Eagle Guardian: The War of 2010

The story is in August. RL events saw the NH90s arrive in Dutch service in April. We'll taken it as author's fiat that with the long periods of tension, the Dutch Navy pushed ahead to have them flying ASAP.

Keep an eye out for the kick off tonight, guys!

Part Three


Forty–Four – Renegade Down

For a long time now, the position of Admiral Blair as the US’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) had been imperilled. He’d held on to his role when many expected that he would have been asked to resign and leave the Obama Administration. There had been many disputes between him and other elements of the Intelligence Community – that alphabet soup of multiple agencies – though these couldn’t all be blamed on him: the two previous office holders, both under Bush, had faced similar troubles. The issue which was long there, which remained unresolved, was the scale of the influence that the DNI should have within the Intelligence Community. Blair had walked the same tightrope as his predecessors had done on this with shots coming from all sides. If it hadn’t been for the standoff with Russia, the White House would long ago have replaced him with someone else. But he remained. The two principle issues which had beset his time as DNI were efforts to establish his office’s control over the CIA and also increased intelligence cooperation with France. The French issue was something new. That country’s president was a friend to America (not a poodle though) and far more willing to have his own intelligence agencies being cooperative with those of the United States than any of his predecessors had been. Blair and his French counterpart had pushed for France to join the Five Eyes: Six Eyes it would have been. Any Six Eyes organisation of intelligence sharing which included France would have to have been agreed to by the American’s four other existing partners – Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand – and there would be those who would push for another country instead of France to take the place: maybe Israel or Germany, possibly Singapore or South Korea. Domestically within the United States, it would be a big deal among politicians as well as the Intelligence Community. France just wasn’t trusted due to activities stretching back many decades. Therefore, for the time being Six Eyes wasn’t on the cards. Blair wanted it though and had made the effort to get the ball rolling… and thus made himself many domestic enemies while doing so.

Blair’s sort-of counterpart in Paris was Bernard Bajolet, a career civil servant and experienced diplomat who was Sarkozy’s ‘intelligence coordinator’. Internal politics within the French intelligence community were just as fierce as they were in Washington yet not out in the open. Bajolet didn’t have the enemies that Blair had. He had the confidence of his president: something that his American contemporary didn’t have. It was Bajolet who contacted Washington on the evening of August 6th making the call to Blair when it was one o’clock in the morning (thus August 7th) in Paris but only seven p.m. on the US East Coast. This phone call let the Americans know the basics of what was going on with the Russian defector inside the DGSE headquarters who had given warning of an incoming attack against NATO. Blair was informed that this information seemed to check out too with there already having been a sighting – directly based on what their defector was saying – of a Russian commando team ready & poised to strike at a French military base. Moreover, other information he was giving of knowledge of two more attacks due to hit France was fast being run-down while alerts were sent out. This defector, Bajolet impressed upon Blair, was saying that at some-point in the next few hours, Russian forces were going to strike against NATO in a full-scale war with attacks made in Eastern Europe where the frontlines of the conventional fight would be but also deep throughout their rear areas too. Blair asked about the DGSE’s ‘spy’ inside Russia – what was he saying? France had someone high-up in Moscow, Blair knew, though wasn’t privy to the details of that as that was the closest guarded secret of the DGSE. He and the US Intelligence Community believed that it was a Russian national – and France was happy to let them think that for it protected their man – rather than a Ukrainian military officer inside the Russian capital. Bajolet (who didn’t have all of the information on that himself for the details were need-to-know) could only tell the American on the other end of the connection that confirmation was being sought from that angle and nothing was yet available there. Regardless of that, Bajolet’s president was gravely concerned. France didn’t believe that this man was lying. An attack as feared and France was informing its ally. Blair asked whether Sarkozy was going to contact Obama and Bajolet replied that his president wanted to do just that. This information was being shared ahead of that to help with any confirmation which could come from the United States ahead of direct communication between the two presidents. Sarkozy was going to have the call set-up so the two men could talk within the next hour though – as things like this were often done between allies when important matters of state concerning intelligence were discussed – this call had come first. Blair would speak to his president and then get back to Bajolet soon; the Frenchman wished him well.


Sarkozy’s chief of staff had arranged with Emanuel another trans-Atlantic phone call and so the two presidents spoke after Obama had been briefed by Blair ahead of that. There were more calls for the American president to take tonight in Washington when both London and The Hague were in touch with him (each time, the British and Dutch prime ministers had their subordinates in the intelligence field call ahead first) concerning a worrying development in the North Sea with a ship inbound for Rotterdam. They were going to launch an emergency military operation against it soon enough and wanted the United States aware of this. Meanwhile, the national security team at the top level of the US Government assembled at the White House. Cars and even a helicopter brought members of the National Security Council here late on the Friday night. Vice President Biden was in California on an official trip but everyone else was called-in; Biden would be in contact through a video-conference once he reached Air Force Two which was waiting for him at Moffett Field. Clinton and Gates were present along with Admiral Mullen and General Jones. Also in attendance were the secretary of energy & treasury (Chu and Geithner were statutory attendees) along with White House regulars in the form of Emanuel, Brennan and Donilon. Blair turned up just after Panetta – his mortal enemy from the CIA – arrived. There were many people down in the basement of the White House.

They were here to discuss what was looking like the beginning of – in Sarkozy’s words when he’d spoken to Obama – Putin’s pre-emptive war.

The fact that this had all come from the French, and through Blair, poisoned the atmosphere of the whole thing. It shouldn’t have but there was politics at play even at this crucial moment. The French intelligence – the ‘so-called intelligence’ as it was deemed – was questioned because it came without a time for this attack and the French also refused to reveal the name of the defector in their DGSE headquarters; they did the latter to protect their source (as the CIA would have done) but it didn’t look good to those meeting in the White House. What was coming from the governments of Britain and the Netherlands had come through different channels (Gates and Panetta) so that did change things there yet, there remained the issue of the poisoned chalice which the DNI and his connections with France. Obama tried to move past that detail and push onwards. He demanded answers from his national security team instead of petty infighting on such a thing as this: Emanuel backed up the president’s even comments with some choice comments of his own about this not being the time for these personal disputes.

What was going on? Was Russia about to attack? If that was due, how could that be stopped?

The politicians, officials and military men debated this for some time. There were many ongoing discussions with many opinions given. Answers were needed though, not opinions. From across the Intelligence Community, some of those answers were sought with questions asked about what the NRO and the NSA were seeing. How about the CIA’s intelligence assets, what information could they give? The satellites and the communications taps were seeing and hearing what they had before with no changes. As to the CIA, there were no viable assets left of theirs inside Russia with any access to the top of the leadership. No one had any answers, just speculation and prejudices leading to opinions. When Biden came on the line, he had a suggestion to solve this issue where he saw everyone back in Washington as going around in circles.

Biden’s idea was to get Putin on the phone – or Kozak if not Putin – and ask him directly while promising him that if he does, it will be the biggest regret of his miserable life. There were a few attempts to raise objections to this approach but Obama had all of those dissenters cease their jabbering. The vice president had said what needed to be said. Obama said that this was what he wanted to see done.

Before it could be though, word came from Europe of what had happened with that Russian ship. It was a Dutch-led operation with active British participation yet NATO cooperation had come before and during the assault on the high seas during the early hours there. The assault team had taken the ship but faced casualties in doing so. From Admiral Stavridis at SHAPE in the Belgian countryside, the National Security Council was told that the Dutch had been met by gunfire during their approach and taken losses when aboard. They had done well but paid the price for it. Many of those within the ship were dead yet others had been taken prisoner: these were Russian nationals. In his opinion, they were Spetsnaz. These men weren’t on no pleasure cruise, not with all the weapons aboard and a ‘hostile attitude’ as per their reaction to the Dutch Navy helicopter. Stavridis stated that be believed that those Russians had been stopped before launching a commando action similar to what the defector in French custody had been talking about. He thus strongly recommended that the United States move to DEFCON Two.

In the Situation Room, where it was almost half past ten at night now, that recommendation was debated. DEFCON Two, plus also increasing the COGCON level too (that of Continuity of Government readiness condition: dispersing those in the presidential line of succession should the very worst happen), had its supporters and those who urged caution too. The latter had fewer voices of agreement than the former. If it had just been what the French were saying and nothing else, then that was one thing. But those Spetsnaz… Gates came out strongly for DEFCON Two and Biden agreed. With the two of them leading the way, others fell in line. Again though, there was a delay. This was caused by Clinton who was on the phone during the debate – multitasking as she gave her input in that – talking to the Dutch foreign minister. She told Obama that the Dutch chargé d'affaires in Moscow had already spoken by phone to the deputy foreign minister: he was saying that these men weren’t Russians and were probably terrorists. In addition, the Russian foreign ministry warned against ‘dangerous allegations’ being made. It was still early in Moscow but they were awake, taking urgent calls at such an ungodly hour and being extremely combative in their diplomatic relations. The question was asked as to whether the Dutch had been unable to contact Kozak and was that why they ended up talking to his deputy: Clinton confirmed that that was indeed the case.

The call that Biden had urged to be made to Putin or Kozak still hadn’t been attempted. Obama wanted that dealt with and he also gave the nod for DEFCON Two and COGCON One both to be enacted. Neither of these two alert status’ had ever gone that high before (worldwide that was with the former) but they were now. The president had decided that this had to be done. The Russians were out of control. There was no time for caution and the danger, even if he personally wasn’t so sure that Putin would have his war, was staring him in the face. He had to do all that he could to ensure the security of his country. Gates spoke to Stavridis and NATO’s commander affirmed that his party was leaving SHAPE any second now. There was a command-&-control aircraft waiting for NATO’s commander and his immediate staff at Chièvres Air Base. He’d be on it and he politely enquired as to when those in the White House were going to get out of there and stop sitting around talking!

They were leaving very soon, Gates said, very soon indeed.


HMX-1 was the squadron of US Marine Corps Aviation who provided available and secure airlift for the president and the country’s leadership. It had been alerted in the previous hours to be ready to make evacuations from the White House when the first news came of that ship that the Dutch were going to raid. Jones and his deputy Donilon both had pushed for the Marines to be ready and their urging on that had been justified with Obama’s order to now begin evacuating the White House. There was a VH-3D sitting on the White House lawn with others nearby waiting to join it once it was airborne with its VVIP passengers to form a shield around it in the sky. In addition, several cars (provided by the US Army; they did road transport for the president) were also on the White House grounds. The helicopter and those vehicles were all to take members of the country’s leadership out of here. The White House was a target for an attack and those inside were best off dispersed. Biden was elsewhere already and COGCON One called for the Congressional leadership plus others such as the Attorney General to be out of danger, that danger being in one fixed and known location. The evacuation procedures were designed to be perfect and practiced often. It was approaching eleven o’clock – gone dawn over in Eastern Europe now – when they started. They were disrupted at once though.

Clinton was due to leave the White House by car and be driven to the State Department. Chu, Geithner and Panetta had already left in their vehicles while Obama, Gates and Mullen were all taking Marine One to Andrews AFB where there was an aircraft waiting for them. When away from the White House, then the Russians would be spoken to and other measures enacted to avert open conflict. There was thought to be time to do this. However, into the Situation Room at the moment of evacuation came a call from Moscow. It was Kozak on the line wanting to talk to Clinton. Obama had instructed her to make the call to the Kremlin to get hold of Putin – or contact Kozak at the Russian Foreign Ministry if she was unable to reach the Russian President – once she reached the State Department. Now Kozak was calling here instead. The timing of the call should have rung alarm bells for how suspicious it was. It was almost as if someone wanted to throw a spanner into the works… Obama urged Clinton to come with him and return Kozak’s call from Andrews. Donilon, staying at the White House, would keep him on the line in the meantime and then transfer the call over there. The helicopter flight to Andrews would be faster than the drive to the State Department and therefore this would lessen the chances of Kozak giving up waiting. Maybe Clinton could have stayed at the White House and spoken to him from there but the urgency of the demand for evacuation following procedures led to this decision to being taken. Panetta, already on the move in an armed ground convoy, found out moments after he left that so many ‘principles’ were all going in one helicopter but he was unable to stop that from happening. He really didn’t like the idea of so much of the country’s leadership all being bunched up at once.

Onto Marine One along with Obama went Clinton along with Gates, Mullen, Jones, Brennan and Emanuel. They were supposed to be taking a short flight across to Andrews free from danger.

They wouldn’t make it to Andrews.


Inside Washington, a GRU commando team had been on stand-by for the past five days. There were ten men and three women – thirteen; unlucky to some, lucky for others – who had entered the country individually on commercial flights as well as overland. They had converged upon the American capital and collected weapons & equipment left waiting for them by others who had already departed less they be caught: the thirteen were expendable but those who’d already left weren’t regarded as such. Each member of the commando team, including the three women, had a particular job from communications interception to security to launching the actual attack. The target of their attack was any helicopter which left the White House grounds after twenty-three hundred hours on August 6th. They hadn’t been specifically told that it would contain the American president and they would be killing him yet none of their number was an idiot. They knew what they were doing. The Russian strike team members didn’t openly question their orders nor consider defecting. Each of them had several close family members who remained back home in the Rodina. A helicopter was spotted leaving the White House: it was Marine One getting airborne at two minutes past the hour. Unbeknown to the Russians here to kill, and those on the helicopter flying above them, half the world away a war had already started where armies would clash on land, fleets would engage each other at sea and flotillas of aircraft would fight in the skies. There was a different form of warfare taking place here though. Secret Service radio communications & also those of the US Marines had been intercepted – the Russian state had the means to do this; a terrorist or an assassin could just keep on dreaming – and night vision gear was used to observe from afar helicopter operations. Four other identical VH-3s which were orbiting above the White House as Marine One lifted off to join them, and thus be hidden among the others, were ignored as attention was on the one climbing. As it did so, one of the intercepted communications from the Secret Service which the GRU strike team distinctly heard was the reference ‘Renegade under way’: that was Obama’s Secret Service codename. From atop of two buildings, and also out on the street tonight, three of the Russians took specially-adapted SAM-launchers from sports bags: besides each missile operator was a comrade carrying a submachine gun. On cue from their mission commander, who was aided himself by his spotters, a trio of SAMs were lofted into the sky. These were laser-guided missiles and no radar-jammers, no deploy chaff and no fancy maneuvers would stop an attack like this with three of them – coming from several directions too – from having success. An escape for the GRU team would be a far greater challenge than taking down Marine One.

The pilot aboard Marine One was a damn fine flier. The US Marines officer had been under fire in combat and knew how to dodge incoming projectiles. That had occurred in a war zone though and with unguided bullets and rockets. Yet, he’d been trained to dodge missiles and gave it his best shot. The launch of the missiles was spotted by himself and his co-pilot as the rocket motors fired marked their launch. Direct sight of them was lost due to all of the lights on the ground and the sudden violent maneuvers undertaken to get Marine One, and its VVIP passengers, out of danger. As he swung to starboard, aiming to seek cover and going in the opposite direction from where he had seen the tell-tale signs of missile launches, there was nearly a collision with one of the other helicopters. Another VMX-1 helicopter moved to put itself between the area from where the launches had been sighted and Marine One was. Like the men and women on the ground making this attack, the crew of this VH-3 were expendable when the life of the nation’s president was at stake.

Marine One was no soft target. It had infrared jammers to defeat a missile attack as well as flares and chaff too which could be used to stop radar-guided missiles. The pilot and co-pilot were highly-trained to dodge an attack from either a missile or sustained gunfire. There was armour-plating as well at key points, lightweight Kevlar. The US Marines and Secret Service agents aboard were all armed so if it had to put down in a hostile environment, they would be able to defend the passengers too. This was all public information and considered by those who attacked the helicopter. One missile slammed into that VH-3 which put itself in the firing line and another failed to achieve a hit upon any helicopter. The third missile hit Marine One. It struck the cabin and the explosive charge went off there. This was no ordinary explosive but instead a specialist incendiary weapon. The cabin was ripped open and a fireball erupted within: the pilot and co-pilot were incinerated. Meanwhile, the helicopter which they had been flying fell from the sky. It crashed moments later when it came down nose-first into The Ellipse, the public park just south of the White House. The time was just after four minutes past eleven.


“Renegade Down, I say again, Renegade is down!” – Another radio message from the Secret Service intercepted that night, this one by the GRU listening post at the Russian embassy.

“Oh my God…” – The words of an inebriated tourist up from Florida, out on Constitution Avenue who had a burning helicopter come crashing down seemingly only a few yards away from him and his wife.

“No. Just tell me it isn’t true, please.” – Comment attributed to Joe Biden aboard Air Force Two in the skies over Nevada when he was told that Marine One was down in Washington.


Marine One had fifteen people aboard when it hit the ground.

These were the President of the United States, the Secretaries of State & Defence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security & Homeland Security Advisers, the White House Chief-of-Staff & the president’s personal aide, four Secret Service agents and three US Marines as the aircrew.

Rescuers, including Secret Service agents running with guns drawn from the White House grounds, would pull three of those alive from the burning helicopter though one of those, Brennan, who’d been Obama’s Homeland Security Advisor, would die before he reached the hospital. The two others were one of those agents aboard and Bob Gates too, each of them severely hurt with life-changing injuries. Marine One burnt furiously during that rescue attempt of those aboard. One of the rescuers would lose his life and another two would be badly injured. Try as they might, they couldn’t pull anyone else out of the helicopter which was on its side with the front crumpled in. When the DC Fire Department got water on the fire, it took a long time indeed for that to have any meaningful effect. The fire destroyed the helicopter and many the bodies of those trapped inside.

Barack Obama, the nation’s forty-fourth president, was dead.

And the United States was at war.



Those aboard Marine One:
#1: Barack Obama, United States President, dead
#2: Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, dead
#3: Bob Gates, Secretary of Defence, injured
#4: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dead
#5: Jim Jones, National Security Adviser, dead
#6: John Brennan, Homeland Security Adviser, dead
#7: Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief-of-Staff, dead
#8: Reggie Love, personal aide to the president, dead
#9 & #10 & #11 & #12: Secret Service agents, three dead & one injured
#13 & #14 & 15: US Marine aircrew, all dead

Killing President Obama will piss off a lot of people in the US (even people who didn't vote for or like Obama will be angry; you just don't kill a president); the support for the war will be huge, especially in the African-American community...

Nitpick: It's spelled Hillary, not Hilary.

Good start, BTW...

Yeah, this is gonna be the equivalent of 9/11 or Pearl Harbor ITTL; there might be incidents against Russian-Americans in the US...

I felt weird liking that post.

Truly horrifying.