Fiction Week

By Austin Reid

0545 Shenzhen, China

The building was drab on the exterior; a nondescript office complex on the fringe of Shenzhen outside of Hong Kong. Li Zhou opened the door and got out of her small car. She eyed the revolving door and made her way to the entrance as the vehicle moved along to its next user. She had reached the pinnacle of her career.

It all started with an acceptance to MIT, the job in Silicon Valley, a high paying research fellowship with DARPA and IBM then her eventual return home to the PRC. Zhou’s untimely departure in the eyes of her previous employer, a tech giant researching quantum technology, was under the guise of accepting a position at a smaller firm in Japan.

The whole time, Zhou was an intel officer with the Chinese ministry of state security known as the MSS.¹ The assignment was initially very broad: infiltrate American industry. As her research progressed, the target become obvious. From those first classes at Cal Poly and the eventual Ph.D. from MIT, Li knew she was interested in the emerging field of quantum computing, specifically encryption.² This interest played perfectly into the hands of the Chinese state.

The woman at the desk nodded and motioned to Zhou to follow. Dr. Zhou swiped her badge at the elevator bank and waited. The door opened, and she stepped inside.

They were on the brink of testing their new machine. Today was the first deployment of the technology. It was meant to be a test in a controlled lab to see if its power was as grand as they all thought. The timing was odd; it was six in the morning. This was something that PLA and her superiors at MSS insisted upon. She wasn’t sure what was truly going on, but she had a sense something much larger than her quantum machine was at play.

As the elevator opened into the dark room, her suspicions were confirmed. The deputy minister of the MSS was standing over a console pointing, showing what appeared to a PLAN admiral something on a screen.

Both men looked up as she entered.

 “Dr. Li Zhou, it is a momentous day, we look forward to seeing what you and your team have concocted for us.”

Li shook the Minister’s hand and faced the admiral.

“Forgive me, Dr. Zhou. This is Admiral Zheng. He is here to help liaise with another part of the test.”

“Oh? I wasn’t aware of the second part.”

“It is no problem, think of me as an observer.” the man with piercing eyes said.

Li nodded and concealed the chill that came over her after the cryptic response.

“Excellent, let us get started.”

“Before we begin, could you give the admiral here an overview of the scope of today’s attack … erm test?”

“Certainly, Minister.” Li said, not letting his slip up escape notice.

“Admiral, we have refined the technology that we have developing for decades. Our quantum computer is ready to crack encryption in embedded systems and operations technology. The concept today is to see if we can crack the data and control feeds of satellites over the South China Sea controlled by America and her allies. We have recreated them in this lab and will attempt to disrupt them in this demo today.”

Admiral Ming and the minister both smiled

“This is grand. I will ensure that the Chairman hears of your work today. This test is a momentous occasion.”

Li beamed “Thank you, admiral”

“Let us begin…”

Li sat at the console and toggled the targets they had for this morning.

“Ok, first up is an iridium communications satellite in low earth orbit. It’s the first of six iridium birds we will take offline, and it’s about to pass over the South China Sea. Let’s see if we can get a back door into it…”³

Li looked down at the timeline she had on what their goals were for today.

PLUM BLOSSOM

Brute force into 22 ISR/communications/GNSS & ELINT satellites orbiting or stationary over the South China Sea 

Once inside:

1. shut down command and control link with ground stations
2. Erase any data collected within 48 hours prior
3. Once clear of the 60-min time window, undo the disruption and deorbit satellites

The admiral was glowing.

“When we are successful today, the implications for the nation will be essential for our growth. The west will lose imagery for any satellite that comes near China.”

For a moment, the room was still. The only sound was the hum of the power bank running into the massive machine.

Zhou Li hit enter; the machine buffered for a moment as her computer sent the commands into the quantum computer, which chewed through the encryption of the first target. Once cracked, an HMI appeared on Li’s terminal. This interface gave her inputs to make changes and set parameters for the hack.

The two men watching behind her were staring through her at the screen with such intensity there should have been smoke coming from the focal point.

She didn’t notice, Li was in a trance, focusing on her work as if she were conducting an orchestra. The first target, the iridium bird, was breached. Without skipping a beat, she marked off the first box on the list below and moved toward the next.

One by one, she worked down the list until they were all listed as functional kills. Li moved the cursor and highlighted the function to disconnect all the breached birds loitering over her nation’s homeland illegally. With a grin, she pressed the button and looked at the pair standing over her.

“Admiral, Minister, that’s it, we have concluded the brute attack. At this point, we wait and see if there’s any simulated response.”

“I was told we have another team running as a blue team attempting to undo what I’ve done..” she continued with pride.

“I’m confident that they will fail.”

Both men smiled again as if holding in an inside joke.

“Minister, is there something I’m missing?”

“What aren’t you telling me? “

Before the Minister could speak the admiral interjected

“This was a live attack; you just infiltrated and defeated all western satellites over the South China Sea.”

“You have done your country a great service, Dr. Li Zhou.”

He stepped forward and produced a pink blossom.

A dark smile crept over Li’s face; immense pride filled the cold heart of this intelligence officer as the admiral pinned the blossom on her lapel

Dr. Li Zhou snapped to attention.

“What is my next target?”

*************

0545 LT MV Patriot

Cortez looked off the bow. He could see the Navy drone boat moving off to run down some phantom. He’d never understood why they had them for these trips, but he wasn’t going to complain.

“Jackson, do you want to get some stick time?”

The mate looked up. “Yes cap’n I’d appreciate it. You know how they don’t let me get much sunlight anymore.”

“Someone has to keep this oversized computer sailing!”

“Y’all doing a stellar job, next port your grog ration and night out is on us,” Cortez added with a sarcastic grin.

“Thank you, sir. Shenanigans will be had…” Jackson managed with a tip of the cap as he made his way to the helm.

“Ok, Jackson, bring her to 022, and up to 17knts.”

“Aye 022 at 17knts.”

Cortez moved to look at a contact report the Navy escorts just forwarded the ship. Well, the report that 90′ drone sent. There wasn’t anyone aboard her, just a slew of computers and some missiles just in case a boat, submarine, or another missile got too close. Each ship in the convoy also had a close-in weapons system (CIWS), a dated platform originally posted on navy ships in the 1980s. These were the mean-looking snowmen with chain guns meant to throw up a wall of fire at an approaching target. Each CIWS was mounted on top of the bridge in a standard shipping container and were a little smaller than the original systems deployed in the Cold War. These upgraded devices had a master arm control that was a physical switch in the chief’s office three floors below the bridge that would bring the weapon into an autonomous mode. Navy protocol dictated that this was to be left in standby mode until the crew was told otherwise by the Navy.

Cortez wasn’t worried about this trip. The precautions came only after the attacks on the ships in the Strait of Hormuz all those years back. They usually made this run without an escort. He hadn’t looked at the manifest for this one, but he figured it had something to do with what was starting to broil on the Korean Peninsula… or was it Taiwan? He couldn’t remember, that’s why he never joined the Navy.

Officially known as ASV-2, the convoy had two drone ships covering the trail of ships making their way to Japan from Diego Garcia. One ASV tasked with AAW, or shooting down airborne threats. The other with ASW, or sinking submarines, bent on targeting their protectee.[4] Each vessel was normally a sleek craft, but the weapons on the bow and stern made them look like floating gun trucks from that old war movie set in Africa.

On their convoy, they had two ASVs, MV Patriot, MV Eagle, and four smaller autonomous barges that were essentially tethered to the two larger ships to increase the amount of cargo a single convoy can bring to the next port. Convoy 16 as it was known to the Navy, was one of the first combining so many autonomous systems. Each of the defensive systems were tethered to human operators; the Navy still wanted to control weapons release just in case one of their systems locked onto a civilian craft crossing the path of the convoy.

“Cap’n take a look over towards the ASV…”

Cortez looked up from his focus; just ahead of the ASV he saw a swell form.

“what the he…”

Before he could finish his thought, a whale breached the surface

Cortez shook his head with a chuckle, “Damn Jackson, I thought we were about to be attacked by a sea monster …”

“Cap’n, you’re too jumpy! I’m at the helm, and there’s nothing to worry about.”

*************

Liberian flagged bulk ship 60,000 DWT

South China Sea – 30 miles NE of Convoy 0510

Just over the horizon, another merchant ship was steaming ahead at a four knots across the path of the Patriot and Eagle Convoy. On the deck of the ship, hatches were being moved to reveal a nefarious payload.

The ship whose name was ground off the hull during a visit to a Chinese-friendly port in Africa was making way under a bareboat charter from a Senegalese ship owner. Crewmembers were hanging over the side, doing their best to paint a name and IMO number on the aft of a vessel lost to a typhoon the month before.

The complex ballet was progressing as the master of the ship walked up the stairs to the bridge from his stateroom. The iron-jawed man clutched his morning tea and surveyed the operation. Below on deck, the chief mate was directing the movement of the containers to on deck in preparation for the day’s action.

The chief looked toward the bridge from the deck, making eye contact with the master. The chief raised the radio and stated firmly, “Master, this is chief, we are ready to begin in 5 min…”

“Chief, this is master, very good.”

The Crane swung with the spreader hoisting the final container to its position on deck. It had taken 30 minutes for the entire operation to play out. The CM looked to the master one more time, who nodded as men moved off the deck to their positions elsewhere onboard.

The master looked over the ship. On deck were eight new containers. He could have fit dozens more, but this was all that he was given for this mission, with a final nod to the CM from the master, the operation began.

“Helmsman, take us to 0275 at five knots.”

“Aye master, 0275 at five knots.”
On deck, eight of the containers started to shudder as the tops began to open on hydraulic lifts. In the ninth were the consoles to initiate the strike. Within five minutes the containers were in a firing position.

The flurry of activity on the deck slowed, the last of the crew cleared back to their quarters.

The chief picked up a whistle attached to his radio lanyard and blew two short blasts.

Fifteen seconds later, five men in black jumpsuits appeared on the hatch covers and moved towards the two command and control containers.

The lead man opened the door and stood there holding the heavy steel frame for his colleagues. He shook each of their hands and pinned a black poppy on each of their lapels.

As the last man took his seat, the chief appeared in the doorway and nodded to the leaders of the black-clad operators.

The man grinned and signaled for the others to commence. In a flurry of typing and calculations, the men energized the weapon system. One by one they signaled their system was online.

The chief looked to the bridge wing, where the master was waiting. Without any emotion, he lifted his arm and gave the order.

The CM looked back to the commando and nodded.

The deck of the merchant ship shuddered as six simultaneous missiles ignited and launched from their erectors. As each booster cleared the ship, another ignited, pushing the cruise missiles on a flat trajectory toward their targets just over the horizon. As the missiles were clearing, the next volley erupted out of the vessel.⁵

The chief hunkered into the C2 container to watch the remainder of the launches. Finally, after the four salvos cleared, the last two containers opened to reveal their payload. The man at the console for this system turned a key and flipped a switch. The old sailor had never seen these drones before. He moved to the door and peered out to watch.

Just towards the bow, a flurry of exhaust spewed from the ports at the base of each box as hundreds of small rockets fired nearly simultaneously. Each drone had a 10kg high explosive warhead. The chief’s jaw was on the floor, the speed at which hundreds of these drones seems to shoot and then swarm together was terrifyingly beautiful. He was in shock.

Just as fast as the furry had begun, it was over. The sound of the munitions was gone. The chief stood there, dumbstruck.

The men in the block coveralls cleared off the deck, and the cranes moved back into play.

One by one, each container was dropped over the side. The ship was cruising in 7000-foot deep water. Plenty deep enough to keep the secrets of what was just launched.

*************

0600 HRS LT South China Sea – M/V Patriot

A yellow light flashed on the console. Jackson walked up to the monitor displaying the CIWS camera eye. His heart sank, he never thought he’d see live missiles coming at him while on the deck of a merchant ship. That risk was for when he had his other uniform on. This couldn’t be happening.

“Captain Cortez, we have vampires on the scope!”

“Vampires? What are you getting at Jackson.”

“Missiles, sir, we have missiles coming over the horizon!”

Cortez paused; he knew that Jackson was in the Philippine Navy when he wasn’t sailing with him.

Just as Cortez looked up at Jackson with horror in his eyes, the feed cut.

*************

Houston – 2005 HRS LT

Static rolled over the screens before cutting to black.

Cortez fell back into his chair. All he could hear was the pounding of his heart and the whine of the air conditioning overhead. There was nothing he could do for his crew sitting in this remote operations center. The ship was steaming ahead at 16knts almost nine thousand miles away in the pacific.

“Goddammit!”

Cortez keyed the number for OPS 

“Ops, this is Convoy 16 – we have a loss of connection and missiles inbound …”

“Standby Cortez, we have a developing situation. We’ve lost connection to the entire fleet. We don’t know if it’s the satellites or our systems…send in your report and standby for instructions…”

Cortez was about to launch into a tirade, but the mention of losing the fleet network stunned him. He paused to let this sink in

“Understood ops, keep me posted.”

Cortez picked up his coffee and flung it across the room. The stainless steel mug lodged itself into the wall next to the door. Coffee began dripping out onto the floor.

*************

Guam 0800 HRS LT

“That’s odd..” the communications technician stated to no one in particular as he took a bite of his sandwich

“Whatchya got there, Grimes?”

“Not sure yet, but I think my computer just took a dump. I just lost all feeds to the ASV’s on convoy 16…”

“Convoy 16? Is that the train we got moving to get those TLAMs, JASMS, and SM-2s and 3s out to the Seventh from Garcia?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. I’m running a check now.” Grimes muttered to himself.

“No, this isn’t right.”

“Grimes, what’s going on?”

“I pulled the logs. We certainly have gone dark on convoy 16, I can’t ping anything, and we lost all feeds.”

“Ok, I’m gonna call the OOD and see if they have anything.”

“Captain? This is LT Valdez down here with convoy ops.”

“Oh, when did you get sent to chase whales?” The captain said with a laugh.

“Just this week, Captain … sorry to cut you short, but we have a situation.”

The captain stiffened on the other end of the line

“We have lost connection to convoy 16 operating in the South China Sea.”

“Oh, fuck!” Shouted Grimes in the background.

“Hold on, Captain.”

“What is it, Grimes?”

“Ma’am, we are down on all three convoys that are in the South China Sea.”

“I can’t ping any of the six ASVs in the AO.”  

“I just tried to raise an LCS we have in the area, the Giffords, and she’s off COMMs, too.”

“Captain, did you catch that?”

“Yes, LT, I need you to get up to CIC now.”

***********

Captain Robacher put the phone back into the cradle

His face went blank; His mind went into overdrive as he tried to call out to INOPACOM HQ in Hawaii.

The line was dead.

He looked to his comms specialist one terminal down and frowned.

Captain, we are blind and deaf. I can’t raise anyone on secure SATCOM…

The captain fell back into his chair and swore.

*************

M/V Patriot South China Sea 0605

“Cortez..?! Captain??”

“Fuck!”

Lights began flashing on the console indicating they had lost connection to control and the remote operations center overseeing the convoy.

Jackson picked up the bridge phone and dialed his ETO.

“Javier, I need you on the bridge now!”

Javier was the vessel’s techie, the Electronic Technician.

Since the ‘pilot program’ was introduced as a way to meet the manning shortages of the global sea services in the west and as a way to cut down on labor in the rest of the world, only a small cadre of sailors were aboard even the largest ships.⁶

8000 meters ahead of the Patriot, ASV 2-1, the AAW ship was in the middle of its normal patrol pattern, actively scanning the horizon with its camera and radar for any threats.

The radar and FLIR onboard the ASV were monitoring the approaching missile but had yet to receive a classification on the system.

Since the loss of the connection in the minutes prior, the machine had no authorization to engage the rapidly approaching targets. In order to engage, weapons release authority had to be granted by the control station either at Guam or from an AWACs or P-8 flying overhead, and since there was no aircraft near, or connection with the operators, the ASV just took its course waiting for the connection to be reestablished. The system was in a loop waiting for direction when the first anti-ship missile struck the superstructure.

*************

Javier barreled onto the bridge, “What’s up, J?”

His eyes immediately tracked to the smoking heap of the escort drone on the horizon.

“Woah what the fuck did we get into, J?!”

“Get on the VHF and see if you can raise the other ships in the formation.”

“M/V Eagle M/V Eagle this is M/V Patriot.”

“M/V Eagle M/V Eagle this is M/V Patriot.”

Radio crackles with static.

“M/V Patriot this is M/V Eagle, what’s going on.”

“Eagle, we just lost connection to ROC, and we have missiles inbound. We need to override the safety on the CIWS, before they get too close, over.”

“Patriot understood we will start on that… it may take a few minutes to ….”

A massive explosion rips across the water interrupting the radio exchange.

Javier and Jackson rushed out to the bridge wing. Just about 6000 meters to their aft port quarter, an explosion had rocked the Eagle.

“J, get to the CIWS panel and clear the locks!”

“Aye, chief!” Javier said as he jogged off the bridge.

“Eagle, come in eagle!”

“What the fuck was that…

“Eagle Come in!”

Javier made a dash for the CIWS panel in the stateroom turned ops center a few decks below

*************

0615 MV Eagle 

Bernal grabbed his head. His ears were ringing, a moment ago he was on the radio with the Patriot, walking up to the bridge. Then black.

He looked up. The superstructure was in tatters. It was pealed back like a can and in flames.

Bernal was covered in blood and water. He glanced over towards the rising sun. The Convoy had less than 30 minutes before it would be completely light. He knew that the Eagle had less. Just as he rolled over and passed out from the pain, secondary explosions ripped open the deck of the Eagle as the magazines bound for Japan detonated.

*************

0620, M/V Patriot

He raised the radio one more time but was knocked off his feet when another detonation ripped across the Eagle.

“Fuck, that must’ve been the cargo cooking off.”

Just as Jackson returned to the bridge one of the missiles veered off course.

“… thank God,” Jackson said crossing himself

He moved up to the bridge window to face over the carnage. As he set his hands on the panel, he saw dark silhouettes vectoring down towards the ASV.

“Oh no, not the last escort!”

“Why aren’t they shooting at the missiles!?! Fucking useless Navy! Leaving the merchies to die while you sit in a fucking cubicle.”

The dark mass came down straight on top of the escort and detonated. The flash skipped across the water into the bridge, followed by the shockwave.

“Jackson, the CIWS is hot!”

Before Javier could finish the angry snowman on the top of the bridge let rip its chain gun on an approaching missile.

The vampire detonated sending debris and a shockwave breaking the glass on the bridge.

Jackson moved to the cabinet and grabbed the EPIRB, and tossed it on its life ring over the side of the bridge wing into the sea below. Next, he got the iridium satellite phone in a last-ditch effort to get help.

He extended the antenna while Javier was shouting a mayday call into the VHF, hoping someone nearby could rescue what was left of this convoy.

He dialed the emergency number for INDOPACOM, the Navy’s Pacific Command.

…. …. …. Unable to reach the network

“There should be a full signal, and we have complete line of sight to the sky?!”

“Oh shit,” Jackson muttered, realizing that the loss of connection to the Captain must have been something to do with satellites if the phone was down too. His face grew paler as he realized the EPIRB was worthless, too.

Jackson moved through the scattered mess of the bridge to the stairs down into the superstructure.

The CIWS above them took down another two missiles before running out of ammo.

“We need to abandon ship. Get the ditch bags and the supplies into the lifeboat.”

Another explosions rocked the ship as something broke through the phalanx of defensive fire.

The two men tossed their survival gear ahead, climbed into the lifeboat and strapped in.

Jackson looked to Javier and nodded.

Javier hit the release and began praying.

The small craft fell away into the sea below, dolphining under the surface before shooting back up.

Jackson fired up the engine and motored away from the doomed ship as fast as he could. Just ahead, he could see three of the barges had been hit. Those must have been the explosions earlier thought the pair independently.

A buzzing noise washed over the lifeboat. Javier looked out the top of the craft for the source.

“What the hell, are those birds..?”

His eyes were stinging with sweat, tears, and blood. He was exhausted at the barrage of the last 30 minutes. He couldn’t make out much else than the shape and a concerning buzz.

Before Javier could say anything to Jackson, the swarm of birds dove at the last barge. At least 30 of the pelicans from hell dove at the drone barge on a suicide mission.

Just as it came together, it was too late. The barge split in half at the force of the initial explosion

The concussion rocked the craft and knocked the two unconscious. Behind the lifeboat, the Eagle and Patriot began their descent into the depths.

*************

South China Sea 0645

“Bring us alongside”

“Yes, sir.”

The helmsman maneuvered the small RHIB across the chop near the listing lifeboat. The squad leader brought the spotlight onto the open hatch. A man appeared.

“Oh thank god, you got our mayday!”

“We were attacked and we..”

“What ship were you aboard?” interrupted the bald clad figure.

“Uhh the M/V Patriot…” the Filipino man said quizzically.

“Where are the rest of you?” insisted the figure on the RHIB.

The first man dragged another up into the light

“Here, we are the last two… “

The squad leader nodded to the man to his left.

The man raised his weapon and sprayed the lifeboat with rifle fire. The RHIB moved closer, the man with the weapon jumped into the small craft.

“Toss them over and scuttle it, we have 10 minutes left.”

The squad leader looked down at the bodies in the water, silently. He grasped the blossom on his lapel and threw it into the sea.

*************

Three Years Later

Sino-American War Commission: 
The Investigation into the Conflict with the PRC Following the Seizure of Taiwan

Excerpt from Classified briefing report to Congress:

… In the days leading up to the start of hostilities with the People’s Republic of China, two RORO cargo ships, four drone barges, and two ASV convoy guards were lost to what is believed to be a coordinated missile and drone attack by PRC/PLAN forces. These cutting-edge drone ships had the top level of protection afforded to civilian merchant ships moving military cargo during peacetime. The ASV or Autonomous Surface Vessel is the product of the Sea Hunter Program to reach the 355 ship goal set earlier in the 2010s. Even with the advanced protection, all the vessels were lost. No survivors were recovered. The commission has no data or information on why or how they were lost other than a recording of the last few minutes before the ships lost connection with their remote operations drivers back in the continental United States. This recording depicts that the onboard defensive Close in Weapons system (CIWS) camera identified and vectored on an approaching volley of anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM). The mate on deck at the time told the remote operations center driver of the approaching threat, and then the feed went dead.

This commission has not determined for certain what caused the loss of feed. But what is known is all the satellites (22) orbiting over the South China Sea at the outbreak of hostilities three days later, were lost to unknown malfunctions as they all began to de-orbit. We never regained control of these systems, essentially making us blind and deaf in the opening bouts of the war.

Convoy 16 was tasked from Diego Garcia to the U.S. naval complex at Yokosuka Japan with stores of munitions including SM-6, SM-3, JASSM, LARSM, and TLAM. Other weapon systems including short-range air defense systems (SHORAD), and updated radar systems destined for the Japanese mainland in response to rising tensions in the region. The loss of this war material and weapon systems crippled the American response to the seizure of Taiwan. It can be inferred that this preemptive strike was meant to limit the United States’ ability to respond to the seizure of Taiwan with standoff weapons and offer up a defensive bubble with BMD capable destroyers.

We are unable to investigate the wreckage of the ships as it currently sits well within the Chinese missile umbrella that has gone up since the seizure of Taiwan. Though the open war has ended, the United States no longer can operate freely within the region as was possible before the outbreak of war.

Endnotes

[1] The MSS/PLA has used academics to extract US IP for Chinese gain in the past. See this indictment from 2015 https://www.justice.gov/file/439721/download

[2] China has taken major steps to be the first nation to score in the quantum ‘arms race’. Quantum technology now is at the same level as traditional computing was in the 1950’s. Essentially in its infancy. – see this article for more – https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613507/the-new-benchmark-quantum-computers-must-beat-to-achieve-quantum-supremacy/

[3] There are 66 Iridium Sats in LEO, 11 birds can cover a 30* plane of the globe every 100 minutes http://www.iridium.it/en/iridium.htm

[4] The seahunter program is in development to give the USN an autonomous ASW platform. – https://news.usni.org/2019/04/29/sea-hunter-unmanned-ship-continues-autonomy-testing-as-navsea-moves-forward-with-draft-rfp

[5] Russia, China, and Israel have reportedly developed containerized weapon systems. Russia: http://roe.ru/eng/catalog/naval-systems/shipborne-weapons/klab-k/

[6] Rolls Royce is working on concepts for autonomous vessels. This Remote operation could be a step towards this goal.  https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/customers/marine/ship-intel/aawa-whitepaper-210616.pdf

Featured Image: “Warship” by Christian Bravery via Artstation

Fiction Week

By Captain Chris Rawley, USN

Senior Colonel Liang Min savored a bite of delicious saka-saka while the dark green waves of the eastern Atlantic lapped up on shore several meters away. During his nearly three years in West Africa, he had grown to love the buttery dish made with cassava leaves. Mid-bite, his smartphone buzzed, and he recognized the number as originating from Beijing. As the defense attache and senior People’s Liberation Army military representative for the neighboring countries of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, his job was relatively stress free, and he knew a call from Beijing could only mean something more important than his R&R.

Liang was enjoying a respite away from the frenetic congestion of Kinshasa in sleepy Port Noire, planning a visit for one of China’s three hospital ships, which were on deployment bringing medical care and goodwill around the continent. He ended the short call thoroughly irritated, knowing he was facing a series of flights on questionably maintained puddle jumpers and a bone-jarring truck ride.

*****************************************************

Twelve-year old Denis Mutebe grimaced under the weight of the bag of ore on his shoulder. He was confident this load would provide enough money to buy a liter of petrol for his father to make the harrowing motorbike ride to the clinic in Kolwezi to buy medicine for his little sister Fini.  Over the last several years, the bluish-gray rocks Denis carried had become one of the world’s most important and scarcest commodities.

In 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency put regulations into place outlawing sales of new vehicles with internal combustion engines in the United States, sending the economy into a tailspin. Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire as Telsa’s stock price skyrocketed nearly overnight. At the same time, the forced shift to electric-powered vehicles sent a shockwave through the world’s limited cobalt supply.

Despite millions of dollars in research and development looking for a replacement, Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers could not find a technology to replace the cobalt resident in each car’s lithium-ion batteries, not to mention the batteries that powered the billions of cell phones, tablets, and other smart devices across the planet.

About two-thirds of the world’s cobalt originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country also renown for outbreaks of Ebola, cholera, and persistent ethnic violence.

A 20-kilo bag of low-grade ore, like the one digging into Denis’ shoulders, would produce about three kilograms of cobalt, enough to make the Nickel-Cobalt-Aluminum cathodes which ensured the batteries of an electric vehicle remained stable.

Though he had been tempted to pocket a couple handfuls of the rocks, Denis knew that was impossible with the drones constantly flying overhead watching his every move. His best friend Mobutu had disappeared a few months ago after telling Denis he had been skimming some of the rocks to sell to the traders in Lubumbashi. Other diggers he knew had been crushed under tons of red mud when the pits they were working in collapsed. Still other child miners succumbed from infected wounds from the guards who beat them for not making quota. Denis had painfully learned not to get too attached to anyone, lest they be removed suddenly from his life.

Though most of the team still considered him an outsider, Cryptologic Technician First Class Jeremy Collins knew that he held the key to this mission in his hand. Similar to the way the Army had leveraged Navy individual augmentees with expertise in electronic warfare to jam enemy improvised explosive devices on the roads of Iraq two decades earlier, today, they tapped into the Navy’s much more advanced cyber capability by pulling sailors like Jeremy away from ships and shore stations onto the front lines of irregular conflicts, which were more common than not throughout America’s history.

Operational Detachment Alpha 0315’s weapons sergeant, or Bravo, as Jeremy now referred to him, had wanted to simply take down the drones patrolling the camp with their own man-portable jammer so they could employ their surrogate force of NCDM militiamen to assault a blinded target.

But the Bravo was overruled by the Team Chief Doug, who knew that the capability their Navy augmentee brought was critical to ensuring the mission was done accurately and with zero collateral damage. “Got it!” Jeremy looked down at the tablet and was now seeing the live video feed from one of the camp’s DJI Viper patrol drones. His stomach was already a wreck from the anti-malarial meds he took each morning with his MREs, but with this being his first combat mission his guts were in knots.

Safely concealed in dense brush a half click from the camp, Doug and the 18-Bravo rapidly selected targets with their augmented reality goggles, which were now streaming 4k ultra high definition video of the camp onto their retinas. Most of the targets were easy to distinguish from the diggers and other non-combatants, as each one carried a long gun. Doug was especially careful to avoid selecting the man with the olive green combination cover adorned with scrambled eggs.

Hundreds of miles away in the southern reaches of the Gulf of Guinea, Fire Controlman Second Class Riley Starke tensely awaited the order from the Tactical Action Officer to depress the button her right index finger now hovered over. Up until now, the ship’s fisheries enforcement deployment had been rather uneventful and boring for Riley, who spent most of her time supporting the boat deck crew. These boats were routinely launched against fishing vessels suspected of poaching in the exclusive economic zones of the neighboring Gulf of Guinea countries. In addition to a coxswain and engineer, each rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) carried a multinational ECOWAS boarding team led by Sea Shepherd advisors. 

These boardings could be tense sometimes; six months before, another LCS on patrol had exchanged warning shots with a PRC Coast Guard cutter operating out of the new PLAN navy base in Luanda, Angola. A fleet of People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia distant water trawlers had surrounded the boarding team from USS Billings off Gabon. As the ship closed to provide cover for the RHIB, the Chinese cutter came between her and the boarding team. At 12,000 tons, the ship was larger than U.S. cruisers and destroyers, and dwarfed the littoral combat ship Billings. The situation defused after the Chinese vessel turned away and called back the militia trawlers after rounds from Billings’ 57 mm cannon passed in front of her bow.

Colonel Liang strode next to Omir Abduweli, leader of the mining camp’s guard force.

Like most of the Uighur guards protecting the mine, Omir had received an early release from the “Vocational Training Center” he’d been held in for nearly eighteen months in exchange for a pledge to join the West African Regiment of the Peoples Corporate Militia. Omir had recently pleaded to his PCM battalion commander for artillery support, because a dozen of his patrols had been ambushed outside the wire by an increasingly well-trained and emboldened rebel group, the National Congress for Defense of Minerals.

Aboard the littoral combat ship USS Nikki Haley, the containerized modular multiple launch rocket system that had been strapped to the flight deck a few weeks ago popped open. Though the container took up a good amount of flight deck, there was plenty of room to launch and recover the ship’s Integrator surveillance drones.

With her other hand, Riley nervously adjusted the bright red ponytail poking out of the back of her ball cap, emblazoned with the ship’s motto “PERSEVERE.” The slogan represented the spirit of the ship’s namesake, who had been severely wounded on the campaign trail by an Antifa drone strike six years ago. Nervous but intensely focused, Riley reacted instantly as the order “batteries release” was given.

Swatting away a mosquito, Jeremy worked calmly, but urgently to upload the AI script he had designed into the missile’s warhead, which was now minutes away. Jeremy had built an app to patch together the drone’s automatic tracking feature with the warhead’s terminal guidance software.

Moments later and thousands of feet above, the modified missile warhead deployed dozens of sub-munitions. These in turn ejected small tubes terminally guided to their designated target by the AI-enhanced software.

Denis struggled for footing under the weight of his bag of expensive rocks. He heard a screech and a series of pops, causing him to pause momentarily.

COL Liang looked up when he heard the unusual sound. As his glance tilted skyward, he didn’t notice Omir and the five armed men just meters away from him collapsing. Nearly three decades of counterterror manhunting operations across the globe had evolved U.S. anti-personnel munitions into exquisitely discrete killing systems. All around the camp, the scene was similar as each sensor-fused round fired three downward pointing steel flechettes approximately two meters above its intended target.

While the other diggers stood nearby frozen and amazed, Denis slung his bag across the handlebars of a guard’s nearby bicycle, climbed on, and pedaled quietly out the front gate.

Captain Chris Rawley is a surface warfare officer and serves as the Reserve Chief of Staff for Commander, Naval Surface Forces. Over a 27-year career, he’s deployed across Africa, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Western Pacific. Captain Rawley is also a former Vice President and Board of Directors member of CIMSEC. In his civilian role, he’s the founder and CEO of Harvest Returns, an agriculture investment marketplace. This story is entirely fiction and any views expressed are presented in a personal capacity.

Featured Image: “Africa Street” by Gary Jamroz-Palma via Artstation

Fiction Week

By Chris “Junior” Cannon

D1+[23:59]  Kuma pressed his chin in the dirt, continued fumbling with the downlink hardware, and counted off the last legitimate seconds of sanctuary, his thoughts pregnant with the picture of the system’s origami antenna unfolding into full bloom. Only when he reached 40 did Kuma realize that he had been counting in Hindi. The downlink was not cooperating. Some Marines called it the UpDown, others called it the Burpie. “UpDown” wasn’t what the system did; it was receive only. The Group had other methods to send messages out. Kuma called it the downlink because Staff Sergeant Townes called it the downlink. “UpDown” was what you did with it, set it up and tear it down; every hour, on the hour. Plus or minus 45 seconds. Everything was timing. The S36 promised 2 minutes of sanctuary, via technical means that Kuma wasn’t cleared for but fully understood nonetheless. Thirty seconds to erect the downlink, 90 seconds (max) to have it open, 15 seconds to stow the downlink. The math said that, according to standards, from setup, to receipt of messages, to downlink tear-down, 15 seconds of delay was tolerable before Kuma was in danger of incoming missiles.

“I like math,” Kuma thought. “Just not this math.”

He wriggled slowly onto his side. It was a lumbering endeavor with a good resemblance to a bad roll-over accident, maybe an MRAP on its side in a canal. His backpack shifted and tipped over like a swollen cow. Kuma’s worry increased. An unexpected vocal buzz in his ear amped up the feeling.

“Corporal Rajkumar, what’s the ETA on my downlink?”

Staff Sergeant Townes had broken comm discipline. Staff Sergeant could break a lot of things, but in Kuma’s recollection discipline had never been one of them. Kuma made a visual scan, not of the island scenery, but of the over-sized glasses strapped to his head. Just Glass, was what they called it. The Glass was deceptively clear of text. No news is good news, except when you fall out of the communication laser’s line of sight.

“No ETA at this time, Staff Sergeant,” Kuma said. He heard a wobble in his own voice. He attributed it to a compressed chest, a tricky tripod, and a testy Staff Sergeant. Kuma rolled back on his stomach. The backpack righted itself. Kuma couldn’t see the pencil beam illuminating his back, but when the Glass flashed with a dashboard update, he knew that he was back in the right. Kuma minimized his own bio-metrics with a wink. On the left side of the Glass he saw the familiar return of Staff Sergeant Townes’ direct messages, amber text with a burgundy background. The messages were called toastrs, not exactly because of the fires that Townes lit under the Marines, but that could’ve been the reason.

<Corporal Rajkumar, welcome back to the light.>

At times like these, Kuma was reminded of the saying … “Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool …” He choose not to sub-vocalize any response. The Glass would pick up on his vocal cord vibrations, however silent, and transmit the response. Staff Sergeant’s follow-up came soon enough.

<Corporal Rajkumar, in what manner is my downlink currently kicking your ass?>

Some Marines would engage the Staff Sergeant in toastr sparring, but Kuma saw no value in it. The statement suggested additional downlink-ass-kickings either previously occurring in the past or good prospects of them happening in the future. The Group had been on island 48 hours and the S26 section attempted 48 message retrievals via the downlink. Kuma had been responsible for successful downlink erection in exactly half of those. Zero failures. There had been two communications windows missed, but neither on his watch. There had been two failed downlink set ups. There had also been two Marines fired.

“Corporal Rajkumar, what can I not do while my downlink remains down?” No toastr this time, but an actual audible. Staff Sergeant had chosen to force audio to Kuma’s headset. This was another break in protocol, another out of character event from Staff Sergeant Townes. The voice was not directly over Kuma. It was not seething heavy, hot oppression straight into his ear. It only felt that way. The immediate answer to the question was that with the downlink down, the Group couldn’t receive the broadcast when the communications munition, called the Overhead, was shot. That was the obvious answer, but the Staff Sergeant liked to be called Staff Sergeant Townes, not Staff Sergeant Obvious.

“Eat, Staff Sergeant,” Kuma mouthed with his lips.

<Corporal Rajkumar, that is correct. No downlink, no food.>

It was symbolic. If the section failed to erect the downlink, then nobody ate until the next success. The next opportunity to excel was always just one hour away, but it was a reminder of the consequences. If the S26 did not receive the overhead, then The Group might miss the next resupply. Or the next rendezvous with augments. Or worse, a relocate order may go unheeded. In that case, higher would send an urgent relocate message, but maybe they were unable. That would mean The Group would start eating missiles. If there was one thing that annoyed the Staff Sergeant, apart from missing Overhead VULS, it was the possibility of eating missiles. If the downlink stayed down, then nobody in the section ate. The next thing that you might eat just might be an MRE made of missiles.

<Corporal Rajkumar, have I disrespected you?> Back to toastrs.

“Rajkumar,” Kuma whispered his own name aloud “is not my last name, Staff Sergeant.”

<Corporal Rajkumar …>

Kuma read the ellipsis and imagined the Staff Sergeant intoning mock weariness. By Kuma’s count, he’d just entered into the “plus” side of the expected time window. The Overhead could come any moment now and the downlink was not yet up.

<The Group calls you Raj-KUMA-r, I’ma call you Rajkumar.>

“Yes, Staff Sergeant.” Kuma’s hands had not been idle while the burgundy toastr stacked up along the left side of the Glass. Gone were the delicate attempts to coax the tripod legs into place. Now Kuma banged on them with aggressive alacrity.

<Corporal Rajkumar, what is the exact problem?>

“Can’t convince the telescoping rods to telescope, Staff Sergeant.” There was no immediate reply. Kuma checked his positioning, to see if he had inadvertently rolled his pack off again. Nope, seems like the Staff Sergeant did not have a reflexive response. Staff Sergeant was thinking. A thing happened and Staff Sergeant did not know immediately what to do. Kuma’s internal worry meter did a half-needle deflection.

<Corporal Rajkumar, splay the base and raise the antenna as is.>

Kuma rose to a kneel, spread out the tripod legs and flipping the switch that actuated the antenna expansion. This mechanism started a faint whirring that would have easily pleased a sound effects editor. The reflective material spread in a choreographed sequence that was at once reminiscent of a slow-motion capture of a lotus blossom and the wing folding mechanics of fighter aircraft too expensive to operate with the Group or any of the other stand-in forces. Kuma saw the solid propellant missile – the Overhead – begin its long arc toward him before he heard the antenna expansion’s soft whirring sound die. The Overhead passed by obliquely and the down-link’s sole annunciator light illuminated a deep blue. Kuma began breaking down the downlink, methodically counting the number of seconds that sanctuary had been exceeded, his eyes not scanning the sky for a missile that would come in too fast for him to see.

************

D2+[02:37]  “Why me, Staff Sergeant?”  Kuma sub-vocalized the speech and saw his own words appear on the Glass. There had been two VULs since Kuma’s issue with the down-link’s base. Both were successes and both had been done without him. He’d been recalled by a bike messenger. She was a typical messenger Marine, uncommonly small with Olympic thighs. The bike arrived fully charged and she handed it off to him. Kuma pedaled back himself, determined to keep the charge at 100. Dripping in sweat, he stood focused on the short, slight, figure of Staff Sergeant Townes. He waited for a response, which was not immediately forthcoming. Kuma looked in the scene, looking for changes.

The call up to the Distributed Command Post was his first face-time with Townes since the Group had landed on the island. The concept called for the DCP to direct a breadth of operations across the battlespace. Marines in the Group knew that the D in the DCP represented the physical spread of personnel on the post. They were positioned such that no more than two nodes were within the kill radius of a ballistic missile. At least for the conventional warhead radius.

As they spoke silently only two small groups were within earshot. One Marine was giving a period of instruction by showing, not telling, two others how to operate the F-Tool, a 3-wheeled vehicle with four digging arms. This instructor clearly had a gift for American Sign Language, including a broad vocabulary for obscenities. Kuma had not previously associated the F-tool’s excavating functions with human reproductive functions, at least until today he hadn’t. The other group was two Marines whispering loudly to a third who had just disembarked from a category IV UAV. Shortly after the UAV lifted off, whisper quiet for such a large piece of gear, they transitioned into ASL. Kuma disagreed with the idea of landing UAVs at the DCP, let alone a cat IV, but exactly nobody had asked him. Some Marines didn’t like to bike. Their signing was accompanied by the aggressive percussion from the slapping of hands, mistakes that all but negated the supposed silence.

Kuma focused on the task at hand, he had been reassigned from Lead UpDown Technician. Marines had a special name for Staff NCOs who held that position. He was once again glad that he wasn’t one. Kuma didn’t think that he had been fired, but he wasn’t sure. The downlink had received all messages, but Staff Sergeant never allowed you to fail twice at something, she fired you after the first time. Sometimes she wouldn’t even allow you to fail once.

His new position was Special Projects NCO. In garrison, “Special Projects” meant do whatever the Lieutenant told you to do. Deployed, this invariably involved escorting an augment to the unit and schooling them in all things advanced and expeditionary about basing. The augment was typically a Captain who, despite never observing a single downlink erection, had been selected to command a future Group. It was from these facts that the Marines termed the duty and the “Special Projects” NCO as the C2B2 – Crappy Captain Body-guarding and Babysitting. Kuma’s virtual silence was broken by Staff Sergeant’s toastrs filling his Glass.

<Corporal Rajkumar, perhaps I’m putting you on C2B2 because I just don’t like you very much.> 

As Kuma read, he watched the Staff Sergeant’s fingers, typing rapidly on virtual keyboards at her side. He could never get over how archaic that seemed. Deployable Marines were supposed to pick up ASL. Anyone of the Glass Class quickly learned sub-vocalization. Only Marines of a certain age resorted to the full typing method. Keyboard Turners the Marines like to call them. Townes typed on.

<Or maybe, just possibly because you’re the best that I’ve got. Which do you think it is?>  Kuma knew the Staff Sergeant. Staff Sergeant Townes did not partake in rhetorical questions. She wanted answers. Everything was always being evaluated.

“I’d say both parts in equal measure, Staff Sergeant,” Kuma sub-vocalized.

<Corporal Rajkumar do you ever wonder why, an individual as intelligent as yourself, remains in the IRR after their commitment is up?>

“No, Staff Sergeant.”

<Neither does the Lieutenant. But I do Corporal Rajkumar. I do. Have the Captain back in 12 hours, mark it now.>

“Aye, Staff Sergeant.”

This heart-to-heart broke up abruptly with a healthy slap that landed center square on the Corporal’s back. Kuma spun around and saw the new Marine, freshly delivered via UAV. The newcomer spoke, not with signs or signals that showed up in Kuma’s Glass, but in actual words said aloud.

“Corporal, it’s good to meet you,” the Marine said in a half-hearted attempt to whisper. Kuma imagined eyebrows raising all around the DCP node. “I’m Captain Holcomb. I hear you’re my C2B2.”

Kuma immediately lead Captain Holcomb away from the DCP. He took a direct route down a draw that disappeared underneath canopy, not bothering to zig zag at all. After about a quarter mile, the Captain caught Kuma by the shoulder.

“Shouldn’t we have normally zig zagged twice by now?”  Holcomb asked. Kuma signed an answer. The Captain made no signal of understanding. Kuma repeated the sign and received the same response. Kuma made a sign that might charitably have been considered as an invitation for the Captain to evacuate his cranial unit from his rear unit. The Captain just shrugged. Kuma couldn’t tell if it was ignorance or apathy at work.

“Normally we would have represented silence too, sir,” Kuma said in the slightest of audible tones. He walked past the Captain and made a follow me gesture. Kuma had taken a few steps and soon found himself overtaken by the Captain, who marched past in the general course Kuma was following.

“Where we going Corporal?” Holcomb asked.

“FOB Village, sir,” Kuma said again, barely aloud. “Plenty of sloppy talkers there anyway.”

************

D2+[04:55] “Kuma!”  A young, weathered Marine shouted. He was naked to the waist, but hastily pulled on a FROG shirt as he caught sight of the newcomers. “Heard you made a miracle of an UpDown happen today.”

“Not me,” Kuma said in a hushed tone. He removed his Glass, which had gone inactive anyway about a kilometer away from the DCP. “Just got fired.” Captain Holcomb continued to march down the slope. Kuma had to grab him by the arm. “Sir, where are you headed?”

“You can stay here and do Corporal-chat,” Holcomb said. “I’m going to FOB Village.”

“Sir, this is FOB Village,” Kuma said. “Captain Holcomb, allow me to introduce Sergeant Alba, camp commandant of FOB village.”  Sergeant Alba snapped his heels together, rolled his eyes as if contemplating rendering a more formal greeting, and simply finished tucking in his shirt instead.

“Corporal,” Holcomb said. “You weren’t off your training wheels when we furled the flag at Leatherneck, but every Marine knows what a FOB looks like. This ain’t a FOB.”

“Kuma,” Alba said. “Does Townes know you’re on C2B2?”

“Put me on this herself,” Kuma said.

“Corporal, FOBs have control points,” Holcomb said. “FOBs have security, ECPs for protection, HESCO. You can finish your little game and take me to FOB.”

“You’re right sir, follow me,” Alba said and started marching down the path. Holcomb followed, speeding up to overtake him, while looking back at Kuma with disdain. Alba marched five steps and stopped abruptly. Holcomb ran into his back and stumbled.

“Alright sir,” Alba said. “Here we are, FOB Village.”  They had not moved far at all, but Alba has positioned them in the terrain to where they could see about 25 meters in any direction. Spread out along a draw were two-person holes that had been hastily dug. Alba extended his arm and wept it across the scene, pointing at each position.

“This here is FOB Hades, just like any other FOB in the Village, it’s home to two Marines, one Greek and one non-Greek,” Alba said. “Over here we have FOB Citadel, apropos of both its occupants spending a year at the Citadel. Then we have FOB Mystery.”

“Let me guess,” Holcomb said, “the name is a mystery?”

“No sir,” Alba said. “Twins from California live in there. They wanted FOB Winchester, but EAB 72 beat us to the name. At the TS level sir, they’re out of missiles already.”

“We’re shooting?” Holcomb said. “That’s outstanding, any hits?”

“No shooting, sir,” Kuma said. “They’re just out of action.”

“I don’t understand,” Holcomb said. “If they’re not shooting, then how are they out of missiles?”

“That’s above TS,” Alba said. “With respect, sir.”

“Well how come you know why and I don’t?” Holcomb asked.

“Sir, because he’s staying and you’re not,” Kuma said.

“Just out of sight from Mystery we have FOB Yinzer,” Alba continued. “Marines from the ‘burgh. Past Yinzer, kind of on point is FOB Albuquerque. Marine there, her dad was from Albuquerque. Next one over is FOB TexMex–”

“I know, I know,” Holcomb said, “because those Marines are from Mexico and Texic-, uh Texas.”  

“No, sir,” Alba said. “Our Army augment and the Corpsman. The Specialist is from Virginia and Doc’s Italian, but he can make any MRE taste like TexMex. Except the ham-slice. Back where we came from is FOB Angel. That’s my FOB with Kuma. Next to that is FOB Vegas–”

“Because what happens in Vegas,” Holcomb said.

“Good one, sir,” Alba said. “Up the terrain and securing the other side is Yale and H-”

“Harvard and Yale?” Holcomb said. “You have some enlisted Ivy League Marines, Sergeant?”

“No sir,” Alba said. “That’s FOB Haerter next to FOB Yale.”

Kuma and Alba glanced at Holcomb. The look of recognition did not cross the Captain’s face. Sergeant Alba pointed briefly to a half-pallet of MREs, a box containing a downlink labeled “This Side Up” with an arrow, and a set of three e-bikes.

“Right here we got the commissary, the supply depot, and the motor-pool,” Alba said. “Any questions sir?”

“Where’s the Exchange?” Holcomb asked.

“Right over there, sir,” Alba said, pointing at an empty aluminum pallet on the other side of the bikes.

“Okay then,” Holcomb said. “What FOB should I ground my gear in?”

“FOB Muppet,” Alba said, without missing a beat.

“Where’s FOB Muppet?” Holcomb asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” Alba said. “But wherever you are, sir, I’m sure that’s where it’ll be.”

A dim flash gave the canopy above a silhouette of weak amber. Too late, a whooshing chorus of light screams followed an unheralded arrival. It was a complete cacophony, banshees of different pitches all warming up at once. After the whoosh came the sonic booms, followed by an underwhelming explosion a few seconds later. Holcomb crouched down belatedly. Kuma and Alba marched to the sound of the boom.

“Ballistic?” Holcomb asked.

“Sir, only a hypersonic would scream like that,” Kuma said. “No re-entry and tracked across the sky. Sergeant, got a bike?”

“Just one I can spare,” Alba said. “I’ll drive, hop on the pegs.” Kuma shook his head.

“Staff Sergeant is pretty insistent about the first B in C2B2,” Kuma said. Some color drained from Alba’s face.

“You’re taking the Captain?” Alba said.

“Got to,” Kuma said. He inspected the e-bikes and grabbed the one with the least charge. “I’ll drive sir, if you would ride the pegs.” Kuma got on the bike. Holcomb obeyed, putting his boots on the steel pegs protruding from the back wheel. He grabbed Kuma’s shoulders for balance.

“Okay,” Holcomb said. “But when we get back to the DCP I’m asking Staff Sergeant Townes why EAB 72’s strike missiles are out of battery.”

“Sir, we’re not going to the DCP,” Kuma said.

“Where are you taking me then?” Holcomb said.

“The leeward UpDown sites,” Kuma said. “That’s where the missile hit.”

************

D2+[06:37]  Kuma’s Glass went active again as he crossed the crest of the main ridge overlooking a series of fingers. There were six of them, which made the area well situated for split-site operations. The Group kept two down-links active. Kuma had managed the downlink on the other side of the DCP, higher up on the ridge. The prevailing wind blew down the slope, and Kuma’s sites came to be called the windward side. This was true of the Group’s first 48-hours on the island, and the pattern had held true after the Group’s first move. In the new leeward location, each of the six sites would host two downlink erections during a 24-hour period. That was the plan at least, before this downlink got hit. They hadn’t even used all six new sites to cover a VUL. Kuma had time to think this through ten times as they rode over, the Captain’s hands clamped down on his shoulders like meaty vices.

“Here come some Marines,” Holcomb said from the pegs. Kuma brought the bike to a stop and also held up a closed fist, the universal symbol for ‘STOP.’  He tapped his own Glass and pointed to the Captain. Kuma had to wait for Holcomb to dismount, which he did, slowly and deliberately. From their spot of concealment they could see a break in the vegetation, a relatively bald spot on the slope. The spot was scorched and charred, but also adorned with the remains of a downlink. The blackened, angular outline of some recognizable pieces of the tripod was all that was left.

<Captain Holcomb, Lance Corporals Wood and Nicks> Kuma sub-vocalized, his words appearing as toastrs in Holcomb Glass. Kuma then turned to the Marines, neither of which were equipped with Glass. He signed to them, while also sub-vocalizing for Holcomb’s benefit. <Who was on the downlink?>

Wood made the sign for ‘Nobody,’ holding up both hands and shaking them. Kuma provided the rest of the translation. <He says Staff Sergeant Townes ripped up the UpDown instructions. New TTP. Marine sets it up and then gets clear. F-tool retrieves it, dragging it back.>

“That can’t be gentle,” Holcomb said. “Doesn’t that bust the antenna?”

Wood made another sign, putting his palm to his face and rotating his wrist. Kuma understood it to mean ‘Sloppy.’ The Captain didn’t. Wood made a few more signs, some of them suggesting things physically impractical, most of them disrespectful, and all of them obscene. “What’s he saying?” Holcomb asked.

<He’s asking if you have to talk.> Kuma improvised and sub-vocalized. <Says he’s got a wife and kids at home. Dragging left the downlink damaged, but still serviceable,> Kuma translated. The Marine looked down-slope at the charred remains of the downlink. <At least it used to be serviceable. Sir, we need to get going.>

“Too hot here?”  Holcomb said. “What about reporting all this?  Shouldn’t we head towards the DCP?”

<Nicks will send a Raven.>

“We’re still using Ravens?”  Holcomb said.

<RQ-11D’s sir. Looks a lot different from what you’re used to.>

“Where are we going?”  Holcomb said.

<The downlink received its message before it was hit, sir.>  Kuma’s response flashed across Holcomb’s Glass. <There’s a new resupply scheduled, we need to help out.>

“I want to see the strike missiles,” Holcomb said, but he climbed back on the bike’s pegs.

<Sir, I’m not allowed to see the strike missiles.>  Kuma sub-vocalized. <I’ve got to hit that resupply.>

“New orders come from the Lieutenant?” Holcomb said.

<No sir, the Lieutenant’s in EMCON.>

“From Staff Sergeant Townes, then?”

<No sir, she wouldn’t risk our position by lasing us after the downlink was hit.>

“You’re just acting on your own then?” Holcomb said.

<Standing orders, sir. Downlink messages have priority.>

“So what’s in the resupply?” Holcomb asked. “Missiles?”

<Class I confirmed, sir. Probably->

“Chow?”  Holcomb exclaimed, his meaty hands dug into the hollows above Kuma’s collarbones. Woods and Nicks had disappeared while they talked, but a fixed wing UAV flew by. Nicks had launched the Raven. “I’m missing out on the launchers because you’re hungry.”

<Probably Class IX too. Higher saw the downlink hit, they’ll be sending a spare. Class I now means an interval before the next resupply.>

“What do you do if you run out of food?”

<Same as now sir.> Kuma sub-vocalized, and set the bike in motion. <We forage.>

It was another hour of riding before Kuma stopped pedaling. The time passed in silence and he was glad for it. The talking had not been louder than the soft sounds of the bike, crashing through the forest, but it only encouraged Captain Holcomb to be loud when they stopped. They had ridden downhill and were now just 100 meters from shore. Kuma’s Glass had been void of new information since they’d left Wood and Nicks. Completely clear except for his own toastrs displaying his chat to Holcomb. They had arrived at the 8 digit-grid passed in the downlink message. Now a new 10 digit-grid flashed across the Glass. Kuma put the bike in electric mode, quieter that way, and navigated to a closer approach to the water line. Then he stopped the bike, shrugged off Holcomb, and ran across the beach.

“Where are you going?” Holcomb whispered hoarsely.

“You gotta jump in to swim,” Kuma yelled. He waded in 20 meters and found what he was looking for, a small grey buoy floating on the surface. Kuma rotated a selector on the buoy, pressed a button, and waited. Slowly, an oblong box became visible in the depth of water. When it reached the surface, Kuma guided it back towards Holcomb’s position as a pair of small impellers on the front end of the box provided most of the thrust. Captain Holcomb got in up to his knees to help retrieve the payload when it was out of the water.

************

D2+[10:03]  “Corporal, I don’t understand why you’re out on supply runs, instead of helping the Group shoot back,” Holcomb said.

<Sir, shoot back at what exactly?>

“Well, whatever launched the hypersonic would be a good start.”

<Hypersonic was air launched, sir.>

“What about those drones?”

<Sir, the drones were air launched, too. Need authorization to fire the strike missiles on anything, sir.>

“What about self defense?”

<Strike missiles are offensive, sir.>

“Well, how are you going to get authorization?”

<From the downlink, sir.>

“From the downlink?” Holcomb said. “You’ll have to explain that whole thing to me. Why don’t we just keep the antenna up? And what’s the business with message via artillery shell? SATCOM broken?”

<Rocket shell, sir, not artillery. SATCOM works just fine, sir, but turns out our crypto doesn’t.>

“So they’ve cracked all of our messages?”

<It’s worse than that sir, they can send to us via SATCOM and from here we can’t tell if the message is real or fake.>

“Yeah, explain that whole thing, like from the start.”

<USS Hughes is in the task force sir. The HUGs deploys an unmanned undersea vessel. The HUGs sends a message to the UUV.>

“And how is that secure?”

<The UUV is tethered to receive messages, sir. The UUV surfaces, fires artillery over the island, then it submerges, and goes away.>

“And those are the rounds we setup the downlink for every hour?”

<Correct ,sir.>

“So what’s stopping the adversary from shooting their own rounds, with their own spoofed messages?”

<They’ve tried it, sir. They’re multiple factors to the rocket rounds. They can’t fake our spin for one.>

“Okay, when you do get authorization to fire. Then what, pass the mission how, with a Raven? The info is an hour old by then. What kind of target is that good for?”

<Maritime targets, sir. They can’t go far in an hour.>

“Why am I just learning about all of this just now?”  Holcomb asked.

<To be honest, sir, I would’ve thought you were fully briefed before they sent you.>

“Well I have a lot of questions when I get back,” Holcomb said.

<Let’s get you to your cat IV, sir.>

************

D2+[14:14] Kuma rode past FOB Village without heeding Alba’s attempt to flag him down. He headed towards the DCP, with Holcomb still riding the pegs. The last half mile they were overtaken by the cat IV, flying low and slow just over the treetops. Kuma’s Glass failed to come alive as he neared the post. That was one thing odd. Kuma dropped Holcomb off at the cat IV, which had landed and was still turning. Another thing was off, he noticed a Marine departing Staff Sergeant Townes’ hole. The Marine had stopped and saluted before he left. The wind went out of Kuma before he caught sight of Townes. Townes and her collar devices. Where she had worn chevrons over a rocker early in the day, there were now golden bars.

<The Lieutenant?> Kuma signed something non-standard that included a thumbs-up.

<I’m the Lieutenant.> Townes signed. <You’ve missed some downlink messages.>

<How?> Kuma signed.

Townes’ reply was two words. “Dead” and “drones.”

<Drones?> Kuma signed. <I didn’t hear them.>

<Neither did we.> Townes’ toaster flashed across Kuma’s Glass. <Neither did the Lieutenant. They tracked one of our Ravens. The one inbound from the downlink. The Lieutenant received the Raven and the drones. He never had a chance.>

Kuma turned to see that Captain Holcomb had followed him over to Townes’ position. 

“Corporal, I heard about the Lieutenant,” Holcomb said. “Who’s the senior Marine present?” 

<Staff Sergeant Townes, sir.>  Kuma signed as well as sub-vocalized, pantomiming the chevrons and rocker on his own arm to indicate the rank.

“Well then I guess you Marines got it,” Holcomb said. The Captain scrambled back over to the cat IV, with more haste than was necessary. Kuma took the occasion to spit on the ground.

<Have a safe flight, sir.> Kuma flipped the friction switch on the bike and stepped down hard on the pedal, charging the battery. Seniority meant that Staff Sergeant Townes would assume command of the Group, with Sergeant Alba stepping up, which would put Kuma in charge of FOB Village. He glanced not once at the sky as he pedaled. The cat IV UAV was out of mind before it was out of sight.

LtCol Cannon is a reservist with the MAGTF Staff Training Program and as a contractor supports AI/Machine Learning (ML) projects sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. government and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Featured Image: “Tropical Rain” by Wadim Kashin via Artstation

Fiction Week

By Major Brian A. Kerg, USMC

December, 2050
The Pacific Ocean

Ensign Bean, U.S. Space Force, laid back in his coffin rack aboard the USS America, staring at the roof of his stateroom. Hammering blows and the buzzing of power tools echoed through the room as the paint chippers worked on maintaining the flight deck. His head pounded with a migraine, and he fought off waves of nausea; four weeks into deployment and he still hadn’t found his sea legs.

“I’m in the goddamn Space Force,” he said. “How did I end up on a boat?”

“Ship,” Tilly said. The Marine lieutenant looked up from his tablet and gave Bean a grin. “You’re on a ship. And you’re here because the green weenie is joint in nature.”

“This is garbage,” Bean said. “My classmates are living the good life at SPACECOM in D.C., or getting their PhD’s at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and engineering the next generation of satellites. Of all the places they could have put me, I got shoved into one of the oldest tin cans in the fleet.” He rubbed at his eyes. “I should have run for the hills when they cut me orders for a Marine Expeditionary Unit.”

“Well buddy, it’s a shame that you’re not back at Star Fleet, or Space Camp, or wherever the hell they put the rest of you Shatners, but I feel safer knowing you’re on our team.”

“Really?” Bean rolled over in his rack, looking at Tilly with cautious hope.

Tilly laughed. “No, of course not. You’re dead weight. But at least you get to see the world, even if you’ll never see the stars.”

“But the recruiting commercial said I’d get to see the stars!” Bean cried. He pointed to the patch on his flight suit. “Ad astra!” he said, reading the Space Force slogan. “To the stars!”

Their phone rang, and Tilly answered, shouting over the noise. “You need me and the what? The stack?”

Bean’s ears perked up. “That’s me. The Space Tactical Controller. I’m the STAC.”

“Got it.” Tilly hung up, and nodded at Bean. “They need us in the SACC.”

Bean looked at Tilly quizzically.

Tilly rolled his eyes. “Yeah, there’s a joke in there. Don’t hurt yourself trying to make one.”

“No, I mean, why do they need me?”

“Great question. Maybe because you’re part of the Fires cell? Grab your tablet. Let’s get there and we’ll find out what the hell is going on.”

 

***********************************

 

After getting settled in the Supporting Arms Coordination Center, Major Sarah Avery, the Fires Officer-In-Charge, started to brief the cell.

“Alright folks,” she said, “its game day, and we don’t get any warm-up time before kick-off. Here’s the skinny: The Communist Party of Thailand just launched their own version of the Tet Offensive.” The few sidebar conversations immediately ceased, and the entire shop fell silent. Avery pressed on.

“Most of the Thai government’s forces have been tied up in their border provinces for years, fighting the communist insurgents in the jungle. So last night, when the communists activated sleeper cells all across Bangkok, they caught the Thai military on their back foot. The government is barely holding onto the capital. A Joint Task Force is being thrown together, but there’s no time to wait, and our MEU got the mission to reinforce Bangkok, now.”

Excited murmurs filled the room. Tilly slapped Bean on his shoulder. “This is it, Shatner! We’ve got ourselves a war!”

Bean looked at Tilly, his eyes wide. “Why do we want that?” Then, more quietly, “And will you please stop calling me Shatner?”

“Not a chance,” Tilly said, smiling ear to ear.

Major Avery waved her hands, settling the room down, and continued. “Worse yet, the communists seized Bangkok port, and all the Anti-Access/Area Denial systems the U.S. put in place in 2030 to help the Thai government deter Chinese aggression are now in the hands of the enemy. The S-900 is an over-the-horizon, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missile system that out-ranges all of our organic capabilities. We can’t get close enough to hit them before they’re close enough to hit us.”

Tilly raised his hand. “Aren’t there any sea control teams already in the area? I thought persistently deployed expeditionary advanced bases were supposed to give us a foot in the door for situations like this.”

Avery snorted. “Bully for you. You paid attention at The Basic School. Yeah, we had sea control teams in the region until about a decade ago. They were our lynchpin to containing Chinese regional expansion, and our allies across the Pacific loved them. But after Chinese ascension popped like a bubble in the 40’s, most got defunded or re-assigned to EUCOM. Can I finish?”

Tilly cleared his throat and looked away. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“So where do we fit in?” Avery asked the room. “We’re not looking to blow the hell out of a friendly city, and the CO is more concerned with getting us to the fight in one piece. Our first job is to use our fires to best support the Amphibious Ready Group’s ability to land the landing force and get the MEU ashore intact at Bangkok.”

Tilly blanched. “We’re going to do an amphibious landing into a mega city? Jesus, are we looking for another Gallipoli?”

“What’s Gallipoli?” Bean asked, looking from Tilly to Avery. He was gravely concerned that even Tilly’s excitement had suddenly been blunted as the details of the plan emerged.

Avery shook her head. “No. We’re looking for another Inchon. Let’s stop admiring the problem and figure out a way through this mess. We owe a fire support plan in thirty minutes. And if we get through this in one piece,” she pointed at Tilly, “you can give a lesson on the history of amphibious warfare to your buddy, Shatner.”

Bean’s face reddened. “Ma’am, can you please not call me-”

Tilly grasped Bean’s shoulder, cutting him off. He said nothing, simply shaking his head in warning.

The fires cell went to work, floating plans as diverse as an in-flight release of their drone swarms and using them to kamikaze the S-900’s, to using their offensive cyber operations team to take control of the firing platforms. Each plan was premised on a whole lot of hope, and the cell was growing frustrated.

“None of these are going to be perfect,” Avery told the group. “We lost the edge for a problem like this when we put the Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations Manual back on the shelf to gather dust. We don’t get to establish sea control before we land the landing force. We have to go ashore through the weapons engagement zone, and then establish sea control. Things are different now. The boss is going to have to assume a lot of risk. Our landing forces will be as distributed as possible to maximize survivability. But no matter what we do, some of our people are probably going to get hurt.”

Ensign Bean sat there on his own for a moment, flummoxed by the dizzying jargon of amphibious fires. Plugging his STAC tablet into a port on the classified network, he downloaded the technical specifications of the S-900’s, and matched them against the offensive space capabilities available within the region’s satellite footprint.

Bean sat back, his face lighting up. “I think we’re making this a lot harder than it needs to be.” He waved his hand frantically at Major Avery. “Ma’am, I’ve got an idea.”

Avery listened. She wanted to believe it would work. But Avery hadn’t exactly been an advocate for the boot Space Force officer that her higher headquarters had forced on her; the MEU hadn’t even exercised a space fires plan during their pre-deployment work-up.

Bean tapped at the data on his tablet, insistent. “The S-900s conduct targeting over the Pan-Asia Positioning System. It’s their version of GPS. No PAPS, no threat. It’ll work, we just have to get the fires approved by the Space Operations Squadron.”

“And that kind of approval takes, what… weeks?”

Bean shook his head. “It used to, but that’s why no one used space fires; by the time approval came down, the need had passed. To stay relevant, the Space Force had to streamline the approval process. For an event like this, I bet we’ll get the nod within the hour.”

Avery frowned. “That’s hard to believe. I’ll brief it as an option. But I think the boss will see it as the throw-away course of action.”

 

***********************************

 

In the Landing Forces Operations Center, Bean wiped at the beads of sweat rolling down his brow. Even with the air conditioning at full blast, the heat from the plethora of command and control systems and the bodies of the battle staff was overwhelming.

The main screen showed the Common Operational Picture, a live drone feed of the Amphibious Ready Group floating in the Gulf of Thailand. One section of the aging Osprey squadron was in the air, each aircraft escorted by a pair of fighter drones. Farther afield, a swarm of micro-drones flew as a picket for the afloat force. Only two of the squadron’s eight F-35’s were prepared to take off the America’s flight deck; the rest were still down for the notorious maintenance issues that made them the joke of the entire aviation community.

A second screen showed a satellite feed of the Bangkok Port and surrounding area, with red overlays placed on the locations of the S-900’s.

Tilly leaned over Bean’s shoulder. “I hope this works, Shatner. If it doesn’t, our ass is going to be hanging out in the wind.”

Bean looked at his computer again, checking the targeting interface. “We’re going to be fine. Space Ops approved the strike package, and their cyber guys already did their recon; we’ve got this in the bag. All I have to do is push a button, and we’re golden.” He gritted his teeth. “And stop calling me Shatner.”

“When you get out of the Space Force, I’ll call you whatever you want. Until then, you’re Shatner to me.”

Avery stepped between the both of them. “Bean says it works. So does the old man,” she said, looking at the MEU Commander, Colonel Lloyd. “It’ll work.”

Colonel Lloyd stood in the center of the watch floor. A drone operator pin clung to his chest, right above his jump wings. His left hand was stuffed in a trouser pocket, while his right held a steaming cup of coffee. He was the only relaxed person in the room.

He took his hand out of his pocket, glanced at his watch, and nodded at Major Avery. “Launch it.”

Avery slapped Bean’s shoulder. Bean hit the key.

 

*******************************************

 

The command to attack bounced from Bean’s ship in the Gulf of Thailand to the Space Operations Squadron in D.C. Immediately authenticated, it was transmitted into orbit, where it shot from satellite to satellite around the earth.

Thousands of miles over the America, a constellation of U.S. satellites sat in geosynchronous orbit. For years, they had served only as a surveillance asset targeting the Southeast Asia region, while keeping a seemingly sleepy eye on the Thai military satellite system that was its neighbor. They hadn’t yet had a reason to use the full range of their capabilities.

Receiving Bean’s command, the U.S. constellation oriented on the Thai satellites, acquired their targets, and fired their jammers.

 

*******************

 

“Direct hit,” Bean said. “They should be dark.” He looked up at Major Avery, then to Colonel Lloyd. “I think we’re good.”

Colonel Lloyd nodded again. “Great.” Then, to the battle staff: “Press on.”

With that one keystroke, the MEU’s plan was set in motion. Pro-words were launched over radio nets, initiating actions across the MEU-ARG team, along with supporting actions at every echelon of command. The F-35’s launched from the flight deck.

With their teamed drones flying over-watch, the Ospreys flew to the limit of advance, lowered their rear loading doors, and dropped a load of suicide-drones into the air. After tumbling a few feet, the swarms took flight and expanded into a cloud formation. They swiveled back and forth like electrons around a nucleus, then pushed inland, seeking their targets. Behind them, the next stick of Ospreys, full of infantry Marines and war-bots, were ready to land once the drones had secured the landing zone.

Flashes of light and puffs of smoke scattered across the video feed as the S-900’s fired. Missiles rose into the air, their targets unknown to those watching on the America; were they coming for the unmanned drone swarm? The Ospreys full of landing troops? The America and all the embarked forces?

“Oh shit, they’re still online!” Tilly said, grasping Bean’s shoulder.

“I only hit their navigation system! I can’t stop them from firing!” Bean said, pushing Tilly away.

Tilly pointed at the main screen, and the dozens of missiles rising into the sky. “Well I hope they taught you to swim at Space Camp, because if you screwed this up, we’re all going for a dip.”

The Marines and sailors on the watch floor held their breath in a long, pregnant pause, watching the screens, and waiting.

In the bay, one red missile struck the water, miles off target. Another misfired entirely, destroying the system itself on the shore. The S-900 systems, completely reliant on satellite positioning to track their targets, could only fire blind. One after another, the enemy missiles impacted without effect. Soon after, the America’s drones swarmed the landing zone, destroying every enemy weapon system they could identify.

A strong hand slapped Bean’s shoulder. He looked up to see Colonel Lloyd peering down at him, a devious grin spreading across his face. “Good job, Shatner.”

 

*********************

 

Days later, Bean and Tilly were standing in the Port of Bangkok, watching the sun set.

“It’s still mind blowing,” Bean said. “I can’t believe the bad guys just took off when the S-900’s couldn’t keep us from landing.”

“We sure didn’t plan for it. ‘Catastrophic success’ — we did so well we couldn’t capitalize on it. But, hey, if I didn’t have a way to stop a thousand Marines and a battalion of their murder-bots from coming ashore, I’d probably turn tail and run, too.” Tilly handed Bean a cigar.

“I’ve never smoked before,” Bean said, eyeing the cigar with suspicion.

“If you have a baby or win a battle, you smoke a cigar,” Tilly said, offering a lighter.

Bean lit the cigar, took a deep drag, and had a massive coughing fit.

“Is this supposed to be fun?” he said through choking gasps.

Tilly slapped him on the back. “It’s an acquired taste.”

“You keep saying that. About ship life, about working out of a tent city, about sleeping on the ground.” With each complaint, Bean pointed his cigar like an accusing finger, first at the America floating in port, then at the green tents comprising the MEU’s combat operations center ashore, and finally at the ground. “Bangkok’s right there. I can walk to a five star hotel. And we’re sleeping in the dirt like idiots. It’s 2050, not 1950.”

Tilly grinned and stuck a pinch of dip in his mouth. “Yeah, some things don’t change. It’s the way of our people,” he said, pointing to the “U.S. Marines” nametape on his blouse. “But hey, at least we finally unscrewed our awards system. The CO got that medal on your chest within days of the action. When my dad was coming up in the Corps, guys waited months to years to see a medal, depending on the award.”

Bean reached into his pocket and fished out the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal. “That was a nice surprise. Hey, what’s the little gold ‘C’ for?”

Tilly rubbed his temples. “It’s for ‘combat’, man. The ‘C’ is for ‘combat.’”

“Really? This counted? I thought combat would be different. You know, more blood and guts.”

“You and me both. But it’s your world, now, Bean. Space and cyber effects at the tactical edge, and routing the enemy without killing a single man — friendly or enemy. You got me sold. If you guys get around to making Space Marines, I’ll become a Shatner in a heartbeat.”

Bean grinned. “You called me Bean.” He tried another drag of his cigar.

Tilly slapped Bean on his back again, forcing Bean to inhale, subjecting him to another coughing fit.

“Don’t get used to it,” Tilly said with a smile. The two watched the sun disappear into the ocean, smoking their cigars, until the sky faded to black. They stared up into darkness of space, trying to discern the stars from the satellites, struggling to guess to which blinking pin of light they owed their lives.

Brian Kerg is a Marine Corps officer and writer currently stationed in Norfolk, VA. His professional writing has appeared in War on the Rocks, Proceedings, The Marine Corps Gazette, and The Strategy Bridge. His fiction has appeared in The Deadly Writer’s Patrol, Line of Advance, and The Report. Follow or contact him @BrianKerg.

Featured Image: “Lonely Orbiter” by Simonard Theo via Artstation