The submarine dropped like a rock under the ice filled water. She narrowly missed some falling ice but due to her high speed, her sound systems were deaf. She ran into a large submerged iceberg and was ripped open, killing all 122 Russians onboard. While the Russian submarine died, America’s early warning systems picked up the launch and flashed a missile launch warning to Cheyenne Mountain. Alarms screamed and red strobe lights flashed in the command room. President Lanoha asked, “What is going on? Will somebody please turn those alarms off?”
“Sir, we have detected a Russian submarine missile launch, 16 missiles were just launched from the arctic, target is CONUS.” (CONUS= Continental United States)
“What? That can’t be. Why would Aristov launch at us now? He knows we didn’t have anything to do with the damn rock.”
The commanding general of the facility replied, “Mr. President, I believe we’re seeing a single rogue captain who missed his communication signal and launched thinking the ionization was caused by a nuclear war.”
“Can we shoot down the missiles?”
“Our base in Fort Greely, Alaska is still operational, we’re targeting the incoming birds and will launch our ground-based interceptors in two minutes…”
“What’s our odds of hitting them?”
“Sir, I believe we can hit half of them.”
“Half? How many missiles are we launching to intercept them?”
“We have 40 ground-based interceptors, we’re going to be firing two at each incoming missile. If we miss one of the incoming missiles we won’t have time to launch additional ones.”
“Don’t we have any other missiles?”
“We have eight interceptors in California, but that base was caught in the earthquakes, they’re offline. The Navy has missiles, however we lost most of the Navy’s ships. We have no other resources to stop them.”
“Do we know where they’re headed?”
“Washington, San Diego Naval Base, Norfolk Naval Base, our two submarine missile bases, and the remaining ones are targeted at our ICBM silos.”
“But Washington, the navy bases and the submarine bases are already gone…”
“Whoever launched those missiles didn’t know that.”
Of the 16 missiles launched, the ground-based interceptors managed to destroy 12. The general smiled, “Better than I thought they’d do.”
President Lanoha shook his head, “This isn’t a God damned ball game! Those are nuclear missiles headed to hit our country, do something.”
“Mr. President, the locations those missiles are going to strike are already destroyed, all they’re going to do is bounce the debris.”
“Oh.”
“They’ll throw tons more debris into the atmosphere, but based on everything that’s up there, a little more isn’t going to make any difference.”
Chapter 17
Two men and two women who were orbiting Earth in the international space station had a front row seat to the destruction happening below them. They panicked when they saw the missiles launching from the arctic. The Russian commander shook his head, “Nyet!”
He looked at the Americans, “Please do not respond, our country has suffered enough. I’m begging you, please so not launch your missiles.”
Naval commander Daniel Yoder shook his head, “We launched our ICBMs at the asteroid. Those missiles are going to strike empty holes in the ground.”
The Russian commander responded, “You still have your missile submarines. Please contact your President.”
“How? You know as well as me that the ionization of the atmosphere is blocking all radio communications. We have no way to communicate with the President.”
“You must find a way!”
A moment later they watched as additional missiles broke the surface of the water in the arctic. Yoder shook his head, “Another launch? Why? Why are you attacking us?”
“We’re not!”
“Bullshit! Look below, we wouldn’t attack ourselves, those missiles are coming from a second one of your SSBNs, what’s going on?”
“I shouldn’t say anything, but, when one of our submarines launches their missiles, the launching submarine automatically sends out an encoded message saying she’s launching.”
“So what? The atmosphere is ionized, radios don’t work…”
“Not radio, blue/green laser through the water, just pulsed code, a very short message of dots and dashes to let any other Russian boat that’s close know so if they didn’t get the launch order from headquarters or Moscow they too would launch.”
“How many more hidden submarines do you have out there?”
“I really don’t know. I really don’t.”
@@@@@
President Lanoha was beginning to relax knowing the Russian missiles weren’t going to kill anyone when the launch alarms screamed again. “Okay, why is the launch alarm screaming again?”
“Sir, there’s been another launch! 16 additional missiles and these will hit our military bases, many close to cities.”
“Alert the bases! Get people into shelters. Can they survive?”
“Sir, if they are air bursts the shelters may help, but if they’re ground bursts, nothing will save them.”
“Shit. Do we have anything to knock them down?”
“No, sir.”
“This time I’m not going to allow them to be ignored. Locate me President Aristov and get him on a secure line, someone must know where he is and how to reach him.”
Ten minutes later President Lanoha was told they had the Russian President on a secure line.
President Lanoha yelled at the Russian President, “Twice you’ve attacked me. I am going to make sure you can never strike us again.”
“What are you planning? Please so not use your nuclear weapons, we’ve suffered enough.”
“I am sorry, but I’m going to make sure you can never strike us or anyone again.”
President Lanoha looked at his military aide, “Open the nuclear case, I want to strike them, I want their nuclear capability removed.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do we have available?”
“Sir, we have our Trident submarines, each is armed with 24 missiles.”
“Target them on Aristov’s nuclear forces.”
“Sir, this will take about 8 minutes to send the updated targeting information. I need you to enter your code. Do you remember which number
