State of the World

[Malachite]

In the months after the Storm event on September 19th, 2019

 

Once the first tallies were made in the weeks following the Storm, the world had lost roughly ten percent of its population. Losses ranged from barely-hit areas mostly dealing with odd phenomenon that caused a bit of damage and a lot of panic, to entire cities wiped away to the last person and building. The new celebrities and real life superheroes of the world, dubbed Stormers in the media, have become social focal points of both hope and cautious awe. The appearance of such people in the Storm seems fairly evenly distributed around the planet in pockets. Firm numbers have been impossible to come by, but it’s suspected that there’s somewhere between two and four thousand Stormers total. 

 

Monsters are still a problem around the world, though most have been either destroyed or herded away from population centers and pinned in by military barricades that can’t seem to kill them but can keep them in place. Terrifyingly, new monsters have appeared since the Storm - as have a post-Storm supers. The rate of both has, thankfully for a bruised and battered world, been incredibly low. 

 

In the US Congress has passed a law affirming the rights of Stormers as private citizens and putting in place governmental support systems to protect the privacy of Stormers that do not wish to be ‘outed’ on their status. There are new bills making their way through both chambers currently in support or fear of Stormers. On the side of fear there are calls to expel Stormers from the country based on their assumed monstrousness, outlaw the use of Stormer powers on American soil, or requiring Stormers to be put on a public registry for ‘public’ safety. On the side of those that support Stormers laws are being proposed that would give incentives for foreign Stormers to immigrate to the US and would set up a separate Department of Supernaturally Gifted Public Service for Stormers to serve the government under in whatever manner their gifts would benefit the country. One law is sitting before the President that would fund a public initiative to study the Stormer phenomenon by creating a national Center of Nova & Psi Radiation Study.

 

Across the Pond, Britain has taken the turning point in history to commit fully to Brexit, negotiating a leave that still puts Northern Ireland in a legally complicated position that neither side is totally happy with - a sure sign of a good political compromise. The island nation has been busy negotiating new trade deals; the Storm and the massive damage done has thrown the world economies into chaos and Britain hopes that securing new trade deals will help ensure the flow of resources now and a stronger place on the world stage once everything settles out into the new normal. Having only a dozen Stormers, the nation hasn’t yet put any new legislation in place regarding those individuals or their supernatural abilities, though many of the Stormers have been invited to speak in Parliament on their experiences. The two most well-known Stormers, now known in the media by their leaked code names of Einherjar and Valkyrie, are two of the most loved celebrities in the nation and Britain has fully embrace a world with superheroes in it. Britain is on the leading front of actively recruiting Stormers to the country, with occasionally mostly-friendly swipes at the US for “stealing” one of their Stormers.

 

Spoiler

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[Malachite]

March 20th, 2020

 

The work happened in secret, quietly behind the scenes and literally below the surface of Africa, but on March 20th, six months after the Storm that has changed civilization and the planet itself, and new nation was declared. The Deus Novos, what had been thought be a relatively small and mostly philosophic band of empowered people, announced to the world via hijacked media across the planet that a homeland for the new peoples, the "novas", had been founded. They named it Utopia. 

 

Placed in the middle of the Sahara, taking chunks out of Algeria, Libya, Niger, and Chad, Utopia was weirdly warmly welcomed by the leaders of the nations it was shrinking. A military satellite was similarly "borrowed" by the group to take video footage as they filled the two seas now in the Sahara - one freshwater that empties via a new river that eventually meats up with the Banue River to the south and one saltwater that empties to the Mediterranean from a new river off the northern end of the sea. 

 

World leaders are scrambling to deal with this new maybe-threat. The UN has called for an emergency session of the Security Council, with loud cries for denouncements of Utopia, trade embargoes, and other buzzwords the general public only half understands. The most astute journalistic personalities have pointed out that so far Utopia has not asked to join the United Nations or attempted to establish trade with other nations - and as they're perfectly capable of large changes to the landscape and hijacking military equipment, "ask" isn't probably in their national vocabulary.

 

Markets and world economy had finally been stitching themselves back together and finding a new normal in a post-Storm world. The announcement of Utopia, the reminder that Stormers like Einherjar not only existed but did not have the British soldier's sense of restraint, has sent governments and the public back into a state of panic in the uncertain of what comes next. It seems the Stormers have their champions. What of humanity? 

 

Utopia, as claimed by Deus Novos

[Nina]

Transcript from the closed meeting of the Senate Committee on Storm Enhanced Persons held of April 1st 2020

Present were, Sen. Rebecca Dalmert (D), Sen John Bailey (D), Sen. Alan Green (R), Sen. Howard Cole (R) and Doctor Andrea Ross

 

Sen Dalmert: Alright doctor this is your report we will hold our questions until the end.

 

Dr Ross - Thank you.

 

As directed, we began the study of those individuals, we were calling Storm Enhanced Persons within the first seventy-two hours after the Storm dissipated. During the three hundred and thirty-six minutes the storm was in effect, fourteen individuals not counting the so-called monsters, were reported in the United States alone, with over one hundred and forty being recorded worldwide. That number grew rapidly over the next hundred and twenty hours to a worldwide number of approximately five hundred and nineteen individuals who displayed  some level of enhancement. These numbers are approximations because we do not have accurate contributions from every country, but we expect that they are actually higher, quite possibly within the thousands.

 

These individuals displayed a wide range of abilities, which have been likened to the super-powers found in science fiction  novels, comic books, and movies. And have been of various levels of power form low range self-affecting abilities to high powered abilities such as those displayed in Britain by the SEP code named Einherjar, or here in the states by the one code named Bastion.

 

During the SEP quarantine all SEPs that reported in, underwent testing and evaluation. We gained a great deal of information however at the time we were unable to quantify it properly. In the months since we have made strides and come to some initial conclusions.

 

1.       We have determined that there are in fact two different categories of Enhanced Persons. The first and the most visible group are those who display those abilities that we are terming Quantum Abilities: flying, energy blasts, weather control, basically comic book super-powers. The second group have abilities which for the most part have been associated throughout history with psychics; telepathy, precognition, telekinesis, and so on. We are calling this group Psions. As far as we can determin there is no cross sharing of abilities; Psions do not have Nova powers and Novas do not Psi abilities, although both have displayed similar abilities to the other in some cases.

2.       The first group, which the media have taken to calling Novas, but which we refer to in official documentation as Quantum Enhanced Persons have been fundamentally altered at the cellular level by their exposure to the Storm. These persons have in effect developed a second neural network throughout their bodies which allows them to store and channel a hitherto unknown energy type we have named Quantum Energy.

3.       Quantum Energy, for our purposes, is a force related to the fundamental quantum forces of the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear force, but not one of them. This Quantum Energy does not seem to manifest naturally in our Macrocosm but only through an intermediary such as a QEP. It is with the QEP’s Internal Quantum Neural Network that they can Fundamentally alter the basic structure of reality to produce these effects.

4.       The Psion SEPs are another matter altogether. Their abilities are entirely directed by a physical network like the QEPs Quantum Network but not the same. The Psion network is centered in the brain, not throughout the body like a Nova’s and can generate a force which we are so far unable to measure or even detect without psionic aid. In other words we can only detect the results we can observe. Which makes knowing who is a Psion virtually impossible at this time without them revealing it in some way to us.

5.       Our observations lead us to believe that while the Storm was the Catalyst to the birth of both the Nova and the Psion, it is not the source of the mutations. Furthermore, we have had the opportunity to do postmortems on  a number of individuals of both types of SEP who have expired. The results have taught us a great deal but for our purpose today, it has shown us two very important distinctions between the two SEP. The QEP is a mutation, aside from the growth of a secondary neural network that does not exist in baseline humans there is substantial alteration to each individual’s genetic makeup. The Psion, on the other hand, is not a mutation as we understand the word. Rather the changes to the individual’s brain, appear to be some form of induced evolution. The neural network that facilitates the psi abilities is already existent in the brain but unused by a healthy brain. The Storm somehow forced that dormant network to begin working and growing. The conclusion here is that Novas are an offshoot, or branching of the human race and are physically different than what we are calling the Baseline, in other words us. The Psion, on the other hand, are not a branching but rather they are an evolutionary step, there is no change to their basic genetic makeup beyond the usual individual drift that probably existed before the storm.

 

 

THE REST OF THE TRANSSCRIP IS REDACTED

 

Spoiler

 

Dr Andrea Ross

 

[Nina]

March 2020 - August 2020

Part One

 

The revelation in March of the new nation state of Utopia, shocked the world and the sudden panic which swallowed up the news-feeds of the day for weeks as the nations around the planet struggled to come to grips with the suddenness and the strangely peaceful display of power the Utopians had displayed in making themselves known, began to ebb by mid-May.

 

It started with the acceptance of Libya to join fully with Utopia as a state, quickly followed by Algeria and soon after Niger. The subsequent recognition of the Nation of Utopia by Egypt cemented the deal in the following weeks several other African Nations recognized the state and then France completed the ceremony by officially recognizing the Nation Of Utopia on April 30th.

 

While suspicions remained as to the ultimate purpose of the Utopians and their goals, the UN recognized them on May the 5th 2020.

 

**********

 

At the same time across the globe the number of Novas continued to climb as more and more who had been transformed during The Storm came forward. While several with astounding powers revealed themselves or were discovered in remote areas the vast majority of the Nova’s were considered of low power with usually only one quantum power and many with none simply displaying enhanced physical or mental abilities such as super strength and speed or super-intelligence. Often these attributes were accompanied by enhanced abilities seemingly tied to the super attribute.

 

Several governments which had placed heavy restrictions on the Novas at first, changed or lifted their policies when Novas began abandoning their own countries and fleeing to Utopia. This change of policy had the desired effect, and many Novas stayed in their countries of origin and even reaped benefits with state sponsorship.

 

**********

With the industrial nations starting to get their feet back under them, many turned to those poorer nations and parts of the world that were also devastated by The Storm. Novas and Psions proved that they could do great work in the service of their fellow man. One of the most important of these services was the creation of The Monster Islands.

 

The Storm had wreaked havoc among the animal and plant life killing vast numbers, but some were transformed into horrendous creatures of destruction. It was these monsters which wrought most of the outright destruction during and immediately after the Storm. However, the Stormers rose up that day, and many threw themselves at the monsters so that many were killed or captured. What to do with the captured ones was a problem.

 

Many wanted to exterminate them, but others felt that that was inhumane and a waste. The creatures could be studied and maybe a way to reverse the storms effects found. Eventually it was decided to imprison at a remote hard to access location.

 

The Gambier Islands were chain of islands in the pacific which had been all but destroyed by the storm the remaining people where relocated (and compensated) and the nineteen islands became the prison for the surviving monsters and any more that may be captured in the future. A multinational naval Cordon was placed around the island but the real defense was a series of special low yield atomic mines place around each island which when detonated would destroy anything attempting to leave the island and anything on them.

**********

In the United states things were both good and bad. The states had been hit with uneven effects of the Storm leaving some areas untouched and some devastated. This led to vast migrations of populations and an imbalance in what had once been a semi stable political and economic outlook. Vast areas once home to millions were now empty of any real non transient population, and recovery in many places simply was not going to happen in the foreseeable future, whereas in other places where the population was forced to absorb huge numbers of refugees, suddenly economic crisis was the word of the day and crime rates soared. And in some places things boomed economically.

 

By early summer, the legislature had passed laws recognizing the Novas as a minority group with full rights and subject to all laws of the United States. States were directed to pass their own legislation within guidelines to protect against discrimination but to ensure the safety of all citizens. Many states passed laws requiring the registration of any Nova that possessed powers that could be considered deadly weapons, with use of said powers falling under the same types of laws governing firearms and other deadly weapons. Some states did not make these requirements.

 

In any case it would be beyond most law enforcement to police any Nova that did possess that level of power. To this end the federal government issued directives to state governments to refer any and all interactions with Novas to a special Branch of the ATF being created to police offending Novas.

 

Cities began to sponsor Novas to act as reinforcements to existing police. Federal, State, and local governments all stepped up their recruitment effort to gain access to their own Nova. Some Novas took those offered jobs but in reality most could write their own ticket in the privet sector in entertainment or other less contentious and dangerous fields and some simply wanted to be vigilantes.

 

Startlingly few recognizable Novas turned to crime.

 

The reason for this is simple, the Nova, now finding themselves with incredible abilities, found that making money was only a phone call away. State and Local Law enforcement and Governments wanted Novas to bolster their forces and serve as protection against would be Nova criminals. Industry wanted the Novas for a verity of reasons from the ability to do things with powers to the ability to design or solve problems with out of this world intelligence and insight. Entertainment want the for even more obvious reasons. Most Novas were incredibly good looking and had charisma some were so beautiful it was impossible to ignore them. Many Novas could do their own stunts and would allow movie maker greater flexibility in making their movie. CGI begins to give way to Nova Created Quantum FX.

 

With all of that it was no wonder that most Novas found gainful employment easily and many began to see wealth almost instantly.

 

But not all.

 

Some Novas were just wrong, not a result, in most cases, of their Novaness but rather they were wrong at a fundamental level. As far as is known the transformations made by the Storm were random and in that randomness, good people and bad felt the power of the Storm. There were unfortunately going to be bad Novas, sociopaths, psychopaths, Megalomaniacs, sadistic monsters who now had the power to inflict pain and suffering on a scale that would equal the Hitler's and Stalin's of the past. By the end of summer there had been few incidents of these Nova criminals, but the math said it was just a matter of time.

 

[Nina]

Late August 2020 – summer 2022

 

Somethings settle and somethings don’t.

By the end of  of 2020 the world population of Enhanced Persons had been re-estimated* to be in the neighborhood of 60000 to 80,000 persons, or roughly .00001 percent of the total world population, or about 1 in 100,000.  Some 10,000 of those had been identified and were surreptitiously being tracked by the world’s intelligence services. Of that 10,000  about 7,000 were classified as Nova Enhanced, the Rest are Psi Enhanced.

 

The vast majority of both classes are considered low powered, as is the largest number of the so far undiscovered EPs. These It is believed that most enhanced are completely unaware that the storm affected them and have gone on with their lives as best as possible. These persons have little or no control over what small amount of power they possess if they are even aware that they have powers, and in most cases the powers they do have are mostly of a passive nature.

 

Outside of Utopia, which has the largest Nova population of any single nation, the Novas and Psions have largely remained in their native countries though there are exceptions.

 

In the west, most nations have passed laws protecting the rights of the stormers and organizations have been born to meet their specific needs, created both by non stormer and stormer alike. Most western nations have also opened their militaries and national police to willing stormer volunteers.

 

The feared birth of the Super- criminal has not taken place, so far. It is too easy for those blessed with Nova Powers to make money and gain fame in legitimate ways. Of course, there are the bad apples among the Nova population, there always are, some Novas are bullies, and a few are the sort to resort to criminal behavior no matter what, but those few are quickly apprehended  or put down by the many Novas who have taken on the mantel of super-hero and protectors. The biggest concern about Novas during this period is the many who have joined, either forcibly or voluntarily their nations militaries, or worse have become mercenary, selling their powers to the highest bidder.  The Use of Enhanced Persons in military and para military actions are of growing concern, but have not yet reached the point where it is more than a conversation.

While Novas for the most part are excepted around the world, the same cannot be said of their fellow Stormers, the Psion.

 

To begin with Psions are difficult to detect. Only very sophisticated and highly specialized equipment can detect the use of psionic powers when they are being used and then only in localized cases. The other way to detect a psion is with another psion. Psions therefore have the ability to hide in plain sight and while their powers for the most part are not flashy or even destructive as Nova powers, they are fear inducing.

 

Psion’s can read minds and control thoughts and emotions, they can move things without touching them or even being near the object, they can even see the future. To the average person the fear of a psion lurking and manipulating is palpable. It doen’t help that the majority of Psions have chosen to remain anonymous.

 

Psions in government service are almost universally in the intelligence services as that is where the psion powers shine the most. Psions who turn to crime tend to be very successful and very very difficult to identify and even harder to apprehend.

 

There have been moves among the various governments to separate the Psion from the Nova as a class with the intent to allow more stringent laws to govern Psionic use to be passed. But these laws have not yet come to pass.

 

Overall, there is a great deal of mistrust of those who possess psionic abilities.

 

Rebuilding the devastation of the Storm has continued and even increased. Many Novas and Nova backed industries have made significant contributions to the rebuilding of the lesser fortunate areas of the world where government infrastructure is lacking.

 

In the developed nations where the destruction was heaviest in large urban cities, huge sections of cities, and in some case even whole cities, are being razed and new versions of the old are slated to be built. Again, Novas and Nova owned businesses are prominent in the process, but even with their help it is a process which will take years.

 

The Populations of the effected areas took a huge hit during the storm and immediately after. Unfortunately, due the devastation the death toll continued to rise for the next two years before finally leveling off to pre storm numbers.

 

Diseases New and old arose in the aftermath and with the reduced ability for nations to take on the added burden many more deaths occurred. Then there was famine caused by the loss of crops and arable land. The famine could have been much worse, but the Novas of Utopia stepped in and that new region became the new bread basket of the world cementing the Nova nation as a godsend.

 

All told an additional 165,000,000 persons became victims of the Storm bringing the total to over one billion persons who had perished directly during the storm or indirectly after it.