Solar Strike AKA Solar Attack Page #3

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This is unsubstantiated conjecture.

Of course it's unsubstantiated!

The MAV was destroyed before I could

collect the evidence to prove it!

Joanna! If we don't act now,

we won't be around to say I told you so.

Lucas, I have always been intrigued

by your theories,

but we deal with hard facts

and reality here.

That is our business.

You've been working here

too long, Joanna.

You sound just like Stamp.

Well, I've gotta run, a bit of

a media nightmare on my hands today

as you are well aware of.

Oh! And about me being tough

to reach these days?

When you called my cell yesterday,

right after the MAV was destroyed

and I was in total crisis mode?

I answered on the first ring.

- Hi there.

- Hi.

- Can I have a hot dog all dressed?

- OK.

Lots o' onions.

Lucas!

It happened again.

What? You quoting policy like Stamp?

Luke, an old weather satellite just crashed

in the middle of downtown Detroit.

Its orbit took it directly

into the path of a CME.

They're already reporting

eight known casualties,

seventeen wounded and more missing.

I'm taking your theory to Stamp.

I thought that you should be there.

OK.

We're going to need to go over everything

you've got on the CME cluster.

The updated telemetry

and tracking from the network.

These CMEs are being tracked

by the European solar imaging probe.

Could you show us the closest one,

Patel, please?

Look at the size of that thing.

Yeah, it is by far the biggest CME

that we've ever recorded.

Could you highlight

the incoming trajectory?

What's that in its path?

A Satellite. A Russian Satellite.

Not just a satellite, Joanna.

That is the primary Russian COM Sat.

All their military communications

go through it.

How many more CME's

are you picking up now?

Dozens, more than we've ever recorded.

But the real problem is

that the Earth's orbit

is bringing us directly into their path.

We're gonna be hit repeatedly

over the next 48 hours.

What could possibly be causing this?

We don't know.

No one does.

My, my, my.

To what do we owe the gift

of your presence, Dr. Foster?

This isn't

"Ex-employee appreciation" Day?

Uh. No. I think it's uh,

"Security removes someone who has

no clearance to be here" Day.

Not bad. That' was pretty funny

coming from you, Stamp.

Look, uh, Lucas, uh, I...

I know you've been

through a lot in the last few days,

so I'm willing to take that

into account but uh,

please, you're going to

have to excuse us.

Actually, I asked him to be here.

I believe he has a theory

that we need to explore.

You have no authorization to do that.

I hate to interrupt this

fascinating scientific discussion,

but the President of the United States

is on video-conference.

Shall I patch him through?

Nah, keep him on hold for a few minutes,

he gets such a kick out of that.

Lucas!

Hang on.

Brad.

I allocate billions of dollars

to your agency,

I would hope at least that would

buy me some advance notice

when satellites come raining

from the sky.

Mr. President,

I promise you we are onto this.

You have the full breadth

and scope of our resources.

Great.

Now let's start with

the simple explanation.

There might be some people around here

that don't know the difference

between a CME and a BLT.

BLT, sir?

- It's a sandwich, Stamp.

- Right.

Well uh, the Coronal Mass Ejections,

or CMEs, are solar explosions.

During these explosions,

highly charged solar particles are

hurled into space at colossal speed, Sir!

And I take it these uh,

explosions are quite powerful?

They can pack up to

How many of them are there?

Well, we are tracking several,

sir, but uh,

we have everything under control,

there's really nothing to worry about.

Mr. President. If you'll excuse me.

Uh, Dr. Parks.

One of these CMEs is currently headed

for the primary Russian COMSAT.

And there are many more of these phenomena,

all bigger than we have ever seen.

Our updated calculations show that some

of them are going to hit the earth.

Doesn't the uh, ozone layer protect us

from stuff like that?

Well, it's hard to say.

Theoretically yes.

But the problem is all of our satellites

operate well beyond the ozone barrier.

What's the, uh,

potential damage assessment?

Sir, the potential energy of

one of these CME's

could cripple every satellite

in its path.

We could be looking at

major communication disruptions,

entire hemispheres could go dark.

Please forgive this.

My associate is blowing this

out of proportion.

We may lose some uh,

satellite communications, sir

and there may be some more

crackle in your radio,

But uh, we're going to be OK.

The ozone will hold.

Excuse me.

Lucas?

- Mr. President?

- What are you doin' there?

I'm trying to avoid more casualties, Sir.

Mr. President, what you haven't been told

is that this is a disaster scenario.

Sir! As we all know...

Man-made chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons

have infiltrated the upper atmosphere

and weakened the ozone.

Put holes into it.

The energy that this bombardment of

CME's is carrying can, and will,

penetrate the ozone at these weak points.

But that is just the beginning.

Our atmosphere has always been a mix of

nitrogen and oxygen and 2% other gasses.

That 2% has gone to 5%

in the last 10 years.

And most of that is Methane,

highly volatile,

highly flammable methane.

Sir, when those CME's

break through the ozone,

they will ignite pockets of methane,

and literally...

set the sky on fire.

That fire will consume the world's

oxygen supply within a few hours.

All living things will

literally suffocate to death.

Mr. President, with all due respect,

Dr. Foster's elaborate claims are

entirely based on speculation.

Well, uh...

we all agree that these things

are coming our way, right?

Yes, we do.

What's the time frame?

Well, the first CME's

have already begun to hit

and it will get increasingly worse

over the next 48 hours.

I will take all of this

under consideration.

Uh, you'll let me know immediately

if you have any further information.

Yes, sir.

Thank you for your time.

Sir.

How dare you use this agency

and its good name

for your Armageddon propaganda.

Bradley? His theory is valid.

I want you out of this building.

Thank you Doctor Foster.

- This has gotta be bad.

- What do you mean, Admiral?

Have you ever seen

scientists scared before?

Well, if this is gonna continue

for the next two days,

then Detroit cannot have been

an isolated incident.

I couldn't agree with you more, Sir.

If a single CME brought down that satellite

imagine what a storm of them can do.

Exactly.

Let's scramble the F-15's

and give us some sky cover.

Where are you going, Sir?

I'm going to see

what those Russian subs are up to.

If we're losing our satellites,

I want to be able to track 'em

the old-fashioned way.

Captain, this just came in.

- Lieutenant Troiska?

- Yes, sir?

Set new coordinates:

Ten degrees south, five degrees west,

increase speed five knots,

and take us to 300 meters.

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