At the pinnacle of human achievement, man's expansion across the solar system was both a utopian period but also a complacent one. With the primary colonizations being on Earth and Mars, the smaller colonies on the other planets were rarely informed of the events on the two other planets...except in the case of need-to-know developments and emergencies. So great was their complacency, they were completely oblivious and unprepared for what was about to happen. Man would face a fall so devastating they would be driven to a state of primitive existence and survival. After a period of relative silence, and whether motivated by fear, prudence, or both, the smaller colonies organized an investigative team to assess the situation on Earth. They were about to awaken to a nightmare of contrasting proportions to their golden age of slumber. Upon their arrival, they discovered a spherical structure hovering above the Earth. As mysterious and unsettling its presence was, they knew their immediate attention was needed on the planet. They set their destination to the only standing city left on the planet. It was at this point, the gravity of the situation began to set in. A city protected and fortified held the remnants of Earth's population. Investigative analyses and eyewitness accounts of massive land tides caused by a Mars near pass-by left more questions than answers. Why were they unable to foresee the event? Did these aliens and the mysterious sphere know this would happen? And after all these years, these questions have brought them to the ruins of an ancient city on the planet Mars. Destiny would prove to be an ambivalent mistress. For in these ruins, they would discover research of a model based on the cyclic occurrences of Earth/Mars near pass-bys...the data would reveal that the planets are on the cusp of another event.