The Forbidden Path to Martial Immortality

At first, people thought it was just an ordinary military exercise. They thought it was merely a test by the power across the ocean, timed to coincide with the New Year celebrations. Until Missile trails tore across the night sky above a coastal city. Until the army aviation regiment's aircraft roared into the night. Until, on the northwestern frontier, a fully armed combined-arms brigade thundered east along highways and railways. Until retired soldiers scattered across the country all received, at the same moment, the text message they had never expected to get. Only then did people realize that perhaps the world had changed that night. It was never the same again.