Daftpanzer
canonically ambiguous
An idea partly inspired by some recent dreams. I've typed this up and am sharing this for fun, with no plans to run such a NES in the near future, so if anyone wants to do anything with this please feel free 
Link to video.
Doomsday '86
In the year 1986 AD, human civilization was struck by a catastrophe. A massive array of objects, apparently originating from outside of our solar system, struck the surface of the planet Earth over a period of several days. Some were massive kinetic impactors, triggering earthquakes and tsunamis. Some carried medium-yield nuclear warheads, indiscriminately destroying a third of the world's major cities. Some exploded in the atmosphere causing massive EMP effects, disrupting the Earth's magnetosphere and permanently damaging electronics. Some carried deadly biological agents to the surface, which had an even greater death toll over the coming years. Some carried spores of a strange plant-like organism which began to colonise parts of the planet...
And more was to come. Still more projectiles carried soft-landing capsules, deploying diabolical 6-limbed alien beings which began to roam the surface, killing and capturing human beings - using only projectile weapons and explosives little more sophisticated than human forces, but being possessed of much greater physical strength, senses, and agility.
All this coming at a time of high tensions between East and West, exchanges between human forces also occurred, including the use of nukes. But a full-scale nuclear exchange was averted, ironically as command and control was disrupted, and both spheres grappled to come to terms with what was actually happening.
Over the coming years a trickle of extra-terrestrial missiles followed up the initial attack, with random nuclear strikes on surviving cities and massive EMP attacks setting back reconstruction. And for some time, the alien plague raged across the world, killing up to half of the worlds population before mysteriously dying down (perhaps a pre-programmed termination), with only sporadic outbreaks of mutated plague from then on. Up to another quarter of the population was eventually killed by the nukes and their aftermath. And many coastal cities untouched by nukes were struck with devastating tsunamis. Many of the survivors had become refugees, and starvation and desperation took hold. The chaos, the panic, the disruption, the nuclear fallout, and the overall effect on human civilization was profound, with massive social upheaval across the world. The catastrophe came to be referred to simply as... '86.
But humanity regrouped; the alien plant-forms failed to gain a foothold in the terrestrial biosphere, except for certain semi-arid regions, and their exact purpose remains unclear (though inedible to terrestrial life, they are not especially toxic). As for the alien beings, they were too few in number to pose a serious threat to human societies; some were taken prisoner, where they were found to posses only dog-like intelligence - pre-programmed with certain complex behaviours, but otherwise unable to communicate with their human captors. But bands of these aliens still roam wilderness areas with great tenacity, being adept at stealth and ambush tactics. Rumours abound of continued abduction of human beings to remote alien hide-outs for sinister purposes.
The are rumours that secret military satellites tracked a series of planetoid-sized objects passing through the solar system at the time of the attacks, but exact records have either been lost or hidden away. Who can say if the 'motherships' will make another pass... Some speculate that '86 was a pre-emptive strike from another civilization, designed only to set back human development for some time - using deliberately low-tech weapons so no reverse engineering would be possible; or perhaps the goal was to soften us up in advance of a more sinister, and much larger invasion... Or perhaps, it was the actions of insane alien overlords drifting through space, their original goals long lost to madness, lashing out with no logical purpose.
By 1999 AD, such an invasion has not yet come to pass, but the world remains divided. Although political structures have proved surprisingly resilient, and the superpowers of the USA and USSR still exist in name, surviving cities and industrialised areas have emerged as largely-independent entities, leading to a fractured world scene. Global trade in basic commodities such as oil and foodstuffs is still recovering. Though the planet is scarred by fallout zones, and some level of nuclear contamination is the norm, nature has proved tenacious; moving swiftly to reclaim areas abandoned by humanity. The world still has cold-war era technology lagging somewhat behind OTL, but the survivors have placed greater priorities on research and development, leading to surprise advances in a few areas - aerospace, microbiology, and electronics - especially the internet - being among them. Rumours abound that some, few pieces of advanced alien technology have also been found, but remain hidden away. Conversely, fanatical religious fundamentalism has also risen to power across the world, with many convinced that the End Times have come.
Will you be a Religious Fundamentalist state? A Military-Industrial enclave? One of the surviving centres of Capitalist ambition? A warband of Doomsday Cutists? Or perhaps a society seeking a new age through Advanced Technology? Perhaps some mix of the above?
Will nations be rebuilt, or will the world move further into warlordism? What of the roaming aliens, the xeno-plants and the remnants of the plague? What happens if more evil falls from the skies?
!YOU DECIDE!
EDIT: for fun, lets have the alien attack start on February 19th, 1986 - the day the Mir Space Station was launched
Link to video.
Doomsday '86
In the year 1986 AD, human civilization was struck by a catastrophe. A massive array of objects, apparently originating from outside of our solar system, struck the surface of the planet Earth over a period of several days. Some were massive kinetic impactors, triggering earthquakes and tsunamis. Some carried medium-yield nuclear warheads, indiscriminately destroying a third of the world's major cities. Some exploded in the atmosphere causing massive EMP effects, disrupting the Earth's magnetosphere and permanently damaging electronics. Some carried deadly biological agents to the surface, which had an even greater death toll over the coming years. Some carried spores of a strange plant-like organism which began to colonise parts of the planet...
And more was to come. Still more projectiles carried soft-landing capsules, deploying diabolical 6-limbed alien beings which began to roam the surface, killing and capturing human beings - using only projectile weapons and explosives little more sophisticated than human forces, but being possessed of much greater physical strength, senses, and agility.
All this coming at a time of high tensions between East and West, exchanges between human forces also occurred, including the use of nukes. But a full-scale nuclear exchange was averted, ironically as command and control was disrupted, and both spheres grappled to come to terms with what was actually happening.
Over the coming years a trickle of extra-terrestrial missiles followed up the initial attack, with random nuclear strikes on surviving cities and massive EMP attacks setting back reconstruction. And for some time, the alien plague raged across the world, killing up to half of the worlds population before mysteriously dying down (perhaps a pre-programmed termination), with only sporadic outbreaks of mutated plague from then on. Up to another quarter of the population was eventually killed by the nukes and their aftermath. And many coastal cities untouched by nukes were struck with devastating tsunamis. Many of the survivors had become refugees, and starvation and desperation took hold. The chaos, the panic, the disruption, the nuclear fallout, and the overall effect on human civilization was profound, with massive social upheaval across the world. The catastrophe came to be referred to simply as... '86.
But humanity regrouped; the alien plant-forms failed to gain a foothold in the terrestrial biosphere, except for certain semi-arid regions, and their exact purpose remains unclear (though inedible to terrestrial life, they are not especially toxic). As for the alien beings, they were too few in number to pose a serious threat to human societies; some were taken prisoner, where they were found to posses only dog-like intelligence - pre-programmed with certain complex behaviours, but otherwise unable to communicate with their human captors. But bands of these aliens still roam wilderness areas with great tenacity, being adept at stealth and ambush tactics. Rumours abound of continued abduction of human beings to remote alien hide-outs for sinister purposes.
The are rumours that secret military satellites tracked a series of planetoid-sized objects passing through the solar system at the time of the attacks, but exact records have either been lost or hidden away. Who can say if the 'motherships' will make another pass... Some speculate that '86 was a pre-emptive strike from another civilization, designed only to set back human development for some time - using deliberately low-tech weapons so no reverse engineering would be possible; or perhaps the goal was to soften us up in advance of a more sinister, and much larger invasion... Or perhaps, it was the actions of insane alien overlords drifting through space, their original goals long lost to madness, lashing out with no logical purpose.
By 1999 AD, such an invasion has not yet come to pass, but the world remains divided. Although political structures have proved surprisingly resilient, and the superpowers of the USA and USSR still exist in name, surviving cities and industrialised areas have emerged as largely-independent entities, leading to a fractured world scene. Global trade in basic commodities such as oil and foodstuffs is still recovering. Though the planet is scarred by fallout zones, and some level of nuclear contamination is the norm, nature has proved tenacious; moving swiftly to reclaim areas abandoned by humanity. The world still has cold-war era technology lagging somewhat behind OTL, but the survivors have placed greater priorities on research and development, leading to surprise advances in a few areas - aerospace, microbiology, and electronics - especially the internet - being among them. Rumours abound that some, few pieces of advanced alien technology have also been found, but remain hidden away. Conversely, fanatical religious fundamentalism has also risen to power across the world, with many convinced that the End Times have come.
Will you be a Religious Fundamentalist state? A Military-Industrial enclave? One of the surviving centres of Capitalist ambition? A warband of Doomsday Cutists? Or perhaps a society seeking a new age through Advanced Technology? Perhaps some mix of the above?
Will nations be rebuilt, or will the world move further into warlordism? What of the roaming aliens, the xeno-plants and the remnants of the plague? What happens if more evil falls from the skies?
!YOU DECIDE!
EDIT: for fun, lets have the alien attack start on February 19th, 1986 - the day the Mir Space Station was launched
Did you draw that yourself?
