This back story continues from the end of Cold War between UE and FE
Taken from “The Definitive History of the Planet Earth, Volume II – The Middle Era: Struggle for Planethood.”
This excerpt deals with first contact and the Hot War.
Despite the formation of the World Council, disputes continued between the Islamistan coalition and the Texas coalition. Both groups began to have conferences, ostensibly about trade ties. Eventually the disputes became so heated that Islamistan, India, and Bangladesh withdrew from Free Earth and formed the Pan-Arabian Sea Council (or PAC for short). They revived the UN in Mecca that had created during the founding of FE as a way of keeping minimal ties with Texas open. Only Free Earth and Pan-Arabian Sea Council members were part of this second UN, hereafter referred too as UN-M for United Nations in Mecca.
The World Council adjusted by giving the PAC one of Free Earth’s seats. Islamistan held this seat at the time. Soon after this however, Chechnya, which held one of the two FE seats, withdrew from Free Earth and joined the PAC. This caused Texas to demand Chechnya be removed from the World Council and the seat granted to a Free Earth member. The PAC objected strenuously. Oddly Albania resolved the conflict by withdrawing from Free Earth but declining to hold membership in any organization but UN-M. Texas and Islamistan agreed to allow Albania as neutral country to take Chechnya’s seat semi-permanently, until a better compromise could be worked out. Both Texas and the PAC believed they could sway the votes of Albania in their favor.
*See the World Council Fact Sheet.
Desperate to maintain the legitimacy of FE, Texas launched a Moon mission, almost depleting FE’s funds. They started a colony called New Texas with one city ( a moon base) called Freeport. A major diplomatic dispute began over administration of lunar resources. No UN organization existed for this, meaning there was no neutral body for space exploration. All disputes would have to be resolved in the World Council, which was not set up for the kind of detailed hearings and discussions needed. Switzerland, at this time was neutral and not a member of any world governing body. It was involved only in the old UN organizations. Therefore they led a push to legitimize the UN-M, arguing that if they and a UE representative joined UN-M they could create a space authority that all could agree to. At the same time Albania had been moving to become a Swiss-like neutral and had applied for membership to exiting UN organizations. However they were turned down.
The world now had two UNs (one without any governing body), three world governments, and a rather weak and ineffective World Council. The situation was not resolved but found an uneasy stability for about a decade with fewer lunar disputes than had been expected and an anarchic method for resolving disputes amongst the various world organizations. It was after ten years of this situation that a possible alien transmission was received by SETI. It was garbled, and some scientists asserted the transmission had originated on Earth and been reflected back to us from deep space.
The common transcription of the message was:
“Kan youheuh —– Plee— — Peet — dehntih—“
Scientific consensus agreed there was no harm in sending a reply transmission towards the apparent source. If it was just a reflection no harm could come of it.
The World Council met and decided that Texas, United Earth, the PAC and a non-Texan Free Earth country would each send a delegate to a special conference to discuss the return message. Whilw this may seem like Free Earth was overrepresented, at the time Texas had become more isolationist. The prevailing feeling was that having a Free Earth member would help balance some of the extreme viewpoints of the Texans.
The Space Council turned out to be the first real meeting of the representatives of the four most powerful governments on Earth. As such each sent a diplomat rather than a scientist. They agreed to set up a Space Task Force described as a federation of scientists from all major governments. This decision is often interpreted as United Earth officially recognizing Free Earth, the PAC and Texas as free-standing legitimate governments. The task force did finally agree to and transmit a message, but never received a reply.
Shortly after the Space Task Force began its work, the non-Texas members of Free Earth (Sakha, KN, Kamchatka) began to negotiate with United Earth for membership. These countries felt abandoned by Texas, and it’s actions on the Space Council confirmed their beliefs that Texas saw them more as colonies or dependents rather than allies. Each country feared Texan aggressions. However these nations were still jealous of their sovereignty. Anxious to seize on this moment, the UE offered each country a membership spot with UE without requiring them to join a continental governing body. However, this meant they would not receive official representation when the UE’s Continental Council met. This council consisted of one representative from each continental governing body.
After the Free Earth nations joined UE, the UN-M was dissolved unilaterally by the PAC. This action and the reality that Free Earth had become merely Texas and the New Texas Moon colony, caused the World Council to be revised. The new World Council consisted of one Free Earth representative (either Texas or New Texas in rotation) two PAC members and three United Earth members. Albania was left without any memberships and could not reach an agreement for admission to UE.
In defiance of public opinion, Albania joined Texas in what remained of Free Earth. Texas agreed to all local sovereignty issues that UE would not, as long as Albania ceded all foreign relations and military supervision to Free Earth. Free Earth was run entirely by Texas at this point, so Albania had in effect become a Texan colony like New Texas. The arrangement looked like a Texan Empire which spanned America, Europe and the Moon, answering to no one.
To prop up its legitimacy, Free Earth was reorganized. Each state in Texas was given membership in FE. This had the effect of bolstering the Texan claim to respecting local sovereignty while also giving Texas an overwhelming voice in FE votes.
Membership stood as follows:
Free Earth
“A confederaton of Sovereign States within nations. All independent States united for mutual protection and prosperity.”
Republic of Albania
State of East Texas
State of Nacogdoches
State of West Texas
Republic of New Mexico
Oklahoma Nation
Estado de Norte Mexica
State of Kansas
District of Colorado
District of Wyoming
Republic of New Texas
In reality, Albania had become a state of Texas.
All of this maneuvering is considered by most historians to be a prelude to what is known as the Hot War. But very little information survives from the time of the war itself. Most of what is known from the period between the reorganization of Free Earth and the Conference on World Peace comes from scraps of records and the logs and records of stranded Moon colonists.
Sometime early in this period there was a nuclear exchange between Texas and the PAC. It was the first wartime nuclear explosion since 1947 CE. Little is known of the cause. The events leading up to the explosion related in some way to the PAC exchanging confidential information with UE about Texas. Historians differ on whether it involved trade or weapons or some mixture of the two. What is known is that the dispute centered on Texas use of the Suez Canal which at the time was jointly administered by the PAC and UE. This arrangement had existed under World Council supervision since before PAC had left Free Earth. A Texas representative was included in the administration after the PAC left FE, but in reality this representative was purely symbolic and exerted no influence whatsoever.
The details of the dispute may never be known. In fact first strike responsibility may also never be determined. Lunar diaries from the time were heavily biased towards Texas. Most accounts blame PAC for all strikes and call them unequivocally unprovoked which seems unlikely. Other details are contradictory depending on the source.
Observations of the first strike would have been difficult anyway due to the position of the Moon at the time of the strikes. However we do know that Houston, Austin, Mecca and Hamburg were all destroyed in the first round of exchanges. Researchers are unsure who struck Hamburg or why, though all nuclear strikes originated from either the PAC or Texas. It’s certain UE was not involved.
The picture clears up briefly as lunar accounts become more trustworthy describing hastily called peace conferences in New York and Tokyo. Accounts of the talks amount to vague descriptions of finger-pointing with the general consensus that Texas had taken the worst of the exchange. Several UE reps. led by an emotional German representative from Hamburg (who had not been in the city at the time of the strike) demanded that Texas and the PAC give up control of their remaining nukes to World Council control.
The few surviving accounts of these meetings describe a minor split in the UE delegation with heated debate between the Hamburg-led hard-liners and more moderate members. Then on April 25th the entire Earth went silent. No Terran records survive of that time. Lunar accounts describe not only losing contact with ground bases but also a lack of any radio wave broadcasts. The blackout lasted one week. Then, on May 2, several bright spots were observed in Europe, Asia, and North America. These turned out to be multiple nuclear explosions.
There is no history of Earth for this period, only history of the Moon. For 50 years no contact exited between Earth and the Moon. The New Texas colony was abandoned. Its inhabitants either starved or escaped to a younger but better-stocked United Earth colony, called Luna City or LC. Existing inhabitants of LC scavenged the New Texas colony for parts. The ingenuity of the colonists in keeping their settlement going in a time of great adversity is one of the most inspiring tales in human history. Most of the advancements in hydroponics and cyclogenics we enjoy today were invented on the Moon att his time. See Historical Directions’ History of the Moon for more details.
During the 50 years lights were only seen at night in parts of Australia, South America and Southern Africa. Debates and rumours raged wildly on the Moon. It is impossible to tell fact from fiction in most observations of Earth.
Finally after 50 years a miracle happened. Luna City Comm Officer Leland Higgs, age 62, had been 12 when the blackout occurred. He had helped in the effort to scavenge parts from New Texas, particularly communication gear. He had worked with the Comm officers trying desperately to raise any signal from Earth, breaking Texas encryptions, inventing new ways of boosting signal transmission and reception, and most of all listening. For 50 years he had spent part of every day at a comm post, listening without much hope for a signal from below. And then it happened.
Incoming Message (IM): Moon Base, are you there? Moon Base are you there? New Texas or Luna City, please respond.
Luna City Comm Officer Leland Higgs (LC): Yes! Yes! Is this Earth? This is LC Base Comm Officer Higgs.
IM: LC Base confirmed… this is Earth… Communication Officer E L Jakwar in Melbourne Australia. Do you receive?
LC: Confirmed, Melbourne. I got you… uh, well,…. goddamn, what’s going on?
IM: LC Base, I’m going to hand you over to Council Member AX Philwar. He’s our Secretary of Devitalization. He’s been authorized to fill you in on all the details.
LC: Confirmed Melbourne. Put him on.
IM: Confirmed LC Base…uh… Advised that Council Member Philwar is used to certain formalities.
LC: Confirmed… Melbourne.
(Noise)
Council Member Philwar (CP): Salutes LC. This is CM Philwar I suppose Comm Jakwar told ya all about me.
LC: Yes Sir, Mr. Phil-
CP: Council Member!
LC Yes sir. Council Member.
CP: That distinction means a lot down here son. I’m gonna make this brief. The whole planet answers to Melbourne now. We’ve got water, clean as a whistle, and gas too. We’ve even got a project to reach y’all soon. For now we’ve got a committee representing your interests in Free Earth but we’ll get one of your own down here as soon as possible. That’s about all now. How can we reach the folks over at New Texas?
LC: Well, Council Member, New Texas went out of commission about 45 years ago. It’s only been used fro spare parts since then.
(Noise)
CP: Goddamn that’s just like you! Nothing changed on the Moon huh!? You’ll be forced to make reparations for that. How many did you kill?
(long pause)
LC: Sir, I don’t care who you are, I won’t be pulled into that sort of dialogue. Not now. Not at a time like this. Please retransmit when someone is ready to speak reasonably.
The first contact to the Moon after 50 years was a Melbourne warlord who won the race to achieve broadcasting and claimed the planet answered to him. Council Member AX Philwar’s only mark on post-A civilization was that broadcast. Two months later he was assassinated. When 2nd contact occurred it came from the Collective of Santiago, Chile where a World Council had reconvened.
The Earth’s memory had been wiped out. Nothing remained of the last 50 years but legends. Some took the form of the United Earth’s stand against terrorism and a mad weapon that permanently blocked all communications and blew up the world’s major cities. In other legends the Free Earth led by Texas took a stand for liberty and freedom of the world against that same terrorism. Historians may never know what that last weapon was or who used it.
The oldest person on Earth at the time of contact with the Moon was 45. Second contact from Santiago took the form of desperate plea for information from LC, especially medical information. Only crackpots like AX Philwar were trying to take power by using one or another convenient myth. Most of the world was just trying to dig out from the devastation. Half of the world from somewhere just north of the Tropic of Capricorn was absolutely uninhabitable by humans. Some beings lived in that region but were only discussed with the Moon in veiled references. They may be nothing more than legends themselves. No evidence of human occupation has ever been found.
The Collectives at Santiago, Johannesburg and Sydney cooperated with a World Council of three reps from each “Living Continent”, meeting in Santiago to coordinate policy. Long-range radio transmission had just been brought back into existence. AX Philwar had won the race by stealing a prototype from Sydney, banking on extending his influence to the Moon and then back down on the rest of Earth. No evidence to back his claim of a space program to reach LC has ever been found.
The New World Council faced many such challenges as Philwar but people rarely tolerated them unless they were still cut off entirely from the rest of the planet. With broadcasting restored this became less and less likely as uninhibited data transmission resumed. A major project to rebuild Cities worked to relieve the population pressures on existing Collectives. Eventually habitable regions were put under directorates to organize resources and resettlement. As more Collectives and Cities were reactivated, the Council of Ten was developed and formalized. Our current World Council is the direct descendant of the Council of Ten.
Planet Earth Redevelopment Council Fact Sheet
A rough map of the Earth at the end of redevelopment.
Historians debate when to properly mark the beginning of the Modern Era (ME). The Recovery School places it at the first Earth landing by Luna City officials, 10 years after 2nd contact. The Phase School treats the period between 2nd Contact and North Terran redevelopment as a separate phase between Middle (CE) and Modern (ME) History. Finally, the Reactivation School treats the reactivation of London as the beginning of the Modern Era.
The calendar agrees with the Phase and Reactivation Schools and dates year 1 ME from the reactivation of London. Those are the dates used in the third volume of our series: “The Definitive History of the Planet Earth, Vol. III – The Modern Era: Terra Reborn.”
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