From the Ashes
Outlining the state of Alternate Earth in February 2007, six months after the events of World in Flames.
Destroyer Thwarted
In August 2006, members of the New League of Heroes and their allies tracked Doctor Destroyer to his base on an uninhabited Arctic island and stopped his plans to kill 9 out of every 10 human beings on AltEarth unless world leaders declared him Earth's undisputed monarch. Destroyer's device was destroyed, but the archvillain managed to escape with his minion Gamma.
At the same time, Dementia and Psyche stopped Destroyer's allies, Menton and the traitorous hero Brainchild from mind-controlling world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York. Aided by Destroyer's agents, the villainous mentalists both escaped.
These events are treated in more detail in the concluding episode of the City of Secrets campaign.
Superhuman World
Fallen Heroes
AltEarth's heroes may have stopped Destroyer's plan, but they paid a terrible price. Many lost comrades and friends.
Other Heroic Headlines
- The original Doctor Destiny has and passed on his mantle, and mystic helmet to the heroine formerly known as Seven. He has also stepped down from his position on the executive council of the New League of Heroes.
- The Watch has disbanded. The team was established by the federal government as a pilot program for Sen. Maxwell's (aka Captain Freedom)proposal to assign each major U.S. city a Special Talents and Abilities Team (STAT). The furure of the STAT program is now in doubt.
- Distraugt by his failure to save his teammate Cyclone, the Fletcher Ackerman has given up the legacy of the Bowman. He has, however, adopted a new identity, Red Arrow. Leaving Millennium City, he is now constantly on the move, a driven and solitary hunter of the most world's most dangerous supervillains.
Escaped Villains
New Superprison Opens
The Mountain
United States
Satellite Network Restored
West Africa in Warlord’s Clutches
Taking advantage of the chaos following Destroyer's foiled plot and a variety of international crisis, Warlord gained control over much of the coastal region of Western Africa (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Cote d'Ivoire). He has ejected UN aid workers and troops as well as foreign new organizations and NGOs.
The Warlord applied both political and military pressure (actually occupying the Guinean capital with troops from his Shadow Army) to these nations to join the newly-established Federation of Free Nations (FFN). It soon became clear that although each country retained its national identity, its political leaders served the interests (and at the pleasure of) the Warlord.
Firestorm in Asia
Nuclear Crisis
Large-scale, U.S.-led humanitarian operations continue in Southeast Asia following a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan. The world reacted with shock and horror to the use of nuclear weapons on Jodhpur and Hyderabad. Despite the relief effort, which began in December 2006, civilians on both sides are still suffering horribly.
Compounding the problem, Islamist groups in Pakistan have been inciting violence against foreign soldiers. The groups object to the joint U.S./U.N. presence in the country, refering to it as a "Western imperial occupation."
Background
After the events of World in Flames, the conventional conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir reached a new level. In November 2006, Pakistan detonated a small fission bomb on an Indian armored formation in an unpopulated area of the desert border region. India responded by launching a two-weapon nuclear attack on a Pakistani airbase.
Pakistan then attacked the Indian city of Jodhpur with a 20 kiloton(kt) weapon. India then bombed Hyderabad with a 200kt weapon. In the fact of this catastrophic attack, Pakistan offered a cease-fire, which India accepted in December 2006.
China Stands Down
As a result of intense diplomatic pressure from the U.S. and Japan, the shock of the world's first use of a nuclear weapons on a civilian population, and an cessation to hostilities between India and Pakistan, China and the rogue state of Taiwan end their air and naval clashes for control of the Taiwan state (also essentially a limited proxy war for India and Pakistan).
Oligarchy Restored in Atlantis
Those loyal to the aristocratic caste that has traditionally ruled Atlantis suppressed a low-caste, anti-surface revolution that was supported (and in part orchestrated) by Doctor Destroyer. Without Destroyer's continued support following his defeat, military forces loyal to the revolution were eventually defeated by those loyal to the Atlantean aristocracy. The loyalist forces were also aided by some members of the New League of Heroes, led by Man O War.
The re-established oligarchy (usually staunchly isolationist) has made some diplomatic overtures to the United Nations, hoping perhaps to repair some of the damage done to relations with surface governments (chilly at the best of times) during the events of World in Flames; elements of the Atlantean military loyal to the revolutionaries had attacked surface naval forces.
Iraq
As the conflict in Iraq continues to worsen, public support in the U.S. for the war plummets. President Meade's Secretery of Defense resigns. In January of 2007, the death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reaches 3,000. Also in January, 2,000 Iraqi civilians are killed, a new monthly high. In the same month, President Meade calls for 20,000 additional troops to be deployed.
In February, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq declares Iraq is worse than a civil war. The document states that the term civil war “accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict,” though it “does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict.”
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