Chapter 1: Unexpected Developments

(Day 41 — July 2, Anchorage, Alaska)

Paul Kensington was informed that he was drafted to be the Minister of Faith for the new Commonwealth. This both surprised and overwhelmed him. Vice-Governor Sellers swore him in and explained his duties. Very simply, he was to keep the government out of peoples' religious beliefs, and protect those whose right to worship was infringed upon. At first that didn't seem bad, and he was given a draft of the proposed Constitution to read over, and make any changes to the draft concerning how people were allowed to worship.

His first item was the definition of a religion. Paul shook his head, and decided it meant the worship of the one true God. That was simple enough. That also brought to mind where in recent years, Satanism, and Wicca became accepted as mainstream religions.

Paul often was suspicious of those covens, because it had been rumored that they were behind many of the disappearances of children, and young girls that were then sacrificed during satanic rituals. If those people felt unwelcome, then they could feel unwelcome on a boat to the West Coast as far as Paul Kensington was concerned. Strangely, those were many of the ones that had died off from the bio-chemical agent. Never the less, Paul reminded the Congress in his notes to ban those supposed religions from Alyeska, that being founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs, then that meant following the "Ten Commandments" in their laws.

This meant with the first Commandment, "Thou shall have no other Gods before me," means that God or No god. If you didn't believe in that God, you could stay, but you were not allowed to interfere with, or criticize those who did for the privilege of being a Citizen of Alyeska. Atheists simply accepted and allowed the Christians, Jews and to an extent Muslims to exist and worship, as long as they didn't persecute one another. A pastor from Houston, north of Anchorage, suggested using the Old Testament "Sojourner's Law" where they could worship as the citizens do, or do nothing, but it was omitted because the Southeast representative said it established a State Religion.

To condemn or promote the condemnation of another's faith would be considered a crime, punishable by deportation to the outside. Basically, everyone could do their own thing when it concerned worship, as long as it didn't physically impede or harm another. It was a live and let live approach, that Paul saw no fault with other than with witches and devil worshipers.

When it was received in Anchorage, the idea, simple as it was, underwent some heated debate, finally being passed 7-1. Everyone was free to leave, and the "Love it or Leave it" signs, T-shirts and bumper stickers that were appearing in the gift shops soon began to become quite popular among the younger kids. John Mason raised some concern, due to a South American dictatorship adopting a slogan similar to that a few years back. The gift shops were asked to post a notice that it was not a state mandated or supported statement, rather a voluntary show of patriotism.

(Aboard the Russian Ballistic Missile submarine "Petropavlosk" in the Gulf of Alaska)

Captain Rustovksi listened to his radioman, Zukovich as he gave the report on the Abe Lincoln Battle Group. "Anchorage, Yuri? Are you certain?"

"Aye Captain," replied Yuri Zukovich, "to take on fuel and supplies. Captain, do you think we could be allowed to take on provisions?"

"Yuri, I do not know what else we can do," the Captain offered. "At least that Commander didn't send his hunter subs or helicopters after us, and he did acknowledge our presence. I still have a hard time believing it was our supposed friends the Chinese that used Bio-warfare on Mother Russia. I understood the Chechens trying to kill us, but now the Chinese, Syrians and Iranians? Who can you trust anymore?"

"In God, my Captain," Zukovich answered. "Trust that God spared enough people in the far north to continue."

The Captain chuckled, "Ah, Yuri, you still believe in the Christian God? Maybe that is why we still survive, because of you and your God. Tonight, Yuri, we shall surface and contact the Alaskans, and see if they are our friends."

(Day 42 - July 3, 8:10 a.m., Kaltag, Alaska on the Yukon River)

As Jeff Owens patrolled low along the Yukon River in his Cessna 182 with another pilot that cloudy morning, he spotted something that looked like a small submarine between Kaltag and Grayling. What it would be doing in the Yukon he couldn't imagine. It was Jeff's first flight as a reservist but he was paired with a former Vietnam era Air Force pilot, nicknamed Grif who assured Jeff that they were looking at some sort of small submarine.

Grif radioed the base at Galena for something that could defend itself. Two Vietnam Era UH-1 Huey helicopters with door mounted guns and rocket launchers mounted on the sides, were dispatched. Grif cautioned that the sub had a deck gun and probably some kind of machine gun, and advised Jeff to keep his distance as they made a very wide circle just under the clouds. The new Alyeska Navy didn't have subs that small.

Suddenly Grif called out, "Break hard left! We have hostiles on the ground!"

Grif warned Jeff of small arms fire and as the Huey gunships came within sight, he described the location they were taking fire from to the flight leader. As the helicopters came in close, they too drew fire and the second chopper fired a salvo of rockets and a lethal stream of 7.62mm projectiles from the mini-gun pod slung beneath the landing skids. After two passes the landing party was taken out and a Blackhawk helicopter with a squad of Marines aboard came to look for stragglers. They reported a body count of 10 enemy soldiers.

The sub apparently ran aground and the crew was headed to Kaltag to steal a boat or boats to pull it loose. When it appeared there were no survivors ashore, the Colonel in command at Galena, requested the Marines to secure the submarine and determine who was left inside, and why they were heading up the Yukon River.

This was the third sighting of what appeared to be a small submarine in the Yukon River in two weeks. The other two sightings were farther down river, and occurred in the dark twilight of the short night, and both were made from shore. As soon as a boat or a scout plane moved in for a closer look both times, the object vanished from sight. In fact the sub had submerged, and would stay submerged and traveled only at night, when it could run on the surface. This time it became entangled in a fishing net, and drifted onto a sand bar. Now they had the proof that there was a sub and not a sea monster like a Native from Emmonak had seen on July 3^rd.

When the second Marine team arrived, they boarded the small sub, killed two and captured two of the men left on board, whose mission it was to deliver the ten commandos to secure the Galena Airport for a troop transport assault. Through some extreme interrogation techniques, the sub's captain disclosed the Chinese occupied base on the Kamchatka Peninsula across the Bering Sea. There was no Geneva, and therefore, no more Geneva Convention to contend with. Putting it simply, they were creatively interrogated.

The second Mach 6 Aurora stealth spy plane was dispatched from Eilson AFB, and sent to verify the location of the base. An EP-3 Aries (the same kind of plane forced down in April of 2001 after colliding with a Chinese fighter) was dispatched from Adak on the Aleutians to eavesdrop on the communications that were about to take place.

(July 4 - Day 43, Galena)

Intelligence gathered from the crew revealed that the submarine commandos were to take over the airport and kill everyone in the village, and make sure that no planes could get off the ground. Documents taken from the commandos revealed that upon the success of the mission, the officer in charge of the commandos was to send a message from the sub to Gen Chung. The confirmed target Galena, was seen as the first real obstacle coming from the east over Norton Sound on the way to the pipeline near Fairbanks. The codebooks and countersigns were among the documents captured on the sub. In the event the enemy had any other agents listening to triangulate the signal when it was sent, the sub had been towed up the Yukon to Galena by several boats.

As dawn broke, an electronically edited transmission from the Chinese Galena assault force giving Gen Chung the code word for a successful mission allowing him to proceed with the attack was transmitted from the sub. The transmission sent by the Crypto-linguistic team was acknowledged and confirmed with the countersign verifying the message was authentic and the attack was bring launched.

Just east of Kamchatka Peninsula at 25,000 feet, six big IL-76 transports formed up with two tankers, two H-5 bombers and four F-8 fighters for escorts. The IL-76 transports were loaded with seven hundred troops and their support equipment. The assault on Galena had begun.

The E-2 and E-3 AWACS on duty picked them up on their radar and the fighters from Shemya, and Adak were scrambled to intercept them. The EP-3 confirmed the conversations were Chinese and reported that these were definitely hostile.

Approximately ten minutes into the flight, the two H-5 bombers, the Chinese version of the Russian TU-16 Badger turned and headed north of the assault force. They were equipped with two cruise missiles each that carried more doses of IT. Their targets were Barrow and Prudhoe Bay, which had been ignored in the first strike. The E-3 noted the change to the attack coordinator. The E-3 was told to keep track of them but all intercept aircraft were to stay on the target.

Once the force took Galena and had an airbase firmly in the interior of the new Commonwealth, the rest of the surviving Chinese force in Asia was to be moved there as a forward base. A second and third dose of the biochemical agent applied to the regrouped American forces at Anchorage would finish them for good.

(Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln)

"Admiral Handley," Grover advised, "an assault force from what might be the last bastion of the Red Chinese military has launched a group of air transports headed for Galena on the Yukon River to try and created a forward base and take the pipeline by capturing the middle. We captured one of their small diesel submarines and the Captain was persuaded to tell us his mission. Right now we have F-18's, F-14's, F-15's and some F-22's enroute to intercept them over the Bering Sea. We will try to jam their radio transmissions, but when word gets back to their base on the Kamchatka Peninsula, they will either re-launch or regroup."

"Are we sure they are not Russians?" asked Handley. "The Russian capability is presently unknown, other than they hit them first and five times as hard."

"The sub captain was a Chi-comm," Grover confirmed. "The Crypto-linguistic team confirmed the countersign verifying the message of Galena's capture and the EP-3 intercepted and confirmed the communications between the transports concerning the attack. They are definitely Chi-comms. Regardless, they are attacking, and thus a hostile force is intent on landing on our soil and taking our primary oil supply."