The Great Dragon Awakes
The Chinese Government, like the rest of China and the world, watched the destruction of New York City and Baltimore by the Islamic Republic on their various multimedia devices and tablets, in awe of the carnage and destruction. The average Chinese citizen could not believe these great American cities had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and the images of the dead and dying were something the average citizen had never been exposed to before. In the past, the government would censor such images and ensure the people of China saw only what they wanted. In this case, the Chinese government wished to let the people of China know that even the great Americans could be defeated and brought to their knees. They used these images to remind their people that it was now China’s time to rise up and become the dominant world superpower.
The fighting in the Middle East continued, drawing more and more American forces to the region. The newly created American Third Army was in the process of driving the remaining IR forces out of Southern Israel, and had retaken Jerusalem and the entire Jordan Valley. They were now in a position to strike at the former capital of Jordan, Amman.
The Chinese 1st Expeditionary Force (or 1st EF as the CMC was calling them), had finally disembarked in Jeddah, and were making preparations to move to Amman to join the remains of the IR Army group. Over half a million soldiers were on the way from Baghdad along with three million civilian militia volunteers. By the end of the year, the IR should have 800,000 regular army troops in Amman and three million civilian militia volunteers, along with 250,000 Chinese soldiers of the 1st EF. The Chinese would take over the Suez Canal Zone and assist the IR in rebuilding after they had defeated the Israeli and American forces.
Premier Zhang Jinping was happy with the progress of Operation Red Dragon. The Americans had been effectively defeated in the Pacific, and posed no serious threat. Southeast Asia was starting to fall to the Red Army, and Taiwan was in their final death throws. Now it was a matter of getting ready for phase two, the capture of Southern Alaska and the Canadian States.
The capture of Alaska would ensure China had the long-term oil reserves their economy desperately needed and depended upon. It would also provide them with a springboard to launch an invasion of America through their newly acquired Canadian States. The States were rich in resources, with the central provinces providing tens of millions of acres of fertile farmlands. With 2.4 billion citizens to feed, obtaining more agricultural resources was a strong priority for the Chinese. The challenge would be moving their army to North America and still keeping it supplied during combat operations.
Revenge
Lurking deep in the dark waters of the Mediterranean was the SSBN Minnesota, one of the new Florida class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. In 2019, the US Navy began a program to replace the fourteen Ohio Class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) with the next generation in submarine technology. The older Ohio SSBNs had been converted to cruise-missile carriers and delivery vehicles for Special Forces, giving them a new purpose and mission in the Navy. The twelve new Florida class SSBNs came into service in 2034 (six years behind schedule due to budget cuts during the Great Depression). They were equipped with twenty Trident III ballistic missiles, each of which would split off to hit fourteen different points through the use of MIRVs (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles). The Florida’s also carried 84 Tomahawk cruise missiles, making them a versatile offensive weapon.
It had been a little over thirty hours since New York and Baltimore had been destroyed, and the US had not retaliated with nuclear weapons. As the SSBN Minnesota waited in its holding pattern, they suddenly received an Emergency Action Message (EAM), indicating a priority message from Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic (COMSUBLANT). As the message was being printed and decoded, the Captain couldn’t help but wonder if this was the order to avenge the destruction of New York City and Baltimore. The casualties from the attack were still being counted and had exceeded five million deaths so far.
The Executive Officer (XO) walked up to the Captain and handed him the decoded message with curiosity and uncertainty written all over his face. As the Captain finished reading the message, he handed it to the XO for him to read and verify it. “By order of the President, the SSBN Minnesota is to launch a series of ballistic missiles at targets across the Islamic Republic’s provinces in North Africa, and standby to launch additional missiles against targets in the Middle East.”
Further instructions ordered them to launch eight of their twenty Trident III missiles, releasing 112 nuclear warheads against the IR’s largest cities, military bases, manufacturing centers and logistical hubs in their North African provinces.
As the Minnesota rose to launch depth, the sonar techs continued to monitor the waters around them for any potential threats. With the threat board showing green, they gave the Captain the go-ahead to initiate the attack. The Captain and the senior weapons officer looked at each other as they turned the keys to launch the missiles, knowing they were about to make history, for better or worse. This was only the second time a submarine had ever launched a nuclear attack against another nation. The vessel shuddered briefly as one missile after another ejected from the tubes and was sent to their targets. As the first rocket broke through the water, its booster ignited and it raced for the sky, slowly starting its arc towards a point about 100 miles in the air, where it would release its MIRVs for maximum effect.
In a bunker 100 feet below the surface of the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, five B5 Stealth bomber drone pilots were hooked into their controls, guiding drones that were flying 40,000 feet above the Mediterranean Sea. The bomber drones were on their way to deliver the first of the most destructive weapons ever to be used by one nation against another.
Approximately 200 miles west of Israel, four of the five stealth bomber drones launched their X59 scramjet cruise missiles, carrying the largest neutron bomb ever developed. Tehran, Baghdad, Riyadh, and Cairo were all targeted; they represented the largest industrial and logistical nodes of the IR. They also represented the largest population centers outside of Asia.
A single B5 flying over Italy launched their lone X59 at Istanbul. The purpose of these neutron bombs was not to eradicate and destroy these historic cities, it was to kill the population in a 30-mile radius while causing as little destruction and environmental damage as possible. Unlike the 112 cities in North Africa and (thirty more in the Middle East), these five cities could be repopulated with virtually no residual radiation left to clean up.
The bomber crews watched as the scramjet cruise missiles hit their maximum speed of Mach 10. Numerous anti-missile lasers and missiles reached out to try and knock them out of the sky, desperately trying to defend their country. Dozens of lasers in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were frantically trying to destroy these fast moving missiles with no luck. Horror began to spread across the defenders as they realized they could not hit the missiles. Several Russian and Chinese ships were in the area, and began to use their anti-missile systems to try and engage the American missiles by launching their own missile interceptors and lasers… but it was all to no effect. The missiles were traveling too fast for the lasers to hit them long enough to cause them to explode.