“Where are those rockets heading?”
“No idea sir.”
The camera switched from Wright Patterson and showed the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, the image zoomed in on the bustling city below. Seconds later the rockets came into view. It exploded just above the ground; around three hundred feet and a swarm of dark purple liquid filtered into the air.
The camera switched back to Atlantis, “That is what happens when you leave your positions. Argentina your cowardly act has been dealt with.”
The room in the depot in England was stunned, “Did..did they just attack their allies?”
“Yes.” The men in black replied, “The rockets were fired on the Argentine mainland in retribution for their retreat.”
Atlantis looked deep into the camera, “I suggest that your forces’ disengage and surrender to me. If they do not, I will fire my rockets into the weak heart of your nations. Your civilians will suffer heavy casualties.”
The screen clicked off.
“What shall we do?” Wilson asked.
The Chinese leader sat silent for a second, he turned to his interpreter, “We must fire our nuclear missiles while we still have the chance.”
“That is out of the question!” Prime Minister Wilson said angrily.
The Chinese president stood up aggressively, “I don’t care what you think, your nation is insignificant and we will deal with your cowardice later.” He turned to his aid, “I want the nuclear missiles ready to launch ASAP.”
The men in black turned on Dong Biwu, “We cannot allow this.”
Two shots rang out as the soldiers stood next to the men in black fired. The rounds hit their intended targets and the two men fell to the floor; they bled out quickly.
Dong Biwu was stunned, “What did you just do?”
“We had no choice but to kill your aid and your translator. Now please sit, you are no longer authorized to make decisions.” The men in black chimed.
The Last Battle
4th army group had made their way forty miles inland without any resistance. Their light tank division was made up mostly of Chinese Type 63’s which were quite fast with their forty mile an hour top speed. The division carefully scouted the area up ahead of the main troops.
The British Vickers main battles tanks rumbled along behind. They were split into several groups and tried not to bunch up too closely together. They passed through abandoned town after abandoned town.
Groups of infantry periodically stopped and alighted from their armored vehicles to have a quick search of the area. All they found were abandoned houses. The houses had been ransacked and a lot of the contents had been left in the streets. A British soldier picked up a soaking wet teddy, he shook his head and chucked the ruined bear to the floor.
The Type 63’s advanced out of the latest town through a patch of sodden grass, their tracks churned up the loose soil as they advanced. The lead tank went up in smoke as it was hit by a bright purple flash.
The rest of the Type 63’s immediately took evasive actions as more plasma rounds raced towards them. The Chinese crews tried to hail the Vickers tanks but communication was a constant problem with the British not being able to speak Chinese and the Chinese only having very poor English; if any at all.
The plasma rounds were coming from the only remaining tree line left along the horizon, the rounds kept coming and more and more Type 63’s were taken out.
“Anti Tank guns in the trees!” A British signalman called out, he radioed for any available air support.
The British main battle tanks had just arrived on the scene, they fired their guns but the first shots were wildly inaccurate. Their commanders ordered for them to fire the 12.7mm range finding machine gun; they fired short bursts down range until they were trained on their targets.
“Fire.” The 105mm main guns opened up and several barrages were fired into the woods. The trees shattered on impact showering the area in giant splinters.
The guns were silenced as the tree line was devastated. The heavy tanks continued to advance passed the burning Aryan anti tank guns’; their charred wrecks sending black smoke high into the sky.
Reports were flooding into the command tower at Wright Patterson, a technician turned to Atlantis,
“Sir a joint force of British and Chinese armor is attacking North of Washington. It looks like they might be trying to encircle the capital.”
Atlantis laughed, “Looks like they aren’t taking my warning seriously! “He stroked his mustache as he chuckled. “Ok, we only have to hold them for the next couple of days. Send in the men, I know they are itching for a fight.”
The technician saluted.
“One more thing.” Atlantis powerful voice projected, “Launch the missiles.”
“Sir” the technician turned to the console and initiated the launch sequence, “What are the target coordinates?”
Atlantis smiled, “Hit all of the major cities at once.”
It only took a few seconds for the target information to feed its way through the computers, finally, the button on the center console illuminated, it flashed a violent red. Atlantis strode forwards and pressed it without flinching.
Outside the window, the missile’s engines ignited and the rockets reached skyward with frightening speed. It took less than thirty seconds for the missiles to break through the lower atmosphere as they raced across the earth.
The first sign of trouble came too late as one of the destroyer crews noticed streaks across the sky, it looked like hundreds of them. Admiral Moorer was alerted and he managed to raise the alarm back at Drakelow depot but it was too late.
The first missile dropped over Cardiff it got to two thousand feet above the bustling city before it detonated. The explosion caused shockwaves loud enough to scare the local population into coming outside and looking into the sky.
A vapor cloud several miles long drifted lazily in the afternoon sky, it mixed in with the spattering of clouds and turned them a bloodcurdling red. Slowly the red mist descended, birds fell from the sky and bubbled in a sticky mess where they landed.
People in the city still were not sure what was happening, a local family who had rushed out of their two-bedroom town flat were still peering skywards when the first drops hit them. The youngest sister was only four and she looked at her hand in amazement as it turned a beautiful mercury color.
“Look mum, I love this type of rain, it’s pretty.”
“Yes darling!” the mum replied without even looking.
One of the drops fell into her eye, it burned horribly and she cursed under her breath.
The mist had fallen continually for a couple of minutes and people were starting to feel the effects. The middle-aged mum threw up over the sidewalk. The contents were a dark brown.
“Shit honey, that doesn’t look good.”
An off-duty ambulance worker trotted over to have a look, “We need to get you to the hospital miss!” she said after taking one look at the vomit.
The ambulance worker reached out to help the mum over to their car but a horrible pain shot through her arm, she looked at her arm and in horror realized it was turning purple. She turned her it over and over and she screamed as it went from purple to black in an instant.
The mum tried to help and she reached out and gripped the paramedic’s wrist; it instantly turned into a turgid tar-like substance in her hand, she reeled away in terror.
The paramedic stumbled as she let out a black stream of vomit that covered the mum’s chest, the paramedic looked down and realized that she was somehow sinking into the pavement; her legs were melting away in front of her eyes. She tried to scream but her mouth was full of a sickly black goo.