Point of Divergence

## Buildup

September 26, 1991, the communist party in the Soviet Union launches a coup against Gorbachev. Delaying the initial date by over a month, the coup was planned out farther and successful. Immediately after, the Soviet Union lead a surprise attack on the west coast of the United States, landing over half a million troops all along the coast. Cities like Los Angeles and Seattle fell on the first day, with them reaching up to 50 miles inland within the first week. This offensive was short lived, however, when a counter-coup lead by Gorbachev and other moderate socialists overthrew the new government. Soon after this, the Soviet Union negotiated a peace with the United States and returned all captured land to them. Despite ending in a draw, the US had problems with several separatist movements, with the strongest among them being Zipplandia. The United States gave into three of the movements and gave referendums for independence. On December 29, 1991, Zipplandia gained independence from the United States along with the new Republic of Hawaii.

## Before First Contact

After the war, the Soviet Union retreated into isolationism, and continued to reform silently for many years. The United States did similar, and lessened it's influence on the rest of the world to focus on internal matters brought up after the war. Zipplandia struggled in it's early years, it had it's independence, but was struggling economically with no major exports. Zipplandia quickly decided to start investing into computing research, as it didn't have natural resources, or direct ocean access to successfully do other economic options. Using government funding, Zipplandia by 1995 became known as the Computing Capital of the World, with many of the major companies moving there, or starting there. Breakthrough after breakthrough was achieved, and by 2004 computing technology was on the level we see today in the real world in 2022. In late 2004, the first president died, and a new one was elected. The new president saw opportunity in space, and wanted to grab it for themselves.

In 2006, the Zipplandian Space Agency was founded, and later the same year launched a successful moon mission, becoming the second country to do so. 2007 and 2008 also saw developments in space, with a new Zipplandian space station and a second moon mission, this time with a plan to build a colony. By 2010, the colony had finished construction and had 27 inhabitants, as well as a station in lunar orbit housing 4. In 2012, Zipplandia launched the first mission to Mars, using the lunar station to refuel before heading to the red planet. Febuary 14, 2013 would come to be known as the day humanity set foot on another planet with a successful landing on Mars bringing 180 colonists to their new home. By 2020, Zipplandia's moon colony had expanded to a population of 756, and the Mars colony was at 1,120. In addition to this, a mining outpost was set up in the asteroid belt with a shipyard and fuel refining depot to begin constructing a fleet.

## First Contact

July 18, 2023, the Zipplandian ship the Foreverborn picked up an unknown signal coming from just past Jupiter's orbit. After alerting command, the Sandusky Class vessel responded to the message and changed course to intercept. Joining up with two more ships, the Foreverborn made it past the asteroid belt when it received a response, a location. Moving to that location, the three ships saw the unexpected, a large cruiser. At least 150m in length, the vessel was larger than any spacecraft ever produced up to this point, and appeared to be heavily armed. The ship announced itself with a message saying that it came from the Procyon Commonwealth. It stated that their species had been observing humanity for the past 10 years, and wanted gave a warning. "You may have made it past your atmosphere, but you are not ready for travel among the stars." Immediately after the message was sent, a blue aura began to surround the vessel as the three Zipplandian ships backed off. Within a few seconds, the ship vanished.

## Aftermath

The Zipplandian government tried to keep the discovery secret, but it didn't work for long as an American telescope was instructed to face the direction of the signals, and caught the Zipplandian ships next to the Procyon cruiser. Accusations immediately began against Zipplandia, ranging from wondering why the knowledge wasn't shared, to believing that Zipplandia had been working with them from the beginning. The American president was furious and demanded an explanation, only to be told that Zipplandia believed it best to keep it a secret for the time. October 2, 2023 the United States declared war on Zipplandia for, "Collaboration with aliens of hostile intent." Zipplandia, knowing that it's holding on Earth wouldn't be able to stand against the American military for long evacuated as many people as it could to it's Lunar and Martian colonies. After the war, Zipplandia went from a population of 3.8 million, to a population of 35,000 scattered throughout the solar system. Knowing that both the Soviet Republic and the United States were in the process of building space warships of their own, Zipplandia kept looking for a solution out.

## Escape

In August 2025, based off of scans of the Procyon ship, Zipplandian scientists reverse engineered the jump drive. After a year of testing, and another year of finding a new planet to call home, Zipplandia came across a world known as K-9285b29, which was an Earthlike world over 2,000 light years from Earth. Due to colony ships starting construction in early 2026, by 2027 they were ready and Zipplandia loaded it's population into them and set course for their new home. Landing, they came to a world slightly colder than Earth, but still habitable, the world would come to be known as Zipplar.