Some "early" backstory that I made.

MasterChief096 · 2011-10-22, 04:31 PM

So I read the latest back-story update about humanity's resource wars and decided to type up a little something that goes further back into earth's history regarding the beginning of these wars. Far enough back in fact to be applicable to modern times. The story starts in 2046. Read it, and choose to accept it as early history of PlanetSide or not, but its completely for fun and its quite interesting (I think). I'm considering contacting SOE and seeing if they would be interested in publishing this on a wiki or on their website as canon in the future if they (and perhaps you) think its worthy.

The Beginning

The year 2046 marked a savage age for humankind. It was in this year that the last of the world’s fossil fuel reserves were on the brink of depletion. Skyrocketing fuel prices rendered nearly 900 million motorized vehicles worldwide useless. Energy companies failed to provide citizens around the globe with reliable power. Petro based fertilizers became non-existent and thus agricultural production plummeted. So-called “modern day” humans reverted to savagery, rioting, and looting.

The last of the world’s fuel reserves became top national interests. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea struck first. Around the globe, previous hegemons were struggling with holding their nations together, and preventing complete and total societal collapse. Even before the energy crisis, North Korea had suffered from daily countrywide blackouts. Seeing the communications breakdown in the United States and her allies, North Korea (secretly backed with Chinese supplies and material goods) preemptively struck its southern counterpart. The People’s Republic of China, with North Korean symbols painted on its aircraft, obliterated the DMZ with no warning. The United States withdrew its remaining forces to Japan and decided not to intervene in the DPRK’s conquest of South Korea.

The North Korean victory was, however, futile. As worldwide resources became ever rarer, their nation eventually collapsed into complete and total anarchy. The Kim regime had been the first targets, by both the military and the people. China decided to intervene and to stop the chaos and instituted a puppet government loyal to the People’s Republic. During the conflicts ravaging North Korea, China was fighting its own internal problems. The lack of fossil fuels globally meant that China could not sustain its massive population. Everyone deemed “unfit” was systematically executed. Over 350 million Chinese were killed, all foreigners extradited, and another 200 million forced to work in factories and labor zones at bare minimum nutrition.

Similar genocides happened elsewhere in the world. India dubbed its exterminations as “riot control”. Autocrats were rising to power even in traditionally democratic countries. The United States amended its constitution to allow for immediate presidential action, the people were in full support. Although no genocide happened within the USA, the actions the US government and military would commit around the globe were monstrous. Taking full advantage of global chaos, Islamic extremists managed to claim and detonate a 400Kt nuclear weapon in the heart of Israel. The Middle East became a stomping ground. Thousands flocked to the causes of extremists and thousands more to autocrats promising a better world.

Shortly after the outburst of unprecedented violence in the Middle East, the US, China, and the EU banned together and simultaneously invaded this entire region to secure oil and fossil fuel assets. Saudi Arabia was the staging ground for the EU and the USA, whereas China defeated Iran and used it as its primary base of operations. All three nations subjugated citizens of this area into forced labor, and killed millions more. Massive amounts of refugees fled into Africa and north toward Russia, which had re-occupied Central Asia for the limited fuel reserves there. The Russian Federation had decided to not join the other three powers and instead focus on reclaiming its former satellites with fossil fuel potential. Through legal means, Ukraine blended back into the Russian Federation, the benefit of which was mass genocide of the Ukrainian population with the survivors being forced to work its vast agricultural fields to feed the Russian population.

Africa was ironically doing the best in the world. Despite several nations being invaded by the second “Triple Alliance”, most rural Africans had been used to living without the need of petro-based products for centuries. Only the major African cities saw mass starvation and chaos, with the rural regions being largely undisturbed. Subsistence farming that had worked in the past, was working still. Former rebel groups and paramilitary organizations butchered and massacred any city folk that tried to make their way into the countryside to take part in subsistence agriculture. The massive resource cost of occupying the Middle East kept US, EU, and Chinese interference at bay. Religious extremism and disease were Africa’s greatest threats. With no modern medicinal treatments or organizations operating on the continent, millions more than previous were dying of disease. Extremist groups relocated to the African continent to escape eventual death at the hands of the second Triple Alliance.

With little technological progress happening at this stage, the end of humanity seemed inevitable. As resources became further depleted, the second Triple Alliance eventually crumbled. The United States had proposed a plan to invade the Russian Federation to the People’s Republic of China, though it was a ruse. When China had its forces mobilized to invade Russia through Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and its own border, the United States launched a surprise nuclear attack on Chinese military formations. US bombers launched the most massive air raid in human history from the island of Japan, which eviscerated Chinese industry and communications. With no other option, China withdrew everyone from the Middle East and returned home, eventually crumbling into anarchy. Millions more Chinese died from the coming starvation, rioting, and petty power squabbles. Simultaneously the United States had fabricated sufficient evidence to place blame for the nuclear attack on the European Union. The Russian Federation, being the biggest victim of the fallout, promptly invaded Eastern Europe. With the two powers locked in a struggle, the USA finally controlled all of the Middle East’s oil assets.

Oil production had been on the decline since the beginning of the conflict in 2046. It was now the year 2052. The last of the Middle East’s reserves were pumped from the ground. Europe was ravaged by war. Estimated worldwide casualties not only from armed conflict, but from the plummet of agricultural production, and the depletion of the substance that provided modern society with a means of existing, was estimated at around 5 billion (from a total 7.2 billion in 2046). At this moment, the United States had decided to start pumping its own continental and Alaskan oil reserves (which it had been keeping a secret for decades). Seeing the potential for the end of modern civilization, the United States devised a plan to save it. The first step was population control in the US itself. A child policy was instituted that placed a one-child limit on every family with no children, and a zero child policy on every family with one or more children. A monthly electronic census was created. If the population exceeded expected projections, a no child period was put into effect immediately, until enough people died to once again allow for the previous policy.

The next step the US government took was to militarily evacuate any intellectuals left in the world regarding a varying range of scientific fields, primarily renewable energy. Since the start of global chaos in 2046, the USA had been forcefully kidnapping and evacuating the world’s brightest individuals and keeping them “prisoner” in the continental United States. Most of these people willingly went with the US, to be part of what was to be dubbed “Operation Resilience”. The population of the United States hovered at approximately 400 million. Refugees from several military conflicts south of the US were executed on sight. There was no food to feed extra mouths. The US military was ruthless in preventing excess population from entering the nation. The “Safeguarding” Act was passed allowing citizens to form paramilitary-type organizations that helped patrol the borders.

Over the next five years, the world population dropped to roughly 800 million globally. 400 million of which were in the US. Their existence was made possible by vicious US military action around the globe to seize vital natural resource deposits. Nearly 100% of the world’s scientific community was located in the US, seeking a fast solution to the energy crisis. Strict regulations were put into effect in the USA, which included food rations, and maximum factory production to not quickly deplete the remaining US oil reserves. Scientists worked non-stop to perfect a form of solar energy that utilized 150% more energy from the sun than current solar panels. Similar research was done in the fields of hydrogen and nuclear fusion. Had the world known that the depletion of oil was so near, perhaps it could have had time to switch to nuclear power and renewable energy to avoid such a calamity.

Two years later, the solar field saw its breakthrough. Another three and nuclear fusion became virtually completely safe and harmless. It was to usher in an age of rebuilding. This reconstruction of the world, spearheaded by the United States, was not to be free of American goals, however. Certain actions in the future would ultimately plunge humanity back into another resource war, one that would be just as severe if not even more deadly.

Death2All · 2011-10-22, 05:03 PM

Nerd.

Vash02 · 2011-10-22, 05:14 PM

You ignored the fact that quite alot of countries have nuclear weapons themselves and for some reason China/Russia didnt see the massive amounts of bombers/missiles coming from the east.
Also that china didnt reveal that it was a US plan to invade Russia.
also that Russia wouldnt be able to see the military build up by the US and China.

Some big holes there.

MasterChief096 · 2011-10-22, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Vash02

You ignored the fact that quite alot of countries have nuclear weapons themselves and for some reason China/Russia didnt see the massive amounts of bombers/missiles coming from the east.
Also that china didnt reveal that it was a US plan to invade Russia.
also that Russia wouldnt be able to see the military build up by the US and China.

Some big holes there.

Firstly you aren't taking into consideration that the full details of the things happening around the globe at this time aren't being fully elaborated on. This is partly because I am writing a novel based on the effects of prematurely running out of oil, that is running out before we've adopted sustainable alternatives beforehand. Could more nuclear weapons have been detonated? Sure. Did I mention this? Not at the moment.

Secondly the idea of MAD is still holding true for most nations. The nuclear attacks launched by the US were in the middle east and so did not effect anyone other than people in the mid-east and Russia (oh and the Chinese). Seeing as how Russia saw the EU as responsible, is it possible that the EU and Russia nuked each other to bits? Perhaps.

Thirdly, China was in no position to reveal to the EU that it was a US plan. Their communications we're effectively severed in one swift swoop by the United States and their military for the most part destroyed. You're forgetting that at this point its becoming hard to find fuel for producing a plastic water bottle let alone maintaining modern day communications systems. Once the US kicked out China from the mid-east they were boned, hence why they proceeded to descend into anarchy. Once again, Russia not noticing the military build-up could be attributed to lack of resources and thus not being able to run high-tech level reconnaissance. Remember that by this time a lot of Russia's oil reserves have been depleted.

The build-up of US forces on the East could be attributed to "defending China's eastern flank versus a Russian counterattack" or "assisting China by knocking out Russian military installations in the east".

I think you are making me elaborate a bit more than I intended to. You should just take it at face value and use your imagination to fill in the holes in the plot. I love how there are more holes in the current PS2 backstory then there are in the movie Holes and yet you don't seem to be trying to call them out on it. The entire earth simultaneously ending war and uniting? boy that sounds like a pretty big hole to me.

My advice, the piece of writing above is meant to reinforce a science fiction back-story and shouldn't be read that far into.

Vash02 · 2011-10-22, 07:31 PM

The PS2 stories are that, stories from the point of view of individual people. They are not historical documents like yours is.

humanity uniting to face an alien threat? plausible.

Nations flinging out long term thinking? inplausible.
Oil being the only means to generate energy? inplausible. (not even true now)
The US being able to take out an entire nation before they could retaliate or even get a message out? MASSIVELY INPLAUSIBLE.

You go into great detail in parts of the story but then expect us to gloss over massive holes in your story? thumbs down.

Lonehunter · 2011-10-22, 07:37 PM

There's a fan fiction forum for this, I'd really like to see it take off again but it won't happen if people don't use it.

NewSith · 2011-10-22, 08:08 PM

I expected the "an elite squad of USMC was sent to stabilize the situation in the sector" line and a description of helicopter briefing scene throughout the text...

Awesome text.
From my angle: Russia has multiple rivers that run through the country, and those are mostly not situated North due to... well, water freezing. Thus most of the electricity natural resource (running water) also lies at mid-east Russia. Nuking it away contaminating water and all around it means certain end for Russia as a world-wide competitive country, as only areas alongside rivers will be habitable in out-of-fuel scenario. The only alternate resource in that case is natural gas. It's not that good for usage, due to much quicker drain compared to gas. In the end lack of resourcing will slowly pull Russia back to absolute monarchy times, leaning it more to imperialism and siding with western countries.

NewSith · 2011-10-22, 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by Vash02

humanity uniting to face an alien threat? plausible.

Nations flinging out long term thinking? *plausible.
Oil being primary means to generate energy? *plausible.*
The US being able to take out an entire nation before they could retaliate by a nicely orchestrated betrayal? *PLAUSIBLE.

I pointed out things with red.

About taking out a nation: Should I remind you about Star Wars (no, not the movie) and the US missile defence systems in Europe? Everything's possible, my friend.

MasterChief096 · 2011-10-22, 08:26 PM

Originally Posted by Vash02

The PS2 stories are that, stories from the point of view of individual people. They are not historical documents like yours is.

humanity uniting to face an alien threat? plausible.

Nations flinging out long term thinking? inplausible.
Oil being the only means to generate energy? inplausible. (not even true now)
The US being able to take out an entire nation before they could retaliate or even get a message out? MASSIVELY INPLAUSIBLE.

You go into great detail in parts of the story but then expect us to gloss over massive holes in your story? thumbs down.

@Lone - Great suggestion, I shall post it up there. Didn't see that forum :/

@NewSith - I like it.

@Duke - I agree with the adjective statement, however I was trying to make this a historical account (I'm looking at you vash, yes you. I'm TRYING to make this a historical account).

@Vash

1. Please develop something called your imagination. The very idea of wormholes have holes in their theories. So please, spare me the ad hominem arguments.

2. Oil is not the only means to generate energy, I know that. Maybe if you had read my story instead of just attacking me as a person, you'd know that. The primary cause for the conflict in the above post is not adapting to better forms of energy BEFORE the eventual depletion of oil. Troll harder.

3. "Not a historical document like yours is" - since when did I have to write stories like "the other ones". Is there room for creativity on this board or am I missing something?

4. The US has taken out an entire nation in a few days before, in 2046 perhaps we have the technology to do it better? You keep forgetting that this conflict is happening when worldwide fuel resources are becoming more scarce, making it hard for armed forces and nations to function properly while dealing with massive riots, looting, genocide, and not being able to fuel their vehicles and power their satellites, communications networks, etc. China is in a far worse position than the US at this point, having had to butcher hundreds of millions of their own people to avoid collapse.

And so what if China did get a message out to he EU? Who's better friends? The EU and China or the EU and the US? Who's more ideologically similar? You think the EU is just going to declare war on the USA because China sends a message saying, "Hey, the US nuked us!"

Oh boy my story sucks because there's other forms of energy out there! Then why the hell int he PS2 backstory did earth fight shit loads of futile wars over "dwindling natural resources." Surely 400 years from now they would have had better solutions and what not! May I please ask you to redirect your flaming to whoever is writing the PS2 back story instead of singling me out.

May I once again point to this being a precursor to a sci-fi story.

There's always option B. Don't expend the meager amounts of energy in calories required to click on the thread and read the story. Thank you, have a nice day.

- Edit: May I add that this is only part one of what I plan to make into full accounts of what happened from here leading up to the "wars" that are fought that eventually form the Terran Republic.

Traak · 2011-10-23, 01:08 AM

Originally Posted by Lonehunter187

There's a fan fiction forum for this, I'd really like to see it take off again but it won't happen if people don't use it.

Problem is, how many people ever visit that part of the forum?

Lonehunter · 2011-10-23, 01:55 AM

Originally Posted by Traak

Problem is, how many people ever visit that part of the forum?

I do when ever I see it has new posts, and I bet others would if more/good material started showing up. How often do people visit the AGN forum? Tech? PSU News? General Gaming? Not very often, but I don't want to get rid of them because if we did the few topics that did go there would only end up here, and overflood it with off topic things.

cellinaire · 2011-10-23, 03:35 AM

Yeah, surely the writers at SOE didn't show all things with these 'backstory' and 'diary', but anyway I really hope they have done enough research to back up their story(to make them plausible). so far it's getting better I think. =)

And I'd also like to see 'fan-fiction' category made in this forum and the devs pay attention to these fan-made stories.

MasterChief096 · 2011-10-23, 01:58 PM

Originally Posted by cellinaire

Yeah, surely the writers at SOE didn't show all things with these 'backstory' and 'diary', but anyway I really hope they have done enough research to back up their story(to make them plausible). so far it's getting better I think. =)

And I'd also like to see 'fan-fiction' category made in this forum and the devs pay attention to these fan-made stories.

I agree a PlanetSide 2 Fan-Fiction forum is necessary! That way I don't have to post this here and only the people who want to read it can read it.

EASyEightyEight · 2011-10-23, 02:40 PM

I have to agree with plot holes. It was an interesting read, don't get me wrong, but also felt like some aspects were forced for the drama. This didn't feel very thought out.

Like mentioned, I would expect if one nation is about to go down in flames, they would launch nuclear warheads at the guys that just bombed their armed forces into oblivion seemingly in a single night, making no where a great place to live, and sustaining 400m people in the US would be VERY difficult then.

Either the US becomes the TR at the end of all this, or we're just trying to make them look like the bad guys for once.

BTW, can we get a good, detailed look at the Gauss rifle and the MAG-Scatter pistol? I got's an idea of my own...

MasterChief096 · 2011-10-23, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by EASyEightyEight

I have to agree with plot holes. It was an interesting read, don't get me wrong, but also felt like some aspects were forced for the drama. This didn't feel very thought out.

Like mentioned, I would expect if one nation is about to go down in flames, they would launch nuclear warheads at the guys that just bombed their armed forces into oblivion seemingly in a single night, making no where a great place to live, and sustaining 400m people in the US would be VERY difficult then.

Either the US becomes the TR at the end of all this, or we're just trying to make them look like the bad guys for once.

BTW, can we get a good, detailed look at the Gauss rifle and the MAG-Scatter pistol? I got's an idea of my own...

Those questions are easily answered.

1. China was in no position to coordinate a nuclear strike, after having been nuked themselves and their communications in complete disarray from a massive bombing campaign (keep in mind the US and China had been allied up until this point, meaning the US would have some intel on Chinese communications installations), on top of fighting massive riots and uprisings within their own country as a result of genocide and mass slave labor. The combined weight of these effects on top of trying to manage the logistics of squeezing out the last fuel reserves you had access to (which after the US campaign would have been none), caused the complete and total collapse of China making a nuclear retaliation improbable. Not impossible seeing as I guess a rogue Chinese official could have launched a nuke or two, but highly improbable. Also, being the year it is, its entirely possible China did launch a few nukes in retaliation which were simply disabled by 2046-52 surface-to-air or space-to-air anti-missile platforms.

2. I agree that sustaining 400m people in the US is a hard thing to do (although we are at around 320m if I recall correctly right now). I added the extra 80m to account for population growth by the year this all takes place. Keep in mind though that there are strict regulations within the US at this time regarding food rations, energy consumption, and supply rations. That over-consumptive American way of life (you know, the average american consumes 34x the amount of energy as the average chinese citizen) has completely disappeared during this conflict meaning that supply, food, and energy stocks are efficiently utilized by the nations citizens. Its amazing what a totalitarian government can achieve in terms of efficiency, if only for a short time.

You must also take into consideration that the United States (in addition to finally pumping its own oil reserves) is exploiting the shit out of every beneficial region on the globe at this point with its military power and committing atrocities that are unimaginable all for the sake of making these rations back in the continental US possible. The whole purpose of pitting Russia versus the EU was to ensure that less interference would be seen from outside powers in regards to this exploitation.

Yes America is kind of a bad guy in this story, but I prefer to think of it as doing what you have to do in order to preserve and carry on the mantle of human society. As the end of the back-story suggests, Operation Resilience succeeds and new technological breakthroughs are achieved, which can restore the world back to order and allow for exponential population growth again. However, whether it is the US that becomes the Terran Republic or not is unknown at this point, as I also allude to future resource wars being fought, which makes the connection to the current PS2 backstory that was posted from that guys diary to his daughter.