It all started with Apollo 12.
Launched November 14, 1969, the official accomplishment of this NASA mission was that it achieved a precision lunar landing in the Ocean of Storms and retrieved the Surveyor 3 probe. The classified part of the Apollo 12 mission was its discovery of an alien message on the Moon along with several pieces of alien technology. After months of painstaking decryption, NASA linguists had managed a rough deciphering of the message, finding it to be a warning.
We are coming for you.
Then-US president Richard Nixon held a top-secret meeting with the other UN heads of state on April 3, 1970 regarding this message, but nothing ever came of it. Nothing public, anyway.
On December 21, 2011, a mysterious planetoid appeared in the skies above Earth, completely replacing the Moon and assuming its orbit. The world’s top scientists were absolutely stunned. Dubbing the object Luna Beta, NASA attempted to explore the planetoid, only to lose contact with its probes as they got within 1000 miles of the surface. After 5 failed missions, the lack of public support forced the United Nations to abandon the exploration of Luna Beta.
Exactly one year later, the Cataclysm began.
Africa was hit first. On December 21, 2012, the world’s second-largest continent was ravaged by a meteor shower of unprecedented size. Hundreds of thousands were killed as the meteorites impacted throughout the countries of Nigeria, Sudan, Chad, the Congo, Cameroon and Kenya. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it. These meteorites were more than just mere space rocks. They were transports.
The Reavers emerged in droves from the meteorites, rampaging across Africa and crushing every human settlement they encountered. The sheer number and variety of the aliens combined with the extraordinary biotechnology they possessed allowed them to sweep through local defense forces with ease. To provide support, 6 US carrier groups were sent to various locations along the African coast, such as the Gulf of Guinea and the Kenyan coastline. Special ops units, army task forces and squadrons of combat aircraft from multiple countries were deployed to Africa, but despite their best efforts, the Reavers captured city after city, day by day.
In an act of desperation, the United Nations quarantined the entire continent, thoroughly sweeping the outbound evacuation transports for signs of alien infection before commencing Operation Hammerdown. Major alien bases in Chad, Sudan, the Congo and Nigeria were struck with intercontinental ballistic missiles, while the rest of Africa was subject to a massive high-altitude bombing campaign supplemented by cruise missile strikes from navy ships and from abroad. Operation Hammerdown was meant to annihilate the aliens once and for all. It did not succeed.
The Reavers were devastated by the human bombs, but not completely destroyed. To make matters worse, small numbers of alien shapeshifters had managed to infiltrate the last aircraft outbound from Africa. The Reaver spawn spread discreetly to Europe, and then Asia. By February 2013, they were all over the world.
Then, on March 4, 2013, the Dark Days began when a series of electromagnetic pulses erupted from the very same alien bases believed to have been wiped out. These EMP strikes hit every major city and military base on the globe, frying any and all electronic devices switched on at the time. With most of the Earth’s technology disabled, humanity was ill equipped to defend themselves from the Reavers when they finally showed themselves on every continent.
Within weeks, Europe went silent. The Middle East was next, followed by Japan, Australia, the island nations of the Pacific and large portions of Asia. By June 2013, it looked like North America and South America, the last free continents, would fall as well. But humanity would not be defeated so easily, because as a matter of fact, the April 3, 1970 UN conference kick-started Project Earth Force.
Over a period of roughly 40 years, top-secret bunkers were constructed in the American Rockies, the Andes Mountains and the Himalayas using technology reverse-engineered from the alien equipment. Hardened against EMP and nuclear strikes, these bunkers were meant to hide entire armies until the moment they were needed. The fighting men and women stationed in those bunkers came from all nations. They made up Earth Force, also known as the Defenders, and they were the final line of defense for humanity. These soldiers watched the rest of the world go dark, but did not emerge immediately. The time was not yet right.
However, when the Reavers appeared in the Americas, the time for action had come. The Defenders charged from their bunkers, armed with cutting-edge weaponry reverse-engineered from the alien technology found on the Moon decades earlier. After months of intense fighting, Earth Force took back part of the world, temporarily securing a number of major cities in central Asia and the Americas, establishing them as human strongholds. The airports of every recaptured human city were converted into heavily guarded military bases for civilians to be evacuated to.
For now, the battle lines in the Americas have stabilized. All-out battles have dwindled into sporadic skirmishes as the war changes into a fragile standoff. Eurasia remains mostly dark, the world’s satellites are almost completely inoperative, and long-distance communication is unreliable at best. The Reaver-infested areas of the world have become known as the Red Zones, while the relatively secure areas, the Green Zones. Anywhere else is aptly termed a Dark Zone.
However, not even the Green Zones are truly safe, except for the airport strongholds and the original Earth Force bunkers. Reavers continue to slip through the thinly stretched Defender ranks to roam around so-called ‘secure’ cities, dragging ill-fated civilians to a grisly demise. Earth Force lacks the manpower to mount any major offensive on the Reavers without leaving large gaps in their defensive lines. However, help is beginning to emerge from a most unlikely source, as a small portion of the human population has begun to display supernatural abilities. Two such ‘supers’ have already been discovered in the former Calgary International Airport, now known as Greathorn Base. And more are being revealed.
The odds are stacked against the people of Earth. The Reavers continue to hold a numerical advantage on the Defenders. The aliens’ more advanced bioweapons have curiously and drastically dwindled in number ever since the Dark Days began, but should they reappear, Earth Force stands a chance of being overwhelmed by a determined Reaver offensive.
Meanwhile, the supers are scattered and alone. In fact, they don’t even possess complete memories of their previous lives. But it is up to them to find each other and lead a united human race into a brave new world. It is up to them to prove that the end of the world did not begin on December 21, 2012.
The Doomsday Clock reads one minute to midnight.
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