“We are expecting ten ships—five container ships and five military vessels. I’m certain that many of the enemy soldiers walking our streets don’t know the whole story and hope the scratchy details from these commanders will not affect the main battle. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We have reliable information that all the enemy commanders, except one, are aboard the aircraft carrier, and it all depends on how they enter under the Narrows Bridge tomorrow. Folks, our American civilians need that massive amount of food coming in. It could feed cities for months and we must not harm any of those container ships. We will have over a thousand snipers placed around the docks to pick off anybody who shows his head once the five container ships have docked. After that, it is open hunting season on the military vessels, and we have so much ammunition around here that I think we could put the earth out of alignment!” Everyone laughed.
“We have 20 squads of Navy Seals and Marines ready to climb aboard the container ships, and the snipers will back off once they go aboard. Their supreme aircraft carrier fighters can only stay airborne for three to four hours at the most, and when their runway sinks, they either die in freezing water, or land at one of our airports and introduce themselves to one of our welcoming committees. None of our aircraft, except the three F-4s, have any defense against what I believe is approximately 30 of their heavily armed modern J-10 fighters. I’m sure that they will have helicopters somewhere on their ships, and those can easily be taken out by heat-seeking rockets, of which we have hundreds. Once these fighters have used up their rockets and guns, only then can our aircraft take to the skies, but theirs are fast and you will have to shoot well to hit them. At that time, the best we can manage to defend ourselves is to prevent the howitzers on the ground from getting pelted by their fighters.”
For another ten minutes the colonel went on about the three different scenarios possible in New York Harbor. Several questions were asked about ground troops, and he replied that all American ground troops would be converging into the harbor area, making sure that the thousands of troops aboard the ships didn’t reach dry land. A second meeting would be held in two hours time, with the artillery, rocket, and mortar sections on their perimeters for attack, since they had American submarines and warships in the harbor, that did not need friendly fire.
*****
The last meeting of the Politburo was held at the same time in the meeting room of the aircraft carrier, now only 300 miles out of New York Harbor. The room was full with the 15 men, minus Mo Wang, whom nobody had seen for a couple of days, and several of the Red Guard commanders. The captains of the nine other vessels were on video screens piped in from their ships and the fighter aircraft commander was also in attendance. The chairman was on his satellite phone listening in to his panicked commanders on the ground in New York and angrily shouting back into the phone.
“What do you mean that you don’t know where you are!” he shouted to some poor guy on the other end. “Ask an American how to get to the docks! Of course we expected some form of fight, that’s why you are there, you stupid man! I already know that all the aircraft took off and are on their way back to China. Several others have confirmed seeing them leave. Yes, we lost a couple, but that’s war, Major Fu. Now get your men to the harbor area and I’m sure you will find thousands of other men waiting for you who will laugh at you for getting lost. How many men did you say you have with you? 23? How many did you have to start with? 500? Major Fu, may I suggest that they are not dead, just lost like you, and are waiting with the others. I have been told by several commanders that the fighting was sporadic and there were not more than a thousand American soldiers and several old propeller aircraft. I don’t want to listen to any more of your problems, Major Fu. Go and find the harbor and secure it for our arrival tomorrow. Remember, we still have another 4,000 men aboard these ships that will certainly pitch the battle in our favor.” The chairman angrily hung up on the poor man, lost somewhere without lights in a dock area he didn’t know, and surrounded by snipers with night sights. Major Fu wouldn’t see another dawn.
“And we call these troops our finest?” snapped the angry chairman at the crowd listening to his conversation. “What has happened to our youth? Wait until our real crack troops get on American soil tomorrow! I want all American males terminated within 20 city blocks of the harbor area. I don’t need any more problems when I step ashore—just female Americans, happy to see their new leader’s arrival.”
For the rest of the day, the Politburo went over the plans for the invasion of their new country. Several times, the chairman asked one of his aides to get one of the pilots of the 747 aircraft on the phone, but he couldn’t get through. The chairman wanted to get the next load of backup troops in as fast as possible. For the first time in his career, he was slightly worried about his master plan.
The sailors on board the ships prepared for their arrival in New York just after dawn the next morning.
It’s weird that weather often doesn’t play its part in well-thought out plans. It is also likely that bad weather for one person is good weather for another.
At dawn on the morning of January 20th, and after an inch of fresh snow in the New York area overnight, the sun rose behind the thick clouds that had formed along the northern coast of the United States overnight. A light snow was still falling, and thousands of men huddled for warmth in their thick white winter fatigues, brewed warm energy drinks from their ration packs, and cleaned and prepared their weapons.
The incoming ships couldn’t be seen by most of the American forces, but radar from the Coast Guard C-130 circling ten miles off shore and to the west of New York could see the ten blips on her screens perfectly. The ten ships were now stationary, three miles offshore, and Colonel Patterson—receiving a continuous feed in his extremely cold command center on top of the right tower of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and underneath white tents—was totally blinded by the clouds hanging well below his vantage point.
He now depended totally on the C-130’s continuous information, flying at 5,000 feet. If her radar screen could see the ships, the ship’s radar screens could see her. The colonel had placed her ten miles back from shore to make it look like she was just patrolling, and a second and third C-130 were also visible on the ship’s radar over Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, making it look like New York wasn’t the only area with air patrol. He didn’t want the invading forces to think that the United States was totally useless. That wouldn’t look right.
The C-130 ‘bait’ aircraft was 20 miles west of the harbor area and directly over Morrisville Airport in New Jersey. She could easily be attacked with sea-to-air missiles. Colonel Patterson was hoping that she would get their fighters airborne and in either scenario, the attack would take time to reach her and she could sink down and disappear into especially prepared ground cover within seconds of a missile or aircraft being launched. Also, the first missiles would be satellite-guided and Lee Wang was ready to scramble the satellite feeds to disrupt any incoming missiles and make them useless.
The vacant ground in and around the Morrisville Municipal Airport where the C-130 would land once attacked from the aircraft carrier, was filled with all sorts of anti-aircraft weapons pulled in from dozens and dozens of military bases from New Jersey and surrounding states.
Forty M-163 Vulcan anti-aircraft vehicles were ready, placed under trees, and next to hangars on the airfield. Even though they were old and many had been pulled out of museums, their 3,000 rounds per minute were deadly for any aircraft if they found their mark.