"Black Ops II" begins in the year 2025, where China and the United States are in a cold war after China stops exporting rare earth elements. In this future setting, militaries use robotic weaponry, cyberwarfare, unmanned vehicles and futuristic technology. Militaries on both sides are concerned that the unmanned weaponry can be hacked. Players take the role of a military CIA commander David Mason, who is the son of the main protagonist from the previous game, Alex Mason. The antagonist of the game, Raul Menendez is trying to carry out a massive cyber attack to hack unmanned weaponry used by the United States. Mason and his team desperately try to capture Menendez and uncover his plans. They succeed in capturing him, only to find out that he had planned to be captured so that he could launch the cyber attack directly from the CIA military base. Menendez succeeds in doing this, and the city of Los Angeles is comes under attack by hacked unmanned weaponry. Mason is able to stop Menendez, and the player has the choice to kill or capture him.