To save doing the explaining, i'll quote something written by an anonymous journalist from somewhere in North America at the time. Nobody knows if he lived afterwards or how the article got uploaded onto an Allied Free Sentients (AFS) datafeed, but it did and everyone has read it. But it didn't take much effect on us, we were there. We all were.
There was no warning to alert the people of Earth when the Bane attacked. No communication. No demands to be met. Nothing at all.
On a day that began without any news of international significance, scientists across the globe detected an object, massive in size and with an albedo below 4%, moving toward the Earth. As it approached, smaller objects broke away, settled into formation, and accelerated at unimaginable speed. Clearly there was alien intelligence at work, but to what end?
The Bane, a horrific army of hostile alien races, had launched a full-scale invasion. The craft, as it was later learned, was a Bane shardship. These severed shards of shattered worlds, long drained of their resources, carry a massive payload of weaponry, dropships, troops, and supplies across vast distances. Governments argued with each other and within their own power structures about how to respond. Several major powers pushed for an increase in military readiness. Others stayed quiet and hoped for the best.
At the civilian level, there was panic. Few had anticipated this event or anything like it, and local police forces had difficulty maintaining civil order as people reacted with rioting and hoarding of basic resources. Some cities had surprisingly few problems, while others reported numerous break-ins, beatings, and fires.
Those difficulties did nothing to prepare the populace for the assault. As the second day drew near, the dropships came. Thousands upon thousands of combat-ready Thrax and Bane military units laid siege to the major cities of every nation. There was no attempt to threaten or cow anyone into submission; it was an outright slaughter. Weaponry that was centuries ahead of human technology was used on a global scale, killing millions.
Shockingly, no human weapons of significant power were deployed. Nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and other ordnance were absent, limiting the scope of the war. Smaller communities were left almost entirely unmolested, save for the side effects of widespread fear. The day drew into evening, and as the hours passed, Earth’s responses grew. Small arms were distributed freely, often without government oversight, and both military and civilian partisans counterattacked with increasing tenacity. Word spread that the enemies were killing with impunity, taking prisoners only as a whim, but destroying so many areas that no one could depend on relief.
This inescapable fear drove many to outright resistance, and Earth’s enemies suffered massive losses of their own. Though the Bane had superior technology, they lacked the numbers to overcome local resistance groups. Asymmetric warfare made it difficult for the Bane to employ forces to optimal effect. It was building-to-building warfare, with explosions and fire everywhere, and eventual victory. Or so it seemed.
The surviving Bane returned to orbit, but the shardship continued to approach. Earth’s military powers launched missiles in abundance, but damage against the shardship could not be confirmed. Even worse, SETI researchers soon found that the Bane retreat was intended only to protect their troops from the final stage of the attack. The Allen Telescope Array tracked the shardship as it advanced toward Earth. The strange craft was not intended to return from whence it came, it was a weapon in and of itself. Contained within were the seeds of an alien infection; scores of deadly organisms and hostile creatures collected from decimated planets across the galaxy.
Among the survivors, a lucky few were ferried to hidden locations across the globe. Many of these people were handpicked by a top secret organisation known only to a few officials in the highest echelons of the world governments. Only the members of this organisation knew about the wormholes. Fewer still knew the secrets of their origin, but they served as the only hope for the survival of the human race. The exodus continued until the very last moment of impact, and in a breath, all contact with Earth was lost. Her fate remains unknown, to this day.
By cataloguing human experiences from these events, it is hoped that a history of this era, however ambiguous, can be constructed and passed down, even as we adjust to these new lands. Look for our forthcoming publication, as we delve into Experiences of the Final Days: Survivors’ Stories.
There has been no other uploads to that particular feed, I'd say that's a good thing, memories of Earth are something to be cherished but we shouldn't be dwelling on them. We should be focusing on, quite bluntly, kicking the living daylights out of the Bane and anyone that was involved with taking down Earth. They'll live to regret the day they insulted the Homo sapiens.
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