Really neat. I read the earlier chapters and found it to be well written and original. Keep at it!
I especially like how you manage to keep the story's pace and scale so well balanced.

I'm going with my family on vacation in a couple of days so I wont be able to post for about a week or two. Well it doesn't matter, seeing as I've barely been posting on my own fan-fic lately. But you have my word that I'll be back with a vengence when I get home. I already have a lot of ideas in my head that I'll probably put on paper during my vacation, so you can expect new chapters when I get back.

I'm back everyone. Just came home an hour ago in fact.

I made four chapters during my vacation. Long ass flights helped with that. I'll post a new chapter everyday for four days.

The first of these chapters will be up in a few hours.I hope you like them.

Hooray! New chapter!

You wont believe what happened to me.

There I was. Half-way through typing the next chapter I promised you, and the next thing I know, I wake up with my face in the keyboard. The jetlag hit me like a brick and I was out till 2pm the next day. True story!

My work was saved, so the new chapter will be up in thirty minutes or less, or your money back. ^_^

Ch.5: The Music Still Played


Mayday! Mayday! Incoming enem- Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!" *static*" ,was the last transmission of the Gao Ti. The sound of the carrier exploding rain through the Shenlong. All hands on board were silent. The situation was becoming grave.

The scene was horrific. The American blockade laid before a devastated Chinese fleet. Almost the entire first wave of the invasion fleet was destroyed. And the blockade seemed as solid as ever. To make matters worse,the loss of the Gao Ti meant that the last aircraft carrier defending the fleet was the Shenlong. If the blockade was not breached soon the second fleet which share the same fate as the first.

"Get everything in the air now! I want that damn thing that took out the Gao Ti at the bottom of the Bering Sea.", barked the commander of the first fleet. On board the Shenlong, he led what was left of his fleet.

One by one jet fighters flew off the deck of the Shenlong. The dogfight happening around the Shenlong was claiming more and more jet fighters, and they couldn't get enough to replace them. Suddenly an explosion ripped through the side of the ship. An American battleship hit its mark, and the Shenlong's runway was rendered useless. Alarms rang across the ship as men on the runway grabbed hoses and tried their best to douse the flames.

Without the ability to launch jets, the Shenlong was quickly losing its usefulness. "Dammit! What's left of the first wave?", shouted the Commander.

"Commander, all troop transports lost, all supply ships lost, two destroyers damaged but operational, and one remaining submarine, sir.", reported the radio man.

The Commander paced nervously, trying to think of what to do. They had lost all their objectives, and were down to the remnants of the escort. If they've pulled back then the second wave would get severe damage from a blockade that should be gone by now. They had to penetrate the blockade at absolutely any cost. The Commander soon came to his only option... a suicide charge.

"Communications officer, get me connected to everyone we have left." After giving a quick salute, the communications officer connected all the other remaining captains for what would be their final orders.

"Attention all ships! Focus all fire on the Atlantic Pride. We have confirmed that vessel is responsible for destroying the Gao Ti. It's also the largest battleship on the blockade. Without it, their entire formation will be broken. The second fleet will be able to handle the rest. Come in Su-Shai."

"Su-Shai captain present Commander!", replied the submarine captain.

"Is the Su-Shai still equipped with nuclear torpedoes?"

"Yes sir!" There was a hint of excitement in the voice of the Su-Shai's captain. Apparently he had been waiting to use them.

"Fantastic! Arm them immediately, and fire when you are confident the Atlantic Pride will not be able to evade them. Friendly fire is not a factor in that decision, understood."

"Understood sir!"

"The Shenlong will attack the Atlantic Pride from her aft. The rest of you will attack from the starboard. Were boxing it in so the Su-Shai will get a clear shot. You all understand what that means."

"Sir!", all the captains replied in unison. There voices filled with pride over what their last deeds will be.

"You have your orders, now go!!!"

"SIR, YES SIR!!!!!"

One by one the ships came into formation and began their death charges towards the Atlantic Pride. All around them, dozens of jet fighters crashed into the sea in balls of fire. The airways choked with the sounds of their blood curdleing screams. It was not long before the communications officer on the Shenlong simply turned off the radio.

When the commander saw him do this, he walked up to him and gave him a cold look. Expecting to be shot for abandoning his duties, the officer closed his eyes and braced himself. But when nothing happened, he opened his eyes and saw the commander holding out a holotape for him to play on the radio. Unsure of what it meant, he slowly inserted it into the system. Suddenly every frequency was filled with the music of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUaBmQf0flI Every intercom of the ship played China's national athemn in their ast blaze of glory. Even the Americans heard it. Soon every last Chiese ship in the formation broadcasted "March of the Volunteers" aswell. It was a truely glorius display that did China due credit.

One of the destroyers was the first to go, but the music still played. The Shenlong began blowing apart bit by bit with every exploding fuel tank, but music still played. Every second more and more men were engulfed by flames, but the music still played. Soon the other destroyer succumed to the fire of the enemy and left the Shenlong standing alone, but the music still played. The entire American formation surrounded the Shenlong as she limped towards the Atlantic Pride, but the music still played. A shell makes a direct hit at the bride, and the music stops...Yet as the entire American formation pounds at the burning hulk of the Shenlong, a single nuclear torpedo reaches its mark on the Atlantic Pride.

The ensueing blast claimed the entire American formation, along with the remnants of the first invasionary fleet. And as the second and third fleet looked upon the mushroom cloud, the blast inagurated two events. The capture of the Bering Sea for China, and the beginning of the Second Red Winter for Alaska.

Another excellent chapter as usual! This really captures the sacrifice that was required to make the operation successful.I eagerly await the next chapter.

P.S thanks for your pm, I might not have seen the new chapter otherwise.

Ch.6: Transfer

Tao sat in a room filled with people at the headquarters of the Provisionary Police. He and most of the other officers were called back to headquarters without being given any details. It went without saying that most of them were pretty pissed off by now. They all hated being left in the dark like this, that included Tao. To make things worse, the buildings heater had broken again. And in the Alaskan winter, that meant the whole building felt like a big icebox. Eventually, you got a whole room filled with very cold and annoyed police officers cursing under their breath. Tao was no exception.

"Why did they have to call me in now of all times? I mean I just got my letter from Shin Li too. Son of a [censored]..." To distract himself from the cold, Tao lit a cigarette. The warm smoke felt good in his lungs compared to the frigid air he was breathing in. And it seemed a few of the other officers were getting the same idea. Those that didn't smoke soon got some relief of their own when some aides began bringing what looked like tea to everyone. But when it came time for Tao to get some the tea was already ice cold and it tasted more like water than anything else.

"How many times have you used these tea leaves?" Tao asked the aide.

"Fourth time, sir."

"Figures..."

After a few more drinks of cold, flavorless tea, the first few officers were being called by their supervisors. It would be another couple of hours before it was Tao's turn. "Officer Xin Tao, officer Xin Tao, you are to enter your Supervisor's office imediately", called out an aide.

When Tao walked into his supervisor's office, he was greeted by a small elderly man. It had been a long time since his last meeting with his supervisor, but this man looked too old to be the same person. The stress of his work must have aged him.

"Ah, please sit down young man. I have important news." When Tao took his seat, the elderly man opened his file. "Let's see here...Xin Tao, born 2050. Father is only other relative to be in the service. Father Xin Bao, KIA. How interesting...It says on file that your father died here in Alaska, year 2069. That must mean he died during the initial invasion. Its very rare for-"

The man stopped when Tao raised his hand for him to stop. "With the upmost respect, you're bringing up a very dark chapter in my family's life. I would very much like to get to the point of this meeting sir."

The supervisor grew silent, and seemed a little annoyed by Tao interruption. "Very well... we will get to the point. You are to be transferred to the Army."

Tao's heart skipped a beat when he heard what he said. "What! Why?" He couldn't believe this. The Army goes to the front lines, and the front lines were suicide. "Haven't I performed well enough as a member of the Provisionary Police?"

"It is not an issue of performance. At least 80% of the personnel within the Provisionary Police are being folded into the main army. You will turn in your badge, gun, and uniform to our armory."After quickly scribbling something on a form, the old man handed it to Tao. "Report here on the time specified. There you will be transported to your new station and directed to your new CO. Dismissed."

After walking out of the office, Tao wasn't sure what to do. His dad had died with the infantry. Was he going to die in this foreign land too? As the anxiety grew inside of him with every thought, Tao knew only one thing could keep him together.

"I need a [censored] cigarette."

ouch, being folded into the infantry, good chapter, I wonder what shall happen next. This makes me wonder whether China will succeed or will all their effort go to waste. Now I wait for the next chapter!

Currently suffering from "EXTREME INSOMNIA", so I decided to give you guys a little update on what to expect.

I am officially a college student now, and I am typing this in my dorm room across from my roommate who also has "EXTRERME INSOMNIA"!!!!!!!!!!!

I still have some chapters ready to post, so I'll make sure to post at least one tomorrow, or I guess technically today. Classes start soon, so I'll be pretty busy. It might effect how often I post, but just make sure to keep an eye out for this story from now on. As long as you guys read it, I'll keep posting.

Time to see if I can sleep now. Good night. :snoring:

This is actually really good, can't wait to see more!

-V

Well I have been reading this and promised I would say what I think of it:

Spelling, Grammar and Spacing issues do exist throughout. However this is a fine piece of military scifi that is obviously well researched and planned. Your story structure is solid, believable and gripping. I still enjoy your new installments so keep 'em coming when you find the time.

I have one more class today, but after that all have most of the evening to myself. I'll try to post the next chapter today. Its been just sitting there in my folder waiting to be typed.

P.S.: I know I have a few devouted readers on this fan-fic, and I want to express my gratitude. It would be hard to keep up my writing if I didn't have people to share it with. And to show how grateful I am, I'm going to give you something to look forward to. I'm currently putting a more action packed chapter on paper right now, and I should be able to post it up along with the rest of my completed chapters by next week.

Enjoy!

Excellent! It has almost been too long for me!

Ch.6: Word From Home

After going through two cigarettes, Tao had calm down enough to read the letter from his older sister. The letter was almost two months old, which actually meant it had arrived sooner than most. The dammned American Blockade would delay everything from tanks to mail for months. One time, Tao got a letter that his sister had written five months prior!

He always made sure to open it with the utmost care. These letters were often the only thing keeping him going, and now they were about to be needed more than ever.

Inside the envelope was a dried flower that came straight from the garden back home. There was always a flower in the letters that Shing Li sent. She knew they were probably the only flowers Tao would see all year. A combination of American bombs and ever depressing weather saw to that.

Tao took a moment to smell the flower, just like he always has. It's gentle smell gave him happy memories of his childhood in Hong Kong. In his mind, Tao could see himself playing with the family as a child. Before the war. Before the invasion. Before his father died...

When Tao had enough of those memories, he carefully unfolded his sister's letter. Unlike most of the other people he knew, Tao's letters usually gave out good news. But he knows Shing Li probably justs leaves out the negative parts of their lives back home. Still... she had no reason to lie about good news, and right now he needed some.

Hello little brother, I know this letter will reach you well. You've always been the cautious one in our family. Unlike me of course. Ha Ha!
A few things have been looking up for us here lately. The air raids have been becoming less frequent. I guess our soilders are keeping the Americans
busy around Shanghai. That lets everyone here breathe a little easier. Plus this month's military benefit money has come in. We know how much you've
sacrificed for us to get that money. It should hold us over for awhile. Oh, and I have a very special bit of news for you. Make sure you're sitting for this.
I'm getting married!!! Chen just proposed to me, saying so many things were going wrong for him, but he just needed me to be happy in this war. Naturally
I said no. I didn't need another person relying on me, emotionally or otherwise. But it wasn't like I didn't need him either, so for the first time in my life I
showed a little weakness to him, and told him that the only reason I said no was because I was afraid to need someone when mom needed me.
I only hope we are strong enough to support eachother through these times. Everyone has enough pain already... So get your ass back to me and mom understand!
I...I love you little brother.

Tao slowly folded the letter back into the envelope and let what he had just read sink in.

"My sister...is getting married? She cant just say everything before that and spare me that disturbing concept. Here I thought I had crazy [censored] coming my way. Chen is even more screwed than I am!" Tao started laughing at himself over what he just said.

Really, he was just grabbing as many happy emotions as he could. Even if was from teasing his sister when she's not around. But deep down, he could only feel utter joy for Shing Li. She deserved all the happiness in the world, something he couldn't give right now. So if there was someone back home who could give that happiness to her, than he was already a brother as far as Tao was concerned.

With home sounding better than it ever has been, Tao had that much more of a reason to live through this. He just hoped that it was enough. But deep down, he knew that rarely was enough.

Good ,good another chapter! I don't really know what else to say other than keep writing those chapters!

Ch.7: Processing

The new infantry camp had been established west of Anchourage. The previous camp was too damaged and too small to accomodate the influxe of new soldiers being called to the area. Among the countless transports dropping off new recruits was the truck carrying Tao and his fellow officers from the police station.

They stepped out into a huge crowd of hundreds of soldiers straight from the homeland. Most were young men who were even younger than Tao. Farm boys and students who had been lured into service by the battle cry of the homeland, the desperation of their family's situation, and the promise of adventure. The same kind of people who are the cannon fodder for China's commanders to send to their graves. A type of person Tao's father insured he would never become.

Yet despite knowing what was to come, here Tao was, in a snowy field waiting in line to be processed. All around him, soldiers that have already arrived were training. One field was filled with men practicing martial arts, another had riflemen shooting targets, and another had an obstacle course. The air filled with their chanting, and orders from their drill sergents.

"The American is better armed! The American is better armored! The American is ruthless! How will you defeat him!?"

"With trust in my comrade, with the homeland in my heart, and with the force of my will!", screamed the company in unison.

After what seemed like hours in the snow it was finally his turn. He stood before a desk that was manned by only two people, which explained the long wait. A scrawny man wearing glasses put his hand out for Tao's papers. When Tao gave them to him, they were quickly checked, stamped , and filed.

"Your profile states you speak perfect English, is that correct?", asked the man.

"Yes sir." Tao said as he gave a salute. "I had my highest marks in unarmed combat during basic training. Though I was graded as mediocre in all other fields."

The man behind the desk was scribbling on some form, obviously not listening to Tao. He soon handed him his assignment papers, and directed Tao to the next stage of processing. There they were finally passing out the new uniforms, which Tao had been going without since he left the police station.

"What is your assignment soldier?"

Tao handed the man his papers, and waited for him to hurry up with the uniform.

"Alright, you're in the 126th. Welcome to Zhu Company soldier.

Just a quick announcement to make to my readers.

That was the last of my ready-to-go chapters, so it seemed like an appropriate time to tell you that I will soon begin making another fan-fic. I was given special permission to run two at the same time, so I will still work on this story. I just have a lot of ideas in my head right now that I dont want to lose.

Juggling school and another fan-fic might slow down my writing of this story, but I promise to you my readers that I wont stop. Tao has a duty to the people of China that will be fulfilled, mark my words.

I've been at school for a while now and busy with other businesses lately (joining the United States Air Force JROTC program in high school, just got my military cut a day ago, etc), but I'm glad I remembered to read this story again. Very well done and getting even better. The naval battle paragraph was just beautifully well done about pariotism and honor.

Once again, well done Wasteland. You have a lot of fans since the start, including me. You never fail to dissapoint. Keep it up, and write up the next chapter whenever you get the chance to and I'll gladly read it. ^_^

Comrade, your story is one of the best, if not, the best fan-fic I have read in a sorely long time.

This will be on my honored list.


Just know this, that my full support goes to this fan-fic, even if I'm going to South Africa to join the military soon, still remember that I support the fan-fic. Nice job.


Oh, and congrats Gutsy, you get to fly at ultrasonic speeds! Weee.......

Ok, back to seriousness, I want more chapters wasteland.

Your comments mean a lot to me, and I'm happy to say that I'm half-way done with the next chapter. It will introduce a lot more characters, so I hope to get it done shortly.

I had an epiphany the other day that really gave me a lot of new ideas for this story. It's something you'll never see coming...well maybe you would see it coming if you sat down and thought about it for six hours. It doesn't change what has happened, but it added a lot more to what I was planning for later in the story. I'll let you guys know what it was when I reach that part of the story, but dont hold your breath. At the rate I'm going, it could be a month before I get that far.

Ch.8: Anxiety

The barracks were utter caos when Tao entered. Even though the base was built to accomadate the new soldiers, they still fell short in space. Leaving two to three people to share the same bed in each bunk. Naturally, the soldiers bickered with eachother for spots. Most wanted the bottom beds. If they were to be knocked off the bed at night, they didn't want to fall five feet and break their nose.

Tao looked at his assigned bunk, and relized how far he had fallen. Two days ago, he had a one-room apartment all to himself, the bribes he got on a daily basis gave him and his family back home plenty of money, and was relatively safe from the war. Now, he was cannon fodder that was expected to run into machine gun fire so that his comrades could use his body as a sheild. And on top of that, he wasn't going to get any sleep.

"Okay, lets make this easy for us. I'll take the top bed, so you'll only have to fight for the bottom with two people."

The voice snapped Tao out of his depressed trance, as he turned to find a boy barely old enough to enlist.

"Huh...What?", Tao asked slightly confused.

"I'll take the top bed. Everyone wants the bottom one, and I dont want to be part of the scwabbling."

"Oh...sure. I dont really care."

Tao walked out of the barracks, not willing to deal with anything right now. He was low on cigarettes, and he had nowhere to be alone to think. Little by little, he thought he was going to have a break down. He needed space. He needed help. Why couldn't he do this? What was happening to him? At the height of this panic, Tao ran to the back of a tent and puked his guts out.

When he was finished, he tried to figure out what just happened to him. Was he too stressed, maybe the reality of his situation was too much, or maybe he was gining up before he even tried. Whatever it was, at least he was feeling better.

Tao did his best to enjoy the rest of the day. He wrote to his sister about the transfer. Gambled with some of the other soldiers for more cigarettes. Listened to Red Star Radio. Even read one of those American comic books. He had to, because tomorrow, they started military drills.

cool chapter! It has a few spelling mistakes but its all good to me

More damnit!

I love this!


Finish the damn story! You have a talent, show it! In full might!


NI SHI HEN HAO!!!!