In the year 2000 of the Western Calendar a calamitous event occurred which changed both human history and human evolution. Not since 65 million years ago had an asteroid of enormous mass struck the planet. In that impact event, the first coming, occurred near the Yucatan Peninsula of the North Western Hemisphere of the Cretateous Earth. At that time the Yucatan was a carbonate shelf below 30 meters of seawater (the trailing southern edge of the North American plate). Even though the seawater provided a cushioning effect, the outcome was devastating. 66% of all life on earth would die out in the next 100 years: 70% of all land animals and 60% of all land plants. The life of the seas was not spared either. The climate changed in profound ways. Ocean circulation was completely altered. For the 125 million years of Earth history which is known as the Mesozoic Era, there were no glaciers and no continental ice sheets. With the first impact, the profound changes in the Earth's climate and oceans heralded the return of glacial winters and continental ice sheets.
The second impact in the year 2000 was even more devastating. The asteroid's descent into the Earth-Moon gravity system was perturbed by a close approach to the Moon. The close approach swung the trajectory at a high angle to plane of the ecliptic. Had the descent velocity of the asteroid been only a few 10s of meters per second higher the asteroid would have been flung back out into space. Yet, such is fate. The high ascent angle of the asteroid as it passed the Moon meant that it would be captured by the Earth's gravity field and taken into a fast decay polar orbit. Astronomical observatories and military satellite tracking instillations on Earth watched in silent horror as the asteroid plummeted on its fateful journey. Not until the last 10 hours of descent did calculations from US and Japan supercomputers confirm that the impact sight would be the East Antarctic ice sheet. The impact and the catastrophe that followed were unprecedented.
The East Antarctic ice sheet was partly vaporized and the whole of the remainder completely melted. Seismic sea waves, Tsunami, over 2 kilometers in crest height and traveling in excess of Mach 10 raced out from the Antarctic impact sight to traverse the earth's oceans in a matter of minutes. The wave base of the tsunami were almost as deep as the mid-ocean depth. Where the ocean depth was shallower than 2 km their immense power was focused at the air-ocean interface. As the wavegroup raced along, their phase power was strong enough to break oxygen-hydrogen bonds in the upper meter of the ocean water. The churning of the waves produced a self-actuating electromagnetic field: a wall of plasma 1000's of degrees Celsius and shining like the light of the sun with over a million watts of electrical energy.
In the top 50 meters of the world's ocean lives 80% of the world's biomass: plankton. Passage of the tusnami caused the virtual extinction of the bottom of the world's food chain. Within a year the world ocean would seem devoid of all life.
The Japan - United States Naval 7th Tactical Group (the nuclear aircraft carrier Jim Broade with surface ship and submarine escort) on UN maneuvers in the Antarctic Sea were the first to witness the tsunami from the impact. Radio dispatches from the USS Broade reported seeing the plasma discharge of the impact event followed by the plasma wall of the approaching lead tusnami. GPS (Global Positioning System) navigations officers on board the carrier and the escort submarines, using the Auckland base station for reference, reported gravity wave disturbances radiating from the impact site on East Antarctica. Against such powerful forces the surface ships had no defensive measures. The submarine commanders on the other hand attempted a daring maneuver. At one hundred meters depth they flooded the forward compartments of the sub and with full reverse power upended the subs into a near vertical position. When the tusnami passed overhead the wave orbital motions nearly tore the subs apart and pushed them like twigs in a whirlpool 50 kilometers north of their last known position. Though heavily damaged and on minimal power, the submarines broke the surface to look for survivors of the surface ship task force. Five survivors were rescued though one died shortly after of massive burns to 100 percent of the body. One of the submarines was too badly damaged to return to port and was scuttled. The two remaining submarines survived to return to UN Naval Pacific Operations in Honolulu, Hawaii.
World wide sea levels rose by 50 to 75 meters, thus submerging most of the major industrial centers. 50% of Humanity ceased to exist. In one fantastic event, Homo sapiens was back to the dawn of its history. Political and cultural cities such as Brussels, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, London, New York, Rio de Janario, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington D.C. and many others were destroyed within minutes of the impact. Oil freighter transport lines over the worlds oceans was severely disrupted. Microwave and satellite radio communications was disrupted for months due to the water and particulate matter thrown high into the stratosphere by the impact. For weeks the troposphere was on average 12 ¡ Celsius warmer, killing sensitive vegetation in the equatorial tropical rain forests and high northern and southern latitudes. However thereafter the troposphere cooled due to the high concentration of particulate matter in the stratosphere.
The only effective world political organizations surviving the second coming were the United Nations and the North Hemispheric Defense Treaty Organization. Literally the entire governments of the United States, Japan, Confederated Commonwealth of Britain along with most of the Pacific rim countries were wiped out. The surviving UN agencies quickly organized continental Political and Emergency Service Prefectures with headquarters located at Moscow, Beijing, Denver, Mexico City, , Darwin, and Cairo.
Soon after the second impact the surviving humans were visited by a new and even greater threat: alien invasion. The asteroid that had impacted the East Antarctic ice sheet had been in reality a space ship. The inhabiting life forms were nothing like to be encountered on Earth. Later known as "Angels" 100 meter tall sentient biomachines their ultimate purpose was unknown. However, their immediate motives judging from their actions seemed to point to multiple possibilities with no single one satisfactory. Historians in reviewing surviving manuscripts of ancient human cultures came to the conclusion that the sentient machines had visited Earth at least once during Homo sapiens sapiens early evolution: perhaps the biomachines had visited Earth at the end of the Cretaceous. Reinterpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and similar newly found documents from western China indicated that Homo Neanderthals and similar early human cultures were visited by the biomachines. The cryptic writings of the Book of Revelation of early Christian theology seemed to take on new and poignant meaning. Leaders of the neo UN resolved to marshal material and personnel for defense of the the species. Distributed command and control centers were established at Beijing, Denver, Cairo, Moscow, New Delhi, and New Sydney. Scientific and engineering resources were focused to initially understand the biomachines. Surviving USDOD and Russian military reconnaissance satellites were trained on Antarctica to monitor the biomachines. Before sufficient military resources could be brought to bear, small scale attacks at sea with Navel units of the Republic of China and Australia occurred. Soon after attacks occurred in Japan, South America, India, and Africa. Japan was particularly hard hit. A new city, 2nd New Tokyo in Nagaya Prefecture west of the former capital was obliterated in a brutal night-time attack. Elements of the former Land and Air Defense Forces fought courageously. However, with limited resources and no obvious strategic plan discernible of the Angels resulted in high casualties. Fortunately one of the angels was disabled and captured. Soon after, the UN ordered material and funds to be allocated for a new city to be constructed underground, 3rd New Tokyo, and a crash research program began using elements of the former Human Gnome Project and elements of the Biotechnology Science City. The new project instillation was named NERV. There an international team of scientists and engineers deciphered the functions and mechanisms of the Angel. With the new knowledge in genetic engineering and physiopsychometry the captured Angel was rebuilt, referred now as the "disciple", and two new models constructed, code name EVANGELION. The new knowledge was applied to the Human gnome project to produce a team of genetically altered humans with special psychometric abilities. They were born to pilot the Disciples. In all the NERV Gnome project produced more than 20 children: a select group of which were specifically chosen for a classified TOP SECRET Human Evolution Advancement Program and out of this group three children were chosen as the first "pilots" of the EVANGELION units. Although the Public Information Directorate at NERV made it known that the three children were to use the EVANGELIONS in combat against the Angels, the primary objective was classified TOP SECRET ALPHA. Only three human beings on Earth had such a high clearance: the Secretariat General of the UN, the Director General of NERV, and the Director General of EVANGELION Project.