"They weren't there when I left, if that's what you mean." The only thing he could think up that would be that color, and cover that much of the world... Well that was ghost shields. His parents had the technology,but they had always been so energy intensive that they'd only used them at that scale for emergencies. But for them to be covering so many places?

What was going on in his world?

"And I can't think of any good reason for them to be there now." He pauses. "Uh... they're defenses. Barriers. Which means that something's gone wrong."