It was midnight in Sydney, the ships sirens and the missiles launching vertically created the impression for some residents that perhaps the war was over?
“That’s it…” shouted Commander Willis’s voice over the speakers. The sirens on shore and in the harbor were again audible. “’Rounds complete’ as my father would have sai…”
The shriek that emitted from the speaker at that point was electronic, not human; it tore at the senses while it lasted, only as long as it took for an electro-magnetic pulse to burn out the microphone and transmitter at the other end.
All eyes were on the now silent speaker, willing the voice of Commander Willis to resume.
A small tiny voice broke the silence, issuing from a telephone receiver hanging by its cord.
Terry lifted the receiver and listened before speaking.
“I’m sorry, he is not available right now but please repeat what it was that you were just saying?”
General Shaw was walking with a straight back to the conference room’s door. Only the marine sentry could see his expression and the look on the young man’s face spoke volumes.
“Mister President, the Missile Defence Agency confirms a nuclear detonation in the ten megaton range, one minute ago above Sydney, Australia.”
In a hardened shelter in Colorado code named ‘Church’, a plasma screen displayed icons for two helicopters lifting off the carrier Mao, both machines were designated for an anti-submarine sortie, and both headed unerringly toward a small submarine icon bearing an Australian flag…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy Farman was born in Cheshire, England in 1956 into a close family of servicemen and servicewomen who at that time were serving or who had served in the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and British Army.
As a 'Pad brat' he was brought up on whichever RAF base his Father was posted to.
Andy joined the British Army as an Infantry Junior Leader in 1972 at the tender age of 15, serving in the Coldstream Guards on ceremonial duties at the Royal Palaces, flying the flag in Africa, and on operations in both Ulster and on the UK mainland.
In 1981 Andy swapped his green suit for a blue one with the Metropolitan Police.
With volunteer reservist service in both the Wessex Regiment and 253 Provost Company, Royal Military Police (V) he spent twenty four years in front line policing, both in uniform and plain clothes. The final six years as a police officer were served in a London inner city borough and wearing two hats, those of an operation planner, and liaison officer with the television and film industry.
His first literary work to be published was that of a poem about life as a soldier in Ulster, sold with all rights to a now defunct writers monthly in Dublin for the princely sum of £11 (less the price of the stamp on the envelope that the cheque arrived in.)
The 'Armageddon's Song' trilogy began as a mental exercise to pass the mornings whilst engaged on a surveillance operation on a drug dealer who never got out of bed until the mid-afternoon.
On retirement, he emigrated with his wife to the Philippines.