- "I guess somebody found something strange on Ellesmere. AIRCOM's making runs out there all week."
"That rat hole? You gotta be kidding me." - ―Canadian Airmen[src]
Ellesmere Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
History[]
Kryptonian Expansion[]
18,000 years ago, in the prehistoric era of Earth, Ellesmere was crashed into by Kara Zor-El during her fight with Dev-Em aboard Scout Ship 0344. Upon landing, the two discovered they possessed incredible powers, which Kara used to kill Dev for murdering her crew after altering their course.
Alone and with incredible new abilities, Kara abandoned her ship. The ship remained mostly untouched by time, eventually becoming submerged in layers of ice.[1]
Military Outpost[]
Sometime in the fifties, the Alert Station base is established on the island purportedly to serve as a weather station. The United States and Canadian government go on to utilize the station as a listening outpost as part of measures taken in the Cold War. Over the years the base would go on to host a number of environmental science facilities.[2]
In the wake of the 9/11 attack, the United States establishes the US Northern Command(NORTHCOM), an entity created to protect US interests. They begin to coordinate efforts with Canadian authorities on the island.[2]
Discovery by NASA[]
- "NASA's EOS satellites pinged the anomaly first. The ice shelf plays hell on the echo soundings... but there's definitely something down there."
"A submarine, maybe? Soviet-era?"
"Doubtful. At 300 meters, that's considerably larger than anything we know they built back then."
"But here's the spooky part: the ice surrounding the object, it's nearly 20,000 years old." - ―Sekowsky, Lois Lane, and Nathan Hardy[src]
In December of 2012, the organization known as the DSRW Project started detecting a mysterious radio transmission that was broadcasting several unknown symbols. Although it was initially believed that the transmission was emanating from space, it was eventually determined that the broadcast was actually being sent from somewhere within Ellesmere Island.[3]
In 2013, a signal began to emanate from deep within the layers of ice, which was picked up by satellites from NASA.[1] Scout Ship 0344 was later discovered buried in the ice of Ellesmere. Research teams were sent to investigate, but Clark Kent, a busboy at Cassidy's Pub at the time, overheard two Canadian Airmen discussing the project and went to investigate.
Weeks later, Clark snuck away from the research site to see the ship himself, unknowingly followed by Lois Lane. Using his heat vision to carve a tunnel into the ice, Clark boarded the ship and was attacked by its service robot before he activated the ship with the key Jor-El sent with him.
After exploring the ship, Clark possessed it, flying off to the Arctic.[4]