S
Sakura
Guest
Original poster
August 3, 2013.
The day the entire world went dark.
Dear Mother,
I pray that this letter will find you alive. I fear that it will take many many months for the mail to get through and even more time for any news of to arrive of other countries. Last I heard, the entire power grid was out, the satellites were malfunctioning, and there was no hope.
Some men came to my apartment yesterday. Three of them, in suits. As if it were a sci-fi movie, they told me that the United Nations needed my help. I had been chosen, as one of many, to serve on a team that would given the last resources of mankind to solve the power crisis.
Mother, I hope that you will survive. So that when all of this is over, you can hail your daughter as a hero, when she returns from saving the world.
I always wanted to end a letter with such flair.
Your loving daughter,
Ephyra.
On July 27, 2013 at exactly midnight, a strange signal was sent to the NASA HQ in Florida from the area close to the Bermuda triangle. The signal was minuscule in threat and was thus, ignored. Hours later, systems began to malfunction. Over the course of the night, stations on the ground slowly began to lose control of the satellite. The control functions on satellite A14, the station's main command unit, overlocked and refused access to the highest command at the space center. In a frenzied panic, America declared a state of emergency.
But it was too late. Satellites that belonged to other countries appeared to be having the same control issues. By dawn the next morning, every piece of artificial intelligence in our orbit was out of the control of the forces on the ground. Instead, satellite A14 was issuing it's own commands, to launch cannons from the armed satellites of the space station.
In horror, thousands of scientists watched as missiles were launched from the sky, colliding with nuclear and gas power plants across the world. Within a few hours, there was complete chaos. With the power plants destroyed, major power grids failed. Cities lost power, unable to turn to even generators. Homes, factories, even military forces were without electricity.
And by midnight August 3, the entire world was dark.
Three months passed without any kind of resolve. Life in the cities was becoming a post apocalyptic scenario. People huddled by candlelight, crime was rampant and livelihoods had been destroyed. Without electricity, even the simplest of businesses could not run. Many parts of the cities with power plants were still burning, without enough firefighters on duty to douse the flames.
With the stakes so high, agents of the United Nations council set off in search of a team. For three months, they spent hours over hours, pouring over the data from universities and companies worldwide, searching for the right people to send to the Bermuda Triangle, where they assumed, the hackers of the satellite resided. Without any real idea of what awaited there, they were not willing use the last bits of their military resources to go into the area and possibly, lose themselves in the ocean.
The team was... almost an experiment of sorts, to see what was there, who was pulling the strings on a world collapse.
And so, several individuals would be sought out, brought to a small piece of Florida, where solar panels were recently installed for government work, the only place of electricity in the world. Nationwide and overseas, individuals were collected to form the team that would be called Powerplay. They were, in the case of success, promised one wish of their choosing: fame, fortune, or anything else that they desired.