TICK“Sir, the first line of defense in Los Angeles stopped responding,” the Cheyenne Mountain liaison officer said.TOCK“Fort Eustis surrendered.” A hub of transportation and aviation was lost.TICK“Fort Smallwood lost connection to Cheyenne.”TOCK“Houston just went dark.”“Space Force Command is down.”“Mar-A-Lago….”“Fort Knox has….”“Coronado….”TICK“The Pentagon is being contested,” came another report.The bunker below the situation room was in a frenzy, as it seemed like there was a competition over who could deliver the worst news to the president as fast as possible. Each analyst and liaison officer was shouting to be heard over the others, and that was just the most important information. The stream of defeats seemed endless and came in faster than even an entire large room like the one they were in could contain.Base after base and city after city fell to ARES forces in every state. The NORAD joint bases fell just as fast, despite Canada having basically no dog in this

Avalon Island.Aron walked into a small, dark room with a table and three chairs. A hanging light swung over the table, its dim light barely illuminating anything and leaving most of the room in the darkness as it swayed to and fro.“Long time no see,” he greeted the two men seated at one side of the table.“I don’t remember us having met at any time,” George Morgan replied in a quavering voice. He couldn’t hide his nervousness, earning him a slightly disappointed glance from his father, who was in the seat next to him.“But we’ve been conversing with each other for quite a long time, now, haven’t we?” Aron sneered as he took a seat across the table from the Morgans..“We have?” Aubrey responded in mock surprise. “Perhaps there was the illusion of a conversation, but in order for a conversation to happen it requires two people, no?” He folded his hands and rested them on the table, a slight smile on his face. “So it can’t be a conversation. To me, it seems more like a lecture.”“Fine,

The hours inexorably ticked by and the time for the announcement arrived. Everyone with any device that would allow them to watch it was glued to their screens. Those that didn’t have one were huddled with those who did, some even violating the curfew to visit and watch.So far, the governments had remained completely silent ever since the “stay tuned” message had popped up everywhere. None of them had either confirmed or denied that they would be releasing an announcement, so the people could only default to believing it would be a government spokesperson showing up to let them know just what the hell was going on.On billions of screens around the world, the notification suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a white podium with no insignia on it at all, backed by a sky-blue stage curtain hanging behind it. Affixed to the podium was a single microphone.Shortly, Aron, dressed in a neatly tailored suit, entered from the side of the screen and took his place behind the podium. He pl

“I know I sound brutal, or perhaps power-mad, but the current situation the world is facing will not allow for complicated attempts at grabbing power. We need every iota of focus aimed at one goal, and one goal only: the incoming adversaries from the sea of stars,” Aron said, his gaze firmly locked on the camera lens.The screen behind him displayed the recent rioting and attempted rise of warlords that happened after the launches of missiles was first made public, as well as countless other incidents of attempted, or successful, power grabs that resulted in unified preparations being made impossible.“So because of that, I’m going to include demands in the surrender accords I’ll be signing with your countries over the coming days and weeks. They’ll be aimed at immediately beginning proper preparations to welcome our incoming... friends.” His lips quirked on the last word in a smile that wasn’t a smile.“The recent war ended with my victory. Every single country that declared war on m

People all over the world were discussing the wonder of the modern-day David and Goliath fight between the coalition naval forces and the Poseidon Navy of Eden. It was unbelievable to them—especially the Americans, brought up as they were on a steady diet of American Exceptionalism propaganda—that a “developing nation” like Eden could come out the winner in the conflict at sea. After all, it had only been around two short years since the country began rising out of its dictatorial roots. So for them to defeat, and quite resoundingly at that, the forces the rest of the world had gathered against them was incredibly unbelievable.Despite lacking quite a bit of information, some armchair generals had mashed up the information that they did have into some semblance of “the entire story” and felt they had a grasp on how things had actually happened. But with Nova and Panoptes having been the ones that curated the information released in the first place, none of those “entire stories” match