March 23, 2025 - 153 nautical miles off the coast of Hawaii
A carrier strike group is en route to investigate an anomaly off the coast of Hawaii which generated a faint and short burst of EMP had gone off enough to be noticed by the sensors in the military and science facilities on Hawaii. A Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier and her escorts were steadily approaching the suspected source of the EMP burst that occurred a few minutes ago. Although they know a burst occurred, they didn't know what caused it. They knew it was not a nuclear weapon since it’s too weak to cause any damage in the area. The military was not conducting any EMP testing’s nor any war games scheduled involving said weapons are being used. The strike group continued to investigate the area trying to find the source.
"Are the radars showing anything yet?” Admiral Jenkins said as he sips his black coffee.
"Still empty sir" an officer replied. A few minutes passed by until the radar picked up something odd.
"Admiral Jenkins! There's something appeared on the radar but phased out after the following sweep with a bearing of S 45° E, 23 nautical miles from here, Sir in my opinion I think it was not a ship, the other escort destroyers also reported the anomaly and are currently assessing the situation they will be ready at any given order." An officer said as he reported their current findings of the anomaly to the Admiral.
"Contact The Pacific Command and report the current situation, and I want the hornets up and flying now! All vessels! battle ready! Admiral Jenkins barked his orders as he glanced at the radar instruments that showed the phasing object when suddenly the phasing stopped and the object gives off a steady blip on the radar.
"What the F..? Can we try to pull out a satellite image over the object right now? "
"Hold on a second Sir…. I think I got it, look at this Sir, uh this looks like some sort of a giant metallic bar over the water."
“Whoa! it’s gleaming under the sunlight oh so shiny”
“It’s on the unusual part in these areas where the water was shallow and was particularly on dead man’s sandbar”
"Can you enlarge the image for me? "
The operator did as the Admiral said and zoomed in on the live satellite image.
"What the hell are we dealing with now?. " Admiral Jenkins exclaimed under his breath.
A few minutes later a squadron of F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet took off from the carrier and was up in the air and was prepared to conduct an aerial investigation when a slightly stronger burst of EMP hit the strike group.
"Holy shit did you see how crazy the instruments went off after that?"
"Yeah but good thing we're protected when it comes to these situations."
"Command, this is Guardian 1-1 all electronics are still up and running no other issues whatsoever."
"Copy that Guardian, proceeded as planned"
The squadron of Super Hornets arrived shortly after a few minutes. Trailing at low altitudes, they can clearly see the object that caused the uproar on the island. They closed the distance between the giant structure over the ocean and was circling around it taking primary photographs, providing footage and details that were transmitted to the incoming strike group.
The structure itself was shaped like an octagon but half of it was submerged with a height of about 80 meters above the water and width of about 160 meters, it can pretty much fit two carriers side by side with a few meters to spare.
What the hell is this thing?" a pilot mumbled as he continued to fly around the structure.
"I don't know, but this clearly sends chills down my spine, man maybe these were aliens ooooh definitely aliens, wE CoMe In pEaCe" another pilot replied in a stuttered manner.
"Bruh! Do you believe in those hocus pocus craps? " another pilot blurted out.
"Yah man, I've seen those weird lights above the sky when I was a kid nothing wrong in believing those kinds of stuff. It happened back in 2020 a month after the lockdown, there shouldn't be any aircraft flying at that time so yeah" He replied...
"pfff if you say so, but fine, you get no arguments from me since 2020 was the most batshit weird year for most of us"
“Yeah right it does start off with a bat….shit at some point”
“Shut up you suck at puns, or was it even one?”
Everyone laughed, with a few idle chit chats going on, they continued with their mission.
The jets were circling around the area and were waiting for the strike group to reach the area when the pilots noticed the object glow like a circuit board pattern. The sky was suddenly cloudy and dim that the lights were noticeable.
"Command this is Guardian 1-2 do you copy over?. "
"Copy that Guardian 1-2 what's your status over?. "
"Everything is still going as planned but I want to ask permission to fly closer to the object, There's no sign of any strange things going on aside from the weird glow it was emitting and the extra shine so I want to go and have a lil bit closer look at it."
"Copy that Guardian 1-2 permission granted."
The pilot flew closer towards the object, his squadron providing cover and was being wary of the surroundings was trailing above him, watching in anticipation of what will happen next. He flew close enough that he can see a clear detail of the object in question. What happened next shocked him, letters and numbers were printed on it clearly written in English "XV1 luna-GATE 2 FTL 2".
"Holy shit!...."
"Command are you seeing this? Our mystery object might not be as alien as most of us initially presumed......"
Washington DC- in a certain underground meeting room
The President was sitting on his chair in the Situation Room. The Situation Room was a large reinforced room built hundreds of meters underground capable of withstanding a direct nuclear blast. With one big metallic table with an intricate glass-like screen that can project holographic 3D imaging and multiple chairs surrounding it. There were also large TV screens on the walls around the room and one large TV situated in the back. There were also other rooms around the Situation Room which consisted of officers who were receiving information and processing it. The National Security Council and advisors were all there on their seats and the officers were present in the other rooms.
The National Security Council consisted of President Wade Wilburn, Vice President Jeremy Rilles, Secretary of State Edgar Allen, Secretary of Defense Harry Mendoza, Secretary of Energy James Hudson, and Secretary of Homeland Security Arthur Bens. The advisors were the Chief of Staff Bruce Wills, National Security Advisor Henry Howards, and Homeland Security Advisor Jonah Talor.
"Mr. President, Pacific command had contacted us regarding the mystery object that released a burst of emp about 6:43 AM in Hawaii, from the footage we've received, what you're about to witness will cause you to doubt our given logic."
"Sigh, Problems after problems are popping up today, remember we have to deal with what happened at Bravo 2 lunar outpost yesterday regarding the missing FTL engine, this report better be good. We haven't got any good information about what happened there."
"Yes, Mr. President we'll get to that, in fact, sooner than you've expected, but please do take a look at what we found in Hawaii for now. "
“Let me guess, are they aliens?” someone said randomly.
President Wade had a serious look on his face as he sat on his chair. The holographic table lit up and the monitors displayed HD quality photographs of the Object that was found in Hawaii were in full view. after a slideshow of images was video footage of the actual investigation that was displayed. The President's expression changed, his eyes widen and, his face morphed into a state of shock at what he saw, even the other secretaries and officials who haven't seen the files firsthand have a look of disbelief on their faces.
"What the hell? is that what I thought it is?!."
"Yes, Mr. President it appears that the missing FTL engine just appeared suddenly at Hawaii a few hundred miles off land. It appeared at exactly full 12 hours after it vanished without a trace, yesterday."
"How in the actual fuck did it find it's way on earth! when it was built and being tested on the moon?!."
“I mean as far as we know it’s contained in a facility designed to withstand direct impact from the inside or outside explosion and if it does manage to be blown off the surface of the moon and manage to crash its way on earth, it had built-in course adjusting mechanism that will steer it towards the ocean and our case here is that it just went “poof” out of existence FOR TWELVE HOURS!.”
"That is what we' will be trying to figure out, for now, we have arranged Engineers and scientists from Area 51 who was managing the second FTL engine to diagnose and study the bizarre event"
"This is great news, we might have dodged a bullet right there and saved our faces from the shame and questions that would have been directed to our asses. Our multi-billion dollar project had at least managed to return to us on its own, it might have cause a full-blown panic if it appeared on other nation's territory, we must keep this a secret and never to be released until we patch up everything" The President replied in a relieved tone. President Wade slumped down on his chair and deflated as if all the floodgates of his problems was released all at once. The President took a deep breath and said.
"But what's bothering me was its sudden appearance, I can't wrap my fingers around this whole things."
No one can answer the question and just looked at each other and shrugged. Everyone in the room was relieved as they are fully aware that the words the President said were true.
An investigation is rolling out to find out exactly what happened, they could have faced a big problem and there's no way they can fully cover up such loss of the most ambitious development that had been created by thousands of brilliant minds in an effort to achieve the fastest theoretical way to travel in space. Due to the proposal of space mining on the surface of asteroids in the asteroid belt, the project started three years ago and was progressing greatly, since the cost of fuels and materials are in an astronomical amount in the long run and the after effect on the environment is a big of a deal, that’s why the project was deemed important. Although it was still a prototype and in the testing stage, it had shown signs of great promises.
“Also before we dismiss, did you contact NASA and the engineers on the moon?” President Wade added.
“Yes sir, in fact they were celebrating right now”
“oh, kay then let's go, shall we do ours too? after that let’s crack the mystery gang! Roll your sleeves lad we’ve got tons of work to do”
“Uh Mr. President mind your….nevermind”
“Pff don’t care, Jeremy, I’m just happy and excited”
“You’re such a workaholic dammit hahaha”
“Oh btw also shall we call it Poseidon’s Gate then?”
“Oh, but why?”
“Err…well we found it on the ocean and uhm technically the engine does works as a gate so yeah that’s it so can we change the code-name of it?.”
“…….k”
Thank you for the chapter.
Well, maybe the year is to short for that to happens, even for initial experiment. Curious as I am, pity I don't have real knowledge about this subject either. Anyone know more about FTL topic? please enlightenment me.
I am not really basing it on real-world progress
Randomly found this by searching "America"... seems interesting so far, so good start! ..but give it a cover art! :D
Yeah that's what i really lack for the past weeks
the way you described the bearing seem a little wonky, more like :bearing 45° to port range 23 nm or something like that. SE is 125°. the rest seems interesting
Yeah, i don't really have much knowledge about those stuffs
Thank you for the chapter.
kinda busy lately so i haven't posted for a long time
@Biggusd*ckus47 No problem, i just enjoy the ride.
It's also the name of a game who made Into the Breach
nice.