Missiles went out and detonated against a perceived flaw. Some missiles, as they had never been designed for this sort of thing, missed. Enough hit and a big cannonball was more like a shotgun blast when it hit.
"Welcome to Habitat 4, you are in-" here the voice changed slightly to something more in keeping with automated phone messages "Block C, level 24, corridor D. Please make a note of it."
Mitsuru held up a hand, forestalling the exploration of the corridor. "Hang on. This is different."
The others present all stopped what they were doing, including Nabiki lamenting that her buttons had popped off somewhere, and focussed on the countdown showing on the screen.
When ten had counted down to zero, a worldmap was shown. Red dots began appearing. Lots of red dots.
The voice that spoke was a different one, female but sounding somewhat older. "Your attention please. It's difficult to gather, much less verify data, with the current state of things outside. We show twelve major impacts, mainly confined to the Eurasian continent."
"Japan was missed?" asked Ranma, noticing no red marks on the island itself.
"That one looks like it hit just about at Toyama or Fukui," said Nabiki quietly. "The tsunami."
Mitsuru nodded. "The other locations are China, India, Russia, Pakistan, just off the coast of Vietnam, another in deeper water near Myanmar, Nepal, Italy, and Somalia. Mostly in China. Makes sense- biggest area in the affected zone."
Apparently the people putting this out realized that there would be a discussion following this, because they stopped talking for a few moments.
"So we can go back now, right?" asked Ranma.
"Secondary effects," said Mitsuru. "Not only tidal waves but the fimbulwinter effect, fires started. That sort of thing."
"It is not safe to return to your homes," said the voice on the monitor. "Keep in mind that if you do manage to leave the habitat - you will not be allowed to return. There are also trailing asteroids, believed to have been other parts of the original asteroid. These will arrive over the next week.
"We are tapping into the operating news networks to keep you informed of the conditions outside the habitat."
The image of the worldmap shifted to what was apparently a grainy CNN video of a city on fire. Text appeared to identify it as Los Angeles.
"-widespread rioting and looting in major urban centers across the United States, with the National Guard called in to try and impose order. Wait one moment, we're getting in footage from our bureau in Tokyo."
The image shifted and brought a muttered curse from Nabiki. Everything looked absolutely normal about the city, except for something at the horizon.
"Live pictures from a satellite feed from the Tokyo Tower. Everything appears to be okay there," said the CNN commentator.
"What an idiot," said Ranma, understanding enough English that he caught that.
"What's that, some sort of video glitch?" asked the commentator. "I don't see-"
The "glitch" swelled rapidly in size until even people who had never been near an ocean could figure out what it was. A wall of water over a thousand feet high was briefly visible, and an eyeblink later the signal was lost.
"Oh," said the CNN commentator. "Did we lose the feed?"
"Well, DUH!" said Nabiki to the television screen. She was a little upset and reacting in a purely emotional manner.
(Posted Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:24)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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