1024 June 13th, 2020 CE

Pentagon

Multiple men entered Quincy’s office. Quincy looked up in a jolt but quickly put a smile on his face. “What can I do for you fine gentlemen?”

One of them spoke. “General. We need you to come with us.”

“May I know what for?”

One of them showed their FBI badges. “We have a warrant for your arrest for suspicions of corruption and intentionally falsifying government documents.”

Quincy chuckled. “And you have evidence for this?”

The agent nodded. “We have someone who has confessed and linked it to you.”

“You can’t arrest me just because someone said I did it.”

The agents approached him. “In addition to that, we have more than enough proof to convict you. Face the wall.”

In an interrogation room at FBI Headquarters, Washington D.C.

Quincy looked up from his handcuffs as a person flanked by Secret Service agents entered the room. “Ah, Mr. President, how nice to see you.”

“I can’t say so myself Quincy.” Ronell sat down as the door closed. “Quincy, you betrayed me. You betrayed the oath you swore. You betrayed this country.”

Quincy frowned a bit. “I have been loyal to this country all my life. And I believe all my actions have been done on its behalf. I feel no guilt for my actions.”

Ronell shook his head. “You are a lucky bastard. We will be handing you a lighter sentencing but the information about civilian casualties must never be revealed. Your career is ruined, Quincy.”

Quincy smiled. “And what if I tell everybody about this? How are you going to stop me?”

“You will be sentenced for charges of treason.”

“And you think that will stop me?”

“You can take what we are giving you right now. Serve a few years in prison, get out, and live your life. Or we can convict you of treason and make you serve life in prison.”

White House

Tom Nolan, the FBI Director, sat across from Ronell. “Mr. President, are you sure about this?”

“If I do reveal this information… sure he will get what he deserved but the collateral damage would not be negligible. We are talking about domestic outcry and if it spreads outside, straining of foreign relations. If I could kill that bastard I would but goddammit we lived in a civilized country.”

“We can make him disappear, sir. Even though it has been rare, we have made people disappear before.”

“God no. That's a line that I will hopefully never cross.”

“I hope so too. We usually only do it to those who endanger national security to an extreme degree.”

1355 June 13th, 2020 CE

A corporate office in the US

>>

The TV was shut down. A man sitting behind a desk shook his head. “Truly disappointing. He got caught.”

Another man standing nearby spoke. “Doesn’t matter. It won’t be traced back to us. I made sure of it.”

The sitting man waved. “I’m not worried about that. You have always been good with this. Such a shame though.”

“We still have a couple of congressmen under our thumbs so we should get that approval nonetheless. Would have been nice to have more people in the Pentagon on our side too. Especially the fact Quincy has so many connections. Maybe we can try with a different one or whoever is replacing him?”

“Let’s lay low for a bit. The government will turn a blind eye if we don’t act up for now.”

The standing man nodded. “But we really need more people in. We have really taken a hit from not being able to sell to foregin countries anymore.

“Even our country has a limit to the amount of weapons it can buy. We don’t want to bankrupt our only customer.”

“What about foreign countries in this world?”

“I have tried to convince them to let us sell our weapons to the people of this world but they were extremely against it.”

“It’s a tall order. People are going to find it suspicious that there are congressmen willing to sell high tech weaponry to basically barbarians.”

Somewhere in the Northern Frontier

Soldiers, with rifles drawn, wearing baggy clothes and gas masks approached them.

“Hands in the air! You are all under arrest for trespassing on restricted land.”

The group raised their hands. “Fuck you and your corporations.”

A few minutes later

The soldiers loaded them onto Humvees. “Where are you taking us?”

“To a medical facility. You will be put under quarantine. This is for your health and safety. You will also be interrogated.”

“HA! So concerned about our ‘health and safety’. Yet you let these corporate bastards roam around taking all the good stuff.”

“All company employees have to wear protective suits while operating here. You are violating the law so you will be charged upon return to the States.”

White House

In the Oval Office, the President spoke to Austrin Rhodes, the Director of the CDC. “I am concerned about the returning soldiers. You are certain we do not need to take heavier measures to ensure that an unknown disease will spread here? I mean you recommended that I authorize the use of protective equipment in the Northern Frontier yet you show no concern about our soldiers being deployed on unknown land elsewhere.”

“Mr. President. From what we have learned from the native’s records of diseases, there should not be anything concerning. There are many diseases with similar symptoms as the diseases in our world. From what we have seen, the anatomy of the humans in this world are exactly the same as ours. If a soldier did catch anything, it would most likely be the common cold. We have yet to discover any overly concerning diseases which we do find strange. This world does not seem to have smallpox or any worse infectious disease. It’s delightful but concerning at the same time.”

“Then why are we so concerned about the Northern Frontier if the diseases are similar and there’s nothing actually concerning?”

“From what native records state, humans have not stepped foot on that place for nearly a thousand years. We have no idea what could be up there. It is supposedly devoid of animals but it is vital that we are certain. For all we know, there could be a small animal carrying around this world’s smallpox.”

1424 June 13th, 2020 CE

Hundreds of miles away from Hawaii, Pacific Ocean

The USS Cheyenne continued on its exercises. A sonarman looked surprised as his sonar screen went off. “Captain! We are detecting multiple signatures on the sonar. Fast moving. Seems to be torpedoes heading straight towards us.”

The captain of the USS Cheyenne, a testament to his experience and training, quickly started ordering commands. “Engage countermeasures!”

Acoustic decoys were deployed from the submarine and jammers tried to confuse the incoming torpedoes.

“Dive! Dive! Dive!”

The submarine started diving further down. The blips on the sonar screen got closer and closer. The sonarman stared hoping that the blips would pass over them. The submarine jolted as the “torpedoes” slammed into it.

1500 June 13th, 2020 CE

White House

An aide ran up to Ronell in a hallway. “Mr. President. Urgent report. We lost contact with the USS Cheyenne, a Los Angeles class submarine, a couple hundred miles away from Hawaii. It was doing exercises by itself.”

Ronell frowned. “Are we certain it's not any communication error or some equipment malfunction?”

“We have lost contact with them for the past 30 minutes. We are currently dispatching ships for search and rescue.”

“Could it possibly be those sea creatures that have been plaguing us?”

“We are not certain at this time, sir, but if it is, it will be well outside their usual zones, sir.”

“Inform the members of the National Security Council of the situation. I want to stay updated on this. Inform me the moment we get anything new. How many sailors were on that submarine?”

“It has a crew of 129.”

“What ships are on search and rescue?”

“Various ones from the US Navy and US Coast Guard. I am not able to give you the specifics of much.”

“Get me Quinc… get me the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

“Nelson Byrd?”

“No. I meant the one that’s now Chairman. Stephen Decker.”