[story][Fenspace Alternates] The South Is Rising, Someone Get A Hammer

[Dartz]

Give this a go.

"Where is this?" Garret asked

"Odyssey Station, Mars orbit," Meg read the message.

Ray turned to Orla "What's our fuel?"

"Just over ten thousand. Nowhere near enough," she answered. "We're going to have to refuel to get out there,"

"Right," he nodded, "Were our stores on Stellvia replenished?"

"The shipment was tomorrow," Micheal Perry answered, gravely. "Which means they probably aren't going to be,"

"Milly, any luck getting a downlink signal?"

"No, everything's being overloaded by everyone else trying to do the same thing. The whole lot's just collapsing. It's like the United States isn't even there anymore,"

"What are we getting on the news,"

"The Litterbox is just as puzzled as we are," Anne answered. "Misha's still down in the server room trying to get something. Keith and Paul are on the television in the break room. They're saying the same thing... the States have gone quiet, and nobody knows why. We're not getting any television from them at all, just a few strange AM radio broadcasts. The rest of the world think's it some sort of terrorism, but they don't know what."

"Most major markets have stopped trading," Kearney said "But from what I saw on our last orbit, it was chaos down there. People were assuming it was terrorism."

"This is beyond terrorism, you don't just make a country disappear," Meg snapped him down. "And you should hear some of the weird crap we're getting. A Confederate States of America. A President Featherston who sounds like a Kentucky Fried Hitler. Not to mention music straight out of World War Two."

Milly went deadly quiet..

"When we get over Europe, everything's normal... well, as normal as possible." the comm's officer continued. Garret put his hand on her shoulder.

"And it's not just us getting this?" Paul Platowski asked, from the Pilot's chair.

"No," answered Meg.

"Anybody also notice how different the night view of the States was?" he asked. "Much less light than I remember. The power grid could have partially collapsed, and taken down US orbital internet links with it,"

"That doesn't explain the weird radio," said Orla. "If that was the case, it should be their civil defense or something,"

"We got a high particle spike on the solar radiation detectors aswell," Anne said, reading from her monitor, "Fractions of a second after midnight, lasting less then half a second. It was so short the computer assumed it was an error and ignored it, but the timing is too close to be a coincidence,"

Garret sat down in his chair. "And there was my phone call that cut out at exactly midnight too," he thought for a second. "When are we next over the US?"

"About twenty-five minutes," Platowski answered. "It'll be nightime down down there,"

"Right. I want a recording of every broadcast we can pick up from down there. Try and focus on ones featuring the Confederate States of America, or Featherston. Meg... when you've got them, I want you send them publicly, along with our radiation data, and our surface observations."

"Aye," she nodded, her voice quivering.

"Somebody might see it and be able to make heads or tails of it. Everyone else, rig the ship for landing. We have to refuel, we're going to do it somewhere safe. Plot course to land off Haulbowline,"

"Aye Captain," Platowski responded.

"Aisha should have the engine ready by then," Orla told him.

It was funny. They'd cursed their luck when that engine'd failed but if it hadn't, they would've been tied up in Seattle port and have been right in the middle of whatever happened.

Milly Jackson spent the next half-hour silently staring out a window. She had a dreadful idea about what had just happened... but that was impossible.

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From: (SS Ciara, Communications), comms@roadrunner.fen
To: all-call@nation.fen
Date: 19/11/16
Subject: United States Incident

We were in low orbit over the United States when this occurred. Our Captain was in the middle of
a phone call to Seattle, which was interrupted at exactly midnight. All ground communications
with the US were lost at the same time. We picked up a momentary particle radiation surge on
our solar radiation detectors fractions of a second later.

The States themselves look different from orbit. There's less light coming from the cities then
there was before midnight, the whole US is much darker at night. We have some photographs.

There are no television signals that we can pick up, or FM radio. We did pick up a few AM radio
broadcasts, and made a recording of these on our last pass. They talk of a Confederate States of
America, a President Featherston, and some sort of Freedom rally, that sounds more like a Ku Klux
Klan event than anything political. The music we picked up sounds like something from the 40's.
The recordings are attached, along with the pictures.

We have to land to refuel, but we're hoping somebody could make heads or tails out of this, we're stumped.

-Meg Fitzpatrick
SS Ciara Comm's Officer

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For charter or hire. Contact captain@roadrunner.fen

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Attachments: klan_freedom_rally.ogg, featherston_news.ogg, music.ogg US_east_dark.png, US_west_dark.png.

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Not sure about message formatting.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?