Editing Reality Shift (section)

=== The Three Great Rifts ===

Originally three enormous rifts opened on the planet. One in Central America, near the border of Ecuador, one in the holy land of many faiths, Israel, and a final one near the coast of Thailand. On the day the rifts opened strange things began to happen within the affected areas. Certain regions would suddenly shift, becoming entirely different. These differences ranged from the complete reversal of the laws of physics to atmospheric composition and temperatures changing. High radiation and toxins are common occurrences within the rift zones. While there were locations that became unhabitable by human standards, there were other storms that improved life within them, crop yields increasing three fold, climatic conditions improving permanently, or even life continuing on as normal. The many dozens of storms would create separate films keeping the changes in environment completely separated from one another and it was not uncommon to see a completely unaffected farmhouse less then a couple of miles away from an irradiated alien landscape. In the beginning these rifts only extended over a minimal location, a few miles across. However in the months since they have expanded hundreds of miles in every direction, the largest being the one in Central America. 

After the first week not only did the zones that were affected change, but things began to appear within their borders. What appeared ranged from boulders, to strange technology, to entirely new species. Some of these species, due to the fact rift storms would change the world around them, could only survive in their localized rift storm and would quickly die once leaving or if the rift storm changed. However some proved to survive well in earth atmosphere and moved into non effected areas of the planet. Xeno life is not uncommon in Southern Asia and Europe. 

During the second week the nations of the world attempted to control the threat. Desperate, several scientists theorized the rifts might be sealed if enough energy was released inside the dimensional wound. The energy would destabilize the hole and cause it to repair itself, or open into some kind of void. The nations of the world bombed the european rift, eventually using nuclear weapons. Most of these bombs went off, but the rift absorbed most of the radiation. Some of the bombs merely disappeared, or reappeared in other locations around localized Rift Storms.

After this an attempt to invade the rifts was organised. The first humans went it, using new exoskeletons developed by the military for protection. These did protect them from the strange environmental conditions, randomly changing atmospheric composition, radiation, and temperature. However, they did not protect them from the shifts in the laws of physics. Those humans melded with their suits, skin and metal becoming one. They are now called "The Hollow Men" as parts of their mind are now machine. They display emotions to varying degrees, but it is agreed upon that the human beings are still in there and should be treated with dignity. Most of those who went in belonged to the United States. They form a single company of soldiers now,  sent to the most dangerous of storms in the USA as further mutations will not affect them anymore.