Now it was McCoil’s turn to smile. General Bennet had not only sent him more help, he’d sent him some of the best crack infantry units in the US Army. He suddenly felt a lot better about being able to hold their positions — his airborne force had more than doubled.
“Well, Colonel, you couldn’t have come at a better time,” said McCoil. “Let’s walk over to the map and I’ll show you exactly where I need your guys. Did General Bennet or anyone else tell you if additional reinforcements are still coming, or are you guys it?”
“I’m not sure about additional troops, but I do know at least two companies of Abrams battle tanks are on the way, along with another twenty Stryker vehicles and a battalion of 155mm artillery guns. Probably a ton of food, water, and ammunition as well, but I think we’re it for troops,” Colonel St. Leo explained. “You wouldn’t believe how bad the fighting is around the Shanghai Airport or the ports right now. It’s a real slaughter, if you ask me.” His face showed some of the horrors he had witnessed.
McCoil nodded as he took in the information; it was hard to spend energy worrying about what was happening at the ports and other landing points, but clearly, what was happening there was having an impact on his force being relieved. Since Colonel St. Leo was the first outside person he’d seen in over a week and had just come from headquarters, he pressed for more information.
“What’s the hold-up at the port? Why haven’t we been relieved yet?” He asked his questions quietly so no one else around them could hear.
St. Leo likewise leaned in and in a similarly hushed tone replied, “The PLA has been throwing massive human wave attacks at us. They’ll throw a battalion or two worth of militia forces at us to tie us down or expose our positions, and then a regular Army unit will follow in behind them. I mean, we’re killing them by the thousands, but we’re also taking a lot of casualties. It’s like they’ve suddenly become suicidal or something — like if they lose this battle, they’ll lose the entire war. They’re hitting us with everything they’ve got. Last I heard, the British 3rd Division was supposed to relieve your position, but they’ve since gotten bogged down in the city of Fengxian. My understanding is the German 10th Panzer Division is skirting along the coastline to swing out behind Fengxian and push their way to our position right now.”
McCoil shook his head in disgust. “OK, we’ll have to make this work and hold out for a while longer then.”
The two discussed where to place the new reinforcements that were arriving and what they wanted to do with the steady stream of armored vehicles being sent to them. Colonel St. Leo and Brigadier McCoil agreed the best use of the Rangers for the time being was to act as their QRF. If a spot opened up in line that looked like it was going break, or intelligence indicated a large enemy force was heading their way, they’d shift the Rangers and their armored vehicles to meet them. It was the surest way to hold the line without making any one point too weak by shifting units around the battlefield.
Chapter 19
Awakening
Katelyn Mackie had spent the night in her office, struggling with a problem and what to do about it. The reports streaming in from the frontlines were just appalling. While her Trojan horse program inside the Chinese communication system was undoubtedly saving lives and changing the course of the war, the casualties were horrific. The PLA leadership had to know the war was lost, yet they kept throwing more and more soldiers at the Allied positions. In many cases, her program would identify where an enemy attack was going to take place, and the Allies would use that information to vector in bombers and artillery, slaughtering them before they even got close to the Allied positions.
She shook her head as she read a report about the Allied airborne force at Sangyuanli. The paratroopers had held out against nearly four straight days of human wave assaults. “The Chinese are offering up untrained soldiers like sacrifices to Incan gods,” she thought in horror. She knew they had to find a way to put a stop to this.
A knock at the door broke her concentration. Looking up, she saw her friend, Tyler Walden, peering into her office. “You look like crap, Kate. Did you sleep at all?” he inquired, concern written on his face.
Katelyn gave a weak smile. “I laid my head down on my desk around 3 a.m. I think I nodded off for a couple of hours. You want to get some coffee?”
He nodded his head and snickered. “Yeah, pumpkin, let’s get you some brain juice. I want to talk with you about something the director approached me about on my way into the office today,” he replied.
As she followed him out of her office, she raised an eyebrow. Without saying a word, it was clear she had responded, “Do explain.”
Tyler took the cue. “You know Hung Hui-ju, the President of Taiwan, right? Well, the State Department has been working with her for nearly a year on creating dozens of different social media posts, videos, and pleas to the citizens of the People’s Republic. The problem has been getting those messages through the ‘Great Firewall of China.’ Well, that got me to thinking about our program.”
Before they’d even reached the hot plate with a fresh pot of coffee on it, she paused and looked up at him with tired eyes. She was concerned about exposing her precious program.
“I can already tell you’re against it,” he muttered, obviously disappointed that he hadn’t even mentioned his idea yet but could tell it was dead on arrival.
She took a deep breath as she poured the java into her mug, adding two creams and no sugar to the caffeinated mixture. “I’m not automatically opposed, I just don’t know how we would make it work without giving away our secret.”
“I was thinking about that as well,” said Tyler. “As long as we don’t try to upload anything, we’re essentially a ghost in their systems. If we try to tamper with it, we’ll give ourselves away, and then they may change the way they’re communicating.”
Katelyn reluctantly nodded. “Exactly. The program was built to mirror what was going on, not allow us to ghost around inside it, and especially not transmit data. We’d be detected in seconds. If that happened, it would be devastating to our forces on the ground. Have you read some of the reports coming in from the fighting?” she asked as they walked back into her room. She sat down at her desk and rifled through some of the papers in front of her until she found the one about the airborne forces she’d been reading before she fell asleep.
Mackie handed him the report. “Look at this one. It’s a British and French airborne force deep behind enemy lines. They were supposed to be relieved by the ground forces within seventy-two hours. It’s been six days and they still haven’t been relieved yet because the ground forces are stuck fighting it out in the cities on the way to the airbase. Apparently, the casualties and fighting have gotten so bad, General Bennet ordered three additional battalions from the 82nd Airborne and a battalion of Army Rangers to try and save them. I mean, look at the casualties — over two thousand killed and twice that many wounded,” she said. Tears formed in her eyes.
“The sad part, Tyler, is this is just one battle,” she continued. “Since we started the Shanghai invasion six days ago, the Allies have sustained over 28,000 killed and 40,000 wounded. In the south at the Hong Kong landings, the Marines have suffered 32,000 killed and another 50,000 wounded. These are just our losses; the PLA has suffered over 300,000 killed in the last thirty days. How much longer can this killing go on?” she exclaimed. She started sobbing.