|  Vostok
Station, the coldest recorded place on earth, a Russian
research facility deep in the Antarctic interior that sits on
a dome of ice over 12,000 feet deep. A place unique not just
because of record cold temperatures but because of what lies
beneath the ice, Lake Vostok, a fluid mass larger than Lake
Ontario, nearly 2000 feet deep. Renegade Russian and Chinese
scientists drill through the ice into the lake, discovering a
secret that has been trapped there for millions of years.
Compressed by trillions of tons of ice, the
lake water is saturated in oxygen and explosive natural
gasses. When exposed to low atmospheres, the water instantly
boils into gas. Beneath that mix, the earths crust, stretched
by the huge mass of lake and ice, has laid bare the world's largest oil and gas
reserve, held in check only by the weight above. T
The discovery begins a chain of events that
spiral into the biggest massing of military forces seen since
the Second World War. And then the unthinkable happens. A
blinding flash of light and an enormous electro magnetic pulse
rips out from the northeast end of the lake, sealing off
Vostok from the rest of the world.
The Russians and Chinese
blame the U.S. This creates the stage for a military
confrontation to claim the ice. Amidst this, two brothers,
Brian and Lance Hamilton find themselves dragged into the
unfolding nightmare.
Colonel Brian Hamilton caught in
the electro magnetic pulse, then witnesses the annihilation of the
Vostok research station from a cruise missile strike and the
ignition of the wellhead that begins a count down to dooms day. His
escape from the ice centre and pursuing Spetznaz forces enables him
to warn the coalition of the approaching Armageddon.
With the entire Antarctic sealed off to the
Australian and US forces, it is up to Squadron Leader Lance Hamilton
to devise a strategy that will get him and his Pig, the venerable
F111, close enough to extinguish the flame.
The burning well head quickly creates a hole over four
hundred meters wide which rapidly sinks towards the lake of oil and
gas below.
"Within
72 hours, the ice will blow out and the lake will explode. Within
minutes, the entire ice dome, over a thousand square kilometres of
ice, 5000 feet thick, will collapse, throwing the contents of the
lake tens of thousands of meters in the air. This is an extinction
event. We will all either burn, suffocate, be killed by the
resulting shockwave or drown in the biggest tsunami the earth has
experienced since the last big meteor wiped out the dinosaurs. We
have 72 hours to put the flame out or we are all very dead!"
Dr. Alexander Blake, RosenBridge Foundation.
In a growing conflict that debuts weaponry never utilized in battle before, the Russians, Chinese, Australian and US forces, punch it out on the ice and Southern Ocean, each believing they are fighting the just cause. But for all of them, the ticking bomb at the end of the Earth threatens the extinction of all life. Brian and Lance Hamilton find themselves flung together in a desperate last minute attempt to avert a catastrophe of biblical proportions. |
