Atomic Bombing of Hong Sha Dao

The atomic bombing of Hong Sha Dao was one of the most significant indicators of global catastrophes erupting in the 2020’s. The incident occurred thanks in large part to the growing unpopularity of President David Jefferson Adams, who had used vote rigging and court-packing to erode democracy in America. The Adams administration’s authoritarian rule was increasingly unpopular. He clashed with many foreign leaders—ranging from the hatred as incompetent from the likes of former Prime Minister John Vosler to the explicit condemnations as an autocrat articulated by Ukrainian President Vasil Petrovych Holoborodko. The Northmoor Corporation was contracted to use dirty bombs to disperse some protests. Protestors against his rule such as Samantha White, Peter Maldonado, Kat Strattford, William Van Driessen and Forrest Taft were linked to extremist groups such as the New Earth Army and the Left Eye to justify their imprisonment. The addition of Curtis Wilson to the Supreme Court allowed for the detention of these opponents as well as potential 2024 rivals. Additionally, Adams was wracked by scandal. Joe Goldberg, a staffer on his reelection campaign, was discovered to be a murderous stalker. Caldwell B. Cladwell, a major donor to Adams’ campaign, was accused by Cecil Palmer of denying many southwestern communities access to the region’s increasingly scarce water supply. For this reason, even though his opponents had been largely disqualified, Adams worried his support would remain too low to retain power.

For this reason, Adams turned to saber-rattling, likely recalling his brief spike in approval early in his administration during a brief war against a parallel world’s version of Equestria, during the Combine and Ceph invasions and when helping quarantine the Turkish city of Harran following a rabies-T-virus hybrid contaminating the city. The Greater Hun Chiu Republic was an unpopular nation in America and Adams had been blamed for creating the power vacuum in the Pacific that enabled their ascendency. The GHCR had carved out a sphere of influence in much of Asia as a result of Adams withdrawing US forces in the region to shore up his regime. The GHCR had reinstalled Julio Ardiente in the Philippines and backed the self-declared People’s Republic of China led by Hou Linpiang as it sought to reunify the divided country. His government managed to almost achieve total reunification and became overly confident, leading to the creation of artificial islands in the South China Sea—most notably Hong Sha Dao. While the region was dominated by GHCR allies, Sarkhan remained semi-independent and saw the creation of Hong Sha Dao as an infringement on their territory. Adams saw this as a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the public and thus issued an ultimatum to Hou Linpiang’s China to either dismantle the artificial islands or the US would destroy them. Ultimately, with the words of support from the GHCR and the US being increasingly isolated from the world community, Chairman Hou rejected this threat.

Adams thus would strike, ordering Air Force Secretary Christopher Blair to launch three Trident missiles at Hong Sha Dao. The island was completely destroyed and almost everyone on it would perish. China would call for vengeance, but Hou was restrained by the GHCR, who believed the US remained too powerful to challenge. This strike caused Hou’s government to lose quite a bit of face and the elite Kwan Do family would soon overthrow Hou and install Nick Young as the president of the bulk of China. Meanwhile, much of the world condemned this strike, fearing the implications for the nuclear taboo. Sanctions were imposed by multiple countries, which had a major economic ripple effect that led to the rise of extremist parties such as Vivienne Rook’s Four Star Party in Britain (which arose from absorbing other populist parties such as People for Waldo, the String ‘Em Up Party and the Common Sense Party as the ruling Shepherd Party was brought down by the economic crash) and Agnes Dorgelle’s National Popular Rally in France (which had been ascending in influence in the wake of the growing unpopularity of Muslim French President Mohammed Ben-Abbes). The reaction in American proper was more divided. Socialist Senator Julian Felsenburgh was so outraged by the strike that he renounced his citizenship and moved to Europe, where he would ultimately become President of the European Union over a resurrected Adenoid Hynkel and Elisa Correr (and went on to have Pope Pius XIII murdered to begin a war against the Catholic Church). Less extreme figures nevertheless also condemned the attacks and they were cited by Congressman-elect Payton Hobart as reasons to boycott Adams’ second inauguration, which over three dozen Representatives and eleven Senators ultimately did alongside all living ex-presidents. Other Americans, such as Kansas Senator Brenda King, Missitucky Senator Alfred Woden and Delmarva Governor James Devlin, defended the attack, claiming it was necessary to limit the GHCR’s influence. Ultimately, most Americans did not agree with the attack and Adams remained controversial past the point of his death in the 2025 Inauguration Day bombings that destroyed multiple other cities. Some figures, such as cult leader Eddie Lane, held that the 23 cities’ destruction was a cosmic punishment for destroying Hong Sha Dao.

### **References**

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