Rise Of Platform Delta

I hope you will already have read my earlier fiction piece, written a short while back.

You haven't😟?

Oops. Then you should have a read now as it will make more sense.

Well then, do give New Beach Project: Platform Delta a read first, as this addition, Rise of Platform Delta is set six months after the catastrophic impact wreaked havoc across the isles.

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Gerry Packill had finally given the order to unseal the watertight doors of the subterranean complex, after nearly half a year of having had to live 450 feet below the devastation that lay above them all across ground zero, that sprawled on them across the surface for miles further than at first they had calculated, an area that had used to be nothing but a scene of natural beauty, but without warning had suddenly become transformed over a space of mere minutes, into a mass watery grave. At this stage, as the base computer systems had been running on low power for the past couple of months, they had no accurate way of determining just what scale of destruction really awaited them. Of course, though there was nothing that anyone could have done on that fateful day six months ago now.

The dismal truth in all of this was that no power in the known universe could have ever foreseen what was needed to avoid any of this scale of depredation. Not one iota of the intense preparations and emergency training exercises that had been religiously carried out every single day, hidden away in that hidden complex was really for what?

Absolutely nothing at the end of the day.

The team had been unable to access any last-minute data relating to the asteroid's collision with the planet's surface, due to the sudden abrupt appearance of how the uncategorized asteroid had made its presence known to them. So, in truth, nobody really understood the size of the damage that had taken place above ground, just that they expected destruction - of what scale of destruction was yet to be determined.

Despite continuous attempts from the telecommunications team to make verbal contact with the surface, not even as much as archaic morse code had been raised. For all intense purposes, ground zero was effectively blind to all contact attempts from below. The petrifying reality of what awaited the team was born out of simple fear of the unknown.

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Gerry, Max (the communications officer) and Phil Garrett were the first to venture out through the airlock. What they saw when they reached the top of the emergency stairwell, stepping out into the light of day for the very first time in six months shook them to their very cores.

The air was dry, temperatures had dramatically dropped well below zero and was so lifeless. A mild breeze was blowing but the skies were filled with a murky and foreboding greyness not before seen by anyone. The area was in what could only be described as being in a total whiteout. This once coastal part rarely ever saw snow but, it sure appeared to be falling rapidly from the darkened skies above. Except, it wasn't snow in a ghastly and horrifying reality, it was fallout from the major impact. For what ordinarily would have dissipated within two to three weeks, after six months on, it was still displaying no indications of stopping even now. The three men, who had been sealed deep down inside the installation below ground for so long, felt no such refreshing solace on their faces. Indeed, they were profoundly grateful for the fact that they had seen fit to don their portable respirators and hazard suits, before reaching the decision to exit the subterranean base far below. The air was stale and fairly devoid of oxygen concentration for the most part, hell, the recirculated artificial air was more refreshing than what they encountered outside.

According to chronological reports, it was midday or so what they thought it was to be but, the existence of the sun was sadly lacking in the skies above, fallout lay everywhere, they surmised that, it was either just not there or that the dense ash layers that were ever-present, inhibited any sunlight from breaking through. They chose the latter to be far more feasible being the explanation. Coupled with this thick covering of ash and the absence of the sun's rays, the external temperature was no more than -2.4 °Celsius, bitingly chilly at just below freezing point. What had once been such a natural spot of beauty for so very many people to have relaxed and enjoyed was now something entirely different, nothing more than a gloomy, depressing, silent, and almost icy wasteland.

The three of them gazing around at the devastation that lay before them was more than any of them were able to cope with. Emotionally, what lay before them was enough to bring them to tears. It wasn't hard to think back on their memories of what a startingly beautiful area this once was. Nothing was left that in any way bore resemblance to its once picturesque spot, as they had once cast eyes upon any of it. No vast pier on which much fun and laughter had been forged, no beautiful stretching sandy beach spanning along several miles, and a total absence of avian life were to either be heard or seen anywhere. It was as if they had simply landed on a barren, alien world, and they were the first humans ever to see it. The waters left behind had receded gradually over the months leaving only behind a muddy slime-ridden grey surface below their booted feet. To describe the landscape as simply inexplicably strange and frightening was an understatement by any descriptive means.

Phil slowly turned to his colleagues alongside him suggesting that they may as well just head on the back inside for the time being. "Not much else to see or even salvage up here, might as well just get back down below and start planning for the next move then, there's nothing left topside. Plus, we really don't want to spend more than a minute or two out here as we're still in a high fallout zone." Phil took a hard stare at the portable Geiger counter strapped to his right-hand glove, which was still registering lethal levels of radiation, which was madly clicking audibly away and registering 10,500 mSv (Millisieverts.) "We want to be getting back down below fast guys as the Geiger is off the damn scale!"

Returning below the surface and back into the automated decontamination room, they stripped off their nuclear hazmat suits the three of them had all been wearing whilst outside. The three of them were all silent as the radiation pollution removal process was cycling through the radiation safety protocols. Hazmat suits and the clothing they had been wearing were all discarded and disposed of into the incineration chute. No potential threat from the perilously high external radiation count was to be overlooked. When they eventually vacated the decontamination rooms, they donned crimson-colored scrubs and disposable clogs.

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Descending back into the depths of the subterranean habitat that had been their enforced home for the past six months, was almost as if their expeditious trek had physically stunned the three of them with a jolt of escaping electricity. But then it had. It had not been that long since the entire area had been brimming with sounds of fun, cheer, and laughter. A scene of pure relaxation and worry-free moments mostly every day without fail. Idyllic surroundings that had not been that long ago provided free access to nature and the unspoiled golden sands mixing with the untapped power of the open sea. Nobody in their darkest, scariest nightmares could ever have imagined what occurred on that day to have taken place to have caused such destruction. But now it was time to begin the saddening task of discovering just what and why it had done so on that epoch-making day.

Heads of departments gathered in the main operations meeting room where Gerry, Phil, and Max had sat around the highly polished oak table, quietly sipping on their hot brews of coffee, ominously staring down at the laptops that were displaying a live feed of the surface data, that they had collated from their short excursion to the surface, almost as if they were expecting nothing but a miracle to occur at that exact moment. Bryan Griggs silently made his appearance, sitting heavily into the nearest black leatherbound chair across from them with a disenchanted gaze emblazoned clearly across his face. Almost immediately as he had sat down, he closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

Gerry was the first to look up from the table and speak. "Okay, we certainly never expected any of what has been happening around us. That is obvious to us all, but we need to face facts, what evidence have we got so far, the table's open to any guesses..." For the initial first few minutes, there was nothing but the sound of shuffling papers in gathered hands and the sounds of uncomfortable shifting in chairs, before anyone willingly offered up any explanation. "I have some disturbing data to share with you all right, now that our atmospheric sensors have been collating since the impact..." Griggs sharply sucked in the air around him almost as if he could sense the response that was to come before slowly exhaling in his attempt to retain his composure, "the computers can't evaluate the size of the asteroid that hit us simply because there were no early warning measures in place at the time to pick it's approach up."

The meeting room exploded in an instant lambasting with hurried words. Gerry waited patiently for the next few minutes as he let everybody there 'sound off' their exasperated thoughts. Six months of all being couped up in isolation down below the impact zone, had undoubtedly caused a tremendous build-up of pent-up emotions and irritability to say the very least. Effectively, they had, for all intense purposes, been caged together in an almost prison-like existence. The build-up of emotional stress was bound to come out to a degree at some point, in very much the same way as a boiling kettle with a damaged off-switch would. It wouldn't hurt to let words spill out for a time, after all, it was far better this way than it actually overflowing in outward demonstrations of anger and violence.

Gerry stood up sharply, sending his chair barreling backward and clanging against the far wall. His face was reddening with frustration. "Alright, alright," he shouted above the raised voices that were all rapidly shooting off in all directions, making it hard to make sense of any of it. "Just quieten down, I know we've all been stuck down here for months without any contact from the outside but let's not get ahead of ourselves, we need to stay calm, we need to find out exactly what we are facing."

The remaining occupants of the room shuffled uncomfortably in their chairs around the table as if they were mere schoolchildren that had just been chastised by their class teacher. Gerry cleared his throat and sheepishly walked the few feet to the wall where the chair had, moments earlier, unceremoniously crashed into it. Nobody uttered a word until he had reseated himself around the table. In all the months of being cooped up down below the surface, not one of the team now sitting in the room had ever before seen Gerry lose his temper and shout at anyone. Griggs was the first to speak once the room had finally fallen silent. Nervously hitting a sequence of keys on his laptop sent an enlarged image of the data that the base sensors had been able to collect ever since the impact of the asteroid upon the unsuspected surface, up onto the 120-inch high-definition flat-panel monitor that adorned the room's central wall.

"Right" Griggs opened, staring from his laptop monitor, without lifting his head, "This is not very good news I have to give you at all, not entirely sure either, if some of this is completely accurate as the sensors, or any other space early warning probe in high orbit, was able to record any last minute data on the asteroid that hit us as its velocity was far too high for them to scan but it gives us a bit of an idea how much damage was incurred." The data glaringly evident, spoke very much for itself, not needing much explanation. Griggs continued "None of you here truly need much interpretation done for you as we are all scientists in our own right, and I have no intention of undermining anyone's skills, so, I'll let you mull the figures over in front of you. Any questions you do have, just pipe up when you need to."

The room fell eerily silent once more, but this time Gerry did not need to intervene. All eyes were staring in disbelief and horror at the data being displayed. Faces dropped open in disbelief at the carnage which quietly and matter-of-factly, told the tale of the real scale of damage left behind above the now barren, cold, and hostile surface Hushed whispered gasps haunted the room as the illuminated blinking on the flat panel highlighted latest up-to-date notification on the levels of gamma radiation accumulation. There was no longer any question left in their minds after embarking outside earlier, as to why there was still a copious level of fallout still around that should have dissipated long before now.

The comms officer, Max, was the first to finally speak, "This is bad news as it remains so far but, I have some information that is not displayed there, which is not any better either. All attempts to raise any surface communication have been met with complete static." Gerry questioned quickly, "Have you tried to extend the transmitter range or raise any of the orbiting satellite communications outside of the atmosphere Max?" Max sucked in a mouthful of air and slowly breathed out before deciding to respond, almost fearing what he was about to say.

"More times than you can imagine. All that has come back is static, it is as if they are simply not there. The entire network is not responding. We are effectively cut off; I have no idea how bad this situation has truly got us in." As the room fell silent as the three of them mulled over the news of the situation, there was a low knock at the door, moments later Chloe slowly entered the room carrying a large thermos filled with steaming coffee, placing it carefully down in the center of the table. "This has been a hell of a lot to take on board, so grab some coffee," interjected Gerry. At which point Chloe uttered a few words, "sorry but this is only black coffee as the stocks of milk and dried milk have completely run dry," walking out of the conference room fairly speedily.

No one spoke as the sudden appearance of Chloe, Gerry's secretary, delivered the additional worsening stock levels. Something that would ordinarily be a minor inconvenience to everybody on the base at any other moment, was much more of a logistical nightmare now, considering that they were not getting any responses from ground level. Under normal conditions running out of milk both fresh and dried would not be a problem, merely a slight inconvenience, whilst having to wait until the catering staff could go topside to restock but at this moment, the most minor and insignificant item presented itself as a major stumbling block.

Gerry sat back in his chair, a look of wonder and despair, eyes narrowing as if he was focusing on something that wasn't there, his brows furrowing as if a man lost in deep thought. Maybe he was? Was this perhaps now the time to disclose the true reason for the clandestine objective of constructing Project, platform Delta? A few moments later, mugs were placed next to laptops on the large ornate table that they had all been sitting around for the past hour or so now. This was it. Gerry had been holding onto this sensitive and highly confidential data for around a whole year and a half already. The information that had been locked in his head for so long, that he was finally relieved in some way to be able to disclose it to his closest and most senior staff. The particulars were on a need-to-know condition only. This? This was the time when need-to-know, was definitely required to be released and shared. The current situation was dire to say the least...

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