You are the president of the United States, sitting in the Situation Room in the White House, deep in conversation with your top advisers. You’ve just been made aware of a potential nuclear threat, and you have only 10 minutes to decide on a course of action.
At the table before you are the Secretary of Defense Madison, the National Security Advisor James, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Arnold, and the Secretary of State Jordon, all solemnly await your orders. The situation is dire, and you must act swiftly.
As you sit, NSA James speaks. “Mr. President, we believe we’re under attack. A few minutes ago we picked up the signature of multiple ICBM’s, possibly 2 to 300 warheads, coming from silo fields in Valoria. It’s unclear what they’re targeting but we believe they’re going to hit the East and the West coast. ESPAR is estimating that the strike will hit in 8 to 10 minutes.”
A digital countdown of 10 minutes begins on the wall…
CJCS Arnold grabs some graphs and hands them to you while speaking on the phone. “We don’t know what cities, but these graphs should give you an accurate scale of the damage that we’re expecting.”
SD Madison nods toward you. “We’re looking at San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Washington DC, and Chicago.”
SS Jordon chimes in as you look over the graphs. “And we are expecting…um…40 to 60 million American deaths.”
The whole room goes quiet, the other officials rubbing their heads or looking down solemnly.
SS Jordon speaks up once more. “Sir, do you think we should notify your family or…?”