The Circle War (36 page)

As the Stratofortresses roared over The Circle troops and started dropping their bombs, Dozer was on the phone to his officers up and down the line. The biggest job of the veteran 7th Cavalry Marines was keeping the many volunteer troops on the flank from panicking. Luckily the all-important center line was made up of professional Pacific American soldiers.

All of the Western Forces .soldiers could see the great wallops of flame rise above the plain before them, incinerating the lead element of the approaching Circle troops. Suddenly, a shoulder-launched SA-7 flashed up from.the mass of enemy soldiers, catching one of the B-52s on its port wing. The big airplane immediately flipped over and plowed into the swarm of enemy soldiers, exploding with a force that shook the ground like an earthquake.

Still The Circle troops kept coming . . .

Their work done, the B-52s cleared the area, just as Crunch's Delta Two group appeared from

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the east. The fighter jets immediately pounced on the front of the enemy column which was now spreading out into walking lines nearly two miles across.

It was an odd way to attack a trenchline. The Circle soldiers looked more like an advancing army of British redcoats than anything else-throwbacks to the set-piece battles of the American Revolutionary War.

One by one, the attacking PAAC jets swooped in on The Circle troops, dropping napalm and antipersonnel bombs then roaring away. But still the enemy troops kept coming . . .

Dozer grabbed his radiophone and was instantly in touch to the artillery commander a half mile behind his line. He yelled one word: "Fire!" On his command, thirty howitzers opened up. The Western Forces troops in the trench watched as the big shells streaked over their heads and slammed into the plain around the advancing Circle troops. For awhile the front of the enemy lines were obscured by smoke and flame. But then, one by one, then by the thousands, surviving Circle troops emerged from the smoke.

Crunch's aircraft appeared again, this time sweeping in in pairs and raking the enemy with cannon fire. More soldiers were hit, ripped up by the cannon shells. Yet still The Circle soldiers kept advancing.

"This is incredible," Dozer told one of his officers nearby. "These guys just don't know how to retreat . . ."

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There was something very peculiar about how the advancing Circle lines were acting. They were now just a half mile away from the Western Forces trenches, yet they were still walking, and very slowly. Dozer had told the soldiers in his line to hold their fire until his command. But strangely the enemy was doing the same. Except for the one SA-7 that brought down the B-52, not another shot had been fired by the advancing Circle soldiers.

Dozer zoomed in on the approaching line with his electronic scope. Faces of the soldiers were now becoming clear. He focused the high-power spyglasses, keying in on several Circle soldiers at the front of the advancing line.

"Jesus Christ . . ." he whispered. "They're . . . just kids!"

What Dozer saw was a line of teenagers. Most were not wearing helmets or boots or anything expected of ground soldiers. Many of them weren't even carrying arms! But the Marine captain immediately saw The Circle troops were carrying something more sinister.

Wrapped neatly around the waist of some of the soldiers were strings of sticks of TNT.

"Oh God," Dozer said. "Hunter was right. They're coming at us with human bombs

. . ."

General Jones looked at the console of the ultra-sophisticated B-l bomber. In its center was a

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flat black panel containing five red lights. Right now only one of the lights was blinking.

Jones had just lifted off in Ghost Rider 1, the lead ship of the Eureka B-ls.

As he circled the Denver Air Station, he saw the other four B-ls taxi and take off in cool precision. The small armada banded up and then turned to the southeast. "Won't be long now," Jones thought. "Then we'll finally know whether it was all worth it or not . . ."

Ten minutes out of Denver, the B-ls formed up into a diamond pattern. Jones was at the lead point, with Ghost Rider 2 and 3 taking the sides and Ghost Rider 4 in the rear. Ghost Rider 5 took up its position in the middle of the formation. As soon as Jones was sure each of the airplanes was in place, he leveled the flight off at 20,000 feet, and threw a series of switches on his control board.

These signals were instantly transmitted to Ghost Rider 5, which carried the bulk of the formation's electronic gear. At the speed of light, the fifth aircraft's computer started printing out computations, calculations relating airspeed to altitude, engine exhaust heat to fuel consumption, bomb load to the rotation of the earth. Slowly but surely, every aspect of the five airplanes' radar "signatures" was identified by the super-computer, and then, carefully masked electronically.

Jones saw one of the red lights on his black panel blink once then stay on.

"Ghost Rider 2, on

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lock," he heard J. J. Toomey, the second bomber's pilot say.

A few seconds later, another of the red lights blinked on, followed by the radio call: "Ghost Rider 3, locked."

Jones checked his location. They were ten minutes from target.

"Ghost 4, on lock," he heard a pilot call while the fourth red light blinked on.

His aircraft would be next. He closed up the formation slightly, giving the tons of electronics on Ghost Rider 5 every advantage.

Suddenly the red light on his control panel that had been blinking, stopped.

It was now burning a bright, constant red. He was in.

"Ghost 1, locked," he called into his microphone. Thirty seconds later, the fifth and last red light came on. He heard the message he'd been waiting for a few seconds later:

"Ghost 5, locked on, sir."

"Verify, Ghost 5," Jones radioed.

"Verified, sir," the pilot of Ghost Rider 5 called back. "We are now 'in system.' "

Jones smiled. They were invisible . . .

The Soviet general stood on top of the roof of his own personal BMP, looked over his column and smiled . . .

Most of his SAM launchers were now in place and ready to go operational when the Western

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Forces' jets returned. He knew the Yak fighters would soon arrive. His men had counted only about 30 Western Forces' jets in the brief air attack; he was expecting about 40 Yaks to appear shortly. The combination of his SAMs and the Yaks would make him unbeatable.

Best of all, he was finally rid of the ragged Circle soldiers. He could see the last of their army marching west toward the ridgeline and the Western Forces' trenches that lay beyond. Good, the Soviet thought. Let them all kill each other off. His column, with its professional Soviet troops, the SAMs and the Yaks, were now a self-contained fighting force. Once they defeated the Western Forces' air corps, he would be able to roam the countryside at will.

No longer would he be bogged down by the hooligans of The Circle Army. The American word for them was "suckers." They had followed Viktor like a bull with a ring in its nose; fallen for his elaborate "exotic Queen," psych-ops, fallen for his call to arms, fallen for his whole line of Circle bullshit. The Soviet general knew that The Circle soldiers had been just pawns in Viktor's game all along.

He watched as the Western Forces' aircraft streaked over the horizon, bombing The Circle troops. He laughed. The PAAC jets wouldn't dare come close to the column now that the SAMs were "hot." The sounds of the bombing and gunfire coming from the other side of the ridge was music to his ears.

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He knew there was never any real plan for The Circle to take over the continent, never any real alliance between The Circle and the Soviets. The whole thing was masterfully staged with just one purpose in mind: destabilization. Keep the Americans fighting amongst themselves, even if it took every SAM trooper the Russians could muster. They had reached their goal with a minimum of effort—the Americans would wipe out each other's army and the Soviets would be the ruling force on the continent. The capitalists had finally hung themselves.

Now if only those Yaks would arrive . . .

The PAAC aircraft of the Delta One group plunged right into the heart of the advancing Yak force. A swirling, twisting dogfight of enormous proportions ensued. The Yajcs were at a substantial advantage—their pilots were able to stop their aircraft on a dime, hover in the air as the attacking PAAC aircraft would swoop on by. Then suddenly the Yak would become the hunter.

But the Western Forces' had their own, not-so-secret yet radar-proof weapon.

The Wingman was everywhere . . .

PAAC pilots who were there that day told of how Hunter had purposely let several Yaks at once get on his tail, his Stealth fighter moving only enough to the left and right to prevent the Soviet pilots from getting a good missile lock on

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him. Drawing two or three Yaks at a time, Hunter would lead them on a merry chase, climbing to extreme altitudes, diving at nose-bleeding speeds. More than a few of the Yak pilots passed out from the g-forces, only to awake just as their airplanes were about to smash into the ground. As the other PAAC

pilots held their own with the Yaks, Hunter was knocking them off two and three at a time. And all without yet firing a shot.

Finally the Soviet officer in charge of the Yaks realized the insanity of chasing the Stealth and ordered his fighters to attack the other PAAC jets instead. That's when Hunter got down to business.

A Yak had locked onto the end of a F-104 and fired an Aphid air-to-air. Hunter suddenly flashed between the two airplanes blasting the missile with a well-placed cannon burst. He then twisted over backward and locked on his own Sidewinder missile. The Yak pilot pulled back on his controls to attempt a mid-air stop, but he was too late. Hunter went screaming by, and released a Sidewinder as if he was flying a torpedo-bomber. The missile went hot and impacted on the Yak's exhaust tube simultaneously, blowing the Soviet jet to smithereens.

Hunter was now tailing two Yaks at once. They were intent on downing a slow F-106 that was diving toward one of their comrades. The Russians had no idea Hunter was so close—their radars showed nothing but blue sky behind them. Two squeezes of his cannons' trigger and two

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Yaks were soon on their way to fiery deaths.

Although the Yaks outnumbered the Western Forces' airplanes, the Soviet pilots were now getting panicky. The crazy man in the Stealth was shooting at them from every direction, or so it seemed. One second he was flying barely 20 feet off the deck. The next instant it seemed like he was diving on them from 40,000 feet. He was taking on everyone. Firing missiles, strafing with cannons. Any Soviet pilot who chose to stop in mid-air risked death by collision. The Stealth was even trying to ram the stationary Soviet fighters.

All the while the other PAAC jets were chalking up wins. Soon the Kansas prairie below was littered with Yak wreckage. Several of the Russians had seen enough and fled to the south. Hunter let them go. He knew they wouldn't get far. Just over the horizon he "saw" a flight of friendly jets approaching.

F-20s. F-4s. St. Louie's situation on the Texas border had lessened enough for him to send some help to the major battle area. He learned later that the Yaks ran head-on into the Football City-Texas Air Force airplanes with disastrous results for the Soviet side.

Another group of Yaks also opted to break off the battle and roared off to the north. Their escape attempt too was futile. They met a flight of Fitzgerald's ADF Thunderchiefs over the Nebraska border. . .

Hunter searched the skies above the Kansas battlefield. All of the Soviet airplanes were either

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shot down or retreating. His mind flashed back to that arctic recon flight so long ago. The VTOL adversaries he had first found hugging the snow-covered ground near Nome, Alaska, had, for the most part, been defeated. It had been a long, tiring campaign, but at last he could say the right side won. He reached inside his flight suit pocket and pulled out the small tattered American flag.

"Okay, old buddy," he whispered. "Make it through another one ..."

The first bomb dropped from Ghost Rider 1 landed less than a mile in front of the Soviet general's command car. It was a 10,000 super blockbuster, a huge explosive device that obliterated every truck, tank, APC and SAM launcher on a quarter mile stretch of the highway.

The Soviet general was at first stunned, then angry. He was certain that one of the SAMs had exploded on its launcher. But suddenly another blockbuster detonated. This one barely a half mile from his position in the column. He saw a T-72 heavy tank thrown more than 200 feet in the air so powerful was the blast.

Where were the bombs coming from?

He screamed to his BMP's radar operator to sweep the area. The report came back as a solid nyet. There wasn't an aircraft in sight.

Just then a third blockbuster exploded not a thousand feet away from him.

Horror struck him

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deep down. Someone was dropping bombs on them, but they weren't being picked up on radar. His first thought was it was the Stealth airplane. But he immediately discounted this notion. These bombs were too large to be carried by the Stealth.

He scanned the crystal-clear sky. Then he saw them . . .

About four miles up. No contrails. No sound. Five jets. Big ones. Flying in a precision formation. Were they B-ls?

He screamed to his radar man again. "We have nothing on the scope!" the man yelled back, realizing just as his general did that they were suddenly vulnerable.

The Soviet officer reached for his microphone even as he heard the next bomb screeching through the air. "Fire all missiles!" he screamed. "All units fire all . . ."

The next blockbuster landed directly on his BMP. His message was cut off by the blast of 10,000 pounds of explosives. In the instant between life and death that seemed to last an eternity, one last thought flashed through his mind. "These Americans . . . you cannot defeat them."

Orders were orders and so the panicking SAM technicians started launching every missile from every launcher, hoping to hit the radar-invisible bombers.