Resurgence - Point Barrow

== Point Barrow ==
“If the classes don't kill you, the weather will.”
-Motto of Point Barrow Military Academy
A cold, harsh world with frequent storms, Point Barrow has always been a world with incredible value due to its mineral resources to the Federated Suns. This why it is an expected target and Prince’s Champion Erik Sandoval-Groell had been deployed there.
Unique to this world, seemingly for the first time in recorded history, the planet’s gravity captured two new moons. A pair of celestial bodies referred to as “The Brothers” were moving through the system and gravitated toward the world.
While the common sentiment was that the world was about to end due to collisions with the alien worlds, people began to flee. This caused an immense change in the economic and population size in the years between 3140 and 3142.  Over half the population chose to leave the world, selling their properties and land rights for incredibly reduced prices. However, those that stayed were content with the outcome good or bad.
This time, they won the gamble with fate. Both bodies crossed ahead of the planet’s path and then came about and stabilized over the years 3141 and 3142.  Society on the world was completely obsessed with everything from novels to movies about the “sky falling” if one of the new moons were to fall out of orbit. Once the moons had found a consistent orbit, the world, while rough to live on, became sought out for tourism.
True, a number of satellites had been knocked out of orbit but, there were no major casualties, at least until the flooding. Originally the planet was only 20% surface water.  Since the arrival of the moons that percentage has grown significantly as their presence and their own gravity has caused water to emerge from the crust via everything from natural mountain streams to deep ocean openings.
With this a number of towns and cities as well as mining sites became flooded.  Even part of the Military Academy found itself underwater.  Geysers would appear unexpectedly and give people seconds or minutes to react.  Two of the most notable events were unexpected early on when the geysers first started erupting. 
One evening in Murchison on the Chukchi continent a skyscraper had a geyser explode through the building.  Both of “The Brothers” were above the city that night. Recovered security camera footage showed the floor begin bubbling up, the laminate flooring began bubbling as water seeped out of it. An emergency evacuation was triggered but the eruption stopped the staff from leaving. The interior of the building was hollow most of the way up with elaborate glass sculptures suspended for viewing among the thirty floors.
As people filled the interior walkways and balconies to get to the stairs and elevators, the sound of rushing water got louder and louder inside the building.  Multiple manholes on the streets were already becoming geysers themselves from the pressure. In the minutes that followed the floor exploded and water surged out of the ground.  The glass sculptures and people were thrown like ragdolls as the glass balconies shattered from the water pressure surging upward.  The water exploded through the roof of the building and poured down for days, running down the sides of the tower.
An underground aquifer has been and will likely always be the city’s source of fresh water.  With multiple basement levels in the building, that was just the lowest resistance point in the planet’s crust locally.  All the basement levels had collapsed in seconds from the pressure below, with the building’s foundation being the final point of resistance.
This resulted in buildings such as stores and homes being washed away with many casualties.  At first, the Academy believed an attack was happening on the town and had a lance of cadets led by an instructor investigate. Turns out the Battlemech’s hand actuators became the saviors of a great many people.  The instructor’s Anvil was all over the news as water rushed by, the heavy mech’s hands carrying dozens of people and children. Everyone in the lance received commendations as the local government figured out how to start trying to save people as the water ran to lower elevations.
One of those areas was a gorge used by the Academy to train in barren, rocky terrain.  Over the years it has now become a swamp.  The section of town that erupted has mostly been washed away and become a new focus of movies and urban exploration as it continues to deteriorate. As for the water flow itself, it found its way to the closest ocean, continuing to add to the volume in the ocean.
The Second notable event is known as “The Collapse”.  Over time as water had been pulled to the surface, a shallower part of ocean between Chukchi and Alaska was found to be covering a hollow cavern system.  Earthquakes became common in this region just off the continent of Alaska. Finding the source of the earthquakes, a deep sea exploration team searched for clues as to what was going on.
While the team and submersible craft were searching the ocean floor they realized that all the sea life had vanished. Only, it was too late for them to learn from the sea life.  In real time, their recording equipment saw the ocean floor cracking in all directions, billions of bubbles emerging from below.  Then the floor collapsed downward.  Huge holes opened up that were hundreds of meters wide.
Falling for a few seconds, the ocean quickly flooded the cavern.  Both submarines that accompanied the team were sucked into the cavern.  Of the scuba divers that were in open ocean only four of the eleven survived.  Both submarines were still functional, however they both lost some crew due to impacts and the violent turbulence.
What they found though as the debris settled and the submarines collected the survivors was a cavern of mineral resources that was unfathomable.  Previously there had been some minor ocean mining but with this discovery the industry exploded. 
Outside of these events, some others have taken place. There is also exploration of the new moons taking place en masse. Even years later in 3152, the resources of this world have continued to provide huge economic and military gain for the Federated Suns. 
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Category:Resurgence
Category:Works by Minis&Dumbbells