Conflict

Conflict is a fanfiction written by Bumblebeeprime09.

Prologue
February 12, 2020

Pentagon

"Due to the perpetrators of recent cyber attacks and hacking incidents on computers and businesses in U.S. territories being traced to the People's Republic of China, the U.S. is cutting trade and technnology ties with the Chinese." The Secretary of Homeland Security said. "This may come as a surprise, and one may think that this is too harsh, but we believe this is necessary for the security of our people." he continued. "This rule has been in place since 2011. We will not tolerate any type of cyber attack. Any further attacks will be met with force." he said.

I was at home in Hilo, watching the news. The President had sent a cabinet member to disclose to the public this news. I wasn't too surprised. I mean, the Chinese were crazy. There had been 15 hacking incidents in the past 2 months. That's one more site hacked every four days. Four fucking days. 'Really?' I had thought.

I decided to turn it off then and there. I decided to call my buddy Jason and see how he was doing. I picked up the phone and dialed his number. "Hello?" he said on the other end of the line. "Hey, Jason! What's up, my man?!" I said. "Nothing much. You saw the news?" he asked. "Yeah." I said. "Welll, anyway, do you want to play some Call of Duty 17?" He asked. "Yeah." I said. "Yeah, well, -*static* uh... --- woah wha---*static*" That was the last I heard from him that day. I found it very strange. Jason's phone had an excellent connection and so did mine. Besides, when your connection breaks up, there are simply gaps between the words. They never have static. I turned on the TV.

Static.

I got on my computer. It worked fine but I could not get online. So I turned on my PS5. Again, I could not log on. Then I went and checked my modem and my internet connection. It was fine. When I turned on the radio, static. So I tried to use the internet on the computer. This time, it looked as though the computer crashed. Until I saw one word at the bottom corner of the screen.

"Taiyuan"

I searched my head for a moment. I had been in a world language class in college recently. I was taught some words in multiple languages. Then I realized. Taiyuan was a city in China. This could've only meant one thing.

China had just crippled the US communications networks.