Neustarten

Meaning "Start Anew" on German, this name is given to the period starting in the spring of 1956. all the way till 2004. Neustarten began when with the partial public agreement the countries of the ESCS began a massive aerial chemical deployment campaign. Many varied aircraft, some cargo planes and some modified bombers, were used to deploy large quantities of Form C gas over parts of Europe within a week. the exception were areas within 50 kilometres of densely populated areas as well as large bodies of water, as even form C of the renaissance extract could cause health issues.

## Purpose

The goal of Neustarten to heal some seemingly permanent scars in Europe that were left behind by world war II. The idea behind the operation was to promote selective changes in newer plant generations to survive in more barren and alkaline ashy soil left in the wake of large scale fire-bombings and scorched earth tactics. The idea of Neustarten was brought up before the war ended after a study in 1947 estimated the water evaporating from burnt soil could cause acid rains of an incredibly high potency. Despite the plan being tested months before taking place in 1056. issues arose almost immediately as the Form C spread out over Europe in a far wider range than anticipated, quickly covering lots of urban areas that were meant to be outside of the radius. Even near the end of the month that the gas was deployed in increased reports of root damage in asphalt were reported by road maintenance companies all across Europe. after a month not only were many cities needing to devote more and more of their tax money to removal of newly sprouting weeds and quick growing saplings but a surprising scientific discovery was also made.

## Chestnut Revolution

Certain horse chestnuts commonly planted in urban areas, usually to provide shade, had apparently shown proof of seemingly morphing into an entirely new subspecies, all without a single new generation passing. After that year's winter had passed the shape of the leaves had changed drastically and examination of genetic material had also proven the same trees were indeed visibly different from last year.

## Infrastructural Failiure

By the next spring in 1958. a skyscraper in Klaipėda had collapsed following what was soon revealed to be great structural damage in it's foundation caused by expansion and pressure within the ground. It was apparent action needed to be taken as the renaissance extract had clearly had a far too unexpected effect on general infrastructure. Cities became dangerous as more and more buildings became unstable in the wake of rapidly growing tree roots. Evacuation followed soon and many skyscrapers were demolished to make surrounding areas safe from an unexpected collapse.

## Golod Swarm

in 1959. the situation had gotten better as many people who had lost their homes in the previous year had gotten settled again. As expected several simple diseases had evolved due to the renaissance extract though most of them were suppressed with vaccines or medicine developed quickly after their appearance. What was not expected was that the locking agent in the renaissance extract had slowly began to wear off causing larger creatures like insects to mutate over time, though through the course of multiple generations, unlike what was observed on plants from early on. In the autumn of 1961. a massive swarm of large locusts had damaged annual harvests all across central Europe, causing widespread panic. Even with great efforts to import food, both from the north and from across the sea, the locusts continued to be a recurring issue across an even larger bit of Europe next year. By 1963., despite extermination efforts and food import, golod locusts had starved Europe to the point where the world's population fell from 4.2 billion all the way to 3.5 billion. The rising death toll had thankfully stopped at 700 million as the locust population subsequently went close to extinct due to a suddenly emerging fungal disease that weakened the locust population and made it susceptible to other parasites.

## Recovery

Though Europe had been hit by such a deadly man made disaster, infrastructure started slowly recovering. People began abandoning cities that were not worth repairing, leaving them to nature for the taking to instead focus on the ones that were still recoverable after the chestnut revolution. This recovery had caused a steady return to military production, raising tensions between countries, to many for the first time after the war. The need for more relics as well as even newer fighters slowly returned, bringing forth some of the deadliest, most cutting-edge aircraft the world had ever seen. At at the end of 1963. the first differences had been discovered in the Downfall by British doctors helping with the evacuation, who raised concerns of the renaissance extract's effect on humans after the locking agent in it would decay. They suggested a quarantine to be put up, which was accepted by the ESCS and handled by local militaries, though after an unknown discovery had been made while researching difference capacity-bearing people the quarantine was suddenly greatly strictened, and given to a specially formed company to handle. This company was to construct and operate an air defense system set up around the Downfall's perimiter, and handle any issues regarding the people within the quarter, All while handling anything happening deep in the Downfall from infrastrcture that was built only on the Surface.

## Vanishing

after 1966. the amount of Form C in the atmosphere had diminished quite a bit however as the locking agent had decayed quicker than expected the effects of the gas that now mostly stayed in valleys and lowlands had now started to take effect on more intelligent creatures as well. This is the period when roof hounds had re-appeared in the south, causing a decent bit of panic in the process. By the end of the next year the first difference carrying person outside of the sunken quarter was found and quickly taken for examination by the Surface. By 2004. all of the now pure renaissance extract had been confined to parts of the fracture where it would rarely be moved to outside by wind. This would thus mark the end of the Neustarten.