Cyber Warfare and the New World Order

A New World

The Australian government quickly accepted President Stein’s request to secure several downtown hotels and the zone surrounding them for the peace talks with the Chinese. The world was on the cusp of ending the bloodiest war in history, and if the Australian government had to kick out a bunch of tourists from some swanky hotels and ask people in the local area to endure some stricter security for a few days, it was worth it.

The American delegation would be staying at the QT Sydney, a ritzy hotel with cozy meeting rooms that would host the peace talks. The hotel was one of the few locations that could be fully secured to the US Secret Service’s standards as the President had previously stayed at this hotel, just prior to the start of the war. The Chinese delegation would be staying at another luxury hotel just across the street. Both nations’ security advance teams had arrived within 24 hours of the location having been agreed upon. The security teams and the Australian government had less than a day to secure the two facilities before both President Stein and President Jinping would arrive to begin the talks. A lot of work needed to be done with very little time.

As President Stein sat in his office on Air Force One, he was going over several of the main points of the tentative terms of the peace deal the Chinese had sent ahead of time. The President was not surprised by the demands, though he was not about to let the Chinese get everything they were asking for. The question he had to ask was what negotiating points could be given away, and what were the points he absolutely would not bend on.

He looked down at his paper again at the highlighted portion, which discussed the return of Shanghai and the removal of all Allied Forces from mainland China. The Chinese also wanted the Allied forces to leave Taiwan and for China to retain all territorial gains they had made up to this point. This included Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Malaysia and large swaths of east Africa. They also requested that the Allies not attack or intervene with their ally, the African Confederation. The outline of the entreated peace deal also included India, which was part of the Pan Asian Alliance.

It was a nice starting point, but nothing President Stein was going to agree to. With the endless supply of Tritium4 arriving from the lunar base, the US was producing nearly 5,000 EHDs a month. In a few more months, they would have 20,000 of them they could unleash on China. Stein knew he was negotiating from a position of strength; he was willing to let the Chinese keep some of their territorial gains, but he was not about to let them walk all over the US.

As soon as he landed in Australia, the President’s motorcade took him directly to the hotel. Once he arrived, the President immediately went to bed; he had worked throughout most of the flight, and he was now exhausted. He wanted to get a solid eight hours of sleep before his morning meeting began with the Allied leaders to discuss what they would be willing to accept from the Chinese and what their red lines would be. In the afternoon, the two warring parties would meet for the first time and begin the initial discussions. The following day was dedicated to further negotiations. The third day was left open, to allow the parties time to think about the terms that had been offered and handle any last-minute changes. If no deal could be agreed upon by the end of the third day, the warring parties would return to their countries and the fighting would resume.

The following afternoon, President Stein and President Jinping walked into the same room to meet for the first time in nearly five years. The meeting was very private; it was just the two leaders, their personal translators and one advisor per leader; this arrangement was designed to be more intimate and direct, a chance for the two leaders to talk directly and hammer out some of the major points of the peace deal.

As President Jinping walked into the room, he saw President Stein and his two representatives were already seated. They rose when he walked in, and extended their hands as a courtesy. Jinping thought to himself, “President Stein looks tired, like he’s aged an entire decade since our last meeting. He also has a burning rage in his eyes; he is going to be hard to negotiate with.”

As Jinping shook Stein’s hand and then took his seat, he opened the conversation. “Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to a temporary ceasefire while our two nations work out an end to this war.”

President Stein was also reading his opponent; he saw a man who was determined to fight to the death if he was not able to save face and end the war as close to his terms as possible. He thought, “Well, that’s too bad for him. I will wipe China and its people from the face of the Earth if I must.” Aloud, he politely responded, “Likewise, Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to meet to discuss how we can end this terrible war. Shall we begin?” As he finished speaking, he opened the folder in front of him.

The two men talked for nearly thirty minutes about the fate of Taiwan, the Philippines and Southeast Asia. President Stein said he would withdraw his forces from mainland China but the PLA would have to withdraw from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines. The US would cede Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. President Jinping immediately objected to the terms, insisting that they wanted Taiwan returned to China as well as control of Thailand and Malaysia.

President Stein ceded, “We would agree to giving up control of Taiwan if the Chinese agreed to withdraw from Cambodia and divided Vietnam into north and south, with the US retaining control of south Vietnam, and China keeping the north.”

After nearly two hours of horse trading back and forth, President Jinping agreed to the terms President Stein put forth. President Stein then placed one more demand on the table — complete restriction of future space exploration and the militarization of space for a period of time to be determined through negotiations. Jinping knew President Stein might do this; he had heard from sources in Russia that this had been a major sticking point with the Americans. However, unlike the Russians, China was not willing to have a restriction on their opportunity to explore the stars now that the technology for continuous thrust engines had been made.

President Jinping insisted, “China will not give up its ambitions on space, or the ability to mine and establish our own settlements on the lunar surface or elsewhere.”

Stein knew he ultimately could not get the Chinese to walk away from the new frontier now that it had been opened wide up to exploration: mining, settlements, and EmDrive and advanced Ion engine technology was too strong of a draw. His goal was to slow them down, just long enough for America to become a dominant force in space before it had any serious competition from either Russia or China.

Stein proposed, “The Chinese could accept an observation force of your space activities for the next 15 years, or you would have to agree to a full 15-year moratorium on all space activities outside of reestablishing satellite activities.”

Unlike the Russians, China had no intentions of allowing monitors into their space program. The Chinese were much further along in their own developments of the Ion engines and spacecraft design; Although, until the war ended, they could not get their program off the ground.

After nearly four more hours of arguing and going around and around the issue, President Jinping capitulated, and agreed to a fifteen-year moratorium on space activities. He justified that decision by telling himself that he would use that time to rebuild his empire.

President Stein made it clear, “I am more than willing to continue the war. We can always employ space-based weapons to systematically destroy China if you decide not to agree to our terms.” After nearly seven hours of direct talks, the two leaders had agreed to terms that would bring the bloodiest war in world history to an end. The following day, the two leaders and their aides worked out the formal details of the new borders of the countries, reparations to be paid and the process to implement the peace agreement.

Once Air Force One had reached its cruising altitude, the President got up from his seat and began to walk towards the conference room. The rest of his senior staff quickly followed him into the room and took their respective seats. An aide brought in some fresh coffee and snacks for everyone and then quietly left the room and shut the door.

Secretary of State Jim Wise was the first to speak, “Mr. President, I believe some congratulations are in order. The peace talks were a success…this war is finally coming to an end,” he said with a broad smile on his face.

The others in the room smiled and congratulated each other. President Stein just smiled and nodded, lost in thought. “Could it really be over? After nearly five years, and over a billion-people killed, is the end really here?”

Clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention, the President stood up while signaling everyone else to stay seated.

The President began, “Gentlemen, I cannot thank you enough for your steadfast strength and perseverance in guiding me and our great nation through this war. America has lost so much, nearly twelve million people killed and nearly the twice that number injured. Our brave men and women of the Armed Forces, and our civilians as well, have suffered so much in the defense of this great nation and the free world.”

“We are now about to embark upon the next great challenge, winning the peace. We have won the war, no one will dispute that, but we must truly work to achieve peace. We are on the cusp of a new world order, a world that I am determined must be led by America. Over the next several months, Chinese forces will be withdrawing from most of Southeast Asia while our forces begin the withdrawal from mainland China and Taiwan. Not everyone is going to be happy with our ceding Taiwan to the Chinese, especially after having fought so hard to secure it. I hate to use the term bargaining chip, but that is ultimately what Taiwan became. In ceding Taiwan, we liberated the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and what will now become South Vietnam.”

“As Chinese forces leave these countries, our forces will move in. We will provide security and stability to them while we rebuild a new civilian government and security force. I want the Pentagon to begin identifying where we should establish permanent military bases in these countries. We are not going withdraw from these countries and leave an empty void like what was done in the Middle East in the 2010s. We must continue to win the peace if we are to avoid another war in the future.”

The President had been pacing as he was speaking; now he stopped and turned back to his staff, who had been paying rapt attention. “One of the problems we have faced in the past after a war, is that our nation has historically begun a massive demobilization and moved immediately back to civilian life. While this has ultimately been the goal of our forces in the past, it is not going to be my goal. America, and the world, need to have a shared vision for the future.”

One of the advisors in the room asked what everyone was thinking, “What do you have in mind Mr. President?”

Stein believed in his gut that America would eventually win, so he had spent many hours in the quiet thinking about what to do after a victory was achieved. Just as President Truman had established the Marshal Plan at the end of World War II, President Stein needed to establish his own post-world war plan to bring the people of the world back together, this time for a greater cause than nationalism.

He explained, “We are going to lead the world in the colonization of space. It is time for man to begin his next great adventure and expand our presence beyond our own solar system. We have the tools and technologies to make this happen. Now we need to make it a priority. Over the next several weeks, I am going to work with Dr. Gorka, Professor Rickenbacker, and Dr. Bergstrom to develop plans to construct a space elevator, orbital space station and spacecraft construction yard. We will also look for ways to expand our presence on the Moon and plan to start a new colony on Mars, as well as on Europa and other moons in our solar system. It is time mankind moves beyond the earthly squabbles that have led to countless wars across human history. Our future is in the stars, not here on Earth. That is the vision I want to project to the world as we usher in a time of peace, and hopefully, tranquility.”

The room erupted in spontaneous clapping. A global project and vision would not only give the survivors of this great war a chance to move on, it would inspire people to dream big again.

They all broke out into chatter, discussing various aspects of the President’s vision, Eventually, everyone started to leave the briefing room, until it was just Monty and the President sitting there. Monty looked at his long-time friend and smiled. “That was one world-class speech you gave. You really think we can make it happen?” he asked, raising one eyebrow slightly.

The President smiled, then replied, “I think so. We need to at least try. We need to find a way to heal not just our country, but the rest of the world if we are to sow the seeds of long-term peace and not animosity.” Stein was confident for the first time in the future of humanity.