[@DeadDrop][@Sierra][@beyond visions]
I bring you goodies. If you want a more in-depth look at what happened. Do note that the weather anomalies and perma-winter are not mentioned, those will be something our characters realize when they [s]CRASH INTO THE SURFACE OF THE PLANET AT A VELOCITY SO HIGH THE POD BURSTS INTO FLAME[/s] land.

[hider=Backstory]
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	[color=6ccff6][u][b]A New World[/b][/u][/color]
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└ [color=lightslategray][i]"It happened so fast, and we were so unprepared for it." - Dr. Martin VaBuren[/i][/color]
  
	[color=gainsboro]» 2027: Wars raged in the Middle East and Africa as our struggle to keep up with the demand for resources continued to rise. The Chinese housing bubble collapsed, the American economy crashed, and the Russian-Germanic Bloc rose quickly as an aggressive force under the guise of liberating their "war ravaged neighbors". We left ourselves incapable of defending a large scale invasion on our home territory, one born of enemies that had been coexisting with us for hundreds of years. A mutagen, now named "Nova-X", exploded through the animal kingdom, and completely blindsided the world with its ferocity. Reports of animal attacks began to come in, scattered across the globe at first, before rising in numbers so substantial that the major world powers were forced to cease their war efforts to handle this rising epidemic.
	The situation quickly became clear: For some reason, the animal kingdom seemed to be rebelling against humanity. The first theories centered around the idea that this was a bio-terrorist attack weaponizing genetically engineered, or modified, rabies. Those theories were discarded when during the second year, reports began to claim strange patterns of behavior. Wolves in Germany began showing extremely high levels of coordination, to the point where the R.G.B. (Russian-Germanic Bloc) began losing convoys to them. Not every convoy either, but it seemed that they were targeting the lesser armed supply convoys, and later, the evacuation convoys attempting to flee the red zones. Dolphins began attacking aquatic vessels with astoundingly powerful sonic blasts, and in large groups these sonic cries can create whirlpools. Crows in Europe developed razor sharp wings, and could dive bomb a person at such a high velocity that they could pierce through vehicles.
	Things only got worse from there. If the rapidly mutating animals weren't bad enough, our attempts at a solution seemed to backfire at every turn. At first, the world powers tried to work together, forming the United Crisis Coalition. They captured live specimens, and learned that Nova-X was transmitted through the air. The U.C.C attempted to reverse engineer a cure, calling it Nova-Y. Controlled testing was a success. Once released into the air, however, Nova-X bonded with its counterpart and began to spread to the plants. Scientists hypothesized there must be other, unknown factors at work. In North and South Carolina, Venus Flytraps began to grow at an exponential rate, camouflage themselves in the dirt, and swallow people whole. Lions in Africa began sprouting mushrooms that released their spores when the lion walked, and when it roared the spores burst out in a massive cloud. Much of Northern Africa transformed into inhabitable toxic mushroom fields, where the spore saturation is so thick the area is blanketed in a sickly yellow fog.
	Attempt number two by the U.C.C was to immunize the unaffected animals, and stop the spread of the mutagen, as it appeared that the mutagen only affected a few certain groups of animals at a time. So gave rise to Avon-1, and the U.C.C once again had success in a controlled scenario. Inexplicably, Nova-XY bonded with Avon-1. People around the globe began showing horrible, and painful symptoms (in order): Blisters, Blindness, Brittle bones disease, Necrosis, Internal bleeding, and after a about a week, Death. In less than three months, 90% of the world's population had died excruciating deaths. We realized too late that Avon-1 was targeting blood types, and we were unable to synthesize a vaccine in time. The only people left were composed of universal donors (O-Negative), and universal recipients (AB-Positive). Obviously, with the human race on the verge of extinction, the U.C.C fractured apart. Still, there were those few left who were determined to make a difference.
	A group tilted as the New Chinese Republic tried twice to fix the world. Their first attempt was Avon-2, we discovered a few years later that all they had managed to do was sterilize what remained of the human race. Project Genesis was a more ambitious. Since every attempted at combating Nova-X had failed in a catastrophic way, the N.C.R would avoid the airways. A water based method was devised, however, this time they weren't looking to fix the mutated animals—They were aiming to eradicate them. Once again, the task seemed impossible. Nova-X was something extraordinary, it seemed almost akin to an antibody as it continually adapted and evolved to combat each and every threat posed to its existence. The N.C.R's Project Genesis poisoned our water supplies. Lacking proper filtration techniques, millions more died. The N.C.R proposed another plan, to control the mutating animals by manipulating their brainwaves. The R.G.B wasn't keen on the N.C.R continually making the situation worse, and tensions escalated.
	In Europe, the remnants of the U.N came together to form the Extinction Crisis Coalition and enact the Last Hope Initiative. A three part team was assembled: One, to finalize and implement a method of long term preservation for humanity: Two, develop a system that could run long term and work towards the most probable solution; And the third team was to assemble a craft to take as many survivors outside the planet's atmosphere as possible. The Last Hope Initiative was well underway, and progressing steadily, when relations between the R.G.B and N.C.R devolved into an armed conflict. It wasn't long until they too heard about the Last Hope Initiative, and suddenly the E.C.C found themselves in a three way war. Fortunately, the mutated animals and plants formed an impressive barrier to foreign armies, and the E.C.C was able to complete their initiative.
	Team one proposed a low-temperature hibernation induced by nanomachines. There was no way to prevent cellular death from this type of freezing, and eventual thawing, so the scientists began an in-depth study on the Immortal Jellyfish: A creature that could, in layman's terms, revert to being a child when it became too old. Utilizing stem cells, the nanomachines can take dying cells and revert them back into a healthier state. Unfortunately, while allowing humans to survive thawing, this method does not necessarily extend a person's life, and may in fact shorten in.
	Team two was unable to develop a system that could function independently for a long period of time without creating an artificial intelligence, lovingly named "A.I." (Coders are well known for their creativity). A.I. was to remain in an undisclosed location, and continually run algorithms to devise a likely scenario in which humankind could return with the highest possible chance of survival. A.I. would do this by examining what we knew about Nova-X, Nova-Y, Nova-XY, Avon-1, Avon-2, The compounds released during Project Genesis, and to hypothesize indeterminate variables based on the adaptability, and suvivability of Nova-X and its ability to counter each of humanity's attempts of combating it. Additionally, it would run long-term scenarios and devise the best course of action, and how best to implement those actions. It was a very complicated program, with a complicated set of rules. Once A.I. devised suitable answers, it would transmit them to the Orion Station (Team three's space worthy scrap pile) and the survivors could begin their descent back down towards the planet, to a location that would only be disclosed to crew members upon their awakening. The E.C.C didn't want the N.C.R or R.G.B to sabotage their plans.
	As the E.C.C was gearing up to point of processing which of 5,000 people would board the Orion, and perhaps file out who would go up next, the R.G.B decided to attempt a capture of the Orion launch vessels. They turned to bio-warfare, and to this date it's unknown what they released, but as it had proven so many times before, Nova-X was not going to sit idly by. Whatever chemical the R.G.B dropped onto the main facility of the Last Hope Initiative quickly changed from something they could control, to something that began to run rampant through the populace. It was nicknamed the Red Plague, as the skin of those who contracted began to mimic the shades of red akin to a sunburn. The skin-coloring seemed relatively harmless, however, the internal blood circulation failure was not.
	A solution was quickly devised, as those who had received the nanomachine injections were unaffected; It seemed the nanites continually fought against the deadly microbes. The E.C.C devised a separate type of nanite, one meant to promote health and fight off infections, and they found with proper augmentation, these nanites could allow our soldiers to achieve levels of strength and speed they otherwise normally could not obtain. Paired with cybernetics, these augmentation were issuing a new wave of soldiers. If only we had been pushed to these advances earlier, we may have stood a chance against Nova-X and the mutant army it created.
	Ten years after the initial discovery of Nova-X, the Orion vessels launched into orbit: Its crew filled with engineers, scientists, and those with important skill sets. Money was largely useless after the world fractured, so only those rich in raw resources were able to buy their way on board, those who were willing to hold back the progress of humanity's salvation in order to secure a seat for themselves and their family. Additionally, the ranks of the Orion ships were filled with the largely experimental neuromancers, who could manipulate matter like modern day magicians, and the recently developed "Augers", the soldiers enhanced with augmentation and cybernetics.
	The entirety of the E.C.C both simultaneously cried, and cheered, as the Orion vessels took to the atmosphere. 

	Days later the first hybrid attack wiped them off of the face of the earth.[/color]
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