Nuclear Detonation

Nuclear Weapons.

One of the most oldest and powerful weapons humanity has ever made ever since it was first invented in the year 1945, the year of where it was first used and where World War 2 ended. These weapons possessed the power to destroy entire cities and wipe out millions in a blink of an eye. Let's not forget about the nuclear fallout from these events. Nuclear weapons have been humanity's one of its most deadly and most inefficient weapon.

Any nation with a nuclear arsenal would know of the concept of MAD. Mutually Assured Destruction. If a state were to launch a nuclear strike against another state, another state with a nuclear arsenal may retaliate and thus, mutual destruction on both sides.

Nuclear war was too stupid for humans to do. Now Artemis was planning on launching a nuclear missile directly at a storm.

The storm that had been brewing over the west of the Great Isthmus has come closer to his territory. This time, it threatens the main hub itself.

Artemis and Caitlyn were both inside the bridge. The bridge was at the very top of the machine base tower. It was where both of them stayed when they had nothing to address outside.

"To think you'd ask me about work as soon as you see me after a long time hurts my feelings you know?" Caitlyn teased as she was swiping through a monitor. Its been a few days after they defeat the Sainthood Demigod, while their casualties was very high, they able to get a few rewards like the remainings of Netherite armor. While not very durable like Primelium, it was still durable which could survive more than dozens of GBU-43/B. Caitlyn wasn't present for a few days after that event because she return to earth once again to deal with other stuff which Artemis doesn't care what she was upto.

"I do not care about your feelings," Artemis replied.

"..." Caitlyn pouted in silence.

"So, what's the status of the storm so far?" Artemis asked. He was sitting on a chair facing the glass walls. He stared blankly into the distance as always.

"All readings are the same," Caitlyn replied.

"How?" Artemis asked.

"The storm is magnetic in nature and indeed maintains its size and power not through natural means or causes but by use of a lot of magical energy," Caitlyn explained.

"Where is it now?" Artemis again asked.

"Current ground tracking shows that the eye of the storm is a good 770 kilometers away but with its speed, the ground instruments project it to arrive in 6-7 days time. Yes, it is fast," Caitlyn confirmed.

"Not only is it fast, but it also threatens the base itself, what is the status of the drones tasked in monitoring it? Have they made any significant breakthrough? what is the aftermath?" Artemis turned his chair around and looked at the direction of Caitlyn, specifically at the monitor she was using.

"There has so far been nothing to report except for the fact that the landscape through which the storm has gone over has so far sustained minimal damage," Caitlyn looked back at Artemis.

"Minimal?" Artemis raised his left eyebrow. He was visibly confused.

"Yes, as you can see through this photograph that was taken not long after the eye made landfall a few days ago, the coast is relatively clear with not trees uprooted," Caitlyn lifted the monitor and showed it to Artemis. The monitor was displaying a photograph of the scene, trees were fine, the beach was also fine. There wasn't really that much damage for an area that was just hit by an abnormally strong storm.

"It's strange, with winds as fast as the instruments measure, those trees should have been flattened. There should be tons of debris from a massive storm surge alone, wasn't there a storm surge?" Artemis was confused further. This raised more questions than answers.

"No, the storm is completely acting differently. It does not follow the weather patterns and effects that we know of and thus we cannot really determine a definite description, reason or cause," Caitlyn was confused as well.

Both stare into the monitor. A few minutes of silence passed and Artemis came to a decision.

"Alright, lets lob the Warhead at it," He said.

"What? No, we can't just launch the ICBM at the storm, Artemis we talked about this ever since using Railgun No.15," Caitlyn made her position on the matter clear, she was not going to allow the nuclear option to be used on a storm. Particularly a storm that they don't even understand.

"What other option do we have? We can not take a huge gamble such as this, the risk is far too large and the possible consequences too much for us to handle. It may even just be a fake projection of some sort by using illusion magic, hell this may even be just a sneak attack!" Artemis made sure to stress his points.

"But, Artemis, please understand that violence is not always the answer," Caitlyn was getting testy, "As for the illusion part, you already knew that Drones are immune to such illusion spells, even if its a high tier illusion," She added.

"May I remind you, Caitlyn, the best answer is always the one we choose and violence is the almost always best answer there is, a nuke is our only option," Artemis wasn't having any of it. A tense atmosphere engulfed the bridge.

"Artemis, think this through," Caitlyn insisted that they give more time for research. This was stupid in Artemis' mind and decided to assert his position and control.

"Caitlyn, for claiming to be someone equal or greater than me, you don't really show it," Artemie said without caring. He cared not for her feelings nor if she would get hurt of his words. Artemis needed progress and solutions not pointing bantering and excuses. Caitlyn clearly did not know what to do and is blinded by her own naive nature.

Caitlyn closed her eyes and looked down, She clenched her fists tightly and gritted her teeth.

"Emotion won't solve this, I have made my decision, I call the shots around here, remember that," Artemis stood from his chair and walked towards the door.

He did not look back, not even when he heard the faint sound of a teardrop onto the floor. The doors shut behind him.

Caitlyn bursts into tears the moment the doors shut close. Artemis still could not understand her, nor does he know that Caitlyn was only trying to help. Of course, Artemis knew that she was trying to help but her help was more of a nuisance than 'helping'.

Artemis believed his solution to be the best. Of course, he would feel that way, he was the supreme commander. He built this machine empire from the ground up, Caitlyn was just someone who happened to be someone related to Artemis' past and thus given a free pass.

Lest she forgest, Artemis was the machine in-charge.

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The hatch split open from the sides. Slowly it revealed a deep hole. Around it was nothing but grass, it was strange to find something like a hole of metal with red back lines around it. The sun was rising and dawn was knocking. It was time for the launch.

Artemis stood quietly inside the control tower not far from the silo. The silo housed an ICBM armed with a 100 megaton warhead. A powerful nuclear bomb capable of wiping out 1/3 of Switzerland. It was the only warhead in the Machine Empire's arsenal and due to this fact made it a valuable asset.

It was a risky move to transport the warhead from Earth to Fordalt. Due to the sudden shifts when transversing the wormhole, there were many close calls. Who knows what would happen if the nuke was to go off inside the wormhole. It could cause it to collapse, trapping Artemis and his machines in Fordalt for a good amount of time or quite possibly, forever.

But through this terrifying moment, the nuke was safely transported into Fordalt and thus the power to wipe out millions has finally entered this new world.

"Hm," Artemis watched with a blank face, as always.

The nuke was set to launch in ten minutes, first, they had to perform safety checks. They had to make sure all systems were checked out and without problems. The systems were divided into these: Guidance Systems, Targeting Systems, Flight Systems, and the Engine.

The guidance system guids the missile to the target, in short, it uses several methods to guide the missile. The most common method of guidance is to use some form of radiation, such as infrared, lasers or radio waves, to guide the missile onto its target.

The Targeting System is pretty self-explanatory, it is used with the help of the guidance system to know the location of a target. This guidance system guides the missile by knowing the missile's current position and the position of the target, and then calculating a course between them.

The flight systems help the missile in terms of its flight. Whether a guided missile uses a targeting system, a guidance system or both, it needs a flight system. The flight system uses the data from the targeting or guidance system to maneuver the missile in flight, allowing it to counter inaccuracies in the missile or to follow a moving target.

The last would be the engine itself, without the engine, how the hell will a missile even fly? Missiles are powered by an engine, generally either a type of rocket engine or Jet engine. Rockets are generally of the solid propellant type for ease of maintenance and fast deployment, although some larger ballistic missiles use liquid-propellant rockets. And this missile right here uses the latter.

Eight minutes passed and the checks are completed. All systems are nominal and the missile is ready to launch. All they had to do was wait for Artemis to issue the order to launch.

Artemis stared blankly at the silo.

"This will make history," Artemis whispered.

"Launch the Warhead," His order was received.

In a few seconds, the rocket's nose slowly appeared and rose up until the body was revealed. The missile flew off, leaving a trail of white smoke in its wake. It rose up above the clouds and began its journey towards its target. The storm that brewed on the horizon.

Artemis and several Androids waited. The monitors over at the tower displayed the location of the missile and the coordinates in which it was to target. The missile flew with incredible speeds with the aid of more advanced propellant, the speed was so fast, faster than the BrahMos, the most fastest Nuclear Missile that goes to the speed of Mach 8(9,800km/h), but this Warhead however has the top speed upto 10,100km/h. It was expected to reach the storm in about four minutes.

And now, they had to wait. The Androids did not need to rest or recreation. The machines just focused on their jobs and waited. Monitering the missile for any trouble, it was their job to send commands to protect the missile from any sort of harm through its journey.

2 minutes has passed and there was no sign of any danger. The missile stayed on course and the storm maintained its speed and strength, with such goodnews there was little chance of failure.

Another minute passed and the same result. No signs of danger and the missile were staying on course, the storm maintaining what it had maintained.

Another minute passed, the Androids were struck by an alert. A severe wind shear displaced the missile by a few inches and was now off-course, luckily, the Androids immediately gave it commands to return to its original trajectory.

And then the hour of truth finally came. The moment they all have been waiting for, if they could feel the stress of a human, they'd be sweating buckets right now but they were machines and so did not feel anxious, frightened or nervous. They and Artemis stared blanky on the screens, waiting for the missile to hit its mark. They waited and waited, they watched as the radar displayed the missile go into the eye of the storm.

The missile disappeared and a brief stint in the radar startles Artemis but it was an expected outcome. The nuke detonated successfully.

The storm seemingly vanished instantly the moment the nuclear bomb went of. It was a mission success. Artemis closed his eyes and sighed.

"Sigh.. Finally,"

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The God Of Death witnessed it. He was temporarily blinded by the sudden flash of light. He saw the storm completely disappear in an instant, the storm was indeed an illusion created by the God of Death himself. It posed really no threat but Artemis wanted to be sure anyway. The reason it does effect them was that the illusion was no other illusion but in a Divine level, such powerful illusion could effect the advance machines.

The God of Death watch as the mushroom cloud rose up unto the stratosphere, it was seen by millions and the flash of light blinded thousands. It sent out a powerful shockwave that destroyed nearby villages and crippled tens of towns and cities. This was the power of the machines, the power of nuclear technology.

Trees were flattened and they burned. It was something incomprehensibly devastating and powerful that none would ever forgot that day, particularly, the God of Death.

"Yes.. yes... yes! Praise you and bless you, metal demons! You bring upon the same power that killed my brothers and sisters, and now, release thy wrath! Slay this world! Let it burn under your power and might and let the heavens crumble and bow before you!"

"O hear me, hear me, I am grateful, forever grateful, my revenge is nigh, my revenge is why, my revenge shall be swift until the day I die, oh lo! oh lo!"

But then, a few moments of praising, the God of Death frowned.

"But this is just the beginning. 'That' weapon. Oh, that gives me more pleasure than any weapons you people made. The ONE that could make the Railgun that killed the Sainthood Demigod and that Nuclear bomb I'm currently seeing will only see them as child's play. The ONE that singlehandly slaughtered the heaven's mightiest Archangels and I've climaxed 329,314 times!! Oh when will y'all made it and bring hell upon to the heavens!"

The God of Death gave a malicious smile as he felt mass excitement when he remembered that weapon who nearly killed the Almighty Godfather and his army of angels. The ONE that gave all Deities and himself fear the most. He just couldn't wait and want them to build it right now so badly.