The more things change...
The first part of the 21st century went much like previous decades. Humans squabbled and fought amongst themselves, wars started and were ended, sowing the seeds for the next round of conflict. Technology advanced, politicians and businessmen continued to prove themselves corrupt and untrustworthy and yet for most of the race conditions steadily improved. More nations joined the ranks of the industrialized powers and for the lower classes the struggle to survive changed to a struggle to improve. Those in power determined that they rather liked being in power and thus did not permit large scale conflict to break out, those at the controls of humanities most devastating weaponry slowly became convinced they would never need to fire them. They were of course incorrect in this assumption.
It began with an innocuous scientific breakthrough, a scientific team, the names of which are now lost to history, published a theory that could overturn centuries of assumptions about physical laws. The possibilities under this theory were endless: Reactionless drives, energy weaponry, gene modification at the quantum level, even faster than light travel were all seemingly just a step away, if only the right elements could be found. The theory also proposed that at least 11 new elements, dubbed "Trans-Newtonian" by the small portion of the press that cared, existed and that finding them would enable innumerable wonders to be created.
There was just one small problem: These elements were purely theoretical and no one had any idea how to find them or even once found how to extract them. With this obstacle in place, the theory was quickly disregarded and aside from some minor funding on discovery and extraction research, quickly faded from the public eye.
In 2016 a breakthrough came from a most unlikely source. An archaeological team headed by one Zofia Negrete working in the Chicxulub Crater in Yucatan, Mexico discovered a vast series of caverns beneath the surface containing artifacts made of no known materials. In addition to proving the existence of either Extra-Terrestrial life or of some form of pre-human civilization, speculation quickly grew that these might be the long theorized Trans-Newtonian materials, within months scientific teams from all over the world were at the site, studying the artifacts and attempting to open up new caves to exploration. Little of use was gained during this time though much of the original theory was proved and a means of detecting TN elements in their natural form was in development.
In summer of 2017 the Zofia Negrete team, still on site though now with a drastically changed goal, opened the largest vault yet discovered and found within enormous manufacturing facilities, what was later determined to be a large Antimatter power plant, and untold numbers of inactive vehicles and material, though designed by no human hand it was easily apparent these were made for war. An assumption quickly proven when, triggered by the footsteps of life in their territory, they began activating and attacking all around them. Survivors of the science teams quickly got word out and began fleeing or hiding as their abilities permitted.
Armies from Mexico and the USA quickly attempted to establish a cordon around the site, however it was ineffective to say the least as the alien machines proved they had all the advantages of the theorized TN technology, their armor was better, defeating all but the most determined attacks, their smallest weapon could penetrate humanities most well protected vehicles, and their sensors could locate anything within their range no matter how well hidden. As the cordon crumbled, an enormous explosion emitted from the site, with a higher mega-tonnage than anything seen on Earth before or since. This wiped out many of the machines as well as the remaining human troops on site, for a few days humanity breathed a sigh of relief believing that the unknowns had been wiped out by malfunction before doing too much damage.
This was not to be, rather the initial incursion was merely a signal and other previously undiscovered vaults around the world began disgorging their contents, the machines, dubbed Invaders by the press, began a campaign of genocide against every sentient being they came across, there were millions of them and no human army could do more than slow their progress.
Thus began 19 years of terror, established governments were either shattered or made nearly useless, armed and armored strong points only served to attract attention, and the Invaders could easily shoot down incoming long ranged missiles, artillery or even ICBMs, those who previously were convinced they would never need to use their weapons quickly began praying that one, even one would prove effective. Resistance took the form of armed bands roaming the world, always on the move and always at risk.
Though things appeared hopeless, this was not in fact the case, the Invaders did not appear to have weapons of mass destruction like nuclear missiles, and were not invulnerable, they took losses and damage and although humanity never won a stand up fight, after years of fighting it became clear that the Invaders could not replace their losses or even repair their damaged units. This meant all humanity had to do was hold on, and they did. Nearly two decades passed and nearly four billion lost their lives either in direct conflict or due to the lack or resources once power failed in the cities, but humanity survived, soon the Invaders did not have the numbers to successfully assault human strongholds and humanity began refortifying, rebuilding cities and nations, and seeking to understand why.
Eventually it was discovered that one thing and one thing only had saved intelligent life on Earth, the heroics of the Zofia Negrete archaeological team. Somehow they had managed to sneak into the vaults and detonate the power plant within. Apparently that vault was the only one with power and factories for repair, and the Invader machines were not able to build a new one, with their sacrifice the team struck the only blow possible that could have saved the world, though it took nearly two decades to do so.
Now with the Invaders gone or reduced to small amounts of damaged machines, low on power, humanity is rebuilding its world. The old power structures of nations are gone and new ones have risen in their places, the Trans-Newtonian theory has become a reality and research begins on using this new knowledge to reach for the stars, no longer will humanities eggs all be in one basket. With the return to semi-normalcy came the return to the traditional power struggles of the world. Nations bickered, wars were started and ended, politicians and businessmen proved themselves corrupt or incompetent, and yet conditions still improved, endless possibilities and resources awaited and the inhabitants of Earth would meet them and if need be, tear them from the hands of those who already grasped them.
Thanks to Panopticon for the original fiction, we will start from this point and all other previous politics and countries were just a dream that you had awoken from, you now know what you must do as a member state of Earth.
