January - Part 2
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington D.C
January 16, 2014. 2:00 AM. Several hours after veil disappears.
As he was being escorted down the hallways of the White House West Wing to the Situation Room, flanked by two large and attentive Secret Service agents, President Benjamin Sawyer was still trying to wrap his head around the situation that he was made aware of just a few minutes ago.
Around a few hours ago concurrent with an aurora borealis appearing over the country, communications with the entire world had suddenly cut off from the United States, ranging from phone lines to overseas embassies to military bases across the world. At first, technicians thought that the loss of communications was due to the aurora or a solar flare and foretold that the disruption would cease momentarily. As the aurora began to fade from the sky and some communication signals returned, it was realized something deeper was going on when most of the world was still unable to be reached.
Naturally, this sent all the technical support the White House staff had on hand scrambling to get everything back online while the top military advisors who were available were already planning for the possibility of this being the beginning stages of an attack on America, a possible attempt to cut off America from its allies or vice versa in order to commit a massive assault. The military advisors argued and debated for the most part whether this was an assault by an enemy nation or a terrorist attack of unprecedented scale. Some of the advisors had even begun preparations for a nuclear or biological attack. The tension in the air filled the whole of the White House and some looked ready to panic.
It did not help the situation that no matter what the technicians tried to to do, contact still couldn’t be restored. Things took a turn for the worse when the eggheads at NASA had called stating that they too were experiencing difficulties and had lost all contact with the crew of the International Space Station.
As soon as it was confirmed that even NASA was suffering from the difficulties as well it was then that everyone dealing with the situation knew that something abnormal, to say the least, was going on. Theories were thrown around ranging from a cyber warfare attack to solar activity that might have struck the Earth.
And according to the President's aide, this had all spanned over the course of a few hours at most, while most people were sleeping.
Currently, the President was being escorted to the famed Situation Room, where the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense, and the administrator of NASA were all grouped together, working to try and lower the damage and chaos that was to come. His aides were doing their best to gather all the recent information being sent in from around the country and forwarding it all to the President to keep him updated as it all progressed.
As President Sawyer approached the doors leading to the Situation Room, another Secret Service agent standing guard opened the door for him in a swift motion. The President only nodded in thanks as he entered the room and found the other occupants of the room waiting patiently for his arrival. Everyone in the room sat down as soon as the President took his seat at the head of the conference table. Several security members around the room snapped to attention the moment the President entered.
The President had always been a man who preferred to get right down to business when it mattered, with as little beating around the bush as possible. The people had voted for a man who could get things done and he was not one to disappoint. That being said, his first words spoken to his advisors present were “Gentlemen, what’s the situation?”
“Well Mr. President,” General Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began, “approximately eight hours ago, all of the White House’s communication and technological assets were disabled at the same time as an aurora borealis appeared over the skies of Washington.”
“An aurora?” President Sawyer asked, wondering if a simple phenomenon was responsible for this huge technological failure.
“Yes sir, the aurora wasn’t just an isolated event as far as we can tell. We’re receiving reports of it appearing all across America, even as far as Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.” replied the General as he passed a photo of the aura to the President, who looked at the golden/purple veil with interest.
“Were reports of this aurora received from any other parts of the world?” Sawyer asked.
“We can’t confirm that sir. The time the aurora appeared was the exact time everything stopped working.”
“I see. Please continue.” The President nodded, telling the General to go on as he pushed away the photo.
“When it first appeared, the technicians informed the communications staff that an interruption of communications during the appearance of a borealis was not unheard of and would cease shortly. No less than five minutes of its initial appearance, the aurora disappeared and communications still did not resume despite our technicians’ best efforts. We had also received a call soon after from NASA informing us of the loss of multiple satellite signals and the loss of communications with the crew of the ISS.” General Dempsey responded.
“Could this be the opening stages of an attack on America? Or are we looking at some kind of technological breakdown?” President Sawyer asked calmly.
“We can’t say for certain. There are still other factors that could have led to this.” The General answered.
“Such as?”
“Mr. President,” Charles Bolden, the administrator of NASA, now began speaking after quickly straightening his tie anxiously. “Such electrical disruptions have been caused by auroras before. Throughout history the appearances of them has been known to disrupt multiple forms of communication and technology ranging from primitive telegraph lines to even electrical grids and Global Positioning Systems. Solar storms are known to cause both electrical disruptions and auroras. There hasn't been anything on this scale, but we've only had technology that could be effected for the last fifty years. A gamma ray burst would also explain both the auroras and the satellite failures. Both of those theories make much more sense than a small team of terrorists suddenly figuring out how to shoot thousands of satellites out of the sky and block radio waves for an entire continent."
President Sawyer nodded in understanding. Though he personally had his doubt about a natural event causing a failure of the White House’s systems, he knew it was far more plausible than an act of terrorism of this scale.
The President spoke again “What is the situation regarding the satellites and the ISS?”
“At the same time as disruptions in the White House were noted, our space stations reported that they still had signals from the lost satellites and had contact with the crew aboard the ISS until about two minutes into the borealis’ appearance.” Bolden paused for a minute to catch a breath before continuing. “We are still trying to determine what exactly was lost, but I told all stations across the country to inform me as soon as any of the lost satellites are found or when contact has been restored.”
“Very good Charles.” Sawyer complimented. “Alright, let’s pres-”
As Sawyer was beginning to speak again, a knock came from the double doors leading out into the West Wing. He signaled for one of his Secret Service to check who it was by looking through the one way peephole, which was at an angle to prevent the agent being shot when checking the door, and one of the agents quickly complied and took a quick check to see who it was.
“Who is it?” asked the President as the agent turned away from the peephole to answer.
“It’s one of our guys sir. It looks like he’s with one of your aides.” the Agent replied.
“Let them in,” Sawyer ordered, hoping internally that the aide would be bringing some good news this time. Of course given how the night was going so far, he reasonably had some doubts about that.
As soon as the order was given, the agent opened the door, letting the guests in. The first to enter was a bald, burly man with a body like a brick wall and clad in a fine suit, the usual apparel for Secret Service agents. The second was a young thin man who looked to be in his early twenties, his casual wear clashing heavily with the formal attire worn by everyone else in his surroundings. He was also carrying two folders, probably containing the latest updates.
“What is it?” the President asked the young aide with a slight tone of impatience in his voice.
“U-uh sir,” the aide stuttered as he adjusted his glasses out of slight nervousness and could already see one or two people rolling their eyes. “These updates just came in from the DHS and this,” he continued, referring to the other folder, “is an update from NASA HQ that was forwarded from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida meant for Administrator Bolden.”
Sawyer uttered a quick thanks to the aide as he was handed the folder. Upon opening it, he quickly looked over the updates brought forth to him. According to the DHS, they just got in contact with the border patrols stationed at the crossings into both Canada and Mexico. While everything mostly checked out, Canadian and Mexican patrols were reporting loss of contact with much of their respective countries. The Department of Energy meanwhile reported that every town that used power from the Niagara Falls was now running on emergency generators. Several people in the towns were already panicking and the police were working to keep a riot from breaking out. Sawyer wondered why the news had not ended up on the lips of everyone in America.
As the President continued to look through the status report, he heard Bolden talking to the aide about the report he had received.
“Are you absolutely sure this is what they sent?” the Administrator of NASA asked the young aide, who still sounded like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The young man nearly jumped when he was addressed but gave a quick response.
“Yes Mr. Bolden. From what they had told me, they made absolutely sure it was correct. The satellite they requisitioned was given over a dozen diagnostic scans. They retook the image about twice as many times and they all came back the same. One of them even called a family member who lived close enough in Texas and told them to give some visual confirmation.”
Before Sawyer could ask just what was wrong this time, Bolden spared him the opportunity to ask.
“Mr. President,” Bolden spoke to him with a slight hint of urgency in his voice, “I think you really need to see this,” He finished, referring to the subject matter of the update he had received.
“Show me,” Sawyer bluntly stated as Bolden passed over the folder given to him.
Upon it being passed to him, Sawyer opened the folder. He wondered just what it was that was so unbelievable to the Administrator. Upon opening it, his eyes had widened in surprise as he stared at it unblinkingly. What he was seeing was definitely the last thing he was expecting.
“Oh my God,” the President uttered in sheer disbelief.
“Mr. President?” General Dempsey asked with concern at the recent development.
Sawyer ignored the General and quickly scanned the room looking for the aide that had brought this to his attention.
“Young man,” Sawyer said, with his voice filled with absolute seriousness, to the aide, whose head snapped in attention upon being spoken to. “I need you to bring this image on screen.” the President continued referring to one of the flat screen monitors that adored the wall as he handed the aide the folder with the astonishing photo in it.
“Charles,” Sawyer called over to the administrator as soon as the aide had barely uttered a “Yes sir”, “would you mind explaining to everyone here what you just showed me?”
With a quick nod confirming his answer, Charles got up from his chair and went up to the screen. With all eyes in the room centered upon him, the Administrator began to speak.
“Gentlemen,” he began with a hint of a solemn tone, “around twenty minutes ago, the boys at the Kennedy sent over a satellite image of…” he trailed off for a second as if he had just realized that what he was about to say was what he thought it was anymore. “Earth taken from a satellite requisitioned from Google. However, the picture taken had some abnormalities,” he finished just as the satellite image appeared on the screen.
The image showed the continental United States and Alaska as their own islands placed in what appeared to be the eastern side of the planet, the islands of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands were also visible. To their north and south were islands of various sizes, some of which looked like they were large and vegitated enough to support life. To the west was a giant “T” shaped landmass which, at first glance, would bring images of Pangea to mind. Finally, there were two more islands that were located from the America’s geological east.
Everyone in the room was divided on what to think, as they stared at it with either disbelief or plain confusion. A full minute of dead silence that felt like an hour passed until someone finally decided to speak.
“Bolden, just what are we looking at?” the Secretary of Defense asked bewilderedly.
“Well Chuck, this is an image of, for lack of a better word at the moment, Earth.” Charles replied.
“Impossible. Someone or something down at Kennedy must have screwed up majorly. This just isn’t possible,” General Dempsey retorted.
“They thought the same thing too. From what I was told, they took the same photo at least over a dozen times, scanned the satellite for bugs, and every other method under the sun. This is either the real thing or someone down at NASA wanted to get fired with style,” Bolden retorted.
“Alright, let’s presume that this photo is the result of a faulty satellite. We can easily send some of our people from the DHS to check the spots shown on the image where the land cuts off into the sea,” Sawyer reasoned. Sawyer knew he was taking a slight risk for the idea he was proposing. If Mexican authorities identified the men he was sending down there as DHS agents, this could easily be spun as another spying scandal on his part. But, due to the circumstances, he could only send them over and pray his decision doesn't come back to bite him in the ass.
“Very well sir. I’ll be sure to contact the head of Homeland Security and see he that he spares some people for this,” the Secretary of Defense affirmed.
“Good,” the President thanked him and relaxed in his chair slightly. “Now, presuming that the image is real, we need to start discussing how exactly we’re going to handle such a scenario.”
No one in the room objected to the current agenda. After all, it was hard not to look at all possibilities when your country had plans for defense against everything from extraterrestrial invasions to the dead coming back to life. They just needed to send someone downstairs and dust off those old files.
Paterson Residence
Crestview, Florida
3:55 AM.
Major Andrea Paterson was enjoying her bed the way a chocolate addict enjoys a chocolate fountain. She was sprawled across it with one of her hands tightly clutching the bed sheets while the other was wrapped around her husband, and they were silently promising not to let them go until she had made up for the many sleepless hours she had lost in the Airforce.
Ever since she was officially honorably discharged, after finishing her six month long tour of duty overseas, she had been able to enjoy small moments like these more frequently, such as sleeping in for as long as she wanted. When she was on duty there had always been the possibility of being called up either late at night or early in the morning, it was impossible to do something as mundane as simply sleeping in.
‘You never realize how much you miss something so simple until it’s taken away,’ she thought and buried her head under her favorite pillow to sleep some more, promising to not get up until 11 or 12.
She could feel the soft embrace of the sandman wrapping around her and slowly lulling her to what promised to be a lovely dream, until a horrible ringing sound emitted from the nightstand to her right. Andrea opened her eyes and moved the covers away.
Her vision was still blurry from the sudden unexpected wake up call just as she was about to continue sleeping. She used what little eyesight was available to deduce that the ear torturing sound was coming from the landline phone which glowed bright green with every ring.
“Uggh, it’s too early for this shit. Turn that Goddamn thing off, please. For the sake what little sanity I have for being woken up this early.” Andrea’s husband Michael groggily mumbled before groaning like a child being denied candy.
“I got it. I got it. Someone better be sick or dead.” Andrea mumbled as well, still barely awake as her hand fumbled atop the nightstand like a fish out of water until her hand landed onto the still ringing phone. Andrea took the phone off of the receiver and tried to answer it, only to realize it was flipped over backwards. After giving herself a mental face palm, she turned the phone to the right side with a quick hand movement and answered.
“Yeah?” she answered, still sounding somewhat groggy and slightly agitated thanks to the unannounced wake up call.
“Hello, may I speak to Major Andrea O’Neil Paterson?” the male speaker on the other line asked. The speaker also seemed to be wide awake despite the time, though if he was calling from where Andrea suspected he was, then it wasn’t that much of a surprise.
‘Ohh joy. This should be fun.’ Andrea sarcastically said in her mind, still not sure where this was going. Like it or not, she was wide awake now and wouldn’t be going back to sleep soon.
“Uhh yeah, ahem, you’re speaking to her,” she said, speaking in a more serious tone in case the voice on the other end was an officer.
“Yes, I’m calling from Eglin Air Force base in Valparaiso. You’ve been recalled for active duty and must report to Eglin by five AM. Failure to comply with the call will result in you being listed as AWOL.”
Andrea remembered the base well, it was hard to forget the place where you were trained how to fly a mach 2 aircraft and learn how to both tolerate and pull off g-force defying maneuvers that would render you unconscious if you didn’t do them right.
Andrea looked at the clock up on the wall, her vision, by now, having cleared up just enough to see right ahead of her. The clock read 3:58 AM, giving her about an hour to shower, get ready, brew up a coffee (at the very least), and get out of the house. She just hope that there wouldn’t be much traffic on the way there making this already inconvenient morning a worse one.
“So I have to report to Eglin by five in the morning?” Andrea asked, just to be sure she was hearing this right.
“That’s affirmative ma’am, apologies for the inconvenience,” the voice on the other end said without even a hint of actually caring.
“Understood,” Andrea said before hanging up and extending her middle finger at the phone furiously and looking at the clock.
The numbers felt like a ten pound weight on her shoulders. 3:59am.
With what energy she had she shot out of bed and ran to her closet, nearly tripping over some article of clothing on the ground as she threw her closet open and began looking for her cleanest uniform.
Her husband groaned and rose out of bed, rubbing his eyes and mumbling something like a drunkard, his mind too tired to properly form words.
Within the deep dark bowels of her closet, Andrea found her Airman Battle Uniform hung neat and clean within the plastic garment bag. She set it down on the bed next to her husband, who was still grumbling with increasing agitation.
“Hey Annie,” Michael said to his wife, who stopped for a moment and turned her head upon hearing the affectionate and embarrassing nickname, “what was that call about?”
“You remember Eglin Air Force base?” Andrea asked him, recalling the time he had come down there during her training for a brief visit.
“The one in Valparaiso?" Michael said after thinking for a moment. "Yeah I remember it.”
“Just got a call from someone down there. I’m being pressed back into service.”
“What, why?" Michael asked, standing up and looking to his wife in worry.
"I thought you finished all that?” Michael asked, honestly confused at the situation.
“It was only temporary remember,” Andrea replied, her mind's eye remembering the day she was told her tour of duty was finished. She loved her time in the air force and had become as close as family with the friends she had made there. She had always wanted to join since she saw a Blue Angels show with her parents back when she was a little girl. During her civilian time, she decided to accept her discharge, take a job as a flight instructor at Bob Sikes airport when she got home, and start spending more time with her husband.
“Look,” she continued, “if I’m gonna make it on time, I need to start taking a shower right now.” Andrea noticed her husband’s eyes widen and his mouth start to open, as if preparing to speak. She smirked slightly and decided to have some quick fun at his expense.
“No you can’t join me,” she said quickly with a smile and went into the bathroom next to their bedroom.
At that simple sentence, Michael’s facial expression went from one displaying hope to one of disappointment. Andrea giggled a bit at his crestfallen expression (all in good fun, of course), the antic having increased her mood slightly. She quickly realized she needed to hurry before she inadvertently wasted even more time. Grabbing a towel from the closet, she slung it over her shoulder and walked towards the bathroom to take a shower.
She did not even wait for the water to grow warm and even scrubbed herself harder than she meant to, leaving some scratches on her arms and sides. By the time she had finished her shower, Andrea went back into the now empty bedroom and quickly changed into her Airman Battle Uniform, tied her shoulder length blonde hair in a bun, and put on her patrol cap. When she was finished, she turned towards the full length mirror and took a look at herself wearing a uniform she has barely touched in years.
“Wow, its… been awhile since I’ve worn this. Brings back a lotta memories.” Andrea said nostalgically, remembering her career.
She had joined the United States Air Force in back in late 2008 and was assigned to operations in Iraq and started seeing action in Afghanistan in late 2010, where she served for the rest of her Air Force career. Her entire career wasn’t anything special with all honesty, she had flown an F-16 Fighting Falcon throughout her service and mainly partook in either close air support roles or dropping ordinance on insurgent hideouts, never flying in an illustrious F-22 or providing close air support from the famous A-10 Warthog. After six months and receiving being promoted up to 1st Lieutenant. She was currently after finishing her tour of duty. After re-adapting to civilian life, she had never thought she would be called up for active service so soon.
She shook away the thoughts of the past and looked at the clock on the wall. 4:05. She took one last look at her uniform and decided mentally that it was in perfect condition and could certainly pass an impromptu inspection. She exited the bedroom and went into the living room, the TV was turned into NBC, with the Today show’s Matt Lauer speaking. Michael was sitting by the TV, hoping the news would explain why his wife was being summoned again after so long.
“Welcome back and if you're just tuning in, we are receiving reports of the National Guard and reserve forces across the United States being mobilized. Ever since the veil had appeared in the sky last night, entire states have been calling for the mobilizing of their National Guard. The cause of this currently unknown. We also have unconfirmed reports of President Sawyer being called to an emergency meeting with the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff…”
It was all Andrea heard before her husband spoke over the TV broadcast.
“Well well, look at you,” Michael said while eyeing his wife in her uniform. Next to him, the coffee machine just finishing brew a batch of Espresso.
"Its not for your viewing pleasure," Andrea replied and entered the kitchen, flicking on a light switch as she grabbed the coffee and started to pour it into the cup.
"Aww but I never get to have any fun," Michael said, before the lights suddenly went out and Andrea let loose a string of curses and obscenities as several drops of the coffee landed on her hand. The lights returned not a second later and Andrea checked her uniform first, sighing with relief there weren't any stains.
'I guess the universe just decided to screw with my luck today?' She thought.
“Michael, please tell me you actually remembered to send the electric bill this time?” Andrea asked, the quick and sudden rolling blackout reminding her of the time Michael forgot to mail the money for the electric bill.
“Of course I did,” Michael replied, rubbing the back of his head in an embarrassed manner. He remembered how Andrea never did let him forget about the time he forgot to send in the paid electric bill, though she only reminded whenever she thought it would be funny and it was his fault.
‘At least I learned from it,’ He thought, but it did little to lessen his embarrassment.
Andrea only sighed as a response, hoping the lights flickering off was just a one off event. She took another look at time posted on the clock upon the wall. 4:09. she realized that she had to leave. Now.
“Oh shit,” Andrea groaned, “Mike I really have to leave, like right now.” Before she went for the car keys set on the kitchen table, she snatched a strawberry Pop Tart sticking out from the toaster and immediately started eating it, hoping the single pastry would be enough to fight off hunger for what could be the entire day.
“Alright, oh and before I forget, I’ll call the airport later, tell them you won’t be coming in for work today,” Michael said, now wide awake thanks to the coffee he had brewed earlier along with the spill on her hand. Andrea thanked his thoughtfulness with a quick kiss on the cheek.
“I have to get going. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone but I promise, I’ll try to be safe.” Andrea said to her husband, whose facial expression showed concern and nervousness. The exact same look he had when she first went overseas.
“Alright, but you better keep that promise.” Michael teased with a small smile with a noticeable hint of sadness behind it, trying to ease the tension.
“You can count on it.” Andrea replied with a small be nervous smile of her own. After giving one kiss to her husband, she grabbed her car keys off the kitchen table and left out the door.
As soon as the door shut, Michael felt as if someone had poured a bucket load of worry on him and he thought about his wife. Of course, he would support his wife with whatever decision she made and with every military duty she was given. But despite knowing the risk of her job, he still worried and played the ‘what if’ game far too often.
“I don’t know why she got called back. I just hope she’ll be OK.” Michael sighed with continued nervousness. He decided to simply go watch some TV, to let a load off his mind.
USS Kearsarge (LHD-3)
Unidentified waters
9:10 AM.
‘Ok and that should be the last one,’ Seaman Murphy thought to himself as he, along with several other sailors and even some of the Army soldiers that they had rescued hours before—the ones that could actually move about on their own—finished battening down an Abrams tank to the boat’s deck as best as they could. As he stood up to stretch the feeling back into his legs, he started to reflect on everything that had happened. He was surprised that all this extra heavy weight didn’t sink the entire ship into the waters, but his boat was made of tougher stuff. And like Atlas holding the world on his shoulders, the Kearsarge held all the new equipment and crew without complaint.
It had been a hectic past few hours for the young sailor. After saving as many soldiers from drowning as the small boat he was in could hold (he’d rather not think about how many he may have not been able to get), everyone on board that was able to move had scrambled around the ship to tend to the chaos brought about by “the event”, as everyone called the explosion of light that kicked all of this off. There were planes and helicopters that barely had any space to land or take off from: equipment on deck that needed to be held down so it wouldn’t fall into the ocean, the medical staff down below were overwhelmed with the amount of dead or injured that had spontaneously appeared (it seemed that the deck wasn’t the only place where the troops had appeared), and weaponry down in the cargo hold had damaged some of the things they had down there. And those were only the problems that had immediately come to mind.
“Man, I’m running on fumes here.” Charles yawned to himself. He, along with just about everyone else, had not even had a millisecond of sleep. Not that he was complaining, he knew there were more important things to be done at the moment.
“Attention all available hands. Report down to the cargo hold to assist in removing Army equipment from atop ours and survey for damage.” the ship’s intercom system blared, snapping the Seaman out from his thoughts.
“Dammit man, wake up.” the tired sailor said to himself as he gave himself a slight slap across his head as if to knock the exhaustion right out of him, it did very little and he still felt his whole body sag as if weights were tied to him. With a quick shake of his head as if to imitate a wet dog drying off, he decided to make his way down to the cargo hold.
********
“Come on work for me, give me a signal.” Radioman Josh Borowitz sighed, frustrated as he tried to make contact with the mainland, wherever that may be. The event seemed to have messed up all of the ship’s electronics. He worked all of the buttons and dials of the comms system only to come up with nothing.
“Damn,” Josh said dejectedly as he failed to get any sort of response. He decided to rest for a minute and think. He removed his headphones and buried his face into his hands. Ever since that damned flash on the sky, they had been cut off from almost the entire outside world. The only other ship with them was the USS Chicago that contacted them soon after they started pulling troops out of the water. Since then, they found not a single piece of evidence that there was someone nearby or even existing.
Deciding to get back to trying to contact civilization, the Radioman put his headphones back on and try again.
As he worked the radio system he knew like the back of his hand, Josh operated the radio as he was determined to find someone one there. After five minutes of fruitless searching, he heard something he never thought he would be glad to hear: a garbled message.
‘Al …..va…..ps….. th… se... ego….ond…..’
Suddenly realizing what was happening, Josh quickly scrambled to turn on his microphone and respond.
“Hello? This is the USS Kearsarge reporting in from currently unidentified waters. We can barely read you. Say again over.” Josh said into the microphone, hoping for a response.
No response came as the same garbled message repeated itself once again. Josh turned his attention back to the console and tried to increase the signal’s strength. After a few failed tries, he finally cracked the message.
‘All United States Naval Ships, this is a message coming from Naval Base San Diego. All recipients please respond.’
SS Graceful
Eastern Sea.
9:12 AM.
The high winds of the ocean were at their fullest strength today, much to the enjoyment of the experienced Captain Oasis, who was monitoring his crew moving about the deck, making sure that everything on the ship was running smoothly and that everyone and everything was exactly where it needed to be. While he inspected his crew, his eyes also traveled to the security detail he had hired to protect both the ship and its cargo. The mercenaries were busy maintaining their crossbows and their cannons, determined to protect the ship at all cost, if only to receive the generous paycheck they were going to get from the captain as soon as they made it back to Maretonia. He didn't much like hiring mercenaries, but it paid to play it safe and they were cheap to pay off in comparison to losing all his cargo to pirates.
'We are having very good weather today. With the current wind speed, we should be able to make it to that Equestrian port city in no time,’ the Captain thought optimistically.
“Captain!” A voice shouted out from atop the crow’s nest, high atop the ship’s sail.
“What is it?” Oasis asked the lookout, quickly adjusting himself to see the crewmember above and praying that it wasn't pirates, or worse, a leviathan.
“Captain, I spotted a set of islands right off the starboard side. I checked the map and I couldn’t find those anywhere on it. I think we might be discovering new land!” the excited crewpony said while practically jumping with joy.
Oasis thought to himself for a minute, almost chewing on his own hoof. If he decided to change his course and head straight for those islands, then there was a possibility of something happening to either his ship, his cargo, or the crew. But if he did decide to go, he could survey the island, declare it uninhabited and give the land as a gift to either Prince Onur back in Maretonia or he could give it to the prince’s father, Orhan Sureimane, the current Sultan of Saddle Arabia. The anniversary of Sureimane’s wedding to his lovely bride was soon to boot!
Another plus was that he wasn’t scheduled to arrive in Equestria until late tomorrow. He had just enough time for a quick impromptu stop.
“Sounds promising.” Oasis concluded to himself. “Helmspony!” He shouted to the pony at the ship’s wheel.
“Yes Captain?” the Helmspony asked.
“Do you see those islands off the starboard? I want you to change course and head right towards them,” the Captain ordered.
“Yes Captain,” the Helmspony confirmed.
As soon as the Helmsman began to comply with the order, Oasis turned towards the deck of the ship, where the crew was still working and maintaining the ship.
“Attention all crewponies,” the Captain’s voice bellowed towards the crew, “before we arrive within Equestrian waters, we will be making a quick stop at a group of islands towards our starboard.”—He pointed to the ship’s right—”Trust me when I say that discovering these islands will be very beneficial to us financially. Dismissed.” the Captain finished as he saw that he had the interest of the entire crew and even the security detail at the thought of becoming world renowned discoverers.
As the crewponies scuttled about and went on to continue their duties, Oasis only had one thing on his mind.
‘When its announced that I discovered these islands, I am going to get so much money from the Prince, or the Sultan, or both! I’ll decide who to sell it to later,’ the Captain thought as he eagerly began to think about the riches that would await him.
When OP updates after five months:
But with all seriousness, I would like to apologize for the long wait. I want to say it will never happen again, but life can make me incredibly busy before I even know it. Moving on. I hope this chapter meets everyone's expectations and thanks for sticking with me so far.
As for the border situation brought to my attention a while ago, here are the border cutoffs I worked on:
* Northern US/Canadian Border.
* Alaskan/Canadian Border.
* US/Mexican Border.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- KaBar42 · 2.6k words · 511 91 · 13k views
- KaBar42 · 2.7k words · 300 35 · 6.4k views
- Corvo · 34k words · 674 40 · 14k views
- Merchent343 · 0 words · 403 36 · 0 views
- Rox · 124k words · 1,027 66 · 19k views
- RandomPerson · 20k words · 323 14 · 7.7k views
- Immortan Joe · 166k words · 1,595 158 · 21k views
- Cakebomb · 1k words · 375 75 · 5.3k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.198 seconds
Total duration
1,005 users online
120,998 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Ladies and Gentlecolts.
what about Guam and the other American Territories?
5327316 *long tired sigh* we have answered this in the FAQ blog.
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/354456/frequently-asked-and-other-questions-on-island-in-the-sea-of-equus
Why does no one read our blogs?
5327260
second, im curious who will make first (friendly) contact with the americans,
5327370
Look in the second chapter. There is a hint in the form of a scene.
What will the US do about the Canadian/Mexican territory that was brought along, according to your maps?
This chapter is great and I'm so glad the story is finally continuing but your maps make me wonder about What the US will do about the Canadian/Mexican territory that was brought along? Hope this is answered thx.
I'm curious as to what the other side is going to be like.
Yeah, the U.S. is a powerhouse and undeniably resourceful, but a magic world creates it's own tiers of bullshit. I'm hoping there will legitimate threats along with new alliances and trade.
I'm also hoping humans will make some unlikely allies. Ie: 'Evil' sides that aren't really utterly evil.
5327334
There was a blog post about this?
Very good!
Very, very, very good!
5327314
My sentiments exactly General.
5327380
5327406
The Canadian and Mexican territory brought along is far too small to survive on their own, so annexation into already existing states is the only option.
5327431
I have some ideas for threats in this new world that the US will need to shift focus on, but they'll be revealed when the time comes. As for some morally gray allies, I guess it will depend on which nation you''ll identify as "evil".
5327448
Yep.
Riches? More like technological advances! If they aren't hostile of course.
Equestria, meet American ingenuity!
I wonder what the Mexicans/Canadians who lives at the border cut would think
5327374
In the Canada/US map pic you posted, it shows Windsor, Ontario is within the zone taken to Equus. Does this mean Windsor is taken along, or is it just lost in the universe?
5327553
All cities taken that are brought along with America come along intact so yes, Windsor does come.
5327570
What about the rare situation where a city happens to be ON the cutoff point? Will half of the city be taken along, and the other half stay behind? What about the unlucky people who happen to be standing on or near the exact location of the cutoff point?
I honest to Celestia thought that this was a dead fic, but I'm glad it isn't!
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/127/1/3/thor_and_mlp_meme_for_fimfic_by_ponpheonix-d64fsvg.jpg
5327606
Thats exactly why I moved the cutoff line at least 50-100 miles away from the border itself. The lines themselves mostly stop at barren wilderness or uncommonly traveled roads.
5327625
Trust me, I have no plans to leave this dead in the water without notice.
So they managed to keep at least ONE satellite?
*goes on fimfiction.net and sees this story is updated*
O_O
Oh boy, that captain is gonna be in for a surprise, heh.
Looking at those maps, I can't help but laugh how the line just decides to go around a city over there in western Canada when it could have just taken it along since the line was going north of the place. It's very amusing, don't know if to consider them lucky or unlucky to miss being dragged along. Also I see my place going for the ride.
quickmeme.com/img/7f/7fa6b0be9d5614e6e8aa57089f47c718ec462a462188bb1b058a1456cfd02d12.jpg
5327526 Personally, I'd have very mixed feelings.
5327471 Hm, I could see them not objecting to national annexation, but I'm pretty sure some would object to just be incorporated to the US states instead of keeping their state/province-level of autonomy.
*insert its alive meme*
I can actually see humanity being (at first) hesitant allies with changelings...
after all, humanity can think of multipal uses for just about anything, and with the versatility of shapeshifting...
plus, changling don't require food in the traditional sense, meaning there wouldent be any strain on resources...
also, diamond dogs (or at least the onse that DONT practive slavery)
griffons, well... they ARE part eagle, and a bit of a warrior race if mot fanons are concernd.... I can see the two getting along quite well, and just imagain how badass a griffin would be after going through U.S Marine boot camp...
also, they might get at the very least, a non aggression pact with draogns, after a show of force...
Small nitpick, shouldn't it be helmspony, not helmsman?
Also, I want to tell you that the direction you are going so far is brilliant. You shouldn't have to feel obliged to follow everything people in the comments suggest.
Also, I would like to thank(giving) you for updating.
I feel like I should ask: about the Alaska map was part of Russia taken along with Alaska
Boy is that captain pony in for a surprise :D
Somebody's probably already said this, but here I go anyway:
-Enlisted personnel do not fly aircraft (combat or otherwise), only officers do.
-Assuming that Andrea entered the Air Force in 2005, it's highly unlikely she'd be flying combat sorties by the next year. Training, certification and all that jazz
-If Andrea had retired for 6 years, there is ABSOLUTELY no way she could be recalled. The maximum is 4 years, and that's practically unheard of.
I think that's everything.
5327710 Thinking about it i'm pretty sure a Griffon would work better in the Airbourne infantry but that's just me.
5327732 Hes a saddle Arabian, not a pony.
Example:
derpicdn.net/img/2012/12/2/169801/large.jpg
5327740 Thank you! We will fix this.
*gives you a muffin*
Yep, that was a good read...
*Blueberry poptarts pop out of toaster*
*Munches on them*
Next please, thank you.
Still he's discovering a new land and new sapients
5327740
Crestview is less than 30 minutes away from Eglin, and the entire area revolves around the damn base. She wouldn't have to explain it to her husband.
Things to have fun with, SLAC and FermiLab doing neutrino communication experiments with Europe, Japan and any other locations that might have been built, Australia seems good for deep core scanning, and those getting cut off as well.
I suspect the biggest argument, source of conflict, is going to be between the Equestrian agrarian society, and the rapid and massive increase needed in coal and shale extraction to feed all teh hydrocarbon powered equipment and processes, that even so will cause a massive belch of pollution to spread over the surrounding planet. I mean, would a pegasus flying in 50 ppm CO2 Equestrian air be affected by the 350ppm? standard global air mass over the new land? what about the air temperature? If its normalised, or half a degree warmer etc? You can remove a lot of effects through the shere amount of energy involved in the transfer, or, you can go to town and try looking at whats happening, even roughly.
for the satelites, it depends on how the dome, cylinder or other encapsulating shape was formed, and if the satelite was in teh right part of its orbit for that length of time to come along. given how many items are radar tracked by NORAD, they might be able to get a rough mesure of the space based coverage by tracking what material they had, and bactracking to the point of the aurora. Of course, given the equipemnt laying around, dont forget all the GPS SatNavs have stopped working, theres a lot of hobby clocks that use GPS time signals, the Power grid is going to be have to rebuilt through not having the synch signals. fun time, Oh the chaos is so delicious. <Discord>
And of course, the first people to get to teh new land, is an out of the way dodgy merchant ship with mercenaries. cos theyre usually the first people anywhere to try new markets. Wonder where abouts on which island theyre landing on.
Lets see what aircraft is used. Speed? Range? suborbital eventually?
5327740
Technical advisor here. Here's what I know about military protocol and stuff:
So I'm curious, what kind of protocol do you think would come into play when greeting new species? Would there be caution about new viruses? Would they be given the same rights as humans when they were found to be sentient? How would they be considered sentient? Would there be panic and a call to action for all soldiers? What if something like an alicorn or a dragon flew through the air over or near america? Would radar pick them up? (I'm in networking and computer science, not whatever branch of engineering radar is in.)
So how many satellites did we bring with us?
I'm defiantly interested in what we would do about power. Even with all the go green stuff going on, the world runs on oil. Without it, everything will shut down and the entire system will fall apart, no power, no cars, no food. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve will only last approximately 37 days. So we'll have to start drilling for more oil in the states ASAP, if there's a large amount of off shore oil in the new waters, that could solve the problem. I would imagine that we would go back to how we were during WWII, using less and reusing more, saving gas and recycling everything, not because we were trying to go green but because there was serious shortage in everything.
Edit: Upon further investigation, the US as of 2011 imported 45% of it's oil. Now looking at untapped oil reserves onshore and offshore, we have potentially 200 billion barrels of crude oil that could be drilled. The United States has the largest known deposits of oil shale in the world, estimated to be about 2.175 trillion barrels of oil but there is no significant commercial production of oil from oil shale right now. That being said, when it comes down to it, i think we could supply ourselves with the oil we need to keep the country from falling apart for a good long while until we can find an outside supply.
Be careful of redundancy in wording.
5327740
Changes have been made. Thank you for pointing them out.
5327880
Well, he wanted the Sultan's good graces, what better way to do that than discovering a new technologically advanced species.
5327913
As it turns out, SETI has something called the "Declaration of Principles for Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence" made for scenarios with aliens coming in by starship. Maybe it can be adapted for this situation?
5327730
Nope. Not a part of Russia was brought along.
5328002
We'll simply start looking for oil again. The world does have some oil depots that haven't been touched at all due to the natives not being that advanced yet. While the environmental concerns brought up by the other species of Equus has been pointed out to me, I imagine that most will put it behind them once its usefulness is shown (i.e our entire society from our cars to our power plants).
5328020
How'd that happen?
What about Guam? It's US territory, unincorporated although.
That pony captain is in for a rude shock, as I imagine it is not riches which await him...
Good to see this updated, now my only worry: so many players involved. It's going to be hard keeping track of who is who and who is doing what.
Things are about to get interesting.
5327696
Seems like something isn't quite right here.
I loved this chapter!
*waits patiently for six months*
5328265
She's a time traveler. Didn't you know?
All I have to say is FINALLY!!!!
and a question: when can we expect the next one, not to be pushy or anything but after five months of waiting I'm eager to know what happens next.
And you gonna die with Gun Power.
She had joined the United States Air Force in back in 2013 and was assigned to operations in Iraq and started seeing action in Afghanistan in 2006, where she served for the rest of her Air Force career. Her entire career wasn’t anything special with all honesty, she had flown an F-16 Fighting Falcon throughout her service and mainly partook in either close air support roles or dropping ordinance on insurgent hideouts, never flying in an illustrious F-22 or providing close air support from the famous A-10 Warthog. After six months and receiving being promoted up to Major she was honorably discharged in 2008 after finishing her tour of duty. After six years of living a civilian life, she had never thought she would be called up for active service again.
plez check time scaling.
why...how... Did theTime-Wizard DO IT