A guard ran into the room and shouted to everyone, “Russians have infiltrated the building! They are on the floor above! Everyone, get your sidearm ready!”
BOOM! An explosion could be heard just outside the secured door, and suddenly, several objects flew into the room. Daniels had just enough time to realize the flying circles were hand grenades before one bounced off the wall near his pod, exploding and killing him instantly.
A 90 man Spetsnaz team had infiltrated the base perimeter, and began to attack several buildings before the base security knew they had penetrated the boundary defenses. Another team of Spetsnaz began to rain down 120mm mortars on the runways, which were now lined with fighter drones being prepared for takeoff. As the rounds began to land amongst the drones, they started a chain reaction of explosions, causing numerous secondary explosions. Their ordinance started to add to the chaos. The Russians knew exactly where the fighter drone pilots were operating from; they had long ago stolen the blueprints of the building from the contracting company that had built it. They painstakingly planned and prepared their mission around accomplishing two main tasks: 1) disabling the runway for hopefully 24 hours, and 2) attacking and killing the various drone pilot squadrons.
They were going to attack all eight squadrons worth of pilots and destroy the equipment. One after another, each building was successfully penetrated; the people inside were killed and then the buildings were destroyed. With the attack a success, the Spetsnaz teams were done, and began to exit the structures to head towards the base perimeter and the safety of the surrounding woods they had staged the attack in. Unexpectedly, several Razorback helicopters arrived on the scene and began to engage the Russians. The Quick Reaction Force (QRF) quickly wiped out the attacking group, which had very little in the way of cover to hide behind and no heavy weapons or missiles capable of disabling or destroying the armored helicopters.
In the thirteen-minute attack, the Russians had lost all but four members of the Spetsnaz team, but had killed the pilots and operational staff for all eight drone squadrons on the base. They had also substantially damaged the runway, making it impossible to use for at least a half day. This would prove disastrous for not just the American fighter drones in Alaska, but also for the manned aircraft; most of the pilots flying over Alaska originated from this airbase. The Russians had nearly neutralized the American airpower in the first day of the invasion.
After the Shock and Awe
General Black was sitting at his desk, looking at a tablet with the losses from Eielson AFB, and he could not believe his eyes. The Russians had somehow snuck a large enough attacking force through the base defenses, and knowing exactly where the drone pilots were operating out of, had shut down the whole fleet. They took out the guards and destroyed the entire facility in less than fifteen minutes. General Black had specifically selected Eielson to be the primary launch point for the drone squadrons because it was far enough away from the invasion fleets that it would not be coming under direct enemy missile attacks.
The next report was from sector one, in Nome, Alaska. The Russians had busted their way off of the beaches and it looked like they were about to break through the second line of defense. Reports were showing that a limited number of Russian soldiers were using the new exoskeleton suits. Of course, the entire Spetsnaz team that attacked Eielson was using them. Reports of Spetsnaz teams popping up all over Alaska were starting to come in. He had to get in touch with his Special Forces commander and have him assign the appropriate teams to hunt them down. He could not have dozens of Russian Special Forces operating in his rear area.
Putting one tablet down and picking up another, General Black began to look through the battle report from Kodiak Island. In less than four hours, they had secured twenty miles inland from the beach, and may have the rest of the island secured within the next four to five days if they continued advancing at their current pace. General Black had a message sent to the commander on the island to have his men try to hold out longer. The more time that passed with the Chinese invasion fleet this close to the coast, the more danger they were in from land based attacks. The Navy was now starting to hit the Chinese with hundreds of smaller attack craft that would swoop in swarms and launch a volley of anti-ship missiles. The goal was to overwhelm the carrier defenses with anti-ship missiles while coordinating the attack with land-based aircraft and short range land-based anti-ship missiles. The beach areas needed to hold the line for 48 hours to give the Navy and Air Force enough time to coordinate a massive strike against the fleet.
General Black’s Chief of Staff, Major General Cooper, walked into the general’s office and said, “General Black, the Eielson base Commander is on the line when you are ready.”
General Black sighed and motioned for MG Cooper to take a seat. His JAG and J3 also walked into the room, and took a seat at the round table in the general’s office. “Brigadier General Miller, we’ll keep this meeting as short and to the point as we can. I want to know how in the world a 90+ man Spetsnaz team was able to penetrate so deep into your base, identify the drone squadrons and wipe them out without alerting your security forces?” asked Black in his gruff Marine style.
“Sir, we are still trying to determine how they were able to identify the drone squadrons so quickly. From the time the base perimeter sensors went offline until the time they attacked the squadrons was less than five minutes. We immediately scrambled our QRF to the location. Right now, we are working off of the assumption that either someone gave them the location, or they acquired the blueprints from the construction company who built it. We were made aware that that company had a cyber breach about fifteen months ago when we began building the location.”
He continued, “The Russians were using those new exoskeleton combat suits, which is probably how they were able to move so quickly and carry the weapons and explosives that they did. At first, the QRF was concerned with neutralizing the mortar team that was hammering the airfield. By the time we received the notice that the squadrons were under direct attack, the QRF was already engaging the mortar teams. We released the second QRF team, when they arrived on scene, the damage to the squadrons had already been done.”
“General, this is simply unacceptable. I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how one of our most important assets to this war was left so undefended that a Spetsnaz team was able to not only gain access it, they were able to slaughter all the pilots, staff and destroy the facility within nine minutes of entering the base.” He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing, “Brigadier General Miller, I am relieving you of Command, effective immediately. I have your replacement inbound as we speak, along with several additional SF teams which will begin to hunt down the rest of the Spetsnaz teams operating in your AOR.”
“Sir, I understand your frustration, but losses happen in war. The Russians got lucky; it was not incompetence,” BG Miller said in protest, clearly taken aback that he was being relieved of his command.
“General, I comprehend your shock and frustration. However, you were charged with guarding one of the most important pieces of our national defense, and you failed to protect it. Perhaps it was luck on the Russians part, but it happened on your watch. You are being reassigned back to the Pentagon. Please do not take this as a slight against you. We are giving you the opportunity to redeem yourself in D.C.,” the General said as he tried to lessen the blow to BG Miller and ended the call.