Disclaimer: I do not own any movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books, or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial aim. It is not for sale or rent.
Phase 8: Prometheus
=SI=
Part 5
=IS=
Prometheus facility
New York
In hindsight, building this facility as an experiment using the new building materials my people managed to recreate practically with my help was a good idea. We didn't even feel the explosion in front of the reactor chamber as we approached the compromised section of the facility. The roaring alarms were another thing.
"Sir, I am detecting a radiation spike. Reactor containment and integrity is still at a hundred percent," Jarvis reported. "There was an explosion in the currently dark section. All sensor feeds from within are now gone. Sensors from nearby sections detect radiological contamination,"
"Begin evacuation and quarantine procedures. We're getting out of here," I wasn't about to go radiation showering without proper armor, full access to the Force, and modern medicine. "And someone explains to me how what has to be a dirty bomb made it into my damn facility?!"
At that point, I didn't appreciate being manhandled by my security detail, who eagerly picked me up and carried me toward dubious safety. It was even more irritating that I didn't get even a flicker of a warning through the Force, even if it made sense – I didn't appear to be in any direct physical danger at this time.
Getting everyone out in an orderly manner, where they might be soft targets for a planned attack, could have been better. It was even less good publicity. A small army of QRF personnel in tactical gear swarming all over the parking lot didn't help matters. My emotions were in flux, fed by the panic, fear, and outrage of the politicians who got the same treatment as yours, truly, courtesy of their security details.
On the bright side, my choice of Director paid off again. Lopes calmly shut down the reactor before locking down the systems in the control room and leaving as the last person out. That at least proved the fusion reactors radically differed from fission ones. They could be safely shut down quickly, and it was as simple as cutting off the fuel feed. In the long run, that should help. My PR people would have to earn their keep in the short term.
Another bright spot was I saw Happy guide Pepper out of the building on the heels of a bunch of politicians and their security details. She looked unfazed if less than happy. Still, seeing them out and intact brought a refreshing relief.
=SI=
About half an hour later, I was stuck in a new crisis center meant to coordinate the ongoing circus. Mr. Secret Agent Man looked harried for once, which wasn't exactly a good sign.
"We are sending people to check all radiological detectors in the city," one of Coulson's flunkies reported. He might have been genuinely from Homeland security instead of using them as a mask. "I find it highly unlikely that they are all compromised. For that matter, we know the detectors in the facility work. Yet, they detected the nuclear material only after the explosion!"
Did I mention I arrived to find out a pissing match between SHIELD, who weren't officially here, the local police, the FBI, Homeland, and even SWORD, who had an interest in keeping me in one piece for as long as I was useful?
Thanks to Jarvis, we knew that one of the security teams vetted by many of the organizations present for this fiasco managed to get itself blown into a radioactive paste, coating the corridor leading to the reactor chamber. By design, that was one of the most fortified places in the facility, with only the chamber itself being tougher, for apparent reasons. I was not sure what those idiots were planning to do down there. They were, in fact, supposed to be on guard in front of said corridor, and even that was, technically speaking, overkill. You couldn't open the reactor chamber door when it was active. The thing was much tougher than a bank vault door and harder to move, as the explosion demonstrated. The corridor itself was a reinforced structure able to tank the next best thing to a tactical nuke. Whatever petty sabotage someone intended thus ended with the fools blowing themselves up. Hopefully, there would be enough DNA that wasn't contaminated to determine who was who. Obviously, everyone involved had excellent false identities, which you could only get with government support.
For them to pass muster, there had to be people in the US government involved as well, at least as far as establishing the false identities was concerned. The best scenario was stolen identities, with someone merely altering details in various government databases. That wasn't supposed to be trivial at all.
Then there was the fact that the sabotage team managed to kill themselves. That might have been either an accident, incompetence, or just as intended, though not necessarily by the sheen of glowing red paste in the heart of my facility.
The worst thing was I now had to do damage control instead of running with all the benefits Prometheus could offer the world.
"You will, of course, have the full cooperation of Stark Industries and all our subsidiaries involved in the Prometheus Project," I raised my voice the first time the pissing match quieted down a bit. "Needless to say, I have a vested interest in figuring out who ruined our collective day with a dirty bomb," I noted.
"Do we know it was a dirty bomb, or did we just get extremely lucky?" Coulson asked an excellent question.
I was sure the Force would have warned me if someone tried to sneak a tactical nuke in my vicinity, but I couldn't say that aloud, could I?
"That's the more likely option, Agent. Terrorists with a tactical nuke would have had much better and softer targets to hit in this city alone," I pointed out. However, if this was primarily a sabotage instead of a more conventional terrorist strike, well….
"Sir, the camera records we have from the compromised security detail don't show them carrying anything bulky enough to be consistent with known tactical nuclear weapon designs," Jarvis pipped up from my phone. He conveniently listened and recorded everything for future use if needed. "In comparison, smuggling explosives and shielded nuclear material for dispersal are much more likely."
=SI=
Shadow of terror over Prometheus ignition! Despite extraordinary security measures, an act of sabotage struck the first operational fusion reactor!
USA Today
Nuclear terror in New York! Unknown terrorists smuggled in and detonated a dirty bomb in the heart of the Prometheus test reactor! Despite this grave security breach, the fusion reactor is reported to be still intact and fully operational!
New York Times
Security measures in New York are at an all-time high as riots and protests plague the streets and terrorists strike Stark's Prometheus test reactor! Nevertheless, the act of sabotage was reported to be a failure, overshadowed by the successful ignition of the first commercially viable fusion reactor prototype.
Euronews
The future is now! Stark Industries successfully tested the Prometheus Fusion Reactor. The produced fusion reaction is net positive, creating eight hundred megawatt hours of clean energy at maximum reactor output. Even more extraordinary, this small-scale test reactor has an effective output, on average, only four to five times less than many of the largest power plants in the United States. Preliminary projections for the capacity and utility of first-generation commercial fusion reactors must be updated upwards. The current expectation is that the full-scale fusion reactor planned to be built worldwide will produce sustained output at least five to six times larger than the Prometheus prototype.
If true, only the Grand Coole hydroelectric damn in the United States could produce more power than the average fusion reactor. Even more important is the implication that fusion technology is still in its infancy, with many positive refinements to be expected in the future. In comparison, most other existing power sources are mature technologies with little in the way of improvement or serious dangers and associated costs like fission…
Popular Science Magazine
Stark Industries is in talks with the Netherlands' government about future development and reinforcement of land reclamation efforts. According to sources, SI-patented new generations of building materials can be the answer to rising water levels and partial response to ongoing climate change. Computer simulations using the latest materials suggest increasing the Netherlands' landmass by an additional ten percent through land reclamation efforts and making such efforts orders of magnitude safer.
Euronews
Despite terrorists attack and ongoing protests, the success of the Prometheus Project directly led to an unprecedented rise in Stark Industries' shares price. Further, said success now marks dozens of world leaders and their governments as visionaries for aggressively pursuing Stark fusion technology. At least a dozen governments have already pledged an even higher increase in infrastructure funding to build fusion reactors and rejuvenate their national power grids. More governments are expected to follow suit after talks in the coming weeks and months.
The implication for the existing power companies and the fossil fuel industry are staggering.
Forbes Magazine
=SI=
Part 6
=IS=
Situation Room
the White House
Washington DC
This job was going to be the death of him, the President concluded. It wasn't enough that a government experiment turned a scientist into a green rage monster that caused incredible damage and was still on the loose. While that mess happened before his inauguration, it was still something that haunted his presidency. The knowledge that aliens were a thing and were hostile was another highlight of Obama's first months in office. Thankfully, so far, their existence was something the regular citizens didn't have to worry about.
Barak, on the other hand, had much to worry about. Hell, the mere existence of SHIELD and its nature, the brand new SWORD project still coming online, was beyond the wildest dreams of most conspiracy theorists. Yet, it was a reality he had to be content with. The truth about certain unprecedented acts that passed with unexpected ease through both Senate and Congress didn't help matters.
If he had known what he now knew back when he ran for the position, Obama might have seriously reconsidered. On the one hand, he was in an unprecedented position to do good and reshape the world for the better. However, the stakes were higher than he could have ever imagined. A failure, on mere bad luck, could damn humanity as a whole, not just the United States. As if that wasn't bad enough, the ongoing insanity in New York was straight out of a bestselling techno-thriller, which he guessed was par for the course.
The pale faces of his advisers didn't reassure the President.
"What exactly happened, how did it happen, what are the implications of the disaster, and what should we do about it?"
The glimpses from the unfolding media circus weren't particularly helpful at this point. What was clear was an explosion in what was supposed to be one of the best-protected places in the continental United States. The rest was idle speculation at best.
"Secretary Pierce?" Obama prodded.
"Mr. President, we know that one of the security teams protecting the Prometheus facility in New York has been compromised. They were either replaced or deep plants. We are investigating. We know those people managed to smuggle the materials for a dirty bomb into the heart of the facility, then assemble and detonate it. At this time, we are unsure if it was a one-way mission or if something went wrong, resulting in the death of the perpetrators. Due to the nature of the explosion and radioactive contamination, it will take our best experts time to gather evidence from the site of the incident. DNA, for example, will be contaminated and possibly compromised due to the radiation," Pierce reported. "That by itself is bad enough. What we are certain of at that point is that those terrorists had help from inside our government and security organizations. There is no way their identifications could have passed muster to get into the facility, much less to the reactor itself otherwise."
"Are we looking at foreign agents?" The President demanded.
"That is one possibility," The Director of the FBI allowed. He looked as if he had bitten into a lemon as he continued. "Some elements within our government aren't eager to see fusion power proliferate. For months, we have been investigating connections between major corporations in the energy sector, politicians on all local and federal government levels, and disruptive elements. In the past week alone, our agents have conducted over two dozen raids in New York alone, detaining eco-terrorists, mercenaries, and even foreign operatives targeting the Prometheus reactor. At this time, it can be either. We know we have strong domestic interests aimed at disrupting Stark's efforts to spread fusion power."
"The internet is alight with speculation. Social media we are monitoring shows concerning trends, and regular media is picking up on them,' The Director of Homeland Security added. "Very soon, we will be facing questions about the security of all our nuclear power plants. That will be only the beginning. The increased security in New York leading to the Prometheus ignition is not something we can afford to implement nationwide, obviously. Not to mention it failed to prevent the attack. People will fear terrorists might strike other, less protected, or even soft targets. We will need answers for that, both a practical one and to calm down the public."
"We can also mention the elephant in the room. The genie is out of the bottle, people," General Ross' voice thundered. "This was an act of nuclear terrorism on US soil. The first question we need to answer is if it is domestic or foreign. Hell, from what I gather, it might be a joint effort between foreign enemies and some of our home-grown idiots. This can not stand!"
Yes, that. While Obama didn't like Ross, the bastard was both very well-connected and usually reasonably competent. He tended to speak sense when he wasn't speaking about his obsession with the Hulk, or at least, so it appeared.
"Either way, we will need both domestic and international response," Obama noted.
"Before we can act, we need to wait for an analysis of the nuclear material so we can trace its origin," The
Deputy Secretary of Energy pointed out. "One of my teams will be in place to gather samples within the hour. We won't get answers until early in the evening at the earliest."
"I want contingencies if this is foreign, and we can trace it. What do we know about the actual terrorists who did it?"
"Considering the nature of the attack, its target, and Stark's presence, SHIELD is taking the lead on this one," Pierce said. "We have people using drone footage and backtracking through camera feeds to discover where the compromised security team members came from. Safe houses, the works. Once we locate the sites, we will raid them for actionable intelligence and proceed from there."
"That's a good start. I want plans to overhaul the security of high-value sites nationwide and to figure out how feasible it is and how to make it more feasible. Now, the political site of the problem. The attack happened at a time and place when we had diplomats from all over the world present or en route to visit it. We can't even pretend this was just an internal problem. There will be an international outcry, and we will run with it. Contact our allies, both NATO and everyone we have intelligence agreements with. I want plans for a coordinated response. This is one precedent that can't be allowed to stand. We can't allow the proliferation of nuclear terrorism!"
=SI=
In an unheard show of unanimity, the UN held an emergency session and voted to condemn the terrorist attack on the Stark Industries prototype Prometheus fusion reactor! Tomorrow, the general assembly of the UN will vote on a resolution to condemn nuclear terrorism…
BBC World
Foreign ministers of NATO countries and military leaders will meet the following Monday to discuss a joint response to combat nuclear terrorism.EuronewsIn response to the terrorist attack in New York, the European Parliament will begin discussing implementing measures to harden critical facilities against terrorist strikes across the EU. There are unconfirmed rumors that the Parliament will start exploring the possibility of creating an EU military framework to better respond to evolving future threats.EuronewsA radical split within many environment protection organizations is happening due to the terrorist attack on the Prometheus Reactor in New York. While moderate wings of many organizations were quick to condemn the attack, radical groups within them are either calling for further action against nuclear proliferation or outright backing violent attacks. This comes after days of arrests of militant eco-terrorists, corporate spies, and alleged saboteurs across New York State.
New York Times
A new era of terror! The first use of nuclear material by terrorists is now a fact!USA TodayAn unprecedented breach of security responsible for the New York terrorist attack! Government sources claim that the terrorists were impersonating a vetted security team with clearance to go to the heart of the Prometheus reactor! Security specialists claim that if true, this would only be possible with inside help.Washington PostThe terrorist attack nearly overshadows the successful ignition of the Prometheus Reactor! Commercially viable fusion is now a reality! Furthermore, advanced building materials pioneered by Stark Industries proved their toughness by containing and mitigating the effects of the terrorist attack. Indeed, the Prometheus Reactor kept working without an issue throughout the attack! It was only shut down as a security measure while the facility was evacuated in the attack's aftermath.
Scientific American magazine