You sit with a few fellow Level 5 members of the Order of the Dark Sun, watching news coverage of Hurricane Mahdine tearing through Cuba. The devastation is jaw-dropping: Santa Clara, Cárdenas, and Havana reduced to apocalyptic ruins. Thousands dead, settlements washed away. One member suggests, half-jokingly, that Mahdine could be the Coming Storm, taking the prophecy literally.
“I don’t think it’s a metaphor anymore,” he murmurs, glancing nervously at the screen. “And with NOAA’s funding slashed, I don’t even want to think about the U.S. death toll if it hits full strength.”
Two days later, Mahdine veers unexpectedly, redirecting its fury from Louisiana to Northern Florida or Alabama. Lenina returns from a trip, and for the first time, you see her distressed. Normally confident and composed, she looks shaken as she steps into the meeting room. The jumbotron flickers to life, displaying a series of slides. Some are about Mahdine, others about the Order’s beliefs.
But one slide flashes for just a second—an image of grotesque symptoms, eerily resembling the aftermath of a bioweapon attack. The sight hits you like a punch to the gut. As the presentation continues, you find yourself struggling to focus, haunted by that fleeting image. The personality test that follows only amplifies your anxiety. The questions are unnervingly specific, hinting at the horrific slide you just saw.
When the results are announced, you brace yourself for Lenina’s scolding. Instead, she approaches you, her hand gripping your scrotum with a surprising firmness. Her voice is low and urgent:
“I have something to tell you.”
She pulls you into a separate room.
Lenina’s Confession:
Inside the Faraday cage—a room shielded from any electronic surveillance—Lenina speaks freely.
“I met Elias Draken,” she begins, her voice tinged with anger. “He’s planning a bioterror attack. He deceived me—used Genesis Dawn to infiltrate the Order. I thought we were working for self-improvement and strength, but he has other plans.”
She explains how the screencast was designed to identify members who could be trusted as allies. Your emotional response to the test, along with that of a nurse in the Order, marked you as someone she could rely on.
Lenina reveals the implant in her body, placed there by Elias to monitor her. The Faraday cage prevents it from transmitting, but it must be removed. The nurse performs the surgery, carefully extracting the chip.
As the implant is placed on the table, Lenina shares more horrifying details. Elias infected himself, his wife, and their seven children with a prototype virus. Two of the children didn’t survive. “He called it ‘Darwin doing his job,’” she says bitterly. “This man is a monster.”
The Attack Begins:
An alarm blares: “Intruder alert.” The jumbotron shows thermal images of bright spots surrounding the headquarters—Genesis Dawn soldiers closing in. Lenina places the implant into a humanoid wrestling dummy and loads it into a self-driving car. The decoy buys them only minutes. The car is destroyed by an explosion, likely an ambush by Genesis Dawn.
Suddenly, an EMP attack disables the power. Emergency lights flicker, and electronics malfunction. “We can’t stay here,” Lenina says firmly.
As you escape through a secret corridor, three Genesis Dawn soldiers block your path. Lenina springs into action, her tall, muscular frame moving with precision and power.
“Get behind me,” she commands.
One soldier lunges, but Lenina grabs his arm mid-swing, twisting it with bone-snapping force. She drives her knee into his chest, sending him sprawling. The second soldier charges with a knife, but she sidesteps, her leg sweeping his feet out from under him. In one fluid motion, she pins him with a vice-like grip and disarms him.
The third soldier hesitates, but Lenina doesn’t. She spins, delivering a roundhouse kick that connects with his jaw, leaving him unconscious.
“Let’s move,” she says, her breathing steady despite the fight.
Escape into the Storm:
You reach Lenina’s secret garage, where Aegis One awaits. The armored supercar roars to life as you speed away. Minutes later, a Genesis Dawn vehicle rams into you. Lenina expertly keeps control, accelerating as two more vehicles join the chase.
“This won’t work forever,” she mutters, her hands steady on the wheel.
In a daring move, Lenina powerslides through an intersection, redirecting your path toward the projected path of Hurricane Mahdine. The radio crackles with warnings: “Mandatory evacuation zone ahead.” FEMA camps dot the horizon, filled with evacuees.
As the weather worsens, the Genesis Dawn vehicles lose traction, skidding off the road. You press on, but the deteriorating conditions force you to stop. Near the eyewall of Mahdine, the winds reach catastrophic speeds. Lenina activates Anchor Mode, tethering the car to the ground.
Inside Aegis One, you endure hours of deafening winds and pounding debris. The car shakes violently as storm surge floods the area. Rubble crashes against the exterior, but the vehicle holds firm. You, Lenina, and the nurse emerge physically unscathed, though the experience leaves you shaken.
The Aftermath:
Days later, news reports detail the catastrophic destruction left by Mahdine, comparing it to the devastation of the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone. The death toll climbs into the tens of thousands. Amidst the coverage, one story catches your attention: a mysterious illness spreading in Fuengirola, Spain.
Lenina’s words echo in your mind: “The Coming Storm isn’t just a hurricane.”
You realize the true scope of what’s ahead. The bioweapon attack may already be underway.
Closing Reflection:
The storm may have passed, but the real danger looms on the horizon. As you watch the news, you can’t shake the feeling that you’re standing on the precipice of something far worse. The Coming Storm isn’t over—it’s just beginning.
This episode is a fictional exploration of bioterrorism, natural disasters, and conspiracies, intended as speculative entertainment. The events described are not real, and the characters and organizations mentioned are entirely fictional.
