Island City Timeline

2089: World Expo held in the US. Theme: Living with New Energy.

2091: Island City constructed. First of the new cities to be based completely on solar and alternate energies, with no previous reliance on oil-based inventions. Originally a small area. Smaller buildings (3 to 5 stories tall), but each totally self-sufficient. Quite a variety of architecture. Modes of transportation completely made up of monorails and people-movers. No private vehicle access. Built on the sight of the 2089 World Exposition, the theme having been about new construction and living techniques based on the alternative energies. An enterprising business consortium had secured the land once the US had been chosen for that year's Expo (6 years in advance), and started building the monorails and people-movers, while the various countries built their separate buildings (made to be expandable, partially guided by the consortium if the countries accepted funding from them, which most did). Once enough people lived in the City for it to be duly registered by census (and state laws), a vote was held and the name 'Island City' was chosen to be the new name. (That had been its nick-name during the Expo. It was an overwhelming favorite of the voters, since all the 'serious' names had been argued over too much.)

Island City grows in size as people flock to live there. A hub of new ideas and inventions. (A Silicon Valley of the Twenty-Second Century.) Since there are other cities near it (and their land space limited), tall buildings and skyscrapers become the vogue.

2103'04: Meteor spotted, heading on a line for Earth. Emergency measures taken across the nations.

Island City attempts to become completely self-sufficient. Various food centers set up. Agro units, meat units, etc. Effort is also made to locate and preserve samples of all ecosystems and living creatures. Alternate energy resources theorized and researched in case the solar satellites become non-functional after the crash. All systems in the City are put on an interconnective basis with several back-up plans and functions.

2105'07: Meteor crashes into Earth. Has little effect on the citizens of Island City, who rejoice in their precautions.

2106: O-Storms start up. Island City is right in the pathway of some of the worse ones. Buildings destroyed. Energy systems run faulty. People killed. City is still functional, but only because of the incredible number of redundant systems built in. Population immediately starts moving downward, towards the lowest buildings, and into the ground itself. Several underground systems already set up, now, those systems are the only reliable ones. Scientists start cracking on all their theorized alternative energy ideas. The ideas of Energy Converters is brought off a shelf and dusted. Room is made (literally dug out) for converters to be built. Other systems are scrapped to find the parts.

2107: Force Fields invented. An off-shoot of the converter fields. And a great idea for protection from the O-Storms if they could figure out how to get them projected that far.

2109: Force Shield erected over Island City. At first erected on one side only, then expanded to cover the whole city in a circle. Takes another couple of years to obtain the height to go over the tallest of the skyscrapers. But the citizens are stubborn about survival and proud of their City. They go the extra lengths to preserve what had been theirs, and then to rebuild.

2117: Gating Technology invented by a team of International Scientists. Initially distributed throughout World Trade centers. Island City is one of the first to have access to this new technology. Citizens are slightly miffed that they weren't the ones to invent it.

2121: Youth Drug invented by Dr. Valdoon and distributed worldwide. Changes most of the recipients into Recessives. Society generally collapses. But Island City doesn't care about that for awhile, having their own problems. Being full of scientists and self-important (and very important) people, nearly everybody in the whole City takes the drug. Only 40 percent mutate the manner the drug was suppose to go. The other 60 percent start changing. Notice is made that something is wrong fairly quickly (in contrast with other areas, where people shrugged off the differences for awhile until it was way too late) Immediate rush is made on chemists and geneticists to find cures. No 'cures' are found, but people affected adversely by the drug are stuffed chock-full of potentials. This has the effect of changing the changes into stranger mutations. Only half of the 60% actually change into 'Recessives'. The other half mostly die quickly. That still leaves a heck of a lot of people psycho, with the survivors trying hard to cope.

In the other cities, much damage is done by the Recessives, and some areas are completely destroyed by the resulting mess of systems abused, off-line, non-monitored, etc. Island City suffers damage, but its main systems remain on-line due to the excessive redundancy of the back-ups put in when the meteor struck.

2123: Citizens of Island City stop attempting to contain and cure the Recessives, and instead concentrate on just getting them out of the City. Reluctant, but seeing this method to be their only hope of survival.

2127: High Council is last (and most successful) of the political squabblers to finally take up responsibility and try and reunite the shattered nation. Is successful mostly because it is based in Island City -- one of the very few places in America that is still functioning on a level comparable to pre-meteor society.

2128: Island City finally kicks the last of its Recessives out into the Wastelands. Starts rebuilding -- again. People, from other areas still threatened by Recs, hear of its safety and start migrating there. The RCF (Recessive Containment Force), that was created out of the old military reserves to deal with the Recessives, starts to diversify its functions. Creates a division called 'Hazardous Liberation' to go out into the Wastelands and help rescue people from nearby areas and other refugees fleeing their shattered cities.