Scorching of Mercury
Welcome to Solaris, traveller! This is a slower-than-light science fantasy set in our own solar system.
About Solaris | Guide to Solaris | Prologue
About Solaris | Guide to Solaris | Prologue
The Scorching of Mercury, also known as the First Solar Invasion, was a series of onslaughts by the Scourge. Not only did angelic armies of Sol lay waste to the cities of Mercury, but the solar barrage also eroded the atmosphere. This lead to a near total enviromental collapse. Most of Mercury's remaining population was evacuated, first to major cities and ultimately off-planet.
In response to the crisis, the Alliance of Nations formed the Interplanetary Solar Defence Council. The ISDC operates from the satellite station Caduceus and the migratory military base Penumbra.
The first Solar Invasion was ended by the Keystone of Mercury, who used her powers to launch herself at the Sun and chain it. Her sacrifice brought three years of reprieve to Mercury until the invasion began again in 220018 .
The Fall of the Sunscrapers
The first reports were that of a fierce geomagnetic storm on Sol, an irregular but not uncommon event on Sol. As the sunspots swelled, a warning went over the SWAN network for spacecraft to put up their radiation shields. The pulses were abrupt and targeted. As the solar flare lashed into Mercury, the electromagnetic pulse caused a blackout in the sunbelt of Mercury. While the people of Mercury scrambled to get the communications working the angelic host descended.
Hun Kal was the first city to fall. As the site of the greatest Solar Observatory in the entire system many were waiting on them for updates and information. Hun Kal's continued radio silence left a feeling of dread. A team was sent out to explore; they found a destroyed atmodome, a melted city, and millions of desperate people caught in the rubble.
Rescue efforts began. As more people were saved from the collapse, reports about angels began to come in. These reports were not believed at first, although they were proven true later. Angels had descended upon Hun Kal and torn through the city.
The nature of the crisis delayed the response from the Commission of Refugees. They had to work out whether to go by the natural disaster or war protocols. When the next Sunscraper fell, the Atlas conglomerate responded much faster, rerouting their transit crafts to help get as many refugees off world as possible.
Iron Spires by Annie Stein
Formation of Penumbra
The angels soon came to be known as the Scourge. The Scourge arrived in waves. Pulses emerged from the sun and arced towards the planet, appearing like comets to observers on the ground. Each pulse contained between tens and hundreds of Scourge. The smaller pulses were often more dangerous.
The Mercurian Triumvirate, a coalition of the three most powerful nations on Mercury, rallied what military they could to attempt to fend off the Scourge. The army was inefficient at fighting the Scourge. Their soldiers were put at extreme risk of radiation poisoning from extended contact. Bombarding the Scourge before the pulse made contact was the most feasible and effective solution.
A commission was established by the Alliance of Nations, headed by the Council of Demilitarization, to decide on how the system should respond to the invading force. A motion to waive some of the terms of the demilitarization contract was accepted so that the Interplanetary Solar Defence Council could be founded to coordinate the defense of Mercury.
In 220011 ISDC began looking into how to form a ground base on Mercury. The ISDC abandoned their plans of a permanent base under an atmodome in favour of a migratory base, commissioning Dadarejo Robotics to build the Flightbase Crawler MCSP-1 and shipping crafts and soldiers to Mercury. The migratory military convoy was named Penumbra, after the terminator they followed.
They also began construction of a military space station in Venusian orbit. This space station, which would become known as Caduceus, would be towed to Mercury upon completion. It was not completed until 220013.
Mass Extinction
The increased solar activity and the presence of the Scourge eroded the atmosphere of Mercury. Two years into the invasion, gliding birds were no longer able to take off, and glider planes would nosedive upon release. As the atmosphere weakened, it was no longer able to smooth out the extremes, the diurnal season rose to blistering heats, and the nocturnal side to arctic cold.
Many animals were unable to adapt to these new extremes. Creatures that went dormant during the diurnal phase, like Walkers were boiled alive by the sun. Borrowing and migratory keras fared somewhat better, but the loss of habitat, food and water sources left nothing but the most hardy creatures and plants.
By the fourth year of the invasion, there wasn't enough atmostphere left for regular aircraft could to reliably fly. The majority of the Mercurian air fleet was out of commission.
The ISDC had put out a bid for low atmosphere and orbital crafts. They ended up working with Kallisti Aerospace, creators and producers of the Sunderer SF-1. Kallisti Aerospace had a functioning prototype specially made for the extreme heat of Mercury's day, the Sunbreaker SF-2, but production of the craft would take longer than Mercury had.
Chaining the Sun
The Keystone of Mercury did not sit idly by. The capital welcomed any and all refugees, and even the palace was eventually opened up to house those who needed it. The Keystone also fortified the city with a force field of her own making during the diurnal phase, at times staying up for days to maintain the force field against attack. Sieges were attempted, but the force field never fell. On the fourth year of the invasion, faced with the collapse of her planets ecosystems and the inability of Mercury's army to fight back, the Keystone took things into her own hands. She gathered her most faithful in prayer for one hundred days, starting at the beginning of dusk and ending at the final day of dawn. At the end of the vigil, weilding the most powerful artefacts of Mercury, she took off towards the sun. Turning herself into one final bombardment, the Keystone was able to end the first invasion of Mercury. With her sacrifice, the first invasion ended.| ☿ Mercury | ||||||||||||
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This whole event just gives me chills. Hun Kal's silence, the mass extinctions, the Keystone's sacrifice...
I tried to add a silver lining by including the good people did too, the rescue efforts and the collaboration, but there's no denying that this was a tragedy.