When Earth Stopped Moving

CHAPTER 1 : COUNTDOWN / RECAPITULATION

Author's note :
Please bear in mind that this part doesn't treat the story as much in details as the previous chapters themselves. You might want to read the story before reading this recap ! Otherwise , you would be confused !

Since the moment , David , Kyle and Leilah knew that they have been educated and going through brain enhancement programs along with their 997 other friends for the whole first 17 years of their lives in order to save the planet from a cataclysmic event predicted 2 decades ago , they have been embarked in one of the deadliest journeys someone can embark for.

Richard Hikes , the president of the IASRA ( International Aeronautics and Space Research Administration ) and headmaster of Astaresa School ( the school David , Leilah and Kyle were forced to live in without getting to know who their parents were ) as well as the head of an-operation deemed the best and most efficient way to give back Earth's spinning force, engaged the plan he had in mind 20 years ago. It was an idea that came up to him during an urgent meeting with 150 worldwide presidents to discuss the consequences of the predicted disaster .

However , despite his attempts to isolate the children from their parents in order to keep the operation in the complete secrecy , Leilah Stonefall was the sole exception , as she secretly kept contact with both her father and mother. She unfortunately had the certainty , along with her other 999 friends -Kyle and David included-of their death when severe climatic changes hit the earth's surface once it lost its magnetic field.

To say the least , Dave , Kyle and Leilah's journey from earth to the moon had been very thrilling. From the falling obstacles they almost hit only 10 minutes after take-off , to meeting Richard Hikes for the first time and the realization that an ultimate weapon ( namely KEPLAIDE-1A ) capable of generating enough magnetic force to bring the planet's rotation back was lying in the moon , secretly guarded there for 2 decades, everything seemed completely disorienting. Many question still haven't got their clear answer yet. Why does it exactly have to take 1000 children to use that weapon ? How is it supposed to be used ? And how did it get there in first place ? Why does this operation have to be kept secret ? And most importantly , why haven't humanity gotten any more signs of the extra-terrestrial intelligence that sent the coded message warning us about the disaster 20 prior  ?

These questions had to unfortunately wait as David , Kyle and Leilah had their own problems during the trip. It all started when an intruder was detected by the security system in the rocket. Only some minutes later , Nick Blastbaster- the one person who traveled with them- in the one of the 200 rockets in which the other children were travelling- disappeared leaving nothing behind but a mere trace of blood. While the rest of the group stayed in the cockpit afterwards , afraid to go out in the other rooms where the intruder was probably waiting for them , things were getting worse and worse on earth. Every country fled as many people as possible and brought them in underground basements that have been built for the matter in the last 20 years. Richard Hikes , when getting in his desk in one of those basements , chokingly discovered that their security system got hacked. No further details were mentioned concerning this matter apart from one last phrase he said :" They found us" and the sudden shift of plans to "Plan Z-999".
Soon after the cyber-attack , David and his team encountered their first enemy. With its origins unknown up until now , only the enormous dimensions of the spaceship they encountered scared them enough to try and avoid it. And if Leilah managed to control the knob and safely dodge its first radioactive attacks , the team couldn't help but drown in despair , watching hundreds of the other rockets being literally disintegrated : Their friends could not dodge them all .
Everything afterwards happened very quickly : their rocket soon got directly hit by one of the spaceship's fires despite a failed attempt to dodge it, leading to the complete destruction of the cockpit's windshield and Leilah got sucked up outside then almost instantly captured by the enemy ( aspired from a hole that suddenly appeared in the spaceship ). When David opened his eyes after loosing his consciousness for a relatively long amount of time , he realized with horror that only Kyle and himself survived the accident. A horror that got intensified when Kyle decided to go and save Leilah all by himself , leaving his friend behind .
And as David finally thought of giving up on everything , the sudden appearance of Shawn Drauless and Richard Hikes in front of him in the cockpit managed to boost his moral a little.  And it was only after clearing everything up with both of them about the current situation on earth , and what is he exactly asked to do to accomplish the mission ( thus having the confirmation that he needs to head to the moon in order to activate KEPLAIDE-1A) and also the confirmation that there was a slight chance that his friends were may be alive there , that his ma goals shifted.

Knowing that he currently was the only human being close enough to the moon to be able to reach the weapon's location on time , realizing that he was the sole hope that humanity still has to survive , David Peterson willingly entered the still-unidentified spaceship in what one might consider as one of the ultimate attempt to change Humanity's written fate.

He instantly regretted it when he finally got inside. From Nick BlastBaster inexplicable  reappearance in there , brainwashed by an unknown entity , suddenly attacking him from behind , to finding what resembled to a secret torture prison , everything was messed up.
Messed up , but incomparable to the horror he felt when he realized that the enemy didn't only capture Leilah Stonefall , but also captured everyone else among his friends. Their almost dead corpses lying in the dark ground of that shyly brightened prison was an image that he would never forget in his life.

This first main chapter of the story ends with David meeting Kyle ( who surprisingly was unharmed ) and Adam Dragger , one of the two sole survivors that has been captured , the second being Leilah , found unconscious by Kyle. ( Of which the circumstances are yet to be explicitly be mentioned in the chapter ).

Author's note
More is to come in the next 30-part-long chapter , titled " The Hidden City of Azarat". A chapter in which Dave , Kyle, Leilah and Adam will find themselves involved in one of the most dramatic events in which more than a life would be on the line.

Thanks for reading up until now !