Apocalypse Writing Challenge【FLASH FICTION】

It wasn't sudden. Not some mysterious force or natural disaster. We all knew it was coming and no one tried to stop it. Most of the world thinks it is because of the other side, but of course if both sides blamed the other who is really responsible? There have been many squabbles over things like this in the past. And of course by "squabbles" I mean riots, protests, and more. Those don't even begin to compare to this.

One year ago today, June 24th, 2084, marks the day of The Falling. I'm sure you already know everything that happened, considering you aren't a four month old baby and are alive, but heck, why not retell what happened. Some new insight could always go a long way if you have any idea of how to fix this as well.

In 1903, the airplane was invented. Just over sixty years later, America put the first man on the moon. Heh, seems like child's-play compared to what's been going on in the last fifty or so years. Science has kept up that exponential growth, and in 2050, NASA had made enough money and courage to start building a Dyson Swarm. With our significantly more advanced AI and technology, the old 2021 time prediction to build a Dyson Swarm got cut down from around eighty-two years to a quick thirty-three years. Though as Baron Acton said some two hundred years ago, "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely". What used to be a mission for good became a mission for evil, at least to us. Human rights have gotten significantly better in some situations, and significantly worse in others. Within the mind of NASA's newest president in 2064, John S. Pretuski, queerphobia ran wild. This heightened power coming from the construction of the Dyson Swarm exacerbated that part of him, and he slowly started to show it. Over the past twenty years he grew tensions between the LGBT community and NASA, and specifically the Dyson Swarm project. Pretuski surpassed any and all world-leaders, and essentially became an overlord of Earth. His first major claim was that any countries who don't actively suppress and oppress the queer community won't have access to the benefits of the Dyson Swarm. Political leaders were forced to comply despite their efforts and protests, even those within the targeted community. Without the energy from the Dyson Swarm, the economy would surely crash, and countries would go to ruin within seconds. Eventually it got so bad Pretuski said he wouldn't allow any LGBT folk or countries who supported them prior to his claims access to the Swarm's power. You can imagine how this fared with LGBTry, the most violently radical queer rights group. Near the end of the project's finish, rumors spread throughout the world of their plans to destroy the Dyson Swarm the day it was finished. Even though it was still unfinished, throughout its construction the world reaped the benefits of its energy, at least the parts that NASA allowed. LGBTry somehow got their hands on a percent of the energy of a secretly allied country, which allowed for the group to build a kamikaze rocket in record time. Of course at the time this was still all a rumor, and NASA decided in its sheer size and power to ignore these rumors for the most part. The day came, and all of us sat anxious of what would happen. Sure enough, at 6:01 PM, LGBTry had gone through with their rumored plan and sent four people straight into the Swarm. It was as dramatic as it was worrying. NASA had set up anti-air batteries beforehand in hopes of destroying the rocket, but to no avail. It hit. Now you might think this is a great thing, but it was the destruction of hundreds of thousands of years of science and human evolution, as well as what got us here today, The Falling. Alongside the Dyson Swarm project, Pretuski and his ego had been working on a way to make everything in the solar system safely orbit around Earth instead of the Sun, simply because he believed Earth and humans were the most important thing in the universe. The rocket LGBTry had sent had hit one of the satellites, and a piece of it had flown into a nearby space station that was working on this artificial orbit. Apparently this had moved some parts around and activated the prototype. The glitchy, pointless prototype. Thankfully it had only attracted the satellites that were part of the Swarm to Earth instead of entire planets, though some of the satellites had crashed into the nearby planets and hurled chunks of it towards Earth, which was not much better. We had a few days before everything came crashing down, so countries packed people underground as best as they could, but you can't fit 10.6 billion people and their belongings in subway systems, caves, and doomsday shelters. It felt like all of those stories and movies we've seen of World War Two. You're lucky you survived, just as much as I am. Anyways, we wait a few days and there goes everything on the surface of our planet. I'm just glad there weren't any nuclear explosions. Then we'd really be in for it.

Well, that's what happened. Look at us now, the mess of man has brought itself to destruction. It was always predicted to happen and here we are. All I can say is good luck rebuilding civilization before you go insane.