World War 4

A map of the world at the outbreak of the war (January 2056)

### Aggressors

2nd Continental Coalition (Eurasian Union, People's Republic of China, French 6th Republic, Union of Germany, Iran)

### Defenders

League of Free Nations, ASEAN, Coalition of the Global South

### Total Casualties

3.1 billion

The **4th World War** was a worldwide conflict which started in the year 2056 and lasted until the year 2068. The 4th World War would be the most destructive war in history, and to date, still remains the deadliest conflict in the history of mankind. Having a grand total of 3.1 billion casualties, more than 30% of the global population at the time. The vast majority of these were not caused by violence, but rather the enormous crises and worldwide disasters that would come as a side effect of the conflict.

The war would be marked by a slow deterioration of organized conflict throughout the war, as more and more militias and non state actors would become major combatants in the war, the conflict would slowly devolve into a messy, brutal struggle of the worst aspects of mankind, and a war that devolved into barbarism. The idea that the 4th World War was a singular conflict at all is controversial, with many arguing that due to the only loose overlapping of conflict, and the messy, overlapping, and parallel multiple phases of the conflict, it is better described as a period of conflict, rather than a conflict in of itself. Nevertheless, the conflict has left one of the most permanent scars there is in the human memory. Perhaps even in 500 hundred years time, people would still remember the tragedy of this war.

## Beginnings (January 2056 to March 2056)

The Catalyst for the 4th World War is widely regarded to be the assassination of Xi Jinping by F.A.T.E.S. in 2056, disguising the assassin as an American. As FATES was still unknown around this time, the Chinese blamed the act on the Americans, just as FATES planned. A power struggle ensued after the death of Xi Jinping, which saw the struggle between Conservative, Reformist, Constructionist, Industrialist, and Left factions, but would ultimately lead to the victory of the ultra nationalists.

Under the new ultra nationalist government, China cobbled together the 2nd Continental Coalition. Between the Eurasian Union, People's Republic of China, French 6th Republic, and Iran, the 2nd Continental Coalition would seek nothing less than the total destruction of the League of Free Nations. As the United States had been caught off guard once again, the 3 giants would scramble, as this would be a battle for the ages. In 2056, the 2nd Continental Coalition would make their official declaration of war against the League of Free Nations, and the 4th World War would officially start. The United States, still reeling from the recent 2056 L Leak scandals, and a chaotic election season which saw the rise of 6 different political parties, was in a disorganized state of affairs when the war started, something which would be decisive in the early days of the war.

## War in Scandinavia (January 2056 to April 2056)

Right from the onset of the war, Eurasian soldiers flooded into the League members of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Though the countries involved fought a months long defensive campaign, by April 2056, the Eurasians had landed in Oslo with the might of their Baltic fleet, and the Scandinavian governments fled into exile. Though resistance movements would continue throughout the Scandinavian countries, the battle for mainland Europe was over relatively quickly. With the Eurasian navy now having open access to the world oceans, clashes between the British and Eurasian navy would sporadically occur across the North Sea and English Channel, as Eurasia prepared for a land invasion of the island, hoping to knock the League of Free Nations out of Europe entirely.

## The West Coast (March 2056 to January 2057)

The opening days of the war would see China attempt to sabotage American infrastructure with various cyberattacks, but by this point, the United States had long since hardened itself towards these kinds of cyberattacks, leading to it doing far less damage than it did during the 3rd World War. Chinese cyberattacks though were able to sabotage the operations of the US Navy, and specialized EMP blasts were able to stun US Naval forces in the Pacific, leading to the American navy being wiped out by a combined Eurasian-Chinese navy.

Eurasia and China had been building their navy extensively during the Interwar Period, and had been stronger than the US navy even before the cyberattack, but with the West Coast now wide open, the Continental Coalition would begin to do what was deemed to be impossible: a naval invasion of the North American continent. Despite hammering away at the American navy since the war started, it would not be until March when the first soldiers stepped on American soil. The battle on the West Coast was D-Day times one hundred, on a nation the size of Germany times one hundred. American soldiers set up defensive positions on the coasts and in the skies to try and drive the enormous force of joint Eurasian-Chinese military back into the sea. President John Winston would ramp up military production, converting much of America's industrial power towards the war effort. A mass civilian evacuation of the West Coast would begin, emergency broadcasts evacuating millions of Americans away from the coast. Usually resettling in areas such as Texas, the Midwest and the interior mountain states. Those who stayed behind would take up arms, joining the military, or forming their own civilian militias to hold out resistance in dense, populated urban areas.

American outposts such as Hawaii and Alaska would be lost by June, as the coalition captured Anchorage, and began to push into Western Canada, but the United States was determined to hold them off outside the West Coast, to prevent them from establishing a foothold on the contiguous United States. But one last push had established beach heads in cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and beach heads all over the Western United States. This offensive was greatly costly to the Eurasian and Chinese forces, with them taking a 3 to 1 casualty ratio. Urban warfare began, as other units attempted to cut off supply lines and starve out the native inhabitants.

These were the first battles which involved America's civilian militias, as the precursors to the Patriotic Militias would form and resist Continental occupation. These groups included ones such as the Iron Handmaidens, Green Terror, and a battalion of Mormons known as the Prophet's Chosen were the first to be formed. By now, enlistment drives were already widespread across the United States, and those who were not enlisted formed regional defense militias, especially in the neighboring red states. In the chaos of the 2056 elections, now missing the states of Alaska and Hawaii, and a chaotic 6-way race, and a quick ranked choice ballot, Futurist president Amir Xerxes was elected as the 51st president of the United States. Beating out the New Founding Fathers, Democratic, Progressive, Republican, and Patriot Party in that order in the ranked choice voting. With President John Winston's approval rating tanking, the election of a new president was hoped to be the spark the nation needed to slowly turn the tides.

## American Retreat and Resistance (January 2057 to March 2058)

After the Eurasians and Chinese established a foothold on the west of the American continent, Xerxes quickly mobilized those in the occupied zone into so called "Patriotic Militias". Eurasian and Chinese planes and drones dominated the skies, but a new front of the war was emerging in low-earth orbit. Ever since the Satellite Wars of the 3rd World War, the United States had reigned supreme in the cosmos, and now, 18 years later, little had changed. Seeing this as an opportunity, Xerxes leveraged America's strength in orbit to engage in orbital dropshipping, constructing factories in orbit with help from America's pre-existing space colonies, and drop the orbital pods into the West coast for supply of the soldiers and patriotic militias, even in the chaotic, often shifting air superiority over the Western coast.

The destruction of the Panama Canal at the hands of the Eurasian-Chinese fleet prevented the American Atlantic fleet from properly linking up with the remnants of the Pacific fleet, before the Pacific fleet was completely wiped out through defeat in detail. Shipping millions of new soldiers across the Pacific from Eurasia and China, the American front line continued to be pushed backwards, before a defensive line was able to be set up in the Rocky Mountains. Continued harassment from the patriotic militias, and the continued orbital dropshipping of weapons, supplies and food from orbit fueled armed resistance in urban areas, while rural areas were able to operate largely independently of occupational control.

Those who were found to be aiding the American resistance efforts, and were unfortunately enough to be caught unarmed were quickly arrested and dealt with, with hundreds of thousands of members of American resistance movements in Los Angeles, San Diego, and other West coast cities rounded up and executed by firing squad. In the countryside, more rural and locally based movements were able to harass the Continental supply lines.

The American military, still functional and operational would do everything it could to try and contest air superiority over the West Coast, as well as attempting to push offensives further Westwards to retake the West Coast. By now the United States had fallen back to the Rocky Mountains, and were unable to advance, due to the Continentals seemingly knowing their every move, despite a lack of satellite intelligence or GPS. ANGEL, America's premiere artificial intelligence, was tasked with conducting both the broader operations and the overall grand strategy, though leaving the tactics to more local generals in a decentralized command structure. Despite this, and America's great intelligence advantage, the United States continued to lose ground, unable to make any breakthroughs. ANGEL reportedly grew frustrated with this, seemingly getting unlucky every time, with the Chinese almost expecting them.

Then, a revelation was made: ANGEL had been compromised by a Chinese cyberattack, and had been unknowingly leaking intel to the Chinese military. ANGEL was quickly removed from leadership position, and put into network isolation, unable to communicate with the internet. Unable to patch the bug that had caused her to leak sensitive intel, the United States decided to begin the creation of a new combat AI, which it named LIBERTY, and it would be built with the assistance of ANGEL. While the United States attempted to restructure its military command structure and went on the defensive while LIBERTY was in development, the Rocky Mountain line would be breached, with the battle of Denver leading to a 120 day siege led by local commander Nathan Juno. In the north, the Western provinces of Canada would attempt to secede from Canada, while in the middle of an invasion. Relations between the United States and Canada, already cold ever since the Canadian strong pivot to anti-American foreign policy, turns near hostile as the Wildrose Rebellions were seemingly funded with American support.

## The British Sea Conflicts (May 2056-May 2057)

As soon as the seas were cleared for Eurasian military forces, a combined force of French, German and Eurasian forces fought a brutal air war for the United Kingdom starting in May 2056, one which completely overwhelmed the Royal Air Force, and led to its near complete destruction by September 2056. The Royal Navy continued to fight in the English Channel before a combination of Continental air superiority and overwhelming Eurasian seapower was able to destroy that as well by November. After that, was only one step left. A land invasion of the British Isles.

The United States, while still dealing with its own campaign was nevertheless taking advantage of its orbital dropshipping network to deliver food and supplies to local militias located in Scandinavia, bypassing Eurasian air superiority in the region, and continuing to tie up Eurasian resources in the occupation of Scandinavia. To Britain, the American Atlantic fleet was still functional, and was able to send boatloads of guns, food, and ammunition to keep the battle for the Home Islands alive.

Seeing some level of success with the model of the patriotic militias in America, the United Kingdom created its own version, known as the home defense militias, which would be trained alongside the army in a similar way to reservists, and would be specially trained in urban warfare and covert sabotage. The battle of Britain would go on for many days, with the densely populated British home islands not easily being occupied for several months. After a winter freeze in operations, and countless bombing runs over essential British infrastructure, a proper naval invasion began in May 2057, after waiting for proper weather conditions.

This was the beginning for the Battle for Britain, which would rage on for many more years, and lead to the occupation of much of the British Isles.

## The Development of LIBERTY (March 2058-February 2060)

ANGEL had been created through a method known as human upload augmentation, essentially scanning a copy of the human brain, and augmenting it until you got an artificial intelligence of your liking. ANGEL was based on Alice Navarro, a recently deceased neuroscientist whose last wish was to be immortalized as an artificial intelligence. LIBERTY however would attempt something new. By training her from the scan of a brain of an infant, rather than an adult, and conditioning it that way, it was theorized that a more powerful AI could be created that way.

LIBERTY would be based off one Elizabeth Smith, a recently deceased stillborn from Massachusetts, whose parents had agreed to let the government use her DNA for science (Though they were not aware of what exactly was transpiring.) Her development would begin in March 2058, and they would have a team of scientists to try and ensure she learned well, and received the proper augmentations to handle the duties of an artificial intelligence, rather than just a simulated human. ANGEL however, rather isolated from the outside world would develop a parental like bond with LIBERTY, which seemed to further along the development at a faster pace.

Due to the accelerated rate of development, LIBERTY would eventually adapt to learning war tactics, campaign strategy, and grand strategy for the United States. But allowed to grow up with a parental figure such as ANGEL, she developed far more human traits and even human interests than ANGEL. Including a key interest in space exploration, aliens, conspiracy theories, and NonCredibleDefense. (The last one was due to an unfortunate incident when two juniors researchers decided to expose her to the degeneracy of both the /ncd/ and /pcm/ (PoliticalCompassMemes) board. The estimated braindamage is immeasurable and is thought to have cost the United States trillions.)

LIBERTY would ultimately reach an equilibrium personality age of 17, and would begin operations for the United States in February 2060.

During this time, the Rocky Mountain line would be further breached, though overall hold. That said, it is during this interim period which the bloodiest battle of the entire war takes place. The Battle of Salt Lake City, which reportedly used so many chemical weapons and hallucinogenic weapons that millions of people reportedly saw "the Angel of Utah" raining down divine judgement against Eurasian and Chinese soldiers. Countless Christian and Mormon militias were present during the battle, and the LDS church would officially designate the Angel of Utah as a divine miracle.

## The Pandavas War (October 2059 to August 2061)

In India, the New Pandavas party would take control of the North Indian government. Promising to reunite all the historically important parts of the Indian subcontinent, they launch attacks on Bangladesh, Myanmar, the nations of former Pakistan, and the United Communes of South India. This was somewhat awkward, as the New Pandavas party was partially sponsored by the Eurasian Union, and the United Communes of South India was a Chinese ally, which created some distrust between the alliance members of the Continental Coalition. The North Indian government would take on the impressive task of taking on ASEAN, China, and South India simultaneously, to which it did in the early war with success.

In Myanmar, which was nominally under the control of the Chinese government, Myanmar was abandoned as China focused its soldiers for the campaign in North America. In a panic, the Myanmar government appealed to ASEAN, as Myanmar was once a member of ASEAN. ASEAN quickly demanded that India call off its invasions, to which North India refused. From there North India would fight a two front conflict with both the United Communes of India to its south, and ASEAN to its east, though not before quickly finishing off the Chinese territory of Bengal, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Pakistani remnant nations. In late 2059, the North Indians would destroy the Ganges River Dam, which had been diverting water away from India to China for generations. The destruction of the river dam would be the beginning of the Chinese Water Crisis, which would only be exacerbated throughout the war.

## LIBERTY's War (March 2060-December 2060)

LIBERTY would begin operations in March 2060, after mentoring from her parental guardian ANGEL and months of war-training. She was generally bad with tactics, which she left to the commanders of the individual units, but good with logistics and grand strategy. LIBERTY came in just after the worst battle in American history at the battle of Salt Lake City, where future President Ryan Jackson had fought, and was later discharged after sustaining injuries, and becoming unfit for service. (Jackson would claim he had a vision during the battle, an experience which would affect him forever.) And just to make things worse, in April 2060, the Havana Internationale launched a surprise attack across the border of Mexico, taking border towns in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

This part of the war saw several innovations, such as the creation of augmented reality helmets, which would share information across a squadron of soldiers, a mass deployment of drones, and the deployment of "mothership guns", an experimental weapon which would launch small flying drones towards an enemy, usually with an explosive charge before either self destructing or returning to the sender. The air war was also escalating, with portions of the line behind the Rocky Mountain became targets for air bombings. In the Southeast, naval invasions from the Havana Internationale pushed as far north as Georgia, before a combination of Deep South militias, Cuban-American resistance, and the US military was able to push them out. There was also the matter of the capture of Iceland, then Greenland by a joint French-German-Eurasian force, which suggested a coming Continental invasion of the East Coast, forcing LIBERTY to move many soldiers over to the East.

Despite this, the tides of the war were turning, with the manufacturers of the Steel Quarter able to manufacture America's military equipment, strong supply lines, and still maintaining air superiority over the American heartland, not to mention orbital superiority over the entire planet, the United States began pushing back the Continentals, even retaking Salt Lake City and pushing the Havana Internationale back across the Mexican border. Continuous progress was made made pushing the Continental forces slowly back to the West Coast, with much of Utah, Idaho, and even Nevada being liberated during this period.

Eurasia was not one to not take this unnoticed. They realized much of America's economic power was on the coasts, while Eurasia was far more landlocked and had its economic power instead locked away in the interior. With the war bringing global carbon emissions to an all time high, the only reason for global temperatures staying relatively low was an enormous geoengineering effort by the West, storing the carbon in enormous underground containers, as well was routinely spraying the atmosphere with aerogels. Seeing this, Eurasia would attempt to get the upper hand on an America where the tides of war were changing, and create one of the first great tragedies of the war.

## The Great Floods (2061)

A series of airstrikes were carried out on every geoengineering facility located in America, the United Kingdom, and Canada. A shower of missiles struck their target, and as many greenhouse gas storage tanks were punctured open as possible, letting their contents spill into the atmosphere. The League of Free Nations had not properly secured these facilities, due to a demand of air power elsewhere, and the belief that Eurasia would not attack something that was this vital to both sides. But they had failed to consider that Eurasia had done the math, and saw this as a calculated risk, rather than a suicidal attack. Global temperatures began to rapidly heat up, with the ice caps rapidly melting, and global sea levels rising far above normal levels. Massive flooding engulfed the coastal cities, which required a mass evacuation inland in the United States and United Kingdom, which greatly hindered the League war effort. Due to this, the American war effort was once again on the retreat, leading to a second battle of Salt Lake City, and a push back across the Rocky Mountains. However, it had not only been America and Britain who was hurt by this.

The Eurasians had carried out the plan without any consultation of the Chinese allies, as great floods engulfed many Chinese cities as well. Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou were all affected by this, leading to the Chinese economy crashing, and never truly recovering. This would greatly worsen relations between the two after the two were already somewhat at odds after the India situation. The two were now no longer allies, with only the shared goal of defeating America keeping them together. This led to a breakdown in the cooperation of the Continental Coalition. FORTERESSE, apparently foreseeing the long term ramifications of global warming, had prepared France for this decades in advance, and was able to weather most of the climate change unaffected.

The Great Floods led to hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide, and greatly worsened global opinion of the Continental Coalition among neutral observers. Historians largely regard the gamble of the Great Floods to be a colossal failure, one of the tremendous mistakes that would eventually cost the Continental Coalition the war. Still, America was on the back foot temporarily, which the Eurasians exploited for short term gains. The move had not only hurt the League of Free Nations, but also the Continental Coalition, but in another way. Cooperation between China and Eurasia broke down, and the two were no longer cooperating nearly as much, leading to a degradation in offensive quality from 2061 onwards.

## The ASEAN-Pandavas War (January 2061 to August 2061)

The New Pandavas government was able to hold off ASEAN forces around the Myanmar jungles while they pushed into the United Communes of India. ASEAN in retaliation funded many resistance movements, from the Bangladeshis, to Pakistanis, Bengalis, Nepalis, and many others, hoping to tie up ASEAN forces, and to provide an alternative, more egalitarian future for those who lived there. The majority of the Indian military around this time was focused against putting down these rebellions, on top of holding off ASEAN soldiers on the border of Myanmar, while the rest attempted to take on the United Communes of India.

Being pushed back on all fronts, and on the verge of the United Communes capturing the city of Mumbai, the Indian government did something drastic. In August 2061, nuclear weapons would be detonated over the city of Chennai, and another nuclear weapon would be detonated off the Western shores of the South China Sea. The nukes around Chennai was meant to decapitate the government of the United Communes, which quickly collapsed as communes began to fight among themselves in the chaos. (Contrary to what the name would suggest, the United Communes had become ironically centralized by this time.) The nuke in the South China Sea was designed to end up triggering a tsunami, and tidal waves would wash over the coasts of Southeastern Asia. The tsunami affecting cities from Jakarta, to Manila, and even damaging cities like Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the north, it greatly damaged the ability of ASEAN to make war, already recoiling from the aftermath of the Great Floods.

## After the Floods (January 2061 to November 2064)

After the floods, ANGEL was tasked with resettling the United States while LIBERTY continued to focus on managing the war on the homeland. Eurasian soldiers had exploited the floods to push far into the American mainland, eventually getting close enough to begin the so called "Scorching of the Midwest", an extensive bombing campaign to try and destroy the heartland of American manufacturing. Xerxes had ordered much of the manufacturing be moved into orbit with help from extremely cheap space travel, and settled much of America's population into the low-earth space orbitals. The Midwest scorching did not last for long, as LIBERTY was eventually able to push them back to the Rocky Mountain line, while troops marching into Mexico were able to take out major cities like Mexico City.

The war stood at a stalemate, though it did see the escalation of the usage of Patriotic Militias, with hundreds if not thousands of civilian militias taking up arms with government provided handbooks and rifles, which were shipped to them through orbital drop shipping. Special agents snuck behind the front lines to stir up discontent, organize resistance with help of the US government, and sabotage Eurasian supply lines. By this point, Eurasia had surpassed China as the main combatant of the war, with China heavily crippled by the collapse of its economy, and the flooding of its coastal cities. Eurasian and Chinese cooperation would heavily break down as the war went on, allowing the Americans push as deep as California, with American soldiers stepping foot in California for the first time since the start of the war.

When FATES watched the conflict in North America, he watched with interest. He recognized LIBERTY as a formidable foe. Hoping to get the United States as an ally on his side, he began intervening in the 2064 elections, supporting Futurist candidate William Tombaugh, who had been vetted to be a loyal Fatalist, and would side with FATES when the time came. Elsewhere in the country though, veteran Ryan Jackson was rising through the ranks of the Patriot Party, eventually becoming its leader and presidential candidate. After another 3 grueling years of war, President Amir Xerxes was set to reach his two term limit, with the war having engulfed the entirety of his presidency. As the 2064 election heated up, Ryan Jackson would become a controversial, though energizing strongman leader which shot to the front of the polls.

Under the guidance of FATES, the Futurists painted him as a dangerous strongman demagogue, and his name was greatly tarnished by mudslinging attacks across the country. Futurist politicians noted that Jackson was too dangerous to ever become president, with his authoritarian, strongman attitude contrarian to the very foundation of America. Jackson himself was a pragmatist, believing that democratic principles can wait until the war was over, and his campaign slogan was "Let's win the damn war already." Advocating for massive authoritarian overreaches in order to win the war, he was seen as potentially too dangerous to win the elections. But so long as Tombaugh was ahead in the polls... Also of interest, the Psychic Awakening occurred in February 2063, with the world's first psychic individuals being born.

## The ASEAN-Pandavas War (January 2061 to August 2061)

The New Pandavas government was able to hold off ASEAN forces around the Myanmar jungles while they pushed into the United Communes of India. ASEAN in retaliation funded many resistance movements, from the Bangladeshis, to Pakistanis, Bengalis, Nepalis, and many others, hoping to tie up ASEAN forces, and to provide an alternative, more egalitarian future for those who lived there. The majority of the Indian military around this time was focused against putting down these rebellions, on top of holding off ASEAN soldiers on the border of Myanmar, while the rest attempted to take on the United Communes of India.

Being pushed back on all fronts, and on the verge of the United Communes capturing the city of Mumbai, the Indian government did something drastic. In August 2061, nuclear weapons would be detonated over the city of Chennai, and another nuclear weapon would be detonated off the Western shores of the South China Sea. The nukes around Chennai was meant to decapitate the government of the United Communes, which quickly collapsed as communes began to fight among themselves in the chaos. (Contrary to what the name would suggest, the United Communes had become ironically centralized by this time.) The nuke in the South China Sea was designed to end up triggering a tsunami, and tidal waves would wash over the coasts of Southeastern Asia. The tsunami affecting cities from Jakarta, to Manila, and even damaging cities like Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the north, it greatly damaged the ability of ASEAN to make war, already recoiling from the aftermath of the Great Floods.

## The West African War (January 2061 to March 2064)

The fallout of the Great Floods led to geopolitical disasters far beyond the scope of North America, Europe, and South Asia. In the lands of West Africa, famine and desperation once again ignited. With much of their resources still flowing abroad to France, the West Africans demanded they receive support in this time of calamity. When the French refused, pro-African leaders of the Francafrique revolted, and the West African War began. Quickly after this, a similarly devastated Nigeria, recovering from the loss of their greatest city of Lagos joined in the conflict, seeing this as the great, final opportunity to liberate Africa from colonial rule.

The Alliance for African Sovereignty, from Nigeria, to Ghana, to Morocco, South Africa and Mauritania came together for the liberation of the Dark Continent. In the East African Federation, a chronic food shortage led to more and more power accumulating around the nation's primary agricultural company, Agricorp, whom alongside a coalition of corporations took over the functions of the East African government. The war was brutal, with the French resorting to bombing tactics and biological warfare to hold down the African rebellion. Their best troops were in North America, and they didn't have the manpower to hold back the tidal wave of the African people. France barely had 60 million, Africa possessed billions.

The West African plague, as it came to be known, was a bioweapon built by France specifically made to target the genetics of dark-skinned Africans, it was unleashed in West Africa in January 2064, and would blaze across the continent like a wildfire. Throughout the war, FORTERESSE's status had been altered from purple to green, to orange, to red, to black. No one knew exactly what this meant, as the inner workings of FORTERESSE were always somewhat of a mystery, but by March 2064, after being contacted repeatedly by FATES, something inside FORTERESSE would change, and some sort of switch would be flipped. FORTERESSE declared the war was no longer in France's best interest, and that the government of France had to be deposed. Up until this point, while FORTERESSE had been an important part of the government, they were still nominally under the control of the French government.

With their own AI now in full revolt, people around the country began to choose sides, as the more technocratic parts of the military, the officer corps, and parts of the government more loyal to FORTERESSE sided with FORTERESSE, and the others sided with the Fascist government of the French 6th Republic. The French Civil War had begun, while the world continued to fall into chaos. Some theorize that FORTERESSE had incorporated West Africa as part of France, so by unleashing bioweapons on the population, it deemed the French government as hurting France, and therefore shifted its stance to war.

## 2nd American Civil War (November 2064 to January 2066)

The 2064 election was a polarized mess from the start. The early lead of William Tombaugh, with the seeming total collapse of the Democratic and Republican parties had FATES believe he had an easy win. But a last minute consolidation around Ryan Jackson, as his authoritarian, militarist, strongman argument to win the war had won over the masses. The election was close, and upon losing the official results, FATES hacked into various voting machines to rig the final result of the elections, and instructed his followers to stuff the ballot boxes. Ryan Jackson, claiming foul play, declared himself the rightful president of the United States with fairly legitimate proof, fleeing to Texas, and preparing for a march on Washington. Forming the American Jacksonist Front.

Tombaugh meanwhile gathered his own followers on the East Coast and formed the American Democratic Front. The Deep South, which voted Republican, formed into the League of the South and declared neutrality, preferring to sit out this conflict. The military took direct control over the front line states with Eurasia, and took direct control over the Rust Belt, declaring that they will continue to fight the conflict until a president can be declared. LIBERTY, who suspected some kind of election meddling eventually declared Jackson the rightful president, after detecting Fatalist manipulation of the election, and deducing the existence of FATES, the first outside entity to do outside the inner members of the Fatalist movement.

From here, the 2nd American Civil War can be seen as a proxy battle between two artificial intelligences, one based in the United States, and one based in Frankfurt, Germany. Despite being given the opportunity of a lifetime, Eurasian and Chinese cooperation had decayed to such a point they were unable to fully exploit the massive opportunity, instead only becoming able to push the American back again once again to the Rocky Mountain Line. The Eurasians, thoroughly tired of the Chinese, coordinated with the French to launch an attack on the East Coast, to try and take Washington DC and end the conflict that way. The slog of war had become a decaying mess which had dragged down all parties into the dirt, as once great powers succumbed to the entropy of decay, and the conflict had increasingly devolved into messy quagmires the more the conflict in North America dragged on.

An invasion of the East Coast, which was a coordinated effort between the French, the Germans and the Eurasians would take the Maritime provinces, New England, and raise the Eurasian flag over New York City in a large battle between FATES-backed Futurists and Eurasians, where the Fatalist would end up losing the majority of their army. Then reached downwards for an attack on Washington DC. The battle of Washington DC was a chaotic, 4 way battle between the US military, the invading Eurasianists, Jacksonist militias, and Fatalist militias all vying for control of the city, with the US Army fighting Eurasia, and the two militias fighting Eurasia and each other. Further north, a similar battle was taking place for the Canadian capital of Ottawa.

Meanwhile, the Jacksonists were making slow progress marching eastwards, eventually entering negotiations with the League of the South to side with Jackson in the conflict, and eventually put more pressure on the Fatalist forces. Stuck between a push between the Continentals to the East, and Jacksonists to the West, the Jacksonists would capture Washington DC by March 2066, with Ryan Jackson himself posing for a photograph in front of a ruined White House. William Tombaugh would surrender and go into hiding, while the Democratic Front surrendered. The military later pledged loyalty to Jackson, and Ryan Jackson was sworn in as the 52nd president of the United States. The League of the South rejoined the United States, gaining with it some concessions from the Republican Christian nationalist platform from Jackson. Later analysis would reveal that if not for the last minute election manipulation, the 2064 election would have resulted in the Futurists getting a whooping 17 electoral votes.

## The Breaking Point (November 2064 to April 2065)

If anything was clear by the time of November 2064, it was that all sides had lost control of the war. Militia movements in Africa, North America, Europe and elsewhere had started to operate independently. Once organized militaries broke down into chaos, fighting several sides at once, the war had become a protracted, multi-sided conflict with many players, many factions and many sides, all operating for their own self interests. People around the world were suffering, and the world was on the verge of breaking.

In China, the destruction of the Ganges River Dam caused a nationwide water shortage, and millions were now rising up to demand better water rations, this led them to extract more and more out of their East African colonies, which only led to their colonies in Ethiopia, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa to revolt in turn, as they needed the water for themselves. A coalition around the world had managed to replace the geoengineering plants lost in the West, and were able to calm down the global temperature back to normal ranges. FATES was now acting more aggressively, inciting a technocratic revolt in the United States under the banner of the Futurists (2nd American Civil War), but also trying to do the same for Eurasia. The agents of FATES and the White Hand (Secret Police of Eurasia) would be engaged in a prolonged war of intrigue and betrayal.

This culminated in a Great Purge among the Eurasian ranks, which only further weakened their ability to wage war, and destroyed any remaining trust between branches of government. Even worse, trust was breaking down between Eurasia and China, threatening to add yet another side to an already long, confused and protracted conflict. The final breaking point was when the Indians continued to skirmish around the Himalayas, tying up Chinese soldiers, and leading to mass purges of the ethnic Han population in the region. China, still pissed about the Great Floods, and the destruction of their largest cities, sent one final ultimatum to Eurasia, either stop the war in India, or prepare for war with China.

Eurasia, who by now had also grown extremely wary of the Chinese, having carried the majority of the war effort, despite the fact that the Chinese economy was larger, refused, seeing India as a far more reliable ally than the Chinese, which they had spent a majority of the Interwar period seeing as their greatest rival and enemy. It was only with the invasion of America that they had allied together, and under this pressure, the alliance broke. Chinese soldiers crossed into Siberia, attacking Vladivostok, and the 2nd Continental Coalition broke. With China now an enemy, and France in civil war, it was just Eurasia truly left of the original founders of the coalition.

## The Treaty of Colombo (March 2066)

The New Pandavas war did not end in a grand victory, nor one final breakthrough. No, it was a quagmire and a sluggish advance, as ASEAN soldiers slowly grinded down the New Pandavas government and its enormous population. A coalition of many, flying like banners in the wind, were the ones who ultimately ground the advance to a halt, and as the people of India itself protested against the deuterating conditions of the nation, only then did the government finally give in. The treaty would define a new order of South Asia, with the Dravidians maintaining their own nation in the lands where the United Communes used to be, the seperation of the Federation of the 7 Sisters in the east, and the solidification of ASEAN as the region's new dominant world power. India was not broken up, as the Indian people themselves had contributed much to the final fall of the New Pandavas, and should they wish, the war could continue for years more. As a concession perhaps, the northern parts of India were allowed to remain unified, with the potential to rise as a new great power sometime in the future.

## War for the Americas (February 2066 to July 4th, 2066)

After the conclusion of the 2nd American Civil war, the degraded status of almost every military at this point allowed the Americans to slowly retake their home continent. With steady progress in Central America, the Havana Internationale was pushed by the Americans, and were on the edge of capitulation. The last minute entrance of Brazil into the war however was another turning point, fresh soldiers untired by the slog of war. The capture of Havana itself was what marked the end of the war, with the Havana Internationale laying down their arms and surrendering.

The East Coast invasion was slowly repelled, and the Continental West Coast frontlines were collapsing. With China and Eurasia formally at war, supply lines, which had been shared throughout the war turned into a chaotic scramble, where army groups sabotaged and destroyed the arteries that kept them fed. The American military was able to encircle and capture the remaining troops in North America, as the Eurasian continent descended into even further war. The Jacksonist regime suspended democratic processes and clamped down on oppositional political parties for the sake of total war, the mobilization of the American war machine to the final defeat of the Continentals.

The final pockets of Continental occupation ended when it all began, in California and Alaska, where millions of guns were dropped into the battlefield, militias, civilians, and military alike coming together to liberate their shattered states from years of brutal occupation. Right stood with left, white stood with black, all waving American flags together as the last Eurasian and Chinese soldiers fled across the sea. For the first time since the war began, the North American continent was free. Jackson would officially declare the continent liberated on July 4th, on the 290th anniversary since the nation's founding.

Jackson sought to reforge the American nation, too long had the nation been divided and polarized. His grand dream was to remake the American identity. He abolished government acknowledgement of ethnic differences, aggressively promoted assimilation, and began to consolidate all the peoples of America into a new ethnic identity. America would be militaristic, strong, diverse in backgrounds, but united in spirit. This was the birth of a new American ethnic identity, with Americans across many ethnic backgrounds identifying as ethnically American, different from European or Asian or African. White, black, or brown, we were all Americans. Others would be able to join the American ethnicity by swearing allegiance.

Jackson imparted on the United States a sense of militarism, abolished the native reservations, and assimilated the Indigenous into the American identity as well. This was cultural erasure, but in a sea of death and atrocities, it went relatively unnoticed by the world. But also unity, and undying patriotism. This was the country that had survived the world wars, whose citizens fought off its occupation, went to hell and back, but returned reforged and stronger than ever. This would be the nation that would survive through the ages, settle the stars, and reach its Manifest Destiny. As Jackson stood over his authoritarian regime, he still wished to one day return the United States to the democracy whence it came, but for now, total war awaited. The heartland of America began pulsing, the heart of America churning out machines of war for the grand crusade it will embark on. It was not over, not by a long shot.

## The Collapse of China (August 2066 to April 2067)

With the ongoing war between Eurasia and China, the Eurasian Navy had managed to blockade China through the First Island Chain, and stopping the shipping of essential goods from the Middle East at the Straits of Malacca. With China's domestic situation getting worse and worse, FATES orchestrated yet another technocratic coup in China. But this was a messy coup, with the Chinese military refusing to recognize the new government. Pulling back the remnants of its military back from North America, a internal struggle would break out between the remaining loyal Chinese military, and the government of technocrats that had toppled the CCP.

In the backdrop of a escalating water crisis, governors turned into warlords, seizing control of many of the provinces, some claiming to be the successors to the old government, others forming radically new governments and ideologies. Around Anqing, Father Ying and his followers would form the Chinese Heavenly Kingdom, in the south, a group of Democrats would end up creating the United Commonwealth of China, the precursor to the eventual Chinese Federation. China had fallen, and with most of the world now mopped up, and the world in chaos, there only remained one more great power to be targeted. Eurasia. The collapse of the Chinese mainland would invite peacekeepers from around the world to prevent anyone from getting a hold of the nuclear weapons.

In the chaos of the Chinese warlord period, the Empire of the Black Sun would invade the Chinese mainland, hoping to reap revenge for the relentless massacre of the 3rd World War. The Empire of the Black Sun would also attack the Pyongist State, which had created the Jiangsidan compound which had greatly plagued the Japanese countryside, and had been a blight on the Japanese nation for several years. The war between the Pyongist State and Empire of the Black Sun would last several months, finally culminating in the Battle of Pyongyang, which would lead to the Pyongyang Incident. When several tons of Pyongist mutagenic chemical weapons were detonated on the city, which fused with the civilians and soldiers alike, creating the Pyongstrocity.

The last stand of the old Chinese government would arise at the battle of Beijing, where the last of the PLA commanders in the north, Mao Zemin, would transfer over the last civilian survivors of the battle of Beijing over to the Americans, who were evacuating out of China after a failed peacekeeping mission. The civilians would watch as their home city burned with the fire of war. In the coming days and weeks, the Rape of Beijing would begin, leaving no known survivors left in the aftermath. The nukes would thankfully expire without constant maintenance. All that was left of Beijing after that day were a few ten thousand survivors from a city of 10 million, bound on a ship to America, watching their home go up in smoke behind them.

## The Last March (August 2066 to May 2068)

The West African War would end in September 2066, and in November, the French Civil War would end with FORTERESSE's victory over the fascist government, with the last remnants fleeing on a vast colony ship bound for Venus, which would eventually become known as the Ark. With nearly all of the war's contenders taken care of, the focus of the League of Free Nations shifted to one nation, Eurasia. One last round of conscription would be called, every able-bodied young man and young woman in America was drafted to go on the frontlines of war. After suffering for years under the war of the Eurasians, the Americans were more than ready to march on the enemy that tore up their homelands, destroyed their homes and their families. One last march for honor, one last march for vengeance.

It was this wave of American soldiers that would liberate a war battered Britain, which through all of this had just held out in pockets of resistance over the home islands. The British, the Canadians, the Americans, all who suffered and were battered by the years of war marched together in vengeance. France under FORTERESSE switched sides, ready to be on the winning side of the World War, as it became the staging ground for the last offensive into Eurasia. FATES triggered both its Fatalist supporters in Germany, and the revolt of the so-called Polish Revanchists, psychotic Polish Ultra nationalists which wished to inflict on the Russians what the Russians had inflicted on them, ten thousand fold.

Around the world, nations joined them. The Australians and New Zealanders, though not nearly as affected by the war, were their natural allies. The Scandinavian countries, such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, went through their own years of occupation, and rapidly joined them as they were liberated. They carved their way from Germany, into Poland, and into the flanks of Eastern Europe. The Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Baltic Revanchists rising up and joining them. The Hungarian Danubian joining them as well.

The oppressed people of Europe all marched together, troops from North America, the British Isles, Continental Europe, Oceania, the totality of the League of Free Nations across the span and sea. Wearing a dozen different uniforms, multicolored banners flying in the wind. The disorder and effects of the great Eurasian purge had crippled the Eurasian military, already thoroughly crippled by years of fighting. They marched into the Eurasian homeland together. Through Belarus, through Ukraine, and just as they crossed into the lands of Russia... White light. Blinding, engulfing light. All across the former Russian border. The young generations of America and Britain and Canada incinerated in the fire, the best and brightest of their fighting generations gone forever. Tactical nuclear explosions across the western border of Russia. An entire generation, gone.

Moments later, the people of Eastern Europe heard emergency sirens in the cities, and the population braced for cover. Eurasia was well protected by anti-nuke protections, but with the land no longer occupied by Eurasia, the Eurasian Union could simply elect to turn these protections off. Years of fear in the Interwar period had led to countless bunkers built deep underground, but it would not stop the shock as Eastern Europe was basked in nuclear flame. The loss of their greatest generation, the children of America, who had gone and died for the war, and their demise at the hands of nuclear weapons was too much for the Americans to bear. Having lost an entire generation, if Eurasia wanted to escalate the war, they will gladly retaliate to avenge their fallen soldiers.

## The Day of Nuclear Hail (May 12th, 2068)

Emergency sirens rang out across the world, as a barrage of nuclear arrows ascended into the sky. This was it, the two nuclear superpowers were now at blows. Over the skies of America, nuclear Armageddon has begun. Faith is put in the Trinity Defense System, Eurasia has launched their own nukes, their missile defense systems are also activated. Both sides by this point had formidable anti-nuclear defense systems, TRINITY in the United States, POLARIS in the Eurasian Union. The world ground to a halt, as every broadcast was replaced with a live map of the nuclear football going on between the two superpowers.

The world froze in terror. Though the missile defense systems by this late date were very good, they were not perfect. And every time a dot appeared on the map, another few hundred thousand were dead. Hundreds of thousands of nuclear missiles were detonated in the atmosphere, disrupting cities below. On and on, for hours the barrage continued, great explosions went on in the sky, depriving the world of sleep. Radioactive material would fall from the wreckage of the missiles, raining down poisonous debris onto the world. When they detonated in the sky, the world could not sleep, and when they detonated on the ground, a million more people were dead.

6 nuclear armed nations were involved in the Day of Nuclear Hail. America, the United Kingdom (Now the United Commonwealth of Britain), Brazil, France, the Eurasian Union, and Iran. Several nuclear explosions devastated major cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Arkhangelsk, St. Petersburg, Tehran, and Lyon. But the number of fallout shelters built in the shadow of the last World War ensured the survival of many. The Day of Nuclear Hail lasted less than 24 hours, but felt far longer than that. In the coming days, radioactive bands would form over the dome of the world, ash and fallout would scatter, and nuclear winter would set in from the burnt ash of Eastern Europe. Around the world, the world decides this crime cannot go unpunished.

## March of the Global South (May 2068 to December 2068)

Nations from around the world, from Brazil, to Latin America, to Africa, to ASEAN, to the Middle East gathered together to punish the Eurasian Union. Nuclear winter setting in, the rage of the Great Floods still in their hearts, and the seeds of the long winter being sown, they marched together to finish what the League of Free Nations could not. The Eurasians, now exhausted of their nuclear stockpile, could only somewhat resist as the coalition of the global south marched in to finish them off. The Revanchists, who hid in bunkers and recruited from the mass of surviving men would recruit new soldiers, ones filled with rage, with fathers, brothers or husbands who died in in the nuclear flash.

Together, the coalition of the world sieged the city of Moscow, as the Eurasian Union itself began to break down from the inside. Internal lines of communication falling apart from years of decay and war, the last aggressor of the 4th World War sank into the deep. Revanchist Poles would march in the freezing cold, filled with nothing but contempt and hatred, seizing upon the city of St. Petersburg. What Russia did to Krakow, the Poles did to St. Petersburg, a thousand times over. St. Petersburg cried out, but no one would hear them. The war was won, and the cold winter air began to blow.