While diagnostic protocols continued running, automated surveillance systems operated in the background... constantly comparing current satellite imagery to baseline data, flagging anomalies without requiring human intervention.
At 4:09 AM GMT, those automated systems triggered alerts simultaneously across multiple intelligence networks.
ANOMALY DETECTED: HIMALAYAN REGION
GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES: AETHROS VALLEY
CHANGE CLASSIFICATION: SEVERE ATMOSPHERIC ABNORMALITY
The alerts escalated rapidly. Severity ratings climbed from standard to priority to critical within seconds. Multiple redundant systems flagged the same location. Warning indicators blazed across monitoring stations.
Analysts, still focused on system diagnostics, initially tried to ignore the alerts — just another automated flag to review later, another distraction from the critical task of understanding what had compromised global security.
