Post by Head Admin on Apr 11, 2017 3:55:01 GMT
The Setting
The ashes of Berlin have scarcely cooled by the time the wartime Alliance shook itself apart. After alienating Stalin with crude threats at the Potsdam Conference, inexperienced President Truman can only watch as struggles of every scale and dimension spread from the mountains of Afghanistan to the jungles of Peru. Ancient ambitions and treasured grudges (not to mention the Communist/Capitalist squabble) are bubbling to the surface in Africa, Asia, and the Balkans. Millions are ensnared in the clash of ideologies.
When a colossal meteorite loaded with an unknown and highly reactive element crashed down in rural Lüneburg in 1939, German scientists scrambled in an immediate effort to weaponize the volatile element far beyond our own periodic table. The results of their tests are almost completely unknown, as they were heavily redacted by the Nazis in 1944. What was recovered after the war revealed that the alien element made for an incredibly efficient fuel source and, with a specially designed shuttle, German air vehicles could reach speeds of up to Mach 14.
World War Two dragged a reluctant world across Europe. Nazi science may have led the charge in turning the newly-discovered element, dubbed "metatanium," into weapons, but their example has been picked up by numerous others. The leaders of the US and USSR have recognized the critical role to be played by metatanium, something that could make for an even more impressive feat than landing a man on the moon. Using metatanium as fuel, they could potentially travel faster than the speed of light.
Seeking to ride out the flood, and evade those who would loot metatanium for the next great weapon, the Germans relocated most of their alien assets to the non-aligned nations of the world, (Egypt, India, and Indonesia) but enough has been left behind to set the superpowers down a very dangerous path.
The East
Stalin's paranoia made him fear all outsiders, and his megalomania persuaded him that the answer to his fears was a massive empire of satellite states surrounding Russia. Dominated by many stupendous hatreds for his various enemies, from 1945 to 1953, he nipped at the boundaries of the USSR's borders through all sorts of proxies.
The USSR is eternally playing catch-up with its wealthier and more heavily armed foe, but the West is never to realize just how fragile the Soviet facade really is. Perhaps the metatanium abandoned by World War II, in the hands of communist industry, could level the playing field and turn propaganda into reality. A race to travel faster than the speed of light.
The West
One document, a report by the National Security Council published in 1949, stated very bluntly that the Soviets were trying to take over the world, would never stop trying to take over the world, and couldn't share the world with freedom of any kind. Super-lightspeed travel, for the United States, was the next H-Bomb. It was another means of staying one step ahead of the Red menace.
First organized in 1970, America's metatanium research laboratories under their care are organized into two top-secret bunkers miles underground, where the practical application of metatanium was thoroughly examined for nearly two decades.
The Result
When the metatanium experiments all around the globe backfired one by one, no one could have predicted the result. Metatanium was far more volatile than initial small-scale tests could have predicted. In 1985, large-scale experimentation in now-named Meta City resulted in the alien element creating an explosion powerful enough to detonate whole city blocks miles above the ground. The metatanium, volatile and unpredictable, now open to the environment, resulted in the people of Meta City mutating into unrecognizable monsters. Survivors of the Meta City blast were taken into military custody for psyche evaluation and attempted metatanium decontamination.
In the same year, in Russia and most of Europe, their results were much the same. Metatanium mutations resulted in the permanent quarantines and military occupations of entire cities. The survivors were rescued and evacuated by European authorities, and metatanium experimentation on the European front all but ceased operation.
America was much more tenacious, and made one last attempt at super-lightspeed travel. Valor City, the city of American excellence. It is reported that 150 scientists volunteered to test their redesigned prototype. Speculation dictates that these numbers are extremely conservative, however, and the actual number of people exposed to metatanium is exponentially higher. Things were going well at first, but there was a malfunction - even though the metatanium had been reported to be properly secured, there was a leak. Even today, there are still studies trying to determine whether the operation was sabotaged or not.
The metatanium, predictably, destabilized, and once more violently detonated in one of their final test runs in 1988. This time, however, no monsters were formed as a result of the exposure. As a matter of fact, there were no immediate changes in the people of Valor City’s physiology. Little did they know, however, that they became carriers for a generation of meta-humans.
All round the world, those men and women who were exposed to metatanium, carried something completely unpredictable in their bloodstreams. Their offspring exhibited anomalous and supernatural powers, forming the first generation of meta-humans. Researchers were able to isolate metatanium carriers as the cause of the outbreak of meta-humans, and by the hundreds, children were snatched away from homes and kept in laboratories to further study their incredible powers.
Years of illegal experiments followed, resulting in the embitterment of thousands of meta-humans. The strongest of them escaped, and made their own lives for themselves. Some used their newfound freedom to become heroes, to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Some, bitter because of the years of torment, became villains, with the intent of destroying those who tortured them. Some even managed to evade capture, and lived an unmolested life of supernatural qualities.
In the year 2020, the world’s reserves of metatanium have supposedly run dry. The only remnants of the extraterrestrial superfuel lives in the bloodstreams of the meta-humans of today.
Supposedly.
The ashes of Berlin have scarcely cooled by the time the wartime Alliance shook itself apart. After alienating Stalin with crude threats at the Potsdam Conference, inexperienced President Truman can only watch as struggles of every scale and dimension spread from the mountains of Afghanistan to the jungles of Peru. Ancient ambitions and treasured grudges (not to mention the Communist/Capitalist squabble) are bubbling to the surface in Africa, Asia, and the Balkans. Millions are ensnared in the clash of ideologies.
When a colossal meteorite loaded with an unknown and highly reactive element crashed down in rural Lüneburg in 1939, German scientists scrambled in an immediate effort to weaponize the volatile element far beyond our own periodic table. The results of their tests are almost completely unknown, as they were heavily redacted by the Nazis in 1944. What was recovered after the war revealed that the alien element made for an incredibly efficient fuel source and, with a specially designed shuttle, German air vehicles could reach speeds of up to Mach 14.
World War Two dragged a reluctant world across Europe. Nazi science may have led the charge in turning the newly-discovered element, dubbed "metatanium," into weapons, but their example has been picked up by numerous others. The leaders of the US and USSR have recognized the critical role to be played by metatanium, something that could make for an even more impressive feat than landing a man on the moon. Using metatanium as fuel, they could potentially travel faster than the speed of light.
Seeking to ride out the flood, and evade those who would loot metatanium for the next great weapon, the Germans relocated most of their alien assets to the non-aligned nations of the world, (Egypt, India, and Indonesia) but enough has been left behind to set the superpowers down a very dangerous path.
The East
Stalin's paranoia made him fear all outsiders, and his megalomania persuaded him that the answer to his fears was a massive empire of satellite states surrounding Russia. Dominated by many stupendous hatreds for his various enemies, from 1945 to 1953, he nipped at the boundaries of the USSR's borders through all sorts of proxies.
The USSR is eternally playing catch-up with its wealthier and more heavily armed foe, but the West is never to realize just how fragile the Soviet facade really is. Perhaps the metatanium abandoned by World War II, in the hands of communist industry, could level the playing field and turn propaganda into reality. A race to travel faster than the speed of light.
The West
One document, a report by the National Security Council published in 1949, stated very bluntly that the Soviets were trying to take over the world, would never stop trying to take over the world, and couldn't share the world with freedom of any kind. Super-lightspeed travel, for the United States, was the next H-Bomb. It was another means of staying one step ahead of the Red menace.
First organized in 1970, America's metatanium research laboratories under their care are organized into two top-secret bunkers miles underground, where the practical application of metatanium was thoroughly examined for nearly two decades.
The Result
When the metatanium experiments all around the globe backfired one by one, no one could have predicted the result. Metatanium was far more volatile than initial small-scale tests could have predicted. In 1985, large-scale experimentation in now-named Meta City resulted in the alien element creating an explosion powerful enough to detonate whole city blocks miles above the ground. The metatanium, volatile and unpredictable, now open to the environment, resulted in the people of Meta City mutating into unrecognizable monsters. Survivors of the Meta City blast were taken into military custody for psyche evaluation and attempted metatanium decontamination.
In the same year, in Russia and most of Europe, their results were much the same. Metatanium mutations resulted in the permanent quarantines and military occupations of entire cities. The survivors were rescued and evacuated by European authorities, and metatanium experimentation on the European front all but ceased operation.
America was much more tenacious, and made one last attempt at super-lightspeed travel. Valor City, the city of American excellence. It is reported that 150 scientists volunteered to test their redesigned prototype. Speculation dictates that these numbers are extremely conservative, however, and the actual number of people exposed to metatanium is exponentially higher. Things were going well at first, but there was a malfunction - even though the metatanium had been reported to be properly secured, there was a leak. Even today, there are still studies trying to determine whether the operation was sabotaged or not.
The metatanium, predictably, destabilized, and once more violently detonated in one of their final test runs in 1988. This time, however, no monsters were formed as a result of the exposure. As a matter of fact, there were no immediate changes in the people of Valor City’s physiology. Little did they know, however, that they became carriers for a generation of meta-humans.
All round the world, those men and women who were exposed to metatanium, carried something completely unpredictable in their bloodstreams. Their offspring exhibited anomalous and supernatural powers, forming the first generation of meta-humans. Researchers were able to isolate metatanium carriers as the cause of the outbreak of meta-humans, and by the hundreds, children were snatched away from homes and kept in laboratories to further study their incredible powers.
Years of illegal experiments followed, resulting in the embitterment of thousands of meta-humans. The strongest of them escaped, and made their own lives for themselves. Some used their newfound freedom to become heroes, to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Some, bitter because of the years of torment, became villains, with the intent of destroying those who tortured them. Some even managed to evade capture, and lived an unmolested life of supernatural qualities.
In the year 2020, the world’s reserves of metatanium have supposedly run dry. The only remnants of the extraterrestrial superfuel lives in the bloodstreams of the meta-humans of today.
Supposedly.