JUNIPER'S DAUGHTER - FRONTIER TOWN book extract

JUNIPER'S DAUGHTER - FRONTIER TOWN book extract

this is my book on amazon and other sites by Nick Armbrister

Nuclear Bombs Not Very Nice (The Power Of The Witch)

   Blackness covered the land as a freezing night descended like the gloved hand of a strangler choking her victim. Baron landscapes arced out in every direction for what seemed like forever, something shimmered under the snow-laden clouds while snow slowly fell carrying radioactive isotopes. Invisible death fell again on this wasteland in an endless cycle of evil, darkness receding one degree to grey as the poison snow took hold in a Devil’s grip. Radiation clouds full of charged particles became visible under freak metrological conditions, where the edge of the snowstorm indicated the beginning of the cold front radiation in the air glowed, shimmered. A haunting pulsating blue light of ether brought to life by nuclear explosions, of what was carried out before, the cargo of hundreds of nuclear weapons.

   Material destruction was physical, destroying hundreds of towns and cities. Glowing charged particles were mystical in appearance, spiritual in their meaning – to view them from a distance was to be mesmerised by their beauty. You had a chance to flee and save your wretched life, to be amongst them was to witness pure lethal beauty before you died a hideous death from radiation poisoning. Slowly the lights from the charged particles faded out as the cold front advanced driven by a cold northerly wind, grey contaminated snow covering everything in a hideous of death. Underneath the snow lay the remains of what was once a town, Oldham had been its name, now forgotten and lost like so many others destroyed in one war or another that had engulfed the United Kingdom. This was after Wales and Scotland had gained their much cherished and fought after independence from England in a bitter civil war, for a few short years they were free until a nuclear war with France destroyed almost everything.

   One hundred and thirty five thousand buildings of various sizes from bedsits on old council estates to heavy concrete structures like the old art gallery were obliterated near the centre of the nuclear explosion that wiped out Oldham. Further out in circular rings the damage went from severe to minor, this last bit was a distance of eight miles encompassing the whole town. When the twenty-kiloton suitcase bomb exploded almost in the centre of town nothing remained, over two thousand people were killed and many more injured. With no medical help most of them perished unless they were walking wounded, for those trapped under buildings or with broken limbs it was a slow agonising death from injuries and radiation. This weapon was a small device in a suitcase, man portable in a metal box, similar in size to the crude weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tactical weapons designed to stop armies of tanks and men or attack targets like an airbase or other important smallish target; yes they worked on towns too. For bigger towns and cities a bigger device was desired in the tens or hundreds of kilotons range, even a one megaton device would be perfect but like a sledgehammer cracking a nut. Big bombs were hydrogen bombs using a small nuclear device to explode them after bring the main device up to critical mass, a nuclear trigger. Cities like Leeds and London had been hit by similar weapons; the single one-megaton missile aimed at Leeds had wiped everything out and killed or wounded over one million people. The entire population was annihilated.

   In France not a single town or city remained standing, in revenge for firing several hundred nuclear missiles at England, Wales and Scotland. The tri manned Trident nuclear missile carrying submarines launched almost every weapon at the French. Many French towns and cities were hit by up to three or more weapons, Paris were hit by seven 475 kiloton nuclear warheads. Not even London was hit so badly, it received just a single bomb like Leeds. Due to the size the city the outskirts survived but huge areas were radioactive with fallout. The only people alive in France were country people, not living in the built up areas and radiation covered most of the rural areas so many people left alive were slowly dying from the contamination. It wasn’t a functioning country, it was a destroyed country twice as badly hit as the landmass of Great Britain, a nuclear nightmare that killed and had polluted the oceans and land of many other countries bordering GB and France.

   France had used submarine launched medium range missiles from her four nuclear missiles submarines, only two firing due to the others being sunk by the Royal Navy. French Air Force Mirage 2000N and Rafale nuclear strike fighters carrying Aerospatiale nuclear tipped cruise missiles had hit some cities; Leeds and London were perfect examples of a big bomb on a medium/large size city. The submarine launched missiles each carried six 150-kiloton nuclear warheads with a total of sixteen missiles fired from two French nuclear missile subs giving a total of 192 separate warheads. Each the same size of 150-kilotons. Combined with the big one megaton bombs on the Aerospatiale cruise missiles from the fighters, this was a huge amount of nuclear fire power delivered against cities, towns, harbours, oil refineries, military barracks, bases, ports/harbours, air bases, aircraft factories and dozens more targets in England, Scotland and Wales. The newly independent countries weren’t spared due to alleged sympathies with England. Not a single French sub launched nuclear missile was intercepted and shot down; indeed no defences were in place to shoot down any incoming missile. Out of 32 missiles launched from the two submarines that survived to launch, two failed, one whose solid fuel rocket engine failed to ignite before it fell back into the ocean and the other didn’t achieve the right trajectory, heading off the Atlantic where it splashed down with its warheads still inside the missile. In total 180 French submarines launched warheads hit England, Scotland and Wales; not a single warhead failed due to the superb reliability of the design. Both missiles submarines were hunted down and sunk by the remaining ships of the Royal Navy after firing their weapons. In turn some of the RN ships were sunk by aircraft and missiles from the two French aircraft carriers; these being engaged by the two carriers of the Royal Navy in a bitter no holds air to sea battle. All four aircraft carriers were sunk along with three quarters of the supporting destroyers and submarines; nothing survived this mini Armageddon in the North Sea, Channel, Atlantic and Mediterranean by the powerful navies of England and France. Of the French air launched cruise missiles several were shot down by RAF Typhoon fighters after launch, not an easy job considering the missiles was a small fast stealthy target that flew at low altitude. Many French Mirage and Rafale nuclear strike fighters were shot down before launch, picked up by RAF AWACS radar planes as they took off from their bases and headed low to try and hide under the radar. Fifteen one-megaton Aerospatiale cruise missiles hit towns, cities and other targets killing millions of people, one was targeted at Oldham and the aeroplane factory there but the strike fighter carrying the missile was shot down before it could launch, saving the town. No French airbases or aircraft carriers remained for any surviving Mirage 2000N or Rafale to return to, the crews flew until they ran out of fuel and crashed, ejected or landed in other countries to have their fighter planes impounded and pilots interned.