Chapter One
The Last War
2034 - 2038 A.D. The Year was 2034..
The global population had swelled past 10 billion. The most basic resources were growing
thin: the price of land swelled, cities became overpopulated, droughts caused massive food shortages, rationing became a part of daily life and fossil fuels were nearly depleted. Despite all the advances in science, an alternative to gasoline was never found that could meet the demands of the growing world. Many of the powerful nations began an arms buildup on the borders of nations that were rich in oil. Many of them were just waiting for some excuse. Waiting for some small event to be blown out of proportion, so that they would have an excuse to invade. However, a gathering of world leaders was called in New York City before any small conflict became the spark that turned this into all out war. But it seemed War was exactly what was wanted by some. Nobody is sure who was behind this attack. But a massive explosion rocked downtown Manhattan. It leveled twelve city blocks and the death toll was over 5000+. Among the dead were several world leaders. Most of whom were the only ones proposing peace. Each nation held their own investigation and it believed that most manufactured evidence, so they could blame their enemies for the terrorist attack. They all came up with their own excuses to take their nations to war. Many Nations gathered Allies and pulled Nations that weren't even involved into the conflict. The map was laid out, the battle lines were drawn as the world threw itself into its Third World War. New banners were made, but the three major factions were as follows. The North Atlantic Coalition (NAC), was comprised of United States, Canada and nearly all of Western Europe. The Great Axis Alliance (GAA), was made of all the Middle East, all of Africa, India and a handful of small Southeastern Asian nations. The last, largest and seen as the most powerful group was The Eastern Union Guard (EUG), which was Russia, China, Korea and the rest of Asia. Australia, parts of Europe and Japan chose to remain neutral and did their best to stay out of the conflict. Despite several offers made by all Factions, these countries chose to not take part in what they saw as the end of the world. However, it was rumored that most would ally with the NAC if events changed that would force them into the War. On March 2nd, 2034.. The War officially began. A small conflict in Egypt turned into a massive invasion force by the NAC. Sending the majority of their forces to take over the oil fields in the Middle East. At the same time, the EUG, being in such close proximity to Alaska, attempted to do the same to America's pipeline, but both sides saw this coming and a both were prepared. It was a slaughter. Thousands were dead within a few weeks. The world began to panic in fear that one Faction would choose to use their nuclear weapons. The first year became known as The War of Attrition, neither side gave up that much ground and the fighting only spread outward. While the main battles were going on in the Middle East and along America's West Coast; smaller battles began to erupt all over the world. As smaller nations began to take sides which put them at odds with their neighbors. The greatest arms buildup in the history of the world began. And while all sides were pressured to make use of their more powerful weapons: barrages of missiles that could level a city, or chemical weapons. Thankfully, they chose to remain on the ground, using only their troops and vehicles. It was known that The United States, Russia, China and Korea had developed some strange advanced weapons that would cause a great deal of damage on the battlefield. But as long as one side chose to keep it simple, the others did as well. The Endgame was thus.. The NAC wanted access to oil fields in the Middle East. They wanted a permanent occupancy: their own Jerusalem city state. They would acquire the land by force, build up a defense and claim it as new country - whom had America as their greatest ally. They would even go as far as to move out the occupants of the land and send US Citizens to start a new life and help build their new city state. They of course would also do the same with the aid of their allies. Britain would get a settlement, as would Canada and the rest who allied with them. Years after, when the world would be enveloped in another struggle, the details of the NAC's plans were released. The wished to claim half of Egypt and half of their former allies, Saudi Arabia - which would also give them control over The Red Sea. Their plan was to move in and use the mighty US Navy Fleet to be on constant guard duty. Each week they would stretch their border a little farther. Eventually the locals would warm to their presence and be assimilated into their society. They believed. "That entire region deals with regime change every decade - as long as we respect their religion and customs. They'll come to understand it's not worth fighting for." Their enemy in this region was of course the GAA. But all the while, they were dealing with the Great Axis Alliance - the United States had to defend itself from the EUG.
The GAA wanted nothing more than the complete destruction of Western Civilization. A handful of religions and government leaders had banded together to create one of the greatest religious states - rivaling The Vatican. They militarized their citizens and made the terrible things the NAC were doing seem a thousand times worse. In the same way the Japanese lied to islanders that the Americans were coming to rape their women and children. But to the GAA and their Muslims beliefs, the GAA turned it into a holy war. The NAC was coming to convert everyone to Christianity and everyone who resisted would be raped - even the men. They turned an already terrible conflict over dwindling resources into a holy war with martyrs and suicide bombings on a scale never before seen. In Africa, young men and children were taken from their homes at night and forced into conflict. This of course was PR nightmare for the NAC who often had no choice but to wipe out small squads of drugged up children armed with machine guns. When India joined the GAA, they had numbers that rivaled China in terms of military power and the NAC had no choice but to start using tactical missile strikes to thin out their numbers. That is when the GAA swore that after they defended their homeland from the invaders - they would not rest until every country allied with the NAC was burned and nothing remained by ash. The EUG was in the same boat the NAC, but they knew the fossil fuel in the Middle East would not be enough. China had grown into a world power that rivaled the United States years ago, but they never had a reason to attack the country that owed them trillions of dollars. Now that it was obvious that America had no intention of paying them back, they declared war and joined Russia and Korea so that they could attack what they saw as a greater supply of oil than the Middle East - Alaska. All knew that America had been hoarding oil for decades and their assault on the Middle East was simply to ensure that the rest of the crude oil was theirs as well. The EUG let the battle in the Middle East go - they would simply move in and take whatever was left when the fighting was over. They focused their entire might on the Western Coast of North America. From Alaska to San Francisco was a war zone as far inland as the Sierra Nevada. The islands of Hawaii were wiped off the map as constant invasions, shelling and re-invasions tore the islands apart. Nothing remained except a few spots where airstrips were being built and destroyed almost on a monthly basis. The goal of the EUG was to become more than a global power. They wanted to become the only power. As the first year of the war was coming to an end.. Millions had died. Cities were burning.. Many nations were in chaos and resources and manpower were running low. While one side saw the fighting as a holy war, the other saw it as a struggle for survival and freedom. They used propaganda to convince every citizen to take part in the war: fighting on the front line, building bombs or becoming a terrorist. They would find sympathizers in the enemy's homeland and convince them to either start a guerrilla army to thwart the enemy advance or strap a bomb to their chest and blow up a public space and use the slaughter of innocents to help convince their leaders to end the war before it got worse. As the second year went on, it only got worse. The constant threat of terrorism in the NAC took its toll. These Western Nations were home to citizens of every nationality, so it would be hard to know who was on your side. Whereas, the GAA was primarily Arab and Muslim Africans. And the EUG was Russians, Chinese and Koreans. If a white man were walking around their lands they'd grow suspicious, but that was never the case. However, in America - on block in the city was home to a dozen different foreigners. It turned ugly fast. As the public took matters into their own hands and held trials and executions without the government knowing about it. Entire families of people "thought" to be terrorists vanished over night. It was oddly reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials and resulted in the deaths of over 5,000 innocents across all of the United States and Europe.
On August 2nd, 2038... The one unspoken rule that all nations didn't see as an option became the only way they thought they could win the war. Each Faction saw that if they lost the war at this point; then everything they fought for and everything their men died for would have been for nothing. It was either complete victory or they'd witness the end of their civilization and culture. They didn't see any other choice. Nobody knows who fired first, but on August 2nd, the war came to an end in a fury of nuclear strikes. In the days after the dust settled. Billions had died. Cities were no more. And many nations were wiped completely off the map. In the week that followed, the nuclear fallout spread across the globe and those who weren't involved in the war were forced to flee their homes. Water, food and land that wasn't irradiated became the only resource that people fought over now. And with all three of those growing short, it became obvious that mankind, had dropped in population from over 10 billion to now just under 5 billion was on the verge of becoming extinct. Unknown to the public, a secret project that began twenty years ago was about to alter the world.
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Chapter Two
The Last Day August 23rd, 2036 A.D.
The Day was August 23rd, 2036...
Nearly three weeks had passed since the war came to an end. However, unknown to the world, in the hills of South Dakota, inside a remote nuclear testing site - everything mankind understood about the world and the universe was about to come to an end. For decades, The United States was attempting to build a new type of nuclear weapon. One that still had the same power and destructive force, but was able to minimize radioactive fallout. They theorized that if enough energy was released within a small, almost microscopic level, that a temporary black hole would be created. Thanks to the work at CERN with the Large Hadron Collider. A massive machine which successfully created a Higgs Boson Particle or what is commonly known as 'The God Particle' on July 4th, 2012. The belief is, if matter can be charged with enough energy to create a nuclear explosion.. The Higgs Boson proved the opposite, if you release enough energy - you could create matter. It effectively proved that The Big Bang Theory was possible. However, as with most new technology. It isn't long before someone thinks of a way to weaponize. In the state of South Dakota, The United States had built their own Hadron Collider and were gathering their own Higgs Boson Particles. With the purpose of creating a new type of weapon.
It was called The Hezziger Device or a Fusegen Device. The basic idea was to contain the radioactive energy after a nuclear blast. After the nuclear bomb detonated and its energy was released. A secondary device (The Hezziger Device) would activate and release the Higgs Boson Particle. The Particle's exposure to that much energy would start the chain reaction akin to the formation of a star. However, it wouldn't have enough energy or matter to actually ignite, so it would collapse in on itself. All of this is done on a very small scale of course. So all the energy, matter and destruction brought on by the detonation of the nuclear bomb would be sucked into a black hole. Which would then collapse and vanish after a few minutes. Taking the radiation and everything else in the area with it. It was quite possibly, the greatest and most terrifying instrument of war that mankind had ever created. The United States weren't only thinking of themselves for once. Their plan was to create enough of these Fusegen Devices to distribute enough to all their enemies as well. So if they did decide to use their nuclear bombs, there would be no lasting damage done to the Earth. Obviously, they didn't finish them in time. And a month after the ending of World War III. The nuclear fallout brought on by the bombs that landed on Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle was about to reach South Dakota.
A large scale evacuation of the South Dakota Research Facility began. And when the radiation reached the facility. A chain reaction was set off. The SDRF was powered by several nuclear power-plants and all five of them were about to be overloaded by the radiation cloud. It was then that a man named Henry Duncan had an idea. The Fusegen Device used the radioactive energy left over as its fuel to create the black hole. Meaning, it was possible that if the radiation had spread farther than the destructive range of the nuclear devices - the Fusegen Device would also spread with it, gathering all the connected radioactive energy and pull it into the black hole as well. Duncan convinced enough of the staff to go along with his idea. They attached the Fusegen Devices to enough remaining warheads and plotted them to be fired at the major and worse effected areas. New York, Egypt, London, Los Angeles, Beijing, Moscow and a handful of others. They fired them into the air and then Duncan and his people planned on sacrificing themselves in the process. They didn't have another bomb to fire in their area. So they chose to use the destruction of the nuclear reactors as their nuclear devices. Duncan turned on the Fusegen Device and waited for it to be exposed to enough energy activate itself. That moment came when the radiation from the fallout cloud caused enough heat that the nuclear power-plants couldn't contain it. The meltdown occurred and a massive explosion rocked the quiet hills of South Dakota. Followed by one of the greatest explosions the Earth had ever seen. Not since the early days of its creation, constantly being struck by asteroids. And like the explosion brought on the by the impact that killed the dinosaurs.. This explosion would also change the world. Having expected to be vaporized by the nuclear meltdown (brought on by the fallout), the nuclear eruptions (brought on by the five power plant meltdowns) and then being sucked into a black hole (by the Fusegen Device). When Duncan did open his eyes, he could only assume something went wrong.. or right. Depending on how one would look at the situation. Everyone knew something had changed. The air smelt different, the world felt strange. When he got to the top floor of his research facility and found the rest of his staff that stayed behind to help him. They began to make observations from within the facility. All of them were too afraid to walk outside. That is when the earthquakes started. They lasted for hours and even though they were registered more than a mile away. The SDRF was nearly torn apart by them. That is when Duncan made the decision to open the door and have a look outside. He figured that somehow his plan had destroyed the world far beyond repair and it was tearing itself apart. He thought that if the world was going to end, he would have one final look at it. What he found was a blinding blue light with no source; it was as if the very molecules in the air were shining. And after the earthquakes stopped, the light followed suit. It took several minutes for their eyes to adjust to what would become a strange new world.