Scenario: World War III
From Future
In 2010, growing tensions between India and Pakistan finally flared into war. While India possessed a higher population and greater resources than their smaller neighbor Pakistan was better prepared and made significant advances during the opening clashes of the war. India though had developed an airforce ages ahead of the Pakistani airforce; however, the front quickly stabilized and all hopes for a swift resolution began to wane, forcing both countries to call upon their allies for support. The United Nations once again proved unable to exert any influence of significance, and proved little more than a central location where diplomats could spout rhetoric and argue with each other.
At the end of the first year, no less than twelve different nations were involved in the hostilities in one form or another. Pakistan was at the forefront of a powerfull trade alliance between many of the former Russian states that earned independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the late 20th Century. Without exception, these countries - Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Tazikstan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, with the notable exception of Georgia - began to send troops and equipment into Pakistan to replace losses that nation's industry could not quickly construct. While individually their military power was limited, they proved quite effective when united. In response, India called upon its friends in Bangladesh and Nepal to join the fight, and began to put pressure on the Chinese to intervene.
To this end, China began pouring troops across the Pakistani border in early 2012. Pakistan had no chance to stop these advancing armies - if they pulled troops away from the Indian front, that line would shatter and all would be lost. In desperation, and indeed with no other choice available to them, Pakistani aircraft dropped three low-yield nuclear bombs atop the advancing Chinese spearheads.
Reaction from the world was one of immediate outrage and panic. Global stock markets collapsed overnight as the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed. Fearing further strikes on Chinese territory, the government in Beijing ordered the launch of twelve nuclear missiles into Pakistan, but these never reached their targets. Instead, all of them mysteriously exploded at the highest point of their ballistic trajectory. A second strike also failed, as did a counterattack by Pakistan's few existing ballistic missiles.
Although long-range attacks were somehow rendered impotent, cruise missiles and tactical artillery shells were successfully exchanged, leaving the border between Pakistan and China a devastated wasteland. Limited nuke strikes also occured within India itself, on or near the front lines, but both sides resisted the temptation to start destroying each other's cities.
Within the United Nations, the use of nuclear weapons by the warring powers was the object of heated debate. The Security Council produced a resolution condemning further use of such weapons, but this was summarily ignored. In response, the United States, Britain, and Russia unilaterally cut off all trade and financial support to the entire area.
Once again intercontinental nuclear missiles were launched, but not a single one ever struck any target. It was at this point that the United States revealed a previously unknown array of automated global defense satellites capable of tracking and knocking down any ballistic missile within minutes of launch. This system, known as EarthShield, put the United Nations into an uproar. Every country, with the exception of Britain and Australia, argued bitterly. It was their contention that the use of such a system against active military forces was an act of war. America argued that had they not utilized EarthShield, most of Pakistan, India, and China, if not the whole of Asia, would be a devasted zone of radioactive slag. In response, Russia and China withdrew from the United Nations, effectively causing that organization to cease to exist. Also China effectively destroyed EarthShield with its new powerful military technologies, which was a major surprise to the world.
Over the course of the ensuing year, the ongoing war spread throughout Asia. Chinese armies rampaged through eastern Russia, but stalled as they approached Moscow. The winter of that year, heightened by nuclear-driven dust in the upper atmosphere, was one of the worst on record. Millions of Chinese and Russians died on the steppes. Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia all became involved in the fighting to one degree or another. The United States and European Union, suffering economically under the collapse of the world's stock markets, sent in troops to try to halt the fighting, but were fired upon by the very people they were trying to help. In the end, the military might of the two superpowers remained idle, waiting in offshore task forces or within neutral countries for the fighting to die down.
World War III, as it was now known, did not officially end until 2014, although scattered fighting continued between India and Pakistan until the middle of 2015.The Indian defence ,working as a unit with its intelligence proved to be too big a hindrance for invading Pakistani troops,who eventually began retreating despite orders to continue attacking. Much of the Pakistani region was devastated or entirely destroyed. The world markets gradually stabilized as China's armies retreated and resumed the goal of suppressing the revolution. Most of Pakistan's allies, their resources depleted by punishing Indian air strikes, pulled out of the war one by one. India seemed to be emerging as the clear winner admist all the chaos having suffered least damage on its land.India eventually drove Pakistan back to its own border, but made no effort to advance further, fearing additional nuclear bombardment or, more likely, intervention by the United States, which was by then threatening to begin bombing both sides if the war did not come to an immediate halt.This perhaps a precautionary measure by the United States fearing India's eminent rise as a dominant super power. When all was said and done, very few borders changed, but over a dozen nations were left in ruins. The world would never be the same.
