New Idea for Alternate Timeline, Pt 1

[kato13]

Jason Weiser 10-11-2003, 07:49 PM Ok all, I know my last alternate timeline met with some...derision. But, I read an old favorite of mine again, a book called "Down to a Sunless Sea" by David Graham, basically, it's about an America that's racked with economic upheval due to the collapse of the dollar and the domestic oil supplies running dry.


Couple that with rereading "The Day After WWIII" by David Zuckerman, and some other research on Continuity of Government planning...we could have the makings of a real fun idea here.


Basically, it goes like this:

2014..A Islamic strongman takes charge in Saudi Arabia through bloody revolution, he turns out to be another Mahdi, violently anti-western, and determined to bring the hated infidel to heel. His confederates over the next five years launch bloody revolutions in most moderate Arab states. they suceed in most of the Gulf, and ominously, in Egypt.


The new Egyptian government, with the help of North Korean scientists, begin to build a new nuclear research facility within 2-3km of the Aswan Dam. Israel and the United States begin to protest. The UN, being hostile to both nations, and having become little more than a debating society, passes half hearted resolutions saying little and doing less.


Israel reacts badly, noting that the facility is super hardened, they realize that the only way to take out the facility for sure is through the use of nuclear tipped earth penetrators. As for harming the nearby Aswan Dam, the frightned Israelis care little, mainly due to the fact that 4 years before, an Egyptian based terror group, a sucessor to Abu Nidal's organization, was responsible for detonating a Sarin nerve gas bomb in the middle of Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem just before Friday Sabbath. 1000 died, and three times that number were maimed by the effects of the gas. As such, the Israeli politicians cared little for the fate of the Aswan Dam.


Israel launched the strike on the facility on the early morning of July 9th, 2020, and destroyed the facility in a huge cloud of smoke, ash and dirt thrown miles into the sky. however, the vibrations from the 2 5kt detonations caused microfissures to coat the surface of the Aswan Dam. The Dam had never been built to all that exacting standards (to be fair, the Hoover would have been hard pressed under those circumstances) . Egyptian engineers noticed the cracks almost immeadiately, but when they warned the government, they were told to stay quiet, or face execution for spreading "blasphemy". By evening, the cracks widened, and at 2145, July 10th, a 100ft by 20ft section of the dam gave way, the rest of the dam collapsing in minutes. A 15ft tall wall of water swept down on a sleeping Nile basin. The death toll was horrific.


more later.

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evilmike 10-11-2003, 11:53 PM Sounds plausible enough.

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Jason Weiser 10-12-2003, 12:20 AM The response from the Arab world is swift, and violent. within weeks, Israel is at war with the Arab world. Her armies fight as well as they did in every other war, but then the unthinkable occurs, and from an unexpected direction.


Iran, always an outsider and a pariah in the Arab world, sees it's chance to settle scores with Iraq as most of her Army is occupied in Israel. After the Israelis smash the Arab III Corps (A Saudi, Gulf Arab, Syrian and Iraqi formation) at Dawa and begin an headlong advance on Damascus, the Iranians strike, and invade Southern Iraq with 2 Corps of 4 Divisions each. The Iraqis have two understrength brigades watching the border, and they are overrun brutally after some ten days of fighting. Basrah falls by the end of September and the Iraninans turn North.


The United States, having pulled out of Iraq 10 years before as part of the final handover to the new Iraqi government, scrambles to get forces ready to help Iraq hold off the Iranian hordes, but defense cuts by the current Democratic administration had hurt the Military Sealift Force ships badly. (Many had been sold either for scrap, or to private concerns) Coupled with North Korea acting up at the same time (The North Korean annual exercises had taken something of an omnious turn) the US military found itself hard pressed to get enough troops togther to respond.


Pandora comes out of her box in early October, With the Iranians some 20km from Baghdad, and the Israelis some 10km from Damascus, the Syrians and Iraqis panic, both unleash chemical weapons on their foes (The Iraqis were supplied by the Syrians) Israel and Iran respond, with tactical nukes. Soon, the Saudis are flying chemical suicide raids into Israel and Iran. Most aircraft don't make it, but a few do and kill millions. Both nations soon nuke the Saudis, and destroy the oil fields in the process.


The price of oil skyrockets, and shortages appear just in time for one of the coldest winters in the Northern Hemisphere. Even with Russian, Venezuelan and US ANWAR oil entering the market, they cannot make up the psychological effect of the missing Arabian fields. Soon, the US, as one of the largest oil consumers, finds itself in a huge oil shortfall, even with ANWAR production and the Venezualans and Russians offering good terms (Oil for Debt cancellation, this however, leads to bank collapse in the US as those banks that made the loans are now out millions) As the banks collapse, and foreign bankers lose confidence in America's economy (the kicker is "black week", where the Dow Jones loses 2500 points in five days, causing the SEC to close the market "indefinately"). The value of the Dollar plummets (Though, to be fair, so do other currencies, but the dollar has the furthest to fall).


In November, America teeters on the brink of economic and societal collapse. The government, still unable to cope with the scale of the disaster before it, imposes optimistic fuel rationing schemes and price controls. All this does is drive angry people into the streets. Riots soon occur in every major urban center in America. Worse, many more flee to the countryside, where virtual civil wars break out between rural and urban populatons.


Somehow, enough order is maintained short of martial law to hold an election. It is the last one many Americans will see for some time. The winner is a Democrat from the far left of the party (The party convention in St. Louis is a raucus, at times violent affair, where the supporters of the current president are verbally harrased, and at times, savagely beaten in front of CNN and Fox, few however see the current president, a moderate Democrat as "willing to take the radical steps needed"), a former governor of New York and mayor of Ithaca, he is seen by some as a left-wing demogogue, but seems to have all the answers..sadly, history records that all President Allen Furst managed to do was make matters worse, but then, we all know what the road to hell is paved with...


more later

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Jason Weiser 10-12-2003, 12:44 PM As Furst takes power, he begins to push a set of legislation known as the "100 Days of renewal". What it became made FDR's New Deal and the Great Society look like child's play. But, where it differs is that Furst distrusts the rich. To him, no American should have more than 35,000 a year in income. And the rich somehow, according to Furst, "made" the Crash happen.


Sadly, the policies made matters worse. One of the more odious measures was the siezure of "any assets the government deems neccecary to assist recovery from the current emergency". Coupled with a bloating of the Federal Workforce and the founding of the new Department of Economic Equity, there comes a increasing polarization between the urban citydwellers, who make up a majority of the new DEE workers, and rural folks, who find that it is mostly their assets being siezed, this was especially hard on family farmers. Such acts invariably lead to violence, and after a district head of the DEE is assinated by a high-powered rifle in Kansas, even more omnious legislation is passed, over the impotent cries of the few conservatives and moderates left in Congress.


The new law is named the Martin Dies Firearm Confiscation Act, which basically suspends the 2nd Ammendment to the Constitution. (Martin Dies is the former unfortunate DEE official) All firearms in private hands are to be turned over to authorities, no exceptions and stiff prison terms are to be handed out to violators. Furthermore, the DEE is now authorized a paramilitary force of some 25,000 to be used to enforce this law with the help of the military and law enforcement.


Things go badly immediately, and the lid well and truely comes off on March 15th, 2021, when an Army foot patrol in Detroit is confronted by an angry mob. Shots are fired and before the smoke clears, 4 are dead, including one soldier, the youngest victim is 12. Both the left and the right blame each other as industries close and the fabric of society breaks down, militias on both sides begin to form and drill openly, though the government uses increasingly more heavy-handed measures to supress these groups. Then, on April 23rd, things slide well and truely downhill.


Furst, by this time, is a barely functional paranoid who has fired half of his original cabinet and replaced them with yes men. His DEE Secretary, a ambitious woman named Maria Hardt, began to plot against the Secretary of Defense and the military (She hated the military, and wanted to form a unified defense force in it's place that would be, naturally, under her).


Hardt spreads a rumor that the JCS and SecDef are planning a coup. Furst, in his current state, sends the DEE and FBI in to arrest the JCS. What Hardt didn't know was that there was a coup actually being planned. The generals and admirals were sick of Furst, and his paranoid fantasies. But, Hardt's shennanigans had forced them to move before they were ready.


Within hours, a Brigade of the 82nd Airborne was landing on the Mall, other troops, from the 3rd Infantry and elements of the DC guard, along with Delta, and a Ranger Battalion from Ft. Bragg, were storming the White House. The Secret Service put up a hellacious fight, but neither President Furst, nor any members of his cabinet survived the fighting.


The White House was a burnt out shell and the members of congress scattered to the winds, some went home, some sided with the new government. But, as news of the coup broke, many states began to go their own way. The union was fraying, and the center would not hold.



more later

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Chuck Mandus 10-12-2003, 03:20 PM July 9th, 2020 - Thanks a heap, just a day after my 54th birthday.


I like it, good work. I just love a good dystopia. I might bum a few ideas for my Morrow Project game as background fodder.

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Jason Weiser 10-12-2003, 06:09 PM By May 14th, things are somewhat under control in DC, as the Military has disarmed, or killed the DEE and those Federal Law Enforcement officers that sided with President Furst. Admiral Samuel Jackson takes charge. (The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority leader were both loyal to Furst, and are at this time, under arrest at the Marine Barracks at 8th and I)


But the damage had been done, and tensions throughout the nation had already reached a fever pitch. On May 17th, the bough broke as the Northern half of the state of California declared itself the "Fremont Republic" and seceeded from the state and the union. The California State Government mobilized the National Guard and the Highway Patrol and sent them north to restore order. They were sent back in ragged defeat a month later as National Guard troops from Oregon and Nevada intervened on the side of Fremont. By July, the front stabilized along the line Ukabah-Oroville-Loyalton. Both sides increasingly recruit miltias that are loyal to their nominal political views.


By August, more fighting breaks out across the nation, as Massachussets invades New Hampshire and New York invades Vermont (However, New York City secedes from the state and makes it stick, to which Staten Island joins Long Island and remains loyal to the Greater State of New York)


Northern Virginia joins with Maryland in remaining loyal to the Federal Government, or what's left of it, as does Norfolk/Va Beach, but the rest of the state decends into sectarian violence and the rest of the south, old hatreds arise again. South Carolina declares itself the "New Confederacy" and invites other states to join.


In the Northwest and Midwest, things are confused as government breaks down, county turns on county, neighbor on neighbor, until there are just confused armed bands roaming the countryside. One French observer with Doctors Without Borders, treating malnutrition cases in Eastern Missouri remarked "It's the 30 years war, with automatic weapons" Government above the village level is done for by the first snows.


Philidelphia erupts into an orgy of violence makes Beruit at it's height look like a schoolyard scuffle. The corrupt city government simply becomes one more gang vying for control and an attempted EU peacekeeping mission ends in disaster when 34 Belgian peacekeepers die in an ambush, after which the EU loses it's nerve for any more interventions in the former US.


Hawaii and Alaska both become independant nations, with Alaska having a better go at it due to Oil revenue.


As for the Southwest, violent revolutions occur and a Hispanic extremist group takes power in the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Both states send troops, but they can do little agains Aztlan, this naecent republic who soon launches anti-anglo progroms. However, when Aztlan attempts to invade West Texas and sieze El Paso in October, they get badly bloodied and their further appetite for agression ends.


More later

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shrike6 10-12-2003, 06:17 PM Wow! This is scary. I like it! Keep up the good work, Jason.

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Dogger 10-12-2003, 07:04 PM Interesting.


I'm thinking another bastion of the Federal/military gov could be in Colorado?


NORAD and all that.


keep it coming.




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Jason Weiser 10-12-2003, 07:13 PM Yeah Dogger,

I plan on explaning what happens to the Strategic Nuclear Stockpile in the next installment, this includes NORAD, (though nominally, it's not part of Strategic Command).


Jason

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TiggerCCW UK 10-13-2003, 06:41 AM Very interesting. I also really enjoyed the book Down to a Sunless sea, especially its view of what was happening in the UK and more specifically Ireland - although the idea of the Cubans invading always struck me as a bit odd.

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evilmike 10-14-2003, 06:34 AM Admiral Samuel Jackson?


*smacks Jason with a trout*

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Jason Weiser 10-15-2003, 11:29 AM And me brain was fried



Will post part 4 soon!

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MJGRIFF 10-15-2003, 08:06 PM Get some rest partner and then get back to writin'!

This pretty good stuff Jason, well done!!



Sua Sponte

Griff

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Jason Weiser 10-15-2003, 09:37 PM One force the Coup plotters in Washington hadn't managed to gain any sort of influence over was Strategic Command. While the Strategic Command felt the same way towards the Furst administration that the rest of the military (barely contained hatred and contempt), they were still somewhat loyal to the idea of civilian control. They were also the last repository of nuclear weapons in the United States.


When the Coup occured on April 23rd-24th, the Commander of Strategic Command, General Brett Vicks, put his force on Threatcon Delta and sealed every facility that had nuclear weapons, or their command and control assets. There were some mutinies as word from the outside, but matters held. Then, the commander of NORAD, Lieutenant General Michael Connor contacted General Vicks and asked him if they could join his "armed neutrality".


After two months of silence, the following letter was released from the Offut Air Force Base PIO.


Ladies and Genetlemen, three months ago, our nation slid into chaos and began a trying time not seen since the Civil War. We here at Strategic Command feel that to allow ourselves to participate in this barbarity would sully the uniform, and our honor as soldiers, airmen and sailors. Thus , we have sealed all bases and depots under the control of this command. We will accept no further transmissions and any attempt to take these facilities by force will meet with terrible conesquences. Furthermore, foreign intervention in America's troubles will be met with the same terrible consequences. We also have joined with NORAD and thus, we control the early warning assets of this nation. Thus, we inform the rogue nations of the world. Do not act on your ambitions, the price will be terrible.


Signed,

General Brett Vicks, CINC-Strategic Command

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Ed the Coastie 10-29-2003, 11:21 AM One heck of a scenario. *shuddering* I can already see several of my friends and former shipmates / service buddies winding up on opposing sides of the various conflicts.

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