.o.d, and he knew that G.o.d was the source of rights and true morality; he just wasn't one to very often articulate such things. Today was an exception.

No, today, He thanked G.o.d openly and vocally that he was alive.

All around him, similar sentiments were being expressed. Feelings of humility, shock, bewilderment, anger and all of the emotions one would expect in such circ.u.mstances were running wild amongst those who were not on duty. Many of them, like JT, were on the fantail of the vessel taking a smoke to relieve the tension as the ship put more distance between itself and the horrendous ambush that had been staged against the U.S. Navy.

Some of the toughest, deadliest Marines in America's compliment were unashamedly crying. Some of the crustiest, most foul-mouthed sailors on the face of the earth were weeping uncontrollably and uttering whispered prayers. All of them were still shaken from their near death.

Seeing almost six thousand men and women die right before your very eyes has a way of doing that to a person, thought JT.

The USS Constellation's destruction had been just like that. No more than three miles off their starboard side, JT had watched the unG.o.dly speed of those streaks in the water, leaving their surreal wakes, as they sped towards the Constellation. And there was not a solitary thing anyone could do to stop them. Two of them had hit the Constellation within about one hundred feet of one another directly amidships.

To see a structure that ma.s.sive, that housed that many people just split apart and fold in two like that, and do it so quickly was beyond words to describe. Even now he could hear the G.o.d forsaken sound of that rending, he could still see all the aircraft-the F/A-18F's, the S3B'a, the EA-6B's and the Hawkeyes-sliding together like so many toys into that maelstrom in the middle. He could see all those specks sliding down the deck, flying through the air...men and women.

It was an image that would stay with him the rest of his life, and with every living soul who had witnessed it. It was an image he had to share with America so that they could understand what had happened here.

It was also an image of a sudden death that JT had almost experienced himself.

Had it not been for the USS Thach, that marvelously quick and nimble frigate, whose commander had unflinchingly run in between the Bonhomme Richard and a similar approaching death, JT knew he would be dead right now. What an act of selflessness and what an act of heroism that saving action had been.

JT hoped that the Captain of the Thach was awarded the Medal of Honor. JT knew he deserved it.

"G.o.d bless them and rest them...G.o.d bless them all!"

JT voiced out loud with great emotion and tears streaming down his face as he thought on it.

Surrounding sailors and Marines could only nod, or voice an "amen" in response...they knew exactly what he was talking about.

No, Americamust hear this tale and see the images of it occurring as he had digitally recorded it. So that they could understand what the awful ambush had produced in the way of death and anguish, and in the way of heroism. So that they would never forget-and so that America would produce the righteous indignation and absolute commitment to a just retribution that this actmust produce for an ultimately victorious America.

But right now, that victory looked to be a long, long ways away.

March 16, 2006, 08:04 local time Flag Conference Room, USS Kitty Hawk Exiting Bungo Strait Between Kyushu and Shikoku, j.a.pan Admiral Ben Ryan reflected on the grim reality of this day; a day that had barely started on the clock, but that had already lasted for an eternity. He was the soul surviving task force commander of CBT 77.

So many good men, so many close friends, so many future plans; all gone.

He looked at the shocked faces of those with him in this briefing.

"Folks, I know you are shocked, I know we have all lost a lot of good friends today. But, I need you to pull together now. We have been trained to defend our nation in just these circ.u.mstances, and our nation has been savaged today-and not just here in the Western Pacific."

At the mention of this, several faces looked up, an alertness returning to their eyes. This is exactly what the Admiral had hoped for.

"That's right, there have been other attacks. The princ.i.p.al of which, ladies and gentlemen, occurred on the continental United States!"

Audible intakes of breath could be heard as the Admiral paused for just a moment and then continued.

"Apparently, hundreds of ballistic missiles were used. All of them conventional thank G.o.d. Just like those an hour or so ago that descended on airfields and shipyards in j.a.pan. The White House has been destroyed, but I can say that the President is safe, having narrowly escaped. The Vice President and several members of the cabinet were killed. The Pentagon, the Capitol, Newport News Shipyards, Ingalls Shipyards, Bath Iron Works, San Diego, Bremerton and many other sites have been hit. There are reports of terrorist attacks on all types of infrastructure in inland areas. There are many, many civilian and military casualties."

After allowing this to sink in for a few seconds, he continued.

"We have been trained to do something about this, and we are going to do so. Just after the attacks began, we received a communique from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). It indicated that the Chinese had fielded a new weapon of some sort on many of their container ships and on Luhai, Luhu and Luda cla.s.s destroyers. We now know what these weapons are and what they are capable of.

"We also know the location of five to seven "groups" of Red Chinese ships that launched these weapons on us. They are made up of a single container ship escorted by two destroyers from those cla.s.ses I just mentioned.

"Due to the nature of the risk and due to the need for force protection for the gators that have survived, we have been ordered to retire to Hawaii with all due haste. We are to gather the remainder of CBT 77, from the other Joint Task Forces as we go.

"As we depart, I have ordered the aircraft from the John Stennis and the Constellation, which were airborne when the attack came, to form up and make a strike on one of these groups. They will attack in conjunction with a Tomahawk strike that has already been launched from our task force. Based on the outcome of that attack, we may plan additional air strikes on the other groups while we are still in range to do so. We will launch as many Tomahawk missiles as we can. The j.a.panese Air Force and Navy have a.s.sured me that they will continue to do likewise after our departure.

"Regarding the j.a.panese Navy, they will be augmenting our escort as we depart by providing additional ASW and AAW support. You will see two of their new Takanami cla.s.s guided missile destroyers and one of their Kongo cla.s.s Aegis destroyers, the Myoko, form up with us in the next hour or so. They will travel with us for fifteen hundred miles, until we are clear of imminent danger. They are doing this at great risk to themselves, at a time when they are sorely needed. We should remember this. They are going to need our help over here as soon as we can possibly return."

March 16, 2006, 08:21 local time Raptor Strike 280 nautical miles SE of Okinawa Western Pacific They had named themselves "Raptor Strike." Although they were a mixed group from two carriers that no longer existed, they still carried a lot of sting.

Each carrier had already sent an E2-C Hawkeye AEW aircraft aloft that morning before the attack. In addition they each had two F-14D's aloft for CAP and two, F/A-18F's aloft for anti-surface duties.

When Admiral Patterson had ordered the ready birds to be launched around 06:45, both carriers had launched two more F/A-18F's, two more F-14D's, a KS-3A tanker and an EA-6B EW aircraft. Now, from this, a strike package was a.s.sembled to go after one of the Red Chinese container ship groups, the one off to their southwest that had attacked them this morning.

Four F/A-18F's carrying four AGM-94 Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missiles (Ja.s.sM), two EA-6B's carrying four AGM-88 High Speed Anti-radiation Missiles (HARM), four F-14D's flying escort and one E2-C Hawkeye providing radar and early warning coverage were approaching their launch coordinates.

"Raptor flight leader, this is Frisbee two-three, be advised that Tomahawk strike is now seventy miles from target and closing. You have reached your launch window and may launch at any time."

The flight leader knew that timing was everything, he felt that they were behind schedule and therefore, rather than launch at the maximum distance, decided to close another twenty miles on the target.

"Frisbee two-three, this is Raptor lead. We roger your last. We will ingress further to maximize strike effectiveness. Will advise, out."

This would have the dual advantage of getting his Ja.s.sM's, which were slower than the Tomahawks, in much closer before launch. This would give them a better chance of a hit and would have them arriving soon after the Tomahawks. It would also allow his anti-radar missiles, which were very fast and which would surge ahead of the Tomahawks to optimize the spread between themselves and the trailing Tomahawks. Launch too soon, and the HARM's get there too far in advance of the slower Tomahawks.

In that event, the enemy simply turns off their radar until the HARM's expend themselves, and then turn it back on to engage the Tomahawks. Launch too late, and the enemy has engaged all of your slow Tomahawks before your HARM's can do anything about it.

When Raptor flight closed to within fifty miles of their target, but still twelve to fifteen miles outside of the range of the KS-2 missiles that the targeted ships carried, the flight leader had all aircraft launch their missiles. Eight HARM's and sixteen Ja.s.sM's were launched. As this took place, twenty-four Tomahawks from the Kitty Hawk battle group were just entering the effective range of the KS-2.

Except for two F/A-18F's left to observe, Raptor flight then turned towards the Kitty Hawk. En route, they would refuel from the KS-3A's and then proceed to land on the carrier's overloaded deck.

As the inbound Tomahawk strike closed on the Chinese group of three ships, the first layer of defenses encountered was the KS-2 anti-air missile. The KS-2 was a very effective missile, but the Tomahawks were coming in low, just above the waves, and using their own electronic counter measures. The result was that the stream of twenty-four Tomahawks was reduced to twelve by the long-range KS-2 defenses of the three Chinese ships. The most effective of these was the Tactical Strike ship itself, the PLAN 2019 Hunan. With its forty VLS cells filled with KS-2 missiles, and its reload capability, it simply kept pumping out the missiles until the incoming threat was too close. Then, the close-in defenses of each ship came into play.

The escorting Luda cla.s.s destroyer was the weakest anti-air platform of the three, so therefore to it fell the dire task of illuminating all of its radar so as to draw missiles away from the other two ships. As a result, it took the brunt of the HARM missiles attack, soaking up six of the eight missiles. These hits severely disabled the ship and may have sunk it, but that was rendered moot a few moments later as three of the surviving Tomahawk missiles also struck the vessel. With the penetrating design of the Tomahawk warhead, and its 1,000 pound payload of high explosive, the Luda cla.s.s destroyer was completely obliterated and she sank with all hands in just under two minutes.

The Luhai cla.s.s destroyer escorting the Hunan was a much more modern and capable design. Her close-in defenses were layered and effective, consisting of both short range Crotale missiles and eight thirty-seven millimeter close in weapon systems (CIWS). As a result, four of the five Tomahawks targeted on her were downed by her defenses, but the last two HARM missiles and one of the Tomahawks impacted. This slowed her to twelve knots and knocked out four of her CIWS.

The Hunan also had effective close-in defenses. This consisted of eight, thirty millimeter, fifty-four caliber, AK-630M gatling guns that operated much like the twenty millimeter Phalanx systems on U.S.

ships, but shooting a larger projectile. This system knocked down all of the Tomahawk missiles targeted on the Hunan, the last being destroyed a mere four hundred yards from the port side of the ship. This near miss damaged the ship as exploding fuel and debris, continuing to move forward with their failing inertia, impacted the ship, killing a number of crewmen, setting a moderate fire on deck and disabling two of the LRASD mounts on that side.

While the Hunan and her Luhai escort were engaged in defending themselves against the HARM and Tomahawk threat, the Ja.s.sM strike launched by the F/A-18F's was bearing down on the two vessels.

Of the sixteen Ja.s.sM's launched, only four were destroyed by the distracted and therefore much less effective KS-2 defenses. Of the remaining twelve missiles, eight were targeted for the Hunan and four for the remaining Luhai cla.s.s escort. Four of the eight Ja.s.sM's impacted on the Hunan, resulting in many serious secondary explosions, and slowing her to six knots with a significant list to her port side. Two of the four Ja.s.sM's targeted on the Luhai impacted with catastrophic results as she went dead in the water, took on a terrible list and then capsized and sank a few minutes later taking most of her crew with her.

All of this was observed by the pair of F/A-18F's that remained in the area to observe results of the attack. They were able to do this with impunity, remaining just outside of KS-2 range, since there was no Chinese air activity this far south of Okinawa on this day. Based on their reports, a follow-on strike of eight Tomahawks found the Hunan ninety minutes later as she tried to limp away, and sent her to the bottom of the Pacific.

It was a very hollow victory on this day of abject defeat.

15 March, 2006, 20:29 150 Miles NE of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina Bridge, USCGS Gallatin (WHEC 721) Atlantic, Ocean Captain Thames listened as the reports continued to come in. Death, destruction, terror and chaos were gripping areas all over the country.

Apparently the President was alive, but he was still not in a position to address the nation. A nation that was not sure how many of its other political and military leaderswere alive.

The Pentagon had been hit hard, much worse than the September 2001 attacks. Three of the five sides took hits and many portions collapsed. The Capitol building was attacked; apparently the dome had completely collapsed with much of the structure under the weight of several direct hits. Many representatives and senators had not escaped.

"Well," the Captain thought, "we're out here in the water now trying to track down one of the perpetrators."

The message had been broadcast to all units now: Chinese container ships may have weapons aboard, including long range ballistic missiles.