Marine Rising

'''Sometime, somewhere in our past, a normal, working man understood something that no one had ever realised before. Even if they had all known that it would be true, they could not begin to contemplate the future that was far too obvious to understand. The human race was doomed, and no one was going to do anything about it.'''

- Simon Llewmor, from The Flood, 103 NE

On the 16th of February, 2134, flood waters broke through the Washington Dam and the White House became submerged underwater. At this time, the US, one of the world's last remaining superpowers, first surrendered to the inevitable apocalypse. All around the world, the water levels were rising. By 2160, most of the planet, save the himalayas and a few other tall mountain ranges, was underwater.

But this had long been planned. Even if the biggest countries in the world had relied on the sheer size of their barriers, a small group of scientists had not. A small project, first begun by a team of only three scientists, became the last hope for the human race. This project was Marine Rising.

The project was first developed in Switzerland, but the Swiss thought they were too far inland and too high up to ever need such a scheme. The scientists travelled to Britain, one of the six world superpowers. With the support of the British government, and with the highest level of secrecy, Marine Rising was developed. By 2100 it had a team of twenty.

But then hit the Third Great Depression. The coal ran out. The Amazon, the primary source of wood, was protected under threat of nuclear retaliation by the Latin American Federation. Britain cut the funding for the project, and the science team, diminished looked elsewhere. Eventually they reached India, who had enough money to pay for the project to carry on.

Here, they worked for twenty five years. In 2124, the project began to reap the benefits of its plan. The first marine settlement, Aquamore, was built in the Indian Ocean. It had a population of forty two thousand, and contained hundreds of biomes for growing plants and animals as well as millions of oxygen harvesters.

Upon seeing the success of the project, countries all around the world began to invest. But the flood waters had already begun to rise - Canada, Britain and Australia were all partially submerged. The waters were charging through Europe and Africa.

By 2128, over a billion people had fled to India and Japan (India's partner in the project) looking to join a marine town. A gigantic city was finished to the east of Japan, with a name that translated to New Tokyo. India constructed another, smaller village, known as Goldlake. But they were not quick enough.

In 2131, India's flood barriers broke. In a single day, over forty million people trying to get into the new city were killed by rising water levels. After two weeks the death toll reached 140 million. October the 28th, 2131 was the last date anyone was transported to the underwater cities. Some tried, but all failed.

From that point on, life on earth was a slow, painful wait to be massacred. A moon colonization project was launched by Britain, Russia, France and the US, but it was unknown whether the scheme was successful or if the ships ever reached their destination. Twenty million left earth in space ships, including a few small shuttles carrying a few hundred by China, Japan and Brazil, among others. They were not heard from.

By 2160, Earth was lost. All that remained of the human race existed in three underwater cities off the coast of India and Japan. These pages tell the story of those that lived in these cities, how they grew and developed and fought and tried to rebuild the great empire of their ancestors - underwater.

Timeline

 * 2087 - Marine Rising project first conceived by Swiss scientists
 * 2124 - Underwater city of Aquamore founded in the Indian Ocean.
 * 2128 - Marine city of New Tokyo founded east of Japan by the Japanese government.
 * 2129 - Goldlake founded south of Aquamore.
 * 2138 - Marine Alliance created between Aquamore and Goldlake.
 * 2144 - New Tokyo joins the Marine Alliance.
 * 2157 - Earth formally declared submerged by the Marine Alliance.
 * 2159 CE/ 0 NE - Earth declared in a 'New Era' and calendar altered accordingly.

To be continued...