The war has begun. Winning it may be easier than stopping it.
The near future. Beijing moves on Taiwan. An American carrier is burning. And the next decision could decide whether the war stays conventional.
A coordinated Chinese strike tears into USS Theodore Roosevelt, leaving the carrier wounded in the Philippine Sea and her escorts fighting to keep her alive. Missile swarms, hypersonic weapons, stealth aircraft, submarines, cyberattacks, and collapsing satellite networks turn the western Pacific into a battlefield where minutes matter.
Washington strikes back under a dangerous new doctrine: hands, not face. Destroy the forces making the attacks possible without striking so deeply into China that Beijing believes its survival is threatened.
B-21 Raiders go hunting. F-47 Specters enter combat. Virginia-class submarines stalk an amphibious armada racing toward Taiwan.
Behind every decision are three artificial intelligences. America’s ORION battles China’s aggressive Mandarin and calculating Jade Compass, each processing the war faster than the humans supposedly in control. Their contest spreads across sea, air, space, and cyber.
In Washington, every successful counterattack creates another problem: how hard can America hit without pushing China one rung higher on the nuclear escalation ladder?
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