| abstract
| - In the late 21st century, two giant floating structures were built over Manhattan, and floated over the docks. The purpose of these structures, called Stations, was to track all objects (planes, ships etc.) coming into the US through the East Coast. They were also used by the military and secret services for other purposes, there was a large section of 'Station 1' used as a launch pad for US Air-Force airships. Similar Stations were constructed in San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and Dallas. It was the fifth of July, 2106. Independence Day celebrations were over. And staff at both Manhattan Stations continued their daily routine, monitoring air and sea traffic and the like. NASA had discovered a few meteors entering the solar system a few days before-hand, but said they wouldn't come anywhere near Earth. But at 6:05 AM they announced that one of the meteors had changed its flight-path and was headed directly towards Earth. The place it was going to hit? New York City. Evacuation's soon began, and the staff of both Manhattan Stations were tasked with monitoring the meteor as it entered Earth's orbit. At 7:56 AM, the US Air-Force stationed at Station 1 were ordered to evacuate citizens who had made it to evacuation points dotted throughout the city. Ten minutes later, NASA announced that the meteor would annihilate most of New York City, no matter which part of the city it struck. By now, many of the staff at both Stations were busy monitoring the meteor, as it had just entered Earth's orbit. They were shocked to find that it had slowed down, not enough to stop it destroying a great deal of New York though. At 8:59, the meteor began to slow down once again, and finally became visible in the morning sky. Staff at Station 1 became nervous, as the meteor appeared to be headed directly towards them. Many began to head to the escape pods, which shot out and slowly glided down to the deserted Manhattan streets. 9:26 came, and the inevitable happened. The meteor crashed into the lower area of Station 1, right in the middle of the Air-Force section. No fragments of the meteor passed out through the other side of the Station. It had embedded itself in the structure. A smoke cloud began to rise, visible from as far off as Queens. Staff in Station 2 looked in horror at the devastation caused by the meteor. Station 2 sent out radio messages to the now partially destroyed Station 1, to no reply. They passed it off as a destroyed radio tower, but they saw that it was still intact. Then they reckoned it was a power failure, but the power came from the tip of the Station, far from where the meteor had hit. The staff became worried, they informed the military, who quickly sent teams of soldiers to Station 1 to locate survivors. At around 10:15, the first groups of soldiers arrived through airships. They entered Station 1 through the landing pads located on the top of the Station. The first radio messages that came through from a group of soldiers described the now derelict 'hub'. They mention that there was a few dead bodies scattered around with 'mysterious wounds' on them. The next messages came through a few minutes later. The soldiers said they were now at the heart of Station 1, and were getting closer to the area the meteor entered. They said that so far, they had found no survivors, just dead people. There was no more messages for a good ten minutes. There was then a few more messages, these would be the last ever heard from Station 1. The messages were from a lone soldier. He described how his entire team has been 'absolutely shredded' by 'those things'. He said that they must have came from the meteor, and mumbled about a red mist in the area where the meteor entered. After those messages, the radio cut to static. Nothing was heard from Station 1. The other soldiers that were going to be sent into the Station were told to fall back. The government were updated on the situation at Station 1, and upon hearing of the team of soldiers deaths, they put Manhattan under quarantine, destroying all bridges and tunnels in and out of the borough, and setting up a barrier of coast guard vessels around the island. The military were called in to set up defensive perimeters around the city of New York. The 'things' that were in Station 1 were considered a threat to the American people and had to be annihilated as soon as possible. Plans were made to destroy the Station, but they weren't made quick enough. By 1:34 PM, the entire island of Manhattan was sealed off. The US army were deploying around the island and were setting up defensive perimeters. At exactly 1:39 PM, a large explosion occurred in the upper area of Station 1. The upper area contained all the technology which made the Station float. Without that technology, Station 1 would free-fall onto lower Manhattan. And alas, a few daunting moments after the explosion, Station 1 began its slow decent towards Planet Earth. It fell in a motion that pulled it closer towards the island of Manhattan, rather than out to sea. The fall of Station 1 lasted roughly ten seconds, before it hit the ground. The shock-wave caused by the impact was felt all the way over in New Jersey, the ash and debris from Station 1 covered most of the southern half of Manhattan, stopping just outside Times Square. The damage cause by the impact of Station 1 would not be known until the ash-cloud subsided. But there was another issue, the 'things' that were on-board Station 1. It was deemed unlikely that they survived the impact with the surface of our planet, but we had to make sure. A total of 1,671 soldiers were sent into the ash-cloud, wearing protective suits and gas-masks. For the first few blocks, all they saw were deserted streets covered in ash. Then, they began to see the red. Streets were covered in what seemed like red goo, and the ash cloud was glowing a deep red. A soldier went and touched the red goo, only to burn himself upon making contact with it. The same soldier collapsed to the ground a few blocks later, his suit was taken off to reveal large boils forming underneath his flesh. These boils eventually exploded into a mixture of blood and the red goo, although it was hard to distinguish between the two. Later on, as they drew nearer to the wreckage of Station 1, many of the soldiers began to discover that the same boils from the dead soldier were forming on their own bodies. They realized that the soldiers with the boils had come in contact with the dead soldier or the red goo at some point after he 'infected' himself. Slowly the number of soldiers began to fall from more than a thousand to a few hundred. By the time the soldiers reached Station 1's wreckage, there was few left, with most of those still alive carrying 'the disease'. The soldiers stopped upon entering the wreckage of Station 1, for the red goo had covered the entire crash site. In the ash cloud, which was now glowing an incredibly dark red, the soldiers saw movement. It was when they heard the horrifying scream of a young soldier that most turned to run. Those who stayed behind were attacked and radio contact with them was lost. The soldiers who ran were being followed by 'large creatures with blades for arms'. The first few soldiers who made it out of the ash-cloud were 'infected' and quickly died before reaching any of the defensive points. By now it was 5:45 PM. More soldiers began to rush out of the ash-cloud, most of them being 'disease'-free. Some of them managed to reach a defensive point, and began informing the general in-charge of what they saw. The general ordered airships into the ash-cloud to perform a 'search-and-destroy' mission. The reluctant pilots of the airships began to make their way towards the ash-cloud. Radio transmissions between the airships and the defensive points failed altogether upon the airships entering the ash-cloud. A few minutes passed, and then one of the airships returned. Except, it was in flames. It slowly lowered to the ground before crashing straight into one of the defensive points. The soldiers who survived the crash went to inspect the downed airship. One brave soldier climbed up the side of the airship, and opened one of the doors. He looked inside, and suddenly something pulled him in. The surrounding soldiers were shocked, and the shock turned to terror as the man's lifeless body was flung out again, in two halves. A group of the 'things' burst out of the airship, and began attacking the soldiers. It was only a few minutes before every soldier in the defensive point was killed by the 'things'. And now more of them were flooding out of the ash-cloud, making their way across a military filled Manhattan. The army stood no chance, with the entire military presence on Manhattan being wiped out within a few hours. It was at 1:13 AM, on the sixth of July, 2106 when the 'things' escaped Manhattan, and from there the human-race was doomed to extinction. The red goo covered the land and colored the sea. The 'things' first conquered the United States, then they moved on to South America, destroying the continent within a month. A coalition was formed between European and Asian armies. They began producing new weaponry in hopes of wiping out the monsters currently wreaking havoc in Australia. But it was no use, the weapons proved in-effective towards the 'things', who wiped out Asia within two years, and Europe within one year. Africa was quite obviously the next area the 'things' would attack, but they never did. After destroying Europe, the 'things' left Earth. They had destroyed most of the land on the planet, covering it in the red goo which killed all who came into contact with it, and contaminated most of the water. But they left Africa unharmed. Was it due to the continent being the birthplace of the human-race, and intelligent life on Earth? Was it because of its rich landscapes? Who knows, all that is certain is that we had survived, humanity had made it through what may have been the end of the world. We, as humans, had been given a second chance to live on this planet we call our own. And by God, we better make the best out of it.
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