The Junkyard Scape lost its native humanity to a nuclear war around 1400 years before the Austral Unity began exploration and colonization. While the environment has recovered in most areas the Scape is known for particular cities that have been uncannily preserved; remnant radiation at those sites has prevented life, even bacterial life, from colonizing and degrading the relics, such that even jars of food and painting on walls remain untouched in areas. It is speculated that the nuclear weapons must have been unlike conventional atomic or hydrogen bombs, perhaps being closer to the neutron bomb, in order to have left so much behind. To date, no native human remains younger than ~600 years have been identified.   

The Unity deployed GMO plants and lichen to absorb radioactive particles from air and water and contain them in their bodies for convenient disposal. Consequently, most regions are now habitable.