It was a quiet day; the sun was shining bright with just a slight breeze to cool the skin. The sky was cloudless and the birds were high making use of the thermals available. The beauty of nature was in stark contrast to the ugliness and horror of the days events. The date was significant as it was to alter history; it was the 18th June 1815. Napoleon was about to make his stand at Waterloo facing the Iron Duke as he was affectionately known. It had been a long day and nearly fifty thousand men lay dead. Their bodies would be checked for valuables and weapons, the spoils of war. This battle was something that was likely to go down in history although that was not something the soldiers who had survived the battle were concerned about. This battle was enacted on the same day as another battle. This took place many millions of miles away from the earth and passed without notice. It was something that was not going to be an issue until many, many years later.
An asteroid roughly the same size as the moon had collided with a distant planet. In the depths of space the impact had created an explosion greater than man could imagine. The planet, which was dead and lifeless, was fractured into a million pieces but the asteroid, a jagged piece of black ice was split into three sections of unequal size. Tumbling end over end the parts careered off in different directions, two of no importance but the third on a path that really would change history, this one was on a direct collision course with the earth. It would take at least two hundred years for this smaller asteroid to become a threat to planet earth; with so much distance to travel the chances of another collision in space were high.
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