The missiles that hit Twenty-Nine Palms had devastated the base. Several columns of Marine tanks and infantry fighting vehicles had been destroyed, along with 32 Razorbacks and a lot of the ground support aircraft. The Air Force lost 109 aircraft at March Air Force Base alone. The Japanese cruise missiles had also hit Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.
Gardner had to admit, the Japanese had really blindsided them. As he tried to plan what the next possible actions were, he was distracted by his own pain. “My hand is really throbbing,” he thought. “I may need to take a pain killer just so I can focus…I think I might even lose that finger.”
Snapping himself out of these thoughts, General Gardner barked at his operations officer. “Colonel Mason, what is the status of the beach invasion at Pendleton and San Diego?” (Colonel Mason had been the J3 executive officer or XO when they arrived at Twenty-Nine Palms. His boss, Major General Pina, had been killed during the cruise missile strike, so for the time being he was General Gardner’s J3 or Operations Chief.)
“Sir, the Base Commander reports the Chinese have broken through the beach and are currently fighting all throughout the base. He has been slowly moving most of his troops to Oceanside, where they are going to make the Chinese fight house-to-house. He has also established the blocking force you requested at Pala Mason and I-15.”
Showing a new image with data overlaid on it, Colonel Mason moved to San Diego, “Sir, the PLAN infantry have secured most of the naval bases in San Diego and the harbor. There is currently sporadic fighting taking place throughout the downtown area and around the Navy SEAL training facility. The SEAL Commander there said they should be able to hold out for a while, so long as the Chinese do not bring any heavy naval gun support.”
“I hope those SEALS are able to hold out; unfortunately, I doubt we are going to be able to get them any reinforcements any time soon. What about downtown LA? How are things going?” asked Gardner.
Colonel Mason grimaced slightly as he pulled up the latest reports. He explained, “Things are not nearly as good as we would like to have seen by now. The problem we are running into is the mass number of residents trying to flee the city. We have over one million people, either in vehicles or on foot, all trying to use the main highways and the side roads leading away from the city. Meanwhile, our armored vehicles and soldiers continue to try and get to the port. To make matters worse, the JDF carriers are now in range of using their aircraft and they have been strafing the civilians who were trying to flee. I’m sure they are doing this in part because they know that our forces will stop to render aid and it further slows our progress.”
An idea seemed to pop in Colonel Mason’s head, and he changed topics for a moment. “A suggestion that came from that one of my NCOs was for us to temporarily stop the advance into the city and just focus on using our transport trucks and helicopters to evacuate as many people as possible to get them out of our way.”
“Hmm, that is a thought. However, we cannot leave our forces already in the city to die on the vine while we work on relocating hundreds of thousands of people,” Gardener responded. He turned to his Air Force LNO, “Colonel Drewing, how soon can we gain air superiority?”
Colonel Drewing looked at General Gardner with a disappointed looked, saying, “Sir, I would say maybe another day, two tops. The Navy says the JDF carriers are starting to head south, so if that’s true, then the number of enemy aircraft over the city will drop significantly. We lost a lot of aircraft at March, Nellis, and the naval air station in San Diego. We’ll get air superiority, but it won’t be for at least twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
Gardner took a deep breath, during which time he seemed to process millions of possible scenarios in his mind. “All right. Here is what we are going to do then. Colonel Drewing, what aircraft we do have, I want them to focus on hitting the enemy air defense systems they have established. We need to take them down so our helicopters have a better chance of survival. Colonel Mason, have our soldiers dismount from the trucks and move into the city and reach their objectives on foot. Use the trucks to move as many civilians as possible to San Bernardino. We need to get them out of our way so our tanks can get through. Second, I want to get our Razorbacks to start ferrying in as many soldiers and marines as possible to their objectives (or as close to them as they can). We have to get at those ports or we are going to be up a creek without a paddle.”
“Yes, Sir,” both colonels replied.
General Gardner looked down at the holographic map again. “Mason, how soon until the Blackjacks arrive?” (The 2nd Armored Brigade from the 1st Armored Division also known as the Blackjacks was the closest heavy armored brigade General Gardner had, and he wanted to get them into the fight soon. The Marines had several battalions of Pershing main battle tanks, but the Blackjacks and the rest of the division had 900 of them — more than enough to steamroll through whatever the JDF and Chinese had on shore.)
“The lead elements are about six hours away; the rest of the division should arrive in San Bernardino in about 16 hours. They will be ready to advance into the city in about 24 hours.”
Gardner grunted an acknowledgement. “What’s going on with our forces near City Hall and the downtown area? Also, have we been able to get some eyes on the ports yet?”
“Unfortunately, Sir, we lost City Hall and the surrounding area. Our troops put up one hell of a fight in the city, but just as we thought we had the enemy on the run, two battalions of heliborne troops from the JDF Marines arrived and reinforced their troops on the ground. We did shoot down seven troop helicopters and four attack helicopters—”
The Air Force LNO interjected, “—We also lost five F38A fighter drones and two A10 Warthogs in the battle as well.”
General Gardner let out a quiet groan.
Colonel Mason continued with his brief. “Sir, what’s left of the soldiers we sent in have fallen back several blocks further to the east and are hunkering down and waiting for reinforcements. They took some pretty heavy casualties.”
“Why are we not sending more Razorbacks into the city to provide our guys with more support?” asked Gardner huffily.
“We have, Sir. We’ve lost thirteen Razorbacks in the last three hours alone, bringing more troops into the city and evacuating casualties out,” Colonel Mason said, exhaustion dripping from his voice.
Seeing the frustration and exhaustion on the faces of his officers around him, General Gardner said, “Look, I know everyone is tired and frustrated right now. We are going to have to deal with this one problem at a time. You all know what needs to be done, and I know I cannot snap my fingers and make things better. What I need from you is to take a deep breath, calm yourselves down and put your thinking caps on. We need to reason through this problem; come up with ideas on how we are going to get more troops into the city in a coordinated manner and defeat this invading force. Intelligence says there are over forty freighters and transports lining up to unload their troops and tanks at the port. Time is not on our side. Just focus on the task at hand and do not let your anger or frustration get the better of you. I need to go call General Branson and see if we can get some additional help. In the meantime, execute the orders you’ve been given.”