For a few minutes now, the excitement in the German Chancellery has been louder than usual. From Chancellor Gabriel Lehr's door you can hear someone approaching at high speed.
The door opens in the new Chancellor's office and he sees one of his ministers out of breath after running around the building. "What's the matter with you?" He asks him.
After catching his breath, he explains. "Sir, for the last few minutes, the whole country has been in a panic because of the sudden appearance of a huge blue circle with geometric shapes covering the country at its centre, causing panic among the population who, in some places, are starting to loot under the impulse of the end of the world.
"What, has the President been notified?" asked the Chancellor.
"We didn't need to warn him, he was outside when this phenomenon appeared."
After a little reflection on the situation, the chancellor suddenly rose from his chair and walked towards the window. "My God, it's huge! Could it be a new large-scale weapon?"
"We don't know at the moment sir, but we have contacted the neighbouring states and none of them seem to be aware of the existence of such a thing. "There is also a crisis management meeting being organised and your presence is strongly recommended." The Chancellor left a moment of silence which seemed unbearable for the Minister.
The silence ended when the Chancellor gave some measures to be taken immediately. "Seal off all air traffic i don't want anything in the sky at the moment and get the people home the last thing we want is for the population to be even more agitated than it is at the moment."
"Yes sir." He replied.
"You are dismissed."
"Yes sir." Then the minister left the room.
"Secretary cancel all my appointments I'll be busy for the whole day."
A little later
The room was now full when President Felix Destinn spoke. "I don't think it's any secret why you're here." Then he began to project photos taken by Internet users.
"Then he began to project photos taken by Internet users [https://img.wattpad.com/1b4f29662b84fba24901842705b234a6cefd2d67/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f595a347233535f6d5553726365673d3d2d313336323332383231342e313737326163653663343761643234633236393730373734393230332e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"As you should know, at 2pm today a strange and mysterious halo of light appeared over our country, its appearance is completely mysterious and we have reason to believe that it is an attack against us [https://img.wattpad.com/67bf23a3747c22dab4a881c6cd7c42827d7d70d0/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4c5347706e6e6645775f676176673d3d2d313336323332383231342e313737326163653938616239373434393332323030343832343433342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"As you should know, at 2pm today a strange and mysterious halo of light appeared over our country, its appearance is completely mysterious and we have reason to believe that it is an attack against us."
The room began to stir under these words. "Thanks to the satellite photos, we have been able to see the real size of this halo, which covers our entire country as well as Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. However, the threat does not seem to be directed towards them, as the satellite photos show the centre of this halo and our country."
"We estimate its altitude at 900 km as well as a diameter of 500 km it is shown that no attack seems to be viable on this halo due to the fact that it is physically not present [https://img.wattpad.com/5ce17004bc0b8428c68eb6e14747368d5c1694dd/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f704c53656455556e6f69464d72413d3d2d313336323332383231342e313737326164396132343032623066383733353336323435323836352e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"We estimate its altitude at 900 km as well as a diameter of 500 km it is shown that no attack seems to be viable on this halo due to the fact that it is physically not present."
"What do you mean by that?" Asked someone in the room. Then a scientist standing next to the president answered the question. "It's simply due to the fact that it doesn't contain matter, it's more like a hologram."
The room fell into total silence until someone suddenly appeared in the room.
"It had better be urgent to bother us at a time like this."
"My apologies, gentlemen, but we have just received a communication from the USA and Italy, both informing us that their interferometer has been detecting gravitational waves coming directly from our country since the halo appeared."
Everyone was a little confused by the announcement then someone stood up and asked. "What are gravitational waves?"
"Ah yes excuse me gravitational waves are waves propagating in the fabric of space-time these waves are generally caused by the collision of black hole but there is also an activity that seems to manifest itself on the halo."
"And what is that?" Came the reply."The halo is starting to concentrate large amounts of energy towards its centre and has begun to rotate on itself."
The audience didn't know what to do about it.
But afterwards, in their corner, the President could be seen having a very serious conversation with the Chancellor, and when it seemed to be over, the President spoke up.
"Declare a state of emergency", he announced in a most serious tone.
As expected there were no objections to this sudden announcement and then the President continued. "To send coastal and air patrols in the event of a hostile presence along our coasts and borders."
later today
The meeting lasted another good hour with the information coming and going without interruption. It was now 3.30pm when the Chancellor arrived at the President's office to take stock of the situation and when he entered he saw the President looking out of the window saying. "Do you think it could be extraterrestrial?"
"We'd better hope not, sir, because that would surely be the end of us."
Suddenly, an intense ray appeared at the centre of the halo, heading towards the ground. Once touched, a very luminous sphere spread out in all directions at high speed.
It only took a few minutes for the sphere to completely encompass the country under this blinding light, which seemed to last an eternity for everyone, until the light faded and gave way to a sky now empty of this immense halo.
"Was that thing fucking atomic?" Asked the panicked Chancellor."It doesn't look like it to me I can't see any mushrooms on the horizon but never mind there must be a lot of casualties."
A few minutes had now passed since the halo had disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, and the streets were still calm despite the disappearance of the halo. It was then that the Minister for Foreign Affairs burst into the President's office.
"What's going on? Do you have any information about the origin of this halo?" Dsked the president."No sir, nothing yet, in fact since the halo disappeared we've suddenly lost all contact with the world."The surprised president asked.
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"Have you contacted the foreign embassies?"That is to say sir, just like us, they're not getting any response from their respective countries, but that's not all.
We've noticed that the internet has suddenly been cut off and now we can only receive the national channels.
"So what you're telling me is that apart from all communications in the country it's radio silence in the rest of the world?"
"That's right, Mr President." The minister replied.
"After all, it's not so bad that we've lost contact with the internet." Replied the President.
The Minister and the Chancellor didn't seem to understand why the President was saying this and then the Minister began to speak.
"I'm sorry, Mr President, but I'm afraid I don't understand what you're getting at."It's all very simple, without the internet the amount of false information will be drastically reduced and will prevent a general panic under the banner of a lie."
"Seen like that, it's advantageous." Replied the Chancellor.
"Now Minister, come back to me when you have more important news."
"Yes, Mr President." The Minister left the room, leaving the President and the Chancellor to their own business.
"After this halo, we're cut off from the rest of the world." Muttered the president.
Darmstadt at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC)
The esa operations centre was tasked with mapping Germany for potential damage but the problem was that no contact could be made with any of the satellites, at which point and for the next hour the tension in the control centre kept rising.
"Still nothing?" Asked the managing director. "No sir, it's as if they've all disappeared from the sky." He was interrupted by shouts of joy from the control room.
"We have contact" exclaimed one of the controllers. "What about the rest of the European fleet?" Asked the Director General."For the moment we have contact with just one satellite."That's better than nothing, thought the director. "In that case, we'll continue our attempts to regain contact with all the others."
FGS Erfurt 4 miles from Süderoogsand
For more than 2 hours, the Lübeck and Erfurt had been on patrol off the northern Frisian islands in case of a sea attack the soldiers were on the alert, but when the halo disappeared the pressure increased another level with the sudden loss of GPS and all satellite links.
Hubert Fuhs, the commander on board the Erfurt, was waiting for an answer from the naval base."What's the news from the base?" He asked the sailor."It tells us that the whole country is cut off from satellite communication and that all contact with other countries is currently impossible."
The commander thought about the type of particular situation he might be in."In that case let's stay on our guard, it could be a strategy to destabilise us or even a large-scale attack."
"Yes sir" Replied the sailor, passing on the order to the captain.
After 15 minutes of sailing north, a large number of radar echoes appeared."Tell the captain on the double!" Shouted a sailor in charge of the radar.
Captain Tobi Wehinger was alerted to the situation and hurried to inform the fleet commander.
After being informed of the situation, the commander rushed into the cockpit as quickly as he could.
"What does the threat look like?" He asked.
"We have 200 radar signatures with 10 about fifty metres in size and the rest about thirty metres."
"That's far too small for that number he says to himself."
"Have you made contact with them?"
"We've tried, sir, but they're not responding to any of our attempts. Replied the sailor."
"Call the captain of the Lübeck and tell them to close with us for the approach to this unknown fleet once that is done prepare to send a Saab Skeldar over this fleet."
After a few minutes in the air, the Saab Skeldar arrived within visual range of the mysterious fleet [https://img.wattpad.com/e196d41ca049aa5e70e0c7e990f306eb6045d41e/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f35724e467269616b6a6f775831773d3d2d313336323332383231342e313737326231653538396461346665343830303435313434323133382e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
After a few minutes in the air, the Saab Skeldar arrived within visual range of the mysterious fleet."We have the images." Says the CIC operator."
The images appeared on the screen showing a fleet of small sailboats straight out of another era, with the larger ones in the centre having a long flat platform on the side, their flag completely unknown."Was there an old boat festival planned in the area?" Asked the captain.
The commander was puzzled by the sight of the drone."Send a message to base informing them that we have encountered a mysterious fleet of old sailing ships, we are on our way to intercept them." Shortly afterwards, the ships changed course in the direction of this mysterious fleet, and the commander left to make a report, unaware that he was about to make the most important encounter for his country.
Berlin chancellor's office
Since the disappearance of all communications, the Chancellor had been extremely busy dealing with the files that had reached his office during his absence, when he came across a report that piqued his curiosity it contained information about strange phenomena that had taken place on the border - roads were cut off rather than continuing, or even forests had appeared where there were fields or towns, and small medieval-looking towns had appeared on the other side of the border.
The Chancellor, reading this, did not seem any better reassured about the situation in the country.
"Have we travelled in time?" He asked himself without really taking himself seriously, and called his secretary, asking her to send for the best historians in the city who specialised in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Only 15 minutes passed before a group of 6 people entered the office.
"You must be the historians, so I've been expecting you." Once everyone was seated the chancellor began to speak. "You should all be aware by now that anything revealed to you in this room is considered top secret.
"Once this had been said, he took out a series of documents which he distributed to everyone.
He scanned the sheets carefully with an air of growing confusion as he watched his reactions the chancellor began.
"This is all real and that's why you're here the government has reason to believe that we were sent into the past and so you've been called here to determine what era we might be in."
There followed an olympian calm before the historians discussed some important photos amongst themselves, and once they had reached an agreement one of them began to speak.
"We're sorry, but this image shows a hitherto unknown type of naval architecture, as well as their standard, which is not known to any of us.
There's also this city, some of the buildings are very different from what you might expect, but despite everything we've determined from the size of some of the structures that we're talking about a period close to the middle of the Renaissance."
The Chancellor was pensive, the arrival of the group had raised more questions than answers but they had managed to work out approximately when.
"That's all very reassuring, thank you for your expertise, it stinks and will be useful to us in the future. We'll get back to you when we have better information.
"The group then left, leaving the Chancellor alone with his thoughts."If this isn't medieval Europe, where the hell are we?"
At the same time, a meeting was held with the Minister of Health, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and virologists to put in place a protocol to deal with the new situation.
The hectic room calmed down as the Minister for Health and the Minister for Foreign Affairs entered the room once they were settled the Minister for Health began.
"Good morning to you all and thank you for responding to this invitation in such a short time. In order to better understand why you have come, we have passed on these documents on recent events at the border.
"Each virologist carefully read the document in their hands, seeing that at the border there were no longer any large modern cities but instead small towns similar to those seen in the Middle Ages. Once each virologist had read the documents, the Health Minister resumed."
As you can see, the halo has sown the seeds of a possible epidemic in its wake, which is why we need to put a strategy in place quickly to prevent anyone from inside or outside the country transmitting covid 19 to the whole of society and causing a large-scale epidemic.
Then the Minister of Foreign Affairs took his turn."Unfortunately, we're going to have to get in touch with this company to avoid having to deal with a large-scale food shortage caused by the break with the modern world, so trade will be unavoidable to preserve our way of life."
All this goes on until some of the virologists facing the windows start to panic."My God, it can't be! Said one, pointing out the window." Intrigued, they all began to look in the direction he was pointing, suddenly horrified by the sight in front of them.
" Intrigued, they all began to look in the direction he was pointing, suddenly horrified by the sight in front of them [https://img.wattpad.com/e5b8c267446422f93ade4f7b9e7c0ecd69376f2c/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f474470635a68437649326b4d6e773d3d2d313336323332383231342e313737326233636164323163346630643637363831353837353536392e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"But it's not our moon, where are we then?"