DISCLAIMER

This book is fictional in nature. Any resemblance to persons or events in actual existence is merely coincidental. The different views expressed in the book are not reflective of the author's personal views.

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The world was never the same after a deadly pandemic called COVID-19 was declared as controlled thanks to the success of it's worldwide vaccination campaign despite it's difficulties pertaining to efficacy as well as timely and equal access to shots in it's process. Even with economic recovery, the world concern turned to physical security with one of it was the increase of extremism worldwide compounded with changes of rules and governances, not even international organization got spared.

Let's have our history lesson here about the largest among all threats; the violent strand of Islamic fundamentalism.

During the early 2010s, the first of what would become a template of an emerging United Caliphate was formed, called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, simply called the Islamic State. Despite military defeat by an international coalition in 2017 and was reduced into an insurgency, it's footprint was already solid enough to inspire other similar minded group to be in it's wings, with various names, to influence politics, policies, and various regimes around the world, especially in the post COVID-19 world order. Assuming the name of Five Pillar, the group had perfected the "stealth jihad" strategy by the virtue of education and infiltration of various political offices worldwide up to the United Nations level, greatly increased their support base and political influence worldwide. Like the Mafia, they have their own set of rules and had a front man with the true leader hiding in the shadows.

Their leader was Prince Mohammad Akbar al-Saud, credited for rebuilding the Saudi Arabian economy in the wake of a devastating short war with Iran that saw a nuclear exchange that crippled a great part of it's oil exports. With his team of foreign-educated professionals, he dragged the country out, kicking and screaming, from the resource dependent economy in only three years, so it would not be too dependent on oil, following the success of it's smaller neighbors like Qatar and the UAE and Iran in the lesser extent before the war, especially with the reduced oil demand worldwide with the advancement of renewable energy.

In his younger years, he used to fight with the Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Yemen before being wounded. He maintained contact with them despite no longer in the front line, and he helped to absorb it's remnants, slowly but surely, into the Five Pillars while leveraged his Royal family position to earn a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics. Then back at his country, he worked his way with the Ministry of Commerce and Investment.

In his secret live before and after the war, he became very influential within the Five Pillars and led the process of it's reorganization and change of strategy. COVID-19 became one of the events exploited by the Pillar for it's own charm offensive worldwide, especially in the Islamic world, either it by supporting healthcare professionals in the frontline, development, manufacture, and distributions of drugs and vaccine, as well as economic support for people greatly impacted by the pandemic.

Fast forward to 2028. The Pillar is ready to execute it's first major special military operation, right at one out of many region that what the Pillar called the Satanic Region. The next few weeks would set in motion a series of events that would change the world. The air was rife with anticipation. If things went according to plan, then the ensuing uprising of disenfranchised Muslims in Europe, residing legally or otherwise, will be the first in his global game of world domination.

Mohammed woke up early one morning shortly before it all began and opened the laptop in his palatial bedroom for a video chat with the Director of Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. General Amir Bajwa. As the window opened up, Mohammed could see his ally take a seat in his office chair, a leather seat that was a little too expensive for his position. Influence could be gained in many ways; Bajwa, being a Punjabi from a noble lineage harked back before British colonialism, liked the finer things in life, and was willing to do quite a bit in order to take a shortcut to prosperity.

"As Salaam Alaikum," began Mohammed. The greeting had all the fervor of a truly devoted man.
"Walaaikum Salaam," replied Bajwa.

"Are your operatives in Europe ready for the big day?" asked Mohammed.

"Yes Mohammed, my most trusted commanders have ensured the assets are in place all across Europe; the weapons are in place and everything is ready for the coming operation. To be honest, I initially doubted the outcome compared to, say, we target India."

"And yet you agree that the weakened Europe is juicier, more than Kashmir, Iran, or even Indonesia - their government had strong support of the population that clearly against us. They could be taken care later on, as we cannot bite off what we can chew."

"That's correct, Mohammed. My people and yours understood as well. Once the shooting starts, it will not long before others follow suit to join us, willingly or otherwise. Besides, the Zionists had done their job to allow us to set in there in Europe in the name of "diversity".

The screen crackled with a cacophony of laugh, before he continued. "They will learn soon enough as we will soon stick all of our might to them, a step that is necessary to liberate Palestine!"

"Bajwa, it is imperative that this operation goes according to the plan; this is the first domino of many that needs to fall for our strategy to work."

Mohammed smirked, thinking on how the Europe will surely fold with the sheer willingness of the Pillar to sacrifice themselves for a greater good, something that the effeminate Europeans and North Americans had long foregone from their eyes - perhaps Ukrainians were the exception, with how they managed to pull off a victory after a decade of war with the Russians.

"Just make sure you are at your safe location when this starts; as there will be time that I need you to be in Saudi Arabia, unless you have to deal with more urgent matters, especially about Kashmir...

"It will be done as you wish, my Caliph. Peace be upon you, and God is Great."

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The plan was put into motion by the following action; ISI operatives had been smuggled to augment the existing Five Pillar assets stationed across Europe for the day when they would decapitate the entire European governments, from UK to Italy. A combination of high explosives, daring assault, and chemical agents are part of the plan, targeting parliaments and other government institutions across the Blue Continent.

It's first shot was in Sweden, during the opening session of it's parliament. The resulting explosion killed the Prime Minister, and as the Riksdag building began to collapse from the high explosives planted on it's support structures, the stunned and surviving parliamentarians who tried to flee the building, many of them fell by the audacious militants who used automatic weapons and knifes against them and their guards. Sirens began to wail as alarms began to sound all across the government buildings and the city of Stockholm, including the Royal Palace, only for the second phase of the attack to be unleashed; chemical agents all across the city, including hospitals, military barracks, and police stations as well as important transportation arteries.

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Back in Saudi Arabia, initially Mohammed Akbar was watching the news about the fall of Sweden, followed by the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, as well as the attacks on France, Britain, Germany, and Italy as well as in Southern Russia and Xinjiang region in China with glee - the latter was a spontaneous uprising by a local Uyghur group that quickly swore allegiance with the Pillar. Such voluntary pledge that he and his people greatly welcomed. However, as the news coverage continued for the rest of the day, he decided to put his laptop on an emergency video conference with the rest of the Five Pillar leadership.

"We got a problem. The Europeans are fighting back much fiercer compared to what we had expected. The US military had also reinforced their presence namely in Germany, UK, and Poland to the point of withdrawing their forces all the way from Korea and Japan..."

"My caliph, setback is always expected when we struggle in God's path. And like what the infidels taught us, we always have contingency plans or they call it Plan B, C, and others. When they are busy with our warriors in Europe - including Russia, we can then plan for other region as well. Especially Egypt and Iran." said Prince Saleh Hasan, the director of the Qatar State Security.

"I agree." Muhammad knew that man better than others, with his glass half full worldview, he is one of his minders when it's time to do strategizing.

"Think this, my caliph; the Americans are divided and are restructuring themselves after their endless wars, and yet they have to bail out their European allies again, just like they did in the last two World Wars. Our chance to call every Arabs to our side is higher than ever! From them, all of the Muslims!"

Before continuing the meeting, he answered the evening call to prayer with others before heading back to his laptop. He know that the next move is to be inside his own country, and one or two meetings will be needed to finalize the plan. As the second session was underway, one of the participants raised his hand virtually for him to be known by every Five Pillar leaders.

"I propose somewhere better. It will be Indonesia, my caliph. The largest concentration of Muslims in Asia"

"Amuse me." Muhammad responded, a small growl went out from his mouth.

"Right now, there are under a massive reorganization process. Economy wise, they are flying high especially as the world demand more biofuel and other products from their palm oil industries which fueled further industrialization across all sectors in return, but in term of their society, they are as brittle and divided as the Americans are, especially after the parliament after a bruising effort managed to promulgate a new constitution which they called simply the 2025 Constitution. There are legitimate concern on how some of their government officials and business personalities had shown support or tolerance with "toxic values" that we are aiming to purge with our Jihad in the West. Their ongoing transition to Federalism is also a good opportunity as people there are fiercely opposed to each other and even are killing each other in some cases, a good timing for us to get in there deeper than before."

Mohammed switched his laptop to email as the ping notification inundated his earset. Sure enough, the emails contained files about Indonesia. Just like how intelligence agencies do, a system was in place to ensure that every correspondence of the Pillar were secure and reach it's intended recipient with less likehood of being intercepted including by the dreaded Chinese cyber armies as well as the Arab states' intelligence services.

"And so the next step is final, The future is Asian, they say, and with their strategic position, infidels will surely be more aware and the taking of Indonesia will also increase our riches for our subsequent struggle for God."

That night, he never slept so well, knowing how that right now the chess pieces were moving, even with the actual events were not fully according to the plan, everybody knew that flexibility was the way for the final victory they envisioned, and the group was willing to play a long game...

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