Aboard the fishing boat, the skipper checked his charts and GPS before sending a clear and precise sighting report by radio. Colonel Villiarin was in his command post on a hillside above Cebu City when the fisherman’s report was received. The skipper was a retired bosuns mate with twenty years’ service in the Philippines Navy behind him. Villiarin listened admiringly as the number of ships and types, position, course and speed of the invaders was sent over and over. After a minutes worth of transmission, gunfire could be heard in the background but the skippers voice remained calm and clear until the first hits by a rapid firing cannon began to rake his vessel. There was silence in the CP as all present stared at the speaker on the man-portable RT set, the fishing boat skipper merely raised his voice to be heard above the noise of exploding 30mm cannon shells as he carried on reporting until suddenly the transmission ended in mid-sentence.
The three OPs covering the Bay of Magellan had been dug by JCBs operated by the airport’s construction crews. Timber, concrete slabs and sandbags protected them from the coming storm, after which sand and earth had been smoothed over, camouflaging them from prying eyes. The soldiers’ manning the OPs stared out across the open waters of the bay where only fishermen’s buoys bobbed on the waves. The enemy ships were still below the horizon when the roar of aircraft engines broke the quiet of the bay and the large shadow of an airliner were cast upon the sea, heading northeast.
The lookouts aboard the PLAN amphibious assault ship Xux were alert and scanning the horizon for periscopes, ships and aircraft. Emcon was in force
Despite the loss of nights covering shroud, and although they knew the location of all Philippine Navy vessels, a satellite pass had caught several Singaporean surface combat units transiting the Sulu Sea, presumably enroute to Australia. At this moment those vessels could be anywhere within a 100-mile radius of their last known position and contact with them could wreck the planned landings.
Rock from the islands quarries had been loaded into the Cebu fishing boats hold and its mast removed, creating low visual and radar profiles. Hastily applied blue paint added to the reason that the small vessel went undetected by the lookouts. Once her radio had begun transmitting however, the PLAN had her position locked down to within six feet.
The fast attack boats had closed rapidly on the tiny unarmed vessel which they had sunk within three minutes of opening fire, but not before her skipper had reported troop carrying helicopters onboard the larger vessels spooling up and crewmen aboard the assault ships, hastily operating the ships large derricks, swinging outboard the hovercraft that occupied their fore decks.
The PLAN task force carried two battalions of marines, two light tanks, two BMP-80s and the means to deliver them ashore by helicopter, hovercraft and LC (T), landing craft (tank). As the defenders probably knew where they now were, they lost no time in putting the first stage of the assault into operation. Two Hokum attack helicopters raced towards the horizon whilst six troop carriers followed on, destination Mactan International airport.
A hundred marines were packed aboard the Ming Tz assault hovercraft, the noise of the turbofan engines reverberated across the water but inside their armoured hulls the troops had only been aware of the crush of their neighbours as they held themselves upright by gripping the rails welded to the cabin roof in the troop compartment. There had been no room to sit and no seating even if there had been for the men were packed in like sardines. Four of the five rotating gun turrets housed twin mounted 7.62mm machine guns, set at each corner of the rectangular hulls. A 23mm cannon occupied the fifth, set slightly forward of the centreline, above the cockpit.
Heading southwest at forty-nine knots the gunners had scant moments to register the civilian airliner that passed 50’ above their heads, heading northeast at three hundred and eighty knots.
Timothy Yukomata had at least been able to silence the audible engine fire warning, but he had to remind himself that he had not long to endure the constant chatter from Nagging Nellie, scolding him in a digitally created voice that he was too low.
A quick warning was broadcast to the task force from one of the three fast attack boats that preceded the hovercraft, but the Airbus had arrived before completion of the message, ploughing into the Xux at full throttle.
The Hokum’s had arrived over the airport with little or no warning and made short work of dispatching the pair of .5 calibre machine guns in a sandbagged emplacement atop the arrivals terminal. Six other bunkers about the airfield were chewed up by their cannon, but they saw no troops on the ground. To all intents and purposes the facility bore every sign of having been abandoned in haste. The runway-widening project the helicopter crews had been told of appeared to have reached the point where the hardcore in the foundations awaited its first covering of concrete. The extension to the existing departures lounge was at the concrete and cinder block shell stage but no construction workers or airport personnel were to be seen.
The troop carriers followed the plan for an unopposed landing; the major in command of this phase had sneered in contempt that the Filipinos had not even attempted to block the runway before running away.
Three of his helicopters dropped off marines about the perimeter and once done the major ordered his own and the two remaining helicopters to land on the hard standing before the arrivals and departures buildings. Intent as he had been on looking for enemy points of resistance he had not noticed the colour and texture of concrete was not uniform. As he sprinted across the concrete towards the airport buildings he had in fact noticed, then dismissed, that the marine in front of him had left depressions in a five foot square patch of concrete that had not quite dried, as he ran across it.
The troop carriers had begun to lift off again to add the firepower of their door guns to that of the Hokum gunships when a Filipino combat engineer turned a handle that completed the firing circuit.
Far away in his hillside CP, Colonel Villiarin had watched with satisfaction through a telescope as heavy demolition charges destroyed the hard standing, buildings, tower, barracks, fuel dump and finally the runway where they had tunnelled at an angle below its foundations to place them. He had been too far away to distinguish individuals but the specks of four helicopters, one of them a gunship, had been swallowed by the fountaining concrete, rock and tarmac.
The Filipino troops in their OPs heard the hovercraft before they came into view, they were built for speed rather than stealth and the powerful engine plants, which pushed their bulks over the waves, could not be muted without losing efficiency. Even whilst the debris was still falling to earth, the airbase defence company had emerged from their camouflaged holes and waded into the surviving Chinese marines.
The first enemy vessels that hove into view were the fast attack boats, like greyhounds in line astern they’d entered the bay, pouring cannon and machine gun fire into likely cover, venturing to within 80’ of the shore as they did so.
Aside from reporting by landline the OPs took no further action, they had only one other task to perform before un-assing and bugging out.
Crewmen aboard the three fast craft saw the sea heave up to seaward of them and reported to the task force that the enemy had heavy artillery.