The Earth That Is:Background

This is a record of the collaborative background process for The Earth That Is.

From the personal log of Knight-Captain Samantha St. Croix

4.17.2xxx

Had I been told, at a child below at Academy, that my generation would be the ones to Launch, I might scarcely have believed it. Had I been told that I would be Knight-Captain of The Diogenes, I would have laughed. How many generations have lived and died in service of the Great Plan? How many children have perched upon the knees of their grandparents, enthralled by stories of sacrifice and bravery performed in its name? And not a moment too soon. The technothurges have reported disturbing trends - the ever-present degradation of the planet’s atmosphere has accelerated. The air is still breathable, but not for much longer. Last year, they predicted another century of slow, choking death. This year, they give us a decade. At the most. Meanwhile, we are hearing reports of villages in the wastes going dark. Multiple city-states have been forced to raid their own vassals. Sometimes they find terrified peasants hoarding what little food they have. Sometimes they find deserted homes and farmland choked with weeds. Sometimes they find strange creatures dancing beneath the moonlight. Or so the reports say. The great spaceport at Belgrade is gone. A madman found an ancient nanotech weapon and detonated it in the middle of the city. It’s gone. They’re all gone. I suppose this is why the Great Plan calls for redundancy. We have begun preparations to launch and the final inventory is underway. We’ve nearly loaded all the geodesic domes and the seed stock is soon to follow. Next month we’ll bring the first of the fusion reactors online - the ones that power the cryo caskets. After that comes the fun part. Lord Merriweather has ordered that we attempt to evacuate the surrounding area. The Launch will be catastrophic - anyone and everything within a mile will be incinerated. Anyone within five will die much more slowly. Many of the knights are grumbling - ordering the peasants away from their fields and homes will be difficult. The farmers know the truth. They’re being abandoned. The fulfillment of the Great Plan has always been steeped in abandonment. We'll follow orders, but I refuse to sacrifice any of my knights on the altar of my Lord's misplaced compassion. We'll do much worse in the days to follow. They once called this land Cheyenne Mountain. Soon enough, it will be a charred crater.