What Happened Then?

February 23rd, Year 2019, Planet Earth...

"Thousands of people are massing everywhere, from Washington DC, New York, Arkansas, Florida; even Las Vegas is reported to be incredibly crowded with rioting people, who demanded explanation from the government..."

"Presidents and Ministers all over the world are about to hold an emergency meeting at the UN Headquarters in anticipation of a possible first-contact scenario..."

"The number of people demonstrating before the White House is staggering..."

"Militaries across the world are being reassigned from their previous posts to suppress the growing civil unrest..."

"The United Nations is currently engaged in a rapidly-escalating debate..."

"As of now, people appear to suddenly forget that World War 3 is still far from over. This might be true considering that..."

"Conspiracy theorists are swiftly gaining momentum as they use this startling historical moment to spread their ancient aliens' belief, or anything related to government-related conspiracies..."

"None of the most powerful people on Earth have any idea on who should be the spokesperson for Humanity..."

"People everywhere are being instructed to not engage in anything that might provoke an interstellar war with the alien visitors..."

"Oh my God, can you believe that? NASA said the alien ships were massive, and shaped like squids, too! I can't imagine what..."

"It's like nobody even remembered WW3 anymore! What in the world is happening?"

-x-x-x-x-

In December 2017, a number of audacious scientists, astronomers, and linguists affiliated with NASA launched a decidedly dangerous secret project, which involved sending a message to space in hopes that an intelligent species with benevolent intention might read it and communicated with Humanity.

The reasoning behind this unexpected mission was the justified fears of the approaching World War 3, as many had propagated all over the Earth. Something, anything, must be done in order to stop mankind from tearing itself apart.

True enough, sometime around March 2018, the war finally begun, taking the lives of twenty five million people four months after the first shot was fired by North Korea. In the following months, tens of millions have fallen from both sides as the planet slowly deteriorated.

People everywhere were acting differently. Those who lived far away from the conflict, simply treated the war as some kind of sick entertainment, to the point of betting on who'd win the conflict. Those who lived close to the area of conflict, or having their homes severely damaged from the war, were pitched in a struggle to escape the growing chaos as their lives could be ripped away at any moment. Friendship and common decency suddenly forgotten, and money lost its meaning when bombs and mortars were dropped from the sky. It was easy to fantasize what kind of skirmish the refugees were facing; after all, you weren't there when all that mattered to you abruptly reduced to ash.

Humanity believed the ends of times were at hand, but the scientists at NASA didn't. In desperation, they started to send more and more message into space; each message was fitted with plea for help. They were literally begging for somebody, anybody, to save mankind from extinction.

One year later, the scientists finally learned, after so much internal strife to keep themselves hidden from their enemies, that Humanity should've stayed quiet and ignorant to the universe, lest the nightmare from the void hears them.

Approximately one hundred alien ships bearing various shapes and sizes, though uniformly black in color, appeared around Earth's orbit, inciting widespread anarchy in virtually every nation. The aliens broadcasted themselves as the "Reapers", or so they named themselves based on the culture of an extinct extraterrestrial civilization 50,000 years ago. Whether they were the remnants of this vanished culture, or were they the ones to terminate it, or simply playing some twisted drama on Humanity, no one could say.

Nobody knew if these aliens were going to help them find a peaceful solution to the war, or to subjugate them whilst they were occupied with the conflict.