“Well, then. Shall we move on to the next agenda?” Now that the matter regarding the north-west front was concluded, the Chairman of the Joint Staffs shifted his attention to a different monitor.

  The monitor receiving his gaze displayed the confidence-inspiring figure of Lieutenant General Kim Sung-ho, the commander of the peacekeeping force who oversaw all facets of war currently taking place in the south of Ukraine and Russia.

  – May I be permitted to omit the contents of the report I made this morning and focus on a newly-uncovered special information?

  “Yes, please go ahead!”


  – Thank you. The battle situation on all fronts are proceeding smoothly according to the plan. However, several unidentified armored units were spotted east of Volga River and our scouts are monitoring them as we speak. We suspect them to be a unified combat force consisting of various Southern Front forces rallying under one umbrella. Their size currently exceeds at least one division. After we perform a thorough recon, we’ll proceed with the plan to cross Volga.

  “I see! Proceed according to what you think is the best! Honestly, I owe you an apology for not paying much attention to your side, Lieutenant General!”


  – No, sir. That’s not necessary, Chairman! I should be thanking you for providing timely support whenever we ask for one.

  “Well, we’ve been neglecting your side, so at the very least, we should try to give you all the materiel you need! Hahaha!”


  – Aha, so that was your intention, sir? Hahaha!

  “Hahaha!”


  Vice Chairman of Joint Staff Kim Yong-hyun’s reply turned the operation briefing room into a sea of laughter in an instant. Only Chairman of Joint Staff Shin Sung-yong remained composed and serious within the festive atmosphere as he called out to Lieutenant General Kim Sung-ho. “Lieutenant General Kim!”


  – Yes, Chairman!

  “In two days’ time, the full-scale offensive will commence on the north-west front. The heavy snowfall will slow down our marching speed, but we still believe we can push back the Russian forces to the west of Lake Baikal and occupy the city of Irkutsk before the end of January at the latest.

  “On the other hand, the southern front you’re in charge of covers a much wider ground compared to the scale of our deployed forces. And when the American-led NATO forces join in, we anticipate the war effort to become that much trickier for you. However, we’d like you to persevere and, just as we planned, occupy the southern region of Russia and the frontlines that will become our borders in the future. We will leave this task in your capable hands, Lieutenant General.”


  – Yes, Chairman! I shall do my best not to disappoint you, sir.

  “Thank you. Well, then. Is there anything else, Lieutenant General?”
-

  No, sir. The situation has remained largely the same from the morning’s report.

  “Very good! Well, then. Let us conclude the briefing on the southern Russian front. Until the reports are finalized, commanders and officers of various forces are free to speak what they have on their minds.”


  Chairman of Joint Staff Shin Sung-yong announced the start of the free-form discussion, prompting many of the field-grade officers to raise their hands and voice their opinions. The previously inflexible command structure of the army was changing considerably through Chairman of Joint Staff, Shin Sung-yong’s efforts.

  *

  *

  *

  January 23rd, 2024 19:00 (American time, Jan 22nd 06:00),

  The U.S. State Department located in the Harry S. Truman building, Washington D.C. The Pacific Fleet’s naval battle against Korea’s combined fleet ended in a virtual defeat, necessitating the current President, Donald Trump, to visit the Pentagon in the early hours. He called for a short briefing session, attended by the White House advisers and top management of the Pentagon.

  The large screen in the conference chamber currently displayed various vessels belonging to the United States Pacific Fleet in full retreat toward Saipan.

  The Pacific Fleet initially boasted the combined scale of three fleets and one assault fleet, but now… It had shrunk below 50% of its former glory as its current scale was no better than one fleet and one assault fleet. Its previous triumphant atmosphere was long gone by now. If the cost of all the destroyed vessels and deployed weapons were to be counted, it should be over $200 billion. 200 billion went down the drain, like some dust being blown around in the winds.

  The problem lay beyond the money, however, as nearly 3,800 were thought to have died. KIAs alone numbered 1,900 while the remains of 1,239 sailors couldn’t even be recovered anymore. A situation like this would easily be the most fatal for any politicians that lived or died from the continued support of the voting public.

  If the anti-war media gained momentum via reporting on the families of the KIA, then it didn’t take a genius to imagine how all the arrows of criticism would fall on President Donald Trump for ordering the pre-emptive strike on the Korean navy for the sake of an allied nation’s ‘declaration of sovereignty’. As a matter of fact, the situation could devolve into one where he’d face impeachment from the office with only one more year left in his term.

  However, this was only one of the reasons why he chose to vacate the White House to personally visit the Pentagon.

  “Regardless of how, we need to recover the bodies of those killed in action, gentlemen!”


  Those were the first words to come out of President Trump after Operations Chief of Staff Nick Leeman finished his briefing.

  “Sir. We’ve urgently deployed rescue teams consisting of civilian vessels to the relevant part of the ocean to rescue and recover the remains of our sailors. We should recover the remains adrift on the surface as well as trapped within the sunken vessels given enough time, but those damaged by fire and explosions are…” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Austin Berry, replied to his president instead of the Operations Chief. But the end of his sentence gradually blurred as he knew this wasn’t the answer President Trump wanted to hear.

  “Chairman! I don’t care what method you use, just find them all! Do you understand me?! This is an executive order!” President Trump made his trademark scowl and ruthlessly pressured the Chairman.

  Unfortunately, reality wasn’t that simple. Chairman Austin Berry was only too aware of this and could not readily say yes. Secretary of Defense Duke Williams next to him stepped in just then. “Mister President! We’ll do our utmost best to recover every one of our sailors no matter how long it takes.” “Are you giving me your word, Secretary?” “Yes, sir. I’ll take full responsibility,” said Duke Williams as he nodded slightly.

  “Very well. I’ll leave this matter to you.”


  “Thank you, sir.”


  Political Adviser, George Cameron, cautiously butted in. “Mister President. With the entirety of Japan bombed to hell and back by Korea, I believe there’s no more merit in supporting Japan, now that all of its industrial facilities have been destroyed.”


  “George, what are you trying to say?” President Trump furrowed the brow on one eye in frustration and cut his adviser off in the middle when the latter tried to beat around the bush.

  “Mister President, how about… cutting our losses and moving on, sir?”


  “Move on? Did you say I should move on? After suffering such huge losses?” President Trump looked clearly taken aback just then.

  “Mister President, as you said earlier, our current priority is with recovering our sailors. We’re still at the beginning stage and have managed keep the media quiet about this, but sooner rather than later, the reports on this naval battle will trend in the news, sir. We need to recover the bodies as quickly as possible before that happens, but that task will be made so much harder if we are still at war with Korea. Don’t you agree, Mister President?”


  “Even if that’s the case, I cannot let this end like that!”


  President Trump’s loud yell prompted George Cameron to speak much quieter than before while trying to keep an eye out on his boss’s mood. “Sir… is it because of ‘that’?”


  “Uh-huh, watch what you say, George! That’s enough from you. I fully understand what you’re trying to say, but don’t bring this up again. Japan is no longer a factor in this war. This war with Korea is about determining who is the real hegemony of the world.” President Trump finally revealed his true intentions with these words.

  Indeed, the true intention of this war with Korea that began with the Pacific Fleet was to avenge the humiliation of three years ago and also to reclaim the position as the global superpower. And as an added bonus, it was also to hide the USSC (United States Supreme Security Council) within the chaos of the conflict, which could be seen as President Trump’s weakness.

  As such, he simply could not stop this war at this point in time. He had to end this war favorably as the President to secure his safety after leaving the office.

  “Mm, Mister President! There’s an old Korean proverb about trying too hard to catch a bed bug only to burn down the house in the end, sir.”


  “I told you to stop, didn’t I!”


  Political Adviser George Cameron tried to give his boss a counsel from his heart but was forced to stop when President Trump got angry.

  Once the adviser closed his eyes and stopped talking, President Trump shifted his attention to Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to start roaring loudly. “The Pacific Fleet will not participate in the recovery of the lost sailors. Instead, it’ll join with the Fifth Fleet as soon as its reorganization is complete. Forget about Japan, and come up with a plan for an all-out assault on the Korean peninsula! Also, deploy all available asset of the United States airforce and redirect tactical nuke-carrying submarines over there! If necessary, you can even consider deploying the Atlantic Fleet, too!”


  President Trump was ruthless and driven enough to permit the usage of tactical-grade weapons ahead of time. His unhesitant orders were accepted by the generals and the White House advisers making various expressions.

  Notably, a faint smile was spreading on the face of Secretary Maine Johnson while deep worries dominated George Cameron’s expression.

  If the Pacific Fleet was an early-round jab to keep the opponent in check, then this move was like readying a spicy counter aimed at the chin of said opponent.

  *

  *

  *

  January 24th, 2024, 09:00 (Russian time 09:00)

  11km south-west of the town of Baley, located in Zabaykalsky, Russia. (Temporary base for the 26th Tank Battalion of the 60th Armored Brigade, 20th Armored Division.)

  The military personnel of the 20th Division started yet another day by hurling all sorts of abuses at the sky above for trapping them here for a week with an unexpected heavy snowfall. Even though their major offensive had ground to a halt, at least they got enough time to rest and maintain their equipment, so there was that.

  This was all the fault of white trash, AKA snow, falling non-stop as if there were big holes in the heavens. If the war hadn’t commenced yet and this location had been the regular operations base, the army could have mobilized civilian contractors to start a large-scale snow removal operation, but alas. It was supposed to be a war, but the soldiers had to roll their sleeves up and wage another kind of war with snow that kept piling up no matter how much they shoveled it away.

  Post-First North-East Asian War, the Ministry of National Defense chose to delegate the winter-time snow removal as well as Spring/Autumn’s weeding and base-building operations to civilian companies. This decision came about because there simply wasn’t enough time to improve the military personnel’s combat ability and proficiency of highly-advanced equipment at hand.

  “Aaaargh! Sir, this is bulls*it!” Staff Sergeant Yeom Hoon-gi, the gunner number 712 of 7th Company of the 26th Tank Battalion grumbled unhappily as he stepped on the layer of snow high enough to reach his knees. He was mobilized yet again for the snow removal operation around the temporary base, with the shovel distributed by the division slung around on his back.

  Sergeant First Class Kim Young-joo following behind him retorted, “Still, the snow stopped falling, right? And I hear the higher-ups are bringing civilian snowplows later in the afternoon today, too. So, stop pouting and let’s do our best with this hopefully the last snow shoveling job!”


  “If they were going to hire somebody, they should’ve done that earlier! What’s the point of mobilizing them now, sir? I mean, how many days has it been since we had to do this nonsense?”


  “Come now, Sergeant Yeom! At least they are coming, so that’s something, sir.” Even Corporal Kim Il-soo decided to join the conversation.

  “Shut up, dude! How dare a lowly corporal butt in when officers are talking!”


  “Wow, seriously?! I’ll be promoted to sergeant next month, you know! Besides, sir! Since you’re an officer that rose through the ranks, shouldn’t you be more understanding of your fellow enlisted soldiers compared to other officers? Aren’t you being too much by calling us lowly and whatever, sir!”


  “What the hell?! You dare get smart with me?!”


  “No, sir. I’m just saying, please be more understanding of us enlisted folks since you also rose through the ranks, sir!”


  “Hey, you two! Both of you are too damn noisy! Mm, now that I think about it, why does Corporal Kim sound exactly like you, Staff Sergeant?”


  “Eeeehk? Sergeant First Class Kim! What a terrible thing to say, sir!”


  “Yes, that’s such a scary sentiment…”


  Both Yeom Hoon-gi and Kim Il-soo made dumbfounded faces and threw retorts at Kim Young-joo at the same time. While exchanging dumb banters, they spotted the figure of the administrative quartermaster in the distance shoveling snow away. This man was First Sergeant Park Gwang-tae, who was in his mid-thirties but cursed with a face of a forty-year-old dude. He was transferred in from another battalion after the previous quartermaster, First Sergeant Oh Young-taek, was discharged.

  “You two are exactly the same in my eyes! In any case! Look, the quartermaster is here!”


  “Oh! Loyalty!”


  “Loyalty can’t even feed the dogs, fellas. Besides, why are you all so late?” Quartermaster Park Gwang-tae, who was ranked First Sergeant, stood before Sergeant First Class Kim Young-joo’s group. Even though it was still early in the morning, he began grilling the trio with a deeply crumpled face, his hands by the waist.

  “But, sir! We came exactly on time.” Kim Young-joo replied while pointing at his wristwatch, his expression a bit flabbergasted.

  “What was that?! When I say you’re late, you are late! How dare a lowly sergeant first class talk back to me?!”


  “I’m sorry? Urgh!”


  “Kekeke!”


  Sergeant First Class Kim Young-ju made an even more flabbergasted face, while Yeom Hoon-gi and Kim Il-soo behind him turned around to cackle away. Kim Young-ju shot a sharp glare at the two of them right away!

  “If you have time to waste by talking back, hurry the hell up to your assigned positions, now!” The quartermaster scolded the trio with an accent that no one could tell where he had come from.

  Sergeant First Class Kim Young-joo sneaked up, covered his mouth slightly and whispered to the quartermaster. “Argh, First Sergeant, please listen! This is why others call you a boomer, sir!”


  “What was that?! You punk!”


  “H-hey, run! Run away!” Kim Young-joo picked up his snow removal equipment lightning-fast when First Sergeant’s clenched fist rose up in the air, then hurriedly dashed across the snow. “Ah! Commander, wait for us! Oh, right. Loyalty! Thank you for your hard work, First Sergeant!”


  Staff Sergeant Yeom Hoon-gi and Corporal Kim Il-soo sloppily saluted and hurriedly ran after Sergeant First Class Kim Young-joo. The soldiers from their company were already waiting with their own equipment at the destination. Surrounding them were a considerable quantity of white trash gleefully welcoming them.