Later that evening, Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office. It was a rather late address, due to needing to delay it in order for the initial airstrikes to proceed uncontested. He could have held the address earlier, but General Mattis had convinced him that giving a nuclear power advance warning would be a terrible idea.
After the traditional opening statent, Trump said, “Due to the unprovoked and cowardly terrorist attack on our allies in South Korea perpetrated by the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un, I approved an imdiate ard retaliation consisting of a huge bombing mission to remove their nuclear capability. As of thirty minutes ago, North Korea is no longer a nuclear power.” He gave the cara in front of him a smug smile, thinking it would reassure the citizens that there would be no chance of a nuclear war.
After that, he continued his address, vilifying North Korea and branding them terrorists. He swore that he would chase the perpetrators responsible for the attack that caused hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties to the ends of the earth and that he would uphold Arica’s responsibility to police the world and support and defend their allies in South Korea.
“And in order to accomplish this mission, I have ordered our forces in South Korea and Japan to cross the Korean Demilitarized Zone jointly with the South Korean forces to take out the rogue governnt of the North Korean terrorists.”
After ntioning that, he paused, then continued, “During our investigation of the initial assault, we discovered a disturbing truth. North Korea didn’t act alone. They were aided by the governnt of Eden....” As he continued his address, people were surprised. With just a few words, he had tarred Eden and North Korea with the sa brush and included them in the upcoming Arican counteroffensive, thus removing the need for him to declare war on them individually.
Early the next morning, the news broke in Arica that China had also been carrying out an investigation of their own regarding four of their jets being shot down while they were on “routine patrols over the Chinese mainland”. Their investigation had revealed that the ones who had shot them down were from Eden as well.
Given that the Edenian jets had been granted permission to operate by Taiwan, China issued an ultimatum to both countries: either they surrender and pay reparations within twelve hours, or China would respond with what they described as “overwhelming force”, as they considered that a state of war existed between China and the two belligerents.
While all of that was going on, Russia had silently begun their “special military exercises” in Ukraine. It was an invasion in all but na, backed by the might of the Russian nation in full. That it happened at the sa ti as the Arican invasion of North Korea and the ultimatum being issued by China was only a coincidence.
The chaos had finally broken out, and Eden, who was dragged in by treaties—at least on the surface—had been painted as the villain and everyone just knew that the fledgling country would soon be wiped off the map by the much more superior militaries of two world superpowers. Behind the scenes, it was all about the greed and lust for power of people who had more money and power than they could ever use in three lifetis. But they were practiced enough at just this kind of political theater that nobody other than the people involved would ever know of their involvent.
Or so they thought, anyway.
……
Despite giving Taiwan and Eden twelve hours to surrender or suffer, China only waited three hours before attacking. A swarm of cruise missiles flew across the Taiwan Strait, targeting radar stations, air defense installations, and military bases. China unleashed everything they had in an attempt to degrade the defenses in Taiwan as much as possible before they sent in their ground troops.
However, just as the first round of incoming fire was detected making its way toward Taiwan, a stream of tracer rounds ca from every direction, taking down missile after missile. It didn’t stop everything, of course, but thanks to a solid priority intercept system, the damage was extrely limited and spread out, so as to maintain as much of Taiwan’s defensive strength as possible.
Even so, Taiwan knew the situation couldn’t be maintained for long. Everyone knew that getting involved in a shooting war with a behemoth like China was a bad idea; after all, anyone would run out of bullets long before China ran out of bodies. And Taiwan knew that Chinese airstrikes were inevitable. Their anti-air installations would eventually be taken out, either by stealthed jets, bombing runs, or even good old fashioned collaborators taking them down from the inside. Once that happened, the small island nation of Taiwan would be all but helpless.
China, far from being discouraged by their initial attack’s failure, sent a second wave of cruise missiles. They had plenty of them stockpiled and wouldn’t feel the pinch even if they had to fire them for the entire duration of the twelve-hour ultimatum.
Soon, the second wave was followed by a third, then a fourth. Each round of fire ca after an interval of about fifteen minutes, which gave Taiwan ten minutes of preparation ti between them... in theory, at least. In practice, the Taiwanese military was running around like a headless chicken, frantically reloading their guns, changing out warped gun barrels, restocking countermissile batteries, and so on.
Plus, the damage inflicted by each wave might be minor, but it would only continue to grow over ti.
……
“Our friends in Taiwan are requesting imdiate support. Should we send it, or argue that we’re fully occupied by dealing with Arica?” Alexander asked Aron. He had reported the request the mont he received it, also noting that they had signed a mutual defense treaty during the diplomatic visit a week prior.
“Naturally, we’ll assist them. Let them know that we’ll uphold our obligations under the treaty, but that we need all of our forces to deal with Arica, so our aid will be of the long-ranged variety.”
Aron turned to the empty seat next to Alexander and said, “Aeolus.”
Alexander felt a breeze and heard the ringing of wind chis from the seat next to him. For so reason, it reminded him of a child’s giggle. He had t Aeolus before, and nodded a greeting to the nearly invisible shimr that hovered over the seat of the chair next to him.
[You need sothing, grampa?] Aeolus said. His voice sounded like wind chis and was sowhat garbled, but still sohow recognizable.
(Ed note: Look up “speaking piano” on YouTube. It’s a really interesting phenonon, kind of like a version of pareidolia. Here’s an example: syoutube/watch?v=-6e2c0v4sBM )
“Work ti, Aeolus,” Aron sighed and massaged his brows.
Aeolus stopped chiming and a transparent, light blue humanoid figure appeared where he was sitting, a small nicety the AI implented when it was ti to focus on work instead of play. [Yes, sir. I’m up to date on the situation—what do you want done?]
“Take out all of the Chinese missile silos in Fujian Province,” Aron ordered, then turned to Athena. “Athena, issue a warning to Arica that if they truly move on Eden, we’ll respond in kind and they won’t like the result.” He wanted to end things as soon as possible, so he had to provoke the biggest possible attack from Arica. An alpha strike with overwhelming force wouldn’t work nearly as well as a cocky threat; overwhelming force would make them cautious, but a threat like that would make them mad, and mad is exactly what he needed them to be.
After all, a sound beating would save more lives in the long run, and human resources were still resources.
[Yes, sir,] Aeolus replied, then his figure flickered in the equivalent of a blink. [The birds are in the air.]
[ssage delivered, sir,] Athena said, then the eting room changed. Alexander, Aron, and the AIs in the eting now appeared to be floating in the air above the Edenian task group, which had been pulled from its presidential escort duty and diverted to the beleaguered Taiwan.
“You notified Taiwan, right?” Aron asked Alexander.
“Yes, my assistant sent the notification the mont you made the decision.”
“Good.”
Aron turned to Poseidon and asked, “Are we in range?”
[Yes.] Poseidon nodded.
“Fire a saturation attack all along the coast of Fujian province. China wants an answer to their ultimatum? Fine. Let’s give them one.”
Editor notes: I'm afraid I've only got one chapter in today, folks. I had a pretty significant surgery last Friday and thought that because it was a laparoscopic procedure I'd recover fast and wouldn't be too hindered. But the recovery's not going as I expected, so I may need to severely limit my ti spent upright for a few more days. (Last Friday as in a week and a half or so ago, not just two days ago)
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