Years:
2052 2053 2054 2055 2056 2057 2058
Decades:
2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s 2060s
- Acting on 'tips' from Ares, the UCAS FBI discovers that insect spirits control the UB and shut it down, but without making the reasons public. Cover story of financial corruption. Other nations take similar steps, and the UB is completely shut down by '56. Ares assists in destructive raids against local hives, whih are reported as widespread incidents of "unmotivated terrorist violence" against the Universal Brotherhood.
- Aug 22: A Knight Errant Firewatch team attack what may be the largest insect hive in North America. It does not have the anticipated effect. A swarm of bug spirits spills out of the hive to infest the city.
- Aug 23: The UCAS government sets up the Chicago Containment Zone, isolating most of the population of Chicago behind UCAS Army barricades. Those trapped include the Chicago Mafia, as well as the Chicago branches of the other major syndicates. The Mafia loses contact with the Don of Chicago and the Commissione believes him dead. It transfers control of Chicago operations to Don Leo McCaskill of Milwaukee, a former lieutenant of James O'Malley.
- Chicago Containment Zone is explained to the public as securing against a virulent outbreak of VITAS.
- Early October: The remains of the Knight Errant Firewatch team inside the Chicago Containment Zone detonate a subtactical thermonuclear warhead inside the new core hive. The blast and radiation effects are much lower than expected, but knock virtually all the insect spirits in Chicago into torpor.