“Bogey! Tracking from due North.” Multiple screens in the underground control room lit up, flashes and klaxons going off all around, competing with the multi-coloured lighting on the Christmas trees put up around the room.
“Someone shut that noise up! I can’t hear myself think in here!” General Hawkins stared at the screen, blood draining from his already pale face with the dawning realisation of what he was looking at. The sirens’ wailing cut off, but the screens continued to scream their silent warnings into the dark of the control room.
“They actually did it,” Hawkins muttered to himself more than to those around him. “Those damn Commies actually did it! Trying to sucker punch us by coming over the North Pole! We are on to you, Ivan!” Then, to the room: “Lieutenant, confirm tracking. What is the heading?”
“Tracking confirmed, Sir. Trajectory suggests the target is somewhere along the eastern seaboard. Likely Washington DC. Less than six minutes to impact and counting.”
“That would cause millions of casualties. Millions.”
Hawkins snapped out of it. “Set DEFCON 1. Sergeant, fetch the suitcase. Yes, that one. And get the President on the horn already! The rest of you, we have trained for this. The fate of our great nation depends on us! Prepare the counterattack. All missiles! They think our defenses are down on Christmas Eve. We’ll teach those godless bastards a thing or two!”
#
As intercontinental megadeath rose in flames and fury out of hidden missile bunkers all over the country, a lone red streak blazed across the northern sky, the faint sound of sleighbells and Ho Ho Ho’s trailing its passage.
AI art by Midjourney
Tom Trussel 