Alright, so, I've been watching
Giant Robo: The Animation. Japanese series, six episodes, really awesome. Basic plot is this - the near-future world runs in Shizuma Drives, a super energy source that has no negative impact on the environment and, since its inception in 2029, everything on Earth runs on it. However - minor spoiler here - 2029 was the beginning of everything with the "Tragedy of Bashtarle." One of the five scientists that invented the Shizuma Drive activated it the wrong way (or too early, or too powerful; something like that) in an attempt to get results. The entire country of Bashtarle was wiped from the face of the Earth and for seven days, all machines on the Earth stopped working. Two-thirds of the world population died in the aftermath (planes falling from the sky, no medical treatment, rioting, that sort of thing), and, desperate for a quick fix, the Shizuma Drive was more or less perfected and everything was rebuilt on it.
Now, ten years later is when the story starts. The plot being that someone is trying to restart the Tragedy of Bashtarle and, by the second episode, has more or less done so. Paris is snuffed out like a candle, China and Korea go out, so on, so forth. But Giant Robo saves the day, because unlike everything else, he runs on Atomic Energy and is immune to the effects of the extra-powerful Shizuma stuff.
When I saw 2029, I immediately tried to remember what our timeline had to do with it, and... Combine and Skynet are defeated.
PERFECT.
So piece it together like this.
By 2029, large portions of the Earth are conquered by aliens and robots. The Shizuma Drive seems to be the answer, but no one believes them - desperate for results, they trigger the Tragedy of Bashtarle and inadvertantly cause a global shutdown. While this allows the Combine and Skynet (both being technologically heavy) to be defeated, it causes the Seven Days of Fire.
First of all, this is poetic perfection - things start with the Seven Hour War and end with the Seven Days of Fire.
Now, desperate for results after so much death and destruction for so long, people jump on the Shizuma Drive. In the rebuilding effort, everything uses them, so on, so forth. But ten years later, in 2039, someone tries to do it again. Now, I'm nowhere near done with Giant Robo - will be by the end of the week - but I assume Giant Robo will save the day. Being run on Atomic Energy, he'd inspire the United States, being burned by so many crises over so many years, to yearn for a simpler age - the Atomic Age of the 1950s. This leads to the world of Fallout with all its retro tech.
So, yeah, that's my sell.
