The Evacuation from Earth

# The Evacuation

The evacuation of earth was the mass evacuation of civilians and high ranking government officials across the world from Earth on ships bound to "Octavia", which was the designated planet set for humanity to restart on. The main goal was to take as much information and human achievement as possible to Octavia in order to sustain as many cultures and civilizations that dotted earth. Archives across the world were searched and hundreds of thousands of historical artifacts were taken off earth and put on these ships, nicknamed "Arks". Documents ranging from the American declaration of independence, the Rosetta stone, the Crown of Thorns from Notre Dam and figures from the terracotta army were loaded onto storage ships bound for Octavia.

### The asteroid is found

On the 7th of June 2137, observers at the Lowell Observatory noticed a strange pattern in the sky as they were attempting to study a recent supernova lightyears away. They realized that this strange pattern was an asteroid around the size of Manhattan Island coming straight towards Earth. Immediately higher ups at Nasa were notified, and then after that the president. Almost instantly world leaders and members of the United Nations would be notified, and on the 10th of June of that same year a notice would be broadcasted across all devices. It read as follows:

AT AROUND 3:30 AM MST, A NON TERRESTRIAL OBJECT WAS SIGHTED BY THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY HEADING TOWARDS EARTH. THE EXACT SIZE AND MAKEUP OF THE OBJECT IS NOT KNOWN, NOR IS THE OBJECTS ORIGINS. IT IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BROKEN OUT OF THE KUIPER BELT AND WAS CAUGHT WITHIN EARTHS GRAVITATIONAL FIELD. AN EXACT IMPACT TIME AND ZONE IS NOT KNOWN YET.

Immediately chaos would erupt as millions of people began raiding stores all across the nation in an attempt to get supplies. The government would send marines to major cities across the union in order to restore any semblance of order, yet by this time it would be too late. Across the world people would begin mass bouts of theft, murder, and rioting. Across Eastern Europe, the Russian warlords would begin raiding and encroaching upon the borders of Poland and the Baltic nations, aswell as a resurgent Ukraine. The coming months, until E-Day would be known as the final dark age and would see the collapse of humanity on earth. By the beginning of December 2138, only a handful of governments were still around on paper, the rest of the world had fallen to complete anarchy, war and famine.

### The lead up

The days leading up to the final evacuation can be described in no way other than anarchy. By this time most world governments had collapsed, and with them society as a whole. The ones who remained largely were either shells of their former self or only maintained order through oppression. In the United States, the government had completely fallen yet the president and executive branch maintained power across the North-East, from Virginia to Maine. Everything west of the Appalachian mountains had devolved into anarchy and all programs and government help was completely withdrawn by April of 2138. It would be in March though, of that year that the Ark initiative would be started. A collection of governments and groups from around the world would unite in order to get people of multiple backgrounds and as many historic, scientific and culturally significant artifacts and data onto ships loaded for a new home for humanity, Octavia. Octavia had been discovered 30 years before, and was set as the first place humanity would attempt to begin colonization across the galaxy, yet due to the Crisis of the 2100s, these plans had been put on hold. Now though, Nasa had taken the charge of preparing ships for evacuation and began working on operations "Noah" "Herodotus" and "Jefferson".

#### Operation Noah

Operation Noah was the planned evacuation and collection of as many animal species as scientists would be able to gather in order to prepare them and bring them to Octavia. It took place between March and August of 2138, and would see over one thousand animals be collected from across the globe, and brought to the United States. The animals would all be loaded into their respective habitats and then be cryogenically frozen for the journey, only able to be woken up by the crew of the ship who would also be frozen with them. The hope was that these animals could be used to populate Octavia if there was no other already existent species located on the planet. The final animals loaded onto the ships would be 2 Greenland Sharks on the 12th of August 2138.

#### Operation Herodotus

Operation Herodotus was the collection and archiving of as many important historical artifacts as possible in order to bring them to Octavia with what remained of humanity. It took place between March and October of 2138 and had the unique quality of allowing anyone across the globe to help gather artifacts. Anyone who participated and brought historical artifacts was promised "Safe and free passage off earth once the end arrives" and through that promise almost 40,000 people in North America alone began handing over historic artifacts. Across the world, thousands more would flood onto boats set out by Nasa and what remained of the US navy in order to come to America to hand over artifacts. Agents from Nasa would also be sent out across the globe in order to collect artifacts that were either too large for one person to carry, or that were still in abandoned museums. Items scavenged include the following:

* 3 original copies of the American declaration of independence
* Numerous soldiers from the Terracotta Army
* The Rosetta Stone
* The mask of the pharaoh Tutankhamen
* The dead sea scrolls
* 2 Easter Island heads
* The Arc of the Covenant

The operation would go down as a massive success, and although many things were lost a large amount of important artifacts from human history were preserved and put into large archives on the arks.

#### Operation Jefferson

Operation Jefferson was the collection and archiving of as many pieces of literature, scientific data and human knowledge as possible in order to bring them with humanity to Octavia. It was in action between March and October of 2138 and saw hundreds of thousands of important pieces of literature and culture preserved on the arks. Along with operation Herodotus, anyone from across the globe would be allowed to participate and if they did, would be allowed passage onto the arks to Octavia. Hundreds of thousands of people who migrate to America from across the globe in order to hand over items and be able to escape earth.

## The Final Days

After almost a year and a half, humanity would be ready to leave earth. It was planned that everyone who was to evacuate earth would be brought to small containment camps located just outside of Washington DC, which is where the ships bound for Octavia were held.

### The Containment Camps

There were 5 camps dotted just to the north of Washington DC that were used to hold men women and children set to evacuate earth. They were camps: Grant, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Washington and Adams. The largest of these camps was Washington, holding close to 100,000 people at its peak in late November of 2138. All of the camps were equipped with advanced living quarters, medical facilities, education centers, and communal spaces to foster a sense of community among those awaiting departure. Their goal was to make humanities final days on earth as normal and calm as possible.

Yet they were not perfect, almost all of the camps (especially Roosevelt) would experience disease outbreaks, the worst of which coming after a snow storm that took out the already fragile power lines, thus making many generators and medical devices fail. An outbreak of "Shenandoah Fever" would break out across the camps, and kill upwards of 17 thousand people, most of which were children. There were also at times food shortages that would plague the camps especially nearer to the day of evacuation.

These camps would represent something bigger though, than a mere holding facility. Walking around the streets and paths that connected the buildings holding thousands of people, you would hear languages ranging from Italian, to Spanish to Chinese to Bantu. You would see people playing games, singing, embracing each other as people, not as different groups. It would represent something humanity lacked for so long. Unity.

### December 28th 2138

December 28th would mark the final day of humanity. As the asteroid