"Peace" under the Quietus Cloud and eternal twilight, when the sun turns red and grows larger

I thought, if there was another universe, maybe there was a hundred-year war in that universe. However, I doubt that in another universe, there is a conflict that has been going on for as long as what happened in my universe, namely, the thousand-year war.

In my world, a thousand-year war has been fought in succession, with the warring parties changing alliances. The changing allies and enemies are constantly pitting their weapons against each other. The use of these weapons injures the enemy—and sometimes oneself and their alliance—and, of course, it damages the environment.

At this time, evidence that the environment has been polluted can be seen if we raise our heads to the sky. Direct your eyes and see: who created a cloud that looks so dense that it makes the entire earth no longer experience the change of day and night, and be trapped in eternal twilight, and disrupt the communication system?

It is humans who cause that cloud. That cloud is an accumulation of the side effects of the weapons that humans use, be they nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons, or others. The cloud, named the Quietus cloud, truly covers the entire face of the earth without any dots left, from north to south and from west to east. That cloud looks like a single large entity; that's why we don't call it ‘the clouds’ but ‘the cloud.’

The Quietus cloud begins to appear in the mesopause layer or at the upper boundary of the mesosphere layer and the lower boundary of the thermosphere layer. It lies at an altitude of around 80 kilometers (km) above sea level. It rises so high with a thickness of more than 1300 km, precisely at 1332 km.

The number 1332 km is a little bigger than the size of our Earth's inner core layer radius, which has a radius of about 1220 km. It covers the entire thermosphere layer, which spreads about 620 km in height. It also covers around 7.47 percent of our exosphere layer, which rises to a height of 10,230 km.

Until now, not a single object has been able to fully perforate the Quietus cloud. Sunlight that penetrates the Quietus cloud cannot fully share its heat and light with the Earth. However, clouds also "store" sunlight and heat, then share it with the parts of the earth that are in the night hours. Because of that, there is no morning, no day, no night, only eternal twilight.

The presence of the Quietus cloud makes our ionosphere layer thinner. For information, the ionosphere is a layer that stretches at an altitude of 48 km to 970 km above the Earth and has several functions, including radio transmission. The Quietus cloud also makes satellites no longer function, whether they are satellites that orbit in the Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit, or High Earth Orbit.

Because of nonfunctional satellites, it is increasingly important for humans to create a new communication system that does not depend on the refraction of radio waves by the ionosphere and can operate without satellites. Before the Quietus Cloud appeared, humans on our earth had to start creating a communication system without satellites because there had been a space war where we destroyed each other's enemy satellites.

Not only the space war, but also the war on land, also stopped due to the Quietus cloud. People have realized that compared to their human enemies, there is a greater danger. You can tolerate and adapt to the atmosphere of eternal twilight, but on an Earth that will disappear, that is impossible. You would think it would be pointless to wipe out all your enemies if you were living on Earth, which would be devoured by the sun and would not be able to escape to another planet. Once again, nothing can perforate the quietus cloud, and that includes spaceships.

Yes, other than various weapons, humans on this Earth have designed many spaceships for galaxy exploration. We have succeeded in developing space technology well. Compared to the previous era, we have been able to shrink the area and the tools needed for launching into space.

Before the Quietus cloud appeared, it was certain that the sun in the center of our galaxy would become redder and larger. Now that the Quietus cloud has appeared and space observation can no longer be done, it is estimated that the sun will continue to move towards the stage of its big red sun form—the sun is getting closer to its death.

We know that the sun that is about to die will swallow the planets closest to it, and our Earth will be swallowed by the sun too. So, it makes no sense if we swallow each other's human lives, but we will be swallowed by the sun. For centuries, many have planned to explore space while still fighting their foes on Earth. But the appearance of the quietus cloud has changed the game.

The parties that used to be at war are increasingly open to making peace treaties. Currently, all the big countries have stopped wars. Only small countries—some of which are proxies of big countries—are still at war. Meanwhile, powerful countries are more busy with how to make a tool that can fully penetrate the Quietus cloud.

These big countries have spent a lot of their budget to do a lot of research on how to conquer the Quietus cloud. But so far, there have been no positive results. One of the big countries that has tried many things but has not been able to find a solution to overcome that strange cloud is my country.

(***)

"I will return to my country tomorrow. On the morning after the New Year fireworks. Indeed, I still have a few days of vacation left. Previously, I had plans to go to another country, but this time I decided to just go home," I said to someone sitting next to me.

At this time, I was sitting in a high-class hotel lobby, which is in the country of Bharat, a country in the Asian continent. Beside me, there was an old-aged woman who became my conversation buddy. The woman's name was Mrs. Ange Rostand, whom I met two days ago. Like me, she was also on a solo vacation and staying at this hotel.

Mrs. Ange Rostand is a citizen of the Republic of Aithalia. The Republic of Aithalia is a country located on the same continent as my country. At this time, it can be said that her country and my country have good diplomatic relations. There are many collaborations between our countries, be it in the military, economy, sports, research, or others. The institution where I currently work, which is called 'The Five,' also has several projects in the Republic of Aithalia.

Speaking about the institution of 'The Five,' when I first told Mrs. Ange Rostand that I was a member, she seemed very enthusiastic. After that, she often invited me to chat whenever we passed each other.

I did not mind, because even though the woman seemed to be trying to dig up a lot of information about “The Five,” she did not force me to continue responding to the topic. It was okay for her if I switched to other topics, such as movies, comics, sports, food, and tourist attractions.

One of the topics that we talked about was OSHI. It is a ‘new kid on the block’ in the alcoholic market that quickly garnered many fans. OSHI is an abbreviation of ‘Original Sake of Herzwarm Industries.’ Herzwarm Industries is one of the biggest companies in my country. The creator of OSHI sake is an ex-top member of The Five.

“Well then, after meeting you by chance at the end of December this year, I hope we can meet again someday, Mr. Schonewolken of The Five,” Mrs. Ange Rostand said with a smile in response to me.

She expressed her honest opinion: “I would be very happy if I could talk again with one of the members of The Five, that famous institution, which people call the mathematically odd and untouchable institution.”