As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in.
There was no explanation for what caused the mass infertility of the human species,
but as birth rates declined the effect on society was catastrophic.
Without hope for a future, civil society broke down. Governments collapsed and a vast migration
of refugees threatened the few nations that endured. Russian nuclear attacks annihilated vast
swaths of Central Asia. Civil War in the United States saw New York similarly destroyed in atomic
fire. Violence spread and escalated while fallout poisoned millions across Africa and Asia. In 2027,
only the United Kingdom remains. A last fortress of stability in a crumbling world.
As a matter of policy, the British government has attempted to project an image of cohesion
and continuity to maintain national morale. Officially it remains a parliamentary
democracy and constitutional monarchy, albeit one currently under a prolonged state of emergency.
The public image of the Royal Family has been maintained, with King Charles the Third as the
head of State of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.
Yet the imminent population collapse and extinction of the human species has in effect
created a new British state. Its authority is limited to Great Britain alone with no means of
exercising its sovereignty within even its former possessions in Ireland or the rest of the world.
The United Kingdom as it exists today is an authoritarian police sta`te,
with political control exerted by security forces that operate outside the boundaries
its constitution would normally impose. Its sole national aim is to preserve civil society
for as long as possible before its inevitable collapse. This is largely for the benefit of an
upper tier of elites who maintain a luxurious lifestyle within special government sectors.
During the early years of the infertility crisis, government officials and ministers within this
privileged group additionally attempted to make the United Kingdom a last repository for human
culture and achievement. One of the largest government projects was the “Ark of the Arts”,
in which seminal works were seized from the world's remaining museums,
so they might be preserved on British soil. Thousands of pieces of priceless
aesthetic value were saved from destruction and today grace the homes of British elites.
The remainder of the United Kingdom’s population exists within varying levels of squalor.
Rapidly deteriorating infrastructure and public services have left every major city
affected by mass decrepitude. Basic utilities are subject to intermittent
failure with garbage collection services and waste management suspended entirely.
With dwindling food supplies, a basic ration is allotted to every British citizen,
one that includes antidepressants, and Quietus, an assisted suicide pill. Public religious
services have grown especially prevalent, with groups such as the Repenters and Renouncers
kneeling for months at a time or flagellating themselves as a means of begging for forgiveness.
To maintain security within these urban centers,
neighborhoods and civic infrastructure are organized into a series of security zones.
Depending on the severity of the zone’s restrictions, identification and travel
documents might be required to enter, while some are completely closed to the public. During
states of heightened alert, temporary lockdowns might be established over problematic areas,
and those within subjected to overwhelming force and suspended civil liberties.
The principal target of these heightened measures are refugees and illegal immigrants,
derogatorily referred to as “fugees”. With the remainder of the world in complete chaos,
millions have attempted to escape to Britain necessitating the controversial Homeland Security
bill that has completely sealed the UK’s border’s for 8 years. Any who make it into the country are
systematically hunted down and forcefully removed from British territory. Numerous
coastal cities and communities have been walled off and transformed into refugee camps, where
those awaiting deportation are permitted to exist in self-governing, often lawless territories.
The presence of these communities and the refugees themselves are blamed for the enormous increases
in terrorism and violent crime across Britain. Extremist groups composed of refugees and those
sympathetic to their plight, most notably an organization known as the Fishes, have claimed
responsibility for dozens of violent attacks. They have also attempted to ignite a general
uprising against the government, and messaging surrounding this event is spreading in every city.
While the threat posed by the Uprising, the Fishes, and similar groups is severe,
the government has levagered the legitimate suspicion into a barely restrained hysteria.
Campaigns such as “Jobs for the Brits” and dehumanizing efforts centered on refugees
are systematic, heightened by laws making it a crime to hire, feed or house illegal
immigrants. There is a measurable correlation in the increase of violent attacks and public
controversies within the government however. This has given credence to the idea that the
United Kingdom is in fact conducting a terror campaign on its own populace and utilizing
rampant religious intolerance and racism to direct attention away from its own failings.
One of the last semi-effective federal institutions are the British Armed Forces,
consisting of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. A declining manpower pool and
the inability to maintain equipment means that the services can only remain effective for another two
decades. With the threat of the uprising, much of its remaining strength is positioned around
refugee camps, and there are plans to destroy these areas if a civil war is considered imminent.
It was during a revolt in one such camp in Bexhill that hope for the human race was perhaps restored.
During street fighting between the British Army and insurgents,
the cries of a newborn baby were reportedly heard.
Bexhill was destroyed by the Royal Air Force sometime after, but if that child managed to
escape the fighting, then the United Kingdom, and the human race, might one day be restored.