20 JUL 3304

A thermonuclear weapon, launched over a thousand years ago during Earth’s Third World War, has been discovered.



The intercontinental ballistic missile was found beneath the Pacific Ocean, during construction of new undersea habitation off the coast of California.



Lieutenant Commander Page Patterson, a munitions-disposal specialist for the Federal Navy, gave this statement:



“The missile was partially embedded in the ocean floor when aqua-engineering teams found it. Erosion of the casing makes identification difficult, but the design is consistent with strategic ordnance of the mid-21st century. Its thermonuclear warhead would have had an explosive yield of 45 megatons.”



“Robotic avatar units have successfully disarmed the missile’s uranium core, so the risk to local populations has been nullified. We are now treating the area for radiation leakage. The remains of the missile will be scrapped.”



Dr Imogen Ryang, a historian specialising in Earth conflicts, observed:



“A variety of relics from World War III, which took place between 2044 and 2055, have been found over the centuries. All nuclear exchanges between nation states were thought to be well documented, so this discovery comes as quite a shock.”



“Although the missile’s origin remains a mystery, its location near the western seaboard suggests two possibilities. Either it was a failed launch from a silo in the United States, or it was an inbound enemy missile that failed to reach its target. In the latter case, it was likely disabled by the USA's defensive laser grid, which combined ground turrets with armed satellites. This was how America avoided a nuclear detonation on its soil during the war, unlike most other continents on Earth.”