Survival

Humanities ability to adapt has always been its greatest strength.

If you were to take a lizard and put it in a snowy country you would be damning it to death. But a human would simply adapt to the cold. As generations passed eventually the humans will be so used to cold that it simply wouldn’t bother them. A frozen wasteland to a lizard would be a slightly cold day to the adapted humans. It was this ability to adapt that would ultimately save them.

In the year 2256 humanity enjoyed a technological revolution. Cheaper, cleaner and more efficient power sources were created. Medical technology was advancing almost by the week and humanity was taking the first steps towards nanotechnology. The populations of Earth, weary over three world wars and the threat of nuclear Armageddon, choose to establish the U.N. as the first planetary government. With ecological and political problems a thing of the past it was decided by the U.N. that space was to be humanities next great triumph.

The U.N. established the Earth Development towards Galactic Exploration or E.D.G.E for this task. It was slow going but the creation of the first all-purpose nanites in 2261 allowed a massive boost due to lower material costs, faster production and lessened chance of human error. Those scientists and builders laid off because of the nanites were immediately offered jobs working on genetic modification and building deployable homes.

On August 21st 2263 the first human deep space exploration ship was finally launched. The S.E.V (Space Exploration Vehicle) Daedalus completed a trip to Pluto and back.
When its test flight was completed the Daedalus was loaded with deployable buildings which were later positioned on the moon and connected, creating Luna City. Humanity began to expand and colonize planet after planet and by 2301 the U.N was renamed to U.P. (United Planets).

Nanite technology had advanced to the point where most diseases were a thing of the past. Except, to everyone’s annoyance, the common cold. That damn virus couldn’t be killed. Humans were faster, stronger and had a lot more stamina. Much to the joy of every horny human in the universe. It was a golden age for humanity that would be ended brutally with a new age. It was called The Beginning of the End.

In 2368 the legendary Daedalus returned from deep space exploration damaged and with only 7 out 3000 of the crew left. They told the U.P. horror stories of an advanced insectoid race that they called the Locusts due to there appearance and hunger. This species attacked them without warning and boarded their ship. The captain was killed on sight and the crew herded into the hanger bay. Once a day groups would be dragged out of the hanger bay and were never returned. It was only when the pilot looked out the hanger bay windows and saw floating bones that they learned what was going on. The Locusts were eating them.

Emboldened by the need to survive the 2789 humans left launched a desperate assault on the 85 Locusts. Those 7 were the only ones to survive and enjoy victory. Horrified by what they had learned the U.P. began the swift construction of fleets of warships. But when the Locust came in their fleet in 2373 it was clearly a losing battle. It wasn’t until the Locusts landed on Earth that the war began to turn. The Locusts were forced off Earth and managed to rejoin their fleet, but they brought something with them. The common cold.

A harmless and annoying illness to humans was a death sentence for the Locusts. Eventually due to falling numbers the Locusts fleet returned to their solar system which was a big mistake. Humanity watched, fascinated, as the common cold proceeded to wipe out the enemy they could not defeat. The last group of Locust decided that revenge was in order. Humans wiped them out with a virus and the Locust would do the same.

Biological transport missiles were launched from the Locust home world towards human colonized planets. Scanners could not detect the transports so while humanity watched as the carnivorous Locusts died human water supplies were being poisoned. It wasn’t until 2420 that the virus activated. The Locusts had decided that they wanted humanity to watch as their species died so the virus was designed to target women.

For some it was sudden, for others it was slow. A woman walking down the wedding isle began to cough up a river blood before collapsing, dead before she hit the ground. A father forced to watch as his 6 year old daughter slowly died on a hospital bed. There was chaos and panic as people tried desperately to fix this. Some had the idea to quarantine planets and live on ships, but ships got their water supply from colonized planets. Advances in nanites to combat the virus only revealed that the virus was designed to reproduce when in contact with metal. Genetic engineers increased human life span by 50 years but no cure.

On January 12th 2443 the last human woman died.

It wasn’t until 2450, when humanity meets the primitive Flist that they realized that humanity may still have a chance.