Rifts open, each one getting sequentially smaller as they move east around the world in Battle Ground, Washington; Brazil; France; Algeria; Zimbabwe; Poland; Saudi Arabia; Russia; Siberia; Myanmar; China; Australia; and New Zealand. The Rifts are portals not to other planets, but to an infinite number of other Earths.
2005
Out of fear that the Rifts would cause mass hysteria, a global effort is launched to keep them a secret. World leaders meet and form ARC: the Allied Rift Coalition.
2005
ARC is tested almost immediately when all manner of dangerous creatures spill out of the Rifts. These creatures are a panacea of evolutionary biology, as humanity learns that Homo sapiens are only one of many sentient beings that could have evolved on Earth.
2005
One month after the Rifts open, seventy-three Roones enter Earth. The Roones are a highly evolved humanoid species that promises to help ARC deal with the Rifts.
2006
With technology developed by the Roones, human trials begin with military troops. Soldiers are implanted with a chip intended to make them exponentially stronger, smarter, faster, and more agile. The test subjects are unable to handle the metamorphosis the brain must undergo to allow for these new “super” abilities. Each subject dies.
2006
ARC theorizes that by changing the microprocessor in the implant and delaying the time the chip takes to activate by seven years, a child’s young biology can better accept and adapt to the massive changes their bodies would undergo. ARC agrees to let the Roones implant children with the chip.
2006
Seven-year-olds within a two-hundred-mile radius of each Rift site are tested in school. ARC chooses one hundred with the most average test scores. They do not want to take a potentially bright future away from a gifted child and they want their “super” soldiers to appear as unremarkable as possible.
2006
Without these children’s parents’ consent, the first crop of one hundred children is implanted with the chip.
2007
The first Village is created outside the Battle Ground Rift. This is where ARC takes all Immigrants (anyone or anything that Rifts to this Earth from another) to be held in captivity, away from the general population.
2007
A second crop of children is implanted.
2008
Militaries from around the world continue to deal with the hostile Immigrants exiting the Rifts; there are numerous casualties on both sides.
2008
Construction begins on six more global Village sites.
2008
A third crop of children is implanted with the chip.
2009
Levi Branach and a fourth crop of children are implanted with the chip.
2010
Henry Gibbon, Violet Henshaw, Boone Castor, and Ryn Whittaker are all implanted and join a fifth crop of children.
2011
A sixth crop is implanted.
2012
A seventh crop is implanted.
2012
ARC creates an elaborate subterfuge to relocate the families of the implanted children. ARC tells the parents of these children that its acronym stands for Accelerated Rate Curriculum. It is staged as the most prestigious program in the world for gifted students. It guarantees a bright and successful future. Parents believe their kids will attend a highly competitive high school program when in reality they will be policing The Rift.
2013
The first crop of implanted children is activated. ARC calls these new soldiers Citadels.
2013
The Karekins immigrate to this Earth. They are a deadly and highly advanced humanoid race. Their attacks become increasingly brutal and frequent.
2013
An eighth crop of children is implanted.
2014
A ninth crop of children is implanted.
2015
A tenth crop of children is implanted.
2016
An eleventh crop of children is implanted.
2016
Levi Branach is activated and becomes a Citadel.
2017
A twelfth crop of children is implanted.
2017
Henry, Violet, Boone, and Ryn become active Citadels.
2018
A thirteenth crop of children is implanted.
2019
A fourteenth crop of children is implanted.
2020
Present day.
2020
Ryn’s parents believe she is a junior in high school and a fifteenth crop of children has just been implanted …
“Command Center, this is Gamma Team in Nest four. There is no visual. Over.” The voice crackles in my earpiece. I tap the small device without thinking. It’s not a hardware issue, not with the kind of equipment we use. More than likely it’s interference. We are the closest team to The Rift. I wait for the other teams to check in, but it’s protocol at this point. They aren’t going to see anything before we do. We hear from Lambda, Phi, Rho, and Omega. The reserves are farther back, in the denser part of the forest, waiting in case something really bad comes through, like a column of Karekins. Karekins are the most dangerous enemy we face in The Rift game. They are humanoid but proportionally much, much bigger—at least eight feet tall. Whenever I see one, I think of the Titans from Greek mythology. Maybe the big shots at ARC thought the same thing when they divided us all into groups using the Greek alphabet.
The scientists at The Allied Rift Coalition created sophisticated machines that spike and beep whenever The Rift is about to dump something out.
