Stephen Coonts - Combat

“Check INN,” the admiral suggested, smiling. It was just 1600.

Jenny selected to broadcast, and saw Markin’s now-familiar face. Behind him was a commercial satellite image of the destroyed gun. Markin was excited, almost frantic.

“Flash! Only a short time ago sources revealed the destruction of the Gongga Shan Dragon Gun by Defender , and also the destruction of two orbital kill vehicles. The Chinese attempted to use these to shoot down the American spacecraft and a GPS satellite, but according to my source, both weapons were destroyed after an extended battle.”

“Extended battle?” Jenny wondered aloud.

“Well, it was extended in orbital terms.” The Admiral’s smile widened.

“ You’re his source?” Jenny asked, almost shouting, and then controlling her voice.

“This time, yes. I felt bad about bamboozling him earlier this morning. There’s no more need for secrecy, and I figured the best way for the media to get it straight was to get it straight from me.”

They watched Markin’s piece together for a few more minutes, as he detailed the engagements in space and the damage to the Chinese. Finally, he started to repeat himself, and Jenny checked the status board. Defender was now blacked out, and would be until she finished reentry.

The admiral watched her for a moment, then said, “Congratulations, Jenny. You made it happen.”

“Congratulations to all of us, Admiral. We all did it.”

“We all believed we could make it work, Jenny, and worked our tails off to prove it to the rest of the world. But you and Chris Brown saved the mission. Chris is a civilian, and he’ll get a commendation for his civil service file. I’m recommending you for the Navy Cross. Nobody fired a shot in your direction, but you were in the fight as much as anyone. Your quick thinking saved lives, and won a battle.”

Jenny felt herself flush, and she automatically came to attention. “Thank you, sir!” Then she wavered. “But what about Defender … ”

Schultz waved a hand, cutting off her protests. “Oh, yes, there’ll be medals and parades and all the glory a grateful nation can provide. They’ve earned all of it.”

“Do you think Ray will be able to get a little free time?” she asked quietly.

LARRY BOND is forty-nine and lives with his wife, Jeanne, and daughters, Katie and Julia, in Virginia outside Washington, D.C. After coauthoring Red Storm Rising with Tom Clancy, he has written five novels under his own name: Red Phoenix, Vortex, Cauldron , and The Enemy Within . The latest is Day of Wrath , which was published by Warner Books in June 1998. His writing career started by collaborating with Tom Clancy on Red Storm Rising , a runaway New York Times best-seller that was one of the best-selling books of the 1980s. It has been used as a text at the Naval War College and similar institutions. Since then, his books have depicted military and political crises, emphasizing accuracy and fast-paced action. Red Phoenix, Vortex , and Cauldron were all New York Times best-sellers.

He has also codesigned the Admiralty Trilogy series of games, which includes Harpoon, Command at Sea, and Fear God & Dreadnought . The first two have both won industry awards, while the third will be published in late 2000.

Now in its fourth edition, Harpoon won the H. G. Wells Award, a trade association honor, in 1981, 1987, and 1997 as the best miniatures game of the year. It is the only game to win the award more than once. The computer version of the game first appeared in 1990, and won the 1990 Wargame of the Year award from Computer Gaming World , an industry journal.

Excerpts from The New Ways of War: Politico-Military Evolution in the Opening Decades of the Twenty-first Century.

Professor Christine Arkady,

University of Southern California Press, 2035

Much to the consternation of the international community, the African race wars raged on into the new millennium, but not in the format of the old black and white South African conflict. African and Afrikaner came to accommodations with comparative rapidity following the end of apartheid in the 1990s. Replacing it was a new, ominous, and growing confrontation between black and brown.

In a great arc across the African Sahel from the Atlantic to the Sudan, an almost continuous series of border clashes and minor insurgencies sputtered and flared between the Arabic-Moorish nations of North Africa and the Black African states of the Sub-Sahara. Fueled by racism, newborn nationalistic pride and old tribal enmities, and fanned by self-seeking political leaders and Islamic radicals, the potential for an open conflagration loomed large within the region.

The flash point came in the fall of 2021. The Islamic Republic of Algeria, the new primary troublemaker among the northern tier Arabic states, began beating the drum of Jihad against Mali, its immediate neighbor to the south. Taking up the cause of a small Mali-based group of Tuareg separatists with a sudden and suspicious vociferousness, the Algerians launched a major military buildup along the Mali border, all the while calling for a “liberation of our Muslim brothers from the black animists.”

This in the face of the fact that the vast majority of Mali’s population was also Islamic, albeit of a decidedly more moderate cast than the Revolutionary Council in Algiers.

Mali, in and of itself, was no great prize for any would-be conqueror. Wracked by drought and desertification, it was a strong contender for the title of the poorest nation on Earth. In a strategic military sense, though, it represented a pearl beyond price for any potential empire builder coveting Northwestern Africa. The largest of the West African states, Mali is set in the literal heart of the region. Every other nation around the West African periphery is vulnerable to an invasion staging out of Malian territory.

Reacting to that threat, and to the pleas for assistance from the Malian government, the West African Economic Federation deployed counterforces into Mali in the first major regional security operation ever launched by that fledgling organization. However, although willing, the WAEF combat units were woefully outnumbered and underequipped to face the armored juggernaut being assembled by the Algerians. Chairman Belewa of the Federation Board of Unity, an intensely realistic statesman, dispatched an urgent request for military assistance to both the United States and France.

France replied with a Force d’Intervencion task group built around the First Regiment Etranger d’Cavalerie . The United States deployed the Second Army Expeditionary Force with two attached elements: the Thirteenth Aviation Brigade (Support) and the Seventh Cavalry Regiment (Armored Strike).

It was hoped that the presence of the Legionnaires and the Garryowens on the ground in Mali would serve as a trip-wire deterrent to Algerian military adventurism.

The hope proved to be false.

Lieutenant Jeremy Bolde rode in ABLE ’s open commander’s hatch with the balanced ease born of long practice. His wiry, well-muscled form flowed with each jolt and lurch of the big Shinseki armored fighting vehicle in much the same way as a skilled rider moved with the trail pacing of his horse. In that portion of his mind not involved with his focused and deliberate scanning of the surrounding terrain, the words of a song from the old army circled past, his sun-cracked lips pursed in an unheard whistle.