Author Topic: United Nations of Earth Campaign - Prolouge  (Read 3464 times)

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Offline OAM47 (OP)

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United Nations of Earth Campaign - Prolouge
« on: November 26, 2012, 07:15:56 PM »
January 13, 2013 was a day that would change the Earth forever.  As the day shined its first rays over Japan two alien ships were fast approaching.  Both were crewed by the same race, though were determined to kill each other just as much as a human would a hornet that had just stung them.  They were called the Xlatchi, though the nations of Earth would not learn this fact for some time.  For now, all they knew, and only high level officials at that, was that deep space radar had suddenly detected two large high speed objects heading right for the planet.

One of the vessels was heavily damaged, one of the last ships of a defeated rebel movement against the Xlatchi central government.  Their cause was lost, and this particular crew decided that fleeting across the galaxy and finding a nice place to live out the rest of their lives as recluses was the best course of action, rather than beg for amnesty.  Unfortunately for them, a government destroyer had picked up their signature on the edge of their space and followed them, jump after jump.  Both ships had used their missile stocks, leaving them just with their backup lasers.  Even after battle damage they were evenly matched in speed, but the rebels' fuel was about to run out.  They needed to land, and Earth was the only habitable option for them...

As the rebels slowed down to enter Earth's atmosphere the government ship caught up, immediately opening fire.  Normally the lasers were invisible, but a combination of atmospheric effects and battle damaged caused bright flashes even in the day time sky, alerting the general populace that something wasn't right.

The fight continued for a few minutes, but the government ship had better trained gunners by far.  The already struggling rebel ship was on its last legs.  The rebel captain knew it was hopeless, but rather than surrender, he executed a final act of defiance.  Seconds before his reactor went supercritical, he ordered the helmsman to plot a course directly into their adversaries and put 110% to engines.  Even fresh out of space dock the other ship wouldn't have been able to withstand such a collision.  As it was, the rebel ship's reactor exploded mid-impact, scattering chunks of each spacecraft far and wide across the globe, and temporarily blinding anyone looking directly at the battle.

Several pieces of the alien ships crashed intact, thanks to their advanced construction materials.  Ironically, most landed in areas that would prompt quick, hair-trigger responses from the human factions, such as the Arctic, near the Russian-Chinese boarder, and in one amazing coincidence, within the disputed regions of India and Pakistan.  While at the time it didn't seem like it, this actually turned out to be quite fortuitous.  With the sheer number of international disputes erupting, and the revelation that humanity wasn't alone, a large movement came to the forefront to establish some kind of international response, rather than let individual nations handle the crisis.  Normally national leaders would be hesitant, but none were very eager to start slaughtering each other now that it was clear there were bigger things to worry about in the universe.

There was a great deal of political turmoil, though nearly all of it peaceful.  In the immediate months following the incident the UN was tasked with taking charge of crash sites and direction research and recovery efforts.  National governments did have chances to seek individual glory, sometimes being subcontracted for a large side project or two, and of course at least being able to charge "rent" on any resources the UN task force needed to use.  For awhile it looked like things might return to something resembling normal, albeit with a new global perspective, but the worst was yet to come...

Due to the rebel captain's reckless final actions, the Xlatchi ships emitted high levels of radiation.  It wasn't detected at first because the Trans-Newtonian elements were not yet fully understood.  Within two years it was clear something was seriously wrong though.  Workers became ill, despite having taken some precautions when handling alien artifacts.  Soon thereafter civilians near the crash sites started reporting illnesses, especially various forms of cancer.  The dangerous chemicals and radiation spread through the air, and soon the problem was worldwide.  Science was advancing rapidly, and effective treatments were eventually developed, but they weren't a 100% sure thing. By the time they were deployed, around twelve years after first contact, about half the world's population was either dead or predicted to die.  Unfortunately, most of these deaths were preventable, more due to poverty, overcrowding, panic, and preferential treatment to developed countries, all leading to a very inefficient distribution scheme.

While no comfort to the dead, it was one of the last trappings of the national system.  Even the best off countries suffered greatly, and were in even more turmoil than before.  As a last ditch effort to maintain order, the Security Council voted to hand over most of their power to the UN at large, to form a new, global government.  By this point most of the nations of the world were seeing eye to eye on most issues, even if their methods differed and not all were treated as equals.  No one country could take humanity to the stars alone, especially not in this state.  They needed to united.  Fortunately, enough voices agreed that the not-insignificant opposition was forced to yield.

And so the UN voted to incorporate as a global government, with consent of 95% of national governments, on January 1st 2028.  There would be a nearly two year period before hand to prepare and consolidate, so the transition should be smooth.  National governments were not totally superseded.  A lot of the fledgling UN Defense Force was still organized by national origin, and the civilian management was segmented likewise.  The new government would be a democracy, albeit a very restrictive one by most standards.  The existing UN would serve much the same roll it always did, just now with elected representatives, with each country handling it's own elections.  A long term plan was drawn up for further consolidation, but the timetable was left to the discretion of the security council.  In the interim, the council would hold the real power while a planetary governor would be the central figurehead to unite around.  For the foreseeable future, the council would rule human space pragmatically and through compromise, trying to balance all old national concerns and move towards a more homologous government.