POV: General Hawthorne

The first reports came in at 0347 hours.

I was in my mobile command center, coordinating with Thelma's team inside the D.C. facility, when every screen in the room erupted with alerts simultaneously.

"General!" Colonel Sarah Chen, my second-in-command, rushed to my side. "We're getting reports of coordinated attacks. Fifty locations. All at once."

I stared at the global map lighting up like a Christmas tree gone mad. New York. London. Tokyo. Moscow. Paris. Sydney. Berlin. São Paulo. Every major city and dozens of smaller ones.

"What kind of attacks?" I demanded.

"Unknown hostiles. Military grade equipment. But they're moving too fast, too strong. Initial reports say...