New Harmony

Krampus

The smell of pinecones and peppermint seemed to be permanently branded into the minds of everyone and since it's was almost Christmas, the nation, as usual, was in chaos; people rushed to the street to do last minute shopping while others frantically wrapped presents for people they didn't even like. Even then, it was still the most wonderful time of the year, and it was very evident. The children of all ages were bouncing from wall to wall because they were finally on winter break and the parents enjoyed themselves making bad hot cocoa and decorating their houses with inflatable santas and anatomically incorrect reindeers. The nation seemed to finally be at peace; everyone had learned to love their neighbors and accept their differences, but in all honestly they were probably just lying.
It was now 6 days before Christmas and things were only getting more chaotic at the shopping malls, and it didn't help when every device in the world started to begin the emergency broadcast system. The people were shocked at first, but just carried on, figuring that it was just a drill and that the beeping would soon cease. Only it didn't,  it kept beeping making sure to get the attention of as many citizens as it could and after what seemed an eternity had passed a familiar voice calmly spoke. Out of televisions and smartphones the voice of the president could be heard, his voice was calm and quiet but it seemed to be shaky and when he spoke it sounded as if he spoke empty words. "Good afternoon citizens of the United States. I ask for all of you to please take a seat and to get the attention of anyone not currently watching." The people began to stop and pay closer attention, now that they realized something must be terribly wrong for the /president/ to be speaking. John Wilberforce had been the president since January of 2025. He had won a landslide victory alongside the Democratic Party after the disgrace the last president, who was a republican, had been in his two terms. Wilberforce was a tall man, but he wasn't lanky, he was strongly built with bros shoulder and beefy arms he enjoyed showing off when we went on vacation. He was only 43 but he had achieved his life goal of being the second black president of the United States. Before his presidency he had been the mayor of Bethesda and later on the governor of Maryland. He wasn't the messiah of presidential candidates but he was educated and the people wanted someone like him. What had helped him win the vote was his personality and his way of speaking. Journalists often compared him to FDR due to the way he connected with the citizens with simple party-funded podcast, similar to FDR's late night radio talks. The people soon fell in love with his soothing voice and for how much he cared for the country and it's people, and come November    Of 2024, he became president elect.
The voice came back on after seconds that seemed like eternities,"I want all of you to know that the words I am about to say is the most terrifying thing to every come out of a person's mouth." Once again everyone stopped in their tracks, the nation froze. Although the televisions only showed the black screen that read "Emergency Broadcast System" the people could sense the fear in their presidents face and they knew that what he was saying was not scripted, but rather straight from his heart. "After hundreds, maybe thousands of calculations, from all possibilities, NASA as well as the European Space Association have deducted that in May of 2026 --" He froze. He knew what this would do, he knew what it would change, and the people did too. "In May of 2026, an asteroid, approximately the size of Staten Island will make contact with the home we Earth." Before he even finished the sentence people were in shock, some burst in tears, other struggled to breathe, but all together the people of the United States were united in terror. "Most specially the asteroid, named nicknamed Cerberus, more widely known as A579 will cross into Mars' gravity and slingshot towards earth at more than a thousand feet per second. And as much as this hurts for me to say this, it is the truth, and you all deserve the truth. Once  Cerberus makes contact with earth an estimated 99.9999% of the human race will...perish." His voice sounded ghastly, it sounded like it came from something not from this world, he was utterly terrified. The nation exploded in silence in as all the jolly adults held their faces in their hands to hide their tears from their young children, and the children who were old enough to understand ran to their parents' arms wanting to never leave their embrace. "This is not to say that there is no hope. There is always hope..." His voice trailed off. "I and other national leaders have known this for many months now and in that time we have devised a plan to divert the asteroid. The UN has unanimously let us use nuclear weapons to and destroy the asteroid, and so NASA has created a new space shuttle to perform the mission codenamed: New Harmony. The mission will require the help of 6 brave souls to plant a nuclear weapon on the surface of Cerberus. If all goes well, the chance of a worldwide catastrophe lowers down to about 8.4%." He let out a nervous chuckle that thankfully the microphone didn't pick up. Wilberforce knew that it was all a lie. The numbers were a lie. He knew that a nuclear explosion would just make hundreds of smaller asteroid which would ultimately cause more harm. But he needed hope for the people, and so he had to live knowing that no matter what he did almost everyone in the world was going to die, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
New Harmony was a hoax. It was nothing but a show and NASA knew it. The ship was functional though, It was an entirely new prototype which was going to be used on the manned missions to mars but since it was almost complete the president decided it would be put to better use as false hope for the rest of the world. The ship would contain a nuclear warhead powerful enough to do twice as much damage as the FAT MAN dropped during WW2.