Sonic Glitch wrote:For the story I'm working on, I just assumed some of the missiles failed. Isn't it possible that missiles on both sides either failed to launch or warheads failed to detonate?
Not on the level necessary to really keep the numbers down to that degree. Certainly some failure would be expected, more on the Russian side if they have not put a lot more effort into rebuilding their stuff before the button is pushed, but I would guess 60-80% would work as intended on the low end.
I realize it would require an absurd failure rate but it's the best I can come up with for plot purposes. I'm working on a Post-WWIII story to try and bridge the gap between 2053 and the events of first contact. I suppose I could write Russia out of WWIII somehow; or say something about arms-limitation treaties; or that a percentage of their nukes were used in the Eugenics wars.
Also, my reasoning for saying the Russians and US could not be invovled is the level of radiation in Montana. Simply put the central US will not be habitable for a long time if the Russians launched a counter force attack. You would be talking a large number of weapons, over 3-500 depending on how many ICBM's are still in silos at that time, all of which would be set to detonate at ground level. That makes the radiation that much worse because it is mixed into all the dirt you start throwing around and stays around for a lot longer.
It makes more sense if it is the Chinese, who don't have the number of weapons to really do counter-force properly. If it were the Russians I just don't see the area we see in FC being liveable without extensive outside support that soon after the war.
See my paragraph above
"All this has happened before --"
"But it doesn't have to happen again. Not if we make up our minds to change. Take a different path. Right here, right now."
