Editing Бpoнeпeхoтa/A Brief History of Humanity (section)

===Early Humanity===
Over the course of history, humans looked up to the stars, hoping to reach them one day. None of them, however, thought that reaching the stars would be not merely a dream achieved, but the only way to save humanity.<br />
But that's exactly how it went.

By the end of the 24th century, Earth's population numbered over 20 billion human beings. The biosphere struggled to support the terrible amount, despite the oceanic expansion. What was left of forests and jungles - mostly those in Siberia and the Amazon Basin - were under the strictest UN control as the most important oxygen recyclers on the planet; the oceanic expansion was also artificially slowed to preserve the plankton phytobacteria responsible for half the oxygen.<br />
Like most cities, Moscow had grown enormously, almost merging with Saint-Petersburg and housing about 80 million. The Sol system colonization was an ongoing success, with multiple millions inhabiting Mars and Venus - yet this was still not enough to solve the issue of overpopulation.

The solution was found in an unexpected place. In year 2398, an unknown object, shattered into pieces, was discovered by foresters patrolling the Siberian taiga preserves near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river. The strange item, very old and undeniably nonfunctional, had been transferred to the scientific organizations. Few remembered the 1908 Tunguska incident; however, the very first research results have proven the object to have an extraterrestrial origin.<br />
A thorough examination had yielded phenomenal results: the "Tunguska meteor" happened to be an alien ship engine component. Reverse-engineered, it gave a colossal push to Earth understanding of physics; antigravity, force fields, and - most importantly - a surprisingly simple and cheap way of FTL travel, were now in the humanity's hands.

The dream of reaching the stars came true.