2118

Life in the cities slowly began to adapt to the new situation. Communications

between the cities provided insight to the problems some were facing, so that all

could adapt and provide for the future. Some of them were in distress. The city of

Paris faced starvation. The hole in the dome was never properly patched, and the

environment was in contact with the outside. Most of the systems were now unable to

keep up with the life-support demands and were failing. The outside world had begun

to freeze, and the scavenging humans who survived the first years of the Osiris

impact were visiting the domes in an effort to find refuge. Most of them survived in

underground bunkers near the cities but had run out of resources and were now

looking for a means to survive.

The gates of the domed cities, however, were under a rock. Rock that fell as

liquid from the sky slowly built a layer around the cities. As the years went by, their

attempts become more and more rare until they stopped. This became apparent from

the evidence found after the gates of the dome cities got unblocked. The speculation

was that no survivors existed outside of the domes since the moment of the impact.

Communications with Mars had yet to be established, leaving most to believe that the

colonies had all been destroyed. The plan was to open the gates and dig through the

rock before the planet completely froze over, so that they could have access to the

outside. Pre-dug human-sized tubes connected the cities, but most of them needed

repairing, since they had collapsed in various locations. After their completion, some

goods and help would be able to be transferred from one city to another.

2140

As the years went by, the surviving cities began to work almost fully autonomously

allowing all residents to work on scientific advancement. The majority of the

population was preoccupied with finding a way to reverse the damage and make the

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planet habitable, faster than nature. A titanic task with no apparent way of achieving

it. Things began to slow down. Change seemed to be a distant memory. Under the

blanket of snow, humanity almost froze its progress, and social structures adapted

into an ever-slowing pace.

2150

The first launch of a rocket took place. From a single-use pad, a small rocket with a

few kilos worth of equipment was shot in space. A new space observatory of Earth or

SOE was placed into orbit. Its sole mission was to monitor Earth and send readings

regarding weather, dust, and element composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Ninety-

nine percent of all satellites had been destroyed by smaller meteorites and pieces of

Earth debris launched into orbit with the strike. The remaining satellites were

geosynchronous GPS satellites that were very far from Earth and had mostly

remained unharmed. Communications with those satellites have been useful for

various reasons. It was becoming increasingly harder to send missiles into space

since the Earth was continuously sinking into the white sea of snow and ice.

2156

The Mars Communications Reestablishment Drone, or MCRD, was launched. Its

mission was to establish communications with the Martian colonies. Five months

later, the drone landed where the colonies used to stand and reported ruins with no

signs of life. The colonies did not survive. Mars too had been bombarded by smaller

meteorites. Besides the few that were part of the original Osiris, some chunks that

flew into space from Earth found their way onto Mars. Additionally, the lack of a thick

atmosphere on Mars meant that even small meteorites made their way to the

surface, acting as bullets.

2158

The first space station was placed in orbit. The thick cloud that covered the planet

had created a winter that killed nearly all life outside of the dome cities. A small

selection of animals had been kept, with the hope of reestablishing an ecosystem

after the snow melted. There was hope that in the ocean depths, life still thrived

despite the increased acidity. Bacteria and fungi should have made their home under

the ice, where water was heated from the inside of the Earth. The ice on the surface

was winning. Even where the clouds allowed the sun to see the surface, the ice

reflected nearly all the heat back out. The Earth began to resemble a snowball.