“Troops will not be needed. The Thais have also reluctantly agreed to join the alliance. However, I have a serious problem that perhaps Chairman Zhang would be better suited to handle. While the Thais have agreed to join us, I fear their only reason for doing so is so that they can pass intelligence on to the Americans. As you are aware, the CIA has an extensive presence in Thailand.”
Chairman Zhang, who had joined the conversation, nodded in agreement of the foreign minister’s assessment of Thailand. “I concur. The Thai government is going to be a problem. With your permission, I’d like to move to replace the Thai leaders with people we can trust. I also believe we’re going to need to conduct a purge of their senior military leaders. They’ve trained with the Americans for decades, and they’re going to have loyalties to them. We need to make sure that bringing Thailand into the fold isn’t going to create a security nightmare for us.”
Thinking about what his two senior advisors had said, Xi wanted to caution them against going too hard on the Thais. “Gentlemen, I appreciate the concerns you’ve brought up, but please keep in mind that we want Thailand to be not just a military member in our alliance, but also an economic asset. Thailand has a burgeoning manufacturing base, and we need to leverage that as we expand our military production. If we turn the Thai people against us through heavy-handed tactics, we risk a public uprising. I want to remind you that we’ll get more cooperation and support with honey than we will with vinegar. Try the soft approach first. If it fails, then we’ll adjust. Is that understood?” Xi ordered, staring down Chairman Zhang to make sure his Head of State Security understood his role and position.
With the rapid-growing success of Operation Red Storm and the recent formation of the Eastern Alliance, Xi didn’t want Chairman Zhang to think he was more important than he was. Everyone was replaceable, and since Zhang’s protégé Wu had been captured and summarily killed by Islamic terrorists, he hadn’t been himself. He was losing his edge, and that could cause a person to make mistakes.
Zhang bowed in deference. “Yes, Mr. President,” he responded. “We’ll go with the soft approach as you suggested.”
Xi nodded, although he knew that underneath, Zhang was probably not happy with his suggestion being overruled.
The next couple of months would prove challenging as the members of the alliance worked on unifying their economies and military forces to defeat the West. The Americans had been hard at work building a global alliance to challenge them, and they were also mobilizing their entire economy for war. Once they were fully retooled, they would be hard to beat.
Brigadier General Alan Morrison of the 1st Brigade in the Australian Army was not pleased with the progress of his forces in building up the island’s defenses. The engineers had done a superb job in preparing the airport to receive the Royal Australian fighters that were now on the island, but they were falling behind in getting the other critical areas of the island fortified. With the formation of the Eastern Alliance, it was now becoming imperative that Australia prime themselves for a possible invasion.
Sighing briefly, Brigadier General Morrison placed the thick sheaf of reports he had been reviewing on his desk. He looked up at Lieutenant Colonel Kilroy Newman from the 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment or 5 RAR. The 5 RAR would handle the defense of Dili and the airport there, critical to maintaining control of East Timor.
“Colonel Newman,” he began, “how are the defenses for the city coming along?”
Newman shifted in his chair as he swatted at a fly that had been buzzing around him. “They’re forming up nicely, Sir,” he replied. “We’ve identified the likely avenues of attack against the city, and the engineers have devised a series of fortifications to defeat them. My only concern is our ability to keep the Chinese Navy and Air Force from pummeling us from the air.”
Morrison grunted. “I have the same concerns,” he responded. “A large portion of our air-defense systems was deployed to support the Americans on the Korean Peninsula. I have been assured, however, that the twelve F/A-18s and the Navy should be sufficient to defend the island. They’re even sending us a squadron of F-35s, which should be arriving today.”
Newman just shook his head in disgust. “We should be preparing these defenses at home, not on East Timor. The PLA could just as easily leave us alone here and invade Darwin, and we’d be powerless to stop them.”
Morrison yawned briefly as he reached for his coffee cup before looking his infantry commander in the eye. “1st Brigade isn’t on East Timor to prevent the PLA from capturing the island. We’re here to protect the Air Force, so they can keep the enemy away from Darwin.” His tone implied that Newman should already have known this.
“I suppose you’re right, Sir,” Colonel Newman acknowledged. “However, I do wish we had more surface-to-air missile systems to protect the island.”
“Ah… you’re just mad because you thought our brigade would miss out on the war in Korea, and now that we’re deployed to Timor, you think we’ll be marginalized again. We will get our chance to get into this war, Colonel — just make sure your battalion is ready when it happens,” Morrison replied with a bit of heat to his voice.
Lieutenant Colonel Newman was a newly promoted commander who wanted to prove himself. The outbreak of World War III was certainly one way for him to prove his mettle as a military commander. Morrison liked his industriousness; he just needed to make sure his young commander stayed focused and on task.
“Our time will come,” Morrison thought. “Of that I have no doubt.”
The sky was beautiful with not a cloud around, perfect for flying. Lieutenant Daniel Lacey, call sign “Raptor,” guided his F-35 Lightning through the sky at 25,000 feet above the Flores Sea, east of Bali, Indonesia. Below them was the deep blue open, rippled by small whitecaps from the waves. Sitting in the cockpit of this multihundred-million-dollar warplane, Lieutenant Lacey couldn’t help but be in awe of his surroundings. His new helmet incorporated technology that allowed him to see all around him as if he were seated on the front of the plane, whipping through the air with nothing around him; it gave him an unparalleled situational awareness.
When the 3rd Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force, or RAAF, had arrived on East Timor the day before, their command had told them they would be going up daily to go hunting for the enemy. When the Indonesian government decided it wanted to join the Eastern Alliance, the Australian government made the decision that they would leverage their F-35 stealth fighters to go after their new enemy’s air force. They would work to neuter the Indonesian military in hopes of making them a nonfactor in the Asian war.
When the order came down, Captain David Blake, call sign “Tiger,” had volunteered to lead the first “hunting expedition.” The next morning, Captain Blake and his wingman, Lieutenant Lacey, were given the honor of flying the RAAF’s first official combat mission with the new F-35 Lightning. Now they were headed toward the Indonesian island of Bali and see what they could find.
Suddenly, they received incoming communications from the radar control operator on the RAAF E-7A Wedgetail airborne radar control aircraft. “Tiger Flight, this is Eagle Eye. We’re tracking two Indonesian Hawk 200 aircraft, approximately 140 kilometers from your position. They are loitering over the Bali Airport. How copy?”
“Finally, we’re going to get to see some action,” thought Lacey. Other than the beautiful scenery, they had had forty minutes of nothing but boredom on their maiden combat flight.