Earth

## The Liberation War

After the turn of the 21st century, humanity entered a golden era of peace, harmony and understanding between nations shortly after the New Soviet Secession War in 2035. With democracy firmly established in most areas of the globe, humans began to spread their reach into the stars themselves. Generation ships were launched, and colonies sprung up on the moon of Earth, on Mars and on Europa. Mostly, these were scientific outposts at first though commerce quickly sprang up around them as non-replenishable resources on Earth dwindled.

Medicine had reached a point where even diseases that had previously plagued humanity for decades, such as AIDS/HIV, were all but eradicated. Food was plentiful and nutritional, prompting at the least a healthy meal in every household. Wars were still fought though exceptionally seldom and limited to small skirmishes between nations that were quickly resolved with minimal loss of life. Even those who would have previously had their lives changed forever by being wounded could readily return to society and be given new limbs and even eyes if necessary.

Then, many years later, Earth faced a foe that had previously been beyond the capacity to understand. When the Nell came, they did so with enough force to dominate humanity's entire military force within forty-eight hours. Europa, Mars and the Lunar colonies were cast aside like embers over sand to slowly die with their support cut off. On Earth, living became Hell itself. Monsters hunted humans in the darkness, stalked them in the day and every moment for the survivors of the forty-eight hour war were spent in peril running from creatures that they could not fight. Killing even a Nell Soldier took a fireteam and when paired with their Commanders they became exponentially more dangerous. In the few times that humanity won its battles during that time, the Nell would only respond by glassing that section from orbit and crushing any resistance.

It was due to the actions of a handful of United Nations Peacekeepers that defied surrender, attached themselves to weather balloons and made kamikaze style attacks against their starships from the interior that humans stood a chance at winning back not only their survival but their right to existence as a species. Boarding parties waited until the aliens had thought resistance over, when they began to lower themselves into the atmosphere, then launched blitzkriegs into the depths of the ship and unleashed portable nuclear weapons. All of them perished in the great flames that engulfed the starships, but it was enough to deny their enemies orbital assets.

Seventy years passed as humanity struggled in the ashes and bit by bit took back their homeworld not only from the Nell but from other ideologies that had arisen in the ashes. Many great battles were fought with the dregs of humanity's remaining population; man, woman and child alike until the invaders had been systematically rounded up and exterminated. They found encampments disposing of their fellow humans reminiscent of concentration camps in days long past. Few spoke of whatever horrors it was that they witnessed in those days: the prisoners and rescuers alike.

*"They rounded us up like cattle when we surrendered or when they captured us. We were stripped completely; not even allowed our dignity. They sprayed us with some sort of chemical which I think was to clean us but afterwards some of us were led away into one pen and some into another. We never heard from the ones in the other pen ever again. For us, they worked us until we fell then carted us off to the other pen. Some of us broke. Everyone breaks eventually. Some of us tried to fight back but failed. I remember when they set the pen on fire as retaliation for fighting back..." - Anonymous Survivor of the Nell Holocaust*

Though mankind was falling they saw heroes rise. Such heroes included Castle Unit 47, General Titan, Salem Vichnoyie and Jaxon Henderson. Through their actions, as well as the actions of other heroes like them, humanity reclaimed what was lost. Most notably in this era of history, much of which was lost due to poor documentation at the time, were the Siege of Australia, the Battle of London and the Mexican and African campaigns.

The Battle of London lasted for almost two weeks and claimed thousands of lives in the process in the war against the Nell. During this time period, Salem Vichnoyie was incredibly instrumental at using his various sniper rifles, of which he favored the Mosin Nagant the most. Jaxon Henderson and his team led the way through multiple battlefields in an M1 Abrams tank. Their combined efforts alongside Castle Unit 47 paved the way for surgical strikes against many major Nell installations in the area; most of which were terraforming equipment set up to slowly change the Earth into what they considered the best possible planet for occupation. Most of the fighting was done in urban areas where the Nell had significant advantages due to their generalized toughness and their incredible firepower; making it hard to implement sniper rifles in such conditions. Near the end of the battle, the Nell launched a repaired battleship which was boarded before it could get altitude. Once inside, Salem Vichnoyie alongside a handful of other resistance fighters pushed their way into the deepest areas of the ship and eventually captured and destroyed many of its reactors; causing it to plumet to the ground where the crew could be finished off without the support of their ship's cannons.

## Modern Era

In the modern day, Earth is a buzzing hive of activity inhabited by species from all walks of life. The space station in orbit, built over the course of decades, connects directly with many buildings on the surface of the world. Most traffic is automated both in the skies and in the streets though a handful of recreational vehicles are still used manually, and some starships have dedicated landing areas such as Central Station for manual landing. Shuttles, taxis and cargo vehicles are constantly moving through Earth's singular city that spans the entirety of the planet. The city goes all the way down to the mantle and in some places even pushes deep inside it for limited mining operations. The oceans were tamed long ago and flow through pipes that recycle the water into drinkable water for the trillions of citizens.

Quality of life on Earth is better than most other places in the USC. The average citizen spends most of their life in a singular building where they work, play and live. In fact, most buildings on Earth are so large they could be considered cities on their own by population and services available. Though living quarters are smaller than in the past, most apartments are outfitted with limited AI that provide for most of the services necessary to daily life such as brewing coffee, laundry and other such daily chores. Most crimes in the mid-layers is white collar crime such as money laundering or embezzlement and violent crime is nearly nonexistent.

For residents that live under the Earth's crust, or at least where it used to be, life can be challenging. Gangs are prevalent in this area and local police forces are often incapable of dealing with this high crime area. In this locale, violent crime is rampant and local gangs have learned to use the myriad of tunnels to their advantage. There are few entrances and exits to this layer which are strictly monitored by law enforcement both above and below.

Living in the middle area above the crust but below the upper sections, often referred to as 'the Mids', is pleasant by contrast. Most individuals live in relatively small apartments with three bedrooms and a bath and a half. They are also typically awakened by a household AI that takes care of their daily scheduling, cooks their meals, buys their groceries and pays their bills for them; freeing their lives up to handle business and of course to pursue leisure. The drones that the AI has access to even clean the home, fight against intruders (on a limited scale), will alert emergency services if necessary and even put out the rare fires that happen and perform first aid. Some AI, particularly more expensive ones, will even assist children with their homework while being programmed specifically not to give them the answers.

The upper areas of Earth, sometimes called 'the Skyline', are mostly home to upper class society and often times upper middle class. These individuals mostly comprise people that own businesses or cargo ships which do a lot of the logistical work for Earth's and Mars's many factories. Some of these individuals are wealthy beyond imagination if they own even just one factory on either of these worlds due to just how much goods those factories produce. The main difference between these individuals and the middle class is that these homes tend to have their own landing pads for shuttles and that their AI are smarter and control larger homes. Aside from these differences, their children are often educated at home both for their general education and for the education that will lead them into controlling the businesses later in life. Sometimes, these educated children choose to pursue other careers (often at the disdain of their families). With generational wealth, these individuals have become exceptionally influential in the Sol Republic's economy.

Overall crime on Earth is nearly nonexistent save for the lower levels where it is rampant. Autonomous drones handle much of the leg work for police officers such as writing parking tickets, citing vehicles for traffic violations and cordoning off areas for investigation in the event of a crime that it is not programmed to handle. Drones can respond to more violent crime if requested though control is given over to a person in a remote location in such instances. In the lower levels these drones easily lose signal and, per their programming, return to the last known location that they had signal. Due to this, the effectiveness of drones is extremely limited in the lower levels and most police work must be done by hand.

Drones are not only used for police work, however. Many drones seek out heat signatures beyond what is considered normal to fight a fire before it ever gets out of hand and requires intervention. Likewise, many other drones will seek out and scan individuals for signs of sickness or injury without the need for a visit to the doctor. Such drones are programmed both to assist with the afflicted person's movement to a safer area as well as treating them and calling for help for more capable people. In extreme cases drones will even work together to move an incapacitated individual or an individual that is too heavy to move by a singular drone.