Immaculate
unerring
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Messages
- 7,623
Frigging A+
INES III: Storm Tapestry
- Thread starter Imago
- Start date
Terrance888
Discord Reigns
Ashwar turned on the radio. Although it was still early in the morning, all his dorm-mates are up. They had heard that there will be an announcement today, and they all gathered around it as Ashwar located the National Indian Radio Service.
There was a pop song on, with throbbing beats and screechy static while repetitive lyrics came on. See, said Ashwar, They must have
Suddenly, the bright music died off. A sudden, deep voice began intoning, On this date, February 13, 2057, our glorious Prime Minister Netaji Abhayaprada will give an announcement for All Indians. All hail the Union! All Hail the Minister!
Shhh! cautioned Harveer as the murmuring started, Wait for the speech!
There was silence punctuated only by static, then a strong, confident voice rang out of the radio.
My dear Indians! I am your Prime Minister Netaji Abhayaprada and I am here to announce the beginning of hostilities against the Jihadist! crowed the Radio. All the men gasped, almost collectively across the union. Already our Shivas Lance air command has flew over Iran and bombed Tehran itself and, of course, its crucial highways! Kishnus Fist has forced through Gibraltar while our Imperial Indian Fleet maneuvers in the Arabian Sea!
But protocols treaties muttered Ashwar.
We, of course, have always valued our treaty with the Jihadist the same way that they valued their treaty with the Order of Mecca! In the center of slaughter of death, the Order of Mecca offered to give up lands outside of Mesopotamia in order for peace! The treacherous Jihadist accepted, of course, and broke the agreement one the Orders soldiers stood down! They have always held the same standards for others, and after they gain strength at Europe, they will return the favor to us! Of course, we will hold our standards for them as they have for us, for they are but dirt under our destiny! We will fight the war THEY want, but at OUR terms!
Letm have it! yelled Harveer, Im gonna get me a Jihadist skull He was pushed down by the other students, straining to hear more.
Great things has been done under my command, yet the greater things are to come! Our forces already are destroying the Jihadist at every turn, yet we must fight for our Homeland! Already a Million Man Army has been prepared, and of course they are waiting only for you, my dear Indians, to march into these boots of war! Every Indian shall gain their satisfaction! Every Indian shall kill a Jihadist! And Every Soldier of the Union shall win land that they deserve beyond the Indus!
A dull roar started beginning outside. The chant of Jihadist Doom, Jihadist Doom! began rolling downt he streets.
The recruitment starts at your local Radio station, for we will march across the Indus directly into Victory. All Hail the Union!
Once again there was silence.
Harveer took a sheave of papers out, I signed up already, here, take one each.
Once again, Netaji reviews his Indian Voluneteers... now numbering a Million Strong.
The next day, the dorm was empty.
The day after that, it was full of workers making even more weapons for the Imperial Army.
There was a pop song on, with throbbing beats and screechy static while repetitive lyrics came on. See, said Ashwar, They must have
Suddenly, the bright music died off. A sudden, deep voice began intoning, On this date, February 13, 2057, our glorious Prime Minister Netaji Abhayaprada will give an announcement for All Indians. All hail the Union! All Hail the Minister!
Shhh! cautioned Harveer as the murmuring started, Wait for the speech!
There was silence punctuated only by static, then a strong, confident voice rang out of the radio.
My dear Indians! I am your Prime Minister Netaji Abhayaprada and I am here to announce the beginning of hostilities against the Jihadist! crowed the Radio. All the men gasped, almost collectively across the union. Already our Shivas Lance air command has flew over Iran and bombed Tehran itself and, of course, its crucial highways! Kishnus Fist has forced through Gibraltar while our Imperial Indian Fleet maneuvers in the Arabian Sea!
But protocols treaties muttered Ashwar.
We, of course, have always valued our treaty with the Jihadist the same way that they valued their treaty with the Order of Mecca! In the center of slaughter of death, the Order of Mecca offered to give up lands outside of Mesopotamia in order for peace! The treacherous Jihadist accepted, of course, and broke the agreement one the Orders soldiers stood down! They have always held the same standards for others, and after they gain strength at Europe, they will return the favor to us! Of course, we will hold our standards for them as they have for us, for they are but dirt under our destiny! We will fight the war THEY want, but at OUR terms!
Letm have it! yelled Harveer, Im gonna get me a Jihadist skull He was pushed down by the other students, straining to hear more.
Great things has been done under my command, yet the greater things are to come! Our forces already are destroying the Jihadist at every turn, yet we must fight for our Homeland! Already a Million Man Army has been prepared, and of course they are waiting only for you, my dear Indians, to march into these boots of war! Every Indian shall gain their satisfaction! Every Indian shall kill a Jihadist! And Every Soldier of the Union shall win land that they deserve beyond the Indus!
A dull roar started beginning outside. The chant of Jihadist Doom, Jihadist Doom! began rolling downt he streets.
The recruitment starts at your local Radio station, for we will march across the Indus directly into Victory. All Hail the Union!
Once again there was silence.
Harveer took a sheave of papers out, I signed up already, here, take one each.
Once again, Netaji reviews his Indian Voluneteers... now numbering a Million Strong.
The next day, the dorm was empty.
The day after that, it was full of workers making even more weapons for the Imperial Army.
TheLizardKing
Let's talk Michelle.
Dúuru Faustin sat perched atop his hill, looking down at the UAK soldiers scurrying about in their barracks below. To his left, and his right hundreds of soldiers sat, at the ready, simply waiting for the order to charge.
The dim light of the moon could be seen in the far distance, illuminating the cityscape beyond. But here, right here, this was what was important. The relative quiet of the night was soon destroyed when the thump of a heavy artillery piece could be heard in the distance, accompanied by a flash of light. So that's where they've been hiding their artillery. Faustin laughed to himself. A few others around him began laughing too, when the shot fell just short of the ridge they were on. A few more shots were fired, and the result was a few more misses. Someone from the back yelled, "They're smart enough to crack into computers, but too dumb to shoot correctly." Faustin shushed him. "Do you want to flash a sign to them, saying that we're okay? Shut up before you get us all killed" he whispered. The other Dúuru sat silently. it'll only be a few seconds until air support gets here.. and almost as if punctuating his though, the sensor on a battle-suited infantry man began beeping. Dúuru Faustin screamed "Kelen's Wrath Gas Attack!"
Immediatley, all of the men around him not wearing the battle suits began putting their gas masks on. Just in time, it seemed, as several dozen planes flew overhead, completely dropping their payloads onto the barracks, and the city behind. The light of the moon was soon dimmed, by a mixture of smoke, and biochemical gas. The Union soldiers below them lay there, simply dead. that was easy enough. The men began advancing into the barracks, poking at the Kelen's Wrath's victims, some of whom tried desperately to end their own lives before breathing in the toxins. Whatever these men faced must have been hell on Earth. It's what you get when you displease the Kelen though..
******
The dim light of the moon could be seen in the far distance, illuminating the cityscape beyond. But here, right here, this was what was important. The relative quiet of the night was soon destroyed when the thump of a heavy artillery piece could be heard in the distance, accompanied by a flash of light. So that's where they've been hiding their artillery. Faustin laughed to himself. A few others around him began laughing too, when the shot fell just short of the ridge they were on. A few more shots were fired, and the result was a few more misses. Someone from the back yelled, "They're smart enough to crack into computers, but too dumb to shoot correctly." Faustin shushed him. "Do you want to flash a sign to them, saying that we're okay? Shut up before you get us all killed" he whispered. The other Dúuru sat silently. it'll only be a few seconds until air support gets here.. and almost as if punctuating his though, the sensor on a battle-suited infantry man began beeping. Dúuru Faustin screamed "Kelen's Wrath Gas Attack!"
Immediatley, all of the men around him not wearing the battle suits began putting their gas masks on. Just in time, it seemed, as several dozen planes flew overhead, completely dropping their payloads onto the barracks, and the city behind. The light of the moon was soon dimmed, by a mixture of smoke, and biochemical gas. The Union soldiers below them lay there, simply dead. that was easy enough. The men began advancing into the barracks, poking at the Kelen's Wrath's victims, some of whom tried desperately to end their own lives before breathing in the toxins. Whatever these men faced must have been hell on Earth. It's what you get when you displease the Kelen though..
******
Terrance888
Discord Reigns
Immaculate
unerring
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Messages
- 7,623
cool newspaper terrance888.
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
Sorry Imago. I had to leave earlier than expected any plans discussed in PADTA's socialgroup is our plan as is any discussed in the other social group as well.
To UKA
From the Texas Republic
We in PADTA have thrown our support behind Queen Victoria and hereby declares war against the UKA.
To UKA
From the Texas Republic
We in PADTA have thrown our support behind Queen Victoria and hereby declares war against the UKA.
Capt_Lightning
Chieftain
As much fun as this has been, I don't have the time any more to keep playing in this NES. In any event, I think I've missed two orders now, but I just don't have the time to commit to playing this anymore.
Agent 89
King
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2009
- Messages
- 978
The Supreme Leader sat inside his Tehran office, staring out across the expanse of the city. As he mulled over his thoughts, an aide burst in and handed him a report fresh from the printer.
"Sir, the Indians have declared war just as expected. Their Prime Minister delivered the news over the radio. He also claimed that their planes have bombed Tehran," the aide added.
The Supreme Leader looked out the window and sighed before turning back to the aide. "Does this look like a bombed out city to you? I guess the Indian Prime Minister lost his glasses again and mistook one of his own cities for Tehran on the map."
"Sir, he also insisted that an Indian army of over a million men has already invaded and reached the Indus."
"So you're telling me that in the 20 hours since I last received a report from the Pakistan command, the Indians managed to mobilize, invade, and push hundreds of miles into Iranian territory without us hearing about it?" the Supreme Leader replied.
"I don't know sir. Should we put the conditional plans into action?"
"Yes, give the order to begin operations. While you're at it, send out this:
To: India
From: The Supreme Leader
What is this treachery? I see the Indian people have no more honor that a common scoundrel. You wait until our backs are turned to attack, in complete disregard to an official treaty you signed. And your excuse? A proposed peace treaty during the Order War, one that you can clearly see we never agreed to. Your cowardice has at last been exposed to the world.
"Sir, the Indians have declared war just as expected. Their Prime Minister delivered the news over the radio. He also claimed that their planes have bombed Tehran," the aide added.
The Supreme Leader looked out the window and sighed before turning back to the aide. "Does this look like a bombed out city to you? I guess the Indian Prime Minister lost his glasses again and mistook one of his own cities for Tehran on the map."
"Sir, he also insisted that an Indian army of over a million men has already invaded and reached the Indus."
"So you're telling me that in the 20 hours since I last received a report from the Pakistan command, the Indians managed to mobilize, invade, and push hundreds of miles into Iranian territory without us hearing about it?" the Supreme Leader replied.
"I don't know sir. Should we put the conditional plans into action?"
"Yes, give the order to begin operations. While you're at it, send out this:
To: India
From: The Supreme Leader
What is this treachery? I see the Indian people have no more honor that a common scoundrel. You wait until our backs are turned to attack, in complete disregard to an official treaty you signed. And your excuse? A proposed peace treaty during the Order War, one that you can clearly see we never agreed to. Your cowardice has at last been exposed to the world.
Terrance888
Discord Reigns
To the "Supreme Leader"
From Prime Minister Netaji of the Indian Union
I see that you have equated yourself with a common scoundrel: I have records here that there was a treaty offered and there was a deal of some kind signed.
Firstly, the treaty you have signed with Jawal has only detailed a cease in hostilities, the payment of tribute, and of course, the demobilization of the Patriots and the acceptance of Pakistan to your rule. Of COURSE, there is not one word about the state of hostilities after the exchange of tribute and land. Nor were there any insistence for such statement.
Secondly, the Indus is directly at our border... a few hours ago. Any Indian can look upon it and see the Jihadist- of course, can there be any other than a Jihadist living in Iran?- on the other side. Also, it took us five days... if I was General and not Prime Minister I'm sure I could have done it in four. If course, you are disappointed I did not march them fast enough, but what can I say?
Thirdly, JINX!
All Hail the Union!
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From Prime Minister Netaji of the Indian Union
I see that you have equated yourself with a common scoundrel: I have records here that there was a treaty offered and there was a deal of some kind signed.
Firstly, the treaty you have signed with Jawal has only detailed a cease in hostilities, the payment of tribute, and of course, the demobilization of the Patriots and the acceptance of Pakistan to your rule. Of COURSE, there is not one word about the state of hostilities after the exchange of tribute and land. Nor were there any insistence for such statement.
Secondly, the Indus is directly at our border... a few hours ago. Any Indian can look upon it and see the Jihadist- of course, can there be any other than a Jihadist living in Iran?- on the other side. Also, it took us five days... if I was General and not Prime Minister I'm sure I could have done it in four. If course, you are disappointed I did not march them fast enough, but what can I say?
Thirdly, JINX!
All Hail the Union!
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
From the UKA
To the Texan Republic
We signed a Non Aggression Pact, but I guess your word is not your bond. It's odd since Queen Victoria is dead, but I see you are determined to end any hope for liberty. Very well, come at us, and you will see the fighting spirit of the Royal Army!
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
We agreed to sign a NAP but you never did officially put pen to paper (posting publicly or letting imago know) and also we do not sign NAP's without including all of PADTA.
Agent 89
King
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2009
- Messages
- 978
To: India
From: The Supreme Leader
Of course you have records, for all negotiations were made in public. However, it is clear that any signed treaty with the Order exsists only in your mind.
The world now knows never to trust the word of an Indian again. You have no conception of what a peace treaty means. You also plan to violate Iranian soverginity over Pakistan, something you clearly recognized in the peace agreement.
From: The Supreme Leader
Of course you have records, for all negotiations were made in public. However, it is clear that any signed treaty with the Order exsists only in your mind.
The world now knows never to trust the word of an Indian again. You have no conception of what a peace treaty means. You also plan to violate Iranian soverginity over Pakistan, something you clearly recognized in the peace agreement.
Terrance888
Discord Reigns
Clearly, I marched through Kashmir. SOUTHERN Kashmir, of course.
(OOC: Also, I still didn't get to read that page yet, it was a protip from someone)
(OOC: Also, I still didn't get to read that page yet, it was a protip from someone)
Agent 89
King
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2009
- Messages
- 978
I would think that if you're basing your entire declaration of war off of something, that you would actually read it first.
Circuit
Writing Letters
As the one offering the protip, I refer you all to Post #269. The Iranians promised the Order Oman and Yemen. Who owns Oman and Yemen? Iran. 'Nuf said.
Update: 2058
Peaceful Events
World War III entered its second year, with opposing ideologies increasingly obvious. On one side stood the System, both the name for the Atlantic’s military overnet and the common moniker for Queen Catherine, Consul Romano, Netaji Abhayaprada, and all their allies. On the other was the Multinational Defense Initiative, a cobbling-together of the mostly democratic PADTA, the ruthlessly authoritarian LIARS, and Islamist Iran and Egypt thrown in for good measure. None of these groups had much love for each other, but they all at least claimed to share the idea behind the word ‘multinational’– that the world was entitled to different states with different opinions.
The Atlantic tried to swat LIARS and the Islamists first. USACS, Germany, Iran, and Egypt experienced internet and electrical blackouts much like Siam, but some lessons had been learned, response protocols were in place, and damage was relatively minimal, with old-style power plants taking the place of the problem children. Further, Atlantic attempts to wipe national accounts met with relatively minimal success, if only because the wartime conditions didn’t allow Atlantic agents to take much advantage of account information. Indeed, as the months wore on, measures a la Japan (see below) were put in place across the board, alas belatedly. Still, the scale of the damage cannot be underestimated. Civilian technology is back to twentieth-century levels, and recovery costs seem astronomical.
(-1 USACS ASP, -1 German ASP, -1 Iranian ASP, -1 Egyptian ASP)
CWOH, one of the three holdouts in the largely defunct Treaty of the United Americas, implemented austerity measures and defensive proclamations. Any foreign trespass of Commonwealth soil or waters (the Bering Strait and Sacramento’s part of the Arctic included) would be considered hostile. To get around the ruling, international shippers began exchanging cargo with CWOH flagged vessels just outside of territorial waters, but nothing occurred that could be titled a military invasion, even by CWOH’s broad definition.
As Atlantic nanofactories in Great Britain and the East Coast began to churn out war machinery, Queen Catherine and Prime Minister Blacktyde grew the System, accepting France’s proposal to wholeheartedly merge and Israel’s offer to enter as an Autonomous Domain.
(Republic of France and Israel merged into United Kingdom of the Atlantic)
The Atlantic took a page out of Texas’ book and started preparing a national guard organization to compliment strengthened border defenses. As the union of nations is quite popular, many sign up.
(+30 Atlantic irregular divisions, +Atlantic approval rating)
Despite impending pan-American war, the Inca Republic spent good money purchasing all mechanized Archipelagic factories in the Guianas. As soon as the transaction was completed, the forces of the venerable Sapa-Inca Reza Eghtedar occupied that last nation posthaste. Now that the Guianas had something of value, they were worth annexing. The Incas encountered little resistance; there wasn’t enough nationalism for a real fight.
(+1 Incan ASP, -1 Archipelagic ASP, -Guianas)
Patagonia built a thick defensive line countering what the Atlantic had constructed on their border. The government also greatly expanded the army, which provided jobs enough to make a real dent in the automation-caused unemployment.
(+Patagonian approval rating)
The USACS was embattled, but the Kélen Toumani certainly had many tricks up his sleeve. He raised near half a million reservists, and threw them towards the front lines. He integrated Tanganyika. He declared the conflict against the AUK (as he called the Atlantics) to be the Great Revolutionary War, a fight every bit as important as Japan’s Great Patriotic battle against China, and that the only acceptable resolution was AUK UNCONDITIONAL SURENDER. He labeled the Queen and her people perverted slavers, and instigated yet another purge of their ‘agents.’ He developed a new worker class, the Tán Ní Kélen, who were mindless laborers in the style of Haitian zombies. He whipped up some mixture of terror and communist patriotism in Iberia. And also, for some reason, he encouraged USACS women to have twins.
(+10 USACS irregular divisions, +1 USACS ASP)
Consul Romano unleashed every last bit of his administrative and rhetorical talents for the war against Iran, instituting strict rationing and coming to an accord with the Catholic Church. Even as half a million clones fresh out of the vats marched to war, the Pope acknowledged that “tampering with God’s finest creation…is preferred to a world run by imams and communists.” Oil sources in the Americas were found, which has halted any further implosion of the economy. In one particularly stirring speech, Romano extolled his capital as not Mecca, Moscow, or Beijing, but the Eternal City, “and it is here that the terror ends, for now and for ever.”
(+Roman approval rating)
Further defensive lines were dug from Rome to Sicily.
Somewhat late in the year, Roman collaboration with Atlantic artilects produced a second wave of cyber attacks against Iran and Germany, and hit Romania for the first time. While the first two countries would suffer little more than futurist propaganda, Romania’s storm of technological chaos nearly destroyed the little nation’s economy.
(-German approval rating, -Romanian approval rating, -1 Romanian ASP)
Iran’s problems were at least a patriotic coup; the fiery Imam Ali Jafari and others encouraged hundreds of thousands to sign up for the military, including many Bosnians and Albanians in the newly occupied territories.
(+60 Iranian irregular divisions)
India affirmed an alliance with the Romans against the “common Islamic enemy” and declared the second Indo-Iranian war in four years. As ultra-secret schematics of cybernetic implants and cloning procedures began to trickle their way to Indian military scientists, Madras’ high command complimented the new science with old tricks, whipping up a war fervor, beating the economy into overdrive, and setting up a gargantuan recruitment machine that promised the million that enlisted a million plots of land in the new territories, once “the overextended Islamic jihadi terror” was crushed. To get around a pledge that the Indian National Army would not enter Iranian sovereign soil, that military branch was renamed the Indian Imperial Army.
(+100 Indian irregular divisions, +Indian approval rating, +1 point invested in Indian ASP growth)
Prime Minister President Yui Mongkut offered free higher education to anyone who joined the Siamese military, and pushed the sale of war bonds. The increasingly patriotic Burmese, Thais and Vietnamese responded with hearty approval, but the huge Han population was not very much impressed.
(+1 Siamese banked ASP)
Proletarian China instituted an only slightly less extreme version of Japan’s digital security measures while the Chinese Citizens’ Guard spread its roots, becoming an effective method of coercion.
(+Proletarian Chinese approval rating)
The Imperial Proletarian State, back in form, urged the proles to work harder, meted access to all complex electronics on a needs basis, mandated routine memory wipes and hardcopy backups of even civilian computers, and started writing Japanese programs that had next to no compatibility with the wider world. Propaganda was blasted on television and radio waves, pharmaceuticals were handed out to all, and military communications were fully shifted to analog. If any new cyber attacks had been launched early in the year against Japan, they would have been met with a collective burp, but ironically enough, no major activities of that sort were attempted. The Chinese Liberation Front was lying low, and the real drama was further west.
Military Events
PADTA struck at the heart of the beast.
(See Spotlight)
(+ Victorian Atlantis, -4 Atlantic divisions, -5 Atlantic irregular divisions, -2 Atlantic squadrons, -5 Atlantic groups, -3 Atlantic ASP)
Communist agents rallied up a new round of unrest in Brazil, assassinating important politicians, instigating what rebellions they could, (mostly among the more restive rural populace) and generally degrading bureaucratic efficiency in the local branch of the Atlantic pan-government.
(-2 Atlantic divisions, -1 Atlantic ASP)
Patagonia entered World War III on an intriguingly defensive footing, setting up rail gun emplacements and blasting Atlantic fortifications. There was some cybernetic interference (the Atlantic wouldn’t have been the Atlantic without that) but the artilects were preoccupied with the gargantuan fronts that needed to be coordinated in Europe and Africa, and only one cannon went haywire. Emboldened, Patagonia began launching air raids against Inca and Atlantic positions, which helped the Brazilian rebels but mostly just incited the Inca, who launched a broad offensive. This ground down quickly, with heavy casualties, and the Patagonians implemented a successful blockade of the Inca Pacific shoreline. For their next move, the forces of Buenos Aires crossed Paraná, swatting down a rather complex looking defensive line that would have been hell to cross in a couple years but as of yet consisted of a variety of confused adaptive robotics that hadn’t really adapted yet.
(-6 Patagonian divisions, -2 Patagonian groups, -1 Atlantic division, -4 Atlantic irregular divisions, -3 Atlantic squadrons, -1 Atlantic group, -9 Incan divisions, -3 Incan squadrons, -1 Incan group, -1 Incan ASP)
The USACS gave the United Kingdom of the Atlantic a one day ultimatum on South Africa, then began a massive biological hailstorm (with some Siamese help) that poisoned South Africa’s fields, melted Cape Town’s buildings, and generally reduced the countryside and the most obvious military installations to broken pieces of hellscape. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of ground troops arrived to mop up the pieces, but by then it was too late to prevent the combined Inca-Atlantic Army of Fury from making landfall on what was left of the docks and marching System-linked poison resistant clones straight through screaming communist diehards. The tempo shifted, as the forces of the System found their artillery pounding on what were far more thorough border defenses than they had imagined, but eventually they penetrated Fortress Africa, aided by air superiority. The Queen’s Wrath fighters, developed by the Atlantics, which the Africans had plans for but really never should have dared use, mostly swapped sides via AI, much to the dismay of the pilots, which helped the front move all the way to the Zambezi.
(-7 USACS divisions, -8 USACS irregular divisions, -8 USACS groups, -10 USACS Queen’s Wrath groups, -6 Siamese groups, -12 Incan divisions, -9 Incan groups, -16 Atlantic divisions, -6 Atlantic groups, -1 Atlantic ASP)
The Egyptians pacified central Ethiopia to some degree, but didn’t dare push towards the fearsome Somali coast, even though the pirates have begun to wreck havoc with trade.
(-2 Egyptian divisions, -1 Egyptian ASP)
The USACS spy apparatus, known, rather distressingly, as AIDS, made a major landfall in Ireland and tried to bring the people to arms, but little was sparked except sabotage, and then a major street battle in Dublin, where elite communists fought for their lives against death-cyborgs linked into the System, while local citizens watched passively. The deaths of the infiltrators came along with the destruction of a good amount of Atlantic material, but Eire today is still acquiescent to Washington, and the communists really need a less brute-force method to really make a dent in Prime Minister Blacktyde’s system of control.
(-4 Atlantic groups)
One of the greatest battle fronts of 2058 was the Pyrenees. This line the centerpiece for both the Atlantics and the USACS—a must hold. A must push past. Spain was a key objective for Washington, France was a key objective for Bamako. Here the artilects—artificial intellects—of the System were most concentrated on managing the war, and here the extremely fearsome USACS spy network—AIDS—was everywhere, evading hunter-killer cyborg traps and butchering communications and interface equipment once they knew what to look for. For their part, the artilects unleashed Little Lamb virus, which had built itself up well in USACS forward operating system, powering down the fleet that held the Straits of Gibraltar, wreaking havoc among the Trojan Horse Queen’s Wrath fighters, and turning some mobile artillery units around in a half circle. In the end it all was just too much for even the most ardent of communist quick-fixes overcome—some Indian and Quebecois expeditionary forces joined the fun and blasted the hell out of USACS positions as Duuru and officer-caste Naani alike tried desperately to hold Gibraltar. The Atlantic victory was hardly complete—some USACS squadrons got running again and limped further into the Med to help the Iranians, the air force held the Indian navy from breaking into the Med themselves, many soldiers and planes were evacuated back to Africa, and most importantly, the fortress line at Tangiers held. But the fact is undeniable that the Kelen’s forces have been evicted from the continent.
(-31 Atlantic divisions, -6 Atlantic squadrons, -8 Atlantic groups, -3 Quebecois groups, -4 Indian squadrons, -3 Indian groups, -42 USACS divisions, -15 USACS irregular divisions, -8 USACS squadrons, -3 USACS groups, -22 USACS Queen’s Wrath groups)
In northern France, the Atlantics assembled the Army of the End (I), and launched it at Germany in conjunction with Balt and Russian invasions. What was going on with the Balts, nobody seemed to know, because even though they said all the right things about condemning USACS biological warfare, on camera all their leaders looked completely addled. The Russian case was simpler. They had been pushed around by USACS and friends too many times. They wanted payback. The Germans did the best they could,, but they were outnumbered, flanked from all directions, and old Chancellor Eichel was gravely wounded quite early in the year in a bombing attack. The Atlantics pushed to the Elbe, the Russians reached the Dnieper (swinging through Ukraine), and the Balts secured Norway, Denmark, and coastal Poland. The German war economy has held together remarkably well, and the stage is finally set for a dynamic new leader, but the front lines are threadbare.
(-14 Atlantic divisions, -8 Atlantic squadrons, -12 Atlantic groups, -9 Balt divisions, -6 Balt squadrons, -2 Balt groups, -Balt approval rating, -10 Russian divisions, -2 Russian groups, -3 Ukrainian divisions, -5 Ukrainian groups, -37 German divisions, -15 German squadrons, -33 German groups, -1 German ASP)
Rome’s clones matured far quicker than anticipated, throwing the Iranians on the defensive. Still, in conjunction with USACS rabble rousers, (whose propaganda was said to make even the Greeks question their devotion to Rome) more Bosnian and Albanian levies were raised en masse, denuding the landscape until the Supreme Leader’s Army of the Jihad plus Romanian auxiliaries was numerically comparable to the clones, which strained to overtake a defensive line constructed in Croatia (the Germans having pulled out to focus on their own issues). Behind the barricade, the Iranians constructed another, besieging Constantinople with much of the fleet, rebuffing relief efforts, and provoking a popular insurrection among the local Muslim population that deposed the tiny but adamant force of Roman defenders in a matter of months. The loss of the famed city did galvanize the Roman army, which finally broke the Croat Line and mauled the Army of the Jihad, but by year’s end they were bogged down near Sarajevo, though Roman partisans ranged far beyond the front lines and were largely the reason why the Revolutionary Guard failed to finish conquering Greece.
(-16 Roman divisions, -11 Roman squadrons, -2 Roman groups, -2 Roman Queen’s Wrath groups, -2 USACS squadrons, -17 Iranian divisions, +20 Iranian irregular divisions, -14 Iranian irregular divisions, -2 Iranian squadrons, -2 Iranian groups, -12 Romanian divisions, -2 Romanian groups)
Israel’s hinterland and the Muslim elements of its military rebelled in favor of the Umma; the Syrians had a proto-world state they preferred to the Atlantic and its System. As the Israelis reconfigured forces, the Egyptians pushed into Jerusalem. Here, in one of the holiest cities in the world, Black Death 2.0 (as the Atlantics gleefully called it) was first encountered—the victorious Egyptians died en masse to a disease mechanical at its root and under the control of Prime Minister Blacktyde, long at the head of the Atlantian nanite program. This was the theatre’s spoiler—the Egyptians found that high-frequency electromagnetic radiation could fry the invisible monster, but x-ray machines didn’t grow on trees and weren’t particularly combat friendly—so the southern invasion ground to a halt, while in the north the Iranians had to migrate troops quick to deal with the Indian threat. Israel is reduced to a few coastal cities, but the nation still stands. On the other hand, the zombie making water wasn’t too much of a problem for the invaders, who were close enough to native soil to port in their own supplies, and not all of the Egyptian Queen’s Wrath units went haywire.
(+10 Iranian divisions, -14 Iranian divisions, -3 Iranian groups, -3 Egyptian divisions, -23 Egyptian Janissary divisions, -7 Egyptian groups, -10 Egyptian Queen’s Wraith groups, -21 Atlantic divisions, -9 Atlantic groups, -2 Atlantic ASP)
Indian agents spent a lot of money propping up ex-Crusaders and disenchanted Sunni Arabians, but the Umma was popular among many Muslims in the region, so the result was a great deal of tangled local fighting that the Iranians, with many other issues, decided to ignore for the time being.
(-5 Iranian irregular divisions)
The Indian Imperial Army, for the second time in a decade, rolled through the Punjab, past the Indus Line, and then pushed down the river itself to liberate Pakistan. Iran’s defensive strategy was to unleash the Supreme Leader’s loyal tribals, and so untrained Afghanis and Central Asians combated the growing but barely trained Indian conscript horde in a horrendously messy affair, but in the end Indian high command decided the best strategy was a push along the coast through the Baluchi lands. It was here the advance stalled—the Bengalis, in support of the Umma, had taken the occasion to rise, and some units needed to be cycled home to start putting them down, but the Indian Imperial Fleet took up the slack and ranged as far as Yemen, burning coastal towns, and even using some marines to seize and hold Muscat. The Iranian oil export magnates are posting record losses.
(-4 Indian divisions, -27 Indian irregular divisions, -2 Indian groups, -1 Indian ASP, -3 Iranian divisions, -25 Iranian irregular divisions, -4 Iranian groups, -2 Iranian ASP)
The people of the Maldives and Lakshadweep islands revolted from India.
The Siamese withdrew from the land that was officially southern Proletarian China, allowing forces of the Supreme Overlord to move in and begin administration. A few pitiful rebellions were put down, allowing Red Beijing’s attentions to begin to turn west, where Uyghur and Mongols have lived since 2056 in relative impunity.
(-2 Proletarian Chinese divisions)
After talking loudly about some Operation Burbank in Europe, Siamese commanders made clear their association with LIARS and played auxiliaries (with some Proletarian Chinese) to a Japanese invasion of New Guinea and Australia. Complicated defenses along the Australian urban coasts were avoided through a landing in northern West Australia, in the middle of nowhere, and while extremely circuitous route to Canberra insured that any important documents and machinery in the local capital region had plenty of time to get out by sub, by year’s end there were only a few Atlantic holdouts Sydney and Victoria, and the mini-continent was essentially a loss for the Atlantics. New Zealand, while not invaded, was blockaded by the Japanese fleet, insuring that not much tax revenue from the region would be able to get to Washington. The greatest Japanese victory was indeed the most innocuous. Their complicated anti-hacking protocols worked. The invasion of the region had proceeded with a minimum of induced malfunction.
(-2 Japanese divisions, -1 Japanese squadron, -1 Japanese group, -3 Siamese divisions, -2 Siamese groups, -5 Atlantic divisions, -4 Atlantic squadrons, -5 Atlantic groups, -1 Atlantic ASP)
Peaceful Events
World War III entered its second year, with opposing ideologies increasingly obvious. On one side stood the System, both the name for the Atlantic’s military overnet and the common moniker for Queen Catherine, Consul Romano, Netaji Abhayaprada, and all their allies. On the other was the Multinational Defense Initiative, a cobbling-together of the mostly democratic PADTA, the ruthlessly authoritarian LIARS, and Islamist Iran and Egypt thrown in for good measure. None of these groups had much love for each other, but they all at least claimed to share the idea behind the word ‘multinational’– that the world was entitled to different states with different opinions.
The Atlantic tried to swat LIARS and the Islamists first. USACS, Germany, Iran, and Egypt experienced internet and electrical blackouts much like Siam, but some lessons had been learned, response protocols were in place, and damage was relatively minimal, with old-style power plants taking the place of the problem children. Further, Atlantic attempts to wipe national accounts met with relatively minimal success, if only because the wartime conditions didn’t allow Atlantic agents to take much advantage of account information. Indeed, as the months wore on, measures a la Japan (see below) were put in place across the board, alas belatedly. Still, the scale of the damage cannot be underestimated. Civilian technology is back to twentieth-century levels, and recovery costs seem astronomical.
(-1 USACS ASP, -1 German ASP, -1 Iranian ASP, -1 Egyptian ASP)
CWOH, one of the three holdouts in the largely defunct Treaty of the United Americas, implemented austerity measures and defensive proclamations. Any foreign trespass of Commonwealth soil or waters (the Bering Strait and Sacramento’s part of the Arctic included) would be considered hostile. To get around the ruling, international shippers began exchanging cargo with CWOH flagged vessels just outside of territorial waters, but nothing occurred that could be titled a military invasion, even by CWOH’s broad definition.
As Atlantic nanofactories in Great Britain and the East Coast began to churn out war machinery, Queen Catherine and Prime Minister Blacktyde grew the System, accepting France’s proposal to wholeheartedly merge and Israel’s offer to enter as an Autonomous Domain.
(Republic of France and Israel merged into United Kingdom of the Atlantic)
The Atlantic took a page out of Texas’ book and started preparing a national guard organization to compliment strengthened border defenses. As the union of nations is quite popular, many sign up.
(+30 Atlantic irregular divisions, +Atlantic approval rating)
Despite impending pan-American war, the Inca Republic spent good money purchasing all mechanized Archipelagic factories in the Guianas. As soon as the transaction was completed, the forces of the venerable Sapa-Inca Reza Eghtedar occupied that last nation posthaste. Now that the Guianas had something of value, they were worth annexing. The Incas encountered little resistance; there wasn’t enough nationalism for a real fight.
(+1 Incan ASP, -1 Archipelagic ASP, -Guianas)
Patagonia built a thick defensive line countering what the Atlantic had constructed on their border. The government also greatly expanded the army, which provided jobs enough to make a real dent in the automation-caused unemployment.
(+Patagonian approval rating)
The USACS was embattled, but the Kélen Toumani certainly had many tricks up his sleeve. He raised near half a million reservists, and threw them towards the front lines. He integrated Tanganyika. He declared the conflict against the AUK (as he called the Atlantics) to be the Great Revolutionary War, a fight every bit as important as Japan’s Great Patriotic battle against China, and that the only acceptable resolution was AUK UNCONDITIONAL SURENDER. He labeled the Queen and her people perverted slavers, and instigated yet another purge of their ‘agents.’ He developed a new worker class, the Tán Ní Kélen, who were mindless laborers in the style of Haitian zombies. He whipped up some mixture of terror and communist patriotism in Iberia. And also, for some reason, he encouraged USACS women to have twins.
(+10 USACS irregular divisions, +1 USACS ASP)
Consul Romano unleashed every last bit of his administrative and rhetorical talents for the war against Iran, instituting strict rationing and coming to an accord with the Catholic Church. Even as half a million clones fresh out of the vats marched to war, the Pope acknowledged that “tampering with God’s finest creation…is preferred to a world run by imams and communists.” Oil sources in the Americas were found, which has halted any further implosion of the economy. In one particularly stirring speech, Romano extolled his capital as not Mecca, Moscow, or Beijing, but the Eternal City, “and it is here that the terror ends, for now and for ever.”
(+Roman approval rating)
Further defensive lines were dug from Rome to Sicily.
Somewhat late in the year, Roman collaboration with Atlantic artilects produced a second wave of cyber attacks against Iran and Germany, and hit Romania for the first time. While the first two countries would suffer little more than futurist propaganda, Romania’s storm of technological chaos nearly destroyed the little nation’s economy.
(-German approval rating, -Romanian approval rating, -1 Romanian ASP)
Iran’s problems were at least a patriotic coup; the fiery Imam Ali Jafari and others encouraged hundreds of thousands to sign up for the military, including many Bosnians and Albanians in the newly occupied territories.
(+60 Iranian irregular divisions)
India affirmed an alliance with the Romans against the “common Islamic enemy” and declared the second Indo-Iranian war in four years. As ultra-secret schematics of cybernetic implants and cloning procedures began to trickle their way to Indian military scientists, Madras’ high command complimented the new science with old tricks, whipping up a war fervor, beating the economy into overdrive, and setting up a gargantuan recruitment machine that promised the million that enlisted a million plots of land in the new territories, once “the overextended Islamic jihadi terror” was crushed. To get around a pledge that the Indian National Army would not enter Iranian sovereign soil, that military branch was renamed the Indian Imperial Army.
(+100 Indian irregular divisions, +Indian approval rating, +1 point invested in Indian ASP growth)
Prime Minister President Yui Mongkut offered free higher education to anyone who joined the Siamese military, and pushed the sale of war bonds. The increasingly patriotic Burmese, Thais and Vietnamese responded with hearty approval, but the huge Han population was not very much impressed.
(+1 Siamese banked ASP)
Proletarian China instituted an only slightly less extreme version of Japan’s digital security measures while the Chinese Citizens’ Guard spread its roots, becoming an effective method of coercion.
(+Proletarian Chinese approval rating)
The Imperial Proletarian State, back in form, urged the proles to work harder, meted access to all complex electronics on a needs basis, mandated routine memory wipes and hardcopy backups of even civilian computers, and started writing Japanese programs that had next to no compatibility with the wider world. Propaganda was blasted on television and radio waves, pharmaceuticals were handed out to all, and military communications were fully shifted to analog. If any new cyber attacks had been launched early in the year against Japan, they would have been met with a collective burp, but ironically enough, no major activities of that sort were attempted. The Chinese Liberation Front was lying low, and the real drama was further west.
Military Events
PADTA struck at the heart of the beast.
(See Spotlight)
(+ Victorian Atlantis, -4 Atlantic divisions, -5 Atlantic irregular divisions, -2 Atlantic squadrons, -5 Atlantic groups, -3 Atlantic ASP)
Communist agents rallied up a new round of unrest in Brazil, assassinating important politicians, instigating what rebellions they could, (mostly among the more restive rural populace) and generally degrading bureaucratic efficiency in the local branch of the Atlantic pan-government.
(-2 Atlantic divisions, -1 Atlantic ASP)
Patagonia entered World War III on an intriguingly defensive footing, setting up rail gun emplacements and blasting Atlantic fortifications. There was some cybernetic interference (the Atlantic wouldn’t have been the Atlantic without that) but the artilects were preoccupied with the gargantuan fronts that needed to be coordinated in Europe and Africa, and only one cannon went haywire. Emboldened, Patagonia began launching air raids against Inca and Atlantic positions, which helped the Brazilian rebels but mostly just incited the Inca, who launched a broad offensive. This ground down quickly, with heavy casualties, and the Patagonians implemented a successful blockade of the Inca Pacific shoreline. For their next move, the forces of Buenos Aires crossed Paraná, swatting down a rather complex looking defensive line that would have been hell to cross in a couple years but as of yet consisted of a variety of confused adaptive robotics that hadn’t really adapted yet.
(-6 Patagonian divisions, -2 Patagonian groups, -1 Atlantic division, -4 Atlantic irregular divisions, -3 Atlantic squadrons, -1 Atlantic group, -9 Incan divisions, -3 Incan squadrons, -1 Incan group, -1 Incan ASP)
The USACS gave the United Kingdom of the Atlantic a one day ultimatum on South Africa, then began a massive biological hailstorm (with some Siamese help) that poisoned South Africa’s fields, melted Cape Town’s buildings, and generally reduced the countryside and the most obvious military installations to broken pieces of hellscape. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of ground troops arrived to mop up the pieces, but by then it was too late to prevent the combined Inca-Atlantic Army of Fury from making landfall on what was left of the docks and marching System-linked poison resistant clones straight through screaming communist diehards. The tempo shifted, as the forces of the System found their artillery pounding on what were far more thorough border defenses than they had imagined, but eventually they penetrated Fortress Africa, aided by air superiority. The Queen’s Wrath fighters, developed by the Atlantics, which the Africans had plans for but really never should have dared use, mostly swapped sides via AI, much to the dismay of the pilots, which helped the front move all the way to the Zambezi.
(-7 USACS divisions, -8 USACS irregular divisions, -8 USACS groups, -10 USACS Queen’s Wrath groups, -6 Siamese groups, -12 Incan divisions, -9 Incan groups, -16 Atlantic divisions, -6 Atlantic groups, -1 Atlantic ASP)
The Egyptians pacified central Ethiopia to some degree, but didn’t dare push towards the fearsome Somali coast, even though the pirates have begun to wreck havoc with trade.
(-2 Egyptian divisions, -1 Egyptian ASP)
The USACS spy apparatus, known, rather distressingly, as AIDS, made a major landfall in Ireland and tried to bring the people to arms, but little was sparked except sabotage, and then a major street battle in Dublin, where elite communists fought for their lives against death-cyborgs linked into the System, while local citizens watched passively. The deaths of the infiltrators came along with the destruction of a good amount of Atlantic material, but Eire today is still acquiescent to Washington, and the communists really need a less brute-force method to really make a dent in Prime Minister Blacktyde’s system of control.
(-4 Atlantic groups)
One of the greatest battle fronts of 2058 was the Pyrenees. This line the centerpiece for both the Atlantics and the USACS—a must hold. A must push past. Spain was a key objective for Washington, France was a key objective for Bamako. Here the artilects—artificial intellects—of the System were most concentrated on managing the war, and here the extremely fearsome USACS spy network—AIDS—was everywhere, evading hunter-killer cyborg traps and butchering communications and interface equipment once they knew what to look for. For their part, the artilects unleashed Little Lamb virus, which had built itself up well in USACS forward operating system, powering down the fleet that held the Straits of Gibraltar, wreaking havoc among the Trojan Horse Queen’s Wrath fighters, and turning some mobile artillery units around in a half circle. In the end it all was just too much for even the most ardent of communist quick-fixes overcome—some Indian and Quebecois expeditionary forces joined the fun and blasted the hell out of USACS positions as Duuru and officer-caste Naani alike tried desperately to hold Gibraltar. The Atlantic victory was hardly complete—some USACS squadrons got running again and limped further into the Med to help the Iranians, the air force held the Indian navy from breaking into the Med themselves, many soldiers and planes were evacuated back to Africa, and most importantly, the fortress line at Tangiers held. But the fact is undeniable that the Kelen’s forces have been evicted from the continent.
(-31 Atlantic divisions, -6 Atlantic squadrons, -8 Atlantic groups, -3 Quebecois groups, -4 Indian squadrons, -3 Indian groups, -42 USACS divisions, -15 USACS irregular divisions, -8 USACS squadrons, -3 USACS groups, -22 USACS Queen’s Wrath groups)
In northern France, the Atlantics assembled the Army of the End (I), and launched it at Germany in conjunction with Balt and Russian invasions. What was going on with the Balts, nobody seemed to know, because even though they said all the right things about condemning USACS biological warfare, on camera all their leaders looked completely addled. The Russian case was simpler. They had been pushed around by USACS and friends too many times. They wanted payback. The Germans did the best they could,, but they were outnumbered, flanked from all directions, and old Chancellor Eichel was gravely wounded quite early in the year in a bombing attack. The Atlantics pushed to the Elbe, the Russians reached the Dnieper (swinging through Ukraine), and the Balts secured Norway, Denmark, and coastal Poland. The German war economy has held together remarkably well, and the stage is finally set for a dynamic new leader, but the front lines are threadbare.
(-14 Atlantic divisions, -8 Atlantic squadrons, -12 Atlantic groups, -9 Balt divisions, -6 Balt squadrons, -2 Balt groups, -Balt approval rating, -10 Russian divisions, -2 Russian groups, -3 Ukrainian divisions, -5 Ukrainian groups, -37 German divisions, -15 German squadrons, -33 German groups, -1 German ASP)
Rome’s clones matured far quicker than anticipated, throwing the Iranians on the defensive. Still, in conjunction with USACS rabble rousers, (whose propaganda was said to make even the Greeks question their devotion to Rome) more Bosnian and Albanian levies were raised en masse, denuding the landscape until the Supreme Leader’s Army of the Jihad plus Romanian auxiliaries was numerically comparable to the clones, which strained to overtake a defensive line constructed in Croatia (the Germans having pulled out to focus on their own issues). Behind the barricade, the Iranians constructed another, besieging Constantinople with much of the fleet, rebuffing relief efforts, and provoking a popular insurrection among the local Muslim population that deposed the tiny but adamant force of Roman defenders in a matter of months. The loss of the famed city did galvanize the Roman army, which finally broke the Croat Line and mauled the Army of the Jihad, but by year’s end they were bogged down near Sarajevo, though Roman partisans ranged far beyond the front lines and were largely the reason why the Revolutionary Guard failed to finish conquering Greece.
(-16 Roman divisions, -11 Roman squadrons, -2 Roman groups, -2 Roman Queen’s Wrath groups, -2 USACS squadrons, -17 Iranian divisions, +20 Iranian irregular divisions, -14 Iranian irregular divisions, -2 Iranian squadrons, -2 Iranian groups, -12 Romanian divisions, -2 Romanian groups)
Israel’s hinterland and the Muslim elements of its military rebelled in favor of the Umma; the Syrians had a proto-world state they preferred to the Atlantic and its System. As the Israelis reconfigured forces, the Egyptians pushed into Jerusalem. Here, in one of the holiest cities in the world, Black Death 2.0 (as the Atlantics gleefully called it) was first encountered—the victorious Egyptians died en masse to a disease mechanical at its root and under the control of Prime Minister Blacktyde, long at the head of the Atlantian nanite program. This was the theatre’s spoiler—the Egyptians found that high-frequency electromagnetic radiation could fry the invisible monster, but x-ray machines didn’t grow on trees and weren’t particularly combat friendly—so the southern invasion ground to a halt, while in the north the Iranians had to migrate troops quick to deal with the Indian threat. Israel is reduced to a few coastal cities, but the nation still stands. On the other hand, the zombie making water wasn’t too much of a problem for the invaders, who were close enough to native soil to port in their own supplies, and not all of the Egyptian Queen’s Wrath units went haywire.
(+10 Iranian divisions, -14 Iranian divisions, -3 Iranian groups, -3 Egyptian divisions, -23 Egyptian Janissary divisions, -7 Egyptian groups, -10 Egyptian Queen’s Wraith groups, -21 Atlantic divisions, -9 Atlantic groups, -2 Atlantic ASP)
Indian agents spent a lot of money propping up ex-Crusaders and disenchanted Sunni Arabians, but the Umma was popular among many Muslims in the region, so the result was a great deal of tangled local fighting that the Iranians, with many other issues, decided to ignore for the time being.
(-5 Iranian irregular divisions)
The Indian Imperial Army, for the second time in a decade, rolled through the Punjab, past the Indus Line, and then pushed down the river itself to liberate Pakistan. Iran’s defensive strategy was to unleash the Supreme Leader’s loyal tribals, and so untrained Afghanis and Central Asians combated the growing but barely trained Indian conscript horde in a horrendously messy affair, but in the end Indian high command decided the best strategy was a push along the coast through the Baluchi lands. It was here the advance stalled—the Bengalis, in support of the Umma, had taken the occasion to rise, and some units needed to be cycled home to start putting them down, but the Indian Imperial Fleet took up the slack and ranged as far as Yemen, burning coastal towns, and even using some marines to seize and hold Muscat. The Iranian oil export magnates are posting record losses.
(-4 Indian divisions, -27 Indian irregular divisions, -2 Indian groups, -1 Indian ASP, -3 Iranian divisions, -25 Iranian irregular divisions, -4 Iranian groups, -2 Iranian ASP)
The people of the Maldives and Lakshadweep islands revolted from India.
The Siamese withdrew from the land that was officially southern Proletarian China, allowing forces of the Supreme Overlord to move in and begin administration. A few pitiful rebellions were put down, allowing Red Beijing’s attentions to begin to turn west, where Uyghur and Mongols have lived since 2056 in relative impunity.
(-2 Proletarian Chinese divisions)
After talking loudly about some Operation Burbank in Europe, Siamese commanders made clear their association with LIARS and played auxiliaries (with some Proletarian Chinese) to a Japanese invasion of New Guinea and Australia. Complicated defenses along the Australian urban coasts were avoided through a landing in northern West Australia, in the middle of nowhere, and while extremely circuitous route to Canberra insured that any important documents and machinery in the local capital region had plenty of time to get out by sub, by year’s end there were only a few Atlantic holdouts Sydney and Victoria, and the mini-continent was essentially a loss for the Atlantics. New Zealand, while not invaded, was blockaded by the Japanese fleet, insuring that not much tax revenue from the region would be able to get to Washington. The greatest Japanese victory was indeed the most innocuous. Their complicated anti-hacking protocols worked. The invasion of the region had proceeded with a minimum of induced malfunction.
(-2 Japanese divisions, -1 Japanese squadron, -1 Japanese group, -3 Siamese divisions, -2 Siamese groups, -5 Atlantic divisions, -4 Atlantic squadrons, -5 Atlantic groups, -1 Atlantic ASP)
Story Events
The United Kingdom of the Atlantic stands for a dream of world prosperity and union. A twisted variation of that dream, but the people still want their new dawn.
(+Atlantic approval rating)
Don’t mess with cyborg death commandos. Just…don’t.
(+1 Atlantic M-HET level)
Telling tales is sometimes helpful. Sometimes it isn’t that helpful.
(+Archipelagic approval rating)
The Kelen’s wings still fly…
(+5 USACS groups)
Their story may turn into a tragedy, but unlike so many of their allies, Consul Nico and his spy chief Fiorella are blissfully human.
(+1 Roman Praetorian Guard division)
The faithful will drown the science-devils in a wave of bodies.
(+10 Iranian irregular divisions)
The new Netaji Abhayaprada is very popular in the military and the papers.
(+5 Indian divisions)
Siam’s officer corps projects a laid-back confidence.
(+5 Siamese divisions)
Spotlight
“You want me to be dead, but I will not die, because I will always be the embodiment of the people’s will.”
-Queen Victoria
The United Kingdom of the Atlantic was quite capable at suppressing revolution. In Ireland. In Brazil. In so many others places that never even got a mention. And for the America, it seemed that was mostly all they needed to do yet again. Patagonia was a minor problem, from a world perspective. The East Coast seemed safe. Despite Texan, Caribbean, and Mexican declarations of war, a report came out in December commenting on the remarkably small number of artillery duels.
That was about when the ultra-mobile Texan Longhorn divisions seized Washington. The Atlantics had seen this coming, of course. Their air warning system was too competent to miss a long train of modified cargo planes and fighter escorts. But the problem was manpower. There wasn’t enough. As many Texan professional soldiers landed in the Atlantic capital as Queen Catherine could muster on the entire East Coast. She was long gone, fled to New York, but nothing could stop Queen Victoria’s recovery of the throne under Texan auspices.
Indeed. She wasn’t dead, despite Catherine’s rather numb insistences. The OSI unit that had been supposed to kill her had second thoughts, as well as many deep ties with Caribbean clandestine agencies, thanks to joint TUA spending on espionage. That was how the Victoria that had gone from Havana via Austin to Washington. And that was why the people bowed. There were drugs in the drink, of course. As the first units pledged themselves to Victoria, Atlanian scientists triggered hard mind control and unleashed another zombie swarm on the capital. But the zombies weren’t really zombies, after all, of course--they were just ordinaries with hormonal glands linked to and controlled by the System (which was much cheaper than real cerebral control). Many of the infestations stopped of their own accord as awe over seeing Victoria’s return overrode the rather menial KILL, KILL. Victoria’s success as a totem gave her a huge amount of prestige among the local nobles, who fell over themselves to kowtow, and whole divisions and research labs pledged themselves to her (giving the Multinational Defense Initiative an unprecedented trove of information on Atlantic capabilities).
Victoria announced that the Atlantic Kingdom would return to North America, that her relation Catherine was disowned and the System that Blacktyde was running certainly had nothing to do with her country. For a few days, the world press seemed to think that the war would be over, that Victoria had regained all, that of course the Atlantians would stand down and acknowledge the dictat of their true Queen.
But that was a pipe dream.
Catherine reconsolidated her control from New York, pointed to the widespread opportunistic slave rebellion of coloureds and Canadians that had sprung up all over the south, noted that Texan soldiers had become Victoria’s closest allies, and blasted from the Holo Nets that cousin was a collaborator of weak will who wanted a return to the ways of the old system. Victoria, for all her pomp and majesty, was a woman who settled. Queen Catherine was not. The world Atlantians stayed loyal to her, and indeed, so did much of the northern East Coast. Victoria’s chaotic demesne centered on Washington and the South, and the unclear political situation yet prevented her from getting any help from PADTA, the nations of which were of yet unwilling to tilt public opinion against her by full invasions that backed her claim. Even real civil war has not yet broken out, with both Catherine and Victoria unsure as to the most logical move.
NPC Diplomacy
To: Rebels
From: Proletarian Republic of China
Rejoin the glorious Chinese nation, and revel in your new-found freedoms as members of the enlightened, liberated Chinese proletariat! Why are you in rebellion, friends? We are not your enemy.
To: Proletarian Republic of China
From: Mongols
Our land still suffers from the German ravages. Pay for reconstruction and we will join you.
To: Proletarian Republic of China
From: Eastern Uyghur
The old China is dead, and respectfully, we would much prefer to be a part of the Umma.
The United Kingdom of the Atlantic stands for a dream of world prosperity and union. A twisted variation of that dream, but the people still want their new dawn.
(+Atlantic approval rating)
Don’t mess with cyborg death commandos. Just…don’t.
(+1 Atlantic M-HET level)
Telling tales is sometimes helpful. Sometimes it isn’t that helpful.
(+Archipelagic approval rating)
The Kelen’s wings still fly…
(+5 USACS groups)
Their story may turn into a tragedy, but unlike so many of their allies, Consul Nico and his spy chief Fiorella are blissfully human.
(+1 Roman Praetorian Guard division)
The faithful will drown the science-devils in a wave of bodies.
(+10 Iranian irregular divisions)
The new Netaji Abhayaprada is very popular in the military and the papers.
(+5 Indian divisions)
Siam’s officer corps projects a laid-back confidence.
(+5 Siamese divisions)
Spotlight
“You want me to be dead, but I will not die, because I will always be the embodiment of the people’s will.”
-Queen Victoria
The United Kingdom of the Atlantic was quite capable at suppressing revolution. In Ireland. In Brazil. In so many others places that never even got a mention. And for the America, it seemed that was mostly all they needed to do yet again. Patagonia was a minor problem, from a world perspective. The East Coast seemed safe. Despite Texan, Caribbean, and Mexican declarations of war, a report came out in December commenting on the remarkably small number of artillery duels.
That was about when the ultra-mobile Texan Longhorn divisions seized Washington. The Atlantics had seen this coming, of course. Their air warning system was too competent to miss a long train of modified cargo planes and fighter escorts. But the problem was manpower. There wasn’t enough. As many Texan professional soldiers landed in the Atlantic capital as Queen Catherine could muster on the entire East Coast. She was long gone, fled to New York, but nothing could stop Queen Victoria’s recovery of the throne under Texan auspices.
Indeed. She wasn’t dead, despite Catherine’s rather numb insistences. The OSI unit that had been supposed to kill her had second thoughts, as well as many deep ties with Caribbean clandestine agencies, thanks to joint TUA spending on espionage. That was how the Victoria that had gone from Havana via Austin to Washington. And that was why the people bowed. There were drugs in the drink, of course. As the first units pledged themselves to Victoria, Atlanian scientists triggered hard mind control and unleashed another zombie swarm on the capital. But the zombies weren’t really zombies, after all, of course--they were just ordinaries with hormonal glands linked to and controlled by the System (which was much cheaper than real cerebral control). Many of the infestations stopped of their own accord as awe over seeing Victoria’s return overrode the rather menial KILL, KILL. Victoria’s success as a totem gave her a huge amount of prestige among the local nobles, who fell over themselves to kowtow, and whole divisions and research labs pledged themselves to her (giving the Multinational Defense Initiative an unprecedented trove of information on Atlantic capabilities).
Victoria announced that the Atlantic Kingdom would return to North America, that her relation Catherine was disowned and the System that Blacktyde was running certainly had nothing to do with her country. For a few days, the world press seemed to think that the war would be over, that Victoria had regained all, that of course the Atlantians would stand down and acknowledge the dictat of their true Queen.
But that was a pipe dream.
Catherine reconsolidated her control from New York, pointed to the widespread opportunistic slave rebellion of coloureds and Canadians that had sprung up all over the south, noted that Texan soldiers had become Victoria’s closest allies, and blasted from the Holo Nets that cousin was a collaborator of weak will who wanted a return to the ways of the old system. Victoria, for all her pomp and majesty, was a woman who settled. Queen Catherine was not. The world Atlantians stayed loyal to her, and indeed, so did much of the northern East Coast. Victoria’s chaotic demesne centered on Washington and the South, and the unclear political situation yet prevented her from getting any help from PADTA, the nations of which were of yet unwilling to tilt public opinion against her by full invasions that backed her claim. Even real civil war has not yet broken out, with both Catherine and Victoria unsure as to the most logical move.
NPC Diplomacy
To: Rebels
From: Proletarian Republic of China
Rejoin the glorious Chinese nation, and revel in your new-found freedoms as members of the enlightened, liberated Chinese proletariat! Why are you in rebellion, friends? We are not your enemy.
To: Proletarian Republic of China
From: Mongols
Our land still suffers from the German ravages. Pay for reconstruction and we will join you.
To: Proletarian Republic of China
From: Eastern Uyghur
The old China is dead, and respectfully, we would much prefer to be a part of the Umma.
Notes
ZeletDude did not send orders.
Have fun in RL, Capt Lightning.
Thanks to everyone who cuts me in on their diplomacy. Reading that stuff is one of my favourite parts of being a mod.
Because there was no standing tech alliance, only half the tech Rome wanted to give to India transferred. Four more ASP invested are necessary to set up Indian cloning vats.
Circuit, recruited units can be moved on the turn they are ‘summoned.’
EDIT: Map up.
EDIT 2: Stats up.
ZeletDude did not send orders.
Have fun in RL, Capt Lightning.
Thanks to everyone who cuts me in on their diplomacy. Reading that stuff is one of my favourite parts of being a mod.
Because there was no standing tech alliance, only half the tech Rome wanted to give to India transferred. Four more ASP invested are necessary to set up Indian cloning vats.
Circuit, recruited units can be moved on the turn they are ‘summoned.’
EDIT: Map up.
EDIT 2: Stats up.
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