Destruction
Authors note: This is of course a little dated, but is written as an old mans reflection looking back. The essence of the story in 3 parts still holds true – Hope live on. Besides I’ve always had soft spot for this trilogy.
The French Nuclear accident in early 1996 left the Pacific Islands devastated. The Rainbow Warrior II was just a speck of dust in the stratosphere, and fallout reached as far west as New Zealand. Even that catastrophe didn’t seem to stop nuclear proliferation. Indeed, when China revealed in 1997, at the Hong Kong handover ceremony, that they were entering a nuclear sharing arrangement with Indonesia, the race was on again.
The Australian government and its people were terrified of this threat from its northern adversary. Once again they turned to America for assistance. The US responded with a small naval force based in Townsville, a nominal show of strength to placate Australian fears. The Americans had their own crisis to handle. Iran had declared that they too were entering the nuclear age, and the US was forced to withdraw support for their old ally.
The millennia passed with grave fears for the world’s future, with doomsday merchants screaming loudly of the impending apocalypse in every country. Only a few years later their fears were confirmed. Widespread droughts in Africa, America and Australia saw the failure of wheat and grain crops. The following year, 2005, the Chinese rice crop failed, and mass starvation was now a real possibility. After Man had pushed her to the brink, Mother Nature looked to be taking a hand in the decline of the planet.
Late in 2005 Indonesia announced they had a nuclear warhead and delivery system. The US sent more troops and ships to Australia’s northern bases. They had to follow this in the New Year with an increased presence in the Indian Ocean due to Iran’s proud declaration that they too had a nuclear weapon. No one knew where the Iranians had got their technology from, but that was hardly the point. Nine nations on the planet now had nuclear capability, not including the breakaway states of the former Soviet Union, some of whom were far from western influence.
Possibly in response to the new threat in the middle east, two of these republic’s moved even further from the western sphere of influence. Radical Islamic governments were elected in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Old men, hard liners, who wanted a return to military rule were swept to power. NATO immediately stepped up its alert status across central Europe.
China meanwhile, was moving troops onto its northern, eastern and southern borders. The Russians and Americans, operating in tandem under a non-aggression pact, increased their own military preparedness in the area. The Russians reinforced the big naval base at Vladivostock, and the US turned Japan into one big aircraft carrier.
At this point, a reign of terror swept the population of the world. Israel was clearly worried about the Iranians; India and Pakistan were again skirmishing; and Europe seemed to have their collective fingers on the triggers. The Chinese, though encircled by the Russians and the Americans, were openly maneuvering on their southern borders.
Early in 2007, the Chinese moved south on a wide front. As with the Japanese in 1931, the Chinese wanted more living space and agricultural land for its starving population.
Huge armies crossed into Burma, Laos and Vietnam, moving quickly into Thailand. They sent troops to North Korea and reinforced the northern frontiers with Mongolia and Russia. The US Government saw the Korean move as a clear threat to their own bases in Japan, and the Pacific Fleet sailed for Japan with a full complement of marines and units of the 82nd Airborne.
Whilst this growing conflict took world headlines, Iran moved into Iraqi territory, and the long smoldering Indian/Pakistani conflict erupted into full scale war. The Ukraine issued an ultimatum to Israel to keep out of the middle eastern dispute at risk of serious retaliation.
Israel, now isolated from its American allies who were heavily committed elsewhere, felt utterly alone. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, had seen the peace of his predecessors dissolve at the hands of an assassin. Now their worst fears had been realised; escalating Arab conflicts on their doorstep. The NATO nations tried to reassure the Israelis of their continuing support, but it was a hollow reassurance. Militant posturing by the Ukraine was putting Europe in grave danger from the east.
The US had repeatedly tried to open negotiations with the Chinese to stop the madness. The Chinese response was to order the American fleet away from Korea or they would not be held responsible. The US refused, stating that they could not condone military operations in south east Asia, whether the Chinese population was starving or not.
The Chinese reply was the first shot of the Third World War. The pre-emptive strike was carried out on every US base in Japan. At the same time, Vladivostock was wiped out with a thermo-nuclear device to discourage further Russian involvement. Early warning systems went off all over the world, far too late to stop detonation. As the American government announced that they had been attacked without provocation, they launched nuclear warheads at mainland China.
Indonesia, ostensibly defending its new Chinese ally launched their own small stock of warheads at South Korea and its old enemy, Australia. As news of the atrocities spread around the world, so too did the fear that fanned the flames.
Iran struggling in a ground war with Iraq, released their battlefield missiles. The Israelis pre-empted a retaliation strike by Saddam Hussein, and wiped out Baghdad. Before the Israeli missiles had even landed, a Ukrainian early warning plane picked up the launches and relayed the information to its military leaders who responded with force.
The Ukrainian missiles flew over Turkey on their way to Israel. NATO command, believing that Turkey, their southern ally, was under attack, issued a statement that they would not tolerate an attack on their member nations, and simultaneous to the announcement, launched on the Ukraine. The ensuing conflagration wiped out an estimated 96% of the world population. After false starts in 1914 and 1939, the 2007 conflict was truly of world proportions.
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I am an old man now. I sit at my typewriter trying to remember all the facts that were released to the general public.
I still cannot understand the madness that swept the world and its political leaders, but that is all history now. I have tried my best to reconstruct the events that led to the Third World War. I leave this account as a testimony to our madness, our destructive urge that has possessed us to destroy this beautiful planet that once we ruled so well.
My name is Steven Manning, and I leave this chronicle of the final times of our civilization for posterity. The youth that survived the conflagration have taken over now, mistrusting old people for the violent world they created. I hope and pray that they will not make the same mistakes as we have made so often in the past.