As the sun marches from east to west in the early morning hours, Americans from coast to coast rise to watch the early morning news broadcasts where they are greated with footage of bombings in and around the cities of Taiwan. Footage of protests in the streets of Taipei and Taichung break to the chaotic report of another Breaking News Flash - Several Hundreds feared dead and perhaps one thousand injured at Chingchuankang International Airport, recently converted to a dual use, military and cvilian airport, as local and international airlines working around the clock to effect evacuations of foreign nationals, were caught flat footed as estimates of up to 200 conventionally armed ballistic missiles rained down on civilian and military airport facilities all across Taiwan. The reporter, apparently Austrailian, continued her talk of the events while her cameran panned across the tarmac and steadied his camera on facility firefighters finishing off the last flames from the charred remains of a Northwest Airlines 747-400ER. Emergency Medical crews meandered about with no real job to do as the few surviors had been evacuated to area hospitals. The aircraft had been taxiing inline taking turn to take off for it's mostly American passenger's long journey home to LAX in Los Angelos, Kahlifornia. Just behind the smoldering 747 was an American Airlines 777 with substantial damage to the cockpit area and a collapsed nose gear, melted from the spreading fuel and flames from the Northwest aircraft. Etched into the minds of most Americans that morning were the final words of the Australian reporter as she struggled to finish that the aircraft, with not an empty seat, had a capacity of 410 passengers and 14 crew, and all but a handful lost. Next was a brief from and ROCAF spokesperson stating that several squadrons of PLA fighters attempted to cross the straight in attempted bombing runs in what in turn was a bloody night for both sides of the straight with heavy losses to both the attacking and defending forces.
The Today Show had retired Air Force Brigader General Eben Ladd explaining the vast stockpile of China's short range balistic missiles targeted at many facilities on Taiwan. As he explained that the PLA had amassed over 700 missiles across the strait in a conventional blackmail, he also mentioned that the targetting of Airport Facilites in Taiwan had been long planned for by the PLA. He next brought up the Google Earth console to coordinates 24 deg 16'05 N, 120 degrees 37'22 East to bring up CCK airport, the scene of much of the early morning destruction. He then moved the console cusror, engaged the split screen mode, and went to 40-22'13 N, 99-53'36 E, high in the norther regions of China, just south of the boder with Mongolia, to what he called a secret Chinese Missile facility, which nearby, etched in the hard sand was an exact layout of the Chingchuankang International Airport with the faint marks of craters surrounding the mock-up of the airport. He then went into a long drone about the previous, declassified discussions on potential use of Chinese bailitic missiles agains facilities across Taiwan.
Washington, District of Columbia, USA
In the House of Representatives, the Minority Leader had worked himself into one of his better sound bites as he and the House Majority Leader, together demanded that the President file protest in the UN Assembly against the Chinese Mainland attacks against civilian facilities with little apparent regard to human life. The Minority Leader, a former Naval Aviator, also quipped that perhaps the President should consider moving the two Carrier Battle Groups into the area to provide protection of all Americans and other foreign nationals as they evacuate and perhaps to inplace a tripwire to prevent further acceleration of a war that no one will want...
(sorry for the story but had to add a little drama for my plot twist
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The President of the United States has requested that all forces immediately retire their home soil on either side of the Taiwan Strait and that he was discussing what measures, political and military, could be implemented to stop futher escalation. His last statement hinted that American Forces may come to the defensive aid of the Republic of China.