Firefall takes place on Earth, nearly 200 years in the future. A crisis began known as The Nine Years Winter when an asteroid crashed on Earth. Great nations divided while the smaller ones managed to create an alliance. During the crisis, scientist from Japan came across a new element, crystite. They soon learnt how to use it. Turns out that it can generate high amount of power but with unlimited potential.
The New Golden Age
Scientists were able to predict the trajectory of the asteroid and find out that it came from the star system Alpha Centauri. They built several ships in order to find the planet from where the asteroid came. After four years of search they found the planet and colonized it. They soon began to harness crystite and ship it to Earth.
After a large amount of resources arrived on our planet, government built several ships in order to increase the amount of crystite delivered. A great fear began to grow into their minds: If an uprising starts in the colony, it will affect Earth so much that a new dark age will come. Scientist began to work on controlling worm wholes with arcfolding technology. And the time spent between the two planets was greatly reduced. From eight years to seven days.
The Dark Age
In order to keep the colony as they wanted, the government built a ship as big as an entire city to stay in Alpha Prime orbit. However the launch was a great disaster. The arcfolder began fold space and created a tear in the fabric of the universe and unleashed a giant storm known as The Melding. Everything that was in The Melding transformed and left few areas in which life can be possible. Through Melding came a new race calling themselves The Chosen.