T. Harris - The Legend of Earth

The asteroid entered the atmosphere and immediately began to heat up, its leading edge glowing molten red, with great plumes of fiery material trailing off and creating a long tail of black and white clouds behind it. The actual impact took place about one hundred kilometers out to sea and off the coast of Juir City. Kaddof would have to be satisfied with that.

The ocean at the point of impact was about two kilometers in depth so it was only a millisecond from the time the asteroid contacted the ocean’s surface before in plunged deep into the rocky surface of the planet itself. Instantly, billions of liters of seawater were flashed into steam as the giant rock continued into bury itself deep into the planet to a depth of over two kilometers. A great outpouring of molten ejecta flew out of the massive crater in all directions, sending projectiles of fire onto land surfaces at a distance of over five hundred kilometers from the impact zone. These fireballs ignited massive conflagrations in the forests of Juir and soon it looked as though half the planet was on fire.

Kaddof watched from orbit with a wicked grin. He saw the great gray cloud of ash, rock and water vapor erupt out from the impact crater, to be caught up in the planet’s prevailing winds. Over the next two days he watched as the deadly cloud encircled the planet and spread from pole to pole. Soon the entire surface of Juir was obscured by a uniform gray cover — a color appropriately matching that of Kracori skin

Satisfied, Kaddof gave the order. It was time to return home.

The impact event had set off massive earthquakes within a thousand kilometers, followed immediately by incredible series of waves, many over a hundred meters high, that spread out in circular ripples, sweeping across islands and shoreline all around the Southern Sea.

Within minutes of the impact, the first great wave sweep in over the white sand beaches located two kilometers from the outer suburbs of Juir City — what was left of it — and traveled inland at over a hundred kilometers per hour. It washed over the smoldering ruins of the city, scrapping away everything down to a depth of ten meters. Then the giant wave ran up to the very base of the Kacoran Plain and slid upwards to half the mountain’s height. When the water receded, it took with it millions of tons of boulders and soil, now deposited on the long sloping plain leading back to the ocean.

All around the planet, the long strings of refugees fleeing their burning cities and already suffering from days of being without food or shelter, were suddenly choking on the suffocating ash and smoke cloud that was everywhere. Those within five hundred kilometers of the impact also experienced rain of fire and a blistering heat wave that swept over the area, killing them instantly. And these were the lucky ones.

Although Kaddof had already departed for Eilsion by this time, he knew that the next phase of his plan would be the most long-lasting and devastating for the planet Juir. With the entire surface of the planet now covered in a thick cloud of ash and smoke, temperatures began to drop precipitously. Within a week of the impact, temperatures had plunged twenty degrees below normal. And then the snows began to fall.

Within a month of the attack, the cloud encircling the planet had all but dissipated, but now a great sheet of ice and snow covered much of the planet. With the reflective quality of this white sheet, stellar radiation was sent back off into space. Temperatures dropped even more.

By the time the Humans arrived, the planet Juir was a nearly-uniform ball of thin, white ice. Any Juireans who had survived the initial Kracori attack were now long-dead, either from starvation or the cold.

Kaddof had done it. He had killed off the last of the Juireans on Juir. He was sure Jonnif Vinn would have been pleased with his results.

Six Months Later…

Snow was falling on the Kacoran Plain; this was not unusual these days, even though at this time of year it would have been summer in these latitudes. The entire shear top of the mountain was now a nearly-continuous sheet of white, broken only for the occasional outcropping of the craggy, skeletal remains of the various buildings that had once towered above its surface. Even the trees were absent, either blown apart by the Kracori invasion eight months earlier or burned by the fireballs that had rained down upon the top of the mountain as a result of the giant rock the Kracori had dropped on the planet.

The main Human fleet had arrived at Juir six months before and found the planet to be a chaotic mess of gigantic winter storms raging across its surface. The fires that had burned most of the forests had been snuffed out by the falling snows and falling temperatures. Now it was just the cold they had to contend with.

However, there were signs that the planet was beginning to heal itself. As it turned out, the impact event was not as powerful as first suspected; the cloud that enveloped the planet had been thinner and carried within it less ash and debris. Temperatures had plunged to fifty below normal for a short time, but now the global average was only about twenty-two below the norm.

The experts estimated it would still take another ten to twenty years for the planet to return to normal — at least climate-wise. But with the massive deforestation that had occurred from the fires, the once manicured expanse of the former capital planet of the galaxy would never return to its former glory, at least not for many a lifetime.

Admiral Allen had clustered nineteen of the KFV–C’s atop the Kacoran Plain and then connected them with conduit passageways to form a fairly large base of operations on the planet. He kept his D’s in orbit and required that the entire staff rotate up to the floating cities on a regular basis to experience Earth-normal gravity — one week in orbit for every two weeks on the planet. It was just one of the many inconveniences that came with making your headquarters on a lighter-gravity world.

The Human fleet had occupied the Alliance Cluster with gusto, but soon found the entire place to be cesspool of pain, suffering and death. The Kracori had ripped the place to shreds and it was all Allen could do to even acknowledge the thousands of calls for assistance streaming into his command center from the members of the Expansion, let along act on any of them.

Adam Cain and the rest of his team — Sherri, Riyad, Tobias, Rutledge and Tindal — had just finished their latest week on the ‘D’ and only fifteen minutes before entered the vast complex of silver saucers on the surface.

It had been months since Adam and his team had last experienced Earth-normal gravity and they had a hell of a time re-acclimating to it. For his part, Adam had spent over a month on a Juirean starship as a prisoner under Juirean-standard gravity, and then the whole team was locked away on a Klin ship for two more months for the trip to Marishal. Even though their stay at the Klin estate had been brief, they were soon aboard another Juirean ship for the two-month journey to Juir. Even the last three weeks before being picked up by the fleet had been spent at reduced gravity onboard the Kracori ship they’d stolen from Juir. The ship was too small to have segregated internal gravity wells, and out of consideration for Kaylor and Jym, Adam had set the gravity at a more comfortable level for the two aliens.

But now the team was trying to get their strength back and it had been a long, exhausting effort. They had spent two full months on the Bunker Hill , the flagship for the Human fleet, exercising and regaining muscle-mass before being allowed to return to Juir.

Adam and his group were scheduled to depart the Alliance Cluster in three weeks, along with the first big rotation back to Earth. A small number of relief ships had arrived — about forty — which were far fewer than had been originally planned. Back on Earth it had been decided to keep a fairly large number of reserve units in the Solar System to form a more effective shield against any further attacks by the Kracori, or anyone else. That left fewer ships to relieve the fleet.