The date is Christmas Eve, 2019, and deep in the heart of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado,
technicians working at the North American Aerospace Defense Command- otherwise known
as NORAD- track the flight of a Russian rocket launch.
In accordance with international regulations, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, formally
announced the launch weeks before, and filed a flight path with the UN.
The launch is a curious one, as the launch trajectory doesn't follow the typical equatorial
or polar orbital trajectories of most spacecraft.
The Russians claim that the rocket contains a probe which will use the highly eccentric
orbit to rendezvous with a medium-sized asteroid flying past the earth a few million miles
away, itself on a highly eccentric orbit.
The math checks out, and thus as NORAD tracks the launch entering space above the US, there
is no reason for alarm.
Nonetheless, American space and ground-based imaging assets still track the curious Russian
probe.
The rocket seems to be smaller than anticipated for the launching of a deep space probe, but
the Russians claim that their probe is powered by an ion engine, which doesn't require much
fuel.
Some inside of the American aerospace and defense sector are suspicious that the launch
is actually a new secret Russian military satellite, and thus NORAD is ordered to track
its trajectory carefully and detect if any sub-vehicles are released from the main body
of the spacecraft as it reaches orbit.
The Russian spacecraft reaches a point in its orbit over the middle of the United States
when suddenly the numerous electronic eyes and ears following its flight go blind all
at once.
At first NORAD technicians believe that there must be some computer error within NORAD's
systems itself, as the command post is not receiving any data from over a dozen of the
surveillance platforms it had been using.
In fact, several other assets have apparently gone off line as well, including satellites
and ground-based communications and tracking stations.
Then, an icy cold chill grips the men deep inside their bunker at NORAD.
A secret global surveillance network of space-based sensors begins to phone home, and the news
they are reporting are terrifying.
This sensor system dates back to the nineteen seventies, and have only one job: monitor
the entire surface of the earth from very high orbits and detect the telltale flash
and heat of a nuclear explosion.
Originally designed to help enforce the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing
of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, outer space or underwater, this space surveillance
network was left in operation to help prevent rogue states from testing weapons in remote
areas of the world.
Now the decades old system is calling home, and the news are troubling: a major nuclear
detonation has been detected directly over the heart of the United States.
Several hundred miles above the US, a nuclear flash briefly creates a second sun and lights
up the sky above much of the United States.
Simultaneously, a titanic electromagnetic pulse sweeps over the entire nation, burning
out power and communications systems across the entirety of the US and most of Mexico
and Canada.
Power transformers are blown and the electricity across most of the nation is shut down permanently.
Cities go dark all across the US.
Radio and satellite communications equipment across the nation is destroyed by the electromagnetic
pulse, and only a few pieces of military equipment specifically hardened against EMP pulses survives.
In space above the US, the blast destroys dozens of satellites, knocking out communication
relay networks that connect the world.
The EMP blast reaches further out, and manages to destroy many more satellites- though luckily
more modern satellites have been hardened against the effects of the sun and are shielded
from the EMP blast.
In the span of a few short seconds, the United States has been sent back to the industrial
age.
It will take weeks to restore cross-country communications, and months to begin to bring
back the power to major cities.
It'll be years, perhaps as much as a decade, before the American electrical grid is fully
repaired.
Millions will die in time, and yet this was just the opening shot of World War III.
NORAD is itself shielded from the effects of an EMP pulse, and immediately it uses an
old, but still reliable, communications network to send Emergency Action Messages across the
country.
These messages reach several important American military bases, and in moments men and women
scramble to respond to the Russian attack.
Everybody knows what's next, and it is vitally important that the nation restore its ability
to respond to this attack as quickly as possible.
Deep in the heart of Russia, giant concrete doors are already yawning open.
Klaxons and warning signals sound out across a Russian plain broken up only by the dozens
of missile silos buried deep beneath its dirt.
With a fiery roar, each missile lifts up into the sky one by one.
At NORAD, a surviving satellite sends a missile launch warning.
The President has been warned over an emergency relay system, but communications all across
the US are severely hampered by the EMP attack.
Nobody, not even the President can reach the rest of the United States' nuclear alert forces
to order a retaliatory attack, let alone command the US military at large.
At Travis Air Force Base in California, and Patuxent River in Maryland, flight and support
crew rush from their alert station to a huge, egg-white painted aircraft.
Ground crew rush to complete the few preparations needed to get this aircraft into the air,
and within minutes the big plane is already lumbering down the runway.
This plane carries no bombs, no missiles, no weapons of any kind- and yet as the two
aircraft on opposite sides of the country finally take to the air, they have now become
the most dangerous weapons on the face of the planet.
The E-6 Mercuries immediately make for a cruising altitude around fifty thousand feet.
Each plane is manned by two pilots and three engineers, along with a battle staff of nine.
Amongst the airborne battle staff is a General officer, and if communications with the President
or any other member of the nation's Nuclear Command Authority can't be established, each
General can assume full command of the United States' military- to include its nuclear forces.
The E-6 is outfitted with a vast array of extremely powerful, jam-resistant, and EMP
hardened communications gears.
Antennas ring the aircraft, and in moments it has linked up with the nation's emergency
airborne command and control aircraft- a fleet of similar planes who's job is to create an
airborne communications relay system across the United States and beyond.
With ground-based comms down, and the US's space network severely affected, this fleet
of aircraft now provide a direct-link communications network, relaying signals off each other and
to their final destination.
Shortly after the E-6's reach cruising altitude though, news comes in of a second nuclear
detonation in Washington DC.
This was a ground-based blast, and both crews realize that the Russians have struck at the
nation's capital with a small nuclear weapon that was likely smuggled into the US.
The explosion has eliminated nearly all of the upper-level command and control structure
of the US government- and yet, the mission of each E-6 is unaffected by the attempt to
decapitate the US military and government.
Assuming command, the general officer aboard the E-6 currently flying a few dozen miles
off the east coast of the United States immediately re-establishes communications with the US's
ground-based missile forces.
Using a system of Very High Frequency and Super High Frequency antennas, the E-6 is
able to alert launch control officers deep in their bunkers to prepare their missiles
for launch.
The communications system affords so much control over the US's land-based ICBMs, that
the general now in command of the United State's nuclear forces is able to reprogram the targets
to several of the missiles.
A second command instructs the United States Air Force to immediately being launches of
its space-resilience program, and in minutes converted ICBMS kept at the ready are rocketing
into the sky.
Shortly after, the payload fairing on each of the converted ICBMs splits open, releasing
a swarm of micro satellites which have been boosted into orbit around the earth.
The micro-satellites immediately re-establish the US's space communications and intelligence
network, and start feeding data directly to each E-6 Mercury currently in flight.
Now the general aboard the east coast's E-6 is finally able to communicate with US military
forces abroad and with America's allies.
Within seconds the world at large is aware of the attack on the United States, and NATO
makes preparations for war.
US forces abroad prepare for the war that will immediately follow the end of the world.
From the rear of each E-6, an antenna is released and then dropped to trail behind the aircraft.
With five miles of wiring, the very low frequency antenna at the end of the wire now hangs twenty
six thousand feet below and behind the aircraft, and immediately establishes communications
with the US's submarine fleet.
Emergency Action Messages are relayed to American ballistic missile submarines, and the captains
of individual boats race to make their missiles ready for launch.
It is now fifteen minutes after the EMP attack, and space-based sensors along with a few surviving
ground-tracking stations confirm dozens of Russian nuclear warheads in their mid-course
trajectories.
Ballistic missile interceptors based on the west coast of the United States boost into
the air, launching from their silos in Alaska, California, and Washington.
Thanks to data links provided by the E-6 Mercuries, the interceptors are able to close in on Russian
warheads- though unfortunately they manage a measly kill ratio that knocks only a few
handful of the dozens of incoming nuclear warheads out of the sky.
The next line of defense is the US Navy, and with targeting data relayed via the E-6's
network capabilities, American destroyers on the West Coast and in the Arctic fire off
a salvo of SM-3 missiles.
Intercepting the incoming warheads in their final trajectories, the Navy fares a little
better than the Air Force's ballistic missile interceptors, and another handful of warheads
are knocked out of the sky by the SM-3s.
Now the crew of each E-6 aircraft braces itself.
There is nothing left to do but wait for the inevitable.
Luckily, they don't have to wait long.
A minute after the Navy's last-ditch effort to intercept the incoming warheads, the first
nuclear strikes rock the West Coast of the United States.
Miraculously, Los Angeles suffers only a glancing blow, some of the warheads aimed at it intercepted
in-flight.
San Francisco and San Diego however are obliterated, each taking multiple direct hits.
Thirty seconds later, the nuclear detonations spread east, reaching Colorado, Nevada, and
Wyoming.
NORAD is rocked by a near-miss, but survives intact.
The nuclear missile fields in Montana and the Dakotas are obliterated by multiple strikes-
though their own missiles have already been launched.
Two minutes after the first impact, New York, Atlanta, and Philadelphia are wiped off the
map.
Washington, already rocked by a small ground-based nuclear weapon, is struck again for good measure.
Three minutes after the first detonations, the US is silent.
Most of its major cities have been reduced to rubble, over a hundred million are already
dead.
America's military command structure survives however, and the crews of the in-flight E-6s
watch on monitors as the first American nuclear strikes devastate Russia.
The first to strike back are America's ballistic missile submarines, and their missiles devastate
Russia's seaboard cities.
A few minutes later, American ICBMS rain down extinction in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and
Vladivostok.
The first phase of World War III is over, but the war itself has only just begun.
The E-6 aircraft link up with America's airborne emergency communications network and its space
assets to coordinate the military response by the US's overseas forces.
Many overseas American bases have been struck in the nuclear attack, but the ability to
quickly restore communications afforded by the E-6s means that many other forces manage
to disperse in time to avoid destruction.
Now the E-6s relay orders around the globe to all surviving US and NATO forces, who prepare
for an assault into Russia in order to ensure that World War III does not have a follow-up
nuclear exchange.
Should the US to have a back-up system in case of sneak attack by a foreign adversary?
What do you think the war that follows a full nuclear exchange would look like?
Tell us in the comments!
Now go watch “What If There Was A Nuclear War Between The US And Russia?”
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