“21 days? I thought we were going to have over 60 days?”
“Sir, the ring of fire in the Pacific Rim was much worse than we expected and the firestorms much worse than our worst projections.”
“When will the snows begin?”
“We’re running a new model now, but it will take even the supercomputers time to crunch all of the variables.”
President Lanoha asked to see the overheads of America’s east coast cities. He shook his head and fought back tears seeing the total destruction of every city on the east coast. Boston, New York City, Newark, the entire New Jersey Shore, most of Delaware, the eastern coast of Maryland. The world’s largest naval base at Norfolk, Virginia Beach, the barrier islands off the North Carolina coast, Savannah, Jacksonville, even the famous Cape Kennedy where America’s Apollo launches took place and of course Daytona and its famous speedway which was filled with water, all the way south to what used to be Miami was destroyed, wasted away. Millions of people died when the waves washed their homes away. Billions of dollars of boats were washed ashore becoming deadly weapons.
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Not everyone in Russia got the news about the large asteroid that was going to strike Moscow or that it would kick enough debris up that the sky would darken and it would ionize the atmosphere so much normal radio traffic wouldn’t function. When the asteroid strike was imminent, President Aristov ordered the Russian military to full alert, only someone had forgotten about a nuclear armed missile submarine which had been sitting under the ice in the arctic for the previous 90 days. She was an experimental Borei class submarine, one of one, she was designed to silently hang under the polar ice cap for up to five months. If nuclear war came, her specially modified sail would crack the ice above her and she could breach the ice giving her 16 new Bulava (Mace) missiles a clear path to launch. Each missile carried six warheads giving the submarine a total of 72 nuclear warheads she could launch against Russia’s enemies. Each of the 72 warheads was a 150-kiloton nuclear warhead.
If the submarine was under clear water, she could launch her missiles while submerged. Either way, the captain of the submarine was supposed to listen for a broadcast message every day at 6 AM and 6 PM, if no message was received for two days then the captain was to assume war had broken out and he was then supposed to launch his sixteen missiles.
The captain of the experimental submarine was informed the 6 PM radio message wasn’t broadcast, and the atmosphere was very ionized, almost as if multiple nuclear warheads had exploded. The captain heard the report, he thanked the radio officer, and he then returned to his cabin where he had to change his uniform because he had perspired through it. His nerves were driving his crazy, he knew if the 6 AM transmission wasn’t received then he was supposed to launch his missiles. He’d trained for the mission. He’d spent his entire Naval career in missile submarines. He had trained for this mission for twenty-one years. He knew his duty and he expected the lack of the radio message and the ionized atmosphere meant there had been a nuclear war. He alerted his executive officer to prepare the boat for a launch if the 6 AM transmission wasn’t received. The captain offered his XO a drink of vodka while they discussed what to do.
“Captain our orders are very clear, if no signal, we are to assume a nuclear war started and we’re to launch our missiles.”
“I know. I just never thought we’d ever have to launch them.”
“Captain, the radio officer reported they can’t raise anyone, and the atmosphere is full of crap. Our sonar and seismograph report numerous large explosions with the largest over Moscow.”
“My family lived in Moscow…”
“I know…”
“Okay, prepare the boat at 5:30, if no signal is received, we’ll launch at 6:01.”
“Captain, do you think there’s any other reason why we haven’t received the daily code?”
“XO, I could think of many, however, none of my reasons also account for the ionized atmosphere. There’s only one thing I can think of that would cause that.”
“Yes, captain, I agree. I’ll get the boat ready and I’ll pray we hear the morning signal.”
“Me too, me too.”
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At 6 AM, without a signal, the captain ordered the boat brought to periscope depth so he could raise the antenna and attempt to send a message to fleet headquarters. The boat’s XO exhaled a sigh of relief. He prayed they’d be able to raise headquarters and they’d learn everything was fine and there was a natural cause of the ionization.
After failing to raise their naval headquarters for twenty minutes, the captain looked at his XO, “Any information?”
“The sky is filled with debris and it’s completely ionized, no radio communication has been received…”
“What about from the Americans, their radios are usually heard halfway around the world. We usually tape their music for the crew. Nothing?”
“Nothing but static on every channel, across every frequency, even the American’s military bands, zero communications.”
“I don’t like this, XO, prepare the boat for missile launch.”
“What target set?”
“Nominal targeting.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ten minutes later, the first silo cover on the rear of the submarine opened. A bright flame shot out of the silo as a dark gray missile slowly rose and then on a dark gray smoke trail shot into the dark sky. It was followed every thirty seconds by another missile until all 16 were launched. The captain then announced,
