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June 7th, 2139
Location: Albania
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A lone figure could be seen standing on an old, rotten pier under the gradually dimming moonlight as clouds sought to cover the moon's brilliance with their eerie tendrils of gray, white, and the occasional black. The figure was seemingly cloaked in darkness, which was in part due to the equipped abyss-black combat suit and the utter lack of any incandescent light sources near the pier. Faint sounds behind the figure eventually gave way to a long sigh; after briefly glancing at the approaching footsteps, the figure returned to observing the night sky once again. The soft crunches on dead grass and dry dirt stopped a few feet away from the pier's entrance.
"Jakol, it is time. We should get back," the voice of the footsteps gently murmured with a hint of commiseration and empathetic remorse. Jakol did not respond, staying silent while staring blankly at the now-darkened sky. Nikola turned her attention towards the tiny portion of the moon - of which the clouds occasionally allowed access as large swathes of stratocumulus swiftly drifted towards an unknown destination. Nikola unwittingly fell into a deep contemplation as she slowly recalled the madness of the world she now lived in.
Humanity, a few decades ago, finally broke through the bottleneck surrounding the application of cold-fusion. It was a cause of massive celebration around the world, but that was not the true reason behind the joy of nearly every human on Earth and what eventually came to be known as the start of the 'Golden Era 2.0'. Of course, the general public didn't care after the secret behind cold-fusion was cracked and announced; people across the globe truly became elated only after the results of cold-fusion came about - which didn't take long to manifest to the global public as one of the primary byproducts of cold-fusion was far beyond the expectations of any scientist, authority, AI, or computer-generated simulation. Nikola staunchly believed that not even the entire 11 billion people living on Earth could have predicted such an outcome.
The discovery and its application brought about an essentially unlimited, potent, renewable energy source that was within the scope of the expected projection of the company that unearthed cold-fusion. However, it did not take long for another secret to be exposed to the world. Governments and institutions of every major country uncovered that the energy released from cold-fusion not only exceeded the production of energy from any other source, but there was astonishingly no downside to using the energy obtained from such a process. No waste of any kind was produced, no smoke or harmful debris bellowed out of the ducts of cold-fusion power plants, zilch. There was absolutely no problem of employing a seemingly fabricated construct. It was as if the current world entered the realm of fiction where problems were actually being solved. With the introduction of cold-fusion, previous issues with energy and its means of retrieval was subsequently eviscerated. Vaporized. Gone. Just like the clouds that covered the night sky some time ago.
The stars and the moon were visible once again, showcasing their undeniable beauty in the form of light, brightness, and perhaps, distance. Nikola continued her musing as neither Jakol nor her moved since the initial confrontation.
Several decades ago, she was told that the Earth was not like... this. Clouds were not as swift as seen today. Specifically, in the past, if no one granted enough attention, they appeared to not even move. Nikola was utterly confident that clouds should not have had the speed of land automobiles running on 60 miles per hour, nor should they appear as intricate atmospheric creations running away torwards some destination in the horizon. She briefly quieted her thoughts before another thought overtook her mind. To where in the horizon do these clouds go? Nikola couldn't even imagine. The clouds in their animal-like shapes and forms oftentimes seemed too realistic to not be sentient. Even she was fooled multitudinous times and constantly questioned whether they were or not. But repeated investigations by multiple militaries always confirmed that they, in fact, were just clouds. Harmless clouds. Harmless shapes of gases and water vapor clinging to each other for some inexplicable reason Nikola could not just understand. What was their purpose now? She paused. What was their purpose in the far distant past?
After a moment of incomprehensible thinking, Nikola pondered once again. Cold-fusion. How amazing it was and yet at the same time, how ominous and mysterious its... presence... was. With the advent of basically unlimited energy, the clockwork pieces that upheld the ticking of the world's economy were replaced nearly instantaneously after it was confirmed that cold-fusion was safe for commerical and industrial use. As anyone could have imagined the effect of placing oil on the rusty hinges of a door - where the oil represented the newly discovered energy - everything in the world just... transformed to be more efficient and smooth. Nikola heavily simplified as the implication of the impact of cold-fusion was too much. Too much for any human, that is. At that time, prominent AI systems around the world announced that the world was experiencing its second Industrial Revolution. Just as steam changed the world in the first Revolution, unlimited energy without apparent consequence would most definitely evolve the world in the second.
However, to top even the concept of unlimited energy, nobody was prepared. In fact, how could have anyone expected more from such a boon as desirable as the infinite? Human greed could only get so far after all. After essentially every factory, machine, gadget, and toy were developed to utilize cold-fusion energy, or CFE, as the public quickly called it, humanity came too far to stop and rewind. It was too late to turn back the clock. At the time when the final 'byproduct' of CFE was made into reality, the current state of the world was now irreversible because the last thing that came out of the production of CFE was another new type of energy that was previously undiscovered because through later investigations, it was discovered that this unknown energy was undetectable until certain conditions were fulfilled. Final deductions of the investigation concluded that this energy fully 'appeared' when mass amounts of CFE was consumed and generated under the atmosphere. But unlike its CFE counterpart, which was simply a power source as much as the extinct hydroelectricity was, this unknown energy... made the impossible, possible. The public and even the scientific community agreed that this energy would best be remembered as mana due to its seemingly magical nature.
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Nikola had no other words to describe what she remembered on that day when suddenly, across the globe, there were millions of reports of humans displaying supernatural feats that would otherwise have been present only in fiction. Super-speed, strength, flexibility... It was there... Present in normal humans the day before... It was supposed to be a catastrophe based on preliminary analysis after that day, but surprisingly, the government and other groups responded instantaneously. All dissidents were immediately locked away and 'peace' was returned shortly. However, it didn't last long. Conflicts between superhuman figures slowly escalated, and right before all hell broke loose, they came. In the year 2060, extraterrestrial life forms concealed in unbreakable, impenetrable, and practically invincible casings or shells bombarded areas with the highest biological life readings; in other words, they targeted cities.
Nikola remembered visiting those... sites that made unfortunate contact with the aliens. Nothing. She acutely remembered seeing nothing left. Razed to the ground. Not even the foundations of the smallest of buildings constructed in any of those targeted cities remained. Mumbai, the most populated city in India, disappeared from the face of the Earth. New York of the United States, Shanghai as well as Beijing from China, Tokyo of Japan, and 20 other cities were annihilated. It didn't take long before every government in the world announced a universal alliance consisting of China, the U.S., Germany, Russia, and India at the spearhead of this unprecedented organization. All conflicts were abruptly terminated and once more, the world had changed. For better or for the worst, Nikola couldn't decide.
Although most of humanity obtained power beyond their imaginations, there was no one who was willing to share their joy openly in public. 3 years. It took 3 years before society started to revitalize its energy, slowly shrugging off the lethargy and depression that came with the 'Invasion.' The economy and industry started to boom once more, but no one, not even the most sarcastic and cynical of humans, could forget and laugh off the greatest disaster in human history. With an estimated death toll of approximately 4 billion people, nearly 40 percent of humanity was wiped out from the first contact with alien life. To make things even more confusing and depressing, the extraterrestrial entities within their shells did not react or do anything after their... entrance. It was reported that the entities were collected and carted off without any casualty or incident occurring which surprised the military leaders of the worldwide alliance as they had been expecting immediate physical conflict with alien life. Fictional stories failed them miserably as the entire world alliance army, navy, and air force gathered at the doorsteps of the each entity's new home. But then again, Nikola couldn't blame them for their caution and over-preparation. She, too, would have done the same.
The entities were captured 3 years after their appearance due to multiple governments collapsing due to panic and chaos; consequently, this further delayed the confrontation with the extraterrestrial life as many had believed that war with these foreign entities was inevitable, leading to the gathering of resources and the development of mass cooporation tactics. It was, of course, useless at the end.
It was due to luck that the aliens were immobile and silent even after years went by. No one knew what to make of the situation; at least humanity wasn't wiped out during the initial turmoil, as Nikola surmised. 25 entities were retrieved from the giant holes that were once the foundations of the world's most populated cities. However, another mystery was soon added to the already growing list of questions carefully crafted by the brains of the alliance. When the aliens first arrived, no satellite was able to detect them until all entities were less than 100 kilometers from Earth. But that wasn't the most mysterious aspect of the 'Invasion.' According to satellite data and infrared sensors, there were actually 26 entities hurling towards Earth, meaning 26 cities were assigned for complete devastation. But right before entry into Earth's thermosphere, one entity suddenly and drastically changed course, aiming for an unpopulated area in Albania. Strangely, impact was minimal, leading scientists to conclude that the damage area upon impact for these entities was not dependent on incoming mass nor even speed - contrary to physics and the beliefs of the scientific community. Additionally, computer simulations suggested that Rome was the intended target, but for unknown reasons, trajectory was greatly deflected despite there being nothing to interfere with the entity's path.
The only entity not retrieved from the grave of a city was designated as Series Aly, Identification N for no real reason besides the fact that all entities were labeled with a corresponding letter from the English alphabet. A highly-secretive, specialized facility was constructed on the site of Aly-N's landing, and ever since its inception several decades ago, Nikola was assigned as the sub-director to manage the building as well as to report any changes in Aly-N observed by her subordinates.
Nikola finally shook herself out of her stupor and glanced at her holo-watch - a relatively recent innovation of the past 2 decades. Noticing that they should really return to base, Nikola was about to call out to her second-in-command, Jakol, when suddenly, the highest rated warning designated by the facility made itself known on her watch. With eyes widening in shock, Nikola glanced up from her wrist only to find Jakol making eye contact with her right before they simultaneously sprinted towards Alpha Facility, which was two miles away.
As they traveled with high-speeds, Nikola quickly identified another incoming message from headquarters on her watch.
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Headquarters: Commander C1 Nikola, a warning has been issued to Alpha Facility on your behalf as immediate circumstances require it. PB1 was declared MIA during Experiment 19 on Aly-N. Protocol Def-SD and KOSF have been initiated. Prepare for combat. It is unknown if extraterrestrial life is now active and hostile. Initiate wh-
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Nikola stopped reading as soon as she processed what protocols were in play; she immediately tackled Jakol to the ground, who elicited a surprised grunt, just as bullets from a well-concealed MG-42 positioned in a patch of tall grass flew over them, exploding the base of a thick Spruce into obliteration.
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