“Generals, Admiral, please take your seats,” said Zhang, wanting to get down to business.
“Premier, we must start the war today!” said Admiral Shengli angrily.
“My task forces are ready and any further delay is going to raise too much suspicion.”
“Admiral, please keep calm and sit down. I held off on starting the war yesterday as a test. I wanted to assess each of you to see if you would obey my orders or if you would find a way to start the war on your own. You all have passed my test and I am now confident of your loyalties. We begin the war today. This is the day of the Red Dragon. I want all command and control functions moved to their secured bunkers and the military brought to full readiness,” said Zhang. “Please issue your orders and let’s move as a group to the CMC bunker at Da’Anshanxiang.”
Operation Red Dragon had been in development for nearly forty years. It encompassed a wide variety of tactics including: corporate espionage, industrial sabotage and the placement of thousands of sleeper agents throughout Asia and the US. Once activated, the PLA would begin to turn off critical industrial control switches and routers in virtually every satellite in space with the exception of Russia, China and the IR. All other nations’ satellites would simply turn off and become space junk.
The loss of critical communications satellites, GPS and military surveillance satellites would blind the allies and give the PLA a short window of opportunity to move forces and conduct attacks without anyone seeing what was going on. With satellite communications down, it would be difficult to coordinate a response or even call for help. The disruption in satellite communications would quickly be followed by tens of millions of internet routers and various industrial control systems burning out in America, Japan, Korea, the European Union and India.
Great Britain and Australia would be minimally affected since most of their internet switches and routers had been converted over to a product solely built in the UK. That company was one of the few targets that the Chinese had not fully infiltrated prior to Red Dragon. The breakdown in global communications would be nothing short of catastrophic and in the eyes of China, would lead to a quick victory.
The PLAN had been maneuvering as if they were going to attack the US Air and Naval base at Guam; once the global communications systems went down, the task force that was headed to Guam would quickly change direction and hit the American facilities at Okinawa, Japan. Then they would turn back to Guam, knowing that the Guamanians would receive no assistance or help from their bases in Japan. With the American naval and air forces in the Pacific destroyed, there would be little to stop China in their conquest of Asia.
During the early years of the de Blasio Administration, the government had begun building a series of regionally based deep underground bunker complexes for the government and scientists to retreat to in case of an apocalyptic event (e.g. climate change, solar flare, Ebola, etc.). President de Blasio was, if nothing else, paranoid about climate change, and he spent billions of dollars building these networks that he believed could one day save America should it come to that.
When President Stein was sworn into office, rather than abandoning the bunkers, Stein had them expanded to include a multitude of civilian functions. Each HIVE network consisted of 50 underground levels that started with two ground levels and then three basement levels. From there, the HIVE began a series of 50 underground floors that started at 400 ft. below the surface. Each floor was separated by 50 ft. of earth, reducing the likelihood of one floor collapsing into another; each floor was essentially a self-sustaining little city. At half a mile wide and three miles in length, each floor had immense space that could be divided and partitioned off as needed. Every 5th floor could be converted into a self-enclosed farm that was able to raise chickens, fish and grow produce via hydroponics. The bunkers had all been equipped with sustainable energy generation from geothermal sources below, allowing each bunker to have sun-like UV lighting 365 days of the year. Once operational, each farm floor could grow enough food to sustain 5,000 people indefinitely.
The design of the floors resembled the design of the human DNA code as it descended into the earth. Only a small portion of each floor was parallel to the one above and below, reducing the likelihood of one floor collapsing onto another. President Stein, along with a select number of senior level individuals, determined that these new bunker series would replace all of the older government bunkers and could be used for more than just housing the government. As they were completed, the government would move most of its research activities to the HIVEs and lease some of the floors to select American firms for their own R&D. These facilities could truly be secured from the public and prying eyes…and hopefully acts of sabotage or espionage.
When the nation’s satellites and communication systems went down, the Secret Service believed Washington, DC or the President may be the target. “Mr. President, we need to move you and your staff to the HIVE now,” announced the senior Secret Service agent as he entered the Situation Room.
“What is going on George? Should we go down to the PEOC (Presidential Emergency Operation Center)?” asked the President.
“No, Mr. President. We believe everyone should be moved to a more secured location.”
“All right everyone, let’s move with the Secret Service. I assume we are heading to the HIVE in Virginia?” asked the President.
“Yes, Mr. President. The Secret Service signed off on its operational use two days ago, relegating Mount Weather and other locations to be mothballed.”
“Mr. President, I just received word from the Pentagon that our satellites have gone offline,” SecDef Eric Clarke said with a look of concern.
“What do you mean our satellites have gone dark?” asked the President as the group began walking through the White House on their way to the West Lawn.
The Federal Government had switched phone providers to Verizon and broadband to Google Net two years ago as part of a diversification of the government’s critical infrastructure protection program. This change is probably the only reason the government was able to hold together in the wake of this recent attack.
“We are not sure yet,” replied Eric as he was talking to someone on his cell phone. “It appears to also be affecting GPS and the Internet.”
General Branson was on the phone yelling at someone to figure out what was going on when he turned to the President and said, “One of our subs in the Pacific just sent a message saying the Chinese are attacking Taiwan. The Skipper also reports that he has lost communications with our forces in Japan and Hawaii.”
“This is the last thing we needed…the Chinese to join the war,” thought the President.
As the fully armed Razorback assault helicopter took off from the West Lawn, it began to race away from the city. The President emerged from thought and announced, “We need to find out if the loss of our satellites is a result of a direct attack by the Chinese. I also want to know what else the Chinese are up to in Asia.”