Just prior to the Clan War of 3316, an unexplained and unexpected blackout effected all power, mecha, installations and gateways,shutting them down for a number of hours.
Unexplained, that is, until now....
"Q? Build orders for the day," Mac called to the chief armourer as he strode across the hanger floor. "Use a universal pack to speed up the work on the Fides, and here's my expenditure chit for upgrade parts on it and the Gorgon."The older man accepted the proffered data slate and scanned the orders, checking to ensure that the pilot had mashed the thumbprint scanner to authorise all necessary funds transfers and command codes for his machines.
"That should do nicely Mac," he nodded to the pilot. "Your heavy squadron is armed and warming up in bay number three. Your gate codes are downloaded, you are in the transit queue behind Lieutenant Roberts, so jump should be in about seven minutes from..."
He never managed to complete the sentence, instead exclaiming "What the devil?!?!" as the hanger plunged into absolute darkness.
His was not the only cry of consternation as most of the other personnel in the cavernous space had used similar, if in some cases rather more colorful oaths at their sudden blindness.
Q fumbled in his pocket for an emergency flashlight and scowled a scowl nobody could see as he found that this too was entirely non functional.
Close by, he heard a dull double pop and suddenly he could see Lieutenant Mac bathed in a dull green light.
"Well, the emergency chemical glow sticks still work," the pilot remarked as he passed one over. "Best go and find the big box of them and pass them around old chap."
Mac raised his voice as he waved his stick in the air. "Pop them if you've got them people!" he ordered, then dropped his voice as he addressed Q again. "Any idea what caused this? Generator failure? EMP burst?"
The older gent furrowed his eyebrows as he responded. "No, backup batteries would have picked up the slack if the generator had gone down, at least long enough for the standby generator to kick in. And your mechs are shielded from EMP bursts but they are out of action as well."
"I know what it is," came a voice from up high.
Both men looked up in the direction of the sound to observe 'Gampy Bob' Roberts, the venerable pilot from Heroes Support illuminated by his own glow stick and wrestling the emergency field bag out of the cockpit of his mech.
They walked in his direction, meeting him at the foot of his mount as he clambered breathlessly down the gantry ladder.
He shrugged, then belatedly added, "at least I think I do."
With that he sat cross legged on the hanger floor and started rummaging in his backpack, glancing up at them and asking, "So chemical is still good, just the electrics are out, yes?"
"It would appear so," agreed Q patiently.
"Good", he beamed, pulling the tab that set off the reaction on the emergency stove block he had retrieved from the pack, then busied himself by taking a combat knife to the top of a tin of beans.
"Ah, are you just going to keep us in suspense Gampy, or are you going to let us in on the secret?" asked Mac testily.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. It's a natural phenomenon, nothing to worry about," he began. "It's just really really rare, happens maybe once in a generation. Last time it happened I was just a boy myself, and let me tell you, I damn near soiled myself. But it's all good, it only lasts a handful of hours, then everything comes back to normal." He turned his attention back to the beans, placing the can on the field cooker and stirring the contents with his knife.
Mac and Q glanced at each other, frustration evident on their faces that getting a straight answer was like getting a drink out of a Brotherhood member. It was Q who snapped first.
"So what exactly is it!" he demanded.
"Huh?" Gampy looked up, then realised he hadn't finished his explanation. "Oh, this?" he added, waving the knife point in the air in small circles so as to encompass everything in general.
"This is the Universe in shock. An event has happened that is so momentous and rare it's sort of... holding it's breath to see what happens next."
"Y'see... somewhere.... a Dragon just leveled..."
Submitted by David McCallum : #701548