The Legend of Earth

Chapter 34



Admiral William Keller walked calmly to the exit of the situation room within the Complex. With all or most of the electronics knocked out, and only dim red light to illuminate the room, he saw no reason to remain.

He led a parade of fourteen other solemn people out into the wide corridor; some were crying, even the men. Other than the sounds of sobbing, no one said a word. In the hallway, they were joined by more people, moving in zombie-like fashion toward the nearest exit. It took ten minutes before they were able to push open the security doors and step outside to join the hundreds of others who had already left the building.

As he stepped into the late autumn sunshine, he noticed that most of people in the vast Pentagon parking lot were staring upward. He followed their gazes.

There, far up in the sky, was a rapidly expanding circle of yellow and blue – the remnants of a nuclear explosion. Keller frowned; there was something strange about the circle. Others of his team noticed it, too.

The explosion was a distant circle, barely more than a dot in the distant sky. Keller knew that EMP detonations were effective at distances of three to four hundred kilometers, well out into space. But then he thought: why? Why attack with EMP’s when they had a clear path into the atmosphere, where the deadly heat, concussion and radiation from the explosions would be far more devastating? Electronics could be repaired; a radioactive planet not so easily.