And here's a more ambitious scenario of how the crises approaching as the clock counts down at the end of Bob Schroeck's IST 1990's timeline might play out:
North Korea invades South Korea. They enjoy a day or two of modest advances, and do an outrageous amount of damage to Seoul, which really is in artillery range of North Korea. However...
The Chinese push to take over Hong Kong fails as Cantonese-speaking units first refuse orders to attack, and then mutiny. Chinese units supporting North Korea are withdrawn and rushed south as uprisings spread through the Cantonese-speaking provinces of the south, with army units already stationed there either falling apart from desertion or joining the rebels. Instead of a military invasion, Hong Kong is flooded with refugees.
US and South Korean forces push back the North Koreans. US forces stop before crossing the northern DMZ line, but the South Korean army pushes further until Seoul is out of artillery range. A cease-fire takes effect, but, as usual, North Korean rhetoric only gets harsher, and fighting flares up again. The cycle repeats: cease-fire, refusal to negotiate, fighting, cease-fire again. Each cycle ends with South Korean forces further north. By the end of May, Pyongyang is in range of South Korean artillery, although the North Korean capital isn't bombarded, yet.
By now several nations have recognized the South China Federation. When the latest Fearless Leader flies to Beijing on June 1, he is "advised" to return to his country immediately. He does, and plays his final cards, his nukes. Only one of his missiles actually hits its target and the warhead fails to explode, but a suicide team blows up Tokyo Disneyland on June 3.
Beijing issues a statement of sympathy for the people of Japan on June 4, and accepts the same Fearless Leader as a refugee on the same day. Pyongyang falls on June 7 after three days of fighting in the city between North Korean army and police units.
On June 21, Beijing announces that the commander of the Peoples Army has died from a sudden stroke. His funeral is given little coverage, with no foreign reporters allowed "at the wishes of his family." Several other formerly prominent figures in Beijing's top leadership vanish from view. The next day Vietnam recognizes the South China Federation. Beijing immediately severs diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
On July 4, President Buchanan makes a surprise address to the nation from the replica Independence Hall at Disneyworld near Orlando, Florida. His speech is cut off. A hydrogen bomb estimated to have a yield of 25 MT annihilates him and everyone and everything else for miles around. An email sent to a secret White House address arrives three seconds before the detonation claiming credit for the Deadly Dozen. There have been no confirmed sightings of the Deadly Dozen since. The email cites US imperialism in Korea.
Some truths that
might be out there:
- North Korea's Fearless Leader gave the Deadly Dozen the nuke. Well he might if he had one, but 25MT is a huge nuke, much bigger and more sophisticated than we have been led to believe the North Korea of the IST or our own world is capable of making.
- China, or some faction or faction leader, organized the strike. China is more likely to have a big bomb somewhere, but why would any Chinese leader waste such a big bomb to take out a theme park, even if the President of the United States was in it?
- Dr. Radiation did it. He knows exactly how to build a 25MT bomb because he's done it before, and he's had four and a half decades to improve the design. But why? If his buddy Castro wanted to bomb Florida at all, why not take out Miami and all those die-hard Cuban-Americans who just won't quit making trouble for him?
- The Deadly Dozen did it on their own. Voltmaster wants to start another world war, and while he has no special nuclear expertise, he knows where to find it and has great organizational and leadership skills—and lots and lots of money. Electra and her lover really want to destroy America's government and maybe America, period; they could plan and carry out a suicide mission, and conceal its nature from the others except Voltmaster.
- The Deadly Dozen had nothing to do with it. Entirely possible and plausible; no witnesses for miles and no records of recent activity in central Florida. Maybe the mastermind took them out first, or afterward. Maybe some are still on the run. Or maybe the group just quit, either the supervillain life altogether, or their identities in and as members of the Deadly Dozen. Voltmaster certainly has lots of experience in preparing new identities, and it would be about time to take on a plausibly younger persona anyway.
- Was the real President really at Disney World? There must be quite a lot of Supers with Morph power by now, and odds are at least one-quarter of them were born in China. Or it could have been CGI or a realistic robot. The real Disney Corp possesses the best in both technologies, and the IST versions will be better. Even if Buchanan was really there, the broadcast might not have really been live.
- The President was really kidnapped! Rumors and headlines in the Midnight Sun will appear about a nanosecond after the broadcast stops and keep multiplying. But maybe one of these stories is true, at least in part. Just how valuable would be a President of the United States? And what happened to the nuclear codes carried by a guy who's never more than a few yards from the President? We changed them right away...didn't we?