Timeline: Short Stories from the Apocalypse - A Through Rough Times Spinoff

[gillan1220]

Nov 22, 2023 21:57:09 GMT ukron said:

gillan1220 , there is an another conclusion to the story: what if North Sentinelse have yet encountered infected? (this is was a kinda WWZ storyline).

So they encountered or not? If not, only lucky blows to the head will kill the infected.

[ukron]

You should re-read the chapter

[gillan1220]

Nov 23, 2023 16:53:35 GMT ukron said:

You should re-read the chapter

That's going to be a lot of trial-and-error.

[ukron]

Preliminary report from the World Health Organization on acute post-KVP dissociation syndrome. February 2021.

The report presented here aims to establish an observation on what was described by the Director General of the WHO as a real pandemic as deadly as that caused by the KV3A viral strain in 2018, through examples significant, the report will seek to present to the public the main symptoms and dangers of post-pandemic acute dissociation syndrome (PADS) or more commonly and incorrectly called "Rotten Brain".

The first cases of PADS are inseparable from the post-traumatic stress suffered by survivors of the KPV pandemic between 2018-2020, which complicates prevention and the implementation of preliminary treatment with a view to mitigating the psychological damage of patients. We remind readers that the competent branches of the WHO, often in liaison with local public authorities, estimate that 60 to 75 percent of the world's population is affected by post-traumatic stress of varying severity. The early symptoms of PADS are unfortunately inseparable from post-traumatic stress, suggesting that there is a critical and urgent mental health problem on a global scale.
Its symptoms include a wide range of mental as well as physical afflictions, which vary among individuals and their experiences during the pandemic.
Thus among the patients in document 1 (attached to the report) are all young children (between 2 to 8 years old) orphaned since the crisis, who have experienced the death/transformation of their parents and who present acute symptoms phase 1 of PADS such as more or less long amnesic phases, severe mutism and inability to move in a "certain social sphere".
Paradoxically, experience before the 2018 crisis taught us that children, having not completed the construction of their identity, should have been more sensitive to PADS but it would seem that pre-pubescent children were able to develop psychological “mechanisms”, allowing them to be resilient.
We believe, particularly by looking at the case (document 2) of the Jersey Island evacuation case, that the children developed a strong attachment to the rescue personnel present on the scene, thus compensating for the loss of their parents and allowing them to “re-build” more or less an emerging personality based on their saviors.

This possibility, although still theoretical, would explain the numerous examples of child gangs recorded in certain lawless areas, and their extreme violence often based on the strong personalities of older children.
For the moment we recommend (documents 3 and 4) a "soft" approach involving, in the best case, the construction of a relationship between young patients and the medical staff in charge.

Unfortunately adult cases of phase 1 of PADS are now uncommon, suggesting the progressive nature of this psychological affliction, these most common symptoms most of the time turn on a fracturing of the ego, most often caused by the death of an infected close relative.
Particularly revealing are the interviews with medical staff at the Sunshine nursing home in Atlanta (document 5), afflicted by progressive stage 2.
The killing of elderly people (sometimes not infected) by medical personnel, isolated in the middle of an infected zone by Operation Cobalt, caused a major psychological rupture, coming into conflict with the professional development of doctors and nurses.
This phase 2 most often involves very marked hallucinations, chronic insomnia and antisocial behavior that is both dangerous for the public and for individuals.

Documents 6 and 7 dealing with phases 2 among military personnel, both involved in the first phases of the pandemic and in cleaning operations, showed the creation of a psychological "circuit" based on an addiction to adrenaline, to danger or violence.
We remind readers that this subject remains very sensitive after the massacre at Fort Campbell 6 months ago where a military personnel diagnosed with PADS killed 15 of his colleagues.
We deplore that no document or circular has been made public either within the armed forces making up NATO or the CSTO as is done by the psychologists of the South Korean army, a true pioneer in research on PADS after the Wonsan crisis.


Phase 3 has so far only been recorded with certainty episodically but there is a strong probability that the number will increase over time: for the moment our suspicions are focused on the correlation between areas massively affected by the KPV and population density.
This would easily explain the particularly violent cases of schizophrenia recorded so far in mainland China and India, two areas massively affected in 2018:
What has been described as a veritable "shizophrenia epidemic" by local governments could very well correspond to phase 3 of PADS, although we do not exclude certain cultural constraints.
Cases of very severe dissociative disorders in individuals are mentioned, which can only be treated using Benzodiazepine classes.

This very summary report is intended to alert the public to the major risks caused by PADS in a context where most hospital facilities and psychiatrists are too few in number.
It is possible to stop or slow down the progression of PADS through massive prevention among the public, as well as through means considered unconventional but relatively effective such as regressive hypnosis carried out by a psychiatrist or affective treatment.

WHO press release on PADS - February 17, 2021.

[ukron]

The Agony of Songun, a brief history of the North Korean army during the War of the Dead.
Cover of the book by Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans, Helion and Compagny, November 2025.

The Agony of Songun is probably the best book written about North Korea during the pandemic of 2018, bringing clarity and precision to a subject still steeped in fantasy and urban legend.
Mitzer and Oliemans' work is remarkable for being based on first-hand accounts of the fall of the last hermit state, but what makes it groundbreaking is the perspective provided:
Tracing the first battles of the North Korean armed forces against the infected in September 2018 to the liberation of Wonsan by the forces of the International Mission for the Security of the Korean Peninsula (IMSKP) in January 2021, the two founders of Oryx plunge us into the fall of a mysterious and often menacing army that could never have anticipated the pandemic of the living dead.
"New York Times".

"The book brilliantly and, I must admit, with a touch of irony, recounts what was the biggest surprise of my career in Task Force Korea" Jung Park, Deputy Assistant of the State Department's Special Section for the Korean Peninsula.

"Using notes and minutes from North Korean general staff meetings, Songun's Agony shows North Korea's surprise and near-collapse after Kim Jong Un's surprise demise in December 2018, but the book also shows the resilience and courage of those who might otherwise have been fierce adversaries."

Secretary of Defense James Norman Mattis.

The Agony of Songun traces North Korea's survival from the onset of the pandemic to the establishment of the Inter-Korean Reconstruction Commission, focusing on the role played by the first bulwark of the North Korean state, the People's Army.
Drawing on previously unpublished notes and interviews with former Chief of Staff Ri Yong Gil, the book presents how the North Korean military fought against the infected with a motley and sometimes inadequate array of weaponry, and how the hermit state's first bulwark became its only lifeline after Kim Jong Un's spectacular death in December 2018.
The book also deals with a forgotten aspect of the War of the Dead, with the inter-Korean and then international collaboration to clean up the infected and irradiated areas of Pyongyang and Yongbyon.
In addition, exclusive content illustrated with previously unpublished photos and illustrations presents the weapons programs hastily developed for the army to combat the infected and eliminate them effectively.
This book was written as a tribute to the military personnel of both Koreas, as well as to the members of the international forces currently deployed in the reconstruction and unification of the Korean peninsula under the aegis of the UN.


Author's note: here's a funny little pastiche inspired by a cult book, to be put on the bedside tables of anyone interested in North Korea (written by the two administrators of the OSINT Oryx group).

[ukron]

Operation "Enduring Peace" (Wonsan, 2021) How to undo urban hell (part 1):

In November 2020, the decision to deploy a contingent of the International Mission for the Security of the Korean Peninsula (IMSKP) to the short-lived capital of Greater Korea's democratic commune is finally taken by the UN Secretary-General and the Director of UNAMI: It's now more than 6 months since U.S. U-2 flights resumed over North Korea, almost two years since the North Korean armed forces used a tactical nuclear weapon to halt the hordes of infected advancing on Pyongyang.
What emerges from the reconnaissance flights doesn't exactly reassure the South Korean authorities, who are still struggling to recover from the loss of the country's major cities in 2018: Seoul now fears that a handful of nuclear and chemical warheads may have fallen into the wrong hands and risk being used on the Korean peninsula.
But the problem obviously lies in the nature of SIGINT: it's hard to know who and how North Korea is being run at the moment, but it's very difficult, if not impossible, to mount an operation, even a clandestine one into North Korea to find out what's going on.
The risks of domestic political fallout are massive for the South Korean interim government, and even greater for UNAMI, then involved in the difficult (and failed) Operation Heartbreak in Iran.
UNAMI is something new, not necessarily suited to the renewed conflicts/warfare between humans: we can already imagine its dissolution or at least its neutralization in the form of a vague advisory group in New York.
UNAMI's main military representative, General Petr Pavel, knows that time is running out for the international organization, so he must present it in a new light, with the minimum of casualties, to justify the relevance of an anti-dead military force in a world where there are (fortunately) no more dead to kill.
It's a risky and daring political calculation, but one that requires finding the right field of engagement.
In Iran, UNAMI had to contend with a wide variety of armed groups (from Baluchi to ex-Revolutionary Guard units), often hidden among the very civilians that the international forces were supposed to help. We could also mention the non-existence of the Iranian "transition" regime and the refusal of most neighbouring countries to take part in the operation, too happy to weaken their Persian neighbor after years of geopolitical tension.
Pavel is perfectly aware of this, and knows that his margin of sympathy with international governments is very slim and getting worse, so a rapid solution is needed.
That solution is Korean....
In September 2021, the North Korean dictator's former general of staff appears on Yeonpyeong Island with a small group of "political dissidents".
He will offer a deal: political asylum in exchange for intelligence on the current state of North Korea, it's an easy decision for Seoul to make, which can thus bypass Langley's "additional" help and present itself as an independent power in Asia.
The problem is that Ri Yong-gil's information is clearly even worse than expected: North Korea has broken up into dozens of fighting factions, thus hindering the elimination of the infected by the North Korean army (Ri Yong-gil's faction) who otherwise find themselves cornered, in a position of weakness, in particular against the so-called "Wonsan" faction led by former energy minister Kim Man-Su.
Yong-gil presents the Wonsan faction as extremist and determined to obtain, if it has not already done so, the depots and the keys to North Korean atomic weapons
It is not a big deal that it was learned much later that Ri Yong-gil had largely failed to mention that the depots and the means of producing nuclear weapons had either been destroyed during the Yongbyon nuclear accident, or seriously damaged during the fights against the infected.

In short, it is a dream opportunity for UNAMI, which can thus present itself in a new light: Pavel has very good contacts with NATO and particularly the Pentagon, his proposal is simple: disarm the "Wonsan" bomb , control Ri Yong Gil and cleanse North Korea of any infected that may still be there.
Washington, which fears, since the end of the 2018 pandemic, a massive dispersion of the nuclear and chemical arsenal across the world, is entirely ready to grant a second chance to UNAMI, especially if it does not risk its men.

Seoul will provide the bulk of the contingent composed largely of elements of the First Marine Division (3rd Marine Brigade "King Kong", 7th Marine Brigade "Warthog" and finally a group formed of armored vehicles from the 1st tank battalion ) supported by Taiwan which is sending a large amphibious group there, in the desire to strengthen its ties with South Korea (and to encourage it to take a greater part in its “activities” in mainland China)
Washington will initially remain in support before changing its mind and deploying a small group from the 1st Marine Division.

In short, everyone expects a repeat of the amphibious operations of November 1950 which saw the city being quickly occupied by forces under UN mandate, except that operations rarely tend to be repeated throughout History ....

[stevep]

Apr 20, 2024 16:06:10 GMT ukron said:

Operation "Enduring Peace" (Wonsan, 2021) How to undo urban hell (part 1):

In November 2020, the decision to deploy a contingent of the International Mission for the Security of the Korean Peninsula (IMSKP) to the short-lived capital of Greater Korea's democratic commune is finally taken by the UN Secretary-General and the Director of UNAMI: It's now more than 6 months since U.S. U-2 flights resumed over North Korea, almost two years since the North Korean armed forces used a tactical nuclear weapon to halt the hordes of infected advancing on Pyongyang.
What emerges from the reconnaissance flights doesn't exactly reassure the South Korean authorities, who are still struggling to recover from the loss of the country's major cities in 2018: Seoul now fears that a handful of nuclear and chemical warheads may have fallen into the wrong hands and risk being used on the Korean peninsula.
But the problem obviously lies in the nature of SIGINT: it's hard to know who and how North Korea is being run at the moment, but it's very difficult, if not impossible, to mount an operation, even a clandestine one into North Korea to find out what's going on.
The risks of domestic political fallout are massive for the South Korean interim government, and even greater for UNAMI, then involved in the difficult (and failed) Operation Heartbreak in Iran.
UNAMI is something new, not necessarily suited to the renewed conflicts/warfare between humans: we can already imagine its dissolution or at least its neutralization in the form of a vague advisory group in New York.
UNAMI's main military representative, General Petr Pavel, knows that time is running out for the international organization, so he must present it in a new light, with the minimum of casualties, to justify the relevance of an anti-dead military force in a world where there are (fortunately) no more dead to kill.
It's a risky and daring political calculation, but one that requires finding the right field of engagement.
In Iran, UNAMI had to contend with a wide variety of armed groups (from Baluchi to ex-Revolutionary Guard units), often hidden among the very civilians that the international forces were supposed to help. We could also mention the non-existence of the Iranian "transition" regime and the refusal of most neighbouring countries to take part in the operation, too happy to weaken their Persian neighbor after years of geopolitical tension.
Pavel is perfectly aware of this, and knows that his margin of sympathy with international governments is very slim and getting worse, so a rapid solution is needed.
That solution is Korean....
In September 2021, the North Korean dictator's former general of staff appears on Yeonpyeong Island with a small group of "political dissidents".
He will offer a deal: political asylum in exchange for intelligence on the current state of North Korea, it's an easy decision for Seoul to make, which can thus bypass Langley's "additional" help and present itself as an independent power in Asia.
The problem is that Ri Yong-gil's information is clearly even worse than expected: North Korea has broken up into dozens of fighting factions, thus hindering the elimination of the infected by the North Korean army (Ri Yong-gil's faction) who otherwise find themselves cornered, in a position of weakness, in particular against the so-called "Wonsan" faction led by former energy minister Kim Man-Su.
Yong-gil presents the Wonsan faction as extremist and determined to obtain, if it has not already done so, the depots and the keys to North Korean atomic weapons
It is not a big deal that it was learned much later that Ri Yong-gil had largely failed to mention that the depots and the means of producing nuclear weapons had either been destroyed during the Yongbyon nuclear accident, or seriously damaged during the fights against the infected.

In short, it is a dream opportunity for UNAMI, which can thus present itself in a new light: Pavel has very good contacts with NATO and particularly the Pentagon, his proposal is simple: disarm the "Wonsan" bomb , control Ri Yong Gil and cleanse North Korea of any infected that may still be there.
Washington, which fears, since the end of the 2018 pandemic, a massive dispersion of the nuclear and chemical arsenal across the world, is entirely ready to grant a second chance to UNAMI, especially if it does not risk its men.

Seoul will provide the bulk of the contingent composed largely of elements of the First Marine Division (3rd Marine Brigade "King Kong", 7th Marine Brigade "Warthog" and finally a group formed of armored vehicles from the 1st tank battalion ) supported by Taiwan which is sending a large amphibious group there, in the desire to strengthen its ties with South Korea (and to encourage it to take a greater part in its “activities” in mainland China)
Washington will initially remain in support before changing its mind and deploying a small group from the 1st Marine Division.

In short, everyone expects a repeat of the amphibious operations of November 1950 which saw the city being quickly occupied by forces under UN mandate, except that operations rarely tend to be repeated throughout History ....

  Why does that last line send a shiver down my spine!

[ukron]

It's going to be hell...

[ukron]

Excerpt from the CIA report on the political and military situation in North Korea leaked on the Internet at the request of the Waltz Commission of November 2031.

We currently estimate that the North Korean population has fallen (documents 1 to 5) following the CRS pandemic by almost half, these estimates should be taken with caution but which could explain the establishment in Wonsan (report "Vélocipède") of a massive serfdom of the civilian population, in order to compensate for the civilian losses, major after the destruction of the "Red Dawn" fortification line along the Taedong River. We estimate a margin of error close to 40 percent in these estimates due to the presence of unconfirmed reports of escapees or political refugees confirming the establishment of "cities" in certain underground complexes (document 6) however we express doubts on the validity of such a concept and warn of the possibility that some of these bunkers could still contain infected, knowingly kept alive by local warlords in order to fulfill a double objective: to terrorize the civilian populations under their control, and to dissuade potential rivals (report "velocipede").

We were able to identify two major political centers still in function after the destruction of Pyongyang, the death of Kim Jong Un: the port city of Wonsan under the rule of Kim Man-Su, former Minister of Energy and the city of Hyesan held by a mafia gang. We were able to identify two major political centers still in function after the destruction of Pyongyang, the death of Kim Jong Un: the port city of Wonsan under the rule of Kim Man-Su, former Minister of Energy and the city of Hyesan held by a mafia gang. The reports transmitted by Ri Yong-gil's defectors emphasize the centralizing nature of the new North Korean administration (or claimed as such) without it being possible to confirm his statements: the photos transmitted by "Velocipede" and "Rapture" showed only summary executions and a very expeditious form of justice, even by North Korean standards before 2018.

We do not know if there are more solid and developed state structures outside of Wonsan (Echo) and Hyesan (Bravo), and we invite the current administration not to rush into political action, whether diplomatic or military, before knowing more. In relation to military structures, we consider it likely that the Kim Man-Su administration was able to recover part of the VII Corps personnel stationed in Hamhung, and has a small air fleet composed of Mig-21PFM and F-5 taken from the stocks of the 46th air regiment.
It should be noted that all of the surviving personnel and ships of the North Korean Navy would have joined Wonsan, despite the impossibility of repairing or refueling there, as a result we have confirmed the functional presence of a Nanjin-class frigate and a dozen torpedo boats that could pose a significant problem to any mission in the sector.

It is likely, if the "Rapture" report is not false (see notice A1 and A3) that Wonsan currently has significant reserves of VX nerve gas but does not currently appear to have intermediate-range missiles on which it could be mounted. The secondary part of the "Rapture" report adds that, contrary to Ri Yong-Gil's denials, the Wonsan faction would have "militarized" infected for the purposes of expansion, subversion and political control over the region. We therefore called for extreme caution, before being able to confirm or deny such information. The Hyesan Faction (provisional code name: Bravo) does not seem to have reached such a degree of militarization and despite the mafia and violent nature of its administration seems to have established relationships of trust within the surviving population, our estimates on a possible economic center have proven correct and we believe that Hyesan does not represent a threat, but rather an opportunity that could be seized.

(the rest of the report has not been transmitted to the public)

[ukron]

The shipwreckers
October 2021, off the coast of Wonsan.


The fragile fishing boat slid with difficulty through the mist that covered the sea in a white shroud. The fishermen weren't reassured, especially after having ventured so close to the north, the lair of the communist demon, but they had to eat.
Captain Sang-Wa shouted a few orders, which the cold and exhausted crew resisted for a few moments, before being insulted by the irascible captain.
Seaman Yonk-Su grumbled under his breath, as he approached the winch to empty the net that had just scraped the bottom, a dull anguish paralyzing his muscles for a moment before he could snap out of his torpor: he breathed a sigh of relief, he had nothing but fish and the odd bit of ordinary garbage, no infected.....
Yonk-Su knew what had happened to the other fishermen, of course he had no proof, but the wildest rumors were circulating: ghost ships, army experiments with the infected, northern pirates, and that was enough to make him anxious.

Yonk-Su was calmer all of a sudden, but he was under no illusions that the sooner they left the waters of the former North Korea and made their way (on the sly) to the calmer waters of the South, all would be well.
The other sailors would never admit it either, but each of their forays into the northern part of the Sea of Japan, so to speak, made their blood run cold.

The Sea of Japan had never really been a "legal" sea, even before the 2018 pandemic: the schools of fish had been overexploited by illegal Chinese fishing, pushing the few local ships, meaning those from the north, directly towards the Russian coast, most often resulting in shipping accidents and shady trafficking. With the collapse of China and the Russian political crisis as a consequence of the terrible year, no one, including the international mission "Sea Shield" wanted to intervene beyond the 38th parallel: the South Korean, American or Japanese ships were content to patrol south of the peninsula, they were already understaffed and intervening near the coast of the hermit state (or what was left of it) was a risk that no one wanted to take.....except Captain Sang-Wa and a handful of brave men who, taking advantage of the corruption of certain Navy officials, slipped outside the protective bubble.

Until three months ago, everything had gone well, but the successive disappearance of two ships had put all the fishermen on edge and it was whispered that the Capital was going to put an end to it soon.... In the meantime, Yonk-Su found himself shivering with cold and fear, fishing under the orders of this big bastard..."what a shitty life".
The catch was not big enough, they still had to fish but this time even further north, the crew grumbled but the captain didn't care, without the few fish from the north and the information he provided to the KCIA, he and his crew would have swelled the ranks of the "refugee camps" (called shanty towns) that had exploded along the coast since 2019 a long time ago.
The captain knew what the crew was thinking but this mission would probably be the last he would lead in the north, especially after Jae-rok's death.
Had the Northerners managed to catch him? Or were those rumors about infected still active on the seabed really accurate?
Whatever the truth was, intelligence was playing with the fishermen's lives like pawns and he had had enough of this bullshit.

The boat veered to port and sailed along what should have been the coast, if the crew was worried, they didn't say anything. The captain was starting to gain confidence, he just had to look at what was happening, veer to starboard and go home....easy as pie.
But unfortunately today was going to be a complicated day! The boat hit an underwater obstacle, tearing from it a horrible noise of metal being torn open: Captain Sang screamed in frustration: there shouldn't be any reefs here, no nautical chart indicated it! His ship, whose hull had been veered open, was starting to take on dangerous water while leaning more and more to port, before turning over completely in the foggy waters of the Sea of Japan.

The sailor Yonk-Su coughed profusely, he had only escaped drowning by incredible luck (luck that he would soon curse); he didn't know exactly what they had hit but it certainly wasn't a natural reef, since he had never had anything like that on his sides: that left only one logical explanation and it was enough to make Yonk-Su sweat. Other crew members who had survived? Yonk-Su didn't know but he was well on his way to taking a tour of the improvised beach on which he had found himself stranded.

Yonk Su decided to take a little height, in order to have a clear and unobstructed view of the environment, it could be dangerous in case of a bad encounter but he had no other choice if he wanted to find his comrades. He was going to climb a small hill when his foot hit a buried obstacle: what was it? It looked like something soft, a bit like the texture of rotten fish, the smell was clearly that of putrefaction. Yonk understood who he was dealing with when the "obstacle" straightened up, lifting whole clods of sand. the infected whose body had been more or less well preserved by the compacted sand, clearly showed signs of putrefaction (his eyes had disappeared, eaten away by a few crabs) but the most unusual sign was the chains that hindered him but which also went in other directions....towards other "obstacles" also buried in the ground.
Yonk Su didn't even scream, he backed away towards the sea, aware that he was walking on a veritable minefield composed of infected. It was a nightmare that he couldn't even have imagined; the last detail that his panicked brain noticed was the outfit of some of the infected: an outfit strangely similar to his own.

A few hours later.

Sergeant Cho took a last drag on his cigarette, smoking was the only way he had found to cope with their smells, some of his men had gotten used to them a long time ago but he had never been able to cope with their smells, it was almost as if smelling the infected took him back to the fall of the Red Dawn, a few years earlier. In any case, one thing was for sure, such a disaster could not happen, especially if the hated infected became the first and last bulwark of the new Korea. Cho put on his improvised protective suit, grabbed his chemical prod and signaled his unit to head towards the beach: he had new specimens for the "collection".