Sojourner Wiki

The World Before
''The path of a cosmonaut is not an easy, triumphant march to glory. You have to get to know the meaning not just of joy but also of grief, before being allowed in the spacecraft cabin. – Yuri Gargarin''

When humanity began to enter its golden years as a species, the world came across a sudden and desperate realization that war was no longer something that could continue if the human race wanted to survive. Treaties began to form between the nations that were and superpowers that had once dominated the world through their military strength began to slowly fade away in the back of everyone's mind as relics of an era long past.

Those super powers, so ancient and old like the United States, Russia and China, saw themselves as the great protectors of the human race despite their differences and thus began the talks of how to form a government to rule over all present nations so that humanity could take into the stars. Drones, robots, medical technology; everything advanced under the banner of peace, prosperity and order amongst an endless sea of stars that promised humanity a brand new golden era that would amount to exponential times more heavenly than their current reign over Earth. They, for a time, believed themselves to be alone... alone to march triumphantly into the stars.

Humanity had been foolish to believe that they were alone. When the alien menace known as the Nell came, they came with the blinding fury of a blitzkrieg and swept aside much of humanity's defenses in the first ninety-six hours of the war that would drag on for decades. Their tanks obliterated the most powerful weapons and emplacements that humanity had, their infantry seemed nigh endless and terrors and panics swept the streets; rampant and unchecked. Many from the more religious communities believed it to be the End Times. Many others believed it themselves and humanity found itself united in a new way. Where they had once been united in hope, prosperity and freedom they were instead united in mutual fear, ruin and slavery.

Soldiers eventually ditched their rifles and advanced pulse weaponry for simpler black powder muskets and revolvers when the factories no longer made ammunition. By large and far; the manufacturing and quality control necessary to field modern weaponry had fallen to the point that modern weapons were often just as dangerous to their user as they were the enemies. Pilots withdrew from their jets and instead took solace in becoming once more the Knights of the Skies as they took to old biplanes that the alien missiles could not lock onto. Vehicles were discarded in favor of horses when fuel drew away at an all-time low once the alien threat began to bomb their fuel supplies. An all but broken world... and yet still... humanity fought on.

Many surrendered to their fates at the hands of their overlords. Many suffered fates worse than death when they did not surrender. Many more chose instead to take their own lives rather than be subjected to the experiments upon their DNA that left so many others little more than broken husks that once were. And yet still... some chose to fight even long after the battles seemed fruitless while the enemy fleet taunted them so high above their heads where their gaze could not go. But liberty or death... that was the mantra of the Americans. And they lived up to their mantra even when the fire consumed almost their all...

From the ashes arose many city-states that fell and fought over the course of seventy years. Those born before the war were either sealed away in cryogenic pods, hidden in bunkers or otherwise removed from the field of play in a desperate attempt to retain humanity. Some hoped against hope that the war was a passing moment or misunderstanding. Others hoped that the war was but a test of their religious might and yet more insisted that the war was nothing more than invasion though they knew not the end goals of the monsters that plagued them.

When other civilizations found their militaries obliterated; they had no hope other than to surrender to their new overlords. The Americans, Canadians and a few smaller bands around the globe fought on with their civilian owned firearms and with scavenged military weapons for a time before they too eventually fell to the onslaught. Others took these supplies and ran away from the conflicts as far as they could.

However, humanity is always so far from perilously flailing in the dark for some sign of an answer. A brave three hundred souls strapped themselves against weather balloons and waited for the day that their enemy made a grave mistake; breaching the atmosphere with their vessels. Because of the simplicity of the vehicles used against them their defense systems were found incapable of locking onto the weather balloons and instead found themselves watching as the pilots of those balloons boarded their vessels. Those volunteers fought bravely and pushed back the aliens inside the vessels inch by inch with their own blood and lives until eventually they managed to secure the ship’s reactor room. They detonated a portable nuclear device; sacrificing themselves in a blazing inferno that was so large it was nearly visible in all corners of the globe as a distant glow.

As a result of their actions others rose up and began to take the fight back to the alien menace in the form of biplanes that got close enough to allow passengers to walk across the wings to the ships when they flew too low, more weather balloons, what few jets remained and even a few barely functioning nuclear missiles. When the last ship fell… they thought they were safe at last… and in desperation for seventy years humanity once again turned on one another to fight for supplies, food, water, land and ideology.

The World Now
''“Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” ― Robert Oppenheimer''

It has been almost seventy years since the bombs first fell from the skies. It has been seventy years since humanity fell under siege and the world turned to fire. Blackened ashes remain in many parts of the North American continent. Cities are merely skeletons without the people to run them. Cars have broken down and lay in ruins and new city-states are constantly warring and fighting for the fragile amount of resources that they use to sustain themselves. With the alien menace all but defeated, its drones of the eusocial hierarchy now roam in dazed confusion; searching the wastelands and jungles that are arising for new prey to kill and consume.

The oceans are once more an impassible barrier save for a very select few that dare venture into their depths. The Panama is almost still entirely overrun by the invaders and fragile peace and war come and go between the arising city-states that dominate the continent. What remains of Europe from so long ago is still unknown. What fate befell Africa; myths and legends. The continent of Australia remains but an urban legend to those that have never seen it; a legend which must never be encroached upon should the Nell demons arise and steal the souls of its visitors. Asia... is all but wasteland.

Horses are the primary method of transportation and work that humans cannot perform. Cows have become, once more, beasts of burden in addition to food supplies. Muskets and revolvers dominate the battlefield once more as the creation of smokeless powder is all but eliminated when the laboratories that were made to synthesize it fell to the bombs. But life goes on in this world that is nearly fallen. Life continues to find a way to surmount impossible odds and keep its fragile heart beating when the armies of Rione and Demshrin go to war. Life finds a way to continue on when the Hub challenges the right of the people to be free. Life continues to find a way when Anchor delivers the sad, heart breaking news that their herd of cattle were hit by a Nell raid and were all but eliminated. Life... finds a way.

''“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” ― Carl Sagan''

Links

 * Making A Character