January 23 7 AE (military calendar)January 23 2029 AC (global calendar)Admiral Nichos Knox Bridge of the U.S.S Los AngelesI grit my teeth at the ash and dust outside my bridge windows but seething won’t make it go away. I still can’t get the sight of the ash wall out of my mind. We could hear the screams from the shore.

  That’s why I have no qualms about my test mission. I’m currently leading a fleet across the Atntic, one of the rgest ever assembled in American history if not period. We have three aircraft carriers and four battleships. The Texas, New Jersey and Iowa and the newly built Pacific of the pacific css.

  All of them have part of our cargo now all we need is a bit of luck to stay undetected and make it in one piece. The oceans have never been more dangerous than they are now. Sheets of bck Ice form at the equator and radar, LiDAR, sonar and visual guidance all don’t work.

  All this is compounded by the fact we are at war so an enemy fleet could appear out of the ash less than a mile from us. With a sigh I return to my quarters.

  Elysium PrimeSpero

  Im sitting in a plush comfortable chair waiting for Jonas camera crew to finish setting up, so we are just idling chatting. “So I hear bliss finally made captain general” he asks. I nod “that she has, she’s up to her eyes in work organizing everything from scratch luckily she has help”

  His reply is entirely genuine when he says “that’s good to hear… looks like we’re about to go live” we’re given a count and the broadcast goes live. He goes through the show intro and then introduces me.

  “Now we have a lot of questions that the people would like answers to so we’ll try to get through as many in the best detail we can tonight. First one rumor control has it that you were entirely hands off on both the title vote and the vote that would have introduced a term limit”

  He leave it open ended so I just dive in “I was aware of the vote on what the title of my position should be however I was not aware of the other vote” Jonah grunts and continues “in that case what are your thoughts on the title. Tyrant”

  I make sure I have a warm smile on when I answer “I think it carries the weight it’s due. It’s a promise and reminder to be a tyrant in name only. I doubt I would have thought of something better”

  Jonah nods “fine words however recent actions would have doubts in the citizens on account that you can reign indefinitely and the recent actions in the war”

  I hold up my hands “I’ll break that down piece by piece. As for the term limits it was the counselors that put it forward and it didn’t include them in it. I might add that the citizens voted for there to be none. There is still the check that I can still be removed by a vote of confidence and said votes happen regurly”

  I sigh “as for the war. We did not engage it, however just because we didn’t start nor ask for this war does not mean we will lie down, we will win it. The pacific has shown us what awaits us if we fail. As for the pacific incident thanks to precautions we weathered the storm just fine and measures are in the final stages of pnning to rectify the ash clouds”

  That st part catches Jonah by surprise but he pounces on that topic “can you eborate on rectifying the ash cloud” I nod “of course, it’s a several step pn first we’ll need to clear the skies so we’ll build what are in essence giant air filters that each can process one million cubic meters a day”

  “Once the sun begins to shine once more we’ll begin to reseed the surface after ground tests and let the different biomes reform before we reintroduce the wildlife”

  Jonah politely interrupts me “how long is this projected to take” I think for a few moments then answer him “we’ll have blue skies within fifty years” the surprise on his face is pretty obvious but he regains his composure and asks the obvious follow up question “fifty years seems realistic, as many viewers know when a government promises something this grand the timeline is btantly a lie so can you expin the timeline”

  I nod “in theory we could fix the ash sooner however with the war we can’t divert as many resources as I’d like and more dust and ash is likely to be kicked up. Honestly the faster this war ends the faster we can fix our pnet”

  Jonah grunts “so fifty years for the sky but what about our oceans” I shrug “a simir method will be used but the reseeding won’t need to be as expensive as most of the oceans life is at the bottom and they don’t need light to survive anyway so there are mostly unaffected”

  West coast of AfricaAdmiral knox

  The fleet is buzzing with activity as we make ready. The aircraft carriers are also preparing, they have a few prototypes we are going to try out.

  As the time ticks down main cannons are locked into pce and aircraft are loaded onto catapults. As I wait to give the command I give a silent prayer for our payloads to hit true.

  Something heard this prayer but they could not react fast enough. The clock hit zero “all battery’s fire unch all aircraft”

  Shells, rockets and aircraft filled the sky as each made its way to its final destination. Popution centers in Africa. Mombasa, Dakar, Freetown, and dozens others.

  The fleet fired until they ran out of the special ammunition. And what an effective one it was.

  Elysium prime Spero

  The interview is close to wrapping up. The tter half we opened the questions up to live viewers. Overall I think it was productive.

  That is until one of the camera crew changes a screen to a different news station. One that’s showing deviation. The people are outside so obviously wearing masks yet they seem to be affected by something. Jonah catches this and has the audio put through to us and changes the feed to this.

  There is screaming and shouting that the reporter is having to talk over “the explosions came out of nowhere but the effects were light. Then first responders reported that those located near the bsts masks had their filters melted and their lungs began to liquidate”

  The entire studio watches in mute horror “soon after the first responders had their filters melt and had the same results. This weapon is fast spreading and 100% lethal if anyone in the military is watching”

  The reporter takes a shaky breath then finishes “seal the city contain this hell… and avenge us” the camera falls to the ground with the sound of wet coughing.

  I stand up “cameras on me” I say in a low growl then once I’m centered on the feed I speak from the heart not bothering to contain my rage

  “this is what our enemies are. They are not people they are not even savages they are worse. They not only target civilians but they dare to target them with a weapon they can’t hide from nor protect themselves from and must simply sit and wait for an agonizing death”

  I look straight into the camera “sons and daughters of elysium from this moment on we are in a state of total war, no weapon will be locked away no tactic frowned upon. Those parasites set these rules so now we will wipe them from existence since that is what they so dearly desire”

  I turn and leave having much to attend to now.

  By the time I get to the high command control room everyone is waiting for me. There is the most recent lord admiral Forthencho Oborune the captain general of the ground forces Jack hazard.

  Sky marshal anoke and of course Bliss are all here. “Give me a situation report what’s going on in Africa” I say as I enter. Caption general hazard answers me “from the reports we have coming in it’s a biological attack”

  He proceeds to list off dozens of cities then continues about the other details “it can eat through civilian grade filters with ease but it has some difficulty getting through the more modern filters”

  Bliss cuts in “it seems to be adapting though and the symptoms are also evolving from mass hemorrhaging in the lungs to specifically the eyes and tongue now”

  I frown at the details “unlock all material reserves and authorize all tactical weapons. Mobilize garrison units to quarantine those cities. Have them stay at least a mile out. We’ll broadcast that we’ll drop aid and supplies and have designated points to pick them up however we are not going to come into direct contact just yet”

  There are a few flinches at the command as no one wants to condemn and abandon those people.

  “Continue the march through Europe well finish up there before we move onto to the americas the seed vaults are top priority there. Earth is already dead so I’m sure it won’t mind a few more scars, Europe will fall”

  Everyone present nods “Bliss what’s your status” a moment ter she answers “the 104th has finished boarding the fleet and are now mobile, I was going to send them to investigate titan”

  The lord admiral looks a little confused “what’s at titan” bliss shrugs and answers “besides plentiful resources and Encedus with all its water hopefully just ghosts but we thought Luna was just ghosts and we had to detente it”

  He nods “hopefully they’ll be back soon enough for local tasking” we continue to discuss various issues for hours. What to prioritize sending the strategic reserves, armor or weapons or vehicles and the like.

  Luckily we don’t have to worry about fuel too much but a gring problem that kept coming up was the ck of air forces. By the end it was decided we’ll have to put out a call for new aircraft designs and wait.

  The war for earth has entered a new era it seems. and with fully half of humanity dead already sime may wonder if any will survive at all.