oh 233 hours local and in a mountain
complex in north korea just over 100
miles from the chinese border
technicians scramble to remove
camouflage netting from the entrance to
a deep underground bunker that bunker
has been cut into the mountainside and
covered over with camouflage to fool
american spy satellites loitering
hundreds of miles overhead the cover of
night helps to obfuscate the rush of
activity and the heavy cloud cover is
exactly what the hermit kingdom was
waiting for out of the converted mine
shaft a huge truck is carefully backed
out the massive vehicle has only one
purpose to transport the equally massive
hwasong-50 intercontinental ballistic
missile finally eased out of its hiding
hole the truck begins the laborious
process of lifting the giant missile
into position over 40 feet tall the
missile is taller than a two-floor home
and has the power to destroy several
square miles of a densely packed city
the launch command officer picks up a
phone hardwired straight to an
underground telephone line that's
connected directly to kim jong-un the
north koreans have to resort to
primitive telephone technology to ensure
the united states or its allies aren't
listening in somehow on the other end
the north korean dictator gives a single
word the hwasong-15 intercontinental
ballistic missile fires its main engine
shaking the entire launch complex to its
core launch personnel hide behind blast
screens or huddle inside the relative
safety of the launch truck's armored cab
hunkering down in case something goes
wrong and the missile and its entire
fuel load explodes two seconds later the
missile proves to be in good operation
and lifts off the ground
a thousand miles above the earth the
united states space-based infrared
system immediately detects the thermal
plume of the massive rocket a low earth
satellite sends an immediate flash alert
to the second space warning squadron at
buckley air force base in colorado
brother and sister units across the
broad web of us missile defense and the
commanders of every u.s geographical
command a second u.s satellite in a
geostationary orbit confirms the thermal
signature of a large ballistic missile
and chirps a second emergency alert the
massive hwasong-15 is nearing supersonic
flight and has punched several hundred
feet through the clouds and into the
open sky the us's space-based infrared
system satellites have now focused their
full attention on the tell-tale thermal
signature of the big rocket cloud cover
may have made it impossible to see
liftoff with the naked eye but the
incredible heat given off by the fiery
liftoff was easy to spot by infrared
sensors now the large rocket is
screaming through the air riding a
thermal plume several hundred feet long
and thousands of degrees hot the u.s
satellites immediately begin to compare
the thermal signature of the north
korean rocket with a large on-board
library of known missile launches in
less than a second there's a match with
two different hwasong-15 test launches
from the late 2010s the confirmed match
is immediately sent to u.s space command
u.s space force personnel are stunned by
the multiple threat warnings from the
space base network and rush to pour
through the data humans are far slower
than machines though and it'll take time
to verify the threat the north korean
missile is now twice as high as a
commercial airliner and its main rocket
engine is still going strong space force
personnel have confirmed the launch as
authentic an emergency flash is
dispatched to u.s forces in south korea
and across the pacific it's impossible
to know where the missile is headed this
early in flight via hotline to the dod
in the white house the alert is out
north korea has fired a ballistic
missile possibly tipped with a nuclear
warhead the main engine on the
hwasong-15 shuts down as it runs out of
fuel the missile coasts for a brief
second traveling at several thousand
miles an hour now in the upper
atmosphere before a series of explosive
bolts just under three quarters of the
way up separate the first stage of the
rocket from the second stage a second
later the second stage engine fires and
the vehicle lurches forward as it
prepares to exit the earth's atmosphere
an aide rushes to interrupt a meeting
between the president of the united
states of america and the leader of a
partner nation there's no time for
formalities and the president is
practically dragged out of the room so
he can be informed north korea has
launched a nuclear attack target is
still unknown the president immediately
heads for the highly restricted and
secretive situation room in the heart of
the white house from there he'll be able
to communicate with american forces
around the world and defend real-time
tracking data from various american
assets u.s space command issues an order
for radar installations in south korea
and japan to begin tracking the north
korean launch sea based spy-1 radars on
american naval vessels are networked
into the massive surveillance effort
tracking the north korean missile while
boosting into space the missile is at
its most vulnerable but the united
states still lacks its capability to
rapidly destroy a missile during this
initial phase with development on high
velocity projectiles and directed energy
weapons it's hoped that in the near
future u.s forces will be able to down a
missile during this vulnerable phase for
now though all u.s assets can do is
watch and gather data which will help
determine where the missile is headed
and which missile defense assets to
activate with a nuclear threat confirmed
the united states secret service begins
preparations to move the president to a
secure and highly classified location if
the missile is aimed at the white house
the president has less than 40 minutes
to vacate u.s terminal high-altitude
defense batteries in south korea guam
and hawaii are activated their powerful
a-n-t-p-y-2 radars begin sweeping the
sky for signs of the threatening missile
designed to obliterate an incoming
ballistic missile during its terminal
phase the batteries of the interceptors
are currently useless and can only
defend the areas they're assigned to
patriot missile defense batteries in the
us bases across the pacific go on alert
these two are short-range defenses which
are only useful for defending specific
locations u.s aegis equipped warships in
the region are given the same alert
their sm-3 missiles can also be used for
short-range ballistic missile intercepts
just outside the atmosphere but require
the target to be in its descent stage
with a range of several hundred miles
though each aegis-equipped ship can help
protect multiple us installations or
naval battle groups the u.s northern
command at peterson air force base
begins preparations to activate the
united states homeland defenses at fort
greeley alaska and vandenberg air force
base in california the ground-based
mid-course defense system is activated a
collection of 44 interceptors these
missiles have a far greater range than
either the mobile thaad or the navy's
sm-3 missiles and are designed to
intercept a target in the mid-course
before it's had a chance to enter
terminal phase and is still cruising
through space more data is needed
however and all that u.s forces can
currently do is watch and wait it now
has become clear from the missile's
trajectory that this is not an attack
against forces in south korea or guam
japan is also ruled out as a target
hawaii remains a likely target but so
does the rest of the us mainland the u.s
president is notified that based on the
missile's trajectory and speed it is not
a test of a new missile all the data
points to this being a legitimate launch
against american forces given north
korean capabilities it's likely this is
an attack against either hawaii or the
american west coast while north korea
has missiles capable of reaching the
east coast it's not believed they have
the targeting capabilities to strike
that far with any sort of precision the
president authorizes the use of
ground-based interceptors against the
incoming threat and order the u.s navy
ships near hawaii or the american west
coast to move into positions to best
protect major population centers across
the united states a fleet of specially
modified aircraft put into the air these
big planes are loaded with
communications gear and harden against
electromagnetic pulses they're known as
doomsday airplanes because it's their
job to ensure that the president of the
united states can remain in contact with
all u.s military forces even in the
event of a massive nuclear strike
against the homeland the planes will fly
high enough to avoid being caught up in
destruction below and provide a direct
airborne link between each other and
surviving space and ground stations
across the world they will not come back
down until the crisis is over with a
special fleet of aerial tankers
dedicated to keeping them fueled and
flying for the moment they settle into
an orbital pattern across the west coast
the east coast and the american
heartland the full might of the u.s
nuclear triad is officially on alert and
prepared to retaliate against any
potential threat with the possibility of
another nation using the cover of a
north korean strike to attack the us
with its own weapons america from this
point on has to be prepared to fight a
nuclear war against any adversary troop
recall orders are issued for american
units across the world informing
soldiers they must drop whatever they're
doing and immediately report for duty
nuclear-capable aircraft are prepared
for a possible nuclear mission and
nuclear munitions are prepared for
possible loading and launch deep in the
darkest recesses of the world's oceans
the american nuclear ballistic missile
submarine fleet makes its own
preparations to rain down apocalypse on
the president's command the second stage
of the hwasong-15 missile runs out of
fuel the payload detaches from the
second stage and using a
chemical-powered thruster adjusts its
course and heading the missile is now
flying unpowered riding the incredible
momentum built by the massive two-stage
rocket and moving as much as 4.2 miles a
second u.s space command issues new
tracking data on the north korean
missile and confirms separation of the
payload from the second stage based on
this new data hawaii is ruled out as a
target current speed and elevation
dictate that a hit on the southern
american west coast is likely armed with
this new data u.s missile defense
personnel opt for a gbi launch from
brandenburg air force base instead of
fort greeley in alaska four of the long
skinny missiles are activated and fed
live targeting data but they can't be
launched yet they must wait until the
enemy missile draws closer before
launching the american president is
rushed out of the situation room and two
marine one his personal helicopter two
attaches join the president one carries
the nuclear football the remote nuclear
command authority unit which gives the
president the power to order armageddon
from anywhere in the world the second
carries a large backpack-like
communications device that serves to
keep the president in contact with all
branches of the government and the
military at all times rather than head
to a predetermined shelter the president
opts to instead board air force one
believing that there's little risk to a
full-blown nuclear attack on the
homeland from air force one he'll be
safe from the ground effects of a
nuclear blast and be able to remain in
contact with the rest of the military
and government u.s and south korean
special forces stationed in south korea
and japan are mustered and rushed to
armories in preparation for a strike
into the north these elite units have
been kept at high readiness due to
recent hostilities from the north their
specially modified blackhawk helicopters
can evade enemy radar and even fly more
silently than any other helicopters in
the world they have one mission
infiltrate known north korean nuclear
sites and neutralize them from within
u.s and south korean alert aircraft take
to the skies in anticipation of a
full-blown offensive from the north on
the ground forces across the dmz prepare
for combat and an alarm is sounded in
seoul in case of hostilities it's
expected that north korea will shell
seoul directly from behind the dmz it
has so many guns that it can deliver a
whopping 10 000 rounds of high
explosives per minute to the city of 10
million american supercomputers
calculate the trajectory altitude and
speed of the north korean warhead and
feed that data to the ground-based
mid-course defense system with careful
math the computers calculate a firing
solution and green light is given for
the launch of interceptors four gbis
lift off from their silos in the
california desert the missiles will fly
not to where the north korean nuke is
but rather where it will be when they
intercept it with a dumb kinetic warhead
that will destroy the enemy nuke through
sheer kinetic energy as they lift into
the sky tpy-2 and sea-based radars are
networked together and feed them a
steady diet of tracking data in guam
japan and south korea air crews rush to
their aircraft in anticipation of
full-blown war with north korea first up
will be f-15s and f-16s to establish air
dominance normally stealthy v2 bombers
would slip in behind the air superiority
fighters to take out critical air
defenses and communications nodes but
the bulk of the b2 fleet is in missouri
and unprepared for combat instead the
air force's big stick the b-52 is
prepared for immediate action these
aircraft will require at least an hour
to prep but taking off from bases across
the south pacific will be able to put
steel on target within the day us
interceptors are now in space and
speeding toward the calculated intercept
point with the north korean warhead the
interceptors have ditched their ascent
stages and make only small corrections
using chemical thrusters if the
calculated firing solution is bad they
could miss the north korean warhead by
miles in that case it'll be up to the
navy's aegis vessels to down the warhead
before it can strike an american city
updated tracking data reveals the target
is likely los angeles the first wave of
u.s special operations forces are given
the green light from the american
president to take off in their modified
blackhawk helicopters their destination
is several north korean nuclear launch
facilities believed to be capable of
rapid deployment other ground attack
aircraft based in south korea are
already on their way to their targets
intent on destroying any ability for
north korea to launch a second attack
the u.s president boards air force one
upon arrival he asks the united states
congress for a formal declaration of war
with north korea the north korean
warhead suddenly breaks up into multiple
smaller fragments as it ejects a cloud
of highly reflective chaff the metallic
confetti is meant to confuse radar
systems and make it harder to target the
warhead the warhead is now in eight
pieces each piece could be a separate
warhead or it could be a decoy meant to
lure missile defense systems away from
the real warhead us ground and space
based radar struggle to pick out the
real warhead from possible decoys from
within the threat cloud tpy-2 and
c-based x-band radars are best suited
for this task and it falls on them now
to give a good intercept course for
america's gbis powerful processors churn
through all the available data to sniff
out the real threat from amongst the
chaff and decoys if they fail millions
of people will die using extremely
precise measurements the dummy warheads
are singled out because of north korea's
inexperience with mirv warheads and the
use of decoys the dummy warheads don't
quite match the profile of a real
warhead as perfectly as it flies through
space with a good intercept solution the
gbis detach their exo-atmospheric kill
vehicle it will take six minutes for
them to reach their target there's
nothing anyone can do now but pray
unbeknownst to the united states china
has launched its own rapid response
forces into north korea elite chinese
troops penetrate north korean airspace
and fast transport helicopters their
goal is the same as the americans seize
kim jong-un's nuclear arsenal before it
can be used again and thus incur the
wrath of the american nuclear triad with
both american and chinese troops headed
to the same objectives though this
attack now has the possibility of
sparking all-out war between the u.s and
china american ekvs scream through space
at over 4 000 miles per hour they're
just seconds from a successful intercept
or a catastrophic failure the first ekb
screams past the intercept point missing
the north korean weapon by a dozen miles
the second ekv hits nothing it too
misses the north korean warhead by over
three miles a second after the second
ekv the third strikes its target true
moving at a combined speed of just under
10 000 miles an hour the impact produces
a bright flash in the sky for a brief
second nuclear detonation requires a
precise chain of events so the impact of
the interceptor does not set off the
nuclear explosion multiple ground
stations and ship-based radar assets all
confirm the good news two misses
followed by a direct hit the threat has
been neutralized and the dummy warheads
will burn up in the atmosphere the
american president receives the good
news aboard air force one he can still
see washington dc out the left side of
the aircraft and despite this threat
being over he will not order a return to
the white house the conflict has just
begun and more nuclear attacks are
possible at any minute from north korea
on the ground half a world away the
south korean and u.s armies are
preparing for what will be the costliest
war since world war ii a conflict that
will make the original korean war look
like a cap gun shootout american
warplanes are already in route to the
hermit kingdom preparing to drop tens of
thousands of pounds of high explosives
on suspected nuclear sites and special
forces from both the us and china are
racing each other to seize kim jong-un's
nuclear arsenal on the border the north
korean army is finally making its
opening gambit and over a thousand
pieces of artillery begin to rain hell
down on the south's defenders now go
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