Brazil, January 24, 2025
City of Caceres, Friday, 11:58pm
João Pedro is a 21 year old young office worker employee who lives in the small and quiet border town of Cáceres, he works from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at a Magazine Luiza store from Monday to Saturday, he thinks his job is absolute trash, an 11-hour shift earning only two minimum wages and a food allowance of less than BRL$200 with no entitlement to a transportation allowance, since his job is 30 minutes away from home. João was already sick and tired of his mediocre job, he only stayed there because it was his last year of law school and he had to finish paying for it.
It was nearly midnight and he enjoyed the little time he had playing on his inexpensive PC that he bought as a teenager.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH, SHOOT!!! ARE YOU BLIND?" He cursed as he finished a game of CS, this was his only 'fun' during his spare time, but he became more angry than entertained.
"It's not possible that I only get idiots on my team!" It was the fifth game in a row that he had lost, already being fed up with losing he decided to get a glass of water in the kitchen, just as he was getting ready to go back to his room a blinding light came through the window and temporarily blinded him.
"What the hell was that?" João wondered as he took the door key and went to ascertain what caused the flash, he left the house with a sense of apprehension and fear thinking it was some kind of ET.
"What the fuck is that?" The city Caceres was on the edge of the country next to Bolivia, but João Pedro's house was at the end of the city 1km from the border police checkpoint, it was so close that he himself had gone several times to the neighboring city of San Matias to shop, since things were cheaper, but the reason for his surprise was that the police checkpoint disappeared completely, and on the horizon it was only possible to see a vast ocean reflecting the light of the full moon.
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Brasília, Granja do Torto, January 25, 2025, Saturday, 1:04am
In the luxurious and very cozy Granja do Torto, a 26-year-old man was resting on a beach chair by the pool, he was relaxing looking at the stars while lost in thought.
"Darling, haven't you gone to sleep yet?" A beautiful young looking woman came to call him, she had beautiful platinum hair that reached her waist, her name was Sophia Augusta de Alvarez the current first lady of Brazil.
"Sorry love, it's just that the view is so good that I couldn't resist, why don't you join me?" That man was none other than the current President of Brazil, Arthur Silva de Alvárez, a young man who managed to get himself elected in 2022 with 71% popular support.
They spent about five minutes in silence looking at the sky until Sophia broke the silence "What are you thinking so much darling?"
"This is my last year before the election, I've been wondering if everything I did was right Sophia."
"Why are you doubting yourself like this? Just look at how the country is doing." His wife was totally right about that, just look at the country to see how he was doing in the presidency.
(Disclaimer: short history of Brazil in this parallel universe)
On November 15, 1889, the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic was declared, and with it Deodoro da Fonseca assumed the presidency. The following years saw rapid changes throughout society, the coffee barons lost all their power, and large industries took over. While Europe was killing itself in World War I, Brazil stood up and observed the conflict in order to update its weapons and strategies for modern warfare. In the late 1930s, with the fall of France, thousands of Jewish refugees came to Brazil, the rapid German advance surprised the Brazilian government who completely overhauled their doctrines, building a Brazilian Blietzkrieg consisting of an armored spearhead with heavy mobile artillery support. In 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US declared war on the Axis, Brazil as its greatest ally in America joined their side, sending the Brazilian Navy to fight the Japanese in the Pacific and the FAB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force) to fight in Europe.In July 1943 the FAB landed in Sicily and was later responsible for the capture of Rome.In 1944 they were in the Normandy attack in the Gold sector.In the post-war period, Brazil maintained a pro-Western and pro-American position, which brought it into conflict with one of its neighbors, Venezuela, which was suffering a military dictatorship supported by the USSR.
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Arthur managed to get elected in 2022 by the PDM (Brazilian Democratic Party), with the agenda to return to closer ties with the western countries and NATO, this is due to the campaign of his predecessor in strongly supporting China and Russia, and during the war in Ukraine the previous president strongly helped the Russian Federation in the diplomatic and economic environment, thanks to this he had managed to dirty his own image leaving the way clear for Arthur to take office almost with full support.
After assuming the presidency, Arthur was quick to send arms and funds to Ukraine and cut ties with Russia. On domestic issues, Brazil was having problems with the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, which he took great care to combat. On the economic side, with tensions running high between China and Taiwan, they realized that they should start producing microchips locally so as not to be at the mercy of Taiwan's chips in case the small island was taken over. In addition, Arthur injected millions of reais in the local industry, which leveraged it to levels never seen before in history, second only to the Brazilian industrial revolution, all of which caused the dollar rate to drop from R$1.97 to R$1.12.
In the popular sphere he made it clear that everyone was equal no matter what gender, color or religion, above all he always remained neutral about it and avoided causing confusion or controversy, after all many people have already had their public image burned by their mouth.
"You're right dear, there's nothing to worry about because I know I did what I thought was right until the end." He stopped stargazing and got up from his beach chair to give his wife his attention, he gave her a kiss full of passion "How about we finish this in a more private place?"
He was with his wife on his lap as he headed towards the bedroom, but to his misfortune his cell phone rang just in time, he looked at the number and it was Rodrigo Alehandro, his vice president who was calling.
"What do they want at this hour darling?"
"I don't know love, it must be important" Arthur answered the cell phone with a scowl for interrupting the adults play. "What is it at this time of night Alehandr-"
"Mr. President we don't have time to talk on the phone, it's a national emergency and we need you here."
"I'm coming as soon as possible."
After hanging up the call, Arthur began to change and told one of his security guards to prepare his transportation, of course stopping at first made his wife extremely upset. "Are you really going to leave me here?"
"Sorry dear, but it's a national emergency" He tried to apologize so as not to leave her hurt with him.
"Does it have to do with the situation at the Venezuelan border?" His wife questioned him since he was having friction on the border in the northern region with Venezuela, this was caused due to the rupture of relations with Russia that was the great ally of Venezuela, the relationship of these two was so great that they even cogitated the purchase of the Russian fifth generation fighter jet, which would put Brazil in check since it had no way to combat this threat.
"I can't say anything, but from the tone of my vice president I expect the worst. Arthur was already fully changed in his suit and tie.
"Go with God, darling." His wife kisses him goodbye and he says goodbye and goes to the Brazilian presidential car, a Bentley continental gt escorted by 4 other cars.
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Brasilia, Palácio do Planalto, Saturday, 1:35 AM
The planalto palace was very busy, even though it was dawn, the employees were running around organizing information. In one room there was a U-shaped table with 33 equally arranged seats, and in the curve of this U was the president's seat with a Brazilian flag behind it. All the ministers were there, as well as the vice president, who had called the meeting with his approval.
"I apologize for calling you so early in the morning, but I believe we are in a matter of a national crisis if precedent." Vice President Rodrigo Alehandro said and soon after sat down to make way for Defense Minister Caio Abruniz.
"I will pass on a briefing of the situation to those present." The defense minister turned on a projector and began to give his report.
"At 11:59pm on January 24th there was a large flash of light from an unidentified source all over the border region, seconds after this light we lost communication with any other nation outside of our country, this also includes our embassies and foreign satellites." This account left Arthur a bit surprised, for even if Venezuela attacked them, they wouldn't have the capability to do so across their entire border.
"I ask that you watch the following images carefully" The projector showed images of a beach on some coastline taken by a civilian, the next was a video made by a military drone showing a calm water ocean.
"What do these images have to do with the loss of communications?" Economy Minister Ana Lucia Pereira asked indignantly at being woken in the early hours of the morning to see images of a beach at night.
The air marshal who was present at the meeting stood up and answered her "Allow me Minister of Defense, Ms. Ana, we brought you here to see these images because the first one was taken by a civilian who lives in the state of Mato Grosso near the border with Bolivia and the second one was taken by us in the air force on the border with Venezuela.
This claim left more questions than answers, There was no way there could be a beach in Mato Grosso, let alone an ocean on the border with Venezuela.
"It is we have been contacted by the ABA (Brazilian Astrology Association) that the position of the stars is completely wrong and that they are observing planets that never existed in our solar system." The air marshal closed and sat back in his chair and the defense minister stood up again.
"In closing, I see only one reason for this ladies and gentlemen, we are no longer on planet Earth."