At the end of World War III, much of the government organization was destroyed. Political targets had been the focus of the war. While several areas of the world had been victimized by nuclear weapons, the planet was largely salvageable from the torrent of destruction mankind wrought upon it. The war had lasted some thirty seven years, ending in 2151. That war had been prevented for such a long duration was astounding in itself.
And that humanity didn’t utterly destroy itself another.
The restructure of governments began. Leaders rose from military backings. Generals and admirals and war heroes were all put in places of power. And they organized the fragmented areas of their world. There hadn’t been a victor at the end of the war. There had only been an agreement that the destruction of the planet was far beyond the prejudiced ideals of madmen who sat behind bureaucracy and commanded the allegiances of men too weak to defy them.
Three major forms of government jumped into existence: the American Confederation, Eurasian States, and the African States of Unity. Beneath these government seats were smaller governments that rules more directly to the people, but laws and requirements all stemmed from these three powers. No lesser government was allowed to have an army. Only the three powers controlled the armed services. And these governments ruled soundly and without conflict until 2613.
It was a cold morning the 18th of February, 2613 that spies from the American Confederation were captured for plots to overthrow the AC government. The plot had been decades in the making, the mastermind behind it being the ASU. People had been placed in key roles in the AC government and were soon to execute an attack that would cripple the AC and allow the ASU to step in and moderate until unification could be reestablished. It would be shortly after this time that the remaining leaders of the AC, those under ASU control, would join the two governments together to form the Federation of International States. The FIS had been rumored for some time, but until this capture of spies had happened, it was only speculation.
War broke out. ES remained largely uninvolved until its borders on the Mediterranean Sea were attacked for position by the AC. It was during this point they jumped headlong into the fight, taking on both warring factions. ES was the strongest of the three governments and planned to use its supreme might to beat the other two into submission.
The conflicts lasted a mere two years before the ES dominated the other two governments. It set conquest to remove all political leaders and replace them with individuals that were not yet corrupt. The leaders of the ES had no desire to run an entire world. The tasks required of them for their portion of the planet were more than enough for their liking. After they had reestablished the AC and ASU, their political power diminished. But their military might, the NFEA, continued to surpass the strength of all other armies.
This was also the time that mankind developed a means of traversing the stars much faster than they ever had before. The moon was partially colonized, and trips to Mars still took a great deal of time. Up until this time, rocket propulsion was still the acceptable means of interstellar travel. Exploration of the Solar System exploded and the matters of Earthly politics didn’t matter much.
Mass production of interstellar ships were marketed and sold beginning in 2634. While only the super-rich could afford them initially, it quickly became a point that they should be manufactured for a more reasonable price as Earth’s population needed to be reduced to help tide over growing pains. By 2646, there were over twenty million personal interstellar craft. By this point, piracy had taken its toll in the Solar System and the governments all worked on their own to stop it. Problems of jurisdiction began to arise and it was in 2648 that the first interstellar war broke out. Much of the conflict was back on Earth, though the fighting was most vicious in space. The pirates of the day were often ignored when opposing government naval vessels arrived on the scene.
It was, to say the least, a complete disaster. The ES continued to dominate the conflicts, but it quickly became an issue of political rule. ES was viewed as a tyrant. Ultimately, through 37 years of conflict and conquest, the governments began to grow closer together despite their bloodshed. The first interstellar war ended with the unofficial treaty between the governments and the unification of a single government: The United Nations of Earth.
Two years later, 2687, Stephen Lambrent discovered the first piece of alien technology...
