Modern Warfare

USS Bougainville (LHA-8)

Point Mugu Range Complex, California

“War Plan Ardent Resolve in effect.  MEU to proceed to point Whisky Delta, best possible speed, maintain EMCON.  DEFCON 1, medium probability.”

“Get third fleet on the horn.”

“They are not answering, sir.”

Admiral Baker, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3 sat back in his chair.  While the Combat Information Center (CIC) in the Bougainville was not as large as the one aboard a full-sized carrier, it was still able to command a major engagement.  At the moment, the Bougainville was the largest naval unit known to be operating on the West Coast.  The two carriers that had been in San Diego were out of communications and the USS George Washington was forward deployed to Japan.  They were on their own.

Baker turned to Lensten.  “Bill, you’re senior here.”

Lensten nodded.  “Let’s give things a few minutes.  We don’t know the current situation.”  He consulted the display for a moment.  There were a total of six destroyers and a cruiser at sea currently within 100 miles of the West Coast in addition to Bougainville, Tripoli and their escorts.  “In the meantime, let’s get those stragglers lined up.  We will form into a single task group at Whisky Delta.”  He turned to the communications specialist on duty.  “Is COMSUBPAC online?”

“Yes, sir.  Pacific fleet is on the air.”

“OK, let’s coordinate with them and ELF all the submarines in the Pacific.  If this is a worst case, I want a submarine screen off the West Coast, pronto.”

Using Extremely Long Frequency (ELF) to contact submarines was tedious and slow.  Any orders sent to submarines at sea would take longer than other units.  At a minimum, they could be alerted to come up to antenna depth for more detailed instructions.

It took a few minutes to coordinate with Pacific command.  At the moment, everyone was in a bit of a panic as orders and counter orders swirled around the globe.

The secure voice circuit blared to life.  “ALL CONUS UNITS, THEATER COMMAND HAS SHIFTED TO CRYSTAL PALACE.”

Godammit.  Crystal Palace, the code word for Cheyenne Mountain, was a relic of the cold war.  Northern Command had been run from the much more comfortable and easier to support Peterson Space Base since the end of the cold war.  “Any word from third fleet?”

“No, sir.  They are still offline.”

“Very well.  Inform all commands that I am shifting the flag here to the Bougainville.”

“ALL UNITS, 3^rd FLEET FLAG HAS SHIFTED TO BRAVO UNIFORM.”

Effectively Lensten had just put himself in charge of all US Navy units operating on the West Coast.  He sincerely hoped that his boss would countermand that order shortly but hard-won experience had taught the US Navy that someone had to be in command at all times.

“Northern Command, Actual, for you sir.”

“2nd Fleet, Lenston here.”

“Wilkes.  What’s your situation there, Lenston?”

“We have a full MEU here.  Bougainville and Tripoli have a full ESG embarked.  I have taken the liberty of gathering up all the other ships under way and we are proceeding to a rendezvous off the Channel Islands.  We can defend ourselves and conduct limited combat operations, but we are not taking on the entire PLAN by ourselves.”  While an Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) was not nearly as powerful as a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) it did contain a full Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and its supporting units which made the ESG the most flexible naval strike unit.

“Understood.  At this point, I need information.  Get your air assets up and running.  We have lost SATCOM across the board and both the RORSTATS in the Pacific are offline.  With zero overhead, we could have an entire fucking invasion fleet out there and we wouldn’t know.”

“Understood.  Permission to disperse my assets, General?”  While he had been ordered to get his air assets up and running, they would have no fuel, weapons or maintenance if the support personnel died in an enemy strike.  The only way to protect them was to spread them out to places less likely to be attacked. 

Wilkes thought for a moment.  “You expect follow-on attacks?”

“Wouldn’t you prosecute any air assets on the ground if you were the attacking force?”

“Yes, I would.  Proceed.”

Terminating the connection, he turned to the intelligence specialist on duty.  “I want a list of all civilian airports with a runway of 5,000 feet or longer on the West Coast.  Anything in California, Oregon or Washington.”  The Lieutenant on duty just stared at him for a moment, a bit shocked by the turn of events.  “NOW, LIEUTENANT!!”  The bark of command had its desired effect.  The junior officer sprang into action.  “Get COMNAVAIRFOR on the horn, I want all their birds in the air, NOW.”

United States Northern Command

Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, CO

While it had only been a few minutes since the order to use nuclear weapons, it seemed like hours to Wilkes.  Every detail was excruciating, every pause in communication was torture.  It was very clear that the US military was under extreme electronic attack from persons unknown, but everyone assumed it was the Chinese.  First, communications satellites had started going off the air, now computers and other systems within the military were starting to fail or simply refusing to work normally.

The secure audio channel set up to monitor the pending attack suddenly came alive.  “EMPTY QUIVER.  EMPTY QUIVER.  EMPTY QUIVER.  USSTRATCOM is declaring an EMPTY QUIVER event.”

Wilkes thought he was beyond shock, but the empty quiver declaration almost put him into a state of panic.  The little-known companion to a “Broken Arrow” event (loss of a nuclear weapon), “Empty Quiver” was a failure of a nuclear weapon or weapon system to function.  The US strategic nuclear arsenal, while never actually used in combat since WWII, was assumed to be the highest-functioning weapons system in the US arsenal.  No expense was spared to ensure that it would work if ever called upon.

Physically shaking himself, he opened a video call to his boss, General Earhart again.  “Sir, what happened?”

“No idea, but I must assume that the Chinese have infiltrated the NC3 system.  We have zero ability to send positive release orders.” 

Holy Shit, is this how the world ends?

Wilkes took a moment to compose himself again.  “So, it’s down to Northern Command.”

“That’s right.  Ardent Resolve is our best bet.  You’re my alternate in case they take out the facilities here.”  He looked over this shoulder.  “The weapons are starting to impact, no reports yet if they are nuclear.”  Wilkes could see people moving around in the background behind general Earhart.  Panic was perhaps too strong a word, but he had never seen this level of activity at Northern Command before.  People were clearly doing their jobs, but the tension and anxiety in the operations room where Earhart was calling from were palpable, even over the video link.

“Yes, sir.  Perhaps we should move you and your staff down here.”

“No time.  We have to…”  With that, the video stopped.

“Negative Nucflash.  Say again, Negative Nucflash.”

The report was the first good news all day.  So far, these were “just” conventional ballistic weapons, not nuclear weapons.  While the idea of thousands of incoming weapons attacking the United States was still terrifying, it was something they could handle.

“Get Northern Command back.”

“I have negative function on all channels.”

“Did you check the fiber?”

“Yes, sir, good relay on the fiber here; it’s dead on their end.”  The US military had gone to the trouble of burying fiber optic cable between most of their major sites including Peterson where his boss was located.  He had to assume the base was under attack, perhaps destroyed.

“Inform all CONUS units that overall theater command has shifted to Crystal Palace.”