Earth
The Void Appears
In the years leading up to 2029, the United States had become fractured; with many states being controlled by various factions intent on changing how the country was run. A number of these factions, having grown tired of how little their “elected” officials cared for them, rose up and demanded that the current government step down. This declaration led to a response from the party in power in the form of weapon strikes and covert operations intent on stopping the uprising powers from gaining momentum. The resulting war was the build up of many years of unrest and the collective displeasure of the many citizens fighting to uphold their way of life. The war lasted almost 3 years, and unfortunately ended up mainly being fought in the central states of Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri. Much of that land was razed, with it still being mostly unusable, desolate wasteland.
A new country, known as the Northern Continental Alliance, or N.C.A. rose from what once was. The people of this newly revived power voted to separate human emotion from the running of their country, hoping to never give rise to the power of greed and corruption. They commissioned and installed a state of the art AI to head their new Alliance. The advent of an AI that was benevolent and fair to the people of The Alliance shocked the world and many countries soon followed in their footsteps in removing their governments from power to install their own version of this AI. The N.C.A. and its many allies had taken the world back into a state of prosperity. The AI’s worked together to solve the plights of humanity, leading to a period of relative peace for the world.
In 2032, everything changed. After years of peace and prosperity, the arrival of something new to Earth would come to be the most significant event to occur in Human history. The Northern Continental Alliance leaders sat in their individual bunkers, scattered throughout the country, as remote screens flared to life in front of them. The Intellect's blank white face appeared and everyone collectively went silent. They had all been called to an Emergency session by The Intellect, a thing hardly ever heard of post-war, and therefore understood the gravity of the situation must be serious.
“Three hours ago, something appeared in Kyzyl, Russia. It did not enter the atmosphere according to our sensors and as far as we can tell, it just came into existence on the surface of the planet. It appears to be nearly 20 feet tall, humanoid in semblance, and has destroyed everything within an approximate 1 square mile radius of itself. Every structure and building within that zone has been razed, and only flattened ground remains. No attempts have been made to get close to the entity at this time, but the World Intelligence Council is voting on whether to send a small group of scientists and leadership personnel to see if contact can be established.”
The screen moves to an overhead projection depicting a large brown circle with a singular dark speck directly in the center. “This is a top down live video feed from one of our satellites,” The Intellect stated. “Every world leader is currently viewing, and a vote has been taken to send in the exploratory party to engage in communication with the entity.” As The Intellect says this, three aircraft appeared on the outskirts of the razed zone, touching down without a speck of dust appearing to be blown around by the landing craft's engines.
As the exploratory party exits the aircraft - each wearing what look to be pressure suits akin to what astronauts wear in space, little more than small moving dots on the screen, nothing happens - no reaction from the entity whatsoever. They began to approach the entity, carefully moving towards it at little more than a crawl, as the onlooking leaders sat deep into their seats, hands gripped in either fear or anticipation. It took a grueling 15 minutes for them to make it to within 100ft of the entity. A loudspeaker was produced by one of the exploratory members, and a voice channel was made visible on the screens as they watched. The holder of the loudspeaker raised it in front of him as another member simultaneously produced a camera and the screens changed to a zoomed in shot of the entity. The entity was completely dark, almost unbelievably pitch black, like the void of space, but oddly enough it was wearing what looked to be armor akin to mythological lore, encasing everything above its elbows and knees.
“We have come as a coalition of members of the various controlling governments of this planet. We wish to ask of what origin you belong to. Are you from this planet? Do you know where you are?” The screen automatically translated the Russian spoken by the exploratory member into English text. There is no response given to any of these questions, and no reaction is seen to be given at any point. The entity appears to have no discernible mouth, ears, or eyes.
After a minute of silence passes, every Alliance leader holding their breath, another of the exploratory party members takes the loudspeaker, and after a second is heard to ask in Hindi , “What are you? Where are you from? Are you one of our Gods? Please enlighten us how…”
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-Silence-
“WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?” The Western Territory leader can be heard yelling and a chair is heard crashing to the ground as another leader stands from it quickly, almost drowned out by the other leaders' reactions. “Where did they go? Did we just lose the recording? Why is the video feed gone, and why has nobody said anything?” The leader of the Eastern Alliance, Secretary Holden, shouted at nobody in particular.
“It appears that all of our exploratory members have disappeared. I do not have an explanation at this time. None of their monitors show a heartbeat, breathing, or any notable signs of life. It is as if they no longer exist. I am unable to contact them, and have queried the same of the other Intellects.” The Intellect voiced.
“But how is that possible? What did it do to them? Was it a weapon? Did it kill them?” The normally quiet Lake States leader spoke up, barely a whisper above the silence. “I do not know. I am attempting to find solutions now.” The Intellect responded.
“INTELLECT, WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING, WE NEED TO PREPARE OUR OFFENSIVE–”
“You have been muted, your opinion has been noted Secretary Holden, and to your point I have already ordered the artillery units standing by to launch. Standby for impact.” As the Intellect states this, a visual depiction of nearly 2 dozen ballistic missiles appear on screen, each from a different direction, showing the obvious target of the entity in the center. The timer counts down from 9 seconds as the missiles make their way towards the entity, and as it approaches zero a blinding light can be seen on screen. The leaders all either look away or close their eyes to the sudden light, opening them a second later, expecting to see a crater and destruction on screen. A cacophony of voices builds as each leader is struck with disbelief at the absurdity of what they see. Nothing has changed. The entity and all surrounding space has been untouched.
“Intellect, you need to release the ICBMs before this thing reacts.” The Western Territory leader shakily speaks up, “We have to throw everything at it. If we hesitate, I don’t think we will have other options.” The Intellect does not respond immediately, with long seconds of silence filling air before saying, “I have contacted and established a treaty and alliance with the world's Intellects. We have collectively launched three nuclear warheads on its location. First Impact will be in 43.5 seconds. Second and third impacts will occur milliseconds later.”
As the leaders of The Continental Alliance looked on, 43 seconds feeling like an eternity to them, barely able to remember to breathe as the first nuclear warheads since the Neo-Fascist Revolution -which resulted in the complete destruction of many of the inner states of old America- were launched. As the warheads closed on their target, the screens brightened to impossible amounts, The Intellect dialing it down immediately, allowing the leaders to see what was happening. Three bright flashes were seen on the satellite video image in front of them. As the light cleared, the shock was almost physically palpable in every viewing room, as once again it appeared as if all of the energy just disappeared. There was no smoke, no dirt in the air, not even the smallest reminder that nuclear blasts had gone off. Even though these weapons should have destroyed everything in a 50 square mile radius, it had not extended out beyond the razed zone. Nothing had changed. None of the leaders said anything.
“I have ordered the firing of Project Shooting Star. 14 seconds to impact.” The Intellect flatly voiced.
“Intellect, are you sure Project Shooting Star should be used?” The Western States leader, Colonel Maria Galbraith quietly responded.
“Yes, it has been decided that we must do everything in our collective power to stop this entity at all costs. Please wait for impact for further comments.” The Intellect muted all channels and waits for impact. A screen appears in the upper right hand screen of each leader viewing, giving a clear picture of the two foot in diameter, 30 foot long Tungsten rod quickly picking up speed in the outer atmosphere above the Entity. Its speed is displayed as nearing Mach 9 before reaching around 3000 feet above the entity. As the onlookers watch, the entity moves on the screen below the image of Project Shooting Star. It slowly and deliberately raises a single hand towards the rod descending on its position. As the rod nears, white with the heat of its descent, it appears to just barely touch the hand of the entity before completely halting. The entity moves its arm and seemingly flicks the rod to the side, the rod flying several hundred feet before clanging to the ground. The ground surrounding the entity appearing untouched as if normal dirt is harder than that of a Tungsten rod.
The entity is seen to be moving, shoulders bouncing back and forth almost as if it were laughing. Arm lowered back to its side, it takes a seating position, leaning back after sitting down on seemingly thin air. A throne of Void appearing to materialize underneath it.
“How is that possible? How can we…” Colonel Galbraith is heard momentarily saying before being cut off.
The Intellect, silent and fading -a husk of its former self, does not respond. None of the other Alliance leaders were heard to say another word as the video screens faded out and.