Logan International Airport - Terminal B
Boston, Massachusetts
January 15th, 2014. 7:00PM (Eastern Standard Time)
He had been stuck at this job for two years now and had been working late in the evening for the past nine months. Gilberto was quite certain that the job of checking passengers' tickets as they were leaving for their destination couldn’t get any more mind crushingly boring even if he wished for it, it was just not physically possible. But one must do so to appease the TSA gods, lest they go crazy with their cavity search vengeance. The lack of coffee or any sugar to help him stay awake just made it worse as did having to smile to every single passenger.
As he finished checking tickets and giving the obligatory “Have a safe flight Sir/Ma’am” with the skill of a Walmart greeter, he noticed a bright light leaking out from the window next to the gate he was manning. For a moment Gilberto thought it was the lights of a plane, before it grew brighter and he could see in front of him many passengers and staff suddenly stopping and gazing at something behind him.
He knew full well that couldn't possibly be the sun, as it had set at least an hour ago and the sunrise never made people stop in midstep to begin with. The stares of disbelief on many other people looking behind him finally pushed his curiosity to the breaking point. With a clench of his teeth, he turned and looked out the window to see what the light was, thinking it would be a light from some freak lightning storm. Instead, what he saw was one of the most amazing sights he had ever seen in his 23 years of life.
Up in the sky was a veil of gold with a slight purple tint, it looked like one of those auroras that would appear in the Arctic. But it seemed more alive, like a swarm of serpents dancing in the sky and swimming though the ocean of stars. A dance above the Earth, just for this one moment a special dance that said "come and see, something grand."
“My God that. Is. Amazing.” Gilberto said in between breaths of pure amazement at the formation above, the swirling of colors. His lower jaw twitched and shook in awe as the dance seemed to go faster and faster until it looked like the whole sky was one brilliant shade of light green, almost minty to the point someone who was color blind would confuse it for white.
“I know man. No one is probably ever going to see something like this again.” He heard the voice next to him reply. Gilberto turned his head to see Steven, one of his co-workers, looking up at the lights as well, only he had the clarity of mind to start taking pictures of the sky with his iPhone as was pretty much everyone else in sight who had the mental clarity to do anything other than stare.
Rather than just standing there staring like a daydreaming fool, Gilberto fumbled slightly as he pulled his iPhone 4S out of his pocket and began recording the light, knowing that it wouldn’t be the only video of it and by the morning, such videos would be plastered all over every news network and every Facebook page across Boston if not either all of Massachusetts, or across America, or even across the world.
The veil in the sky started flickering like an old light bulb about two minutes in. The once majestic, dancing bright gold in the sky was becoming dimmer, similar to a dirty dark yellow painted on a New York City taxi cab. The aurora was fading much faster now, as if the night sky was absorbing it back into its infinite darkness. It was succeeding as the veil was disappearing and was nearly invisible to all who had seen it glow as bright as a Hollywood spotlight mere minutes ago.
Then it vanished. There was no spectacular light show, no explosion, no anything. It just faded quietly into the night sky as if it were never there in the first place. That was it. That was the final act. Despite this, Gilberto continued to record the now empty sky for several seconds before realizing that the light wasn’t coming back and turned off his iPhone. He almost felt sad that it was over.
Before he turned it off, Gilberto took a quick look at his phone and noticed that the clock didn’t show the correct time as the time now read 6:55 PM. “What the Hell?” he sighed as he unlocked his phone to try and figure out what was wrong.
After some wasted effort, Gilberto had decided to ask Steven, who was reviewing the many pictures he had taken of the veil that had been in the sky moments ago.
“Yo, Steven. What time is it?” Gilberto called out as Steven turned his head upon hearing his name.
“Uhh it’s…aw you gotta be kidding me? The clock is messed up. Give me a second to fix it.” Steven replied.
After waiting a moment for Steven fix his phone (and appeared to grow slightly more agitated by the second), Gilberto decided to just stop this now before it went on any longer.
“Let me guess, the clock on your phone isn’t showing the right time?” Gilberto asked rhetorically.
“Yeah. How’d you know?” Steven asked.
“Because my phone’s been the same since the aurora went away.”
“Maybe its just our phones? Come on, let’s ask someone else.” Steven said, waving his arm for his friend to follow him as he also tried slapping his phone into his palm, as if giving the device a beating would fix it.
The two looked around for someone who wasn’t too absorbed in the commotion caused by the veil. The two had finally found someone, an older man in a business suit looking up at the plane departure schedule to see if the aurora had delayed his flight. The crotchety old man was scowling and didn’t seem to care much about the lights, just his flight.
“There’s someone.” Steven pointed out who he was talking about. “I’ll ask him.” Steven approached the man, who seemed absorbed in the schedule he was staring up at. His foot was tapping impatiently and he was grumbling rather loudly to himself.
“Excuse me sir but-” Steven started but was interrupted by an announcement over the airport’s intercom system.
“Attention all passengers due to previously…unforeseen circumstances, all um, all flights to and from Logan International will be delayed. We really apologize for the inconvenience.” The announcer said, sounding out of breath and unsure of what exactly to say.
The apology, of course, fell on deaf ears as the entire terminal filled with voices of discontent, frustration, and at least a few of outright anger.
“Oh, come on!”
“Are you telling me my plane is canceled because of some Goddamn light show?! Do you know who I am? I have a very important business meeting tomorrow!”
“I’ve been stuck in this place for five hours, come on I got shit to do!”
Those were just some of the remarks Steven and Gilberto heard as the two looked out at the scene in front of them. The would-be passengers were demanding answers on just why their flights were canceled because of a harmless light in the sky, many convinced that this was the famed TSA genius at work here. A few even going on about aliens or some government conspiracy or some other kind of theory.
Gilberto and Steven looked out at the scene and suddenly, like never before, they felt the life being sucked out of them at the realization that they were going to be one of the many poor bastards that would have to handle this mess and get yelled at.
“There is no way in Hell I’m going to be able to do this without a coffee.” Steven sighed with pure despair, deciding to hold off on his punishment for a little longer by going on a coffee run.
“Wait.” Gilberto said while fishing his hand into his pocket for a couple of dollars. “Bring me back one…With all the sugar!” he continued, handing his friend the money for the drink that just might give enough energy to survive the next few hours.
“Sure. You coming along?” Steven asked, wondering if he would take the opportunity for a quick break.
“No. I’ll just sit here for a minute and rest.” Gilberto replied, taking a seat on one of the nearby benches. Steven only shrugged at his reply and left to get the coffee. Gilberto buried his head into his hands, rubbing his face and wondering just why his night had to degrade into having to deal with what could turn into an angry mob. As he sat there, alone on a bench in an airport, only one thought ran through his mind.
This was going to be a long night.
Camp Phoenix - US Army Base
Kabul, Afghanistan
4:35 AM (7:05 PM EST). Five minutes before veil across America disappears.
“Well…would ya just look at that.” Private James “Sin” Sinclair uttered, nodding his head with an impressed look at the beautiful gold and purple light dancing in the early morning sky above the Afghan desert.
Private James was born in a small town in the Georgian countryside, joining the Army months after he finished high school, mostly to follow the family tradition of first born men in his family joining the Army as soon as they were eligible. That, and spending another four years in school didn’t really appeal to him, but he would never tell his family that.
Despite most people thinking that the general geography of Afghanistan as being nothing more than endless desert, the country actually had several mountains and grassy plains, reminding the young man of home a little when he had the time to reflect. Almost exactly like home, except for occasional group of crazies that try to kill him and his patrol squad or strap bombs on animals that were in their patrol path.
“I know, it looks amazing. I always thought that these, uh, whatever they’re called only appear in Alaska or Antarctica, with the penguins.” the soldier next to him, Private Alex replied.
After a minute with the veil still in the sky, James began to feel a little tired and lightheaded. Odd, considering he had taken a decent nap earlier and had been guarding the gates of the camp at night for about a few months now. The sensation soon began to change to one of pain as he felt pressure being pushed down upon his head.
“Ugh, my head is killing me.” James complained as he rubbed his forehead, hoping to ease the pain. The slight pounding in his head was about as bad as taking a rock upside the head, of which he had the honor of experiencing at least twice in his lifetime.
“Dammit gonna need an aspirin for this.” He said and was about to turn to leave when a scream nearly ruptured his eardrums.
“Argghh! Goddammit, my head!” Private Alex exclaimed in pain, falling to his knees and clutched his head with both hands. The pain going through his head was comparable to a church bell ringing right next to him. His legs kicked wildly, even kicking James by accident, as he thrashed around shouting about the pain.
“Alex!?” James asked before turning his head to shout. “Hey I need some hel-” he stopped before he could finish, seeing a sight that horrified him. Almost everyone that was outside was on the ground or clutching their heads as if they were trying to block out a loud, nonexistent noise. He didn’t know if the ones on the ground were either dead or simply unconscious. He could clearly see a few of them had begun to vomit from the noise, but this was beyond him.
‘Is this some kind of sound gun?’ He thought, he had heard of something similar being used on ships against pirate attacks near Somalia but on this scale. ‘And why am I alright?’ He wondered when his radio began blaring noise.
There was screaming and shouting all around him as everyone on base began to feel the same, either they were awoken from sleep by the noise or the shouting, James began to wonder if the locals were feeling the same or could hear their screams.
James tried to pick up his friend and carry him to the clinic when he fell to the ground. The world had started spinning and the ground felt uneven under his body. A ringing then started in his ears and only got louder and louder. He shouted in pain but couldn’t hear himself over the sound of the ringing.
He was soon on the ground. Despite the pain being so unbearable, he still remained conscious, but not for long. James collapsed to the ground, still conscious but barely. His vision was slowly fading to black, he was truly afraid now. Was this it? Was this how he would die? Not by getting shot or being blown up, but by some invisible force that was causing him unbearable pain?
He would get his answer soon enough. Private James succumbed to the pain and closed his eyes for what he is certain for the last time. Before feeling as if he were in a wind tunnel after feeling his body almost crushed by amazing forces and a sensation of weightlessness. It was like being born again, just colder.
USS Kearsarge (LHD-3)
Gulf of Aqaba
2:08 AM (7:08 PM EST). Two minutes before veil across America disappears. Three minutes after all US Army units pass out.
Seaman Charles Murphy was on the deck of the USS Kearsarge running routine maintenance on a HH-60H, the night breeze feeling refreshing to him. Most of his day had been spent either helping maintain or refuel three of the four AV-8B Harrier II V/STOLs or the six SH-60F “Oceanhawk" and HH-60H “Rescue Hawk” helicopters currently assigned to the Kearsarge or repairing about three hallways worth of light bulbs all around the ship. Except for breakfast and lunch he always had an assignment to do aboard the ship and was expected to do so before it became a problem, no different from anyone else on the ship.
“God I miss waking up in the morning, seeing the sun all gold and smiling. I never did like the night. Plus, nothing good ever happens at night anyway. Ambushes? Almost always happen at night. Someone snuck into your house? It was at night of course. Aliens come to shove an anal probe into you? Nighttime.” Charles said to himself to himself as he tried to make the time he spent on his work go faster and distract himself from the urge to constantly check the time.
He was also the only one working on the HH-60H he was assigned to at the moment, giving him no one to talk to but himself to help pass the time.
“Maybe if I’m lucky I can talk to the Captain and get swapped to a day shift.” He continued, unaware of the event that would make the day shift look much more appealing than it already was to the Seaman.
Compared to the other stars in the sky that night, one star was shining only a little brighter than the others wouldn’t be given much notice beyond a half second look. But when said star starts to glow as bright as a raging inferno, that will grab the attention of anyone who spares it more than a glance. The light from the star grew brighter and brighter by the second until it was the brightest star in the sky.
“Finally.” Charles sighed with relief as he finished up maintenance on the helicopter. “All fini-” He cut himself off as he, along with everyone else on the deck (and likely whoever would be in the bridge at the time) spotted the huge light in the sky, which by now had grown to almost epic proportions.
Despite it feeling like an eternity to all in attendance, thirty seconds of pure silence passed by, as everyone was looking at the light as it continued to glow. Some with their mouths hanging open, doing their best imitation of a fly looking at a bug zapper.
The glow was so bright that it began to feel like sunrise with some of the sailors blinking their eyes as if they were looking at the sun, their only proof that this wasn’t the sun was the position of other stars above and the fact that this new mini sun had only appeared moments ago.
“Holy shit.” Charles said in one short breath right before the light in the sky, for lack of a better word, exploded. Perhaps, exploded wasn’t the right word, but it was the closest one they could think of for what it just did. The light had suddenly turned into a blinding white flash, affecting all who had made eye contact with it. Unlike a normal explosion, it didn’t create an ear shattering boom. Then again, what was normal about the entire situation?
As everyone around him was blinded and disoriented by the light, Charles still had enough sense of mind to wonder just what caused the flash to appear. There was no way it could have been a missile of any kind. Missiles never emit a flash before they explode and it would have been detected before it even reached the ship, everyone on board would’ve been called to battle stations immediately. If Charles thought it were possible, he was sure God himself had opened a portal leading to the gates of Heaven.
‘Shit and I used to talk smack behind Grandma’s back for taking me to church….sorry granny, can you put in a good word for me?’ Charles thought as he fell to his knees, his vision still momentarily blinded by all white light. He couldn't resist the urge to rub his eyes with his hands as hard as he could.
The flash, as fast as it had appeared, had just vanished. Though most of the Kearsarge’s crew was still blind and disoriented, unable to even tell that that light was gone. It had taken a few moments before some of the crew on deck regained their bearings and more crew from within the ship were awoken.
Some tried to comprehend just what had happened. Charles was among the first to recover, only to find that the armament of the Kearsarge had some new additions to it, the ship suddenly groaning from the instantaneous addition of tons and tons of new equipment that wasn’t there before.
“Jesus Christ. How the hell did this get here?” Charles asked aloud, rubbing his left eye which was still blinded, as he spotted a US Army issue M1A2 Abrams resting right in the middle of the runway, its engine still running as if it had been on patrol or maneuvers all this time. Charles also looked around the ship, spotting several other vehicles such as M1126 ICVs and Humvees scattered throughout the deck, with their occupants inside unconscious just like their comrades sprawled across the deck. A few of them were groaning and twitching while some were holding themselves in pain.
“HEY!” Charles heard a voice called out loudly from the ocean. If this were a normal night, he would have just passed it off as nothing, but after the events so far, for all he knew, it was probably a kraken or something trying to lure him to his death.
Despite this thought Charles worked up some courage and jogged to the edge of the ship, where he looked down and felt his pulse quicken.
Instead of a mythical sea monster calling out to him, he could see a US Army soldier waving towards the ship, hoping to get out of the water before a shark came along for a midnight snack.
“Get me outta here!” The soldier yelled out “I’m not the only one here.” he continued, referencing the other soldiers that were either signaling for help as well or those face down in the water, not moving at all. A few unlucky bastards were even sinking slowly below into the dark ocean. The few soldiers that were conscious were doing their best to help keep the still comatose ones from sinking but it seemed to be a difficult fight against the cruel ocean.
“Oh God! Hey, get some lights down there! I see people down below!” Someone yelled, also noticing the soldiers in the ocean. Several others had already complied and turned on the searchlights on the edge of the ship, while others scrambled to the lifeboats on the side of the ship to get them out of the water.
“Man overboard! Man overboard!” another sailor shouted as countless life preserver vests were thrown to the soldiers in the ocean along with any other flotation devices on hand.
“Charles!” the Seaman who yelled out for someone to turn on the lights said to him, “I’ll need your help getting them out of the water. Come on, quick!”
Charles followed closely behind the Seaman as they both ran as fast as they could to the nearest lifeboat to save as many lives as they could.
“Press the button so we can get this thing in the water.” He told Charles, referring to the lift system that would lower the lifeboat into the water.
Charles pressed the button, the boat beginning to lower as soon as he pressed it. Charles quickly got in as the boat began lowering into the dark waters below.
By the time the two had reached the waters, all searchlights aboard the Kearsarge were on, bringing light to the dark waters below and two of the HH-60H Rescue Hawks on board soared into the air to provide assistance to the lifeboats already in the water.
“Only two of them in the air?” Charles wondered, still thinking to himself, despite the important task currently at hand.
“Ehh, their crews must’ve been the closest ones on hand at the moment. Everyone on the ship must still be waking up or can’t see yet.”
Once the boat had touched down onto the water, Charles revved the motor, turning it on after two strong pulls of the cord. They navigated the boat towards the soldiers still in the waters, struggling against the ocean’s current, for the sake of their survival.
“Over here!” One of the soldiers yelled towards Charles’ boat, struggling to keep both himself and an unconscious comrade from being swept away by the waves.
“I got ‘em!” Charles shouted to his shipmate, quickly tossing a life preserver out to the stranded soldiers, the one that was still conscious latched his left arm onto the life preserver, his right arm still holding tightly onto his unconscious friend.
The soldier grabbed the preserver, hanging on for dear life as much as he could with only one arm available to him at the moment. His right arm was already feeling tired from barely keeping his friend’s head above the waves with all the weight he of the equipment he had on him.
As soon as he grabbed firmly onto the life preserver, Charles began to tug them both towards the boat. He struggled a bit in the beginning, he wasn’t expecting the combined weight of both men to be that heavy. This was also his first time performing a water rescue. He had already received training on the basics of rescuing a man overboard during basic of course.
But this was his first opportunity to actually use the training, because usually a SAR (Search And Rescue) team in an HH-60H would be sent out for rescue operations. Nevertheless, Charles still pulled them both towards the boat, determined to save as many lives as he could tonight.
“Almost got ‘em.” Charles informed his shipmate when the rescued soldiers were now at the side of the boat. Once the two soldiers had reached the boat, the one that was still conscious let go of the life preserver he had been holding on to all this time, only to clutch onto the side of the boat to stabilize himself. Charles would have sworn the guy had a damn kung-fu grip with how hard he was squeezing onto the boat.
“Take him first!” the exhausted Soldier shouted, referring to the soldier he had been carrying all this time, who looked like he had stopped breathing. In one swift motion, and a cry of effort, the soldier carefully swung his comrade closer towards the side of the boat. Charles reached out towards the unresponsive soldier, grabbing him from under his arms, and hefting him aboard. The conscious soldier soon followed after.
Once they were both aboard, Charles took a look at the formerly unconscious soldier, who was now lying on his back, unmoving and wasn’t breathing.
“Listen to me.” Charles instructed calmly to the conscious soldier, who aside from still looking a bit confused as to how he had ended up in the middle of the ocean in the first place, didn’t seem to have any injuries.
“I have to get your friend here breathing again. You’re still able to stand and move, so take this” Charles continued while handing the soldier the life preserver he had used to bring him in moments ago. “and throw it as far you can to anyone who looks like they’re about the drown.”
The soldier only nodded as a reply, knowing full well that time was of the essence here and deep down the man was thankful to have a task to focus his mind on other than the possibility his friend might have drowned in his arms. Once he had turned away to assist in the rescuing, Charles quickly turned his attention to the soldier on the floor of the boat.
After confirming that the soldier no longer had a pulse, Charles removed the soldier’s tactical vest and began performing CPR by pressing the heel of his right hand on the center of the soldier’s chest and pressing down on the center of his chest.
‘Come on man, don’t be dead. Let this be a good rescue.’ Charles thought in his mind before he repeated the CPR steps in his mind.
As Charles continued to perform CPR, a dozen thoughts began to fight for dominance of his mind once he began to analyze the situation. Just what the hell caused that light? Where did all these Army soldiers come from? Was any other ship experiencing something like this? Would this guy even make it to tomorrow? Will I make it?
The only thing Charles was truly sure of at the moment was how much more he hated the night even more now.
“Another thing to add to the list.” He mused, almost laughing from stress.
“Bright flash that teleports people to the middle of the ocean? Happens during the fucking night.”
Canterlot Castle
Canterlot, Unified Kingdom of Equestria
12:00 AM. Midnight
Princess Luna had taken the time after her night court tonight to observe her sky from her personal balcony in the castle, the one that was adjacent to her royal chambers and had her telescope. The sky was clear of clouds and the moon was full, allowing for a near perfect view for all of the endless and wonderful expanse of stars. A veritable ocean of them with each star twinkling and shining down upon Equestria. But despite the beauty, something was very wrong.
To the common pony, the night would have looked as majestic as any other. But to Luna, tonight, for some inexplicable reason, felt different to her. Not because of something she had done to it, rather she had the feeling that something far out of either her or her sister’s control was going to occur. Something which had her noticeably on edge.
One of Princess Luna’s personal night guards, Sergeant Night Shade, had noticed Luna’s worried expression and was mentally debating with himself whether or not to ask the Princess of the Night if she was alright or if she needed anything. Normally, a guard’s main duty was laying down their life for either of the princesses, not making small conversation with them, giving a possible assassin a chance to sneak up on them both and take the princess’ life before he could react.
He quickly cleared his head of such dreadful thoughts. As long as he was a guard of the Princess of the Night, nopony (or rather, nobody) with nefarious purposes would ever get that close to her. Deciding that her current slightly distressed expression could imply an impending threat to both the Princess’ and Equestria’s security, combined with how Luna and her sister were usually lenient rulers, he decided to simply take a chance and ask her.
“Princess Luna?” Night Shade had spoken finally which, unknown to him, caused the regal ruler to widen her eyes in surprise at suddenly being taken out of her trance of thought.
“I could not help but notice your distressed appearance. Is everything alright my lady?” Night Shade said in his most respectful tone.
“Umm, uhh… yes Sergeant. I am fine.” Luna answered, putting on a smile but was noticeably disturbed by being interrupted while in deep thought.
“I apologize for disrupting you, your majesty. I only meant to check for your good health.” Night Shade apologized and added a bow of his head, suddenly wondering if his job was now on the line. “I also apologize for overstepping my boundaries as a guard, your highness.” He said and bowed lower, his lips almost touching the polished marble floor.
“It is fine Sergeant Night Shade, please stop apologizing like a foal whose hoof was caught in the cookie jar.” Luna replied, somewhat exasperated as the feeling of lack of control began to occupy her mind more by the minute. But she didn’t want her loyal Night Guards to feel her anger when all they wished to do was help her.
“Of course princess.” Night Shade said simply, rising from his bow and deciding not to push the matter anymore while Luna went back to overlooking her starry night sky. After five minutes of continuous silence however, Luna had decided to speak to the Sergeant once more.
“Sergeant Night Shade.” Luna spoke softly, to which Shade responded to by immediately snapping to attention.
“Yes your highness?”
“Be honest, what exactly made you ask about my condition?” Luna inquired, curious whether or not Night Shade had the same feeling of loss of control as well. It felt almost as if somepony had broken into her home and she didn’t know what had been stolen, or left behind.
“Well Princess,” he began “I simply noticed how conflicted you looked while observing your night sky. I had noticed that the last time you had the particular look, Discord broke free of his prison the following morning. It lead me to wonder if another threat to Equestria was going to return.” He said and kept his eyes forward on the Alicorn whose well-being was his duty.
By the time he had finished, Luna had an impressed look on her face, along with a sly smile. She was impressed that her guard could deduce such a conclusion by simply observing her facial features. She put aside her amazement for now and continued speaking to the Sergeant.
“In all honesty Sergeant.” Luna began but took a moment to pause and fully collect her thoughts further.
“I am not sure what it is. I feel as if an event has happened that shall not only affect Equestria, but the entire world of Equus.” Luna finished, suddenly finding herself scared at the thought of something coming that, for all she knew, could be completely invulnerable to the power of the two regal sisters and the Elements of Harmony. The thought made a small chill run up her spine as fast, as if the weather Pegasi had decided that now would be a good time to lower the temperature. Or like the time she had tried to play a prank on her sister with a bucket of ice water but ended up spilling it all over herself.
“Your majesty, if this event you speak of does indeed turn out be a threat to Equestria, then I along with every single guardspony within the kingdom shall fight to our last breath to defend our homeland.” Shade stated proudly in an attempt to reassure the Alicorn. It was an odd thing having to comfort one so powerful, and did nothing to make Shade feel better about this whole thing if it turned out that something had indeed arrived with the power to threaten to entire world.
“Seems like we have monsters and villains coming out of the woodwork these days.” Shade thought to himself.
Luna smiled, only this time it was a genuine smile, one that represented how proud and grateful she was of her guardsponies, she had zero doubt that the mares and stallions of the Royal Guard would defend Equestria with all their might or die trying.
“Thank you Sergeant Night Shade, for both speaking your concerns and for demonstrating your loyalty to me.” Luna thanked the guard sincerely. Night Shade’s only reply was to bow respectfully, though he beamed with pride on the inside at Luna’s praise and almost felt like giggling like a foal at the praise he was just given by the princess.
After a moment of praise, Night Shade rose back up from his bow, only to witness the Princess with her forelegs perched on the balcony railing along with her wings spread out ready to take off. Before she did however, she turned her head towards Night Shade.
“Sergeant, I am going to for a flight alone to clear my head. I should not be gone for long. You are to stand guard outside of my chambers until you are relieved of your duty or given further orders from your commanding officer. Is that understood?” Luna issued the order, all while casting a neutral look upon her face as she has issued this order thousands of times in her life span.
Night Shade’s only reply was to salute with his right foreleg while proudly standing straight, eyes towards the princess. Luna’s own reply was nothing more than a quick nod of her head and an extension of her wings as she leaped off of the balcony and soared majestically into the night sky, far above the line of sight of anypony on the ground.
Due to a lack of wings, Night Shade could only watch in wonder and awe from the balcony as Luna flew away with amazing speed and grace, the shape of the princess becoming smaller and smaller until she was nothing more than a speck in the night sky which was soon blocked by a passing cloud.
Before he set off to take up his post again at the lunar princess’ bedroom door, Night Shade stopped for a moment to think. He wondered if Luna was overreacting slightly to just some thaumic anomaly, that a simple feeling would mean that an imminent threat Equestria and beyond was on its way sounded rather far-fetched when one thought about it.
Of course, he would never suggest that to Luna herself, for it would be a nice way to surely get demoted both in rank and probably getting assigned to guard Prince Blueblood. The thought of becoming the personal guard of the pretentious snob alone was enough for the experienced guard to want to climb up to the top of the castle and jump off it.
Night Shade put the thoughts away and stood at his position near the entrance to Luna’s room, his mind wandered again to the princess’ worries. He hoped that another threat wasn’t on its way again, there had already been enough craziness going on in this country. What with Nightmare Moon’s return, the release of Discord, a changeling invasion of the capitol, and just recently some maniacal mare had decided that it would be a bright idea to dig up a cursed artifact and take over some backwater farming town in the hope of dominating Celestia’s star student in the field of magic.
‘Next thing we know we’ll be given orders to try and seal the gates of Tartarus to hold back some new long forgotten bad guy.’ Shade thought with a half-smile and shook his head.
‘Better not tempt fate’ his smile faded as he thought and emitted a long and tired sigh once he really realized just how much had happened within the last few years. Even if it was just one time, he just wished something relatively good would happen for once. It’d make his job a hell of a lot easier.
‘Maybe friendly aliens who wish to trade. Yeah that would be nice. Aliens are cool.’ Night Shade thought and stared forward, thinking and hoping things would be better this time.
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.
