The Blue Newt Arrival (The Invasion)

Astronomers had spotted the incoming meteor swarm late and governments had to prepare for the worst with barely a month of warning.  These meteors were not global extinction causing events, but they were large enough and fast enough to obliterate cities on impact.  A single meteor strike would have been bad, but there were hundreds of them.  Several were much larger too, capable of causing sizable tsunamis in both the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans where they were projected to strike.

The space faring nations of the 21st century only had limited space-based weapons capability to target a just over a third of the swarm with nuclear weapons.  The largest rocks and the ones striking on home territory were given priority.  The United Nations was in an uproar over this self-serving behavior, but the nations with the means protected their own first.  Still, a few weapons were diverted from meteors that would strike in Siberia or North Dakota to save major cities like Karachi and Sydney.

The northern hemisphere was hit the hardest, particularly North America and Asia.  This was the Armageddon Event.

The meteors would strike over a 12 hour period, impacting over most of the planet as it rotated.  Ninety percent of the intercepted rocks were destroyed, including the largest ones.  The world breathed a sign of relief that was cut off as the remaining meteors struck home.  The devastation had been intense around the globe with fires raging out of control everywhere.  Casualties were still in the millions despite the evacuations.  The Earth was covered in a thin smoky haze during the day and burned a fiery red at night.

Hundreds of cities spanning the globe had been destroyed or damaged.  In the United States, Grand Forks, Wichita and Knoxville had been hit, but an interception malfunction had allowed San Diego to be destroyed by a nearby impact.  Tragically, Toronto in Canada, had also been devastated when another interception had only partially succeeded.   In Europe, Sheffield was a smoking crater along with Dusseldorf and Krakow.  Nairobi was gone and so was Hyderabad.  In China, the destruction of Shanghai had stunned the country due to another failed interception. 

As the dust cleared, the aliens landed.  They had stayed hidden behind the asteroids in their stealthy ships.  Their attack was a complete surprise. They had used the asteroids to disrupt humanity without resorting to nuclear weapons.  When we were weak and unprepared, they attacked.

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