The date is March 4th, 2022, and after years of deliberation, both Georgia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina have officially been accepted as full NATO partners.
Ukraine now reinvigorates its push for NATO membership, while Russia has for the last
six months warned of military action.
Alarmed by what it views as encroachment of NATO on its borders, Russia at last responds
to the ascension of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia by massing forces on its western
border.
Russia is gambling that the other NATO nations will reconsider admitting the two new members,
or at least not be willing to go to war over the defense of brand new members to the alliance.
Russia however has completely underestimated the solidarity of the alliance.
Realizing that NATO is in essence a worthless entity unless Article 5 of the treaty is immediately
enforced, NATO warns Russia that an attack on one ally is considered an attack on all
allies.
To reinforce the point, NATO troops are sent into Estonia, Latvia,and Lithuania- the alliance's
most vulnerable members given their direct proximity to Russia.
Russia however sees this as an unacceptable show of force, and the move proves to be the
straw that breaks the camel's back- without warning Russian armor pours into Latvia and
Lithuania, linking up with forces in Kaliningrad.
World War 3 has officially begun.
For the first month of fighting Russian forces push as far west as Poland, but the offensive
grinds to a halt as NATO members finish mobilizing and their resistance solidifies.
With American troops and equipment making landfall in France and Germany, NATO is now
launching vicious counterattacks against Russia's forces in Poland.
In the Pacific, the American navy steams towards Russia's eastern coast, bringing with it a
Marine expeditionary force meant to open a second front in the war and split Russia's
forces.
Russia is faced with a losing proposition, and decides to gamble.
It authorizes a single nuclear strike against Berlin, betting that while European NATO members
may retaliate with their limited nuclear arsenals, the Americans won't risk the destruction of
their cities to support their European allies.
The date is now April 12th, 0205 hours Zulu.
American and Chinese infrared recon satellites both pick up the tell-tale fiery plume of
an ICBM launch from a missile farm in the south of Russia.
Two minutes later the American president is awoken from his sleep and given the news:
Russia has launched a single nuclear device, unknown payload, likely target in western
Europe.
The US Air Force's Global Strike Command has for weeks been flying nuclear alert missions
with its fleet of B-52 bombers, maintaining a nuclear-armed force in the air twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week, as its predecessor, the Strategic Air Command, once did for decades
during the Cold War.
With the detected launch of a Russian nuclear weapon, a priority flash is immediately dispatched
to the airborne forces and alert forces on the ground.
Flight crews stationed overseas in Japan, on the west coast of the United States, and
in Europe all review their Single Integrated Operational Plan, which lays out the exact
flight route, refueling track, and targets for each of the bomber crews.
Most aircraft have two primary targets, with two alternate targets to be struck should
they be unable to make it to their primary targets.
Within minutes the crews are in the air, and those already on alert patrols immediately
set course for their positive-control turnaround point, a pre-planned point near Russia where
the air crews will automatically turn around- unless they receive an order to strike.
At missile sites across the American midwest, the giant concrete shutters that protect the
buried missiles inside their launch facilities are automatically rolled back, and the Security
Forces personnel tasked with defending these sites go on full alert.
Their orders are to defend the silos until every missile has been launched, after which
they are to escort surviving missile crews out and back to a rendezvous point well away
from the missile farm, for these sites will be a priority target for incoming Russian
missiles.
Inside underground bunkers, missile operators rehearse launch procedures, each man responsible
for a group of missiles.
The entire system only requires two out of four of the operators to authenticate a launch
order, just in case two of the men get cold feet about launching a nuclear Armageddon
and refuse their orders.
Deep in the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic ocean, the US's Extremely Low Frequency communication
system flashes a nuclear alert to America's ballistic missile submarine fleet.
Each sub carries twenty four Trident missiles, and each missile carries up to eight independently
targetable warheads with a yield of 475 kilotons.
America's fleet of hunter-killer attack submarines have for weeks been stalking and eliminating
Russia's aging ballistic missile submarines, and the survivors are bottled up near the
Russian shore where they can be protected with shore-based firepower and anti-submarine
patrols.
Now America's attack submarines set course for Russia's coast, their mission is to eliminate
Russia's surviving nuke boats, though it will cost America's submarine fleet dearly as Russia's
air force and surface navy fiercely defend their surviving ballistic missile subs.
At 0209 hours the American president is told that American recon assets have positive confirmation
of a nuclear detonation in Berlin.
The Russians have fired an older, single-warhead ICBM, yet with a yield large enough to completely
destroy the city of 3.6 million.
On a hotline direct with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the President is told
that Britain is already issuing a fire order to retaliate for the attack.
The President knows that the attack on Berlin was a gamble by the Russians, who don't believe
that the US will risk an escalation and attacks on its own cities to defend Europe.
An emergency flash is dispatched by the US's ELF communications system to a lurking Ohio
class submarine, currently on station deep beneath the ice of the North Pole.
After authenticating the order, the sub breaches through the five-foot thick ice and the door
on a single dorsally mounted launch tube pops open.
The navigation system on the Trident II missile located inside the launch tube is activated
and a mission trajectory is automatically loaded into the flight computer.
Then, a steam generator ignites a solid-grain rocket motor which feeds superheated exhaust
into a tank of chilled water.
The water evaporates and expands, forcing the missile within the launch tube to be launched
upwards and out, after which the which the first-stage motor ignites and the missile
screams upward and towards space.
An astro-inertial guidance system on board the missile uses star positioning to fine
tune the accuracy of its trajectory, as GPS has long been unreliable due to Russian attacks
on NATO satellites.
The Russians have bet wrong, and minutes later eight 475 kiloton warheads detonate over the
Russian missile facility which launched the Berlin attack.
Simultaneously, a British attack strikes at the cities of Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk-
both with a population of 1.5 million, or 3 million together.
NATO has responded in kind to the Berlin attack, and America has both punished Russia's nuclear
forces for the attack and shown that it will stand with its allies.
In the halls of the Kremlin, a desperate power struggle plays out.
3 million Russians lie dead, and the US has obliterated one of Russia's major nuclear
missile facilities, destroying dozens of ICBMs in place.
Russian ballistic submarines, considered to be the most survivable element of the nuclear
triad, have also been decimated by American attack submarines- though the US has lost
twelve subs of its own in its quest to eliminate the remaining Russian boats.
Military leadership clashes with the civilian leadership, and demands a retaliatory attack
on American missile facilities.
With US reinforcements in force on the Western front, and Russians starting to lose ground
in Poland, battlefield commanders have for the last week been requesting a release on
strategic nuclear weapons to use against American infantry and tanks.
The fierce debate on the use of tactical weapons is reignited, and when further nuclear attacks
are denied, Russian military leadership stages a stunning coup.
The Russian president is removed from power, and Russian commanders receive authorization
for the use of a dozen tactical weapons against NATO forces in Europe.
Within a half hour, NATO troop concentrations in Poland are hammered by low-yield nuclear
attacks, killing tens of thousands.
American reinforcements, fresh from the states and currently massing around the Rammstein
military facilities in Germany, are hit with three tactical devices.
The Marine expeditionary force in the pacific, staging out of Japan, is also struck by a
single device, as are the two naval carrier battle groups supporting the invasion.
By 9 AM American military forces have suffered more casualties than all wars since World
War II combined, and the ability for NATO to push back Russian forces in Poland is eliminated.
While Russia has maintained an inventory of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons to counter
America's overwhelming conventional firepower advantage, the United States has not kept
an active inventory of tactical devices for decades.
This leaves the American president with few options for a comparable retaliatory attack.
While the yields on America's airborne, submarine and ground-launched nuclear weapons can be
dialed down, there is no way to broadcast that fact to the Russians, and little chance
they would believe it.
An attack with traditional ICBMs, submarine launched missiles, or airborne nuclear cruise
missiles will seem to Russian like a full-blown attack, and risk escalating the war into a
total nuclear confrontation.
Yet the president has little choice, tens of thousands of American service members are
dead, US forces in Europe have been badly damaged by the attacks, and both carrier battlegroups
supporting the Pacific invasion are reporting major losses of ships, aircraft, and personnel.
The Marine invasion force in Okinawa is combat ineffective, four divisions reporting over
55% casualties each.
Resigning himself to a list of terrible options, the President orders a retaliatory attack
using ground-based ICBMs.
The Air Force's Global Strike Command nuclear bomber fleet is to approach and hold at their
fail-safe points, ready to proceed to their targets should Russia retaliate again.
At Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, a launch order is authorized by the two-man
Minuteman launch crew, and a single Minuteman III missile roars into the night sky.
Sixty seconds later, the second stage of the missile ignites, separating from the spent
first booster stage.
Adjustments using the second stage thrust vector control keeps the missile on course,
and another sixty seconds later the flight computer separates the second stage and fires
the engine on the third and final stage.
By now the missile has reached space, and as the third stage engine burns out, reverse
thrust separates the three warheads and their penetration aids from the launch vehicle.
Some of the penetration aids explode, showering space with millions of pieces of reflective
aluminum which wreak havoc on radar used by missile interceptors, while other aids simulate
the real warheads and serve as dummy targets for any Russian interceptors.
With no real Russian anti-ballistic missile defense program though, the warheads and the
dummies all re-enter the earth's atmosphere completely unharmed.
Twenty three minutes after launch, three separate 475 kiloton nuclear explosions rock Eastern
Europe- Russian forces in Poland are obliterated by two nuclear strikes many times greater
in magnitude than those used against NATO forces, while yet another Russian nuclear
missile facility is struck by the third warhead.
With American weapons targeting their missile fields and systematically eliminating Russia's
ability to respond to nuclear attacks, the final order is given for a full-blown nuclear
response.
American reconnaissance satellites and electronic eavesdropping assets all pick up the telltale
signs of preparatory operations for nuclear launch across Russia's remaining missile farms.
The order to attack is mirrored in the US, and launch officers in North Dakota, Wyoming,
and Montana receive the order to launch.
Simultaneously, American airborne assets receive an emergency flash, which when authenticated
authorizes the aircrews to proceed to their targets with full nuclear release.
American ballistic missile submarines breach through the thick polar ice, or rise to twenty
five feet below the waves of the Pacific and the North Sea.
As Russian missiles clear their silos, it's America's nuclear ballistic missile subs which
launch the first wave of retaliatory attacks, almost as fast as Russian ground forces.
American submarine launched missiles target Russia's remaining missile fields in a desperate
hope to destroy them before they can finish launch operations, but for the most part the
American strikes fail to stop the launches.
Secondary military targets are then struck, with major Russian military bases, supply
depots, troop staging areas, and airfields all being obliterated in nuclear fire within
ten minutes of the start of the Russian attack.
As Russia's ICBMs climb into the atmosphere, a wave of American ballistic missile defense
systems immediately spring into action.
Having spent billions on ballistic missile defense since the 1980s, all in a bid to make
Reagan's Star Wars concept a reality, America now attacks the incoming missiles with a variety
of tools.
Airborne laser systems in Europe and flying in the Pacific manage to strike at a handful
of ICBMs during their vulnerable ascent stage, superheating the missile body from hundreds
of miles away with a powerful aircraft-mounted laser system.
As the missiles climb into space, ballistic missile defense sites across the West Coast
of the United States launch their ground-based interceptors.
Using powerful radar, the interceptors scream towards the incoming missiles in a bid to
destroy them through kinetic impact before they can re-enter the atmosphere.
The Russian missiles however immediately disperse their own penetration aids, and a shower of
billions of pieces of aluminum chaff wreaks hell on American interceptor radar.
The interceptors switch to their visual interception systems and advanced computer programs frantically
scramble to identify the incoming warheads visually, ignoring the clouds of chaff.
Half of the interceptors miss their targets, the other half manage to strike- yet of the
successful intercepts a full third are of dummy warheads.
To make matters worse, the US only has an inventory of about sixty interceptors ready
to fire, and are completely overwhelmed by an incoming horde of hundreds of independently
targeting warheads.
24 minutes after launch the West Coast is the first hit.
1 Megaton strikes against Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and others obliterate the most populated
cities on the American west coast.
A follow-on 450 kiloton strike destroys the Los Angeles harbor area along with tens of
thousands of homes, and the naval base at San Diego.
Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert is struck by two 450 kiloton strikes, as is
Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Three minutes later nuclear impacts strike the American mid-west.
North American Aerospace Defense Command at Peterson Air Force Base is incinerated by
a megaton blast, and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is struck by two ground-penetration
munitions, though the blasts manage to do little damage to the deeply buried facility.
Strikes continue to roll eastwards, and a saturation of 300 kiloton strikes decimates
the American farm belt.
These munitions are programmed to be ground bursts, resulting in the scattering of millions
of tons of highly radioactive dirt across America's most fertile farm land.
Another three minutes later the East Coast is struck by the Russian ICBMs.
Washington is obliterated by two separate megaton blasts, as is New York City- the financial
heart of America.
The American president however is safe from the nuclear blasts.
He has long ago boarded what is nicknamed the Doomsday Plane, an airborne command post
from which he can manage America's remaining military and civilian forces.
With satellite and ground communications completely eradicated, a fleet of Air Force planes now
make up a global command and control system, linking up surviving military forces with
the President.
Soon his plane will land at an intact airfield and he will be helicoptered out to a surviving
supercarrier, from where he will continue to command the survivors of America's military
and oversee the reconstruction, if any is possible, of what remains of America, all
from the safety of the Atlantic Ocean.