Astronomy+Story

On December 12th, 2012, an asteroid hits the Earth in Southern Canada, just north of Niagra falls, throwing all of the North American continent in a state of anarchy. Tens of millions of people are vaporized right away and millions more die in the shock waves. Most buildings within several hundred miles of the blast are damaged or destroyed. The asteroid leaves a crater the size of the state of Maine. A thick layer of dust and debris blot out the sun, changing day and night into different shades of brown and grey. The asteroid is dubbed “Judgement” and the human race becomes aware of its presence seven hours before impact when scientists detect it with radar (those hours became known as the Last Seven Hours of Civilization). Shortly after its detection, “Judgement” begins to orbit the Earth in an ellipse in which it becomes visible to the naked eye, and continues to do so for several hours, each cycle bringing it closer to entering the atmosphere. Had it hit head-on, “Judgement” would have obliterated all life on Earth in a matter of seconds but instead it enters the Earth’s atmosphere and spends its last minutes before impact burning across the sky, illuminating the Earth. It crashes into North America right after sun-down, turning the night into day. That day of the impact is Day Zero, more commonly known as “Judgement Day”. Martial Law was declared several hours after news of “Judgement” was released to the public and all military personell and reserves in the United States were mobilized but the estimated impact of “Judgement” was off by weeks. Instead of hitting a mere seven hours later, scientists predicted the impact to be in early January of 2013. With power and phones out, the early impact of “Judgement” caused chaos to spread like wildfire. Military squads went renegade with a non-existant chain of command and began to look out for themselves at the expense of civilians nationwide. When the fireball began to streak overhead, people began to panic, the smart ones forming groups and the majority fruitlessly trying to reach their loved ones, getting left behind, alone…

The day after Day Zero is known is the Quiet After the Storm, the Day of Silence, or Day One.

The former country known as the United States was declared by the U.N. to be in an official state of anarchy eight days after impact. Several weeks after Day Zero the other nations of the world began sending expiditionary forces over to the United States and Canada. These forces encountered very few survivors and were typically met with hostility by surviving civilians and ex-military groups alike. Conflicts arose on an international level soon after forces began entering the former United States (known un-officially as the _). Terrorism increased exponentially and bickering between nations (mostly territorital) over what to do with the former United States rose to hostile levels. The first nuclear weapon was used 66 days after impact and the following war (World War III) left 1/5 of the world’s population vaporized in nuclear blasts or in unmarked mass graves. For the most parts, the remanants of goverments were now looking out for themselves, establishments had crumbled, and order was a thing of the past, a faint memory of a better time.