Overtaken - a BFB/II2 fanfic (very slow updates)

~~ [Interlude 1] Goikian History, excerpt 1: The Convalesce Catastrophe ~~

(This is an excerpt taken from chapter 39 of the history textbook "Goikian History," written by famous historian and drama enthusiast El-Em.)

Yoyleland was a beautiful country. Its most notable landmark was the impressive Yoyle City, known for its architecture, multiple scientific breakthroughs, and extremely delicious Yoyleberries. Formed in the year 1862 AD, it was the birthplace and home of countless scientists, each one leaving their own mark on the world before passing away. It was called "the city of the future," and people flocked from all over the world to visit the famous Yoyle City Science Museum. It was a place of inspiration, innovation, and creation. But all empires come to an end.

As the previous chapters have been discussing, Earth was in serious trouble by the time the twenty-second century rolled around. For years, humans had been draining the planet of its natural resources, dumping endless garbage in the seas, and filling the atmosphere with smog and carbon dioxide. Ice floes melted and coastal locations started to rapidly flood. Countless animal species had gone extinct, despite the efforts of the more aware humans. When people finally began to realize just how bad things were, it was already almost too late to fix it. In short, Earth was on the brink of becoming completely inhabitable.

Yoyleland was of the last hopes for the planet, or rather, Yoyle City. Yoyleland had fared better than most of the other (dwindling) wilderness around the globe, due to the inhabitants being quite close to nature. In the year 2093 AD, the finest of the finest of Yoyle City finally put their heads together and began work on a project later labeled "Project Convalesce." The intention was to create something biological that could heal any environment, no matter the damage inflicted on it.

Unfortunately, along with intelligence, another trait Yoyle City scientists tended to often share was overconfidence. Almost 250 years of non-stop innovations instilled most Yoyle City residents with a cocky attitude unmatched anywhere else in the world. So when the first test of Project Convalesce (performed in late 2098 AD) yielded impressive results in the artificial habitat they had constructed, the Convalesce team went forth and spread the microbe they had created all over Yoyleland. In a matter of weeks, the natural grasslands mixed in with forests of varying sizes had returned to a sizable portion of the continent, with the air being fresher than it had been in years. The Convalesce team quickly did their best to prepare the microbe for mass-production, so that it could be used all over the world to repair the damage done by humans.

Then the long-term effects of the microbe began to appear.

Reports starting coming in of Yoyleberries shipped out of Yoyleland turning people to metal a short period of time after being consumed. They were shrugged off as fake at first, but then millions of reports suddenly flooded in from around the globe. For reasons unknown, anyone who ate a Yoyleberry would simply transform into a new alloy later named , aptly enough, "Yoylemetal." Many were still able to move, speak, and function as normal, but for some, it was a fatal transformation. As the demand for Yoyleberries dropped to zero overnight, Yoyle City's economy took a massive hit. It was only able to barely recover due to being able to rely on the geniuses that lived there.

The microbes also affected the atmosphere in Yoyleland, turning the sky yellow in most locations. They actually managed to repair the ozone layers in those areas, but a bit too well. It became thick enough that sunlight had a hard time getting through, resulting in many crops (most notably potatoes) not getting the sunlight they required to grow. On top of that, rain became an extremely rare occurrence, whereas it used to be quite common.

[Side note: scientists later observed the rainless phenomenon spreading to the rest of the world long after the planet was abandoned. Oddly enough, it was the only effect of the microbe to do so.]

The Convalesce team scrambled to fix their mistakes, but the situation would only get worse. About a month after "the age of metal berries and yellow sky" began, most of the grass in Yoyleland turned purple. This in itself was harmless enough, but the grass also started producing a new chemical deadly to humans, so toxic that it still does not have a name, as no human can safely get close enough to analyze it without becoming deathly ill.

To say Yoyle City, and the country of Yoyleland in general, was abandoned in record time is an understatement. Over a billion people fled, struggling to get out of the country and into neighboring countries and cities. As most human population centers were already struggling, having to deal with influxes of people from flooding coastlines, the sheer number of people coming from Yoyleland only made that problem significantly worse. Unfortunately, this caused a ripple effect. As Yoylians filled up cities, previous inhabitants of said cities were forced to find someplace new to live, so they travelled to the next nearest cities and... well, you get the picture.

This entire event, or the "Convalesce Catastrophe," was the final nail in the coffin. The scientists of Yoyle City were many people's last hope. When they failed and were scattered across the globe, a large portion of Earth's population completely lost hope. People started giving up and not doing their jobs. Combine that with the fleeing Yoylians, and what infrastructure left in the world quickly crumbled. Governments and cities followed suit. Unable to flee anywhere else - with the cities dying, nature essentially already dead, and without advanced enough technology to live in space - people turned on each other. Riots, chaos... war. It was, quite literally, the end of the world.

Humans could have very well died off then, and we almost did. Only sheer luck saved us in the end. ("Us" being the collective for the human race at the time.) In 2105, an alien drone, sent by their government to explore our solar system, found us. They went back to their superiors and brought back several dozen ships to "rescue" us, in a way. Their race was called the Volus. With their benevolence and assistance, they managed to stop all the fighting between the remaining survivors. They helped us gather what we needed from our ruined cities - material possessions, technology, history - before lifting us off the planet and taking us into the skies.

Before the Convalesce Catastrophe, Earth was 9 billion humans strong. When the Volus found and saved us, less than nine thousand remained.

But if humans are anything, we're stubborn. We survived the collapse of Earth. We survived the initial journey into the stars. We survived several wars between us and other alien races (see chapters 45, 48, 49, and 64). And most of all, we survived the Great Sgr A* Blueshift (see chapter 75), and even marked that event as a new age for humanity. And now we're thriving throughout the Goiky Way galaxy.

The Convalesce Catastrophe wasn't just one new beginning, however. It wasn't long after the Volus saved the remainder of humanity that they all collectively agreed to let Earth recover on its own. Sentient species were never allowed to permanently populate the planet again, even after it had managed to heal itself. And heal itself it did. Over the five thousand years since humanity fled to the stars, Earth has mostly returned to its normal glory. Green glades and rich forests have long since overtaken most signs of human life. The one remaining reminder that Earth was once populated by humans is the effect the Convalesce microbes had on Yoyleland, as well as Yoyle City itself. The fact that the city is still mostly intact even after five millennium is a true testament to the geniuses of Yoyle City.

A thriving human race, a recovered planet Earth... if only the Yoylians of old could see how far we've come.

that was an experience to write

I normally would have waited a little longer to release this chapter , but I was really proud of it. Seekayaitch and Emwhyaitch briefly touched upon this lore once, way back in IDFBC, and I've wanted to find a way to explain it in more detail for a while, even if it won't actually play a role in the rest of the book.

Also, there are a lot of parallels between the downfall of Yoyle City and the ending of IDFBC. A man-made microbe causes an unknown toxic chemical to fill the land and forces the humans to flee Yoyle City. Five thousand years later, a man-made bomb pours a toxic chemical (neurotoxin) over Yoyle City, leaving the objects currently inhabiting the place no choice but to leave. Interesting how history repeats itself, eh?