Courtney chewed her nails as she watched the helicopter feed. She couldn’t help it. She thought she’d squashed the habit ages ago- certainly she thought that public service had finally killed it. But, old habits died hard, and here she was, still gnawing on her fingernails. Nearly getting nuked seemed to bring out something in a person.

  She managed to tear her attention back to the screen and away from her hands as the helicopter approached the warhead's landing site. She’d known the scar was there, of course. It was visible from space. Still, nothing was quite the same as seeing it with her own two eyes.

  “We’re getting eyes on now ma’am, and- mother of God, I’ve never seen anything like that.” The pilots voice crackled over the feed. She wasn’t exaggerating, either.

  The tear in the earth stretched for miles past the horizon. She knew from satellite images that dozens of miles distant lay a crater not too different from the one that she imagined lay in Moscow. What terrified her the most was the thought that whatever had hit there, might also have hit here. Something glittered in the sunset at the bottom of the furrow as the helicopter flew overhead, and she quirked her eyebrow curiously at the sight.

  Christian caught the look. “It’s glass, I’ll bet. That thing was going damn near twenty ‘kay miles per hour when it dropped off radar. There's no way it didn’t hit the earth hot enough to smelt.”

  Courtney shook her head at that. “Then where is it? You mean to tell me it dove for its own Russian warhead, then just slammed into the Earth at mach whatever and evaporated? I’m not buying it.”

  Christian gave her a dubious eye. “I’m not saying that, but I mean, what else could have happened? Maybe by the grace of God some scrap of it survived and smeared itself over fifty miles of farmland. We’ll never know, though.”

  “Well it’s a good thing we have a helicopter crew out there then, now isn’t it?” She snapped. Most everyone else in the situation room were chatting softly to themselves, but Courtney didn’t pay them any heed- there were little opinions she cared about besides Christians and her own.

  “We’re getting close to the end of the scar, ma’am. There’s nothing here so far besides burnt out trees and the shards at the bottom of the furrow. Looks like it tapers off at the edge of a hill, though. If anything survived, it’d have rolled up onto that.” The pilot crackled.

  “Take a look, then. A close look. I want boots on the ground for any fragments of whatever landed that we can find. I want to know as much as we can about whatever the hell that was.” Courtney ordered.

  “Yes ma’am, landing now.” Came the reply, and she and Christian watched cautiously as the helicopter slowed to a crawl and started to descend.

  “You know, if anything survived, we’re going to be in for a world of trouble.” Christian piped up.

  “How do you figure?” Courtney asked, prompting her Chief of Staff to scoff.

  “How do you figure? How can you even ask that? There’s no way in hell that thing had time to slow down coming in that quick. If anyone has the materials science for even a scrap of that thing to survive, it’d have had to be a tough son of a bitch. Huge and fast, too. If this was somehow the Russians or the Chinese, then they have some little gray men working for them that we need to find.”

  Courtney stifled a laugh at that. “Well, that’s true. Regardless of whether or not we really think anything survived, though, we have to check it out. If for nothing else than the warhead.”

  “True that.”

  Their conversation trailed off as the helicopter landed and soldiers climbed out, combing the area. Through their video feed, Courtney could tell that the scar tapered as it approached the hill. It was like something huge had rolled to a stop and was just… gone. Nothing about any of this made any sense. And it was about to get weirder.

  “Ma’am, I think we found something.” The pilots voice crackled over the comm.

  Courtney glanced over to the video feed, and noticed that it was pointing at the ground. “Whatever you’re seeing, I’m not seeing it.”

  “Huh, ok. Hold on a second.” she responded, and Courtney heard a muted “No, no, stay there.” Come over the comm link. Courtney and Christian exchanged a glance as they heard the pilot start to jog, climbing up the hill a little ways before she turned back around and aimed her recorder back at their landing site.

  “Is this better?” She asked, and everyone's breath caught. The helicopter, and the pilots compatriots, were within the borders of what could only be described as a giant footprint.

  “That’s uh, that’s not-” Courtney started.

  “What. The. Fuck.” Christian swore.

  “Did you notice anything else from above?” Courtney asked, composing herself. “We have a team already en route to analyze the site.”

  “Well ma’am, there was uh, this, too.” The pilot answered. The camera shook and focused on another imprint on the edge of the scar, further up the hill. The footprint, Courtney could try to rationalize. Maybe the hull of something had rested there, or a missile fragment had fallen out of the sky and someone had towed it away, however irrational that was. The other one though, was a little harder to explain. Namely because of the obvious outline of five massive fingers, imprinted deep into the dirt.

  — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

  Back in the oval office, Courtney fiddled with the phone in her pocket, unsure of what to do. Or well, that wasn’t quite true. She was sure of what she had to do, she just didn’t know if she could do it. The phone Jian had called her on was miraculously unburned- she hadn’t been joking when she’d said she was going to burn it in her office trash, but it had seemed like a rash decision at the time, given he’d just warned her of impending nuclear armageddon. Now, the urge to destroy it was returning.

  Forget nukes, whatever they’d stumbled upon- or whatever had stumbled upon Earth- was a much bigger threat. Her analysts had been adamant about that, and literally. Assuming human proportions, the thing that’d left a half mile wide crater and then skidded for dozens of miles was at least two hundred feet tall. And it’d stayed in one piece after impacting the earth at mach twenty-five, if the imprints were anything to go by. On top of taking out half the nukes that’d been launched by the Russians, after coming from a Russian airbase. In the vicinity of the now-cratered Moscow.

  It would be hard for her to wrap her brain around ordinarily, but the circumstances were even weirder. Why wipe out one city, and spare a hundred others? She doubted that whatever this thing was had any affinity for America, and hell, she doubted it was even from the same planet after what she’d seen. Courtney sighed to herself, then pulled her phone out and flipped it over in her hand, glancing over it curiously.

  Should she call, or not? Logically, they’d be the next target, of that Courtney was sure. Moscow didn’t seem like an accident. Somehow, whatever had hit Earth had made sure to do so in one of very, very few places where it could start a global war. Or end one. That there hadn’t been a follow up yet meant that Jian had probably honored his word- Russia was a non-threat, at least for now. But how easy would it be to pit her against the Chinese? How easy would it be for Jian to use the Russians against her?

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Maybe Christian had a point about gambling, and maybe Jian did have faith that he could return their two nations to some kind of pre-war state. If so, he had more faith than her. Courtney flipped the phone, over and over, staring at it blankly. Giant footprints, giant handprints. Eight nukes knocked out of the sky and a capital flattened, all by some alien force. What the hell was she doing? She made a decision. Courtney gripped her phone tight, then chucked it at the ground. It bounced and crackled when it hit the tile floor, but she ground it under her heel just in case, giving it a few stomps for good measure. She picked it up again, intentionally digging her hands into its shattered screen in a vain attempt to mollify her rising fury, before tossing it into her trash can.

  Courtney huffed, panting with rage. She felt the blood welling from her palm and knew it had to be dripping onto the floor. It gave her clarity. Focus. Slowly, her breathing eased, and she put her uninjured hand up to her head, trying to will away the tension. It evaporated as quickly as it’d arrived, and she stalked toward her office doors, bursting through them.

  Christian jumped at the heavy thud, quickly rising from his seat. Her eyes narrowed as he gave her a once over, his eyes lingering on the blood dripping from her palm. “I uh, take it the call didn’t go too well?” He hazarded.

  “We’re not working with the Chinese on this.” She spat, her words dripping with venom. Christian didn’t even have the good grace to look taken aback, just disappointed.

  “Courtney… the Russians didn’t even react before they got wiped off the map. I can tell you, with certainty, that we won’t do better than them if the same thing hits here. Theres one person on this planet that saw this coming before anyone else, and no one knows who or where they are. The only ones that have the slightest inkling are us, and the Chinese. We need all the help we can get.” Christian said plainly.

  Courtneys glare narrowed. “I want a full military mobilization-”

  “Tell it to Congress.” Christian snapped, prompting Courtney to snap back.

  “I just led the first successful defense of American territory against a large-scale nuclear strike. Congress is going to be at my beck and call. I’m not telling you what to do, I’m telling you what I’m going to do. I AM going to get a full military mobilization, and then we’re going to scour the earth for this thing. It, and the man that spotted it. You guessed Northeastern Africa, right? Has anything out of the ordinary happened around there, too?”

  Christian recovered from his shock well, although there was a little bit of a pained look there. She had disappointed him after all, then. “Nothing officially, but news is starting to come out of a surprise earthquake that supposedly rattled the capital of Ethiopia. An earthquake that not everyone in the capital… felt.” He said slowly, prompting a nod from Courtney.

  “I don’t think thats a coincidence. Do you?

  “No, but I-”

  “Good.” She snarled, making to turn away. Christian caught her by the shoulder before she could, prompting her to whirl on him.

  “What happened to considering that thing ‘friendly?’ You’re making a mistake.” He said.

  Courtney made a low, wordless noise of frustration. “For God's- Christian, that thing wiped out Moscow. It could’ve knocked down a thousand nukes, and I’d still want us to get our hands on it to find out what the hell happened over there.”

  “I get the feeling, but we can’t. All that’ll do is bring whatever hit Moscow here. Do you really want that? You’ll cause another LA.” He pleaded. It was a mistake- Courtney flinched out of his grip like he’d punched her in the face.

  “Shut your goddamn mouth, Christian. Shut the fuck up.”

  “Courtney-”

  “You’re my chief of staff because I trust your council, that's it. If you ever even have a thought like that again, I want you out of this building and down the block, and you better hope to hell you’re out of the blast radius before I hear of it. The Chinese can go fuck themselves, do you understand me? We’ve never needed their help before, and we sure as hell don’t now. We’re not working with fucking Jian. Understood?”

  Christian managed a strangled nod, clearly tamping down his own frustration. She could see the wheels turning in his head, trying to figure out how to get her to see things his way. She beat him to it before he had a chance. “Get the rest of the cabinet together, and make sure my VP is in a bunker. We’re about to be at war. Give me your damn phone too, I have to get in touch with Congress.”

  — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

  Jian pursed his lips, looking at his phone on the table. No nukes had landed- the Americans were safe, but Courtney hadn’t taken the opportunity to call him yet. He held out hope she would, but doubt was starting to creep in. He hadn’t alerted her to the threat for wholly selfless reasons, of course. It was a good look if he was the first one to let her know of an impending threat against her country, and he was sure she understood the game. Still… he’d been expecting a bit more. Especially since he knew they’d both seen what’d been on radar. Jian glanced across the table at Kun, who was struggling to stay awake. Kun glanced back, disinterest writ clear across his face.

  “I know you’re optimistic, but I wouldn’t keep expecting a call if I were you. Courtney won her election by being vindictive. I wouldn’t expect that to change.” Kun said.

  Jian nodded, and sighed. “Still. Something like that? That can fly at beyond hypersonic speeds and shoot down ICBMs- both in and out of atmosphere- that was just over America? We all saw it, and we warned her about it. And then it slammed into their heartland. You’d think she’d be willing to give us something.”

  Kun blinked back at him, doubtful. “You and I both know nothing comes free. She knows that, too, and she knows what you want out of this. Their coffers- or even diplomacy- isn’t something she’s willing to offer. Even over something like this.”

  Jian grunted in acknowledgement, gears turning in his head. Then, he nodded towards the screens they were both observing. Them, and every other official in the bowels of Qinzheng Hall. Currently, his own situation room was showing live footage from a satellite racing toward Kubinka airbase. It was where the UFO had come from, after all. “Think they saw it?” He asked. “Before it scattered itself over dozens of kilometers, I mean.”

  Kun shrugged. “Maybe, but I can guarantee you everyones at least seen that scar from orbit on whatever satellites still work. Something massive obviously hit and rolled, and we certainly don’t know what. We already know that whatever it was works well beyond the bounds of any equipment we have on Earth though, and if it survived then there's no way the Americans would have the time to cover up something that big. No, they probably don’t know any more than we do. Cold comfort, I guess, when we’re both in the thick of it.” He muttered.

  “Well, I guess we’ll see when our satellites get over Kubinka.” Jian stated.

  “That, we will.” Kun agreed.

  The Chinese satellites hadn’t fared any better than the Americans had in the orbital aftermath of Aleks’ missile attack. More debris was being created every second by the scrap field in orbit. It was going to be a nightmare to clean up, and it made getting- and keeping- satellites into orbit a massive pain. Most of their military satellites had been destroyed in the hours since the attack, but some higher up in orbit had survived. They’d since been able to release some low orbit satellites to try and recover some military and intelligence capabilities, but Jian knew they didn’t have near the same ability as the Americans on that front. Just another thing they were slowly catching up to them on.

  They didn’t have to wait long. He and Kun had been waiting for a window to get eyes on Kubinka since the missiles had been launched. With any luck, they’d be able to see what prompted their mystery object to fly out of there. He didn’t quite get that lucky, though. That much was obvious right away.

  The room gave a collective gasp at the carnage, as all of his assembled military analysts, generals, and relevant secretaries took in the destruction. Kun, even as delirious as he was from exhaustion, gave a sharp intake of breath. Then the satellite was past, and the site disappeared from view.

  “Bring those images back up, I want to look more closely at that base.” Jian ordered.

  “Of course, Mr. President.” One of his analysts answered, and within moments the captured images were brought up on screen. Everyone got a better look at the carnage then, prompting Kun to lean over to him.

  “The tarmac looks crystalline, it was concrete before. Something extremely hot melted the pavement into a crystal. You see the tanks too?” Kun prompted.

  “Yes, but you’re going to need to point the particulars out to me. They’re destroyed, right?”

  “Yes, they are. But more importantly, they’re split in half. Clean, precise. Like they were cut. There isn’t a weapon on the planet we know of that can do that.” Kun responded. “And that's not excepting those.” Kun said, pointing at the distant screen.

  Jian did his best to follow him, but it didn’t take much to recognize what he was looking at. Footprints, cracked into the tarmac. Eclipsing even the tanks smoldering in the ruins of Kubinka air base.

  “Well… that’s a problem. And one the Americans neglected to inform us about.” Jian said with a groan. It was always something with them, but this was bigger than most. Literally, in this case. “I want to keep this on the down low, for now. We need to know more about whatever the hell this thing is, preferably before the Americans do if they’re so content to keep us out of the loop. I want a team out there as soon as possible, we need to know exactly what happened there.” Jian ordered.

  “It’ll take a while. There’s intense fires burning all around Moscow as a result of the impact event. And that’s assuming the Americans won’t get there first, and that they won’t see us on satellite. You know they will.” Kun pointed out.

  Jian waved away his concerns. “The Russians will shoot down anything American for us, and we’re assisting them right now. They won’t bother with a transport heading to an airbase they likely don’t even realize still exists, so close to the capital. And so what if the Americans see us on satellite? We can just tell them we’re investigating the site. We need to stall until we know more.”

  Kun thought about that for a moment. “And when we do?”

  Jian shook his head. “Well, I guess we’ll need to hope that we’re ready for whatever comes after. Russia was hit first, then America. Who do you do want to bet on being next? ”