Doomsday

The icy planet of Krypton glints like a giant jewel in the sky, acting like a mirror reflecting the faint rays of its red sun. This is the view of the planet from the surface of one of its moons - Koron. The moon is a rocky body composed of a turbulent and rocky crust that evolved from fuming volcanoes. Permanent layers of dense snow and ice envelop Koron’s exterior.

No indigenous flora and fauna can be sustained on the frigid surface of the moon. Strong freezing winds that come in furious gusts regularly engulf the moon. Currently, the winds are still. The only sign of inhabitation is a solitary military base located in the moon’s southern hemisphere. A crew of six Kryptonian military personnel consisting of three scientists and three military officers mans it. The base’s name is Retsnom. Its military designation is “Research Facility Omega.”

The base’s white dome-shaped structure appears to be small and unimposing from the outside and essentially serves as an entry and exit point. The bulk of its weight is concentrated below the frozen surface, out of reach of the ravaging winds. Restnom is barely visible on its location on a rough and ragged plain strewn with sharp snow-covered boulders and encircled by black hostile mountains in the distance. A vertical shaft extends 20 miles deep into the hard rocky crust directly below Retsnom’s infrastructure. An anti-matter reactor supplies 750 million terawatts of power to meagre crew quarters, a lab and dining area. Almost all of the reactor’s power is diverted to a containment cell at the extreme bottom of the shaft.

Retsnom serves as a research facility; however its additional purpose is military classified. The lead scientist and commander in chief of the base is a man by the name of Jeg-Nor. He is a lanky man with high cheekbones, a pointy chin and sunken, unemotional eyes. His attire is a drab grey, reflecting his callous personality. His subordinate colleagues assist with research whilst the military officers act as security, maintain and repair the base when required and ensure that the scientists perform their tasks strictly according to Kryptonian military policy. Jeg-Nor is in the lab which is also the central hub of the facility. He walks towards an elevator and stops in front of a retinal scanner. The computer acknowledges Jeg-Nor and the elevator opens. He steps in and the doors close. The elevator begins to descend into the bowels of the 20-mile deep shaft below. It takes approximately 10 minutes to reach the bottom. The elevator doors open and Jeg-Nor steps out into a square shaped reinforced metal chamber approximately 15 feet square. He encounters more security checkpoints. The first of which is a secure panel where he inputs a password known only to him. This causes a metal door to open to his right, revealing a 100-metre long passageway lined with optical lasers. The next checkpoint is an additional secure panel into which he enters another password. This disarms the lasers and he proceeds down the passageway. At the end is an anti-chamber enclosed by a 10-foot thick steel door. Located just outside the door is the last checkpoint. He enters one final password. Servo motors quietly hum and the door hisses releasing pent up pressure. The door slowly slides open to reveal a monstrously bulky creature with bony protrusions across its shoulders and clawed hands and feet.

The creature is bipedal; its arms suspended above its head and firmly restrained with manacles made of pure energy. Its legs, neck and torso are restrained in the same fashion. It dwarfs Jeg-Nor at 7 feet tall. The monster is unconscious and safely in a state of hibernation. Suddenly, Jeg-Nor’s communicator sounds. A voice comes over the com. It is that of Major Lan, one of Retsnom’s military officers. He urges Jeg-Nor to return to the lab. Jeg-Nor enters a command at the anti-chamber’s computer panel and the door locks. He walks back the way he came reinstating the lasers. He reaches and enters the elevator at the far end. It begins to ascend. The elevator doors open and he steps back into the lab. The other members of Retsnom’s crew await him. “We have just received a communiqué. Something is happening on Krypton,” says Major Lan.

The crew exit the structure and go outside. All is quiet. They peer up into the unobstructed sky, directly at Krypton. Clearly visible on the planet are lava-coloured rifts and gashes. They stare hopelessly aghast at the site before them. Tense seconds pass by. They watch in a stupor as the entire planet cataclysmically explodes in utter silence. Their hearts pound frantically. A gargantuan shock wave strikes the moon tearing through the tranquil atmosphere and spreading through the solid rocky crust like a ripple in a lake. A thunderous roar catches up within moments. The men are forced off their feet and the reinforced structure of the base trembles. They regain their footing and gaze despondently at the place in the sky that Krypton used to occupy. Large fragments of the planet surge with fiery intensity through space, some heading directly for the moon. Koron’s atmosphere begins to spark with burning rocky debris. The moon’s surface tremors violently below the men’s feet as meteors vigorously bombard the ground hundreds of miles away behind the wall of mountains. Areas of impact emit bright blasts of intense light, illuminating clouds of dark dust rising into the atmosphere. The barrage of meteors is relentless, increasing in intensity and eliminating any chance of hope. The men collapse into despair with the realisation of the impending demise of Koron and their consequential deaths.

Massive rifts perforate the moon and pierce the core. It begins to disintegrate. Mere minutes later Koron succumbs, unable to maintain its form. It shatters, fragments hurtling into the blackness of space. A chunk of Koron careens into black silence. It acts like a capsule and contains the heavily lined metal containment chamber of Retsnom and Koron’s only survivor. Coursing ahead and in the same direction as the rocky remnant of Koron is a tiny rocket ship harbouring the last son of Krypton.