Spinning Bubbles on Fire - YSM2023 - Non-writer

In 2030 the last great war between nations was fought.

Many, many people were killed and nations were devastated if not outright destroyed. Russia had had their last hurrah on the grand stage as a pretend superpower or a "Paper Tiger". Their foray into Ukraine had depleted all of their smart munitions and the sanctions by the west had only left the old soviet era weapons in their place.
China, seeking the resources she needed to care for a few billion people had made her an early alliances with Russia. The plan was to have Russia pre-occupy the west in Europe as she grabbed her grand jewel, Taiwan. Unfortunately as history has shown many times, things rarely go according to plan.
Once Russia had failed with their invasion of Ukraine in the early 2020's she decided to go after Poland this time around. The problem was that the Polish people wanted nothing to do with that. Behind Poland, the rest of Europe had seen how this had played out in the past and committed to not allowing a repeat performance. At least in this moment history was consulted and acted upon. Amazingly the United States had not entered into the fray. Perhaps tired of war and certainly nearly bankrupted by it, she instead chose to wait and see how things would play out.

America was not following the Chinese plan.

By the time (nearly a year later) that the United States engaged Russia within Europe, many millions of lives had perished. Europe (including the United Kingdom) had expended most of their smart munitions and could not replace them. Why? a strategic rare earth needed for the delicate guidance systems (magnets no less) was controlled by China. And she was not selling. She was preparing. The United States having seen that China wasn’t an immediate threat went all out in the European theatre. Cruise missiles were launched by the thousands. Tanks, personnel carriers and ten’s of thousands of troops were shipped overseas. Amazingly, not one ship was sunk or molested in any way. Everything shipped or flown over had made it to Europe. Within 6 months, Russia had been pushed back. But that had come at a great cost in materials and men. Just when a negotiated cease-fire was in process of being agreed to by the warring parties, the world changed.
Everything had occurred so fast that the unthinkable happened and history once again, had repeated. Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia attacked Israel. North Korea attacked South Korea. And, China attacked both Taiwan, Japan and Australia. By this time, the United States could not fight a war on four fronts. Not for lack of trying though.
Taiwan fell quickly and was occupied by millions of Chinese PLA. It was genocide of horrible proportions for the Taiwanese. Decades of hate and animosity caused men to do unspeakable horrors to each other.

But it would be worse in Japan.

The rape of Nanking during world war II was repeating itself, but this time it was the Japanese at the end of the bayonet. Japan was attacked from Fiery Cross in the Sprately Islands, an island they had built 7 years before and the new Chinese military base in Nanji. Their cruise missile attacks fell by the hundreds on Tokyo and Narita first with major landings occurring at Okinawa and then into Japan from the south. Many had expected a longer drawn out fight. But in all honesty, without the United States support, Japan just couldn’t react quickly enough.

No nukes were used.

Things would go a little better in South Korea. After the initial shelling and missile attack of Seoul the conflict pretty much ended. North Korean soldiers by the hundreds of thousands surrendered during the invasion of South Korea. With 1.2 million active military soldiers, North Korea lost one third in the counter attack, including their Supreme Commander.

No nukes were used here either.

The Middle East was a different story however. After the war it was said that the only way to have peace in the Middle East was to have it deserted. And that was pretty much how it ended. I’d like to say that no nukes were used, but in the end they were. The Israeli’s fear that they were being over run by the Arab world caused them to launch nuclear tipped SSBM’s from their 2 German submarines that they had purchased 15 years earlier.
Their missiles hit Mashad and Tehran Iran, Riyadh Saudi Arabia, Amman Jordan and surprisingly, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It was a desperate play that didn’t yield anything except megaton’s of death.
Turkey trying to save herself and in fear of being nuked next, launched their own. This destroyed Israel as we knew her. Finally, peace had come to the Middle East.
This left North America and Mainland China untouched by the tendrils of this war.

But it wouldn’t last.

With Europe somewhat stabilized and the reunification underway, the United States started to send her few remaining resources to help the Israeli’s and Japanese (before the ending stated above of course). As two of the last remaining carrier battle groups approached Japan, they were sunk. Presumably by Chinese submarines. But this was never confirmed. The United States assumed as much and launched 2 hypersonic (experimental at the time) nuclear tipped missiles at China from the United States Airforce experimental X-37B. One of these was shot down by an orbital laser platform the Chinese had launched earlier as a communications satellite. The other made it through. If it was a single warhead things may not have been so bad. But this was a Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs). Ten small, fusion warheads seperated from the hypersonic missile and hit Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanji and other targets within China. Luckily the Chinese leadership was in a very sophisticated bunker that had saved them. Unfortunately, those that had survived somehow without a bunker tore them apart when they exited. Guess they didn’t think that part out. This happened just as China launched her own nuclear attack. She had been stockpiling them for decades and now was the time to destroy their nemesis. All of them launched. And not at just the United States.

The nuclear weapon fail safes within the United States fell by the wayside and in an act of desperation when NORAD picked up the EOLAWKI event, all her weapons were launched in retaliation.

China was no more, nor was the world.

Alyssa relaxed in the tub, luxuriating in the warmth of the bubble bath and the mellow buzz from the wine. All of the stress from the day seemed to have melted like ice from her and into the hot bath water.

She was content.

Alone in her thoughts, a certain bubble had caught her eye as it floated up toward the shower curtain into a shadowed area within the tub. The bubble seemed to glow brilliantly for the briefest of moments and then dimmed into nothingness.
"Amazing, I wonder what caused that" she thought as she sipped her cool wine, her eyes slowly closing as she relaxed further and thought of her upcoming wedding.

Life was good.

The End.

closed dup pending review