Episode 13. DEFCON 3: Global Crisis

I keep checking the information feeds scrolling across the main screen. The images from Brussels alternate between unrest, sirens, and closed faces.

Suddenly, I sense someone to my right, without a sound, without any prior announcement.

Intense activity reigns aboard the vessel and throughout the hangar, where technicians and engineers hurry to carry out the orders they have received. Systems are checked methodically, the engines hum steadily under close supervision, and the weapons undergo meticulous inspections while everyone tackles their task with palpable focus. In the bunkers scattered across NATO territories, the same scenario repeats itself, with high command having raised the alert level another notch.

On the main screen, news channels continue broadcasting images from the NATO summit. Heads of state display a carefully controlled calm, trying to preserve appearances and avoid alarming the public, while negotiations continue behind the scenes in an atmosphere of mounting tension. The journalists on site can clearly sense that something unusual is taking place. I fear this tension may spread outside and spark panic among the crowds. I still hope to avoid a generalized panic, but I doubt it.

In the secure high command feed, additional information is added to the previous reports and paints an increasingly troubling picture. Across the world, several powers are reacting to the situation by massively deploying their forces on their own territory. Yet total uncertainty remains in the face of the unusual silence from the Russian authorities, an absence of reaction that, to my eyes, may be the most worrying indicator of this unprecedented crisis.