Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 06 Read Online Free Page A
Author: Fatal Terrain (v1.1)
All
hands, secure loose items and prepare for exposure!”
The
rear cargo doors of the Yunshuji-8C cargo plane motored open at one hundred and
twenty seconds time-to-go in the countdown. Admiral Sun Ji Guoming, deputy
chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army of the Peoples Republic of China , was standing in the forward section of the
cargo plane as the temperature of the cargo hold, already below freezing,
suddenly dropped nearly fifty degrees almost in the blink of an eye. The
ice-cold wind swirled around the huge cargo hold, tugging at legs and arms as
if trying to pull the humans out into the frigid sky. Yes, it was mid-May over
the generally warm, relaxing South China Sea , but at 30,000 feet just before midnight , the air, rushing into the plane at over a
hundred miles an hour, was still bone-snapping cold. The roar of the Y-8C’s
four Wojiang-6 turboprops, at 4,250 horsepower per engine, was deafening even
in the thin air.
The
senior naval officer, like the other engineers and technicians in the cargo
bay, was dressed in a sub-Arctic snowsuit, layered over an oceangoing exposure
suit that was required to be worn anytime they were flying outside safe gliding
range of land. Sun also wore a fur-lined aviation helmet with an oxygen mask
and cold-weather anti-fog goggles. Sun marveled at some of the soldiers working
on the cargo inside the plane— they wore parkas and boots but no gloves, and
they took only occasional gulps of 100-percent oxygen from the masks dangling
down on the sides of their faces as they worked. These men, obviously born in
the punishing cold and high altitudes of Xizang and Xinjiang Provinces of western China , were very accustomed to working in cold,
thin air.
Sun
Ji Guoming was one of a rare breed in the Peoples Liberation Army—a young,
intelligent officer with vision. At the age of only fifty- three, Admiral Sun,
known as the “Black Tiger” because of his noticeably darker, almost Indian-like
complexion, was by far the youngest full flag officer in the history of the
People’s Republic of China . He was at least fifteen years younger than
any other member of the Central Military Commission and thirty years younger
than his superior officer, General Chin Po Zihong, the chief of staff. Suns
family were high Party officials—his father, Sun Jian, was minister of the
State Science and Technology Commission, in charge of restructuring and
modernizing China’s vastly outdated telecommunications infrastructure.
But
Sun had not earned his post merely by his family’s powerful Party connections,
but by his utter devotion to the Party and to its leadership, first as
commander of the South China Sea Fleet, then as former hardline premier Li
Peng’s military advisor, then as chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army
Navy (PLAN), and now as first deputy chief of the general staff and certainly
its next chief, possibly even the next minister of defense. The Black Tiger was
truly one of the fiercest officers in the huge Chinese military.
As
deputy’ chief of staff. Suns main goal was to modernize the huge People s
Liberation Army, to drive it into the twenty-first century. He had been
executive officer several years earlier aboard China 's most ambitious blue-water naval project,
code-named EF5, the destroyer Hong Lung, or Red Dragon. The Hong Lung was an
amazing warship, equal to any other warship owned by any nation on earth. The
ship had been the spearhead of an ambitious plan by the chief of staff. High
General Chin Po Zihong, to occupy several of the Philippine islands, and had
been destroyed in fierce attacks by the United States Air Force and Navy,
including bombardment from outer space. But until the final crushing blow, the Hong Lung had controlled the sea and
airspace in the southern Philippines for hundreds of miles.
That
was
hands, secure loose items and prepare for exposure!”
The
rear cargo doors of the Yunshuji-8C cargo plane motored open at one hundred and
twenty seconds time-to-go in the countdown. Admiral Sun Ji Guoming, deputy
chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army of the Peoples Republic of China , was standing in the forward section of the
cargo plane as the temperature of the cargo hold, already below freezing,
suddenly dropped nearly fifty degrees almost in the blink of an eye. The
ice-cold wind swirled around the huge cargo hold, tugging at legs and arms as
if trying to pull the humans out into the frigid sky. Yes, it was mid-May over
the generally warm, relaxing South China Sea , but at 30,000 feet just before midnight , the air, rushing into the plane at over a
hundred miles an hour, was still bone-snapping cold. The roar of the Y-8C’s
four Wojiang-6 turboprops, at 4,250 horsepower per engine, was deafening even
in the thin air.
The
senior naval officer, like the other engineers and technicians in the cargo
bay, was dressed in a sub-Arctic snowsuit, layered over an oceangoing exposure
suit that was required to be worn anytime they were flying outside safe gliding
range of land. Sun also wore a fur-lined aviation helmet with an oxygen mask
and cold-weather anti-fog goggles. Sun marveled at some of the soldiers working
on the cargo inside the plane— they wore parkas and boots but no gloves, and
they took only occasional gulps of 100-percent oxygen from the masks dangling
down on the sides of their faces as they worked. These men, obviously born in
the punishing cold and high altitudes of Xizang and Xinjiang Provinces of western China , were very accustomed to working in cold,
thin air.
Sun
Ji Guoming was one of a rare breed in the Peoples Liberation Army—a young,
intelligent officer with vision. At the age of only fifty- three, Admiral Sun,
known as the “Black Tiger” because of his noticeably darker, almost Indian-like
complexion, was by far the youngest full flag officer in the history of the
People’s Republic of China . He was at least fifteen years younger than
any other member of the Central Military Commission and thirty years younger
than his superior officer, General Chin Po Zihong, the chief of staff. Suns
family were high Party officials—his father, Sun Jian, was minister of the
State Science and Technology Commission, in charge of restructuring and
modernizing China’s vastly outdated telecommunications infrastructure.
But
Sun had not earned his post merely by his family’s powerful Party connections,
but by his utter devotion to the Party and to its leadership, first as
commander of the South China Sea Fleet, then as former hardline premier Li
Peng’s military advisor, then as chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army
Navy (PLAN), and now as first deputy chief of the general staff and certainly
its next chief, possibly even the next minister of defense. The Black Tiger was
truly one of the fiercest officers in the huge Chinese military.
As
deputy’ chief of staff. Suns main goal was to modernize the huge People s
Liberation Army, to drive it into the twenty-first century. He had been
executive officer several years earlier aboard China 's most ambitious blue-water naval project,
code-named EF5, the destroyer Hong Lung, or Red Dragon. The Hong Lung was an
amazing warship, equal to any other warship owned by any nation on earth. The
ship had been the spearhead of an ambitious plan by the chief of staff. High
General Chin Po Zihong, to occupy several of the Philippine islands, and had
been destroyed in fierce attacks by the United States Air Force and Navy,
including bombardment from outer space. But until the final crushing blow, the Hong Lung had controlled the sea and
airspace in the southern Philippines for hundreds of miles.
That
was