Operation: Landmass

Operation: Landmass was a project carried out by the Shops Island government to find new territory and expand their area of power, in a desperate attempt to become a superpower along with competing UnitedTerra, USA, and others. However, the operation will go down in history as the nation's worst failure.

Reasoning
Shops Island was growing at a steady rate, and Shoppers wanted to expand their prowess. The government also wanted to compete with other superpowers and imperial forces across Antarctica. This forced them to carry out Operation: Landmass, which turned out to be a huge mistake.

Finding ground
The initial idea for the government was to launch satellites into orbit with the help of the SIA, to locate uncharted territory. However, when the probe launched, nothing large enough to be colonized could be found. So, the probe was grounded while the SIA made a better rocket. This one would be able to orbit all the way to the poles, which is the only other place penguins could inhabit. The second probe, TS988G2012, successfully orbited around the North Pole and returned. The operation was a-go.

Preparing for departure
Traveling all the way to the other side of the planet could only be done in one way: By sea. The government hired renowned ship builder Travis Wolfe to build the ship that would carry the first settlers north. The ship would need to carry at least 500 penguins and store enough vehicles, food, water, and other necessities for a journey that would take 1 month by boat, traveling at 35 knots.

Arrival
The 1-month journey was nothing exciting. The arrival, however, was spelled out as one of the worst tragedies in Shops' history.

Once the ship arrived at the plotted location, under the command of Wolfe, the ship ran aground early as plotted by Wolfe himself. He soon put the ship on lock-down and smuggled all the supplies off-board, before casting the ship ablaze and sinking it, with all but 2 of the 500 penguins being killed.

The two penguins escaped with little more than a Spy Phone, a map of Club Penguin Island, and some food. They immediately called Shops Island's government office, which sent an army helicopter to pick up the 2 penguins. Once the helicopter arrived, it picked up the penguins and flew back to Shops Island, without bothering to search for Wolfe.

Aftermath
After the failure of Operation: Landmass, citizens of Shops Island were seen rioting in major cities such as Shops City. They were rioting on why the goverment should do the operation, instead of reclaiming land and go on with the transportation plan, which was cancelled after Welcome00 eventual resignation. On January 1, 2013 12:00 AM (Shops Island Standard Time), the biggest riot happened in Shops City after fireworks were launched. Most rioters chanted anti-governmental chants. Some of them claimed that the police uses force to stop the riot. The government quickly swept the riot areas under control, much to the dismay of the rioters. In their next act, they stated their hatred against many policies, especially the Polarian family and marriage act. The riot went on and became what could possibly the biggest riot in modern Asiapelago history.