“Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

- J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb

2315 June 18th, 2020 CE

Washington D.C.

“By the time we get the bomber in the air, it would have already reached San Francisco.”

General Schmidt nodded at Cralson’s statement. “Mr. President, the Air Force is planning to strike it again.”

The President sighed. “We already fired eight hundred missiles at the thing and it did nothing!”

Cralson crossed his arms. “At least most of San Francisco is evacuated.”

The President shook his head. “We are not nuking San Francisco, Cralson. We are not nuking a fucking major American city for christ sakes. Just because there’s an overgrown flying lizard in the city.”

“It could possibly breathe fire.”

“We aren’t in a fantas…”. The President stopped himself and sighed. “We aren’t certain of its capabilities.”

2020 June 18th, 2020 CE

Sunnyside Elementary School, San Francisco, California

The three soldiers all dropped to the floor the instant a roar shook the building. Ian frowned. “What the fuck was that?”

Eric whisper-shouted. “It’s the dragon. Keep your head down!”

John looked at the two. “Dragon?!”

“I forgot to tell you about that when it came over the comms. You were still unconscious then. Yeah, there’s a dragon on its way here.”

John frown deepened. “And you didn’t tell me why?”

“Well we are trying to sneak away from some monsters much closer to us. We just need to focus on getting outta here. Dragon didn’t seem that important”

Eric peeked out the window of the school building and looked towards the dimming sky. “For right now, we should probably stay in here and see what happens.”

Just then, Eric’s eye caught something. With what was left of the dimming twilight, he could make out a massive dragon. It flew right over them and it was terrifying. Although a completely different form, it was obvious that it was related to the monsters on the ground. The building seemed to quiver as it passed overhead.

2325 June 18th, 2020 CE

Washington D.C.

“We have reports that the dragon has passed over San Francisco. It hasn’t landed anywhere. If it keeps going, It’s headed straight for Nevada.”

The President sighed. “Where is it going if it's not stopping in San Francisco?”

General Schmidt frowned. “We are not sure to be honest. So far it has been flying in a straight line. It hasn’t changed direction that much. We are expecting for it to continue that route.

Cralson immediately perked up about that. “Nevada? Aren’t our nuclear testing sites over there?”

“Yes they are Secretary.”

“We can nuke the thing when it passes over one of the sites can’t we? Won’t that minimize the damage caused? Will it pass over the Nevada Test Site?”

General Schmidt nodded. “Interesting proposal. Mr. President? If the Patriot missile system fails, then we won’t have many options left.”

President Ronell rubbed his forehead. “What will the collateral be if we nuke it in the Nevada Test Site.”

General Schimdt nodded. “I’m gonna get someone on that. In the meantime, the Patriot missiles have been set up to shoot it down into the San Francisco Bay. We will be seeing what happens in a few minutes.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

2030 June 18th, 2020 CE

30 miles east of San Francisco

Across the road from a worn down gray barn, six Patriot missile launchers sat in a field overgrown with golden and green wheat-like vegetation. The sound of crickets echoed through the night.

“It’s approaching the bay. We are ready to fire at your command.”

“Fire.”

Six missiles exited from the launchers leaving a plume of dust around the launcher. The missiles streaked across the darkening orange sky. The crews stared at the radar as it tracked the missiles streaking towards the dragon.

“All confirmed hits… no effect on target.”

“Fuck. Pack up and relocate. We are not sure where it's going but we are not sticking around if it's trying to find what shot it with missiles.”

“But, we can try another volley at it.”

“The thing got hit with fuckton of missiles. I heard Command has decided to smack it with a nuke in the test fields in Nevada. We were just here as a last ditch effort. Our orders were clear. Hit it and then bugger off.”

The trucks hooked themselves to the radar and the Patriot batteries.

“The Patriot batteries had little effect on it Mr. President.”

“What do we have about the nuclear option?”

“It’s going to pass over the training range instead of the test site. If we use a low yield nuclear device, there won’t be much damage and the fallout won’t affect any large population centers. We just have to evacuate the surrounding towns.”

“How many people are in the surrounding towns?”

“Tonopah is the biggest with a population of around two thousand people. In addition to the smaller towns, we would be expecting to evacuate up to three thousand people.”

“And the fallout? How far will it spread?”

“Most of the land is government land that we used as a training range. Well depending on the actual yield, the impact should be minimal due to the fact that most of the area is empty. Of course, the area will have to be avoided because of the fallout but there’s usually nobody on most of this land anyway.”

“Then we are going ahead with this? It's impervious to our conventional weapons. This is the only way we can shoot it down?”

“Mr. President, this is our best option.”

“Are we even sure if it's gonna land somewhere?”

“We shouldn’t be taking any chances. It will pass through multiple cities that are filled with more people than San Francisco right now.”

Ronell slumped and sighed. “Get me the Pentagon’s deputy director of operations and the commander of Strategic Command.”

“Yes sir.”

A few minutes later

A few men were on the screens in front of the President. “A nuclear cruise missile with a low enough yield to not cause major destruction to any large population centers but a high enough yield to kill that thing.”

“An AGM-86B from a B-52 would do fine. It's a W80 nuclear warhead with a blast yield of 150 kilotons of TNT. However, the question is whether or not it will hit the target since it's an air to ground missile. It does have an inertial navigation system with terrain contour matching but none of those mean it can hit a moving target. Although, with that large of a target, we can probably assume that the missile will hit it.”

“Are we certain? I don’t want to have to use a nuclear missile just to have it miss.”

“We can probably calculate where the dragon will be based on its current speed and direction. Then use those coordinates to set the target. Worse comes to worse, we miss, the nuclear missile detonates on the ground close to it, and the nuclear blast will still at least heavily injure it.”

“Do we not have any nuclear missiles capable of hitting a moving aerial target?”

“We retired those kinds of things in the 1980s.”

“Alright then. I’m ordering a nuclear strike on that dragon.”

An aide gave the President a black laminated card. On the screen, the deputy director of operations looked at his card. “Tango Delta”

The President replied. “Alpha Victor”

Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota

A single B-52 taxied onto the runway of the base. The runway was lit up with lights.

“Get the B-52 on cart start. We are loading it up with a nuclear cruise missile.”

The ground crew inserted small explosives into two compartments next to two of the eight turbofan engines. Black and white fumes poured out of the back of the B52s from its engines. The B-52 taxied down the runway and lifted off into the night sky.

A nuclear cruise missile launched from the belly of the B-52.