AN: this is my first story; writing advice and any criticism is welcome. I'll keep these notes short as they're a cheap way to inflate word count. Reading the Codex is only necessary for those who have not played CivBE

Prologue 1: Pre-Settlement

2016- Political unrest surrounding the Middle East creates the "powederkeg of the 21st century"

2018, June- Turkish nationalist groups, angered at discovery of Russian support of the 2016 coup, assassinate a visiting Russian general. Russia immediately declares war.

2018, August- NATO steps in the war to defend Turkey against Russia, honoring the alliance.

2019- China joins Russia in war against NATO both because of fear of NATO supremacy in Eurasia and as an excuse to finally annex Hong Kong.

2021- The Great Mistake happens [SEE CODEX: GREAT MISTAKE]

2025- Horrified by the Earth's rapidly deteriorating climate state, a truce is finally signed between NATO and the Russo-Chinese alliance

2030- A worsening refugee crisis, global crop failure, rising sea levels, natural disasters, and political unrest cause earth's superpowers to fall and new governments to be set up [SEE CODEX: GOVERNMENT SHIFT]

2050- Scientists determine the inflection point (the point where the human population puts too much strain on resources for extrasolar colonies to exist) to be soon. Slavic Federation quickly announces its plans for developing a "seed ship," a massive ship capable of holding large amounts of equipment and a suitable population in stasis for a permanent, independent colony to be set up.

2076- The Slavs finish their logistics and perfected design of a seed ship decades ahead of schedule, shocking the world. Despite demands, the schematics are not released to the public in order to preserve Slavic dominance in orbit.

2103- Spies from the ARC leak the seed ships' schematics to the world's governments, citing "guaranteeing the survival of mankind" as their purpose. They are lauded as heroes. The Slavs do not comment.

Polystralia, holding a grudge against for the environmental catastrophes resulting from the Great Mistake, develop their own seed ships.

2138, May 24- The ARC, Slavic Federation, North Sea Alliance, Polystralian Commonwealth, and Pan-Asian Cooperative finish building, stockpiling, and recruitment for their seed ships. The ARC suggests launching them all together as a show of global cooperation, the suggestion is happily accepted.

2139, August: Launch Day- The world celebrates as the countdowns for launch reach zero, but are horrified as the reactor and stasis management computers of any ship using the ARC's "leaked" schematic (the Pan-Asian Cooperative and North Sea Alliance) overload, causing the destruction of crucial seeding infrastructure, personnel, colonists, and the ships themselves.

2139, September 1- 2nd great mistake happens [SEE CODEX: SECOND GREAT MISTAKE]

2150- The crew of the seed ships wake up at their destination, a planet named Shanxi, only to discover they are most likely the only surviving members of the human race.

CODEX:

Great Mistake: backed into a corner, the Russian Federation attempts to deploy their entire nuclear arsenal at NATO. Fortunately, MI6 deploys a virus that attacks their targeting and armed-state systems, disabling most of the missiles, but those that aren't disabled are redirected into China and India. The ecological travesty created a terrible domino effect. Rising seas destroyed farmland and displaced millions. These refugees put too much strain on the countries they fled to, causing those countries to devolve into civil war, creating more refugees and further decreasing the world's food supply. Dwindling natural resources created a near-constant land war between every nation on earth for control over supplies.

Government Shift:

Major Powers:

Slavic Federation: The former Russian Federation fell into complete anarchy at the conclusion of WW3. The country's terrible state caused massive death tolls and drove refugees away. Ironically, this turned to be advantageous, as the controlled human population allowed for better food and natural resource management when the government recuperated. The nation soon became and industrial superpower due to undiscovered resources in the Siberian wastelands.

American Reclamation Corporation: what started out as a small business venture in Texas soon became a world superpower. The corporation first used government contracts clearing ocean-covered land to become established. Eventually, the company expanded heavily into the private industry until it became the world's largest corporation controlling 23% of the world's commerce. When the US government continually failed to solve ecological problems, the company used national unrest to its advantage, leading a coup to take the country over.

Polystralian Commonwealth: Agricultural disaster caused by almost complete oceanic flooding of the nations of the Pacific led to the creating of a mutual alliance in order to preserve their ways of life. This benevolence led them to be world leaders in relief efforts, using their massive shipping fleets to deliver food to and saving millions.

Minor Powers:

Pan-Asian Cooperative: Though it took many years of herculean diplomatic efforts, eventually the armed uprisings of the Asian continent calmed and the Chinese and Central Asian governments were able to demilitarize. Freed from the burden of quelling domestic unrest, China turned its attention to reconciliation and recovery. A common currency for the region helped create an economic superbloc, and the new infusions of capital spurred renewed investment in industry, research, and development.

North-Sea Alliance:

The British Isles and Scandinavia were largely unaffected by the devastation of the Great Mistake and its subsequent migrations, being too remote from the epicenters of those events to be viable targets. However, these low-lying nations were especially susceptible to the rising sea levels caused by the accelerating climate change. Traditionally coastal and maritime economies, Great Britain and the Nordic States faced the prospect of the total eradication of their way of life. Unwilling to accept this fate quietly, these powers set about finding a way to save their coastlines and countryside from the flood. Drawing on their common heritage as naval powers and recognizing the need for cooperation at scale, the North Sea nations formed a groundbreaking partnership dedicated to territorial preservation and the development of co-aquatic habitation and agriculture.

2nd Great mistake:

Angered at the treachery of the ARC and resulting hopelessness at the Launch Day Disaster, those affected nations detonated as many nuclear bombs as possible within or near the borders of the ARC. The resulting radioactive dust launched into the atmosphere created a constant winter last seen when the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs impacted the earth. The nuclear winter lasted 158 years before the last human on Earth died. The only remaining life forms are extremely hardy fungus and bacteria and some cave dwelling organisms.