INVASION APOCALYPSE!!! Timeline

V-DAY: 21 JUNE 2016

A massive alien vessel arrives and enters Earth orbit, shorting out all electronics in a 5,000 mile area as it passes overhead. The United States and other nations launch coordinated attacks but missiles and aircraft experience power failure within 5,000 miles of the alien vessel. The President declares martial law. National Guard and US Army troops are deployed to maintain peace in cities and other areas. Limited nuclear exchanges or other detonations occur in China, France, Great Britain, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States. The alien vessel takes three days to orbit Earth, soon leaving the entire planet without electricity. Crowds riot, cities erupt in flame, and governments begin to fall as human civilization descends into chaos. A number of nations report the widespread outbreak of virulent diseases including bubonic plague, hemorrhagic fever, and an unidentified retrovirus that may be extraterrestrial in origin.

DAYS LATER...

The alien vessel (now known as “the Visitor”) begins dropping pods laden with edible material in the form of orange, flour-like powder. Survivors form gangs to begin securing food supplies and scrounging for supplies, weapons, and ammunition. Several landing vessels descend to the Earth’s surface, creating uninhabitable areas hundreds of miles in diameter. These ships continue to land at random intervals and locations, betraying no discernible pattern or reason to these visits.

AUTUMN 2016

Survivors begin to pull together and form local communities. Local populations stabilize with availability of reliable food sources. Occasional gang attacks are the most significant worry. Electricity remains untenable due to the presence of the Visitor. Small outposts grow into larger settlements with food and supply stockpiles. Survivors forge metal for tools, weapons, and simple steam-driven machines. Settlements begin trading with each other. In late autumn come the first reports of survivors inexplicably changed into hideous, vicious mutants and subsequently driven out of their communities.

WINTER 2017

The presence of grotesques and other threats make food and supply runs more dangerous. Communication and trading between settlements grinds to a halt. Extreme and unpredictable weather conditions minimize agricultural development. The promise of a new civilization fades and a new “Dark Age” begins.

PRESENT DAY

Thirty years later, humanity has been reduced to less than one billion people worldwide and what remains of civilization has regressed to nineteenth century (or earlier) conditions. Steam power, windmills, and water wheels can be used to power simple machines, but anything electrical malfunctions in the zones or when the Visitor passes within 5,000 miles. The Visitor continues to drop food pods in random locations, keeping the tattered remnants of humanity from starving into extinction. Ships continue to land at random intervals and locations, betraying no discernible pattern or reason to these visits. Survivors contend with zombies, mutants, disease, and the lingering effects of radiation.