Traveller Project
The Traveller Project was a research endeavour helmed by Eindré Atsuki and Kazuki Yoshito to combat The Ripple, a rapture-like event that was causing humans across Earth to vanish without a trace.
Overview
Electromagnetic Blast in Massachusetts
An electromagnetic pulse shut down all electronic equipment in XXXXXXXX, Massachusetts today around 7AM. Communications could not be restored due to lack of response from the telecommunications centre. Reports were flooding into news centres of citizens unable to contact loved ones.
A family who wishes to remain anonymous called up the state news centre at 9AM to report the city was completely deserted. The mother was concerned when the adult daughter's call dropped suddenly and they were unable to call back her or anyone in the city they knew.
An investigation is underway as to the nature of the situation. No human life has been found in the city, and the city is in a state of disrepair. The volunteer fire department commented that the city has a look of a place where the rapture occurred, snatching away the population in an instant.
— Newspaper article, 2056-01-01
The Ripple
At the beginning of January in 2056, everyone within a city in Massachusetts vanished without a trace. Initially believed to be the Rapture, more people began vanishing around the world — roughly outwards from the centre of the event. This event would be called The Ripple by the media.
The United Nations selected various scientists to come together and solve the problem — their research lead them to determine The Ripple was a space-time phenomenon, where human lives were being thrown who knows where. It’s through this the Traveller Project was established. Kazuki Yoshito and Eindré Atsuki would become the main heads of the team. Kazuki was the initial lead of the project, creating the first "Traveller".
The Travellers
Created in 2057, the Traveller Mk. 1 was deemed a failure and "dangerous thought" by Eindré. Despite the believed safety of their location, some scientists in the project began to vanish, including Kazuki himself. The first Traveller was abandoned and left to vegetate in its experiment tube.
Main Article: Traveller Mk. 2
Eindré would replace Kazuki and eventually develop the second Traveller in 2059 — a creature borrowing genetics from a lizard-like species that he observed to show strange affinity and intelligence around humans. He hoped this would able it to seek out humans more easily across space-time, but the Traveller's selfhood made it disobedient.
Sceptical of how dedicated to his purpose the Traveller would be, Eindré produced a third Traveller in 2062, this time an AI. A spherical robotic machine encoded with human genetics he hoped would be without the self-awareness and rebellion of the predecessor. Before he could properly test it, Eindré too was taken by the Ripple. By this time, no one was left in the Project.
Culmination
By the 2100s, all humans had vanished from Earth.