Why haven't we heard from Earth in 50 years?

[cautious asparagus]

As we know, Europa has been cut off from any and all communications to Earth for over 50 years. It just abruptly stopped one day, and there's been no communications or ships from Earth since.

I can only think of two possibilities of why this is the case.

1: Something catastrophic has occurred on Earth

The obvious answer is that something so catastrophic has happened on Earth, that they are no longer capable of communicating with Europa, or maybe any other off-planet colonies. Nuclear war is the most obvious answer. It probably isn't a meteor or other natural disaster, as we probably would have seen it happen from Europa, though we would have probably also seen a nuclear war unfold.

No matter the cause, either humanity has not yet recovered to the point of space travel to repair communications satellites, or humanity on Earth has been rendered extinct.

2: Europa has been cut off by the Jovian Radiation, or by Jove

I think this is less plausible, but still my favourite explanation. The Jovian Radiation emitted from Jupiter has been steadily increasing over a long period of time. It has grown to the point that, over a thousand meters below solid ice and rock, caverns are being rendered uninhabitable and people are dying in a matter of hours or minutes.

This is essentially impossible in real life, as far as I can tell. The most penetrating form of radiation, gamma, would be stopped by a few meters of ice. This leaves us with two explanations. One, would be that the radiation around and emitted by Jupiter has grown to supernatural proportions not supported by any known science.

Or two, that Jove has manifested some sort of unknown radiation that has an order of magnitude more penetrating power than any known radiation.

In both of these scenarios, the Jovian system (Jupiter and his moons) has been sterilised, and travel to and from Europa is completely and utterly impossible with our level of technology.

I like this explanation the most, because it implies that humanity elsewhere has not gone extinct. The only reason I think it's less plausible, is that 50 years ago there would have been some sort of indication that the radiation was rising to unlivable levels. Communication wouldn't have just been cut off at the flip of a switch, there would have been continued communication to Earth for a long while before the radiation fried electronics or interrupted radiowaves. I also think it's still plausible because there would have been colonies elsewhere off-planet that would be unaffected by a nuclear war. Europa can't be the only place we have a permanent or temporary colony.

Does anyone else have some ideas or theories?

[Mo0on]

Husk infection making it back to Earth.

[The Flaming Pike]

I have three theories.

#1: Like MoOon said, "Husked Earth".

It's an old theory before the campaign took shape.

My take is that there was at least a couple back and forths between Earth and Europa, with transport ships bringing people and goods for a time, much like how we colonized continents throughout history. Someone returning from Europa could've been infected by the husk virus or a scientist with samples from Europa could've brought it, an accident could've happened and this could've led to a husk apocalypse.

Other theories would be related to the campaign:

#2: "Jove's World": When Barotrauma's story takes place, we are not in the same reality anymore, we're in "Jove's dimension", and this could explain why we experience strange space time phenomenons at the end of the campaign - maybe we're the only ones figuring out we're actually experiencing that due to our proximity to Jove, while the rest of the people on Europa are oblivious. The reason why we don't get communications is simply that humanity on Earth doesn't exist in that dimension.

#3:"Chrono Trigger ending": Kinda the same thing but with a plot twist: we jumped forward in time at the moment we lost contact with Earth due to Jove's awakening. The Ancients are actually future humans who spent multiple generations on Europa, becoming Jove's "slaves". The reason why I think they could be future humans is that they call Jove YOH-WEY which sounds pretty much like Yahweh which is said to be God's name.

[kingmagma111]

Husk Apocalypse is one I think that personally makes a good amount sense. Especially if the cult made it to earth.
In Europa, humanity is in pocketed clusters. The husk has the whole ocean to hide, festering in human or crawler corpses. It likely won't be eradicated ever, but, it also won't likely infect people because the colonies are easier to defend (highly limited entry and exit points) and travel between colonies is much more limited thanks to icy tunnels and hungry monsters. so infected colonies get isolated and go dark easier.
On Earth, not only would the husk have places to fester (think ships/planes going missing, isolated town in 3rd world countries) but most places wouldn't be limited by travel or access points. The infection could spread more quickly, at least on a continental level, without the same limitations as Europa, but quarantines would be harder to enforce. Not to mention, there may be more species on earth than just humans who can get infected. And if the cult made it to Earth, they would only make infection easier.

I don't know how to feel about Jove-based theories, especially ones surrounding time distortion because that whole thing isn't super clearly fleshed out, so I don't even know where to begin with it.

There's also the more natural forms of apocalypse on earth- meteor, nuclear wars, earth based plagues, starvation, etc. But that is also pure speculation because none of that is suggested in the game story. We know about the husk, and what affect it could have. So, I prefer husk theories.

[David Davidson]

Not buying husk apocalypse, simply because calx are high pressure aquatic lifeforms.
I mean, they can survive in stations and subs. But they're always found in deep water. Given that they're barely sentient, they'd just migrate to the oceans.

Ballast flora making it into an ocean and then into nuclear reactor feedwater would make more sense. Ballast flora is much more scary than a husk as it actively tries to take over electrical systems, spreads through electrical systems and tries to sabotage attempts to get rid of it. Ballast flora also seem to like high pressure water systems, or just anywhere wet, like a high pressure water reactor. Even a normal coal/oil/gas reactor water system might be cosy for them.

Ballast flora making it into most of Earth's nuclear reactor's would explain no message, as it would cut power to transmitters, or overload them to stop help from being sent.
Husks just shamble about and like water. Deadly in close quarters, but on a planet, they'd not really be any match to strafing/bombing runs from aircraft and other conventional tactics.

[YellowKnight]

Maybe the Earth isn't infected, and they're just not willing to take the risk of a husk outbreak, so the government(s) just decided to cut contact entirely, and didn't warn the colonies to not risk backlash.

Another theory is greed over people, aka their investments didn't return and contact was cut to not "waste" money.

I wonder what the scientists doing the radiataion study on the surface see of Earth.

[EmotionallyBroken]

plot twist, no one can afford their comm bill. :)

[pazow269]

my dumb theory is that Europa was just forgotten. the NASA funding got cut.
my silly one is that barotrauma exists withing the helldivers universe and like the dumb theory. they couldn't be bothered to bring the Europans back

[Beltneck]

No corporation wanted to invest in new ships that just bring back space-crabs.

The last transport companies saw the writing on the wall, but had to recoup some of their investment; so they billed the last batch of travelers and left them stranded.

[Saul_Myers]

Just global nuclear war with mutual destruction (pretty realistic scenario, I mean, look at current state of affairs).
Earth is living through Mad Max future, Europa is living through Mad Max underwater.

[TasteOfSunlight]

I don't think the husk would survive because Earth has higher water pressure then Europa, along with other various factors, probably meaning that it wouldn't be adapted to life on Earth.

Or it could, like invasive species, absolutely dominate Earth.