Tipping Point 08.Invasion by John O'Brien

Author:John O'Brien [John O'Brien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-06T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Offshore Hualien, Taiwan

3 August, 2021

Light blazed across the open sea like a breath of fresh air. The battles of the night had been made worse by the simple fact that it had been dark. Breakers caught the oranges and yellows as they rolled toward land and hissed over smoothed sands. With the sun rising steadily above the horizon, it seemed that the horrors sweeping across the island were swept away with the dawn’s light. A temporary calm had descended, but one could feel the tension of a greater storm that could break at any time.

Taiwanese soldiers, dog-tired from the terror-filled events and relocations, squinted in the light of the new day as they stared out from hastily prepared fortifications. The sound of diesel engines and the smell of exhaust permeated bunkers and heavy machinery continued working to improve defensive lines.

MREs were torn open and their contents devoured with little relish or enjoyment. Junior officers roamed behind trench lines and bunkers, moving machine gun locations as the light revealed gaps in overlapping fields of fire. Ammunition crates were carried to emplacements and stacked. Field artillery crews registered coordinates and sight lines.

The few available AH-64E Apache Guardian and AH-1W SuperCobras were spread in cleared areas next to rivers flowing out from the highlands or along secondary roads leading into the hills. With the dawn, pilots sat in their cockpits, prepared to take off on short notice. Fuel and ammunition trucks were hidden in tree lines, ready to emerge to quickly conduct hot refueling and rearming operations.

Farther inland, UH-60M Blackhawk and CH-47SD Chinook transport helicopters were placed adjacent to reserve troops so they could be conveyed to hotspots as the need arose. There wasn’t a soul among the reservists that didn’t doubt their number would be called. The waiting and not knowing where and when was the worst, with time flowing like cold molasses.

On the west coast, F-35Bs were parked in underground hangars, their internal bays loaded with a variety of AGM-65 Maverick and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. A few had the GBU-39 Small Diameter Glide Bombs, which had been snuck in by the United States, a decision made at the last moment when transport aircraft had still been able to land on the island. The plan for the F-35Bs was to attack any potential breakthroughs by the Chinese forces attempting to gain a foothold. It was expected to be a dangerous and extremely hostile environment due to China’s air dominance, with the F-35B’s stealth characteristics hopefully mitigating some of the risks.

The soldiers on the east, near Hualien, strained to see through the glare of the early morning sun, the light tending to play tricks with their vision. When they could at last see well enough to distinguish objects, the sight was alarming, to say the least.

Hundreds of ships were arrayed at sea, their silhouetted hulls reflecting the dawn’s light. There were so many that the horizon line was lost. Some were stationary while others prowled back and forth.

Out to sea, the sense of calm, unmoving ships belied what was happening aboard.

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