“The Japanese have provided over a dozen heavy lift transports to assist in moving the heavy equipment to include tanks from Korea to Japan. The JDF has also moved three of their five carriers into Korean waters to protect the transports. Admiral Libby has stated that all American forces should be out of Korea within the next seven days, bringing the US Forces in Japan to around 42,000.”
“Aside from the attack against our bases on Okinawa, the Chinese have not attacked the Japanese Defense Forces. Intelligence does not believe there is a separate deal being worked between the Chinese and Japanese, but the Chinese do not appear to be concerned by the JDF at present.”
The President interjected, “Colonel James, before you go any further — can you please tell me if the JDF plans on assisting the US in fighting the Chinese?”
“I believe that is a question Secretary Clarke or Secretary Wise could better answer,” said Colonel James, turning to them both.
“Mr. President, I have spoken with the Prime Minister of Japan, and he has told me that Japan is going to try and remain neutral as they continue to mobilize their reserves,” said Secretary Wise.
“Jim, kindly remind the Prime Minister of our mutual defense agreements and that America is depending on Japan to honor those agreements. If they are holding out for a few more days or weeks so they can mobilize their reserves, I understand; however, we need their help in challenging the PLAN in the Pacific until our other carriers are operational,” said the President, clearly annoyed that yet another ally had not come to the aid of the US.
“Yes, Mr. President.”
“Colonel, please continue.”
“Yes, Mr. President. Our forces on Guam are surrounded. The PLAAF and PLAN have been hitting them ‘round the clock. It would appear they are going to invade the island sometime within the next 12 to 24 hours. The Navy lost four attack submarines in the last 12 hours in the waters around Guam, and the Air Force has expended nearly all of their remaining fighter drones attacking the PLAN armada—”
“How many PLAN ships are in this armada?” asked the President.
“According to our last surveillance drone, there are three Chinese supercarriers, along with their supporting ships, and what appears to be roughly 90,000 naval infantry forces,” said Colonel James. “These naval infantry forces are equipped with their newest exoskeleton combat suits. These are the best trained and equipped troops that the Marines and Air Force will be facing.”
“Between the Air Force and Marines, we have 21,200 personnel on the island. Most of the family members have been evacuated, but some are still on the island. As of five hours ago, the base had suffered the loss of 2,312 servicemen and women killed, with nearly twice that many wounded. There have also been 964 military civilian casualties and an unknown number of civilian deaths.”
“General Black, can the Marines repulse their invasion?” asked the President, knowing the chances may be small.
“It will be tough, Mr. President. I would like to say they can, but with no air support, reinforcements or assistance, they will ultimately fail. I do believe they could defend the base and island for a few weeks, maybe a month. Do you want my Marines to try and hold out?” asked General Black, knowing where the President was going with his question.
The President did not want to make General Black responsible for issuing the command to hold the island and essentially commit to losing over 15,000 Marines. He needed to be the one to give that order. “I do, General Black. The longer they can tie down the PLAN, the more time it gives the Navy to attack and sink their ships while they are in a contained area. I hate the idea of losing more service members, but surrendering without a fight is just going to give the Chinese an operational airbase in a key position in the Pacific, and our forces will be moved to God only knows what kind of POW camp that the Chinese are running.”
“I will inform the commander on the ground that he is to prepare to hold the island for as long as possible, destroy the remnants of the runways and then heavily mine them. It will slow the Chinese down; hopefully, the JDF will get involved soon. They could potentially relieve, or at least resupply our forces there,” said the General with a solemn shadow cast over him.
“Thank you, General Black. We will do everything in our power to make sure that those Marines do not make a sacrifice in vain,” replied the President.
“Thank you Sir.”
Colonel James paused a moment, and then broke the awkward silence that hung in the air. “Moving on to Southeast Asia, Mr. President. The Chinese 7th and 8th army groups have rolled across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and most of Thailand. Intelligence suggests that they will move on Malaysia and the Philippines next.”
“What are the Australians doing in response?” asked the President.
“The Royal Australian Navy is conducting hit and run attacks on the PLAN in the area, but in general, they are pulling their forces back from Indonesia to northern Australia. I recommend we withdraw our forces from Indonesia as quickly as possible (along with the rest of our naval assets) and move them to northern Australia and prepare a new defensive line,” General Branson said while pulling up a holographic map of Australia.
“We are in no position to stop the PLAN right now; they have three supercarriers heading towards Malaysia. Our best option is to withdraw as quickly as we can and prepare a defensive line in Australia. Until we can regain control of the seas, we need to be cautious with our remaining carrier group.”
“I concur, Mr. President. For the time being, we need to play defense with the Chinese until we can retool and get our shipyards going,” Admiral Juliano said while opening a file on his tablet.
“We have ordered the construction of eight new supercarriers, and we are pulling another eight out of mothball to get them in the fight. It’s going to be three to six months to get our mothballed carriers into the fleet, and close to three to four years for the new ones to be completed.”
“I assume we are activating most of the Ghost Fleet, correct?”
“Yes, Mr. President. The Navy just issued a contract for 200,000 workers to retrofit the Ghost Fleet and get it operational. We’ve also activated the entire naval reserve force, and they are going to start reporting for Fleet duty within the week,” said Secretary Clarke, nodding to Admiral Juliano.
“Sorry for getting us sidetracked, Colonel. Is there anything else with regards to Asia that we should know?” asked the President.
“There is one other item. We know the Chinese have several military installations in Africa and the IR. One of our subs in the Indian Ocean spotted two Chinese convoys. They followed them until the convoys split, so they followed the one heading towards their naval and land base in former Yemen. The other convoy appeared to be heading towards their base in either Madagascar or Tanzania.”
“Hmm….so our forces may start to see Chinese ground forces in Israel soon. General Gardner, did you catch that part?”
“Yes, Mr. President. I’ll see if the Air Force can task some of their drones to that location and see if we can spot the convoy as it comes into port,” said General Gardner via the 3D Holograph image.
“Colonel, thank you for bringing us up to speed in Asia; let’s transition to Mexico and the Panama Canal before we discuss Europe and the Middle East.”
“Mr. President, I’ve authorized four Private Military Contractors (PMCs) to provide security for the DOJ, DHS and reconstruction efforts in Mexico. This will allow us to withdraw an additional 60,000 troops from Mexico and bring our total troop count to around 45,000 from the 105,000 currently there. I’ll leave the reconstruction status for the DHS brief later today. Moving to the Panama Canal…well, it’s a mess. The Corps of Engineers believe they can have the locks repaired within the next 30 to 45 days. We are also sending 9,300 troops to provide additional security for the Canal; it’s become too important of an asset for us,” Secretary Clarke said.