• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Zeogludon

Sergeant
5 Badges
Jan 4, 2014
70
73
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Hearts of Iron III
  • Victoria 2
  • Stellaris
FIRST STEPS AMONG THE STARS

This is the record of an interactive AAR that I ran with some friends a few months back. I though I'd share it more widely, although it is no longer interactive. I used the primitive world mod to start the game off at 2100, so humanity is still many years from its dream of cosmic empire. Sadly, the story stops around 60 years in because my computer is old and the new Steam client is not compatible with my operating system. The story starts with the election of 2099.​


Contents:

Election of 2099
Results of the Election of 2099
The Sankara Government, 2100-2108
Election of 2108
Results of the Election of 2108
The Asquith Government, 2108-2108
The Gladstone Government, 2108-2110

The Gladstone Government, 2110-2112
The Gladstone Government, 2112-2114
The Gladstone Government, 2114-2118
The Election of 2118
Results of the Election of 2118
The Li Government, 2118-2123
The 2123 Party Congress
Results of the 2123 Party Congress
The Li Government, 2123-2128
Election of 2128
Results of the Election of 2128
The Li Government, 2128-2138
Election of 2138
The Emergency of 2138
Emergency Rule, 2138-2140
Election of 2140
Results of the Election of 2140
The Sirajuddin Government, 2140-2148

Fin
 
Last edited:
Election of 2099
Election of 2099

The year is 2099 and the United Nations Organization (UNO), originally founded in 1945, has given in to popular demands that it submit its now extensive power to public control by holding elections with universal suffrage. Major issues are space exploration, poverty, and relations with a number of states that are not members of the UNO. Five major parties have organized, with their own platforms and candidates.


Conservative Party

w6fszqq.jpg

Party Leader: Deborah Wang, a Methodist minister from Fresno, California

Up to this point human history has been defined by suffering, struggle, and bloodshed. The UNO was created in 1945 with the purpose of overthrowing this old order and ushering in an age of peace and unity. This has not come to pass, but the opening of the UNO parliament represents a new chance for humanity to recapture that dream of living in peace and harmony, brothers and sisters all.

The founding aim of the UNO was the creation of peace and prosperity for all mankind. In the year 2100, there are still men and women living in slums! There are still millions starving and tens of millions more close to the brink! These neglected souls are the collective shame of humanity! The Conservative Party will use the immense resources of our combined nations to make the basic conditions of life better for all. We promise an end to human poverty and misery.

Peace is the cornerstone of the UNO and the Conservative Party will not reject it for expediency. The Conservative Party explicitly and totally rejects the idea of forcible planetary unification through the UNO. The UNO was not founded to enable conquest but to prevent it. Peace on Earth must be safeguarded. Before us stands the chance for a future free from want and war, let us rise to the opportunity!

The Conservative Party stands for the traditional and universal values of family, faith, charity, kindness, and peace. Let the UNO, steered by the Conservative Party and under the guidance of our Maker, become a beacon of peace and prosperity. Let us become a city on a hill: overflowing with brotherly love and sisterly compassion, a marvel to behold!



Liberal Party

skUY4TU.jpg

Party Leader: Mukesh Singh, an entrepreneur and industrialist from Mumbai, India

Space is the final frontier of human advance, and, like all previous frontiers, will we cross it and bend it to our needs. It is the ingenuity and energy of individuals that ultimately propelled humanity to its current heights, and we must continue to harness that creativity and entrepreneurial spirit to make sure that space exploration benefits mankind.

Our countries have become great through the efforts and individuals, and we must not forget that without protection for entrepreneurs and their work, there is no progress. Private enterprise must be protected and encouraged by governments as we move farther into space. This way, the untold treasures of the cosmos can bolster economic growth and improve lives back on Earth.

Many unscrupulous politicians will try to use this an opportunity to advance their own agendas and create a new world order to restrain the strong and noble among us. Old imperialist powers will try to enslave the strong young nations, as they did in the past. Nation-states are the natural form of human society; without them there is only chaos. Ultimate power must continue to reside with the nation-state, because a sovereignty usurped by the UNO means only tyranny and colonial exploitation!

The Liberal Party stands for the successful and universally enjoyed values of free enterprise, free government, and national sovereignty, as enshrined in the UNO Charter. With these principles close at hand, humanity can reap the riches of the Solar System and beyond!



Peoples' Party

4OKOCru.jpg

Party Leader: Idriss Sankara, a former trade union leader from Dakar, Senegal

Humanity must no longer toil in misery and oppression! The extension of direct suffrage in the UNO opens the doors to a truly democratic future for the peoples of Earth. The lives of countless billions have been immiserated by the twin yokes of capitalist exploitation and imperialist tyranny. Now that the workers and farmers of the world have been given a voice in the UNO, they can strike down both forms of oppression. A brighter future awaits, we must only seize it!

The immense resources of the Solar System represent an unprecedented opportunity to finally and permanently end human suffering on Earth. The asteroids of the Kepler Belt hold more ores and metals than can be found anywhere on Earth; gas giants produce energy far exceeding our most advanced reactors; our stores of water can be replenished from the surplus of space. The bounty of the cosmos is within reach; it must be harnessed for the good of all humankind!

The Peoples’ Party demands the creation of a truly democratic system of governance with universal suffrage and the complete abolition of the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council. This election represents the triumph of democracy over all forms of oppression and the voice of the people must not be compromised by the schemes of imperialist powers in the UNSC. The oppressors are trying to sell us controlled and watered-down democracy; let us seize the real thing!

Only the Peoples’ Party stands for true democracy and the improvement of living conditions for all people. We call for the end of all forms of oppression and the final destruction of class exploitation on a global level. Throw off the chains of oppression! Seize the ballot box!


Party for Freedom

0Pq10iw.jpg

Party Leader: Tony Asquith, a minister of the national parliament from Auckland, New Zealand

The UNO has failed, for the past 150 years, to live up to its grand aspirations. Rather than freeing humanity, it has entrenched the power of dictators through legal protections of sovereignty. The introduction of universal suffrage will end this and give the UNO a democratic mandate to free the people of Earth from despotism once and for all.

Hundreds of millions of men, women, and children still suffer under despotic and tyrannical governments in the worst conditions imaginable. It is 2099, and this is intolerable. It is time to stop waiting for democracy to take root abroad, and to use the means at our disposal to fight injustice and liberate people wherever they are forced to live in slavery and iniquity.

The free and democratic governments of Earth, under the aegis of the UNO, can then dedicate themselves to the expansion of mankind and human knowledge across the galaxy. This is not possible with craven despots in our midst. Such states require us to devote resources elsewhere, threaten all free nations, and impede the free commerce upon which democratic and progress depend. If mankind is to succeed, we must extinguish tyranny.

Freedom rings across the globe! As the Party for Freedom, we stand for one thing only: the liberty of mankind. The time for dictatorships is over, and the natural liberties of man are being reasserted. As a free and united human race, we can fulfill our manifest destiny of spreading across the stars!



Unification Party

M71UBUz.jpg

Party Leader: Augusto Jiang, an army colonel from Apartado, Colombia

The root of human suffering is and has always been our division. Split into myriad states and tribes, we have destroyed ourselves again and again. Wars have retarded human progress and continuously threaten to bring our entire civilization to the brink or even extinguish all life on Earth. If humanity is to survive, we must come together as one. To further the cause of peace, prosperity, and human progress set out 154 years ago by the UNO, humanity must be united.

Space is the final frontier for human expansion, and represents the greatest challenges our species will face. In the face of unprecedented opportunities and unknowable dangers, humanity needs to present a united front. Space is the harshest environment imaginable and if we are weak and divided, we will fail and die. Our expansion into the cosmos is only possible as a united planet.

The UNO should use any and all means necessary, including military force, to bring the planet under its control. The task ahead is not easy, but it is necessary. This is a war to end all war, and to save humanity from destruction at its own hands.

All problems that have plagued humanity for generations have their source in disunity. Once we are united, we can together solve the issues of poverty, violence, illness, and crime. The power of the UNO must be used to united the planet. If we do not, we will die at our own hands. If we do, the stars themselves are ours!
 
Looks like fun
 
"Strength through Unity"

Where have I heard that before? Have I heard it before? It's ringing bells for me.
 
Results of the Election of 2099
Results of the Election of 2099

With the closing of the last voting station on 2 October 2099, the results of the first global election are officially in:

Peoples’ Party: 47% of vote
Party for Freedom: 20% of vote
Conservative Party: 14% of vote
Unification Party: 13% of vote
Liberal Party: 6% of vote

PqeSPt7.jpg

Pictured: People casting votes at the last polling booth to close, on the Aleutian Islands in the American state of Alaska. The small constituency voted overwhelmingly for the Conservative Party.

After a night of celebrations, the Peoples’ Party announced on 3 October that it will form a coalition government with the Party for Freedom and the Unification Party with the explicit goal of bringing all of Earth under UNO control. On the cold morning of 4 October 2099, Idriss Sankara was inaugurated the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organization at headquarters in New York City, ready to lead Earth into an era of equality and true democracy.

The celebratory mood was tainted, however, by an announcement on 3 October that India would withdraw from the UNO in protest of the victory of the Peoples’ Party. Indian Prime Minister Miraya Gandhi declared that the election of the Peoples’ Party was a threat to basic freedoms and the foundation of civilized society, and that India would not recognize the UNO, which had, “shown its true colors as an imperialist organization that seeks to debase and destroy great societies like India out of greed and envy.”

India ordered its 304 delegates to withdraw from the UNO assembly, although fewer than 60 delegates actually returned from New York, mostly members of the Liberal Party. Prime Minister Gandhi’s announcement has triggered riots throughout the east and south of the country, where many had voted for the Peoples’ Party. President’s Rule has been declared in 20 states to control the unrest. India has now joined Russia, Turkmenistan, Sudan, Israel, and Equatorial Guinea among the ranks of states not subject to the UNO.

DmiI1xW.jpg

Pictured: Riot police disperse protesters in Aligarh following the declaration of President's Rule in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The state was deeply divided by the election, and the Peoples' Party had won the majority of votes in Aligarh.
 
Can't make an omelette...
 
Sankara Government, 2100-2108
The Sankara Government, 2100 to 2108

The Sankara government inaugurated the first democratically-elected UNO session in history by setting up two committees: one charged with rewriting the UNO Charter to reflect the new truly democratic nature of the organization, and one charged with creating a unified economic plan for Earth.

The Charter Committee – chaired by Mariam Kwame, a close confidante of Idriss Sankara also from Dakar – released its draft of the new charter on 3 January 2100. While keeping most of preamble and commitments of the old 1945 charter intact, the new version disbanded the General Assembly and the Security Council, leaving the Legislative Assembly and any committees it may choose to create as the only governing bodies of the UNO. It was approved by a sweeping majority of delegates on 5 January.

The Planning Committee, chaired by Sankara himself, drew up the 1st Five Year Plan and promulgated it on 6 June 2100. The Plan implemented the Peoples’ Party promise of social welfare by proclaiming a universal right to work at a decent wage, with the UNO now responsible for the enrollment of all unemployed persons in public works projects. It also laid out plans for the collectivization of industry, with major firms to be nationalized by the government and then turned over to collective management. Limited collectivization of agriculture was also planned, starting in areas of the Middle East and the Sahel will low crop yields. It was passed by on the votes of the Peoples’ Party and the Unification Party after two months of fierce debate with the opposition – many of whom were horrified by the proposed nationalizations.

Keeping up its part of the bargain for the Unification Party’s support, a detachment of warships anchored off Malabo on 14 December 2100. Idriss Sankara called Constancia Teodoro, the President of Equatorial Guinea, and demanded that she surrender to UNO authority. The tiny island dictatorship, faced with a half-dozen UNO warships, surrendered, with President Teodoro announcing that she would abdicate the presidency and new elections would be held under UNO auspices. Although no railguns were fired, the gunship diplomacy of the UNO in Equatorial Guinea set the non-UNO nations on edge, and Russia and Israel embarked on massive mobilization and construction programs to augment their already formidable military forces.

In February 2101, a massive failure of the El Niño led to abnormally low rainfall across the Indian Ocean region and abnormally hot temperatures in West Africa. Earth has been rocked by repeated food shortages and famines since the 2060s, but this is an especially bad one. The UNO instituted rationing in June 2101 – as did India, Sudan, and Israel. After the failure of a second El Niño in 2102, the government launched a massive settlement project in northern Canada, which came to be popularly known as the ‘New Homestead Act’. The program promised a set income, quality housing, and a permanent pension to anyone willing to work on a collective farm in northern Canada. Tens of millions, especially from the drought-stricken parts of East Africa and the Sahel, signed up and settled in northern Canada. Although the soil is neither rich nor productive, global warming over the past century has made the region arable, and its expanses are so vast that food is produced in abundance, enough to feed Earth’s masses despite crop failures elsewhere.

Fb8QmIB.jpg

Pictured: Hungry citizens wait in a rationing line for bread in Grodno, Belarus, in October 2106. These lines have remained a daily scene in cities and villages across Earth since the famine of 2101.

BjNepVv.jpg

Pictured: Patrice and Moctar Bastide on their farm in northern Ontario, Canada. Mr. Bastide and his family resettled to Canada from Mali in 2103 through the 'New Homestead Act'.


Collectivization was effectively abandoned by the UNO government by the middle of 2102. Widespread concerns over access to food have made farmers everywhere resistant to losing ownership, and UNO officials charged with collectivizing land have been attacked by fearful communities. While still officially recorded in the Five Year Plan, local governments have stopped implementing transfers and the program has been largely defunded. When the 2nd Five Year Plan was created in 2105, it did not even mention the collectivization of land, instead focusing almost entirely on increasing yields from farms established by new homesteaders.

Russia has not suffered the same food crisis as the rest of the world, as its population is well fed from its verdant and expansive plains. The immense tracks of Siberian land, opened up to cultivation by global warming, made it the UNO’s top target for forcible annexation, although Polina Podolski of the Unification Party – a general in the Polish Army who took over after Augusto Jiang resigned in protest of collaboration with the Peoples’ Party – continuously advocated invading India first for besmirching the honor of the UNO. As crop yields remain relatively low even on good years – a unintended consequence of the New Homestead program, as millions of farmers moved from highly productive, but temperamental, land to consistently low-yield plots in northern Canada – the perceived need to take the fertile Russian plains became more pressing in the minds of the Sankara government.

After years of delay due to the logistic difficulties of supplying – and feeding – so large an army, Idriss Sankara finally made good on his promise to coalition partners to end Russian independence. On 27 June 2108, targeted missile strikes hit Russian nuclear silos and installations, crippling Russian nuclear capabilities and signaling the start of a massive land invasion. Although Russian lines were quickly pushed back to the Urals, fighting was intense and bloody. After three months of fighting, Russian forces officially agreed to surrender on the condition that President Anton Ilyasov be allowed to remain in power until the end of his regular term. The instrument of surrender was officially presented to General Ishii Nanami in Moscow on 28 September 2108. Almost a million Russian soldiers and over 300,000 UNO troops were killed in the war, which left much of western Russia destroyed and tens of millions displaced.

Eedi1Tf.jpg

Pictured: Russian soldiers marching to the frontlines through the ruins of Yekaterinburg in July 2108. The building in the background displays the aftermath of a railgun artillery strike. Much of urban Russia was severely damaged during the war.

yLW4mMf.jpg

Pictured: A UNO armored platoon posing with their artillery support balanced on top of a downed Russian aircraft in the Ryn Desert outside of Astraxan in August 2108.

On 1 October 2108, Idriss Sankara announced that a policy almost identical to the ‘New Homestead Act’ would be implemented for those willing to work on collective farms to be established in Siberia.

The peace with Russia and the extension of the homestead promise to Siberia were the breaking points of the Sankara government. The Party for Freedom left the coalition in September in protest that President Ilyasov would be allowed to finish the last three years of his term. Tony Asquith denounced Idriss Sankara as, “undercutting the core foundations of the UNO, allowing a despicable tyrant to continue his despotism because your government values convenience over democracy and human freedom.” The settlement program in Siberia raised dissent from within the Peoples’ Party, with Willy Krenz – a former journalist from Lubeck – objecting to the plan on the basis that it ignored the essential rights of the Russian people. Krenz argued that, “enforcing these policies in Russia is tantamount to colonization. It subordinates and ignores the essential rights of the Russian people, who do not have representation in the UNO and have not been given a say in the use of their traditional lands.” Widespread dissemination of Willy Krenz’s speech in Russia triggered an immense wave of popular protest. Facing division on the issue from within his own party, Idriss Sankara agreed that all decisions would be postponed until new elections that included Russia; he disbanded the government on 19 October 2108.

In the background to the events in Russia and the UNO territories has been the tragic implosion of India. Hit by the same series of weak El Niño and low rainfall as the rest of the Indian Ocean, India faced severe food shortages from 2101 onward, prompting the declaration of Emergency Rule. By the Spring of that year, panic set in and peasants started to horde grain away from the rationing system. Even without grain hoarding, the failure of a second El Niño in 2102 meant that there was simply not enough food to go around. Convinced of conspiracies that the rationing system was being used by some shadowy political force to starve them out, Indian mobs attacked rationing officers and grain storehouses, as well as Muslim and Christian communities, who, it was assumed, must be part of the conspiracy. Against the objections of the Unification Party, the Sankara government extended food aid to India in 2102, but by that time the distribution system had already broken down beyond repair. By Summer 2102, the majority of grain storehouses – especially in rural areas – had been looted, with the soldiers on guard either being killed or defecting to the mob. Local militias lynched those suspected of hiding grain and guarded their local farms zealously. Some semblance of order was only restored in 2104, when a generous El Niño calmed food tensions and allowed the Indian Army to retake control of rationing. The famine itself killed upwards of 50 million, with communal violence resulting in hundreds of thousands of additional deaths, making it the worst famine in human history. Hunger in India remains widespread, and over a million Indians still starve to death every year.

YaLIS3d.jpg

Pictured: A starving Indian man outside of an Army-run rationing center in a rural part of the Indian state of Odisha. Although the worst period of the famine is over, starvation remains common throughout India and malnutrition is ubiquitous. Entire communities of starving refugees have grown up around rationing points in hope of privileged access to food relief.
 
What do the starving care for war, but for the chance to get fed
 
Election of 2108
Election of 2108

On 19 October 2108, Idriss Sankara dissolved the government and opened new elections to give Russia representation in the UNLA. The heady talk of space exploration that characterized the last election has ended, as famine and war have turned human attention inward.

Rationing continues years after it had been expected to end, and much of urban Russia is still in ruins. The previous coalition has broken as the Party for Freedom joined the opposition in protest, and the Peoples' Party itself has started to fracture over the recent peace deal. The five parties again present their platforms and candidates in open election.


Peoples' Party

r4pMrom.jpg

Party Leader: Idriss Sankara, the incumbent UNO Secretary-General and a former trade unionist from Dakar, Senegal

Humanity has made huge strides over the past nine years. Under the direction of the Peoples’ Party, the oppressed classes of the world have thrown off their chains and built true democracy and true freedom. More work remains, however. We cannot settle for halfway compromises! There is nothing to lose; we have a world to gain!

Democracy, unrestrained by imperial subterfuge, has been enshrined in the Charter of the UNO. The tyranny of the workplace, however, remains. Now that the capitalist and imperialist powers have been removed from their position of privilege, the doors to true liberation are open wide! Nationalization of businesses must be continued, as must the reorganization of these businesses on principles of worker self-government and democracy. Toss out bourgeois capitalism and state capitalism!

Faced with the most extreme food shortage since 2072, the Peoples’ Party has gathered the resources of Earth together to make sure that not a single child starves. The government-sponsored settlement program in Canada has made food a certainty again, for the first time in decades. The expansion of this program to Siberia promises to end hunger, the scourge of humanity, for all eternity.

Reactionary forces challenge the gains of the Peoples’ Party. The rights to full employment and social welfare, only recently gained, are threatened by those who seek to return humanity to the capitalist yoke. The only way to secure our freedom is to topple the entire capitalist system! Onward, the Peoples’ Party marches towards a future of true freedom, true equality, and true democracy!


Party for Freedom

SGvRff4.jpg

Party Leader: Tony Asquith, a member of the UNLA from Auckland, New Zealand

Nine years ago, the people of Earth conferred onto Idriss Sankara the highest honor possible, in a moment supposed to represent the triumph of democracy. Sankara has betrayed that trust and disgraced the office of Secretary-General through rank perfidy and disregard for democratic principles. The UNO is the symbol of democracy and freedom on Earth and its leader must be fully dedicated to those ideals. Democracy cannot be compromised! Freedom must march on!

Democracy must spread to every corner of the planet! The fact that the odious dictator Anton Ilyasov continues to govern Russia makes a mockery of UNO ideals. He must be immediately removed from power and tried for his crimes against peace and humanity. Only then can democracy truly come to Russia. Let his fate serve as a warning to the tinpot junta in Khartoum, the madman in Ashgabat, the despotic Gandhi clan in Delhi, and the totalitarian thugs in Jerusalem. Let the tide of democracy wash them all away!

Emergency measures have had to be taken to prevent widespread starvation – the famine, however, is at an end, and the emergency measures must end as well. Rationing must be ended as soon as possible, and that process should be expedited by a return to more efficient private farming. Siberia should be opened to New Homesteaders as private smallholdings. Divided into private farms, Siberia will produce enough so humanity can not only survive, but thrive. Nationalized factories should be sold back to private owners. Private enterprise is critical to economic development and the preservation of freedom, and these rights should be protected in all future cases.

As the Party for Freedom, we stand for one thing only: the liberty of mankind. The time for dictatorships is over, and the natural liberties of man will be reasserted. Let the last despots tumble! Let freedom ring across the globe!


Conservative Party

JCvUW0d.jpg

Party Leader: Deborah Wang, a member of the UNLA and a former Methodist minister from Fresno, California

Humanity has again inaugurated the beginning of a new century will the shedding of innocent blood. Given the chance for peace, humanity has again rejected it and indulged in the carnage of brother murdering brother, sister murdering sister. We must look at this violence and firmly reject it. The Conservative Party stands for peace and humanity; firmly against bloodshed.

Over a million souls were lost in the destruction of Russia, and tens of millions more have been forced out of their homes. To speak nothing of those blinded, crippled, and disfigured by the terrible weapons of modern war. We call on all of Earth to think of the mothers grieving for lost sons and daughters, children crying out for their lost parents. This tragedy cannot be repeated.

Humanity must turn the fruits of our labor inwards to alleviate the suffering of mankind. First, Russia must be rebuilt, as its buildings and streets still bear the scars of that terrible war. The cost to improve the lives of men and women everywhere is nothing to that lavished on the military. That institution of death and human suffering must be defunded. Let us instead build our own society into a city on a hill, one that welcomes the wayward nations of the world should they seek to join us. We shall beat our swords into ploughshares!

Further conflict invites only disaster. The bloodbath in Russia was a restrained conflict; a war with Israel will unleash the full destructive force of humanity upon the world. For decades, the Israeli government has made it very clear that invasion will trigger nuclear war. This will kill us, down to the last man, woman, and child. We must pull back from the brink! If peace and brotherhood do not prevail, humanity will die at its own hands!


Unification Party

x50qRR9.jpg

Party Leader: Polina Podolski, a member of the UNLA and a retired army general from Kielce, Poland

The first difficult steps have been taken on the path to human unity. Sacrifices have had to be made, but we must shoulder these hardships for the sake of future generations. This is a conflict to end war, to end hunger, and to end strife! If these battles are won, humanity will enter into an age of boundless possibilities; if it is lost, then we perish at own hands. We must push on to victory!

Russia, the most formidable of the rogue states that oppose the UNO, has fallen and submitted to our forces. Three cheers for the UNO! Three cheers for General Ishii! Three cheers for unity! The way is now cleared to peace and unity. War against Sudan, Turkmenistan, Israel, and India must be pursued at the earliest opportunity. This is the top priority of any government.

The fate of the human race, its very survival, depends on our actions at this moment. We call on the people of Earth to bear the burdens of war, of rationing, of all hardship, to secure the life and freedom of future generations. The choice we face is unity or death. Fight for unity!


Liberal Party

9OpRHTw.jpg

Party Leader: Park Soo-jun, a member of the UNLA and a factory-owner from Kaesong, Korea

Human freedom is imperiled today more at any previous point in human history. Our basic and fundamental rights are under constant attack from a despotic and tyrannical government that seeks to enslave the Earth. Communist rule has brought only hunger and fear. If the Peoples’ Party is allowed to continue, liberty will surely perish! Only the Liberal Party has consistently stood up to UNO overreach and tyranny, only the Liberal Party defends the cause of human freedom!

Since his election, Sankara and his cronies have concentrated all power in their own hands and sought to undermine democracy by attacking its most fundamental guardian: private property. Private property has always secured liberty by giving free citizens the means to resist tyranny. The seizure of property – as has been going on for the past nine years – is the first step to reducing mankind to a state of slavery and total dependence on the government. The illegal nationalizations of the previous government must be reversed and private property must be protected at all costs in the future.

The Peoples’ Party is trying to spread its tyranny and attack the last free nations of Earth. Nations have a right to self-government, but the Peoples’ Party seems intend to crush that right under the socialist jackboot. The first blood of the 22nd Century has come from the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of a peaceful country, a testament to the criminal character of the present government. Now they plan to celebrate this bloody conquest by stealing Russian land; the Liberal Party firmly opposes this kind of blatant colonialism.

The government policies of rationing and farm collectivization have turned a temporary crisis into a permanent food shortage. The drought is over! Yet despite years of good weather, there is still rationing! The rationing program interferes with the free market in grain and results in these shortages. The government has kept rationing in place not because it is necessary, but as a cynical tool to control the masses and make us dependent on them for food. Let us not give away our freedom in exchange for bread!

The Peoples’ Party has already started along the path of stripping away our natural rights as free men and women. The Liberal Party has opposed them alone, for alone the Liberal Party stands for the time-tested values of democracy, free enterprise, and a free society. Vote Liberal Party to defend our rights from tyranny!
 
Those are some pretty neat propaganda pictires :)
 
Results of the Election of 2108
Results of the Election of 2108

Voting closed on 22 October 2108, and the results of the second free elections, now including Russia, are in:

Party for Freedom: 45% of vote
Peoples’ Party: 24% of vote
Unification Party: 21% of vote
Conservative Party: 8% of vote
Liberal Party: 2% of vote

blI0UUu.jpg

Pictured: Two women casting their votes in Yelizovo, in Russia's Kamchatka Krai. They are some of a small handful of people to show up to the polls in a city of over 30,000 in an election marked by endemic absenteeism.

The election has proved a stunning victory for the Party for Freedom, which managed to double its share of the vote, largely at the expense of the Peoples’ Party. Although some voters sympathized with the party view that Anton Ilyasov should be held accountable, exit polls indicate the switch to the Party for Freedom was mainly motivated by the promise of private landholdings in Siberia and public resentment at continued rationing.

After less than a day of negotiations, Tony Asquith and Polina Podolski announced that the Party for Freedom and the Unification Party would form a coalition government. Tony Asquith was sworn in as Secretary-General on 24 October, marking the first democratic transition of power for the UNO. Having worked together for the previous nine years, the current coalition government promises effective and decisive action.

Called partially to shore up the Sankara government’s democratic credential after the invasion of Russia, the elections did little to legitimize UNO control over that country. Turnout was extremely low across Russia and the absolute majority of ballots were spoiled or defaced. The most popular candidate in Russia was, by number of ballots, ‘F*ck the UNO’. The general refusal of the Russian population to meaningfully participate in UNO democracy demonstrates a tension between democracy and military expansion.
 
The Asquith Government, 2108-2108, and the Gladstone Government, 2108-2110
The Asquith Government, 2108-2108

True to promises made during the election, Tony Asquith announced on 29 October that rationing of basic foodstuffs would be officially ended, beginning the following week. November saw the first open market in grain in over seven years.

Secretary-General Asquith also stayed true to his other electoral promise: the arrest of Anton Ilyasov. In the early morning hours of 5 November, a UNO armored patrol drove through the mostly empty streets of Moscow and arrived in front of the Kremlin Palace. When asked to identify themselves by the Presidential Guard, the commanding officer produced a signed arrest warrant for President Ilyasov. The Presidential Guard still denied them entry, to which the UNO column responded with ordering the guards to stand-down at gunpoint. The UNO force broke the standoff by firing at Russian positions, but was forced to surrender in under 15 minutes to the elite Russian guardsmen after it was determined that their communications had been disabled. Now informed of Secretary-General Asquith’s plan, remobilized Russian soldiers surround and disarm most urban UNO garrisons. The general public only finds out about the failed arrest of Anton Ilyasov when a message from the President is played that evening on national television, in which he calls for, “full and complete resistance to the UNO occupation,” saying that insurrection, “is a moral duty for every Russian.” By sunset, rioting and intense fire have forced the UNO out of nearly every major city.

2oO82t1.jpg

Pictured: Riots on the evening of 5 November in Krasnodar over the attempted arrest of Anton Ilyasov. These rioters were driven from the streets with tear gas and sound guns, while those in the north of the country often managed to force UNO troops into their bases

After a long night, the UNO has managed to organize a response to the insurrection. Riots in Sevastopol and Saratov have been suppressed by UNO troops and much of southern Russia is similarly brought to heel. UNO soldiers manage to establish cordons around major cities in Siberia and the Far East to cut them off from insurrectionists elsewhere. Resistance in the northwest of Russia proves to be too fierce, however, and heavy fire, even in rural areas, forces UNO troops to continue retreating south. Commanders request additional troops to hold positions in northern Russia, but, with all available manpower tied up in suppressing insurrection elsewhere, the UNO continues its ignominious retreat from Moscow and Saint Petersburg for days.

These events triggered an immediate reckoning for the government of Tony Asquith, as he faced criticism from all sides for provoking the crisis in Russia. Under blistering rebukes from opposition delegates over the recklessness that had precipitated this unnecessary conflict, Mr. Asquith demurred, and resigned his position as Secretary-General on 11 November. He did not, however, dissolve the government, and a caucus amongst the coalition selected Lindsey Gladstone, a representative from Amarillo, in the American state of Texas, as the new Secretary-General, likely because of his strong ties with the Unification Party and some more militarist members of the Peoples’ Party. Rather than changing course, Secretary-General Gladstone stuck to his guns and set about defending the war in Russia. In his inaugural speech to the UN Legislative Assembly, he proclaimed that, “to fight and die in the cause of liberty is the greatest mission to which we can dedicate our lives. So let us fight, let us die, and let us, at long last, be free!” The speech, like the government itself, split the UNLA into deeply antagonistic halves.




The Gladstone Government, 2108-2110

By the second week of the insurrection, local revolts petered out and UNO troops are sufficiently concentrated to form a solid front from the countryside south of Smolensk to the Oka River. Garrisons beyond this line remain, but intense partisan resistance keep them in their bases, under siege. Progress into the suburbs of isolated insurrectionary cities in Siberia, the Far East, and Donbas remains slow as General Ishii refuses to bring heavy artillery or airstrikes to bear on mainly civilian populations. The first pushback against the Russian insurrection comes only in December, when on the 16th, the city of Kaliningrad surrendered in return for the soldiers there being allowed to leave for Saint Petersburg; the convoy to insurrectionary territory ended up gaining tens of thousands of additional civilians, unwilling to live under UNO occupation.

With almost nothing to show on the military front, the Gladstone government pushed ahead with their most popular initiative: the expansion of the ‘New Homestead Act’ to Siberia. On 21 December, Secretary-General Gladstone announced that the UNO would begin the distribution of 40 acre plots of land in Siberia to all citizens registered at the appropriate offices. The first homesteaders, a Turkish family from Lefkosha, arrive in Siberia to claim a smallholding on the northern edge of the Ob River on 9 January 2109.

Nominally led by Anton Ilyasov, the insurrectionists in Russia are left headless while he remains in hiding. Practical authority in most areas lays with military commanders or local committees, the most radically nationalist of which was in Saint Petersburg. The Saint Petersburg Soviet followed up on its vicious threats on 14 January, releasing a video of men in military fatigues and balaclavas executing several dozen UNO officers in a public square. One of the men, who identified himself in the video as ‘Saint George’, then gestured at the corpses and shouted: “This is the fate of all those who attack Mother Russia! Leave now or the rivers will fill with your blood!” Shocked and humiliated by the murder of UNO officers, the Gladstone government immediately began negotiations for the release of the hundreds of thousands of UNO prisoners captured in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection. General Ishii is also relieved of direct command in Russia in favor of General Erika Brinkmann, who displays none of Nanami Ishii’s reservations about civilian bombardment. The tactical difference are muted, however, as active operations in Russia have been halted during prisoner negotiations. By April, both sides manage to agree to an exchange of UNO soldiers and low-ranking officers in return for the release of members of the former Russian government in UNO custody.

On 5 March a convoy of New Homesteaders heading to the northern Ob River are stopped by a roadblock outside of Tomsk. Insurrectionary Russians force everyone to disembark and then burn the bus. This attack on the homesteaders, the first of its kind, prompts public fear about the safety of Siberia. A report by General Ishii to the UNO Committee on Collective Defense released the following week advises holding current positions in Russia would take half a million troops in western Russia and another 100,000 safeguarding the new homesteads in Siberia; reconquering Russia would take months with the full force of UNO forces. Based on these recommendations, the Committee, chaired by Polina Podolski, approves budgetary measures to raise an additional 600,000 soldiers. The Gladstone government approves plans to finance this expansion through the sale of nationalized industries.

Harvest fail again in March 2109, a development that further disrupts plans laid when many more settlers were expected in Siberia. With Siberian farms few and far between and grain elsewhere insufficient, the UNO is forced to reinstitute rationing.

Attacks on Siberian homesteads continue apace in April 2109, as dozens are burned down by Russian partisans in Siberia. General Brinkmann responds by transferring large numbers of troops to Siberia. They are to establish a cordon between the southern cities, many still in active insurrection, and the northern plains. New Homesteaders are now advised to only settle on land north of the 60th parallel, placing them behind the new security cordon. After particularly brutal attack on a private watermelon farm outside of Irkutsk on 2 June results in the death of six homesteaders, the UNO stops the sale of land south of the 60th parallel and begins arranging for the repurchase of all extent plots and the resettlement of those homesteaders further north.

pLvo1Jp.jpg

Pictured: A group of insurrectionary Russian partisans stops a bus in a rural area of northern Irkutsk Oblast to search it for homesteaders or other foreigners. The vast area of Siberia allows these partisans to avoid UNO patrols during their operation

Frustrated by lack of military progress – there are two arsons outside of Surgut in July despite the 60th Parallel cordon – and spurred on by the belief of many in the Unification Party that the Russians are negotiating in bad faith to buy themselves more time, Secretary-General Gladstone announces on 12 August that further prisoner-exchange talks with the insurrectionists are cancelled. General Brinkmann receives the order to attack insurrectionist positions without reservation – she shows none. Restrictions removed, UNO forces deliver withering bombardment from aircraft and railgun artillery; strongholds in urban areas are not so much retaken as obliterated. The tactics are undoubtedly effective, and Donetsk is fully in UNO control by the 22nd, with Barnaul following a week later. With enough troops to hold the line elsewhere, artillery columns roll across southern Siberia throughout September. Resistance declined throughout the month; fortifications in Novosibirsk were found mostly abandoned by insurrectionists and cracked in under 36 hours of assault. The insurrectionist outposts in southern Siberia have fallen, but the countryside is now flush with the arms and partisans missing from the barricades of Novosibirsk and Kemerovo.

With all of the Siberian cities again under UNO control by the end of October 2109, Brinkmann’s juggernaut rolls back west to begin the pummelling bombardment of Vladimir. Apartment block by apartment block, street by street, farmhouse by farmhouse, the UNO makes steady advances into the insurrectionary heartland of the northwest. Vladimir is recaptured on 13 November, and Vologda on the 22nd. These victories unlock the M10 motorway and other major arteries into Russia, along which UNO tanks and armoured infantry push deeper into the country. By January 2110, UNO troops have managed to surround Moscow, deciding to lay siege to the capital rather than march into the seething mass of 25 million angry Russians.

UNO military victories continue to cover the presses throughout 2110, as the UNO’s military colossus smashes Russian resistance. On 3 March, the city of Smolensk is retaken, and Murmansk is finally captured by marines on 29 April. By the beginning of Summer, the UNO has bases in every Russian city save Saint Petersburg and Moscow and controls all of the major roads. While this looks impressive on reports and press releases, it belies the tenuous hold of UNO troops in Russia. Highways and city centers may be firmly under the eyes of heavily fortified UNO bases, but troops dare not venture into the outer urban rings or the countryside without an armoured convoy. Eager to crush the insurrection before it hit its second anniversary, the UNO pushes forward with an ambitious assault on Moscow, with bombardment of the city commencing on 5 June. It quickly becomes apparent that the costs of the operation will be high, with UNO soldiers facing both the professional Russian army and millions of urban partisans. After two months of combat only just brings the army to within the outer ring road, the operation is called off on 2 August to allow the UNO to focus on other objectives and recover from the thousands of combat losses.

AYYCvSc.jpg

Pictured: Two insurrectionary Russian soldiers pass through the shattered skeleton of Tver Airport to take firing positions against UNO soldiers

The situation in Russia settles into an uncomfortable stalemate after the abandonment of the attack on Moscow, with major action reduced to regular potshots across the lines in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and a running contest to mine and demine the Gulf of Finland. The second anniversary of the insurrection is marked by widespread rioting and comes without final victory. The insurgency is back in full swing, with patrols, homesteaders, and random foreigners facing attack across most of the country. Immigration to Siberia has, accordingly, remained slim. The expansion of the army is proceeding, but not at the rate needed to pacify Russia and prosecute another war simultaneously. As the mass of the army concentrates in Iran and Uzbekistan, the intentions of Lindsey Gladstone are clear: the mad dog of Turkmenistan is next to face the arsenal of democracy.
 
Asquith and Gladstone - I think I am in the wrong centuries :D
 
Asquith and Gladstone - I think I am in the wrong centuries :D

Gladstone is immortal, don't ya know? :p

To infinity and beyond! Neat work so far. Keep it up.
Cheers!
 
The Gladstone Government, 2110-2112
The Gladstone Government, 2110-2112
After nearly three years of preparation, and at the cost of a huge chunk of the annual budget, the training, outfitting, and deployment of 600,000 new soldiers has been completed. With millions of men under arms, enough to secure positions in Russia with manpower to spare, the Gladstone government launched its first assault on tyranny in May 2111. Lindsey Gladstone had made a vicious speech the previous night denouncing Azizali Turkmenbashy as, “a madman whose unfettered criminality makes a mockery of the universal democratic truths to which the human race aspires. If the Turkmen people remain subject to his arbitrary and irrational rule, then the UNO’s support for freedom is naught but a façade.” Given the chance to surrender, Azizali Turkmenbashy instead responded with venom, accusing the UNO of, among other things, poisoning the water with fluorite for the purposes of mind control, dumping more sand into Turkmenistan, and engineering a specific variety of HIV/AIDS that could overcome the ‘natural immunity’ of Turkmen. Bombardment of Turkmen forward positions began on the early morning of 3 May.

Anticipating and awaiting return fire from Turkmen artillery farther afield, UNO troops were surprised when none manifested. After careful deliberation, recon units are sent to search out Turkmen position, only to uncover that those positions are abandoned. The advance is cautious, as UNO troops still expect a trap, but kilometer after kilometer of desert is passed without incident or resistance, with abandoned bunkers being uncovered the entire length of the journey. Confirming similar reports between divisions advanced from Iran, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, General Ishii decides to press the queer advantage the UNO enjoys and advance. On 4 May, UNO soldiers advance past the abandoned border towns and empty fortifications into the heartland. At first, the armored columns are greeted by only hushed conversation and a scattering of elderly onlookers, as the advance continues, crowds become larger and more boisterous, however. By the time that UNO troops enter Mary, they are welcomed by cheering throngs, waving the UNO flag and throwing flowers along the soldiers’ path to Ashgabat. As UNO troops enter the outskirts of Ashgabat, they are met by a company of Turkmen cavalry waving the white flag. Wordlessly, the cavalry escort the first armored detachments along the broad empty streets of the capital to the city center, where Azizali Turkmenbashy’s corpse hangs suspended from his own statue’s outstretched arm. Refusing orders to march against the vastly superior force of the UNO, Turkmenbashy’s own soldiers rebelled, killing the dictator. In his absence, resistance quietly faded away and soldiers left their positions for home. In a refreshing turn for the Gladstone administration, the UNO has come as liberator rather than conqueror.

eHgRTvT.jpg

Pictured: Azizali Turkmenbashy -- his last name a formal title given to all Turkmen leaders of the past century -- hangs from a statue of his own creation depicting the country's founder, Saparmurat. His body was only removed when the statue itself was demolished in October 2111

With over a million men stationed in Asia, the UNO prepares to turn its might on India, the largest of the non-UNO states and the one nearest to its massed forces. It only took a week of celebrating the ‘glorious liberation’ of the Turkmen people for Lindsey Gladstone to tire of resting on laurels and begin dogging his next foe. Calling on the leaders of India, Israel, and Sudan to witness the fate of Azizali Turkmenbashy, Secretary-General Gladstone again threatened invasion should they not surrender to UNO authority. The leaders, of course, did not. Although still shaken by the devastating famine of the previous decade, India remains the most populous country on Earth, with over 2 billion inhabitants. The country has now been under emergency rule for years and a public life is pervaded by the military. Despite the sheer mass of soldiers and extensive police powers, government control over much of the Indian interior is weak or nonexistent, as either local militias formed during the famine or Communist insurgents make operating in rural areas exceptionally dangerous. Seeking to avoid a march across the lawless Deccan, General Ishii has deployed the majority of UNO troops on the Tibetan Plateau. Less than a month after they are spared a fight in Turkmenistan, UNO troops begin an advance into India on 2 June 2111.

Concentrated in the narrow mountain passes of the Himalayas, neither the Indians nor the UNO are able to bring their numbers to bear. By the second week of fighting, however, it is clear that the UNO technical superiority has given them control of the battle and Indian forces are pushed further and further out of the valleys and onto the Terai. Breaking out of the Himalayan valleys, the contest has clearly swung in favor of the UNO, but the advance towards New Delhi remains slow and heavily contested. On 23 July, as the UNO army approaches the outskirts of the capital, Indian soldiers on the front wave a giant white flag. A coterie of Indian generals drives out to meet General Ishii and other high-ranking commanders to negotiate their terms of surrender. Although the meetings during the ceasefire are supposedly secret, hints at the situation soon slipped over from the Indian lines. Front whispers at the bars and brothels that Indian and UNO soldiers shared, it was steadily gathered that the generals negotiating with Polina Podolski were acting on their own authority and Prime Minister Gandhi and most of the cabinet had been placed under house arrest. A successful agreement is announced on 30 July: India will be fully reincorporated into the UNO and hold elections under UNO auspices once order has been restored to the countryside. In the meantime, the country will be ruled by a transitional body headed by Watanabe Yuma, a UNLA delegate from Kyoto, Japan, and the deputy chairman of the Committee on Collective Defense. Miraya Gandhi and her entire cabinet have been remanded to UNO custody.

G7ZcbZB.jpg

Pictured: Two high-ranking Indian generals and an attendant on their to surrender negotiations with the UNO, represented by Polina Podolski. Both men were engineers of the coup of 23 July that overthrew Miraya Gandhi. They continue to play a major role in the transitional body that governs India

The foremost effect of the reintegration of India into the UNO is the massive increase in the total population under UNO jurisdiction. This is immediately seen in the reinvigoration of New Homestead program in Siberia. Whereas most citizens had been warded off by the constant threat of violence from Russian insurrectionists, Indians – excluded from the universal welfare systems created by Idriss Sankara and often destitute by contemporary standards – saw Siberia as a golden opportunity to seek the land and riches they had been previous deprived. Having reduced homesteader settlement in Siberia to a scattering of small farms near UNO bases, Russian insurrectionists responded to the renewed settlement with an even more vigorous campaign of rural terror against homesteaders. The renewed violence drew Russian insurrectionists from elsewhere and by the onset of winter, Erika Brinkmann declared that, with current troop levels, their capacity to protect homesteaders from arson, rape, and murder at the hands of partisans was virtually nil. To protect settlers from attack, General Brinkmann estimated that she would require another 400,000 soldiers to patrol the vast Siberian steppe. Instead, she received half that number and an order to only protect centrally located homesteads.

iQ3kp7J.jpg

Pictured: Indian migrants on a bus in Aurangabad smile as they prepare to depart for homesteads along the Vilyuy river in Siberia

The successful war against India prompted renewed outcry from the opposition wing of the Legislative Assembly. Appealing to the deeply democratic sensibilities of the Party for Freedom, representatives from the Conservative and Liberal parties urged Lindsey Gladstone to dissolve the government and call new elections to give over 2 billion Indians a voice in the body, as Idriss Sankara had done following the conquest of Russia. Addressing these concerns head-on, Secretary-General Gladstone published an open letter declaring his intent to continue leading the current government and proclaiming that his mandate to lead is, “based on the universal desire for liberty and democracy to finally extent to all of mankind. The men and women of Earth have given us our power to break the chains of those enslaved under tyranny. Our cause is not the conquest of one state by another, but the liberation of mankind everywhere. The mandate of this current government, therefore, will not terminate until the democracy has been established in all UNO states and those who suppressed natural human freedom have been brought to justice.” The widely circulated letter added to a growing hero worship around the bravado and righteousness of the Secretary-General as much as it entrenched impressions of Mr. Gladstone as a hypocritical stooge of the military among his opponents. To the Party of Freedom, however, the response was wholeheartedly embraced; the next election would not be called until the full ten-year term had expired.

Secretary-General Gladstone’s resolve to force Earth down the path of democracy and hold those who resisted accountable was demonstrated on 4 September, when Constancia Teodoro, the former President of Equatorial Guinea, was arrested by UNO marshals at her Swiss villa. It was announced the following evening that she would be brought to trial for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during her presidency. To the exasperation of Lindsey Gladstone, the UN High Tribunal on Crimes Committed in Equatorial Guinea rules on 16 January 2112 that it does not have the jurisdiction to try Ms. Teodoro, as doing so would violate the terms of her amnesty deal with the UNO made in 2100. As initial proceedings for the Teodoro trial were still getting underway, another tribunal was established to try to Miraya Gandhi and other members of the Indian cabinet. During the reading of the formal charges against Mrs. Gandhi, the impetus to the coup of 23 July is revealed: Miraya Gandhi had ordered the use of nuclear force against UNO troops and was arrested by a junta of generals unwilling to initiate nuclear war. Thus, she and her cabinet members are tried with attempted use of nuclear force in addition to the expected rap sheet of crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, and crimes against democracy. In response to the court’s failure to try Ms. Teodoro, Secretary-General Gladstone promises that his crusade against despotism, unlike Mr. Sankara’s, will not give leniency to tyrants.
 
Gladstone must be rather irate at not getting his own way.
 
The Gladstone Government, 2112-2114
The Gladstone Government, 2112-2114
The first half of 2112 has been shaken by the further escalation of insurgent warfare in Siberia, resulting in the UNO pouring even more men and treasure into the region, and regular protests of thousands in major cities against the Gladstone government. A rough majority of citizens support Lindsey Gladstone – the coalition of the Unification Party and Party for Freedom now bolstered by the support of a faction of the Peoples’ Party led by Tan Kyi, a delegate from Yangon, who argue that communism should be tactically forestalled until the establishment of a global government – but the political polarization is extreme and the opposition remains active in most large cities outside of Europe. With his political longevity riding on the ability to bring the planet under UNO control, Lindsey Gladstone rushed forward plans for the invasion of Sudan, which commenced on 28 July.

The Sudanese junta, although reviled by the mass of the country, managed to maintain power through use of robots in the military and police. Sudan and Israel are the only countries not signatory to the Comprehensive Ban on the use of Automated Robotics for Military Purposes, better known as the ‘Killer Robot Ban’. Its use of automated weapons systems made Sudan an adversary out of proportion with its population, and UNO soldiers were forced to pay for every yard of desert taken during the push towards on Khartoum. The sophistication and sheer numbers of the UNO army were too much for Sudanese forces, however, and Khartoum was captured on 2 September 2112. Celebrated as liberators by the vast majority of the country, UNO soldiers rapidly established control over the country after the capture of Khartoum, and placed the remaining members of the junta under arrest. A UNO tribunal established in Cairo officially changed all members of the junta on 4 October, accusing them of crimes against humanity, crimes against democracy, and genocide against the Beija people of the coast. The swiftness of UNO action in Sudan bolstered support for the government, as Earth prepares itself to conquer the fortress state of Israel and bring unity to humankind.

QhdHLUF.jpg

Pictured: A Sudanese military robot and army convoy in Dongola. The walking model photographed is unusually sophisticated, as most military robots are simply weapons with automated sensors.

The world’s largest guerrilla war continues to be waged in Russia, as the hundreds of thousands of troops poured into Siberia fail to stem the tide of violence. The occupation of every village across the entirety of North Asia has simply forced the insurrectionists into the vast wilderness, from where they launch attacks on UNO troops and homesteaders. The murder rate also remains stubbornly high, as homesteaders frequently move outside of their allocated plots without alerting UNO garrison, leaving them exposed to depredation by the insurrectionists. A new chapter in the insurgency unfolded on 10 December, when a bomb was detonated in New York City, killing 16 people and injuring over 200 more. A group calling itself the Saint Andrew Martyr Brigade has claimed responsibility, and its destruction has rapidly become the top priority of the UNO brass. Although Anton Ilyasov released a recorded message condemning the attack and calling for violence to be directed towards only UNO officials, military personnel, and settlers, the Saint Petersburg Soviet and the soviets of some of the Moscow suburbs have celebrated the attack and encouraged Russians abroad to carry out such terrorism. The two masterminds of the New York attack, Artyom Bleker and Anna Ulitsova, were killed in a drone strike in the Vasyugan Swamp on 25 January 2113.

As the military buildup in the Mediterranean intensifies in early 2113, religious authorities from across the world speak out against the invasion of Israel, now the only non-UNO state and one that poses no threat to UN security. Started by a protested by rabbis in New York City on 2 February, the call for peace spread across the religious parts of Africa and the Americas, where the belief that the invasion of Israel would usher in the apocalypse was widespread. Aside from the conscious object of a marginal number of devout Christians and Jews, however, the months-long protests did not affect military preparations. After local police cleared way for him to pass through the crowd of handholding rabbis, priests, and imams outside the UN building in New York on the morning of 10 March 2113, Lindsey Gladstone called for the vote on the invasion of Israel. It was approved with a handy majority, and the gunboat shelling of fortifications around Gaza began.

EfO419B.jpg

Pictured: Priests and rabbis marching together in New York City in protest of UNO aggression in Israel and Russia. Hundreds of similar protests occurred, but all on a small enough scale to be ignored by the Gladstone government.

The first days of the war have unprecedented casualties. Over past decades, the Israelis had turned their pariah state into a veritable fortress, manned by millions of well-trained soldiers in addition to killer robots. The scale of deaths from chemical weapons alone has shocked the public, leading prominent publications to doubt the sagacity of troubling the hermit state. In what is derided by the opposition as a cheap political tool to shore up support for the deadly conflict, the Gladstone government has taken advantage of an unusually good harvest to once again end rationing in April – the hope is that, this time, there is enough food for the measure to be permanent.

eek7qpQ.jpg

Pictured: A lone tank pushing through labyrinthine fortifications in the suburbs of Haifa. The ubiquity of fortifications in Israel made fighting slow and costly throughout the entire war and in every theater.

On 27 April, after 18 months of deliberation, the UN High Tribunal on Crimes Committed in India released its verdict. It found that Miraya Gandhi, her Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Defence, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Minister of Atomic Energy, and Minister of Minority Affairs were all guilty of crimes against humanity and crimes against democracy. In addition, Miraya Gandhi and the Minister of Defence were found guilty of threatening nuclear force. All five were sentenced to death by targeted laser. All other members of the cabinet were acquitted on all charges, as no evidence directly linked them to specific crimes. The deaths were announced the following week, giving the first clear demonstration of Gladstone’s justice.

The war against Israel is immensely bloody, with casualties stacking up into the millions as UNO troops make a slow and methodical march over a landscape whose every inch has been covered with trench lines and redoubts. The strength of the Israeli army begins to break in the winter of 2113, although tens of thousands of casualties were still taken in the advance on Jerusalem. The fighting finally stops on 15 February 2114, when the Temple Mount is taken by UNO soldiers and most of the top Israeli leadership commits suicide after witnessing the UN flag being raised over the shattered ruins of the 3rd Temple of David.

nCMOhFB.jpg

Pictured: UNO soldiers during the assault on Tel Aviv, one of the deadliest battles of the war. Like many others in the dense urban environment, Pvt. Li Hebei (pictured on the right) was killed by automated sniper fire.

With the fall of Jerusalem on 15 February and the surrender of the last holdouts in the Golan Heights in the days after, the Earth stands as a united polity for the first time in human history; at the cost of tens of millions of lives. With his mandate apparently fulfilled, it is expected that Secretary-General Gladstone will resign and disband the government. As days pass, however, he does not. Increasingly vocal opposition, including from within his own party, demands that he call new elections. Rather than acceding to this demand, however, the Secretary-General insists that the rebuilding of basic life and establishment of democracy in the liberated territories and the trying of remaining criminals in Sudan and Israel requires a stability that would be disturbed by a general election. He declares that, “as long as the base criminals who brutalized and robbed their countrymen remained unencumbered by the weight of their crimes, I will not resign. I will not rest until every tyrant was been held to account for their monstrous deeds.”
 
"To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace."

:=)