Gaslight Bay

The Beginning

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You are an environmental activist. An extremist to some.

But your skill set has allowed you to actively engage in disabling certain corporate sites which threaten the Earth’s ecosystem.

You know that the state of things is much much worse than most people know.

Environmental catastrophe looms.

But this time, you ‘ve been made privy to certain information that has you actually scared.

The end of everything is quite possible.

And it could happen at any time,

Quite suddenly and without any warning at all.

A Global Extinction Event.

.

You have to know that it’s not true, just for yourself.

Or try to stop it. Somehow.

*

But your client this time, is anonymous. Which raises several red flags.

They have the critical information and the access, but who knows where their interest truly lies.

But at least, you too now have that access.

*

Rugged and remote, the cold isolation of the Alaskan coastline is the only place to know for sure.

And so you’ve come to a tiny fishing town.

Unheard of by most, but with a long and strange history.

Welcome to Gaslight Bay

The Reason We Could All Be Totally Fucked In An Instant

*

*

…is Methane Clathrate.

4 Hydrogens and a Carbon:

a non-toxic, but non-breathable gas; Methane.

And trapped within a solid dodecahedron formed from DiHydrogen Oxide –  frozen Water.

Ice.

Mostly the Ice of the Arctic Continental Shelf, as it happens.

Trillions of tons of Methane gas, trapped there over millions of years.

And while it’s still under scientific investigation, as to how the accelerated rate of global warming might affect this delicate balance.

China, Japan, Russia, and now the US as well

have begun drilling into the ice shelf itself, to extract this plentiful and cheaply obtained fuel.

Regardless of the ultimate cost

Because recent readings from the hydrographic, seismic and meteorological equipment at Gaslight Station, have been alarming.

Suggesting that something similar to a Limnic Eruption might be imminent.

Limnic Eruptions, like the one in Lake Nyos, Cameroon, 1986;

 can cause up to a million tons of Carbon Dioxide to suddenly burst into the atmosphere,

It asphyxiated over 1,700 local inhabitants in under 20 minutes.

*

In the waters of the Arctic there are trillions of tons of Methane.

And the last time it erupted due to global warming, was 250 million years ago,

When it led to the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event

Also known as “The Great Dying”

 

 

But The Only Problem

*

…is the equipment at Gaslight Bay

It’s mostly unmanned, and getting old and ornery. The climate here is harsh and unhelpful:

The equipment needs to be physically checked – some of the readings have always been weird. .

A scientist once stationed here, claimed he tracked an entire fleet of UFOs on the radar

It may not be the most reliable equipment; and you’re truly hoping that’s the case in this instance.

Because if the readings are accurate…it could all be over.

It’s mid summer, but miserably cold.

Stepping off the boat, onto a chill and slick jetty, your heart skips and you slip for balance, at a minor earth tremor.

It only lasts less than a minute, more a murmuring than a quake.

But it is not a good sign.

 

 

You’ve been told to meet a local guide and fixer. A businessman who runs an extreme travel company.

As well as a professional hunter.

Ed.

A man in baseball cap steps up as you steady your feet on land legs.

Holding out his hand, “I’m Ed. you must be the…Environmental Specialists.”

He places a strange inflection on the term.