May 2, 2020, 10:00

  Coastguard press conference room, Kuro-ku, Seoul.

  Various newspaper agencies in South Korea plastered headlines in their morning papers about the illegal Chinese fishing ships near Yeonpyeong Island, and news channels also started their broadcasts with the news about the incident and the measures the Coastguard would take as a response. The news aired Coastal Safety Director Lee Un-kyung’s briefing about the incident across the nation.

  “The first item on the docket is the details of the incident. On May 22, at 23:40, two sentry ships under the Incheon Coastguard that were patrolling the Sochung Island’s south eastern seas discovered twelve illegal Chinese fishing ships, and worked together to arrest the Chinese ships. At 22:50, the ships 551 and 552 both approached the Chinese ships……”


  Coastal Safety Director Lee Un-kyung finished explaining the details of the incident, looked at the journalists, and then continued speaking.

  “Next, we will begin explaining how we will strengthen crackdowns on future illegal fishing done by Chinese ships. The Korean government and the Coastguard will consider as pirates the illegal Chinese ships that damage our own fishermen and use violence against our coastguard. Therefore, our sentry ships will ram against the illegal ships and conduct arrest methods that put the safety of our men first. To further prevent illegal fishing, all ships that resist arrest and flee will be chased by the Coastguard’s choppers, which will be deployed in advance, and will be pursued by air until they are in custody.

  “Also, all ships that were arrested for illegal fishing will be dismantled manually or by explosives, and the Chinese crewmen will be charged with manslaughter for the deaths of the two coast guards killed during the incident. They will face the harsh judgement of the Korean justice system.

  “Lastly, we demand that the captains of the Chinese destroyers be punished for firing anti-ship missiles at the Coastguard’s 552 ship. We also want to warn the Chinese government about their provocation of war and demand they impose sanctions against illegal fishing and other actions that threaten war. This concludes our briefing.”


  The Coastguard’s briefing, which announced the Coastguard’s firm stance against the illegal Chinese pirates, garnered unanimous support from Korea’s citizens. In recent years, illegal fishing by Chinese ships had depleted the fish in Korea’s seas, causing Korean fishermen, who almost had to give up on their professions, to stage mass protests. The Korean fishermen yearned for the Coastguard and government to maintain their firm stance against illegal fishing, and continued staging their various protests.

  Meanwhile, the Chinese government insisted that the Korean government’s arrest methods were in violation of human rights, and through their use of unnecessary force, had caused a Chinese fishing ship to sink, resulting in the deaths of four Chinese crewmen. China continued its criticism of the Korean government and Coastguard, boldly arguing that Korea’s use of a Vulcan gun against a Chinese ship in international waters was the true provocation of war, and openly expressed pity for the deaths of the two Korean Coastguard crewmen.

  After both nations’ announcements, the Chinese spearheaded an extreme form of nationalism, using various internet outlets to protest and spread racial slurs to show their true power to America’s pet Korea. Boycotts, riots, and acts of terrorism against Korean products and Korean shops started in Beijing and spread across the nation. In response, Korea’s internet outlets and civic groups all called the Chinese dirty and daring and protested for the Chinese to stop coming to Korea for tours. Due to all this protesting, the relationship between Korea and China became more tense than ever before.

  * * *

  May 25, 2020, 10:20 (China Standard Time, 09:20)

  Politburo of the Communist Party of China conference room, Beijing, China.

  The leaders of China, including Xi Jin Ping, held a meeting to discuss taking revenge through economic sanctions in response to the deaths of the four Chinese sailors on May 22. However, the truth of the matter was that they were only using the issue of revenge against Korea as an excuse. The meeting was actually held to discuss phasing out Chinese corporations that were increasingly relying on Korean ones, and to discuss how Korea, once a large importer, had become one of the largest exporters in the world. Also, the biggest reason why the meeting was held was to discuss how the peaceful atmosphere between North and South Korea decreased China’s influence over North Korea as time went on. After the South-North representative meetings, China’s military relations and joint natural resource projects with North Korea had declined rapidly.

  The meeting in the conference room of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China had seven members of the standing committee, seventeen party members, and directors from each department in attendance.

  Vice-Chairman Zhang Ping from the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, who was the moderator of the meeting, spoke into the microphone. “Please give your opinions regarding economic sanctions against Korea.”


  Director of Culture Gao Xu Shin raised his hand, and then spoke into the microphone. “Currently, Korea’s many celebrities are paid large amounts of money for making appearances in various Chinese advertisements, movies, TV shows, and soap operas. Therefore, I believe we must ban all Korean celebrities who work in China from making such appearances.”


  Committee member Liu Win Xian, who was in charge of propaganda and ideologies, supported party member Gao Xu Shin’s claim, as if to solidify his argument. “That’s right. Right now, the Halryu or whatever (K-pop) phenomenon is taking over our culture, and we must take action against it from now on.”


  “Very well. If the other departments have any opinions, please express them.”


  The Chinese government decided on using the National Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which controls China’s cultural agencies, to retaliate against celebrities. All celebrities from Korea would be banned from making appearances on TV, radio, and in movies and advertisements. According to this ban, the flow of foreign currency to Korea could also be blocked. One of the reasons why such a drastic policy could be enacted was the rapidly spreading boycotts in China against Korean products.

  At the meeting that day, various suggestions for the retaliation, starting with the suggested ban on Korean celebrities, were presented. Among them, the most important were the suggested changes to the semiconductor and LED panel industries, which were extremely important in the 21st century. In truth, the Chinese cellphone and electronics manufacturers had increased their import of Korean semiconductors and LED panels, marking a sharp rise in their reliance on Korean manufacturers.

  As a result, China decided to reduce imports and rely on its own semiconductors and LED panels. Soon, however, they would learn that this would hurt them in the long run. The reason being, their low capacity semiconductors and panels would lower the quality of the finished product, and Chinese consumers, who, due to the economic boom, now had higher standards, indicating that the appeal of the era of low prices had ended.

  Additionally, the Chinese government attempted to dump products into Korea, its largest importer, to hurt the country’s domestic market. But the Korean government retaliated with its own dump as well.

  Lastly, China decided to strengthen its customs and inspections standards regarding Korean corporations. China refused to conduct customs or claimed inadequate packaging as a reason to deny exports, but Korea had already lowered its reliance on China with its markets in South East Asia, India, and especially African nations, so losing China’s markets wouldn’t hurt its economy.

  China, which was still encapsulated by its own Chinese ideologies and continued to look down on other nations due to its poor understanding of world politics, still considered Korea as a small and weak nation that would become politically and economically unstable under America’s military protection during threats of war. As a result, despite Korea’s fearfully rapid economic and military growth, China held on to their outdated view of Korea, which would lead to an economic disaster that would haunt them in the future.

  * * *

  May 26th, 2020, 14:00

  th Flight Training Wing Air Force Base, Muju-kun, Jeonbook.

  Four KF-21P Phoenix fighter jets were in a spectacular fingertip fighting formation, traveling at a speed of Mach 4.5 over the West Sea. A moment ago, the KS-SS Apollo 2 satellite reported that China’s 2nd Naval Fleet’s aircraft carrier, the Beijing, had deployed sixteen J-15 fighter jets, which were headed to Korea’s skies. Four KF-21P jets had been deployed in response.

  Flight leader of the KF-21P Phoenix fighter jets, Captain Kim Young-ho, checked the dashboard of his radar and notified his formation. “Young-gu, South West point, sixteen J-15 jets, distance at 520. Confirmation.”
-

  Maeng-gu, confirmed DAT-

  Dal-gu, confirmed DAT-

  Hyuck-gu, confirmed DAT.

  When the sixteen J-15 fighter jets reached within 420 km, Captain Kim Young-ho spoke again via the flight wing’s communication system.

  “Engage battle positions! Raise altitude! Go box line Everest! Stand by with a round of Cobra air-to-air missiles for each of the two targets!”


  At the flight leader’s command, the three Phoenix fighter jets maintained an angle of 60 degrees, despite being in supercruise, and began to ascend. Then. Flight Leader Young-gu also raised his jet vertically and operated its launch systems. A few moments later, the four Phoenix jets, which had risen 20 km up into the air, opened their internal weaponry pairings while maintaining a horizontal distance of a mile between each other.

  “Fire Cobras!”
-

  Young-gu Fox Three!-

  Maeng-gu Fox Three!-

  Dal-gu Fox Three!-

  Hyuck-gu Fox Three!

  At the Flight Leader’s order to launch, the four phoenix jets all fired two S-AAM-500 Cobra 500km-ranged air-to-air missiles. The missiles flew out, spitting out blue flame, and sped past at the speed of Mach 20.

  Woosh~ Fuuuuuuuu~

  After the eight Cobra missiles were launched, China’s Beijing aircraft carrier’s four flight wings, which consisted of sixteen J-15 fighter jets, broke formation due to the sudden missile alarm. But the missiles were incredibly fast, and after only 50 seconds after the alarms rang, the eight jets were hit before having the chance to spew flares or chaff, and exploded in the air.

  The rest of the pilots of the J-15 fighter jets, who witnessed their fellow jets turn into smithereens, must have been frightened by an enemy that couldn’t be detected by radar, because they spewed chaff and flares before breaking formation and turning around. However, the Phoenix jets, which were 350 km away from the J-15 jets, fired eight more Cobra long-distance air-to-air missiles, and the eight other J-15 jets that tried to return exploded in the air as well.

  Captain Jeon Chang-bin, whose call sign was Maeng-gu, spoke via the flight wing’s comms-

  Maeng-gu, clean. That was too easy-

  Yeong-gu, you’re right. That was a massacre.

  It was exactly so. The J-15 fighter jets from the Beijing aircraft carrier were struck down without even knowing who their enemy was, or where they flew in from. The Phoenix flight wing had claimed a massive victory after their first deployment. They were exchanging jokes and heading back, when their radar detected an unknown bogey approaching fast from the west side.

  “Yeong-gu, multiple bogies (unidentified aircraft) approaching from the west point at Mach 1.8, distance at 300. Check internal radar.”
-

  Maeng-gu, Dal-gu, Hyuck-gu, confirmed DAT.

  Flight Leader Choi Young-ho notified his own wing about the new bogies, then called the Apollo reconnaissance satellite.

  “Yeong-gu, contacting Apollo 2, requesting scan data. Over.”
-

  This is Apollo 2 mission control, currently unable to data link from other missions. Over.

  Yeong-gu, confirmed DAT!”


  When they couldn’t receive aid from the Apollo 2 satellite, Captain Choi Young-ho licked his lips and looked at the radar’s outputs. The radar showed the detected thirty-two fighter jets and their specs. It was China’s first stealth fighter jet, J-20.

  “It’s only stealth in words,” he thought.

  Captain Choi Young-ho showed a slight smile at the Chinese jets being clearly detected at a distance of 300 km, and relayed the information to his flight wing.

  “Bandit Chinese J-20 jets. Everyone standby with mid-range air-to-air missiles (S-AAM-200 Rattlesnake missiles).”