The Great Blackout of 2035 is the total power cut of New York on 15 August 2035, under the full worm moon of Blanqui, right after the televised exposure of Mars Inc.
| Type | Event |
| Chronicle | MYM |
| Spanish entry | El Gran Apagón de 2035 (Never 9-11) |
Background
The group had captured Doctor Cripto — the Ambassador of Fire, a Mars man tied to ONNI’s computer security — from an armored car leaving a mosque, broke him, and passed the material to the journalist Sovinsky (“don’t compromise my source”). A Chicago network aired it, then a national special report: a spiteful employee confessed to drug trafficking, human experiments, abductions of young people and a sect close to the defense minister, its ring’s Egyptian symbol enlarged on screen.
The blackout
Then the whole city went dark. Only the Mars tower and a few others lit emergency lights; a ferryman-like figure was outlined against the sky. For the first time in thirty years — since the city escaped the attack — it felt in danger. First taken as victory, the cut was soon suspected to be premeditated.
- Horns, crowds, generators; Night Owls ships patrolling with loudspeakers (“Everything is under control!”); children playing at a broken hydrant.
- A mozzarella tower in Queens glowed like phytoplankton; people ran to it for free cheese.
- In the Abdullah house, a mother said: “It’s happening again… When the towers didn’t fall. And they accused all of us.”
- An old answering machine woke with the voice of Daedalus: “You are alone and the enemy is very intelligent.”
The Mercury bombing
An hour later Mercury — holding eighty percent of communications, the largest internet provider — exploded, read as a way to stop the leak; ash and wrecked cars echoed the towers. The Sentinel statue, the city’s symbol, a fifteen-meter faceless bronze gladiator in the Centurion’s image, walked the streets and embraced the damaged tower to contain it. Those responsible were afterward called the centurians.