In minutes, the vaunted ships of the George H.W. Bush Strike Group slipped beneath the waves with thousands of crew members never to see the dawn of a new day. It was the single worst naval loss since World War II.
While the American fleet was being overrun by cruise missile explosions, the twelve Zhukov drones slipped past the American fighters, dancing in aerial combat nearby. The drones proceeded to fire off their six air-to-air missiles, throwing the allied formations into chaos. The sudden appearance of seventy-two missiles from behind the NATO aircraft caught them off guard, resulting in the expedient shootdown of 48 additional NATO fighters that might otherwise have lived to fight another day.
By the end of the multi-hour air and naval battle, the Russians had lost 92 aircraft in all. However, NATO had lost 103 aircraft, along with the remaining American warships in the Black Sea. The various amphibious assault ships carrying the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) had also been sunk during the missile swarm attack.
Fortunately, roughly half of the Marines had been able to get to their amphibious vehicles and landing craft and managed to evacuate the ships before they went down. While they were unable to grab most of their equipment, they did manage to escape with their lives. Despite their valiant effort, of the roughly 3,500 Marines in the MEU, 921 of them still lost their lives during the attack. The survivors made best speed in their vehicles for the Romanian coast.
The Truman Carrier Battle Group had not yet entered the Bosphorus Straits. After the battle, they halted their forward progress. The 6th Fleet Commander would have to reassess whether or not the Black Sea should continue to be contested; they might have to cede it to Russia.
The Last Straw
The President was starting to think his generals and senior advisors either did not know what was going on in Europe, or were just incompetent. On top of everything else, things were heating up in Iran with the Straits of Hormuz now. Moreover, the Chinese were making waves about bringing Taiwan back into the fold, and were posturing towards Vietnam and Myanmar. The world situation was feeling very volatile.
Europe, however, was the immediate problem. President Gates knew he needed to think of solutions to the problems, but he couldn’t help but get lost in a sea of thoughts about how America had gotten into this situation to begin with. “I should have never gone against my own gut,” he bemoaned. “I can’t believe how many voices there were talking in my ear, telling me that this was a good idea. The intelligence agencies, my senior military advisors, congressional leaders; they all thought that if we stood up to Russia that Vladimir Petrov would back down. Then again, some of them, like Senators McGregor and Grandy, have made their entire careers advocating for military intervention against one country or another.”
“I should have paid better attention in history class,” thought Gates. “Eisenhower did warn that the military industrial complex craves for war. I wonder if this is somehow what the hawks in my party wanted all along.”
As the President listened to his advisors brief him on the situation up to this point, it all washed together as one sea of awfulness. The Navy had lost a Supercarrier, the Air Force had lost nearly 208 combat aircraft, and a stealth bomber had been shot down outside of Moscow after one of its bombs had gone off course, killing nearly 2,000 civilians. They had already used up or lost nearly $120 billion in military equipment, 8,000 service members had sacrificed their lives already, and nearly twice that number had been wounded.
“Ugh… is there any good news?” wondered the President.
Instead, the advisors moved from the military situation to the international scene. The president had to control himself from audibly groaning. He already knew about the issue with Turkey; they had announced that they were going to remain neutral in the fight with Russia, and they had withdrawn their warships from the NATO fleet in the Black Sea just before the Russian missile swarm attack. Further, Turkey declared that it would no longer allow NATO to use its military bases, in fear that the Russians might launch a strike against them. A few hours ago, the Turkish Ambassador to the United States had even suggested to the Secretary of State that they might close off the Bosphorus Straits to NATO military traffic.
President Gates had already partially responded to that last issue prior to this meeting. He had personally called President Yavuz. Among other things, he told him, “In no uncertain terms, if you close the Bosphorus Straits, I will use all available military force to keep them open, even if I need to destroy the Turkish Air Force and Navy. Do you understand?”
President Yavuz had cursed and hurled numerous accusations at President Gates, but ultimately, he had backed down.
Then there was Chancellor Schneider. The German armored brigade that was fighting alongside the Americans in Kiev had taken horrific combat losses. Casualties were so high that Schneider was reluctant to send additional forces. The Russians had also attacked a German airbase near Berlin, causing considerable damage. This assault so close to the German capital had shaken the government to the core, and caused them to become hesitant when they needed to be resolute.
Germany was not the only country reluctant to send reinforcements to NATO. France and Spain were also hesitant to put more troops in harm’s way. Poland was holding the bulk of their army in reserve along the Belarus border as the Russian 4th Army continued to stay deployed not far away from their border. At least the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark were rushing whatever available forces they could to Ukraine. However, without that additional support from their other allies, it placed an enormous strain on the remaining US forces in Ukraine as they tried to hold out against a significantly larger Russian force. Though he was horrified by the situation, President Gates couldn’t help but admire President Petrov; he sure knew where to squeeze the Europeans to get the results he wanted.
As Gates watched his military advisors argue amongst themselves, he turned and watched two of the TV monitors. They created a split screen between CNN and Fox News. It was amazing to watch them side by side like this and see the almost night-and-day difference in the coverage. CNN had gone from their non-stop coverage of how he was a puppet of Vladimir Petrov to pounding the drum that he had led America into a war it couldn’t win against Russia. Fox News seemed to be trying to rally the country around him; they kept talking about how the U.S. was responding to an unprovoked attack by Russia.
Disgusted by the indecisiveness and bickering, the President got up and walked out of the room. He was repulsed by the whole lot of them. American soldiers were fighting and dying in a war they had pushed for, and now they couldn’t figure out how to win it. The Russians had suckered-punched them hard. If NATO had been able to hit the Russians on their timeframe, things would have turned out differently, but here they were.
Gates walked back to the Oval Office and sat down in the chair behind his desk. His Chief of Staff, Ishaan Patel, came in right after him.