Mass Effect (Earlier this Year)
The Bio-Ships
Chapter 1
The Fall of Mankind
From the Human Oxford Dictionary, 21XX. Fifteenth Revision.
Mankind: Noun:
1. The collective term for the species Homo Sapiens Sapiens
2. The sum of known sentient life in the universe before the year 21XX.
3. The second race in Council History to nearly or completely annihilate their Homeworld's Ecosystem in an Atomic Weapons Exchange.
…
We were completely foolish, we know that. But we couldn't help it, Mankind's drive for war lead us to it.
The Hour of Midnight.
During the ancient Cold War between the Soviet union and the United States mankind started a clock, a Doomsday clock, at the worst portion of the war it was at two minutes to midnight. Meaning simply, that Mankind was inches away from destroying ourselves.
Funny, nearly 100 years later in 2061, we actually did it. Or at least, we got closer then we would ever want to admit.
On April eleventh 2061, after a decade of war due to the loss of ninety-seven percent of the Earth's oil supplies to exploitation. The first strike came, the question then became who launched the first nuke?
No-one knows, it wasn't the United Confederation, the Russian Hegemony or the Chinese Empire. That was sure.
But it's effects were felt.
Four hundred and fifty-seven nuclear weapons fell upon the Earth in a six hour orgy of nuclear fire and devastation. The Earth's population, estimated only a month before to be a staggering eleven billion, was reduced to (As far as we know) forty-three thousand.
A nuclear bunker created by an alliance of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the remnants of the United Kingdom, buried in the Simpson desert. Was the only (known) active apocalypse bunker. It was supposed to house five hundred thousand. Nowhere near that many made it to the Bunker during the Hour of Midnight.
In fact only the construction crew, security force, preliminary farming crew, five hundred and eleven engineers and eighty scientists of several dozen professions were present.
If it wasn't for a DNA Bank of all of Earth's Creatures and a Copy of the sum of Mankind's History and Culture (A.K.A The Internet) nearly ninety-nine percent of Humanity's history and culture would have been forgotten. As it was over fifty nationalities became extinct that day.
The shape of Europe and the Americas was altered severely by the amount of ordinance used and the heart of the Chinese Empire, it's home state of China was reduced to a massive crater from nearly two hundred nuclear weapons of the twenty megaton range and higher slamming into it.
I remember hiding in the bunker, watching the lights flicker and feeling the Earth shudder. We all felt when China was hit. It was a massive earthquake that shook the bunker for nearly two hours.
But I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Amanda Shepard, I am the daughter of Hannah and Adam Shepard. My mother is part of the Security force and my father was a Farmer. He died during the exchange when a loose support fell on him.
He could of easily dodged it, but it would have resulted in two children around my age being crushed to death.
Dad chose to save their lives, I'll always remember that about him, he was an ordinary farmer. But his final act was that of a hero, in fact he and fourteen others were placed upon a memorial stone in the middle of the Bio-sphere, a reminder of their heroism as all of them saved another's life at the cost of their own.
I remember growing up wanting to be a hero like my father because of that, my mother would always smile at how I made Dad's memory a happy one.
She adopted the two children as their only living parent their mother, an engineer, died stopping a high pressure steam pipe from rupturing.
We and the sixteen others whose parents were upon the Heroes Stone were all treated well, the people in the Bunker all kept an eye out for us and several times we were thanked by random strangers (at the time) for our parent's actions.
I never liked that, they should have been thanking the heroes at the stone, not us. But I got used to it, eventually.
However, Humanity is not nothing but resilient. We kept searching for ways to survive. In the next two decades our technology soared forwards, especially in alternative energy sources and biology.
We managed to increase the average lifespan of a human being to around 350 years with a standard twenty-five year growth to fully matured and then no deterioration due to age until at least 330 years, we hope at least.
Eventually we came to the forgone conclusion, to survive humanity would have to abandon Earth.
It was not taken well, many of the survivors protested. But by the year 2101, it had became apparent. Earth would not be able to support life again for several hundred million years, perhaps even as long as a billion years might pass before it can support life. It was ironic, humanity had spent so long trying to protect the environment and the species of Earth, but in the end we ended up killing most and putting ourselves on the endangered list.
A biologist by the name of Thomas "Tom" Reynolds, actually re-evaluated mankind for the (now defunct) IUCN global conservation status, as of 2065 humanity gained the title of a Critically Endangered species. Although he wanted to use the title, Extinct in the Wild. It is still being debated on whether or not that title would be accurate.
I started this off by talking about the Doomsday Clock didn't I?
Well, it is now at one minute past Midnight.
We survived the first major nuclear war of humanity, but now.
Now we are reborn.
Why?
In the year 2112 the scientists made a breakthrough in our technology. We learned how to create living space ships, Bio-Ships. These come with a heavy cost however, for each one to be created a human being must be permanently fused into the ship as it's core and intelligence.
Right now, I am going through this process.
There are no real words for how it feels, as I've shifted through nearly a dozen feelings including, arousal, ticklish, agonizing pain, massive desire to scratch my nose and the need to take a leak, all of that in the last few seconds.
But I guess that's coming to an end, it's almost time for me to awaken, awaken into my new body.
-TBS-
Homo Sapiens Sapiens
Common Name/s: Mankind, Human, Humanity.
Evolutionary Status: Sentient Mammalian Being
Habitat: Various – Planet Earth
Highest Historical Population: 11,578,452,156 (Noted at Four years previously)
Current Population: 47,567
Cultural Status: 99.5% of Cultures Destroyed, Records exist.
Ecological Status: Critically Endangered – Habitat Destroyed (Atomic Warfare)
Survival Chances: 0.3%
Scientist Notes: Mankind is an incredible species, however intervention is not recommended, possibility of repeat of Krogan Rebellion. Above 98%.
Shame, they had so much potential.
Recorded:May 5th2065
Scientist Recording: STG Operative Radam Solus
Recommendation: Seal all records of Humanity, leave in STG Database for one century, they are unpredictable, they might just survive. Delete all nav-maps to the Sol system.
Chapter 2
Awakening