That's a good idea derp cat. It'll be easier for me to tailor a game which suits peoples abilities that way too. Anyway, I think it's tiem for some story information.
In March of 2012, scientists discovered a large asteroid headed towards Earth. The asteroid was almost the size of the moon and, should it hit the planet, would almost assuredly cause the end of the world. Fortunately, the asteroid was still quite far off, and the expected time of impact was more than a year away. In an effort to keep the public from panic, this information was suppressed. In the mean time, massive amounts of money were spent on proposed countermeasures, some a bit more reasonable than others.
In September of 2012 the asteroid is close enough that some private researchers are able to spot it. While governments initially crack down to keep these stargazers quiet, word eventually gets out. This goes about as well as you'd expect.
In an attempt to quell the ongoing chaos, the American government announces that it has a plan to stop the asteroid before it hits Earth, though the details are vague for the time being. Rumors fly about what the plan could be. The most popular were that there was going to be a mission to fly to the asteroid and plant nuclear bombs on it, doubtless inspired by sci-fi movies like Armageddon.
In the coming weeks, the American public is informed that there will be a series of blackouts, each lasting for 4 hours, three days a week in the near future. They are still not informed why.
December 1, 2011. At noon, the whole nation goes dark. The national guard is deployed across the country and every branch of law enforcement is on high alert, expecting that a massive wave of looting will occur. At 4 PM the lights come back on. Still no mention of why this had occurred. The process repeats every two to three days. The only information comes from foreign governments, who announce that there has been a massive atmospheric disturbance shortly after each blackout ends. On December 5, a Russian satellite captures an image of a massive structure which is hidden partially underground in the middle of Nebraska, before the satellite goes offline. Faced with these images and accusations that the US shot down a Russian satellite, the government announces that it will go public with its plans.
The next morning came astounding news. There was footage of what appeared to be a massive explosion on the asteroid. Later in the day, the President addresses the American Public and the world. It is unveiled that the military had constructed a massive Gauss cannon. The cannon was designed to propel a projectile at relativistic speeds and strike the asteroid, destroying parts of it while altering its trajectory. And as the recent footage showed, it seemed to be working. Despite the fact that the US had just created and used a weapon that was literally able to destroy planets, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. While the issue would need to be addressed eventually, it could be put off; for the day, the world was safe.
Over the next few months the cannon fired continuously at the asteroid, constantly moving and chipping away at it. By February 2012, it was confirmed that the majority of the asteroid had either been destroyed or safely rerouted. There were however a number of small chunks of rock headed towards the planet; quite a few actually. Fortunately, they were expected to largely break up in the atmosphere, with the exception of one piece. There remained one rather large chunk still headed toward the planet, and it was very possible that it could destroy an entire city if it hit anywhere inhabited. Presently, it appears that this piece will land in Siberia, destroying a vast swath of land, but harming few people, though this is not certain.
On June 2 however, these predictions changed. The last chunk of meteor, originally expected to land in Siberia, was now expected to land near the Ural mountains, in the central part of the country. This proved to be an extremely bad scenario for Russia. While the area itself was not particularly densely populated, there were a number of outlying areas that were. Now thankfully, based on satellite images, as well as impact data from the Gauss cannon strikes, it appeared that most of the remaining meteor was just rock and ice. However, there was still a remote, though existent, chance that the object would be composed of mostly iron, in which case cities as far away as Moscow could be damaged. With impact expected to occur in four days, frenzied evacuations began to take place, though everyone knew that in the worst case impact scenario, not everyone would make it out in time. Knowing this, the Russian government searched desperately for possible countermeasures. Eventually, it was decided that the only way would be to try and shoot the asteroid down. The Gauss Cannon was out of the question; the piece had been too small to reliably hit earlier, and now it was far too close to get an accurate firing solution. Instead, Russia would rely on an anti-satellite weapon, adapted to deliver a warhead instead of a simple kinetic strike. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was a desperate move. The chances of success were low. But there was simply no other choice.
The grim fate of Russia has done nothing to dampen your spirits however. In order to get the best possible view of the single most impressive meteor shower in Earth's history, a number of people have traveled to a small campsite in a forest in northern England. Today is the morning of June 6, and it is twelve hours before the meteor shower is expected to start.
tl;dr Most of you have traveled to England to watch the meteor shower. It's close enough for a great view, and far enough that you won't be killed by falling meteor pieces. Hopefully. I chose not to have it set in the US because even though I live in one of the most liberal states in the country, I can't go more than three feet without tripping over a high caliber rifle and I don't want everyone going Rambo on me six posts in. Of course, this is open to debate. If you guys really want to change the setting let me know and we can mix it up. Anyway, a few things to be aware of. 1: electronics are going to become useless very early on, if not immediately. 2: You're probably going to have to scavenge for just about everything. 3: You'll eventually have to make a decision between getting to safety, or fortifiying an area and riding out the storm.
You're also going to decide if you want the thread to start before or after the outbreak has started. If you want to jump right into things, we can go with after. If you're like me, and are somewhat irrationally annoyed at how zombie movies never show you how things got to where they were, we'll do before.
