Thor and the Bodark
President Stein was starting to get desperate in the war against Russia and China. The Russians and Chinese had officially captured the majority of Alaska and forced US Forces to withdraw to Slana, Alaska along Route 1. They had suffered some horrific losses… goodness only knew how they were going to replace them all. To add further insult to injury, the heavy snowfalls that Alaska is known for had finally started. The only good thing about the harsh winters of Alaska was that it would most likely halt any future operations until spring.
Despite these recent losses, there was good news in the world. NATO had defeated the Russians in central Germany, forcing them to retreat to the German/Polish border where they had established a new line of defense. NATO was in no shape to continue pushing the Russians out of Poland, so they hunkered down for the winter and continued to train more soldiers for a spring offensive.
Monty walked in to the Oval Office and interrupted the President’s glassy-eyed gaze into a world of spinning thoughts. “Mr. President, the generals and the rest of the staff are ready in the Situation Room.”
Looking up, Henry replied, “Thank you, Monty. Let’s get going then.” The President got up from his desk and followed Monty towards the Situation Room.
As they walked in to the room, they took their respective seats and the meeting began.
General Branson was the first to speak, “Mr. President, General Black has sent his final tally of their losses. It’s pretty bad. We lost several tank divisions, and the 32nd infantry (which was our only infantry division equipped with the Raptor suits) suffered a sixty percent casualty rate during their defense of Fairbanks.”
“Did the 32nd hold up as well as we thought they would?” asked the President, curious to know if the Raptor suits really made a big impact on the battlefield.
“They did, Mr. President. Their 12,500 soldiers withstood a Russian army of 230,000 soldiers for nearly forty-eight hours. They inflicted around 41,000 casualties on the enemy, compared to the seven or so thousand that they lost. If we could equip more divisions with the suits it would make a huge difference in the war in Alaska.” General Branson spoke with pride in his voice; he was elated by the accomplishments of the 32nd.
Wanting to get a better grasp of the overall situation, the National Security Advisor spoke up and asked, “What was General Black’s total casualty count?”
Branson’s face fell into a disappointed wince as he replied, “General Black suffered 213,000 casualties during the last ten days. He assures me that his army is still combat effective, and will hold the Russians and Chinese at the next defensive line.”
The President broke in to add, “Look, we knew he was going to take some heavy casualties; he’s facing over two million enemy soldiers. As long as he can continue to hold them at the next defensive line, that is all that matters for the time-being. What I want to talk about is this Japanese Task Force that just left their home ports.”
Admiral Juliano signaled that he would like to speak to this question. General Branson nodded towards him to continue. “Mr. President, the Japanese Task Force has officially left port and will be in striking range of the Chinese fleet and the Hawaiian Islands a few days before Christmas. We moved our SUDs into the area to support them when they begin their attack.”
“Will their task force be enough to defeat the PLAN in the area?” asked the President, not totally confident in the Japanese’s naval capability.
“When they prepare to attack the PLAN, we will have both flights of our F41s in the area to support them. We will also have four of our five SUDs there to engage the PLAN fleet as well. I am confident that our combined force can destroy the three PLAN supercarriers,” said Juliano confidently.
“Where do we stand with the Third Army? When are they going to be ready, and where do we deploy them?” asked the President.
General Branson took this question, “The Third Army has reached 1,250,000 soldiers in strength. All of their tank divisions are equipped with the Pershings and the new Wolverine infantry fighting vehicles. Seventy percent of his soldiers have been equipped with the Raptor suits as well. They’ve been conducting a lot of training exercises, getting everyone up to speed and ready to face the Chinese and Russians. As to where we should deploy them, right now our plan is to move them to join General Black’s First Army around March. This will hopefully give them a month to do the formal hand over of the area while Alaska is still buried under heavy snow. Once the snow thaws, then Third Army will begin their offensive and hopefully drive the invaders out of Alaska.”
“So in the meantime, what are they doing now? And what are we doing with the new soldiers who are completing basic training each week now that they are at 100 % manning?” asked the President.
The Secretary of Defense, Eric Clarke, spoke up to answer the President, “Right now Third Army is training. They will continue to prepare until it is time for them to deploy. As to the new soldiers, they are continuing to form new divisions. These divisions are then conducting a months’ worth of training against one of the Third Army divisions and will be consolidated in Washington State. General Gardner established his Army headquarters at Nellis Air Force Base. He wants to position Washington State for First Army to form up, which makes sense. Right now, General Gardner has Third Marines training at Twenty-Nine Palms, California, and the bulk of his other divisions are training in Colorado, Utah and Nevada.”
Continuing, the SecDef explained, “The Marines continue to crank out a new 20,000-man division every six weeks. We are holding two divisions on the West Coast right now to support the Japanese assault against the Hawaiian Islands. Once they drop their initial assault force, the ships will head to San Diego to load up the Marines and ferry them over.”
The President smiled. He felt good about their chances in the war now that Japan was finally going to come to their aid. With the Japanese neutralizing the Chinese navy, it would then be a logistical war of attrition, which was one the Americans could win. They were, after all, fighting on home turf. “Excellent, Eric. I am glad we are finally starting to catch a few breaks. When Third Army takes over in Alaska, I want us to see what troops we will have available to send to Europe. Perhaps we can finish that fight off while we continue to battle the Chinese.”
“Before everyone leaves, I want a brief update on Operation Pegasus. How are we going to protect the ship once it takes off, and more importantly, how are we going to protect the lunar base?” asked President Stein. He hadn’t gotten firm answers to these important questions thus far, and he wanted something he could stand on before ending the meeting.
The new Director of Science and Technology, Dr. Peter Gorka, responded to this question in his deep baritone voice. “Mr. President. We have developed a series of nasty surprises for the Russians and the Chinese should they try to attack the HULK while it is in flight or at the lunar base. I will discuss the defenses on the HULK first; aside from the suite of electronic countermeasures, we have two laser batteries on the fore and aft section of the ship. These lasers can effectively engage targets in the atmosphere as far out as 150 miles. In space, they can hit targets as far as 350 miles away. They will more than be able to protect the HULK as it transitions from earth to space.”
Bringing up some holographic images from his tablet, Dr. Gorka continued, “This is what we propose for the lunar base. Prior to landing on the Moon’s surface, the HULK will deploy two satellites that will orbit opposite of each other around the Moon. This will provide complete coverage of the Moon for communications to earth and the lunar surface, but more importantly, will provide a defense for the base. The satellites are equipped with a pulse beam laser, which can engage any objects heading towards the lunar base or near any of our spacecraft within its range. We are working on building a couple dozen more of these satellites to place in ultra-high earth orbit. Our hope is to be able to use these satellites to help us gain control of the skies by sniping enemy aircraft from space.”