The Cœur Locket®

Powerful.

Timeless.

Breathtaking.

TerraCorp’s latest line of jewelry also became its last. Forged from metals found deep in the heart of the Earth; plated with the organization’s newest blend of trade-secret Zemra™ alloys; with a ‘heart-within-a-heart’ core made of revolutionary blue Sydänite. The Cœur Locket®.

Sydänite’s extraordinary chemical properties reportedly gave the wearer a ‘boosted’ lifestyle, with their body taking on a more youthful appearance after only a few days of use. With said results medically proven by Terracorp’s finest physicians and dermatologists (9.5/10 recommended), consumers practically chomped at the bit for a chance to buy one. Or five.

In an effort to appeal to a wider audience, TerraCorp lowered the initial price of its newest product line and made it more accessible to the middle, Premium Lower™, Economy+ Lower™, and Foundation classes. The green-silver lockets with glowing interiors sold like hotcakes. For those with a few more Unicredits, microchips within the lockets could be programmed to display holographic messages or images of loved ones.

Sydänite caused accelerated cell growth to any and all organic matter within a set radius. Plants bloomed and sprouted even faster than pre-ozone-crisis rates, bathing the countryside with vibrant color and scrubbing the smog-filled skies until they were practically clear. Pets appeared to explode with energy, acting more excited and affectionate than ever. And humans experienced a surge of euphoria and youthful stamina, wrinkled skin smoothing over, thinning hair filling in, aching joints angling back into place. Product sales doubled—tripled—the lockets touted as the next revolutionary advancement in biotechnology.

Only when the megacorporation surpassed its sales goal, beating out almost all other household product vendors, did whistleblower knowledge finally reach the Middle Public and the general populace. Forced to sprout and grow and bloom and spread, plant life in and around residential areas drained the soil of essential nutrients and precious groundwater. Lush habitation domes became little bubbles of desert sand against the backdrop of a strip-mined Earth. Sprawling mega-cities shifted and sank under their own weight—the desiccated ground no longer able to support their massive bulk. The once-repelled smog now crept back in like some intangible, viscous, aerated tsunami.

Then consumer’s pets began dying in droves—suddenly and without warning; their bodies no longer able to keep up with the strain of continuous new growth. Urban fauna grew, multiplied; grew, multiplied…until they overwhelmed the local ecosystems and spread outward to choke the vastly diminished Viridi-Zones®. Clouds of pigeons—mutated, misshapen—filling the sky like some grim harbinger of what was yet to come for humanity itself. Landslides of rats—bloated, bound together in hideous masses—fleeing the metropolitan areas for erstwhile greener pastures. Closely-guarded food and cash crops devastated in days by hordes of ravenous, anomalized vermin.

And finally, with their great cities and highways sagging and cracking at the seams, their beloved animals silent and still, their local wildlife having overwhelmed and devoured emergency food reserves, consumers themselves began to see that awful invisible hand directed toward them…

bones, cracking and shifting out of proportion…

skin riddled with cancerous growths, hanging off of their twisted frames like the tattered curtains of an old abandoned manor…

bodies bulging with unchecked tumors, pushing aside weary organs until they literally began to choke the life out of their hosts…

And as the vast majority of humanity gasped their last painful breaths, the survivors were treated to an exclusive™ view of their ruined world, available for only 2 payments of 19.95 Unicredits. Their target audience largely diminished, what remained of TerraCorp now turned its attention to a potential new market of consumers—carbon-dioxide-powered autonomous robots. The latest in anthro-technological engineering™.