INVASION USA (Book 2) - The Battle For New York (39 page)

“My entire platoon is well-trained, sir, and yes we can get chutes at Camp Lejeune,” the lieutenant replied.

“Good. Captains Wong and Chong, have you completed parachute training
?” the general asked.

“Yes, but just basic training and the minimum amount of jumps needed,” Captain Wong replied.

“The crew of the HC-130, are you there?”
the general asked.

“Yes sir, Captain Pierce here,” the commander of the aircraft answered.

“Captain Pierce, what is the range of your 130 if you take her up fully fueled with a payload of 5,000 lbs., bleed all the tanker fuel into your tanks and, instead of refueling another aircraft you refuel yourself? If I’m right, you can increase your range to 6,800 miles?”

“In that configuration and depending on cruise speed and altitude, I think we could do more than that. I reckon on closer to 7,000 miles, sir. Maximum range is 4,500 miles, plus 2,000 miles of tanker fuel, plus a reduced cruise of 330 miles an hour at maximum altitude; 32,000 feet,” Captain Pierce replied.

“The 747 flights into JFK came in from the east, but I bet they went over the polar route to get here. Am I right Captain Wong? You flew the 747 back here to McGuire, right?”
asked the general.

“Yes sir. We had already turned north 30 minutes out of U.S. international airspace at 32,000 feet to head over the polar route and in the direction of China, when we left the transporter and ‘crashed’ due to fuel starvation,” Captain Wong replied.

“This is crazy, but listen to my plan,”
continued the General.
“I believe that the 130 can get you over the polar icecap to Osan, South Korea. The flight will be about 6,800 miles. If necessary, you can go in early at Misawa, Japan, which will be around 200-300 miles shorter. Carlos can help you navigate. Take the two mobile beacons Lee has repaired with you, and I will give you instructions as to where to leave them once I get to where I’m going. I want as many pilots and co-pilots who can fly 747s
or
Airbus 380s that you can fill into the back of the 130.

“All the new and modern aircraft are the same to fly in the long run. Captain Pierce, you will have enough pilots in your back seat to help you get there. Refuel in Osan or Misawa and go low into Shanghai Pudong International Airport. I hope to be there to fly in with you. It’s imperative that all the men who can fit in the back of the C-130 are able to parachute out. They will do so at low level a mile or so away from the airport. You can take all the old satellite photos and maps of the area around Pudong in our classified files that you need to finalize your attack plan while in the air. Under the command of Lieutenant Smith, I want you to infiltrate the airport. You should find dozens of beautiful aircraft, and I’m sure they will be fully fueled and ready to go. Beware; there could be thousands of soldiers in the area ready for deployment into New York in a week or two. I want you to fly out as many aircraft as you can. If they are not refueled, fly them into Osan. Even an unrefueled 747 could fly as far as South Korea on reserves. If they are full of fuel, then fly them straight to our base in Turkey.

“Now, the mission will be dangerous and will take as many pilots as you can fit to help fly the aircraft out of there. I reckon there are up to 30 aircraft waiting for us. Even a set of Chinese pilots flying the aircraft with three Marines itching to shoot their nuts off should want them to get airborne and give us another few planes. Captain Pierce, you will drop them in at less than 1,000 feet and then you are out of there if I’m not around, understood?”

Everybody agreed to a plan that would be finalized in the air.

“You guys need to get going, because I’m going to hang around this area and I hope to be over Pudong with our three re-armed gunships in case you need help. One more thing, guys. I don’t believe the Red Army, or the Red Guards, or whatever they call themselves will shoot at the 747s while they are taxiing for take-off. Shooting their own aircraft will piss-off their boss and destroy their only way to get to New York. Major Patterson, Captain Wong, we’ll need you to do your Supreme Commander ‘thing’ again.”

“Yes, sir,” both men replied, smiling broadly.

“You guys prepare. Patterson, get an aircraft immediately down to North Carolina to pick up the parachutes and get them back to McGuire. Actually, Carlos, call up Preston and get Buck in the DC-3 to pick up 30 parachutes and reserves from Camp Lejeune and fly them up to you at McGuire. That will save you an hour. You should be on the ground in China in 24 hours, which gives me enough time to see Beijing and hopefully Moscow before flying back to Osun and meeting up with you. Now go!”
The men left.

“Carlos I’m going to put on transponders and leave them on. I don’t want to go into a foreign county’s capital without warning them, if they can see me.”
Carlos watched as four transponders began blinking on the screen a second later. The general was 100 miles south of the Capital of China, and still hadn‘t seen one aircraft other than the three around him.

General Allen flew into Beijing Capital International Airport an hour later. It was three in the morning, and the airport was dark and quiet. They had found the main runway through infrared scanners, and they did a sweep over the runway surface with landing lights, noticing thin patches of ice here and there, but mostly dry asphalt. They did not have much information on the airport. It wasn’t one the Air Force frequented, and Google was not available, so they couldn’t just pull up what they wanted.

The three gunships went into a wide arc flying low over the main city, hoping to attract attention, and then flew out a couple of miles and turned into long finals. With the main runway far ahead of them in the dark, the general turned on all their lights, again trying to grab attention, and the fourth aircraft with its lights on was circling above the runway guiding them in. They landed without a problem. One gunship reversed back to the beginning of the runway, and the other two taxied to the other end so that there were lights on either end for the tanker to land.

Once they were all on the ground, they formed up behind Ghost Rider and looked for a place to park. The nearest terminal, full of Air China aircraft, looked the best. It was weird to see a terminal with every one of its bays full with aircraft. The Chinese had certainly known about the pending event, and Pete wondered if any of the aircraft were flyable.

They parked in a line behind a couple of older Air China 747s and brought their engines to a stop. There was no welcoming committee, and the general donned a winter coat. With two pilots carrying carbines, they stretched their legs and walked across to the empty terminal with flashlights. It was totally shut down and there were no lights anywhere. He climbed the ladder up a moveable walkway to the terminal and opened the door. It was unlocked, as was the door to an Air China 747.

He walked in with his flashlight and found his way to the flight deck. He pushed several buttons, which in normal operation would have given him a response, but this aircraft was as dead as the rest around the world. He walked out and down the ladder in time to see an old army jeep with its lights on pull up to the aircraft, guns pointing from both sides. The 20mm Gatling guns in Easy Girl had already swiveled and were pointing directly at the jeep with its four occupants, which was several yards away from Ghost Rider.

General Allen, with his general’s star shining brightly, walked up to the jeep and stated “American Air Force” to the four men, who turned their rifles on him. “Does anybody speak English?” he asked to non-comprehending stares. Two men got out of the jeep. He stared directly at the highest ranking man who looked like a lieutenant or a captain and General Allen shouted out to anyone in Ghost Rider to bring out Mrs. Wang. The Chinese soldier didn’t really know what to do, but saw the insignia on the general’s coat and snapped to attention. The rest followed suit. Rank was, after all, rank.

Mrs. Wang timidly came out of the aircraft and walked over to stand next to General Allen.

“Mrs. Wang, please tell them that we are on a peaceful mission around the world to find out if everybody is in this unfortunate condition, and that we want to find out who is to blame for this madness. Tell them that I come directly from the President of the United States and have a message for their Head of State,” explained the general. Mrs. Wang translated and waited for a response. The soldiers discussed the situation among themselves and the two still seated in the jeep prepared to drive off. “Before they leave, Mrs. Wang, I need permission to refuel my four aircraft. I can do it myself. I only need their permission and the closest outlet pipe or a fuel tanker.” Again she rapidly spoke to the men. They pointed to an old fuel tanker, gave her a rapid reply, the two men got back in and then they all drove off.

“They said to wait and that they would give your message to the government in Beijing 20 kilometers away. It will take them one or two hours to get back, and by that time, it should be dawn,” Mrs. Wang told him. “They said that all of Beijing was dark and they thought it was the Americans who had turned off the lights. You can help yourselves to any fuel you can find. He stated that he thought that the fuel pumps don’t work.”

General Allen shouted orders for the lights of the aircraft to be turned on and the nearest cover underneath the dark wing of the 747 in front of them was opened to connect them to the underground fuel pipes. The HC-130 tanker, with two of her engines running again started her transfer pump and got in as close to the rear of the 747 as possible and then pipes were run from her to the underground system. If the storage tanks were close by, then she could suck the fuel out of them, but if the storage tanks were far away, she had no chance. Much of the piping and fuel worked on a gravity-feed system assisted by electric pumps, and hopefully nobody had closed the tanks. It had only been a week since the problems had started and the underground tanks and pipes were all one inch-thick steel.

Her main pump was connected and slowly the fuel began to flow. Her incoming pump did not have as much power as the larger pump generators airports often used to fill large aircraft, but she managed to draw 100 gallons a minute into her half-full tanks. At this rate, it would take two hours to fill the three gunships and another full hour to refill the tanker.

The three gunships taxied in close to her and again pipes were brought out. She could pump fuel out at a much faster rate with her second pump into one of the three waiting for fuel. They were not empty. The flight from South Korea had left them with third-full tanks, but they still needed to get to Moscow, which would be another 3,600 miles, or 12 hours of flying time nonstop, and the tanker would need to refuel the other three aircraft. Fortunately, they still had the soft bladders to help with range and another hour of fueling would have those full as well.

Nearly three hours later, they had just started filling the extra bladders when three vehicles drove into the airport. They were old, black Russian-looking cars, like something out of the 1960s. They had flags waving above the headlights and the sun, now rising just above the horizon, made the scene of the old war birds and black cars look like something out of an old movie, if one didn’t turn around and look at the modern 747 behind them.

Three men in black coats and hats got out of the cars. Each one had a younger man with him—
an interpreter
, Pete thought to himself—and they walked up to him. One of his men went back into Ghost Rider and brought out Mrs. Wang.

“Good morning,” greeted General Allen. “Do you take Amex for fuel?” One of the younger men started translating to the three men and they smiled. “I have just flown in from South Korea, via Japan. I’m here on a peaceful mission from the President of the United States to find out who caused this catastrophe worldwide and tell China and Russia that the United States did not do this horrible deed.” The same translator did his job and the three older men listened.

“I am the Interior Minister,” the translator began after listening to the man in the middle. “My colleague on my right is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the colleague on my left is from the Ministry of the Environment. By the age of your aircraft and the danger you have placed yourself in to fly these aircraft around the world we understand that the United States of America is not to blame for this catastrophe. We do not think that Russia is to blame either, but of course we would like verification of that. Unfortunately, we have had no communications outside of Beijing since the first day of this year.”

“Do you know that there is a Chinese invasion force at this moment sailing across the Pacific?” asked General Allen. “It is an invasion force of soldiers, Chinese soldiers, and they are intent on invading the United States in a week or so.”

“My apologies,” replied the Interior Minister. “Unfortunately, this invasion force you speak of has nothing to do with the current government of China. Taiwan, of course is another matter, but we know nothing of any Chinese army or invasion force. We have no information at all.”

“So, Mr. Minister, your government does not mind if we blow this invasion force out of the water?” asked General Allen, looking at Mrs. Wang to translate it for him. She did so. The three men looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs responded in rapid Chinese.

“We do not know of any invasion force, General,” Mrs. Wang translated for him. “If you believe there is one, then you must do what you have to do to defend your country. We are still on friendly terms with the United States of America and do not wish to invade your country. We do not want our country invaded either and I’m sure the perpetrators of this horrendous crime will come up against the wrath of your United States of America, and many other countries. We would like to be included in any form of international communications you may have, so that we can at least communicate between our two countries since it looks like this problem will not be solved overnight.”