The Democratic People's Republic of Korea graciously offers to organise the referendum demanded by the Alien Invaders. Clearly we have perhaps the best record on the organisation of voting, not only in the regard that voter participation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is always at nearly 100%, but also given that the result is always at nearly 100% in favor of what our Great Leader knows is best.
Across the world, our fellow people and governments are faced with this communication from the self-titled Hierarchy. The first of its kind, this message of imperialist and colonialist design tries to cloak itself in the language of benevolence. They claim they have come to save us from ourselves. They claim that we will destroy ourselves and are merely the latest in a long list of civilizations to die among the stars. That if we accede to their demands, all will be well.
The Response of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to their demands is this and this alone; No.
We have heard this language of the oppressor before, of those seeking to divide us and sap our strength, to make us servants in our homes. We remember being killed and tortured, being forced into fighting our brothers and sisters as they were bought or deceived. However, we bear the scars from our oppressors proudly. These scars show to all the world, that Vietnam and its people did not only survive but were victorious.
So now we show these scars to the world as a reminder. To those that share our scars, it is a reminder of solidarity, that you are not alone. To those still suffering under the yoke, the bloodletting will be made to stop. To those oppressors, we are stronger than you.
And so, we call to all nations of the world, do not to give in to these oppressors. The world has seen countless millennia of their kind, they are not new in their purpose or motivation. They have come here for themselves, for their own enrichment.
Already we can see the lies in this message of peace. They kill without reason. They warn of collapse as they work to hasten it. They speak of cooperation as they work to divide us. These oppressors from afar will be made to learn that we will not accept their rule.
To this so-called Hierarchy, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam advises this. Leave. Leave while you still hold what little honor and strength you may have. If you are to remain, we promise you this: you will win victories. You will demonstrate your might, your ability to kill. And you will lose. You will have gained nothing and lost much.
To the people of this oppressive regime, we call out to you! We ask you to defect, to fight back! Know that your freedom can be yours if you fight! Arm yourselves with the weapons of the enemy and break the chains that bind you! We do not know your names or your stories, but we share your scars.
To the people of the world, join us in this fight. Together, the oppressors from beyond will like all oppressors, be cast back.
In no uncertain terms does the Republic of Japan reject the 'offer' from the alien invaders. The oppressed nations of the world have not recently won their freedom from imperialist masters so soon only to be placed back under the boot of an interstellar empire. The only thing of worth contained in this communication is that now we can put a name to our enemy.
The Hierarchy is the greatest threat against freedom, democracy and human life since the great fascist alliance of the Axis. It must be fought by all peoples of the world, marching together as one united bloc. Against the alien threat there can be no communist and capitalist, 1st or 2nd or 3rd world. There can only be one united community of humanity. A new arsenal of freedom, ready to cut down the interstellar imperialists as they land.
The Japanese Republic calls upon the Soviet Union, the United States of America, the People's Republic of China and all other nations of the world to put aside their differences and unite as one. All civil wars must but put on ceasefire, all proxy conflicts must stop receiving aide from their masters. We cannot win against the alien threat if we are too busy fighting each other. The supplies and weapons going to these battles, to building up our own armies, is of better use in the hands of the Xenonaut organization.
We call upon the United Nations to host a summit in the face of this communication, this declaration of war upon humanity by the Hierarchy. For its part the government of the Japanese Republic has submitted a bill to the Diet declaring it illegal to be an alien sympathizer and outlawing any party or group that would work with this foe of all mankind.
MEMORANDUM FOR LIMITED DISTRIBUTION (see classification)
SUBJECT: ARMY REORGANIZATION IN THE TIME OF ALIENS
1. This will give you and your staff a high-level understanding of my command intent in implementing plans for the already rumored changes in army-level organization for our service. Details of implementation and other help from my office will be forthcoming. Final policy definition will follow at a future date.
2. This initiative has already been mandated by the President, the Director of National Security, and the Minister of Defense. There will be no reversals of the policy. Do not complain to my office about it again.
3. In confronting the alien threat, our existing series of commands and associated domestic defense deployments are outdated. You have already been engaged in the reforms necessary under the Special Domestic Defense Program, and contributed men to our new task forces. These changes to army headquarters will support the ongoing evolution of our doctrine and operations by reflecting these changes at the structural level.
4. First Army's headquarters will remain the same. Their designated area of operations will be extended significantly southward to encompass the capital region and associated outlying areas.
5. Second Army's headquarters will remain the same. Their designated area of operations will be dramatically reduced to a focus on essential government operations so that they can absorb the responsibility of managing Army operations overseas and some staff officers can be moved to the Third and Fourth Armies.
6. Third Army will begin planning for a new headquarters, to be located where we determine best suits their changed role. Their designated area of operations will be extended significantly southward to encompass the bulk of the interior as well as the northeast coast. They will take on the primary staff responsibility for supporting the Rural Security Office.
7. We will stand up a Fourth Army headquarters, to be located in the southwest. Their designated area of operations will take responsibility for the defense of all southern lowlands and some sections of the interior they can more practically defend than the Third, as well as working with the Navy and Marine Corps to protect outlying islands.
8. Remember: every abduction is a failure. The loss of a single person is an attack that strikes the hearts of millions. Our fight begins and ends there.
General Zia ul-Haq was many things. He was a sycophant. He was a coward. He was a recipient of cronyism, being elevated above more senior generals due to ethnic reasons and the general's ability to kiss ass. The only reason Zia even initiated his coup was upon the strong urging of characters such as General Faisal Ali Chishti all but handing Zia his power and impressing upon the need to take it for the "Greater Good of Pakistan".
The coup was not without opponents. The head of the Air Force and Navy had both sided with Bhutto, giving forewarning to hurry negotiations for a coalition that nevertheless went nowhere. This was the reason for Zia's shakeup of the military shortly after taking power. The so-called "modernisations" involved the downsizing of the Navy and the sale of various of the Air Force's older planes. In their place the Americans would come both jets under the US flag and also the opportunity for those loyal to Zia to advance in the airforce and promote por-american (pro-zia) factionalism through the purchase of the military equipment themselves. The stated reason would be to secure Pakistan against the Sleemo threat and perhaps there was truth to that - Though many would note that Zia's actions had conveniently defanged both of his military opponents.
Yet Zia could not, or would not, entirely replace the legacy of the Bhutto administration. Key figures would remain, by necessity if nothing else. The Islamists alone could not govern and the General's power was shaky, moreso after their wide-ranging and perhaps slightly delegitimising restructuring of the political system of Pakistan. The complete removal of the Presidency with a figurehead monarch empowered Zia and served as a rallying point for Islamists around the world but the domestic political establishment would need to be mollied as a result. Concessions would need to be made with the retaining of prominent figures from Bhutto's reign and further concessions would need to be made to convince these figures to stay. The alien invasion had convinced Zia that Pakistan could not be divided and though Bhutto had to be ejected, not all of the top levels of governance could be ejected.
(Not related to anything in this IC but I just like it)
Pakistan had flourished under Bhutto's Socialism. Zia would never publicly admit as much but prior to Bhutto's shift to the centre-right and co-opting of feudal landlords, Bhutto held the faith of many of the prominent elite of Pakistan and it was only after his prodigious charisma faltered in suppressing the innate nature for socialist groups to disagree and harbour massive feuds over mild disagreements in ideological rhetoric that Bhutto would estrange the relatively apolitical urban elite by seeking alliances with the feudal class.
Of the remaining Bhutto loyalists too valuable to retain, the most dangerous was Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan. The Governor of Bhutto's stronghold in Sindh, he was made the Head of the Economic Coordination Committee, a position that would be constrained by the Minister of Finance (another replaced Bhutto loyalist) but one that came with both power and prestige that conveniently distanced them from Sind, Bhutto's own powerbase. A region that would need to be mollied of any worries about retributional violence or disenfranchisement against them.
The Minister of Finance was a respected member of the Pakistani political class and one that would become the head of what would be dubbed "The Caliphate of Women". Viqar un Nisa Nood was an ideal unifying candidate for all of the Pakistani political spectrum to rally behind. While at first Zia would only seek to give her a more harmless position of Minister of Tourism, her international connections and the uncertainty around his own political reforms meant she fell into the position of Minister of Finance. And it would be here that this socialite-par excellence, patron of various charities, care worker, feminists and least of all wife of the deceased 7th PM of Pakistan would flourish.
An Austrian noble by birth and heritage, Viqar un Nisa Nood was the perfect international face for Pakistan. Well adept to the intricacies of international diplomacy, it was her that had originally negotiated the ceding of Gwadar to Pakistan from Oman in the first place and it would be her who would oversee the grand industrial project that would concert Baluchistan and Gwadar from the relative backwater to the International Port and modern gateway to Pakistan. She would then become known as the "Mother of the Baluchs" for her relationship to the region and become closely associated to the Gwadar project that had evolved since its cessation to Pakistan from a dusty wasteland to a budding metropolis.
In her memoirs she would write that she knew not why Zia emphasised the Australians so much. An unverified anecdote from a close friend said that Zia's unfamiliarity with English had led him to confuse Austria and Australia but such stories were commonplace when it came to the whacky dictator and surely he couldnt be that stupid.
Still Nisa Nood was integral to Zia's economic reforms, yet while the General's desire for crash industrialisation her price would be paid in the social issues most dearest to her heart.
The most important facet of Zia ul-Haq, was that he was a man capable of pragmatism. Pakistan had no friends. Whatever backing the Americans would provide would come with strings and the developing world knew well enough that though the West had lessened the jackboots held upon the necks of their ex-colonies, the chains of servitude had only taken a new and more perverse form. Capitalism would turn Pakistan into a colony but the alternative was not much better.
There were many threats to Pakistan - Aliens, Communism and most dangerous of all… Women. The Iranian Revolution made this abundantly clear. Women had proven integral to the overthrow of the British puppet Shah, they had marched out and overthrown a government and shown strength. Zia's own government had many prominent women and his own project "The Gwadar Initiative" had strengthened Pakistan immensely and was only possible because of the tremendous work put in by Viqar un Nisa Nood.
Women were a great threat but also a valuable ally. Zia had learnt women were a politically valuable demographic due to Iran but he had known prior that they were an economic asset. It had always been a goal of Pakistani leaders to mobile its vast populat5ion for the goal of achieving economic propsperity. And many of these initiatives hads been aimed at women. But there had always been a fundamental misunderstanding of how Islamic conservativism held back women.
(Zia's greatest fear)
The Purdah (curtain) concept meant the spiritual and practical separation of women and men to preserve family's (izzat) honour. In practice only the middle class and above could truly hold to this ideal due to the necessity for poor rural women to assist in the field. Many Pakistani intellectuals had misunderstood this in their attempts to mobilise the supposed untapped pools of labour. Impoverished women becoming rugmakers sounded like a method of creating a productive craft industry but it truly only enforced the spirit of Purdah without creating a powerful enough economic incentive to rebalance the domestic household. The conception of Purdah known to the wealthy male lawmakers was not that which affected rural and impoverished pakistani domestic woman.
Zia would break this mould with the facilitation and support of various feminist organisations.
The most important of these was the Majlis-i-Khawateen-i-Pakistan (pakistan ladies assmebly) headed by Begum Afifa Mamdot. Function as something akin to a state women's political party, the Majlis-i-Khawateen-i-Pakistan was Zia's attempt to harness and redirect the unrestrained girlpower that had been unleashed by the Iranian revolution and create from it a pillar of power by incorporating it into his own Islamist movement. An organisation supported indirectly by Zia, Begum was an ardent supporter of Zia's Islamist policy and was one of many "fundamentalist" women that nevertheless held a powerful role as an independent and assertive woman activist. This organisation would iclude notable Zia loyalists like Attiya Inayatullah, Minister of state for Population Welfare from Punjab and Begum Zari Sarfaraz a wealthy power broker in the Northwest Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunwa) and Zia's own Federal Minister of Women's development. Both a newcomer and an respected elder from the time of the original Muslim League, they both would have important parts to play in both Islamic Feminism and the development of Pakistan in the shadow of an alien siege.
But Feminism could not so easily restrain the tempest that had been unleashed by the Iranian Revolution. The formation of the Women Action Forum (WAF) in Karachi had served as a counterbalance, bringing in the more westernised urban middle class demographic that would in turn bias the MKP towards rural women even as the MKP held outsized influence due to the support of Zia. This would be a difficult position to navigate, moreso as prominent members of Zia's cabinet (retained to maintain the "Fair Play" of the Operation Fair Play that founded Zia's martial law dictatorship) would side with the western liberal WAF that was bolstered with the arrival of American influence and American ideas propagated by American military bases and their role protecting Pakistan from the Alien Menace.
Islamic Feminism was as a result becoming more entrenched in the Pakistani collective thought, even as conservative and patriarchal views dominated. The Islamist Block would be divided dangerously by Zia's next move - The Foundation of Pakistan's Islamic Supreme Court.
The Islamic Court itself was a welcomed move. Vetting the laws that would be drafted once elections were held (which would totally be soon), the Islamic Court would judge them to ensure they held true to the Quran and Hadiths of the Islamic Faith. The contention that would arise would come with the appointment of an "Islamic Woman Legal Expert" to be picked by the Majlis-i-Khawateen-i-Pakistan and then reaffirmed by the Caliph or her representative that would be naturally envisioned as Zia. While not holding a true position as a Qadi for female Imaams and judges were still a fringe position in the Islamic World, the position would hold an effective veto for laws pertyaining to women on the basis that men would be less able to understand the womanly instincts and the realms of the Quran and Hadiths as they relate to women.
Intended as a superficial concession to prevent the Iranian Revolution from spilling to Pakistan and Afghanistan, things would go wayward when Durru Shehvar Durdana Begum Sahiba, Princess of Berar, wife of the last Nwab of Hyderabad and the recognised Caliph of the muslim world made her voice heard from her seat in London. With Zia unable to directly go against the Caliph as an Islamist that sought to become a leader of the islamic world under the creation of a loose "Caliphal Commonwealth" this would lead to an emboldening of the women's liberation movement within Ziite Islamism that would in turn hold consequences for the rest of the world.
Beyond the power of politics and the power of money. Cooperation with Industrial Magnates from Australia and loans from the IMF had spurred on great economic development, timed perfectly with further investing in education which had all but been masterfully coordinated to soak up the excess labour generated from Pakistan's modernising initiatives with good factory jobs. Gwadar and Baluchistan where most of the economic development had been concentrated were flourishing from decades of investment that had been nascent from decades and the dreams of Pakistan's leaders had finally come to fruition - Gwadar was a true international port. But the costs for this development had been great. The country remained indebted to the IMF and a scandal that had arisen due to price gouging by the Australians had lead to a need to buy out the factories from Australian possession, a more exorbitant cost but one legally permissible due to the nature in which Pakistan had provided the industrial loans in the first place.
The need to shut down Pakistan military factories to balance the books while for a time convenient for General Zia's actions to consolidate rule over the other branches of the military could not become a long term affair. The americans could only protect so much if Pakistan was not willing to defend itself from the Alien threat.
Still things were hopeful for the Islamic Realm. Only time could tell if things would remain as such.
For years now has the economic and political situation in Poland gradually deterioriated due to excessive loans disguised as "economic reforms" leading to the introduction of severe rationing. Almost everything not produced domestically in Poland is unavailable for long periods of time and what is produced is sold abroad in a desperate attempt to balance its payments. The situation has forced First Secretary Edward Gierek to acquiesce to the rise of the Solidarity labor union, an anticommunist league which has nonetheless won official sponsorship in the communist bloc. Now, not only is Solidarity powerful, but enjoys broad popularity. Consequently, pressure has been mounting on the Polish government to reverse course and suppress Solidarity, especially from the Soviet Union. Many consider the USSR likely to repeat its invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia to rein Poland in, but at least until now, all that's materialized are plans to cut Poland's access to Soviet fuel and some troop movements in and around Poland.
If Poland was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, civil war, or Soviet intervention to prevent either case before, the recent alien attacks only accelerated things. Two extraterrestrial craft violated Polish airspace on July 21st 1980. The first was detected southwest of Gdansk, and the second south of Krakow, both flying eastward. These immediately caught the attention of defense systems throughout the Warsaw Pact, but naturally the Polish Air Force was first to respond, engaging both UFOs several times. In contrast to previous alien operations, however, the enemy would dip to lower altitude seemingly only to lead Polish fighters on before rising to where it would be difficult for all but the most advanced aircraft to catch. Although this meant that the aliens rarely were in position to perform their own missions, it did mean they had so much airtime that some landings and experiments were possible anyway.
After four failed Polish attempts, it was only after Soviet assistance with high-tech interceptors that the Gdansk signature was brought down and secured by the Polish army near the town of Gniezno. The Krakow object, meanwhile, endured five attempts, including twice with advanced Soviet interceptors, before crashing near Tarnow. Though the Warsaw Pact emerged victorious, they did not have long to celebrate, for the aliens' incursions only agitated existing tensions in the labor unions, both those in opposition and supportive of the government. Much of this stemmed from accusations that members of Solidarity were in fact alien infiltrators, working to subvert public order and conspire to dissolve Poland either from within or by means of antagonizing Soviet invasion. When this claim was later substantiated by evidence compiled by the Polish government, a premature failed crackdown on Solidarity activities compelled Gierek to step down. Amidst all this chaos, Wojciech Jaruzelski has assumed the position of First Secretary and promptly went on television to announce that martial law would come into effect in Poland. Opposition activists have been imprisoned without trial, the army and militias patrol the streets to enforce curfew, and travel has become restricted without a written permit. Among other limitations, these efforts are explicitly aimed at curtailing Solidarity and uncovering any signs of alien subversion in Polish society.
It was only with hindsight that the aliens heretofore unseen tactic of diving to intercept range only to reappear outside of it might have been a diversionary tactic. With a large-scale alien assault of just under ten alien warships focused on the Soviet Union occurring simultaneously and cruising toward Moscow, analysts have perceived the alien incursion in Poland as a means to prevent the capable Soviet air assets in Poland and the DDR from being easily allocated to defend the USSR proper. If this theory is true, with just two small "scout" ships, the aliens have successfully kept upwards of 1600 Soviet planes stationed outside the Soviet Union from redeploying to defend the capital, and ensured Xenonaut support to the besieged Russian and Ukrainian SSRs would be limited in scope.
Meanwhile to the east, in a sequence of events not entirely understood to the world at large, a certain disgruntled admiral Valery Sablin has ascended to the position of Minister of Defense in the USSR, and is chiefly responsible for coordinating the Soviet Union's response to the alien armada - and, by extension, defense of the Olympic games held in Moscow that fateful July. Three fleets appeared in Soviet territory, each with a flagship escorted by fighters, one above Leningrad, another above Kyiv, and the largest in Minsk. The three squadrons gradually converged on Moscow, all the while facing off against the world's most powerful air force. The Soviets achieved, with some Xenonaut assistance, a great victory in the Ukrainian SSR, where all three alien ships were defeated. The Leningrad incursion met no less significant resistance, but nonetheless its flagship survived, and the case was the same for the formation which had appeared in Belarus, whose flagship was the largest seen in Earth's lower atmosphere since 1958.
It was expected the aliens would commence aerial bombardment of Moscow as had been done elsewhere in the world, but instead the flagship landed. While its smaller companion provided air cover, racks unfurled from the flagship, revealing hunched-over robotic figures placed in rows. Rack-by-rack they stood up, taking up weapons, and marched in formation against the Soviet-Xenonaut forces arrayed against them. Footage of the Olympic Games' broadcast has been interrupted by intermittent gunfire and evacuation of several districts of the city is underway...
Defense Minister Sablin's predecessor, Dmitriy Ustinov, had drawn up plans and allocated significant forces to defend the Moscow Olympics from a hypothetical alien incursion more or less the instant the possibility was taken seriously. At the time there were numerous perspectives in opposition to any such plans; some argued that the aliens would not yet understand the cultural significance of the Olympics and it would proceed with little trouble, while others such as the Xenonauts insisted that the games should be cancelled. The aliens' ground attack on Moscow too perfectly coincided with the Olympic Games to be anything but a deliberate move on their part. The world would soon see why: for the games were televised globally. In an age of detente in the ongoing Cold War, the event would prove popular, with both sides of the global ideological divide and many of those inbetween sending delegations to participate in the games. Delegations which now were caught up in the midst of the suddenly-besieged city.
Among the forces arrayed in defense of Moscow over the last six months were airborne and marine brigades numbering more than 10,000 soldiers and acting as a rapid response force, amply conveyed by helicopter or river barge respectively. Another 5,000 light infantry were in place as the city garrison, and were largely to assist in evacuating the Politburo, international athletes, and civilians (in more or less that order), while fighting delaying actions. Attached to the latter were also small specialist formations trained and equipped for bomb defusal and search and rescue. While a formidable defensive allocation, all of this was in fact the last line of defense and it was always hoped any such incursion wouldn't get past the 35 MiG-25s specifically on patrol in the area, or the various SAM batteries redeployed from elsewhere in the USSR according to the witnessed capabilities of the new threat. Unfortunately, while the Soviet Air Force and Air Defense forces managed numerous aerial victories in the skies above Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus not to mention Russia itself, despite doctrinal adjustments, the Soviet Union had not anticipated and planned for deep strikes in Soviet territory. If this last line of defense were to fail, however, Ustinov recommended the nuclear option. Per the Xenonauts Charter, use of nuclear weapons against alien forces was permitted - especially since it was on Soviet territory - though it was recommended that the UNSC were notified first.
For his part, Sablin agreed: should Soviet forces be overrun, it was impossible to know what the aliens might do with such a foothold on Earth's surface. The only acceptable course of action then would be to deploy these weapons of mass destruction and hope that the threat to the USSR - to all mankind - was expunged in the process. Hopefully though, it wouldn't come to that. Joining the Soviet defenders were a Xenonaut detachment of 3,000. Deployed only begrudgingly and accompanied by a flurry of (ignored) recommendations that the games should be cancelled, they were nonetheless a welcome asset. It was unknown how many hostiles they were up against or what kind of firepower they brought, but nonetheless every man was an asset.
Within moments of the aliens' landing, the Politburo were evacuated eastward, save Sablin himself who refused to leave, and those among his staff who chose to remain behind and coordinate with the generals and Xenonaut liaison. Initially, this was due to fears of a reactor implosion similar to what occurred at the Iceland Incident, as Soviet observation had not yet concluded that the alien craft landed intact, instead suspecting it was a crashsite like any other. Hopes were high that the whole thing could be wrapped up without disturbing the Games, so at first only minor precautions were taken. Even once the military had a bit more than a half hour later confirmed the alien forces' true disposition, the air force was optimistic, suggesting that if it could not be brought down in the air, that perhaps a large airstrike against the now-stationary target would be sufficient. The only hindrance was the UFO's smaller counterpart flying CAP above the landing site, acting as a deterrent against any attack from the air. The available MiG-25s on hand were thus configured, with 15 thought sufficient to defeat the patrol and 20 more with what was thought to be collectively adequate payload to neutralize the larger threat.
The result was audible, if not visible, on the international Olympics broadcasts. Jets flying overhead were also visible on-screen at times, jet turbines drowning out the sound of roaring spectators as they flew low and fast to launch anti-tank rockets (thought to be the best bet for getting through the UFO hull), cluster bombs, napalm, white phosphorus, and high-yield conventional bombs. The sortie saw the smaller UFO brought down and some visible damage inflicted on the grounded UFO and its surroundings, but insufficient to stop it from deploying its ground troops. Luckily, some planes' payload had hit the alien soldiers instead, though as these were not the intended target the damage appeared minimal. Footage from surveillance helicopters caught alien foot soldiers wading through napalm, bodies ablaze even as they marched on, having no visible effect. At this point the threat had grown too much to be contained even with a successful airstrike, and so orders were finally issued to commence the larger evacuation.
The aliens' assault was already well underway by that point, however. Early on in the engagement it was noted that the aliens efforts were focused toward the Olympic village, housing international athletes, and places where the actual games and contests were being held. Moscow had welcomed in excess of six million spectators and thousands of athletes from just over 150 countries, effectively almost doubling in population during this time, which among other things ensured that there were many non-Soviet witnesses to the attack. Despite the best Soviet and Xenonaut efforts to contain the extraterrestrial incursion and protect civilians, the aliens had played a new, yet unseen card. Where the aliens' broadcast had claimed earlier incursions to belong to the invasion's "research division", the enemy forces encroaching Moscow appeared anything but. Their armoured robotic forms proved highly resistant to small arms fire, requiring concentrated and unabating firepower to neutralize. They also used heavier weapons than any noted in previous skirmishes, save perhaps Iceland '58. It became apparent through the course of the battle that they also possessed an advanced sensory apparatus, often detecting and firing upon Soviet infantry long before the latter saw them, and were capable of instantaneously communicating the location of human forces and objectives with each other. More distressing was their support: small, fast "drones" hovering overhead, keeping close to the alien advance except when they fanned out to survey Soviet and Xenonaut positions. These possessed rapid-fire energy weapons of their own, suppressing any defensive position the Soviets had prepared to allow the alien foot soldiers to overcome it with relative ease.
It was inevitable that the alien forces became visible on television, not because of any Soviet inclination to record them but the aliens' apparent determination to be seen on the cameras. Viewers worldwide were treated to scenes of robots killing fleeing people indiscriminately and the apparent helplessness of the military. Despite these harrowing images, it was around this time that the tide began to change. As the aliens made their way into more densely-built up districts of the city, the close proximity largely nullified at least some of their technological advantages, and the robots' apparent lack of inclination to make use of cover exposed them to the wrath of autocannons, heavy machine guns, and rocket pods from above as the Hinds finished deploying airborne troopers and went about providing heavy fire support. In a controversial decision, the Soviets decided to purposely broadcast scenes of battle that appeared favorable, in the hopes of reversing any psychological damage done by the aliens' inadvertent intrusion on the games and show the world that the situation was coming under control.
The better part of two and a half days passed before Soviet authorities gave the all-clear signal. In the meantime, the world had been holding its breath for the fate of Moscow.
Dire consequences of the aliens' actions tempered any enthusiasm for the Soviet tactical victory. During the Soviet Air Force's mostly-successful attempts to defeat the alien incursion in its totality, the aliens themselves had met with their own successes. Major railway junctions in Vyazma and Kursk were levelled, the tank arsenal at Tula suffered damage, and several districts of Moscow were in need of costly repairs. Aside from the material cost and the losses of life, few anticipated there would not be severe political consequences in the USSR. Valery Sablin, though he largely made use of his predecessor's defense plan, found himself in a position of unprecedented power: lauded as a hero within the USSR and beyond who singlehandedly orchestrated the defense of the city, and with the rest of the Politburo still in lockdown, the long-disgruntled officer seized the opportunity to channel his sudden popularity and natural charisma in criticism of the current order in the USSR. He derided many of his colleagues as corrupt sycophants who perpetrate an ailing gerontocracy, assessed the economy in stagnation, living standards to be in decline, and urged reform for the Union had lost touch with the ideals of communism. So it was that the youngest member of the Politburo and its newest addition came to command great political sway, for he found there were many who agreed with his opinions. With his colleagues afraid to truly reprimand Sablin due to his enormous public clout, it appears he has amassed sufficient political capital for great change within the USSR.
Most pressing for the world at large, however, was the audacity with which the aliens struck against the heart of one of the world's military, economic, and technological superpowers, and scenes of this attack were caught on the worldwide Olympics television broadcast. Despite optimistic conjecture that the aliens would not or could not repeat such a gesture so soon, the aliens struck against the United States next month, with similar results...
(Soviet infra-score somewhat reduced.)
(Soviet air force has sustained some losses.)
(Soviet arms industry slightly reduced.)
(The Soviet Union has recovered six fighter-size wreckages, two small-size wreckages in normal condition, and one medium-size wreckage in poor condition.)
(WORLD HYSTERIA INCREASED!!!!)
C █ █ █ █ █ █ █ I█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ - M█ █ █ █ █5 - G █ █ █ █ D █ █ █ █ █ █ █ - First Entry
"The human is an omnivore, and will survive by eating.
Consumption is the base behavior of kingdom animalia. The original sin of Cambrian mud, the invention of the predatory orifice. This behavior is passed down the evolutionary tree. Passed through to the fish, the amphibian, the reptile, the mammal, the primate, the ape. Passed down to humankind.
The input controlled is the output controlled. The hominid input shifts, becomes less picky. The ape tastes new flesh, first scavenged marrow, and then the fresh kill. The tapir falls, the music swells. The brain swells. The monolith is an enamel panoply - incisor, canine, molar. Thus spake Zarathustra.
The victor of an extinction event is the most adaptable creature. Strong-jawed beasts suffocate on volcanic gassess, lobe-finned clingers crouch in ocean trenches. But it is the rat-thing, the gnat-thing, the shrew-thing, that is the hegemon of the coming dawn. Adaptability is defined by consumption. The generalist consumer, the tuber-taster, rapid-breeding and fast-eating. The accidentally prepared, whose pathetic traits become essential.
Intelligence is a trait for adaptability. It offers an alternative to the victory of the pathetic. Adapt by intelligent consumption. Distend the udder of the cow, stretch the wool of the sheep, fatten the pig. Engineer maize, craft wheat, arrange rice. Fire to stay warm nearby and clothing to stay warm away. And always eat. Consume everything, cook it, ignite it, tap the unknown proteins, the secret nutrients. Sear away the fat to find the treasure of the hidden molecule.
Produce culture, and consume it. Take the agonistic principle - equal than, more than, less than. A competition in canon, in human accomplishment. Produce God, and consume Him (the death will come later, and we will blame the Germans). Produce philosophy, and then do a bird's regurgitation, invent schools of thought, invent the self and invent the aware being. More, faster. Consume carboniferous ghosts, dig for the liquid spirits of the vanished world and burn it for your engines.
Everything, always, spinning out of control, always consuming, always taking more. Ecologies die, species fade, the dodo is long-gone and the other birds fly to join them. The ocean chokes, spring falls silent. More, though, more. Every species has a run, every species has a limit, and a decline. Ours approaches. The base behavior overrides the intelligent adaptation.
All the while, artificial intelligences are built. They are not computers but crude composite leviathans. The king calls himself the state - he is incorrect. The state is the king, and his advisors, and every extension of its authority, a being of beings. It sees through the king's eyes. It hears through the king's ears. He does not know, but he is in its thrall. It develops its technologies - paper, standard measures, modern administration, census. It corrals the human animal. Its purpose is the maximal yield in production to the minimal output in happiness.
The other intelligence is the market. The hand is not invisible. It operates on the basis of certain observable properties that trend towards a consumption not optimal for species survival. It is aware but not conscious. It is pursuing its own needs but does not know what it needs. It operates through firms, an army of robotic suits competing internally but forming a hostile invasive ecological system. Its prerogative is to maximize fictitious output by sacrificing real input. Its endpoint is suicide.
Certain experiments in species re-assertion have failed. Why? Consumed by these intelligences, aware but not conscious. The German-Slavic-Chinese socialization trial by the state, the French-English liberalization trial by the market. Mexican project still in progress - failure state unknown.
No clear way out. No escape plan from capture by these forces. A species about to commit suicide. And then - providence. An extinction event. A context shock. Alien life. Unexposed to endemic predation pressure. Unexposed to planetary competition. Supreme victory of several prior contests, multiple-species coalition. Global stress-test capable of rupturing path dependency.
Three options: First, assimilation. Pointless, fruitless. Flattening of potential for purpose of serving as worker ant for bloated queen building cosmic tunnels to delectable sugar-pools. No ambition, either translation error in messages or proof of lack of alien creativity. Imperial complacency. Too early for speculation but implies ultimately mundane and servile purpose. Colonial mindset - idiocy that sees Summer Palace and sacks, or Lake Texcoco and drains. Immense waste.
Second, extinction. Fight to the bitter end and then be annihilated in the way species inevitably are. Romantic. Attractive to Americans who would rather die than surrender white-fence. Not to species as a whole - nothing to memorialize and remember if everyone is dead.
Third, evolution. Rapid unscheduled changes in human development. Requirements: vast, but manageable. Viable, in the outer limit of probability. First stage has already begun, the entrance of novel diets into the human intellectual gastrosystem. Samples have been delivered to kitchen.
Project Aníbal
A flurry of diplomats and plenipotentiaries passes through OPEC headquarters and between Algiers and Caracas in the aftermath of the alien attacks on Ghardaïa and Metili. Its plight – ignored by US USSR, and Europe alike – is recognized by the Miraflores Palace as a key concern for what it hopes is its burgeoning leadership within OPEC, and an opportunity for both diplomatic extension and scientific advancement.
To this end, Petróleos Venezolanos has sent a contingent of some of its most prominent geologists and engineers overseas to the damaged fields, accompanied by billions of dollars worth of new equipment and a complicated system of grants through OPECs mechanism intended to fill in billions of dollars in lost profits from damage.
On its own, it's unlikely that even the most silver-tongued politician could have sold this as a victory for the Venezuelan people, but PDVSA does not come alone on the Algerian expedition. Dozens of prominent Venezuelan scientists, led by the Lebanese-Venezuelan polyglot Eduardo Abdelkader Raimondo, are given full permission to access the Metili crashsite, where, aided by a team of carefully selected Venezuelan and Algerian graduate students, they spend months meticulously picking over the most complete alien wreck in existence at the time. Their findings – the first major discoveries of the newly-founded Extraterrestrial Research Institute – are not only astounding but are set to form the backbone of the new and comprehensive Venezuelan interest and expertise in the Xenosciences.
The Algerian graduate students are also, as part of the arrangement, scheduled to be taught both on-site by a number of the Venezuelan team and to be given the option of access to an exchange program with Venezuelan facilities, while the Venezuelan graduate students waste absolutely no time instructing their Algerian counterparts on something even more important – baseball.
San Antonio de las Altas
The Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC), located in the town of San Antonio de Las Altas, has since its creation been abuzz with the tumult of new discovery – but in the last six months, the campus of the Institute has reached a fever pitch. The alien attacks of the winter and spring have generated a new, ruthless consensus in the Miraflores and Legislative Palaces – a consensus that, hopelessly outgunned from above and concerningly reliant on allies, Venezuela's war against the intruder must be fought as much in the laboratory as on the battlefield.
To this end, San Antonio now serves as not only a nerve center of the Venezuelan sciences, but also as the aperture into the opaque world of the new research. See a fresh-faced scientist – Miguel Santos Perez – as he meets with an academic mentor over coffee, shakes the hand of an inscrutable man, signs a contract, calls to wish his mother goodbye, and is driven to the undisclosed montane center of the Proyecto San Miguel – one of many projects set up by the IVIC's new Institute for Extraterrestrial Research around the nation. Watch a family in Maracaibo breathlessly follow the nightly news as the anchor reads aloud a letter purportedly smuggled from 'Ángel', a technologist in the projects, excoriating the Miraflores Palace for not anticipating the level to which xenotech will transform society and recommending the lead of France to understand the 'Civilizational Earthquake' the new understanding will cause.
And follow along as José Villalba stops in Stockholm on his way to the Moscow Olympics to make a deal with an old Venezuelan devil. Humberto Fernandez-Moran – the genius Venezuelan polymath – has not been welcome in his home country since the fall of the dictatorship in 1958 due to his ties with the old regime. Instead, the founder of the IVIC has spent an illustrious career abroad, in Chicago, Boston, and Stockholm, working on projects as varied as the American moonshot and Swedish neurological advances. In the face of the alien threat, however, Villalba has been sent to Stockholm, at the behest of the Miraflores Palace, to ask Venezuela's prodigal son to return – in what may be some honor– for what may be just his most ambitious project yet – leadership of the Extraterrestrial Research Institute. Though historians will debate what exactly was promised in Fernandez-Moran's parlor, the scientist accompanies the politician on to Moscow and – after a closer-than-comfortable brush with the Enemy itself – back to Caracas.
As had been the case in the Soviet Union, the aliens appeared in multiple places simultaneously. NORAD installations noted the presence of a pair of alien scouts in Alaska, joined by an equivalent contingent above Ellesmere island. Several additional signals materialized over the next hour: a formation first sighted above San Diego having flown in at high altitude from Mexico, a similar formation above New York City, and a third group with an especially large signal flying over Denver. The world's second most powerful air force was able to respond to all of the incursions, albeit with mixed results. The Alaskan incursion would be defeated - though not without losses - One scout crashed on land and the other in the ocean, and both were later secured by the army and navy. Skirmishes in New York's skies saw two enemy escort fighters crash in urban sprawl, while the leader escaped to Ohio only to be ultimately brought down in the woodlands. Things took a turn for the worse in the air battle above San Diego and later Los Angeles, where American forces succeeded in defeating the enemy's fighter escorts but struggled against the formation leader until it eventually linked up with the large ship that had since warded off several ill-fated intercept attempts in Denver's surroundings.
The two flew together, mimicking what happened in the USSR, until they made landfall in Phoenix, Arizona - the largest city by a significant margin in the Four Corners region. Where in Russia the enemy had landed in the outskirts and then made their way to the city proper, here they found sufficient space in the more sparsely-built up nature of the American Southwest to land well within city limits. With Phoenix being relatively distant from significant federal Army presence, it was up to the Arizona National Guard to organize the initial response, though they could count on significant air support, plus several nearby states had already mobilized their own national guard as all nearby federal forces redeployed to contain the incursion. A large Xenonaut division was already underway by airlift, but it would take upwards of a day for them to be relevant in the combat zone.
As in the outskirts of Moscow, the USAF planned to organize a large-scale airstrike against the grounded UFO and hopefully take down its air support. However, the location of the landed ship posed some additional challenges. Despite some general similarities, the coming battle in Phoenix would have numerous differences. An Arizona national guard surveillance helicopter watched the aliens deploy - not robots as had been the case in Russia, but more of the so-called "snakemen" encountered in previous engagements, albeit visibly better-armed and armoured. Among these however were a previously undocumented species, with shiny silver-and-black skin and apparently unarmed. More alarming were reports coming in from Phoenix residents of smaller "pods" that had been dispersed throughout the city, emanating a strange gas, and small creatures crawling out from them. Communications in neighborhoods struck by these pods were usually cut off within moments of the reports.
Considering the use of advanced precision weapons paramount, the resultant airstrike sortie was only somewhat more successful than the Soviet attempt. While minimal damage was reported against the landed UFO, the surrounding ground troops proved more vulnerable. After initial hopes of being able to secure the landing site without great civilian casualties were dashed as signs of human life in the immediate vicinity were found absent, the USAF opted for a second run, launching a relentless assault against the alien forces entrenched in Phoenix. Phoenix' skies were ablaze as American fighters engaged the enemy's escort. This valiant effort saw the aliens' air cover neutralized and a sizeable portion of the ground troops annihilated, but the battle was far from over. With helicopter support, light infantry moved in, fighting probing attacks to eventually secure control of parts of the city.
It was during these initial skirmishes that a better understanding of what was really happening in Phoenix unfolded. Significant portions of Phoenix residents had been rendered into mindless servitors by what national television coverage only referred to as "some sort of alien biological weapon" with military correspondents reluctant to detail further. Some members of the armed forces had also fallen victim to this weapon, and casualties were mounting as apart from these servitors the aliens had landed with a sizeable complement of conventional foot soldiers, more than a match for the lightly-armed national guard they were initially up against.
In response, over the next several hours, heavier and heavier assets flooded in. A cordon was set up around the entire Gila valley, including mechanized infantry brigades and heavy artillery, together with the Xenonauts fighting along a wider front than any previous alien incursion. The Americans battled to recapture the city for the better part of the next week before the disturbing revelation that it might not be possible to retake the city finally dawned on its commanders. What's more, the authorities began to fear the alien bio-weapon spreading, breaking the carefully-established military perimeter to contaminate nearby cities, spiralling out of control and perhaps being the beginning of the end for the United States, if not human civilization.
Initial reluctance to commit to the proposed nuclear solution subsided when the aliens threatened a successful breakout attempt, compromising the delicate military situation of the military cordon. Although the gap was eventually plugged again by a mechanized counter-offensive, ultimately securing the area long-term let alone retaking Phoenix without a costly ground battle were perceived futile. With containment efforts slowly faltering, it became apparent that the city's destruction was the only viable option to prevent an uncontrollable outbreak. In a solemn speech on national television, the President spoke of his decision to authorize the deployment of nuclear weapons to eradicate the alien menace once and for all. The devastation that ensued was unparalleled, as the brilliant flash of the detonation consumed Phoenix, reducing it to a wasteland of rubble and ash.
The catastrophic event unfolded just before the beginning of the election season, casting a dark shadow over the political landscape. The destruction of Phoenix, a city of more than a million, became the initial political battleground of Robert Kennedy's bid for re-election in the 1980 campaign. The tragedy amplified the already heightened tensions and uncertainties of the times, leaving the nation in a state of shock and grief.
But worldwide, news of what happened in Phoenix would soon be overshadowed by troubling news across the pond...
(American infra-score somewhat reduced.) (American air force has sustained minor losses. Ground forces more so.)
(American shipyards slightly reduced.)
(The United States has recovered six fighter-size wreckages, two very small-size wreckages in normal condition, two small-size wreckages in normal condition, and one medium-size wreckage in poor condition.)
(WORLD HYSTERIA INCREASED!!!!)
The Flare of Chongqing
Previously going unscathed in the opening moves of the conflict, the People's Republic of China could almost begin to think that its biggest challenges were all in the past. That impression would begin to change as China was among the targets of the aliens' East Asia-focused offensive. As small scout ships scrambled defenses in the Koreas, Japan, and the Philippines, the Chinese air force was to face off against a formidable alien incursion, putting its largely defensive-oriented military to the test. The invaders arrived in two distinct formations, their presence sending shockwaves throughout the country. One formation threatened the skies above Chengdu, and the other flew above Lanzhou. Both were on an eastbound flight path, and thus poised to threaten China's population centers along the coast in both the north and south.
After initial failures to force an engagement, the Chinese eventually succeeded in two consecutive intercept attempts against both formations. The great number of interceptors on hand proved a favorable circumstance as the Chinese were able to continuously apply pressure, deterring the aliens from landing several times, though this did not completely stop them from carrying out some missions along the way. The initial wave of engagements saw fierce aerial battles, and concluded with the Chinese Air Force successfully shooting down the enemy's fighter escorts. However, the situation took a treacherous turn when the formation leaders proved to be exceptionally resilient and elusive. Lacking the modern technology of, for example, the Soviet Air Force - which managed a victory against a similar craft earlier last month - successive attempts to neutralize the formation leaders were thwarted time and time again.
Despite valiant efforts to neutralize the leaders through conventional means, it soon became apparent that a different approach was required to eradicate this extraterrestrial menace. An option that China was (almost) uniquely positioned to consider. There wasn't much other choice; they could theoretically seek the support of neighboring advanced air forces: apart from the USSR, Vietnam had a few advanced Soviet planes and there was a significant US Air Force detachment in South Korea and Taiwan, but these were apart from being considered enemies of China one way or another were preoccupied dealing with their alien incursions closer to home and may not be inclined to respond to the Chinese request for assistance. They could await the arrival of the Xenonauts' inbound East Asia detachment - of which a large contingent was itself Chinese - but in the meantime the aliens could continue wrecking havoc on the Chinese air force if not its population centers and infrastructure, or go on to attack other countries, denying China compensation for the damage in the form of salvage.
After briefly exploring the other alternatives, it was with "heavy hearts" that the CCP announced its intention to deploy nuclear weapons against the alien incursion in its territory in the United Nations Security Council, in accordance with the Xenonaut Charter's nuclear arms protocol. The grim determination to resort to the nuclear option was met with due alarm at home and abroad, for the aliens were operating in territory where any nuclear blast could potentially endanger millions of people, especially as they were likely to detonate at high altitude. The CCP, in the same announcement, clarified that its atomic weapons would only be used in areas where the risk to China's people was assessed to be (relatively) low, and urged people to take shelter against hostile alien forces.
The battle for China continued, the aliens roving a path of destruction as they worked their way eastward toward the coast, where it would almost certainly be excessively dangerous to deploy the weapons. Luckily, (?) it would not be long before one of China's weapons struck home, setting off about halfway between Chongqing and Enshi, the former's population of some 2.5 million and numerous small towns and villages in the region witness to the blast as a 'flare' in the distance (or closer, for some). The alien craft absorbed the blast only to plummet into the ground shortly thereafter, where the PLA was ready to cordon off the crashsite, already suited up in hazard suits and gas masks. The second detonation would bring down the other UFO about halfway between Ankang and Shiyan to the north, meeting a similar fate. These marked the fourth and fifth times in human history of nuclear weapons being employed in war, the United States no longer alone in the list of perpetrators, though it would remain the most frequent user.
That Chinese efforts to bring the alien incursion to an end by nuclear means would be successful was perhaps a given, but the rapidity with which the sorties were executed effectively surprised many, as defense analysts long considered China's delivery systems for its weapons to lack such capabilities of precision and speed. Rumors began to circulate about how it was possible, fuelled by speculation about the purported modifications being made to some of China's fleet of MiG-21s starting last year.
The aftermath of this unprecedented event left a profound impact on the nation and the world. Thanks in part to the fact that Chinese weapons are relatively low-yield, the detonations were far enough from large urban conglomerations to avoid (most) immediate destruction and casualties, fallout had contaminated the headwaters of the Yangtze river, and the detonations precipitated a wave of towns and villages in their vicinity being abandoned and fleeing into nearby cities. The scars of destruction and the painful memories of the sacrifices made would be etched into the collective consciousness of the Chinese people. The realization that such extreme measures were necessary in the face of an otherworldly invasion cast a solemn reminder of the lengths humanity was willing to go to preserve its existence.
Apart from the domestic tumult whose implications had yet to fully unravel, this sequence of events would also go on to mark a dramatic shift in China's foreign policy. Or, well, anything is dramatic when it suddenly wakes up from complete dormancy. Not long after these events concluded, China's embassies in the USSR, USA, Cuba, Pakistan, North Korea, and Argentina amongst other countries were witness to a flurry of activity and correspondence about an indeterminate number of dealings and communiques. China's delegation at last made indications toward a possible resolution to the Cambodia Affair and a thawing of relations with Vietnam under terms previously discussed, though nothing has yet been confirmed or denied in that direction. (Chinese infra-score slightly reduced.) (Chinese air force has sustained heavy losses.)
(China has suffered an ecological disaster...)
(The People's Republic of China has recovered four fighter-size wreckages and two small-size wreckages in poor condition.)
(WORLD HYSTERIA INCREASED!!!!)
The international military expedition to Antarctica is the first endeavor of its kind in human history, though the events to follow were not the first hostilities of this sort on the continent and far from its first military presence, it would quickly overshadow any antecedent in terms of scale. The United Nations voted to authorize the operation, in contravention of the Antarctica Treaty which forbade deploying weapons there, due in no small part to the alien presence there. Countries with research outposts approaching the South Pole had abruptly lost contact with their science teams, and given the importance of the continent for the planet's environment as a whole and the suspected ecological objectives of the alien menace, it was clear something had to be done. The logistics of a long-term military presence to defend the most remote region of the planet were unfavorable however, and even more unthinkable with Antarctica's existing outposts and research stations being offline. Therefore, though grand in scale, its objectives were to be limited in scope: investigate the cause of the bases' shutdown, and if possible bring them back into operation.
Though limited in aims, the problem of logistics remained formidable. Numerous countries would participate, contributing troops, ships, and planes to the mission. South Korean light infantry, Spanish mountaineers and marines, British destroyers and marines, French helicopters, Canadian and Cuban submarines and destroyers, and Soviet ski troopers with arcticized fighting vehicles, all concentrated around an American carrier task force. Argentina was also a notable participant, sending some of its finest mountaineers and a flotilla of destroyers, but although remaining in contact with the main internationally-sanctioned expedition were more focused on conducting operations in the region of Antarctica claimed as Argentina's jurisdiction, including the Antarctic Peninsula. The Xenonauts were initially considered among the contributors, however it was eventually deemed more important for Xenonaut assets to remain at their posts, defending actually populated regions of the world. This didn't stop them from sending a liaison, but the legwork would fall to the coalition forces. An important contributor, though not one that itself sent forces, was Australia - whose ports served as the main hub for international forces. South Africa, as public enemy number one of the entire world, was out of the question, and Chile had recently been condemned and subjected to an arms embargo. Argentina was somewhat capable, but only had the means and infrastructure to support its own smaller expedition from the other side. Thus it fell to Australia.
All nations involved perceived a great urgency in the mission, and for this reason, it would get underway despite projections that Antarctica would be experiencing winter at the time. Apart from the obvious drop in temperature, this also meant a drop in visibility, as many regions of the continent would be enshrouded in darkness for months at a time, punctuated with the occasional twilight conditions. The Xenonaut liaison warned that all data on record indicated the aliens possess superior sensory abilities in darkness and so had an inherent advantage in any engagement that breaks out at night, a state which is unlikely to end within the estimated (and perhaps optimistic) time-table to accomplish the mission objectives. The warnings were heeded, but only such that the expedition mustered a substantial quantity of advanced night-fighting equipment and drew upon troops with training and experience for nighttime conditions, hoping to close the gap as much as possible.
More than logistical issues, there were also matters of bureaucracy at hand. After several rounds of inconclusive voting, the United Nations failed to resolve the question of how alien materials should be destributed in international territories. The Xenonaut Charter specified that alien salvage chiefly belonged to the country where it was found, however this left vast swathes of Earth's surface in uncertainty, which came to a head in the Bornholm Crisis. Antarctica had been declared international territory - though some countries nonetheless claimed jurisdiction over portions of it and at times recognized each other's spheres of influence - and so the question of what would actually happen with any alien corpses or technology recovered there remained unanswered. Were it not for the mission's perceived urgency this alone if not together with consideration for polar winter may have delayed its undertaking indefinitely.
In any case, the expedition came to Antarctica ready for a fight. Ready, essentially, to retake an entire continent, from nefarious alien influence. From the beginning doubts were raised about the operation's viability - even without the probable alien presence the whole thing would be an immense undertaking. How many troops and advanced equipment would be lost simply to polar conditions? How many could be lost, if the aliens also interdicted mission operations? The soldiers would be far from any support, save the 70 or so warplanes brought along the American carrier and several dozen helicopters carried by various other ships. Communications were difficult to maintain while the outposts in Antarctica were shutdown. All this was at risk and yet the chance of even encountering alien forces was not a guarantee - the enemy could just as easily have taken what they wanted and left, leaving nothing for the expedition to fight. But either way, allowing the aliens to come and go through the South Pole freely was not an acceptable concession, as the same restrictions did not necessarily apply to the enemy.
Things did not prove to be so complicated, nor so simple. As international forces set about the task of picking through abandoned research stations and other such outposts, they happened upon pieces of alien equipment installed in place of the original hardware. Power had long been cut and rations destroyed - replaced by what the preliminary salvage team has determined to be alien food - and in some cases the aliens left behind a skeleton crew to maintain operations. The alien detachments evidently did not anticipate needing to defend themselves, and lacking heavy weapons, were in most cases overcome in small-scale combined arms assaults. That pattern began to change somewhat when during one base liberation skirmish the aliens were able to activate a beacon that evidently signalled their counterparts in orbit for support. It was not long after that alien fighters appeared in Antarctica's skies, providing air support to their beleaguered comrades on the ground.
It thus fell to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's aircraft component to fight to retake control of the air. These fighters had received significant modifications to their avionics and countermeasures based on experience from the Iceland Incident, and were otherwise reasonably advanced, however deploying from one carrier offshore meant the time-to-target was often far too long to make meaningful contributions to several ongoing hot zones. Helicopters deployed by some modern destroyers took over the role of close air support and Argentine fighters helped fly CAP over the fleet while the Americans focused on intercepting alien fighters as they appeared within RADAR range or were reported by far-flung infantry patrols.
Nonetheless, the Americans oversaw initial success, downing some fighters in a few engagements and facilitating the recapture of some Antarctic outposts. It was in the aftermath of one of these that a French recon helicopter, flying over the polar wastes as a blizzard faded, detected it. In the distance, obscured partway by the darkness and by the gusts of snow that prevailed in the midst of a blizzard coming to an end, was a landed alien ship. Larger than the fighters, larger than the scouts, larger still than those ships which landed ground troops in determined assaults in Moscow and Phoenix. What's more, they seemed to be building something. Fearing the onset of another blizzard, the helicopter flew back and reported its findings, inciting much alarm.
Despite initial success however, the aliens appeared determined to ensure their construction project would be uninterrupted. Fighters kept trickling in from orbit and the rate of attrition was turning against the American carrier's complement. Rather than continue to press on in "liberating" the whole continent, international forces settled for consolidating around the territory most easily supported by the carrier air group, gathering all alien salvage in one location to decide how it would be distributed later once the international community reached a consensus as to what to do with it. Critically, however, the Antarctic Expedition yielded one very valuable and unexpected asset: an alien combatant had been taken prisoner, kept alive with the advice of Korean experts which had developed the necessary insights into alien biology. Meanwhile, the Argentines had seen relative success in securing the region so-called Argentine Antarctica, meeting their own speedbumps along the way, and report among other things having taken a live alien into custody.
Once the expedition ceased its offensive closing in around the construction site, the aliens were content to keep to their side of Antarctica, though skirmishes around the few bases brought back into operation would continue over the remaining month. What happens next in the South Pole is anyone's guess...
"This is Capitan, over. Is the equipment working?"
"Si Capitan... signal is coming in loud and clear. We have sonar readings on the surrounding seascape."
"Muy bueno... very well. We'll keep in contact with you Cangrejo. Continue to sweep, right now we are fine. We're keeping an eye on the sky."
"To think, we wondered what was out there. And now it's finally here."
"Keep a hold of yourself Cangrejo. You're all entrusted with important duties... conflict getting more heated up here. Keep us updated."
"Si Capitan. Lowering depths."
"This is Capitan of the Cuban contingent, relaying sightings of alien aircraft heading towards you direction!, I repeat, alien craft heading in your direction!"
"Copy, that-"
A flurry of communications had been going on all night for the Capitan. Between him and Crangrejo... it was a nightmarish situation in the sky. The Cuban crews under the authority of the Capitan, and Crangrejo down below, were some of the most resilient sailors the Cuban navy had to offer. But nothing could have prepared any one of them for what they were witnessing and participating in. Cuba's commitment had dedicated itself to the exploration of the oceans, and more importantly, the focus on collecting information and samples for research.
To find out what was happening in the seas, as well as monitor the fight above. And to be a presence, however comparatively small to the likes of the global powers, of focused eyes and ears.
The brutal cold, winter nights had given way to numerous explosions being the only sources of illumination that covered the frosty seascape surroundings with ominous glows.
Alien weapons were advanced and terrifying, and only the tenacious maneuvers of the pilots aboard the many different jet fighters from across the world could face them. While their comrades in Moscow and Phoenix, and distant neighbors in China and across the world faced a global incursion the likes humanity has never seen before.
An Ominous Invader. One that has triggered much destruction from both within and without.
The search for truth amongst the wreckage continues... the might of the world is tested while the aliens entrench themselves into the icy heart of Antarctica.
The Capitan and Crangrejo continue their efforts while humanity grasps onto the icy edge of their species very survival.
"Now we are all Albanians."
-Admiral Branko Mamula, Chief of the General Staff, regarding Plan Lazar. In Knić, the end of the world arrives just before dinner. Maja Mihajlo dials every number she can recall, even the grocer. Dejan Vojvodić has just made it home. He glances at the TV set. As soon as the kids are in the basement he is running, running to the car, driving to the town hall to unlock the TO armory. His necktie is still in his hand, forgotten. Teenage boys notice the lack of sirens and venture out into the streets. They move between the buildings in packs, like turn out pickets running from shop to shop to announce a strike. Have you seen it? Turn on that TV.
A mushroom cloud in the desert. An American city gone.
People pour into the streets. They are shocked, horrified, hysterical. Anger spreads quickly. The government has concealed just how dangerous these aliens really are, they whisper. The military, those clueless old Partisans, they've done nothing to prepare. They are supposed to protect us? Where is the mobilization? Why aren't there troops on every corner?
Late that evening Tito requests a helicopter to transport him to Belgrade for a televised address. Absolutely not, his doctors say. Not when his health is so fragile. The Central Committee must find someone to speak to the nation. Not Đuranović. This is not his moment. The people are scared, and the Party is unable to reassure them. There is only one all-Yugoslav organization that is up to the task.
Nikola Ljubičić, Federal Secretary for the People's Defense, National Hero, Hero of Socialist Labor
When the war began, Nikola Ljubičić was a platoon commander in the Royal Army. The Italians shot him twice but never buried him. He still tells the old stories. His favorite: the retreat from Užice, when his company saved the Supreme Headquarters. There he was, walking the firing line to keep the men's spirits up, and he ran right into the Marshal himself. And Tito looked at him and shouted, "Commander, why aren't you in cover?" And he shot back, "Marshal, why aren't you?" And so on.
But this is not just some old Partisan. This is the Marshal's indispensable man. First appointed to Defense shortly before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he transformed the JNA from a 'school army' to a powerful deterrent against foreign aggression. He is the architect of the doctrine of opštenarodna odbrana, Total National Defense. It is thanks to him that Yugoslav students learn how to put on gas masks and throw hand grenades. Efficient and reliable, he has outlasted multiple governments, exempted from ministerial term limits by Tito himself. Gray yes, colorless in that way most Yugoslav bureaucrats are, but available.
And so they put him on the air, and he tells the people that Moscow and Phoenix are not inevitable. The Americans and the Russians had not anticipated terror attacks of such immense scale. No one had. But the General Staff has observed the fighting and developed a way forward. It is called Plan Lazar.
The people say that they are afraid, and they want the country to shift to a war footing. What does that mean? More jets and more tanks? How did that work out for the Americans? No, the only way for Yugoslavia to defend her urban centers is to embrace the way that she has always fought. Mass war. Partisan war. People's war.
The cities must be transformed. Labor brigades will be deployed. Every significant urban center shall be encircled by a web of bunkers and strongpoints, like the city walls of yore, to defend against a Moscow-style attack from the outskirts. And similar work will be needed within city limits. Walls and barricades will compartmentalize neighborhoods, durable structures will be turned into fortresses to tie down the enemy as long as possible.
And the human element must be fortified as well. Total National Defense has already seen Yugoslav society partially militarized, but it must be taken further. Hundreds of new TO companies must be formed in the cities, hundreds of new armories opened. Larger TO maneuver units, regiments and battalions, will be formed as well. After years of foot-dragging, control of the Territorial Defense Forces will finally be transferred from the republics to the Secretariat for Defense, ensuring a unified chain of command.
The JNA will play a critical role in any urban battle against the alien menace, Ljubičić says, but it will not be the deciding factor. That will be the resolve of the city itself. The courage of the TO soldiers who will be the first to face the enemy, of the civil defense councils and the firefighters and the nurses and the teachers. That spirit - therein lies victory.
Miscellaneous Alien (or Alien-related) Actions: Latin America
After a comparatively silent few months in South America, the aliens returned with a more potent show of force, striking first in three countries: Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela, each with small scouts. Of the three countries, despite a shortage in spare parts and personnel brought about by the recent regime change and re-alignment towards the West, Peru possessed the most advanced if not the largest air force of the three - perhaps true even if compared to the rest of the continent. Nonetheless, these difficulties in materiel and pilots hamstrung interception efforts. The Peruvians first forced an engagement near the city of Trujillo, but were defeated. The following two consecutive intercept attempts near Pucallpa and Ayacucho failed to actually engage the aliens. All the while, they made several landings and terrorized the countryside, while persumably conducting weather experiments off the coast. Knowing what happened to marine ecosystems in the North Atlantic and Great Barrier Reef after alien incursions, concerns have arisen over the state of the Humboldt Current - the region of which accounts for almost 20% of worldwide annual fishing yield in some years - and the possible effects it may also have for precipitation levels in Peru but also Ecuador and Chile, perhaps so far as to trigger something akin to an El Niño event, the last of which occurred in 1973. Such a major ecological disturbance would likely have effects as far as the United States, Indonesia, and Australia, not to mention possibly strengthening hurricanes in the Pacific season.
Despite alien successes, the Peruvian Air Force rallied and finally dealt a killing blow in the skies above Arequipa, where the UFO crashed and was subsequently secured by Peruvian ground forces in a mostly uneventful skirmish.
(Peru has recovered 1x normal-condition very-small UFO.)
After an indeterminate amount of time flying over the Amazon Rainforest, another alien incursion was finally detected near the city of Manaus in Brazil. For its part, while possessing a relatively large army - third in the Americas - and a modest domestic arms production industry, the air force was built around a distinctly different doctrine than that of Peru. Prioritizing the need to patrol the country's vast remote regions for counter-insurgency missions, the air force has comparatively few modern fighter-interceptors compared to Peru. This, in combination with the distance between viable airports and arms depots throughout the region of the alien incursion, helped to ensure that Brazil's response would be sluggish. Once again, the aliens managed several landings, and presumably some weather experiments - though in this case apparently more inclined towards experiments in botany and mycology. The enemy has introduced a new invasive species in the vast rainforest, one which has reportedly outcompeted native flora in a significant region around the city of Manaus. Much of the counter-insurgency air force of turboprop light bombers and helicopters were thus re-allocated to deploying incendiary and chemical agents in the city's surroundings in order to destroy this invader, which was eventually contained.
The remainder of the Brazilian air force nonetheless managed a successful interception further downstream of the Amazon River. The remote location would ultimately delay any response from the army, and fears of further contamination lead Brazilian authorities to order an airstrike in the meantime as Marines came upriver to cordon off the site.
(Brazil has recovered 1x poor-condition very-small UFO.)
After months of planning, Venezuela's defense schemes were finally put to the test. The country had previously very little air force to speak of, and what did exist was largely a counter-insurgency force save for a number of increasingly obsolescent American and Canadian fighters. Under the auspices of the Expedited Carabobo Air Plan - a revisal of previous plans to modernize all branches of the Venezuelan Armed Forces in favor of prioritizing the air force above all else - somewhat more modern hardware had been procured and pilots trained with foreign assistance. Additionally, Venezuela had arranged airspace agreements with France (in French Guiana) and the United States to work together for the defense of the Guiana Shield region, and in a pinch could call upon these countries to provide assistance. All of this expensive preparation for an alien incursion did little to ease minds in Caracas when an alien intruder was sighted above Puerto Ayacucho. Fighters were scrambled, defense partners were notified, and the entire country went into a state of high alert. The newly reinvigorated Venezuelan Air Force struggled to force an engagement, failing above Puerto Ayacucho as it later did above Ciudad Bolivar. The latter was not far away from the newly-completed Guri Dam in the lower Orinoco river basin, raising concerns that the aliens would strike against the dam as they attempted to do in Egypt.
At this point, United States air force assets were somewhat closeby, having been deployed in Bogota to support the Colombian Army against the seemingly ever-stronger insurgencies welling up in the countryside. At Venezuela's request, American jets flew an intercept mission from Colombia and were finally able to force the decisive engagement that brought the alien ship down near the town of Upata. Venezuela's recently-formed rapid response force promptly secured the crashsite.
(Venezuela has recovered 1x normal-condition very-small UFO.)
South America has otherwise been the scene of significant social and political upheaval, a shift in the Balance of Power (title theme drops), and has seen the formation of new diplomatic blocs. At the behest of Argentina's delegation, the UN General Assembly has voted to condemn and sanction Pinochet's regime in Chile. This move has emboldened international support for dissidents in Chile, and in turn weakened local support for the regime and eroding the dictator's access to modern weaponry to maintain Chile's otherwise respectable army. Cuba, Spain, Canada, and Mexico are all - according to some analysts - furnishing aid to various different sources of dissent in the country from indigenous peoples to former constituents of Allende's government returning from exile abroad.
Equally important however was Argentina's own influence in Chile, backing the brewing insurgency. Eager perhaps for reprisal against Chile's own intervention in favor of Argentina's growing insurgency in Tucuman, Argentina provided diplomatic and logistical support for all incoming anti-Pinochet exiles and volunteers. Meanwhile, across the world, hysteria is on the rise among the general population. Nuclear weapons were detonated to eradicate alien forces threatening China and the United States, not long after the aliens had a message for the world which urged insubordination against the current world order. The large-scale disturbance to Earth's ecology had enormous complications for all countries but especially those dependent upon the whims of the weather for agricultural or fishing exports. Another oil shock is in progress. The world is volatile; dictators' promises to their power base fragile, and Chile - or more precisely, Pinochet's rule of it - stood at the brink, as resistance to the dictatorship was emboldened and strengthened by the world's sympathy.
As the Chilean Army was increasingly tied down fighting newly-equipped remnants of Allende's administration and sympathizers returning from abroad, and an indigenist uprising in Wallmapu - perhaps backed materially and financially by Mexico - all while themselves strained by an economic and arms embargo while alien incursions have sabotaged vital sectors of the economy near the coast (otherwise known as the entirety of Chile), fears mounted of a full-scale Argentine invasion. Tensions between Chile and Argentina had already been high before the alien invasion, with territorial disputes not to mention ideological differences. Now, in contrast to previous years, Chile was firmly at a disadvantage, and sectors of the military were unsure that Pinochet was the right man for the job of fending off the Argentines and stabilizing the rest of the country. If the Argentines did invade, it was unlikely the world would side with Chile while Pinochet remained at the helm.
Despite this, Pinochet fought to hold on to power. Hoping to be rid of him, reconcile with the international community, and thus gain access to an arms supplier again, a group of liberal-leaning generals together with some previously more closely aligned with Pinochet drew up and later enacted plans to launch a coup, while remaining hostile to the communist and indigenist movements. Likely because of this reluctance to ally with other factions fighting Pinochet's regime, the Coup of September 6 was only a partial success: Pinochet received warning of the coup and was able to escape being arrested, and some army formations remain loyal to him. However, the rebels seized control of the capital Santiago and several major cities, declaring themselves as the country's new government. Pinochet still remains at large, with a sizeable bounty on his head and state authorities actively on the hunt to apprehend him and bring him before an international tribunal to answer to his various crimes. But in the meantime, a power vacuum has consumed the country, embroiled in a four-way conflict between the new government, communist insurgents, indigenist guerillas, and a new kind of fighter: alien collaborationists.
Rising world hysteria has had an especially provocative effect in Latin America, perhaps augmented with Argentina's influence. The Peronist-Posadist Party has established strategic alliances with broadly ideologically similar groups throughout neighboring countries, with Buenos Aires firmly entrenched as the headquarters of a reborn Fourth Internationale. Other countries have also taken notice, among them Libya with Muammar Gaddafi having made a state visit to Argentina earlier this year to attend a summit together with numerous other Latin American Posadist-sympathetic organizations and some collaborationists extracted from Zambia after the international intervention there. There, the Argentines urged their erstwhile allies to resist encroachment from both Washington and Moscow, who seek to impede any hope of peace and mutual understanding with the aliens, among other things. The message resonated with communists throughout Latin America which found themselves dissatisifed with the state of the revolution as lead by the self-proclaimed Soviet leaders of the movement. It resonated with the desperate, the scared, the hysterical. A new movement has been born in the Southern Cone, one which heeds the aliens advice to overthrow their leaders, one which sees the invader as a liberator rather than a conqueror.
Armed both by Kalashnikov and a radical new ideology, insurgencies advocating this upheaval have appeared not just in Chile, but also Bolivia (just ahead of the country's third election in three years), Paraguay (itself ruled by an unsavory dictator who escaped world condemnation), Brazil (slowly trying to end its own dictatorship on the dictatorship's own terms), and Uruguay. The degree of their affiliation with Argentina varies, but in many cases it is likely at least some insurgencies are little more than the paramilitary wings of Peronist-Posadist allied parties.
Meanwhile across the Andes, in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, a movement similar in scope is building. Its own summit, so-called the Conference of the Andes, is arranged at the behest of Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela and Ecuadorean President Roldos to coordinate the response of South American democracies to the alien invasion and its side effects. The fledgling democracies of Peru and Bolivia, looking forward to elections in the coming months, sent representatives as well as Colombia. Almost in counter-balance to the influence of Argentina which has channeled people's fear into revolutionary fervor for radical socialist ideas, the Conference of the Andes sought to calm nerves and build a foundation for democracy to emerge and thrive in a dangerous world. Bolivia and Peru have sworn to adhere to the results of upcoming elections, which themselves are to be partially organized and assisted by Ecuadorean and Venezuelan poll-watchers. The escalating situation in the continent, however, means that more than poll-watchers, the Conference also sought to build military and defense ties between the region's democracies, that they may assist each other with ... certain novel difficulties. So it was that Venezuela sanctioned air support to Colombia, and is also likely to assist Bolivia.
The world watches, for Latin America has become a key battleground in the Cold War and Alien War alike...
(Chile has drifted to non-aligned.)
(Chile has switched to Revolution! government type.)
(New alien collaborationist insurgencies in Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil.)
(New nationalist insurgency in Chile.)
Miscellaneous Alien (or Alien-related) Actions and Events: Africa
Alongside the mission to Antarctica, the United Nations voted to authorize an international military expedition to Zambia. The country had fallen apart in the Winter (of the Southern Hemisphere) of 1980 after a particularly devastating chain of events set in motion by a series of alien incursions in the region, which cut the country off from international trade lanes and disrupted its largely subsistence-agriculture based economy. President Kaunda had been out on a state visit to Nzere at the time, hearing out a proposal from the Nzerean government regarding pooling resources from neighboring countries to build a dam on the Congo river in return for a share of the dam's electric output. In his absence and the government's paralysis in the face of impending disaster, an impromptu revolution overthrew Kaunda's administration.
Zambia's government-in-exile retained UN recognition, including its UNSC seat, and Kaunda campaigned for a mission to restore order to the country. He won enormous sympathy, particularly when reports swept in that the revolutionaries made statements considering collaboration with the aliens if it meant staving off famine and poverty. So it was that just such a mission was planned, with a fourfold objective: to restore President Kaunda to power (on the condition that he would end UNIP's one-party rule), distribute humanitarian aid, combat any collaborationist sentiment, and ultimately serve at least temporarily as Southern Africa's first line of defense against future alien interlopers. The mission took the name United Nations Emergency Forces in Zambia, or UNEFZ.
Canada took the lead in spurring other countries to action and organizing the relief effort. By the time Operation Coppersky was to launch, UNEFZ had numerous countries backing it. The backbone of this force included 12,000 French soldiers, 6,000 from Spain, 6,000 from Egypt, and 3,000 from Canada, for a total of 30,000 troops poised to invade Zambia. They would enjoy the support of 50 light attack and utility helicopters from France, Spain, Canada, Egypt, and India. India also furnished 25 fighter-bombers to provide close air support, with Canada and the Soviet Union dispatching a combined 30 fighter-interceptors to form the first batch of fighters to support local forces in warding off alien raids. Canada and Egypt also contributed to a pool of food and medicine among other provisions to distribute to the population, while India and Argentina were also part of the humanitarian mission aiming to rebuild damaged infrastructure.
The amount of men and equipment all but ensured victory against any Zambian resistance if it came to a straight up firefight - however such a confrontation was generally not the expectation. Prior to the revolution, Zambia had just over 14,000 troops at its command, including 30 T-54s and a hodge-podge of World War 2 armoured scout cars, pack howitzers, and 20mm anti-aircraft guns. There were also 37 combat aircraft in its air force, with two fighter-bomber squadrons consisting of a dozen Yugoslavian light bombers and a dozen MiG-19s and F-6s, with the remainder largely being trainers, transports, and utility helicopters. Such a force was easily outclassed by the firepower at UNEFZ's disposal. Further, UNEFZ intelligence indicated that the army had schismed after the revolution, and significant portions would remain loyal to Kaunda's government rather than the revolutionary coalition. It did not necessarily mean there were not more irregular militants unaccounted for among the revolutionaries, but any equipment at their disposal was most likely light and/or rather outdated. Still, UNEFZ was ready for anything - who knows if the aliens had already supplied aid to potential collaborators on the surface.
The invasion was planned as a two-pronged attack, with one force moving in from Nzere and the other from Tanzania, both countries having granted basic logistical support. The Nzerean division was closer to Lusaka and therefore poised to reassert political control of the country, while the other was better positioned to provide the most food and aid relief in the region struck hardest. In any case, despite both forces encountering resistance, after a week of fighting UNEFZ toppled the revolutionary government, re-installed Kaunda, and commenced the humanitarian relief and reconstruction mission. The fighting was far from over, however: remnants of the revolution splintered into the countryside, and some of its leaders were evacuated - the majority being traced to Buenos Aires - and came upon former Zambian Army arms caches. More alarmingly, they had found friends - evidently striking a deal with UNITA militants to allow them to use Zambia as a base for attacks into Angola once again, in return for the meager assortment of arms and ammunition UNITA had on hand. They appear to have also been in contact with militants in Mozambique. The collaborationist insurgency in the southwest of Zambia continues skirmishing with UNEFZ forces and poses itself as the legitimate government of the country, drawing sympathy in part due to Kaunda's troubled regime. Although the international coalition has stabilized things for the short-term, Kaunda is all but completely dependent on it, and has little authority outside Lusaka.
Meanwhile in Angola, Cuba's attempts to broker peace in a seemingly endless civil war had been dashed. Cuban intervention in the Angolan war proved crucial for the continued endurance of MPLA, however the war grows in unpopularity in mainland Cuba. Increasingly viewed as a distant and costly quagmire, Cuba has shifted strategy, hoping to delegate more and more responsibilities to MPLA forces. They would do so in part by channeling the successes of Cuba's recent diplomatic offensives: the United States of America has ended its embargo of Cuba (and Vietnam) and shifted its economic pressure to South Africa. Encouraged by recent events, the United States had approached South Africa with an aim to apply pressure to end Apartheid in return for priority access to American weapons at lower cost and in greater availability than buying from Israel (and other countries circumventing the arms embargo with more clandestine means of sale) at a premium. It should have been a very appealing offer given South Africa's countless border conflicts and internal violence, not to mention the threat of alien incursion. However, South Africa only issued non-committal statements in regard to the issues of apartheid and the bantustans. Questions regarding the Arecibo Incident were also dodged. The American delegation was thoroughly displeased and reportedly impatient, having little to say.
That was because the response would only come much later. Justified in part before the Senate by demonstrating proof that South Africa had detonated a nuclear bomb and South Africa's repeated invasions of Angola (including its attack in Cunene Province in May 1980) the United States announced a total naval blockade. Two conventional carriers, several cruisers, several flotillas of destroyers, and numerous submarines cut South Africa off from international trade lanes. Going further than that, suspicious ships from known arms dealers attempting to enter South African harbours were occasionally boarded, searched, and weapons confiscated. This, on top of the initiating a blockade itself, drew much controversy. It flaunted the very pillars of international law, having itself been justification for war in the past. But hardly anyone was willing to pursue that against one of the world's premier powers - and it so happened that the move was actually rather popular in some circles, especially neighboring countries which had long conducted armed struggle against the apartheid state.
The Cuban offensive continued with a distribution of weapons among not just the MPLA but also SWAPO. With Cuban-Yugoslavian relations enjoying a thaw thanks in part to Cuba's conscious remodeling of its economy on the Illyrian system, Yugoslavian advisers and arms returned to augment Cuban efforts in the Angola theater. With Cuba set to begin withdrawing troops, South Korea and Brazil formed a bloc advocating for peace through the other side, in UNITA. South Korean troop deployments and military exercises along Brazil came alongside a diplomatic mission, ultimately convincing Brazil to help advocate UNITA to pursue a true unity government with MPLA. A new picture began to assemble: UNITA's main allies were now either unable to promise continued support (in the case of South Africa) or simply unwilling to, and South Korean advisers and workers had come to demonstrate the material benefits of unifying the country and working jointly with MPLA to set up a new government. This became especially urgent when it became known that UNITA was willing to support collaborators in Zambia. MPLA was also losing some of its supporters, at least in the most direct sense. So it was that at last, the two warring parties declared another ceasefire and agreed to hold talks, perhaps to join in arms against South Africa and the aliens.
Alas, things were hardly so simple. As UNITA came willing to compromise, MPLA was not so convinced, finding that although Cuba planned to withdraw much of its troops that had kept the regime afloat through internal drama and incessant warfare, UNITA's position with its allies was even worse. Heavy fighting in Cunene Province saw Cuban, Soviet, and SWAPO forces successfully fend off a determined South African offensive called Operation Sceptic targeting SWAPO insurgents based there, weakening UNITA's position despite a follow-up attack two months later in Operation Klipklop. MPLA was thus disinterested in compromise, seeing its position and that of its allies as dominant, and assured of imminent victory even in the event of a complete Warsaw Pact withdrawal. Nonetheless, fighting between Angolan factions largely de-escalated the last few months, favoring instead confronting South African forces and supporting the cause of SWAPO for Namibian independence.
Angola would be far from the only place to attract Korean interests. In Kenya, India and South Korea together assembled a large force to be stationed there, so-called the "East African Rapid Deployment Force" to act as a complement to regional defense initiatives in the event of alien incursion. Kenya of course was all too happy to accept the deployment, considering it a deterrent to Somalia's recent rearmament. After getting blasted in the Ogaden War after Warsaw Pact forces rushed to the aid of Ethiopia, Somalia has quickly turned to unconventional friends to rebuild its army, drifting further from its former alliance base in the West. Fearing Somalia might escalate existing disputes with Kenya, and of course hoping not to be left out of global defense programs, the East African Rapid Deployment Force has nonetheless come to be viewed by some as an imposition seeking to expand influence rather than the altruistic aims of a similar UN Blue Helmets operation.
Elsewhere in Africa, Egypt was positioning itself as a major player across the continent. Whereas the crisis in Zambia had called for worldwide intervention, the similar one in Sudan was left to Egypt alone to resolve. President Sadat made a visit to the ruins of Port Sudan, bombarded by alien forces late last year, and was moved to speak that Egypt would have the back of Sudanese people through thick and thin, going on to praise the efforts of Nimeiry to establish peace in South Sudan through the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 and his reconciliation with radical islamist leaders after several of their coup attempts throughout the 1970s. The near-collapse of the country however drew Egyptian concern, leading to an immense escalation in military deployment. 50,000 Egyptian troops had already been stationed in Sudan, but this number would jump to 71,000 plus 20 fighter-bombers, helicopters, and air defense missiles, all of which on standby to defend the country against another alien attack but also helping the government re-establish control outside of Khartoum, engaging re-invigorated separatist movements. Meanwhile, food and medicine relief equivalent to Egypt's contribution in Zambia were implemented, as well as significant effort to rebuild Port Sudan.
Egypt also arranged a mutual defense pact with Sudan, promising that an attack on Sudan was an attack on Egypt. Sadat pressed further down the Nile Basin, however, entering talks with Uganda, Tanzania, and Somalia, signing weapons deals with all of them and going so far as to station troops in Uganda to assist the new government in consolidating power and taking some of the load off of the Tanzanian occupation. Looking beyond Africa, Egypt also sent military aid to Oman. In all cases, this military aid included air defense missiles and training, drawing upon Egypt's vast stockpile of anti-air weapons built up for war with Israel, now freed for use elsewhere thanks to peace with Israel and the significant American air force presence. All the while, with UNEF's mission mandate in the Sinai expanded and its scope extended to include defending the Suez Canal from alien intruders now that both Egypt and Israel have agreed to demilitarize the region, it has also taken on significantly more contributors, expanding multifold in size and equipment, though for now the missions in Zambia and Antarctica had more of the world's attention.
Aside from the warfare and blockade plaguing the southern tip of the continent, much was afoot elsewhere in Africa as well. Several countries, most notably Venezuela, came to the aid of fellow OPEC-member Algeria, which had suffered severe economic and infrastructural damage in the lead-up to the Battle of Metilli, where Algerian and Xenonaut forces were ultimately successful in securing an alien crashsite after a hard battle. Prior to being shot down, the aliens had inflicted a serious blow to the oil extraction and processing facilities around the country's largest oil fields, on which several Mediterranean countries were to some degree dependent for their supply. Venezuelan aid came in the form of rebuilding one of the old refineries, contributing funds to facilitate rebuilding the others, and leveraged influence with the Independent Industrial Congress to entice Yugoslavian investment. Italy, among the countries in desperate need of Algerian oil, would also make its contribution. Libya, a political and military ally of Algeria, also hoped to assist. However, while solidarity and resource shortages were significant motivators in the international effort to rebuild Algeria's oil production, perhaps the biggest draw was Algeria's access to a relatively large quantity - at the time the largest known - of alien materials.
In this regard the various nations found themselves in a bidding war for access to Algerian crashsites, a contest where Venezuela would ultimately seize the grand prize, winning access to the blasted hulk of the alien formation leader. In addition to material and diplomatic aid, Venezuela addressed economic issues created by the destruction by offering scholarships to Algerian students to take their studies to Venezuelan universities, helping to ensure that any breakthroughs made with access to the site would to some degree be shared with Algeria in the future. For its part, Venezuela had exclusively been interested in access to one of the then-largest alien craft to descend into Earth's lower atmosphere, which reserved Algeria the opportunity to broker for other nations' assistance with samples of Alien Alloys and Elerium-115. Yugoslavian, Italian, and Libyan aid appears to have been compensated this way. Nonetheless, no one - perhaps not even Algeria - benefitted from this sequence of events more than Venezuelan scientists, who over the next several months achieved perhaps the best understanding of alien technology of anyone in the world. This accomplishment, among Venezuela's other achievements such as its rapid industrialization through the El Rosal Plan attracting significant American investment and the country's increasingly paramount role as a leader among South American nations, has solidified it as a Middle Power - even if its armed forces left something to be desired during the recent alien incursion that crashed in Upata only with American intervention.
New faces have staked their claim to areas of influence in Africa, among them Cuba, India, and more bizarre the South Korean expeditions in Angola and Kenya. Indigenous powers such as Egypt have also extended their reach across the continent, perhaps with a vision to defend the whole of the Nile Basin lest something effect its population centers downstream. But Africa is vast, and there was certainly enough room for its "former" colonizers to exercise their strength. As before, British arms suppliers have found a rich market in Commonwealth members across Africa. But after the disastrous events in Africa over the last few months, it was seemingly France that took regional criticism the most to heart. Aside from also furnishing several of its Francophonie allies with heavy weapons, France founded the Ministry of Cooperation with the aim of addressing the concerns of its erstwhile allies and puppets in West and Central Africa. Leveraging the prestige yielded from its leadership of the movement championing IMF reform - even if it had a rather disappointing conclusion for many debtor nations as it faced a British veto - France urged the restructuring of African economies. Its biggest accomplishment was perhaps successfully pushing for an end to the separate Central and West African currencies, hoping to streamline and balance exchange rates across a vast region. This move was well-received in France, seen as a way to provide French industry a market for the future. With new detachments of jets, troops, and counter-infiltrator operatives across Africa, France hopes to reshape its popular conception as being no more than a once-suzerain keen on asserting domination to one of being a benevolent linguistic neighbor and a genuine security partner. While a victory on the home front, being received as addressing what many feel to be one of the biggest contradictions of this iteration of the French Republic today, African partners are more keen to wait and see if this truly represents a transformation of French policy.
Returning to southern Africa, the American blockade had numerous ramifications. Over the next couple months, the British government under PM Whitelaw, had changed stance regarding South Africa, the world pariah. Where his predecessors had been reluctant to completely follow through on promises to sanction South Africa, Whitelaw had decided the time was right to join in the complete embargo. More than that, however, the UK would reach out to SWAPO, offering advisers and materiel and further upon Namibia's independence would be welcomed into the Commonwealth and receive development and reconstruction aid at British expense. As SWAPO grows in strength and Namibian independence appears closer than ever with South Africa's military gradually losing any semblance of material superiority and wavering in morale, the time is fast approaching that South Africa's regime may be forced to reconsider its atrocious policies lest the whole thing collapse.
Europe (just a bit)
In the skies above Bordeaux, France, lurked a sinister formation of alien ships, in what seems a typical incursion of three ships these days. With Crete promptly notified, the French were quick to engage, achieving success in defeating the formation's two fighter escorts, which crashed in French territory to little apparent fanfare or panic. But French planes failed to apprehend the formation leader enough to force an engagement before it crossed into Italian airspace. The Italians cooperated with the French sortie, the two countries working together in attempting to bait the aliens to land or at least descend, but the aliens had no such interest and Italy had no especially advanced interceptors on hand to pursue at higher altitude. So it was that the aliens would finally enter Yugoslavian airspace, and NATO planes withdrew. Yugoslavia's air force was somewhat poorly poised to defend itself against a ship of this caliber, however thankfully by this point the Xenonaut squadron had reached the target. After a short engagement, Xenonaut fighters shot the aliens down near the town of Banja Luka, northwest in the Bosnian Republic.
Although requesting a Xenonaut liaison for tactical advice, Yugoslavia had every intention of handling the bulk of the fighting itself. Taking cues from Algeria's operations against a similar-sized object, Yugoslavia would allocate a significant force of tanks, infantry, and air support. Many more than could actually fight at once, but it was viewed as advantageous to be able to cycle units out of the line of fire. Nonetheless, thanks in part to the much better infrastructure in the vicinity of the crash site compared to Metilli, the People's Army was able to respond rapidly, establishing the cordon within a few hours and pressing this early advantage. With the aliens lacking the time to set up a formidable defensive position as they had in Algeria, the clean-up resulted in fewer casualties and took less time than the comparable North African operation.
(Yugoslavia has recovered 1x normal condition small-size wreckage.)
(France has recovered 2x normal condition fighter wreckages.)
The blasts from the enemy ordinance nearly blinded Miguel. He held his rifle and looked ahead. Several of his comrades were running swiftly into the emerald battlefield.
Explosives, burning jungle and shouting volunteers surrounded him. It was his unit that was striking a moving convoy, deciding this was their moment. His heart was slamming within his chest, he could feel his blood pressure surge ever upwards and the adrenaline in his system having made him endure the long marches in the jungle and now the explosive conflict... a moment in time that flipped the switch of slaughter and mayhem.
Across the entire country of Zambia, the once lush, green landscape had turned into a hellish quagmire of war. With several nations, blocs and determined interest groups involved in Zambia... the country was completely at war. The Zambian army divided, guerrilla groups advanced along numerous locations.
Both taking turns in brutally dislodging the other in a series of ambushes, skirmishes and constant bombardments. Men were sprinting into position, trying to get past the hail of gunfire. Several elements moving in like a wolf pack, isolating enemy contingents and setting up flanking positions that ended up with punching fire of bullets to assault the collaborationist convoy.
Sorties raged up across the sky from many nations... while the fighting on the ground was sporadic but fierce and intense when it happened. In mere moments soldiers could be detonated or killed by some sort of ordinance... and the real looming threat for many soldiers was the thought of being vaporized by some god-forsaken alien technology.
Airstrikes and artillery, aliens.
Pick your A for your very brief Zambian stay.
Miguel held that rifle firmly aiming down the sights, and got his bearings as dust that had been kicked up by his sprinting had finally settled somewhat. Shots were fired, hammering out of their battle rifle, shapes in the distant smoke crumpled. So much of the vegetation was on fire, and bullets whizzed by, grenades were thrown and death's direction could come from many sources. The smoke could be seen for several kilometers, and smelled too.
Death, ash and agony. Bright lights and aftershakes. The hands, gripping that handle... a little too tightly. Teeth tense and immense pressure on the jaw... a clenching of intensity. Sweat down the forehead, obliteration of any unlucky enough to be hit.
It wasn't going to be long until more and more forces arrived on both sides... the decision to submit or fight was upon humanity. He had decided to fight, he had decided to join fellow fighters fighting the good fight against what he considered an insurgent force born out of desperation. No better than thralls of this new Heirarchy.
"We all choose to die. Its whether we die as slaves or as free people that is the choice."
The forming mentality among many of these guerrilla groups was that of a shared, internationalist outlook of working with and dealing with supply. A shared sense of purpose... in killing an invader that forcefully subjugated an entire nation and forced elements of it to fight against their own species. Some embraced a fatalism, a sense of duty beyond themselves. Others kept true to survival instincts... navigated the situation as best they could with caution. Diversity of thought... an ongoing process of accepting what the new reality of the future was.
Resisting an invasion from a vastly more technologically advanced species, with aims of complete and total subjugation, and willingness to deploy weapons of mass destruction. Terror weapons and tactics... a bully that had a lot of time to consolidate their cruelty into refined methods. The planet's ecological health stabbed and lacerated by numerous alien experiments... Earthquakes being one of the many damning things that the aliens bestowed to Zambia. Humanity's very right to breathe and exist independently, to be unmolested of the whims of alien overlords who'd surely domesticate us for whatever role they deigned us.
We are quarry to them. But the hunter can become the hunted.
Weapons from all sorts of places ending up in the hands of voluntary insurgent fighters like Miguel was a tangent affair of layers upon layers of various national bureaucracies, defense industrial contractors and all sorts of military personnel overseeing weapons production across the world. And many nations find themselves involved, in one way or another. As territory was secured so was local resources and connections formed... chatter in camps, very often delivered through foot and mouth. Methods to avoid detection a primary focus, the choice to engage always a tangible risk to one's health and safety.
Even with the risks however, the enemy was within and without. It would not cease shortly nor would it soon. The war for Earth was just beginning. The world was seeing rise of explosive conflict and the question of who chooses what becomes ever the more pressing question of how to cope with the new nightmarish reality.
"Bullets don't discriminate, people do."
Somewhere, someone was shooting a collaborator or fighting some other cause. There was a number of people willing to go to great lengths in what was something of an apocalyptic last stand for humanity. Even before the crisis of the alien invasion, the desire to lodge bullets into some meaty flesh of another human being was tantamount to the bloodthirsty proxy war world.
"Far flung visitors came. They weren't very nice."
History repeats.
The choice of submission or freedom. The planet's enslavement to an imperial space empire... a very aptly named Heirarchy, who loomed in the skies as a punishing force against an entire planet. An empire that had warranted the use of nuclear weapons not once, not twice... but three times in a rapid succession of time. The threat of the Heirarchy was, for people like Miguel, his comrades Kasamba and others was of existential magnitude. The very future of the planet and its resident species and their subsequent civilization would be determined by this war.
Fierce battle continued. Bullets finding purchase in soldiers as blood seeped from wounds, and lead found itself embedded within human bodies.
The ticking bombs and grenades became orchestration of their own shrapnel rain patterns.
The insurgents kept aware of their surroundings. Damage was to be inflicted, and very often commanding officers were brutally killed, panic incited. Areas seized, resources taken.
Cutting heads off of active units in the field led to much panic... much death. The ruthless trade of life and death.
As throughout Africa, the fighting continued... the cradle of humanity, a continent recuperating from its own history of horrors... and new pages being wrote in the bloody book. The war machine was rolling, but questions towards the conflict, and why one is fighting constantly haunt the dreams of all those involved. Footage that would later be exposed to world, to show resistance against alien invaders and their puppets showcasing select skirmishes... heroic figures of popular guerrilla resistance. The leaders humanity needed in a time of crisis and mass death and destruction... global partisans willing to fight and die for maintaining the freedom of their species.
Sacrifice.
The muck of war consumed those within it, and the fog of war and its pea soup properties cooked many a combatant to death, the madness and murkiness of conflict obscuring the realities of life and death on the frontlines.
Over the months, news came and went in the largely government-sponsored Egyptian press. The attack on the Moscow Olympics, the nuclear detonations in the US and China had their time in the papers along with other alien incursions. Sadat's initiatives to assist Sudan in its time of trouble and the country's outreach toward Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, and Oman also had their light in the papers.
However, what might have otherwise been a minor event in a far off place sparked a frenzy in the Egyptian government press even though it hardly compared to the alien assaults on the world's superpowers.
In spite of the revelation of the alien invasion in 1979, Posadism and Argentine activity had largely escaped the Egyptian press's attention, but that all changed once word got out that Muammar Gaddafi himself had visited and attended a conference hosted in Argentina.
There was some degree of awareness of what Posadism was in the upper echelons of Egypt's government, especially when some of Egypt's western partners were concerned about Posadas and the ideas he espoused. Indeed, the Ministry of the Interior and other relevant agencies were on the lookout for any collaborationist tendencies within Egypt's own socialist and Islamist movements. But the moment it became known that Gaddafi had visited Argentina, that there may have been association and perhaps camaraderie between Gaddafi and Posadas, the Egyptian media sank its teeth into this story like a vise.
It was no secret that Sadat and Gaddafi despised each other. The two had a laundry list of reasons to hate each other. Sadat did not involve Gaddafi in his planning for the October 1973 war against Israel, even though the latter had sought vengeance against Israel shooting down a Libyan civilian airliner. There was also the obvious matter of Sadat's policy of separate peace with Israel. Likewise, Sadat's grievances included Libya's annexation of the uranium-rich Aouzou strip in the northernmost part of Chad and extensive interference into Chad's affairs. There was also Gaddafi's calls to overthrow both the Egyptian president and his close ally in Numayri, combined with terrorist plots in Egypt and support for at least one of the coup attempts against Numayri.
Tensions between the two leaders led to a buildup along the Egyptian/Libyan border after Libyan provocations starting around 1976. In July 22, 1976, Gaddafi ordered the Egyptian consulate in Benghazi closed because of Egypt's buildup. Later, in June 1977, Gaddafi also ordered 225,000 Egyptians in Libya to leave the country, accusing Egypt of planning to seize Libyan oil fields. A series of border clashes occurred in July 1977, eventually culminating in the brief conflict from July 21-24 that resulted in greater material losses for the Libyans.
Although there was talk that Egypt might invade Libya to oust Gaddafi during this time, in the end, a truce was brokered, though no formal peace treaty was established. PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Algerian President Houari Boumédiène both intervened to mediate this dispute, though the advice of American officials about the problems that might result from attempting a full invasion may have also played a role in persuading Sadat to end this conflict.
And so that was how things were for a time. Once the Alien Invasion was revealed to the world at large, there was concern for how Gaddafi might play into it, although much of Egypt's efforts were directed towards bolstering its own defenses and preparing for if the invasion would come to Egypt (which it did). Now that Gaddafi had shown a sign that he might collaborate with the aliens, that he might view the aliens as liberators and take heed of their ultimatum, tensions would flare once again.
If, as the Posadist ideology seemed to suggest, the aliens were coming here as "liberators" to bring about a so-called socialist paradise, then naturally Egypt, Sudan, and Israel would be targets of this "liberation" given Gaddafi's own rhetoric. If Gaddafi achieved coordination with the alien Hierarchy, Egypt would not solely be facing something akin to the "small" ship it had downed near Aswan. It would be facing something akin to the larger ships that were wreaking havoc over Moscow and whatever had necessitated the nuclear annihilation of Phoenix. If the two superpowers were struggling against those, it was uncertain how Egypt would fare.
(Pictured: An example of the military capabilities Libya might achieve through alien collaboration)
The government press under the Ministry of Information and Culture would begin disseminating articles about the threat a potential collaborator Libya would pose, with Gaddafi himself the main target of ire as opposed to the Libyan people. In some ways, this campaign mirrored a similar propaganda effort that occurred around the middle of the 1970s, when tensions between Sadat and Gaddafi were building up. It did little to assuage the people's fears over the mounting alien invasion, but that was never the point. If conflict erupted between Egypt and Libya, if an intervention against Libya became necessary, it would not merely be the extension of a spat between two heads of state, but part of the greater existential struggle for Egypt and humanity's survival.
Among the articles and broadcasts being churned out by the Egyptian press were interviews with former Libyan RCC member and Minister of Planning Umar Muhayshi, who was currently residing in Egypt. Muhayshi was said to have been behind a Libyan coup attempt that was exposed in 1975, which seemed to stem from a dispute over Libya's budget and how much was being used for military expenditures/sponsoring foreign terrorism. In a March 1976 interview for Al-Ahram, Muhayshi denied he was trying to coup Gaddafi, instead claiming he and other officers were planning on "correcting Qaddafi's errors." He said he had personally asked Gaddafi to resign, and had labeled him as a "dangerous psychopath" and "despot."
Now that Libya was once again in Egypt's spotlight, the former Planning Minister had new things to say. For those who might have been more familiar with the man, Muhayshi's reappearance in the Egyptian mainstream press might have been surprising. He had been among the many critics of Sadat's peace process with Israel, though perhaps owing to the government press's efforts to paint the process in a positive light, these views might not have had the reach they could have had. Still, perhaps it said something about the mood in the air that he was willing to give an interview.
"…What's been said about Posadist-Socialism, about the idea the aliens are going to liberate us from the imperialist superpowers, it all must resonate with Gaddafi on a fundamental level. But this is beyond dangerous. If he sticks with this lunacy, there won't be a Libya anymore. The Americans nuked one of their own cities. They're not going to hold back against someone who's friends with the aliens, and there's no telling what the Zionists might do. And the aliens don't even sound like they're socialist or revolutionary. They're just another kind of imperialist..."
There were also some remarks from Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs who was also residing in Egypt.
But though these two had been residing in Egypt for some time, there was a third, much more recent Libyan exile who caught the attention of the Egyptian press.
This man was Mohammed Yousef el-Magariaf. Once Vice-Dean at the University of Tripoli, he then served as Libya's auditor-general between July 1972 to November 1977. After that, he served as Libya's ambassador to India.
While in Morocco on July 31, 1980, Magariaf made a public announcement that he was resigning from his position as ambassador and severing ties with Gaddafi's regime. He further claimed Gaddafi's government did not represent the Libyan people.
This decision was said to have been sparked by an order recalling Magariaf to Libya earlier in the year, which he believed would result in him getting purged given Gaddafi's treatment of suspected dissidents. Further remarks by Magariaf indicated that his work in exposing corruption and irregularities as auditor-general did not sit well with the regime, and his appointment to ambassador was an attempt to get rid of him/put him somewhere where he could do less damage.
Where Magariaf would go or what he would do after his resignation was unclear, though Egypt promoted itself as a place where he and other Libyan exiles could find refuge. Magariaf almost certainly would be targeted by assassins working for Libya in its policy of hunting "stray dogs." Still, Magariaf's statements and remarks were more fuel to the perception of Gaddafi as a dangerous dictator.
(The threat beyond Egypt's borders: a dangerous dictator potentially working with the aliens to destroy Egypt)
With this anti-Gaddafi craze being promoted by the Egyptian press, it would only be a matter of time before President Sadat himself would make statements regarding the situation.
"A collaborator nation on our borders is unacceptable," President Sadat began. "Gaddafi must swiftly denounce this Posadaist, alien-liberation talk for the nonsense that it is, and he must cut off all ties with Argentina and the other would-be alien-appeasers. If Gaddafi insists on clinging to this delusional nonsense, Egypt is prepared to exercise every means at its disposal to prevent Libya from becoming a forward base for the aliens."
Given that Gaddafi refused to have any sort of diplomatic ties with Egypt while Sadat pursued peace with Israel, there was little chance the two leaders would ever meet directly to sort out this issue. Still, only time would tell how Gaddafi or the world would respond to Egyptian rhetoric.
Despite heavy alien activity in the region during the first half of 1980, most of the western and central Europe was spared a similar onslaught over the following months, with the notable exception of the aforementioned interloper in French and later Italian and Yugoslavian airspace. The effects of the Baltic Crisis and subsequent alien attacks nevertheless left their mark on a changing European political and socioeconomic landscape, in particular with an increased emphasis on defense spending and rearmament. Politicians and parties all over the spectrum found themselves advocating for positions that would have been political suicide only 9 months ago. One of the best examples of this is in the continuing conflict in Ireland. Prime Minister Whitelaw has throughout the invasion earned a reputation for his willingness to compromise, reversing much of his party's policies with regard to Ireland more or less overnight, driven by the great perceived necessity, though his unabated advocation for privatized industry (including the defense sector) and continued alliance with big business remain in alignment with the Conservative platform of recent years.
A combination of factors from the alien invasion to the controversial steps taken in Ireland, with rising hysteria and economic woes inbetween, provoked a shift in the government of the United Kingdom - in aims if not in methods, and in operations if not in personnel. As discussed before, the UK would find itself reversing its previously ambivalent position towards South Africa to one of outright hostility, taking to supporting the armed Namibian independence movement. Where the administration had previously all but ignored Spanish and Portuguese invitations to participate in the Ceuta Protocol, Whitelaw was at last compelled to reply in the affirmative. Indeed, the UK would see most of its overseas commitments expanded, most notably with a significant involvement in the expedition to Antarctica. Distressed by rising oil prices and the instability of all potential suppliers, operations exploiting the great oil wealth of the North Sea were expanded, with plans for a stimulus package in the future to jumpstart the so-called North Sea Boom. Any such initiative will be limited by other nations' claims to North Sea Oil, however, until the world finally finds a resolution to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Meanwhile, as any oil production from the North Sea is unlikely to completely offset the petroleum imports driven by the high demands of the British economy and especially ever-growing defense needs, plans were also laid to further develop Britain's nuclear power generation.
Above all it was defense that was paramount in the government's agenda. Skirmishes with alien forces in the first half of 1980 saw the RAF dented, losing some of its fastest fighter jets. These were also ones being phased out of service anyway, however, with pressure mounting to find a suitable replacement for them with the speed, climb, and high-altitude handling to pursue UFOs ideally before they can threaten to bombard ground targets or land. This is a role for which Britain's otherwise impressive fleet of F-4 Phantoms is not quite up to the task. Nonetheless, alien drone crashsites in Wales have been the subject of intensive study, further tempering any fears of further alien incursion with the knowledge that the last one was leading to strides in material science. As a stopgap measure until such time as a replacement fighter jet is ready, SAM installations throughout the Isles would be reinforced, encouraged by the lone Saudi success in downing an alien fighter with similar technology.
Though Whitelaw's policy of compromise and concession had worked unexpected wonders in resolving tensions in Ireland and stoking hope for the future amid a delicate world crisis, pressure from within the party compelled Whitelaw to double back. Conservatives argued that negotiation with terrorist paramilitary organizations was in violation of principle and that the government had conceded more than enough. A moratorium was placed on further concession, though British mediators would continue to receive requests from the other party. Lately, those requests consisted more and more of demands for the UK to contribute more to the defense of Ireland against alien forces. Requests in turn met with pressure to do just the opposite, as Irish organizations feared the UK would use the alien invasion as an excuse to effectively occupy conflict zones as a kind of "protectorate" and in the meantime restore order among the feuding parties by force. With the situation threatening to end the delicate ceasefire British diplomats had managed to create, Whitelaw would go on to authorize one last compromise, the lone further addition that anyone in the government would tolerate.
Unwilling to aggravate either side by devoting too much or too little to the defense of the Emerald Isle, and fearful that alien intervention would escalate the very same conflict the government has staked substantial political capital in attempting to resolve, the British have opted instead for the delicate, questionable, and unprecedented decision of helping local paramilitaries meet the task of deterring alien aggression. Paramilitary formations were formalized, integrated into chains of command, with units considering of mixed unionist and nationalist factions. Of course, it's not without ulterior motive: paramilitary personnel could be tracked in this way, and perhaps by forcing the two warring factions to work together the seeds of long-term peace could be planted. The problem remained, however - no matter how well-lead and well-trained Irish fighters might become with formal British Army oversight and assistance, equipment and materiel would be needed. Actually going as far as to arm and equip "former" paramilitaries was a step beyond what the current government was willing and able to accomplish. Incapable of fully committing to the initiative, it would yield mixed results, neither completely resolving the political deadlock posed by the issue of defending Ireland nor completely addressing the actual military need.
Though falling short of expectations on both sides, it would prove little setback in the short-term for Whitelaw's government, particularly as the aliens proved more interested in flying over the French Riviera, though they would ultimately meet their demise at Xenonaut hands in Bosnia. Nonetheless the alien formation met French opposition and the result - two more alien fighters downed in French jurisdiction - would continue to fuel the recent French obsession with enlightenment. Until now, this state-sponsored obsession largely permeated universities and government institutions but were hardly taken seriously among the general population. Most French people saw it as little more than the impetus for the Alien Ministry initiative and its associated 24/7 television broadcasts covering the alien threat in exhaustive detail, and thus a more or less neutral (or rather, humanist), multi-partisan program with some strange speeches once in a while. Needing the support of that general population in order to bring about the revolution of the mind needed to topple the spectacle, let alone see the benefit of this great undertaking, this state of things would simply not do. So it came to be - the Societal Salon was to focus on the so-called Popular Enlightenment. Alongside lengthy documentation about recent breakthroughs in the understanding of Alien Alloys and Elerium-115 as well as daily updates on events in Moscow, Phoenix, Southern Africa, Argentina, and the campaign against alien forces in Antarctica, the Alien Ministry became the mouthpiece for Salon spokespeople to issue thinly-veiled propaganda about human potential. But it was not the only place: the Salon would reach out through political party institutions, trade union leadership, other media platforms, and other non-government organizations operating in France to advocate for these positions.
Radical positions. Among other points elaborated, the Ministry d'Etranger discussed the benefits of utilizing alien technology, the benefits of studying alien life. In particular, of learning to communicate with alien life. Especially the latter. It stressed that while the alien invasion of Earth is a threat to human civilization and the biosphere as a whole, the time was imminent it would be no longer an unknown threat with unknown aims and unsurpassable technology. French society, and the better part of mankind that survives the process, would stand to benefit. Alien technology could lead to gadgets that would revolutionize daily life, reduce needed working hours, produce energy so efficiently it would be effectively free for all people, medical breakthroughs to prolong human life. France and the world would move into an age beyond scarcity, of unfettered prosperity.
Though the broadcasts were intended to assure a weary population in an uncertain time, it did not achieve this effect across every major French political demographic. Particularly so with the right, as well as right-leaning individuals and other factions still vying for power against the leftist coalition that has remained in power since their triumph in the struggle of '68. The Ministry d'Etranger had, prior to now, largely focused on comprehensive coverage of alien-related matters, relating its information with an almost robotic precision. Its viewers were given ample information, but it was largely on their part to draw their own conclusions about what was really happening. Yet with limited airtime available to cover every major alien incursion worldwide, gaps began to show. When the aliens attacked the Moscow Olympics, French coverage of the battle, its surrounding details, and aftermath was exhaustive. This was much less the case for the concurrent events in Poland, with an influential trade union allegedly being compromised by alien infiltrators and provoking a military coup. The scarce mention of this occurrence together with the revelation that such a thing was possible lead to a sudden cascade of criticism, as paranoid French viewers accused the Ministry of withholding information.
Once the Popular Enlightenment initiative kicked in, some voices among an increasingly hysterical French audience, with the aliens' own broadcast received not that long ago, began to hold the view that the Ministry, if not the government as a whole, was itself compromised by aliens. The alien broadcast spoke of their benevolent aim to save mankind from itself, to usher in a bright future. The Ministry meanwhile had a 12-part series documenting the potential technological augmentation of human society and the benefits of establishing contact with alien life. Though its original meaning was intended more broadly, and the same program discussed at length the continued threat of alien life to France and mankind at large, the similarities were a bit too close for comfort for some. Right-wing pundits leveraged growing popular hysteria and attacked Popular Enlightenment as being no more than a 'degenerate' initiative to eradicate the family unit, to erode French institutions including what remains of the church, to accelerate France's surrender to extraterrestrial influence, to extraterrestrial infiltration. French people were perhaps willing, if not eager, to accept new technological advents to ease everyday life and improve medicine, but the social evolution implied by Ministry mouthpieces drew ire from a significant portion of France - effectively politicizing alien technology.
What began as civil disobedience and a boycott of the Ministry began to escalate, with the most radical right-wing naysayers pushing threats to boycott even the elections, scheduled for the Spring of 1981. Every action, of course, has its equal and opposite reaction - with left-wing party spokespeople, politicians, and random university students fanning tensions by opposition. In practice, of course, little of this differed from the usual political divide in France, which has been a powder keg for years now. Naturally, this meant all the same talking points as usual were at the forefront of public consciousness once again. It is unknown to the world at large where this energy will go: aside from demonstrations and occasionally riots in right-wing stronghold neighborhoods and cities, things have generally stayed low-intensity, but they may not remain that way for long if the government actually begins to implement some of its promised changes or even if just the elections in a few months go a certain undesirable way...
France is surrounded. Aliens from above, Marxists and Maoists to the east, Americans to the west and maybe something even worse than all of that lurking across La Manche. It has long been said that France has no friends, only interests, and that is perhaps true what with France's collection of puppets across Africa and possessions in the Caribbean as well as the Indian and Pacific oceans. But in this world, perhaps one needs friends, too. To the south, the socialist coalition in Spain has achieved an important victory in the 1980 elections, carried by popular social reforms the previous year and successes in the ambitious program of recovery from the Second Spanish Civil War. France, Spain, and Portugal would find common ground in their "Eurocommunist" leadership, self-professed communists who nonetheless are in opposition to and criticize the USSR and Warsaw Pact. Feeling secure in their popular support, Spain has passed laws including a new tax code in order to expand the shrinking and overallocated budget (straining under IMF commitments), but just as importantly this electoral victory has enticed French investment on a larger scale than before. Spain was the recipient of alien materials from both France and Canada for its own study, while chemical extraction plants for uranium and nuclear reactors are developed in Spain with French assistance, in return for a share of the uranium to feed France's insatiable appetite for nuclear power.
Emboldened, Spain would go on to initiate some diplomatic plays of its own. With Italy facing a severe fuel crisis in the aftermath of the disastrous Red Sea Campaign (in which alien forces sabotaged a sizeable portion of Saudi fuel destined for European ports) and the Battle of Metilli (in which alien forces collapsed the Algerian oil industry) and Spain still having some undeveloped if small oil fields, a deal was signed whereby Italy could invest in Spanish refineries in return for a 20% discount on and highest priority for sales of Spanish fuel. Italy was thus encouraged to contribute to this project, while Spain's own energy demand would in part be met by means of the new French-built nuclear reactor. The Pakistani diaspora in Spain looks set to expand, the former contributing to the reconstruction effort together with Sudanese refugees and Indonesian migrant workers while surplus weapons leftover from the civil war are auctioned off to Pakistan at token prices. The socialist government would go on to join the world in applying pressure on South Africa, with any Spanish company that caught violating the embargo subject to immediate nationalization, and played a role in aiding and organizing Chilean exiles to return to their embattled country. Spanish troops, veterans of bloody civil war, would fight under the UN flag in the ... liberation? of Zambia.
One of the many expensive undertakings of the past year included, despite calls for disarmament in the aftermath of the civil war, the refit of Spain's aircraft carrier. This costly endeavor was brought to fruition this year, and currently patrols as part of the Ceuta Protocol, which at last has Gibraltar's participation - albeit under a number of conditions and stipulations. Though it was hoped that all parties to the Protocol would have universal military access to Gibraltar in case of emergency, the British were not willing to concede on this point, indicating land forces should only enter on British request. This stipulation was followed up by the deployment of additional infantry brigades to Gibraltar, shoring up the area's defense. Apart from refitting the carrier, a number of submarines and destroyers were subsequently brought into service aiding Xenonaut operations in the eastern Mediterranean and aiding the passage of humanitarian aid to the battered Red Sea region. This included a visa for Sudanese refugees who might move to Spain - and yielded a famous photo of Rodolfo Llopis kissing an immigrant baby recently arrived in Spain right before the elections.
The Sudanese, Indonesian, and Pakistani presence in Spain has ignited some social tensions here and there, with the ever-present shadow of anti-immigration rhetoric rearing its ugly head in public discourse as much as in the Cortes, and further frustrated by the increased tax rate. Fortunately, much of this criticism has been tempered by the fact that much of the government's success in rebuilding the country's wartorn countryside and battered cities has been possible largely because of migrant labor, and there is little energy left in what remains of the coalition government's opposition to make much noise about the increasing immigration, particularly when every indication is that the workers are a temporary measure (or at least no one has said otherwise) and the higher taxation is easily justified by the alien invasion and Spain's increasingly active role in world affairs, fighting in several theaters. Besides, I wonder what kind of paella a Pakistani might make...
LE PARISIEN - FORMER CIVIL SERVANT FORMS 'HUMANIST SOCIETY' TO 'ADVANCE A UNIFIED MANKIND'
Icon of the new 'Humanist Society', founded in Paris in April of 1980.
PARIS - Amid tensions in Paris, former '68 student leader and Ministry de l'Etranger anchor Celeste Bertheholt has made a startling on-air announcement of her resignation from her post to take up leadership in a new 'Humanist Society'. She had been the most popular anchor for the ministry's information programs since their inception in October 1979.
The announcement comes after weeks of criticism from the right in relation to the Ministry's conduct, especially in its coverage of the mass arrests of Solidarity members in Poland. Generally muted in its defense of the Ministry, the government of President Mitterrand had appeared to distance itself from the Ministry's project of 'mass and total information'. In response, Bertheholt accused the president of 'engaging in a project to impede the survival of mankind'. Defending herself and the Ministry as the 'last stand of the sane', Bertheholt suggested the Ministry's aims were not merely informative but revolutionary. 'The project of the Ministry', she remarked, 'is the project of a common humanity'.
The 'fact before us', she said before an audience of millions across France, 'is we will care for one another, or we will die'. According to anonymous sources within the ministry, attempts to cut her broadcast short failed due to a refusal from studio staff to prevent her from proceeding.
Immediately upon her resignation Bertheholt was criticized from both the Parti Socialiste, which called her 'reckless and dividing', and the right, which accused her of 'selling out the nation'. Heedless of such attacks, there has already been an outpouring for Bertheholt's ideas and the new society, which espouses a united human defense, an expansion of the powers of the United Nations, and a single global response to the alien threat heedless of traditional ideologies and national dividing lines.
In particular, many radicals, the youth, and those shaken by the nuclear detonations in Ankang, Chongqing, and Phoenix, have been drawn to the Humanist Society and its promise of a 'militant, social and technological solution to the alien problem'.
The Mitterrand government has not been as responsive to these concerns. A refusal by the Foreign Ministry to release the status of French Citizens (including several Paris university classes on field trip) attending the Olympic Games have led to widespread student protests and riots in the capital. Criticisms are increasingly levied at the Mitterrand Government that 'the head is asleep and the legs are dancing', where certain ministries such as Cooperation and l'Etranger have engaged in expansive initiatives while the central executive offers little new in official rhetoric.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party is in disarray, with the chaos in the Soviet Union putting into question its traditionally loyal stance to Moscow. Even the right, which might have been enjoying a position of strength, is divided in the rivalry between Giscard d'Estaing and Jacques Chirac for leadership of the anti-socialist coalition, and the hysterical pronouncements of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Le Pen and his Front National enjoys new popularity with heinous accusations of collaborations between 'aliens and aliens', suggesting a disloyalty of the immigrant population of France with the common cause of humanity. In response to these statements, Le Pen has recently been placed under 'special observation' by the Directorate-General of Internal Security, 'for the reckless endangerment of the national unity of France'.
The Situationist International has looked to reform its platform in relation to the alien threat, but has suffered from the ejection of founder and philosopher Guy Debord from the party over issues of organization, with Debord decrying the 'betrayal' of his vision, and defenders of recent reforms arguing Debord was simply too irascible and confrontational a leader.
Within this unstable situation, and for the first time since '68 an uncertain future for the PS majority, the Humanist Society stands alone as an organization founded after the beginning of the invasion - and thus potentially well-positioned to respond to its dangers. But it remains unclear if Bertheholt can transfer a photogenic performance into the basis for a new movement premised on nothing less than the unity of all mankind...
The Republic of Iran faces a delicate balancing act. The government has broad support, being formed of a coalition of secular and Islamist liberals, pro- and anti- Soviet socialists, radical feminists and traditionalist pastoral nomads all at once. As the Revolution matures, each interest group hopes to see their own agenda materialize, and more and more often the party lines of the ruling coalition - lead by the liberals ever since the elections - clash against one another. As the Revolution matures, it soon must commit to one path or another, and in the process risks alienating a major sector of its support base. There is, however, still at least one major factor uniting the disparate factions: the revolution's opposition - and former self-proclaimed leader - Khomeini himself.
Khomeini's faction would claim responsibility for harassing the revolutionary government's attempts to organize the new administration's first election under the recent laws, in April of 1980. These efforts did little in practical terms to hinder the elections' operation, let alone influence the result in a significant way, but they were nonetheless enough to help consolidate Khomeinist support and served to convince the interim government of the Republic of Iran that his movement still posed a threat. It signified that the threat posed by the growing insurgency out of Qom had to be taken seriously, especially as it became clear that Khomeini had attracted international sympathy - albeit of the small-scale and noncommittal sort. Until now, the Republic erred on the side of caution, avoiding direct challenge to Khomeini lest his demise at the height of his career and popularity lead to reprisal and reorganization under more capable or an otherwise even more dangerous figurehead.
The situation was perhaps even more tenuous in Qom, however. In its provocations, the movement had exposed itself as a target, and the Republic now had Khomeini in its sights. The Republic controlled the overwhelming majority of the country's resources, industries, and held appeal over the majority of the population - at least for now. Further, back in 1979, the military had declared itself neutral in the revolution. Now, especially after the elections began to establish the provisional government's legitimate authority, many officers were increasingly announcing their allegiance to the Republic. Civil war was now, if it wasn't already, out of the question. The revolution had moved into a phase where Khomeini's movement would manifest as a resistance. An insurgency, with guerilla fighters prowling the countryside and ambushing civil servants' convoys in cities, acting as martyrs for the Islamic Republic that could have been. Khomeini would have to play the long game - not unusual for a man who was in exile until recently.
With the conclusion of the elections, backed by promises of support from across the world's hegemonic blocs, and thus commanding the advantage - the Republic would take the offensive, and it was on the Khomeinists to react appropriately. But it was not the combined arms offensive Khomeini was expecting. Instead, the Republic distributed evidence recovered via surveillance of Khomeini's headquarters in Qom of his ties abroad, particularly the revelation of his receiving support from Egyptian Islamist organizations and more tangibly his reception of Saudi support. The Republic thus branded Khomeini a traitor, of selling-out to foreign interests - the very same accusation the old cleric had leveraged against the Shah. Mehdi Bazargan, the prime minister of the Republic, would go on television and radio to call out his former ally in the revolution with vigor uncharacteristic of the aging academic. He would quote the recently passed and somewhat popular Ayatollah Taleghani, going on to say... "This person will justify any means to reach his goal... He lies, he deceives, he swears to God that he is the most compassionate for you. But in reality, he is the most stubborn, the most hateful of people. Before he gets power in his hands, he makes promises... Once he gets it, he will have no mercy." Obviously radicalized since the revolution entered a new phase in the fall of last year, he went on to invoke Ali Shariati in condemning Khomeini as the ultimate expression of black 'Safavi' Shi'ism, of political clericism, of seeking to restore monarchy in the hands of a clergyman. Bazargan would go on to discuss at length the many advances the Republic has made and is making since it seized power, all while demonizing Khomeini as nothing more than an aspiring absolute monarch.
This diplomatic and media offensive could not have been more damaging if it had come from the barrel of a tank gun or the rocket pods of an attack helicopter. It is hard to say if it truly diminished Khomeini's support base, as those still with him now remain his most energetic allies, but it did much to elevate revolutionary energy and channel it against Khomeini. It would even translate into something resembling military force, as vigilantists and unofficial paramilitaries would take matters into their own hands in Qom and elsewhere in Iran, striking blows against Khomeini's followers and anyone suspected as much, even some doing little more than expressing sympathy for Khomeinist ideas. The violence escalated with Khomeinists launching reprisals, even as Khomeini himself attempted to rein them in, urging his supporters to bide their time.
Despite his best efforts, however, Khomeini was far from the only threat which kept the disparate factions of the ruling coalition together. It wasn't even strictly the alien invasion; even when it had come to light that the aliens had likely visited Iran before. The recently-promoted Colonel of the Air Force, Parviz Jafari, had been apart of an initiative from the higher echelons of revolutionary leadership to declassify documentation of military activity during the Shah period. One of these documents related to the 1976 Tehran Incident, in which Parviz Jafari (then an air force Major) and his first lieutenant Jalal Damirian attempted to intercept a UFO in their F-4 Phantom. Not taken seriously at the time, when Iran was not aware of the events in Iceland 18 years prior, it is now suspected that the object Parviz and Jalal encountered and failed to engage was likely a preliminary recon mission heralding the full-scale invasion to come a little more than three years later. With the purges, forced resignations, and mass desertions that have permeated the Iranian Armed Forces since February of 1979, Jafari now finds himself in charge of preparing the air force to meet the threat from beyond the stars.
But no, even more than the aliens, the biggest perceived threat to the Revolution and to Iran in general terms was Saddam Hussein. Tensions flared between pro-Western Iran and pro-Soviet Ba'athist Iraq since the time of the Shah, the two countries clashing over countless disputes that have not been completely resolved by treaty or by shows of force on Iran's part. The Shah had spent obscene amounts of money from Iran's wealth of petroleum on outfitting a modern force; the revolutionary government has inherited advanced fighter jets and tanks, a core more modern than several Great Powers' capabilities and together with Iran's sizeable advantage in manpower a powerful deterrent against Iraqi aggression. This technology now lay in decrepit storehouses, the money and manpower needed to maintain it having been lost in the opening stages of the revolution. The same purges, forced early retirements, and mass desertion that precipitated the rise of Parviz Jafari to Colonel has liquidated much of Iran's fighting capability, and leaving what remains in questionable allegiance. During his time as the revolution's figurehead, Khomeini had continued the Shah's refusal to give Iraq even an inch on the issues between them, but the delicate situation has encouraged the interim government to take a more diplomatic stance.
After the elections, Mehdi Bazargan offered to engage in talks with the Iraqis regarding use of the Arvand-Rud / Shatt al-Arab river, suggesting the Soviet Union - as allied to elements within the provisional government and sponsoring Saddam's regime - as a mediator. The Soviet Union offered Samarkand as a venue for negotiations to take place. This happened in late July, not long after the USSR had managed to repel the alien incursion in the Moscow Olympics and Sablin was already rising to a position of power within the Politburo. Iran opened talks with a concession as a gesture of goodwill: it would withdraw from and demilitarize the Tunb Islands and Abu Musa, one of the Shah's military operations which the revolution saw fit to continue, but reiterated that it would not accept Iraqi territorial claims in western Iran or the idea that Iranian ships should pay tolls to use the river shared by both countries (and which Iran accounts for by far the majority of its traffic).
If Iran was intimidated and hoped to avoid escalating the situation, the sentiment was the opposite among Iraq's leadership. Iraq had been emboldened: the USSR had previously made guarantees of military aid to the revolutionary government, but was likely undergoing a change in management and the alien attack in Moscow would likely consume much of their attention for a while. France, the interim government's other main sponsor and ally, was also friendly towards Iraq, furnishing the latter with weapons and aid in outfitting another nuclear reactor southeast of Baghdad. Where Iran's army was in shambles, Iraq's was better equipped, larger, and better consolidated relative to the Iranians than ever before, the product of Iraq's own obscene military spending. The Pre-Revolution Iranian Army of more than 300,000 which had frustrated Iraq in the conflict of 1974-1975, leading to the Algiers Agreement, was now at around 40% of that strength, with estimated 60,000 troops ready for action in the next 3 months and perhaps twice that 6 months from the onset of a new conflict. Iraq, meanwhile, had already begun mobilizing for a large-scale war in late 1979, and counted on 200,000 ready for operations in the next 6 months, with almost 300,000 more expected ready in the next year. Where perhaps 500 Iranian tanks were operational (of a pre-revolution number of more than 2,500), Iraq had almost 3,000. Iran's air force had been significantly larger a year ago, with 450 combat aircraft, but now just over 200 were actually combat-capable. This all came together in a report from Iraq's intelligence agency reaching the Iraqi delegation in Samarkand that same July of 1980, concluding that Iran was in no position to resist their demands.
Meanwhile, the revolution had only exacerbated tensions between the two countries, as now Saddam feared the Iranians could "export" their revolution, particularly through the Kurds' ongoing revolt, and especially now that the provisional government had reached a peaceful settlement with its own Kurdish insurgency. Having seen talks with Soviet mediation as advantageous two months before when they agreed with them, Iraq now saw them as little more than an opportunity to reiterate their demands. Naturally, the Iranian stance was to never give in to these demands, and so the talks, once lauded as the heralds of peace for our time, went nowhere. That August, Iraq positioned itself aggressively. Skirmishes erupted along the border, and Iraq launched raids into Khuzestan, probing for weakly-defended areas to concentrate their efforts. By October of 1980, as these skirmishes continue to escalate, war between Iran and Iraq looks all but inevitable, and Iraq would be ready for a full-scale offensive as soon as December. Saddam has repeatedly insisted before the international community, however, that he has no intention of attacking Iran.
It is perhaps not just conventional weapons that emboldened Saddam, at least if Israeli intelligence is to be believed. In September 1980, acting on intelligence that Iraq was close to developing its own nuclear weapons, an Israeli bomber squadron would violate the airspaces of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and finally Iraq in what became an unsuccessful strike against Iraq's nuclear reactors, alleged to be apart of a vast nuclear weapons research program that accelerated upon the arrival of the aliens. Despite Israel's best efforts to conceal their pilots' nationality and mission, and favorable circumstances with the Saudi AIr Force having been annihilated by an alien formation, the Jordanians - with their air force on constant elevated alert since the Red Sea Campaign and covering for the Saudis' - caught on to the Israeli squadron and sent warning to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis found themselves unable to intercept the Israelis anymore than a UFO, but realized they were bound for Iraq. And so the warning passed on to Iraq, which - after issuing one warning - shot some Israeli planes down with the full panoply of SAM suites surrounding Baghdad and forced the others to unleash their payload too early, resulting in minimal damage to their probable intended target - the Osirak nuclear reactor being built with the help of French technicians.
The remaining Israelis began the long flight back home, and over the course of their journey their attempted attack on the reactor made world news, being met with Iraqi outrage and Israeli discourse to explain the reasoning for the incursion, putting the blame on Iraq for contravening international decree on nuclear non-proliferation. The Arab League would naturally join Iraq in condemning it and offered what aid they could, but reprisal against Israel looks unlikely while Egypt has signed a peace treaty with Israel (and seems more interested in suppressing rebels in Uganda), the Saudis have no air force, and Iraq is poised to strike against Iran. French technicians look set to stay in Iraq, as does the continual flow of French weapons to Iraqi armouries. Italian technical and military assistance, starting after the Red Sea Campaign and Battle of Metilli cut off its usual oil suppliers, was also welcome in Iraq and included Italian-built destroyers, helicopters, and most importantly financial aid to access western markets. In short, the Israeli operation has solidly backfired and helped Iraq win friends and assert itself as a leader in the Arab World. Though war is on the horizon, few think it'll last any longer than a couple months...
The thoughts of General Zia ul-Haq's were dark. Smoke filled the room, choking all life within and staining the pure white shalwar kameez of the military dictator a musty grey. The world was tearing itself apart, aliens had arrived and had caused great havoc and great strife. Zia pulled annother drag on the cancer stick he was using. It was Cuban. Deals had been made. Friendships borne. An asshole got. Zia had gotten these neat cigars and maybe by the time he was done with this box, maybe two assholes would be got.
It wasn't the aliens destroying the world. Oh they were giving it the ol' Punjab Punch but the Cold War had been happening long before. The World had been tearing itself apart without any need for alien interference. Zia told himself that he did what he did because of the aliens but that wasn't true. Deep down he wondered if it was really for Islam. Bhutto had been a bastard but who wasn't in this day and age. Bhutto had done alright but... well Zia got cocky.
Iran had fallen into revolution and when Khamenei rose up, talking about Islamic renewal and Islamic Unity? Well wasn't that a swell idea.
With a slow drawl and a thick haze of cigarette smoke curling from his lips, Zia contemplated the twisted web that politics had woven. The threat of an Iraq-Iran war was a swirling vortex of power and deception, and its far-reaching implications had seeped into every crevice of his existence. Khomeini was no longer on the ascendant and that boded ill for Zia's Islamic policy. Afghanistan had been going well but with the Iranians flirting with the Soviets, if Pakistan could not lock in a friendly Afghanistan then strategic depth would be lost. The arch-enemy would win. India will have contained Pakistan.
Leaning against his desk, Zia's eyes narrowed beneath the brim of his fedora. The war was a double-edged sword—a chance to seize opportunities and a threat to his own stability. Dark forces lurked in the shadows, puppeteers maneuvering behind the scenes, manipulating the chessboard of war for their own gains.
Zia had to tread carefully. The stakes were high, and missteps could lead to a torrent of chaos. He knew the key was to maintain a precarious balance, a delicate dance between alliances and self-preservation. His eyes flicked to a photograph of the Calipha. She had no interest in Pakistan. That broad could barely be considered a Muslim. But she was a symbol and symbols had power. The image of burning Phoenix and the destruction at Moscow had another power. The Aliens could make Superpowers bleed. If the Americans couldn't defend themselves, could they be trusted to defend Pakistan? If the Soviet Politburo could get destroyed like that in the seat of their power, why fear them in central Asia?
Ring Ring! Ring Ring!
The phone on his desk shattered the silence, jolting the General from his musings. It was a call from an intelligence operative, a voice whispering secrets through a scrambled line. Zia's grip tightened around the receiver as he listened, the weight of the information sinking deep into his weary hands. Zia was getting too old for this crud.
Israel had tried to blow up French built nuclear reactors in Iraq? Zia looked at the phone in horror, the murky world of international politics was becoming more dynamic. The fucking Israelis. Probably had a star of David on their bomb and everything the damn-
Knock Knock!
The silence was broken again. Seems to be happening a lot now. The newcomer came in without waiting for a response, uncaring for the acrid cloud of smoke that had consumed the room. If anything the silloheutte's body language seemed to perk up a little yet somehow still gave the aura of being unimpressed. The fucking French.
"Bonjour, Mr Zia. I have come with reports as to our, how you say, arrangement." The silence was broken a third time. This time with words coming from a living human being in the room. Been a while since the crusty general had heard that. "The nuclear reactor construction is going well. In a couple of months, Pakistan will become one of the premier nuclear powers!"
In this dimly lit room, Zia couldn't escape the sense this person talking to him was mocking him. No one could be this French. Zia wasn't even entirely sure who this man was, only that he was surprised the Frenchman hadn't started saying hon hon hon at any point in the months he'd been overseeing this incredibly costly energy deal. Zia didn't know the Frenchman's name but he knew what it wasn't 'Pepe'. The overseer was likely some diplomat, probably named something like Gaston but Zia just internally called him Pepe. Zia mused idly if this made him a racist and came to the conclusion that it probably did.
"Excellent. Do you think the Israelis will come for ours?" With a sigh, Zia stubbed out his cigar in an overflowing ashtray.
"Likely. The Israelis know good quality, mon ami. Besides, you cannot call yourself a friend of Israel, non?" The Frenchman not named Pepe seemed to speak with a smug cadence. No one really knew who he was, he nominally was some sort of bureucrat but the Frenchman seemed a dangerous sort. The kind that would be left to oversee grand, expensive deals. The kind that got sent to deal with tinpot dictators in developing countries. The kind that told Zia exactly who he was in the worst way.
The world was in flux. Pakistan was at a boiling point. Rapid industrialisation, incredible stress, incredible dissent. Zia knew what he was doing. He had made a promise no one had asked him to make. Zia knew how he looked but he promised he was different.
Zia would make Pakistan Great and Zia was willing to make Pakistan suffer to do it.
UPATA President Herrera appears in front of the crash-site flanked by Humberto Fernandez-Moran (leader of the Extraterrestrial Research Institute) and Minister of Defense Luis Rangel Burgoing stand in front of the cordoned-off site of the UFO crash. Rangel seems uncomfortable; Fernandez-Moran intense. Herrera speaks:
"Today is a grave day – though FIDR has rapidly secured the spacecraft and eliminated any remaining threat and our friends to the North have done great work in neutralizing the craft, this incident has exposed the danger – the inadequacy – of fighting tomorrow's war with yesterday's weapons.
And these were only yesterday's weapons. The weight of three nuclear detonations – required, tragically, by the dangers of unobstructed invasion – tell us that what we have – the most cutting-edge aircraft, missiles, sensors, and weaponry – cannot break the threat that lurks in orbit. If we could not adapt, we would surely be doomed.
We are not doomed, though – the keys to victory, though not yet visible, are brushing right now against the tips of our fingers"
Fernandez-Moran speaks:
"The alien advantage against us is superior knowledge and capability – in armor we cannot pierce, weapons we cannot defend against, and ships that outrange and outfly our aircraft. This is what stymied FEDE above Venezuela, and required the use of terrible weapons to end incursions in the US and China. We cannot fight long if even the mightiest of us must bring nuclear fire to bear to find the most meager pyrrhic victory. Iceland required the use of six missiles, and Phoenix required the use of one. Metili decimated Algerian armor, and the tiny South African incursion toppled Zambia. Even this – little more than a scout – proved overwhelming to our air defenses.
In the face of all of this, one might not be blamed for thinking our defense futile against an opponent that seems godlike. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Instead, their attacks across the globe – in Iceland, in Phoenix, in Zambia, Metili, and Moscow…here in Upata – have instead sown upon our planet the seeds of our victory and their destruction. Here, now, we can seize their advantage and turn it against them – batter their shields into our armor, turn their guns against them, rip their engines bodily from the wreckage to power our factories and tip our missiles. It is said that in times past, Prometheus stole fire from the heavens and blessed humanity; now, we must tear it from the heavens ourselves instead, and find its selfish owners no more gods than we are. Knowledge is their only advantage, and they will not have it long – already we foresee weapons that shatter their armor, and protections that blunt their arms."
Herrera again:
"This is our calling, our sacred duty – our war, for our world – and we must fight it with tirelessness, with vigor, and with bravery – with strength of mind, dignity, and brilliance. It is a global war, we fight it alongside the world, and with the world's defense as our ultimate goal. We cannot rest until our world is safe and free from threats from above. We are not safe until we break the enemy's toeholds across the world. We cannot break the enemy's toeholds until we can fight their forces as peers, and we cannot fight their forces as peers until our weapons rival theirs"
At this, Herrera seems almost ready to take questions from the assembled crowd of reporters – but Fernandez-Moran quickly interjects, before the floor opens.
"We must emphasize that these innovations – our new birthright, taken from our enemy – will not be only weapons of war. This wellspring will be utterly transformative in all fields – in medicine, manufacturing, and communication, transportation, construction, and culture. Though, by necessity, it will start in the military, we cannot predict how rapidly it will expand through every nook and cranny of our society and our culture. Our horizons will be laid out before us, distances shortened, the impossible made possible… the stars, perhaps, set within reach"
FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL RESEARCH – FOR PUBLICATION Xenoceramics
The most familiar foreign materials found within recovered alien wrecks are a range of advanced composite and noncomposite nonmetallic materials, recognizably similar to our plastics and ceramics but with remarkable strength, durability, and versatility, along with more exotic properties of conductivity and semiconductivity. Though advanced, our teams have used our new understanding of these materials and their underlying manufacturing principles to develop techniques for manufacturing our own, which are already promising to revolutionize domestic industrial production. The ease of manufacture of these materials, coupled with their remarkable physical properties, shows us that they may soon become key components of not only our defense against the invader and the cutting edge of development but of our society as a whole, used in things as diverse as motorcycles, buildings, refineries, computers, and appliances.
High-Entropy Alloys
Even more promising than nonmetallic Xenoceramics have been our studies of the complex and diverse metallic alloys that constitute the both the exterior shell and interior skeleton of alien spacecraft and are also found in various samples of recovered xenotechnology. Where xenoceramic and xenoplastic materials have a recognizable, if remarkable, construction, the underlying principles and material structure of these alloys can only be described as radical. Though composed of the same elements as domestically produced alloys, they bear as much resemblance in construction and properties as diamond does to coal. With novel crystalline structures, stable pentametallic and hexametallic molecules, and at least three dozen other techniques, the created alloys have a range of truly incredible properties, including phenomenal strength, ambient-temperature superconductivity, and limited autogenous reparation.
Though enormously promising, these alloys have proven difficult to work with. Synthesis of exotic xenoalloys, unlike xenoceramics, has so far been unforthcoming and even manipulation of samples has degraded observed capabilities and required a time-, expertise-, and energy-intensive process. We have now developed processes capable of manipulating samples with only mild to moderate degradation of capabilities, but our experts caution that independent manufacturing is a major barrier to widespread usage of these materials, as is our present limited understanding – currently repurposed xenoalloys are classified as highly restricted materials with usage limited to military, scientific, and medical purposes. Elerium-115
While xenoceramics are remarkable but recognizable in both material and construction, and xenoalloys are remarkable but recognizable in material and wholly radical in construction, the material tentatively termed 'Elerium-115' by [REDACTED] is of wholly unknown origin. Debate is ongoing over whether it is a raw stable superheavy radioactive element or some refinement thereof, but this material – viscous, liquid, and amber in color – seems to be the crux of alien technological ability and refinement, and must be considered the abject goal of our development of alien countermeasures. In addition to energy density far surpassing synthesizable radioactive including refined uranium, plutonium, and thorium, our samples exhibit truly bizarre properties including an unexpectedly low orbital shell size and anomalous interactions with the forces of electromagnetism and gravity, even in the samples obtained by our lab, hypothesized to be 'low-energy' states of the material on the presumption that previous usage and the stresses of wreckage have limited the effects of elerium-115. Even low-grade samples demonstrate an incredible capacity for detonation, but high-grade samples – and understanding the composition of Elerium-115 – promise to revolutionize the human condition.
NEW COMMON HUMAN BIRTHRIGHT
After intense debate, and despite serious opposition from certain sectors of civil and military leadership, President Herrera has followed the suggestion of the infamous Director Fernandez-Moran and publicized detailed information from the Extraterrestrial Research Institute on the synthesis, manipulation, and properties of xenoceramics and xenoplastics, labeling it part of the "New Birthright of Humanity" – available to all, for the usage of all, in the name of defense against this new threat and common betterment. Fernandez-Moran has been extraordinarily vocal about both the risk inherent in and fundamental need for this new designation, though Herrera has so far been quiet about it and has broadly played down its effect. Equally detailed information on other xenomaterials have not yet been published (though some vague information has been publicized), though it is unclear whether this is due to incomplete information or to perceived dangers of widespread publicization.
The Cuban war machine had been at full speed ahead. And with the advent of numerous diplomatic discussions... Cuba had been overseeing many many rapid changes.
At home and abroad, the public consciousness had been made dutifully aware of the alien threat... from combat footage, to interviews and above all a drilled regimentation of Cuban society that led to many citizens, men and women, black and white, young and old... training to resist space imperialists.
The irony in all of this is that Cubans had already been in a state of siege mentality for decades. Fortifying against capitalist America, who had at one point through lackeys under the Batista regime, had owned most of the agricultural industries of the nation, who had turned Havana into a Caribbean Las Vegas.
All of that changed when Fidel took power with Che Guevera and Camarillo... and power was consequently sequestered and dissidents were thoroughly combed out of the Cuban nation throughout the 60's. Mass militia movements and invigoration of the populace was nothing new to the Cuban people. Hours long speeches... arm to arm in the countryside and jungles of the island nation had massive amounts of people rooted out enemies of the revolution.
What was new however, was the fact that the nation they had once fortified against- the United States of America- was now effectively an ally... despite Cuba remaining firmly socialist, albeit with a market socialist experimentation with small businesses and similar being enabled in partnership with the government.
As America had lifted the embargo, as America had returned ownership of Guantamino Bay (albeit with the caveat that it still service American military operations... effectively acting as a military base in Cuba, which stood in parallel with Soviet detachments), and Americans and their allies came to the island and Cuba and Nicaragua being accepted into the Organization of American States for purposes of mutual defense and cooperation. Objectively socialist nations now joining their "comrades" of North and South America.
The Communist government of Cuba, for its part was at the height of its popularity. Fidel Castro was effectively untouchable at this point in terms of popularity... a man who has endured nearly two dozen assassination attempts by the very nation that now had made peace with Cuba.
In other times, this would be unprecedented and completely unexpected that Cuba could achieve these huge milestones against the giant super power looming above it... but these times were unprecedented. Alien invasion and the hysteria of it gripped the world as people questioned their loyalty to their own species... The French Republic under scrutiny and fire from its right wing, and South America rife with collaborationist movements. Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile all facing insurgencies that have declared their allegiance to the Hierarchy...
Willing converts to a space borne imperialism, many of them ironically socialist in nature. The global socialist community was already prone to infighting, as some developed their own unique variants of socialism while others clung dogmatically to Marxist principles.
While in Argentina. Posadism existed...
Across the world many looked at Argentina and Cuba as models of socialist revolutionary thought of the 20th century.
Some in revulsion, some in appreciation.
The two were not at war, but many speculated most of these collaborationist movements were directly funded and supported by the Argentine state under Posadas, who followed along Trotskyist lines of revolutionary export and perpetual revolution, of emancipation granted by alien arrival and a rejection of global (Earth) powers.
While Cuba in contrast had been staunch supporters of the Xenonauts, proclaiming them as heroes of humanity who had defended the Soviet Union and other places against alien devastation and continued to fight the enemies of socialism, while at home experimenting with market socialist policies and relying on a policy of international diplomacy and friendship.
But with Posadas and his eccentric vision of socialism... an element of truth rang loud.
In a strange way for Cuba... this sense of emancipation had come true, as many of the obstacles of embargo and malice from their neighbors had ceased with the arrival of the aliens, albeit for far more different reasons than stipulated by Posadas himself.
Whether or not Argentina was helping collaborationist movements is not something of verifiable truth, but factors such as acceptance of Zambian refugees and conferences held with Libya brought a lot of concern to the Communist government of Cuba and the world at large.
But at the same time Argentina was still a socialist nation, and one that had been instrumental in Pinochet's fall in Chile... an operation that had been greatly assisted by both Argentina and Cuba. The belief that Argentina may just be playing a long game was a hope that some still clung onto, that in the hearts of revolutionaries that the revolution will cross the species boundary and that socialism will reach the Hierarchy.
An Argentine had once captured the hearts of Cuba, an Argentine who had died in Bolivia. A loss still mourned throughout both countries, a warning issued from old Posadas to then young Che Guevara left unheeded. Cuban diplomatic channels, despite the rest of the world's insistence, was not as quick to dismiss the words of Argentina...
Others doubted the integrity of Argentina in its loyalty to the rest of humanity and saw Argentina as a huge liability to the human race's collective survival. Chile was in civil war and one of the factions was collaborationist... and Argentina was still a nation that had its own intents and designs stemming before the socialist regime even came to power. Chile was a mess and while socialists were backed by Cuba, Spain and other nations of the world... bullets still were flying, the nation rife with confusion and people dying. Salvador Allende was an ally of Fidel and the Cuban communist government... and Cuba stuck by its friends.
Cuba for its part... saw fit to be an island stronghold of socialist belief, while making peace with its neighbors and focusing on the alien threat first and foremost. The war for South America was just beginning, and the violent insurgencies springing up everywhere would force Cuba and many others involved... from the suspiciously high volumes of Korean soldiers on the continent, to the scientific academia of Venezuela, and many others to start making hard choices.
Cuba chose to be a host to nations of the world, a rallying point of resistance.
While NATO and Soviet Warsaw pact soldiers played basketball and ping pong with each other in garrisons and guided tours brought soldiers much needed leave time to Cuban beaches and towns... traffic to Cuba had increased exponentially.
Sports had received a blow thanks to the terrifying attacks on Moscow, but as Sablin and the Soviet Union had fought off the alien invaders there was still hope, despite the atomic aftermath of Phoenix Arizona and Chonqing China... nations Cuba expressed its mourning and sympathies for...
...Cuba still exhibited a strength, a hope, and a passion...
a strength found within its many complicated relationships with the world at large. Cuba and Cubans had opened its heart to the world, its blood circulating in many of the conflicts abroad, its hands producing weapons and goods to supply the global war for the future of humanity.
Even if that humanity lay divided on how it wanted to handle that future.
Vigilance permeated the Cuban nation above all. For spies, for alien spies and agitators, (and American spies who got too cozy) and for the future.
While the castle had opened its gates to once besiegers, the island had never left its state of siege... the difference being the fortress island receiving a much more massive influx of supply, man and material that was much needed for much of the island populace and armed efforts.
Outside China's use of nuclear weapons against the alien incursions it endured, the rest of the continent had also been attacked around the same time, lending evidence to the theory that the aliens have a deliberate strategy of attacking neighboring countries in order to prevent them sending assistance to the main target. On the other hand, if that were true, the aliens might well have faulty intelligence about who is allied to who, considering China has few friends among its many neighbors. Still, perhaps they thought that ideological and political conflicts might be tossed aside to enable, say, Japanese intervention to help the Chinese against the alien threat. A fitting example, given that Japan was among the countries to receive a visit from the deep of space.
Despite it all, until the aliens were reported literally flying over Hokkaido, the extraterrestrial was among the last things on the mind of any average Japanese citizen. The country itself was in flux, with the government doing all but outright declaring a revolutionary socialist order. Nonetheless, the violence in Japan's streets began to subside somewhat as the JCP felt compelled to rein its paramilitaries in after the Osaka Incident, thanks to American pressure. The militias remain well-armed, however, and have even continued to receive arms, but have been kept in reserve as a veiled threat while the JCP works to force the LDP out of politics entirely. There was yet one even more pressing concern - the state of the economy. Reckless spending, capital flight, costly war reparations, and isolation from former investors had the effect of spiralling Japan's debt out of control. As a side effect, perhaps the one the government intended, the zaibatsus' influence was weakening, in turn strengthening an initiative within the JCP to begin nationalization of key industries in order to begin wealth redistribution program. As much as opposition from the country's generally liberal economic leadership was expected, the real teeth of the opposition would come from within the New Left, going back to the fundamental ideological debate between the Koza Ha and Rono Ha schools of the JCP: is Japan currently a capitalist economy and thus ready to start building socialism as is the stance of the moderate Koza Ha, or is it not yet capitalist because of American occupation and exploitation, and therefore capitalism must be built first, as say the radical Rono Ha? If the former, then the planned consolidation of resources under state control is a natural first step toward establishing a socialist order. If the latter, then this is no more than a useless distraction from the real necessity of expelling the Americans from Japan.
The more moderate perspective of the Koza Ha was generally better favored across the New Left's supporters. But the grievances with the United States were many, and it could hardly be argued that American policy had done much to force Japanese dependence on them. American troops retain a sizeable presence in the Japanese mainland and offshore islands, stifled the country's means of defense, have helped prop up the Emperor despite his crimes, and forced the New Left to contain its paramilitaries, among other things all indicative of unfettered interference in Japan's domestic and foreign policy. Whether this all amounted to Japan's status being a colony of the United States is a hotly contested subject. Nevertheless, given that it would be a delicate process to forego American influence entirely, especially with alien ships besieging the planet, the Koza Ha would argue that its stance was vital for the basic survival of Japan. But the Rona Ha nonetheless had at least one salient point. Building socialism while still party to the postwar treaty with the United States would be difficult if not impossible, and the collapse of American influence in East Asia could precipitate the rise of Soviet influence, eager to co-opt a Japanese revolution for themselves as they had done to countless others in the past. Rono Ha Thought was that Japan needed to stand alone to achieve its goals, a state of affairs that looked impossible to achieve just two years ago. Now, however, with Venezuelan and French publications about alien technology becoming available, there looks to be at least one path to self-reliance: the stars.
The alien presence in Hokkaido thus posed a challenge for the Koza Ha. If the Japanese Air Force brought it down on its own, it could be seen as a sign that Japan doesn't need American protection after all, and with study of alien artifacts could justify it even less. If the American Garrison brought it down for them, some within the Rono Ha faction might be aggravated and use this as evidence of Japan's true status as a colony of the United States. In either case, the UFO being brought down on Japanese soil would serve to inundate its laboratories and industries with the means the Rono Ha need. Perhaps even the tools the Koza Ha need to break the back of the zaibatsus and political right. It would change everything!
Hokkaido's grave importance in the minds of the New Left leadership proved out of proportion to the summary events that followed. Before the Japanese Self-Defense Air Forces were even in range, the American squadron out of Osaka engaged the alien interloper and brought it down in Hokkaido with little trouble. The sheer ease and rapidity of the American response ensured that most of Japan wasn't even aware of the Hokkaido Incursion until publications got around to it the next day, almost as an afterthought, as the events in China proved of more interest. This all served to temper its political impact: the Japanese didn't get a chance to fight and prove themselves, the aliens caused no damage to blame anyone for, and the Americans proved themselves a worthy ally - asking for no share of the parts and corpses from the wreckage, similar behavior as with American deployments elsewhere. Though the Battle of Hokkaido was anticlimactic, its gains were not, for Japan now has access to the means for its own future...
If American performance was exemplary in Japan, it was somewhat less so in Korea. An alien scout had managed to fly straight north across the eastern coast of the Republic of Korea unabated, evading Korean and American interceptors until the crossed the DMZ into North Korea. Making use of a telecommunications line established between the two governments of the peninsula some years ago, the South gave warning. The two Koreas were united under the "Minjok Pact" ever since they joined the United Nations together at the onset of the alien invasion, and among its terms were shared airspace for the purpose of mutual defense. In dealing with an alien incursion, both Koreas could use their counterpart's airspace to facilitate successful interception, however this excluded any Korean allies - say the Chinese detachment in North Korea flying to the aid of the South, or the American forces in South Korea defending anything past the DMZ. As in this case - American interceptors pulled back. South Korean fighters stayed in the air, however, expecting more.
And more came. North Korea sent word back across the line - inviting Southern pilots to join them, thus invoking for the first time the mutual defense clause of the Pact. It was a momentous occasion otherwise. The two countries were still technically in a state of war, and constant reminders of this flared up throughout the 1970s as North and South marine battalions frequently skirmished over and even occasionally occupied outlying disputed islands, and every so often the North would be detected trying to dig under the DMZ or something. Not to mention that now both sides of the peninsula are armed with nuclear weapons provided by their respective sponsors. On this one issue, though, they stood together, perhaps symbolic to the whole world beyond that these differences can and should be set aside. All the more encouraging was that North Korea was not inviting the South out of desperation: the air force had been constructed since virtually the beginning around a doctrine of air supremacy, and the procurement of advanced - if perhaps soon to be obsolescent - fighter-interceptors from the Soviet Union ensured North Korea was quite capable of shooting the small scout UFO down by itself.
But while the North Koreans scrambled their fighters, the aliens took the opportunity to land. South Korean fighters, having already been in the air, were poised to strike first - however they had not anticipated the aliens to become a ground target and possessed no suitable air-to-ground hardware. Their squadron instead circled overhead, ready to engage the moment the UFO attempted to take off. The North Korean fighters were also outfitted for an air supremacy sortie (as per doctrine) but had already ordered ground combat teams, to be transported by helicopter, to mobilize. While the air forces of both nations would work to deter the aliens from leaving, the ground forces could hopefully secure the site. The Minjok Pact only accommodated the Koreas' respective air forces, and made no provision for South Korean intervention in the ground battle to come. Unsurprisingly, Kim Il-Sung was not inclined to call for a Xenonaut liaison, and probably wouldn't have even if they would conceivably arrive on time. After all, it was not known how long the UFO would stay grounded.
Despite a relative dearth of heavy fire support due to the need to deploy by helicopter (which remained C-class at the time of operations) a ways north of the DMZ and the fact that the UFO had a full crew complement, being landed rather than shot down, North Korean forces perhaps had the advantage of surprise. Unlike in some previous ground assault operations the aliens made no attempt to fortify their position, apparently content to send their research teams into neighboring buildings and perhaps wait until the air patrol above them was forced to refuel. Or at least, that was the testimony of South Korean pilots who observed the battle and gave their account. The official North Korean story as known from their state media was that a daring American raid to poison the water supply had been averted by the bravery of airborne troopers and with intel provided by a heroic South Korean pilot who defected to the North. A 12-hour film is to be made documenting the events of the raid and the titanic struggle to save Juche once again, starring the surviving troopers themselves. The actual combat was perhaps half the length - at most - of the coming film.
The real drama would not be the battle itself, but its aftermath. Enticed by the possibility that the North Koreans managed to secure a UFO with an Elerium reactor in mint condition, the Xenonauts requested access to their tithe of 10% and a brief tour to inspect the site. North Korea's participation as part of the United Nations Convention on the Xenonaut Charter was taken to be implicit agreement to its terms, however the Xenonauts were met with no such positive feedback. North Korea has refused any Xenonaut liaison, eventually going so far as to insist it was not necessary since no alien intruders had come to its airspace and it was rather American interlopers. So it was that North Korea is the first country to openly defy the Xenonaut Charter, keeping all of the alien salvage for itself. Without the backing of its sponsors - themselves reluctant to trigger hostilities in a delicate situation and seeing little option but to resort to economic sanctions - the Xenonauts could do little to coerce the North's compliance, and so it has remained that way.
