From Taiwan to Okinawa to the islands of j.a.pan to the Korean peninsula, ma.s.sive ballistic missile barrages began raining down on US installations and the installations of its allies. These continued throughout the day and were interspersed, or followed up by, attacks from Chinese land-based, or carrier-based aircraft. The attacks included strikes against the British Task Force approaching from the south and against j.a.panese Maritime Defense Force (JMDF) ships in the Sea of j.a.pan.
Surprise was total.
Within days, the surprise Chinese air attacks on Korea and Taiwan would be followed by large numbers of Chinese ground troops. These would be carried to their destinations by the new Yunana II landing craft, by the new Amphibious a.s.sault ships and by many other craft. The invasion forces would be escorted by Beijing cla.s.s carrier groups that would protect them attack by Korean, j.a.panese and ROC (Taiwan) forces. If today"s operation went as planned, no American intervention was expected.
And this was not all. The transmission for the successful beginning of China"s part of Breath of Fire was also transmitted to the Tactical Attack Ships waiting off the coasts of the United States and to operatives whose teams within the United States were staged and ready. These unleashed their attacks on American soil with a savagery and effectiveness that surprised even the Chinese planners.
March 15, 2006, 19:04 Presidential Quarters entry way White House Washington, D.C.
As the first couple exited their armored, specially outfitted limousine, Linda Weisskopf thought fondly on their dinner.
"Now wasn"t that the wonderful dinner?"
She thought. Norm had been such a gentlemen, and had take such pains to have everything appear normal, though she knew that events and their potential impact were weighing heavily on his mind. In fact, a National Security meeting was waiting for him in the situation room right now.
As they stepped up to the entry, flanked by their Secret Service detail, she thought she would mention her grat.i.tude and appreciation to him.
"Norm?" she said, as she tugged on the sleeve of his coat. He turned to look at her.
"Yes sweetheart."
As they briefly paused, she continued.
"I just wanted you to know how much I appreci..."
That was as far as she got. Before she could finish, the agent in charge of their detail came bursting back through the entry and yelled.
"Turn around. Get the President and First Lady to Marine One and away from the White Housenow !"
He had his hand to his ear, listening as he said this. Norm turned and took Linda by the arm and they literally ran around the building to the landing area where Marine One, was already spooling up its engines.
The pilot immediately prepared for take off, waiting for the President, First Lady and their immediate Secret Service detail to board. A Marine was standing just outside, waving them emphatically on.
As the aircraft lifted off, the President, gaining his wits, quickly asked "Alright Burt, what on earth is going on?"
He turned to the President with a desperate look on his face.
"Mr. President, NORAD and local tracking just picked up multiple ballistic missile launches within the last three minutes. All are between one and three hundred miles off the coast. Multiple tracks targeting Washington, D.C., Sir."
The President grimly took this in. Ballistic launches only a few hundred miles away. My G.o.d, he thought.
If they are nuclear... Looking directly at Burt while holding Linda"s hand, The President could see in Burt"s and the other agents" eyes the grim conclusions that they had drawn.
"If they launched that close in, their flight time would be..."
The answers to the timing and the composition came right then.
BLAM!.
Marine One was scarcely two hundred feet in the air and only a few hundred yards away from the White House when the first of four conventional missiles targeted on the White House impacted. Luckily, though the turbulence was severe, the pilot was experienced and had seen worse in other situations he had flown through. He brought them out of a roll to the left, steadied the aircraft and kept gaining alt.i.tude and distance.
As the President and First Lady watched out their windows in horror, three more missiles impacted on and around the White House, then more missiles began impacting on and around the Capitol building and the Pentagon. Very quickly large pillars of smoke and tremendous flames began to rise from all three places.
As they flew on the President asked, "Has Andrews been attacked?"
The agent in charge went forward to the pilot"s compartment and returned in a few seconds.
"No Sir, Andrews appears to be intact at the moment. We are receiving reports of significant attacks at Newport News and Hampton Roads, others coming in from elsewhere in the country."
The President didn"t hesitate. Calling to the pilot "Okay, Captain!"
The response from the flight deck was immediate.
"Yes Sir!"
"Get me over to Andrews. Contact them and tell them it is my direct order to have Air Force One standing by when I arrive, ready for immediate take off."
Though the agent in charge tried to protest and suggest that they fly to a site that was not so high-profile a target, the President would have none of it.
"Burt, I appreciate your concerns, but this is a direct order from your commander in chief. Now get me to Andrews and get me on Air Force One. Imust establish communications with military and political leaders, I can"t do that any better than from Air Force One!"
As Marine One banked towards Andrews and communicated with flight control and the command chain there, Norm Weisskopf sat back and consoled his wife, while watching the landscape pa.s.s underneath him.
March 15, 2006, same time Construction Yard, CVN-77 Newport News Shipbuilding Newport News, VA In many ways, except for an "odd" look to her island, she looked just like the super carrier that was in dry dock next to her undergoing its Service Life Extension Program (SLEP). But looks can be deceiving.
CVN-77 was the first of the "new" generation of U.S. aircraft carriers. Billions of dollars had been invested in the construction, the new technology, the practices and the configurations that would make her more operationally effective, over 20% less costly and would require over 500 less crew. This would make way for more improvements in her follow on sister ships, one of which was already under construction further down the "line."
Several of the improvements and innovations that the "CVX" cla.s.s would incorporate over the current "Nimitz" cla.s.s would include: -A open system architecture for all computers and combat systems, -A fully integrated information system, -A composite construction island, -Multifunctional embedded antennas, -Redundant fiber optic cabling for all communications, -Zonal electrical distribution systems, -The SPY-1F AEGIS radar system, -Improved close-in defenses adding the Mk-31 (RAM) missile system.
-Provisions for upgrading to linear electromagnetic-motor catapults.
In addition, these would be the first carriers to be built with the new air wing composition in mind. That air wing would consist of twenty-four F/A-18E single-seat air-superiority fighters, twelve F/A-18F two-seat attack/fighters, twelve JSF V/STOL attack/fighters, and 1416 Common Support Aircraft (CSA). The CSA would likely be comprised of four E-2C AEW aircraft, four Electronic Warfare aircraft (EA-6B or new EF-18G aircraft) and ten S3B ASW aircraft.
But, plans for the early fall launch of this formidable new carrier, the CVN-77, and her sister ship, as well as for the re-launch of the SLEP carrier were now being put on long term hold.
Over ninety ballistic missiles were now falling on the carriers and the construction yards that were building or refitting them. Each missile carried a 1,000-pound warhead guided unfailingly by GPS coordinates that had been programmed into them resulting from the many Chinese military "exchange"
guests who had visited the facilities. In fact, in attacks on fixed American installations in the United States and the Far East that were occurring this day-and would occur in future attacks-the unerring accuracy resulted from this same "guest exchange program." As at the White House, the Pentagon and the Capitol, there was very little warning time, only three to five minutes.
Machinery and equipment critical to the construction were exploding all around. Huge, gaping holes were appearing in the carrier decks, followed immediately by bone-rattling detonations that further ripped the carrier decks apart and gutted the interior s.p.a.ces. The islands were hammered into a smoking pile of twisted metal and equipment. Skilled laborers were killed and injured by the hundreds at each location.
When it was over just a few minutes later, the construction yards and docks were a burning, smoking and twisted ruin. The ships themselves were wrecked hulks burning out of control. On this day, America lost five of its super carriers: Two operational carriers in the Western Pacific, and three here at Newport News.
March 15, 2006, 18:12 Construction Yard, DD-21 Ingalls Shipbuilding Pascagoula, MS The sleek, new ship was scheduled to be launched in July. Built low to the water and gliding through the waves on new electric drive propulsion, planners had been hoping for a July 4thchristening and launch to punctuate the patriotic nature of this next Naval "defender" of America.
The lead ship in the DD-21 program was being built to revolutionize sea warfare. A fully modular design, this cla.s.s would initially be delivered as a Maritime Fire Support Ship with two new, one hundred mile range 155mm guns, two sixty-four cell VLS block holding many Land Attack and anti-surface Tomahawk missiles, and evolved Sea Sparrow missiles for self defense against air attack.
Later versions of the design would incorporate full anti-submarine capabilities and then, still later, theater-wide anti-ballistic, anti-air capabilities.
The technology being used to construct the ship was state of the art and specially designed for the many innovations in propulsion, fire support, radar and automation being incorporated. Ingalls Shipbuilding was one of two primary shipyards building destroyers for the United States Navy. The other was Bath Iron Works in Maine.
At 6:12 p.m., sixty tactical missiles fired from less that two hundred miles away began raining down on these shipyards as well. The primary targets were the construction yards for the DD-21 and the construction yards for the continuing construction of the Block II A version of the Arleigh Burke cla.s.s of guided missile destroyers, another of which was under construction.
As large explosions racked the yards from secondary explosions of fuels and other combustibles stored there, workers ran in a frenzied panic to seek shelter. Within a few short minutes, both ships and the equipment and facilities for their construction were either very badly damaged or destroyed in the attack.
In addition, hundreds more skilled ship builders were killed, some with skills honed over thirty years of building modern destroyers for the U.S. Navy.
The same scene was played out at Bath Iron Works in Maine, where the second DD-21 ship was under construction and where another Arleigh Burke cla.s.s destroyer was being built. There, the ships themselves were completely destroyed and again, hundreds of skilled workers killed.
March 15, 2006, 18:09 Propane Storage Facility Missouri Sh.o.r.e of the Mississippi River Just North of St. Louis, MO The propane storage facilities here were ma.s.sive: close to two million gallons of propane stored at this single site. Fully 12% of U.S. available resource was stored here for transmission across the country. In addition to trucks and pipelines that carried the gas away from the facility, large propane storage barges were used to transport the fuel up and down the Mississippi River to alternate distribution sites.
Ahmed Haddad, Jahmil and his six subordinates on this particular mission had selected this target well.
They had studied the schedules and doc.u.mented the security, both ash.o.r.e and on the water. Traveling in their refitted Sea King houseboat, the Dhul Fiqar, they had just made the turn toward the facility, traveling at their maximum speed of twelve knots.
Below, surrounded by a special protective shielding of Kevlar armor and hardened stainless steel, were two thousand pounds of C4 explosive. The shielding would protect it during transit to the target, and then project its force in the desired manner upon detonation. Ahead now, about two miles directly in front of them, was the target, a huge propane barge moored next to a large storage tank taking on propane.
"Keep her steady Jahmil. Aim directly for the middle of the barge. We will soon be in paradise together my brother."
Jahmil knew that what his friend of many years said was true, and he looked forward to it.
"Allah Mak, Ahmed, G.o.d is truly great, and hopefully we will send many of these infidels to h.e.l.l when we step into paradise this day, my friend."
As they continued their approach towards the facility, finally, as they knew it ultimately must, came the sound of a large horn off to their left. From behind a group of several other craft that had shielded the Dhul Fiqar"s turn towards the facility, a forty-one foot U.S. Coast Guard Ports and Waterways patrol boat turned directly towards them and picked up speed.
This craft, and two others like it, worked three shifts and were the princ.i.p.al waterway security for the propane facility. Powered by two c.u.mmins diesel engines, the patrol boat was capable of sustaining twenty-eight knots, far faster than the Dhul Fiqar. It was armed with a bow-mounted M2 HB fifty-caliber machine gun and two M-60 thirty-caliber machine guns. It was also armed with a very powerful loud speaker.
"Sea King houseboat, heave to. You are approaching a restricted area and are ordered by the U.S.
Coast Guard to heave to."
Ahmed looked at Jahmil briefly then ordered him to continue. They only had a little over a mile to go now, and they could be there in about four minutes.
The pilothouse of the Dhul Fiqar, where Jahmil was stationed, had been reinforced and was also coated in Kevlar armor for just this contingency. In addition, the Dhul Fiqar was well armed for any encounter with the U.S. Coast Guard. They had installed mounts for one twenty-millimeter cannon and one M-60, thirty-caliber machinegun. Ahmed now had five of the other team members taking out this weaponry and preparing to mount it. Two of his men would man the twenty-millimeter cannon, while another manned the M-60 machine gun. Two other team members would be armed with M16A1 a.s.sault rifles mounting 40mm M202 grenade launchers. The last member of Ahmed"s team would maintain the engine, and serve as a reserve for the firing positions, wherever needed.
When the U.S. Coast Guard officer saw that the Dhul Fiqar had no intention of stopping, he tried one last broadcast.
"Dhul Fiqar, you are ordered to heave to. If you do not comply immediately, we will be forced to fire upon you."
Several Coast Guard crewmembers were now out on the forward deck uncovering the fifty-caliber machinegun mounted there. Two other members were already manning smaller M-60 thirty-caliber machineguns on mounts towards the aft potion of the boat.
To indicate they meant business, the Coast Guard officer commanding the craft ordered his crew to fire several rounds across the bow of the Dhul Fiqar.
Bap Bap Bap...Bap Bap Bap The rounds kicked up impressive geysers in front of the Dhul Fiqar.
When the Dhul Fiqar began taking evasive maneuvers by turning slightly in a weaving pattern towards the propane facility, the Coast Guard boat increased speed to their maximum 28 knots. From several hundred yards to the side and behind, the patrol craft began overtaking the Dhul Fiqar rapidly, firing as they came.
1,200 yards to go.
Ahmed and his men took cover behind specially prepared Kevlar coated positions at their firing stations as many rounds. .h.i.t the boat, tearing off materiel and punching holes in the hull. When the Coast Guard patrol boat had closed to within 200 yards, Ahmed ordered his men to man their firing stations and open fire. As they rose up and began firing back at the Coast Guard vessel, the Coast Guard crew began targeting them. Almost immediately, two of Ahmed"s six men were cut down, but the other four began returning a murderous fire on the unarmored Coast Guard boat.
The twenty-millimeter cannon began scoring direct hits on the Coast Guard pilothouse and the boat veered off as those piloting the U.S. craft were killed or injured. The twenty millimeter-cannon then began concentrating on the Coast Guard patrol boat"s hull, punching many large holes in it and damaging other vital equipment. Upon seeing this heavy weapon and its impact on their vessel, the Coast Guard crew manning the fifty-caliber machinegun raked the twenty-millimeter position and killed both men there.
800 yards to go.
As this was occurring, the remaining grenade launcher found his range and dropped one forty millimeter grenade in the aft section of the Coast Guard boat, killing both of the Coast Guard M-60 machine gunners and destroying the two c.u.mmins diesel engines used to power the craft. As the Coast Guard patrol boat went dead in the water and began to burn, the fifty-caliber machinegun crew again raked the Dhul Fiqar, seriously wounding Ahmed"s man who held the grenade launcher, knocking him overboard.
300 yards to go.
Ahmed made his way towards the pilothouse. Now only he and Jahmil were left on the Dhul Fiqar. Just as he was opening the door to the pilothouse, a fifty-caliber round hit him in the shoulder and threw him violently into the pilothouse and onto the floor. Jahmil quickly closed the door. The Kevlar protection, three inches thick around the pilothouse, was not a guarantee of safety, but it had worked thus far.
Looking down at his friend, Jahmil saw that he was terribly wounded and bleeding profusely. The fifty-caliber round had taken off Ahmed"s entire right arm and part of the shoulder. Although he was still conscious, and trying to stand, there was no doubt that Ahmed would soon die from shock and loss of blood.
100 yards to go.
Now, with only about fifteen seconds before impact, Ahmed"s condition did not matter. Jahmil locked the rudder into position and then helped his friend, Ahmed, stand up so he could see their fate.
Workers were running for their lives. Many were diving into the river trying to swim away and others were running down planks onto sh.o.r.e. Some of the brave security personnel were firing on the Dhul Fiqar, but their small arms and rifle fire was ineffectual. Jahmil knew that any escape and any resistance was truly futile at this point. He and Ahmed had wrapped the fate of all of these, and many more, together with their own.
Impact.
The Dhul Fiqar plowed into the middle of the propane barge and the last thing Jahmil and Ahmed perceived was a brilliantly bright flash of light, as the pressure sensors on the bow of the craft worked as they had been designed and set off the C4 explosives. The 2,000 pounds of very high explosive created a brilliant, elongated fireball that expanded to over 75 yards in diameter and 150 yards long in milliseconds. The elongated fireball was due to the casing of Kevlar and hardened steel surrounding the C4, directing its energy forward into the barge, although as it turned out, with the Dhul Fiqar so close to the barge, it was wholly unnecessary Within milliseconds, the propane stored on the barge, almost a full load of 100,000 gallons, ignited in a much larger explosion. The fireball from that detonation was a full three hundred yards in diameter and immediately incinerated anything within its reach. That reach included the nearest storage tank, which was being used to load the barge and where over one quarter of a million gallons of propane were stored.
The fireball from that conflagration was fully one-third of a mile in diameter and set off a domino effect of similarly ma.s.sive explosions as every storage tank in the facility, six of them, detonated one after another.
The blast and shock waves resulting from the ma.s.sive explosions of the propane storage tanks leveled every building within a one half-mile radius of the facility, and set fire to most structures within a mile.
Over 20,000 people worked or lived within a mile radius of the facility; the mortality rate to those individuals was just under thirty percent, with double that number injured, many of them seriously.
March 15, 2006, 18:27 Bonneville Power Administration Substation 15 Miles Northwest of Fontaine, UT Hector Ortiz and his five comrades looked down on the substation.
There was no one around.
Hector turned to his men and simply said.
"Okay, let"s go."
They drove their four wheelers down the slope to the gravel road that ran next to the substation. Three of the men went down the road a quarter of a mile to provide security, but as it turned out none was needed. Apart from some small motion detectors that Hector recognized inside the fence, and what appeared to be a video camera, there appeared to be no security. The camera and the motion detectors were quickly dispensed of with a silenced pistol Hector carried.
No matter, they were all well disguised just the same, and the VINs for all of these units had been ground off. The units themselves were built of so many spare parts, that no trace on their ownership or origin would be possible.
Hector and his men had camped out in a popular four wheeling area for the last two days several miles west of the substation. At night they rested and planned, and during the day they did the minimum amount of four wheeling necessary to keep up appearances that they were learning to use these new vehicles they had purchased from friends. Outside of friendly advice from pa.s.sers by, no one asked anything other than pa.s.sing questions.
Then, last evening, the warning for the execution of their operation came in code over Hector"s radio.
Immediately after receiving the message, they all retired and rested very well for the rest of the night. This afternoon, the actual execute order had come and they had gathered their "equipment" and drove over the intervening hills to the substation.
Now, explosives had been set to completely destroy the substation and several of the high voltage lines leading into and away from it. They were all wired together to a single timer, and the timer had been set.