The Explosion

William sat happily at the park bench, eating away at his beef sandwich. (The beef was vat-grown from Earth imported stem cells.) This has been a nice change of weather Will thought to himself, as a cool breeze blew through the park fields. There are few places in the city that had such large open areas─because of the rough mountainous terrain, land was valuable, and leaving such large areas open is a rarity.

Adrasteia had just completed it’s 1.4 year orbital cycle, and now Alpha Centuri B─the second sun in the sky─had receded to the furthest it would be for the entire year, bringing upon a period of cooler weather. Still, Alpha Centuri B would appear nearly two hundred times brighter than a full moon on Earth.

To the left sat Will’s friends, John and Ann. School had just ended for the “winter” season (Adrasteia doesn’t really have a ‘winter’, just a period of slightly cooler weather), so the trio discussed their plans.

“With all the military lock downs there isn’t really anywhere we can go.” John mentioned. “Guess we’re just staying here for break.”

“There’s nothing to do here. Look,” as Will pulled up an AR map on his smartglasses. “The only things we can do in this town is go shopping, eat dinner somewhere, sit in this park or go play around in the VR Complex.”

“Actually the VR Complex is closed─they’re doing repairs or something” John interrupted. “This must be how people a hundred years ago felt.”

Ann stared down sadly. “Yeah. Sometimes I wish I was on Earth. I hear that instead of airships, they have a giant rail that orbits the planet, and you can ride up to the rail and travel anywhere you want in hours.”

“And they have cheap space travel too. I always wanted to know what being in space felt like. Or swimming in low-gravity─that’s so cool. You know you can literally run on water? And─”

Will was interrupted as a mechanical voice boomed from the sky. S.S. Striker: Slow down your ship and adjust your course away from the shore. Repeat: Adjust your course away from the shore or you will be fired upon.

“What’s happening?” In the distance, the trio could see what appeared to be an AMD (Adrasteian Military Department) gunship hovering over a cargo ship.

S.S. Striker: Slow down your ship and adjust your course away from the shore or you WILL be fired upon. This is your last warning.

The S.S. Striker did not slow down, and proceeded at breakneck speed towards the shoreline. In the distance, Will spotted several curious onlookers trying to get a better view of what’s happening. Unfortunately for them, the S.S. Striker was carrying an excessive cargo of explosive compounds. As a result, the air-to-surface missile, instead of sinking the ship as the gunship’s crew expected, caused the Striker to explode.

In an instant, the lake lit up into a great fireball. Mere seconds later, the shock wave, traveling at a thousand meters per second, hit the park, knocking the three down to their feet and nearly shattering the windows in the shop behind them. If they had stopped and paid attention, for a brief moment, the lake floor was visible as the blast displaced the water. But they were down on the floor, ears ringing and in pain.

Thousands of people, whether they were onlookers or people that lived close to the shore, perished instantly. Anyone who was not killed by the blunt force of the shock wave or the immense heat and pressure of the blast was boiled alive by the tsunami that followed. Every building in a 1.3 km radius were flattened like dominoes (The mountainside absorbed much of the blast, if it weren’t for this the damage would’ve been much higher).

In the minutes that followed, white-hot pieces of metal─the remains of the Striker─rained from the sky as far as four kilometers away. The nearest skyship, the E.F.S. Starlight was called to aid. Rescue efforts went on for the next 18 hours, and an official death count of 2412 was released.

Claims of a terrorist attack spread across the internet like wildfire. Hours later, the Adrasteian government officially backed up the reports, citing evidence that the attack was perpetrated by an extremist rebel group. The people cried in outrage, demanding an immediate declaration of war. And a declaration is what happened.

The trio was really never the same after the incident. Will became more detached from society and cynical about the future. John developed an intense hatred for the rebels and enlisted himself in the military. Ann lost her love for Earth, and began sympathizing with the rebel cause. The group eventually split among their own ways─but that’s another story.