WWIII (Reborn)

World War III
Location Worldwide, Space Result Great Depopulation & The beginning of WWIV

Course of the War

War breaks out in the Middle East (Apr. 10th, 2061)

At about 2:58AM (Israeli Summer Time, UTC+3) telecommunication in Palestine, western Jordan, Sinai, southern Lebanon, southern Syria and northwestern Saudi Arabia were suddenly cut off. At about 2:59AM (Israeli Summer Time, UTC+3) on Apr. 10th at least 5 nukes were detonated at the border between Israel and Palestinian West Bank on the Palestinian side, two near East Jerusalem, one near Beersheba and two near Tel Aviv-Yafo. At the same time one nuke was detonated in Aqaba, Jordan right at the Israeli border.

It was unclear who was even behind the initial attacks. Some suggested that it was caused by some Islamist group. Others believed that some alliance of Middle Eastern governments was behind the attack. A few even believed that Neo-Nazis were behind the attack with the intent to depopulate the Middle East. The actual culprits may never be known. However what's clear was that Israel was completely paralyzed while asleep because it never prepared for terrorists detonating nukes in Palestine to paralyze the usually extremely good Israeli robotic defense systems and that there was no ostensible conflict that could lead to this attack.

At most 5 minutes after the initial attacks more nuclear attacks took place, this time inside Israel. Two extremely powerful nukes were dumped against the Israeli coast, one at Tel Aviv-Yafo and one at Rishon LeTsiyon. Two more nukes infiltrated from Palestine destroyed Be'er Sheva and Ashkelon. 5 more nukes were used within 5 minutes against other Israeli cities such as Haifa.

From archaeological records it was clear that ethnobioweapons, EMP and drone swarms were also used. WWIII Archaeologists managed to dug up some supermodern drones in Israel of Russian and Chinese origins. It was unclear whether Russia and China directly participated in the attack. However since neither country was unusually anti-Israel in early 2061 WWIII historians generally assumed that they sold their drones to extremists but probably neither participated in nor had prior knowledge of the attacks.

It was likely that Israel lost at least 90% of its Jewish population and at least 20% of its Arab population within several hours. IDF members were mostly wiped out. However the Dead Hand of Israel was anything but dead especially since Israel had a presence in space and the Mediterranean Sea.

Period of confusion

After the attack there was no internet connection between Israel and the rest of the world. However news did get out. The news were initially about the mysterious internet outage in the Middle East, not the nuking. When the rest of the world learned about the nuking it was already after 14 nukes, ethnobioweapons and at least 50,000 killer drones were released.

Even United States, Russia, Europe, China and Japan were either ignorant of the attack that pretty much only took 3 minutes to finish or were incapable of doing anything before it was too late. The first USAF fighters did appear above Israel. However when they arrived it was already 7 minutes after the last attack. America did spread the news about the attack.

The world was completely shocked. However an even greater shock would take place just several minutes later.

Global Depopulation (Apr. 11th, 2061 - Apr. 14th, 2061)

Spread of WWIII to East Asia

Things got completely out of hand by 2PM (UTC+0) on the 11th. At about 1:48PM the internet in Japan suddenly broke down. 1 minute later 3 nukes destroyed Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya almost simultaneously. Military robots in Japan were suddenly activated and retaliated against China, Russia and Korea simultaneously. Meanwhile people in Japan began to die en masse for unknown reasons. WWIII archaeologists currently believe that at least 4 ethnobioweapons from at least 3 different sources were the culprits.

Korea and China almost immediately began to suffer from nuclear attacks. They then retaliated against Japan in the confusion.

The Global Blackout

Within 5 hours all major powers were engaged in WWIII. The next three days of world history were largely unknown as events happened within a very short period of time,

Between 7:28PM (UTC+0) on Apr. 11th when the last vestiges of the Internet died out and 3:12AM (UTC+0) on Apr. 14th when the first Indian warplane ventured to Afghanistan accidentally and found it entirely depopulated not much was known about the world in depopulated regions. Even in regions such as South Asia it was mostly known as a period when a lot of people died and life was utterly chaotic. Only in Sub-Saharan Africa and certain Pacific Islands was that period merely confusing or even normal.