After the devastation of the covers plot by Raygo the world is in disarray, though not for long. The world was in an uproar over the issue of extraterrestrial life in the form of life fibers. Scientists, engineers, and politicians quickly get to work studying, talking, debating, and arguing about Life Fibers.
For the most part with the saving of the few remnants of the humans from Covers was going smoothly. With the knowledge that Life Fibers still existed and were still a threat it was decided that the remaining Life Fibers would be studied. Eventually it was decided that Life Fibers themselves were to dangerous or hazardous to sentient life. As Life Fibers forcefully evolved life to sentience to absorb its energy, then transform the planet itself into Life Fibers thus continuing the plague.
Though it was also decided that Life Fibers as a resource was to valuable to be wasted. Thus research and time was poured into either creating Synthetic Life Fibers or use of Hybrid Life Fibers (HLF). Hybrid Life Fibers already existed in the form of Ryoko Matoi, whom was both human and a Life Fiber being.
Much of the knowledge of both Nudist Beach and Honnouji Academy was used to help develop the Hybrid Life Fibers. Synthetic Life Fibers (SLF) in the end accomplished by hybridising existing cotton plants to create a milder and safer Life Fiber. Though it was estimated that some of the abilities were reduced. In the end it was deemed acceptable, though to achieve similar results the SLF needed to used in greater quantities than the original Life Fiber form.
As for HLF the world governments decided that cloning would finally become legal under restrictions. It was deemed that the survival of the human race as a whole was greater than the need to curry favor with the religious conservatives and their hatred of meddling in the affairs of the "Gods".
Many religions actually had massive turmoil in this period of history, as they had no way of dealing with the fact of Life Fibers. Some religions proclaimed them demons, some angles, some ignored it in hopes it would disappear, some modified their tenants and texts to account for extraterrestrial life, new religions formed, and some old religions collapsed. Many small skirmishes broke out in the Middle East over this issue.
The governments of the world however realized just how close humanity came to extinction. They also saw how easily they themselves were enslaved and nearly turned to cloth. At this point much of the hostility ended between nations. Though it was reported as coming together for the betterment of mankind, it was in actuality the fear of the unknown. It was now Humans against Life Fibers, and it no longer mattered about skin tone, beliefs, or other issues that once concerned governments.
Nudist Beach clothed up, having only being nude as to help resist Life Fibers. It also became a worldwide organization merging with the new International Goverment Military. Their funding, resources and membership grew by leaps and bounds. With their anti-life fiber weaponry as well as mechs becoming widespread what with the remnants of Covers still existing. It was briefly debated on the uniform. As there were those that had not wanted to put on any in terms of clothing. It was eventually decided that a compromise would be had. The compromise in question was use of synthetic only fibers, with ceramics and metal allows spun on the atomic level into fibers would be used. Though on a historic note chain mail briefly came back in vogue as a military armor as the technology was not initially to the point where such uniforms could be manufactured.
The REVOCS satellite helped greatly in the understanding of Life Fibers. It also helped in the hybridization of Life Fibers and conventional Technology. With this Life Energy Engines (LEE) were created. A method was eventually created to store Life Energy. While human energy was considered the most potent, only those that volunteered had Life Energy siphoned and stored. Human Life Energy was primarily used for military and governmental purposes, due to its scarcity and potency. The majority of Life Energy came from hybrid plant/life fiber/solar panel generators. This entered humanity from scarcity to plenty\ in terms of energy needs.
Active SLF became the primary component in civilian clothing, mostly because in an instant a SLF clothing item could easily protect the wearer from harm. Any harm such as nuclear, biological, chemical, and thermal this feature greatly endeared it to the public. HLF became the primary component to military and civil service (cops, firefighters, ect) clothing as it offered greater ability enhancement and had greater abilities. Though the most common composition was 10% or one star for civilian clothing. While 20% or two star was that for military and civil service clothing.
After years of cloning, genetic research, gene therapy research, a method was discovered to introduce a life fiber hybridization to humans. Though the expense and energy requirements for this reduced this option to being limited to military special forces. Though time and breeding would eventually spread this from those few to their children.
Eventually after years of stockpiling preparing and recovery the stars became a destination that humanity wanted to reach. Again life fibers helped greatly in this as a Kamui or a 100% Life Fiber uniform could easily allow anyone to enter space easily. Though it took considerable time to create a Kamui as all those that had existed were destroyed in the Fight against Ragyo. Though only HLF was determined to be capable of creating Kamui. An interesting side effect of this research was essentially creating synthetic life as Kamui were discovered to be sentient. For this Kamui research and existing Artificial Intelligence was combined to create truly sentient Artificial Intelligence.
The Mars colonization was carried out by first seeding the planet with SLF solar plants to both the atmosphere into a breathable one, and to power the solar shield array. While Life Fiber Intelligences crashed ice meteors into Mars. During this process an underground facility was discovered by the satellites monitoring the process. Fearing life fiber was responsible a squad of Life Fiber Hybrids (LFH) equipped with Life Fiber absorbing Kamui was sent to study the facility. The hero of what was now being called the Clothing Revolution, Ryoko Matoi was on hand to help the squad seeing as she had the most experience in this area. Thankfully it was discovered to be a scientific observation facility owned by what the scientists dubbed "Prothean".
Much was discovered and recovered from the site. The most important were FTL capable spaceships and a new element. The new element dubbed Element Zero thanks to not having protons, was a great shock to scientists. Initial studies showed that the toxicity and mutational properties were hazardous to human life. A question arose about the Protheans and if they had encountered Life Fibers. After long research into the Archives that were discovered it was deemed "unlikely". As the life cycle of Life Fibers was 160,000 years based on human existence, and the Protheans likely existed longer than that. Unless Protheans had a far more rapid technological and social advance than humanity. This question lead to the another, that being the effect of Element Zero on life fibers.
A quick experiment was conducted using both synthetic and hybrid life fibers with Element Zero. It was discovered that this greatly increased the life energy production of both, as well as reducing the toxicity of the element to nonexistence. This lead to the policy of all Element Zero to be seeded with life fibers. This lead to the production of Life Fiber spaceships, which thankfully reduced the need for Kamui equipped personnel to personally carry equipment themselves to colonize space. Element zero life fibers both synthetic and hybrid was discovered to have dark energy and gravitonic manipulation abilities. An added benefit discovered by accident was the ability of such ships to regenerate damage when one of the old satellites crashed into a prototype ship.
As humans continue to expand in the solar system, element zero becomes a prized commodity in that it allows for FTL travel. Though it's scarcity is an issue. Thankfully the Charon Relay was discovered. Thanks to the Mars Archives the purpose of the relay was discovered. A debate was started on using the device, harvesting it for Element Zero, or studying it to create new ones. It was decided that the newly dubbed "Mass Relay" would be seeded with life fibers then used as a launching point for the spread of humanity to the rest of space. While the next relay to be discovered would be studied before and after seeding to discover if it was possible to create more.
If humanity of today were to look back on their counterparts of the 20th century a large number of differences would be seen. For instance fashion leaned far more towards what many in the 20th would consider "indecent", as well as a new "race" of humans being hybrids, as well as genetic manipulation of humanity, and "artificial" intelligences using life fiber and human cloned cybernetic brains. The world was a vast and exciting place. The fear of life fiber attack was mostly non-existent due to the great understanding and resistance to the influence of such. For the most part the idea of an alien attack was laughable since the only hostile alien life form that once existed was now a part of our culture and industry. Though this changed one day on Shanxi…
A/N: Yes I rewrote the story somewhat.