Stardust - 2. Landing

US Space Command

May 20, 2019 0200EST

​Airman Tullos sat at the console monitoring the US Space Command's Deep Space Radar Network

It was two in the morning and he was paying much more attention to a novel on his kindle than he was to his board.

He ran his finger across the device to advance the page and he was rudely interrupted as his board gave a single plaintive ping.

He looked at the board and saw a small red dot indicating a unidentified object. He waited a moment for the fix on the object to firm up. It was at the extreme edge of his equipments detection range. It was so far out that it took a minute and twenty seconds for the powerful radar pulses to go out and return.

Over the next few minutes the computers got a solid fix on the object, its speed and vector.

Then four more contacts appeared. Then another six.

The airman reached across his desk, grabbed the phone and dialed a four digit number.

A sleepy voice answered and said, "Colonel Carson."

​"Colonel, this is Tullos on the DSRN watch. I have multiple contacts incoming. The computer accesses a high probability of impact events."

Carson grunted, "I'll be there in ten. Watch the board and firm up the contacts."

The Airman's yes sir was given to a dead phone line.

When Carson arrived, there were twenty four objects on the tracking board. He looked at the mass and density estimates and relaxed. He said, "Looks like you've found a string of pearls Tullos."

Tullos answered, "Sir?"

"You remember Shoemaker-Levy?"

"That's the comet that broke up and hit Jupiter isn't it?"

"Something caused this one to break up but thankfully, none of it is big enough to be a huge problem.. We've got maybe four out of that mob that's big enough to survive re-entry but there's more than enough junk there to wipe out some very expensive satellites."

CNN Headline News

May 20, 2019 0900

"In our top story of the hour, in an early morning news conference NASA spokesmen have announced that the earth will pass through the path of a shattered comet later this week."

"Thursday night this week we will see one of the best meteor showers in centuries. Very few of the objects are objects are large enough to be of concern and observers in North and South America will be in for brilliant show."

Near Monroe, Louisiana

May 23, 2019 2305 EST

Kevin Barnes and his best friend Kyle Reynolds were sitting on the tailgate of Kevin's Nissan truck watching the meteor swarm. It was as spectacular as advertised.

A big one crossed the horizon and exploded with a beep resonate boom.

Kyle said, "Holy crap! Do you think they maybe they were a little optimistic about this?"

Kevin grinned and said, "No. I did a little research on the internet. That was what they call a fireball. It was just a super-heated chunk of ice that got too hot."

Another big one came blazing over the horizon. Unlike the rest, this on was dead on and blazing in blue-white light. It was so bright that it lite up the country-side like dylight.

Kevin grabbed his friend and pulled him yelling over the roar, "That one is blue-shifting- that means its headed right for us."

They got to the side of the road and dove off into the shallow ditch. Suddenly there was a bright flash and a shock wave that hit them like a sledge hammer.

US Space Command

May 23, 2019 2325 EST

Colonel Carson picked up the phone and said, "Mr. President. A string of explosive meteors we call fireballs has struck across the Southern states. They were very much like the meteor that exploded over Russia in February 2013. They started in Alabama and moved West across Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. There have already been reports of damage and injuries from the shock waves. I just got off the phone with the Emergency management people in Sunflower County Mississippi. The shock wave there was so bad they got hundreds of acres of trees blown down..."

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztrU90Ub4Uw[/media]

Near Monroe, Louisiana

May 24, 2019 0005 EST

Kyle woke up next Kevin at the bottom of the ditch. He couldn't hear anything and there were spots before his eyes.

Kevin was still out but Kyle could find a pulse and saw no major injuries.

He stood up and climbed out of the ditch and was astonished. Kevin's truck was exactly where it sat and all the windows were blown out. He looked around and all of the trees as far as he could see were blown down. Somewhere in the distance to the West he could see flames.

He looked back at the truck and noticed a fine dust covered everything thing. When he looked towards the flames he could see dust motes dancing in the air.

Kyle went back to the ditch and slid down the bank and tried to get Kevin to wake up. he was disoriented and quite agitated when he discovered that he couldn't hear anything. That agitation only increased when he discovered that all the windows in his truck had been blown out.

The two friends got in the truck and found that it started but they didn't get too far. The road was blocked by a downed cell tower.

Living in Louisiana, the teens were no strangers to hurricanes or tornadoes. The destruction they saw was worse than either had seen.

Kyle sneezed. What is with this damned dust?

kevin tried his cell phone but there was no signal.

The switched to the texting screen and typed, "R U OK?"

Kyle nodded and pointed at his ears.

Kevin nodded his understanding. He typed, "I feel like crap. What you say we take a nap and see how we feel in a bit?"

Kyle nodded. They sat back in their seats and tried to rest for a while.

Vance, Alabama

May 24, 2019 0016

The helicopter landed in the a field and soldiers piled out in MOPPS gear.

Their specialist took samples of the dust and ran it through his equipment.

He glared at the readouts and watched as the computer attempted to analyse the substance.

"What is it specialist?"

"Don't know Sarge. It's reading as organic but the equipment isn't recognizing it."

"What am I supposed to tell HQ?"

"Tell them we're reading an unknown organic in the impact zone."

Near Monroe, Louisiana

May 24, 2019 0140 EST

Kyle awakened with a start. he looked up and saw a man outside the truck in a blue haz-mat suit.

He shook Kevin awake and opened the door.

The man tried to speak to them but Kyle pointed to his ears.

The man in the suit motioned for them to follow him.

He looked at Kevin and took a double take. Something was wrong with his friends eyes.

He grabbed kevin's arm, looked closely and saw that they had changed. Kevin's pupils were a pair of vertical slits.

Kyle looked in the trucks rear view mirror and saw that his eyes had also changed and looked very much like that of a cats.