Audio Transcript - Convening of the Shiplords, 127th Emperor Hetto. January 9th, 2021
19:00:09 [Fleetlord Straha]: "Shiplords of the Race, I have gathered you here today to address a number of growing concerns I have noticed amongst our ranks. Chief among them, the mutiny of Shiplord Atvar, as well as the addition of the Chpatisk Fithp to our ranks."
19:00:58 [Shiplord Horrep]: "Atvar the Damned!"
19:01:02 [Shiplord Tesakra]: "Atvar the Traitor!"
19:01:13 [Shiplord Ktitish]: "Exalted Fleetlord, is it then true that the traitor has taken his ship and crew to the not-empire of the République Française?"
19:01:54 [Fleetlord Straha]: "It is true. Intelligence officer Drefsab has confirmed that Atvar, Emperor-forsaken he is, has allied himself with the barbarous Tosevites. Specifically, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which stands to be perhaps the most powerful military alliance on the planet, if only due to the fact that one of its founding members is the United States of America."
19:02:31 [Shiplord Shanak]: "It seems that this America has been insidiously extending its claws across this chilly egg of a world, Exalted Fleetlord. Many of the weapons and hardware used by the not-empires we encountered in Africa and Asia were produced by them, and there is the matter of their ability to repel a landing..."
19:03:12 [Fleetlord Straha]: "I have a plan to deal with America, which segues into the next concern I have become aware of. I have been made aware that there is a great deal of... worry, regarding the Chpatisk Fithp."
19:03:32 [Shiplord Kirel]: "Exalted Fleetlord, with the utmost respect, the Chpatisk Fithp who are now aboard the Hetto have made my males nervous. Many of them are unconvinced that they are loyal, due to their seemingly random killings in Indiya and Zhōngguó."
19:04:01 [Shiplord Ntala]: "Not to mention their strange habits. They defecate casually in the living quarters they have taken, and consume much more food than my males. I feel part of this may be due to the fact that we are unsure of why they are aboard."
19:04:51 [Fleetlord Straha]: "The fithp are loyal to their defeaters, just as we are loyal to the Emperor. In their hearts, they are already Race. This fi' besides me was the former Herdmaster of the defunct herd, and now he is my advisor. Pastempeh-keph, what herd do you belong to?"
19:05:02 [Advisor Pastempeh-keph]: "I am Race-fithp, Herdmaster."
19:05:06 [Fleetlord Straha]: "The fithp are not treacherous, unlike the barbarous Tosevites. They will fight for the Emperor now, just as we have done since birth. And they are aboard this ship, and many other ships, for the express purpose of helping us win this war."
19:05:33 [Shiplord Kirel]: "But how, Exalted Fleetlord? Already our estimated losses stand at eleven million males, as well as eight thousand landcruisers and seven thousand killercraft. Not to mention the loss of many starships..."
19:06:03 [Shiplord Ddalak]: "I must reluctantly agree, Exalted Fleetlord. Though it us our duty to bring Tosev III under control, it seems more and more unlikely. They are addled, willing to use explosive metal bombs on their own populations in order to strike at us, and the atrocities I have heard make my liver quail at the thought. Even the fithp had their first landings beaten back into the orbitals."
19:06:57 [Fleetlord Straha]: "Perhaps victory was unattainable before, but it is no longer the case. The fithp have not only brought their ship and their technology to aid us; they have a secret weapon, one that will secure us the planet. It is called the Foot."
Thirty seconds of silence, with the only sound being the whirring of a holoprojector.
19:07:27 [Shiplord Horrep]: "I don't see it, Exalted Fleetlord. I simply see an asteroid."
19:07:55 [Shiplord Ddalak]: "Is it orbiting the asteroid?"
19:08:22 [Fleetlord Straha]: "The weapon is the asteroid, gathered Shiplords."
Forty seconds of unintelligible chatter amongst the Shiplords, with occasional exclamations.
19:09:01 [Advisor Pastempeh-keph]: "Thuktun Flishithy was mated to this moonlet for three years, pushing with its fusion drive. It has a velocity of sixty kilometers per second, and a mass of eighteen billion tons. Small adjustments, if made before three days from now, can be used to strike any area of the planet within these boundaries."
19:09:45 [Fleetlord Straha]: "And in addition, we shall also make a new impactor. Shiplords Russik and Tpashan, your ships have been rendered unsuitable for planetary landings due to damage from Zhōngguó, if I am not mistaken."
19:10:22 [Shiplord Russik]: "Well, yes, Exalted Fleetlord-"
19:10:24 [Shiplord Tpashan]: "Are to say that we must abandon our own ships, so they can be scuttled and used as glorified bullets, Exalted Fleetlord?"
19:10:40 [Fleetlord Straha]: "One bullet, actually. And not all of the ships; just every scrap of load-bearing structure, heat shielding, and the fusion drives. The fithp will handle that; we will use the fusion drives to accelerate the mass to a good fraction of c, and strike at the same time as we drop the Foot on the Tosevites."
19:11:12 [Shiplord Kirel]: "And when and where are these impactors to be used, Exalted Fleetlord? Even if we successfully deploy them, any surviving Tosevite powers will surely retaliate with every explosive metal bomb left in their disposal."
19:11:33 [Fleetlord Straha]: "Not if we show the futility of the struggle. There is only so far even the Tosevites can bend before they break; even if it takes the death of billions, they will eventually surrender. To do that, we shall make an example of their mightiest not-empires. Shiplord Naka, you are stationed in Bangui, are you not?"
19:12:09 [Shiplord Naka]: "Yes, Exalted Fleetlord."
19:12:21 [Fleetlord Straha]: "If you were to make a conservative estimate, how many males would be required to keep our holdings in Africa under control?"
19:12:31 [Shiplord Naka]: "It would only take five million males, according to computer estimates. That is assuming, however, that the five remaining not-empires in the region simply guard their own borders."
19:13:01 [Shiplord Naka]: "And what of the other regions? Shiplords in those regions, I wish for a moderate estimate of the required malepower."
19:13:12 [Shiplord Tessrek]: "Er... I would say... perhaps eight million in the Middle East."
19:13:25: [Shiplord Shakampa]: "I would need a million for Choson."
19:13:40 [Fleetlord Straha]: "Very well. Let's assume that twelve million males are required for the occupation. That leaves twenty million males left to fight. It is enough for the plan I have devised. In four days. The Foot will strike the deepest part of the Gulf of Mexico, while our own impactor strikes the Western Mediterranean. While the Tosevites reel from the effects, we will begin a kinetic bombardment using the Thuktun Flishithy, striking railgun batteries and missile silos. Advisor, how feasible would this be?:
19:14:22 [Advisor Pastempeh-keph]: "We would not be able to cripple their infrastructure like we have done in Zhōngguó or Indiya, but it would be enough to clear landing zones."
19:14:44 [Fleetlord Straha]: "That is satisfactory. In the aftermath of those attacks, we will deposit our remaining males into the regions. Twelve million for America, and eight million for Europe. Under such onslaughts, they will not last long."
19:15:13 [Shiplord Kirel]: "But Exalted Fleetlord, America is an untested enemy. They managed to prevent landings in their own territory, and intelligence reports indicate an army that is only rivaled by Russiya in mechanization. America-"
19:15:20 [Fleetlord Straha]: "Will break. Its cities will crumble. And when the rest of the filthy Tosevites witness the destruction of their mightiest not-empire and its allies, they will surrender. If not, well... the Tosevites have adopted a saying amongst themselves during this war. "Earth will break before we do!" they scream. We shall put that to the test, as we send rock after rock their way. Either way, Tosev III will belong to the Race, even if the Colonization Fleet shall settle upon the bones of billions."
-/-\-
Jäger I
Ret. General Heinrich Jäger II lives in a small house on the outskirts of Munich, Germany. He greets me with a mug of homebrewed ale at the entrance, then sits me down at a small table in the dining room. He is rather gaunt and gangly in his years, when compared to the wartime photos.
Q: Thank you for agreeing to this interview, General. I know you're rather busy, so I'll jump right to it. As the German Military Representative to NATO during the war, you were directly involved in preparations before Footfall. When did you first realize that there would be a coming attack?
A: Very shortly after the former Fleetlord surrendered in France. I was stationed in Brunssum at the time, but I was quickly made aware of the fact; I believe three hours before he actually landed. I had to convene with the others on how to handle the presence of eighty thousand Lizards in the middle of France, but we managed to handle the situation without much trouble; the force was split into various POW camps in France, England, and my own country.
Atvar himself was brought to Brussnum, where he was practically squeezed dry of every last drop of knowledge he had. Troop strengths, logistics, strategy... I listened in on the preliminary questioning he was subjected to by the Supreme Commanders.
Q: What did he tell you?
A: Enough to make us shit our pants. That Straha had assumed control of the fithp, which explained the strange reports of digit ships moving near Race starships near orbit, and that he'd promised the Shiplords a quick solution to both America and our own nations. The Americans put their fi' on the phone, and had him corroborate some details with Atvar, and it only confirmed our worst fears.
We'd been made aware of the Foot by the US three days ago, but that was a more... broad sense of concern. We had no idea where the asteroid was actually going to land; for all we knew, it could've been aimed at the Bay of Bengal, or one of the ice caps in order to wreak ecological havoc. There'd been some evacuations in low-lying coastal areas, but we were unwilling to waste precious resources on a possibly unwarranted frenzy.
When we realized that the Foot was being directed at either us, or at the US, however, sent us into a near panic. We now had to deal with the possibility of having entire nations washed away in a deluge unseen since the Cretaceous. And not just that, but possibly a direct invasion by the Race, backed up by a species that fought smarter than they did.
Q: What kind of preparations were made?
A: The safety of civilians took the highest priority. We began massive evacuations of the coasts and low-lying areas, even areas that could be hundreds of kilometers away from the waves. Thankfully, we had the Alps, the Pyrenees, and other mountain ranges that could serve as safe ground for civilians. We also began to pull our forces away from the coast as well, and began to prepare emergency reserves. Rationing went into effect immediately.
This had been something we'd been considering ever since we first realized that our planet was to be invaded. Many at the time liked to joke about military forces in Europe, saying that the United States did everything for us. Those same people seem to forget that we spent forty years preparing for an all-out war with the Soviets, a war that would most likely see cities erupt in nuclear flame, or see entire nations razed to the ground.
We did not forget the lessons of the Cold War as we prepared for the invaders, and raised armies of millions during those six years. Much of our preparations had been made by Switzerland for the Cold War, and we used them where applicable. We'd placed countless pillboxes and minefields across the continent, bombs in bridges, hidden cannons, and enough SAMs to make a Russian blush. We were ready to fight a war where entire countries could be considered expendable.
However, only four days of preparation is still only four days. Even as the Americans shipped millions of their own people out of Florida and set up refugee camps in the Appalachians with a fervor never seen before, even as we prepared for nuclear scorched earth, I feared that it wasn't enough time.
-/-\-
EAS Television Broadcast: January 10th, 2021
A CIVIL AUTHORITY HAS ISSUED AN ALERT - STANDBY
"We interrupt our programming. This is a national emergency. The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States Government. This is not a test. An imminent alien invasion of American soil is expected within the next forty-eight hours. Due to the uncertain facts of this invasion, all residents of the United States should seek and prepare to take shelter immediately."
CIVIL DANGER WARNING
"Standby for the President of the United States".
"My fellow Americans, this marks the first time that the Emergency Alert System has been used, and it is for good reason. We have every reason to believe that the Empire of the Race has pushed an asteroid into a collision course with the Gulf of Mexico, approximately three hundred miles from American soil. The mass of this asteroid is estimated to be nineteen billion metric tons, and will strike with an energy of twenty three teratons. That is nearly a fifth as powerful as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs."
"When this asteroid impacts the ocean, the initial flash will ignite most materials within a hundred miles, and cause severe burns within four hundred. The air blast will heavily damage anything within five hundred miles of the point of impact. Citizens within the contiguous United States are to expect tremors of varying intensity, as well as ejecta that could rain down as far north as Kansas."
"However, what the American people must be most concerned about are the waves that will be created by the impact. It is estimated that the waves may possibly reach a height of half a mile before reaching the shore, and may travel as far as as five hundred miles inland. This wave will be traveling at a speed of approximately five hundred miles an hour; do not attempt to outrace the wave."
"It is strongly advised to find high ground; we have already set up a multitude of shelters in the Appalachian mountains and the Rockies. If you cannot make it to these shelters in time, call the number that is listed in the alert. If you call, the authorities will direct you to the designated high ground in your region. Even those not in danger of the waves must take shelter from the eject and possible meteorological effects that follow the impact."
"I will not lie to you, America. This is the single gravest threat we, as a nation, and as a species, have ever faced. We face an enemy with refined weaponry and numbers that may exceed our own. However, we will not stand alone, even in this darkest hour, and we will not capitulate to the demands of an empire that despises our freedom. Even if they cannot help us in battle, the rest of the world stands behind us, and we will be their hammer as we break this final attempt to bring human civilization to an end."
"America has never fallen under the yoke of a foreign king, and never will, even if said king is the Emperor of three worlds. This upcoming battle with prove beyond a doubt our right to exist as a culture, and the integrity of our values of equality, justice, and the freedom to control our own future. We will prove this to the enemy when they come to take our freedom away from us. I ask that every one of you put faith in our armed forces, and know that we will fight with our last breath to ensure that this nation will not perish from the Earth."
"May God have mercy upon them, for we won't. Good night, and best of luck."
-/-\-
Perkins I
Humberto Perkins is one of the younger individuals to be interviewed; as of the time of this publication, he is only twenty seven years old. He greets me at the Mississippi Memorial Park, located in the new capital of Endurance. It is many of identical Memorial Parks scattered across the planet, all with the same centerpiece: a brass globe of the Earth twenty feet across, with the names of all known victims of the war in the region etched into the surface.
When I arrive at the park, he is calmly studying the globe with a magnifying glass, reading the various names listed. He waves me over, and the review begins.
Q: Thank you for your time, Mr. Perkins. It is rare to find a unique perspective like yours, of someone who was raised into a post-discovery world, and yet old enough to remember life before the war.
A: No problem, man. When I heard you were doing this interview, I kinda leapt at the chance. It's not every day I get to talk about my weird childhood.
Q: Unique is a better word. Now, let's start at the beginning. What was life like for you, before the war?
A: Well, my mom and aunt raised me, along with my older sister. My mom worked a deli, and my aunt was a waitress. At least, that was before the ships were discovered; I actually don't remember that time. Earliest I recall, it was already a year into getting ready for the war. Kelly -uh, my sister- she enlisted in the Air Force, and my aunt ended up getting a job at a weapons factory instead of waitressing.
It's kinda weird, growing up in a place that's preparing for a war. Especially with how curious we are as kids. I remember asking my mom what Aunt Callie did at the factory all the time, and she just said "to keep you safe". I didn't know what she meant by that.
In kindergarten, I remember having to do annoying drills in school, along with the fire alarm stuff. It'd just be a normal day at school, then suddenly some bell would start ringing, and the teacher would get up and say "The aliens are coming, kids. Stay together and follow me to the shelter." Then we'd spend half an hour learning how to put on a gas mask, or how to call for help in case one of us got sick or hurt.
I also remember asking what an alien was. This wasn't like before, when they used to put aliens in kids' cartoons or on cereal boxes. I guess the government was afraid of confusing children about the actual dangers, so I'd never actually realized the concept of aliens before school started.
Me and my friends would tell each other things about the aliens after school, trying to convince each other that we totally knew what an alien was. Cozzy said they were "commies", according to his pa. Mini thought they were like gators, but they flew about with bird wings, which was why the teachers told us to keep an eye on the skies if the bell rang.
After a while, though, I slowly began to learn the truth. My mom told me that the aliens were like people, but from another planet like Mars, and that they wanted to talk our homes from us. I had no idea why someone from Mars would want my shitheap of a house, but I didn't ask too much about it.
Then the teachers started pulling up informational videos about what aliens were, and why we had to do the drills. We still didn't know what they looked like. I remember having nightmares about them, and each time they looked like whatever else scared me at the time. Sometimes they looked like gators, like Mini said, and sometimes they looked like spiders. One time, they looked like Mrs. Torpey, that old bitch.
My mom used to hold me when I woke up crying, and said that it was going to be alright. Kelly was going to whomp their butts in her plane, and we'd be fine.
Q: How did the start of the war change things for you?
A: I remember the teacher pulling the tv into class, so we could watch the news on Landing Day. It was... I don't know how exactly to explain how I felt, when I saw shaky footage of Chinese pilots dogfighting killercraft, and found myself wondering if these were actually aliens.
And then we got to actually see them. Race. Rabotevs. Hallessi. And then I had no idea what to think. They didn't look like people, but they didn't look like my nightmares, either. We kept on watching the news, but there was too much going over my head at the time. I mean, I was only seven at the time. I was just wondering when Kelly was going to fly over and whomp their butts.
After all, it wasn't like they were actually here. The aliens were still just things on TV. School still went on, my mom still went to work, and the bus still ran.
Q: What happened when the President gave his emergency address to the nation?
A: I was actually at home at the time, watching an episode of SpongeBob. I remember my mom stopping cold when that awful sound came out of the TV, and then she grabbed me tight when the President made his address. Her skin got all clammy as she held me, and I didn't know how to feel; she was acting more scared than I'd ever seen her. Hell, I'd never actually seen her scared before.
I remember her rushing to the room to get some stuff, and then she handed me my backpack, the one she made me back after Landing Day, with my toys and food inside. Then, she and I began walking towards the evacuation zone. The sirens were wailing in that awful drone, so loud that I covered my ears. I was scared by everything, and I started crying, and so my mom ended up carrying me the last half mile.
Q: What was the evacuation zone like?
A: Loud. There must've been a thousand people there already, all yelling and pushing at each other as they tried to jostle towards the helicopters and planes and other things the army had brought over. I saw people waving money at the soldiers, or just cursing at them. The roads all around were clogged with cars, honking at each other, and I think I saw some tanks trying to herd traffic.
I've heard things were smoother in other places. But Mississippi was not one of them.
Q: How did you get evacuated?
A: The soldiers saw that my mom didn't really have anything, which met the weight limits that half the people ignored. They let us through, along with everyone else who'd obeyed. I remember some old guy with a pot belly actually trying to grab me as we squeezed past, reaching into his pocket, then a soldier smashed his nose in with the butt of his rifle and fired a shot into the air. I was crying by the time we were loaded into the C-130.
Q: Was your aunt there? You haven't mentioned her.
A: That was another thing that upset me. Aunt Callie got evacuated by the army ahead of us; they needed workers like her to help support the coming war. Of course, I didn't know that; I just knew that Aunt Callie was nowhere in sight.
My mom just held me tight as we took off, and kept on whispering that things were gonna be alright. I fell asleep before we arrived at the camp in the Appalachians.
He sighs.
And that's how I survived Footfall, I guess. No grand escape story, no stealing a helicopter and flying north. Just lucky enough to meet the weight limits. And that's why I'm here, looking at this thing, instead of being one of those half million names on it.
-/-\-
Tavares I
Miguel Machado Paulo Tavares lives in Cancun, in an isolated villa that overlooks the water. He is a tall, wiry man, with a long white mustache that he keeps curled. He invites me to drink coffee with him on the porch of his villa. As we sit down to buttered bread and heavily sweetened java, I begin the interview in earnest.
Q: Thank you for your time. Do you prefer to go by President Tavares, or simply Mr. Tavares?
A: Miguel will suffice. I haven't been the President of anything for sixteen years, now.
Q: Very well. Miguel, the role Mexico played in the war is often overlooked. Why would you say that is the case?
A: Well, I'd say that is mainly due to the fact that we didn't see much combat, when compared to many other nations. We didn't suffer like the Chinese and Indians did, or send massive armies across the continent like Russia did. The ways we participated in the war were less noticeable.
Q: Yet, you'd say Mexico played an important role in the war, ultimately.
A: Yes. I would not call it 'vital', as that is too strong a word. What the Americans did was vital. What China did was vital. Us? What we did was merely important. After all, there was only so much we could do. We were not some global superpower, or industrial powerhouse. When we realized war was coming in six years, we had to scramble to prepare our forces, and ready the nation. That meant expanding our army and navy to the likes of which we had never done before.
The Americans and Brazilians were helpful in that regard, especially after we signed the mutual defense pact. We received economic help, special trade deals, weapons... it was most needed when the Americans warned us of the coming Foot. For us, and for them.
Q: How did the evacuation plans for your own country differ from the United States?
A: It was not quite as dire for us. We had millions of people living along the coast of the Gulf, yes, but it was nothing like America. The bulk of our country's population lived in mountainous terrain, and for many of the millions at risk of the waves, safety was less than a hundred miles away.
Of course, that still meant the largest evacuations Mexico had ever seen. We had nearly a million men on the job, working evacuation routes to shelters in the mountains, or helping bring civilians who didn't have any other means of getting away from the coast in time. However, nearly ninety percent of the evacuations were finished by the second day.
Q: How was that even possible?
A: There are many armchair strategists out there, constantly listing the difficulties of large-scale evacuations, but never realizing that they can be overcome. Perhaps it is an obsession with logistics, coupled with a distaste for inaccurate media that depicts evacuations as impossibly fast and efficient. However, in the process of doing so, they seem to go too far in the other direction.
Evacuations may not be easy, but they are not impossible. People seem to forget that even pre-war evacuations could be done at a rate that many would deem impossible if in a book. I remember reading that half a million people were evacuated from New York City on September 11th, by boat, in less than nine hours. And that was on a peacetime footing, without any preparation. Even the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a nation that still used Soviet-era equipment when the Race invaded, once managed to evacuate three hundred thousand people in three days.
We, on the other hand, we were prepared for difficult tasks. We had six years to prepare for worst-case scenarios. We'd invested nearly a quarter of our GDP into building shelters, preparing emergency stockpiles of food and fuel, modernizing our energy and communications, and expanding our army. We ran drills, and had our think tanks overlooking plans for possible exoduses from any part of the nation.
Q: Is that why you also began helping the US and various Caribbean nations?
A: Partially. Another reason was that we could spare much of our navy to the task, as they couldn't do much to help our land-based evacuations to the mountains, and already needed to leave before the waves came. It was not harmful to our own operations to help Cuba and Haiti with their own evacuations. It was better for our sailors to help other nations, instead of simply waiting idle for the Foot to hit.
Q: Then what about the assistance you lent to the United States?
Tavares sips his coffee for a moment, eyes narrowed with concentration.
A: I was criticized for that decision, back home. Many questioned why I would divert manpower and planes to helping people in Texas and Louisiana evacuate, when my nation was about to face the biggest catastrophe it'd ever face.
That, I feel, has many answers. Firstly, we'd almost evacuated the entire coast by the time I ordered the army and navy to assist with evacuations in the American south. Secondly, I knew that if it was true that an invasion bigger than any other in history was coming to this continent, then it'd fall almost entirely on America's shoulders to fight. Compared to the might of the US at the time, Mexico was a side note. Every enemy engaged on trying to fight the US was one less coming our way.
However, there was another reason, one less grounded in such shortsighted ideas as realpolitik.
The United States didn't have to warn us of the Foot. It could have left us out to dry when the waves came and used us to divert Race forces expecting easy landings, like a man wounding his friend to escape wolves. But we were warned, nevertheless, and millions of my people were saved. It realized that before such a threat, we were all allies, regardless of any past grievances.
I knew we couldn't get everyone out. I knew that my contributions were rather small, when compared to the massive mobilization the United States was undergoing.
But we had signed a pact to help each other in case an invasion came, and I was going to honor it.
-/-\-
Perkins II
Perkins sits down at one of the benches at the park and closes his eyes, letting the sun shine on his face.
A: I'd been at the camp up in Kentucky for three days. I missed home, but it wasn't too bad. My mom and I had a cot to sleep on, a shower, and food, even if they were awful-tasting rations. The common bunker in the middle had a movie projector, and on the first two nights the guards put something on for us and the others. I guess it was good, to keep us from thinking too much about what was coming. I still asked my mom what my aunt and sister were doing, but she kept on deflecting the topic.
Then, on the fourth day, I was walking with my mom to the cafeteria when there was a streak of light across the twilight sky, followed by a faint flash past the mountains, which almost seemed to light up the clouds.
The guards suddenly shouted at us to get to the bunkers. My mom picked me up as soon as she heard the order, and dashed into the bunker. Before the doors got closed, I could see everyone else running to their own bunkers, or to whatever shelter was closest.
I remember holding on to my mom as she sat down on the bed, bawling my eyes out. I think it was a few minutes later that the bunker seemed to rumble gently, and a few minutes after that I heard a few things hit the roof. Crack. Crack. Snap. Probably all that debris that came down from the impact.
Then the airblast hit half an hour, all with one whoosh that sounded like God's clap, and I just started screaming. My mom rocked me a little, whispering in my ears, and some of the others inside tried to keep me calm, too.
Q: How long were you in the bunker for?
A: Probably half an hour after the airblast. The radio crackled and gave us the all clear, and we were let out by the guards.
By God, everything had changed. It'd been a beautiful, clear evening before the impact, but when we left the bunker, the sky was dark grey, almost black. None of the trees had leaves left, except for the evergreens, and even they lost a few.
Then the rain started coming down, and it was actually hot. It wasn't like the cold rain I'd experienced once, when my mom brought me to visit family up in Minnesota. This time, it felt like one of the thunderstorms back home, like I'd stepped into a warm shower.
The guards got us some rations from the cafeteria, then told us to head back into the bunker until the rain let up.
That was it. We'd survived Footfall. I didn't know at the time, heading back to the bunker, that things were far from over, though.
-/-\-
Kilopaki I
Kilopaki, formerly known as Gil Eastwick, lives in a small shack by the beach in Honolulu, where he teaches aspiring young surfers. Despite holding the title 'God-Emperor of the Waves' amongst the surfing community, he holds one of the lowest fees in the state. My impression of him is a well-built man of average height, with salt-and-pepper hair and a flat face.
He greets me at his shack, still wet after some surfing, and excitedly answers my questions.
Q: So, you were living in New Orleans at the time of Footfall, yes?
A: Yeah, I was doin' a factory job in town, like, makin' cars and shit for the Army. I signed up when I heard about the aliens, but they didn't lemme in. Somethin' about failin' the eye cool test, or somethin'. I dunno. At least I still got to catch the waves on the weekends.
Q: The waves... in Louisiana.
A: Yeah, man! If you can surf there, you can surf anywhere. Y'know, like in Karate Kid. Poorly imitates Japanese accent. Wax on, wax off. Once I mastered the waves there, I was gonna make it big in Cali.
Q: Moving on. Why didn't you evacuate the region after the President announced that the Foot was coming?
A: Dude, there was nooooo way I was gonna get out. They were lettin' kids and families first, and I knew a bachelor like me was gonna be last. I thought it'd be good to let some old lady take my seat or somethin'.
I kinda regretted it when I woke up on the day the rock came down, and the city was practically empty. I guess it's like when you're at a roller coaster place, and there's a huge line, and so you go to just get a burger and shit, and then you see the line's empty, but the park's almost closed.
Total bummer, dude. I was thinkin' about just raidin' an ice cream place and eatin' like a pig.
Then I remembered the President sayin' somethin' about how the rock was gonna make some mile-high wave. And I felt, like, some sorta godly inspiration.
I decided if I was gonna die, it was gonna be by riding, like, the biggest wave ever. So, I grabbed my board and started paddlin' to a good spot, and started waitin'.
Q: What happened next?
A: I guess I missed the big flash gettin' my board, because I didn't get, like, burned or shit when I went out. Then I thought to myself, "Hey, there's probably gonna be a shockwave any minute," so I dove down and waited a few minutes. Sure enough, a huge blast went over the water, like hwupah!, and the water was all choppy. I swam back up, grabbed my board, and waited for the big wave. I could see a huge cloud rising into the air, like God's boner or somethin'.
Q: Wait, you knew when to go under for the shockwave? And it worked? How the hell did you figure... never mind. When did the wave come?
A: I dunno, I don't wear a watch, 'cause I don't think you should put a schedule on the world. It wasn't long. I saw the wave comin' up, pushin' some clouds out of the way as it started hittin' shallow waters. It was big. Like, really big. It looked taller than some of the mountains I saw when I went hikin'.
He closes his eyes, strangely serene in comparison to his previously energetic nature.
I knew I'd found my destiny.
So I paddled towards it, and managed to get on the crest before it started breakin'. Man, I felt like the king of the world, watching the ground comin' towards me from the top of the wave.
Q: Breaking?
A: Y'know, when the bottom's goin' slower and the top, and the top just kinda falls over. Happens when somethin' hits the wave and, like, makes it lose kenny energy or somethin'. I saw parts of the wave break when it hit buildin's, or some of the hills and forests and shit. I was lucky, dude; I was on the part that lasted the longest.
Q: And how long was that?
A: Long time, dude. I think I saw a Mississippi sign before I started gettin' really drowsy from tryin' to stay on top. I managed to hold on until the wave started breakin', and then I just, like, let the world move me where it wanted.
Next thing I knew, dude, I was hanging upside down in a tree with a broken arm, and some army guys were poking me to see if I was alive. I got pulled down, and they asked me how the hell I ended up in Nashville. They didn't believe me, until I showed 'em the GoPro I had on my head.
Didn't have much time to show off, though. The rain was comin' down all hot, and the soldiers said somethin' about landin's. I got sent to a army hospital after that, and that was how my night ended.
Q: And that's how you got your title.
He pats his chest and grins.
God-Emperor of the Waves, dude. But I guess that's not much when the world was in danger. My story's cool and all, I guess, but the real story's with all the dudes and dudettes who fought the good fight.
-/-\-
Emmaunelli I
Nina Emmaunelli is a small, wizened woman, with grey hair and deep wrinkles in her face. Her family retains a long history of farming on the island of Corsica, and she regales me her story in Bastia, the island's largest city.
A: Leaving behind the farm with my husband and three boys had to be one of the hardest decisions in my life. We had to move quickly, if we wished to stay safe, and so we took almost nothing with us from our home as we began the trek to the shelters in the mountains. We drove as did many others, but the winding roads were very poor for such an evacuation, and the guard had us leave our car behind.
For the rest of the trek, we had to walk, which was nearly ten miles. My boys wailed the whole way, as they were young, and the mountainous terrain was punishment on their feet. Many others walked alongside us, carrying luggage on their backs, or dragging it behind them if they were tired.
Nevertheless, we made it to safety, with time to spare. The guard shepherded us into shelters built into Monte Cinto, towards the higher peaks. However, these shelters were poor, compared to many; few thought that great calamity would befall us, of all places.
I remember seeing a great streak of light across the night sky, and a false sunset beyond the horizon. We had to duck into the shelters before the airblast could come, but then many of us started pouring out to see the waves.
Diu me, the sight of the wave. It was like a wall of water, taller than any building I had ever seen. It moved with a deceptive speed, due to its size, but we realized its power when we saw it hit the shores.
Towns, washed away like they were not even there. I never felt such relief as when I saw the wave finally break, after climbing the foothills of our island's mountains. I remember smelling the seaspray even from where I was, as the water washed around the mountains, making islands out of the peaks.
Then the rain came, hotter than any I'd felt, and I watched the waters recede over the course of hours, dragging over the land like fingers, pulling buildings and cars and people with them. When they finally returned to the sea, almost everything around was gone, stripped clean. The mountains had spared most of the island, but that did not mean we had not suffered.
And yet, even then, I knew that our suffering would be a trifle compared to that of millions of others.
-/-\-
Saeed III
Saeed has a tray of Moroccan mint tea brought in, and slowly pours a pair of cups for us. He takes a sip of the frothy drink, then sets it back down.
A: Where was I? I don't think I'll ever forget it.
I was flying a mission somewhere near Tunis, along with the rest of my squadron. Our job was to make sure the skies were clear as the evacuations continued into the Atlas mountains, and to report any breaks in evac lines if we saw them. The transportation infrastructure was nowhere near that of the Western powers, but thankfully the mountains were far closer and more omnipresent; they would be our greatest help.
I was three hours into the mission when I saw that damned flash of light beyond the horizon, and I realized the attack had begun.
Q: What did you do then?
A: Aside from praying to Allah that I'd make it out alive, I ordered the squadron to make an emergency landing at Soltane Airfield, an old WWII airbase the Americans had built. We made it with ten minutes to spare, before the weakened airblast came over and stripped a few panels from the planes.
As soon as that was over, I ordered a flight back to Constantine, so we could be better prepared for the coming battle. From our vantage point, I could see some of the devastation the waves had wrought on the coast. The majority of the population was safe, but we'd lost two capital cities right then and there, washed out into the Mediterranean.
Already I could see the clouds approaching, promising to bring not-so-soft rains. By Allah, I'd never thought I'd see violent downpours in the Sahara...
Q: What did you mean by coming battle? I thought it was known at the time that the target of the coming invasion was Europe, and not Northern Africa.
A: Hmm? True. But I knew that there was no way we would sit idle as Europe faced its darkest hour since the Second World War. The Allies had helped fight a deadly enemy on our own soil, eighty years past; it was only right that we return the favor.
-/-\-
Joshi V
Joshi cleans her hands after finishing her meal, and we leave the café together. She looks at the sky for a while, then motions for me to continue the interview.
Q: Did they let you observe Footfall?
A: Only two hours or so after the fact. The Breakers decided to visit us with a telescreen; they felt it was right that we see what was happening, just as when my own home was destroyed. From their body language, it seemed that they hadn't bothered to ask permission to show us, either.
Q: What did you see?
A: All of it, really; they showed us the impacts in both the Gulf, and in the Mediterranean. Of course, they had to speed it up, so we didn't have to wait for hours to see the waves hit.
I remember seeing a flash in the Gulf, like the world's largest camera going off. Immediately, I could see specks of orange in the Caribbean and Yucatan. Fires, caused by the thermal radiation. The fireball of the impact seemed to swell like an infected boil in the Gulf, and all around I saw random streaks of light over the American south and parts of Mexico.
Q: Secondary debris caused by the impact, along with water reentering the atmosphere.
A: Yes.
She closes her eyes.
I remember holding onto Chris as we watched the waves; they moved so strangely, due to the ocean floor distorting them. I never thought I'd see a wave big enough to push clouds out of the way. I asked him if he had family living there, and he told me they lived in Wisconsin. That meant very little to me, considering how little I knew of American geography at the time.
That didn't keep him from becoming tense under my embrace as we watched the waters hit America and Mexico, rapidly moving inland. I could see the waves break against the mountains in Mexico, stopping it mercifully short, but the waters were less forgiving elsewhere. I saw the Gulfland region in Texas go under, and saw all of Louisiana disappear, along with most of Florida.
The Yucatan's continental shelf spared Cuba the worst; I only saw half the nation disappear. The smaller Caribbean nations were not so lucky.
The worst had to be the Mississippi river. The waves traveled furthest up its watershed, swallowing up almost half of its namesake state and Arkansas, only stopping shy of Illinois.
Then we saw the same happen to Europe, all over again. We saw the waves smash against the Atlas mountains, and breathed sighs of relief as Corsica and Sardinia spared Italy with their own ranges. Still, it was horrifying to watch as the waves swept into France, and essentially made the Iberian peninsula into an island.
Once we'd seen enough of the immediate effects, the Breakers showed us what Earth looked like at the moment.
She shakes her head.
I didn't believe it at first. Earth was white. As in, it looked like God's personal snowball. The entire planet was covered in clouds, swirling far more quickly than I'd ever seen before.
Q: How did you react?
A: I screamed at the Breakers, called them every curse in the book. They just took it silently, then said that the Herdmaster wanted Chris with him, as to 'send a message'.
I remember going to grab something, but then Chris just silently walked away with them. I knew why he did it, to protect us from any possible retribution, but that didn't make me feel any better. I just remember curling up into a ball, and trying to will everything out of mind.
Then I looked up, and saw flashes over parts of that unbroken cloud cover, and I realized those were digit ships and Race starships going in.
She rubs her mouth tiredly.
In Hinduism, we have a great deluge, very much like the flood of Abrahamic faiths. And like in that faith, the deluge marked the beginning of our world, as Shraddhadeva Manu restarted civilization once the waters receded.
Well, a great flood had come again, and I feared that there would be no rebuilding after.
-/-\-
Jäger II
Jäger refills his mug of ale, then continues speaking.
A: We managed to get most of the population out of the way, but that still meant a good six million dead, as well catastrophic damage to infrastructure along the coasts and in southern France. The storms made communication difficult; in some parts, they had to fall back to telegraphs.
However, within eight hours of Footfall we had a good grasp on the, er, tactical situation.
Q: How bad?
A: Bad. In addition to the impact, the bastards had begun to bombard the everloving schieße out of the Iberian Peninsula and Italy, with a scattered hit to railguns in France and my own nation. It softened the ground up enough for landings in Clermont-Farrand, Gibraltar, and Sicily. Estimates ranged anywhere from five to ten million.
On our side, the beating had wiped out a quarter of our armor, which got worse in the landing zones. Our airforce was more-or-less intact, but there were concerns that the fithp would negate it. Still, we had a good five million soldiers and thousands of pieces of equipment to fight back with. Communications were still working, and we had the home field advantage.
This was the war we had prepared for, and we were not planning on disappointing the enemy.
-/-\-
Yeager III
Yeager produces a map of the United States, and points at various red marks, surrounded by a bright blue line.
A: Seventeen million dead across the Gulf. Catastrophic damage to our infrastructure in the affected areas. Twelve Ow gun stations destroyed, along with thirteen missile silos. A third of the country lost power.
Landings in Dallas, Little Rock, and Montgomery. All in all, they shat out twelve million troops in less than twelve hours, and began to set up anti-missile and anti-air defenses almost immediately, to try and render our airforce useless.
His face hardens.
The bastards didn't know what was going to hit them.
-/-\-
You have been reading:
Worldfall, Chapter Ten: Footfall