Monroe Doctrine: Volume IV

Book 4: Monroe Doctrine

by James Rosone, Alex Aaronson

Genres: Sea Adventures; Terrorism & Assassination Thrillers; Vigilante Thrillers; Science Fiction; Military Sci-Fi; military; technothriller; war and military; Hi TechThriller

Synopsis

When she won the presidency…

…the world was in crisis.

Would Blain be able to maintain her trust at this crucial hour?

The Chinese were driven out of the Caribbean, but Blain knew it was at a terrible cost. There were those in the administration that had lost their nerve. The President was determined to slay the Jade Dragon, but would he be able to get her what she needs to win?

A divided cabinet threatens everything.

Is the political pressure too much?

The Japanese have stepped up. They’ve deployed forces to the mainland, but is it too little too late to make a difference?

A massive Chinese army seeks to divide Russia in two and break the supply lines. One Italian artilleryman fights to stay alive. If he can just get into position, he’ll call in the strike, and the Chinese won’t know what hit them. It could be the break NATO needs, but the odds are against him.

The most dangerous front…

…is on the airwaves.

With socially engineered deepfakes and propaganda sowing the seeds of distrust across the globe, the tech giants are at the center of it all. Can they be stopped?

Will freedom of speech be lost, and with it, all hope?

You’ll love Volume Four in The Monroe Doctrine saga because this one strikes close to home and we must all be prepared for when fiction becomes our reality.

Get it now.

Release date: January 23, 2022

Publisher: Front Line Publishing Inc.

Print pages: 365

Sample

Chapter One
Battle of the Senkaku Islands

May 2025
Miyakojima Island, Okinawa Prefecture
JS Izumo
Japanese Combined Task Force

Rear Admiral Mori Risa looked at her task force, glad for once not to be facing more Chinese warships. After the pyrrhic victory many months ago near the Jeju-do Islands, she had been all but sure she would be replaced as the Izumo task force commander. Had the Chinese not landed a dozen cruise missiles on the admiralty and several nearby buildings, killing a huge swath of the naval leadership, she likely would have been pushed out. As it was, the senior leadership of the Japanese Navy had been decimated. It was clear she wouldn’t rise any higher in the ranks than she had, but for the time being, she retained her command. Most officers would fume over this, but not Mori. This not-so-subtle rebuff ultimately meant she’d get to stay at sea, where the fight was. In her mind, this wasn’t an end to her upward mobility. It was an assurance that she’d continue to be an instrument of death against her nation’s enemies.
As her task force sailed past Okinawa, she hoped the amphibious rapid deployment brigade they were escorting would be enough to help the ground commanders hold the island of Miyakojima. They had already lost the islands of Yonaguni, Yaeyama, Ishigaki, and Miyako. They represented the bottom chain of the Senkaku Islands, some three hundred kilometers southwest of Okinawa. Since the start of the war, the Senkaku Islands had been steadily fought over and clawed away from Japan by the Chinese naval infantry. Once Taiwan had officially fallen, operations to wrest control of all the islands had begun in earnest.
“Admiral, we’re receiving a message from fleet intelligence,” Captain Nagao said, handing her a tablet with the latest intelligence summary.
As Mori grabbed the tablet, she could tell it didn’t have good news for her based on Nagao’s expression. “That bad?”
“It could be worse,” the captain of the Izumo replied.
Her eyes skimmed over the report until she found what she was looking for. A sizable threat to her task force was en route to Miyakojima. It was still roughly three days out, not leaving her force very much time to offload their much-needed equipment and reinforcements.
The ground commanders will have to make do with what we can deliver, Mori thought. My force can’t be here when the Chinese Navy shows up.
“Once we are in range of our helicopters, begin to ferry the Marines ashore,” she directed Nagao. “We’re not going to have a lot of time to get them and their equipment offloaded, so the sooner we begin, the better.”
*******

1st Amphibious Rapid Deployment Regiment

Colonel Seiji Hirata stood next to the hood of his vehicle and shook his head. He was looking at the positions facing the most likely seaborne approach the Chinese would take. These islands are indefensible, he realized. There were no hills or mountains for them to mount a defense from. They are just too flat, he thought pensively. Still, orders were orders, and they would fight like hell to repel the invaders.
“Sir, we know the enemy is going to land forces, likely along the western side of the island here,” Major Uesono said as he pointed to a couple of spots on the map. “I can’t stop them from landing forces, but what I am doing is placing platoons of Marines in these positions here to make them pay for each meter of land. As we identify where a concerted push is being made, I’ve got some platoons being held back in some Komatsu light armored vehicles. They’ll rush forward and plug holes in our lines when they are created. In addition to the Komatsus, I’ve taken the single platoon of tanks my battalion was given and broken them down into two tank squads. I’ll use them to snipe at any enemy armor or vehicles they bring ashore.”
Colonel Hirata nodded in agreement. They didn’t have a lot of tanks or armored vehicles, so what little they did have, they had to make good use of. “Just make sure your platoons are equipped with plenty of Stinger missiles. We won’t have a lot of air support available to us, so it’ll be imperative to keep their helicopters off our backs. If we can keep this fight to a ground battle, we have a chance of defeating them or at least stalemating them.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll make sure the Stingers are passed around to the platoons.”
“Good. Now go be with your men, Major. It won’t be long before the Chinese are here.”
*******

2nd Platoon

Sergeant Hisakazu Kakegawa looked off to the horizon as the sun began to set. The Chinese were coming—the only question now was when.
That evening, as they ate dinner with some of the locals who had stayed on the island, they heard the sounds of jet engines high overhead. While they couldn’t see what was happening in the darkness or at those altitudes, the sounds of distant explosions told them their part in this battle was not far off. They hurriedly finished their food, encouraging the locals to do what they could to stay safe.
At three in the morning, explosions erupted across the island. Sergeant Kakegawa could swear the Chinese had spotters nearby. The accuracy of their cannon and missile fire was unnerving. Despite having camouflaged their positions and dispersed their few tanks and armored vehicles, they were being systematically blown up.
For two hours, explosions rocked the island. Sergeant Kakegawa wasn’t sure there would be much left by the time the sun came up. Then a bomb went off nearby—the explosion nearly killed him. By the time Kakegawa came to, what had once been a machine-gun bunker now looked like a slaughterhouse. The four soldiers he was supposed to defend this small section of ground with had been reduced to chunks of flesh and bone and tatters of torn uniforms.
Suddenly, the sound of rifles and machine guns erupted nearby. Shaking off the effects of his concussion, Kakegawa searched for the machine gun he and his soldiers were supposed to cover the approach from the beach with.
Blood was running down the side of his face. It was getting in his left eye, causing him to close it defensively until he took a second to try and apply a bandage to stem the flow of blood. As he looked in the direction of the water, figures moving toward him became apparent. The sun is up…how long was I unconscious?
Kakegawa swung the machine gun toward the advancing figures and sighted in on them as best he could. Flicking the safety off, he took aim at a group of them advancing toward him and cut loose with short three-to-five-second bursts. Knocking the figures over with a stream of bullets, he pivoted to another group advancing on his right flank. He opened fire, scattering them for cover.
Somewhere to the right, or maybe it was behind him, more gunfire erupted. He saw other soldiers topple over, being hit by a new barrage of bullets. Then two figures landed in the ruins of his machine-gun bunker with him. At first, Kakegawa wasn’t sure who they were. Then he recognized the face of a fellow sergeant from another platoon. One of them tried to treat his injuries, which he still didn’t know the extent of. He tried to shrug them off, insisting instead that they focus on killing the enemy.
Click, click.
“Get me another belt!” he stammered as his gun ran dry on ammo.
Boom.
Bang!
“Medic! Medic!”
Shouts rang out across the battlefield. People were yelling—some in Japanese, some in Chinese. Explosions joined the fray, intermixed with the sounds of individual rifles and machine guns.
“Helicopters!” one of the soldiers shouted as he pointed to a pair of Harbin Z-9s.
One of the attack helicopters fired off a barrage of rockets at something. Then Kakegawa saw a missile leap up from a cluster of houses nearby. The Z-9 fired a string of flares, to no avail. The Stinger had a firm lock and wasn’t going to be deterred. The helicopter blew apart, crashing in a fiery wreck.
“Sergeant, let me take over the gun for you. You are wounded,” one of the soldiers begged.
Kakegawa struggled to respond. His brain was working so slow. “What’s wrong with me?”
Stepping back, away from the gun, Kakegawa looked down and saw he had blood all over his uniform. He collapsed and his vision continued to narrow. Suddenly, he couldn’t focus. He felt someone pulling at his uniform. Someone was talking to him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying.
I just want to rest my eyes, maybe catch a few minutes’ rest. As he did, everything around him went black.