Centurions
At the beginning of the 21st century man was at the brink of annihilation. Over population was leading to unrest, sectarian violence and civil wars were abundant, several multi-year droughts had led to famines all across the world and dwindling strategic resources were causing the world powers to begin to posture against one another. For all intents and purposes man was sliding towards a destiny it could not reverse. But as grim as things had become nobody could predict that things were about to get a lot worse!
On October 2nd, 2036, an unidentified flying object was tracked by NORAD entering the skies over east China. No attempt was made by the US to communicate with the Chinese government due to world wide sanctions of the Chinese over their invasion of Taiwan several years before. Intelligence assets, however, were able to follow several small teams of Chinese soldiers sent to the crash site to investigate. The soldiers approached the downed object and were immediately fired upon. After a brief, thirty minute minute exchange the entire Chinese contingent was dead or captured. Much to the US’ surprise the Chinese promptly nuked the site, wiping out several small villages nearby as a result. Worldwide condemnation followed.
In the weeks that followed, US intelligence assets learned that this was not an isolated event and that the Chinese seemed to be wrapped up in some kind of battle with a new insurgent force. While there was little intelligence around “who” they were fighting it would seem, based on multiple reports around engagements with this new enemy, that the Chinese were very fearful of them and would deal with them using all resources at their disposal. To confirm that intel, the Chinese nuked three more sites within their borders and one in outer Mongolia over the course of the next two months. It wasn’t until six months after the initial attack that the Chinese reached out to the Americans asking for help.
