Twenty years ago, a fleet of alien ships was spotted in Deep Space. Fifteen years ago, the fleet of alien ships- nothing else can describe flying sublight objects with changing directions and speeds, or in formation- arrived at Earth. All orbital installations were destroyed; nuclear missiles were launched from almost every nation that had them, and only two alien ships were damaged; one detonated, scattering wreckage all over the North American continent, and into the waters surrounding it in the Atlantic and the Pacific.
The other ship was evacuated, and drifted in orbit, a silent, deadly, dormant husk. Its orbit soon took it away from its fleet, and they made no move to destroy, secure, or to do anything with it. They let it drift. It eventually came around in a full orbit, and then was pulled to Earth. No one ever found the husk of the ship, though people know that it fell somewhere on the West Coast.
But the effect of our missiles wiped out the world’s long-range communications, sent an electromagnetic pulse all across the globe, the combined force of nearly three thousand nuclear warheads detonating within the same day in a suborbital position. The world rained radioactive acid even before the aliens took out their wrath on the puny planet that dared defy them.
They stayed in orbit for two years, building and receiving reinforcement and supplies. At the end of those two years, they conducted a test of their new weapon- and detonated some kind of missile, which flew down from the heavens and buried itself straight to hell. Presumably, the missile destroyed both, when it detonated in the crust of the planet. Shortly thereafter, some strange, unknown weapon pushed Earth, spun it, faster and faster. The planet itself was moved- whatever must have done it was beyond powerful. The Big Three Earthquakes- capitalized for their massiveness- sunk portions of Siberia and Alaska, portions of China and Japan, and portions of Australia. The Pacific and the Atlantic receded over a hundred feet into the massive holes created by the weapon that pushed Earth.
And Earth itself suffered- we normally had twenty four hour days. Now we have a full day in eight. Four hours of sunlight, four hours of darkness, three times an Old Earth day.
The Three Earthquakes ruined everything. They pushed Earth, and the atmosphere wasn’t included. The surface of the Earth burned, trees and buildings either falling apart as the ground below them moved, and they didn’t, or as the air started slamming into it with increasing winds, tearing them apart or simply lighting on fire as the wind grew.
During the seven or so years of warning that we had, people built shelters. Some people even congregated into underground missile silos, making a sort of underground village. The subway systems beneath cities became the best refuge, as did the more expansive sewers. Tunnels were mined between some of these places, for travel out of the prying eyes of the aliens.
We had no name for them. People called them all sorts of things, but there was never any contact. They arrived in 2025. Now, they still sit up there, watching, building their space stations. We don’t know what they plan on doing, only that they’re watching humans scurry about on Scorched Earth, trying to survive. Amid acid rains that sweep across the landscape in a single Scorch day, blitzing winds that come in a whirlwind of dust and flickering sparks of lightning and fire, toxic oceans where nothing but mutated monsters roam, all we know is that we’re not alone in the universe, and the universe is very hostile indeed.
The year is 2040, and the aliens have been shuttling things to and from their fleet. The weather started stabilizing; acid showers and firewinds started to calm down, and travel between ‘undercities’ has increased. The human population has dropped from well over ten billion people, to under a million worldwide- but no one knows that. The world is disconnected and fractured, but now, it’s finally possible to really emerge from the underground shelters.
The three years leading up to 2040 were when the first few explorers found that there were still spots of storms- even worse storms than the ones that sprung up in the aftermath of the Three Earthquakes. They swirled in an almost perfect circle, battering away any of the landmarks that were too close to their hurricane-like force. Unlike a hurricane, they were fire, lightning, and acid. These storms were the landing areas for the alien shuttles, the very center being their new bases, and the storms around them being controlled and focused by them. Only three that are known in North America.
@WilsonTurner
The other ship was evacuated, and drifted in orbit, a silent, deadly, dormant husk. Its orbit soon took it away from its fleet, and they made no move to destroy, secure, or to do anything with it. They let it drift. It eventually came around in a full orbit, and then was pulled to Earth. No one ever found the husk of the ship, though people know that it fell somewhere on the West Coast.
But the effect of our missiles wiped out the world’s long-range communications, sent an electromagnetic pulse all across the globe, the combined force of nearly three thousand nuclear warheads detonating within the same day in a suborbital position. The world rained radioactive acid even before the aliens took out their wrath on the puny planet that dared defy them.
They stayed in orbit for two years, building and receiving reinforcement and supplies. At the end of those two years, they conducted a test of their new weapon- and detonated some kind of missile, which flew down from the heavens and buried itself straight to hell. Presumably, the missile destroyed both, when it detonated in the crust of the planet. Shortly thereafter, some strange, unknown weapon pushed Earth, spun it, faster and faster. The planet itself was moved- whatever must have done it was beyond powerful. The Big Three Earthquakes- capitalized for their massiveness- sunk portions of Siberia and Alaska, portions of China and Japan, and portions of Australia. The Pacific and the Atlantic receded over a hundred feet into the massive holes created by the weapon that pushed Earth.
And Earth itself suffered- we normally had twenty four hour days. Now we have a full day in eight. Four hours of sunlight, four hours of darkness, three times an Old Earth day.
The Three Earthquakes ruined everything. They pushed Earth, and the atmosphere wasn’t included. The surface of the Earth burned, trees and buildings either falling apart as the ground below them moved, and they didn’t, or as the air started slamming into it with increasing winds, tearing them apart or simply lighting on fire as the wind grew.
During the seven or so years of warning that we had, people built shelters. Some people even congregated into underground missile silos, making a sort of underground village. The subway systems beneath cities became the best refuge, as did the more expansive sewers. Tunnels were mined between some of these places, for travel out of the prying eyes of the aliens.
We had no name for them. People called them all sorts of things, but there was never any contact. They arrived in 2025. Now, they still sit up there, watching, building their space stations. We don’t know what they plan on doing, only that they’re watching humans scurry about on Scorched Earth, trying to survive. Amid acid rains that sweep across the landscape in a single Scorch day, blitzing winds that come in a whirlwind of dust and flickering sparks of lightning and fire, toxic oceans where nothing but mutated monsters roam, all we know is that we’re not alone in the universe, and the universe is very hostile indeed.
The year is 2040, and the aliens have been shuttling things to and from their fleet. The weather started stabilizing; acid showers and firewinds started to calm down, and travel between ‘undercities’ has increased. The human population has dropped from well over ten billion people, to under a million worldwide- but no one knows that. The world is disconnected and fractured, but now, it’s finally possible to really emerge from the underground shelters.
The three years leading up to 2040 were when the first few explorers found that there were still spots of storms- even worse storms than the ones that sprung up in the aftermath of the Three Earthquakes. They swirled in an almost perfect circle, battering away any of the landmarks that were too close to their hurricane-like force. Unlike a hurricane, they were fire, lightning, and acid. These storms were the landing areas for the alien shuttles, the very center being their new bases, and the storms around them being controlled and focused by them. Only three that are known in North America.
@WilsonTurner