permission and then begin the last leg of the Southern Californian assault with his last fresh formations.
“Yes,” Jian Hong said. He spoke via a computer screen to Marshal Nung. The entire Ruling Committee attended, listening to the exchange. Nung had been most persuasive regarding the need for nuclear weapons.
Naturally, Marshal Kao and Foreign Minister Deng had disagreed. Jian had sat back and let Nung argue with them. Kao and Deng feared nuclear escalation, or so they said. Jian was beginning to wonder if those two feared nuclear usage because they secretly wished for the California attack to fail. Well, he would put an end to this right now.
Jian sat stiffly in his chair as the old Chairman used to do in these situations. He said, “It is time to teach the Americans that they are not the only ones who can unleash nuclear fire.” Jian directed his words to Nung but wanted Kao and Deng to understand why he was giving the order. “You have my go-ahead, Marshal Nung. Teach the Americans a most bitter lesson.”
Captain Lee of the Chinese Air Force glanced out of his Ghost aircraft canopy. Stars twinkled overhead, while pines carpeted the nearby mountainside. In the distance loomed giant peaks.
He went from south to north along the Sierra Nevada Range along with six other pilots in their ultra-stealthy bombers.
Thirteen paved roads crossed the mountain range east to west into California. Due to glaciation, most of the passes proved treacherous even in summer. By fall, they were snowed in except for the Donner and Beckwourth Passes. Snowplows working day and night kept the two passes open. The Central Pacific railroad used the Donner Pass, while the Western Pacific used Beckwourth.
Marshal Nung wanted both the Donner and Beckwourth Passes unusable, particularly the rail lines running through them. In the past twenty years, with the continually rising cost of gasoline, railroads had taken on greater importance in America.
To that end these seven upgraded and highly-modified Ghosts S-13E3s had slipped past American radar guarding the Greater Los Angeles area.
During the Alaskan War the original Ghosts had been the latest in ultra-stealthy tech. These seven used technologies perfected since that conflict. These Ghosts were also bigger and had greater range than those used in Alaska. They used air-to-ground missiles that the pilots would fire from a safe distance.
Captain Lee took his Ghost lower. He led the attack, and he was nervous. This was a great honor and it was a dangerous task. Each of his missiles carried a nuclear warhead. China was finally going to retaliate for the treacherous nuclear attack in Santa Cruz.
Under most conditions, High Command would have sent drones for such a mission. But secrecy was critical, and drones needed radio guidance, which the Americans might have been able to trace.
Chinese stealth technology was advanced, but there were rumors that the Americans had perfected a new surveillance system. Captain Lee had heard the rumors from his wife who worked in Intelligence. According to her, that’s why China had helped terrorists explode a nuclear device in Silicon Valley.
China’s leaders wanted to keep its technical edge over the Americas. Once, America had possessed the best tech. They used to be an innovative people and China’s leaders didn’t want to allow the enemy to climb back up the tech tree.
Captain Lee grinned. It was a good thing, too, good for him, this technological edge. Otherwise he would be in even more danger flying this boldly and deeply into enemy territory. All he needed was another sixteen minutes and he could launch the missiles. He was here to teach the Americans a bitter and deadly lesson.
In NORAD Command, an air control officer frowned at the strange images on his screen. Finally, he signaled the colonel, motioning him near.
“Sir, I’m sorry to trouble you, but I don’t understand these signals.” The air control officer tapped his screen.
The colonel frowned as he leaned down to study the images. His aftershave was strong and enveloped both men.
“This is the Sierra Nevada Range, sir,” the air control officer said with a hand before his mouth.
“Show me the pattern since you first spotted these.”
The air-control officer held his breath and manipulated his screen as ordered.
The colonel straightened. “Are there any Reflex fighters in range?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Alert them and burn whatever they are.”
The air control officer twisted around in his chair to look up at the colonel. “What if they’re our planes, sir?”
The colonel didn’t look at the air-control officer, as he was too busy staring at the faint, intermittent images on the screen. “God help us if they are, but I doubt those are our planes. They have no IFF. Order the Reflexes to intercept them and burn them now!”
As the stars slowly wheeled across the heavens, minutely shifting their patterns, Major Romanov’s Reflex interceptor picked up speed and began climbing. Romanov belonged to a trio of aircraft. The three planes had been cruising, part of the North American Defense Net. Twenty-two such craft were up at all times around the continental U.S.
Each interceptor was larger than a Galaxy cargo plane. Each carried an ultra-hardened mirror on the bottom of the aircraft, the
Giant Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) stations ringed the country. Their task was to stab the heavens with a powerful laser and burn down incoming warheads. These stations made an ICBM exchange between the North American Alliance and China nearly impossible. In 2038, President Sims had used the strategic ABMs to destroy every enemy satellite the lasers could reach. No one was going to monitor the U.S. or use space mirrors to fire enemy lasers down into America if he could help it.
Instead of ICBMs, the danger now came from slippery cruise missiles and low-level stealth bomber attacks. The strategic ABMs could not hit those unless they were in direct line of sight to the particular station. The Reflex interceptor changed the equation, as the ABM station could bounce the laser off the plane’s mirror and hit a low- flying target. The trick was making precise calculations and getting the Reflex high enough and in exactly the right position.
The huge planes lumbered higher and higher, afterburners giving them speed. Romanov glanced outside and saw a huge wing wobble the slightest bit. The red light on the end always comforted him and he didn’t know why. In time, as the NORAD colonel cursed at the Reflex pilots to hurry, the planes moved into their positions.
Three distant AWACS now monitored the Chinese Ghosts. NORAD had ordered recon drones toward the first faint images. Now the air control officer could see the enemy aircraft much more clearly.
“We have target acquisition,” Major Romanov said in the first Reflex interceptor.
“Fire,” the NORAD colonel ordered.
The strategic ABM station in Fresno aimed its giant laser at Romanov’s mirror and fired its pulse. The powerful beam flashed upward. Like a banking billiard ball, the ray struck the airborne mirror and sped toward the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The first pulse stabbed into the darkness and burned down a Chinese Ghost, shearing off the rear third of the bomber.
A cheer erupted in Romanov’s headphones from NORAD Command. It made him grin.
Another pulse-beam from the Fresno station struck his reflex mirror. It bounced and traveled at the speed of light and missed the targeted bomber by seventeen inches.
Major Romanov heard groans in his headphones. Then a warning light flashed on his control panel. He flipped a switch, studying the readings. The mirror had taken damage, too much according to this. With each accumulated pulse-strike, the odds would increase of a burn-through against the plane.
“This is Echo Three,” Romanov said. “My mirror had degraded three percent beyond the safety limit.” Time seemed to stretch as Romanov awaited orders.
“Keep on standby,” the NORAD colonel said. “We may need you before this is over.”
The Fresno ABM station held its fire. Major Romanov banked his giant plane and took it out of position,
