Chapter LII: Counter-strike

0540hrs, 17 December 2013, Somewhere in the Northeastern United States

"Everyone must work together to recover from an attack and reposture for subsequent attacks. Immediate actions are necessary to treat casualties and respond to hazards such as contamination, damage/fire, unexploded ordnance, etc." Air Force Handbook 32-4014, "USAF Ability to survive and operate procedures in a NBC environment."

"Learning to use the tools of modern warfare is the difference between the prospering of your people and utter destruction." Lieutenant General Shepherd, Modern Warfare 2.


USAF Lieutenant General Josephine Pearson had ended her workday yesterday dodging a grenade that had been rolled at her car as she had left work at the Pentagon. It had been complete chaos there, with several vans worth of terrorists rolling up right past security and into the parking lot where they had spilled out, shooting at the mass of workers leaving for the day. For the time being, no one knew how many people died, or were just wounded. The Metro station nearby looked like something out of a horror movie; there was blood covering the entire platform when several bombs went off and for weeks afterward, the stench of death could be smelled in there. Now, after she was grabbed by an entire squadron of Security Forces people and shoved into an armored SUV and then onto a waiting Lear jet, she found herself in an underground complex somewhere in...well, wherever they were.

"Does anyone know what the hell is going on?" she asked the other people in the conference room. There was Vice Admiral Shelly Thompson of the Navy, Lieutenant General William Landis of the USMC, and Lieutenant General Joseph Sampson of the Army were the only ones in the room at the moment.

Thompson shrugged. "I don't know. Last thing I remember was getting shot at near my office at Pensacola and then I get swept up by a bunch of NCIS agents, who took me here."

"Gibbs, wasn't it?" Landis asked.

"Yeah, it was him. With that Israeli girl and some sleazebag agent as well. Would not shut up about movies."

"They're always a blast to deal with," Landis replied, rolling his eyes.

"How about you?" Pearson asked Sampson.

"I was already here," he stated matter-of-factly. "I was touring this facility when I got orders to stay put. Next thing I know, most of my colleagues back at Leavenworth are in the hospital or dead."

"Jesus," Landis muttered. "They hit most of the USMC Camps around the nation, but they held most of those terrorists off."

"What's this about Nakanishi being behind all of these attacks?" Pearson wondered.

"I'm just as in the dark about it as you are," Thompson reiterated. "I haven't gotten any word from NORTHCOM or anybody from the JCS. In fact, I haven't even been able to call my daughter."

"That's because you are the Joint Chiefs."

The President of the United States of America flashed on the video link on the screen in front of the room. The generals stood up, at attention before POTUS called them to ease.

"Sit down everyone."

They did so, looking at the President, awaiting her orders.

"I don't know if you've been informed, but the entire JCS was taken out yesterday evening by the terrorist attacks."

"Jesus," Landis muttered. "That's fucking ridiculous. How the fuck did that happen?"

"General, mind your language," POTUS admonished, but Marines would be Marines. "We don't know."

"Who's the Chairman?" Pearson asked.
"I am." Two more screens popped up, moving the president aside. Pearson immediately recognized General Oliver Martin of the US Army, commander of CYBERCOM. The other General had held several high ranking positions in the Air Force, but they were mostly training commands with little combat interaction. Well, both of them now held positions of the Chairman of the JCS, and Vice Chair, respectively.

"What happened to everyone else?"

"Pearson, we lost everyone else," Martin stated stoically. "It could have been a lot worse though."

"Even more worse?" Landis asked.

"Vice chair?" Martin said to him.

The Vice Chair cleared his throat before going on. "Two nuclear weapons were stolen from US stockpiles and were going to be used in Washington DC and New York City in order to inflict massive damage on both the political structure and the financial institutions of the United States."

He let that sink in for a moment, before carrying on.

"However, these weapons were recovered in time by…" He paused for a second before looking at the President. "…Er, the President will discuss that at length. Chair?"

"Wait, wait a second," Sampson interrupted. "There was an Empty Quiver situation? How did that happen?"

"We're trying to figure that out right now," the Chair replied. "However, there is not much that can be done about it, as the nuclear weapons have been recovered and an extensive count of all the nuclear weapons in current the current stockpile is underway."

"Jesus," Landis said, throwing up his hands. "This keeps getting better and better."

Martin nodded.

"The Nakanishi Group is behind all of these attacks; I've just gotten word from some of the Cyberwarfare units about the nature of the cyberattacks on our systems shortly before the main terrorist attacks occurred. They were caused by programmers working for the Nakanishi Group in Europe. Thankfully, we passed the word our European Allies…"

Landis scoffed at that.

"…and they've managed to eliminate that particular threat."

Several staff officers came into the room and brought classified documents, giving a rough sketch of the aftermath of the attacks.

"But they still took a beating," Landis said, looking at the data in front of him. "Several prominent leaders dead, including the President of Germany, military bases attacked all over Poland, Russia, France, Italy and the UK…"

"Plus the Suez canal," Vice Admiral Thompson added. Of course, the Navy would be very worried about that particular situation.

"What do you know about it?" Landis asked. He flipped through the files; there was almost no mention of it. Landis did note that most of the staff officers here were Air Force, and without communication between the different branches, priorities in information gathering would dramatically different.

"Nothing much. Sir," she said to General Martin. "How bad is it at Suez?"

"The entire canal is blocked off."

"All of it?" Thompson was in shock. "General, are you sure about that?"

"Absolutely. We have multiple eyewitness accounts from both the Egyptians and the USS Vantage, who just passed through there moments before the explosion took place. We have a KH-13 loitering above there..."

He picked up the phone and asked for someone to display the KH-13 feed.

"We removed the Nakanishi software from encryption program that was used to secure the feed, but right now, it's broadcasting on a thirty second delay so that the feed can be encrypted by another program."

"How many of our spy satellites are operational?" Landis asked to the former CYBERCOM Chief.

He sighed. "Just this one."

The KH-13 showed a huge, five square mile section of the Suez Canal on fire, with at least thirty to forty ships ablaze, with several more aground. Already, there was a massive backup of cargo and military vessels in the Canal.

"Jesus, that's bad," Pearson said.

"How much time does it add to go around the Cape of Good Hope?"

"It adds about 2700 more miles to the trip."

Admiral Thompson leaned back in her chair and sighed. This was not good; the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean would be unable to get through to the other side, and the long trip around would be a massive drain on resources, not to mention the time element. She sat back up, and noticed that the Secretary of Defense was not there with them.

"Where's SECDEF?"

"He's in transit to Cheyenne, and he's busy trying to get all of our allies to help us out too," POTUS replied.

Pearson and the rest of the brass in the room were quickly getting lost; without information, they could not operate at all and make good command decisions. Even the documents in front of them and the satellite feed on the screen only painted a very small picture of what was actually going on.

The situation was ironically, reversed; the JCS was supposed to brief the President, but in this crisis, it was the other way around.

"First question to all of you," the President asked. "How are we going to hit back against Nakanishi?"

"Jesus, we just got here," Pearson protested. "We have no information about any of their attacks, their motives, their forces…"

"Where did you get all of this information?" General Sampson asked POTUS. "All of our communications systems are down or severely impaired, besides this one dinky satellite here. Even the cell network is down."

"From the Japanese government…" Hamilton hesitated on that statement, causing the entire genre savvy cast in the conference room to question where in the hell she got that from. But they knew better than to question the commander and chief, and the briefing continued.

"Anyway," the Vice Chair said, interrupting the President. He was cool like that. "We've received information about a Nakanishi Base in Socotra from the Japanese government, since they are the parent country of this corporation."

That seemed to quench the JCS's curiosity for now, and they got back to planning a strike against the Nakanishi Group.

"Ma'am, like I've been saying again, without information I cannot even begin to formulate a plan of attack," Admiral Thompson protested.

"I cannot help you on that," POTUS retorted, obviously getting frustrated. "You're just going to have to make do with what you have at this point."

"Fine." Thompson shuffled through some of the papers in front of her for a second, then quickly came up with a plan.

"My course of action would be to have Combined Task Force 150 assist in the cleanup of the Suez Canal. It is imperative that we get that Canal cleared up, or else our operations in the Middle East and possibly, Asia, will be severely impaired. I also suggest that we also put the Sixth Fleet out to assist in the recovery and repair operations there as well." She looked at the info sheet in front of her; it gave locations of all the deployed ships and strike groups at sea, at port, or under repair. But the US military was used to having instantaneous information at their fingertips, with their satellites, their spy planes, their ELENT and SIGNET...without all of that information, they could only guess about what their next course of action was going to be.

"What about the base at Socotra?"

"Well, for now, we can put CTF 151 and 152, but that's only a stopgap measure. They were meant only for Counter-Terror operations, and I don't know what we're going to find on that island. Those CTF groups might be enough, but I'm not going to take any chances." Again, she looked at the information sheet, and located a Carrier Strike group at sea in the Indian and Pacific Oceans that would be of use, along with several other US Task Forces.

"When communications are back up, Carrier Strike group One, Three and Ten, Task Force 76 and 79 are going to be deployed to assault that island."

"That's part of the Fifth and Seventh Fleet, correct?" the Chair of the JCS asked, looking at his own info sheet; again, he was Army.

"That's correct," Navy replied.

"How long will that take?" the Vice Chair asked.

Admiral Thompson did some quick calculations. "Um…"

That was not a good sound to hear from a top ranking military official.

"At maximum performance, maybe three to four days. However…with our operational capacity severely hampered by recent events…I can give you maybe seven days."

That was bad news indeed. A drop of fifty percent efficiency from the most powerful military force in world was quite a feat. Getting all of those Carrier Strike groups organized with limited communication was going to be a feat unto itself, and having to unfuck all of the damage that Nakanishi had done to their C4ISTAR was only going to make things a lot worse. Getting a carrier across the world with the best technology and guidance available? Only three or four days. Getting three Carrier Strike groups to move a couple thousand miles with limited communication and resources? Only seven days…maybe. That was a task even with all the best technology and communications, was going to be a tough nut to crack, let alone with a hampered C4ISTAR.

"Okay then," President Hamilton, unfazed at least by the bad news. Both the Chair and Vice Chair didn't look happy though, but that was the price they had to pay for depending on private contractors. "At least we have some way to block off access to that island, whatever might be on it."

"Air Force," POTUS turned her attention to General Pearson.

Pearson was not going to be outdone by the Navy on this one.

"Ma'am," she said to the President. "I can have a variety of fighter and ground attack aircraft cut off the island within forty eight hours…provided that we get most of our communications back online."

Again, with the communications.

"Good."

"We can do recon flights ahead of the Navy, and assist in Army and Marine operations, if they decide to land on the island in force. From what it looks like…" Pearson looked at some of the few satellite photos that had been taken in the last couple of days. They were from meteorological ones though, and were not high resolution enough to actually make out anything. "There doesn't seem to be much of…well, anything there. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't exercise caution."

The President nodded. "I don't think blowing up the entire place would be also a good course of action. There could be materiel that we could use, for research and development."

The JCS nodded in their approval.

"Alright then, that's a good plan, for now." Most of this stuff was knee-jerk reactions, but that's all they had to go on right now.

The meeting was interrupted by several staff officers bringing in coffee and doughnuts. Normally, this would have been an egregious breech of procedure, but everyone needed coffee right now.

"Oh thank god," Landis said, reaching for a doughnut and a mug to pour coffee into. "Sorry Madame President, but we're running on empty right now."
"That's quite alright," POTUS said. She motioned to her COS to please, get her another cup of coffee right now, or else she might fall asleep right then and there. The Chair and Vice Chair, sensing an impromptu break, ducked out of the picture for a second and appeared with mugs in their hands, spilling to the brim with the black stuff.

General Pearson looked at the tray that had been had brought in; she noticed a small salt shaker on it, despite not being anything to put it on. As she watched, both the Navy and Marines put a dash in their coffee.

"Why do you guys do that?" Air Force asked both of them.

"It's to curb the bitterness of it," Marines replied.

"It's too strong for Marines?" Air Force raised her eyebrow at that statement.

"Hush," Landis replied, with a smile, satisfied that he finally had coffee now.

"Right, let's get back to business."

The newly formed JCS turned their attention back to the President and the Chair of the JCS, ready to get going again.


"Finally," the President said, after two hours of a barrage of question and answers, planning, and arguments later, "I want to revel something to you."

"And what would that be, Madame President?" Landis griped, tugging on his tie. It had become more and more loose as the day wore on.

"Don't be coy, Marine," POTUS snapped back, but it was understandable the way everyone was acting. Even battle hardened Marines had their limits, despite all of the "Semper Fi" bravado they put out. She softened her tone immediately after that.

"Sorry," Landis replied after that.

"We've all had a long day, General Landis," the President replied, her voice kind again. Pearson looked at her watch; it only read 0730. "Anyway, the information we got from the Japanese government?"

"Yes, what about it?" Admiral Thompson asked.

"It was actually from a special unit that the JSDF ran…well, nominally ran, but it was under the direct control of the PM. This group was called…err…" She checked her notes that her COS had prepared for her.

"It's called the…Systematic Awareness Intelligence Operational Recon Service Force. SAILOR-SF or SAILOR for short."

"That's quite a mouthful," Pearson noted; this was coming from a branch of military infamous for their obtuse and confusing acronyms.

POTUS nodded. "Indeed."

"They're a group that's been set up by the Japanese government, supposedly to combat hostile interests counter to Japanese policy, but in reality, they were inadvertently taking orders from the Nakanishi Group in order to further their financial progress."

"That's…" Air Force began to say, but couldn't find much else to add at that particular moment. A confused expression crossed almost everyone's face at that point.

"Er…" Navy added.

"What…" the Marines muttered.

"Um…" Army questioned.

"I know it's a bit confusing, but two of their members just saved my life, and possibly yours by exposing the information about the attacks on the United States and on other nations as well."

"That's a bit farfetched, don't you think?" Admiral Thompson asked of the President.

"What did they do, waltz into your office and tell you everything?" Landis scoffed.

"Actually, yes they did, General Landis." The President was looking very seriously at him now.

"Oh. Um…" He slunk back into his chair, having nothing else much to say after that little faux pas.

"And the Congress members who brought them here sacrificed their lives, including one who was a Marine, General, to tell me of this crazy plot by the Nakanishi Group to take over the world. I thought it was crazy, until they showed me the nuclear weapon that they had fought over and won from that damned PMC. So, this entire situation is crazy, and many lives have been lost, but we have an advantage, and I will use it. I have given this SAILOR team full access to US military facilities and I expect that they will be honored in full."

"Where are they now?" Sampson asked.

"At Yokota Air Base."

Pearson made a mental note of that. "Do you know what they're up to?"

"Not at the moment, although I am going to be briefed by them in the next day or so."

She took a breath, exhaling and the inhaling the recycled air on Air Force One.

"Thank you all for stepping up to this challenge. I know it must be hard, but this is an extraordinary situation that we all find ourselves in. Please continue with your work, and we will have daily briefings from here on out."

The President terminated the link, and left the Chair and the Vice Chair on the screen.

"Alright, our next item on the agenda is the status of the Reserves and of the National Guard…"