| THE COMING WAR |

I don't know what the year is anymore, no-one cares. They just count them with the Games. But let's go back to the year 2310...

I guess it began when Rovarco Mitch, a Chinese-American citizen, decided to hack the Pentagon and the Chinese Government's files. No-one had ever pulled this off before, and no-one would ever in a million years be able to imagine a small fraction of what his actions were going to create one day. The horror and the terror that would befall the peoples of America. And I'm not talking about the atomic war, I'm talking about after that.

Rovarco lived mostly in America after being forced out of China for his own safety when his parents were being hunted by Keepers, some early new idea of policing that was stolen from the US, who had a warrant to search the house and arrest the family for using Western technology and fashion (contradictory, I know, and rather retro if you consider China four hundred years earlier), such as the holographic computing and the sparkly niche dresses that were coming into fashion.

That's right, America were becoming way more advanced than not just China, but everyone in the world. The dresses I mentioned came from Nick Trinket, a fashion-obsessed celebrity who never shut up about gentle breeding. The Peace-Keeping Act created a 'new breed' of policing that quickly inspired other countries such as France, Israel, China and Afghanistan, but their forces were not as great in number as America's. There were at least a thousand 'Peacekeepers' in each state. Jebediah Crane, leader of a secret research team occupied in the Rocky Mountains, invented the holographic screening that he adapted from the most advanced form of retina display, and most of his associates decided to set up their own divisions analysing holographic science in order to find out how to integrate it with human tissue. And this, is where the war began.

Despite being a granted citizen of the United States, Rovarco was approached by Peacekeepers a few years after he finished studying at university, who claimed he was illegally living in the country. No-one would listen to him and all his official information and contracts were burnt right in front of him. The Republicans, led by elderly President Oceleus and the Vice President, only 18 years of age, initialised a new regime as part of the Peace-Keeping Act ordering twelve million half-American citizens to be deported to their home country. This was revealed too late, and many of the 'immigrants' had already gone home against their will. Some, like Rovarco, fought back from the start.

Keeping well covered, Rovarco went back to his apartment a final time, only to find it burnt down, raised to it's foundations along with everyone else who was inside it. The Peacekeepers had massacred the entire apartment's owners just for Rovarco's treachery. Angered press and civilians tried to attack the Peacekeepers, but the officers only said one sentence on their speakers before speeding away on their hi-tech motorcycles; "Stamp your ground, we shall stamp it harder." This sentence was widely ridiculed and parodied over the Internet, but many were taking it far more seriously. The government were forced into an enquiry on the situation, but they defended the Peacekeepers the whole time and nothing was ever done. Everyone was in uproar.

This only pushed Rovarco. That same day, working all through the evening, he started setting up fake but convincing 'signatures' and other coded information that made it look as if the US Government had hacked the Chinese, and vice versa. Because Rovarco had managed to breach every security wall, he could pull of the hoax by using coding that only people within the very deep parts of the Pentagon would know about. Rovarco then anonymously sent a drive to a Chinese government representative, and to a CIA operative. His friend from China helped cover his tracks and they bought an apartment in Japan where they hid and watched the events unfold on the news.

It started with a live threat broadcast straight from the Communist Party's offices, which warned America that if they were to hack the Chinese government again, they would be destroyed. America retorted the same, warning the Chinese to stop copying their inventions without permission. Eventually it was worked out that someone had faked the entire thing, but the attitudes between the two governments only grew more restless; in America, people were rioting for the cause of abolishing the Peace-Keeping Act, conspirators and anarchists who mistrusted the government copying Rovarco's moves, and only making America a bigger threat to China. The last straw was when President Oceleus was revealed by spying press to have approved a secret military project on the outskirts of New York that developed force field technology and nuclear missiles, not mentioned to the United Nations. When China found out, they started to copy this research and war was mentioned for the first time. These were the words of Oceleus;

"I am speaking to the Chinese, to all the Chinese and their government,

You are provoking war upon us. You are building the barriers of a hellish future that will see no end until every soul upon the earth is eliminated. Do not condemn your fellow species to extinction because a petty feud between yourselves and men who only want to do what is best for the world. You continue to judge what we do, before attempting to manipulate and imitate what we do for your own good. Do not contradict, just to incite conflict, when you achieve that perspective we can all move on from this in peace. It'll be the new year soon, let 2311 be a good year for everyone.

Davy Oceleus, U.S President 2308-2310"

The world waited for seven days. And this was the reply;

" Mr. Oceleus. There will be no 2311."

And sure enough, by the end of the month, China and America had helped make those words a reality. They had sparked the ultimate terror of humanity... total annihilation. War.

Terrible war.