DEFCON Year One

Chapter 6

One month after successfully securing the Spratley and Paracel islands as well as the African continent, the US Military could turn its attention towards its next target, which was Iran. And this meant defeating Iran on the sea first while US forces were converging in the Indian Ocean to prepare for amphibious operations. And they would need launch bases for this, which the US didn't hesitate to build on the newly-taken islands in the South China Sea as well as Africa, the Caribbeans and Europe. The US Military also needed those bases to spread goodwill to the populations living in the American-controlled areas of the world.

Since the next target was Iran, the United States needed to distract China and Russia elsewhere so that these two countries wouldn't intervene. And the US had just the right strategy by spreading false rumors about the Afghan authorities trying to invade China from the West. This actually prompted the Chinese authorities to redeploy most of their units to the border with Afghanistan while Russian forces were redeployed to Central Asia to prevent China from falling.

But the real operations were taking in the Strait of Ormuz, where a huge naval battle involving two US aircraft carriers as well as two US landing ships and their whole escort group, including submarines, were going to meet the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps' naval forces and the Iranian navy.

But the American navy made sure that the IRGC and the Iranian navy fell into the US Navy's trap by spreading false intelligence to the Iranians, going as far as replicating Operation Mincemeat, during which a dead homeless man's body was taken from a morgue, given a new name and finally dumped into the sea for it to be found with false invasion plans. And the Americans did just that, successfully deceiving Iranian military higher ups into thinking the US Navy was going to battle them in the Strait of Ormuz itself.

And among those involved was Evie Dunning, who was now watching the US aircraft carriers launching plane after plane to secure the strike group first. Evie looked on as US aircraft were now gaining altitude when she suddenly noticed half of the American aircraft banking towards the Strait of Ormuz. She understood this was going to be a lenghthy and terrible battle.

Such a battle was indeed unheard of in the US Navy's history. And among the US Navy pilots and aviators involved were Alicia "Metal" Briggs, Lucky and her WSO Zombie, all of whom knew this battle could decide the outcome of the whole war in the Middle East region. And the pilots knew exactly where the Iranian ships were thanks to satellite imagery and reel-time reconnaissance footage from US Navy RQ-4 drones.

Metal then brought her F/A-18E towards the Iranian ships while Lucky and Zombie flew theirs behind Metal. Suddenly, Metal saw an EA-18G Growler flown by Kelly "KJ" Jensen and her WSO Lonnie "Lighter" Munning firing an AGM-88 HARM missile, followed by other Growlers. And the Growlers fired their missiles to destroy the radar of Iranian ships, effectively turning them into blind enemies.

"Magnum." KJ said as she fired her missile at the Iranian warships.

A couple seconds later, KJ saw her missile hit the Iranian flagship as well as other Iranian warships getting their radar blown to bits. Lighter saw this and knew it was time for the AGM-84-Harpoon-armed F/A-18Es and F/A-18Fs to get involved. And those Super Hornets were to sink the Iranian ships while the other half of the Super Hornet were to provide air cover for the whole carrier group.

"Radar neutralized. Blue Sky in effect." Lighter announced.

With that signal, Lucky and Metal pushed the button as did the other pilots, therefore sending their AGM-84s towards the Iranian ships. A mere couple seconds later, the missiles hit their targets, creating a huge hole in the hull of the Iranian ships. And through the hole, tons of saltwater flowed into the ship, causing them to capsize and sink, bringing thousands of sailors with them. But Metal had the feeling that the Iranian air force was going to send fighter jets to the carrier group.