Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46

[Andreah]

((I needed an origin story for a couple of my characters, and I thought using an alternate dimension could be interesting, especially if dystopian conditions could lead to  complicated pasts, unusual attitudes, and even prejudices out of the ordinary from our world. This Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46 represents a world where two nations that have been best of friends for a very long time in reality become mortal enemies and face mutual extinction to a new threat.))

 

Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46: Spencer Memorial Technology Center, Federal Republic Super Force, 15 Kilometers outside Lawrence, Kansas

 

The fences were being assaulted. Uniformed security forces defended the base perimeter from hastily dug-in positions. A battle raged furiously, but the exchange of fire was one way - those assaulting the base had no weapons. 

 

No weapons that could be seen as such, at least. They walked, ran, lept against the fences. They walked, ran and lept into the ditches. Many were hugely fat, others were grossly distorted. Heads bent back sharply, with open maws filled with tentacles. Arms twisted and held high, with fern-like fronds extending from spread fingers like bizarre antennae. Strangely colored protuberances and huge boils from all parts of their bodies, only shreds of clothing remaining.

 

They would take fire, and slow down. Unless that fire was actually fire. Fire worked well. It slowed them down a lot. But it did not stop them. Sometimes they would get up and start walking again. Without arms, without heads. With legs missing they would crawl. Sheets of fire flew out from flamethrowers. The things would catch fire and burn in heaps. There weren't enough flamethrowers. Earlier, there had been aircraft to deliver napalm, but orbiting counter-air had taken a toll, and now, nothing on the planet flew. 

 

The burning heaps moved. They undulated and bled out goo from the bottoms. The goo sank into the soil and the grass trembled. One body came very close, and fire was called out for it. Too late, the grossly corpulent body exploded; throwing out hundreds of slimy finger-sized worms. The worms hit the ground for a dozen meters around the husk and start crawling. One worm hit a defender on the face, and he screamed in pain as it started burrowing into his left eye. Another soldier shot him in the head and ran. Headshots help, but only to slow them down.

 

The defenders were thrown into disarray, trying to get away from the certain death crawling at them. More explosions of worms commenced, and the surface facility was overrun as the entire security force, locked outside out of the secure areas, was Ravaged. From high above, a bolt of lightning struck down. A straight line; reentry plasma lighting the path of a warhead. The ABM system was silent. Megatons of energy released from the gamma flux enhanced weapon and finally, the worms were stopped cold. But only here. In the distance, more bolts of destruction came down from high. But there weren't enough warheads; the line of advance of the infection stretched across the state, through Nebraska and the Dakotas to the north, over through Missouri to the river and down to the gulf. More on the western side of the continent. More in southern Africa, and across Asia. There simply weren't enough nukes. And even if there had been, well, that would've been another kind of problem, too.
 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Andreah

[Andreah]

Spencer Memorial Technology Center Research Bunker Delta-9, one hundred and fifty meters below ground.

 

A voice comes out over the intercom. "Shunting main power to capacitors. Exofluid revolutions up to four point seven megahertz."

 

Technicians gathered around banks of consoles furiously work controls.

 

"Ready countdown; five, four, three, two, one, mark!" a supervisor calls out.

 

The capacitors discharge, and the spinning exotic matter fluid inside a channel on the floor came abruptly to a halt. Brilliant electrical discharges flash up out of the toroid in all directions, hitting conductors placed to intercept, leaving a glowing surface behind. Tiny ripples in the field appeared, no more than millimeters high, and then more, and more; chaotic waves steadily building in length and amplitude within it.

 

"Exterior security is out, lock-down protocol engaged. We get one good connection, everyone goes through. Stand ready. This is for all the beans, folks."

 

"Source portal stable; managing surface turbulence within parameters."

 

"Destination portal confirmed and stable. Initiating probe extension."

 

A long pole with a cluster of instruments extends down through the shimmering surface.

 

"Transit confirmed. Quantum uncertainty confirmed. Lightspeed confirmed. Gravitational constant confirmed. Free space permeability confirmed. Positive matter confirmed. Radiation count low. Local gravity normal. Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere confirmed. Destination portal is -powered-!  ... Locking ... now ... Locked!"

 

"Withdraw probe. Send--"

 

The ground leaps and the room shakes. "Nuke strike! High megaton range! Secondaries inbound!"

 

Centered above the portal, two people stood on a gantry. One, a man in powered armor emblazoned with national symbols and a woman in a close fitting military uniform. The first, serenely confident; the second unsettled and alert. Behind them, down the gantry stairs, more pairs of people waiting in line. More military personnel, people in lab coats, others in the mixed outfits of technicians, managers, executives, even civilians, rich and poor. The woman glances behind her to one group of civilians in the line. Eyes make contact, and heads nod slightly to each other. The woman stands steadier and readies herself to drop into the portal as soon as the directive is given. 

 

The ground leaps and the room shakes. "Nuke strike! High megaton range! Secondaries inbound!"

 

The undulating surface of the portal shocked angrily. Silvery waves surging inches high, taking on rainbows of color, droplets of portal surface separating and evaporating with electric discharges. It was going unstable. 

 

"Team one, NOW! Go, go, go!"

 

The two step off the gantry, and fall through the portal, as explosions rake across the portal room. The other teams won't make it, much less the billions of people already dying in the cataclysm above.
 

Edited January 11, 2020 by Andreah

[Andreah]

--- Portal Corps Official Record, Do Not Destroy ---
** Memorandum for Record 29 April 2019 **
** Subject: Gate Anomaly 2-20190429213405 **
** Testimony Summary of Senior Gate Tech Robert G. Andersen **

 

Several groups of heroes had been using Portal Generator Two through the night, and Generator One took primary on schedule early in my shift. At this time I began to conduct routine gate resonance calibration. As I was getting through section 2 of the checklist, axial coherence fluctuated twenty three percent, and I pushed the emergency response. Something had locked onto gate two, and was establishing a transfer link. The membrane flashed, and I saw a machine of some sort extend out about two feet from the center of the gate. Cyclical resonance was optimal, so I still had positive control. I was about to hit the link cutoff, but then on my monitor, which was zoomed onto the device coming through the gate, I saw the flag. It was off a little; colors were wrong and it had too many stars on a black background, but it was recognizably American. I quickly checked my other readings which confirmed it was a Delta-band line, and Delta Protocol does not require emergency disconnect, but calls for securing the gate and establishing quarantine. The device in the gate withdrew back to the connecting dimension, and then the gate flashed, grew turbulent, and the two subjects came through, feet first, and fell onto the platform. Then the link severed from the other end.

 

This was when the ready team entered the portal room; two squads of gate security, and the two duty heroes, Ultrastreak and Mister Astounding. I engaged the quarantine field when Ultra  and Astounding were on the platform, while security covered them from outside the field, as per normal procedure. 

 

The two heroes attended the two bodies; one was a male, fairly large, in a powered armor suit. I saw lights on it as it came through, but they were already dimming and the suit was motionless. The woman had collapsed onto the platform floor, and then pushed herself up. I heard her scream through the field, and she began pounding the platform with her fist. The room shook. Ultra and Astounding attempted to restrain her until decontamination finished.

 

The woman fought against the heroes and had to be sedated via Mister Astounding's psionics. The man was pronounced dead. 
 

[Andreah]

--- Portal Corps Official Record, Do Not Destroy ---

** Memorandum for Record 29 April 2019 **
** Subject: Gate Incident 20190419-B3 **
** Dimension: Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46 **

 

On 0948 UTC April 19th, 2019, Peregrine Complex Portal Generator Two suffered anomalous activation on axis +3.71,-0.42,+1.22, delta-zeta phase, with synchronization A-35 and amplitude 17.46. Two humanoid subjects passed through, and were immediately intercepted by gate security. Subject one expired within minutes due to dimensional shear stress. Subject two survived transit due to apparent metahuman condition. 

 

Subject one was wearing an inactive exoskeletal combat suit, apparently destroyed during dimensional transit. Identifying marks were limited to dog-tags, equipment serial numbers, and a shoulder patch resembling an American flag in Scarlet, White, and Black with 88 stars. Radiation residuals consistent with nuclear fallout were detected and sanitized prior to securing body. Personal data review of subject one later identified him as Colonel Robert Harriman, Commander, 3rd Kansas Cybernetic Regiment, Tactical Operations Command, Federal Republic Super Force. 

 

Interview of subject two identified her as one Jeanette Winters, citizen of the North American Federal Republic of the source dimension. Subject two speaks unmodified American English and was readily apparent as a meta-human with high strength and toughness. Subject identified herself as being a Lieutenant Colonel in the same Tactical Operations Command of this Federal Republic Super Force. Both subjects had fled through an experimental dimensional portal to escape "The Ravagers" which had been about to overwhelm their base near the ruins of Lawrence, Kansas. Later debriefing revealed "Ravaging" to be local dimensional term for biogenetic plague approximating Earth-1-1 Devouring effect. 

 

Further debriefing revealed subject's dimension had been heavily militarized with frequent outbreaks of large scale fighting up into Level-3 nuclear exchanges. Largely bi-polar geopolitical structure with main antagonists being a North American superpower dominated by a United States follow-on nation against a British-European superpower. Subject two vehemently insisted British empire was a totalitarian dictatorship which had been the aggressor in many conflicts with democratic North America for over two centuries. 
 

[Andreah]

--- Portal Corps Official Record, Do Not Destroy ---

** Memorandum for Record 02 May 2019 **
** Subject: Dimensional Divergence Analysis Report **
** Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46 **

 

Following are summary notes of recollected historical events from extended debriefing of Incident 20190419-B3 Subject Two to delineate dimensional divergence within the Delta-Zeta-17 cluster. Reader advised no testimony or rebuttal available from opposing geopolitical side.

 

1776, Beginning of Revolutionary war in British North America. No deviations identified prior to date, consistent with other known Delta-Zeta phase dimensions.

 

1783, War continues in North America, with American colonies fighting war of independence with British forces through period. 

 

1803, Napoleonic wars in Europe start. American Colonies continue to fight for independence. British forces hard pressed to fight in North America and continental Europe simultaneously.

 

1806, British reluctantly abandon colonies in North America. United States established.

 

1806-1818, Large numbers of immigrants flee war-torn Europe for North America.

 

1819, Emperor Napoleon killed on battlefield. War in Europe begins to wind down. British forces resume war in North America invading United States.

 

1821, Napoleonic Wars end with France devastated, Russia in throws of revolution and Great Britain in control of most of Western Europe. King George III declares Empire of Europe, with Himself as Emperor. War in North America with the United States continues until 1824. The United States takes over all former French territories in North America, and lays formal claim, if not control, to all former Spanish territories there as well. Border to Northwest with British possessions remains unsettled, with frequent skirmishes and raids with British and indigenous allies.

 

1834-1837, Great North American War. Emperor George IV attempts to seize former French and Spanish territories from the US. Under President Jackson's three terms, the British assault is beaten back, and war in North America ends in a draw. South America is taken by the British European Empire. 

 

1838-1862, British society militarizes to enforce control over Europe and South America. Attempts to take additional territory generally thwarted by local insurgencies led by French and Spanish refugee-fighters. Russian Czar recovers control over Russian territories, continues imperial expansion into South and East Asia. Continuous proxy and border wars in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ferghanas, Mongolia, and Manchuria between British-European and Russian Empires. 

 

1862-1873, Second North American War. American patriots provoke industrializing United States into colonial war with Empire of Mexico. British Imperial forces intervene, and American government nationalizes all slave populations in the south, forcibly inducting all healthy males between 16 and 50 into military service. War fought to stalemate in the south, border stabilizes south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. United States Annexes former Canadian Colonies and all of Mexico north of cease fire line. 

 

1874. President Lincoln manumits all slaves in aftermath of war, uses seized wealth of Canada and Mexico to compensate former owners. Amendments to constitution forbid slavery and civilian forced labor except by national government in times of declared war. Military conscription of whites and blacks alike continues for decades. French language speakers and culture forcibly repressed after attempted succession of Quebec. British European Empire loses control of India to mass uprisings sponsored and supported by Manchu and Russian Empires – nearly a million former colonists killed. 

 

1875-1903. Continued Imperial militarization of Europe, reports of brutal repressions of unrest and local rebellions in Central Europe by Internal Imperial Security come out. Nations of world progress technologically and economically; large-scale national identities coalesce in protracted cold war between American, British, Russian, and Manchurian Empires.

 

1904-1911. The Great World War. Russian and British European Empires fight over Slavic nations. Poison gasses, automatic weapons, mechanized warfare become widespread; Fifteen million dead. Imperial subject states in South America participate heavily. British citizenry in South America expands, forming new ruling class in place of former Spanish elites. Unrest from subject populations increases, British rule becomes radically harsh. Increased ethnic and national hatreds between many world populations enraged by war. Research in hard sciences and engineering becomes nationalized and systematic in all major world powers.

 

April 19, 1919. United States formally reconstitutes itself as the North American Federal Republic. Spanish and English declared national languages. Nominal legal and civil equality between Americans, Mexicans, and Canadians but ethnic stratification of society persists; with White and Black Americans as an informal elite, former Mexicans being the bulk middle class, with British and French Canadians becoming the oppressed lower strata. 

 

July 3, 1920. First self-sustaining nuclear reaction at the Montana Buttes Atomic Research Center.

 

1921-1922. The Atlantic War. Fleets of American and British-European warships clash as British attempt to halt NAFR-Russian Trade. Washington, DC, briefly shelled by Imperial Navy. Battle of Denmark Straits ends inconclusively with fifty dreadnoughts from both sides sunk. Trade resumes across Pacific Ocean and the Bering Route after Russians complete Siberian Rails and Roads project. Tens of thousands of European prisoners from the Great War die in forced rail and road construction in Siberia, Alaska, and northern Canada. NAFR Capitol moved to Detroit-Windsor.

 

1922-1945, Guatemalan and Honduran Wars. British and Americans fight proxy wars in Central America; region's already poor populations undergo continual famines, millions die. Much economic progress and industrialization in North America, especially Mexican areas under Federal control; British Europe, and Manchu Empire in Asia. Stark difference between the rich, industrialized NAFR Mexican States north of the Tehuantepec Demilitarized Cease Fire Zone, and the subsistence poor living in hovels south of it.

 

Jan 1, 1946, Bismarck, North Dakota. Jeanette Winters born to Kenneth and Miriam Winters. Unusual for the times, Jeanette is an only child. 

1946-1950. Rapid technological advances in short interregnum cold war. Both sides intensively research and develop rocketry and nuclear technology towards weaponry and power systems. 

 

1950-1955, East Asian War. Manchu Empire conquers Japan and most of Southeast Asia with American Support. British Imperial troops clash with Federal Expeditionary forces in Thailand. War escalates, with naval and aerial clashes over Western Atlantic. War finishes with most territories in region under Manchu control, but with several small but heavily fortified British Imperial strongholds remaining.

 

August 3rd, 1950. First Space Satellite.

 

February 2nd, 1951. First American in Space.

 

March, 1952. First Imperial in Space.  

 

1950-1955. South Asian War. British European Empire attempts to reconquer Russian puppet-states of Pakistan and India. Fails with high casualties on all sides, especially Russian Empire.

 

1957. In the North America Federal Republic, the Nuclear Force is established, with control over all short and long range nuclear weaponry now deployed by the NAFR. Intense intra-service rivalries between Navy, Army, and Nuclear forces for budgets and prestige.

 

1961. Permanent orbiting laboratories and reconnaissance facilities. Massive Federal Space Launch facilities in Baja and Cuba; similar scale Imperial facilities in East Africa and Diego Garcia.

 

October, 1962. The October War. Short nuclear exchange between NAFR and Imperial Britain occurs due to radar malfunction mistaking American satellite launch as a ballistic missile attack. New York, Baltimore, and Mexico City hit, millions dead. Several other cities spared by Spartan ABM system. British cities of London, Manchester, Paris, and Berlin hit in retaliation strikes before rational minds on both sides bring conflict down from the brink. Both publicly disavow accidents, blame each other. Tensions rise; all-out nuclear war becomes a constant threat but both sides restrain from using nukes against each other's core areas.

 

1963-1970. Major world powers greatly expand nuclear programs, pursue many wild-eyed research projects for advanced weaponry and systems in secret; anti-missile defenses, chemical and nuclear-pumped directed energy weapons, nuclear rockets, miniature nuclear-electric batteries and gamma lasers. Stirrings of concern over atmospheric radiation levels from widespread deployment of nuclear technologies; dismissed due to security concerns. First meta-humans with extraordinary powers noticed; most 'disappeared' by national governments. Use of nuclear weapons in space and on Moon in minor skirmishes not uncommon.

 

June, 1964. Jeanette Winters and 157 other young women arrive at the Federal Nuclear Forces Academy in Colorado to be the first females to attend the formerly all-male school.

 

1964-1969, British Imperials attack South East Asia from their Singaporean Holdout. Numerous small tactical nuclear weapons used against Manchu forces in the field, and three strategic weapons used against Manchu cities in southern China. War ends with American retaliatory strikes against Imperial strongholds. South-east Asia falls into total chaos, Manchu empire breaks up into numerous smaller warring states, major powers withdraw. 

 

1965-1975. Further militarization of space. Orbiting missile defense stations, space control facilities buried on the Moon, and entire constellations of orbiting nuclear weapons. Plans for orbital high-power bomb-pumped ground attack radiation weapons in development.

 

May, 1968. FNFA Class of 1968 graduates. Second Lieutenant Jeanette Winters and 96 other female officers are commissioned, forming fully 10% of the graduating class. Lieutenant Winters is awarded a B.S. in Nuclear Weaponeering.

 

September, 1974. Captain Winters assigned to the Baja Test Site, as Beta Team lead for the Device Effects Prediction Group working on ultra-high yield weapons. 

 

February, 1976. Captain Winters awarded below-the-zone promotion to Major for outstanding work on the Upshot Strake underground test. Test results in new ground penetration weapon designs going operational to threaten deeply buried command and control facilities British Imperials established after The October War.

 

March, 1978. Major Winters completes Master's Thesis by correspondence in Nuclear Weaponeering, titled "Fourth Order Yield Boosting via Pinch Accelerated Ion Catalysis"

 

May 18, 1980. Operation Radiant Phalanx culminates in Aqua-Rose device test. 17 megaton device detonated at depth of nine kilometers. Major Jeanette Winters supervises her crew of five for sensor data collection in Instrument Station C-2, four kilometers horizontal from the device. Detonation occurs on schedule at 1530 UTC. Device yield in precisely on-specification; however, undetected mass of Hadeon-Age Thorium and Uranium ores sympathetically detonates, resulting in yield of additional 900 Megatons. Mount St Helens in Washington State, which had been entering an semi-active phase, erupts when shock waves from Radiant Phalanx arrive and trigger landslides.
 
June 24, 1980. Rescue bore-hole and rad-protected extraction team reach Instrument Station C-2 finding the heavily armored station damaged but not collapsed. Ultra-high neutron flux has killed all occupants except one. Major Winters was found comatose. Investigation team finds radiant blue glow from traces of Element 126, Unbihexium-316 and nearby quasi-stable isotopes. Element-134, Impervium-340, also detected. Decontamination followed.

 

September, 1980. Major Winters comes out of coma. Medical examination shows no ill-effects from ordeal, only minor alterations in blood-chemistry; Nuclear Force Nuclear Medical personnel perplexed;  Major Winters' estimated exposure 2.4 million rem was five thousand times the standard fifty percentile lethal dosage.

 

May, 1981. Jeanette Winters medically retired from active duty and moves to Independence, Missouri. Miss Winters fills her time with volunteer work for local charities.

 

June, 1982. South Atlantic War. South Americans slave labor force on Imperial Falkland Islands rebel and overcome Imperial security forces there. Quick reaction NAFR attempt to reinforce rebels and establish forward operating zone in Falklands fails as Imperials use saturation nuclear attacks on the islands. Emperor Charles III declares that any imperial ground Americans take will be burned clean with atomic fire.

 

Jan 1, 1986. Jeanette celebrates her fortieth birthday. Friends and acquaintances continue to be surprised at her youthful appearance. At the time, Jeanette attributed her appearance to exercise, good diet, and healthy living.

 

May 24, 1988. Victoria Crawford born to Lord Edward and Lady Elaine of Crawford on Crawford Estates.
 

August, 1990. Middle Eastern Conflicts. European Empire formalizes annexation of Arab colonial states. Uprisings brutally crushed, several Arab cities and cultural centers sterilized by orbiting radiation projectors.

 

October 19, 1995. Linda Korben born in Columbia, Missouri.

 

Jan 1, 1996. Low-key party for Jeanette's fiftieth birthday with close friends and relatives. Jeanette secretly concerned over her lack of aging.

 

1998. Victoria manifests psionic potential, is tested and graded at Level A for psionics, "Individuals showing direct voluntary ability to influence objects in excess of 50 grams or self-aware minds at a distance up to 50 meters", Level B for clairvoyant precognition, "Individuals showing the ability to know outcomes of radiologically driven random card draws more than one half second in advance and with 75% or greater accuracy, and not more than 5 seconds advance and with greater than 95% accuracy" and Level A for Psychotronics: "Individuals with ability to alter computing memories or instruction sets in progress, at rates sufficient to foil Roberts' counterintrusion systems."
 

March, 2003. NAFR Agents incite riots and rebellions in Middle East, Northern Africa. Imperial forces respond with nuclear and radiation strikes in region and attempt to attack Federal Moonbase One with sequenced nuclear and space marine attacks. American drive off assault, and use radiation projectors against Imperial launch facilities in East Africa. Millions of Kenyans die alongside Imperial forces.

 

April 28, 2004. NAFR publicly reveals new "Super Force" military branch; meta-humans who had secretly been conducting clandestine warfare against the Imperials. Imperial Government counters, announcing existence of Imperial "Meta Command". Each side spreads propaganda stories of their own heroic exploits and the others' atrocities.

 

June, 2004. Victoria graduates primary school; receives her certificate in Imperial Service, and spends summer with an internship at Headquarters, Imperial Meta Command, as aide de camp to Duchess Neptune, Director of Special Foreign Operations.
 

Jan 1, 2006. Jeanette Winters turns sixty, receives standard notification from Social Security of ineligibility for retirement due to military pension, citing 1987 law prohibiting "double-dipping" by Federal employees. Jeanette decides to start a second career, and signs with the Paragon Daily Mirror as a Web Correspondent and Columnist.

 

Fall 2004-2008. Victoria attends Evendene Court Meta Academy in Malvern; graduates with Honors in Psionics and Philosophy and receives an Imperial Commission into Meta Command.
 

Jan 1, 2009. Jeanette Winters is concerned by weight-gain of twenty pounds, despite no change in her clothing sizes. Seeks medical attention.

 

Spring, 2009. "Slaughter Spring". Mass uprisings in Middle East against harsh Imperial rule facilitated by new social media technologies. NAFR Super Force and Imperial Metas intervene, causing incredible loss of life and devastation. Tens of millions dead, more regional cities totally depopulated; Charles III declares victory, and publicly awards medals to Meta-Command members "Sir Invincible", "Lady Royal Oak", "Lady Repulse", "Sir Hood", "Lady Warspite" and "Sir Britannia". Announces long-term program to eliminate literacy in subject regions.

 

April 4, 2009. Victoria, now code named "Warspite", performs infiltration and extraction mission during Slaughter Spring. She abducts and extracts a high value target from a defended compound outside Bagdhad, and in the course of this operation, kills NAFR Super Force operative Astounding Man, detonates large cache of hidden munitions, and absconds with her HVT and three gigabytes of resistance data records. Victoria is awarded the Medallion of the Superior Order for this feat. 
 

May 15, 2009. Warspite and a team of three other Meta Command operatives, assault resistance marshalling point, killing hundreds of insurgents, their support elements, apprehending several resistance leadership cells, and causing Super Force to abandon efforts to destabilize the Levant Province. Warspite first manifests ability share precognition within her team and to short-distance teleport teammates in grave danger. Warspite awarded Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, and knighted, alongside her team, personally by Emperor Charles III.
 

Mar 14, 2010. Jeanette Winters' condition defies conventional medical diagnosis; weight gain of fifty pounds, increased skin resilience, increased bone density, and increased muscle fiber response indicate incipient meta-human abilities. Patient referred to Oak Ridge Federal Laboratory for further testing, and notification of a long-term potential candidate was sent to Super Force.

 

Jun 1, 2010. Radiomedical analysis was completed and Subject Two's meta-condition was documented. Catalytic bionuclear reactions were occurring within cell mitochondria alongside their standard ATP biochemical reactions. Reaction rates were low at the time, but increasing, and were replacing normal elements with chemically similar ultra-high Z-number isotopes. Her lack of aging was determined to be from high-efficiency endogenous replacement of tissues and energetic telomerase activity due to Rg-281 deposition. Subject two's weight-gain resulted from bionuclear absorption of environmental fission by-products and natural radionuclides through respiration and ingestion. She had increased strength resulting from the high relative energy production of the bionuclear reactions in her mitochondria. Her increased resilience and toughness were from massive electron-shell binding of multiple hyper-heavy stable nuclear decay products in skin, connective, and structural tissues. Subject two was subsequently referred to Super Force Biomedical Research Division for further monitoring and re-evaluation of meta-human conscription eligibility status, and eventually conscripted into service.

 

2009-2012. Lady Warspite participates in numerous Meta Command operations to counter NAFR activities, suppress resistance, and root-out subversives around the Empire.
 

November 30, 2012. Professor Jonathan Forbyn of the Imperial Internal Security Research Division had a biological accident in a laboratory hidden in the Guyana mountains. Forbyn transforms into an ever expanding Amoeba-like blob monstrosity. Rapidly spreading biogenetic plague accompanies, infecting existing life forms at a viral level. Although man-sized at the beginning, the Forbyn-Blob's unstoppable growth outstrips local and regional ability to manage the crisis. Locals name the effect of the blob's spread the "Ravaging Plague".

 

December 15, 2012. "Last War" begins, as British Imperial Strategic Forces begin all-out nuclear assault in Guyana to halt Ravaging spread as local security forces are infected and mutate first into ravenous monsters, and eventually dissolving into Ravaging slime. NAFR Forces immediately drawn into conflict. Plague spreads at edge of hot zone expanding in all directions as fast as walking speed, The Forbyn-Blob grows as large as a stadium and marauds through jungles, absorbing all living matter, leaving bare rock and pools of infectious slime behind. Refugees are found to be infected as well, with outbreaks occurring and only stopped by high temperature plasma incineration or hard gamma exposure.

 

January 1, 2013. NAFR Forces temporarily stop retreating Imperial Forces at Isthmus of Panama, and attempt to halt stampedes of refugees, many of whom are suspected of being infected. Nuclear weapons used to seal Isthmus, but fail. Orbiting radiation projectors employed, but do not produce the gamma flux intensity needed to kill Ravaging biogenic processes. Further refinement and use of projectors impaired as full-scale war erupts throughout near Earth and Lunar space.

 

2013-2015. Lady Warspite assigned as Meta Support to conventional Eradication Brigades in South America; searching out infected animals and persons spreading Ravaging effect. Such could be detected by skewed mentational processes of infected nervous systems.
 

2013-2018. Rapidly escalating nuclear war by major world powers against Ravaging Plague and The Forbyn-Blob, and against each other; mutual hatreds being far too high to overcome, even in the face of extinction.

 

March 11, 2015. Jeanette is conscripted into Super Force with code name "Major Megaton", participates in multiple three-way clashes with Meta Command forces and Ravaging mutants in the devastated Central American Theater of Operations.

 

December 2016. Warspite assigned to Orbital Command as political-psionic officer to ensure loyalty and responsiveness of operations staff of Radiation Projector Nemesis 12 while it conducts bomb-pumped anti-population sweeps of infected north Africa and Southern Europe. Warspite executes two weapons officers via brain hemorrhage before they sabotage the station's critical bomb-processing "Pit", saving the station.
 

2017. Warspite spends two months in Meta Command rehabilitation, suffering from "shell shock", submits resignation, which is denied -- unknown to the public at large, Imperial High Command expects the Earth to be lost to the Ravaging.
 

May 27, 2017. Linda Korben graduates Ph.D. program in Gravitational Dynamics, Missouri Polytechnic Institute.

 

2018. Doctor Korben conducts post-graduate work at the Spencer Federal Quantum Gravity Dynamo Complex; interrupted by power surge incident and subsequently inducted into Super Force.

 

2018-2019. Climax battles of Last War; tens of thousands of nuclear weapons used. Billions of civilian deaths. Last-ditch research uncovers technique to portal to other dimensions. 

 

January, 2019. Warspite assigned to Project Ultra in a secret facility under the huge military and orbital launch base at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. There, Science Command is constructing a portal generator, which is believed to be able to contact other dimensions, and provide for a means of escape for the Imperial Aristocracy.
 

2019. After frantic construction of single-shot dimensional portals, hundreds of senior NAFR military, civilian scientists, and meta-humans, including subject two, Jeanette Winters, find homes in random scattered dimensions. She believes if other escaped, they could easily have taken the Ravaging infection with them.

 

13 April 2019. Ultra Gate is tested on living matter, the first time. Meta Command security and reconnaisance force including Lady Warspite proceed through. Most are seriously injured by gravitational sheer, only Warspite survives more than an hour on the other side -- and finds herself in custody of strangely dressed and overtly suspicious humans, in some place they call "Grandville".
 

April 2019. Unknwon to Lady Warspite, the Ultra Gate is used succesfully seven times. A number of Meta Command and Imperial Aristocrats find refuge in scattered random dimensions, some approximating Human Earth.
 

2019. Last War ends with Earth overwhelmed by ravaging infection, orbital habitats sterilized by radiation projectors and nuclear warheads, and likely extinction of all higher life forms on and near Earth.

 

21 April, 2019. Warspite is psionically interviewed by Fateweaver Araxxis, told she is a "destined one", inducted into the Fortunata Corps, and referred to Kalinda for disposition.

 

25 April, 2019. Warspite infiltrates Arachnos computer systems and sets herself up with a passport and emmigration permit to leave the islands. Arachnos security notices, but takes no action.

 

27 April, 2019. Warspite arrives in Paragon City, applies for superpowered refugee status, which is granted after interviews and Longbow approval.

 

July 29, 2019. Portal Corp orbital scan shows Diego Garcia site crater consistent with 250 to 500 megaton deep penetrator. No gravitational or portal emanations detected from orbit.

Assessment of radiological residuals on subject two difficult due to high internal nuclear reactivity, but consistent to those from subject one. Dimensional probe dispatched to source dimension and returned with confirmation of unicellular devouring life dominating planet surface, with many large debris fields and cold stations in orbitals. High levels of Radiation detected from orbit down to planet surface. Quarantine level Red-5 advised and travel is prohibited.

 

Addendum, 21 Nov 2019: Additional material from debrief of Lady Warspite, A.K.A., Victoria Crawford added after full debrief and dimensional probe scan. Subject Warspite granted FBSA registration and approval. Longbow maintains surveillance due to subject admitted extra-dimensional military service which would be consistent with war crimes on Earth 1-1. Similar precautionary surveillance levied upon Jeanette Winters, A.K.A., Major Megaton.

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Andreah

[Andreah]

** SERAPH Refugee Status Determination Report, 23 April 2019 **
** Subject: Jeanette Winters, AKA: Major Megaton

 

1. Subject Jeanette Winters, referred by Portal Corps via Unscheduled Remote Dimensional Transfer, case# 1718239, has been examined and interviewed for status determination and disposition. Ms. Winters was cooperative and compliant, despite having undergone severe dimensional transfer and traumatic emotional disturbance.

 

2. Findings of Fact.

(a) Ms. Jeanette Winters, referred from here forward as Subject, is from a Delta-Zeta dimensional timeline cluster, as per Portal Corps report and examination of lingering dimensional shear.
(b) Subject has apparent age and health of early 30's.
(c) Subject confirmed metahuman powers in the security level 50+ range; with strength, resilience, and power.
(d) Subject's claimed origin from nuclear accident consistent with measured radiation traces and elemental makeup of cheek swabbings. DNA was made up of transuranic chemical compounds recognizable in structure as AGCT. Samples extracted from body of deceased co-transferee confirmed as fully compatible with Earth-1-1 biological processes.
(e) Subject's metahuman condition is compatible with Earth-1-1 environmental conditions. Respiration and ingestion are normal, with internal bionuclear processes active but shielded by dense skin. Trace radiation emitted by Subject is within FBSA regulatory norms. 
(f) Portal Corp scans of source dimension confirm extinction of human life.

 

3. Recognized Claims.

(a) Subject was a citizen in good standing of a variant United States, hereto referred to as the North American Federal Republic, or NAFR, comprised of the United States, Mexico, and Occupied Canada.
(b) Subject is presently 73 years of age, with date of birth being January 1st, 1946, from Bismarck, North Dakota (analog).
(c) Subject was a serving officer in a super-powered branch of NAFR's military, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
(d) Subject claims clean criminal and military records.
(e) Subject claimed she and her companion (deceased) were to be the security vanguard for a local group of approximately 200 refugees attempting to flee certain death from her home dimension. Subject believes she is the only survivor of this group. Subject further claims no specific knowledge of other portal facilities by her former government or its adversaries, though abstract multiversal physics was being widely researched, and NAFR had plans to move tens of thousands of refugees out of dimension.

 

4. Findings of Status. 

(a) Subject truthfulness confirmed via biometric monitoring indicating near zero probability of deception. 
(b) Initial physically combative and emotionally distraught state of Subject interpreted by staff psychologist as within normal range response to extreme violence, deaths of compatriots, and loss of her entire nation and world.
(c) Subject experiencing intense survivor's guilt.
(d) Subject has odd prejudices against British, Canadians, and Australians. Subject briefed on prevailing Earth-1-1 social norms.

 

5. Directives on Disposition.

(a) Jeanette Winters, AKA Major Megaton, is hereby granted Permanent Residency Status, work-permitted, with provisional citizenship eligibility hearing on April 23, 2020. Appropriate notifications to be sent to Naturalization and Immigration Service, and Internal Revenue Service Department of Taxpayer Identification.
(b) Provisional Veteran Status notification to be sent to Dimensional Analogs Evaluation Group, Department of Veterans Affairs.
(c) Jeanette Winters to sign Final NDA regarding all nuclear weapons technologies per Department of Energy MoR 2019-04-22-A16b (TS/Noforn) following final DoE debriefing.
(d) Jeanette Winters to be enrolled in SERAPH as Hero, Public Identity, Security Level 50 (Plus*) (Tanker*), and referred to Icon, PPD, Freedom Corps, Hero Corps, and Vanguard.
(e) Notification of residency and employment eligibility to be sent to the Paragon City Commissioner for Refugees and Resettlement.

By my signature it is so ordered,

 

~~Signed~~

 

Jonathan St. John Smythe
Director,
SERAPH
 

[Andreah]

((Character description for Major Megaton ))

 

Name: Jeanette Winters
Date of Birth: January 1, 1946
Place of Birth: Bismarck, North Dakota; North American Federal Republic; Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46 (Restricted Red-5)
Origin: Nuclear Test Accident, May 18, 1980.

 

Jeanette Winters was one of the first women to graduate from the Nuclear Forces Academy. Her career led to an underground nuclear test intended to maintain North American deterrence against the British-European Empire they had fought many devastating wars with over two centuries. The device unexpectedly detonated nearby Uranium and Thorium ore, and caused it to over-yield tremendously. Everyone in the sensor crew was killed, except Major Winters. 

 

She was steadily becoming bionuclear as super-heavy transuranic elements replace their low-mass chemical equivalents. A British scientist caused The Ravaging, and Jeanette's world was utterly destroyed in desperate nuclear war.

Only a few escaped.

 

[Andreah]

(( Character Description for Lady Warspite ))

 

Name: Victoria Crawford
Date of Birth: May 24, 1988
Place of Birth: Birmingham, England; Empire of Britain; Dimension Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46 (Restricted Red-5)
Origin: Natural latent psy ability

 

When her ability was discovered, Victoria was conscripted into Imperial Meta Command; a force of meta-humans as auxiliaries to conventional combat operations, inspire the commoners of the Empire, and most of all, to go toe-to-toe against the American colony's Super Force. As all MC members, she was assigned a code name from a famous Imperial warship of the previous century - Warspite.

 

Victoria has the Medallion of Superior Order, the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, and was knighted alongside several other Metas by Emperor Charles III after the Slaughter Spring suppression in 2009.

 

When the world was destroyed in nuclear war against the Americans, she and a few others escaped to Earth-1-1. 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Andreah

[Andreah]

(( reserving space -- comments below welcomed ))

[BurgerSlave]

Wow. This... is some pretty incredible stuff. And here I thought I put a lot of thought and effort into my character backgrounds. Bravo, ma'am.

[_Kai_]

Very nice!  If you want/need fellow displaced dimensional sorts to chat with, my character Blazelight is also an unscheduled arrival via Portal Corps from a future-tech Earth where something went horribly wrong, she's happy to talk to others. 🙂 

[Andreah]

((It would be cool to get together and chat sometime!

It might even be a good idea to have semi-regular in-character get togethers of dimensional refugees to commiserate and share stories. ))

[_Kai_]

((That would be fun! There has to be some sort of Portal Corps/City Council backed support group for all the people from other places, for sure.  I'm late pacific, global is @Kai , we'll have to find a time to organize something))

[Andreah]

Thursday night, Stanton Memorial Auditorium, Steel Canyon Campus of Paragon University.

 

"As part of our Extradimensional Perspectives series, I'd like to introduce tonight's guest speaker, who will offer a unique first-hand commentary on the prevalent philosophical stance of another world. She comes to us from a Delta-Zeta dimension which endured a tragic history resulting in terrible loss. Our guest had a distinguished career in that world. Born into the Aristocracy of a variant British Empire, daughter of a duke and duchess, graduated with a distinguished certificate in Imperial Service, Lieutenant Commander in their Meta Command, holder of the Medallion of the Superior Order and the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, as well as knighted Dame Commander of the Imperial Guardians. Here, on our Earth, she is an FBSA certified hero managed through ELITE, Cooperative Agent in Standing with the Paragon Police Department, Associate Member of Vanguard, Member of the Freedom Phalanx Reserve, and Member of the Global Defense Force. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Dame Victoria Crawford, also known to the public as Lady Warspite."

 

"Greetings, distinguished professors, fellows, students, friends, and new acquaintances. I must say, ordinarily public speaking is not, as you say, my thing. But after that glowing and overly generous introduction, I am moved to do my best. As Professor Williams prefaced, I am here to speak on the essential nature of my former home's official guiding philosophy. You will find it odd, that a government would be guided so abstractly, instead of by what you call political parties here on this Earth. Some background exposition will be needed.

 

In October of 1760, in my world as well as yours, George III took the throne of England. In your world, he had a long, and somewhat spotty reign, and was heavily checked by Parliament. In my world, he was a Titan of the highest order. He took the reigns of a government split between parties, an aristocracy crass and confident, yet divided and mixed in their views of the future of the Kingdom, and worse, beginning to manifest a deep introversion resulting in both inbreeding and a lack of ruling vigor, both physical and spiritual. In your world, over time, I believe this left the empire unable to guide itself through the storms of the 19th and 20th centuries, ending in a rump state, bereft of its pride and stature, meandering through history, bending to its every wind, living among residues of past glories they no longer appreciate or even wish to preserve. Hold back your outrage a time, and bear with me, if you will.

 

In my world's 1780's, while contesting with the rebellious colonies in North America, the King instituted the 'Georgian Reforms'. A man of great vision and strength of will, he restructured the workings of the Aristocracy. In outward form, the system retained the same feudal forms, structures and hierarchy. But internally, requirements were placed upon it. Rank has privileges, so the saying common to both our worlds goes, and also responsibilities. Well, in my world, rank then took on far, far greater responsibilities. Public service was no longer an abstraction; it was concrete, measured, and required. Inheritance of lesser titles in each generation was assured, but maintenance and enlargement were not. Service to the State; mercantile, industrial, scientific, administrative, or military, would be required. Nor would procreation entirely within the great families be tolerated any longer. This, as you can imagine, was met with resistance. But George III was up to this task. There were penalties, expulsions and executions.

 

And then there were marriages. No title could be passed to a child not of one commoner parent raised. My own father was born the son of a cobbler, but married a Duchess, and became a Knight, Baron, and Duke on battlefields. New blood; even if we lacked the genetical knowledge that came later, was welcomed into the old families. Marriage was less frequently the result of romantic notions of youth, nor obsessions of emotionally stunted bachelors or maids, but rather of wisely paired matches with official sanction. Honestly; the literature of your 19th century is insufferably dramatic and tortured, and I think on this account. 

 

Our Aristocracy became a means of aspiration of the people. With success in private life, or in public service, a commoner could win a place; a mate, titles, authority in governance, a seat in parliament, and even lands to call their own. And not only blood, but lineage. The aristocracy found new ties to the people, new obligations to Britain Herself. And from this Empire was born. King George became His Imperial Majesty George III. In my day, though he bore little resemblance to this England's Prince of the same name, Emperor Charles III reigned, with vision, strength, and will.

 

Simultaneously to George's reforms, the war with Bonaparte did not go well. Your rebellious counterparts in the Americas, and I add fortunately you all here tonight are quite different than that traitorous crowd, allied closely with his armies, caused us to abandon North America, and nearly brought ruin to the continents. In 1821 we killed Bonaparte, triumphed in Europe, and gained the provinces of Gaul, Germania, Italia, and Iberia. Lands to be granted to the many new Houses of Nobility created on battlefields around the world.

 

And then continuing wars; many more than you have suffered here, sadly. Wars with the Czar of All the Russias, wars with the Manchu Emperors, and worst of all, Wars with the United States, and after it swallowed Canada and the Empire of Mexico, The Eighty-Eights States of the North American Federal Republic; a republic in name only, I assure you. Political factions, these parties you struggle with, became moot. Our guiding philosophy we call "Imperialism" -- the Aristocracy, properly following the enlightened popular self-interest of the Nation, leads in all things. We held to the long run; what would we pass to our descendants? Higher status, or lower? Greater lands or lesser? A better world, or worse? Sacrifices made in the short run were not to be avoided, but the be cherished, and lauded as investments in the greater future. Lord Tennyson, one of our great Philosophers, and champion of the Imperialism school, said it best: "To Desire the Ends is to Desire the Means, to Desire the Means is to Desire the Power, and for Power, to Desire the Will." Perhaps you understand better why my world was so different.

 

We were achieving great heights. Some you could hardly imagine. Industrial power a century stronger than yours. Damming Gibraltar. Irrigating the Sahara. Populated stations in orbit, and on the Moon. A bright future for Humanity under Imperial rule was on the horizon. But for the opposition of the Americans, Russians, and Manchu; who all had their own visions of the future.

 

And London, Manchester, Paris, and Berlin radiated wastes; struck by American Hellbombs in the war of October '62. Other places laid waste. Four times in the hundred years such weapons were known, we exchanged them with our great adversaries in the West and East.

Eight years ago, there was an accident in an Imperial Science Command laboratory in Guyana. We had many such; secret laboratories and military installations around the globe and in space. A scientist I only know of as "Forbyn" became a mutated blob of biogenetically virulent virus particles, and began to spread like wildfire. Does this not sound familiar? Quite. According to Portal Corp, the majority of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and especially Delta mode dimensions experience some sort of biogenetic plague. Some, like your Devouring Earth here, are only modestly intelligent and controllably virulent. Some, like Praetoria, are vastly more intelligent, and more virulent. Ours was much less intelligent, not even sentient, and yet incredibly virulent.

 

We killed our world fighting the Americans while trying to stop it. But more than that, our burning desire to dominate the world created it. Sometimes the Power and the Will to use it are too much for the Ends we wish to achieve.

 

Take from this what lessons you may. I know I have. Goodnight, and peace."
 

[Andreah]

Geosynchronous Orbit over the Equator at 18 Degrees East Longitude

 

Imperial Radiation Projector Nemesis-12, Weaponeering Pit.

 

Victoria  stood there, stunned. She'd just killed two men, who'd done nothing more than refuse to kill their own families, and who had been willing to die to prevent anyone else from doing it, either. They paid that price. She'd lept into their minds and snuffed them like candles. And it had hurt. Her head still throbbed like she'd been hit with a spanner.

 

She repeated. "Captain, this is Warspite in Central Weaponeering..." She trailed off, unable to finish.

 

"Warspite? this is Captain Evanston -- where's Ensign Doherty? What is the status over there? The arming interlocks are disengaged! I need that beam energized and on target!"

 

She swallowed, hard. Her vision was clouded, her ears were ringing. Her voice choked, but she pushed. "Doherty and Ross are dead. I'm alone here." She choked. "Replacements are required."

 

"Dead? The Nine Hells; I have no replacements. Damnit! We have bogies inbound! Warspite, take the console. Set condition Alpha, and follow the checklist! Mains will be on line for containment in forty seconds!" Words she did not want to hear, but had no choice but to accept. "Copy."
 

 

The crew of two in the cylinder was nominal for redundancy and safety, with only a jump seat for an observer -- in this case, herself, as political officer reviewing crew drills when this emergency erupted into their laps. But it was designed to be handled by a single operator. She'd been cross-trained on major crew functions. She could do it. She could open the shields, she could engage the pit injectors, she could set the beam path, she could fire the damnable weapon. 

 

Moments of decision. Why was it so hard to see? The orbital battlestation had a crew of ten. Eight now, including her. Sixteen thousand tons of the Empire's greatest Technological Achievements, one of a fleet of twenty, overlooking the face of the entire planet, lofted into orbit at incredible effort, protected by shoals of proximity mines, dragon's teeth, glitter bombs, and piranha darts. Six gigatons of pits, neatly stacked in their magazines, injector rails, containment field generators, blast shield deflectors, and beam collimator arrays.  And on that, an almost minuscule set of operations cylinders. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Long steel spars ending in auxiliary nuclear-electric power systems, gyroscopic stabilizers, docking points, approach and fire control radars, communications antennae, defense grid turrets.  Condition Alpha would open the rad-bay shield doors, lock the magazines to the injector frame, and cycle the injector rails into position. 

 

She had to buckle herself to the command chair. It was not easy. Ross was a big man, and his corpse was heavy, and Warspite was a slightly built woman. She worked the panel, and choked off the words into the comm. "Warspite ... Central Weaponeering On-line. Engaging interlocks.... Now." 

 

Light blinked, levers engaged, and the whole cylinder rocked and shook as the magazine moved between the radiation shields. This would cost her. She could feel the neutrons from the pits, barely sub-critical masses of super-heavy fissionables, in their now unshielded magazines, bathing her and the rest of the station as it was set into Alpha. The panel glowed green. "Alpha ... mark!"

 

Her status display showed a view of the pit injectors. The pits were there, eerily glowing with waste heat, ready to do their work. She continued on the checklist, her voice choking, blinking furiously to keep her eyes clear. "Injector rails are aligned. Central Pit nominal."

 

"Containment generators spinning now. Full power on demand. Stay with us Warspite, you can do it..." Evanston's voice carried artificial calm. He didn't think she could; she felt he might be right. "Enter the following coordinates into your master panel." He read off geodetic coordinates; 41-43.339N, 12-6.334E; 42-30.922N, 14-17.989E. Accurate to the meter, as if that made a difference.

 

They were in, she read them back, coldly, calmly. Controlling her breathing, blinking over and over. She had to wipe her eyes, but her hands had to stay on the master firing controls.  "Warspite reporting Alpha mark. Containment reads nominal. Initiating Beta." The giant station's gyros spun furiously, swiveling the spine of the projector to swing through the pair of coordinates. The arming panel read green. The coding panel stayed red.

"Beta confirmed. Ten seconds." Her voice felt more steady, but it was a lie. The radiation flooding through the station felt like pins and needles. Or perhaps it was her nerves fraying. This was not her job. She was the Political Officer. Morale, Discipline, watchful eyes and stern words. Not operations. Not this.

 

A computerized voice spoke. "Command authorization required." On the comm, the captains voice rang out "Evanston, Reginald C., Lieutenant Commander, Imperial Orbital Command, Authorization Pudding-Yorker-Duff-Apples-Wun-Siks-Niner-Johnnie, Confirm." The coding panel went green.

 

Victoria called out. "Warspite, condition Gamma ready!", and the captain's voice returned "Fire."

 

She squeezed hard on the interlocks in her hands, enabling the weapon to fire.

 

Pits began cycling out of the injectors into the firing tube. Pulsing walls of force struck them, compressed them, and confined them. The barely stable elements in the pits broke apart, releasing incredible amounts of energy; High energy protons, X-rays, Gamma rays, even exotic particles. The injection rate increased; the fires of hell itself erupted inside the containment tube. The weapon's axis traversed through the first of the points she'd entered, and the beam collimator's aperture opened. 

 

On the ground, the Ravaging had not yet reached this far north. Crowds of refugees were still racing up the road network. Mostly on foot, though many in carts or on motorized transport. Serfs, commoners, lower nobility, everyone. The sky lit up with the northern lights at first, only very rarely seen in this part of Italy. Then the air glowed blue. And seconds later, the world around them exploded.

 

The radiation beam carried fifty Megatons of energy per second, and moved at 10 miles per second. Twelve seconds of continuous rapid fire projection, the longest continuous duration the weapon could be energized, all in the form of hard radiation. The air itself ripped apart into atoms, the ground converting to vapor, a strip ten miles wide and a hundred long across the spine of Italy, burnt to radioactive ash. The Ravaging could not cross this, not for a hundred years. But everyone south of the firebreak would fall to it. All it bought was time. 

 

She had done it. And she wanted to die.

 

[Andreah]

Dimension Delta Zeta 17-46, Diego Garcia, Imperial Launch Command Redoubt 14, Meta Command Convalescent Center.

 

"Dame Victoria. I have your results back. Actually, I've had them for some time, but we wanted to grant you more time to recover from your unfortunate experience on the Nemesis platform. The Naval Board approved your actions, of course, and the guilt you felt was entirely natural."

 

"Doctor Evans, please. It was not merely guilt. I had never been in such close proximity before. I felt Ross and Doherty's minds die, and it was my mind's grip that killed them." She hardened her face, and held her will close. She would be strong, and discuss this with matter of fact precision. Her therapists took her through this journey every day. Accept what you did. Internalize the pain. Make it part of you. Know that it was right. Command decisions must be made. Scab the wound over. "They refused lawful orders in a time of war."

 

"Indeed, my lady, they did. You were referred here for recovery convalescence due not only to the traumatic experience of your first command field execution, but also because you had bled into your helmet. As you know, your psiocampus is highly developed, which grants you the extraordinarily powerful psionic abilities that brought you to Meta Command in the first place." The doctor brings a chart up onto the display; a scanner's rendering of her brain in profile, and points to the deep center.

 

"Your psionic organ is fully developed, unlike the normal profile, due to a very rare combination of recessive genes. The reason these genes are rare, is despite the obvious survival value of such powers, other gene expressions which would adapt the remainder of the brain and skull's formation to accommodate its position are even rarer."

"Hence, you have consistent intercranial pressure from the presence and development of yours. This has several effects, which you have already been aware, even if you did not know the precise source, including debilitating headaches, susceptibility to tumorous growth, brain distortion and maldevelopment, and shortened lifespan."

 

"Worse, in your case Dame Victoria, the organ is fragile and already has several small tumors about it which are prone to bleeding, and when you exert your powers to the degree you had in the Nemesis Platform incident, you run that risk, which we determined was the source of the blood which was found in your helmet."

 

"Even when you more modestly exert, you will suffer pain from the resulting swelling. I am afraid there is no treatment. All we could do is mask over the symptoms, and as you know that's counter to Meta Command policy. You will simply have to chin up and bear it."

 

"However, I must strongly insist, Dame Victoria, that you refrain from using the most potent of your abilities whenever possible, lest the organ either grow too large for what little space remains available to it, or worse, or rupture in a more significant manner, and bleed you out. This would be bad for you, and represent a very significant and unacceptable asset loss for Meta Command."

 

Victoria nodded, and remained silent, not finding words.

 

"I am releasing you medically, provisionally, for 180 days. Commander Medusa is expecting you at MC-5 to run you through combat readiness testing. I understand there is mission to Kansas in planning, and you are being tapped."

Lieutenant Evans rises from his chair, raises a fist in salute, and speaks somewhat more loudly. "Lady Warspite, you are hereby cleared for duty. Service to the State and Glory to the Empire!"

 

She stands as well, returning his salute. "Long Live His Imperial Majesty and Death to the Americans!"

[Andreah]

KANSAS

 

January 11, 2018
Diego Garcia
Imperial Meta Command Worldwide Operations Centre
Deep Redoubt Alpha-6, Sublevel 5, HMS Marie Rose Conference Room MC-5

 

"Operation Olympic Strike is approved, and you, Ladies and Gentlemen, will be the Meta Command Expeditionary Group for this deep excursion into Federal Territory." 

 

Duchess Neptune paused while the graphics came up onto the projector. She was an older Meta, highly decorated and a veteran of the South Atlantic war, and currently ran what remained of the clandestine operations of Meta Command; most operations being operated overtly since the 2004 unmasking of the superpowers' various militarized meta groups. Still, a few operations were conducted entirely in secret, both during planning, execution, and in denial afterwards.

 

"Unlike prior excursions, this one will be larger scale and quite risky." The audience of Meta Command operatives and non-meta planners and logisticians, stirred a bit. It didn't phase Victoria; after her experiences on the Nemesis-12 Radiation Projector, it seemed nothing could phase her. Everything around her had a slight shimmer, as if it wasn't real. She could dissociate her surroundings as if she was a passenger in her own body; unfeeling, abstractly watching, perhaps controlling, but not even that, at times. Whatever it was that was required, she could do. Her psychiatric evaluation had noted this issue, but such was their need, it was dismissed and she was here.

 

"The target is the Federal Republic's Technology Centre outside Lawrence, State of Kansas. There will be four teams. Alpha will be primary insertion following orbital battlefield preparation, establish a secure ground level perimeter, and repel ready Republic conventional forces. Lieutenant Commander Excelsior will lead Alpha. Alpha will have his choice of four metas, and six platoons of Imperial Shock Marines. Insertion will be via orbital paradrop."  Two squadrons of Space Command Nike-5 suborbital superiority planes will providing air and space cover. These will be coordinated through Platform Theta, which will have 1.5 seconds of comm latency, worst case." She uses a pointer to indicate the insertion trajectories, oval tracks of space planes, and the field of view of the high-orbit relay station.

 

"Beta Team lands eleven minutes after Alpha, inside the secured perimeter. Beta will form the ground support logistical echelon, clear the extrication site, shown -here-, and assemble the extrication launchers. They will have no more than 205 minutes to complete this. This is critical, and without Beta's successful completion of the task, all four teams will have to fight their way out against rapidly escalating Federal power. Your alternative extrication routes are to the south, and terminate in Antarctica. Lord Blood will lead Beta." Victoria gazed over towards the inhumanly old meta Neptune had named. In fact, he was the first Meta known to exist in the Empire, and his powers were largely unknown and his stature such that he'd kept his codename from before the formation of the Command. "Sir, you will have your choice of powered personnel, and two platoons of conventional engineer troops to use. You will find an envelope in your briefing pack with special instructions for your eyes only."

 

"Gamma Team will be lead by Lieutenant Capricious. Gamma's task is to effect penetration into the research facility, neutralize all Federal forces within the facility, including the Super Force attaches." There was an unsettled murmur through the group, but she continued. "Several Super Force agents will be encountered. Captain Kinetic, Detroit's Finest, Eighty-Eight States, and Doctor Philadelphia are confirmed present. Other suspected to be on site could include Yellowstone, Major Megaton, Swamp Terror, and Trials of Salem. Gamma will be spearheaded by a detachment of eight metas, and will be accompanied by a full company of Emperor's Own Armored Assault Dragoons. Brigadier Waverly will command the conventional forces for Gamma, giving Capricious maximum flexibility to use his meta team against any Super Force defenders. The Brigadier will also carry out executions of any Federals not killed during the assault, including civilians, verify there are no Federal survivors, and plant the demolition atomic."

 

"Delta Team will be lead by Commander Medusa. Madame, your psi abilities will be necessary in two critical roles. Your team must identify and extricate the sensitive data we wish to acquire, and you will personally destroy any residual data, including backups, found in the facility. Not only must we have this data, but the Americans must no longer have it." Medusa nodded once. "You will have two metas with you; Lieutenant Repulse, and Lieutenant Commander Warspite; both with Level-B or better psychotronic sensitivity."

 

"The data being collected are designs for prototype devices to open space-time gates. Both we and the Americans have been researching the possibilities of such techniques for some time. They have had a breakthrough at this facility, and it represents a tremendous threat to the security of the Empire. Killing Federal Metas, while not contraindicated, is not a priority on this mission. We need that data. Badly. Once the data has been secured, residuals destroyed, and all Americans within the facility have been slain, all four teams will extricate under Lord Blood's control. Orbital Command assures they will maintain local air and space superiority long enough to extricate fully. I will note the Americans have been using atomics quite liberally against the Ravaging in Central America, and we cannot rule out atomics or radiation strikes against the facility while we are there. The team planning packages you each have provide intelligence data and logistical details. I expect completed team plans and final personnel requests by this time tomorrow. The scheduled op-start is in 96 hours, and spacelift will be provided at Pad 19. Let's be about it."

 

Victoria left the room, following Commander Medusa down the corridor. This was the biggest covert operation she'd ever been in, and in fact, ever even heard of.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Andreah

[Andreah]

KANSAS, Part II

Spencer Memorial Technology Center, Federal Republic Super Force, 15 Kilometers outside Lawrence, Kansas

Research Wing B, Gate Reactor Test Chamber

 

Something was tearing at the half meter thick steel door; the hinges were groaning and would rip soon. Victoria raced her fingers and mind through the workstation, and the team of engineers maneuvered the demolition device into place right on the half-constructed gate pad. "Gently now, lads, gently", the sergeant in charge spoke as they heaved the heavy atomic bomb into place and powered up the arming panel. "Ma'am, it would be best if you finished quickly..."

 

Warspite worked quickly, indeed. There were layers of security guarding the backups, and she had to get them all, and only had seconds to do it. *Air-gap; Repulse may be able to trace across* she thought to herself as the last of the backups in the machines wiped themselves clean. "Done," she remarked, "all the station's systems are wiped." At that moment, the massive door behind her creaked again, and was thrown back out from its frame. "FREEZE!", a voice called out, almost as loud as a shotgun. Victoria turned, and saw the woman standing there, in Republic Scarlet, White, and Black. The floor shook as the blonde stepped heavily over the door frame. Super Force, as if her having torn tons of metal door out of it hinges bare handed didn't already announce it. A light blue glow emanated from her -- Cherenkov radiation. It was one of their bricks - Megaton. Victoria's briefing was extensive; she knew this meta had incredible strength and near invulnerability. But like most such, he mind wasn't well shielded, and Victoria sent waves of psi-power against her. She couldn't stop the meta, but she could slow her down. "Get out," she called to the engineers, "I can only buy us a few seconds!" The lead engineer called back "Armed and ready, nothing can stop it!" It was time to leave. But first, a parting shot; she turned back to the Super Force meta struggling through the psi barrage "Fool! You can't disarm it -- die in atomic fire!" 

 

Victoria and the engineering team quickly made their way out to the extraction rendezvous; leaving the Super Force meta behind, having given up pursuit, as Victoria had intended, to examine the two-kiloton demolition device. 
 
Outside, Lord Blood had the last extrication launchers ready to go; a fast, boosted pod, capable of a single suborbital flight. Flashes from the Nikes' kinetic weapons lanced across the sky. "Here, Warspite. Confirm mission status once you're in zero-G." The pod, basically a manned missile, would boost at five-G's and then coast in stealth to reentry over the Indian ocean, where the recovery flotilla waited. Not so different than the first satellite launches back in the 50's; except they hadn't had stressed molecular monofuels. The demolition device would go off just as the last of them evac'd. There were casualties all around them, mainly conventional forces, but even a few of the Emperor's Own lay dead. Lord Blood's work, no doubt, to slay any of their own they couldn't evacuate. The Americans would be swarming over the site shortly, but they would gain no prisoners to interrogate, only atomic deaths.

 

Inside the gate complex, Major Megaton, codename for Jeanette Winters, huddled over the device they'd armed. One thing Victoria's briefing on Super Force didn't include was Jeanette's knowledge of nuclear weaponeering; related in fact, to her own origin as a meta human during a nuclear test gone wrong almost forty years back. She didn't need tools, she peeled the outer casing of the device off with her fingers, and turning her expert's eye on the nuclear mechanism, its superconducting capacitor coils, dynamic field generation ring, Plutonium weapon pit, laser compression drivers, multibeam focusing array, Helixium-124 detonator, and there, to the Tritium primary injector. With a grasp and a pull, she rips the small cylinder straight out. Radiation inside the device is intense, but it didn't slow her down -- on those very rare occasions when something manages to cut her skin, she emits more. All it can do now is laze a pinhole in the floor.

 

The complex and the prototype gate is saved.
 

Edited June 22, 2021 by Andreah

[Andreah]

KANSAS, Part III

Westminster Redoubt, beneath the ruins of London, Island of Britain.

 

"Your Majesty, the operation was largely successful. All on-site objectives were met, except for final atomic demolition. All non-meta Americans present were slain, and over half the assault force was recovered. The fallback orbital strike had to be cancelled, the Americans routed an orbital destroyer group to the area and we had to pull the Nike forces back to avoid losing them. We estimate we set their project back by at least a year, perhaps two, and we gained the technical details for their gate generator. We confirmed their Doctor Philadelphia made a substantial breakthrough in field surface stablization, and they can produce gates as large as three meters across, but still cannot control the emergence point. None of their experiments were able to produce stable transit from a sender to a receiver, much less from a sender to a non-receptive point in space. Oddly enough, their logs show porting, but they could not locate the emergence locations. Our scientists believe we can have our own operational within one year. And we do know how to direct transits, Professor Newton has been transiting millimeter tracers to Luna and back for over a year; when we stabilize meter-scale gates, we'll be able to port miniatomics to any destination on Earth or in near orbital space. We'll take care of the Americans in short order and then clean up this Ravaging mess Doctor Forbyn created."

 

Charles III replied. "Make it so. Whatever resources needed for this are granted. Pass Our gratitude to your teams on Diego Garcia."

 

---

Lake Michigan Super Force Station, Lakebottom Bubble Four SCIF

 

"That was a near run thing. How much did they get?"

 

"Far too much. And they wiped the computers clean, even though they planted a bomb, too. They knew we were on something big, and wanted to stop us entirely. Risky."

 

"Your girl Winters pulled the fubar out of that; right good work there."

 

"Pure luck, she wasn't there in a research capacity at all; strictly security. Nothing nuclear about that work at all. It's all ultra-high density physics, gluon fluids, gravitons and singularities and so on. Makes my head spin, and I have two PhD's"

 

"Cut the crap; yours are in political science and economics. What's our next play?"

 

"The Brits already had a gate program, we have a mole inside it. What they got won't help them as much as they think; Philadelphia assures me there's two full dead ends to get past. And only then will they realize the large stable gates lead to other universes. And by then, we'll have Bolthole established and push a million top people through, a cross section of the best."

 

"Do we have a universe picked out?"

 

"Theoretically, we have six we can reach; something about a minimally quantized paratemporal hypercube. We'll test them in sequence and put Bolthole through to the one most similar to our own. We'll go in hot with Super Force, six cybernetic regiments, a nuclear detachment, logistics, and then the main relocation column. Most likely they're uninhabited, but if not, we'll have to put the natives down. How's the schedule looking?"

 

"Simulations project we only have a year, or at most two, left. Two if we can defeat the Brits first. Six months if they get the upper hand; most likely one with the stalemate and the Ravaging advance. The President is readying the unlimited nuclear release authority directive; and Montana Buttes has been stockpiling half-gigaton weapons. Once we start delivering those ..."

 

"I hate giving up on the Earth. But the space colonies aren't sustaining biomes yet; might never be. And certainly not with enemy forces still in orbit. Dueling radiation projectors; no way out of that alive."

 

"If we can't make Bolthole work, there's nothing."

 

"So long as those giant caves in Kansas doesn't collapse until we've established Bolthole and the Second Republic. When we have that, we'll burn the planet and close the gate behind us."

[Andreah]

The Montana Incident

 

Briefing Room J-9, Sublevel 34, Montana Buttes Atomic Research Complex, Final Off-Ramp Review prior to authorization of Project Sky-Thunder.

 

"Senators, Secretary Rodgers, President Zamora; I will let Doctor Philadelphia summarize the Montana."

 

"Thank you, Major Winters," the man in the Super Force uniform continued "... the truly innovative feature of the Montana is its nuclear-catalytic salt shockwave impulse drive. This has been tested in miniature one-tenth scale in-cavern at Farside Station, and achieved full Initial Operational Capability, meeting thrust and stability with at least ten percent margins over design. Slide three please." An exploded view projection of a large spacecraft appeared. "The Montana uses three full scale systems, each on axis of center of mass for redundancy. The Salt Shockwave drive uses a high pressure supersonic flow of 90% enriched uranium tetrabromide accelerated by radial synchrotron transducers to trigger a second stage injection of cold thorium salts. The flow passes through a force-pinch using a quantum foam membrane generator. At this point, the fission reactions take place, with the uranium fission causing thorium to breed plutonium and other transuranics which then catalyze a sustaining reaction. Critical density is achieved, but the zone of criticality from thermal neutron emission cannot move up the flow faster than the flow leaves the pinch, and we have a stable, standing catalytic shockwave. Next slide please." Another slide comes up, showing a line plot of a number of black and white curves crossing each other in a complex fashion over a gridded backdrop. "As you can see, when a perturbation in the reaction causes it to increase power output, the pinch throat is strengthened, and increases the velocity of flow, which decreases the reaction rate. If a perturbation occurred to decrease the reaction rate, the opposite would happen, and there is a point of stability controlled by the rate of power draw off the MHD's. All that is necessary to shut the the drive down is to decrease the thorium salt injection rate from the source, or to bleed more power off the MHD system, which normally provides for the ship's mains, or the high capacity DN/E 'direct-nuclear/electric' converters, which charge the tertiary plasma mounts. Each of the three drive systems produces approximately fourteen thousand gigawatts of sustained output, or roughly three kilotons per second. Specific impulses which can be achieved by these systems are, as you can imagine, two orders of magnitude above our current best nuclear thermal drives." 

 

"The drive can be operated with open throat at low pressure for pure standby power, or opened up to 110% full military power, with energy to sustain the salt flow and forward rad-beam projectors, with capability for a pulse forward catalytic-wave-motion detonation with induced third stage hydrogen fusion, which will require a 75-second drive systems hot restart to restore the quantum foam membrane, but throws a fifty-megaton blast forward as a less than one-degree dispersion spinal mount weapon. During the hot restart, the ship can continue to fight with secondaries and tertiaries off capacitor power. Montana will also have limited conventional armaments, gatling plasma anti-space mounts, long range hypervelocity missiles, full orbital and planetary bombardment capability, and the elite Red Leopard Squadron in F-39 space superiority fighters, and two marine boarding impact-shuttles. Total crew complement is 915. Next slide, please..."  

[Andreah]

Interlude, The Dead Cold of Space

 

On Earth, a stunning spasm of nuclear detonations were taking place. Hypersonic missiles flew, red-hot from friction, in the lower atmosphere, virtually invulnerable to space attack and terminal point defenses, and delivered huge warheads to successive tiers of smaller and smaller cities, destruction and clouds of fallout in their wakes. Apart from the Ravaging infection, Earth was dieing. 

 

In space, two massive stations were all that remained. One, at L5, sported the Imperial Jack, blazoned on its hull and at every access hatch. Crew frantically worked to perform damage control, to secure supplies in bursted cargo sections from drifting into deep space, and to repair and reload the Tartarus Device, the main reason the station had been lofted into place years ago. The Tartarus was a scaled up variant of a Nemesis orbital radiation projector; 24 of which used to be operational in geosynchronous orbits around the Earth. They were dead now. Too exposed, too small, too fragile to survive long in the all-out war that had been raging for months. But they had seared huge swaths of the enemy's homeland sterile down to the bedrock before their supplies of nuclear pits had been spent; or they had been destroyed by counter battery fire or space-marine assault. The Tartarus was vastly more powerful, able to operate for longer periods, and had both narrow and dispersed beam projection modes. From L5 it had wide, defensible approaches, and views of large sections of the Moon and over the course of a day, the entire surface of the Earth. A war-winner, or so it had been thought. Tartarus had been running in rapid attack mode, cycling pits and high intensity sterilization beams, up to a half gigaton per second at full power across high value enemy targets in near-Earth space. On wide aperture, it could hard kill American stations in seconds; sweeping the skies clear. But the primary magazine was exhausted, and the secondary rotor rails were damaged. Crews labored frantically to get the magazine in place. Time was short, there was one more American station to kill, and it was half buried on the edge of the Moon. Worse, it too had a radiation projector. 

 

Moonbase Omega. The halls were silent. No air flowed through them. Here and there, crumpled spacesuits lay strewn about. Most with broken bodies inside them. The Moon had been hit hard by kinetic and radiation attacks, and the moonbase had taken several swipes of hard-kill radiation from the British's Tartarus weapon already. The environmental systems had failed, letting the oxygen out, early in the fight. Most of the American Space Force personnel had made it into their suits, and then the radiation went high, higher than their shielding and the meters of regolith the station was buried in could stop. Everyone  was dead.

 

But consoles still had status lights. Computers still ran. And his station commander's desk, Space Force Lieutenant General Matthew King's dead hand rested near a safeguard panel, where he had pulled back six safety interlocks and pressed the master emergency buttons. His console panel lit brightly with red letters, highlighting and pulsating.

 

EMERGENCY LOGISTICAL OPERATIONS ENGAGED! 
AUTONOMOUS TARGET SELECTION MODE ENGAGED! 
FREE-FIRE WEAPONS RELEASE AUTHORIZED!

 

Deep under the moonbase was an industrial node. Mining shafts dug deep into the core of the moon, robot drills reached remote deposits of metals, and transuranics. Automated conveyors brought these to refineries, and these led to furnaces, fast breeder reactors, and automated assembly systems. New fuel rods returned to the reactors to continue their power generation. Spares and energy packs went to repair robots. Hot radioactive pits cycled up to the radiation projectors, and these continued to fire without end. 

 

Omega's crew won their race against time. The secondary pit magazine was remounted, and the weapon could be fired again. Tartarus swept its beam across the American moonbase yet again, and the deadly radiation swept through the halls with deadly effect. If only there had been anyone alive left to kill. Lights on the consoles flickered, and some even failed. But the computers that ran the station were kilometers deep, and would not stop.  In their turn, the base's radiation projectors fired again, striking the British station full on, killing every living soul. Intense neutron flux hit the remainder of the pit magazine's store, and they sympathetically detonated.

 

Space around the Earth was dead.

 

Targeting radars still swept the sky around the Earth and Moon, finding nothing.

[Andreah]

The Montana Incident, Part II

 

Two years later; RSS Montana, Orbit of Ceres.

 

"And there it is again. Octopole shear on the ecliptic axis, out of phase by eleven degrees."

 

"They sent something through past Earth, again." The Captain stroked his beard. "Whoever they are, they know gates better than we ever did, but the rest of their tech is ... surprisingly ... weak. Electrochemical batteries? Heh. Do you have anything up on detectors?"

 

"Negative, Sir. But I have a bird inbound, and it will do a stealthed close approach of the intruder's trajectory in three minutes -- we'll get a precise metric off the resonance remnant." 

 

The intel officer's tone was apologetic; but it hadn't been his fault. The Captain thought back to those frantic days at the end. Everyone in near Earth space had gone mad. Kinetic strikes, rad beams, ultra high yield nukes; they'd used everything they had. Against the Brits, against the Ravaging, and against the planet, generally -- even a Delta Bomb. Damnable Brits, he though to himself. They did this to us. To everyone. Even our people, they finally, really did it; those maniacs; they blew it up.  Worse, his ship wasn't there. Maybe the Montana would have made a difference, and maybe it wouldn't. But he and her crew would never know. And now, they were stranded. "Damn them all to hell", he whispered.

 

The Montana, a half-million ton first-of-class blastship, on space trials in the asteroid belt, with its incredible nuclear salt shockwave drive, cutting edge drive technology too new, too dangerous, and too secret, to test near Earth. A leap ahead of the Brits, it; and its class of new ships, could have changed the balance of power in space, and eventually, on the Earth as well.

 

Now, she, her crew of nine hundred Space Force officers and enlisted, and the small Super Force science and security detachment were alone. The last living people in the solar system. In this dimension, he thought.  The head of his Super Force team, Doctor Philadelphia, knew things, and he'd been letting some of it come out now. There were experimental gate systems left in the solar system -- in fact, one at the Pallas Asteroidal Research Station. All they needed was a clean read on the dimensional resonance of a destination. After that, they had the power to spin up the Pallas Gate, and the good Doctor was confident they could make it big enough and stable enough for the Montana herself to wade through under thrust. If there was one thing Montana had to spare, it was power. And the good Doctor, why he'd invented half the exotic technology of the last century, he wouldn't fail them. 
 

[Andreah]

The Montana Incident, Part III

 

Present day, Lunar space, Earth Prime.

 

A rupture erupted out of the darkness of space. Hundreds of meters across, it was as if a small black hole had appeared out from nowhere; gravitational lensing focused the light of distant stars around it, creating a beautifully bright arc, a starbow; until now only seen by astronomers, relativistic animators, and certain dangerously powerful metahumans. 

 

The center of the starbow was calm, utterly black, ... until it wasn't. A brilliant tear ripped across it; and then tore again across diagonally, and then again, and again, until the center was a shredded mass of lightning. 

 

The disturbance hit all the EM bands, disrupted TV and Radio, caused power outages across Quebec, triggered a Starstrider Alert Condition Red at Vanguard, itself a minor crisis, and caught the notice of heroes and villains alike.

 

And then it came through. A shower of burning debris racing through at twenty miles per second as the starbow blinked out of existence. Minutes later the debris exploded spectacularly against the lunar farside surface. And then it was over.

 

** VANGUARD SPACEWATCH NOTICE TO METAS **
** CODES STARSTRIDER, UBILICAL, NIGHTFURY, ALOGICA **
** ALERT STAND DOWN TO GREEN **
** DTG 210504032022 REF 23-44-A **
** INCIDENT UIDOBJ-11-21 **

NOTICE TO METAS. RED ALERT OF 040322-1622UTC WITDRAWN. RESUME GREEN CONDITION.
SPACE ANOMALY 23-44-A REMNANTS INSPECTED NEGATIVE THREAT ASSESSED.

 

At 1622 UTC on 04 February 2022 a significant spatial anomaly appeared 4500 km trailing the orbit of Luna. Anomaly appeared as optically prominent gravitational lens surrounding dimensional rupture emitting 140 GW radiation in approximate blackbody spectrum for 150,000 Kelvin equivalent temperature. A large object emerged at interplanetary speeds, immediately broke to debris superheated by thermal radiation environment, then proceeded to shower down on farside surface of Luna at 35 km/second with significant angular dispersal. Several large fragments impacted and detonated; however, undetected fragments missing Luna impact can not at this time be ruled out.

 

The debris field was inspected, and no debris larger than 0.18 meters was found. Significant new cratering found, with extremely high levels of residual nuclear radiation. Conclusion: alien space vessel emerged from warp or inter-dimensional transit, suffered catastrophic failure due to chaotic spinor shear, and was destroyed in energetic reactions with the rupture. This space vessel, now determined to be primarily titanium/steel/cobalt/carbon with significant heavy elements including Thorium, Uranium, Plutonium, and other heavy transuranics constituted minimum of 500 million kilograms. No organic material detected above trace levels.

 

Meta organizations requested to alert Vanguard HQ/Intel of any updates.

/signed/
~T.Laurent~

[Andreah]

The Montana Incident, Conclusion.

 

Associated Wireshare News Release.

 

SPECTACULAR LUNAR IMPACT WAS ALIENS, VANGUARD SAYS

 

On Saturday Vanguard held a press conference to reveal their findings from the recent spectacular space event seen near the Moon by observers on several continents. Vanguard raised an alert immediately when what looked like fireworks showered down on the the waxing crescent Moon, outshining the body itself at peak. 

 

A Vanguard spokeswoman, Ms. Talitha Laurent of the Etoilles, said a "gravitational space-anomaly" appeared without warning and then from inside it, fragments of a large spaceship of unknown origin appeared, already fully melted and partially vaporized, then impacted the farside surface of the Moon. The material was at so high a temperature it emitted considerable radiation, but fortunately far enough from Earth that no injuries or property damage resulted. Several Supergroups responded to Vanguard's request to investigate the impact sites on farside. What little they found beyond radioactive craters was determined to not have been of Earthly, neither Human or Rikti, origin. Vanguard surmises an alien spacecraft, perhaps peaceful, and perhaps not, suffered a catastrophe while attempting visit the Earth.

 

No further evidence of gravitational anomalies or additional wreckage have been noted since.

No matter who was attempting to reach Earth; for now, we can treat this as no more than a brilliant display of lights in the sky for those who happened to be looking up towards the Moon this past Friday.

[American Valor]

I would send a message to the original author to ask that question as it is an original work.

 

AV