Pacific Theater
by Jim Kontilis
Hawaii has been obliterated.
The PLA Ballistic forces launched a surprise barrage against the island chain using a derivative of the DF-21 ballistic missile. Taking a page out of Japan's WWII naval campaign, China felt obligated to not only remove any armed forces, but also the critical infrastructure. In the long range view of their acquisition program of the Eastern Pacific, the strategic importance of the island chain could not be allowed to interfere nor provide material support.
For the most part. unlike Japan's previous military ventures, China engaged the smaller nations with economics to subvert and/or pacify many of the island nations in the Eastern Pacific, only occasionally relying on force of arms to settle 'disagreements'.
Australia was one of those nations who experienced the full force of a Chinese disagreement. Isolated from allies in the early decades, the Australians lacked the strategic resources to interdict and punish the Chinese advancements. When non-nuclear ballistic missiles began to rain down on Australia's Eastern and Southern coasts, the Australian populations began a grim struggle for survival. It remains to be seen as to whether or not China should have applied the knockout blow as some Australian forces have found their way to the North American continent, intent on exacting no small measure of revenge.
Unbeknownst to most of the world, Japan began to cast stones into the Pacific, causing ripples that continue to effect lands far beyond.
Although recognized as a technology giant since the 1970s, the world either laughed or stood amazed at the robotic creations that continued to be paraded before the world's media. However, the Ministry of Science and Technology quietly leveraged their research into robotics to develop and then display 5th generation UAV's as well as robotic submersibles.
The new fleet of robotic warriors, dubbed RONINS, proved to be a force that completely surprised the Chinese Military Command and whose effectiveness severely compromised the planned resource pipeline that China had spent seven decades developing. This in turn forced the Chinese leadership to undertake several ill-planned invasions in an attempt to counteract this constraint.
Due to the effectiveness of the TONINs anti-shipping capabilities, many of China’s investments in capital ship upgrades never left their home ports for the risk of losing them in a manner that would prove to be extremely embarrassing to the Chinese Government. The shortage of warships allocated for ‘show of force’ engagements would eventually impact China’s ability to hold on to and influence their trading partners.
As the strategic impact of the RONINs effect became more apparent, the Chinese Military command began a land war at the expense of their former competitor Soviet Union. The Russians were initially puzzled by the limited scope of the land grab, even though the effects of losing the Kamchatka peninsula were dire. It wasn’t until satellites spotted Chinese forces moving across the ice bridge spanning the Bering Sea that their intentions became clear.
Alaska.
China needed petroleum reserves and Alaska would provide them. Strategically, the move seemed irrational, but then China’s opponents were not aware of the material constraints brought on by the success of the Japanese programs.
In fact, a second initiative by the Chinese was intended to alleviate their logistical pain. Reinforced by the belief that China could pull another ‘Hawaii’, the remaining strategic missile reserves were launched at Japan in the belief that although they might not completely remove the Japanese from being a threat, it would at least buy enough time for the Chinese to more thoroughly exploit their existing trade partners and create a strategic reserve.
Unfortunately, for a second time in this war, Japan revealed another surprise.
BLOCK-7.
Another low-profile project, the indigenously developed Patriot Block 7 had deployed all of their missile batteries years ago without any fanfare or media announcements. China anticipated serious damage to Japan’s war fighting capabilities because of the barrage of the modified DF-21s, in an exercise code named ‘Iron Rain’.
The Chinese High Command was completely caught off guard when it discovered that only a small fraction of the missiles launched reached their target. Japan initiated a total media blackout to protect against any news of their successes from leaking out. Unfortunately, Japan did not count on the ingenuity nor resourcefulness of the average Japanese citizen armed with the latest generation of smart phones. Soon videos showing flashes in the sky above the Japanese islands began to go viral on the Internet, proclaiming that each flash was a Chinese missile and garnering a viewership in the hundreds of millions.
Eventually, it became clear that the Chinese ballistic assault had failed. Japan may have stood alone, but she was clearly unbowed.
Since that failure, several high ranking officers in the Missile corps and Intelligence sections have disappeared and not been seen since.
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