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The African Civil War and the One Minute War took place in mid-2027. Since then the world’s population has dropped significantly. Approximately 742 million people have died of radiation poisoning and related illnesses and infirmities, a drop of just over 10%. The vast bulk of those who died were either the very old or the very young, or those who were already sick or infirm. This one event has caused major problems for every Earth nation. Detailed below are the ways that this event and its lasting effect on the Earth’s environment have changed the nations. Some of these changes are obvious to anyone who looks, especially in the relatively open nations like the Alliance and the Reich, or the Indian Republic, while in the Japanese Empire, the USSR, or the African Union these effects will only be known to top military, intelligence, and political leaders.
The Alliance
The Alliance public’s reaction to this situation has been muddled. The Alliance government, driven by corporate interests and real-politick to seek a closer relationship to the remnants of the African Union to balance out the Reich’s absorption of North Africa, has vilified the Reich, portraying it as provoking the religious fanatics that ultimately launched the nuclear attack on several Reich cities. This public relations campaign has met with mixed success. The Alliance public has always viewed the Reich as a potentially dangerous competitor, and since the revelations in the 80’s about the Reich’s treatment of Jews under its first Chancellor, there has been a lingering distaste in the Alliance for the Reich. However, the government critics of the Reich were never able to present any credible proof of Reich mistreatment of the refugees in North Africa, and, to be honest, the Alliance government never really tried to convince anyone. The public relations campaign was presented more as a cover for the alliance with the Union than anything else.
In response to the increased death rate among the young, the Alliance’s birth rate has dropped precipitously, with most young women opting for long-term reversible birth control implants to prevent pregnancy. The abortion rate is high as well, as most couples have made the conscious decision to wait until they either emigrate or the radiation levels come down before starting a family. The drastic drop in the birth rate has allowed the Alliance to concentrate medical resources on the fewer babies that are born, raising their survival rate significantly. There is little that can be done for the older citizens, and those who are sick or infirm. The death rate among the citizens in those categories is very high, and there are very few families who have not had to deal with at least one death directly or indirectly attributable to radiation and fallout. This fact has led to an erosion of public morale and a generalized unrest amongst the citizens. As ye this unrest has no particular focus.
The Alliance government has worked to deal with the lowered morale and unrest by promoting a “war-time” feeling among the citizens, with calls for sacrifice for the afflicted and public service by those capable of contributing. In addition, the government has been promoting off-world colonization, particularly to Mars as its environment is very nearly Earth-like. The government has been very careful about this, though, as there is no way to accommodate everyone who wants to leave at the current time and the government officials in charge of the colonization program fear the frustration and anger that would follow significant delays in emigration should demand peak. In addition, it is an open secret that the government has initiated the construction of several missile defense stations in the remoter areas of the Canadian states, and there are rumors that talks are underway with the Reich to modify the Missile Defense Treaty.
The Alliance government, in conjunction with the major industrial corporations, has been successful in relocating a significant percentage of the Alliance’s industry to Mars, where its efficiency is significantly higher than it was on Earth. In the last two years seven of the eight major industrial and mining corporations in the Alliance have moved their headquarters and the bulk of their infrastructure to Mars, in large part to placate their high-level managers, directors, and stock holders, all of whom had been given priority emigration permissions from the government. For a short time the Alliance government contemplated relocating to Mars as well, but this proved to be unwise when the public reacted negatively to the flight of the corporations and their rich directors and managers. It would have meant professional suicide for any politician to openly support the relocation of the government to Mars, or any where else for that matter, until the radiation levels on Earth come down.
All of this means that the Alliance government has found itself with a limited number of choices in expansion outside the Solar System. The public is demanding significantly increased colonist transportation capabilities, which must be supported by increased freight transportation capability. Currently, the best “bang-for-the-buck” in colonization is Mars, given its proximity to Earth and its near Earth-like environment. So far the Alliance government has resisted calls in the Senate to allocate all colony ships to the Mars run, and has managed to significantly increase the population of New Boston in the Alpha Cephi system. With several terraforming ships already on station over New Boston, the government hopes that conditions there will improve soon and even more people can be relocated there. This increased movement of people away from Earth has placed a heavy strain on the Alliance’s freighter fleet, which has had to ship construction factories to Mars from Earth and mines from Mars to New Boston, always trying to keep available work-capable population balanced.
Because of the public’s focus on the radiation contaminated environment of Earth and the government’s response to the crisis, the larger colonization program has been largely placed on hold. The Alliance’s jump gate network to the Tau Ceti system, through the Procyon and San Diego systems, has been completed, but plans to exploit it have been placed on hold for the near future due to the ongoing crisis. Exploration will continue, but the exploitation of any finds will have to wait.
The Greater European Reich
The Reich has had more problems to deal with than the Alliance due to its involvement in the One Minute War, which resulted in the destruction of several major European cities. Perhaps because of its direct involvement, though, the Reich public has been more focused in its recovery efforts.
As with the Alliance the birthrate in the Reich has plummeted, and this has had a similar result in raising the survival rate of the babies that are born. Unfortunately, Reich medical resources have been strained providing relief and treatment to those in the cities hit by African bombs. Alliance and Indian doctors and hospitals have helped immensely by donating time and resources, and the good-will that this has generated among the public cannot be overestimated.
The primary source of discontent within the European public relates to the North African Territory and the African Union. There are powerful politicians and industrial concerns within the Reich calling for an immediate incorporation of the North African Territories into the Reich’s economy to alleviate the chronic worker shortages that have arisen in Europe due to the effects of fallout and increased colonization. There are equally powerful concerns both within and without the government calling for an extension of North Africa’s status as a Territory and rule by the Wehrmacht to ensure that the fanatics have all been rooted out. The public itself is divided on this matter.
The Reich government has had increasing difficulty balancing the need for workers with the increased demand for colonization rights on Venus and Nue Berlin. To make this even worse the Reich has been suffering through a moderately severe continuing duranium shortage. The result of all of this is to limit colonization to Venus and to a lesser extent to Nue Berlin. The chronic manpower shortages make it virtually certain that the North African Territories will be integrated into the European economy before the end of 2031, regardless of the consequences.
Japanese Empire
The Japanese Empire has weathered this continuing crisis fairly well, at least so far. The Japanese population is fairly regimented and only receives news that is carefully tailored by the government, and so its reactions have been muted. It is important to remember, though, that the population of the Japanese Empire is divided into three distinct groups. The primary and most politically important group is the ethnic Japanese, centered primarily on the Home Islands. The second group, which are treated as second class citizens within the Empire, are the non-Japanese, non-Chinese peoples conquered both before and during World War II. The third and final group is the Chinese conquered during World War II. The Chinese are treated as slaves by the Empire, and much of the Empire’s time and effort since World War II has been concentrated on maintaining effective control of the Chinese.
The Japanese citizens of the Empire officially have a limited say in their government, but they can have an immense effect on the government’s policies through unofficial societal mechanisms. The “second class” citizens have very little control or say in their fate, but have been treated with what amounts to benign neglect, especially when compared to the fate of the Chinese. The only effect the Chinese have ever had on the Japanese government has been through open rebellion and relatively muted guerrilla actions, which have generally always inspired devastating and brutal responses from the Japanese government. These rebellions and open acts of dissent have declined significantly over the last forty years, to the point that there have not been any open acts of rebellion or dissent for the last two years. This is because the Japanese government has been engaged in a widespread and long-term program to genetically alter the Chinese population to reduce discontent and aggression and increase their usefulness to the Japanese Empire. Although there have been some setbacks and dead ends, this program has been largely successful.
In the early 1980’s the Japanese government invested significant amounts of money and personnel in the revolutionary new technology of genetic engineering. The Chinese population, which had been largely quiet since the repression campaigns in the late fifties following the successful rebellion of the Indian Territories, was growing more and more restive under Japanese control. While the traditional techniques of brutal repression and massive reprisal against civilian populations worked, they were economically disruptive, and the Japanese corporations, which were very politically powerful, depended on Chinese laborers in their factories and mines. As a result the government was looking for innovative, long term, methods to control the Chinese population. On the surface genetic engineering appeared to be the perfect solution, however, not even the wildest proponents could claim that any useful results would be achieved in any time frame shorter than two or more decades.
After an intensive basic research effort in Japan, the Empire moved into an experimental phase in the early nineties. Under the cover of a large scale public health care initiative aimed at improving the lot of the average Chinese laborer, the Empire instituted a huge genetic testing and experimentation effort throughout China. By the late nineties the Imperial geneticists had begun actual modification of the genetic makeup of the Chinese. This effort expanded throughout the first decade of the 21st Century. By 2030 the Chinese are no longer strictly human. The Imperial Government has intentionally altered the Chinese to the point where they can no longer viably breed with an unaltered human, largely to prevent the dilution of the Japanese genetic heritage. In addition, the Chinese have been altered to reduce their independence and aggression, increase their size, speed, and intelligence. Japanese geneticists have, in effect, bred a sort of autism into the average Chinese. This has resulted in workers who are stronger and more capable, but who show little individual volition and who, once set in motion, will work until relieved or exhausted. Obviously such workers are not suitable for jobs and professions that need independent and inventive thought, but for the most part Chinese laborers are not used in such areas, which are reserved for ethnic Japanese.
Because of strong racial purity laws and social customs the Japanese government has not been able to use its superior genetic capabilities to alleviate the problems caused by the increased radiation levels throughout Earth. This has reduced Japanese medicine to palliative efforts that have done little to counteract the increased death rates associated with the fallout. As there is no free press in the Empire, and because the people, even the Japanese people, are so regimented, there is little concern within the Imperial Government for popular unrest. The Chinese population is incapable of rebellion at this point, and the second-class citizens throughout the Pacific basin are divided and politically and economically powerless. The government’s primary concern is the economic effects of the fallout and the declining population, and its effect on the Empire’s relative standing with the other nations.
In spite of the government’s relative insensitivity to unrest in the general population, there is some concern at the highest levels about the increasing disaffection of the second class citizens throughout the Pacific basin. It must be noted that this is not concern for the unrest, but concern for how the unrest might affect the goals of the Empire. As before, the government has turned to the Imperial Geneticists for an answer, granting them even more money and power than they had before to find a solution to the on-going problems related to the subjugated peoples. The Imperial Geneticists are currently working on an ambitious program to completely remake the subjugated peoples into highly differentiated forms suitable for employment in specialized professions. These new forms would have little or no capability for independent life, and would be even more under the control of the state. In essence the conquered peoples would cease to be a problem, and would become little more than biological machines.
The broad strokes of the Japanese genetic program are known to the other nations, although they have missed the widespread nature of the genetic subjugation of the Chinese. While details of the program occasionally leak from the various intelligence services and politicians to the press services of the Alliance, Reich, and India, the publics of those nations are insensitive to the issue at this point. The Chinese have been subjects of the Japanese Empire for over eighty years at this point, and given the Japanese government’s firm determination, totalitarian society, and nuclear deterrence, there is little that the other nations can do.
The Soviet Union
The Soviet Union is in perhaps the most difficult position of any of the nations, with the possible exception of the African Union. The USSR has suffered two major defeats in the trans-Newtonian era, both of which resulted in the loss of nearly its entire fleet. While news of the extent of its losses in the Titan conflict and the Novaran War was suppressed within the USSR by the government, nothing can be suppressed entirely. It was nearly impossible for the government to hide the disappearance of so many ships not only once but twice, and the loss of so much of its mining potential when the Japanese Empire seized Titan. Rumors ran rampant throughout the USSR about those events, and when people started dying from radiation no one believed the government when it claimed that it was due to events entirely beyond its control. The belief in the incompetence of the government was widespread throughout the population by 2027 and when people began dying everyone immediately jumped to the conclusion that the government was somehow responsible.
The public’s discontent was only increased when the central government promised to open a colony at the planet of Saratov in the Psi Serpentis system. Unfortunately for the government, duranium shortages coupled with a chronic lack of colonial infrastructure and transport capability has delayed the colony time and again, adding to the public’s discontent and disbelief of the government. This has caused the government to try several different very public attempts to alleviate the problem, including the construction of new hospitals and an increase in the production of medical supplies, but in the end those efforts failed, further reducing the credibility of the Soviet government.
By the start of 2031 the Soviet has gone into what amounts to a siege mentality, having withdrawn to fortified bunkers in the USSR’s primary cities. For over one hundred years the Soviet government has trained the Soviet people to depend on the government for everything, and they have failed to produce. The People’s Army and the Party have grown unreliable as more and more of the officers and Party apparatchiks have suffered from the effects of the increased radiation count through the loss of loved ones. The KGB is still loyal, but with only the support of the KGB the government cannot hold out. As a result the Soviet leadership is desperately casting about for anything that would save them from the inevitable end that they see approaching.
One possible area that the Soviet government has been investigating is cybernetics. For the last thirty years the USSR has been investing in cybernetic technology as a way to boost its productivity and, not incidentally, the government’s control of its citizens. In the 2020’s the USSR mandated the installation of basic cyber-implants into every citizen, and move which increased industrial and research capabilities across the board. These cyber-implants offer Soviet citizens limited interface capabilities with central computer systems, and on-board storage for documents and other useful applications. While other countries have better computer technology, none are as advanced in human-computer interface technology (cyber-implants) due to human-rights concerns. The Presidium, of course, has little concern for human rights.
By 2030 the average Soviet citizen has a basic implant which allows limited access to central government databases, and boasts on-board computational capability and storage. Every Soviet soldier and sailor has enhanced cyber capabilities allowing more extensive interface with computer control systems, and special forces and elite military units have become virtual cyborgs, with implanted defenses and weaponry.
Although the Presidium has funded research into enhanced implant systems and software which would further increase productivity and central control of activities and thought, it has balked at the implementation of such systems because of a basic fear of changing things too much. Such a leap might give them all-encompassing control of the citizenry, eliminating discontent and inefficiency once and for all, or it might kill everyone or eliminate all independence and ingenuity. The current emergency is rapidly eroding the Presidium’s reluctance to employ this technology.
Indian Republic
The Indian Republic has been the hardest hit of all of the nations, largely because it received the most intense fallout dose. The Indian public has reacted differently to the situation than the Alliance or the Europeans, though. Rejecting the concept of avoiding pregnancy, the Indians have actually increased their birthrate, in spite of the fact that this has increased the overall mortality rate.
This has had several effects on the Indian government. The Indian public is very unhappy with this situation, and has put intense pressure on the government to increase off-world colonization, and to build defenses that will ensure that this will never happen again.
As with the Reich and the Alliance, Indian society is fairly open and stable, thus any unrest and anger at the situation tends to be focused pressure for the government to deal with the situation in constructive ways.
The African Union
The African Union has been limping along since the Civil War in 2027. Diktat Anen has survived serious three assassination attempts and one coup attempt during this period. It is only strict governmental controls and a loyal group of followers that has allowed Anen to maintain his position to date.
The African public has lost confidence in its government, and this has resulted in widespread unrest and strikes, crippling productivity. Anen’s government has attempted to distract the public by promising a massive off-world colonization effort, to be undertaken in conjunction with the Alliance government, but at this point the public no longer believe Anen and his promises.
Over the last year Anen has been in secret negotiations with the Alliance over terms for the Union to join the Alliance. Anen and his followers have been holding out for high governmental positions within the Alliance after the merger, something that the Alliance negotiators have so far refused to consider, leading to a stalemate.
