Calamity

The Calamity is an event that occurred in between years 66 and 72, in which the unknown entity known as the Void took control of Zones 31-40. Effects of the Calamity are still experienced by the rest of the Known Blobverse today.

The Void
Fourth Great Expedition

The Calamity is described as the discovery and spread of an aggressive phenomenon known as the Void. The Void is a region of space that cannot be characterized with the current understanding of science. No energy or mass can be detected within the void, making observation near impossible. In the Fourth Great Expedition, members encountered a region of the Void in what would have been Zone 41. The Void then expanded to swallow the entire expedition group. Unlike normal death, members of the expedition did not respawn after being consumed.

The Avon Group sent a vanguard to investigate the disappearance and attempt to rescue survivors. The vanguard was unable to locate any trace of the expedition, and reported that blanket of unobservable space had expanded to the peripheries of Zones 40 and 39. In response, a campaign led by several military alliances sought to evacuate inhabited planets in the two Zones and attempt to stop the spread of the Void. Although the Zones were evacuated, no knowledge was gained about what the Void was and how to stop it.

Rapid Expansion of the Void

Taking advantage of the destabilised fabric of spacetime in the region caused by excessive faster than light travel, the boundary of the Void expanded faster than the speed of light. In Year 69, when the void had fully consumed Zones 37-40, the appearance of Void Phantoms was reported. These creatures were polymorphous and could freely emerge and disappear into the Void. The creatures launched an attack on several planets of Zone 36. An alliance of several military groups responded and slowed the advance of the Creatures. During the attacks the Creatures captured prisoners and ships belonging to the alliances and carried them into the Void. It was then hypothesized that the Void grows by feeding on mass-energy of the observable universe.

The allied forces held of the advancement of the Creatures for almost a year, defending Zone 36 by controlling the matter absorption advances of the Void. Meanwhile, research in the labs at New Chun City had resulted in a Void Attenuator, a device that stops the expansion of the Void by bending surrounding regions of space into an infinite dimensional loop. Construction of the attenuators were under way when the Height of the Calamity occurred.

A Void Beam, an immense packet of destructive power emerging from the Void, struck planet Z36M5MP, vaporizing large portions of the surface and destroying Chun City and New Chun City, the military and economic strongholds of Zones 31-40 and the Avon Group. The defensive front faltered after the event, and surviving military factions fled to their home bases as the Creatures ravaged the remainder of Zone 36.

Void Barrier Stalls the Expansion of the Void

The Avon Group's remaining forces retreated to Zone 30 to the planet Z30O6SP and began constructing the Void Barrier, a set of satellites containing Void Attenuators orbiting the Star of Zone 30. While construction was underway, the Void grew to engulf Zones 32-35. In Year 72, the Void had consumed Zone 31, and the remainder of the Avon Group fought a final campaign while the final stages of the Void Barrier were being completed.

With the launch of the Void Barrier, the spread of the Void was contained at Zone 30, but at the lost of all Zones beyond that. The Avon Group gave no military report concerning the final stand, and its surviving members disappeared. Further exploration into the Void has not been attempted by any major military power since, as fear of stirring the Void has prevented anyone to venture beyond Zone 30.