Timeline of the Iris infestation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a timeline of the parasite infestation of Earth, from the arrival of the Iris in 2020. As of 2028 about 90% of the world's land surface is infested. Held territory consists of northern and western Europe, Murmansk, much of the railway network across Europe and Asia, and holdouts in Brazil, Australia and Oceania.
2020
- The Iris arrives in the Solar System and settles into orbit around the Sun.
- The European Federation and the United States cooperate for about six weeks before their earlier disputes resume.
- Unusual bacterial activity is reported in coastal soils and dismissed as contamination.
- The first Primitive Beckons appear near the equator. They can be destroyed with hand tools.
- Buglins are recorded, and the first of them mature into Rupters.
- The first cases of COTH are recorded, among patients recovering from COVID-19. They are treated as unexplained recoveries followed by relapse.
- The European Federation sues H&A over anomalous concentrations of sulfur hexafluoride in Federation territory, beginning the sulfur hexafluoride case. H&A sets up its Hyperbiology Division to contest it.
2021
- Primitive Beckons spread through South America and West Africa.
- The first Dispatchers are identified.
- Devourers begin sinking merchant shipping, and the marine insurance crisis follows. About 120 ships are lost by the end of the year.
- The clinical name cryptic opportunistic terminal histoparasitosis is given to COTH. Carriage is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa.
- The first Canadian summit between the European Federation and the United States collapses after a month.
- Hyperbiology's evidence in the sulfur hexafluoride case identifies Beckons as the source of the gas, and is heard in open session. The Federation withdraws its claim, and Ashley Woods is appointed to direct the Hyperbiology Division.
2022
- 7 February: the Second World War begins after a shooting at the Second Canadian Summit. Nuclear weapons are used the same night.
- H&A becomes the European Federation's primary operational contractor under the EF Integration Agreement.
- H&A begins developing RTG weapons.
- The first Manglers are recorded.
- Famine begins in regions that depend on food imports by sea.
2023
- Venice, the first major European city to fall, is abandoned after a coordinated attack by Devourers carried through its canals. Its fall starts a period of panic across Europe.
- Branch parasites begin to appear.
- The 1st Vagrant emerges in Knox County, Kentucky, where he had formed the previous year.
2024
- H&A Hyperbiology establishes contact with the 2nd and 3rd Vagrants.
- The Knox hive holds Knox County. An American attempt to burn it out in the autumn fails.
2025
- COTH carriage becomes near-universal, with more than 95% of people tested positive.
- The first agent swarms, self-sustaining populations of AI agents, emerge. They spread through 2026.
- A proto-Supreme Beckon is found beneath Hiroshima. A nuclear strike is authorised within 96 hours and destroys it at about 40% maturity, killing about 240,000 people.
- The 4th Vagrant emerges late in the year.
2026
- Japan's infestation reaches a critical level. Operation Iron Road sends a relief force across Siberia to Japan by the Trans-Siberian Railway, a journey of several weeks. The operation succeeds with heavy losses.
- The Hyperbiology Leak: internal H&A documents describing the Vagrants in asset-management terms are made public.
- A European Federation nuclear strike destroys the Supreme Beckon of Vitreous.
- The first Pure organisms, a class of Fabricated parasites larger and more capable than the Inborn, are recorded.
2027
- 2 March: the Kraków Accords place the European Federation's armed forces and parasite response under a joint H&A-EF command. By the end of the year it is the main administrative structure in Federation territory.
- Day 2,715 to Day 2,760: the 1st Vagrant causes a communications blackout across American-held North America through the Knox hive's Dispatchers. The joint command's Operation Portage (Day 2,731 to Day 2,775) takes Buffalo and Syracuse at its height.
- Analysis of signals intercepted from the Dispatcher network shows that the early Beckons' behaviour was a controlled test of human responses.
- Earth's orbit becomes measurably more elliptical, and the year begins to lengthen. The H&A Records Division moves from calendar dates to day counts.
- May: Kraków is evacuated, two months after the Accords were concluded there.
- São Paulo falls late in the year.
- At the end of the year, a European Federation nuclear strike destroys the Supreme Beckon of Tromos.
2028
- The change in Earth's orbit is confirmed and made public.
- The Moon's orbit begins to change under the Iris's gravity.
- Four proto-Supreme Beckons begin growing at the same time. Three are destroyed, and the Federation's nuclear arsenal falls to its critical reserve.
- Japan falls.
- The European Federation begins evacuating its remaining territories in North America.