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

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  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.