One Lovely War

[cbraund]

US Navy pilot Daniel Thomas glanced at the HUD once more. The Russian MiG-29Ks were closing in on the battlegroup his Northrop Grumman F-14 Tomcat was tasked with defending, and had ignored the warnings that were sent out by the [i]Eisenhower[i/], the Nimitz and the British carrier, Ark Royal.

If they came within another fifty miles, he was to let them have it.

He paused for breath, but only a short one. The fighters were closing at a combined speed of over 1000mph. He looked once more at the Head Up Display, and saw the MiG Fulcrums cross that invisible barrier.

"Weapons free! Fire at will!" he called to the rest of his flight of four F-14s.

All of the F-14s fired their Phoenix missiles at once. With a maximum range of over 90 miles, the Phoenix was well within its lmits.

Nearly $32 of ordnance had been fired, and 10 of the MiGs were blotted from radar. Two missiles had malfunctioned, three had missed, and two had hit the same target.

Now Daniel switched to his two Sparrow missiles.

He had to wait for the MiGs to get within 28 miles. It didn't take long.

Then the MiGs launched their own "Alamo" missiles, which his F-14s maneuvered to avoid. One missile hit, but Daniel was relieved to see the pilot ejecting safely.

Now they returned fire, each F-14 firing one Sparrow, as the radar could only control one of these at a time, compared to six Pheonix missiles.

They all hit, and Daniel fired another Sparrow. His and his flight's missiles hit true once more, and there was now only five MiGs left.

Now it was up to the Sidewinders, and Daniel was worried. The MiG-29 was known to be deadly in a dogfight.

His Sidewinders had a longer range than the Russian's missiles, so when the planes came within 5 miles, he opened fire with both Sidewinders.

One plane was destroyed. The other jinked quickly, causing the missile to miss. Now Daniel knew that every missile fired from his flight had to hit, or the MiGs would get close enough to launch their missiles, and dogfight with cannons, which the MiGs would surely win.

His wingman fired, and both missiles hit.

Now it was left to the last F-14. It fired both missiles, one slightly after the other.

The first hit the lead MiG. The second was aimed at the same pilot Thomas had aimed at.

He jinked, and the missile flew by.

He continued onwards, and fired his own missiles.

Daniel dodged the missile aimed at him, but his wingman wasn't so lucky. He looked on in horror as his wingman's plane blew up.

He hadn't ejected.

The MiG zoomed past, firing a quick burst from its cannon. It then went into a loop.

Daniel rolled his fighter into the turn, and levelled out head on with the MiG.

It was a game of chicken, neither fighter willing to move.

The cannons fired, but had little impact.

As the planes got closer to each other, both pilots dodged to one side.

Daniel went left, and was horrified to see the MiG choose the same route.

Neither pilot had time to eject or evade as the two planes collided in mid-air.

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

President Victor Allard bowed his head in sadness as his Secretary of Defence told him what had happened.

"The Russians overwhelmed us Mr. President, sending waves of MiGs and Bears to get our attention, then hitting us hard with the Backfire bombers, and those damned Kitchen missiles. I'm afraid that the Nimitz has sunk, the Eisenhower is damaged, and the Ark Royal is in a bad way. Over a thousand men are dead, pilots and sailors alike."

Victor almost wished he had a bomb big enough to blow Moscow off the face of the planet, but he knew that the nuiclear research was behind schedule, but still ahead of the Russians, the American's main enemy.

"Sir, all AEGIS cruisers will have to have changes made, they need to carry more ammo for their anti-missile defences, so they aren't overwhelmed like they were today."

"Yes, you may give the order to do that." Victor sank into deep concentration about how best to react to the attacks.

His SecDef knew when it was time to leave.

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

President Jean Ducos (pronounced Dew-co) of France sipped on his wine, and grinned at his generals.

America was going to pay a heavy price for its constant meddling in European affairs, as would that traitorous Britain, a country that was nothing more than a US lapdog.

The French divisions, instead of going up to the front line to support the Germans, Americans and British like planned, would actually move up and attack from behind, stabbing them in the back. With the Russians attacking from the front, the allied armies would be crushed.

And Ducos would expand his empire and hurt those meddling fools. Russia would claim a nice piece of land, much more than he, but he was content with his cut.

He also knew Russia had plans to invade Britain and Iceland after this part of the war was over, destroying the Greenland/Iceland/Britain line that the US used to prevent Russian subs reaching the Atlantic, and crushing the damned arrogant British in the process.

And America would be left, standing alone.

Then their President would have to come here, to "neutral" Paris to sign a peace treaty.

That would be a sight, Jean thought happily. Seeing that arrogant son of a b*tch grovel before him.

Yes, he decided. It was going to be one lovely war.

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

This story is not based on a Civ3 game, more from memory of the game's mechanics and my imagination, as I have lost my CD. Anyway, I was reading stories again and it inspired me to write this. Do you want to read more? If so, please tell me, and if not, please tell me why!

Thanks,
Chris

[civman2000]

Very good! My favorite storyteller has finally returned to write more!!!

[curlyboy24]

Wow, that story was incredible! Keep it up!

[civman2000]

bump for story contest and please write more!!!

[cbraund]

Josef Stalin Jnr walked into the war planning area of the Kremlin on a mission. He was the new General Secretary of Mother Russia, having overthrown the capitalists who had destroyed his country in the last decade. He was the son of the legendary Soviet leader of the same name, and had been found in a forest by Western journalists. He found it very amusing that the West themselves had found their worst nightmare, not Russian people.

He had survived an assassination attempt on his life when he arrived back in Moscow[for those who haven't read the book, this part is based upon the novel Archangel by Robert Harris] and had been elected soon after.

Now he was to make the West pay.

He nodded to a picture of his father on the wall opposite him, then glanced at the map on the nearest wall.

It showed Russian units having torn through Belorus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, despite NATO's planning since he had come into office a year ago and started rebuilding the USSR, and especially the iron fist that kept it all together: the Red Army.

The simple fact was that Western powers had reduced their armies since the Cold War, and while they had better equipment, didn't have the numbers to hurt such a huge army that had been created in the wave of patriotism.

He was just glad that no one had nuclear weapons at the moment, with them all having been destroyed after the SALT3 treaty, although everyone was now rushing to try and build them again.

Russia had also taken Finland, Norway, Sweden and Kazakhstan.

The USSR had taken more land in one week than Hitler had in his entire lifetime.

Admiral Rouble saluted as Stalin turned to him.

"What is the news of the naval war?" Stalin enquired.

"It is going well, sir. We have sunk one American carrier, badly damaged one, and the Chinese will destroy the Pacific Fleet tonight. We also damaged one British carrier."

Stalin's mind wandered as his Admiral talked. It was going to be one lovely war.

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

Major Sam "Bullseye" Jones glanced once more out of the position he was in. Most officers of his rank would be in their tank, but an accident during a training exercise had left him paralysed from the waist down, and so he was in a wheelchair. He hated it, and most people had said he should retire, but he was an excellent field commander, and he knew it, and so had fought all attempts to remove him.

Now he was in a dug-in position right on the front lines, watching the Russian T-84 tanks cross the German border.

He was determined to stop them.

Finally they were within close range.

"FIRE!" he yelled over the radio.

All of the M1A1 Abram main battle tanks in his battalion opened fire.

An equal number of T-84s exploded, but there was hundreds more.

The Abrams fired once again, and then he ordered the withdrawal to the fall back positions.

It was better to make the Russians pay a heavy price for the land they took rather than try and defend every bit and be destroyed, Bullseye thought as he wheeled his chair into the APC. Pity the Germans wouldn't give up any cities though, as Berlin was going to be a hellhole to defend.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as the APC began to move.

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

The Chinese bombers fired their missiles, and then turned for home along with their escort. They were below radar level and would go over land, meaning that the Americans would get very little warning about the incoming missiles.

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

Captain Peterson of the AEGIS cruiser currently on patrol around Pearl Harbour glanced once more at the radar screen, not really knowing what to look for. That was why he had operators. Nothing was there, yet something didn't feel right.

His first warning of the missiles was when they came down after going carefully through Molokai Maui island. They were not far from Pearl Harbour now, and there was over three hundred of them.

The AEGIS system was supposed to destroy airborne missiles, but these suddenly dropped beneath the waves.

What the hell kind of missiles were these?! Peterson asked himself. They were damned flying torpedoes!

Modern ships relied mainly upon destroying the targets before torpedoes were launched to stop them being hit. And any way of defeating them couldn't cope with this many.

Five of the torpedoes hit Peterson's ship, and it sank in minutes.

The rest went on into Pearl Harbour.

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

Victor slammed his fist on the desk in anger.

Most of the Pacific Fleet had been destroyed! The Enterprise was the only carrier out of harbour then, and that had been hit by determined Russian attacks.

The Americans had no real power left in the Pacific, and it terrified Victor. What if the Chinese invaded America itself?!

Then he recieved a report which made him even angrier.

The allied units had been withdrawing to the French border, having lost Germany, and French reinforcements coming out to help had attacked them! It was a rout, America had lost the European land war.

And the sea war, Victor thought bitterly.

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

Ducos drank the champagne heartily, and grinned to his wife.

"The Americans and British are doomed." he laughed.

Then an aide rushed in.

"Sir! The Russians haven't stopped at the border! They're invading us!"

Oh sh*t! Jean thought.

"Get me a direct line to Washington." he panted, suddenly short of breath.

Two minutes later a secure line to the White House was established.

"Yes, what is it you traitorous scum?" Victor growled.

"It was a mistake! One of my generals went rogue!" Ducos gabbled.

"The hell it was!" President Allard spat.

"The Russians have invaded us! We need your help!" Ducos didn't mind begging at times like this.

"You won't receive it, since the only reinforcements we could have sent you you destroyed!"

"What about units coming over from America?"

"They will be deployed in Britain and Spain. You can rot in hell for all I care."

Ducos heard the line go dead. Victor had put the phone down on him.

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

"The French are getting what they deserve." Victor snarled.

"Yes, but it's the French people who will suffer, not that moron who leads them." Prime Minister of Britain, Andrew Hastings shook his head.

"Just let them wear themselves down on the French, then we will counter-attack from Spain. The French people will not be under occupation for long." Victor sat back in his Oval Office chair.

"Yes, but how long can we keep the Atlantic open? That's the question." Andrew leant forward onto the desk.

"I really don't know." Victor sighed. "I just don't know."

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

[civman2000]

incredible! very reminiscent of Ich Bin Ein Berliner, which, incidentally, you also wrote ...

PS: Did you know that "The Hunting Season" is doing pretty well in the story contest?

[PsionicMind]

Great stuff always enjoyable, cbraund

[cbraund]

"The war will be one in a week, sir. We will destroy the rest of the mainland European forces within two days, and then crush Britain and Iceland in five." Stalin's Defence Minister smiled wolfishly. He was an ex-Spetsnaz man, and still, even in his fifties, a very lethal killer.

"Very good, Minister." Stalin smiled at the eagerness of the man. Unlike his father, he knew that he had to be nice to survive, the Russian people had got too used to comfort to put up with harsh rule. Of course, that didn't stop him destroying the Moscow Mafia using ruthless KGB assassinations, but they were criminals. The normal person and his staff had to like him, he had decided.

"Also, Operation Whitewash is underway as we speak."

"Good, it's about time that there was a spring clean at the White House." Stalin laughed. He glanced at his watch. It was ten in the morning in Moscow.

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

Which meant it was 2am in Washington.

The assassin shot the two agents patrolling the upper floor with his silenced Walther PPK. He had that gun so that if he was caught, it wouldn't point immediately to Moscow.

But he had to succeed for Mother Russia!

He entered the President's bedroom, and ignored the First Lady, who was sleeping soundly.

He creeped silently round the other side of the bed, then kicked something soft.

The soft object barked, waking the President.

Damn dog! the assassin thought. No one told me there would be a dog!

Victor jumped out of bed, trying to remember his Navy SEAL training. He was only 38, one of the youngest US Presidents ever, and still in good shape. He turned on the light, and reached for his gun.

The assassin fired his weapon first however.

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

The trolley crashed through the hospital doors, the crying relatives running alongside the paramedics and the Detail.

Ten minutes later the patient was declared dead.

Victor punched the wall in despair. The dog had saved his life by jumping on the assassin as he fired, ruining his aim. He had however hit the First Lady. Victor had quickly despatched the assassin with a shot to the head, and then his Detail burst in. But it was too late, FLOTUS(First Lady Of The United States) was dying.

And now she was dead, his love of twenty four years. He cried in anguish and anger. He knew who did this.

"Get me a line to the Prime Minister of Britain. I have a job for the SAS." he ordered.

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

The Politburo meeting to update them on the war was dragging on for Stalin. He stifled a yawn, and realised everyone was looking expectantly at him.

He glanced at his notes, then gestured to the Defence Minister.

Boris Valentinov, Defence Minister, stood, and smiled.

"It is my very great pleasure to declare myself President of the Russian Federation and to declare an end to this war. The orders have been sent to all Russian units to stop fighting and return to Russia." he saluted Stalin.

Stalin looked confused, then was gripped by panic.

"Guards!" he yelled.

But all he heard was gunfire, and the sound of the SAS barging through the doors.

"You are all under arrest." the commander of the SAS nodded to Stalin.

"Damn you traitor!" Stalin shouted at Boris.

"I am no traitor. I just prefer a free Russia. I am a patriot!"

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

Andrew grimaced as the SAS squad reported in, directly to him.

"It has been done, he is in control, but for how long?" the Captain in charge spoke.

Hastings turned to his MI6 Director, who nodded.

"Some Russian units have declared for Valentinov." she spoke quietly. "But others have declared him a traitor, and vow to free Stalin before his trial and execution tomorrow. Others are going rogue, trying to get their leader as President or just getting what they can from the situation. Others are even striking at NATO troops as we move into the reclaimed territory."

Damn, Andrew thought. Victor hadn't a clue what can of worms he'd just opened! Yes, he had stopped Russian involvement in World War 3, but China was still at large, and now the USSR had become a bloodbath! If only he'd thought it through, he could have installed a democratic goverment once more in Russia with UN peacekeepers there. But that would now have to wait until after the civil war. Andrew had no doubts that democracy would have been a lot easier had there been elections right after the coup, with lots of UN peacekeepers there, but not with someone usurping the throne as the CIA agent Boris had.

Then the note was given to him.

"Thank god!" he groaned.

"What?" asked the Director of MI6.

"China has declared that it wants peace talks with NATO."

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

Victor stood silently at the graveside as his wife was lowered into it. World War 3 was over, although Russia was still in turmoil, with coup after coup weakening the country. Boris was long dead, but the civil war raged on.

And there was peace with China.

As he left the graveyard, his Defence Secretary ran up to him.

"Sir, China has just invaded Russia! We can't allow them to gain all of Russia, it will create a superstate to beat America!"

"Get everyone to the Situation Room!" Victor ordered.

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

[cbraund]

"Mr. President, we were unable to stop the Chinese taking Russia, we simply didn't have time to get there."

"Damn!" Victor cursed, remembering his Defence Secretary's words.

"I wouldn't worry sir." that same SecDef now turned to him with a grin on his face. "The Chinese wanted Russia for two main things, space and oil. Well, they've got all the space they want, they've now tripled the size of their country, but we found out why Russia went to war. Their oil fields had run dry, leaving them with only enough for another five months."

Victor smiled now also. "So what you're saying is, they have all the space they want, but they don't have the oil to patrol it and keep it?"

"Exactly. If we keep them on high alert for one month and stop any oil imports getting to them, then the Chinese will have no fuel left to fight us, and we can walk in to Russia!"

"It won't be quite that easy, but I get your drift." Victor grinned.

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

The Black Hawk pilot yawned as he began to turn for home, his wingman's craft following his. Then he saw dust clouds in the distance.

"Let's check that out." he said to his co-pilot and to his wingman. Both acknowledged.

Something strange was going on, he decided. That cloud was coming from the Syrian desert. He made a split second decision to cross the border without permission, after all, this could be a Syrian invasion force!

As he got closer, he saw tanks that were heading south, down a route which would take them through the Iraqi desert and into the Saudi desert.

What the hell was this?! He turned up the magnification on his secondary screen, and saw the markings on the tanks.

Chinese!

In an instant he realised what they were doing. They were invading Saudi Arabia to get the oil fields! And they were going through uninhabited areas and neutralising anything that found them so they would hit an unsuspecting foe.

That last thought shocked him out of his thoughts. He had to get out of here fast! He and his wingman turned, but not before two SAMs had locked onto them. They fired, but the advanced Black Hawks dodged them.

He quickly began to send a message to HQ, and in doing so failed to see the Su-27 Flankers coming up behind him.

Their missiles destroyed both helicopters before the messages were fully out.

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

"Mr. President, two Black Hawks have bee lost in the Syrian desert. It appears they were checking out something strange, and were most likely shot down by the Syrians, who are denying it. Our last transmission from them was this..." Victor's Secretary of Defence played the tape.

"I see an armoured column heading..." before the tape ended in static.

"Is that all?!" Victor looked astonished.

"Yes sir, that's all they could say in time."

"So we have an armoured column, possibly Iraqi or even Iranian, heading through Syria?" Victor spoke quietly.

"Yes sir, Mr. President. Their target is most likely Israel."

"Okay, you have the go ahead to send more troops to Israel for 'intensive training with our allies'."

"Very good sir." the SecDef smiled. Little did he know that any forces there would be too far north to help the Saudis.

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

[civman2000]

excellent! This is the best part so far!

[cbraund]

The 1st Tank Division of the US Army led the drive south, with a few other US units and the Israeli army following behind. Above, both American, British and Israeli fighters swooped over, destroying any air resistance.

The army group soon parked up. The Chinese army in Saudi Arabia was now trapped there, with the US Navy imposing a formidable blockade, despite the damage done to it already, and it was cut off from the other Chinese forces by the allied army group.

"They're now gonna experience hyperwar!" yelled an F-16 pilot on his radio as his squadron led a large number of the same planes to hit the trapped army.

Chinese air power was non-existent, and they were now going to pay the price. Over 50 F-16s dove down from the sky to release their cluster bombs, and some laser guided ones to hit commander's tanks and HQs.

To the trapped army, it was instant annihilation. Over 80% of the tanks were destroyed, and the rest began to try and break out. The powerful Abrams tanks soon stopped that idea.

The Chinese army in Saudi surrendered.

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

Victor appeared on TV that night.

"This is a message to our Chinese enemies. We will never accept their surrender until Communism is wiped from the face of this earth! And the Politburo will pay dearly for it's crimes!"

He was determined to become the President who defeated Communism once and for all.

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


The Chinese Politburo met for their emergency meeting.

Most of their army was destroyed, the rest stretched to the limit trying to defend so much territory. They now had enough fuel for many more months, with fewer tanks to use it.

"It is obvious we will lose this war. And when they reach Beijing, they will kill us." the Premier spoke the obvious.

A vote was called for, and the motion passed. The Politburo going out in a blaze of glory, it was decided.

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

"Sir! We have twelve ICBMs launched from China!" Andrew's aide rushed up to him.

"Damn, are any aimed at us?"

"Negative, they're all going for America it would seem. Still, we must begin the nuclear evacuation procedure!"

Andrew let himself be hustled into a nuclear shelter.

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

"Bring Star Wars online!" Victor roared at his generals.

"But sir, it's never been tested!" one protested.

"It's better to try and shoot those things down than do nothing!" Victor snapped. He disliked the Control Room on Air Force One, it was too cramped.

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

In the National Missile Defence Headquarters, the general crossed his fingers.

One anti-ICBM missile was fired. It missed.

A second. Hit! One less ICBM to worry about.

This continued until their were three ICBMs left.

One last shot before they got too close... And yes! Another was shot down.

But two ICBMs carried on their way.

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

Air Force One was taking off as the ICBM hit. The famous aircraft shrugged off the blast, and continued into the sky. Washington DC wasn't so lucky, and neither was New York.

Victor glanced at the estimated number of casaulties. He was appalled, and quickly decided on his action.

"Turn China into a parking lot." he ordered.

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

Andrew shook his head in despair. Victor really couldn't see what he'd done wrong. Victor once more yelled at the judge.

He had been impeached and then sent to Europe for trying for crimes against humanity.

And he still was sure he had done nothing wrong.

How about the damned coup in Russia that I so stupidly agreed to? Andrew though grimly. Or what about threatening a nation armed with nuclear missiles? Or killing a billion people by destroying an entire country?

The trial eventually ended, and Victor was hung, still protesting his innocence.

Andrew looked at the floor, ashamed of his small part in this horrid mess.

How could war be politics by other means, as Victor had been so fond of saying? In politics, no one died. A political battlefield and a real one are very different places.

Andrew vowed to remember that thought forever.

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

Sorry it ended so shortly, but I've got ideas for other stories now, and want to get started on those, so I decided to wrap this one up. Anyway, when I begin writing a new story, instead of a long chapter every few nights, I will try to do a few paragraphs every night, so as to keep the flow going more...

Nemesis

[civman2000]

nitpicker's note: the UN does not use the death penalty as punishment for war crimes

[cbraund]

They do now...

Nemesis

[HazieDaVampire]

I cant help think this is a bit of a Blow to Britains current atitudes in helping America, The British people do feel for the Americans loss, inclueding meny other countrys who lost lives in september. But most of us Hate Blair (British Prime minister!), and we hate his way of just sitting around agreeing with people! I doupt he will win the next election!

[cbraund]

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but if you mean that it might make people think twice about Britain helping America in a war, then I hope to god it doesn't, it was just an insight into what can happen if one man has too much power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, if not kept in check.

I personally support Tony Blair, and think he is a great leader, and will defintely win the next elections(who's gonna challenge him, baldy IDS or ginger Kennedy? One's a boring idiot who sends people to sleep and the other is okay, but doesn't have enough of a power base). I also am glad Britain is supporting America in the war on terrorism, and hope we will contribute to smashing Hussein back into his hole.

Chris

[Metaliturtle]

Chris, it's not Hussein, it's Bin Laden we're fighting now, but I appreciate British support, as for your prime minister, I had the honor of meeting him not too long ago, and he was the nicest person I met in your country.

Props to England and all it's homies

Metaliturtle-USA

[cbraund]

I know it's Bin Laden, but I mean that I hope we get rid of Saddam, he's a evil tyrant who needs to be removed, before he can get the weapons to hurt the west.

Chris

[civman2000]

this is getting off topic...