Ulola event

The Ulola event, or Ulolan event, was a catastrophic event that occurred on Saturday, June 30, 1984 at 07:17:00 local time, when an asteroid approximately 6.39-kilometers (3.97-miles) in diameter struck the Earth at center of the Ulolan Sea. The resulting impact winter it caused was a global crisis that lasted for three years, one which has been deemed by many to be an "apocalypse" event.

The impactor
The asteroid responsible for the impact event was previously known as the unidentified spatial object (USO) Tor. Tor was an anomalous entity first discovered by Volscian astronomer Montano Irizacci in 1934, who found during his stellar research an anomalous shadow passing intermittently in-between the Earth and the Sun. At the time of discovery, there was limited instruments available to verify the identity of the shadow, and thus it was named Tor (lit. "distorted") due to the vagueness of its compositional shape. When the object was convergently re-identified by Vesserian astronomer Alfons Strover in 1939, he reported its orbital pattern to be inconsistent with Irizacci's discovery; Tor was moving erratically out of alignment, and had been drawn closer to the Earth within the last 5 years. This was the first found warning sign of its impending collision, however its eccentric disappearances delayed modern scientists from correctly predicting when it would impact Earth.

Modern scientists could not accurately predict when or where Tor's impact event would be, but they were convinced it was guaranteed to happen. Predictions varied from the mid-1950s to the late-2000s, with varying projections of the impact effects it would have being given. Tor's third reappearance was on polar-orbiting satellite footage taken over the South Pole at 23:11:00 OTC on the 30th of June, 1984; the anomalous object was not able to be detected until it made atmospheric entry due to the polar effects on its radiant. The final moments before its impact led to the famous "Twilight Hour" satellite image being circulated over the InfoScape. It sent many of the world's nations into a panic, however they had little time to organize shelter efforts before the collision occurred.

The impact event
Tor's impact was preceded by a superbolide fireball seen over Crisis during its atmospheric entry. Over the course of its 120-second flight, Satellite imagery captured the asteroid illuminating ~116 kilometers (72 miles) of night like it was day. It appeared approximately ~112 times larger than the sun according to eyewitness survivors, who described it as a "second sun" phenomenon as the area was aglow in the middle of the night. It has been theorized that this was due to light from the fireball passing through high-altitude ice particles that had formed during extremely low winter temperatures of the time. Exact figures of the asteroid's properties during atmospheric entry remain unknown, however it is projected the fireball exhumed extreme thermal radiation over the region before impact, giving off a maximum exposure of over 1.8 gigajoules of energy for ~8 seconds.

The impactor traveled northwest from the South Pole at an exceptional velocity of 20 km/s, moving along a shallow angle of approach between 30 and 45 degrees horizontal. It partially shattered over the course of its flight path, causing thousands of fragments to scatter in its wake. Over the course of the first week these bolides and meteorites struck in various locations, primarily in Tandau and the Ulolan Straits. While none of these successive impacts had radical effects on the regional geography or population, their craters are valuable research sites towards understanding the nature of Tor.

At the time of collision, Tor has been estimated to be 6.39-kilometers (3.97-miles) in diameter, and delivered an estimated kinetic energy of 324,000 megatons (1.355×1021 joules, or 1.355 zettajoules) on impact; with this much force behind it, Tor has caused multiple natural disasters on a scale surpassing any in recorded history. There is no known human-made explosive in recorded history that has released as much energy as Tor did.

The initial impact bored a 150 kilometer (94 mile) wide, 50 kilometer (31 mile) deep hole in the water. The resulting transient impact cavity then collapsed, producing a final complex crater 426 kilometer (265 mile) wide and 22 kilometer (13 mile) deep at its maximum extents; it is unique for its extreme sea floor fractures caused by underwater volcanism. In addition, its central peak was able to rise above the surface of the water to become a new island, named Aolola (Aolōlōa) after the sea it occurred in. Smaller islands formed around it have not been given unique names yet, and are instead given numeric codes (e.g. Aolola-1, Aolola-2, etc.) by order of proximity from the main island.

Impact effects
The Ulola event was a catastrophe felt worldwide. The initial impact was large enough to eject molten rock from deep within the earth, raised a colossal megatsunami, and dispersed an immense quantity of vaporized dust and sulfates into the atmosphere. For three years following the event, a sudden temperature drop was felt across the world as a result of the ensuing impact winter. In addition, the event temporarily weakened Earth's magnetic field, causing an polarity reversal effect to occur that would affect orbital electronics for years. Almost immediately after impact with the Ulolan Sea, a plume of hot water vapor mixed with hydrovolcanic gases were dispersed throughout the region, rendering the environment difficult to breathe in and wet with toxic precipitation. This led to a series of avalanches, mudslides and other landslide disasters in the following years, and left a persistent fumarole effect from the impact site. In addition, it produced a massive tsunami called a megatsunami which swept outwards across the coastlines of the Ulolan Sea. These tsunami waves were thousands of meters high, and although they would disperse quickly after landfall, their size made them carry basin-wide destructive energy. Within four hours of the impact moment, 2.3-kilometer (1.4-mile) high waves made landfall from Minuʻā to Atiʻiū, reaching out to every coastal city in a direct path from the impact site. The high velocity seawater are strong enough to permanently alter the terrain, sinking entire cities and islands in their wake. Rivers and lakes were flooded by the risen sea level, with several new ones forming from tsunami signatures. The Ulolan Straits were partially expanded as a result of the event, as new channels became open for passage. Successive tsunamis would follow this one at incrementally smaller scales, most waves not reaching past 100-meters (328 feet) in height; these would form back-and-forth throughout the Ulolan Sea for several months due to the nature of its enclosed waterways.

The impact generated winds in excess of 1000 kph (621 mph) near the central Ulolan Sea due to the kinetic energy involved, causing an impromptu megahurricane to form after the tsunamis had dispersed. The intensity of the storm was exceptionally strengthened by the sudden increase in atmospheric and water temperatures, giving it the same classification as a megamonsoon of the Omnian Ocean. This windstorm spread polluted rains where it went, and dealt severe damage upon making landfall the following day. For a week, debris from destroyed cities was swept around by the hurricane, adding more collateral damages and deaths to the casualty report. The combined effects of these natural disasters was devastating on the regional biosphere, with entire ecosystems of wildlife being disrupted or wiped out wholesale by post-impact storms. One exceptional case of this was the amount of undersea life thrown onto shore, with species like dolphins, giant squids and even whales being found dead inland.

When the impactor burrowed into the ground in less than a second, the impact created a distortion wave throughout the ground and air that sent shock waves for miles in all directions, travelling at a velocity greater than the speed of sound in air. The immediate air blast following impact was enough to collapse multistory buildings, collapse bridges, overturn vehicles and flatten forests from afar. Extreme seismic activity was then felt throughout coastal Ulola for the first few days, with various high aftershocks occurring for months afterwards; several of these earthquakes raised or lowered the surface of Ulola by tens of meters, oftentimes sinking then beneath the sea. Volcanic eruptions were triggered by this effect, most notably in the Ring of Fire throughout Ulola; seismic shocks were also reportedly felt a week later in parts of Asteria antipodal to the impact site, causing mantle plume to occur and augmenting the global impact winter with a regional volcanic winter for a year. The resulting atmospheric conditions of the impact winter allowed wild firestorms to rage locally for several months at a time. More minor phenomena were reported in the aftermath, but are ill-understood and have not been readily documented by researchers yet.

Damages
The initial impact and its resulting fallout disasters were responsible for the deaths of approximately 20 million Ulolans, over 80% of its original population, most of which lived along the coastlines. The impact winter and its polarity excursion devastated global infrastructure and indirectly caused an estimated 10 million more deaths throughout the world, many of which were people of the southern hemisphere not able of survive in the catastrophic winter climate. Tens of millions more were displaced as refugees looking to escape the disaster zones, not just in Crisis but worldwide. The ecological aftermath of the event remains unquantified, with hundreds of known species being rendered extinct and tens of thousands more becoming endangered. Physical damages were at such a scale of intensity that most masonry was near-totally destroyed down to their foundations in the fallout; serious damage was done to all establishments, with entire rock masses thrown into the air and laterally-reinforced structures collapsing.

In particular, the Global South was the most affected by the impact event. Flooding became more frequent along the coastlines of the South Omnian due to a temporary heating of the polar ice sheet there. Planetary effects caused by the polarity excursion impaired satellite systems over the southern hemisphere, leading to the south being cut off from the world network. Economists estimated that the physical damages inflicted by the event were worth trillions by the World dollar standard, with cleanup costs exceeding what the world GDP could produce in a year. For this reason, many nations have simply refused to pay into foreign aid programs for southern nations, forcing them to either structurally collapse or adapt to their new environment. The results of this severance of global aid has led to a worldwide famine due to agricultural losses inflicted by the impact, as southern peoples struggle to feed their pre-Ulolan populations in the post-Ulolan environment.

The impact event was officially designated by the World Congress as a global crisis that endangered modern civilization; WC Chairman Frederick Leitner described the event as being "of such magnitude of devastation that no parallel to it will ever occur again in our planet's lifetime."

Distorsium
Distorsium is a material of extra-solar origin discovered to have been brought to Earth via the Tor asteroid. Its properties are ill-understood by modern science, with known ore deposits being described as "fulgurite-like crystalline clusters with anomalous transmutation properties;" thus the name Distorsium (lit. "distortion mass") was attributed to it upon its discovery. It performs this namesake "distortion" effect by altering nearby matter when energized; when a lightning bolt would strike a distorsium formation, it distorts the surrounding area—most often turning it into distorsium. Sufficient concentrations of distorsium, informally dubbed "monoliths," will begin to behave as natural lightning rods; these will both generate and absorb lightning strikes in order to expand themselves, continuously growing and thus spreading the alteration effect even more. It is theorized that this is connected to how distorsium forms, although the exact method has yet to be scientifically proven.

This extremely rare substance has exceptional properties of superconductivity and magnetic energy storage; for example, a 1-cubic meter block of distorsium is able to store a consistent current put through it indefinitely, during which point it may function like a static inverter or other electric transformer, able to release it in a variety of other waveforms. This can be identified through a visual phenomenon where arcs of energy will reach between nearby crystal formations, as if to maintain equilibrium in an overall magnetic field; nominally, this explains its tendency to form in geometric crystal structures. When a distorsium formation produces these air discharges, it ionizes nearby air molecules; while this makes it useful for air purification means, it also produces a small amount of ozone each time. Sufficiently large concentrations of distorsium will produce toxic levels of ozone to airborne bacteria, small animals and eventually humans. During the immediate fallout of the Ulola event, distorsium monoliths grown from impact sites caused frequent lightning storms and widespread ozone pollution.

Distorsium has had a lasting impact on the scientific community of the post-Ulola world, as it has presented them with a lens into extraterrestrial science previously unobtainable by human means. It offers newfound potential for 21st-century industrial and technological applications, such as chemistry, electronics, metallurgy, and potentially nuclear fields.

Legacy
The Ulola event had a profound effect on the nations of the world, with many seeing it as a "wake-up call" for a revolutionary shakeup of the global status quo. It has been cited as the cause for numerous political crises and upheavals as governments shift to address the post-Ulolan world order in new ways. In Esmaria, the combined geochemical fallout and influx of millions of refugees led to a total systematic market crash by 1985, forcing a collective of corporate conglomerates to seize the government and drastically reorganize itself to handle the situation. This corporate takeover of a nation was the first major reorientation in the world order, as it removed any ties Esmaria had to ideological geopolitics in order for it to address the ongoing catastrophes with pragmatism. The Esmarian solution consisted of harsh restrictions on the freedom of movement and immigration customs, all but denying entry of refugees into their country. This pattern of national exclusion was inherited by other nations who either could not afford or were unwilling to assist other nations during the crisis.

Global travel was largely shutdown for the duration of the impact winter; but even when it reopened, people were hesitant to travel abroad again. The World Congress was the first body to reach out to the affected areas by commencing humanitarian aid outreach programs and forming peacekeeping missions to try and re-stabilize the original governments there. However, the nations of the world have used this as a pretense to forcibly insert themselves into the Global South; in a wave of new-age neocolonialism, imperial powers have begun to expand their overseas territories or gain new ones through means of diplomacy, invasion and usurpation. They found the impact sites of the asteroid's various bolide fragments to be rich in rare metals and other natural resources, and demand for these extraterrestrial ores skyrocketed in the following decade. Now the sovereignty of the Global South is being challenged by a new world order, as those who cannot survive the post-Ulolan climate are subjugated by those who could. This event has thus permanently shaken the global society in all forms, and left it with a precarious and uncertain future ahead of itself.