Earth 2 - History

### Climate Change

In the late 21st century, rising temperatures and flood waters caused problems around the globe.

#### Bangladesh and Geo Engineering

Bangladesh was one of the hardest hit countries, being severely flooded and having agricultural production threatened.

Despite these problems, Bangladesh had a thriving tech center, funded in part by competing foreign support from India and China. A Bangladeshi tech billionare, used his wealth to build a coalition to fund geo engineering products. Controversy began in earnest when their lobbying spurred the Bangladeshi government to experiment with limited iron fertilization in the Bay of Bengal. The international community responded hostilely.

After a serious flood led to tens of thousands of deaths, and more than a million displacements, the coalition began a project to inject light reflecting particles into the atmosphere. This led to widespread condemnation by states including the EU, US, and China. The situation worsened after the Bangladeshi government refused to intervene.

After a couple years of conflict, including an aborted discussion in the EU about sending special forces to stop the Stratosphere, things calmed down after the project started working and global temperatures started stabilizing.

### 3rd Global War - The Sovereignty War

#### The Silent Purge

A political appointee to an American intelligence agency leaks info abut undercover officers who challenge his directorship, leading to them being killed by their host countries. The death toll was at least 70 and might have been 120. While the purge was eventually discovered, it severely crippled America's intelligence/power-projection capabilities.

#### Formation of the United Powers

After China and Russia solve a sphere of influence conflict diplomatically they form an alliance called the United Powers to protect their interests. Pakistan joins them, and Iran joins to counter Turkish influence.

China and Russia invaded Central Asia, ending the Khazak war. Iran and Pakistan managed to occupy Afghanistan.

#### War

The war began in 2099 when China invades the City State of Hong Kong, the United Kingdom declares war. In response Russia sinks a British Aircraft Carrier in the North Sea, and Britain and America form a coalition to oppose them. The European Union surprises the US and UK by remaining neutral.

#### End of the War

The war ended in 2101. The Russian intelligence service managed to locate every US first wave nuclear weapon, and Chinese space-based military units destroyed them all in a single strike. Every nation in the United Powers launched some of their first wave nuclear weap0ns and the US was left with an ultimatum. Surrender unconditionally within 30 minutes, or have their 10 largest civilian centers destroyed. The American president, Alex Li, chose to surrender.

### Interbellum Period 2101-2155

#### **Technology**

##### **Health**

* New drugs, dietary/fitness technology, and other procuedures, slowed aging.
* Delayed late aging, effectively extended healthy middle age from 55 to 65.

##### **Childbirth**

* New cheap procedures made it easy for people to have children much older.
* Average age of parents jumped considerably, it became common for parents to have children at 40 and 50.
* This, combined with longer life expectancy, led to a population boom, first in the rich world, and then the rest of the world.
	+ Parents no longer had to choose between children and a career.
	+ Governments in nations facing population decline marketed the technology to older citizens

 30-39
 40-49
 50-59

#### **Seven Eyes Restructuring**

##### **Before 3rd Global War**

* Original members: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
* Added members: Singapore,
* Observer states: Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan

##### **Post 3rd Global War**

* Original members: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
	+ United States government in exile
* Added members: Singapore, \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
* Observer states: Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Belize, Haiti,

Malaysia and Taiwan forced to leave after joining Sino Security Umbrella.

#### **Mars**

The population and economy of Mars increased dramatically during this period.

#### **The Newton-Diana Lunar Elevator Project**

The United Kingdom championed a project to build a space elevator from the moon to the Lunar-Terran Lagrange Point 1. They received loans from China & Russia and the EU. The loans were payed back over a several years after the completion of the project, and interest was paid in the form of reduced prices for transportation. The Hierarchy and the EU were competing at this point for economic hegemony, so both were willing to give an advantageous deal to the UK in order to outplay one another.

The project was used to inspire unity and pride in the Commonwealth Dominion. The nations who directly supported the project (not just offering loans) were given administrative voting and profit sharing proportional to their investment. The investment proportion was as follows: UK - 52%, Canada - 20%, Australia - 12%, New Zealand - 7%, India - 2%, United States - 2%, Malaysia - 1%, Singapore - 2%, Hong Kong 2%.

The UK bought a space station from Canada and added a series of nanotechnology manufacturing plants, renaming the satellite Diana. They then claimed Lagrange 1 by buying a minor space station from India and simply replacing it with Diana.

They already had a minor scientific station on the equator.

They constructed the space elevator by building a series of nanofiber cables at orbital manufacturing satellites together at the Diana station. This project had a series of unique challenges. It is said that the cost of manufacturing projects is increased according to four factors, high quality control, expensive materials, research and development, and government red tape. The Newton-Diana project that had all four. Each fiber had to be created as a single perfect one piece strand and everyone knew that the entire project could fail. if there were even a few molecules out of place, it could doom a thread, thus intense quality control was needed. At this point the world had a lot of experience with orbital manufacturing of graphene and nanotubes, but it was still expensive to produce and entirely new technologies had to be created in order to create these perfect threads. Furthermore, because other countries were investing in them, and this was a primarily government funded program, there was a lot of bureaucracy to deal with.

One reason the UK was able to keep R&D costs down was because of their spies who stole research from China, Russia, and the EU, all of which had done research on the feasibility and techniques for space elevators, though they mostly focused on Earth.

The United States primarily supported the project by giving the UK access to orbital nanotechnology factories at reduced rates and using its military to help with logistics of shipping parts to the Diana satellite. In return they were allowed to keep a small base to dock a few small ships at the Diana satellite and another small base for infantry at the base of the space elevator in the town of Newton. They were also given a limited number of highly reduced price shipments between the two bases each week.

#### The 太阴-阶梯 Project

The Chinese government championed a project to build a space elevator from the moon to the Lunar-Terran Lagrange point 2. While the project officially began seven years after the Newton-Diana project began, research was conducted long before it was initially announced, actually being seriously conducted upwards of five years before Netwon-Diana began. The Chinese were actually extremely important for the success of the Newton-Diana Elevator. Early Chinese research was stolen by British spies and used by the British to accelerate the project. Some historians estimate that the knowledge taken by the British accelerated the project by anywhere from 5 to 20 years. The reason Britain finished the elevator first despite China's research advantage was because they were able to rely on independent and competitive corporations where as China's government owned businesses were constrained more by bureaucracy and political posturing.

#### Rise of Piracy

After the fall of the United States, there was no great power strong enough to have hegemony over space and protect trade. Piracy became common, especially in the outlying regions of the Asteroid Belt. Every great power had a small navy to protect their assets with limited effectiveness. To compensate they hired privateers to protect themselves and harass their rivals. However, more and more independent pirates were showing up with deadlier and deadlier results.

May Dutch had traveled to space after the Netherlands was flooded. Dutch mercenaries became known as incredibly fierce privateers, mostly working for the West European Council. Many American navy ships, refusing to surrender to the United Powers, became privateers hired by mega corporations and independent Belt republics .

The Armstrong Lunar Colony was the biggest orbital engineering/manufacturing center. They were occupied by a small group of Pakistani lunar marines and Chinese mercenaries. The population was growing as American refugeers joined the colony, and the military knew that they had little chance of holding the colony long term. Eventually, the United Powers made a deal with Armstrong that it would be allowed to join the NAPC (thus allowing free immigration between Armstrong and the former United States) in exchange for turning over the remaining American-defector ships, giving China effective control of the Belt, and ofr building a construction station that eventually came to build a new massive fleet that eventually replaced the Chinese provisional fleet.

### Fall and Rebirth of America

#### **Occupied America 2101-2107**

##### **Government in Exile**

The American Government in exile remained in Britain. It included flag officers from the US military, the Secretary of State (who had been in the UK at the time of surrender) the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, the Deputy Secretary of Energy, members of the Intelligence community, and remnants of the State Department who had been abroad during surrender. Their only remaining fighting forces was the Second and North Command Fleets (which were de jure turned over to the UK government) and whatever bases or soldiers in transit were in the UK at the time of surrender. Their numbers dwindled more and more over time.

#### **De Facto Dissolution**

The United Powers established the new state of the the North American Presidential Confederation (NAPC), a decentralized state ruled by a president who, while elected, in practice could only serve at the pleasure of the United Powers observer. The NAPC included the 48 continental US states, but did not include Hawaii, Peurto Rico, or Alaska. The UP offered Texas to Mexico, but Mexico refused because they were 1) not dicks, 2) they knew the already ferocious Texan counter insurgency would not be worth it.

The NAPC central government had a very small military. Furthermore, the remobilized US Special Forces were not particularly loyal to the NAPC government. Consequentially, the continental United States quickly spun of into various autonomous polities.

##### **Socio-Economic Trends**

Business regulations and taxes were very low in the NAPC which led to a mixture of exploitation and econmic boom. As time went on the autonomous states were able to censure the most grievous offenders. Many multi national corporations moved to cities in the United States. Overall the rise in economic activity helped boost the fractured nation out of its pre-war lost decade, and post-war malaise. The rise in wealth resulted in a cultural high point as well. Important works of literature, music, and film helped establish a new American identity. The economic and cultural success despite a weak central government was often compared to Song Dynasty China.

##### **Autonomous American States**

* Greater New York
	+ Greater New York controls parts of Pennsylvania (along Lake Erie), Vermont, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
	+ While New York City had a lot of political autonomy, their economic/agricultural needs ultimately tied them to GNY.
* Providence Littoral League
	+ A commercial league of city states which fund the remnants of the US Navy North Command and 2nd fleet to protect Atlantic sea lanes.
	+ Members: Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, Norfolk, New York City (Unofficial Member)
* Great Lakes Union
	+ Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, North Ohio
		- Important Cities: Chicago (capitol), Detroit, Cleveland,
* Ohio River Republic
	+ Kentucky, South Ohio, West Virginia, West Pennsylvania.
		- Important Cities: Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh
* Tennessee River State
	+ Nashville, Memphis
* Florida
* Gulf League
	+ Core: Houston to New Orleans, Periphery: Brownsville to Mobile
* Northern California
* West Texas
* Southern California
* Pacific North West
* Missouri River Partnership
	+ Kansas City, St Louis, Omaha
* Arizona Corridor
* Front Range
* Piedmont
	+ southern Virginia, North and South Carolina
* Georgia
	+ Centered around Atlanta city state
* Montana
* City States
	+ Twin Cities
	+ Columbia (DC)

Suprastate Unions

* Mississippi Basin Economic Community
	+ Gulf League, Missouri River Partnership, Tennessee River State, Ohio River Republic, Twin Cities
* Pacific Union
	+ Southern California, Northern California, Northwest Pacific

#### Culture

##### **The 127 Pages**

The journal of Issac Tuiasosopo, a Samoan-American marine (an immigrant from Samoa, not from American-Samoa) killed in battle, is translated and published by his comrade (and romantic partner according to some historians) after the war.

Issac Tuiasosopo was a polyglot, speaking Samoan, English, Japanese, Spanish, French, and passable Mandarin.

His journal contained fascinating musings in a variety of languages. Poems written in Samoan, Japanese, and English. Essays about freedom, patriotism, war, theology in Spanish, French, English and Samoan.

The topics questioning American identity with a tone of intellect and optimism became incredibly popular, especially when paired with Issac's tragic story.

### Hegemony

In the aftermath of the war it seemed like the United Powers in total had reached Hegemony. However, after Russia failed to annex Uzbekistan until China helped out, it became rather clear that China was really running the show, though the other three nation-states still played significant roles in geopolitics.

### The Uneasy Truce 2144-2165

In order to prevent another Arms Race, which might lead to another war, the treaty everyone agreed to prevented the Great Powers from researching weapons technology and some peaceful technologies that could be used for war. Naturally, this utterly failed, and instead led to an Arms Race led by corporations and mad scientists instead of governments. These great scientists and builders were called the Pansolar Industrialists.

The most famous and powerful of these was Jin Wei (Known as Wei Jin in the west). Jin Wei was a Chinese citizen and the son of a mid-tier corporate executive. Originally from the city of Lianyungang. He grew up in Hong Kong from the age of 4 to 16. Wei receive a double major in Computer Engineering and Business. He was an excellent worker and used the proceeds from his jobs to fund the invention of a point defense AI which in turn funded the creation of his own business.

Jin Wei eventually made a belt city called Chéngbo (城堡) his base of operations, followed by another city on Ganymede. With a team of brilliant inventors and engineers as well as his own business savvy, his company became famous for material science.

### The Time of Golden Ships

As the Allies (United States, UK, Commonwealth Dominions) returned to power and began a cold war with the United Powers (China's sphere of influence including Russia, and Pakistan), an economic boom occurred. World GDP growth reached heights of 5% a year, which had not been seen since the 20th century.

Historians and economists disagree about the causes ranging from high defense spending, to the resumption of free trade, to major innovations in space industry.

Space colonization reached previously unimaginable heights. Luna became more and more economically sufficient. The terraforming of Mars accelerated to new heights. The Hellas Crater, Noctis Labyrinthis and Mariner Valley all became livable. Industry accelerated on Titan as factories were made more efficient by the greater temperature gap. Terraforming efforts began on Ganymede. Mining efforts in the Belt slowed but made other industry possible.

#### Pansolar Industrialists

* Willaim Wei / Wei Yang: Uncountable the most powerful private businessman in the interwar period. His company became famous for selling the best engines in the system. He constructed the Tàiyáng Hé (太阳河) or River of the Sun, a complex array of giant solettas, lenses, and mirrors which delivered power to countless stations which used lasers to accelerate solar sail ships across the system.
* Wessex-Cahyadi Inc: A powerful Corporation based in an independent city on Luna. They first specialized in small merchant ships but soon expanded to military contracts and even terraforming.
* Trans Pacific Cōngmíng General: Run by Alan Li (descendant of US president Alex Li). It started out as a powerful Trading Firm between the United States and Hong Kong, but after they constructed dual mass drivers in both Hong Kong and the United States they became extremely important in space trade. After 25 years they soon controlled the asteroid Interamnia and the Interamnian region which was a major economic center.
* Euphrosyne-Zamok Conglomerates: Started as trading firm between spacecraft and industrial equipment makers on Mars, and miners in the Belt.
* Sooryoday Inc: Used indentured labor to send colonists to the outer planets.
* Alpha Technology: Established a colony on Mars which developed terraforming technology.
* Numerica: Started the terraforming of Ganymede.
* Emirates Space United: A private corporation from the United Arab Emirates which specializes in orbital manufacturing.

### 4th Global War

#### Reemergence of Naval Power:

* Before the war Naval Power was largely considered obsolete in Great Power conflict. All the Great Powers still maintained navies, but theorists concluded that space based weapons platforms would be able to target any large ships like supercarriers. Navies were needed to protect trade, but the assumption was that only small craft would survive an actual war.
* The Caracas treaty did not prevent American Naval build up, since it was believed that United Powers space forces could easily deal with them. Anglo-American geography also made naval power easier to build due to geographically sheltered coasts and oceanic centrality. As a result, the US and UK invested heavily in their navies before the war.
* The famous British engineer and Admiral Addison Fairfax-Pal realized that Ocean going ships have an important advantage over spacecraft, they can use the ocean as a shield. Fairfax-Pal made popular the idea of naval submersion as a purely defensive tactic, and led a 5 Eyes team to pioneer the first submersible aircraft-carrier. The ship (the HMS Unconquerable) could only fight and launch aircraft when above the sea, and moved at 1/10th its cruising speed when underwater, but it could submerge in a single minute.
	+ By the time of the war, Britain had 2 Submersible-Supercarriers, the United States had 4 (including 1 shared with Canada), and Autralia and New Zealand shared 1. (Listed in order of Carrier quality)
	+ In contrast, the United Powers' strategic doctrine eschewed naval power until the war began. China and Russia began building Submersible-Supercarriers fairly late. China had 2 by the war's beginning, but Russia's 1 was not finished until 2 years into the war.

#### Terra-Orbital Turning Point

* Prior to the war, military strategy in space emphasized large capital ships.

* The United Powers Space Navy had defeated the Allied Fleet due to its superior and more numerous capital ships, in contrast the Allies had only 5 major capital ships at the start of the war (by the end they had many more) due to treaty restrictions from the 3rd Global War. Instead their fleet was composed primarily of small fighters which were unable to bombard or support terrestrial units nor support the capital ships that could.

* After the first battle the Allied fleet was reduced to 2 major capital ships; in contrast the United Powers had lost only 1 out of ~28 capitol ships. The Allies' fleet was forced to retreat away from the lower orbitals. Over the next 3 months the Powers bombarded the Allies primarily with kinetic bombardment. This changed when the Anglo-American team unveiled their x-ray cascade lasers. They used nuclear weapons to power lasers which were highly effective against large and high mass capital ships. While the weapon was soon copied by the United Powers, it's prevalence changed the nature of space warfare to focus more on smaller fighter craft (which the Allies had a lot of because of the treaty). This gave the allies a significant advantage.

#### Indonesian Campaign

* Background
	+ The Allies had reached the point where they were even with the Chinese Suzerainty in orbital warfare and naval warfare, but they didn't have an army large enough to threaten Chinese holdings. Since the Indian army was embroiled in its conflict with Pakistan, the only neutral power with an army large enough to counter China was Indonesia.
* Chinese Invasion
	+ When Indonesia started mobilizing troops, China landed its primary expeditionary force on Sumatra. The half million person Expeditionary force decimated the 0.9 million man Indonesian army in Sumatra. The expeditionary force then landed in Kalimantan where they destroyed the 0.5 million portion of the Indonesian army there.
* Failed Landing on Java
	+ The Chinese expeditionary force attempted to invade Java, the heartland of Indonesia. Their amphibious invasion was supported by a small contingent of the Chinese navy and several Russian orbital ships which bombarded any military force that could counter them.
	+ The Allied Orbital forces managed to use X-Ray lasers to destroy the Russian orbital capital ships over Java, allowing the joint Indonesian-Australian navy to defeat the Chinese amphibious landing.
* Battle of Java:
	+ Widely considered the bloodiest battle in human history. Scholars estimate the death toll was anywhere from 4 million to 16 million.
	+ The Chinese Suzerainty prepared a second amphibious landing in Java. They had more troops drawn from their main army, as well as the Pakistani Expeditionary Force, and small contingents from Congo and Korea.
		- This expeditionary landing was successful, but by now the Indonesians had time to prepare, and they were supported by American, Australian, New Zealand, and Samoa.
	+ The Chinese military managed to establish a beachhead in Java, admittedly absorbing significant casualties. The Joint Indonesian Defense Force launched a fierce assault on the Beachhead, but were driven off by Orbital Bombardment. They achieved their first victory when they repelled the invaders in the first siege of New Jakarta, but their victory was short lived when the Chinese navy established a second beachhead on the other side of the island leading to a string of victories in the east. The string of victories finally ended when the Navy cut off the eastern troops from supplies, However, the invaders regained their momentum winning the second siege of New Jakarta.
	+ Guerrilla warfare became extremely common in overrun areas.
	+ Eventually both sides used multiple tactical nuclear weapons against each other's armies in order to try to end stalemates.
		- The worst casualties to civilians came when the invaders used tactical nuclear weapons against guerrillas

Chinese Suzerainty Resumes Space Supremacy

* The Allies used their temporary control of space to make significant progress, especially in Indonesia and \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
* The Chinese Suzerainty regained the advantage when their Martian fleet moved into Earth Orbit. This however left Mars open to rebellion.

#### Russia and Turkey switch sides:

* During the peace, Russia and Turkey had grown distant from China. Russia resented being treated like a subordinate. Turkey resented China's involvement in the Middle East. Russia and Turkey has also grown closer together.
* When China deployed cobalt bombs Russia and Turkey used that as an excuse to withdraw from the war and declare neutrality.
	+ When Pakistan suppressed a rebellion in the Federal Republic of Iran, Russia and Turkey used it as an excuse to join the Allies
* Russia tried to open up a northern front against China, but the PLA completely destroyed the Russian army. Eastern Russia was totally pillaged, but luckily for the western heartland China was distracted by the invasion allied forces before their infantry could cross the Volga. China did bombard Western Russia, but because they were invaded so soon after the fighting began, they were less devastated than most other powers.

### Timeline

Year 1 ()

A truce is declared. By 2XXX every nation had officially agreed to peace.

### Destruction of the War on Earth

#### Conventional Nuclear Weapons

Both sides of the war used nuclear weapons. Major cities in China, Japan, India, the United States, and the EU were bombarded by nuclear weapons, though only a few of those cities were entirely depopulated. Some of the hardest hit cities include Bejing, Los Angeles, Philidelphia, San Diego,

More than half of the total nuclear weapons built on Earth before the war (about 50,000) were destroyed before they could be launched, usually by kinetic bombardment, mobile infantry, or first-wave nuclear weapons.

Of the remaining 22,000 nuclear weapons, 2,000 were never used, 13,000 were destroyed during launch (by orbital X-Ray Lasers, aircraft interception, or Brilliant Pebbles), 2,000 were used to launch spacecraft in the style of project Orion. Only the remaining 5,000 successfully reached there targets on Earth, however, that was still enough to cause massive damage. 4,000 of the successful 5,000 were used tactically against unlaunched nuclear weapons, large groupings of soldiers, or major military bases. The other half were used strategically against economic and political centers. Major factories and financial centers were heavily bombarded. Some countries began to build their factories underground so that they wouldn't have to constantly rebuild. More important cities usually had a stronger Brilliant Pebble Umbrella so they were able to escape bombardment entirely until infantry were able to arrive and take down defenses. This is what happened to Bejing during the Invasion of China.

#### Cobalt Bombs

The use of tactical Nuclear Weapons had slowly become excepted by the international community starting with a limited exchange during the sixth Indo-Pakistani war. Even strategic nuclear weapons had become somewhat accepted and at the very least expected. What was not expected or accepted was the use of Cobalt Bombs. Cobalt Bombs were designed to have increased fall out and make the area they targeted completely uninhabitable for ~100 years. In contrast areas targeted by conventional nuclear weapons (an ironic term if there ever was one) had a heightened risk of cancer and birth defects, but were largely inhabitable fairly quickly.

The Russian Federations had a stockpile of 25 Cobalt Bombs but never used them during the war.

The People's Republic of China had a stockpile of 100 cobalt bombs, but planned to use them only as a last resort. This policy was changed when the United States used a Biological Weapon called Homer 2. In response to that attack the Chinese infantry (who had occupied Western Mexico) launched 10 short range Cobalt Bombs against the United States. Major targets include Los Angeles, San Diego, and Austin. To the United States this was considered one of the worst crimes of the war. A joint Anglo-American Intelligence and Special Forces operation sneaked into China and destroyed most of the remaining Cobalt Bombs, but 40 more survived and were used primarily in the pacific and West Coast throughout the remainder of the war.

#### Biological Weapons and Natural Disease

Homer 2 was used by the United States in response to the Cobalt bombing of Haifa. The US claimed that the disease did not violate international laws or norms because it was non-lethal. Instead the disease was designed to temporarily blind those it infected. 100 million were infected in China, unfortunately another 40 million were infected in India unintentionally due to failed vaccine logistics.

Emperor's Sickness was the most deadly pandemic in human history killing, 2% of earth's population, 260 million people. It was deadliest in South Asia, East Africa, Northern Europe, Central Africa, and pockets in East Asia and North America. The first wave devastated South Asia 18 months before the war ended. The disease got its name when it infected the Chinese Premier, who was visiting Karachi when the disease hit. Western propaganda called the Premier an emperor. The Premier's death was one of the key factors in destabilizing China's home front.

The President of Iran choose to block the main roads and railways from the subcontinent to Iran, preventing the disease from spreading into Iran and beyond in the Middle East and Central Asia. She even used a nuclear weapon to irradiate an important pass and prevent migrants from crossing. For these actions she is still controversial. In the West she was referred to as the Persian Thatcher. To maintain the alliance with India she choose to step down from the presidency but she continued serving the war as Minister for Wartime Industry.

While the disease quieted down after the initial wave, through Indian Ocean trade it managed to reach war ravaged Indonesia and the industrialized port of Mombasa. The Kenyan government managed to contain the disease before it spread to far, but through other ports it reached Somalia, Ethiopia, and Somaliland. Meanwhile the disease spread through Indonesia to the Philippines, Malaysia, and Northern Australia. After the war was over, the disease was carried by occupying Australian troops to china, where it ravaged the province of Guizhou before it was contained. A Philippine merchant marine brought it to the US where it spread from Port Angeles to the South West US and Northern Mexico.

People still debate whether the Emperor sickness was a Chinese bioweapon or a natural disease aimed at eliminating the Indian military threat which got out of hand. The truth was lost when the archives of Bejing fell to Nuclear fire.

#### Economic

In the wake of the War, the entire solar system suffered a massive recession. In addition the destruction of the war led to so much technology being lost that the Great Powers were unable to make ships or fleets the way the head before the war.