On the South China Sea an oil rig erupts in flames — as AK-47 tracer rounds stitch the night and men die in pools of blood. The SOSUS underwater network catapults news of the attack to Washington-while ChiCom troops mass on the Vietnamese border. Ten divisions of Chinese shock troops blast their way south, overrunning the U.S.-U.N-led Emergency Response Force. But the West's best warriors fight back. U.S. Special Forces, British SAS, and the legendary Gurkhas, their Kukri knives drawn, go toe-to-toe with the invaders. Tomcats and F-18s pulverize the jungle. And the Military Sealift Command hurls Aegis cruisers and Wasp-Iwo Jima, and Spruance-class attack ships — spearheaded by Sea Wolf subs-into the South China Sea. From Japan to Malaysia, the Pacific Rim is ablaze — in a hell called… WORLD WAR III