The Battle for Houston...The Aftermath (4 page)

General Patterson was still in shock and awe of how this Chairman had planned the destruction of the world while listening to Major Wong’s long interpretation. For the second time he read the names of the cities written on the missiles surface.

“Major, you are now my captive. Is this missile in safe-mode, and how do we destroy it?” the general asked.

The major suddenly refused to say anything, gave his name, number and rank as he was supposed to do under the rules of The Geneva Convention, and the general ordered the Marines to take him away and keep him alive. He still needed the codes if they wanted to send the three satellites into space.

General Patterson ordered the Marine captain to find a hundred men, arm them to the teeth, and get ready to sleep in the empty room with the helicopter parts. The captured major had already shown them that this was the only entrance to these silos. He closed the doors as they exited the different areas and posted men at each door while they waited for the captain to return. He needed time to think, and there was still a battle to win.

By the time General Patterson had climbed the stairs back up to the surface the fight was over. A company of Marines were guarding a large group of prisoners, and the rest of Colonel Zhing’s men were strewn around the base.

“Casualties!” shouted General Patterson looking up and finding two gunships circling overhead.

A Marine major came over, the man who had been in command of the parachutists, and saluted.

“We have lost 29 Marines sir, 13 men shot while they were under their chutes and another 16 men in ground skirmishes. We have 31 men wounded; three pretty critical… They won’t make it. I don’t have the other section’s casualties report, Sir.”

“Medics should have arrived at the airfield by now. We have no large choppers to ferry the wounded, so get the dead and wounded onto the trucks and back to the airfield ASAP, Major,” ordered General Patterson. “Also, Major, check with your men underground and make sure you don’t leave any of our dead or wounded behind. You’d better have your dog whistle with you.”

“We are doing that, Sir, and should have our wounded out of there in a few minutes,” the Marine replied saluting.

An Air Force Chinese-American Medical Captain came up and saluted. He had blood all over him.

“I was in one of the trucks behind you, Sir, when we entered the base. We have nine men dead and 11 wounded. We lost that one helicopter with Air Force personnel aboard so my latest count is 11 dead. The dead and the wounded are being loaded into the trucks, and one has already left for the airfield.”

“Thank you, Captain. Go back to the wounded; get the major’s dead and wounded aboard the same aircraft. Load all the bodies and every wounded man on one 747 only, and get the crew to fly you into Misawa. They have a full and operational medical hospital there. Many of their personnel will already be at our airfield, and they are here to help the wounded. And tell the pilot not to save gas on the way, I want him there yesterday!”

The numbers weren’t bad for such a vicious battle, and he was thankful that he had had the idea to send the Marines in early to get down into the underground bunkers. Otherwise, they would not have stopped the Chinese major from destroying the entire East Coast.

Suddenly the general lurched, and Major Wong immediately grabbed him to help him stand.

“General Patterson, you haven’t slept for over 36 hours, you need some rest,” stated Major Wong and whistled for the jeep to drive over to them.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, Major. There is more work to do still.” He replied his face white, and he didn’t resist as he was helped into the passenger side of the jeep. Major Wong gave orders to get the general to bed in Colonel Rhu’s old quarters for the rest of the day with guards and a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door.

Major Wong didn’t feel too good either; he had snatched only a couple of hours sleep in the same period and he would need help pretty soon.

The major got on the radio to tell the two circling gunships to land and rest. The helicopter crews were already at the airfield, and he told them to stand down. The Marines who had been awake all night in the enemy base were relieved and told to head back and get some sleep. They would be back in action the next day. He found the Marine captain, the one who was detailing the guard, and told him to pick another 200 fresh men; he would be in command of this base with 300 soldiers for the next 24 hours.

A few minutes later he found another Marine major and two captains checking the enemy dead.

“We have counted 397 dead, 21 slightly wounded and 63 non-wounded enemy combatants, above ground, “stated the Marine major. “We also found the remains of the enemy colonel, and we are still searching the dozens of corridors underground for their dead. It will take another hour. My men placed 13 of their badly wounded soldiers with our wounded and they will be on that 747 to Misawa; we have a lieutenant and his platoon of 30 flying with them. What do you want me to do with the dead?”

“Do we have any machinery here to dig a hole?” asked Major Wong.

“Yes, there is a Chinese type of Caterpillar back-end loader with a digging attachment in the motor pool at the rear with several other vehicles. It’s next to the helicopter repair hangar. We could use that to dig a massive hole to bury the enemy. Do you want us to keep their uniforms?” Major Wong said no. Zedong Electronics no longer existed and they still had enough Red Army uniforms for soldiers if they needed them again.

Within an hour Major Wong saw the single 747 taking off from the airfield with the dead and wounded bound for the base in Japan. He shouted for any men who hadn’t slept in 24 hours to get on the trucks, and he climbed into one and headed back for some sleep. The rest of the world could wait.

Forty-eight hours later the battle briefing took place. Twenty of the C-130s had already left for Misawa with 1,600 Marines heading back the long route with the tankers to the states, via Elmendorf in Alaska. Another 100 Marines had headed out on each of the other three fully loaded 747s which took off an hour after Major Wong got to sleep. He had taken care of those issues.

General Patterson then ordered a second load of 100 Marines to head back to the U.S. with the first four 747s which returned after loading them again with electronics and took off as Major Wong surfaced from a needed twenty-six hours of sleep.

Carlos and Lee Wang left with the second load of Marines and flew in the comfort of the several passenger seats in the 747 Transporter. Carlos wanted to get back and reposition the satellite over the central United States. It would take him a week and, unbeknown to him, he was already too late.

The general had told Carlos about the three unused satellites aboard the missile, and he said that he would be back in a week. He wanted to get them into space.

“A battle with honors, gentlemen,” shouted General Patterson through a megaphone to the 800 remaining Marines, 100 Air Force personnel and 150 engineers and technicians standing in formations in front of him; they were on the apron where the 747s were being loaded. Another 100 Marines and 50 Air Force personnel were still on guard duty at the other base and a radio mike had been placed in front of him to allow them to hear his briefing. “Yes, we lost many fine men and yes, our enemy lost over ten times more men than we did. Any battle commander would be proud of his men with those numbers. I’m here today to tell you that my worst nightmares did come true in the underground area of the last military base controlled by our enemy. We found a fully operational R-36M Russian Intercontinental Ballistic Missile aimed directly for Washington, DC. As many of you already know, this missile is capable of sending 10 separate warheads over to the United States, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. On the side of the missile, and in the enemy leader’s own handwriting, were ten cities he wanted wiped off the map.

If his mission to invade and take over our country had failed, he wanted the base commander to fire that missile. The major was on his way to do just that when we attacked yesterday morning; he was captured alive by our Marines who had infiltrated their underground sections the night before and prevented him from achieving that mission. I don’t know how many people still live in those cities, and I’m sure many of you might have grown up in those cities; but yesterday we saved those Americans who are still there. Those cities are Washington D.C., New York, Trenton, Boston, Indianapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio; and Richmond, Virginia. Any areas within 200 miles of those cities would have been death zones.”

Preston, upon hearing the news for the first time, was shocked. His farm and airfield were within the Richmond range.

“Again, we have won the right to survive and again we will do so,” continued the general. “The last military base of Zedong Electronics is ours, but many of us will stay to clean up the spoils of war for our country which desperately needs them. Once we are done, all enemy soldiers below the rank of captain will be released and allowed to go home. By the time the thousands of Chinese soldiers we sent on leave return, I don’t want one item of value to be at either of these bases. We will not destroy any living quarters, and we will leave a small amount of food for the returning soldiers, but that is all. Another 600 of you Marines will head back to the United States tomorrow with the remaining C-130s. We will keep a Marine commander and 300 men here in case we come up against hostiles. All our Air Force personnel will stay, except the C-130 crews flying our Marines home with three of our Gunships. The rest of us will pack up and load everything we can and get it home to start our country’s machines again. We will fly all of the captured officers to Japan. When we leave here they will be returned and freed. Thank you gentlemen for a job well done!” and the general applauded his troops.

“That means all our guys back at my airfield would be toast by now,” stated Preston having a drink in the Officer’s Mess of the enemy base with General Patterson, Mo Wang, and Major Wong. Everyone nodded agreeing with him.

“I knew the Chairman was up to something bad,” added Mo. “He was so secret about this base and especially about that second one. Even I was never allowed to visit that top-secret base. All I was allowed to do here was to track stores in and out, train men, and visit the arms company in Harbin from time to time.”

“Is that the company that produced the helicopters?” asked General Patterson.

“They completed the final assembly of several of Zedong’s military weapons,” he replied.

“A large company?” Major Wong asked.

“Yes, it has a hangar at the city airfield where you first landed your aircraft in Harbin,” Mo Wang replied, “and a large factory about a mile north of the airport. It is a big company and the factory grounds are about half the size of this airfield.”

“I think a visit is in order,” suggested the general. “I will schedule it for late tomorrow afternoon. In the morning I want to check all the underground corridors for any areas we have missed, and then get those twelve remaining helicopters over here and have the men dismantle their rotors for shipping. I also want to find every missile around here, air-to-ground and ground-to-air.

They had a sort of celebration that night. There wasn’t much good alcohol around Mo showed them how to drink the local Harbin rice wine, heated. To Preston even a simple cold Yuengling tasted better than this stuff.

After an early 04:00 breakfast the next morning, the twelve troop carriers and the general in his Chinese jeep headed over to the other base. Six American and six guarded Chinese pilots were to fly the Z-10 helicopters back to the airfield. Preston and Mo Wang went along to look at this secret missile. Mo did not believe that his ex-Chairman had such destructive weapons.

The dead had been removed and buried in a freshly-dug, nine-foot deep trench a hundred yards long. The Marines had completed the grizzly task within 24 hours, and nothing more than a long, wide pile of dirt showed where the remains of the defending base soldiers rested.

A temporary base camp had been set up on the green parade square, and the general was saluted from all angles as he drove in. He checked the walls and found squads of men on guard around the base.

The first visit was to the Marine officer who he had ordered to protect the missile silos at all costs. Preston and Mo went with him. In the rooms around the entrance to the silos, the guard detachment of the 100 men was steadfastly guarding the area.

“Anybody gone through here since I left?” he asked the man.

“No, Sir. We have had two men at the door 24/7 and a machine gun over there with six men around it pointing at the entrance to this room,” he added pointing to the machine gun placement behind sandbags. “We bedded down in the several rooms around here. Nobody could have gotten through this room.”

“Found any secret doors?” General Patterson asked.

“How did you know, Sir?” the captain asked.

“Well, we haven’t found an armory or magazine. Every base has one somewhere, so may I assume you found it, Captain?”

“Yes, Sir! It was in the extra wide corridor as you go left out of here, and on the wall several yards away was one of the same little green buttons in the middle of a blank wall. A ten-by-ten foot stone door opened, and it led us into an ammunitions magazine. It has taken us a whole day with 50 men to record what is in there.”

“How many helicopter missiles?” asked the general now looking straight at the captain who pulled out a long piece of what looked like legal paper and scanned it for a few seconds.

“Missiles in total: 600 cases, 3 missiles to a case,” he replied.

“Air-to-air and air-to-ground I assume,” suggested the general.

“Exactly 200 cases of three types sir; air-to-air, air-to-ground and also ground-to-air,” replied the captain. We also found a couple of those stored ground-to-air missile-launcher units on wheels, the ones they kept pulling out of the ground yesterday.”

“And I would assume a secret elevator with a grass top to take everything to the surface, Captain?”

“Correct, Sir,” replied the captain, “except that it was a concrete top, part of the actual area the helicopters were stationed on. It’s going to take the 747 Transporter filled to the brim to get the whole armory out of here.”