As long as he could remember, everybody called him Phoenix. They’d been calling him that for forty years, since the Great War. Back then, he was just another impressionable young man from a family of immigrants. His father, James Zen, and mother, Joanna, came from Britain after the fall of the monarchy in 1873 and found work as a Pennsylvanian steelworker. Phillip was born later that year. His mother always called him Phoenix because he symbolized a new beginning for the family. But Phoenix didn’t always see eye to eye with them. Though James earned enough to pay for school, Phoenix was always a restless and hotheaded child, getting himself into fights with other kids every day. Soon Phoenix realized he liked the fights more than the classes themselves and spent every free hour training down by the steel mill with other eager sons of steelworkers. That was his first major mistake. As he approached 18, the steel mill’s fortunes dried up, taken with it the tuition fund. It became clear Phoenix would have to follow his father into the business soon. But the world had other ideas.
War in Europe began in 1890. As massive armies crashed against each others on the rolling fields of the continent, Phoenix excitedly read news of the engagements in the local newspaper. He didn’t know when or how the thought first came to his mind. It was probably after he read that anonymous British officer’s statement. Maybe he wanted a way to get in on the action. Maybe he wanted adventure and glory. Or maybe he just wanted to get away from the steel mill. But in any case, he gathered up his belongings, made his way to the local recruitment office, and enlisted, only to be told the United States wasn’t part of the war.
Working several odd jobs in the city, Phoenix eventually saved up enough money to buy a ticket on a ship to Great Britain. He soon arrived in Cardiff and made his way to a recruitment office, volunteering his services to the British Army. He went through some basic training and quickly picked up what he believed would be the most important skills on the battlefield. But he was more excited about finally going to war. This was what he had been dreaming about for his entire life.
Or so he thought. He was first deployed to France, where Picardian and Lotharingian forces had invaded British territory. It was here Phoenix got his first real taste of battle. Not the glorified cavalry charge and infantry rush he had expected, but a muddy rain-filled trench in the middle of the French countryside, huddling behind the dirt as bullets from machine guns zipped overhead and artillery shells landed around him. He remained crouched in that trench for three years, until the front finally began moving into Picardy. His unit received orders to go over the top, and they eagerly charged the Lotharingian lines. By the end of the year, the British had reached the Lotharingian border and taken most of Picardy’s North Sea coastline. Phoenix confidently wrote home to his parents, predicting capitulation in several weeks.
That was where everything went terribly wrong. In 1895, Picardy’s forces launched a counterattack from southern France, while the Lotharingians lured the British into a trap and then massacred them with massed artillery assaults and chlorine gas. The survivors, including Phoenix’s unit, fled back to British territory. Still taking heavy casualties, they then received orders to retreat to Calais. By the time Phoenix reached Calais, his entire unit was dead, he had been shot in the leg, and the Lotharingians had surrounded them. The evacuation was a disaster. The British were continuously bombarded with artillery and gas, killing hundreds in the town. When the rest were loaded into the boats and taken across the Channel, Lotharingian submarines awaited them. Only a few hundred made it off the Continent.
Phoenix was taken to a hospital in Norfolk, where his wound was treated. While he recovered there, he received word of Lotharingian armies landing in southern England, facing off against the remnants of the British Army. He desperately wanted to join the fight and defend Britain against the invaders, but his wound was too severe. He was discharged and sent home soon afterward. Returning to America, he followed the rest of the war in the papers and was relieved to see Britain still made it out of the war on the “winning" side.
But with the war over, he had no idea what to do with his life. His leg wound had left him with a slight limp, not enough to slow down his running speed but enough to be noticeable. He didn’t want to go back to the steel mill, but he didn’t know what else he could do. Eventually, he decided to apply for the Military Academy and get an officer’s commission. After impressing one of the instructors with his battlefield experience, he was accepted into the academy. He graduated several years later…at the bottom of his class. But hadn’t some of the greatest Civil War generals graduated at the bottom of their classes too?
Getting his officer’s commission finally gave Phoenix his big break. His salary was much more than that of his father, allowing James to finally retire and fulfill his dream of opening a pub. His uniform was a very obvious symbol of his new social status, and soon he had been catapulted into the circles of high society, surrounded by captains of industry, political dynasties, and some of the richest families in America. He quickly made new friends there. The industrialists were more than happy to provide funding and advertising for his father’s pub. The politicians offered to give him endorsements should he run for office, but Phoenix wasn’t a good speaker, unless he was talking to a woman. Rich women approached him at almost every social event, hoping to make his acquaintance. That was how he met his wife, Ellie, whose father was a retired general who now sat on the boards of one of America’s largest defense contractors. They were married in five months, and a year later, Ellie’s family helped Phoenix get a promotion to general.
The years passed. Although Phoenix was now rich and respected, he still felt like he was missing something. Memories of the Great War kept popping up. He kept remembering the faces of the men he lost in France. Although his time in Europe full of tragedy, he was still drawn to war. He still felt like his true calling was on the battlefield, not in the nonstop balls, fine dining, and social events of the American upper class. Even Ellie and his children couldn’t get him to reconsider. He realized he missed war.
By the 1930s, he was approaching old age and with it the end of his career. His sons were now officers of their own, and his daughters had married other heirs of industrialists and politicians. But he himself spent most of his time reading the newspaper, as he always did, watching for news of wars around the world. His luck started to turn that decade with the skirmishes and then all-out fighting in Asia. The Chinese Civil War soon dragged in other major powers, pitting Russia against Japan. Phoenix realized it was exactly like what happened in the run-up to the Great War forty years earlier. He wrote letters to the editors of major newspapers and to politicians in Dover. In addition to reviving ancient tensions in Europe, it could dramatically change the balance of power in the Old World. If Japan won, it could threaten British and American interests in the Pacific, in addition to trampling on the sovereignty and rights of the Chinese people. If Russia won, the Stali Pact would gain the industry and manpower of both China and Japan, encouraging it to destabilize Europe again. Furthermore, both Russia’s and Japan’s political systems were ideological threats to American democracy. Should one side win, it would give their political system greater legitimacy, slowing down the democratization and liberalization of the world and increasing the appeal of authoritarianism. But his warnings were quickly forgotten as the conflict escalated.
Just as Phoenix expected, the war soon spilled over into Europe. But he was dismayed to hear President Dunaden instead focus on the Antillen Civil War. Although he was happy Dunaden helped the rebels restore democracy to the Caribbean, it came at the cost of withdrawing expeditionary forces from Asia. And Phoenix hadn’t been called to duty. Maybe they would find a better place for him to lead?
Finally, the United States joined the war in 1940. Phoenix listened to Dunaden’s national address as he received classified intelligence on Covenant troop movements in South America. As America marched off to war, Phoenix’s fellow generals, including his friend TBC, received their assignments. As they set off to liberate countries in South America and western Europe, Phoenix waited patiently for his own assignment. As they secured important cities and their enemies’ capitulations, Phoenix waited a little more. As his own sons were mobilized and sent off to the front lines, Phoenix continued waiting. Then came Lotharingia’s surrender and the Norfolk Peace Conference in 1943. The war was over. Phoenix was almost angry he didn’t get a chance to fight. But when he was asked to provide security for the conference, he obliged. He and Ellie traveled to Norfolk, where they watched America and Russia carve up the world, reshaping the geopolitical order in both the Old and New World. And then it was over. They went home, and Phoenix prepared to retire.
October 7, 1944 rolled around, and Russian troops invaded the Baltics. President Eternien ordered a full mobilization of the military and the gearing of the economy to war footing. The United States and its allies marched against the Stali Pact. TBC and the other generals were recalled to service, although Phoenix still didn’t receive an order. Frustrated, Phoenix wrote a letter to Eternien, demanding to know why he was being held back. He had been waiting for this moment for his entire life, and he did not want to be left out of this war. Eternien did not answer. Meanwhile, TBC and the others achieved victory after victory in Europe and elsewhere, though they took heavy casualties. It seemed like there wouldn’t be anything left for Phoenix if he received his orders. But he stayed put, hoping for the best.
Strangely, in 1945, with no end to the war in sight, TBC was recalled from the front lines, ostensibly for a secret mission. But he quickly returned to the front, and soon afterward, the nukes started falling. When he first read about it, Phoenix couldn’t believe it. A bomb that could destroy an entire city…wasn’t that just science fiction? But no, it was real. And not only was the bomb real, the Russians had gotten it first. And for that, two cities and hundreds of thousands of people were dead. Phoenix knew at once what was going on, and he smiled. The war was far from over. It was just heating up. The bombs made sure of that.
In November, the newspapers circulated images of a mushroom cloud over Istanbul. The ancient city had just become the third victim of a nuclear bomb. Countless lives would be lost, along with priceless treasures and cultural landmarks. Phoenix was divided over how to feel. A part of him was glad the city was hit, as it would take out its industry and cripple its political and military leadership. But the rest of him was enraged such an old city with many cultural landmarks had been destroyed. His fellow citizens shared his rage. The governments of three allied countries were even threatening to leave the alliance, but Phoenix knew they wouldn’t follow through.
Phoenix focused his attention on Eternien, holding him responsible for giving the order. He called up his friends in government and the media, hoping to get revenge against the president for not sending him to war, but they were already way ahead of him. Soon major media agencies had run stories denouncing Eternien for approving the attack, while prominent politicians had even begun calling for impeachment. Public approval plummeted in the wake of this campaign. Meanwhile, Phoenix wrote opinion pieces in major newspapers, as he always did, criticizing Eternien’s policy and his handling of the war. “A nuclear bomb isn’t something to be tossed around lightly,” he wrote, “Not like a rock. It isn’t a get out of jail free card. It is a weapon that can destroy an entire city and kill hundreds of thousands in an instant. Such incredible power demands equally incredible restraint and discipline, of which we are lacking right now in the White House.”
Regarding TBC’s sacking, Phoenix said nothing in public, though he privately shared his views about the bombing.
Despite all this, Phoenix soon learns through Ellie’s father that a third bomb is in production. Believing Eternien wasn’t stupid enough to drop it now and instantly end his presidency, Phoenix instead monitored intelligence from Europe, trying to piece together the Stali Pact’s military strategy from their meeting in Novosibirsk. He hoped the third bomb wouldn’t be needed and Kornilov could still be reasoned with.
The bombing of Istanbul, despite the outrage, had achieved its intended effect of decapitating the country’s military and political hierarchy (President Pasha’s continued absence was suspicious). One of Phoenix’s sons, Peter, reported Eretnid soldiers mutinying en masse and Anglo Alliance forces making record progress. Although the southern European front was all but won, Phoenix both anticipated and dreaded what would come next: the China campaign.
Better news came a little later, when the Swahili defected from the Stali Pact to the Anglos. Phoenix welcomed the new addition to the alliance, as the Americans would need all the help they could get to take out Russia and China.
Peter Zen sent his father a package shortly after the fall of Eskishehir to Anglo forces. Enclosed was a letter detailing his recent experiences, along with a photo of Pasha’s body and a fez covered in dried blood, allegedly taken off of Pasha’s body. While Phoenix believed Pasha had his death coming to him, he thought killing the rest of his family was too much. What did they have to do with Pasha’s policies?
It was now thirteen months into the war. Phoenix had lost track of the statistics. There was only so much the newspaper could do. The deaths were probably almost twenty million by now. But Russia and China and their few surviving allies remained no closer to capitulating. This war was far from over. By now, Phoenix had basically accepted not seeing action again. He had made peace with the fact the stunt he pulled in his youth would be his only battlefield experience, with the rest of his career consisting of armchair posturing through newspaper editorials. He and Ellie spent their time with their grandchildren and walking their pets in the park, happy to at least find some peace while the rest of the world burned.
But of course things had to happen at that moment.
A messenger from Dover appeared at his house one December morning, asking him if he could show up for a secret meeting in the capital later that afternoon. Realizing he had finally gotten his big break, Phoenix eagerly put on his uniform, said goodbye to Ellie, and took the train down to Dover. There, he met with President Eternien and the Joint Chiefs, who were in the middle of planning an invasion of China. Despite their previous disagreements, Eternien wanted Phoenix, with his unique Great War experience, to lead the campaign. Phoenix obliged.
He quickly found something wrong with the plan. Remembering the Great Reversal of 1895, Phoenix realized the Chinese would be expecting an attack on the east coast, specifically from Taiwan and the Fujian-Guangdong area. Those areas would be heavily fortified. However, Indochina wouldn’t be as well defended, due to the rough terrain of the region leaving the Chinese feeling confident about depending on natural fortifications. What they would have to do is make the Chinese believe they were attacking the coastline by moving troop convoys between Hawaii and the Philippines, forcing them to move troops from Indochina to reinforce the coast. Then they would march up through Indochina, relying heavily on local communities for supplies and extra manpower, and into Yunnan and Guangxi. With the new plan agreed on, Phoenix took a plane out to British India, setting up a local base of operations in Calcutta. Surprisingly, he was given command over the entire Asian theater. He thought he was just going to get a few divisions and serve under another general. Finally, luck was on his side again.
As 1946 rolled around, the Joint Chiefs sent a message to Calcutta, informing Phoenix of Eternien’s plan to drop a bomb on Hong Kong, despite likely political suicide. Eternien believed the bomb would knock China out of the war without the heavy casualties Phoenix’s invasion likely would cause. Phoenix asked the Joint Chiefs to convince Eternien to wait until public opinion was behind him again. Failing that, he should target the capital instead. Hong Kong was a strategic port city Phoenix’s forces needed to capture to project power into southern China and to establish a supply line from the Philippines. They needed the infrastructure and manpower intact so they didn’t have to take more resources from the Philippines. And Phoenix had also heard rumors of a “wasting sickness” afflicting those in Allenstein and Istanbul which caused intense pain and internal damage. He did not want this wasting sickness to affect his troops. They needed more time to determine the health effects of the bomb.
But just a few hours after Phoenix sent that letter, he received another urgent message. A bomb had been dropped on Manila. The Chinese were responsible. Over a hundred thousand civilians were instantly killed. One hour later, he received another message. Copenhagen had received the same fate. The death toll that day was about 250 thousand. Following the bombings, another message arrived, this one from Russia to Dover. The Joint Chiefs forwarded it to Phoenix. It was a request to dictate peace terms or to end the use of nuclear weapons, with a threat of more bombs on the way.
Phoenix was enraged by the attacks. The cowards had attacked primarily civilian targets with little military or economic significance. They had no shame. They had no honor. It was just like the Great Reversal of 1895. Only he now had the will and the tolls to stop another Reversal. He was going to go to China and get his revenge. Not against the people—they had no say in this. He was going to get his revenge against the generals and politicians who ordered that strike. When this was all over, he wanted to shoot the prime minister himself. But he couldn’t do that if the nukes fell on China.
(C)
War in Europe began in 1890. As massive armies crashed against each others on the rolling fields of the continent, Phoenix excitedly read news of the engagements in the local newspaper. He didn’t know when or how the thought first came to his mind. It was probably after he read that anonymous British officer’s statement. Maybe he wanted a way to get in on the action. Maybe he wanted adventure and glory. Or maybe he just wanted to get away from the steel mill. But in any case, he gathered up his belongings, made his way to the local recruitment office, and enlisted, only to be told the United States wasn’t part of the war.
Working several odd jobs in the city, Phoenix eventually saved up enough money to buy a ticket on a ship to Great Britain. He soon arrived in Cardiff and made his way to a recruitment office, volunteering his services to the British Army. He went through some basic training and quickly picked up what he believed would be the most important skills on the battlefield. But he was more excited about finally going to war. This was what he had been dreaming about for his entire life.
Or so he thought. He was first deployed to France, where Picardian and Lotharingian forces had invaded British territory. It was here Phoenix got his first real taste of battle. Not the glorified cavalry charge and infantry rush he had expected, but a muddy rain-filled trench in the middle of the French countryside, huddling behind the dirt as bullets from machine guns zipped overhead and artillery shells landed around him. He remained crouched in that trench for three years, until the front finally began moving into Picardy. His unit received orders to go over the top, and they eagerly charged the Lotharingian lines. By the end of the year, the British had reached the Lotharingian border and taken most of Picardy’s North Sea coastline. Phoenix confidently wrote home to his parents, predicting capitulation in several weeks.
That was where everything went terribly wrong. In 1895, Picardy’s forces launched a counterattack from southern France, while the Lotharingians lured the British into a trap and then massacred them with massed artillery assaults and chlorine gas. The survivors, including Phoenix’s unit, fled back to British territory. Still taking heavy casualties, they then received orders to retreat to Calais. By the time Phoenix reached Calais, his entire unit was dead, he had been shot in the leg, and the Lotharingians had surrounded them. The evacuation was a disaster. The British were continuously bombarded with artillery and gas, killing hundreds in the town. When the rest were loaded into the boats and taken across the Channel, Lotharingian submarines awaited them. Only a few hundred made it off the Continent.
Phoenix was taken to a hospital in Norfolk, where his wound was treated. While he recovered there, he received word of Lotharingian armies landing in southern England, facing off against the remnants of the British Army. He desperately wanted to join the fight and defend Britain against the invaders, but his wound was too severe. He was discharged and sent home soon afterward. Returning to America, he followed the rest of the war in the papers and was relieved to see Britain still made it out of the war on the “winning" side.
But with the war over, he had no idea what to do with his life. His leg wound had left him with a slight limp, not enough to slow down his running speed but enough to be noticeable. He didn’t want to go back to the steel mill, but he didn’t know what else he could do. Eventually, he decided to apply for the Military Academy and get an officer’s commission. After impressing one of the instructors with his battlefield experience, he was accepted into the academy. He graduated several years later…at the bottom of his class. But hadn’t some of the greatest Civil War generals graduated at the bottom of their classes too?
Getting his officer’s commission finally gave Phoenix his big break. His salary was much more than that of his father, allowing James to finally retire and fulfill his dream of opening a pub. His uniform was a very obvious symbol of his new social status, and soon he had been catapulted into the circles of high society, surrounded by captains of industry, political dynasties, and some of the richest families in America. He quickly made new friends there. The industrialists were more than happy to provide funding and advertising for his father’s pub. The politicians offered to give him endorsements should he run for office, but Phoenix wasn’t a good speaker, unless he was talking to a woman. Rich women approached him at almost every social event, hoping to make his acquaintance. That was how he met his wife, Ellie, whose father was a retired general who now sat on the boards of one of America’s largest defense contractors. They were married in five months, and a year later, Ellie’s family helped Phoenix get a promotion to general.
The years passed. Although Phoenix was now rich and respected, he still felt like he was missing something. Memories of the Great War kept popping up. He kept remembering the faces of the men he lost in France. Although his time in Europe full of tragedy, he was still drawn to war. He still felt like his true calling was on the battlefield, not in the nonstop balls, fine dining, and social events of the American upper class. Even Ellie and his children couldn’t get him to reconsider. He realized he missed war.
By the 1930s, he was approaching old age and with it the end of his career. His sons were now officers of their own, and his daughters had married other heirs of industrialists and politicians. But he himself spent most of his time reading the newspaper, as he always did, watching for news of wars around the world. His luck started to turn that decade with the skirmishes and then all-out fighting in Asia. The Chinese Civil War soon dragged in other major powers, pitting Russia against Japan. Phoenix realized it was exactly like what happened in the run-up to the Great War forty years earlier. He wrote letters to the editors of major newspapers and to politicians in Dover. In addition to reviving ancient tensions in Europe, it could dramatically change the balance of power in the Old World. If Japan won, it could threaten British and American interests in the Pacific, in addition to trampling on the sovereignty and rights of the Chinese people. If Russia won, the Stali Pact would gain the industry and manpower of both China and Japan, encouraging it to destabilize Europe again. Furthermore, both Russia’s and Japan’s political systems were ideological threats to American democracy. Should one side win, it would give their political system greater legitimacy, slowing down the democratization and liberalization of the world and increasing the appeal of authoritarianism. But his warnings were quickly forgotten as the conflict escalated.
Just as Phoenix expected, the war soon spilled over into Europe. But he was dismayed to hear President Dunaden instead focus on the Antillen Civil War. Although he was happy Dunaden helped the rebels restore democracy to the Caribbean, it came at the cost of withdrawing expeditionary forces from Asia. And Phoenix hadn’t been called to duty. Maybe they would find a better place for him to lead?
Finally, the United States joined the war in 1940. Phoenix listened to Dunaden’s national address as he received classified intelligence on Covenant troop movements in South America. As America marched off to war, Phoenix’s fellow generals, including his friend TBC, received their assignments. As they set off to liberate countries in South America and western Europe, Phoenix waited patiently for his own assignment. As they secured important cities and their enemies’ capitulations, Phoenix waited a little more. As his own sons were mobilized and sent off to the front lines, Phoenix continued waiting. Then came Lotharingia’s surrender and the Norfolk Peace Conference in 1943. The war was over. Phoenix was almost angry he didn’t get a chance to fight. But when he was asked to provide security for the conference, he obliged. He and Ellie traveled to Norfolk, where they watched America and Russia carve up the world, reshaping the geopolitical order in both the Old and New World. And then it was over. They went home, and Phoenix prepared to retire.
October 7, 1944 rolled around, and Russian troops invaded the Baltics. President Eternien ordered a full mobilization of the military and the gearing of the economy to war footing. The United States and its allies marched against the Stali Pact. TBC and the other generals were recalled to service, although Phoenix still didn’t receive an order. Frustrated, Phoenix wrote a letter to Eternien, demanding to know why he was being held back. He had been waiting for this moment for his entire life, and he did not want to be left out of this war. Eternien did not answer. Meanwhile, TBC and the others achieved victory after victory in Europe and elsewhere, though they took heavy casualties. It seemed like there wouldn’t be anything left for Phoenix if he received his orders. But he stayed put, hoping for the best.
Strangely, in 1945, with no end to the war in sight, TBC was recalled from the front lines, ostensibly for a secret mission. But he quickly returned to the front, and soon afterward, the nukes started falling. When he first read about it, Phoenix couldn’t believe it. A bomb that could destroy an entire city…wasn’t that just science fiction? But no, it was real. And not only was the bomb real, the Russians had gotten it first. And for that, two cities and hundreds of thousands of people were dead. Phoenix knew at once what was going on, and he smiled. The war was far from over. It was just heating up. The bombs made sure of that.
With news of the bombing of Istanbul circling the globe, support for the war dwindles in many allied nations. Terres du Nord, Canada, and the Dominican Republic, all three of which have contributed next to no lives to the war, and thus do not understand fully the horrors of the frontlines of Europe, protest against the war, threatening to pull out of the war. None of them go through with it; the US, with its nuclear arms and now massive army, is the most fearsome force the world has ever seen, and being in their Anglo Alliance is guaranteed protection. For now, they remain in the alliance.
In November, the newspapers circulated images of a mushroom cloud over Istanbul. The ancient city had just become the third victim of a nuclear bomb. Countless lives would be lost, along with priceless treasures and cultural landmarks. Phoenix was divided over how to feel. A part of him was glad the city was hit, as it would take out its industry and cripple its political and military leadership. But the rest of him was enraged such an old city with many cultural landmarks had been destroyed. His fellow citizens shared his rage. The governments of three allied countries were even threatening to leave the alliance, but Phoenix knew they wouldn’t follow through.
The American people are less impressed with Eternien. Many do not care about a city thousands of miles from them, but many others reject the deplorable idea of destroying an entire ancient city. The media has a field day against Eternien, and several prominent opponents demand his resignation or call for his impeachment, something that has never happened before in US history. His approval ratings hit a low of 24%, something else that has never happened before. General TBC, one of those most fiercely against the bombing, is relieved of command after very publicly denouncing it and refusing the orders to continue pushing onward. In his stead is General Forster, former commander of 4th Mobile Army.
Phoenix focused his attention on Eternien, holding him responsible for giving the order. He called up his friends in government and the media, hoping to get revenge against the president for not sending him to war, but they were already way ahead of him. Soon major media agencies had run stories denouncing Eternien for approving the attack, while prominent politicians had even begun calling for impeachment. Public approval plummeted in the wake of this campaign. Meanwhile, Phoenix wrote opinion pieces in major newspapers, as he always did, criticizing Eternien’s policy and his handling of the war. “A nuclear bomb isn’t something to be tossed around lightly,” he wrote, “Not like a rock. It isn’t a get out of jail free card. It is a weapon that can destroy an entire city and kill hundreds of thousands in an instant. Such incredible power demands equally incredible restraint and discipline, of which we are lacking right now in the White House.”
Regarding TBC’s sacking, Phoenix said nothing in public, though he privately shared his views about the bombing.
Even as Istanbul still smolders, a third bomb is in production. The Stali Pact has also been messaged again, demanding surrender and saying a third strike is imminent if surrender does not come soon. The earliest date of the next strike is set to be New Years day, 1946. President Kornilov does not respond to the demands. Although he faces riots and calls for peace in Russia, he and the Chinese Prime Minister do not plan on losing this war, as badly as it seems to be going for them. Kornilov hosts a Stali Convention in Novosibirsk with the remaining Stali members except Eretna's President Pasha.
Despite all this, Phoenix soon learns through Ellie’s father that a third bomb is in production. Believing Eternien wasn’t stupid enough to drop it now and instantly end his presidency, Phoenix instead monitored intelligence from Europe, trying to piece together the Stali Pact’s military strategy from their meeting in Novosibirsk. He hoped the third bomb wouldn’t be needed and Kornilov could still be reasoned with.
The push into Stali territory continues. Eretna is in disarray after the strike, and they face several mutinies within their ranks. Their front begins to collapse and Anglo troops push northward. Even though it looks like Russia and Eretna are not able to defend against the Anglos, the issue of China is still at the back of everyone's mind. This war has claimed millions, not even counting civilian casualties. China, the most populated country on earth, will surely be carnage on a whole other scale.
The bombing of Istanbul, despite the outrage, had achieved its intended effect of decapitating the country’s military and political hierarchy (President Pasha’s continued absence was suspicious). One of Phoenix’s sons, Peter, reported Eretnid soldiers mutinying en masse and Anglo Alliance forces making record progress. Although the southern European front was all but won, Phoenix both anticipated and dreaded what would come next: the China campaign.
The Kenyan government, providing only material aid to the Stali Pact, sends an encoded message to President Eternien and the US government. They do not want to support the losing side any longer. Kenya will leave the Stali Pact and join the Anglo Alliance. Their price, Haitian Somaliland and the Castillian Indian Ocean islands, once the war is over. Haiti will not be happy about losing Somaliland, but other colonial gains in the war will satisfy them. Eternien is in agreement, and the Swahili join the war.
Better news came a little later, when the Swahili defected from the Stali Pact to the Anglos. Phoenix welcomed the new addition to the alliance, as the Americans would need all the help they could get to take out Russia and China.
Eretna capitulates on the 16th of November. Americans arrive in their capital of Eskishehir to find a horrifying scene; President Pasha was hanging above the parliament building, his body burned. His own people, it seems, learned of the ignored ultimatum he received and revolted. They dragged him and his house members from the parliament and killed them in the street. Now only Sweden stands with Russia in the west. One by one, the Stali nations are falling before the might of the Anglo military forces.
Peter Zen sent his father a package shortly after the fall of Eskishehir to Anglo forces. Enclosed was a letter detailing his recent experiences, along with a photo of Pasha’s body and a fez covered in dried blood, allegedly taken off of Pasha’s body. While Phoenix believed Pasha had his death coming to him, he thought killing the rest of his family was too much. What did they have to do with Pasha’s policies?
By this point, about 13 months into the war, 18 million soldiers have died, across 4 different continents. The world war seems far from over, with the vast stretches of the Russian motherland still to conquer. The Russian winter begins setting in, and tanks and trucks find it less easy to maneuver as mud replaces the dirt of the inner Russian roads. The same goes for the Swedish and Hungarian fronts. Only the Caucasian front is still making steady progress.
It was now thirteen months into the war. Phoenix had lost track of the statistics. There was only so much the newspaper could do. The deaths were probably almost twenty million by now. But Russia and China and their few surviving allies remained no closer to capitulating. This war was far from over. By now, Phoenix had basically accepted not seeing action again. He had made peace with the fact the stunt he pulled in his youth would be his only battlefield experience, with the rest of his career consisting of armchair posturing through newspaper editorials. He and Ellie spent their time with their grandchildren and walking their pets in the park, happy to at least find some peace while the rest of the world burned.
But of course things had to happen at that moment.
Since there is no longer any requirement for naval invasions in Europe, the Marines are moved to British India to prepare for the invasion of Indochina. General Zen is given command of all forces to be involved in the invasion. A passage from a letter he sent to President Eternien prior to the appointment read:
"China will be expecting an attack from their east coast, given the proximity of the Philippines. What must be done now is a feint move in the east to draw their attention from Indochina and allow our troops quick access to the southern Chinese territories. From there, China's soft underbelly will be easily cut through."
-General Phoenix Zen, 4th Marine Army
A messenger from Dover appeared at his house one December morning, asking him if he could show up for a secret meeting in the capital later that afternoon. Realizing he had finally gotten his big break, Phoenix eagerly put on his uniform, said goodbye to Ellie, and took the train down to Dover. There, he met with President Eternien and the Joint Chiefs, who were in the middle of planning an invasion of China. Despite their previous disagreements, Eternien wanted Phoenix, with his unique Great War experience, to lead the campaign. Phoenix obliged.
He quickly found something wrong with the plan. Remembering the Great Reversal of 1895, Phoenix realized the Chinese would be expecting an attack on the east coast, specifically from Taiwan and the Fujian-Guangdong area. Those areas would be heavily fortified. However, Indochina wouldn’t be as well defended, due to the rough terrain of the region leaving the Chinese feeling confident about depending on natural fortifications. What they would have to do is make the Chinese believe they were attacking the coastline by moving troop convoys between Hawaii and the Philippines, forcing them to move troops from Indochina to reinforce the coast. Then they would march up through Indochina, relying heavily on local communities for supplies and extra manpower, and into Yunnan and Guangxi. With the new plan agreed on, Phoenix took a plane out to British India, setting up a local base of operations in Calcutta. Surprisingly, he was given command over the entire Asian theater. He thought he was just going to get a few divisions and serve under another general. Finally, luck was on his side again.
The first day of 1946 blooms bright and freezing cold on the Russian front.
By this time, 3 new bombs are ready to be deployed. The next target is chosen: the Chinese city of Hong Kong. It is time that the Chinese feel the heat of the bomb on their own soil, Eternien says. Perhaps this will convince them to sue for peace. His advisers urge him, this time, to wait. The American people are still adamantly against any more nuclear strikes after Istanbul, and dropping another could mean riots or impeachment.
As 1946 rolled around, the Joint Chiefs sent a message to Calcutta, informing Phoenix of Eternien’s plan to drop a bomb on Hong Kong, despite likely political suicide. Eternien believed the bomb would knock China out of the war without the heavy casualties Phoenix’s invasion likely would cause. Phoenix asked the Joint Chiefs to convince Eternien to wait until public opinion was behind him again. Failing that, he should target the capital instead. Hong Kong was a strategic port city Phoenix’s forces needed to capture to project power into southern China and to establish a supply line from the Philippines. They needed the infrastructure and manpower intact so they didn’t have to take more resources from the Philippines. And Phoenix had also heard rumors of a “wasting sickness” afflicting those in Allenstein and Istanbul which caused intense pain and internal damage. He did not want this wasting sickness to affect his troops. They needed more time to determine the health effects of the bomb.
Then, the next day, the Stali intention becomes clear. Manila is obliterated in a blinding flash of light from the 50 kiloton bomb dropped from the Chinese bomber. 25 thousand Americans, 1300 of them soldiers, and 120 thousand natives are killed by the blast and the subsequent fire. China is now a nuclear armed nation. An hour later, Copenhagen is hit with an equally strong Russian bomb, and 95 thousand British citizens and 2000 British troops are killed.
That Thursday of Terror ends with 250 thousand dead Anglo troops and citizens. A telegram is sent to the US government from Russia, offering a meeting between their presidents in a neutral nation to discuss terms of peace or, at the very least, an end to the use of nuclear weapons in the war. Kornilov claims to have several more bombs on the way, both in Russia and in China.
But just a few hours after Phoenix sent that letter, he received another urgent message. A bomb had been dropped on Manila. The Chinese were responsible. Over a hundred thousand civilians were instantly killed. One hour later, he received another message. Copenhagen had received the same fate. The death toll that day was about 250 thousand. Following the bombings, another message arrived, this one from Russia to Dover. The Joint Chiefs forwarded it to Phoenix. It was a request to dictate peace terms or to end the use of nuclear weapons, with a threat of more bombs on the way.
It comes time for Congress to decide on the next move. It is time to vote.
A) Agree to the meeting
B) Decline the meeting and nuke China
C) Decline the meeting, but do not drop any more nukes.
Phoenix was enraged by the attacks. The cowards had attacked primarily civilian targets with little military or economic significance. They had no shame. They had no honor. It was just like the Great Reversal of 1895. Only he now had the will and the tolls to stop another Reversal. He was going to go to China and get his revenge. Not against the people—they had no say in this. He was going to get his revenge against the generals and politicians who ordered that strike. When this was all over, he wanted to shoot the prime minister himself. But he couldn’t do that if the nukes fell on China.
(C)