Invasion: China (Invasion America) (Volume 5) (20 page)

MCGRAW: I do. It also happens to be one of our key inducements we could offer any allies, be they Russian or Indian.

LEVIN:
I feel I should point out that Premier Konev is engaged in secret talks with Chairman Hong. They have come to an accord.

HAROLD: I realize that. But the
Russians have also received German Dominion AI Kaisers. It seems the new European Union people don’t like those smart tanks and want to send the entire stock of them as far away as possible. Perhaps as interesting, the Europeans have released General Mansfeld, sending him to the Russians.

LEVIN
: All true. Yet that is a long way toward convincing Konev to fight China. While the Russians would like to regain Siberia, they must realize the cost in blood would be too high.

HAROLD
: It’s one of the reasons we’re working so closely with the Indian League. Still, we cannot leave any stone unturned. Which is why we need your help, Doctor. I realize the CIA knows much more about Russia and India’s internal workings than Homeland Security does. We’re gathering a team. I—
we
plan to send a Presidential representative to Moscow to offer Konev whatever American help it will take to get him to move.

LEVIN
: Who’s your representative?

HAROLD
: An old colleague of yours, Doctor. Anna Chen.

LEVIN
: Anna? I’m surprised you’ve let her live.

HAROLD
: Excuse me?

LEVIN
: Just a slip of the tongue, I’m afraid, and in poor taste.

HAROLD
: We work for the President.

MCGRAW
: David Sims will recover. I answer directly to him.

LEVIN
: We all work for the President. I salute his health.

HAROLD
: We wish him a quick recovery.

(The members pause for a moment of silence.)

LEVIN: I’ll admit you’ve made me curious, Director. Yes, we’re at an impasse, as you say. America cannot allow Chinese armies in Mexico. Yet we can’t go in and defeat them…well, the cost in blood would be too high to go in with millions of US soldiers. You’re hoping to use Russia and India to start a ground war in Asia, which would no doubt pull the PAA troops out of Mexico. I’m wondering if we have more than THOR missiles to offer our allies. (Looks at McGraw.) A minute ago, you were talking about taking over orbital space.

MCGRAW
: Suppose the Indian League drove into Southeast Asia. They’re building up to do that. They have enough infantry, but lack the armor. What could we offer the Indians short of massive reinforcements? Some of my experts looked back to Afghanistan for the answer, to the time we invaded in the 1990s. There, a handful of elite Special Forces, on the ground, called down Air Force smart bombs. Those bombs fell on the enemy’s head, driving them out of their defenses and back onto the road as they fled. That let the Northern Alliance soldiers defeat them.

LEVIN
: I’m not sure I understand. You plan to put Special Forces on the ground in China?

MCGRAW
: Yes and no.

LEVIN
: That doesn’t make sense.

MCGRAW
: Yes, they’ll be on the ground in Southeast Asia. No, they won’t be Special Forces.

LEVIN
: What will they be?

MCGRAW
: Powered armored Marines.

LEVIN
: Is this a joke?

MCGRAW
: I assure you, this is reality.

LEVIN
: But we don’t
have
powered armored Marines, whatever they are.

MCGRAW:
Not yet, we don’t. We’re working on it even now.

LEVIN
: What does powered armored Marine even mean?

MCGRAW:
Men in special battlesuits able to deploy directly from space to anywhere on Earth—we’re hoping to have them within a year.

LEVIN
: From space?

MCGRAW: From near orbital space, that is correct.

LEVIN: How do they help us exactly?

MCGRAW
: Admittedly, we’re developing and manufacturing the prototype armor suits as we speak. Most of the design features already work. The tactical nuclear weapons are proving the most difficult.

LEVIN
: I envision problems with your plan.

HAROLD
: (Clears his throat.) That’s one of the reasons I requested your presence, Doctor. We want to hear your objections.

LEVIN
: Well, you haven’t said how you’re going to put these Marines into orbit in any kind of meaningful numbers.

HAROLD
: Have you ever heard about Project Orion?

LEVIN
: No.

HAROLD:
General, if you would be so kind…

MCGRAW: The Air Force worked on th
e basic concept and design from 1957 to 1965.

LEVIN: This is old technology then
?

MCGRAW: In one sense, you’re right. What we’re suggesting is off the shelf technology, although we can do it better than what the scientists conceived in 1957 could do.
By 1965, they were making feasibility studies for a trip to Mars.

LEVIN: Project Orion concerns building a spaceship?

MCGRAW: Back in the 1950s, there were all kinds of ideas about exploring the Solar System. The trouble was their engines and propellants. Chemical rockets need vast size to loft tiny payloads into orbit. Our ICBMs are an example of that. If we used chemical rockets, we could only lift a handful of Marines into orbit. For useful combat purposes, we need at least a battalion, over one thousand men. Luckily for us, Project Orion involved lifting tons instead of mere pounds into space.

LEVIN: I
get the feeling I’m not going to like your answer.

MCGRAW:
Some might consider it extreme, but it is scientifically feasible. The answer is a lift vehicle powered by nuclear bombs.

LEVIN:
Bombs?

MCGRAW: They will be the propellant.

LEVIN: You’re serious?

MCGRAW: As I said, this was a feasible project
with 1950’s technology. We will construct the Orion ship to absorb the tremendous blasts. The power of the bombs gives the vessel incredible liftoff capability. By building several such Orion ships, we will be able by next year to put a battalion of powered armored Marines into orbit. From there, they could reach anywhere in the world.

LEVIN:
A thousand men…you’d need big haulers.

MCGRAW: Each Orion ship
—what we can put in orbit—will roughly be the size of a five-story hotel.

LEVIN: That big?
I don’t see how one bomb gives it enough boost to get into orbit.

MCGRAW:
One bomb can’t.

LEVIN: Then—

MCGRAW: Every few seconds, a bomb drops into the blast bay, explodes and accelerates the massive ship higher. It will take many bombs per ship.

LEVIN:
You say “many.” You’re talking about thermonuclear explosions. That means in order to lift our ships we will be bombing ourselves.

MCGRAW: In an empty
, already damaged part of the country, yes, that’s true.

LEVIN: This is too farfetched
to believe.

HAROLD: I assure you it is not. Project Orion was always feasible. America lost her will in 1965, and shelved the idea.
Now the will has returned, out of desperation.

MCGRAW: That isn’t entirely true
—I mean about shelving the idea. NASA kept blueprints and specs in case they needed to build an Orion ship fast.

LEVIN: For what possible reason?

MCGRAW: In case a killer asteroid headed toward Earth. They would quickly build an Orion ship and send it out to deflect the world destroyer.

LEVIN:
You can’t be serious.

MCGRAW: It
’s in the history books, Doctor, although it isn’t a well-known fact.

LEVIN:
Hmm…I’m beginning to see. The THOR missiles give us tremendous advantages. Orbital space is a new battleground. High technology combined with elite soldiers—your plan sounds insane, and yet, I can see how it could work with Indian allies.

HAROLD: It isn’t our only solution. Reviving the Grain Union could help us leverage others. If we can get India or Russia to attack China, Hong will have to withdraw his forces from Mexico.

LEVIN: If we see that, others will too.

HAROLD: Which is why we need Argentina and Australia. If we can corner the
food market in a starving world…

LEVIN: You have ambitious plans.

HAROLD: We are Americans. What we need from you, sir, is help with Premier Konev.

LEVIN: Yes, I
can see that. Well, first, let me suggest…

THE STRATOSPHERE

Master Sergeant Paul Kavanagh
felt nauseous as the stratospheric balloon continued to ascend at one thousand feet per minute. The back of his throat burned, and it felt as if his stomach would erupt. He hadn’t taken his anti-nausea pill earlier, and now he realized that had been a mistake.

He and
four fellow powered armor Marine trainees waited in pressure suits, although they had yet to don their helmets. They sat inside a special capsule that dangled from the polyethylene balloon. This was to be their latest free fall drop, the first one from the stratosphere and the first one from a balloon-carried capsule.

Paul checked the monitor. The five of them faced inward, staring at a tri-screen. Their great enemy
had been wind earlier. It could have literally torn the balloon apart. The worst time had been during their ascent through the troposphere—30,000 to 60,000 feet—where turbulence was common.

At the
secret launch site in Montana, the helium inflatable had been tall and thin, stretching fifty-five stories high. As the giant balloon rose, it slowly filled out, and would reach an almost completely round shape at 120,000 feet, or twenty-three miles from sea level, their destination.

“We’re slow
ing down,” Romo said.

Paul checked the numbers
at the bottom of the tri-screen. Yeah. They were leveling off as they approached their float height, now rising at approximately 750 feet per minute.

They were in near space, still part of Earth’s atmosphere. Here, though, there was very little air.
Still, it was enough resistance that it generated too much drag for satellites to remain in orbit. Those flew much higher.

It was dark outside, with the great blue of Earth spreading in every direction
below. This was space, near space, and it made the planet more precious than ever. What had the Chinese been thinking, using nearly four hundred nuclear devices in Oklahoma? The world was huge, sure, but to poison it like that…

Paul shook his head. They weren’t in outer space, in vacuum yet.
Just the same, none of them could survive outside here.

He recalled some data about their capsule and the stratosphere. The outer shell of th
is little pod was fiberglass and paint, with heavy foam insulation. That protected them from the current temperature: minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Nor could they breathe outside on their own here. The pressure would be so low that the liquids in their body tissues would turn to gas and expand dangerously. The symptom was called embolism.

Nausea hit again, although
Paul masked it from the others. Keeping his face like stone, he pretended nothing was wrong.

Crazy
orbital dropping Marines—
what was I thinking joining up?

He peered at the monitor, at the blue curvature of the Earth. It was so beautiful.
Cheri is down there. I’m coming home, babe. I promise you that, by God, I do
.

Yeah. He knew what he’d been thinking. For one thing, that he’d had enough of nuclear war. He didn’t want to be running outside on the ground
again when the Chinese popped off another round of atomic strikes. Forget that garbage!

In Oklahoma near Stillwater, watching the mushroom clouds climb into the horizon, five different columns
spread across the horizon—whew! It had done something to him. He’d been fighting the Chinese for some time. He didn’t like the damn invaders, but in his mind, the Chinese and Brazilians were no worse than the Germans of last year. Until that moment lying on the ground, watching the radiation clouds rise, it hadn’t been personal in a gut-check way. With his NBC equipment working, listening to the filters cycle his air, watching the end of the world—
Yeah. That’s what it had felt like. The Chinese wanted to end the world. Lighting off those babies made it a different ballgame. He couldn’t defend his wife anymore by fighting on the front lines, or behind enemy lines.
He fought to keep the enemy far away from his home. But if the Chinese deployed thermonuclear weapons…there was no protecting people from that while running around on the battlefield as a Recon Marine.