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“So once again, history would repeat itself as Japan would launch a surprise attack on America… ironic.”

“Yes, the irony is not lost on me either, but your forces will be able to execute the needed surprise my troops would never be able to achieve.”

There was an awkward moment of silence as PM Hata considered Japan’s entire situation. He took a deep breath before he responded. “All right, I agree. Japan will join the alliance; we will attack the Americans when the time comes. I will begin to identify the people who will be loyal to Japan and marginalize the ones who may cause us a problem.” Hata wanted this meeting to be over. Just because he had made this decision did not mean that he was happy with it.

Premier’s innate stoicism kept him from betraying too much excitement at this victory. “Excellent. Japan will rise with China to become one of the dominant powers of the world and beyond. We’ll continue to coordinate things secretly for the time being. Thank you for your time and for meeting with me.” As he finished his response, he killed the connection.

“You will have to excuse me Minister Yung, I have much to do if I am going to bring Japan in to the fold of the PAA. We can meet at a later date if you would like, or coordinate things through the embassy,” Hata said, indicating he would like to conclude their business for the day.

Standing up, Minister Yung said, “Of course. Please let me know how China can assist you in this transition; we stand ready to provide any support you may need.”

Once he was alone, PM Hata sat down and immediately began to put together a list of people he knew would be loyal to Japan over America. Identifying where people’s loyalties may lie became a lot easier after the Americans nuked the Middle East; they had really alienated themselves from the Japanese people with that attack. That, and their continued insistence that Japan join the war, knowing full well that Japan was not ready and would quickly become occupied by China… but what did America care? They had two great oceans separating them from the rest of the world.

The biggest challenge for PM Hata was going to be identifying who within the Japanese Navy he could trust and count on. Many inside the Navy were chomping at the bit to get in to the war; they wanted to come to the Americans’ aid as quickly as possible. They had conducted decades of joint naval exercises with the US Navy, so they felt a close bond with them. It would definitely take some time to identify who would stay loyal to Japan versus coming to the Americans’ aid.

Russian Reset

14 October 2041
Moscow, Russia

President Fradkov was sitting in his office, reviewing the tentative proposal that Premier Zhang Jinping had sent over. It was audacious. India had agreed to join, and so had Indonesia, now that they had abandoned the Islamic Republic. Fradkov mused, “I like the concept and idea, but do I believe I could get my countrymen to go along with it? Besides, I rule this country-why would I want to yield any of that control to a governing council?”

Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense, interrupted his thoughts. “Mr. President, I presume that is the Pan Asian Alliance proposal you are reading?”

“It is. I am not one hundred percent sure this would benefit us in the fashion we would like. I do not like ceding our control to a ruling council, even if we would have three members on it,” Fradkov responded as he took a sip of his coffee.

Puchkov thought about that for a moment before answering, “True, but there are some benefits. The pooling of resources and manpower would aid us significantly, particularly in this war.”

Fradkov angrily jumped in, “Speaking of the war, what is going on in Alaska? Why have we not fully secured our sector yet?”

“The war is progressing, but resources are limited in Alaska. We only have so many air and ground units we can employ. Originally, we thought we would not need our entire force, or even our reserves; however, after several months of hard combat, we had to send the rest of our forces forward. Right now, we are going up against the American Marines, who have established a series of firebases and reinforced forts at key points throughout northern and central Alaska. We are having to fight them either one at a time or in small groups-in either case, it has slowed our advance down to nearly a crawl,” Puchkov said as he brought up a number of images and maps on his tablet for the President to view.

Examining the maps, Fradkov asked, “So what can we do to move this along? The Chinese are landing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and if we are not able to secure our objectives, they will secure them on their own and keep all of the gains.” Fradkov did not want to yield any more to the Chinese than necessary.

General Gerasimov, the head of the Russian Military, interjected, “If you would like us to make Alaska the primary front, then we should halt our forces in Europe and focus our resources on Alaska. I could have our objectives secured before Spring if I could divert forces from Europe to the East.”

“How are things going in Europe right now? Are we at a good stopping point where we could shift resources to Alaska?” inquired Fradkov. He was not wanting to lose his gains in Europe, but he was clearly looking for a way to do more in Alaska.

General Gerasimov opened his tablet up and brought up the map section. The holographic image appeared on the table and he began to go over the details of the European front. “First, let me review the ground operations, then the naval operations. We have captured the key objectives to keep NATO off balance: Leipzig, Berlin, and Hamburg. As it is, the EU countries are training a much larger army, and are currently converting their manufacturing over to war-time production. As we all know, this takes time, which is something they do not have. I can switch our priority to Alaska, but prior to doing that, I would like to launch one more major offensive in Europe-not to capture ground, but to destroy as much military equipment as possible by intentionally slugging it out with NATO (as opposed to looking for weak points in their lines to exploit). In destroying more of their materials, we would further slow down the timeframe of when they could launch a counter-offensive.”

“As long as our additive manufacturing can continue to keep up with the losses, you are cleared to continue,” replied the President. He coughed the cough of a lifetime smoker before continuing, “What about our naval operations?”

“The naval focus continues to be on the North Atlantic and interdicting the NATO supply ships from North and South America. The navy just received the first twelve underwater drone submarines; they are nearly identical in capabilities to the American SUDs. We also have twenty-two more attack submarines coming online over the next two months. We are slowly starting to strangle Europe as we continue to deplete the NATO navies and supply vessels,” responded Puchkov confidently.

The President smiled slightly before replying, “Excellent. Then I want our focus to shift from Europe to Alaska. If we are able to help the Chinese apply enough pressure to the Americans, we can get them to buckle, and once that happens, they will pull their troops back from Europe. Then the Europeans will truly be on their own and we’ll be able to finish them off.” President Fradkov spoke with a certain giddiness that only comes from assured victory.

Alaskan Autumn

15 October 2041
Central Alaska

The battle for Alaska had raged on for the entire summer and well into the fall, with the lines changing very little after the first month of the invasion. Despite hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers using massive human wave assaults, they had not been able to break through the American lines. Both sides had been sustaining enormous casualties, and neither side wanted to capitulate. The Americans continued to pour tens of thousands of new recruits each month into Alaska, and had filtered in 100,000 soldiers from the SAMF. The South and Central American governments began a second draft, this time conscripting a total of three million additional young men and women to fight in the MNF.