“I know the PLAN Larry,” said Nathan, “I can smell em. Maybe I was one of them in a past life or some shit. But they’re on the march.”
“We should send a message to COMSUBPAC,” said Nikki stoking her hair.
“We should,” Nathan nodded, “but he’ll have to throw it back to DC and that takes time.”
“You didn’t let me finish Nathan.”
“Go on Nikki.”
“I was going to say by referring back up the chain, you’ve covered your ass to a fair extent. If the chain doesn’t act fast enough,” she shrugged.
“It’s going to be like walking on eggshells if we don’t have a green light from the Puzzle Palace,” smiled Larry.
“There is a way to do it,” Nikki leaned towards him, “they’ve already given you the green light. Sort of. They said if you believe the bad guys going to shoot at you, you can take action.”
Nikki stood and paced the room, Larry rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Lord deliver us.” “What’s up Larry? You seen her do that before?”
She stopped and turned to Nathan. “Put temptation in their path. Get them to shoot a sitting duck.”
“Yeah, could do?” Nathan rubbed his chin in thought.
“If they do, you’re clean. You can sit there fat dumb and happy and tell the PLAN, here have this, suck it and like it. Just wait for them to make a hostile move, and that’s it.”
Nathan thought about it. Yeah, she may be right, ok it’s splitting hairs but…
He looked at Nikki. “Trouble is, having them making a hostile move first is having a fish running for our ass.” Nikki grinned.
“Nathan,” she waved her finger as if to scold him, “not necessarily. We may have just the thing we need.” Nikki laughed.
“Go on…”
Chapter 9
PLA CHINESE SPECIAL forces landed from fast launches and airborne troops dropped in. The docks area was the area of main assault and the resistance was high. ROC army units had had time to take up good defensive positions and casualties on both sides were high. Naval gunfire from warships at sea provided support. Landing ships quickly took up positions in the port and disgorged armoured fighting vehicles. 586 Armour brigade further inshore pounded the enemy positions, a landing ship suffered direct hits and sunk 300 yards offshore. The weight of force the PLA had brought to bear in such a small area was starting to tell. Back six miles inland a company of the ROC Army’s 586 Armoured brigade had set up a battery of M115 8 inch Howitzers, dug in on a hillside. These caused hell in the landing areas directed by brave forward controllers who radioed back the fall of shot.
Salvos rippled along the hillside as 8 inch shells arced down towards the shore and explosions ripped open AFV’s down in the docks area.
Two flights of Nanchang Q-5 strike aircraft flew in two waves from low down the valley. The hillside redoubt was peppered by BL-755 cluster bombs and 550lb bombs. Guns were tossed down the hillside and men and vehicles were shredded, with ammunition trucks blasting trees and men high into the air.
Minute by bloody minute the PLA was gaining a toehold in the port. The cost was high though, the Nanchang strike aircraft had turned back to the west when several F-CK-1 fighters roared in from the northeast and launched their AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Aircraft fell in tumbling fireballs. Only two Q-5’s escaped.
The port relentlessly filled with People’s Liberation Army troops and vehicles coming ashore.
The 1st Amphibious Mech division, and 164th Marines landed. They were forcing their way ashore through sheer weight of numbers, the cost was high but the waves of men and supporting AFV’s and trucks were unstoppable.
CORPORAL BEN C WILLIS stood in the cavernous but noisy hold of the C130J Hercules. He stood facing aft, he was number four in his stick of Airborne troops. He looked at the light that would indicate a drop, it was still red. The rear ramp had been lowered a couple of minutes ago, and the wind billowed inside. The 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment had flown out from Fort Benning Georgia to Guam for the air drop. He learned to grab sleep wherever he could in the Rangers and it had proved itself on this trip. Halfway around the frigging world in no time at all to drop into Taiwan. It wasn’t until Guam that they’d been briefed that this wasn’t an exercise, but the real thing. Their task was to take and hold the westernmost bridge over the Da’an river. Apparently, the Chinks would be trying to take the bridge.
Willis had laughed when he’d found that their allies were also Chinks, but the good kind. This island was full of em apparently. Ah well, the local food should be pretty good. They’d be wearing a blue sun on their uniforms.
If they wore a red patch, they were the bad guys. The loadmaster raised his arm and the sticks of men tensed. The light turned green, he dropped his arm and waved them forward. Willis ran out and along the ramp with the rest, he was soon out in the free air falling. Then he felt a tug at his back and the chute was pulled out, he quickly looked up and the chute filled out. Thank God. He then unclipped his large chest mounted bag, it was a pain as it pulled down away from him. It was soon free, and he let it fall below him suspended on its four-yard tether. Most of his equipment was in there and it would soon become his backpack. Willis looked down, they were going to land among some houses, he hoped he’d come down in a garden. Thud. He rolled to break his fall he was on a sloping roof. He scrambled down into a small garden. Pulled his chute into a pile and heaved the backpack on, released his M4 Carbine. He was ready to deploy. A woman and her teenage daughter appeared at a door, she held out a cup to him and smiled. “Tea, you have.” He was about to refuse but looked at the pair of them smiling, he didn’t want to cause offence, and this was a foreign country. He took the tea.
“Thank you.”
The daughter spoke. “You come help? Where you from?”
This was bizarre, here he was drinking tea and talking with the locals, he was on an op.
“Colorado. Mountains, very high.”
“Ah,” the girl nodded. He took a long drink of his tea.
“I must go, thank you.” The Mother said something and pushed the daughter back inside. He walked towards the gate. “Soldier.” He turned, the daughter brought out a cake wrapped in a plastic bag.
“Here. For you.” He couldn’t carry it, she noticed this. “I put in you bag.” She walked around his back and he assumed she’d placed it in a zipped pocket.
“Thank you, thank you.” They smiled as he left. Willis grinned as he trotted off the re-join his troop. Taiwan ain’t such a bad place.
He saw that there were two bridges about 500 yards apart, they’d landed south of them, his was the leftmost bridge. The bridges were actually road bridges with freeways crossing the river, it was around 400 yards to the opposite bank. They took up positions on the south side facing south. It didn’t take long, soon mortars anti-tank missile emplacements were set up, two teams went south to scavenge whatever cover they could bring back. He saw a team of six men unshaven and unkempt, tooled up to hell preparing for a deployment. He knew they were special forces, Green Berets. They moved out and headed south.
BACK UP THE 7 AND 8th highway the ROC Army 10thArmy Corps 234 Mechanized infantry brigade and the 586 Armor Brigade moved south towards the city. The 8th Army Corps moved north up highways 3 and 21.
The Republic Of China was mustering its defence, if the PLA wanted to get itself established in Taiwan it would have to fight for it. And fight hard.
By the Da’an river Willis could hear gunfire and rocket fire from the south. It wasn’t far away, he knew it may be that the Green Beret’s had encountered opposition. The fighting continued as the cover scavengers brought back a couple of trucks laden with wood, doors and metal gates.