The EMP Over the Grid
A high-altitude nuclear detonation blanks out the Eastern Interconnection power grid.
At 9:00 PM Easter Sunday, an unregistered "dark" satellite detonates a low-yield nuclear device in the exosphere over the Midwest. 15 states instantly lose all electrical power, cellular communications, and municipal water pumping capabilities due to an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP).
You are the US Secretary of Homeland Security
The Situation Room
>No one has claimed responsibility. STRATCOM cannot attribute the launch origin of the dark satellite.
>You have zero communications with 40 million Americans east of the Mississippi.
>FEMA warns that grocery supply chains and municipal water pressure will completely fail by Wednesday.
Internal Briefing Notes
• Modern high-voltage transformers are highly vulnerable to the E3 wave of an EMP. Lead times to replace these massive transformers stretch up to 18 months.
• Water pressure requires electricity. Without it, major urban centers will run dry in less than 48 hours, sparking immediate mass migration and panics.
• Nuclear power plants have backup diesel generators for cooling, but fuel resupply will be impossible in gridlocked, powerless zones.
Escalation Window
Reveal each phase to see how the situation deteriorates.
The President demands an immediate recovery plan. What is your primary directive?
Choose your response. There are no good options.
Deploy the entire active-duty military to establish martial-law safe zones. You maintain order, but abandon rural populations to starvation.
Use federal authority to commandeer all logistics and move millions westward. It causes catastrophic refugee crises in the unaffected states.
Send a message to the world that an EMP means nuclear war. If the intel is wrong, you have started an unwinnable accidental holocaust.
Related Entities
Explore the institutions, countries, and actors involved in this scenario.
United States
Federal presidential republic and the world's largest economy, with power divided among the presidency, Congress, the states, and the federal courts. U.S. politics is highly polarized, two-party dominated, and globally consequential because decisions made in Washington shape finance, trade, security alliances, technology regulation, and military power far beyond U.S. borders.
Russia
Federal semi-presidential republic spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The world's largest country by area and a major nuclear power. Power is heavily centralized in the presidency, with a managed multi-party system dominated by United Russia. Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The political system combines formal constitutional structures with strong executive dominance, limited opposition activity, and state influence over media and elections.
People's Republic of China
Single-party socialist state led by the Chinese Communist Party and one of the two central poles of global power. China combines party control, state planning capacity, export-industrial strength, technological ambition, and a vast domestic market, making its political decisions consequential for global trade, security, supply chains, and regional power balances.
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