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Solar Strife A Second And Third Chance:

A request by HeliosMegistos connected to his Dawnverse series. During the early days of the Third Solar Strife, the conflict that would finally end human civilization on Earth, a massive engagement took place between the Third Fleet of the Third Reich and the Allied joint Seventh Fleet went awry. During the fight the Commonwealth starship HMS Indomitable crippled the SS Heydrich, an experimental FTL ship. The damage to the FTL engine ripped open a tear in the fabric of reality that pulled both fleets into it.

The Nazi and Allied ships tumbled through time and space, racked by inexplicable energies and struck by almost unbearable forces until they were spat out again. Both fleets had sustained massive damages, their long range weaponry had been disabled during their journey through the wormhole, the Heydrich had been obliterated by the forces it had unleashed and their life support systems and shielding systems had been critically damaged. The two fleets limped back to Earth, both hoping to outrun the other so that orbital defence systems could defend them from the other. The Nazi Third Fleet was closer to Earth and were the first to arrive in orbit. They were shocked at what they had discovered.

There was nothing in orbit and the great cities and landmarks that they were familiar with did not exist. Sensors picked up transmissions and signs of life and civilization and what they found disturbed them. The world below them was the Earth of 1940, shortly after the fall of France to the Wehrmacht.

The Third Fleet planned to capitalise on the fortune that had been handed to them. The telepathic SS commanders of the fleet immediately collaborated in order to draw up a plan to take control of the Third Reich and change the course of the war in their favour. The more delusional personnel who planned to swear their allegiance to the existing Reich and its Fuhrer attempted to stop what they saw as treason but were quickly rooted out and killed. The Third Fleet descended on Berlin, planning to make a spectacle of themselves before the capital and the reigning government. The Third Reich was wary of the extraterrestrial arrivals but the weaponry they brought to bear and their willingness to support the Nazi cause won the Party over. Telepathic manipulation helped make the idea of accepting the Third Fleet's assistance more palatable to them.

The Allied Seventh Fleet, their engines suffering slightly more damage due to their proximity to the wormhole's unstable periphery, took longer to return. When discovered their own predicament something changed. The relationships between the Allied nations was precarious at best and the revelation that they were lost in the past shattered what tenuous links remained. The Seventh Fleet disbanded itself and went down to the equivalents of their respective nations, hoping to work in whatever fashion they thought would favour their homeland.

The arrival of so many advanced ships, with unfamiliar weapons and strange powers changed the very nature of the Second World War. New ideas were introduced, warfare began to change and the world saw a more terrible conflict than it would ever thought it would endure unfold before it.

The fleet commander of the Third Fleet took effective command thanks to the efforts of his telepathic command group. The Nazi Party personnel of the Third Reich were slowly taken over by the telepathic' psychic abilities whilst the Party itself ended up being infiltrated and dominated by Third Fleet personnel. The stupidity of the 1940 Third Reich disgusted them as did several of the more inefficient beliefs that they propagated. The Third Fleet began to implement new policies regarding defence, population mobilisation and the fates of the various groups the Nazi Party had been planning to dispose of, all on the alleged behalf of Adolph Hitler. At the same time the engineers of the Third Fleet salvaged what technology they could and began to rework it, upgrading the German military infrastructure as much as possible. Their more advanced hardware was too damaged to be deployed but they could deploy was far ahead of anything the world of 1940 had available to them.

The Seventh Fleet's dissolution and their own attempts to interfere in the development of their homelands did not help the Allied responses to the Third Reich. They too established themselves as new authorities in the nations they supported and then set about influencing them, directing the defence of their interests and the integration of their advanced technology into the 20th Century infrastructure.

By 2014 the Third Reich has been under the rule of the Third Fleet SS for decades. Hitler and his original supporters were supplanted shortly after the Third Fleet's arrival and officially overthrown, under allegations of poor mental health, in 1949. The telepaths of the Third Fleet, their indigenous puppet officials and those individuals who genuinely supported their rule quickly took over and purged the government of anyone who still openly opposed them. Orthodox Nazism was thrown out shortly afterwards and the more pragmatic Solar Strife Nazism has been the standard ideology of the Third Reich since then. The government is an eclectic mix of Telepathic SS and military personnel, the latter being a compromise with both the existing military and the Third Fleet Kriegsmarine personnel. However the dominant force is the SS who are now made up entirely of the descendants of the Third Fleet's telepathic officer class. The SS continue to carry out new experiments, adapting the advanced technology that has now been archived as the infrastructure improves to levels sufficient enough to support the weaponry of the Solar Strife 24th Century.

Life in the Third Reich is autocratic and repressive. The extreme traditional ideals that Nazism supported are still upheld, sexism of both kinds is rife and the population is kept working hard, sometimes in order to distract them from the actions of the government. Children in the Reich are subjected to thorough indoctrination from the media and educational systems, teachers, public officials and other authorities encourage them to inform on their family and neighbours and compulsory extracurricular organisations prepare them for their future duties. Schools are segregated through gender and have separate curriculum focused on the gender roles that are expected for them. Eugenics is a field that has become intertwined with biology even though by the 24th Century genetic engineering had failed to produce superhumans that the Nazis approved of. All children are expected to undergo an annual examination to test for latent telepathic abilities. Any telepaths that are discovered are then taken away to special facilities for even more intense brainwashing and training.

Despite its relatively greater pragmatism the Nazism of the Third Fleet still advocated the creation of an Aryan master-race. Whilst unwilling to exterminate all of the races that orthodox Nazism deemed inferior the SS believe that the Aryans are destined to be the ruling class of the human race. Of course they also believe that these particular Aryans should also be telepaths. A Holocaust took place that has practically exterminated the Jewish population within the Reich and their satellites. However the other people of Eastern Europe and the former USSR have been allowed to survive. They are instead relegated to second or third class citizenship and used for menial or dangerous labour. As the colonial settlements in Russia expand the reservations for Slavs have been reduced in the more hospitable or desirable territories to accommodate the German population.

Desperate for advantages over their enemies the Third Reich is one of the largest space-capable empires. They have a substantial extraterrestrial presence with numerous orbital facilities and even some experimental offworld colonies on the Moon and Mars.

The American portion of the Allied Seventh Fleet moved to the USA of 1940 as quickly as possible. The commander was a devout loyalist and believed that the opportunity he had discovered was the best means through which the USA could rule the world as it rightly should. He was shocked at the society he found himself in. the United States they landed in was a liberal nightmare to the fleet personnel who had grown up in a strict corporatocracy. Though many Americans were rightfully wary of the arrivals the sudden rapid expansion of Germany and Japan finally convinced them to accept help. From there it was simply a matter of time before the Seventh Fleet changed the world.

By 2014 the United States of America has been changed for the worst. The captain of the American fleet decided he could be a member of the ruling classes he was familiar with. By making a deal with the engineers of his ships he was able to monopolise the development of primitive, reverse engineered versions of 24th technology. He started a weapons company shortly after pledging support to the USA and began to sell the new weapons he created. After all of the changes that took place after the Third Fleet landed in Germany the USA became more paranoid. A puppet presidential candidate was proposed by the Solar Strife captain and duly elected. A few crises then justified the establishment of an emergency regime that has not ended yet.

The modern USA is a totalitarian oligarchy that pretends to uphold the trappings of democracy. Propaganda convinces the population of the dangers of the outside world and justifies the government's emergency regime. Martial law is in place in a few states as well as the nations that America occupies. The USA tried to replicate the old hegemony that they held in the 24th Century but they have ultimately failed. Military corporations practically own the government, placing gun control laws on the population and ensuring that every legally owned weapon is produced by them. Most new technology is developed in order to either enhance the police/surveillance state in the USA or improve the US' global position. A highly advanced and integrated surveillance system has been built that intrudes into the lives of every American citizen. All of this is organized by several appropriated AI relays taken from irreparably damaged ships. The OSS tend to compete with the corporations for power in influence in the government, using the various crises overseas and within their own borders to justify gaining influence and funding. The OSS are notorious for owning their own derivatives of 24th Century technology, mostly taken from foreign sources that have since been adapted.

The wealth disparity is not as bad as the Solar Strife USA and there is still a relatively prosperous middle class. This actually helps the civilian focused corporations who prefer having a larger consumer market available to them. The government has disbanded several institutions such as workers unions, citing them as dangers to American security and integrity. Segregation and other institutionalised forms of racial discrimination have largely disappeared. Instead discrimination is based on class and wealth with the poor being exploited equally. There are still plenty of charitable members of the upper class but the government tends to encourage an aristocratic attitude amongst the rich and powerful. Most cities have become layered proto-arcologies with the poor relegated to the lower levels and with the rich sequestered in the luxurious fortified city centres. The media and educational systems are government owned and curriculum are often based on the status of the school itself and the class of student that would be attending them. The government began several programs to divide the populace up as much as possible, encouraging general nationalism but deconstructing other forms of identity. Aside from the surveillance state the telepaths of the Seventh Fleet, whose descendants now form a class of powerful personnel in every major American institutions, try to manipulate the emotional states of the working class in order to pacify them.

Back in the 24th Century the Republic of Brazil was little more than a puppet of the United States, their entire government run by American corporations. The Brazilian portion of the Seventh Fleet found the past version of their homeland was completely independent. Their arrival was seen as a possible means of making their nation a great power to equal the reigning powers.

Brazil today is a borderline military dictatorship with a paranoid, authoritarian and fairly xenophobic society. Fear of the United States, based on the warnings from their portion of the Seventh Fleet, led to Brazil's rapid and desperate industrialisation and development of advanced technology based on their surviving arsenal. Their lack of infrastructure compared to the contemporary great powers did disadvantage, much them India and China, which took a long time to rectify. However Brazil has become a formidable power. Brazil is still rather isolationist and xenophobic, focusing more on defending what they already possess whilst carefully extending their own influence and power into the rest of the Western Hemisphere and a few other areas.

Brazil itself is rather stratified, the ruling class composed of military and industrial elite dominate the government. There is a parliament but it is a one party system, specifically the party that the Seventh Fleet supported in their early rise to power. Brazilian society is dominated by a class system with the majority of the population living as a working class. As one of the more backward powers their automated systems are also more primitive than the Reich, US and Commonwealth. Human life is often regarded as cheaper than automated systems so dangerous or strenuous work is often carried out by human workers in order to avoid damaging or stressing more delicate machinery. Brazil is post-racial now but is very elitist, much like the United States. Government propaganda tends to focus more on the threat that the United States hypothetically poses but the Third Reich is also considered one of their mortal enemies. Trade with the United States is strictly forbidden though this doesn't stop smuggling.

The Indian segment of the Seventh Fleet was the first to cut their ties. Killing any non-Indian personnel on their portion of the flotilla they immediately headed for the subcontinent. Enraged at the existence of the Raj, an entity they were all raised to see as the ultimate degradation, they landed in several major cities and immediately began massacring British soldiers, colonists and governors they could find. They were able to find several key figures in the growing independence movement and tried to cooperate with them. Gandhi disappeared shortly after their attempts to control him via telepathy failed. The fight for independence quickly became a bloodbath as the beleaguered British forces were overrun. The members of the Seventh Fleet essentially took charge of the entire independence movement. It was only through the intervention of the Commonwealth portion of the Seventh Fleet that any of the Raj could be salvaged. After that the new Indian state began to expand and industrialise itself. The new leadership intended to turn their nation into the superpower they always believed it was meant to be.

By 2014 India is a massive industrial and military complex. The current ideology is an esoteric mixture of different ideas that has been combined into a strange and totalitarian amalgam. Based somewhat on military ranks, a strict class system dominates Indian society. The caste system has been integrated into the military and tends to determine an individuals position in the army. Every citizen is given a military rank and is susceptible to conscription. Mass conscription of communities is common though soldiers selected in this manner are usually put on a rota system that ensures they can return to their civilian lives in order to continue working their jobs or raising families. Like it's 24th Century counterpart the Muslim portions of the Raj remained united to the rest of India and have been subjected to the militarised caste system as well. The entire edifice of the Indian Republic is kept unified by Anglophobic propaganda, general xenophobia and a thorough indoctrination via the state run education system. Like the Third Reich, India has a specialised breeding program for their telepathic population.

Technologically India is one of the more backward states having been denied the more advanced forms of 24th Century technology that was available to more prominent Allied states like the USA and the Commonwealth. The Raj's insufficient infrastructure also held them back. Their modernisation program was horrific and cost millions of lives. However India is now a major industrial state. Their industry is mostly devoted to supplying their war effort and monitoring the population. Tasteless vat grown nutrient substitutes keep the populace fed but otherwise poverty is rife in the Indian Republic.

Like India the Chinese portion of the Seventh Fleet rapidly abandoned the rest and sped to the contemporary version of their homeland. Like the Brazilians the Chinese had experienced what their homeland had become and, other plans aside, intended to prevent that from happening. The commander of the Chinese portion of the flotilla was able to successfully take complete control over his subordinates and organise a plan for what they intended to do on Earth. Like the Indians they made various demonstrations over major cities and fought in various existing battlefields against the Japanese. The Kuomintang were overthrown and the Seventh Fleet's Chinese contingent took control, to many people's relief as they were able to force back the Japanese, at least until the Seventh Fleet's Japanese contingent intervened. After that the Chinese turned to rebuilding the nation, hunting down various dissidents, including Mao's Communists and began to turn China into the nation they wanted it to be.

The Chinese government of the 24th Century was a strange entity, born from the conflict of the Second World War and the subsequent struggles for power that took place afterwards. It was a combination of features from socialism and traditional monarchism that was wholly oppressive. The Seventh Fleet's Chinese contingent has successfully transplanted this ideology onto 1940's China.

The People's Empire of China is, like it's 24th Century version, a strange nation. The confusing ideology that was brought along with the Seventh Fleet has since been harshly applied to the Republic. Under the orders of their new emperor the nation has undergone rapid industrialisation, a gruelling and dangerous process that claimed millions of lives. Despite their best efforts only small portions of the nation actually have 24th Century technology. Most of the nation is still forced to subsist through less advanced technology ranging from 20th Century to 22nd Century levels. Even then the distribution of such technology is very limited and inconsistent. The socialist features of the new government enforce strict equality in both distribution and production. This has caused millions of deaths due to certain individuals being more naturally talented at certain jobs. Poverty is common throughout the Empire and is in fact enforced in many areas due to their policies. The Emperor is the symbol of the state and also holds the Mandate of Heaven which has been reworked into a idea that grants the monarchy both the blessings of Heaven and the will of the proletariat, allowing them an immense amount of ideological power. The telepathic officers of the Chinese contingent form the new aristocracy, spreading the new ideology through telepathic suggestions to reinforce the educational indoctrination that is applied to the entire population. Newly born active telepaths are taken from their families as soon as their abilities are detected and adopted by the government in order to train them for their sacred duty to the state.

The Japanese contingent fought long and hard to escape the clutches of the Americans in the Seventh fleet and were able to secure a flotilla of their own. They had all been brought up in a homeland that had been culturally purged and knew the history of what happened to their nation in their own history. However, like all Japanese they had also learnt the secret histories that had challenged the propaganda that their education systems had all forced on them. Seeing their nation as an independent and vibrant culture they all immediately rushed to rescue it from the same fate their homeland had suffered. Appearing over the capital in Tokyo they offered their allegiance to the Emperor and immediately moved to support Japanese armies that were struggling in China.

By 2014 Japan has changed. The Japanese contingent was surprised at what they discovered in 1940. This version of their homeland was a vibrant culture with ideas and fashions that they had never seen before. However at the same time their nation was a nation that, whilst very backward compared to the homeland they were familiar with, was just as militarised. It is still highly militant and imperialistic but certain things have changed. Stuck between the Third Reich, China and the United States, the Japanese have been forced to change their policies regarding their empire. Over the decades they have moved to assimilate their colonial subjects, educating them in a similar manner to Japanese citizens. Non-Japanese are still forbidden from settling in the Home Islands are rarely permitted high office. It is in the Japanese settler colonies that the new attitudes have taken root the most due to more exposure to the other peoples of the empire.

Society in general is militarised due to their precarious situation in the Pacific and most of society is devoted to making the empire self-sufficient through technology. Labourers toil to advance the infrastructure and reverse engineer the technology of the Seventh Fleet or adapt what they have already achieved to their advantage. Traditional sexism is still commonplace across the empire and is enforced through the indoctrination of the education system. In the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Japanese are a ruling class that often receive advantages in the other nations of the GEACPS. The education efforts to Nipponicize the indigenous populations of the rest of the GEACPS are viewed as a mission to civilize these people much in the same manner as 'The White Man's Burden'.

An exception in this tortured world, surprisingly is the cosmopolitan Commonwealth of Nations. Back in the 24th Century the Commonwealth had been forced to become pragmatic in the face of such a hostile world and their very diverse empire led to some very different developments when compared to the rest of the world. When the Seventh Fleet disbanded the Commonwealth contingent also saw an opportunity to change the world in a way they thought would be both necessary and advantageous. Led by acting commander Vincent Windsor-Lorraine-Hapsburg (a long story), the principle tactician of his age, the Commonwealth Fleet separated and headed to important locations throughout the British Empire, hoping to spread the importance of their message as far as possible. It took a lot of time to convince the people of the British Empire and it was only because of the arrival of the other fleets that they were convinced of the importance of the Commonwealth contingent's plans and their support.

The Commonwealth had to work fast and it took the endless work of military leaders from across the British Empire and the Commonwealth contingent to hold the empire together and ward off the other major states. The Raj was their biggest disaster but the monstrosity that India turned into finally stressed just how important cohesion was in the face of so many enemies.

Whilst still militant by necessity the Commonwealth is democratic and rather liberal by this world's standards. The Commonwealth contingent of the Seventh Fleet stressed the importance of integrating the many peoples and cultures of the British Empire into a new multicultural entity. They began with the army by forming new units that mixed together people from a variety of locations and origins. New policies involving upgrading infrastructure, promoting immigration (a hard one to convince people to accept) and the removal of racial barriers have helped transform the British Empire. The loss of the Raj is in fact what saved the Commonwealth as fears of ending up dominated by India disappeared with India's secession.

Overall the Commonwealth is highly cosmopolitan as immigration policies has allowed the population of the Commonwealth to mix. Food from Asia are commonplace in Britain and Canada whilst European fashions can be found across Africa. The 24th technology the Commonwealth contingent brought along has been reverse engineered like the US, Japan and the third Reich which has helped the development of Britain's former colonies. French Africa was also absorbed in order to prevent the US and Third Reich from spreading their influence into it. By this point all of the old colonies have been developed to sufficient levels for self-governance. Certain areas are still more advanced and the distribution of technology has been rather dependant on political priorities but there is a minimum standard of living that the Commonwealth tries to adhere to. The Commonwealth closely guards its borders against infiltration by American and Nazi operatives but is on amicable terms with the more agreeable Brazilians and Japanese. Telepaths in the Commonwealth are still registered for the sake of national security and placed in special training institutions.

The Commonwealth is one of most involved powers when it comes to extraterrestrial possessions. In an effort to preserve some semblance of order in the case of catastrophic warfare the Commonwealth is trying to build up as much infrastructure as possible.

Technology has been forcibly accelerated by the actions of the Third and Seventh Fleets. Military technology received the most focus as every faction sought to either recover the weaponry they used to have in the 24th Century or create new ones. Coil-guns have been developed by all factions and have replaced other ballistic weapons whilst rail-guns are now standard artillery weaponry. Most forms of aircraft have been rendered obsolete by missile technology and other anti-aircraft weapons. Flak armour is being phased out by derivatives of 24th Century protective equipment. Metallic power armour for elite soldiers is equipped with specialised nanotechnology that automatically repairs most damages. Energy deflector shielding is still difficult to build but some ocean going battleships and spacecraft are equipped with primitive models of deflector shields. Even in the 24th Century AI required human supervision, the tendency to turn sentient often putting off developers looking for effective weapons.

Civilian technology is much more backward. Every state has advanced surveillance technology to support the telepathic efforts of many factions. Optical scanners and a variety of other sensory machines are built into CCTV cameras everywhere supported by primitive and massive artificial intelligence systems that organise it all. Food substitutes and nutrient cultures help feed populations around the world, albeit in a tasteless fashion. Attempts to alleviate resource demands have led to the development of highly intensive refining, recycling and extraction methods to make nations as self-sufficient as possible. Space travel was quickly redeveloped, mostly as a means of gaining miltary advantages over other states. More important issues on Earth have kept the great powers from actually settling on the various off-world facilities that have been built. Military and mining installations are the most developed extraterrestrial possessions of every faction.

Description

Solar Strife A Second And Third Chance:

A request by HeliosMegistos connected to his Dawnverse series. During the early days of the Third Solar Strife, the conflict that would finally end human civilization on Earth, a massive engagement took place between the Third Fleet of the Third Reich and the Allied joint Seventh Fleet went awry. During the fight the Commonwealth starship HMS Indomitable crippled the SS Heydrich, an experimental FTL ship. The damage to the FTL engine ripped open a tear in the fabric of reality that pulled both fleets into it.

The Nazi and Allied ships tumbled through time and space, racked by inexplicable energies and struck by almost unbearable forces until they were spat out again. Both fleets had sustained massive damages, their long range weaponry had been disabled during their journey through the wormhole, the Heydrich had been obliterated by the forces it had unleashed and their life support systems and shielding systems had been critically damaged. The two fleets limped back to Earth, both hoping to outrun the other so that orbital defence systems could defend them from the other. The Nazi Third Fleet was closer to Earth and were the first to arrive in orbit. They were shocked at what they had discovered.

There was nothing in orbit and the great cities and landmarks that they were familiar with did not exist. Sensors picked up transmissions and signs of life and civilization and what they found disturbed them. The world below them was the Earth of 1940, shortly after the fall of France to the Wehrmacht.

The Third Fleet planned to capitalise on the fortune that had been handed to them. The telepathic SS commanders of the fleet immediately collaborated in order to draw up a plan to take control of the Third Reich and change the course of the war in their favour. The more delusional personnel who planned to swear their allegiance to the existing Reich and its Fuhrer attempted to stop what they saw as treason but were quickly rooted out and killed. The Third Fleet descended on Berlin, planning to make a spectacle of themselves before the capital and the reigning government. The Third Reich was wary of the extraterrestrial arrivals but the weaponry they brought to bear and their willingness to support the Nazi cause won the Party over. Telepathic manipulation helped make the idea of accepting the Third Fleet's assistance more palatable to them.

The Allied Seventh Fleet, their engines suffering slightly more damage due to their proximity to the wormhole's unstable periphery, took longer to return. When discovered their own predicament something changed. The relationships between the Allied nations was precarious at best and the revelation that they were lost in the past shattered what tenuous links remained. The Seventh Fleet disbanded itself and went down to the equivalents of their respective nations, hoping to work in whatever fashion they thought would favour their homeland.

The arrival of so many advanced ships, with unfamiliar weapons and strange powers changed the very nature of the Second World War. New ideas were introduced, warfare began to change and the world saw a more terrible conflict than it would ever thought it would endure unfold before it.

The fleet commander of the Third Fleet took effective command thanks to the efforts of his telepathic command group. The Nazi Party personnel of the Third Reich were slowly taken over by the telepathic' psychic abilities whilst the Party itself ended up being infiltrated and dominated by Third Fleet personnel. The stupidity of the 1940 Third Reich disgusted them as did several of the more inefficient beliefs that they propagated. The Third Fleet began to implement new policies regarding defence, population mobilisation and the fates of the various groups the Nazi Party had been planning to dispose of, all on the alleged behalf of Adolph Hitler. At the same time the engineers of the Third Fleet salvaged what technology they could and began to rework it, upgrading the German military infrastructure as much as possible. Their more advanced hardware was too damaged to be deployed but they could deploy was far ahead of anything the world of 1940 had available to them.

The Seventh Fleet's dissolution and their own attempts to interfere in the development of their homelands did not help the Allied responses to the Third Reich. They too established themselves as new authorities in the nations they supported and then set about influencing them, directing the defence of their interests and the integration of their advanced technology into the 20th Century infrastructure.

By 2014 the Third Reich has been under the rule of the Third Fleet SS for decades. Hitler and his original supporters were supplanted shortly after the Third Fleet's arrival and officially overthrown, under allegations of poor mental health, in 1949. The telepaths of the Third Fleet, their indigenous puppet officials and those individuals who genuinely supported their rule quickly took over and purged the government of anyone who still openly opposed them. Orthodox Nazism was thrown out shortly afterwards and the more pragmatic Solar Strife Nazism has been the standard ideology of the Third Reich since then. The government is an eclectic mix of Telepathic SS and military personnel, the latter being a compromise with both the existing military and the Third Fleet Kriegsmarine personnel. However the dominant force is the SS who are now made up entirely of the descendants of the Third Fleet's telepathic officer class. The SS continue to carry out new experiments, adapting the advanced technology that has now been archived as the infrastructure improves to levels sufficient enough to support the weaponry of the Solar Strife 24th Century.

Life in the Third Reich is autocratic and repressive. The extreme traditional ideals that Nazism supported are still upheld, sexism of both kinds is rife and the population is kept working hard, sometimes in order to distract them from the actions of the government. Children in the Reich are subjected to thorough indoctrination from the media and educational systems, teachers, public officials and other authorities encourage them to inform on their family and neighbours and compulsory extracurricular organisations prepare them for their future duties. Schools are segregated through gender and have separate curriculum focused on the gender roles that are expected for them. Eugenics is a field that has become intertwined with biology even though by the 24th Century genetic engineering had failed to produce superhumans that the Nazis approved of. All children are expected to undergo an annual examination to test for latent telepathic abilities. Any telepaths that are discovered are then taken away to special facilities for even more intense brainwashing and training.

Despite its relatively greater pragmatism the Nazism of the Third Fleet still advocated the creation of an Aryan master-race. Whilst unwilling to exterminate all of the races that orthodox Nazism deemed inferior the SS believe that the Aryans are destined to be the ruling class of the human race. Of course they also believe that these particular Aryans should also be telepaths. A Holocaust took place that has practically exterminated the Jewish population within the Reich and their satellites. However the other people of Eastern Europe and the former USSR have been allowed to survive. They are instead relegated to second or third class citizenship and used for menial or dangerous labour. As the colonial settlements in Russia expand the reservations for Slavs have been reduced in the more hospitable or desirable territories to accommodate the German population.

Desperate for advantages over their enemies the Third Reich is one of the largest space-capable empires. They have a substantial extraterrestrial presence with numerous orbital facilities and even some experimental offworld colonies on the Moon and Mars.

The American portion of the Allied Seventh Fleet moved to the USA of 1940 as quickly as possible. The commander was a devout loyalist and believed that the opportunity he had discovered was the best means through which the USA could rule the world as it rightly should. He was shocked at the society he found himself in. the United States they landed in was a liberal nightmare to the fleet personnel who had grown up in a strict corporatocracy. Though many Americans were rightfully wary of the arrivals the sudden rapid expansion of Germany and Japan finally convinced them to accept help. From there it was simply a matter of time before the Seventh Fleet changed the world.

By 2014 the United States of America has been changed for the worst. The captain of the American fleet decided he could be a member of the ruling classes he was familiar with. By making a deal with the engineers of his ships he was able to monopolise the development of primitive, reverse engineered versions of 24th technology. He started a weapons company shortly after pledging support to the USA and began to sell the new weapons he created. After all of the changes that took place after the Third Fleet landed in Germany the USA became more paranoid. A puppet presidential candidate was proposed by the Solar Strife captain and duly elected. A few crises then justified the establishment of an emergency regime that has not ended yet.

The modern USA is a totalitarian oligarchy that pretends to uphold the trappings of democracy. Propaganda convinces the population of the dangers of the outside world and justifies the government's emergency regime. Martial law is in place in a few states as well as the nations that America occupies. The USA tried to replicate the old hegemony that they held in the 24th Century but they have ultimately failed. Military corporations practically own the government, placing gun control laws on the population and ensuring that every legally owned weapon is produced by them. Most new technology is developed in order to either enhance the police/surveillance state in the USA or improve the US' global position. A highly advanced and integrated surveillance system has been built that intrudes into the lives of every American citizen. All of this is organized by several appropriated AI relays taken from irreparably damaged ships. The OSS tend to compete with the corporations for power in influence in the government, using the various crises overseas and within their own borders to justify gaining influence and funding. The OSS are notorious for owning their own derivatives of 24th Century technology, mostly taken from foreign sources that have since been adapted.

The wealth disparity is not as bad as the Solar Strife USA and there is still a relatively prosperous middle class. This actually helps the civilian focused corporations who prefer having a larger consumer market available to them. The government has disbanded several institutions such as workers unions, citing them as dangers to American security and integrity. Segregation and other institutionalised forms of racial discrimination have largely disappeared. Instead discrimination is based on class and wealth with the poor being exploited equally. There are still plenty of charitable members of the upper class but the government tends to encourage an aristocratic attitude amongst the rich and powerful. Most cities have become layered proto-arcologies with the poor relegated to the lower levels and with the rich sequestered in the luxurious fortified city centres. The media and educational systems are government owned and curriculum are often based on the status of the school itself and the class of student that would be attending them. The government began several programs to divide the populace up as much as possible, encouraging general nationalism but deconstructing other forms of identity. Aside from the surveillance state the telepaths of the Seventh Fleet, whose descendants now form a class of powerful personnel in every major American institutions, try to manipulate the emotional states of the working class in order to pacify them.

Back in the 24th Century the Republic of Brazil was little more than a puppet of the United States, their entire government run by American corporations. The Brazilian portion of the Seventh Fleet found the past version of their homeland was completely independent. Their arrival was seen as a possible means of making their nation a great power to equal the reigning powers.

Brazil today is a borderline military dictatorship with a paranoid, authoritarian and fairly xenophobic society. Fear of the United States, based on the warnings from their portion of the Seventh Fleet, led to Brazil's rapid and desperate industrialisation and development of advanced technology based on their surviving arsenal. Their lack of infrastructure compared to the contemporary great powers did disadvantage, much them India and China, which took a long time to rectify. However Brazil has become a formidable power. Brazil is still rather isolationist and xenophobic, focusing more on defending what they already possess whilst carefully extending their own influence and power into the rest of the Western Hemisphere and a few other areas.

Brazil itself is rather stratified, the ruling class composed of military and industrial elite dominate the government. There is a parliament but it is a one party system, specifically the party that the Seventh Fleet supported in their early rise to power. Brazilian society is dominated by a class system with the majority of the population living as a working class. As one of the more backward powers their automated systems are also more primitive than the Reich, US and Commonwealth. Human life is often regarded as cheaper than automated systems so dangerous or strenuous work is often carried out by human workers in order to avoid damaging or stressing more delicate machinery. Brazil is post-racial now but is very elitist, much like the United States. Government propaganda tends to focus more on the threat that the United States hypothetically poses but the Third Reich is also considered one of their mortal enemies. Trade with the United States is strictly forbidden though this doesn't stop smuggling.

The Indian segment of the Seventh Fleet was the first to cut their ties. Killing any non-Indian personnel on their portion of the flotilla they immediately headed for the subcontinent. Enraged at the existence of the Raj, an entity they were all raised to see as the ultimate degradation, they landed in several major cities and immediately began massacring British soldiers, colonists and governors they could find. They were able to find several key figures in the growing independence movement and tried to cooperate with them. Gandhi disappeared shortly after their attempts to control him via telepathy failed. The fight for independence quickly became a bloodbath as the beleaguered British forces were overrun. The members of the Seventh Fleet essentially took charge of the entire independence movement. It was only through the intervention of the Commonwealth portion of the Seventh Fleet that any of the Raj could be salvaged. After that the new Indian state began to expand and industrialise itself. The new leadership intended to turn their nation into the superpower they always believed it was meant to be.

By 2014 India is a massive industrial and military complex. The current ideology is an esoteric mixture of different ideas that has been combined into a strange and totalitarian amalgam. Based somewhat on military ranks, a strict class system dominates Indian society. The caste system has been integrated into the military and tends to determine an individuals position in the army. Every citizen is given a military rank and is susceptible to conscription. Mass conscription of communities is common though soldiers selected in this manner are usually put on a rota system that ensures they can return to their civilian lives in order to continue working their jobs or raising families. Like it's 24th Century counterpart the Muslim portions of the Raj remained united to the rest of India and have been subjected to the militarised caste system as well. The entire edifice of the Indian Republic is kept unified by Anglophobic propaganda, general xenophobia and a thorough indoctrination via the state run education system. Like the Third Reich, India has a specialised breeding program for their telepathic population.

Technologically India is one of the more backward states having been denied the more advanced forms of 24th Century technology that was available to more prominent Allied states like the USA and the Commonwealth. The Raj's insufficient infrastructure also held them back. Their modernisation program was horrific and cost millions of lives. However India is now a major industrial state. Their industry is mostly devoted to supplying their war effort and monitoring the population. Tasteless vat grown nutrient substitutes keep the populace fed but otherwise poverty is rife in the Indian Republic.

Like India the Chinese portion of the Seventh Fleet rapidly abandoned the rest and sped to the contemporary version of their homeland. Like the Brazilians the Chinese had experienced what their homeland had become and, other plans aside, intended to prevent that from happening. The commander of the Chinese portion of the flotilla was able to successfully take complete control over his subordinates and organise a plan for what they intended to do on Earth. Like the Indians they made various demonstrations over major cities and fought in various existing battlefields against the Japanese. The Kuomintang were overthrown and the Seventh Fleet's Chinese contingent took control, to many people's relief as they were able to force back the Japanese, at least until the Seventh Fleet's Japanese contingent intervened. After that the Chinese turned to rebuilding the nation, hunting down various dissidents, including Mao's Communists and began to turn China into the nation they wanted it to be.

The Chinese government of the 24th Century was a strange entity, born from the conflict of the Second World War and the subsequent struggles for power that took place afterwards. It was a combination of features from socialism and traditional monarchism that was wholly oppressive. The Seventh Fleet's Chinese contingent has successfully transplanted this ideology onto 1940's China.

The People's Empire of China is, like it's 24th Century version, a strange nation. The confusing ideology that was brought along with the Seventh Fleet has since been harshly applied to the Republic. Under the orders of their new emperor the nation has undergone rapid industrialisation, a gruelling and dangerous process that claimed millions of lives. Despite their best efforts only small portions of the nation actually have 24th Century technology. Most of the nation is still forced to subsist through less advanced technology ranging from 20th Century to 22nd Century levels. Even then the distribution of such technology is very limited and inconsistent. The socialist features of the new government enforce strict equality in both distribution and production. This has caused millions of deaths due to certain individuals being more naturally talented at certain jobs. Poverty is common throughout the Empire and is in fact enforced in many areas due to their policies. The Emperor is the symbol of the state and also holds the Mandate of Heaven which has been reworked into a idea that grants the monarchy both the blessings of Heaven and the will of the proletariat, allowing them an immense amount of ideological power. The telepathic officers of the Chinese contingent form the new aristocracy, spreading the new ideology through telepathic suggestions to reinforce the educational indoctrination that is applied to the entire population. Newly born active telepaths are taken from their families as soon as their abilities are detected and adopted by the government in order to train them for their sacred duty to the state.

The Japanese contingent fought long and hard to escape the clutches of the Americans in the Seventh fleet and were able to secure a flotilla of their own. They had all been brought up in a homeland that had been culturally purged and knew the history of what happened to their nation in their own history. However, like all Japanese they had also learnt the secret histories that had challenged the propaganda that their education systems had all forced on them. Seeing their nation as an independent and vibrant culture they all immediately rushed to rescue it from the same fate their homeland had suffered. Appearing over the capital in Tokyo they offered their allegiance to the Emperor and immediately moved to support Japanese armies that were struggling in China.

By 2014 Japan has changed. The Japanese contingent was surprised at what they discovered in 1940. This version of their homeland was a vibrant culture with ideas and fashions that they had never seen before. However at the same time their nation was a nation that, whilst very backward compared to the homeland they were familiar with, was just as militarised. It is still highly militant and imperialistic but certain things have changed. Stuck between the Third Reich, China and the United States, the Japanese have been forced to change their policies regarding their empire. Over the decades they have moved to assimilate their colonial subjects, educating them in a similar manner to Japanese citizens. Non-Japanese are still forbidden from settling in the Home Islands are rarely permitted high office. It is in the Japanese settler colonies that the new attitudes have taken root the most due to more exposure to the other peoples of the empire.

Society in general is militarised due to their precarious situation in the Pacific and most of society is devoted to making the empire self-sufficient through technology. Labourers toil to advance the infrastructure and reverse engineer the technology of the Seventh Fleet or adapt what they have already achieved to their advantage. Traditional sexism is still commonplace across the empire and is enforced through the indoctrination of the education system. In the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Japanese are a ruling class that often receive advantages in the other nations of the GEACPS. The education efforts to Nipponicize the indigenous populations of the rest of the GEACPS are viewed as a mission to civilize these people much in the same manner as 'The White Man's Burden'.

An exception in this tortured world, surprisingly is the cosmopolitan Commonwealth of Nations. Back in the 24th Century the Commonwealth had been forced to become pragmatic in the face of such a hostile world and their very diverse empire led to some very different developments when compared to the rest of the world. When the Seventh Fleet disbanded the Commonwealth contingent also saw an opportunity to change the world in a way they thought would be both necessary and advantageous. Led by acting commander Vincent Windsor-Lorraine-Hapsburg (a long story), the principle tactician of his age, the Commonwealth Fleet separated and headed to important locations throughout the British Empire, hoping to spread the importance of their message as far as possible. It took a lot of time to convince the people of the British Empire and it was only because of the arrival of the other fleets that they were convinced of the importance of the Commonwealth contingent's plans and their support.

The Commonwealth had to work fast and it took the endless work of military leaders from across the British Empire and the Commonwealth contingent to hold the empire together and ward off the other major states. The Raj was their biggest disaster but the monstrosity that India turned into finally stressed just how important cohesion was in the face of so many enemies.

Whilst still militant by necessity the Commonwealth is democratic and rather liberal by this world's standards. The Commonwealth contingent of the Seventh Fleet stressed the importance of integrating the many peoples and cultures of the British Empire into a new multicultural entity. They began with the army by forming new units that mixed together people from a variety of locations and origins. New policies involving upgrading infrastructure, promoting immigration (a hard one to convince people to accept) and the removal of racial barriers have helped transform the British Empire. The loss of the Raj is in fact what saved the Commonwealth as fears of ending up dominated by India disappeared with India's secession.

Overall the Commonwealth is highly cosmopolitan as immigration policies has allowed the population of the Commonwealth to mix. Food from Asia are commonplace in Britain and Canada whilst European fashions can be found across Africa. The 24th technology the Commonwealth contingent brought along has been reverse engineered like the US, Japan and the third Reich which has helped the development of Britain's former colonies. French Africa was also absorbed in order to prevent the US and Third Reich from spreading their influence into it. By this point all of the old colonies have been developed to sufficient levels for self-governance. Certain areas are still more advanced and the distribution of technology has been rather dependant on political priorities but there is a minimum standard of living that the Commonwealth tries to adhere to. The Commonwealth closely guards its borders against infiltration by American and Nazi operatives but is on amicable terms with the more agreeable Brazilians and Japanese. Telepaths in the Commonwealth are still registered for the sake of national security and placed in special training institutions.

The Commonwealth is one of most involved powers when it comes to extraterrestrial possessions. In an effort to preserve some semblance of order in the case of catastrophic warfare the Commonwealth is trying to build up as much infrastructure as possible.

Technology has been forcibly accelerated by the actions of the Third and Seventh Fleets. Military technology received the most focus as every faction sought to either recover the weaponry they used to have in the 24th Century or create new ones. Coil-guns have been developed by all factions and have replaced other ballistic weapons whilst rail-guns are now standard artillery weaponry. Most forms of aircraft have been rendered obsolete by missile technology and other anti-aircraft weapons. Flak armour is being phased out by derivatives of 24th Century protective equipment. Metallic power armour for elite soldiers is equipped with specialised nanotechnology that automatically repairs most damages. Energy deflector shielding is still difficult to build but some ocean going battleships and spacecraft are equipped with primitive models of deflector shields. Even in the 24th Century AI required human supervision, the tendency to turn sentient often putting off developers looking for effective weapons.

Civilian technology is much more backward. Every state has advanced surveillance technology to support the telepathic efforts of many factions. Optical scanners and a variety of other sensory machines are built into CCTV cameras everywhere supported by primitive and massive artificial intelligence systems that organise it all. Food substitutes and nutrient cultures help feed populations around the world, albeit in a tasteless fashion. Attempts to alleviate resource demands have led to the development of highly intensive refining, recycling and extraction methods to make nations as self-sufficient as possible. Space travel was quickly redeveloped, mostly as a means of gaining miltary advantages over other states. More important issues on Earth have kept the great powers from actually settling on the various off-world facilities that have been built. Military and mining installations are the most developed extraterrestrial possessions of every faction.