The Northern Lights Incident in 2035 was the most severe Relic disaster following Beilan Island. Out of fear of a second Cold War after the failed 2032 peace talks, many nations had been building up their militaries in preparation. In Northern Europe, engineers from their defense-industrial complex were researching CF compression technology. When Collapse Fluid is compressed, the pressure causes a dramatic rise in heat which eventually can lead to a massive detonation and the dispersal of radioactive Collapse Particles.
After the SCAPF team at Beilan Island blew the charges, Collapse Fluid became compressed by the debris. The chain reaction of explosions would eventually lead to a single, tremendous explosion that annihilated the surrounding cities and ejected tens of thousands of tons of Collapse Fluid into the atmosphere. It’s because of Beilan that this technology is looked down upon by the Prometheus Council due to the threat it poses to the stability of the world. While the exact cause of the Northern Lights Incident remains unconfirmed, improper Collapse Fluid compression research in Scandinavia was likely the fault.
Ten German states were heavily contaminated: Thuringia, Saxony, Brandenberg, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the East, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg in the North, North Rhine-Westphalia in the West and parts of the Black Forest in the South, causing the German population to flee to the south of the country.