Mischa & Kitsune’s Pre-Rifts Time Line:

2004 to 2020 - African Pandemic. 450 million people die in Africa between 2005 and 2020 from a combination of AIDS, Ebola, and other diseases along with massive warfare. Saharan Desert countries and Mediterranean Littoral countries unaffected and begin pushing their borders south. India will later seize Madagascar and parts of Somalia, while China looks to influence the survivors of the southern nations into a Maoist nation which can, thanks to the mass extinction, easily accept immigrants from grossly overcrowded China, the same reason for the Indian expansion.

2012 - Russo-Ukrainian war. Re-absorption of the Ukraine and Moldavia into Russia.

2012 - United States - India War: Short war, more of a few skirmishes than a true war. United States got involved due to an agreement with Pakistan after having giving bases for U.S. Forces in Pakistan during U.S. attacks on Afghanistan after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center.

2027 - Reformation of the SSSR, though the Premier at the time claims the SSSR cannot truly again be a country until all its former territory is recovered. Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbajikstan join willing.

2029 to 2041 - Mega Damage Revolution: Super Strong materials are developed which make military designs previously operated become obsolete. The power of weapons and explosive are greatly improved around this time as well.

2035 to 2042 - Great Meta-Ebola Pandemic: Meta-Ebola and other diseases devastate south-east Asia and South America and are spread back to Africa by colonists to that now underpopulated land, causing a second epidemic there, as well. By the time it is stopped by medical advances, though some 200 million people have died worldwide from the Great Pandemic, still less than half of the number who had died in the first and over a longer period of time; A tribute to advancing medical science in the Golden Age.

2055 - Guyana becomes a British colony again to avoid being conquered by neighboring states. No war occurs, and hence the Golden Age is felt uninterrupted, but it stays a Golden Age more by gunboat diplomacy preventing open warfare than anything else. Suriname also becomes a colony of the Netherlands for the same reasons again.

2056 - Belize becomes a British Protectorate after the H.M.S. Audacious drives back Soviet built tanks attacking the country's capitol from neighboring communist dictatorships in Central America with her missiles and guns. One example of the "Quiet War" Gunboat Diplomacy that occurred in the Golden Age to prevent major wars.

2057 to 2059 - One of only two actual wars during the Golden Age. The South African Anti-White Pogrom begins after the slaughter of whites in the Transvaal who survived the pandemics in far higher numbers than natives. The Netherlands and Great Britain intervene, while China intervenes on the side of the Neo-Maoist dictator they had installed in South Africa. Chinese intervention is quickly crushed after a brief, bloody naval battle in the Indian Ocean destroy a Chinese resupply convoy to South Africa and it's military escorts. Combat in South Africa goes on for two years, totally devastating the nation. After the Neo-Maoist regime has fallen, the Union of South Africa is reformed as a British Colony.

2072 - Argentine fights the Second Falkland Islands War in trying to gain dominance over Tierra del Fuelgo, the Falkland Islands, and Antarctica. Unable to destroy the British navy in a open fight, the Argentinians resort to nuclear weapons to destroy a British task force. The British are kept from nuclear retaliation only because the USA and the SSR deploy taskforces to the vicinity at once. Surprisingly, it is China that leads a UN motion to "disarm" Argentinia. Combined British, USA and SSSR forces destroy the Argentine navy and much of its airforce and army. Antarctica is divided up between the USA, SSSR, and Britain, with Chile gaining all of Tierra del Fuelgo. Bent on revenge, Argentina begins massive genetic engineering research and a covert nuclear weapons program. This relatively short war is the second of the only two "Conventional" wars that were fought during the Golden Age.

2073 - Unconfirmed reports of clashes between European Union "Tiger" Panzers and SSSR T-95 tanks on the border of Poland are reported in the world media. In reality a small border incident in Poland almost DOES spark a full-blown war between the EU and the SSSR. Although war is averted and there is officially no incident at all, both sides blame the other. A slow and covert but steady buildup of arms begins, and the Poland "non-incident" can be seen as the beginning of the second cold war and the end of the Golden Age.

2075 to 2090 - Era of space exploration: System is extensively explored and mapped by the Soviet Union, European Union, China, Japan, and of course the USA.

2078 - Soviet prototype "Martian City" colony founded on the Antarctic peninsula of Antarctica as a social experiment and prototype for future Martian colonization by the SSSR.

2081 - Construction on Soviet Space Station Laika begins.

2084 - Battle of Guada Marta in South America. When American technological superiority in the form of the Glitter Boy is shown, unproven Soviet conversions and new designs for M.D.C. tanks and other combat vehicles, which, though technologically essentially the same, are not known to be as effective, are begun to be produced in mass quantities to make up for any possible American edge, while they are also sold to any nation with the cash to buy them around the globe, to test the soviet equipment in combat conditions. The Second Cold War gains momentum.

2085 - Soviet Space Station Laika enters service.

2094 - Era of space exploration ends as the Soviet Union militarizes space with orbital satellites and combat capable space planes and arms Laika Station. European Union and USA respond by beginning to develop full-fledged Space Navies.

2095 - U.S.S. Ticonderoga is built in a Top Secret military shipyard in the USA

2096 - The Experimental Arcology of Patagonia city is built, and in response, the Soviet city in Antarctica is greatly expanded, the same for it's population and capabilities, as a response to the experiment to test their own theories. Also, active colonization of Mars is now being seriously considered, including claiming the planet, since treaties are largely defunct with tensions increasing, and the new immigrants to the Soviet Antarctic City are potential immigrants to Mars learning how to survive there, essentially.

2097 - Open warfare breaks out in South America with the Argentinians making major gains into Brazil.

2098 - The Coming of the Rifts: Argentina makes a third grab for the Falklands; Skirmishing and commando raids with the Royal Navy but no actual invasion yet. Nuclear weapons are used by the desperate Brazilians in late November of this year, turning the tide against Argentina; The Argentineans, then desperate, respond with nuclear weapons, but strategic; Brazil also responds, this happening late in the month of December. Around this same time, Terrorists believed to be from India release Bioengineered bacteria in the New York arcology, killing millions. The USA retaliates with nuclear strikes against India. When the Indians detect incoming nuclear missiles, they do not detect the launching ship and assume it was a Chinese submarine. India launches nuclear devices at China and Pakistan in retaliation. China begins a general retaliation, blasting anyone in the area who isn't communist, including Taiwan and Japan. A nuclear missile fails on it's trajectory, however, and impacts in Soviet Mongolia. At the same time, America begins a massive launch of ICBMs against China in retaliation for the destruction of naval bases in Japan. Bizarre events are noted in Japan; There isn't anyone really doing any noting in India, but in the aftermath of the American nuclear strike the first Rifts appear there. The USN Kearsarge, the ship that launched the strike, is caught in the Rifts. The SSSR misinterprets the attack for one against themselves, and thinks of the accidental nuke landing on their territory as a stealth American device to get past their Anti-Ballistic Missile shield. The SSSR launches every single nuclear tipped strategic weapon in it's arsenal, targeting the USA, Canada, the European Union, and Japan's orbital space station, among other lesser targets. The majority of the missiles are shot down by American and European Anti-Ballistic Missile Defensive systems, just like the USA's nuclear missiles are coming in against China, but enough get through to strike both sides that the final catalyst is begun; The rifts explode all across Earth instead of in just limited areas as they had been for the past 27 hours. Surviving American nuclear-armed ships and aircraft make retaliatory strikes for the next three days against the SSSR before their nuclear devices are expended, they give up, or they have been destroyed by monsters from the Rifts or surviving Soviet Naval elements trying to defend the Rodina to the last. Earth is plunged into total chaos and darkness.

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Writeup by Mischa (E-Mail Mischa) and by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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