Into the Breach

Prologue

In 2021 the novel coronavirus had finally been beaten. Thanks to mass vaccinations, the disease had all but disappeared, only surviving in labs or in small pockets of stone-headed fools that just happened to be in North America.

The virus died off, but the rumours surrounding it did not. 

Resurfacing on the internet came the wild theories about it. A "Deep-state conspiracy.", as they put it, to attack Liberty, an illuminati plot to cull the world population, Chinese bioweapon, or, for some...quite peculiar individuals, elaborate hoaxes to camouflage the government's attempt at communism.

And that is where the PRC comes in, following the large number of deaths by the virus, protests became commonplace, and after a few months using the heavy-handed approach, it was clear that military crackdowns would serve naught against the popular outrage at the government. A scapegoat was needed and the west seemed like a perfect target.

Playing to the tunes of conspiracy theorists, the party started spreading propaganda amongst the people. It blamed the virus on western attempts at "poisoning the essence of communism in the east". It seemed to work, for a while. During the next few weeks the propaganda seemed to be working and the protests were calming down, but the respite would not last.

Now given a culprit the people wanted punishment, war against the Western nations was now demanded, and once more, the heavy-handed approach did not work. And so, China needed someone to beat up in order to calm its people's fury. 

Mongolia seemed like a perfect target, collaborated with NATO before, but did not do anything significant with the organisation to bring them to war, and so troops were deployed along the border, and an attack was launched. 

Mongolia seemed lost, and the occidentals did not really look as if they cared, however, thanks to a video captured by a Mongolian national detailing Chinese atrocities, and a heated speech by Vorshilov Enkhbol that rallied support for the small country, public pressure mounted on the countries to protect the Mongol's self-determination. And so, an ultimatum was sent to the Chinese government, to stop all attacks on the nation of Mongolia at once. And the government acquiesced. The government only, however. The military had fallen victim to their own propaganda, and Chinese officers, even the top-ranking ones, simply refused to cease their attack. Ulaanbaatar fell, but no repost from the West. 

A month passed, and it was on a quiet night of June that something felt...not right. Communications from their forces in Hong Kong and Macau had effectively ceased, and a squad was sent to re-establish them.

Next day came, and the soldiers did not call in, at this point the government started fearing the worst, and prepared to crush the cities' rebellion, massing troops and marching towards their target. 

They were not greeted by rebels, but by heavy artillery fire, bombs falling from the skies on their positions and tanks and armoured vehicles streaming through and crashing onto them with full force. It was a slaughter, and just like that the entirety of their punitive force was beaten.

Now comes in the army, The People's Liberation Army rushed to the rescue, stabilizing the front, and stopping the NATO advance, with the occidentals only being able to maintain a small force on the front due to logistical issues of fighting away from home, it looked like their invasion would be beaten back. 

Then North Korea fell. Just like that, in a few hours, Pyongyang was already down. The PRC had prepared troops on the border with their allies, ready to intervene at any sign of aggression but contempt to leave the status quo to avoid fighting on multiple fronts, however, the inaptitude of the Korean army was surprising...or was it inaptitude? Something was fishy, but no time to waste, the troops at the border rushed in to stop further advance in Northern Korea, and so the second front was opened.