“Excellent. What I’m going to need your help with is to work with members of my embassy staff from Beijing to begin crafting social media posts, policy positions and papers advocating for unification of China, but under your leadership. Our diplomats will work with you to help foster support among the Allied nations and garner acceptance for you as the rightful ruler of China,” Gates said. He signaled with his hands for the minister and secretary of defense to join the conversation.
Many additional details and coordination needed to be worked out, and they were very limited on time. Gates would be flying back to the US once he finished his next meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea. Both nations had been taking a terrible beating since the start of the war; however, they had also successfully mobilized their populations to support the war effort to defeat China.
Battle of Kaliningrad
Spring had nearly arrived in Belgium as the winter snows finally disappeared, revealing brown grass that patiently awaited the new season's rain and sunshine. Looking at up at the midday sun, General James Cotton, the Global Defense Force Commander Europe, enjoyed the warmth of its rays after spending the last week deep underground in one planning meeting after another.
“I need to get outside more often. I can’t stay cooped up in that bunker all the time,” General Cotton thought as he walked around the command center perimeter. He managed to ignore his private security detail, who was never far away.
While the war in Asia had been raging for nearly four months, the war in Europe was ongoing, albeit at a slower pace than in Asia. The Russians had largely pushed the Allies out of Estonia and Latvia but had been unable to remove them from Lithuania and relieve their beleaguered garrison in Kaliningrad. Cotton’s subordinate commanders had urged him to capture the Russian enclave in Kaliningrad, but he had resisted the urge up to this point since the small territory held very little strategic value or relevancy once it had been neutralized.
With the Baltic Sea now cleared of Russian naval forces, including the submarines they had positioned there, the Allies were now making heavier use of the Allied Baltic ports. This greatly reduced the distance needed to travel to supply the front lines. In less than four months, the Allies would launch a massive invasion of Russia, and the shorter they could make their supply lines, the easier it would be to keep the grand army on the move. Hence, Cotton was now planning to invade Kaliningrad.
General Cotton turned away from the warmth of the midday sun and began his trek back down into the bowels of the underground complex that made up his command center, toward the high-tech wizardry that felt more like a dungeon with each passing month. As he walked toward the elevator, a guard placed his hand in front of the door sensor to hold it open for him. He stepped into the elevator with one of his aides, closing his eyes for a moment and bracing himself for the controlled chaos he was about to walk into.
“General Cotton!” a British colonel shouted at him the moment the elevator door opened. It was almost as if he had perched nearby, waiting for Cotton to return so he could be the first to bombard him with a question or update.
Cotton took a deep breath, then patiently responded, “What have you got for me?”
“Sir, we just received a report from the port in Hamburg. One of the newly arrived freighters from the Atlantic convoys had just docked at the pier to offload munitions when a mine or some other explosive detonated. That explosion set off a chain of secondary explosions, which destroyed the heavy cranes at the pier in addition to the ship. The shell of the ship’s charred remains has settled next to the pier, which is going to prevent any further ships from docking,” he explained frantically.
The general sighed deeply. This was just the latest act of sabotage that the Russians had been able to carry out since the start of the war. “How long until they can remove the ship and get the pier operational again?” he asked.
The colonel’s face turned red. “I’ll have to get back to you with that information, Sir,” he responded, rushing off to find out the answer.
General Cotton walked over to the big board and looked at the positions of the various units scattered across the front lines. The Russians had moved nearly 300,000 soldiers to the front. Most of these were reservists and newly conscripted soldiers, who were largely making do with antiquated T-72s and T-62 tanks.
Cotton grunted. “Even an old tank can be dangerous,” he thought.
“What’s the status of General Ripton’s Fifth Corps? Are his units set in their positions and ready to start the attack after the preparatory artillery strike is completed?” he asked, speaking broadly to anyone who might overhear him.
A French colonel, part of the operations staff, turned to respond to the question. “Yes, Sir. The orders were received by them earlier, and now they are waiting on the execution order. The offensive should be starting momentarily.”
Cotton turned his attention to several of the wall monitors at the front of the room to observe the battle. Kaliningrad was completely surrounded, which meant that the dozen Global Hawk surveillance drones loitering around the enclave would be able to provide real time images of the entire scene.
As he watched the screens, the battle officially began. A massive artillery barrage lit up most of the known enemy positions. As each round impacted on its target, General Cotton heard the fire support officers calling for adjustments. While the artillery was going to work, a few dozen Reaper drones had moved into the battlespace; they used their precision-guided missiles to hit some of the trickier targets inside the high-density residential areas, minimizing the likelihood of civilian casualties. Fortunately, most of the civilians had left the city once the Allies had encircled them and cut off any source of supplies.
An hour into the aerial and artillery bombardment, Cotton signaled for them to send the ground forces in. It was still amazing to him that he could watch a skirmish take place in real-time while sitting in a bunker several hundred kilometers away.
A second after issuing the order for the ground forces to start their attack, the drone feeds suddenly cut out, leaving everyone to stare blankly at the now-black screens. While they were all still in a state of shock, the rest of the computer screens in the command center cut out, displaying the proverbial “blue screen of death.” Text began to scroll across the screens, displaying the message, “Death is coming for you! Surrender while you can!”
Cotton yelled to his communications and cyber-warfare groups, “Find out what just happened to our systems, and get them back online now!”
Command Sergeant Major Luke Childers had been released from the Army hospital at Landstuhl just prior to New Year’s. After taking a couple of weeks of leave to travel home and see friends and family, he was ready to get back to the job of training soldiers to defeat the Russians and bring this war to a close.
While at home, Luke had toured the damage to Air Force Plant 4, which was located just east of downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The Lockheed, Pratt and Whitney Engine facility there had been heavily damaged by a Russian Spetsnaz team, two weeks prior to him coming home. It was all everyone was talking about, and it was really no surprise. A massive gunfight had taken place there when Russian Special Forces had encountered a ragtag group of Texans. A small group had been celebrating the retirement of a colleague when the attack had started. Within a minute of hearing the first explosions off in the distance, a couple of the men, who had previously served in Iraq, recognized the noise as mortars landing nearby. Many of those at the retirement party and BBQ also had rifles on the gun racks in their trucks and proceeded to organize a small group to go put a stop to the attack. While many of the civilians in the spoiling attack had been killed, their heroics had prevented the Spetsnaz from continuing to bomb the facility. Three Russians had been killed in the attack, two more had been captured, and six had escaped to live and fight another day.