Chapter 359: Six Seconds to Midnight

While the North Korean dictator was relieving his stress, his generals were working to carry out his orders as if their lives were on the line. Considering the Kim family's history, the North Korean military leadership wasn't entirely wrong in assuming that their heads would roll if they failed.

And as all of that was going on, China was also making movements of its own. Their aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, were being loaded with ammunition, aircraft, and sailors despite not even having been commissioned yet. But that was just one of the many things happening in China; convoy after convoy of tanks, supply trucks, and trains filled with soldiers were headed toward Fujian Province. As they arrived, they were sorted, equipped, armed, and loaded into transport ships that would soon be carrying them across the Taiwan Strait.

While the transport ships were being loaded, China's air force also kicked into high gear. Their Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) equipped jets were scrambled and took off, taking up patrol routes just on the edge of Taiwanese airspace. Their J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighters also increased their daily incursions over the "helpless" Republic of China, ensuring that nothing at all could be hidden from the People's Republic of China in preparation for their invasion and ultimate annexation of the long-contested territory.

As for China's ICBM program, it was also spinning up. All of their ballistic missiles had been tested and verified as properly working. The only thing remaining was to arm them with warheads, either conventional or nuclear. At the same time, their air and missile defense systems were also undergoing a rapid cycle of self-testing and maintenance, ensuring that their defense was as airtight as it was possible to make it.

Although the movement of the People's Liberation Army was objectively enormous, the truth was that it was only about 10% of their forces. Another 70% of their military was undergoing the same buildup and movements, but focused on other borders. Specifically, the China-Russia border, China-India border, and even the China-Korea border were being heavily reinforced. About a third of their navy had also been deployed in the East China Sea and taken up patrol duties there to defend against another potential Japanese invasion.

China had suffered at the hands of Japan before, and their memory was nearly as long as their history. They would never suffer at the hands of Japan again, and a mere annexation of the Republic of China wouldn't distract them from their longest-standing enmity.

......

Over the next six hours, the world waited on tenterhooks as the Doomsday Clock ticked ever nearer to midnight. It had already shattered all records and any movement now would break yet another historical record. And the organization that made the determination didn't disappoint, either; about an hour into the interminable time period that would be referred to in history books as "the six hour breath hold", the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced via Pangea and their website that the world was now at six seconds to midnight.

(Ed note: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is a group of researchers that determine how close the world is to global nuclear war. They maintain a Doomsday Clock that shows that by setting the hour, minute, and second hands ever nearer to 12 o' clock midnight. They've been around since 1945, and it's some truly chilling stuff if you read into what goes into their decision-making process.)

The ticking of the Doomsday Clock came on the heels of the international media breaking news of the troop movements of the nuclear powers. Russia had moved troops to their newly completed bases along the Russia-Ukraine border, India had moved troops to the India-China border and India-Pakistan border, and Pakistan had heavily reinforced the Pakistan-India border. The relations between those countries had always been... complex, with India and Pakistan constantly squabbling over religious ideology and China and India constantly squabbling over border frictions where, much like in Korea, a cease-fire had been maintained since 1962, but the countries had officially remained hostile to each other despite maintaining diplomatic ties.

But none of that was as hotly watched as the situation in Korea where, for the past twelve hours, a constant stream of news had been released, including the list of casualties and live streams of the ongoing rescue efforts in the devastated Seoul.

Currently, the South Korean internet had been hit the hardest. Practically everyone in the country was mourning the devastation, and their grief was only surpassed by their rage. Rage that was being aimed directly at North Korea by people lurking in the shadows and hoping to gain something during the chaos of the renewed conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

Minutes after news broke of the unprovoked attack on South Korea, a petition had appeared on the internet, gathering support for an armed and overwhelming retaliation against North Korea. Within an hour, it had already reached ten million signatures, making it the most-signed petition on the internet in the entire world.

As per the Cheong Wa Dae's rule regarding petitions on their website, any of them that pass 100,000 signatures would be addressed by the government. But that rule wasn't even necessary, as the "Blue House" had already released a statement regarding the situation. The South Korean government would not let the blood of the innocent go unavenged and would be moving to ensure that the perpetrators of the horrific act of terror would pay the price with their lives. They had even gone the extra mile to paint North Korea as terrorists, since their attack had mainly been aimed at noncombatant civilians.

The response was issued from the presidential bunker, as the president of South Korea and all of his closest staff and advisors had been evacuated as the first shells were detected crossing over the DMZ.

The South Korean president didn't stop there, as immediately following the attack, all of the reserves were activated and retired soldiers who met the standards were recalled to active duty in preparation for an overwhelming retaliatory strike on the North Korean "terrorists". They didn't even stop to think for a moment how strange it was that only a single barrage had been fired, or that it had only been fired at Seoul, instead of targeting military facilities. Their rage had kicked their reason far behind them, and all they wanted was to bathe in the blood of their enemies and offer them as sacrifices to the innocent casualties caused by the unprovoked attack.

With all of the increasing tension, there was weirdly no clear, official information being released. Everyone involved just announced that they would soon make announcements regarding the unfolding situation, and for people interested to stand by for those announcements.

Eden, too, found itself in the midst of a building storm. Although, their storm was minuscule compared to some of the other ongoing situations in the world at the moment. There were rumors going around that Eden would soon find itself being dragged into two separate wars, as a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would trigger their mutual defense treaty, and if Eden was found to have any involvement in the unprovoked attack on South Korea, they would also be dragged into the cesspit of American retaliation.

If those rumors proved true, it meant that Eden would be fighting a war on two fronts against two of the most powerful nations on the face of the planet: China and the United States. To most Edenian citizens that weren't "in the know" about the capabilities of their own country, the thought was absolutely chilling.