The Road to Armageddon
The Wasteland is the sum of all fears. Following the November 8, 2010 riots the United States Government enacts draconian measures to clamp down on the rights and liberties of Evolved humans. Without advance warning of their misdeeds, the American people fight a losing battle against the ideological force of the Department of Evolved Affairs, a powerful branch of the United States government backed and operated by the core leadership of the anti-Evolved human supremacist group Humanis First. Given carte blanche by President Andrew Mitchell, the DoEA begins a tyrannical and dystopian transformation of America from a free country into a prison state. It began with the Evolved, but it absolutely would not end there.
But we've been here before. In the Prime timeline, a group of children traveled back from the year 2041 to warn their parents about the dangers of the DoEA and stop them cold in their tracks, leading to the world we now know. But in the Aftermath of their choice, history changed.
Thanks to the shockwave of events that resonated through parallel timelines, a branch of the Wasteland Timeline was created where it was the Department of Evolved Affairs that was given advanced notice of the future. Names of rebel leaders from the future, technology from 2041, and a road map of their own downfall that they could use to avoid the major events along the way. While the flow of history is a powerful current, the DoEA was able to secretly utilize future knowledge to change the Wasteland from the nightmare of yesterday, into a nightmare of tomorrow.
This is an account of the days leading up to World War III.
And So It Came To Pass…
Where We Went Wrong
November 9th, 2010 was a hell of a day.
The terrorist group MESSIAH, led by the President's brother Peter Petrelli had caused a city-wide riot through New York with the help of multiple Evolved actors. After the fires died down, nearly 4,000 people had lost their lives and three times as many had been critically injured. The fires were still burning in Brooklyn and Queens nearly a week after the event, and the world was forced to deal with the harsh reality that the Evolved were a threat so dangerous that it could topple entire nations if not kept in check. On November 10th, 2010 the President signed a law into effect granting the Department of Evolved Affairs emergency powers to bring the Evolved threat under control, extending the parameters of the Patriot Act to apply to all SLC-Expressive humans and suspended the Posse Comitatus Act, allowing the US Military to be called in to restore order.
Between November 2010 and November 2011 the rhetoric against Evolved humans grew more fiery and hateful. Relocation camps were constructed — first on Staten Island, then all across the United States — and by November 8, 2011 the 1-year anniversary of the riot and the 5-year anniversary of the Midtown Bomb, Evolved humans were being forcibly relocated to these detention camps, had their right to reproduce stripped, and many were being administered drugs to negate their abilities against their will.
The Department of Evolved Affairs was also systematically and methodically using secret teams, such as the FRONTLINE-OS (Outer Squad) team led by Colonel Leon Heller, to perform extrajudicial executions of suspected trouble-makers. But a mounting resistance to these cruel taskmasters was being put together, from groups like the Ferrymen in New York City and the Guardians from the west coast. But then, unbeknownst to most, the unthinkable happened.
The future changed.
A Message in a Bottle
On November 8th, 2011 an explosion rocked the still-incomplete government facility at Mount Natazhat, Alaska. Operated by the clandestine research arm of the DoEA known as the Commonwealth Institute, this explosion was deemed to be a construction accident by the Institute's chief administrator Richard Cardinal, who had just transitioned over from his role as CEO of Redbird Security Solutions. However, the truth of the matter was far more profound. In the event, part of a completed Mount Natazhat facility from the Prime Timeline tore through the breach in dimensions and left still intact computer systems from the facility.
By March of 2012, the Institute was able to recover much of the data thanks to the efforts of their technopaths Alia Chavez and Colin Verse. On the computer systems were a wealth of information pertaining to events not yet to pass, and technology from decades into the future. Presented with a litany of the DoEA's crimes, and his own cruel machinations, Richard Cardinal was shaken to the core of his very being, and set about a new course to prevent this dark future from becoming a reality.
This moment changed history forever.
From that day forward, the Institute put all of its efforts into sabotaging the activities of the DoEA and covertly supporting resistance groups like the Ferrymen and the Guardians. But as time went on, fewer and fewer of these freedom fighters were able to escape the Department of Evolved Affairs. This put Richard in a desperate situation, and when backed into a wall he pushed harder, sabotaging designs for a second generation of Hunter robot and installing vulnerabilities that resistance operating on the outside could exploit. Richard also continued to request "test specimens" from the concentration camps, which he claimed to be keeping for research into Evolved abilities, but was secretly smuggling them back out into the resistance.
The Department of Evolved Affairs caught on to what was happening in short order, and by May of 2012 moved on the Institute. Their retaliation was swift and definitive, ending with a massacre of the Institute's entire command chain and nearly all of their allies at the Cambridge facility where Richard was beginning construction of a shelter called the Ark. This facility, and his plans for it, would never come to fruition. But before the DoEA could stop him, Richard was able to send out a distress call to his allies in their battle against the Department of Evolved Affairs and — in a gambit of typical size for his ego — potential allies from other realities entirely. The message was heard across multiple radio stations and cut by the DoEA halfway through on most channels where they had the available technology or other resources to do so, but many in the resistance heard it, even if they didn't fully understand it:
"This is Richard Cardinal, director of the Commonwealth Institute of Massachusetts. If you can hear this broadcast, then you are capable of receiving transmissions across the boundaries of superstrings in what are parallel realities. Whether you are receiving this broadcast intentionally or by accident, there is a warning I must give. If you are receiving this message then I am dead. I have seen the recording of what occurred at Mount Natazhat and I hopefully was able to completely transfer this message before I am shut down. If you know of a woman named Georgia Mayes, you must stop her at all costs. She is a member of the Humanis First terrorist organization and is actively subverting the government and fighting against the right to live of all Evolved persons. In my world she is trying to steal technology to communicate with and interact with other super strings. If she succeeds she could send war machines into other realities. If she is successful, it could result in the loss of billions of lives. You must stop her at all costs. You must stop Georgia Mayes. This message will repeat."
The message, ultimately, affected nothing.
History refused to change.
The Dark Times Ahead
After the fall of the Institute, the DoEA gained access to the organization's considerable archive of prophetic information both collected from the paintings of Eve Mas, Thomas Redhouse, Thomas Brill, and Trevor Teasdale as well as the songs of Else Kjelstrom. Additionally, the DoEA gained access to the computer archives from the Prime Timeline that included information leading all the way up to 2041 from that timeline's perspective, including technical schematics and designs for even more advanced robotics, cybernetics, and 3D fabrication methods.
From May of 2012 and onward, the Department of Evolved Affairs operated on a new playbook, one that foresaw their downfall and aided in their prevention of it. Almost immediately, the DoEA turned on President Nathan Petrelli by internally revealing his illegitimate Senate win in 2006. This rapidly went public, along with a following revelation of the President's status as a secret SLC-Expressive human. Nathan was swiftly impeached and imprisoned and Andrew Mitchell was sworn into office on August 3, 2012. Mitchell appointed his longtime military advisor and retired general Timothy Moritz to the position of Vice President. From here, Humanis First had complete control of the White House and agents operating at every level of government. The boot that had been raising for the last five years was finally ready to drop.
And drop it did.
The Rise of a New America
In October of 2012, the Department of Evolved Affairs began construction of a walled command facility on Staten Island as a natural progression of its creation of the Outer District. This construction was accelerated by the advent of new labor robots rapidly being pressed out of increasingly advanced fabrication facilities. Each generation of robotic manufacturing assistants would rebuild their fabrication plants, effectively creating more advanced iterations of each other as time went on. As construction continued, the resistance against the DoEA became more violent and insurgent, starting with targeted strikes on DoEA holding facilities and escalating to all out guerrilla skirmishes in the streets of many US cities. The military, unrestricted in their ability to respond to these attacks, turned on the rebel insurgents and began an escalation of violence that would gain international attention.
In a bid to call for aid from foreign nations, members of the resistance began sending recordings of human rights violations within the United States to once staunch US allies. While the international (and even national) reactions to these revelations were harrowing and full of emotional resonance, it did not result in the immediate and swift reaction many had hoped for. Within the United States, the propaganda machine of the DoEA was working overtime to turn public sentiment against the Evolved, and without a watershed moment against nonviolent resistance, there was little support from the center-leaning portion of the country. This, coupled with the increasingly desperate and violent attacks by the resistance that resulted in collateral damage and loss of civilian life, would ultimately drive both wedges within factions of the resistance and galvanize the American people against the "bad" Evolved who refused to listen to the "rule of law."
However, the seed of doubt in America's ability to handle these internal conflicts was planted within some nations, and while that seed would ultimately bear fruit…
…it was rotten at the core.
War. War Never Changes.
In July of 2013 the Department of Evolved Affairs enacted mandatory relocation, negation, and in some extreme cases sterilization of Evolved humans contained within relocation camps. The construction of the DoEA's new East Coast Command Center was nearly complete when video of Colonel Leon Heller's FRONTLINE-OS team executing a group of unarmed civilians (including children with their parents at their side) surfaced internationally, thanks to the aid of technopathic actors within the resistance. This video was the breaking point for many relations with the United States, but also galvanized the US in secret with the United Kingdom (who publicly admonished the US' actions but secretly supported them) and Russia who had already adopted many of the United States' draconian laws.
In September of 2013 the countries of Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, and South Korea publicly denounced the United States' treatment of its SLC-Expressive population. Germany, a member of the European Union and adherent to the equally draconian EUSR laws showed its solidarity by backing out of the European Union and ceasing all adherence to the EUSR. This move inspired other EU nations to do the same, and prompted the United Nations to make an immediate demand to the US (as well as the UK and Russia) to cease their use of "concentration camps" for their Evolved citizens and submit to a full inspection by United Nations observers to document potential human rights violations.
President Andrew Mitchell not only denied this demand, but challenged the UN and nations in alliance against their actions, that any trade embargo, sanction, or other aggressive action would be seen as an act of war and would be responded to accordingly. The international community exploded with outrage over the rhetoric, and lines began to be drawn for what could amount to a major international conflict.
Back in the States, the Department of Evolved Affairs rolled out their Generation3 DoEA Automated Patrol Force and deployed these advanced mechanized war machines into "hot spots" within the country to tamp down the resistance and hunt remaining Evolved that had not been collected into internment camps. This process continued on for years, along with continuing insurgent fighting bolstered by covert international aid from the nations that were most outspoken against the Department of Evolved Affairs and the US Government. Within the US, it appeared as though the country was slouching toward an all-out civil war.
1 Minute to Midnight
On April 8, 2014 construction on Staten Island completed and the new Outer District stood as a monument to the terrible future rapidly approaching. Outer District wasn't just a Department of Evolved Affairs command center, but a city unto itself, capable of self-sustaining activity that could house the United States' financial centers, government, and other essential offices. It was, in essence, a continuity of government facility tailored by the Department of Evolved Affairs and for the Department of Evolved Affairs.
Between April and June a handful of resistance attacks within Outer District threatened to destabilize the city, but it was too little and too late. On June 16th, the DoEA activated a defense mechanism that left them unassailable: a forcefield dome impenetrable by teleportation and conventional weaponry including Evolved abilities. It was the same dome that had cut off Roosevelt Island in 2010, but the DoEA had somehow been able to not only replicate this defense mechanism but expanded it to cover the entirety of their walled city.
Unable to strike at the DoEA inside of their new bastion, the resistance began focusing on external targets with renewed vigor. As more and more evidence of the Department of Evolved Affairs' actions reached a broader audience, the revulsion to their propaganda and actions came too late. Dissent was met with shocking violence, and those who were not killed were cowed into submission by the tremendous force and unfathomable technological advancement of the DoEA's operations. Allied nations against the DoEA authorized military action against the United States to end the humanitarian crisis in December of 2014.
The war would not begin swiftly, nor would it end as such.
World War III
While there isn't an exact historic agreement yet, many believe that World War III — a war still being fought — began on December 19th, 2014 with the assassination of President Mitchell by resistance fighters while he was en-route to the Outer District. The United States claimed that agents from Japan's Evolved special forces, the Mugai-Ryu participated in this attack and retaliated against Japan with a non-nuclear ICBM strike. This rapidly escalated into a back and forth of missile strikes between allied nations resulting in the loss of millions of lives. Though while conventional weapons were rapidly deployed, no nation had yet resorted to nuclear strikes out of fear of mutually-assured destruction. On December 20th, 2014 General Timothy Moritz was sworn in as President after being safely escorted into the Outer District.
On August 17th, 2014 several direct missile strikes on the Outer District from submarine launched ICBMs failed to penetrate the dome but destroyed all outlying territory on Staten Island. Following the realization that the Outer District could not be stopped by conventional weaponry of even the caliber of an ICBM, the fighting slowed to a lull interspersed with ground-level efforts to starve out the Outer District led by resistance fighters from within the US.
In the harsh winter of 2014, the Institute unveiled their Generation 4 Automated Patrol Force which began immediate deployment against insurgent forces. These mechanized war machines proved to be significantly more sophisticated than both the Generation 2 and 3 models and had Compass technology supported by a network of satellites to locate and exterminate large groupings of SLC-Expressive humans. In order to survive, the Resistance was forced to break up into smaller cells to avoid easy detection.
Between 2014 and 2017 fighting continued across the United States and internationally. Nations that allied with the US found their military forces supplemented by DoEA combat drones and the slow burn of conflict feels as though it could carry on for an entire decade. Fighting between rapidly diminishing rebel forces supplemented by proxy soldiers and outside interests continues on a daily basis, and those living under the iron heel of the Department of Evolved Affairs struggle to survive in an increasingly hostile and war-torn United States.
This is the world of the Wasteland, a hell of our own making.
Epilogue
The immediate aftermath of the October 22nd nuclear strike on Staten Island has not yet had time to settle. The world has been thrown into chaos, and no nation has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Rumors abound that the missile may have come from inside the United States, but neither the Resistance nor surviving military officials have laid claim to the act. The conflict effectively halted at 7:08pm on October 22nd, 2018. The loss of lives estimated in the attack are as of yet unknown, and the low-yield nuclear strike created minimal radioactive fallout to the area. Staten Island will, perhaps deservedly, be uninhabitable for some time… but the world will go on.
With the destruction of the DoEA’s central command, their armies of servitor machines patrolling the American countryside have become disorganized. Attempts at long-range coordination via satellites have been met with concentrated technopathic resistance, and the machines that remain are disorganized and unable to receive repairs. What the future holds is uncertain, but all eyes are on the United States and its people. The world is watching, waiting to see which way the pendulum will swing once it begins moving again.