In the early 21st century, the United States of America was broke. First there was the financial collapse of the housing and loan industry, caused by the greed of a few men on Wall Street. This was followed closely by a series of costly military actions against Iran, Syria, and North Korea. The deathblow came when the Chinese government decided that their population was becoming too Western in their thinking, and decided to shut down access to the Internet. This led to a collapse in the global market, and the US officially declared bankruptcy on March 21st of 2015.

The Republican government, under the leadership of President Rick Santorum, responded to the crisis by liquidating all of the assets of the Government to the highest bidder, and a conglomerate of companies got together to buy the assets. Their price; complete control over the US Federal government.

It was during this betrayal that Felicity Sanchez discovered the secret to nearly limitless energy.