Tomorrow: Returning to normal life...sort of

ATL - 1897

The shattered American continent began picking up the pieces following the war that had broken the USA and Canada into multiple countries. Now, with rival powers right next door, each nation had to maintain its own significant military. The USA, CSA and Dominion of Canada had a huge head start, with the first two having hated each other since the War Between the States, and with Britain helping Canada along. Quebec and Mexico received French help, and Manitoba was more or less allied to the United States. Deseret ran itself pretty well, with a wonderfully efficient infrastructure, and Pacifica along with Alaska were both run by military governors, with Russia being concerned elsewhere...

In Europe, Austria-Hungary had been systematically eliminating its ethnic minorities (that is, everyone not an Austrian, and whichever Hungarians the Vienna government could manage to bump off) for some time now. Competition for area influence with nearby Serbia and Russia led to Serbian-encouraged terrorist activity inside Austria-Hungary. When this failed to stop after an ultimatum was delivered to Serbia, Austria declared war. Russia and Germany were both summarily dragged into the fighting, with initial gains being made on the side of the Germans and Austrians because of their military airships - large, lightly armored and gunned flying cruisers. The typical Russian strategy of trading space for time went right ahead.

France, dismayed to see the emergence of Germany as a power on the Continent, went ahead and used neutral Sweden and the newly formed Italian Imperium to ship modern artillery to the Russians, of the sort that could strike at airships. When the Russians received these, the Austro-German advance, spearheaded by their airships, was brutally forced back before reaching Smolensk. After turning the front into a meat grinder, Russia was able to return more or less to its own border, summarily accepting an armistice with Germany and Austria that ended the war.

The CSA secured an agreement with the Nicaraguan government to construct a canal. USA ships were promised free usage, but even so, the United States were very wary...

The Adrim

Alright, well, after messing around with SPORE for a while (for those of you who don't know, that's the video game where I've been making all the stuff you see in the pictures in Tomorrow) I decided to make some tribal aliens. Which I did. Thus the Adrim. One of the Adrim picture is riding a predatory bird which they use as mounts in combat. Better than a horse, because horses can't fly and can't cut a man in two with their beaks or gut him with their talons, now can they? So anyhow, the Adrim live in a culture that revolves around near-constant war on the plains of their homeworld, where the birds are very useful for obvious reasons. Most of them operate out of camps in the sporadically located forests, because the trees tend to get in the way of being dive bombed by a 15-foot bird with a razor sharp beak about as long as you are tall.

The Adrim have achieved the limited use of bronze, which they use in combination with bone to make excellent armor and weapons. The reason behind using bone is because that supposedly gives you mastery over the spirit of the bone's former owner, and because apparently bones are intimidating. To an Adrim, anyhow. Skulls are particularly favored, as evidenced by the fact that both of the pictured Adrim are wearing them as hats.

Adrim weaponry consists of a variety of curved blades made from bronze with bone studs or spikes embedded in them, and birds. The birds have, in some tribes, been fitted with gauntlets of a sort that are placed over their talons. These gauntlets are covered in spikes and make it more painful than it already is should one of these birds land on you and try to rip out your kidneys. Which says quite a lot about exactly how painful that is.

Also interestingly, the Adrim do not actually have eyes, but instead use a number of light-sensitive cells found on and around their heads. A variant on the species, the Nylel, has a large number of spiky sensory organs growing from the back of its head, but the adaptation appears to be absent from the Adrim proper (tough luck). Their bodily makeup is very similar to mollusks, with the exception of the working skeleton, lack of tentacles and eyes, and the large horizontal mouth that makes up almost their entire head.

The end of Imperialism

So yeah, I was typing the end to a roleplay on my forum, TenThousand Rads, and thought it'd be a pretty good thing to post here.

Some info before you read: The roleplay was set up so each person controlled a country instead of a character, except for me; as the person running the roleplay I controlled all non-player countries. At the time when this is set up, Ireland has been blown up and rendered uninhabitable, so they live in the Irish Belt Colony in the asteroid belt and have spaceships. Brazil (sometimes the ISE) controls all of Latin America except Cuba, as well as significant portions of the Middle East and all of Africa. The USSR is back, and allied with a Communist Korea, China, Communist Germany, Communist France, and Communist India, along with the usual puppet states. The remainder of Europe except Brazil-controlled Spain was free, but then was incited by radical anti-Communist British Prime Minister Dave Evanson to smash themselves against Russia's superior military. Britain at this time is the only remaining Free Europe country, and is already fighting a losing battle against the Russian invasion. A state of war already exists between Ireland and the USA, with Washington D.C., New York, LA, Chicago, Phoenix and Seattle having been blown up by Irish weaponry in space.

Without further ado, I give you the story

The ISE's government, furious at the Russian invasion of Italy, declares war on Russia. Russia declares war right back, of course, alongside China, Korea, Mongolia, Burma, India, Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Germany, France and Cuba. These countries also declare war on the United States The now-puppet regimes in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Low Countries officially do nothing, though their military forces under command of Russian or German superiors are also thrown into the fray. Communist leaders release epic cinematic propaganda films and declare the World Socialist Revolution to be at hand on October 17, 2100

Massive fighting immediately breaks out in the Middle East and North Africa, with the Soviets rapidly claiming victory in the former owing to their significant popular support. The North African front goes slower, with a drive across the desert by French forces being stopped and driven back by ferocious Brazilian defenders. An amphibious assault on Cape Town is met with success, with Russian and Indian forces rapidly establishing a beachhead.

In the Caribbean, the Red Navy forces based in Cuba beat back an assault on that country from nearby Haiti, assisted heavily by Cuban missiles and aircraft. Meanwhile an amphibious assault force lands from Mexico on Cuba's northern coast and is immediately pinned down by stubborn resistance.

Submarines surface off Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, launching barrages of cruise missiles to pound important targets like Murmansk, Leningrad, Rio, Mexico City, Cape Town, Shanghai and Mumbai. American air strikes operating off Japanese land strike hard at Pyongyang, Seoul and other Korean targets, along with American carrier task forces battling Red Navy ships in the Atlantic and People's Liberation Army Navy ships in the Pacific. Korea storms onto Japanese shores and bombards several important air and naval bases of the US Navy and Air Force.

Red Air Force Tu-230s and cruise missiles strike hard at Mexico City, New Orleans, Miami and other cities out of Cuban airfields. The Brazilian landing force is slaughtered, with few surrenders taken by defending troops. Island-to-island fighting goes on in the Caribbean and Pacific, with Communist forces gaining heavily in the latter but stalled by Brazilian defenses. France drives heavily into Brazil-controlled Spain, reaching Madrid in record time.

Japan, failing badly to the Korean and now Chinese invasion, threatens the use of nuclear weapons. It is ignored, and Pyongyang, Beijing and Shanghai disappear under towering mushroom clouds. In retaliation, Korea and China blast Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukushima off the map. Japan summarily surrenders, and turns over all American military possessions on its land to the invaders.

Thus encouraged, the already embattled British announce their use of nuclear weapons as Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Vladivostok, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Marseilles are annihilated. This results in massive nuclear strikes that leave Britain almost entirely without major cities. Prime Minister Evanson is missing and presumed dead, and what remains of their government surrenders, freeing up more Russian troops for elsewhere.

American nuclear missiles are fired at the Irish ships laying waste to their major cities, annihilating much of the assault force. Subsequent launches are a barrage of warheads aimed at the Belt Colony's major population centers. The Soviet Union, outraged at the use of nuclear weapons by the United States, wipes out Boston, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Miami, Indianapolis, Norfolk, Baltimore, Charleston, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Antonio and Salt Lake City (with assistance from its allied nuclear powers). In return, Magnitogorsk, Sarovograd, Kiev, Tomsk, Frankfurt, Jinxi, Zhenzhou and Hong Kong are obliterated by American missiles.

The ISE, naturally, launches nuclear missiles at its ICC foes as well and receives them at Brasilia, Mexico City, Cairo, Alexandria, Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and other locations. Many Irish installations in the Belt erupt in radioactive fire as United States nuclear missiles go off in their midst, wiping out almost all of the Belt Colony. Radioactive clouds spread almost all the way across the earth, helped by the use of tactical nukes in India, South Africa, Cuba, California and northern Brazil against invading armies.

Very few people survive, in the Congo, Australia, northern portions of Norway and Sweden and in non-industrialized areas of Siberia. The sun is blocked out by huge smoke clouds and the earth enters nuclear winter. The survivors in the Irish Belt Colony die a slow death from lack of oxygen and food, while the remaining and disabled American, Irish and Brazilian starships gradually succumb to the same fate.

So ends life on Earth

Tomorrow: We need more maps!

ATL – 1882

The Atlantic War was heating up. Britain and Canada formed one side while France and the United States formed the other. As a sideshow to the current battle, Spain went to war with the Confederacy alongside the Mexican Empire. This, however, brought Austria and France into the war against the CSA. The USA, meanwhile, was eager to jump its southern neighbor and bring it back under its control, but the land campaign in Canada was keeping it busy. The British Empire was not able to field as many men as the United States, but they had technology on their side, including powerful railway artillery. Despite this, they were unable to prevent the Yankee seizure of key territory. With French assistance, Quebec was shorn from the rest of Canada and propped up as its own country. This put the remainder of Canada in serious jeopardy.

Down south, the Confederates were making great gains against Mexico and her Spanish ally. Cuba had been taken by amphibious assault, and the British West Indies provided naval support that kept Spain from retaking it. On land, Sonora, Chihuahua and Coahuila had fallen and the CS Army marched further southward. French naval assaults on ports such as Norfolk and Charleston kept the Confederates from receiving too much material help from Britain.

Meanwhile, in the American West, the Tsar launched a (rather stupid) attack from Alaska into the Northwest, while Confederate propaganda and some oppressive laws caused the Mormons to revolt and declare their proposed state of Deseret to be its own country. The USA, unable to fight on three fronts at the same time, was forced to temporarily ignore these new threats to deal with the one it judged to be more serious. Canada, even with Quebec torn off, was still a formidable threat, especially with the British armies still using it as a base of operations. And plus the Russians were botching their invasion, while the Mormons had next to no military capacity (though they were changing that).

Mexico, somewhat anxious to reclaim some territory, took California behind the shields of Deseret and the new Russian colony they were setting up, outraging the USA but not really doing much else. The US drive through the Canadian heartland ended up smashing into Ottawa, and the victorious US carved off most of western Canada as well and declared that the free state of Manitoba. Manitoba then seized Montana territory from the Russians.

The now-called American War resulted in the formation of the Republic of Deseret, Republic of Quebec, and the Federation of Manitoba. It also resulted in Confederate acquisition of important islands in the Gulf of Mexico (not least of which being Cuba) and of most of the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. The Dominion of Canada was reduced to a fraction of its former size, now mostly being restricted to Ontario. The Russians kept their territory and named the new colony Pacifica.

Tomorrow: The Workings of the World

With the return to the 1800s, the Confederate States succeeded in their bid for independence. Now that the two countries had separated, they and the United States pursued their separate goals. The Yankees provoked an incident on the Great Lakes and used it to invade Canada, bringing Britain down on their heads as well. A ruinous naval blockade was imposed by Britain, in particular semi-ironclad warships such as the infamous 16-gun HMS Huntress, which made a name for itself by almost single-handedly shutting down Boston Harbor. France jumped on the Yankee wagon, eager to attempt to separate Britain from her massive empire.

Down south, the CSA was rebuilding after the war. To obtain more land for their slave economy, they planned to seize Cuba and run canals through Panama and Nicaragua. At the moment this was not practical, but a fleet of ironclad warships was being constructed for the purpose of protecting these endeavors from the Yankees.

Britain and France duked it out on the high seas, while Prussia began to seek to gather the myriad German states under their control. On the Italian peninsula, Rome began gathering its power with dreams of becoming influential again. Japan continued their own industrial buildup, determined to get their own empire to rival the foreigners who still could largely order them around.

American forces in Canada pressed forward, capturing New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. It declared these to be territories by the same names, largely to avenge the loss of the CSA’s territory. Dakota was admitted as a state in the meantime.

On Europe, Holland applied its trading power to begin maintaining an army, wary of the growing influence of Prussia, Austria and Russia to the east. Britain seized enough African territory to begin building their Trans-African Railroad, and Spain and Portugal began to suffer from turmoil caused by agitation by nationalistic groups. South America was largely quiet short of a small war in which Paraguay obtained Uruguay and the southern tip of Brazil, about doubling its size and obtaining a coast line.

Tomorrow: Back Again

The aliens, now dying of some mysterious disease, sabotaged their equipment to prevent human use of their technology. Meanwhile, the humans continued to try and destroy each other. The Americans, quickly shifting resources to deal with the new Japanese threat, employed the new Bell Strikers, the first attack helicopter worthy of the name. The Strikers were able to stop the Japanese advance in Washington, Oregon and Idaho in its tracks, though poor weather conditions in Canada meant the invaders enjoyed safety from such aerial assaults for the time being.

In Europe, Hitler’s Kriegsmarine participated in a three-way battle between itself, the Royal Navy, and the Red Navy, ending in a decisive victory for the British. The US Navy defeated the Spanish Armada off Cuba and began shipping their soldiers onto the mainland. In desperation, Hitler turned to a rare piece of captured alien technology, which happened to be a time machine. Here we go again…

A group of SS soldiers was sent back to the 1860s, where they virtually annihilated the Army of the Potomac. The Army of Northern Virginia, its way open, smashed into Washington, D.C. and burned it to the ground, killing Lincoln in the process. Its capital and president thus martyred, the Union was forced to accept a British offer to negotiate a settlement to the war. The Confederates were able to secure West Virginia and Kentucky, the former by military conquest, the latter by the choice of its inhabitants.

Thus disrupted, the timeline unraveled back to about 1863. A large quantity of ruined alien technology was also transported back, in Africa, the main site of alien control, sparking the beginnings of semi-industrial countries. The CSA had succeeded in its attempt to leave the Union and the United States summarily withdrew its troops from the now-separate country. A rapidly industrializing Japan seized Hawaii as a farming colony. And thus the world entered the 1870s…

Tomorrow: Invasions

With the new alien threat landing in Europe, most of the countries there were forced to fight only on that front. The Americans, applying their massive industrial capability (which remained formidable), began to shove enemy troops out of their country. The aliens were surprised that the humans almost entirely stopped fighting each other to fight them, and initial gains were slow, though Italy and almost all the area around the Mediterranean were captured almost immediately.

The aliens did make one mistake – they had no way to deal with space-based weaponry, which the humans had not fielded up until that point. As such there had been no need for it. However, the Russians were the first, launching their Kometa 1 kinetic bombardment satellites. Though flimsy and with limited uses (the Russians had no way to resupply them once they fired all the projectiles) they gave the USSR the ability to strike with devastating power at any point within enemy lines. As much of the aliens’ gains had been made in Nazi Germany and France, they weren’t concerned with collateral damage in the slightest, allowing for the destruction of important alien, Nazi and French bases at the same time. This resumed war between the human blocs on the Mediterranean, while the aliens turned southward towards the vastly weaker Africa and Middle East.

Kometa 1. Note the four tungsten rods – they were used as kinetic projectiles against ground targets. The Soviets, displaying a remarkable amount of foresight, made sure they developed a reliable way to target where the rods would fall before using the weapon on actual fighting.Japanese forces, having captured Hawaii and southern Alaska early in the war, used that territory to launch an attack on Vancouver and Seattle. With American and Canadian forces concentrated in the south and east, the invaders gained strong beachheads on the West Coast and shipped masses of troops and materiel across the Pacific to North America, having previously annihilated the Soviet Pacific Fleet and Chinese navy in a chain of battles around Korea and Formosa.