Gabatrix: The Violet Wave

Chapter 1: May 10th, 2350

There is no doubt that we can't avoid space. Anywhere you look, we are in it. The sea of blackness and void of perpetual nothingness is the definition of its term. Instead, we look at a single planet and its moon as we zoom in on it. The world itself is covered in a haze of gray and orange. We already know what it is, and we've been here before.

We begin to fly closer to the planet. It is almost beyond any form of recognition. Humanity, except for a few, has decided it was a lost cause. We fly through into the atmosphere. The smog and thick dust threaten to smother us. Even if we don't need air to breathe, you wonder how humanity ever made it through. The dense ash clouds form thunderstorms of black and gray. Lightning strikes are intense as they smash the ground hard, producing heat hotter than the sun itself. We zip through it, and then we are hit with something else.

You begin to see rainfall. The thunderstorms are intense, but you can definitely see the rain. Perhaps it brings some comfort as the winds hit us hard. You understand that the planet at least has activity.

Unfortunately, you realize that the rain has a horrific taste. The sight alone is sickening. If you could feel it, then it might burn your skin or prove toxic to the touch. It produces a taste and smell similar to plastic. It seems that humanity did not care about this planet. There were some who did, but many did not. It only proved to be disastrous.

The storms....the acidic plastic rain, are unbearable. Hundreds of years of garbage, volcanic ash, toxic vapor, and pollution have taken their toll on the environment. How did humans survive such a calamity? Why did they do it?

Finally, we get away from the storm. It seems, for once, there is a brief respite of getting out of the thick clouds of this planet. We come to look at the ocean. It is a somewhat clear sky, even with the overlay of gray haze above us. You look down to look upon the sea. Perhaps gazing at it will give you some relief upon getting out of that storm.

Unfortunately, it does not. What should be a pristine blue ocean of liquid water is instead a horrifying orange and red color. There is no life in it but one. A perpetual dumping ground of trash, garbage, and pollution has all reduced the oceans to this. We have to, unfortunately, get close enough to look at this once glorious ocean that was once called the Atlantic Ocean.

We fly right next to the viscous liquid. You are clear from all harm that it brings you as you have to reach your hand into it. It is an orange sludge. It almost bubbles to the surface as you see air rise to the top. The sludge is so thick that it permeates your hand. It is virtually like muck, disgusting as goo. As you try to get the orange substance out of your hand, you realize that there is something stuck to it.

Bones.....long-dead marine wildlife have perished long ago—fish, dolphins, crabs, lobsters,.....all dead. The ocean is endless. It is a graveyard of death. All of it covered in this thick orange soup mix of toxic life. A bacterium is responsible for this, but in the end, humanity might just be as accountable for it.

You know what they call it. Some called it the end of the world. Some called it Bacteria Toxin 23-9. Most of the humans called it "The Orange Muck" for its almost matching pure color. The sludge is a leftover byproduct of the bacteria. So much pollution, oil, plastic, and garbage, the bacteria have plenty to feed from. It is an almost endless food source. Despite the horrific look of the ocean, nature is merely responding to the massive changes that humanity brought to it. If it needs to start over, then so be it. The bacteria will do its job. It will clean the oceans, lose its food source, and then life will eventually start over again.

Of course, there was one problem with this. Humanity was not ready for this horrific encounter. The Orange Muck was everywhere. The air was almost too hard to breathe from the ash and poison put into it. You realize that you are in hell. The storm is in the distance as you look upon it. The toxin is everywhere, and filtering the water does little. It is in the rain. It is in the ocean. It is in the sea. It is everywhere. If you drink it, then you are drinking poison. What killed off the marine life certainly killed off half the humans that lived on this planet within the first few years of its discovery.