Surviving the Apocalypse

The world before the solar flare. The setting takes place in 2030, in a world that was, normal.

Anthros make up approximately 10% of the global population. They are anthropomorphic beings with animal characteristics, living alongside humans in ordinary society. Their species and physical traits vary, but they are generally recognised as people with the same basic rights as humans.

This wasn't always the case. Anthros have a long history of discrimination, mistreatment, and exclusion. The worst institutionalised discrimination ended around 70 years ago, in approximately 1960. Since then, society has gradually become more accepting, and legal equality has become the established norm. However, prejudice has never completely disappeared, and some people still hold deeply ingrained anti-anthro beliefs.

By 2030, most people consider the worst of that history to be in the past. Few expect society to return to the conditions of previous generations.

Then, two months ago, everything changed. The solar catastrophe An unprecedentedly powerful solar flare struck Earth.

For nearly two weeks, auroras illuminated the skies across the entire planet. Green, red, and violet lights appeared in places where auroras had never been observed before, including regions near the equator. The spectacle was extraordinary, and for a brief period, many people watched the skies in wonder.

But the event was catastrophic.

Almost all electrical equipment was destroyed or rendered unusable. Power grids failed, communications collapsed, vehicles stopped working, and modern infrastructure suffered widespread damage. Hospitals lost access to essential equipment, supply chains broke down, and governments struggled to coordinate their responses.

The event also caused an extraordinary loss of Earth's atmosphere, leaving the remaining air at dangerously low pressure.

Without suitable protection, a person can remain outside for only a couple of hours before needing access to pressurised or oxygen-enriched air. Buildings that were once perfectly ordinary are now potential lifelines, provided they can be sealed and supplied with breathable air.

The catastrophe has turned everyday activities into survival challenges. Leaving home requires preparation. Travelling between settlements is dangerous. A damaged seal, an exhausted air supply, or a failed pressure system can turn an otherwise safe building into a death trap.

Two months later, the auroras have faded, but the world they illuminated is gone. The world two months later Most people are left to fend for themselves.

Supermarkets have been stripped of usable food. Refrigerated goods spoiled during the initial collapse, while warehouses and distribution centres sit abandoned or inaccessible. People scavenge for canned food, preserved supplies, tools, clothing, medicine, and anything else that might prove useful.

Water is collected from whatever sources remain accessible and made safe where possible. Mechanical equipment has become extremely valuable because it can still function without electricity. Bicycles, handcarts, printed books, paper maps, and hand-operated tools have regained their importance.

Communities survive through improvised arrangements. Some people band together in houses, apartment blocks, schools, warehouses, and other buildings that can be adapted into shelters. Others travel between abandoned properties in search of supplies. Some communities cooperate and share resources; others guard what they have and refuse entry to strangers.

Breathable air is one of the most important resources in existence. A building's walls alone are not enough: maintaining safe pressure and air quality requires suitable equipment, materials, and constant attention. Communities that can keep a shelter functioning have a significant advantage over those that cannot.

Modern transport is largely unavailable. Most vehicles are unusable, and long-distance travel has become exceptionally difficult. News travels through couriers, printed notices, surviving radio equipment, and word of mouth. A settlement only a few kilometres away may have completely different information about the state of the world.

There is no guarantee that emergency services will arrive when called, that food deliveries will come, or that the government will respond to a crisis.

The world is not completely devoid of order, but order is now local. Most people depend on their immediate community rather than any national institution. The government and the state of emergency In the immediate aftermath of the solar event, the government declared a national state of emergency.

Extraordinary powers were invoked to coordinate the response, allowing the government to bypass or suspend various normal political procedures. Elections were postponed, oversight weakened, and executive decisions increasingly concentrated in emergency committees.

Initially, these measures were broadly accepted as necessary. The country was facing an unprecedented catastrophe, and there was little appetite for political disputes while people struggled to survive.

However, the government's ability to exercise actual authority rapidly deteriorated.

Communications infrastructure had collapsed. Regional officials became isolated. Government departments lost access to personnel, transport, and essential supplies. Many local authorities were forced to make independent decisions because waiting for instructions was no longer practical.

Two months later, the national government still exists, but its authority is largely theoretical.

It retains a functioning leadership, some surviving administrative offices, and limited access to communication equipment. It can still publish announcements, issue directives, and claim jurisdiction over the country. What it cannot reliably do is enforce those directives.

It cannot guarantee that communities receive food. It cannot ensure that shelters remain operational. It cannot consistently deploy emergency personnel or maintain order beyond the areas where its surviving institutions retain a physical presence.

In many places, people have stopped expecting government assistance altogether.

The government can still tell the population what is happening, but it has very little ability to determine what actually happens.

HOMELAND The most significant development within the government is the rise of a division known as HOMELAND.

Its full name is the Human Operations, Management and Emergency Logistics Authority for National Defence. Established as part of the emergency response, it was intended to coordinate essential operations during the crisis.

As the rest of the government deteriorated, HOMELAND gradually acquired greater influence over emergency policy and official communications. It became closely involved in determining how the crisis was presented to the public, which reports were published, and which information was withheld.

HOMELAND is an explicitly human-supremacist organisation.

Its leadership believes that humans should take precedence over anthros and that the survival of human civilisation is more important than maintaining equality between the two populations. Its members regard the catastrophe as an opportunity to establish a society in which humans hold unquestioned priority.

However, HOMELAND does not necessarily announce these beliefs openly. It presents its policies as practical measures intended to preserve human life during an unprecedented emergency.

Its public messaging emphasises human survival, national recovery, and the need to make difficult decisions under extreme circumstances. Its name itself evokes patriotism, security, and the preservation of the country.

Behind this language, its policies deliberately exclude anthros from assistance.

HOMELAND has become one of the most influential forces within the surviving government, despite the government's diminishing ability to control the country. It is increasingly independent in its decision-making and uses the emergency to justify its expanding authority.

For the time being, it claims that its powers are temporary and necessary for national survival. Propaganda and public opinion HOMELAND's greatest remaining asset is its influence over information.

With much of the population isolated and reliable communication difficult, printed newspapers and surviving broadcasts remain important sources of news. HOMELAND exerts substantial influence over these publications, filtering reports and controlling which accounts of the disaster reach the public.

The resulting information environment is heavily biased.

Reports of anthros committing crimes or causing disturbances receive prominent coverage. Comparable incidents involving humans are often ignored or treated as isolated cases. Stories of anthros helping others, establishing functioning communities, or rescuing humans are suppressed or omitted.

Unverified accusations are repeated, while evidence that contradicts the official narrative is rarely published.

HOMELAND also promotes the idea that anthros pose a particular danger during the emergency. They are portrayed as unpredictable, potentially violent, and undeserving of scarce human resources.

The government-aligned press repeatedly warns human communities against allowing anthros into their shelters. Anthros are described as a threat to security, a drain on limited supplies, and a risk that responsible citizens should avoid.

These claims are used to justify denying anthros food, shelter, medical assistance, and access to functioning pressure-controlled buildings.

The propaganda does not need to convince everyone. It only needs to make enough people suspicious or fearful that discrimination becomes socially acceptable.

Some humans genuinely believe what they read. Others are uncertain but follow the restrictions because they fear being punished or ostracised. Some recognise the lies but remain silent because they are struggling to survive themselves.

Meanwhile, anthros who are refused assistance face an especially difficult situation. Many are forced to rely on their own communities, seek out people willing to help them, or attempt to survive in places where resources are even scarcer.

The government presents these outcomes as evidence that anthros are unwilling or unable to integrate into the emergency response, concealing the fact that its own policies are actively excluding them. The relationship between HOMELAND and the government HOMELAND's rise is enabled by the emergency powers granted at the beginning of the crisis.

The government initially gave emergency authorities broad discretion to make decisions without the usual legislative oversight. As the disaster worsened, those authorities expanded, and the distinction between temporary emergency administration and permanent political power became increasingly unclear.

HOMELAND gradually began acting less like a department answering to the government and more like an independent authority.

It still operates under the government's name, and its announcements continue to invoke national unity and public safety. Yet its leadership increasingly pursues its own ideological objectives, with little effective oversight from the institutions that originally authorised its existence.

The government is in a difficult position. It lacks the resources to manage the emergency independently, and it relies on surviving administrative structures to maintain even a limited degree of national coordination. Challenging HOMELAND risks further fragmenting an already unstable state.

At the same time, HOMELAND has no reliable means of controlling the entire country. Its authority depends heavily on the cooperation of local officials, the credibility of its publications, and the willingness of communities to accept its directives.

Most communities obey its announcements. Only some ignore them. ALmost all publicly support HOMELAND, anthros struggle to even find somewhere to start surviving.

HOMELAND can claim to speak for the country without necessarily being able to govern it.

Its political position is therefore contradictory: it is becoming more powerful within the government while the government itself is becoming less powerful in practice.

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