[PTTG]

12: 99.9% of the population disappeared in classic banestorm activity.

The banestorm activity started simultaneously around the planet and was truly random... (specific group vanishings might be very interesting varians, though). Aside from a few industrial disasters, most of the planet was simply very quiet after the vanishings. The remainders took some time to gather and mourn. By 2020, the lack of maintenance has taken its toll on the industrial infrastructure of Earth. TL has declined slightly and seems to be on a downward trajectory, despite the fact that the early period of nihilism has mostly ended. The Las Vegas strip has been trashed by waves of looters and nihilists, but to the north of the city there's a fairly stable, if rowdy, settlement populated by the fairly large number of people from all over the North American continent. New York, Shanghai, and London, in contrast, retained some level of city identity.

13: For 8 hours at the peak of the storm, all human beings entered a dream state and collectively experienced life as if they had been transported to an alien homeworld; they were informed that this was the only way to communicate long-distance and given instructions for a device that would, when completed, trigger the Sun to detonate in a way that would safely transport all humans to the aliens' advanced home world.

Not everyone is exactly sold on the idea of destroying the sun just because aliens told us to. Yes, it's pretty clear that the message was a real phenomenon -- after all, several million people died during the eight-hour blackout due to industrial accidents, house fires, and other strange circumstances. The aliens explained that there was no way for them to more carefully target the message, but many humans remain convinced that it was a deliberate attack.

Nor is it at all clear that the construction project would do anything anyway. It involves lofting an orbital ring above earth and the moon, plus coating the lunar far side with solar panels and a wide assortment of magnetic and laser generators. None of the systems rely on materials that exceed mundane material strengths, although they would be incredibly expensive to build. It's just not clear as of yet what the systems would do, or how they achieve the ultimate consequence of transporting all human consciousnesses to the alien homeworld, where they will be given new forms and a world of plenty.

Nonetheless, more than half the planet's population, including many of the most wealthy, are united in putting the plan into action. Much of the rest of Earth isn't exactly going to fight against it. Only a small number of radicals actually oppose the construction and think that it' an attempt to trick humanity into exterminating itself -- although again the devices don't have any clear use as an earth-destroying tool either.

By 2020, prototype loops are already being built on the lunar surface, and the first space conflict has taken place after rebels sabotaged an early attempt. In the US, which was perhaps more than other nations conflicted over the whole process, a police state is developing.

14: For 298 hours at the peak of the storm, all humans experienced inarticulate howling and screeching that linguists struggled to comprehend. The entirely psionic noise could not be stopped and prevented sleep. Though some people apparently died more-or-less directly from sleep deprivation, far more died from secondary effects, attempts to promote sleep, and attempts to deafen themselves. Those that survived and attempted to record the message found that it was structured like language, but records were almost impossible to make and incredibly inaccurate after the first ten hours.

The first few minutes were chaotic, and at first was interpreted as some kind of sonic attack. Soon that was ruled out, and insomuch as possible productive work around the world ground to a halt. Astronomers and others familiar with the approach of the wave managed to start getting written records down almost immediately; electronic instruments were unable to detect the signal whatsoever.

Unlike in many population catastrophes, this world had time and ability to shut down industrial processes safely. There were no notable industrial accidents here.

As the hours dragged on, more and more civilians were drafted to record the psionic sound, (as a massive group effort could produce data that could be aggregated later). A handful of people already on edge started to act rashly within the first few hours, but for the most part things were orderly. It was around this point that linguists became convinced that the noise was a language and had structure. No attempts to block the signal were successful.

For those parts of the world where the signal started around nightfall, the sixth hour represented the first real strain on mental health. Mental health officials, already themselves exhausted, tried providing pharmaceutical aid to critical personnel which allowed a small number of people to get some chemically assisted sleep, but the doses were dangerous enough as it was. By the sixteen hour mark, there was nobody who wasn't already exhausted of the signal, and every part of the globe had already started to encounter serious problems with social disruption.

The gradual mental degradation of the planet resulted in a global mental breakdown. Densely populated areas were cacophonous as people tried to drown out the screeching with more pleasant sounds like car horns, or else attempted to deafen themselves (unfortunately even with eardrums destroyed the psionic signal kept coming through; only those born deaf really were resistant). Random mental breakdowns were common and all responders were stretched thin and exhausted as it was.

As abruptly as it arrived, the psionic screeching ceased, leaving an exhausted humanity to recover. Only some seventy complete records of the screeching exist, and all of them disagree in some places over the exact tone, meter, and quality of the screeches, making a real translation of much of the signal impossible.

The aftermath saw, first, everyone on the planet sleeping for sixteen hours straight. In terms of deaths, this was a fairly small disaster at only several million. However, everyone on the planet is suffering some kind of psychological damage or another.