10 Downing Street, London
18:00, 31st of December, 2023

"Prime Minister!" A young man with wide eyes burst into the office, momentarily shattering the rare tranquillity. Timothy Roberts, the slightly controversial Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, looked up from his laptop and a pile of reports. Despite the late hour, he was deeply devoted to his job and his country, so he continued to work. He noticed the sense of trepidation in the Chief of Staff's voice and prepared himself mentally. "Yes? What’s the matter, Eric?" 

"Sir, the Met Office has just reported a large storm developing over the Falkland Islands! It's like nothing we've ever seen before!" Eric gasped out. The tremor in his voice suggested he was struggling to grasp the reality of his own words. 

Roberts got up from his chair, a sense of nervousness burning in his eyes. "Whoa, slow down, Eric." He scrutinised his Chief of Staff, trying to understand the fear in the younger man's face. “Why am I just hearing about this now?”

“The storm, sir...it seems to have spontaneously appeared." Eric managed to slow his breath, his words gaining more structure. "The Met Office should be calling you momentarily; one of their meteorologists will brief you about the emergency.”

Before he could add anything further, the sharp ring of a phone cut through their conversation. Roberts strode over to his desk, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead. He picked up the receiver, his grip firm. “Prime Minister Roberts speaking.”

“Mr Prime Minister,” a voice replied, its calmness in stark contrast to the earlier panic. It was a voice trained to keep its cool in a tempest. “I’m Professor Thomas Palmer, chief scientist at the Met Office. I’m sure your cabinet has already filled you in on the storm developing over the Falklands. We’re currently classifying it as a Category 11 storm on the Beaufort Scale, but the situation is rapidly evolving. We’ve already advised the residents to take immediate shelter and if possible to take precautions to prevent further damage, such as tying down loose debris and boarding up windows.”

"And our military forces stationed on the islands?" questioned Roberts with a slight sense of relief in his tone at the fact that such precautions had already been taken by the more responsible members of the government. "What precautions are they taking?"

The professor took a breath, before continuing. "I'm sorry sir, I'm not aware of any military actions as that's not under our purview at the Met Office. But I do know that the Ministry of Defence has already been informed of this by other members of our team" He went silent for a moment. "I have just been informed of some interesting developments. Another storm has been spotted, of an even greater magnitude."

Roberts countered with only one word. "Where?"

"The North Atlantic sir, barrelling towards us. At this rate sir, it will be hitting the west coast of Wales in less than 2 hours and London in just 2 and a half."

"Thank you for informing me, professor, but I must leave you now," Roberts said while beginning to stand up.

"It's my plea- well not exactly a pleasure, but you're welcome sir," the professor replied before hanging up the phone.

"Eric, get me Ted Cunningham (Secretary of Defense) on the phone immediately and have someone begin to draft plans for the evacuation of civilians and search and rescue if worse comes to worst." He had been planning on having a relaxed day at work today, he had been up late last night working on negotiations with Japanese diplomats.

3 hours after the Prime Minister was informed of the impending crisis

The loud whistling of the wind drowned out the voices of people talking, but he knew that it was a major crisis. All communication with the outside world was blocked by electromagnetic waves associated with the huge storm that had engulfed the entirety of the country and was causing untold damage to both homes and people across the country. And he could do nothing about it. All systems were down and there was no way to communicate with anyone around the country. They would have to bunker down until the storm let up.

12 hours after the Prime Minister was informed of the impending crisis

Timothy Roberts took a step out of 10 Downing Street and was surprised to see that the sky was a bright blue with minimal clouds dotted around here and there as if nothing had happened. Furthermore, damage to the street was minimal and there was only light debris scattered around the road and pavement.

Communications had just come back up and the various departments were reaching out across the country to assess the damage and prepare an appropriate response. He knew he would have to give a speech, and although he always appeared calm and collected, deep inside he was always nervous while speaking to the nation as an entirety.

He was thrust out of his thoughts as an aide came rushing up. "Sir we have a preliminary report."

"How is it?" He knew that even if the street outside 10 Downing Street had got away with little to no damage, the damage across the rest of the country must be devastating. 

"According to various sources across the country, well sir, the property damage is minimal and we have less than 30 reported casualties so far."

That was well uh ... a shock to say the least. That storm was supposed to be cataclysmic, so what on earth had happened? 

"But um sir," the man continued. "We haven't been able to make contact with anyone outside of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the overseas territories, we are effectively cut off from all communication with the rest of the world as far as we can tell at the moment"

What was he supposed to do, there was no precedent for anything remotely similar to this. "What do the departments want to do about this?"

His response was quick. "The MoD want to have jets in the air to try to make visual contact with the other countries, France and Ireland predominantly, they also want to have the armed forces brought to a state of readiness in case of the worst"

"That seems reasonab-"

Another man burst into the room. "Sir, we have urgent news from Gibraltar."

"What is it?"

He then dropped a bombshell that Roberts wasn't prepared to hear. "Spain is gone!"

Unrekable

If you spot any mistakes, feel free to let me know in the comments

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