The Pentagon
"Gentlemen," the Secretary of Defense said as he hung up the phone. The Joint Chiefs of Staff sat around the table with their briefing folders opened before them. The generals and admirals who made up the Unified Combatant Command were all listening in on speaker phones from their command posts around the world. "The President has just signed the Executive Order approving a nuclear response to the Chinese invasion. Initiate tactical nuclear protocols. By twenty-two hundred hours, China will be a giant, glowing crater."
In A Jet Somewhere Over the Atlantic
The metallic blue jet cut across the sky, roaring across the ocean to the eastern coastline of the United States. Seven picked up his cell phone. It had begun beeping and vibrating on the table in front of him. "Dear god," he let out as he looked at the text message on the screen. "Those crazy bastards have gone and done it. Bai! I need a hack into NORAD! NOW!"
Norrin Frasier sat in his seat, quite drunk from the once well stocked mini-bar. An ear bud was fit snuggly into his right ear as the other dangled below his chin. "Something's gone wrong, hasn't it?" Seven and Bai both ignored him, so he turned his attention back to the TV screen where he was watching a DVD someone had left the last time they had used the jet for 'official use' to the resort in the Bahama's. Wallace Beery was portraying the legendary Long John Silver in the classic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Norrin closed an eye. "Arrrrrrrrr! Hehehehehehehehehehehehe!" he began giggling uncontrollably.
"There are fifteen ICBMs in the air," Bai called out.
"Take them down," Seven responded. His finger were tapping madly over his own laptop keyboard.
"I could use some help here." Her voice was stressed and drawn out.
"I can't," he answered her. "I'm working on a contingency plan."
"Shiver me timbers!" Norrin yelled out before breaking out into laughter again.
"I can't concentrate with him going on like that!" Bai's voice began to break.
"Norrin," Seven politely spoke to their passenger, "could you please refrain from laughing whilst the world in on the cusp of destruction?"
"Ahhh," Norrin moaned. "He's too much of a cunt to be taken seriously." Not sure how to turn the TV off, Frasier simply planted his boot into the screen.
"Three are now on splash down courses twenty miles off the Western seaboard. Warheads are deactivated."
"Not good enough, Bai. There are still twelve more en route." The tension built as Seven kept working on his computer. He was taking over one of the Initiative's satellites.
"And just what are you doing over there?"
"Hoping that my latest intel update is correct."
Los Angeles
The mall had been secured. Citizens, refugees in their own city, had made their way there in attempts to escape the foreign invaders swarming their neighborhoods. Once inside, they were conscripted by Holmes and his men in an effort to secure the building from further incursion by the Chinese forces. With Faber's cannibalizing all the electronics in the building and using his own power source, they were able to turn it into a makeshift command center.
"Scour the food court," Holmes was ordering one of his men. "Salvage whatever you can. We've got plenty of mouths to feed now. We'll also need anything that can be used as bedding as well. We have some infirmed that we need to take care of."
Faber was busy creating yet another machine in the middle of the store floor. "It's happened," he said in his electronic voice as Holmes approached. "We responded with nuclear warheads. Fifteen..... no, twelve missiles are headed to mainland China."
"What?"
"I'm receiving a data stream from a satellite. It's sending me up-to-the-minute information on the missiles and their courses. Someone is deactivating them, but there isn't enough time to get rid of them all. I have to do something from here."
Holmes's voice became even more authoritative. "Stop." Faber didn't understand. "I told you to stop. The decision has come from the President himself. There's no other way. You have no right to interfere with that."
"People are going to die. Millions of innocent Chinese are going to be burnt to a cinder."
"And if we don't do anything, Americans are going to die. They came after us first. They won't stop until we make them."
"Blowing up China will accomplish nothing. If anything, it'll make a Chinese occupation worse. If you let me finish this, I can save lives on both continents. I can stop the missiles and end the siege."
"Are you sure? How?"
"This is a Radio Shack. I can build anything here."
Back in the Jet
"Two more down," Bai said.
"What's the count now?"
"Five more left. Damn!"
"NORAD finally kick you out?" Bai nodded. Seven lit a cigarette. "Took longer than I expected. The invasion must have had them too scattered to pay attention; but once they noticed something odd in their systems, they most likely put everything they had to getting rid of it."
"You're pretty calm for someone about to witness Armageddon."
"When Plan B fails, then I'll start to worry. For now, I'll just sit back and enjoy a cig."
"Dr. Carmichael, we've eliminated most of the US's nuclear strike. Without a total decimation of China, there will be another nuclear retaliation. One we most likely won't be able to curtail. Then, other countries will come out with their nuclear arsenals as well. The Earth will be blanketed in radioactivity and nuclear debris."
"Bai, baby, you're totally counteracting the relaxing effect of this cig."
LA
"Done," Faber announced. "In order to be able to reach the missiles, I'll have to devout all power to the signal I'll be sending out. We'll have to take everything else offline." Holmes nodded and signaled for his men to take care of it. "Powering up the device in 5.... 4.... 3.... 2.... 1...." A powerful whining sound emanated from the device. "I've established contact."
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"Four more just dropped," Bai said with excitement. "They'll splash down in the Sea of Japan." Her face turned sour. "The final ICBM has been redirected."
"Wouldn't that be good news, Baby?" Seven smirked.
"No. It's still directed at China. So much for Plan B."
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"The warhead is armed," Faber informed Holmes.
"Are you so sure about this?"
"Yes. Detonating it high in the atmosphere will generate an electro-magnetic pulse that will knock out at least 90% of China's electronics. The invading force will have no choice but to return home to protect their country from all their enemies willing to take advantage of their inability to protect themselves. Japan, Taiwan. Even their old allies North Korea and Russia couldn't pass up the chance. And the radioactivity will be spread out by the jetstreams to the point that their levels would be only slightly above normal. Nothing deadly."
The missile came crashing back down to earth. Hundreds of miles in the air, it suddenly detonated. China instantly went silent. Vehicles, computers, cell phones. They all simultaneously stopped functioning over most of the large nation.
"We've lost satellite contact over part of Asia," Bai said looking at her screen.
"Move one into the area," Seven commanded. "I need to know the situation."
"It'll be twenty minutes before another one can be moved into orbit." Twenty minutes went by, though it seemed like days. Seven Carmichael found himself without anymore cigarettes and began to fidget in his seat a bit. "Got it," Bai finally said to his relief. "My god. Most of mainland China is blank."
"Blown up?"
"No. It's there. There just aren't any electronic signals. No mobile phone activity, no traffic, and no pollution production. Everything but a few isolated spots are completely shut down. Wait..... Someone's trying to hack our satellite."
"From where?"
"Somewhere in northern China. I'm going to shut it out."
"No. This is exactly what we need. Their satellites were most likely taken out in the same blast. They need ours to bounce a signal off of to their invasion ships. They're calling their forces back home." Seven had stopped fidgeting and leaned back into his seat with a smile on his face. "Plan B."
"Can I laugh now?" Norrin finally asked. "Tight arses."
