Invasion: California

could go wrong, and if it went wrong, it could go badly wrong. If that happened, there could be staggering losses to report to Chairman Jian Hong.

“It is time,” Admiral Ling said.

“Sir?”

“Send the signal. It is time to unleash our amphibious assault against the Americans.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Anna Chen entered the hushed command chamber together with Director Levin. They sat down at their places. Anna noticed that people avoiding looking at each other today. This was the great crisis, greater even than the encirclement of the SoCal Fortifications. The soldiers in SoCal fought an unequal battle, but they fought with courageous zeal and inflicted heavy damage on the enemy. On the Northern Californian coast it was different, turning into a full-scale rout and disaster.

The door opened and a powerful Marine entered the chamber. He said in a deep voice, “The President of the United States.”

Chairs scraped back and everyone stood. President Sims strode in, with General Alan following. Sims had red eyes and he slumped his shoulders, as if the burden had become physically too much. He stared straight ahead, moving to his chair.

The Marine advanced and pulled the chair out for the President.

Sims sagged into his seat and slowly lifted his head. During most of the meetings, he had tight facial features. Today, his face looked doughy.

This is grinding him down, Anna realized. The responsibility is devouring his strength.

General Alan moved to his seat, conferring in a whisper with his aide, the major. Soon, the general looked up and said, “Sir?”

“Report,” Sims said in a quiet voice.

The voice calmed Anna. It held power and it told her the President was far from giving up.

General Alan motioned to his aide. She turned on the holo-vid and began to speak in her professional style:

“The Chinese have made a massive amphibious assault into Monterey Bay. It’s still unknown the exact number of naval infantry they landed. We mined those waters heavily, but the Chinese cleared paths through them at unprecedented rates. They did lose ships. If you will notice…”

She pointed at the holo-vid in the center of the conference table.

Anna watched absorbed. A squat-looking vessel moved through the water. Suddenly, a geyser of water blew thirty feet high beside it.

“One of our mines struck and destroyed a mine-sweeping ship,” the major said. “The trouble is that the Chinese seem to have decided on an aggressive new policy.”

“Meaning what?” Director Levin asked.

“Meaning that what we’ve seen in Southern California is holding true here, too. The Chinese seem to be accepting heavier casualties in the interest of speed. In Monterey Bay, they rushed minesweepers into the selected areas. That’s interesting for several reasons. First, until quite recently, the Chinese possessed few minesweeping vessels. Now they have deployed them in great number and engaged them aggressively. We have reports, too, of many enemy underwater demolition teams. They saturated our shores with them to blow beach defenses and to climb onto land to patrol. Our people, particularly the local Militia companies, have inflicted losses on those demolition teams. That brought immediate air attack against the Militiamen.”

Anna watched as two Chinese UCAVs flashed onto the holo-vid. Silvery containers tumbled from their underbellies. The containers exploded onto American troops. The militiamen burned up in a holocaust of napalm. It was awful.

The President scowled and that tightened his skin.

“I’m afraid it gets worse,” the major said. “From our studies, it appears the Chinese have learned effective amphibious assault doctrine. Their naval infantry hit the shores and their helicopters raced farther inland to block the major arteries against us. That is, blocking us from sending quick reinforcements against their beachheads.

“Now it’s true that we’ve kept our remaining Northern California troops concentrated in the Bay Area. Unfortunately, terrain, Chinese air superiority and aggressive, inland assaults have blocked our soldiers from retaliating. That has allowed the enemy to grab the urban sites from Monterey to Santa Cruz, everywhere along the edge of Monterey Bay.”

“I understand all this,” the President said impatiently. “They’re building up behind the local mountains and will likely launch an assault against the Bay Area soon. It will give the Chinese priceless ports.”

“I’m afraid they’ve already taken port Santa Cruz. We were unable to demolish enough of the port’s infrastructure as we had hoped.”

The President stared at the major. She looked down. Slowly, the President turned his gaze onto General Alan. “Explain this to me.”

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs cleared his throat. “Sir, it was a simple matter of miscommunication. The speed of combat caught the local commander flat-footed.”

“The Chinese have taken Santa Cruz intact?” the President asked.

“Unfortunately, sir, the speed of the Chinese amphibious assault caught the commander in Santa Cruz flat- footed.”

“Don’t repeat yourself,” Sims said. “I want facts and I want them straight.”

General Alan blushed and anger flashed across his thin face. “Yes, sir. This occurred because of a lethal combination of helicopter assaults and jetpack Eagle Teams in unprecedented numbers. Also, Chinese expenditure of cruise missiles and yet more commandos made it impossible to rush troops from the Bay Area to the affected coast. Frankly, I believe we’re seeing the entirety of the Chinese naval infantry. We’ve managed to slip a few drones out to sea and have spotted an enormous convoy of troopships approaching Santa Cruz. At least, we believe that’s their destination.”

“Continue,” Sims said. “Tell me the worst of it.”

“Sir, if those troopships unload their cargos of naval infantry and armor at Santa Cruz, they will swamp us if they can break out into the Bay Area. We entrained the bulk of the northern forces down south to stave off defeat in Palm Springs and LA.”

“We must use our submarines,” Sims said. “They have to sink the troopships. And our soldiers in the Bay Area need to contain the Chinese. The mountainous terrain between Santa Cruz and the Bay Area must become a death trap for the enemy.”

“In theory that’s an excellent idea, sir,” General Alan said. “But the truth is that we need more troops. Without a fresh influx of soldiers, it will simply be a matter of time until the Chinese grind through into San Francisco and San Jose. The great danger then is that they will head inland into Central California.”

“Yes, agreed,” the President said.

“How many reinforcements are we talking about?” the Army Chief asked. He took off his hat and ran thick fingers through his hair, scratching the back of his head. “I have to tell you, the Germans are building up fast in Cuba. By my estimates, they’re ready to go now. We don’t want to strip ourselves bare from Georgia to Louisiana just so the Germans can do to us there what the Chinese are doing here. And I don’t have to tell you about the South American Federation. They appear ready to mount a massive armor assault into Texas. They daily add to their tank formations along the border.”

“Clearly,” General Alan said, “the aggressors are trying to stretch us thin everywhere.”

“They’re not only trying,” Sims said, “they’re succeeding.”

Silence descended on the chamber as the weight of the President’s words settled.

Anna looked down as she rubbed her shoes together. They’d known the Chinese had an armada waiting out there. This went back to the Blue Swan missiles. Enough of them had hit and worked to turn the SoCal Fortifications porous. The engineers who had designed and built the defenses had boasted how they would hold back the world. That had been the great hope, and it had proven futile. For several years now, Sims had used the draft and he had created the Militia battalions. America had millions of soldiers under arms, but it still wasn’t enough.

Anna noticed Levin then. The CIA Director sat right beside her. He drew squiggles on a piece of paper. With a