Three seconds later, the Deep Space finally received the telemetry of the blinding flashes ahead. The entire bridge crew gasped in astonishment.
When the tactical officers confirmed the flashes were localized nuclear detonations, Jason was so furious he cursed out loud. Hadn't the orbital scans only detected dead, flooded ruins? Where did this massive, coordinated enemy strike come from?
A multi-megaton nuclear warhead had detonated less than 400 kilometers away from a Leviathan frigate. That was a hair's breadth away from a direct hit!
It was too close!
Observing the telemetry from this distance, it looked as though the ICBM had exploded right on top of the ship's hull. If it hadn't been for the overwhelming processing speed of the Federation's artificial intelligence, which successfully calculated a firing solution and intercepted the warhead early, the missile would have struck the frigate dead on!
