When they did finally show themselves to us, it was at the worst possible moment in our history. The major powers of the globe were already deep into a full-scale war, and its effects were catastrophic to the entire planet. Luckily the few nuclear strikes that happened were relatively small scale, and hadn’t evolved into world-wide destruction so often portrayed in movies of the 20th and 21st century. But it was still awful.
Armies of the most powerful countries on Earth were throwing tanks and soldiers at one another all across the less developed countries of the world. Even the major cities of the U.S and Europe were devastated, locked in a complete breakdown of government and civil services. Most communities were beginning to become armed camps, and violence and mayhem was the order of the day.
Power, water, and other daily needs were cut off to all but the most affluent, and so of course the less affluent were busy trying to take it away from them. Police and emergency services were exhausted, broken down and leaderless, useless to try to help anyone else and were focused on surviving, just like everyone else.
Even in these dark days, some were surviving. It became very much an apocalyptic wasteland, but some families or communities were scratching out a life in this new normal.
But then they finally revealed themselves. Trying to take advantage of the global chaos, visitors from another world brought advanced weapons and technologies to bear against us, hoping that we would crumble under the onslaught during these our most desperate times.
They were almost right. Unlike every movie ever made, the countries of the world did not join together to face this otherworldly threat. Instead, each tried to use the invasion to their own advantage to try to establish themselves as the dominant force on the planet. The alien invaders quickly took control of the majority of the best areas on the planet for resources. They began a pogrom of extermination to take the planet for themselves. They thought themselves the new masters of our tiny green planet.
But they didn’t do their research. They underestimated the resiliency of the human race and its ability to fight dirty when cornered. Alien bases, ships and weapons began to be destroyed as guerilla forces in almost every country started to take a toll on the invaders, and slowly but surely, they found themselves on the losing side of history. At first the invaders tried upping the ante on the levels of destruction they rained down on mankind, but that sparked the reverse hoped for outcome. The more depraved they became, the more vicious and hardened the people of the Earth became.
Finally, in desperation, and convinced that mankind is a virulent plague, they decided that if they could not have the Earth, then no one would. As they gathered the last of their forces and prepared to escape the hell hole that Earth had become, they unleashed the most devastating weapon they had ever devised. The entire surface of the planet was subjected to a deep green and purple haze, a poisonous smoke ejected from the fleeing alien ships. Almost immediately, well over two-thirds of the population died, suffocated and poisoned under the thick, intrusive, clouds.
The vast majority of the remaining survivors underwent a tragic, painful transformation into gruesome, mutated creatures of all types. Very few humans escaped this fate, and locked themselves even further into their armed compounds. All the animals of the land, sea and air were likewise affected, and millions of people and trillions of animals became monsters out of a dark apocalyptic fiction.
This became the world of the Mutant Epoch.
NOTE: In the coming days, I hope to present the statistics for the few remaining alien invaders, as well as the technology and weapons they have left to use.
Dice Mechanic