56 Explosion
Once the countdown reached its end, a large structure got released from the attachment pylons of the launching pad. In no time, the 'Intercontinental Missile MK1' with its 'Delayed Explosion Incendiary-type Warhead' disappeared through the opening at the top of the spatial room.
Those were both the temporary names Keith imagined for the warhead and its launcher.
It was a lot more explanatory than using the simple terms 'Missile' and 'Warhead' because he may be required to initiate more intercontinental missions in the future.
Keith was really surprised by the sheer speed of the missile. Where the Orbital-type and Satellite-type rockets both hovered for a while over the ground before reaching the necessary thrust to lift off, the missile straight up ejected itself into the air.
He had no time to waste here, though. The missile was equipped with a small camera on its head and Keith could watch the whole operation unfold through his computer's screen. The images were being transmitted via radio waves, and his formidable base antenna could receive information from several hundreds of miles away.
With a strangely morbid fascination, Keith sat down in front of his desk to see if the terrorists would be able to survive this type of attack or not.
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- "Alright, our plan is almost ready. The best time to attack should be in a few days from now, when the builders of Niflheim will have to extand the eastern wall of the city. We just need a bit more resources to make some more weapons and explosives." Spirit Fragment summarized the situation the 'Rebellion' was in.
Most of his subordinates got back here a week and a half earlier. Unfortunately, some of them decided to stop being part of this group or simply stopped playing this game after their failed attempt at Midgard. The 'deserters' were not that many in numbers, but it had a devastating impact on the morale of everyone else.
However, thanks to Spirit Fragment and his enthusiasm, they soon realized they were part of something bigger than their own persona. It did not matter if people left their 'Rebellion', the remaining people just had to work harder to make up for it.
With roaring cries, they all got back to their tasks. Some of them went mining, others went collecting resources outside of the base. Their organization was really good, and Spirit Fragment was proud about it.
He went back to his office and looked at the plans of Niflheim again. He was doing this in order to determine if there were some irregularities in their informations that could turn against them during an attack.
Focused on his work, Spirit Fragment did not even notice the scout running inside of his office until he hurriedly started to express his fears :
- "Chief, a strange flying object is coming in our direction from the..."
The young player could not finish his sentence as a huge explosion threw him and Spirit Fragment to the ground. Before they could even react and get back on their own two feet, another explosion took them into the death realm.
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- "It's done." Keith said as he looked through the last images of his missile's camera. He just saw the warhead getting burried deep underground before exploding as intended.
He could not tell if he did destroy the terrorist's hideout yet. However, he made sure one of his two surveillance satellites would be capturing the area just a few minutes after his intercontinental missile was intended to reach the terrorist's base location. He just had to wait for the satellite to revolve around the planet in order to transfer these images to him.
For the time being, he disconnected from the game and went on the Project Overworld forums to check if there has been any recent news. In fact, a post dating from just a few seconds ago appeared on the front page of the forum.
Its title was 'Another terrorist's attack?' and it had a short description saying 'I just heard the sound of an explosion near Midgard. What happened?'
The post quickly received over a few thousand likes while people in the comment section gave their own opinion over the situation.
Keith first started wondering whether he had been too late with his own attack, but he quickly realized that people only heard about one explosion. In fact, the most popular comments denied the idea of a terrorist's attack since Midgard nor Niflheim had not lost any building whatsoever.
- "What if they attacked another player's base?" Someone commented.
- "No way we would have heard the explosion all the way from Midgard." Another player responded.
While people were trying to figure out what happened, the official Midgard's municipal team made a post on the same forum to reassure everyone. They attested that Midgard nor Niflheim had been attacked and that they were currently assembling a team to go and scout the area.
It was around that time that Keith connected back into the game to check the data that his computer had received from the satellite.
'Hmm, looks like the damage is much more violent than anticipated.' Keith thought after seeing one of the images he just received from 'Watchdog 1'. Although blurry, the capture showed that the area where he had directed his missile was but a giant crater now. Even a large portion of the nearby mountain was missing.
'How many tons of explosives did these guys make?!' Due to the sheer size of the explosion, Keith could only conclude that he had, indeed, stroke down the terrorist's base. He had done some testing over the warhead beforehand and there was no way that it could inflict that much damage to the environment.
Though, he was, in a way, relieved by this sight. He had succeded in killing all of the terrorists and destroying their respawn point at the same time. If they wanted to go on with their wrongdoings, they would have to start all over again.
The mission was a huge success and Keith could finally start focusing back on more important stuff. He had a lot more satellites to put into orbit, and he would certainly not be done with it within a five month period.
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After establishing a scouting team with some police member and some volunteers, Amber followed them through their investigation.
She was working in her office when the explosion happened, and she was quite concerned about the current situation. She was not worried about herself nor her possessions since she left it all in a safe back at her office.
However, she was really nervous about what they were about to discover.
In fact, her anxiousness worsened as they got close to the area where the explosion supposedly took place. Where trees and grass covered the surroundings of Midgard, the closer they got to the impact point, the rarer plants could be found.
At some point, they even discovered a wild fire ravaging some forests nearby.
- "What is that?" Someone could not help but gasp.
- "What happened here?" Someone else manifestated their surprise.
Amber was in shock. What would have happened if Midgard had been the target of this attack? Probably chaos and destruction. Most people would have left the game at once if such tragedy occured.
The small group continued their investigation until they arrived at the edges of the largest crater they had ever seen. It was several hundred feet deep and at least two miles in diameter.
Some rock formations of the nearby mountain were constantly raining down in the hole, like a rain trying to put out a ravaging fire.
- "It's... Unreal." One of the volunteers expressed.
They were all left in awe as they witnessed this terrifying hollow looking at them like the darkest abyss of the world.
The policemen were the first to snap out of surprise and started investigating the edges of the crater. They did not find any clue over the attack, but they went on regardless. Once the perimeter of the hollow had been done, they took ropes out of their inventory and started insuring each other out before going down the hole.
Various broken objects could be found there. From leftovers of a table's leg to burnt corners of a paper, it was clear that a group of player lived there before the explosion. There awe slowly transformed into anger as they remembered how some of their home had been destroyed because of terrorists.
'Was this really a terrorist's attack in the end?' Amber lamented.
However, just as she collected another one of those broken chair legs, one of the policemen called out to her.
- "Amber, don't you remember some of those names?" He asked while showing her a book halfway burnt down.
Before she could reply that it was too burnt to be read, a name suddenly popped out of one of the pages of the book.
She recognized it immediately, it was one of the few terrorists who were banned from the game because they were reported by so many people. In fact, this guy was part of the few ones who activated the explosives back when the 'Rebellion' group, as they called themselves out, attacked Midgard.
Seeing this name pop out of the book, she felt a sudden surge of anger towards the terrorists.
However, she slowly managed to calm herself down to analyse the situation. What was this book doing down there? Were those people worshipping the 'Rebellion' group of did they execrated them?
This situation made no sense at all. However, the answer came to her a lot more quickly than she could have expected as another player from the investigation group brought to her something resembling the sketch of a plan.
- "I found it under some debris." He said.
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