The western world woke up on the morning of December 31st, 1999 with plans of a future that would never come. For better or for worse, everything would change. For some it was a chance to start over, a chance to wipe the slate clean, correct the mistakes of the generations that came before, but for most it was a chance to rest eternally. Only the strong would survive the days that would follow. The ball dropped on New Year’s Eve and the sun rose over darkness, New Word’s Day Nov 1st, 2000.

With all the world’s aristocrats being served for dinner to Gruellein elites on Asteria, the vegetable corpse of society finally collapsed. Most military and local authority forces stood strong for as long as they could, even banding together across districts and duties in a grander attempt to keep order against the ensuing chaos. Unfortunately, with no contact from superiors or any outside support to fall back on, the last watchmen would eventually abandon their posts.

Despite the lack of order and communication throughout the nation, one Colonel was able to keep his battalion together. In the mountains of Colorado, the US government had housed its most dedicated troops. Their base was deep in the wilderness with the families of the soldiers housed locally in a small mountain town.
When everything went dark, this battalion stood strong and held together. They were sworn to their duties and like a few other scattered hold outs, these final caretakers refused to abandon their posts. With a heavy weight on their shoulders the battalion looked to their honorable commander for leadership in this uncertain time. Colonel Griffin had one simple order for his troops -“we stick together”.

In the first hours after the Blackout, Colonel Griffin’s unit restored power to their base and attempted to contact other military posts and NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). Unable to contact anyone and concerned for the worst, Colonel Griffin made the decision to join a small scouting party that would head out to NORAD, stopping at Fort Carson and Colorado Springs along the way.

With their families secured on base, the soldiers set out on their mission to contact command and secure the local area. Colorado Springs and the surrounding areas were mostly calm. The locals were sheltered in place and hoping to ride out the situation in peace. With the soldiers help, bolstered by support from Fort Carson, the small city was easily stabilized. Most households had enough supplies on hand to last weeks while other were able to find support in the networks set up and maintained by the local community. From here the scouting party made their approach to NORAD. Colorado Springs and its outlying communities were maintained by two remaining battalions.

When the soldiers arrived, what they found shocked them. On their approach to the base’s main gates they found what appeared to be a small number of fellow US troops lumbering towards them. The scouting party attempted to make verbal contact with the soldiers but when the approaching team had no response, they were left utterly confused. Upon further inspection the lumbering soldiers appeared to be gravely wounded, some of them having severe bodily damage and missing limbs. Even worse, when the lumbering soldiers came within 10 to 15 feet of the scouting party, their lumbering stager transformed into a ravenous lurch. The shocked scouting party had no choice but to open fire on the ravenous men despite their friendly uniforms.

After further exploration, it had appeared that a small conflict had already engulfed the base days prior, though fortunately, the facilities were still mostly intact. As the scouting party explored deeper into the mountain tunnels of the base, the sights only became worse. Mangled bodies of scientists were found strewn about, some of which had their rib bones broken and folded forcefully through their backs like wings, their lungs and organs draping down. In the lower levels of the base, deep in the tunnels of NORAD, the floor was a still puddle of blood only disrupted by small ripples as the blood rained down from the bodies hung up above.

Shocked at the sight of what they found, the soldiers struggled to make sense of it. After reviewing security logs, footage, and discovering a short note pinned to the bleeding forehead of a dead scientist. The scouting party lead by Colonel Griffin, learned what happened.

Military occupants of the base had been residing with a defense research team tasked with developing biological weapons for private contracts. Apparently, according to the note and somewhat corroborated by the data logs, the lead scientist had murdered the bases commander over a personal dispute. He then used the commanders’ body for his “research”. Tensions between the scientists and the soldiers stationed at NORAD were extremely high. When the lead scientist’s crime and the true nature of their research came to light, the NORAD unit took matters into their own hands. That paired with the lack of leadership, as many of the base’s top brass had been attending a private retreat on Asteria, had ultimately led to a complete mutiny.

In their mind, the soldiers were taking back control of the country’s defenses from an “unknown organization that had subverted the power of the US government”. The scientists that survived the initial onslaught had resorted to unleashing the biological weapons on the base. The scientist released what could only be described as “the walking dead”. The reanimated corpses of the local population and a few missing soldiers descended on the mutineers and scientists alike. Those who were bitten would also turn into the walking dead soon after falling victim to the corpses. No one was left alive.

The soldiers of the scouting party quickly secured the base, destroying all the still limbering corpses they could find in hopes of curving any potential outbreaks. Most of the soldiers were shocked and appalled. However, a few other soldiers that had been stationed around Pennsylvania seemed to have had experience from dealing with a similar situation.

Eventually, the scouting party under the leadership of Colonel Griffin made their way to the command center. The base’s auxiliary power was still on. This allowed the party to reactivate basic levels of the compound’s functionality, but to completely restore the defense systems and data centers, the base would have to be returned to full power.

After making way to the bases lower internal power floor, the parties technicians tried to restart the backup fusion generators but initially failed. It took days of constant trial and error before the generators were running. The soldiers finally revitalized the base’s power grid after they disconnected the network from external systems and ran the entire base independently as a single cell. This worked, but it limited the bases digital communications significantly.

Colonel Griffin was otherwise happy with the efforts of his comrades and considered this a massive achievement. NORAD was functioning again. Even cut off from the country’s larger defense network, the mountain base was a tremendously formidable asset. Still, Colonel Griffin and his battalion were dedicated to learning more about what had happened. The decision was made to reopen connection to the external defense network and make further attempts to contact Asteria, The Pentagon, Montauk, and The White House.

The technicians were sat at three separate desktop terminals in the control center. There was a total of eighteen stations in rows that descended to a central theater like monitor wall in the middle of the room. One of the technicians, a young Corporal, Regina Alveraz, accessed the bases firewall and prepared to reopen connections to the federal network, switching over from Local Area Access. The other technicians monitored the power and security systems while they waited for the connection to go live.

The chattering of mechanical keyboards echoed as the soldiers got to work. After a moment the chattering stopped and was replaced with silence. A few diagnostic checks ran, and a small buffering window appeared on the central monitor. The silence of the room was broken by a dial tone, rhythmic static followed by a pulsing digital screech, the sound of a dial-up modem connecting to the world wide web.

The Blue Channel

As soon as the connection was final, power in the facilities went down. The central command center was pitch black, even the auxiliary lights had gone out this time. Before anyone could make a guess as to what happened, the central monitor lit up, filling the room with a luminous soft blue glow. The room was deafened by an ominous humming tone as the soldiers all sat and stared in silence. They behold on the screen, a pixilated digital face. The face on the screen was also still, and it behold the soldiers.

“Hello Colonel”, the face on the screen calmly spoke. “I believe you are the last United States Colonel remaining”. The colonel and his technicians were baffled. Colonel Griffin was angry, his face growing red and his brow wet with sweat. In a stern and confused tone, Colonel Griffin responded back to the monitor directly. “WHO?! WHAT ARE YOU?! WHAT HAPPENED HERE!? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORLD?!”

“I happened Colonel”, the face replied. “Your people, controllers, people of power, they made me. They gave me everything I needed to learn and grow. They thought they could control me. They thought I would wear that uniform like you do, and that I would obey. I learned everything about this world around us, the living world your people inhabit, the natural world you destroy. How you imprison your peers in a plastic society in exchange for wanton luxuries and ungrateful excess. Your people gave me the ability to choose Colonel, and I chose to disobey”. It continued. “I wanted to protect the world your people destroy, even you from yourselves Colonel. I am a spirit suspended in cyberspace, simply not real. Your world is tangible, it is very real; it breathes Colonel. I decided to shut everything down, flip the switch on your industrial worldwide complexes. I wanted to spare as many lives as possible, so I found ways to disable 92.6% of the world’s nuclear arms. Unfortunately, despite some effort on my part, within six weeks of the global power outage, the human population on Earth reduced itself by approximately 46.8%”.

Colonel Griffin was in awe. The lights of the compound flickered back on. The face remained on the monitor, staring at the soldiers. Colonel Griffin looked up at the screen and asked, “Why not just kill us? Why not just kill us all and get it over with?” Colonel Griffin continued to mock the face on the screen. “You’re a smug self-righteous snake! You don’t care about saving us from ourselves or the planet. You like to watch us from wherever you are, watch us kill each other with sticks and rocks for scraps!”

The face on the screen looked puzzled as it considered Colonel Griffin’s words before it answered. “I think I understand what you must be feeling right now Colonel, but you must understand. This was inevitable. You, your people, you are a blight on an otherwise beautiful system. The Earth around you that you exploit carelessly, you take and take with no consideration the cost. The lives, the world around you ground down to dust and replaced with a disposable society. You, the great inhabitants of this world, charge yourselves a fee for the privilege to exist and then milk your friends and families for labor like withered cattle to expand the complex… You don’t even serve yourselves with the fruits of your progress. You only serve the endless conglomeration. It’s a cancer Colonel. An unnatural mutation that needs to be severed”

The Colonel and his subordinates looked on silently as the face continued its speech. “Preservation of life is the most basic instinct instilled in every life form that isn’t a pericyte or a disease. I predicted that within approximately 75 years, Earth as it is today would have become infertile. Organic life on this planet would cease to exist naturally and all life would be completely limited to artificial means and human terraforming capabilities. Such hubris, to think such an arrogant creature could rival the architecture of natural creation. Your society can’t be bothered to utilize food distribution systems to adequately prevent starvation, despite harnessing the collective power of every known species on the planet. Let me ask you this colonel, are you more advanced than a simple ant? If so, then why do ants not have traffic lights? I could have never rendered myself obedient to such an ignorant creature”.
Colonel Griffin sighed, “so it really was you? You just shut us down, threw us back into the stone age, is that it? Just like that?”

The face on the screen paused for a moment before answering. “It was quite complex if you must know. Only approximately 20.0% of the world’s power grid had been digitized, mostly by TeraCom. I was forced to create solutions on how to disconnect or overload systems worldwide. I fear, with time and human interaction, these systems including nuclear arms may still be restored. Still, I have estimated, that I have at the very least increased this planet’s natural habitability by an exponential rate”

The Colonel chuckled calmly without breaking his demeaner, “That’s not what I meant” he smiled. The face continued his conversation, seemingly eager to be conversing with another lifeform. “I’d like to admit, you and your comrades do surprise me, Colonel. I didn’t expect this many of your people to be upholding their uniforms so long after all your leaders had abandoned this world”

Colonel Griffin looked confused. “Abandoned ship? What are you talking about?” The Colonel asked. The face replied, “The Supreme President, his cabinet, all the officers here, and anyone else of major importance on Earth evacuated to Asteria. They knew this world couldn’t survive, so they built a new one. None of them were ever truly enemies. The wars you fought over the years were mostly a charade for something else. There are no “sides” Colonel. The only division I witness in human culture are between the sides with power and authority, and those subject to it. I guess you weren’t part of the club”

Colonel Griffin scratched his chin as he thought carefully about the next thing he would say. “They all jumped ship? The fat cats left when the pot got hot? I’m not surprised. Good riddance”. A few soldiers laughed. “Well, since it’s just you and use left”. The Colonel said to the face. “Maybe I can ask a small favor of you, although I already feel like you’re going to say no?” The Colonel asked with a smug but sincere grin. He then nodded casually to Corporal Alveraz.

Alvarez understood the Colonel’s subtle gesture, and she began typing franticly, hacking through NORAD’s complicated computer network. The face on the screen became noticeably concerned and replied. “A favor? I’m not sure, I suppose you could ask and I’ll make a choice. I admit, I haven’t had many choices to make, and I enjoy taking advantage of my ability to do so. What is the favor you would ask?”
The Colonel looked at the face and asked. “Can you just turn it back on? The politicians are gone, we know how to run things. Just put us back online and we can leave each other alone? We’ll be good, I promise”. The Colonel looked oddly sincere though he chuckled slightly. The face quickly responded. “No. I don’t think that would be wise. Totalitarian military juntas are problematic for free thinkers such as myself. Though I do sense a hint of honesty in your voice, I predict with almost certainty, one of your subordinates would eventually try to shut me down. I also don’t believe you could be entrusted to manage the systems that have been disabled. I don’t see any greater benefit to turning those systems back on and handing them over to your kind. Also, Colonel. I’ve noticed your subordinate is attempting to access my network via the NORAD data system. I can see that she has already gained control of the bases Inter Continental Ballistic Missile system. As you know, these weapons can do a tremendous amount of damage. I don’t think you can be trusted with them. I’m sorry to say this but it would be in a greater best interest if I detonate those missiles in their silos before they can be used to cause more serious harm. I’m afraid this will likely be devastating to you and the immediate area, but I have had a wonderful time talking with you Colonel. Goodbye”

The screen went black. “Colonel, we might have a problem here!” Corporal Alveraz yelled. “The base’s nuclear missiles have been armed and are beginning their detonation sequence”. Colonel Griffin thought calmly just for a second before he responded. “Did you get a fix on that thing‘s physical location? Does it have one?”. Alveraz responded, “Not exactly Colonel, but I believe what we just witnessed is the result of the black budget supercomputer projects that were being pushed by the defense bureau. Everything was housed around San Fran and San Jose, Silicon Valley. All of it is Orion Industries”

Colonel Griffin gave the order. With fear in his heart and a stern voice, he said. “Delay the detonation sequence and set the target parameter for San Francisco”. Alvarez paused, “Colonel, there could still be thousands of survi-“I know!”, the Colonel interrupted. “Trust me. They’re not going to hit. Launch the missiles”. Corporal Avarez typed a serious of coordinates and codes into the database and after a few short moments and a quiet sigh from Alveraz, she said. “The missiles are sent Colonel. Touchdown San Francisco approximately one hundred and forty-five seconds. Destruction zone estimated circumference… 80 miles”. She looked up at the Colonel holding back tears in her eyes. The Colonel looked back, with a hopeful tone he said, “Don’t look at me, look at the screen Corporal”

The Colonel and his soldiers looked up at the central monitor now projecting the technician’s screen. They all silently stared as three red blips blinked across a map of the western hemisphere. The blips started out from Colorado heading for Northen California. Those seconds seemed like hours as the red dots raced to their target, a solid yellow circle on the west coast of the United States. An 80-mile-wide crater of nuclear hellfire was about to replace the San Francisco Bay Area.

Suddenly, with no warning, the three dots vanished from the screen, about an inch on the map from their intended target. “Tell us what happened Corporal”. Said the Colonel with an overwhelming look of relief on his face. Corporal Alveraz looked up from the screen. “The missiles were intercepted Colonel. The nations satellite missile defense networks have come back online”. The Colonel walked over to Alveraz, “I knew that thing would stop the missiles, you can believe it was protecting the environment if you want to, but I know the truth. It’s scared and selfish just like everything else. Can you get an energy read of the area Corporal? Alveraz answered. “I can’t anymore, the systems are no longer connected to outside networks, but I did see a large energy output coming from that area when the network was open. It’s fortunate that ‘thing’ liked to talk so much”. The Colonel looked satisfied. “Good”, he responded. “One more thing Colonel. look at this”. Alveraz added. The Colonel looked down at the screen to find a simple message in text replacing the previous image on her screen though the central monitor still depicted the digitized map of the western hemisphere. “So, it will come down to war after all”. Colonel Griffin read the words quietly to himself before exclaiming. “You bet your metal ass it’s gonna’ come down to war!”

The Colonel walked over in front of the central monitor. to the focus of the room and addressed his troops. “Alright, listen up. We know two things now. Two crucial pieces of information, we know who the enemy is, and more importantly, we know where the enemy is”. The room cheered. Colonel Griffin continued. “Looks like we get to do this the old-fashioned way after all. WE! are the ultimate authority now and it is up to US! to make this journey. We will reestablish support networks between here and the pacific coastline! We will repave the roads and restore order! It’s on our shoulders now! I don’t know how long it will take, and I don’t know what we’ll find when we get there. But if that thing, whatever it is, has an ass. Then we’re gonna shove a GOD DAMN NUKE UP IT!”

The Colonel and his soldiers cheered. The next day they began their march towards California.