From Korea to Iran, to Poland and Germany, on to Norway and Iceland and even in the good old U S of A, soldiers of the United States fought the Third World War. When the bombs fell in 1997, their chains of command broke down: forces turned into looters and scavengers out of necessity, operating out of cantonments and fighting a war that was already long over. Civilian populations were terrorized by the sight of the daub greens, browns, and blacks of M16 wielding Americans that seemed to infest every countryside, stripping bare buildings and farmfields. Their civilian challengers came to regret trying, often facing severe reprisals in the name of wartime necessity.
At home, the nation fragmented: a terrorist group calling itself New America espoused an ideology of social stratification, racial purity, and obligate oligarchy - taking control of swathes of the nation in an almost planned takeover. The Military Government, centered around non-nuked military sites and in some cases even nuked ones, attempted to run the nation like the Cantonments of Europe. A rump, barely-legitimate Civilian Government of 'Elected' warlords and local leaders struggled to gain traction with the military blocking their every action, forming a third way with a few loyal armed units that sought to check the unelected power of the Generals and Joint Chiefs.
Mexico invaded the south, aided by the Soviets, while in the north Canada received significant French and eventually British aid in rebuilding. International propaganda focused on the Americans' brutish imperialism: the face everyone knew of the US was of that robber-baron GI, riding his rusty HMMWV or LAV to demand grain from farmers living like peasants in rural European towns or dusty Arab villages. It was their war, the war of atom bombs - the war that ruined everything in short order.
That message, spurred on by reality and French dogma, turned America from a world leader into a hated pariah state. Like Russia, which received much of the same hatred from European nations in their recovery, the United States was treated as a foe and given sparse to no aid from the powers as they rebuilt. For much of the 2000s, America's shattered nation rose up and fell apart alone, time and again, as internal conflict and external pressure in the form of the DGSE hit critical points and tore fledgling alliances into pieces. Finally, in 2080, the Conference of Denver united the country: and international hatreds grew ever stronger as a new and united America looked outward. The idea that America was reforming was bad enough: that its stated goal was to reclaim the fifty states (parts of which were now under either Canadian or Mexican control) was tantamount to a declaration of war-to-come.
French-built weapons flowed into Canada and Mexico, and forces were stationed in both nations by European allies. The Canadians and Mexicans signed a defensive compact with Cuba, Columbia, and Venezuela against the growing American Army and Air Forces. With a weak but rebuilt arms industry, the US Army grew battalion by battalion, arraying eventually a full Corps northward and two Corps southward: their stated goal to reconquer Texas, California, and Arizona from the Mexican government and Maine from the Canadians.
The Mexican-American War of 2081 only reinforced the image of the American bandit. Conveniently, the world ignored the war crimes of the 2000s, where the Mexicans and Soviets put to death tens of thousands of Texans and Californians to put down the Urban Guerrillas. The international community instead condemned the "Resumption" of American aggression as the US Army swept southward under a torrent of French, Mexican, and Cuban air power. In the north, Canadian army forces backed by the British postured on the border, making repeated mock attacks against Washington and New York, only to stop at the last moment. A handful of coastal skirmishes on the Great Lakes enflamed tensions.
Bloodied, the US Army stopped on the Rio Grande, and were slowly ground back by fresh South American forces from Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia that joined the Coalition of the Americas against a renewed American Empire. The resulting insurgency in Texas and California ended in the El Paso Treaty: the treaty created Texas and Baja as free and independent nations: nations with the Legion Etranger and King's German Legion as peacekeepers patrolling the streets.
For another painful century, the Bloodied US of A kept quiet in the wake of heavy air strikes that'd crippled key industrial sites. Attacks on newly built spaceflight centers in Florida kept the Americans out of the greater return to space in the 2100s, and constant interdictions of Tantalum sales by foreign powers meant that few American spacecraft ever left the planet's near orbits. Indeed, the American colony on Mars was one of its only extraterrestrial facilities: Ares Base. Yet in all the hate of foreign powers, there was hope: owing to the significant radiation doses that hit the US throughout the Twilight War, a subclass of people deemed to be "psychoactive" grew exponentially, with feats of actual telepathy confirmed and even a few telekinetic powers.
Establishment of the American Psionic Institutes in 2215 made them forerunners in the field, and lead directly to the creation of the Strong and Weak Nuclear Force Manipulators at the National Defense Project Agency in the 2230s. The next step, as it turned out, was breaking the limits of physics. In the 2250s, the US Air Force launched the first CJ-44 Bluebird - a 100 Displacement-Ton Spaceplane designed from the ground up to test a theory: with the advent of Force-Manipulated Fusion Reactors, the small spacecraft could power a grid of special metamaterials to allow the ship to enter a pocket dimension. Aimed correctly, this theoretical "Jump Drive" could break the 7.7 Lightyear limit and allow the United States to reenter the stars in a lateral fashion from their neighbors.
By 2285, a full squadron of US Spacecraft utilizing 'Gravity Drives' trawled jumplanes, headed out to a trio of pioneer colonies absent from the traditional stutterwarp arms. These three worlds were now national reserves, free from the predations of a human race that sees the Stars and Stripes as oppression, not hope. By the turn of the century, though, that wouldn't matter: worse barbarians were at the gates. The Kaefers - alien killers obsessed with war - struck out across the French Arm and mauled the colonies of nations that had long tried to keep the United States down. Down the arm they went, nuking colonies and conquering others "Like the American Marauders on the Vistula".
Yet when the enemy came to Beowulf, and all seemed lost when the Reserve Fleet bled and Triumphant Destiny seemed ready to claim it, the white horses arrived with their hulls glowing like grids.
Eighteen ships shaped like needles: Kennedy-class Missile Cruisers ripping out of reality like lightning bolts, lead by the Kennedy herself. Ditching Jump Harnesses and going to high warp, they rode like cavalry and showed the Human Race what it means to be Smart Barbarians, tossing nuclear lasers like candy in the eye of a world of dragons.
=-=-=
Just a thought for a different sort of Underdog America in 2300. French Realpolitik keeping them down for centuries, much like they kept Russia down by propping up the CAR and Ukraine, or Manchuria down by presumably keeping China and Canton separate, would make its relatively minor status in 2300 more sensible. Obviously the whole 'Get Jump, Psi, and Grav' thing is a little far fetched and can be left out if you desire. I'd originally had an idea that America could even become the Zhodani of 2300, with the Psionic Americans creating a sort of Contra-New America Psionic movement. In that, the Americans would be divided into the same classes as the Zho's - except called Praesides (Nobles, 'Preside' in Courts and can elect the POTUS/Governors), Senexae (Intendents, 'Elders' who select Senators/Secretaries), and Civitas (Proles/Citizens who select representatives and elect local governments).
Unlike in regular Traveller, Grav-based technology has a psionic component in 2300 so only Psions can use it, making a natural barrier for Non-American countries to develop their tech. Like in the above timeline the French keep the Americans contained, and since the Americans have unusually high local empathy the stomach for war is a lot lower than it is normally. America hides and rebuilds itself slowly and internally. Until the Aliens come, and the Human Race needs help from the American Psionic Overlords. American Gravtanks vs Deathsleds!
Kooky ideas, I know, but 2300 is so dead these days I figure I'd stimulate some discussion.
At home, the nation fragmented: a terrorist group calling itself New America espoused an ideology of social stratification, racial purity, and obligate oligarchy - taking control of swathes of the nation in an almost planned takeover. The Military Government, centered around non-nuked military sites and in some cases even nuked ones, attempted to run the nation like the Cantonments of Europe. A rump, barely-legitimate Civilian Government of 'Elected' warlords and local leaders struggled to gain traction with the military blocking their every action, forming a third way with a few loyal armed units that sought to check the unelected power of the Generals and Joint Chiefs.
Mexico invaded the south, aided by the Soviets, while in the north Canada received significant French and eventually British aid in rebuilding. International propaganda focused on the Americans' brutish imperialism: the face everyone knew of the US was of that robber-baron GI, riding his rusty HMMWV or LAV to demand grain from farmers living like peasants in rural European towns or dusty Arab villages. It was their war, the war of atom bombs - the war that ruined everything in short order.
That message, spurred on by reality and French dogma, turned America from a world leader into a hated pariah state. Like Russia, which received much of the same hatred from European nations in their recovery, the United States was treated as a foe and given sparse to no aid from the powers as they rebuilt. For much of the 2000s, America's shattered nation rose up and fell apart alone, time and again, as internal conflict and external pressure in the form of the DGSE hit critical points and tore fledgling alliances into pieces. Finally, in 2080, the Conference of Denver united the country: and international hatreds grew ever stronger as a new and united America looked outward. The idea that America was reforming was bad enough: that its stated goal was to reclaim the fifty states (parts of which were now under either Canadian or Mexican control) was tantamount to a declaration of war-to-come.
French-built weapons flowed into Canada and Mexico, and forces were stationed in both nations by European allies. The Canadians and Mexicans signed a defensive compact with Cuba, Columbia, and Venezuela against the growing American Army and Air Forces. With a weak but rebuilt arms industry, the US Army grew battalion by battalion, arraying eventually a full Corps northward and two Corps southward: their stated goal to reconquer Texas, California, and Arizona from the Mexican government and Maine from the Canadians.
The Mexican-American War of 2081 only reinforced the image of the American bandit. Conveniently, the world ignored the war crimes of the 2000s, where the Mexicans and Soviets put to death tens of thousands of Texans and Californians to put down the Urban Guerrillas. The international community instead condemned the "Resumption" of American aggression as the US Army swept southward under a torrent of French, Mexican, and Cuban air power. In the north, Canadian army forces backed by the British postured on the border, making repeated mock attacks against Washington and New York, only to stop at the last moment. A handful of coastal skirmishes on the Great Lakes enflamed tensions.
Bloodied, the US Army stopped on the Rio Grande, and were slowly ground back by fresh South American forces from Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia that joined the Coalition of the Americas against a renewed American Empire. The resulting insurgency in Texas and California ended in the El Paso Treaty: the treaty created Texas and Baja as free and independent nations: nations with the Legion Etranger and King's German Legion as peacekeepers patrolling the streets.
For another painful century, the Bloodied US of A kept quiet in the wake of heavy air strikes that'd crippled key industrial sites. Attacks on newly built spaceflight centers in Florida kept the Americans out of the greater return to space in the 2100s, and constant interdictions of Tantalum sales by foreign powers meant that few American spacecraft ever left the planet's near orbits. Indeed, the American colony on Mars was one of its only extraterrestrial facilities: Ares Base. Yet in all the hate of foreign powers, there was hope: owing to the significant radiation doses that hit the US throughout the Twilight War, a subclass of people deemed to be "psychoactive" grew exponentially, with feats of actual telepathy confirmed and even a few telekinetic powers.
Establishment of the American Psionic Institutes in 2215 made them forerunners in the field, and lead directly to the creation of the Strong and Weak Nuclear Force Manipulators at the National Defense Project Agency in the 2230s. The next step, as it turned out, was breaking the limits of physics. In the 2250s, the US Air Force launched the first CJ-44 Bluebird - a 100 Displacement-Ton Spaceplane designed from the ground up to test a theory: with the advent of Force-Manipulated Fusion Reactors, the small spacecraft could power a grid of special metamaterials to allow the ship to enter a pocket dimension. Aimed correctly, this theoretical "Jump Drive" could break the 7.7 Lightyear limit and allow the United States to reenter the stars in a lateral fashion from their neighbors.
By 2285, a full squadron of US Spacecraft utilizing 'Gravity Drives' trawled jumplanes, headed out to a trio of pioneer colonies absent from the traditional stutterwarp arms. These three worlds were now national reserves, free from the predations of a human race that sees the Stars and Stripes as oppression, not hope. By the turn of the century, though, that wouldn't matter: worse barbarians were at the gates. The Kaefers - alien killers obsessed with war - struck out across the French Arm and mauled the colonies of nations that had long tried to keep the United States down. Down the arm they went, nuking colonies and conquering others "Like the American Marauders on the Vistula".
Yet when the enemy came to Beowulf, and all seemed lost when the Reserve Fleet bled and Triumphant Destiny seemed ready to claim it, the white horses arrived with their hulls glowing like grids.
Eighteen ships shaped like needles: Kennedy-class Missile Cruisers ripping out of reality like lightning bolts, lead by the Kennedy herself. Ditching Jump Harnesses and going to high warp, they rode like cavalry and showed the Human Race what it means to be Smart Barbarians, tossing nuclear lasers like candy in the eye of a world of dragons.
=-=-=
Just a thought for a different sort of Underdog America in 2300. French Realpolitik keeping them down for centuries, much like they kept Russia down by propping up the CAR and Ukraine, or Manchuria down by presumably keeping China and Canton separate, would make its relatively minor status in 2300 more sensible. Obviously the whole 'Get Jump, Psi, and Grav' thing is a little far fetched and can be left out if you desire. I'd originally had an idea that America could even become the Zhodani of 2300, with the Psionic Americans creating a sort of Contra-New America Psionic movement. In that, the Americans would be divided into the same classes as the Zho's - except called Praesides (Nobles, 'Preside' in Courts and can elect the POTUS/Governors), Senexae (Intendents, 'Elders' who select Senators/Secretaries), and Civitas (Proles/Citizens who select representatives and elect local governments).
Unlike in regular Traveller, Grav-based technology has a psionic component in 2300 so only Psions can use it, making a natural barrier for Non-American countries to develop their tech. Like in the above timeline the French keep the Americans contained, and since the Americans have unusually high local empathy the stomach for war is a lot lower than it is normally. America hides and rebuilds itself slowly and internally. Until the Aliens come, and the Human Race needs help from the American Psionic Overlords. American Gravtanks vs Deathsleds!
Kooky ideas, I know, but 2300 is so dead these days I figure I'd stimulate some discussion.
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