Storm
The clouds were dark and heavy over the mountains, obscuring any golden rays the setting sun might have cast. A light rain seeped down through the hills to muddy the dirt road and somewhere in the distance a roll of thunder signaled the approaching tempest.
Alexander Luthor looked up at the storm thoughtfully through the passenger window of the jeep and ignored the constant jostling he received from the rough dirt track. His driver swore in Norwegian as he swerved to avoid a muddy pothole, glancing through the back window to check how his trailer of ATVs was holding up. A few more heavy vehicles followed behind, transporting men and goods back to civilization.
It was a four-hour drive back to Alta from the LexCorp oil drill deep in the northern Kjølen Mountains - if the weather was good and the roads dry, but the rain and mud would slow them even further. Lionel secretly hated every bumpy moment of it, but he kept a good face, asking all the right questions and saying all the right things. The drill had finally completed all of the initial safety checks and was expected to reach its target spring sometime in early September, but by then Lionel would be back in blessed America with his son and protege. Now all that was required of him was to sign a few checks and contracts, say a word or two to the presses, and return home. Yet the moment he saw the soaring speck of light through an opening in the gray clouds, he knew he might have to add just one more thing to that list.
He watched it grow steadily brighter and it was joined by a distant rumbling that became louder with each passing moment. The driver paused, thinking it was thunder, but no lightning split the sky and the sound continued on far too long. He slowed down and looked out the windshield over the hood for signs of smoke, but his vehicle was not the cause of the noise.
Luthor gazed silently out the window at the ever-shining blaze descending through the clouds and signaled for his driver to stop. Stepping out of the truck into the rain, more men from the other vehicles in the caravan followed his example, all watching the same bright light through the coming storm that was now many times the size of any normal star and thundering like a freight train. It flew across the twilight sky, angling towards the east before impacting in the low mountains and the thundering ended with a low boom from the collision.
Alexander sipped at his thermos of coffee, his eyes never leaving the spot where the star had fallen. His men all watched him expectantly, waiting for orders until he finally called for Erik to unload the ATVs and calculate the distance to the impact.
Within twenty minutes a group of six men headed east, Alexander driving at the head. The terrain was even more treacherous than the road had been, wet and muddy in the downpour, but they continued steadily onward. After a few hours of rough elk paths and bushwhacking in the hard rain as night descended, he could see the crater in the distance, wisps of steam and smoke rising from the hole. Approaching the desolate clearing, he stopped his vehicle and dismounted, slowly approaching the edge of the star-hewn caldera before looking down into it.
He smiled.
(I promise that not all of the chapters are this length - most are about 2.5 - 3k, this is just a snapshot)