New Empires: Maxwell's Revenge

On the deck of the massive arsenal ship USS Yorktown, strides the Supreme Commander of the United States, Arthur Maxwell. Maxwell: the victor of the Third Gulf War, conqueror of Russia, and leader of America and its Army, a nation under for martial law for a decade. Having recently defeated the forces of Congress in the 2nd Civil War, Maxwell and his legions are bent on defeating America’s last enemy, Communist China. China stabbed America in the back during the War with Russia, invading the Western states and massacring nearly a million civilians. Only the Great Plague and an American naval victory off San Diego stopped the Eastern hordes, and spared the West the same fate. With Maxwell in complete power at home, and the nation revived, the US can take its revenge.

Upon reaching the Taiwan Straits, Maxwell gives the order to General Spear, his brilliant Land Force commander, "Launch the invasion". Spear carries out the order and out of the bowels of each of the 100 arsenal ships in the fleet pours another fleet of swift hovercraft. Hundreds appear, loading 500 troops each, along with their equipment. A force 100,000 strong is the first wave of a 600,000 man Army Group. As the troopships speed into the horizon toward the Chinese coast, they are joined by equally fast littoral ships which are heavily armed catamarans able to cruise in shallow waters. These will escort the Army to shore and linger to provide shore bombardment, as well as hinder any sortie by the Red Navy.

Reaching the beaches, Spear and his forces spread out into the countryside. In their swift Stryker vehicles, they easily out-maneuver the sluggish Cold War era tank and infantry armies of the Chinese. Despite suffering greatly during the Plague, the enemy can still field 50 million troops, yet Spear’s orders is not to engage the enemy, but to draw them out . As the mass Communist forces assemble, they are blasted to pieces by long-range artillery and rocket fire, as well as extended range gunfire from the Navy, while Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) encircle the battle field, searching for targets of opportunity.

Meanwhile, in the south, the Vietnamese enter the fray. Maxwell has bribed them to launch a diversionary attack, and to tie down enemy divisions on the border. In Manchuria, a United Korean Army instigates another diversion, backed up by 100,000 US Marines flown in by airliners. These begin to probe toward Beijing.
Within 6 weeks the campaign is over, almost twice as long as the capture of Baghdad in the 2nd Gulf War, and nearly as long as Maxwell’s conquest of Russia. Assailed from all sides, the Communists surrender enmasse. The number of enemy dead is never known, but is estimated at 5 million, the bulk of the professional army. The enemy also loses most of its equipment, including 100,000 tanks, 10,000 aircraft, and 1000 warships of various types.

Unlike the Conquest of Russia, Maxwell refuses to occupy the prostrate Chinese. For this he is highly criticized by his generals, yet his reasoning is sound. He is fearful of overreaching himself as other great Conquerors of history, from Alexander to Napoleon, and his own nation has yet to recover form the disasters of the previous decade. So Maxwell and his army returns home, to rest and rebuild. His influence stretches around the globe, making his the greatest Empire in history. As it turns out, he will regret leaving the Chinese to their own devises, but for another generation at least, the hordes of Asia lie dormant. There is peace at last.

New Wars
The transformation of armies, navies, and airpower in the Digital Age.