“The Ultimate Failure”

written by Kyle Brady, edited by Taylor Nelson
copyright © 2010 Intuitive Industries LLC
do not reprint, publish, or distribute in other locations, in whole or in part, without permission
also available in PDF format

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The death of the world was frightening – full of fire, smoke, screams, and destruction. It began with a simple disagreement between two small nations in an area then known as the Middle East, over something as trivial as the demarcation of borders, and quickly escalated. When these two nations moved from angry rhetoric to actual violence, the rest of the world began to notice.

Guns led to rockets, rockets led to bombings, bombings led to nukes. The Great Glassland aligned itself along allied lines, mutating the war from a two-nation event with massive casualties to an entire region embroiled in war.

At some point, after the Western Alliance offered support to one side in an effort to forestall the inevitable disaster, the parts of the world that had not been previously involved became occupied or themselves involved – no matter the geopolitical position of the nation. The entire world, modern and not, broke into war.

A ship appeared from behind the moon, its previous existence unknown, in order to defend the Western Alliance. New forms of highly precise weapons debuted in this attack, disabling some nations and enraging others.

Terrorist attacks and long range nuclear weapons appeared in response, not all of which were able to be prevented from doing their destructive duty. Thus began a long chain of events that led to today.

Even after the warfare stopped, both due to casualties and a slow realization of the situation, the planet continued to deteriorate. Those who had survived the violence were subjected to a quickly changing environment that included regular acid rain, ever warmer temperatures, dangerous weather events, catastrophic earthquakes, and considerably more.

It took a decade, but the planet succumbed to the damage inflicted upon it by its own inhabitants. There was neither the technology nor the time to change the situation, let alone relocate a small number to places safe but unknown. Everyone died, most of them painfully so.

Earth is now a burning, uninhabitable ball of fire, with only the barest of evidence to point to its former state or previous civilizations. Perhaps it will one day be suitable for life again, but by then it will be far to late for their race, and I shall be gone.

Shame upon my eternal intellect for not intervening – I am a terrible god.

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written by Kyle Brady, edited by Taylor Nelson
copyright © 2010 Intuitive Industries LLC
do not reprint, publish, or distribute in other locations, in whole or in part, without permission
also available in PDF format