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MsBloom
Moonchild
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2020
- Location
- Northern Europe
First there had been the pandemic with the outbreak of COVID, then war had come as Russia invaded Ukraine, and now …
July 2025 a month dreaded by astronomers as the month when the sun reached the maximum of its 11 year cycle and this peak in solar activity would indeed be the big one, an event of cataclysmic proportions.
There had been predictions and warnings, of course, even plans for a global project to construct a protective shield to deflect at least the worst of the flares, but there had not been enough time, much less enough collaborative spirit amongst the still rivalling superpowers of human civilisation, for such a project to be launched. Who should build it and why? Could either of the superpowers trust the others to not build it to protect themselves and not the others, to use the shield as a passive weapon of mass-destruction. The UN Security Council failed miserably in negotiating a consensus on the matter and so ...
By July 13, the day when modern human civilisation as we knew it ended in one massive burst of space weather, there had only just been enough consensus to at least pull all personnel from the international space station.
There are more than 5000 artificial satellites orbiting Earth and on that day, July 13 2025, they all came crashing down, like a rain of fire as they entered the atmosphere at all manner of random angles and were ignited by friction. It was as if someone had fired a volley of asteroids from all sides at Earth, and of course there were those who honestly believed this to be the case, that July 13 was the day the aliens invaded. (There were all manner of distinctions as to exactly who and what the aliens were. Some spoke of The Greys, others talked about Reptilians, others yet talked about Cyborgs ruled by an artificial intelligence.) There were also those who took the event as a sign of God's Wrath, the start of the apocalypse, claiming that the rain of fire were an army of angels sent down to judge and destroy Earth and all of its sinful inhabitants, offering salvation only to those most pious and god-fearing, those chosen to repopulate the Earth as it was recreated as the paradise it had always been intended to be.
Most of the satellites crashed into the oceans as they make up more than 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Others crashed into desolate regions such as deserts or inaccessible mountainous areas such as the Himalayas, some of course crashed into the vast emptiness of Antarctica but others destroyed entire cities or valuable farmland.
Despite many flights having been cancelled due to the warnings there were still air planes that came crashing down to earth along with the satellites many of which crashed in urban areas as they either took off or were coming in for landing, other's of course crashed in rural areas or into water.
Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people died in this first instance of the cataclysm that not only brought modern human civilisation to its knees but quite literally obliterated it more effectively than any other civilisation in human history had been destroyed.
With the violent return to Earth of every artificial satellite also came the crash of the Internet and every electrical outlet and device were fried, some in spectacular explosions, others with just a sizzle and that night, between July 13 and July 14 was the first time in more than two centuries one could see the night sky unaffected by artificial lights even in major urban areas.
With the crash of the internet and the electrical grid the entire monetary system also collapsed, as much of it relied on digital transfers of some kind or other, be it credit cards, bank transfers, or even cash withdrawals from ATM outlets.
Frozen and refrigerated foods, whether in homes or supermarkets quickly spoiled and the world faced a famine of unprecedented proportions as even the rich nations were left with nothing but seasonal fruits and vegetables and tinned and preserved foods. Fresh water no longer came from taps and bottled water became one of the most valuable commodities.
The phones went down, there was no more radio or tv, no artificial lights. No one could prove or disprove their identity save for their driver's licence or other similar physical identification documents. There were no records of anyone having been born or died, save in the rare cases these records were kept on paper, though many of those were destroyed in fires and explosions.
Many saw this as a chance to reinvent themselves in this new dark world where survival was the number one priority.
Do we rebuild and how?
Do we try to return to the way things were before the cataclysm, the world we were used to for better or worse? Or we see this as a second chance to do better? What is better?
There would be a lot of different ideas on how to rebuild. What technology to rebuild, how to use it. There would certainly be an Eco-faction wanting to go for as clean energy as possible, solar, wind. I mean the technology did exist before the cataclysm and shouldn't be hard to reproduce by those who have the knowledge. It would mean that we would have to rely less on electricity though, use less of it for some things (light, heat, cooking for instance) and more of it for others (transportation, trains and electric cars/bikes).
There would of course also be a faction wanting to go back to exactly how it was before, trying to rebuild coal, oil, nuclear powerplants. Initially I can see them using diesel fulled generators. I can see them having brought one to a filling station first to get the pumps going to pump up more and then maybe take over an oil refinery to make more and so on ... (Fossils as those in the Eco-faction would call them; Pun intended)
Those two would of course be the most logical major conflict I think.
There would of course be those who would want energy to be free, presumably the Eco-faction, because once built their energy sources don't really come with any costs for producing electricity. Sunlight and wind are after all free, if perhaps far from as reliable as for instance nuclear power, nor would it produce as much of it.
Other's would capitalise greatly on having a reliable, if not self-sustainable, source of electricity.
Others still might want to simply return to a time before we had electricity at all and try to build a pre-industrial society, possibly with the exception of using steam power.
And I am sure others will have many other ideas as well on where to go from a technological point zero.
The first story inclusion I feel would be necessary is character and faction establishment through a minor conflict between two factions. It could be Pippa's eco-faction sabotaging a few diesel generators at a filling station where a rivalling faction has made their headquarters. This could be combined with a few of Pippa's crew also trying to recruit members from the faction they are attacking. Some might join (among them possibly Astrid) others will retaliate.
Pippa's farm would have become some kind of focal point where all kinds of people, including Astrid would have started to gather. A rag tag collection of people from different backgrounds and experiences. They would of course need to defend it against raiders, opposing factions and what not.
As for Astrid I am undecided which way she would want to go. Considering her profession before the cataclysm it would make sense that she would want to have as much energy as quickly as possible, but I am also thinking that she is/was the kind of hacker who play Robin Hood, using her ability to try to create a more equal world, a cleaner world, a world less reliant on technology, a world less driven by money, and so on ... (In the end a world in which her particular skill set would become more or less obsolete.) That would put her with the Eco-faction, or perhaps she tries to remain as neutral as possible, making deals where she can.
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