While the Edenian delegation was evacuating from the Mansudae Assembly Hall, an entirely different confrontation was in progress a few dozen nautical miles outside Nampo.

Edenian vessels, this is the USS Ronald Regan. You are entering interdicted waters and I hereby order you to stand down for inspection. I repeat: stand down for inspection.

The Edenian task group continued steaming forward at a rather impressive speed, from the perspective of the American vessels between them and North Korea. USS Ronald Reagan, this is the EV Sigurd. We are not a trade fleet and thus were not subject to your illegal trade interdiction of a sovereign nation in the first place. Were currently on course for Nampo, where we will be onboarding our diplomatic mission in light of the recent resumption of hostilities. Belay your order and get out of our way or there will be... trouble, Home Admiral James Holbrook replied from the flag bridge of the Sigurd.

......

Its finally kicking off, Aron said as he caught up to the news.

[And at the worst possible time,] Nova said. The weather was being very uncooperative, with the unusual cloud cover over most of North Korea preventing the Panopticon network from acquiring solid visuals of the ground. They still had other options, like thermal and infrared, but the thick cloud cover was still making it impossible to determine what was what.

Wheres Alexander? he asked. He had received the news of North Korea unilaterally violating the cease-fire minutes after it had occurred, but had to rely on reports, rather than visuals, to determine what exactly was going on at any given time.

[The presidential aegis team is currently en route to Nampo for a sea evac. Without the Stratotanker in the air ahead of time, they had to scuttle the air assets and evacuate by sea. Luckily, Nampo is only a few dozen kilometers from Pyongyang, so it shouldnt be long before theyre safely aboard the EV Hrothgar and headed back.] Nova brought up the feed from one of the aegis soldiers, then split the screen and displayed a progress map on the other side. North Korea had almost no cars and relied mainly on bicycle-driven rickshaws for transportation, which were easy to dodge and wouldnt be able to jam the entire street like cars could. Thus, the evacuating delegation was making good time on their way to the port, where they would board the waiting Edenian submarine and begin the long journey home.

Thats good. Keep an eye on them and let me know if their situation changes. He turned his head and said, Nyx.

The shadows in the room gathered into a human shape, which resolved into the mother of spies. [You called, sir?]

Our work is done in North Korea, right? he asked.

[Yes, my children finished their missions and have already been exfiltrated. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened and its all been dealt with,] she replied, thinking of the reasonably few smoking craters left by the exfiltrating nyxians.

Nova, call for a council meeting, Aron ordered.

A few minutes later, the Edenian council appeared in the meeting room. They must have immediately logged in after receiving the order, since the time dilation in the VR was relatively high and it had only taken them minutes, not hours, to appear.

Aron caught them up on the situation and informed them that the presidential delegations evacuation from North Korea was in progress, then left them to draw up plans for their individual ministries based on the resumption of hostilities in Korea and the situation brewing in Taiwan. He nodded to Nova and the two of them disappeared; Nyx had already left earlier.

Aron appeared in ARES Command and began issuing orders. Raise our status to alert level two. I want ARES, Aeolus, and Poseidon to be ready for immediate mobilization. Cancel all leaves and call every soldier back to duty stations. Home Fleet is to increase patrols and send out the reserve. Order all transport convoys to flank speed, I want our cargo ships and merchant marine back as soon as possible.... He continued issuing order after order for quite some time. In a nutshell, the entire military was to be ready for anything within two hours real time, and the trade convoys had been ordered to submerge if they were intercepted. There would be no point in preserving his capabilities if it cost him experienced ship handlers. After all, no matter how accurate the simulation was, reality would always differ and experience still mattered.

Yes, sir, the military leaders chorused, then logged out to deal with what needed to be done in reality. The AIs could handle everything else.

White House Situation Room.

Trump had been pulled to the situation room moments after being signaled to wrap up his weekly press briefing and had been informed of the unfolding situation in Korea.

So whatre you suggesting? he asked once the briefing was finished.

Sir, we should deal with North Korea once and for all. With the developing situation in Taiwan, China is sure to be distracted, so we can flatten all opposition in Korea without their interference. Plus, since that madman fired the first shots, China wont be able to reinforce North Korea, while we can claim that we were forced to aid South Korea because of our treaty with them, General Mattis suggested.

What about the damage to South Korea? And how do we convince them to let us be in charge?

Of course theyll agree to us being in charge. Were the United States of America, the most powerful nation on the face of the planet, the secretary of state sneered.

And what will China do? Will they just watch from the sidelines? Trump asked.

North Korea acted first, so their mutual defense treaty with China wont come into effect. Since South Korea is the defending party, were free to retaliate. That means China cant openly do anything to stop us, and we dont have to worry about anything they do in the background since the forces we have stationed in Korea are already sufficient to win any conflict there, General Mattis answered.

Are we sure we know where all their nukes are? Trump wanted it on the record that he at least asked in case things were to go south for the American forces.

Yes. Were bombing everything thats been confirmed to relate to their nuclear program, and everything that we only suspect has ever been related to their nukes, Mattis replied.

Good. Carry on, Trump said, then turned to the secretary of state and ordered, Call congress and let them know Ill be doing a congressional address later this afternoon.