The first Space Gate had opened on June 5, 1993, and the second on July 23, 1994. As of today, September 7, 1995, a total of 825 days had passed—equivalent to two years and three months.
Over those two-plus years, it was not only Atlas that had undergone drastic changes. Even Earth-01, which, having lost the Mimic threat, should have gradually emerged from the shadows under the guidance of the United Nations and the United Defense Force, had instead descended deeper into chaos, seemingly only one step away from a world war.
The commander-in-chief of the UDF's European forces, Dalton Brigham—the British general from Edge of Tomorrow who had stripped Major William Cage of his rank and thrown him into a recruit camp—was sent before a military tribunal by the United Nations on suspicion of favoritism, corruption, and abuse of authority during the Human-Mimic War.
Though Dalton Brigham defended himself with all his might, it was still futile. After all, the authorities merely needed a person and an incident to pave the way for the massive disarmament that followed.
Although the disarmament reduced fiscal expenditure, the war's devastation across Europe had been immense. Aside from the United Kingdom, 70 percent of facilities and buildings had been destroyed. Coupled with millions of unemployed soldiers flooding back into ordinary society, the situation only worsened.
Moreover, with the Mimics gone as a common enemy, along with public resentment that was difficult to quell and numerous other factors, Earth-01 sank into even greater chaos than before the war.
However, the Atlas Division established in France-01 rebuilt Paris and took in large numbers of refugees from what had once been France and Germany.
It also hired nearly two thousand laid-off UDF soldiers with extensive combat experience under contracts paying slightly above market rates. They became