I'm thinking the collapse was a war that lasted for a fair bit of time. Kind of seems like Exos were created during this time to fight the darkness. There's some hints suggesting human consciousness' were uploaded into these bodies. Seems like a drastic OMG we're screwed type of plan. I guess it's possible whatever happened to the Awoken out in space may also not have been instant. Possibly some escaped back to Earth but they had already been affected by whatever would change them. But there has been lots of mention of time travel in the story. It's possible we were sent back in time to protect Sarah Conn...erm to try and prevent the collapse. Unfortunately you got stuck in traffic and died. It does seem like your Ghost was specifically looking for you.