In the air above the island of Diego Garcia 1000 miles south of India, a Western Alliance military aircraft is patrolling the area watching for pirates. Pirating has become a booming industry in these hard times, and is cutting into the profits of the Alliance. Slaves taken in regional wars are being shipped out of Africa, India and Southeast Asia, and are desperately needed to meet the needs of the ruling class members in Europe, especially in Rome which has become the city of choice for the elite of the West. The co-pilot looks up from eating his lunch and sees a single large wave several hundred feet high heading straight for their home base of Diego Garcia. The island is only 12 square miles in area, and this wave would wipe it off the map. In fact, there are about 60 small islands in this area. The pilot grabs the radio microphone and relays an emergency warning. But it is a useless warning. The crew watches helplessly as the island chain is wiped away by the wave, which is estimated to be over 300 feet high. The crew was just finishing their four hour hovering tour as the wave hit. The pilot looks at his fuel gauge and thinks "We do not have enough fuel to reach any land mass." He thinks of his wife and children as he relays orders to his crew to prepare for a water landing, probably 750 miles from India. The crew knew what that meant. There would be no ships left in this part of the Indian Ocean which could rescue them.
At the same time in the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, an island nation off the southern tip of India, the tidal wave hit while people were going out for lunch. A tidal wave warning had been issued but most ignored it since there had been so many false alarms during the previous several months. The 300 foot wave hit the city with such force that even tall buildings were pushed inland over a mile. Needless to say, all 800,000 residents of the city died, along with many more along the nation's western coast, and also along the southern tip of India. Within the next few hours the giant wave wiped out numerous other Indian Ocean islands, and also hit the east coast of Africa, especially Somalia, very hard.
LANX News Anchor Jill Steiner covers the disasters, which is a routine part of her news show:
"This is the rundown of disasters during the past 24 hours..." She reads her report as if it was the daily sports news, then she adds "...at least the ones we know about." She takes a deep breath before starting through the list.
"Reports have just come in of a giant tsunami striking the southern tip of India, the nearby island of Sri Lanka, and a multitude of other islands in the Indian Ocean. It started approximately 500 miles southwest of India. Reports from an air crew stated it was over 300 feet high, which would make it the largest ever seen. The tsunami also wiped out the island of Diego Garcia and numerous other islands in the Indian Ocean, including the Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius, and others. It is estimated 4 million people may have died."
"In other news a previously unknown skin-eating bacterial infection which eats the entire skin off within 48 hours is sweeping across Australia, and so far has killed over 45,000 people in just one week."
"Moving on from that, a war between India and Pakistan intensified as nuclear weapons were used on cities of both nations. Preliminary reports indicate mass casualties..." Jill stops mid-sentence and says "What does "mass casualties" mean when we are reporting millions of people killed by natural disasters? Did these nuclear weapons kill only 10,000? We just do not know. Anyway, communications in the area have been disrupted by the electromagnetic interference of the nuclear blasts. So I guess there could be many more dead....who knows?" Jill struggles to remain focused on just reading the reports.
Jill continues: "An earthquake caused a breach in the 300 foot tall Nurek Dam in Tajikistan, the second tallest dam in the world. The resulting release of water is believed to have killed 10,000 people downstream."
"Intense lightning burned an entire city to the ground in central Uganda. No one survived, and the death toll is estimated to be 25,000."
"A sinkhole opened under the city of Mount Gambier in southern Australia, swallowing the entire city. Over 30,000 people disappeared and were buried in just seconds."
Trying to lighten the mood Jill adds "In sports, the Little League World Series was held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania yesterday. The game had been postponed by a day due to baseball-sized hail." OK, so that did not lighten anyone's mood, she thinks to herself. "Don't you wish for the days when we could discuss a baseball game and not think about a disaster? Anyway, back to the disastrous events of the week" Jill says as her face turns to stone once again.
"In the Netherlands a breach in the Afsluitdijk Dike led to a secondary breach of the Houtribdijk Dike, flooding all cities along the Markermeer Sea, including Amsterdam where the canals were flooded and many were trapped in their homes and drowned."
"There were numerous earthquakes along the Ring of Fire Pacific fault line. Intense damage was caused all along the fault line as entire cities were swallowed whole or burned to the ground by falling molten rock, resulting in heavy casualties."
"In the Pacific Solomon Islands, thousands of local monkeys became enraged and attacked island residents, tearing them to pieces. Scores of people were killed..."
Jill pauses and says "That's all I can handle. Suffice to say a lot of bad stuff continues to happen day after day after day. There are far more than I can report. I could go on but there just does not seem to be any point in it." Jill pulls out her earpiece and leaves the anchor desk as the news crew tries to figure out what to do next. They put up live video from Amsterdam showing dead bodies floating in the flood waters.
Around the world the persecution of Christians intensifies. Many of the group of 144,000 have been martyred during the past two years. Their leader Shem Kolb continues to coordinate the efforts of evangelization. But due to treaty obligations with the Western Alliance the authorities in Israel have declared the group to be "enemies of the State." The believers meet in secret and by social media connection, but the authorities have planted computer viruses in the social media platforms. There is a bounty placed on members of the group, and those who arrest any group members are rewarded with extra Marks in their account. Midnight raids of believer's homes are a regular occurrence. Tonight it is Shem who hears the breaking down of his door as the Citizen's Police storms into his home. He is taken away into the night as his wife and children scream in terror. Shem is not heard from again.