DEGENESİS

In the beginning there was the end...

A wave of euphoria first spreads over earth when in 2070 a long range space telescope in Peru obtains the first pictures of a widely spread asteroid swarm. When further calculations allow for a further prediction of its flight path, excitement turns to fear and sheer terror: The celestial bodies will cross earth’s orbit. But humanity thinks itself prepared and launches an old weapon system created for this purpose into the coldness of space. Hundreds of Paladin satellites, called the Silver Horde by earth’s population, enter an interception course. “The Clash of the Titans”, the battle in heaven between earth’s line of defense and the tumbling rocks is blown up to be a tremendous media event – but it never takes place. The Silver Horde passes the asteroid swarm without detonating even a single warhead. The reasons for the failure remain shrouded in mystery, a riddle never to be fully solved. The only clue is a 2 ^16 signature in the controlling software.

Panic ensues. Many people leave the cities and seek shelter in the mountains to escape the coming apocalypse. Mass car crashes jam the highways leading out of the metropolises. Fierce scenes take place on the roads. Egoism and violence is the sole survival tactic of the desperate. Police units and military troops are hopelessly outmatched. Many turn away from the technology which could not save them and seek the protection of the faith. Tradition becomes much more important. Sects believing in the End Time grow in their ranks, but many go back to the holy places of the traditional religions. Two days to Day Zero. Mass suicides, pillaging and lynch justice are the first worldwide signs of a changing society: a bitter foretaste of the dehumanization of man, of the Age of the Beast. The Final Days are here.

One day to live a whole life. Homo sapiens is reduced to its most basic and powerful emotions: love, hate, lust, power – and fear. A chaotic maelstrom of emotion, all-encompassing and terrible in its pure animal magnetism, engulfs the world. Orgies, unbound violence, greedy theft but also examples of sacrifice and human warmth can be seen in the streets. The shrieks of alarm plants, the screeching of broken glass, the heat on the flames felt on the skin, the smell of a burning building right in the vicinity, papers and magazines swept through the gutters. The End has come.

On March 13th, the transhuman age ends in a global sea of flames. Nothing could stop the celestial bombardment, even the megawatt discharges of the Thor defense lasers are drowned in the whiplashed atmosphere, a mere toy compared to the power of the cosmic threat. Man has never been so aware of his unimportance in the grand scheme of things.