Mark of Odin: The Awakening

Chapter 9: The impending darkness

37º 44' 15.72" North, 120º 32' 54.09" West
Air Force Space Command, Vandenberg Air Base, the United States
19 October 2012
18:00 GMT+1

Just as he did every morning, Dan Edwards was sitting at his desk at the Joint Functional Component Command for Space. He had been working here as an analyst ever since JFCC Space was moved from its underground facilities at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs to Vandenberg Air Base in order to unify the management of US space operations. The Component had one prime mission directive: to ensure the nation's freedom of action in space while preventing the adversary use of space against it. Its operations included aspects such as satellite launches, missile testing and monitoring any object that entered the Earth's atmosphere. The government had long recognised the importance of keeping tracks on the ever-expanding volume of space junk orbiting the planet. The precise position of space waste was closely controlled to avoid collisions during rocket launches and to prevent space debris from crashing into populated areas.

For the past two years, JFCC Space had been working closely with NASA as part of a new programme to track objects in orbit. Sensors on the ground and military satellites in space were being used to create an accurate map of all the debris circling the planet. The plan was to use this map as part of a space junk elimination procedure that would beam long distance lasers at the waste, altering its course as it orbited Earth. It would be forced to make a violent re-entry into the atmosphere, thereby destroying it safely and avoiding any collateral damage.

Normally NASA used its own analysts for monitoring objects in orbit but sometimes it needed assistance from JFCC Space. This was where Dan Edwards came in. He was responsible for filtering and prioritising tracking requests before distributing them among his colleagues in the military Orbital Tracking Department. To be honest, it was fairly dull work. It wasn't quite what he had envisaged when he graduated from the Air Force Academy and eagerly accepted an invitation to join the 22nd Space Operations Squadron. Every morning he came into the office and sat down at his desk. He checked his emails, ran through any new tracking requests in his inbox, classified these requests and forwarded them on. And that was it. During his first year he had excitedly anticipated the arrival of a dangerous object in space, daydreaming that he would be the one to detect and neutralise the threat in time. But that had been five years ago. And nothing remotely critical had ever raised its head. Until now.

As usual, there were several emails with tracking requests in his inbox. However, one immediately caught his eye. It was marked 'urgent'. Strange, Edwards thought. It had been sent last night but hadn't been opened or processed yet. Whoever was working the previous shift must have somehow missed it. Edwards remembered that the person who had been on before him was a newbie, a guy who barely had a couple of months in the squadron under his belt. Nevermind. Edwards resigned himself to his task. He opened the email and read the message attached to the request:

From: George Patson

To: JFCC Space Tracking Centre
Subject: [URGENT] 2012 UA. Priority 1. Trajectory: 100% impact

2012 UA detected by amateur astronomer (Charles Bradway) at 06:12 GMT +1 on 14 October 2012. Initially presumed to be asteroid on outer edge of Solar System. After receiving classification request, its trajectory was analysed and current coordinates estimated according to initial data. Object could not be found. Search field expanded by on-duty technician to include all potential completed trajectories.
2012 UA detected in far orbit of Mars at 09:35 GMT +1 on 18 October 2012.
Data indicate abnormal acceleration of object, precluding normal asteroids and comets. Origin entirely unknown. Assumed to originate from outside Solar System.
Studies indicate object is on course for direct impact with Earth. Probability: 100%. No new sightings of 2012 UA. If object continues at predicted speed, impact is imminent.
We calculate that 2012 UA is rhomboid-shaped, diameter: 0.5 miles. It has been categorised as a catastrophic threat.