The Last Heroes

[Macavity116]

I presume this also happened in real life.

Yes. Yes it did. The DPO absolutely failed on multiple fronts in the '90s. A general unwillingness to "get their hands dirty" paralyzed Peacekeepers in Rwanda, Yugoslavia and Angola. The rules of engagement were so restrictive that whenever UNAMIR forces in Rwanda asked permission to help out the victims of genocide, UN leaders in New York responded by saying something akin to "You are clearly out of control. We need to put you on a tighter leash." Something similar happened to my dad when he was with the UNPROFOR. (Bosnian War, 1993)

Everyone who could have saved lives had their hands tied. Anyone who wanted to intervene was told they were in the wrong. Leadership of the DPO in the '90's was just plain bad.

---

The 1996 Selection of the UN Secretary-General​

The Administration of Boutros Boutros-Ghali was highly controversial, yet it laid much of the groundwork for the present-day Etienne Administration.

Shortly after the beginning of his tenure, Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali wrote and published An Agenda for Peace, a document that laid out a detailed plan for the UN to respond to violent conflict as well as prevent future civil strife. The document listed three goals:

First, for the UN to be more heavily engaged in "the enforcement of peace." Specifically, he argued that Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter allowed the Security Council to use military force against another country without the consent of any of the involved parties. This would eventually come to pass in 2036 when Secretary-General Laura Harper authorized the Reclamation Agency to perform law enforcement activities in UN member-states without the consent of said member-states.

Second, the UN must carry out “preventative diplomacy” to avert wars and crises before they arise. The preventative doctrine would allow the Security Council to take much more aggressive and forceful actions against a nation or group they believe to be "preparing to engage in hostilities."

Finally, Boutros-Ghali called out for the UN to expand its role as Global Peacekeeper. In his view, UN Peacekeepers should remain in a country for a very long time after a conflict has ended, taking whatever actions are needed to prevent a relapse into future war. This would also come to pass in the days of Secretary-General Harper.

As if the Universe itself responded to his challenge, the UN became embroiled in several civil conflicts that put Boutros-Ghali's peacekeeping commitment to the ultimate test.

When the African nation of Rwanda descended into a genocidal civil war, Boutros-Ghali was harshly criticized for the catastrophic failure of UN Peacekeeping mission. The UN Aid Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) took no action to save lives once the fighting started, and when their soldiers were directly attacked by the belligerent forces, Belgian Peacekeepers were ordered to surrender their weapons and abandon the civilians they were attempting to protect. UNAMIR withdrew from Rwanda entirely after a few days and the conflict continued without any further intervention from the United Nations. Ultimately, the Rwandan Civil War left over a million innocent people dead.

Only a short time later, the Second UN mission to Somalia (UNOSOM 2) met with disaster. A mixed force of American soldiers and UN Peacekeepers fought side-by-side in the disastrous Battle of Mogadishu. Also known as the "Black Hawk Down Incident," this battle was a pyrrhic victory over the Somali National Alliance. 19 Americans, 1 Malaysian, and 1 Pakistani lost their lives in the conflict, and the United States was awash in outrage. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali became a public scapegoat for the repeated failures of UN Peacekeeping missions around the world.

A couple of years after this, UN Peacekeepers were deployed to conflicts in Yugoslavia, a European nation that was rapidly breaking up along ethic and religious lines. Another Peacekeeping mission was deployed, the UN Protection Force. (UNPROFOR) Several "UN Safe Areas" were declared around the conflict zone, and these Humanitarian corridors were deemed to be under the protection of UNPROFOR. However, all of the Safe Areas were attacked the Bosnian Serb Army, and ultimately two of them fell to the attackers, resulting in the Srebrenica Massacre (July 11-22, 1995) where 8,372 Bosniak men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serbs. (1) The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina deteriorated so badly that the NATO alliance staged an armed intervention, launching an intense bombing campaign against the Bosnian Serb Army. Again, Boutros-Ghali took the brunt of the blame for the collapse of UN Peacekeepers in the face of organized attack by a well-armed foe.

By the end of 1995, the effectiveness of UN Peacekeepers was being called into question all over the world.

Despite all of this, Boutros-Ghali ran for a second term completely unopposed in 1996. When the Security Council gathered on November 19th, he easily won a second term on the first ballot, scoring fourteen out of fifteen votes. Unfortunately, the lone negative vote turned out to be a veto from the United States. This move was incredibly unpopular and made most of the world very angry. Some diplomats referred to the US veto as a “mugging” while America’s closest ally, the United Kingdom, used stronger language. British diplomats described the American leaders as “…Xenophobic, extremely touchy, and ignorant.”

Supporters of Boutros-Ghali flocked to China, hoping the rapidly industrializing nation would engage the US in a 1950-style veto duel. This did not happen. US Ambassador Madeline Albright gathered several diplomats to her side in a plot called "Operation Orient Express," which aimed to recruit as many nations as possible to the attempted overthrow of Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali. When no one proved willing to support America, Ambassador Albright threatened to rotate the Secretary-General post away from Africa, denying the region a second term in the office. When this also failed, Abright went directly to Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali and demanded his resignation. Unverified reports suggest US President George H. W. Bush and his staff were "in a frenzy" over the Sec-Gen's refusal to step down.

The feud between the United States and Boutros-Ghali escalated. In November, the Security Council held an official vote to give Boutros-Ghali a second term as Secretary-General. The final vote was 14 in favor and 1 against, with the lone vote being a US veto. In a speech to the body, Boutros-Ghali remined the United States that he was not "Noriega or Saddam Hussain" and compared America to the Roman Empire. The "mugging" accusations grew louder around the world as more and more nations criticized America for its actions. Even American politicians who disliked the UN accused George H. W. Bush of "indulging in an obsession."

By the end of November, the Security Council was deadlocked. The US was continuing to veto Boutros-Ghali, and at the same time, it was refusing to nominate a candidate of its own. As the standoff continued, there was talk of allowing Boutros-Ghali to stay in office after his term expired. The Organization of African Unity quietly tried to find another African to run for Sec-Gen, but no one volunteered, choosing instead to support the Secretary-General.

The deadlock finally broke on December 5th 1996, when Boutros-Ghali abruptly suspended his candidacy and announced his intention to leave office when his term expired.

Four Africans were nominated:

• Amara Essy from the Ivory Coast
• Hamid Algabid from Nigeria
• Ahmedou Olud-Abdallah from Mauritania
• Kofi Annan from Ghana

Despite all attempts to avoid a veto duel, one such duel did occur as France vetoed any candidate who came from English-speaking countries, while the United Kingdom vetoed anybody who spoke French.

Across five rounds of straw polls, the contest was rather lopsided. Kofi Annan took off to an early lead, securing the majority of votes in all five straw polls. The only reason he did not become Secretary-General on the very first poll is because he was being continuously vetoed by France.

Born in 1938, Kofi Annan and his twin sister Efua were born into one of the aristocratic families of Ghana. He studied economics in college before completing his undergraduate degree in economics at Malcaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Annan was multi-lingual, able to speak English, French, and several African languages and dialects.

Annan joined the World Health Organization as a budget officer before moving up the ranks to join the UN High Commission on Refugees. During the administration of Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, Annan worked in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. On one occasion during the Yugoslav Wars, Annan violated the chain of command, circumventing the Secretary-General and allowing NATO warplanes to carry out strikes related to Operation Deliberate Force, the NATO intervention in said war. This action made him a favorite of most American diplomats. (2)

During the fifth round of voting, France abruptly dropped its veto against Annan and chose to abstain. Before a sixth round could occur, the Security Council passed a resolution recommending Annan to the General Assembly, who quickly elected him Secretary-General. Kofi Annan became the seventh Secretary-General of the UN on January 1st 1997.

---

Footnotes:

1: Srebrenica Massacre- This is a real historical event. Most of my information about the Yugoslav Wars comes from my own dad, who participated in the conflict as a United States soldier (Macedonia) later as a UN Peacekeeper (Bosnia) and as a US soldier again after the Dayton Accords. (Operation Joint Endeavour)

2: Yes, Kofi Annan did this. Here's the book: To End a War: The Conflict in Yugoslavia--America's Inside Story--Negotiating with Milosevic by Richard Holbrooke


EDIT: Corrected a continuity error. In the Stormbreaker Universe, the US President at this time was George H. W. Bush, not Bill Clinton.

 

[Von Acturus]

Despite all attempts to avoid a veto duel, one such duel did occur as France vetoed any candidate who came from English-speaking countries, while the United Kingdom vetoed anybody who spoke French.

This is both hilarious and terribly sad. Great update, as always!

 

[Macavity116]

This is both hilarious and terribly sad.

UN Politics summarized in seven words.

---

The 2006 Selection of the UN Secretary-General
​

The two terms of Secretary-General Kofi Annan were characterized heavily by the world’s slow and agonizing descent into World War Three.

Soon after taking office, Annan embarked on an agenda of reform, seeking to bring the United Nations into the new millennium. Annan established the office of the Deputy Secretary-General. (the inaugural holder was Canadian diplomat Louise Fréchette) He also reformed the Secretariat, reducing operating costs and consolidating UN operations on the country level. He addressed the World Economic Forum in 1999, calling for a closer relationship between the UN and the world's business leaders.

During this forum, Thomas Hutch (who we will meet in an upcoming History Lesson) met Secretary-General Annan and discussed a relationship between himself and the UN. Hutch was one of the most prominent weapons manufacturers on Earth, and at some point after this meeting, Thomas Hutch became the primary weapon supplier to the Council of Nations and XCOM.

Following the September 11 Terrorist Attacks against the cities of New York and Washington, the United States launched an invasion of Afghanistan, the country suspected of harboring the al-Qaeda terrorist group responsible for the atrocity. At the time, Afghanistan was attempting to fend off a multi-decade long occupation by the Soviet Red Army, meaning that soldiers of the two global superpowers came into dangerously close contact for a protracted period of time.

Secretary-General Annan spent most of his tenure trying to defuse the growing tensions between the US and USSR. The situation was made even worse after the 2003 Battle of Kandahar, in which the Soviet Red Army inflicted a catastrophic defeat on the US Military. Relations between the superpowers grew incredibly hostile, even as the USSR continued its protracted decline, sliding towards a collapse that many now saw as inevitable. Meanwhile, a border dispute between Japan and the Soviet Union threatened to flare up into a far more serious situation as the USSR attempted to assert greater control and influence over the Sea of Japan, in an effort to gain access to the Pacific Ocean.

Despite being re-elected unanimously in 2001, Secretary-General Annan proved unable to calm the rapidly escalating situation as the United States and Japan took a hardline stance towards the Soviet Union’s aggressive posturing in the east.

Meanwhile, Annan drew special attention to what he considered to be a sharp decline in the credibility of the UN Human Rights Council. He ordered investigations and issued reports into the many failures of UN Peacekeeping operations around the world in the early 1990's. Annan also oversaw an investigation into reports of sexual abuse and assault carried out by Peacekeepers. These internal investigations would culminate in the "Oil-for-Food Scandal." Annan's son, Kojo, was accused of receiving secret payments from a Swiss company that received a lucrative contract under the American "Oil for Food" program. The allegations were eventually withdrawn, but Annan's public credibility took a hit nonetheless.

In 2002, the Korean Reunification War began. Historical records of this conflict are sparse due to a concentrated effort by the ADVENT Coalition to destroy them. Over a period of roughly three years, the Authoritarian government of North Korea violently collapsed, leaving a power vacuum on the Korean Peninsula. A combined force of soldiers from the United States and South Korea attempted to force the two halves of the Peninsula to re-integrate with one another, leaving the newly created United Korea with a tenuous and heavily disputed northern border. China and the Soviet Union were both outraged by this turn of events and began massing military assets in Manchuria and the Sea of Japan.

Secretary-General Annan proactively attempted to place UN Peacekeepers on the newly created China-Korea border, in the hopes of setting up a "Neutral Zone" that would defuse conflicts between the two sides. United Korea was open to the idea, but China flatly refused and announced its intentions to boycott the United Nations, withdrawing all of its delegates from the body. Irisha Kimoto, the President of the Soviet Union, showed solidarity with China by withdrawing Soviet delegates from the Security Council. Both China and the USSR demanded the UN force United Korea to withdraw its troops from the now-occupied North Korea.

Secretary-General Annan’s second term expired at the end of 2006, and the selection process started about six months beforehand, in June. During his retirement speech in Missouri, Annan issued a stark warning, saying that the issues which plagued the UN had been "sharpened" during his two terms as Secretary-General.

Because of the overthrow of Boutros-Ghali, Africa had controlled the Secretary-Generalship for three terms. The Non-Aligned Movement insisted the next leader of the UN came from Asia. To that end, six Asian candidates were nominated for the post: most notably including Afghan leader Ashraf Ghani and Korean diplomat Ban Ki-Moon.

Because China and the Soviet Union were both boycotting the Security Council things went unusually smoothly. From June until October, the Security Council held five straw polls to gauge the level of support each candidate had. To the surprise of all, Ban Ki-Moon won the first straw poll… and the second… and the third… and the fourth… and the fifth.

Ban’s support was not unfounded. Born and raised in Japanese-occupied Korea, Ban was forced to flee into the mountains at age 6 when the Korean War broke out. He studied Public Administration at the John F Kennedy School of Government and graduated from Seoul National University at the top of his class. He found work in the Korean diplomatic service. As a member of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he worked his way up the ranks before the Korean President Park Chung-Hee was assassinated in 1979.

In the late 1990's and early 2000's Ban was heavily involved in the Six-Party Talks, a series of diplomatic meetings between North Korea and South Korea, who were in a state of prolonged cease-fire following the 1950 Korean War. The talks collapsed shortly before hostilities commenced in 2002. The Reunification War was the highest point of Ban's political career, he assumed responsibility for the reunification of families separated from one another during the 1950 war.

With universal support from the Security Council, the three remaining Permanent Members, and the absence of the only nations who could veto him, Ban Ki-moon was elected the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations on October 2, 2006.

World War Three commenced exactly two months later.

 

[Midnite Duke]

The mingling of the Stormbreaker Universe and OTL UN history gets confusing at times. The Albright President should have been Clinton not Bush. Thank You

My Avon (CK2, Serbs in OTL Albania) is one of the minority where the recently departed Madeline Albright is viewed more as a villain than a hero.

 

[Macavity116]

The mingling of the Stormbreaker Universe and OTL UN history gets confusing at times. The Albright President should have been Clinton not Bush.

Agreed, mixing the timelines gets confusing for me all the time. I'm quite glad to be over a year removed from writing My Father's War, because that was when the mixed timelines were at their worst. A one-paragraph cameo appearance of actual US Senators in that story was way more difficult to execute than it should have been.

Heck, when I wrote the 1996 History Lesson, I actually forgot that the list of US Presidents in the Stormbreaker Universe is radically different from the one we have in real life. The 25th Amendment (Presidential succession) to the US Constitution never happened because the Kennedy Assassination never occurred in this timeline, also the 22nd Amendment (Presidential term limits) is largely ignored due to Faulke and Nixon running the country as authoritarian strongmen for two decades.

I had to go back to delete all references to Clinton and replace him with Bush. In the SU, the occupants of the White House were:

1. Myron Faulke
   • July 15, 1963 to January 20, 1965
   • No Vice President
   • XCOM
2. Richard Nixon
   • January 20, 1965 to March 8, 1985
   • Vice President:
     1. Barry Goldwater (1965 to 1980)
     2. Ronald Regan (1980 to 1985)
   • Republican Party
3. Ronald Regan
   • March 8, 1985 to January 20, 1989
   • Vice President:
     1. George H.W. Bush
   • Republican Party
4. George H.W. Bush
   • January 20, 1989 to January 20, 2001
   • Vice President:
     1. Dan Quayle (1989 to 1993)
     2. George White (1993 to 2001)
   • Republican Party
5. George White
   • January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2005
   • Vice President:
     1. June Syers
   • Republican Party
6. J.D. Robinson
   • January 20, 2005 to January 20, 2013
   • Vice President:
     1. Trevor MacDonald (2005 to 2007)
     2. Barack Obama (2007 to 2009)
     3. Alexis Alexander (2009 to 2013)
   • National Party
7. Alexis Alexander
   • January 20, 2013 to June 28, 2015
   • Vice President:
     1. Nathan Elliot (2013 to 2015)
   • National Party
8. William Thorne
   • September 30, 2015 to February 11, 2017
   • No Vice President
   • ADVENT Coalition

 

[Von Acturus]

It seems Stormbreakers Afghanistan is even more complicated than our one, with Soviets, Americans and Mujahedeen all fighting one another. Was it a troublesome place too for the ADVENT regime?

And WWIII begins. I'll probably make a quick re-read of "My Father's War" now, both because it is important and because it is one of my preferred of your stories.

One thing I remember well was that there were a lot of atrocities and tactical nukes involved.

 

[Macavity116]

It seems Stormbreakers Afghanistan is even more complicated than our one, with Soviets, Americans and Mujahedeen all fighting one another. Was it a troublesome place too for the ADVENT regime?

It was troublesome, but not for the reason you think. During their rule, the ADVENT regime made a point of forcing all Humans to move out of the countryside and into the Megacities. If you ever play XCOM 2 and look at the in-game map of the world, you'll see that all of Humanity has been concentrated into 16 specific regions, with the rest of the Earth being almost completely depopulated.

Afghanistan was just on the "wrong side of the border" of New India, one of the Asian Wards set up by ADVENT. Resistance members were able to use the mountains of Afghanistan as a base whenever they operated in or around northern India.

After the 2HW, millions of Humans left the Megacites, and places like Afghanistan were slowly repopulated after being empty for two decades.

And WWIII begins. I'll probably make a quick re-read of "My Father's War" now, both because it is important and because it is one of my preferred of your stories.

One thing I remember well was that there were a lot of atrocities and tactical nukes involved.

Oh yes... lots of atrocities. But I think The Last Heroes is slowly starting to catch up.

 

[Macavity116]

The 2015 Selection of the ADVENT Regional Administrator​

Ban Ki-Moon was sworn into his new job as UN Secretary-General on January 1st 2007, just four weeks after the outbreak of the Third World War. As he settled into his new office in New York City, Soviet paratroopers were consolidating their hold over Sapporo and plotting their takeover of Hokkaido Island. Japanese warships locked down the straits of Tsushima and the Shinkansen Tunnel, while a steady flow of foreign volunteers began flooding into Tokyo.

World War Three completely dominated Ban’s tenure as Secretary-General. China was refusing to participate and the Soviet Union was rapidly crumbling from within, leaving only allies of Japan on the Security Council. There were no roadblocks or obstructions to the US-Japanese alliance.

For the first time since the Korean War, the UN stood united in the face of military conflict. Under the leadership of the United States, the Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against the Soviet Union, with the specific goal of forcing their withdrawal from the Japanese Islands. However, several former members of the now-defunct Warsaw Pact took things too far...

Shortly after the Soviet Invasion of Japan started, the world came to know just how deeply unpopular the war was inside of the USSR. Mass demonstrations and civil disobedience quickly gave way to armed revolts and regional rebellions. Several of the outlying Socialist Republics attempted to break free of Moscow’s orbit, taking advantage of the fact that most Soviet forces were busy in Japan.

Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, and Georgia openly rebelled, declaring their independence from Moscow and seeking to join the United Nations as fully sovereign states. Secretary-General Ban threw his full support behind these emerging nations, as well as the western powers who were sending aid to Japan itself.

By the time the war entered its second year, nearly the entire world was at war against the Soviet Union, including several member-states of the USSR itself. Polish, Romanian, Finnish, Turkish, and Iranian troops had crossed the border into the rebellious regions of the USSR and were actively helping the rebels. Meanwhile, Americans, French, British, and Australian soldiers were now on the ground in Japan, inflicting serious casualties and losses on the invaders.

Under Ban’s direction, UN Peacekeepers flooded into Eastern Europe, helping the newly liberated Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania secure their own borders. Peacekeepers also worked to secure Humanitarian corridors on the Japanese front, facilitating the evacuation of cities like Akita, Niigata, and Sendai.

On March 8th 2010, Secretary-General Ban’s worst nightmare came to pass. When a mixed force of European armies closed in on the strategic Ukranian city of Sevastopol, the Soviet Union responded by attacking the formation with two tactical nuclear weapons. France responded with two weapons of their own. In a matter of seconds, more than a million people were dead and radioactive fallout was billowing across the Sea of Azov, deep into Soviet territory.

Secretary-General Ban and United States President J.D. Robinson frantically worked together to de-escalate the situation, as Soviet President Kimoto wanted to launch a massive retaliation against the French. She nearly did so, but ultimately stood down after marathon talks with Ban via satellite phone.

In a move that angered much of the world, Secretary-General Ban was able to convince the Soviet President to stand down by promising to advocate for the withdrawal of European soldiers from the Soviet Union’s western frontier. This involved abandoning all of the territory seized in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

Without consulting with the Security Council, Ban ordered the removal of all UN Peacekeepers from occupied Soviet territory, pressuring the nations of Europe to do the same and setting a precedent for the Sec-Gen to give direct orders to Peacekeepers without going through the Security Council first.

After this brush with annihilation, the Soviet position became untenable. Japanese defenders were getting the upper hand while Irisha Kimoto gradually lost control of her own country. By 2011, Moscow’s authority struggled to go beyond the borders of the Russian Federative SSR, with formerly secure places like Kazakhstan and Belarus starting to break away.

By now, things were coming to a head in such a way that Secretary-General Ban seemed to ignore the fact that his term of office was ending. Aside from a brief announcement that he would seek a second term, Ban ignored the ongoing selection process, turning his attention to the now-visibly collapsing Soviet Union.

The Security Council shared Ban’s concerns, and re-elected him in June of 2011, over half a year before his term was actually set to expire. At the beginning of his second term, Ban became the first Sec-Gen to create a Cabinet, similar to the advisory bodies used the leaders of countries like the United States.

There was a brief moment of controversy at the beginning of Ban’s second term as well. During a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council, Ban delivered a speech entitled The Time Has Come, in which he urged the council to defend homosexual people and protect LGBT rights around the world. He verbally attacked 76 nations who maintained laws that criminalized homosexuality, and told the United Nations that such bigotry would not be tolerated. Several delegations from the Arab nations, Africa, and Eastern Europe protested by walking out of the Human Rights Council.

The controversy was drowned out by events on the battlefield. Soldiers loyal to an organization called the “Russian Federation” started marching toward Moscow and doing battle with the Soviet Red Army. They fought under the command of a former KGB agent named Vladimir Putin, and this internal struggle was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Soviet war effort in Japan began to fall apart. Logistics networks broke down, leaving the invaders without food, ammunition, and spare parts for their vehicles. A desperate last-ditch offensive set the stage for the Siege of Hiroshima.

While the Siege began, the United States held a Presidential election in which J.D. Robinson did not run for a third term. During the final days of his administration, Robinson used nuclear weapons to destroy the Russian Pacific Fleet, prompting a final escalation.

Secretary-General Ban reprimanded the United States alongside the rest of the UN, but it was too late. The last vestiges of the Soviet Army threw itself upon Hiroshima and shattered itself. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin and his troops entered Moscow and brought an end to the Soviet Union on December 21th 2012.

From 2013 until 2015, Secretary-General Ban devoted himself to a grand reconstruction effort. UN aid missions were dispatched to Japan and the former members of the Soviet Union, including the newly established Russian Federation. China returned to the UN after realizing that it ran the risk of being left behind by the post-Soviet world order. The Russian Federation took over the Soviet Union’s seat on the Security Council in 2014, and replaced the Soviet Union in the Council of Nations a few weeks later.

Ban’s reconstruction efforts were brought to an abrupt end on March 1st 2015, when a gun battle erupted in an abandoned warehouse in Berlin, Germany. Three soldiers were killed:

• Aaron Ray, American
• Vanya Malakhov, Russian
• Sakura Ito, Japanese

All three of these soldiers were wearing the same uniform and had been killed by weapons nobody had ever seen before. Secretary-General Ban ordered an international investigation into the incident, one that was doomed to be unfinished eternally.

The Invasion of Earth kicked off that night. Under the authorization of the Council of Nations, XCOM activated and deployed to fight this, the second attempt to conquer Earth by an extraterrestrial foe. Unlike the Zudjari Invasion fifty years prior, it was not possible to cover up this invasion. It was carried out on a much larger scale and executed with cruel competency.

Major combat operations started in April.

XCOM was overwhelmed and defeated in May.

The United Nations collapsed in June.

One by one, the various nations on Earth started to surrender to the invaders. In the final days of resistance, Secretary-General Ban tried to coordinate the creation of a true UN Army, but the invaders had already wiped out the majority of all armed forces on Earth by this point.

In late June, XCOM was removed from play entirely as their underground base in Manhattan, Kansas was overrun and seized by the invaders.

For the next three months, Ban Ki-Moon and the surviving leaders of the UN entered into peace talks with the invaders, who spoke through a pair of American collaborators named William Thorne and Thomas Hutch.

Both men were wealthy businessmen in the United States and made their fortunes selling arms to the belligerents of World War Three. Hutch and Thorne joined the invaders after being promised positions of power in the post-invasion world.

Ban Ki-Moon and Thomas Hutch signed the Great Accord on September 1st 2015, a document that formally dissolved the United Nations and created the ADVENT Coalition. Thomas Hutch became the Regional Administrator, subordinate to the Elders. William Thorne was appointed President of the United States by Hutch.

Thomas Hutch was born in Ohio and used his family fortune to purchase a bankrupt gun manufacturer. He spent twenty years establishing Hutch Enterprises, selling small arms and light weapons to African and Asian militaries before graduating to armored vehicles and ballistic missiles in the late 1990’s.

By 2005, Hutch Enterprises rivalled Pactical Industries as the largest maker and seller of lethal weapons on the planet. Thomas Hutch dipped his toes into US politics during the Administration of J.D. Robinson. Hutch attempted to bribe Vice President MacDonald in return for the Vice President’s powerful tiebreaking vote. However, Hutch’s attempt at bribery was discovered by future Stormbreaker Blake Robinson. (aged 12 at the time)

Vice President MacDonald was impeached and later removed from office, but Hutch was able to use his connections in the US media industry to escape scrutiny. A few years later, the Third World War caused Hutch to become the wealthiest man on Earth, with a personal fortune that would be valued at approximately §450 Billion in 2086 credits.

By an odd coincidence, Thomas Hutch assumed office as the ADVENT Regional Administrator on September 11th 2015, the same day the Second Hyperspace War began, possibly coming within hours of the equally historic Birth of Jericho.

 

[Von Acturus]

An arm's dealer and war profiteer as ruler of earth? I now see why the ADVENT regime was just so despicable.

Since I'm not familiar with XCOM games, I have some questions about the Elders. Do they have an Interstellar empire, or was the invasion of earth a one time thing? Do they participate in the Second Hyperspace War? Why did they choose earth of all places to invade?

 

[Macavity116]

Since I'm not familiar with XCOM games, I have some questions about the Elders. Do they have an Interstellar empire, or was the invasion of earth a one time thing? Do they participate in the Second Hyperspace War? Why did they choose earth of all places to invade?

Since the Elders are members of the Ethereal species, I'll speak for all of them here: No. The Ethereals are not masters of an interstellar empire. They are cosmic refugees.

In all of the modern XCOM games, it is repeatedly said that the Ethereals were driven out of a distant Galaxy by an unknown enemy and are on the brink of extinction. To preserve themselves, at least one nascent Ethereal was "seeded" on every planet that developed sentient life. In both XCOM Enemy Within and XCOM2 the Ethereals constantly remind the player that something far worse than themselves is out there. Cryptic warnings can be heard in all of the modern XCOM games, and I included most of them in Chapter 24 of The Stormbreakers.

These dialogue excerpts come from XCOM2:

“Your form is but a shadow of our truth. We seek to defy that which would consume us all. Your efforts deny the sacrifice of those who came before! You leave us no choice.”

“Our power does not waver. You will find our forces here loyal. They require no coercion, for they know failure here means the end for all.”

“You view us as the conquerors of your world, but that was never our intent! Each species you’ve encountered, the ‘aliens’ you have fought and slaughtered. None were given a choice. Our home was the oldest of worlds, and the first to be consumed. Billions were lost, if only that were the end.”

And these dialogue excerpts were taken from XCOM: Enemy Unknown:

“THIS IS NOT YOUR PATH! NOT YOUR PURPOSE! YOU NEED OUR GUIDANCE TO HONE THIS POWER! WITHOUT US… WHAT ARE YOU!?”

“Behold the greatest failure of the Ethereal Ones. We who failed to ascend as they thought we would. We who were cast out. We who were doomed to feed on the Gift of lesser beings as we sought to uplift them… to prepare them… for what lies ahead.”

In the XCOM games, it is never stated who or what the Ethereals are fleeing from, but I filled in the gaps in the Stormbreaker story. In my universe, it is heavily implied the Ethereals are fleeing from one of the oldest factions in the Homeworld games. Specifically, they're fleeing from the Beast, which entered our Galaxy long after the Ethereals got here.

Humanity was targeted for conquest because their Psionic potential was far greater than other species previously subjugated by the Ethereals. Their end goal was to recover their own strength and put up an actual fight against the Beast, and they would have achieved this through the AVATAR Project: using Humanity as an expendable base to construct a Human-Ethereal Hybrid species. Due to the Battle for Earth, only two such Hybrids ever lived for a meaningful length of time: Jericho and Mira Mihaka. (using a stolen Avatar body)

The Ethereals usually targeted pre-FTL civilizations with high levels of Psionic energy for conquest, hopping from one planet to the next aboard their massive Temple Ship, and never formally joined the Galactic Community. (both were generally aware of each other, though) The Ethereals spent millennia slowly rebuilding their forces and trying to find new host bodies as their old ones withered away. (This is why the Elders almost never appear in The Stormbreakers) By the time 2015 rolled around, the Ethereals had over a dozen species under their sway and used intense genetic modification to keep them subjugated, to the point where a few of these races had completely forgotten their origins. The Vipers in particular suffered. Despite there being millions of Vipers on Earth, their species is functionally extinct because there are no males left and no Homeworld to return to. (XCOM killed the last male in battle during the war)

The Elders of the ADVENT Coalition tried (and failed) to execute a plan that would see them standing alone against the Beast, never once attempting to collaborate with the wider Galactic Community. Ultimately, this made it easier for the Triple Alliance to intervene on behalf of Humanity in The Stormbreakers.

---

The 2036 Selection of the UNE Secretary-General​

The United Nations was dismantled following the Invasion and Conquest of Earth in the summer of 2015. The new collaborationist regime, known as the ADVENT Coalition, co-opted many UN offices and facilities, taking over as the new tenants.

To create a sense of legitimacy with their new government, the ADVENT collaborators appointed Thomas Hutch to be the “Regional Administrator” of the ADVENT Government. Functionally, he was ADVENT’s public-facing head-of-state, a Human face to make the Elder’s new regime more palatable. Hutch occupied the former headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, but he moved to the newly constructed ADVENT Administration Building in 2016. The old UN HQ, along with the entirety of New York City, was systematically bulldozed and then rebuilt into the first Megacity over the course of 2016.

In February of 2017, a group of Resistance fighters ambushed and assassinated US President William Thorne while he was giving a speech in Washington. In response, ADVENT abolished all of the prewar Human governments, including the United States, and then completely depopulated the city of Washington. To this day, in 2086, the former US capitol remains abandoned.

While the Old World governments were now defunct, Hutch became aware of the fact that Human Resistance groups all over the world were attempting to restore them, and that certain Humans were claiming to be the rightful holders of Old World leadership titles, such as President of the United States, Secretary-General of NATO, and Premier of China.

In response to this development, Administrator Hutch began to style himself as not only the UN Secretary-General, but also the President of the European Council, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, President of both the United States and Russian Federation, Director-General of the African Union, and even the Emperor of Japan. Whenever Hutch needed to exert ADVENT authority over a certain part of the world, he usurped the necessary title for himself.

Despite claiming all of these titles and using them for himself, Hutch possessed no true political power of his own. The ADVENT Government was, at the end of the day, just a rubber-stamp for the Elder’s control over the planet. Under Hutch’s “leadership” the ADVENT Coalition disseminated its government across three political centers to create the impression that Humanity still had some degree of self-rule:

The Executive capitol of ADVENT remained in Washington, where Hutch ran his faux government. (Yes, he ran his government from an empty city)

The Legislative capitol became Beijing, where the hallowed halls of the old People’s Congress were co-opted by the ADVENT Parliament.

The Judicial capitol was moved to Berlin, where ADVENT tribunals passed down the Elder’s brand of “justice.”

On behalf of the Elders, Hutch advanced ADVENT’s agenda. Nearly the entire Human populace was forced to move out of the rural areas and take up residence in the newly constructed Megacities. These densely populated urban centers were often constructed on the sites of Old World cities. Very few cities were intentionally destroyed during the 2015 Invasion, instead they were meticulously de-constructed after hostilities ended.

Once people were moved into Megacities, Hutch used ADVENT’s control of the supply chain to force all of Humanity to eat according to the same diet. All people were made to eat “CORE” at least once a day. CORE is an ivory-colored paste that is intentionally tasteless and must be served alongside a strongly flavored food. Nobody knew where Core came from or how it was made, (ADVENT destroyed all livestock on Earth, and species such as the domesticated cow went extinct before 2020) but it quickly became the primary ingredient in all dishes on Earth, including the iconic “ADVENT Burger” which is still universally loved in the modern post-ADVENT world. CORE is one of the few staples of the Occupation Era to remain a part of Human culture in 2086, and its origins remain unexplained to the frustration of many.

Furthermore, Hutch used his “authority” to build up and maintain ADVENT’s infamous propaganda machine. In 2018, Hutch inaugurated the ADVENT TV network by broadcasting his own wedding to the world:

In a famed broadcast viewed by approximately 900 million people, Thomas Hutch (using his title as President of the European Union) married Chelsea Daniels, a 25-year-old American beauty queen. Daniels was a childhood friend of Stormbreaker Blake Robinson. During his own testimony to the Global Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2036, Blake admitted under oath that Daniels lusted after men with vast power and wealth, and said her affection for Hutch was “certainly genuine” despite the fact that Hutch was a full 35 years older than his new bride.

Hutch and Daniels were married at an ornate ceremony in the Palace of Westminster. (The structure was demolished 24 hours later) The wedding was attended by at least 90,000 people in the streets, and the ceremony was officiated by the Angelis Ethereal, showing all of Humanity that their new leader was blessed and endorsed by the Godlike Elders.

Finally, it was Thomas Hutch who opened the first Gene Therapy Clinics on Earth. Hutch worked to ensure that ADVENT-owned clinics were the only place to receive competent healthcare on Earth. Any hospital or clinic that was not under ADVENT’s direct control was forcefully shut down, often with their employees being arrested and accused of being Resistance fighters. By 2025, ADVENT held a complete monopoly on the global healthcare industry, and every Human who entered a Gene Therapy Clinic would be tagged with organic tracking devices… for future use in the AVATAR Project.

Thomas Hutch continued to run the ADVENT government as an unelected collaborationist until the 2035 Battle for Earth, which lasted from July 15th until the 25th. As fighting intensified, Hutch and his government relocated deeper inside of the American interior, but he was ultimately trapped by XCOM forces in Detroit. Hutch surrendered to Blake Robinson and the Stormbreakers on July 25th, ending both his own rule and that of the ADVENT Coalition.

Following the Liberation of Earth, the Resistance Council, a group of leading freedom fighters, assembled at the Berlin Conference to discuss the post-liberation world. A new incarnation of the United Nations was proposed by members of the European Resistance, with the specific intent of having the new UN supplant the ADVENT Coalition as a global government.

During its rule, the ADVENT Coalition tried to erase all institutional knowledge and memory of the old UN, and to that end, no copies of the 1944 UN Charter survived to the modern day. A new UN Charter was written in Berlin over the course of two months, and in October of 2035, the ratification process began.

The United Nations of Earth was established on November 9th 2035, when the UNE Charter was ratified by more than half of the newly re-established Old World governments.

The Security Council was rebuilt, but took longer than expected to become functional because China, Russia, and France refused to join unless the Permanent Five were restored to their places on the Council with their veto powers intact. The newly restored General Assembly, eager to fill the power vacuum left behind by ADVENT, quickly caved to this demand with one notable exception:

The United States of America had failed to reconstitute itself following the end of the war, and fell into a chaotic, multi-sided civil war. After intense debate, the newly independent Republic of Hawaii was deemed to be the legal successor-state to the USA, and Hawaii was allowed to fill America’s seat at the Security Council. This topic would be highly contentious and has been revisited several times over the past 50 years, especially now that there are two governments claiming to be the Pre-2015 US government and demanding their seat on the Security Council

Once this hurdle was (briefly) overcome, the Security Council set about its search for a new Secretary-General:

All of this was happening against the backdrop of the Second Hyperspace War, and Humanity was rapidly being pulled into the Galactic Community. The field of candidates vying for the top job became larger than ever, with nearly three dozen people in the running, most of them being former Resistance leaders.

In September of 2035, the Commander of XCOM, an American woman named Laura Harper, announced her intentions to run for Secretary-General. At this point, two straw polls had already happened, so she was very late to the game. Yet Harper’s fame preceded her:

Born in Baltimore in late 1961, Laura Harper was the illegitimate child of Nico DaSilva, the very first Squad Leader in XCOM history, who lost his life in the 1962 Zudjari War. Harper dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen and volunteered for the United States Army. Harper did her first tour of duty in Germany, along the border of the Warsaw Pact. During her training, Harper demonstrated an aptitude for squad tactics. She quickly rose through the ranks and became an Infantry Squad Leader at the age of 20.

It is common knowledge that Harper’s great intellect and skill for command came from the fact that she was hosting an Ethereal named Asaru within her body and mind. Unlike the Elders who conquered and ruled over our world, Asaru was the one and only Ethereal to be born on Earth. (Bannack, Montana to be specific) Asaru was highly loyal to Earth and defended Humanity with incredible ferocity throughout his life. Harper was the third and final person to host Asaru, after XCOM Agent William Carter and XCOM Director Myron Faulke.

Seeing her potential, Harper’s commanding officer sent the young soldier into a program where the US Government would pay for her to receive a higher education. Harper studied military history, economics, and political science at John Hopkins University in her home state of Maryland before graduating with a Master’s Degree in Government and a Bachelor’s Degree in History. Once her studies were finished, the United States Army promoted Harper directly to the rank of Captain and have her a detachment to command.

Laura Harper got her first taste of battle in 1991, when the United States led a massive international coalition against Iraq. Harper assumed personal command of her detachment and was ordered to participate in the Liberation of Kuwait City. Now holding the rank of Major, there was no reason for Harper to be on the ground with her troops, yet she chose to be there anyway. Harper was nearly killed by an Iraqi Scud missile in the opening hours of combat. However, once she had control of the situation, forces under Harper’s command were unstoppable. The Iraqi foe was put to flight very quickly.

Over the course of the 1990’s Laura Harper honed her skills as a commander of men. She participated in the Battle of Mogadishu, commanding a portion of the rescue force deployed during the Black Hawk Down Incident. Harper was promoted to Brigadier General shortly before the NATO intervention in Bosnia, and received her second star after the Dayton Accords were signed. By the time the US went to war in Afghanistan, Harper was a three-star General.

Harper earned her fourth star by commanding the defense of Japan during World War Three, and shortly before the Siege of Hiroshima, Harper received another promotion, making her the sixth person in American history to become a five-star General.

It is unknown when exactly Harper was appointed Commander of XCOM, but historians agree it was sometime during the two-year gap between World War Three and the 2015 Invasion. Commander Harper was presented with an unwinnable scenario, and somehow managed to keep XCOM in the fight for three months longer than any other military force on Earth.

In June of 2015, Harper was captured by the Invaders during the fall of XCOM HQ. The Elders saw her incredible potential and placed the Commander into stasis, hooking her inert body into an organic computer and forcing her mind to run through thousands of combat simulations every day. This went on for twenty years until Operation Gatecrasher occurred.

In 2035, Harper was rescued from ADVENT captivity alongside several members of the now-legendary Stormbreaker Squad. Harper was quickly restored to her position as the Commander of XCOM and within five months, she orchestrated the Battle of Earth and brought down the ADVENT Coalition. (With some last-second help from the Galactic Community)

When the UNE started the search for its new Secretary-General, Commander Harper was revered for guiding XCOM to victory during the Battle for Earth. As soon as the Commander announced her ambition for the top job, all other candidates withdrew from consideration, leaving Harper to run unopposed.

The new Security Council voted to approve Harper 15 to 0, and the General Assembly elected her by acclimation.

Laura Harper took office on January 1st, 2036.

 

[Von Acturus]

In response to this development, Administrator Hutch began to style himself as not only the UN Secretary-General, but also the President of the European Council, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, President of both the United States and Russian Federation, Director-General of the African Union, and even the Emperor of Japan. Whenever Hutch needed to exert ADVENT authority over a certain part of the world, he usurped the necessary title for himself.

This man is just pathetic. That surely did more to anger the people than abolishing those titles would have, and surely it only invigorated claimants.

Hutch and Daniels were married at an ornate ceremony in the Palace of Westminster. (The structure was demolished 24 hours later)

Pathetic, vain and nauseating. What did XCOM do to hima and other collaborators in the aftermath of the liberation of Earth?

 

[Midnite Duke]

Is CORE a mind control substance? Placing mind control in food or drink is easy way to tame populace or maybe something in air to breathe. Urban pop is easier to control as they depend more on others for survival items and more violence because of crowded conditions. Thanks

 

[Macavity116]

What did XCOM do to [Thomas Hutch] and other collaborators in the aftermath of the liberation of Earth?

During the Second Hyperspace War, in between the Battle of Earth and the War in Heaven, Secretary-General Harper collaborated with XCOM leader Jane Kelly to establish the Global Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The GTRC dedicated itself to prosecuting ADVENT-era war criminals and bringing about justice for all of the people who were murdered and oppressed by their regime.

After he surrendered to the Stormbreakers, Thomas Hutch and his family were taken into custody alongside thousands of other collaborators. Indy Hutch (the child Thomas had with Chelsea Daniels) was released without charge due to his age. Thomas and Chelsea were put on trial for war crimes at the GTRC in Berlin. Blake Robinson and many of his fellow Stormbreakers gave sworn testimony throughout, and after a court battle that became the stuff of legal legend, Hutch and his wife were both sentenced to death for their crimes against Humanity.

On April 1st 2037, Thomas Hutch and Chelsea Daniels were executed by firing squad in front of an audience of AFUNE soldiers and UNE government members. The executions were televised across the UNE. Hutch was famously stoic and tight-lipped, while his wife broke down completely. Chelsea Daniels sobbed, wept, and begged for her life as she was dragged out of the prison van by UN troops. Throughout the final walk to the execution grounds, Daniels was accompanied by her son Indy and her childhood friend Blake Robinson. For the next 48 years, Blake has refused to reveal what was said in his final conversation with her.

Hutch and Daniels are buried in unmarked graves somewhere in southern Germany.

Is CORE a mind control substance? Placing mind control in food or drink is easy way to tame populace or maybe something in air to breathe. Urban pop is easier to control as they depend more on others for survival items and more violence because of crowded conditions.

CORE is not so much a mind-control substance as it was population control. ADVENT used this mysterious food to force Humans to regularly visit Gene Therapy Clinics, as eating CORE could sometimes exasperate pre-existing health problems. As you'll see in a future History Lesson, the Gene Therapy Clinics were eventually re-opened and are operating all over Earth during the events of The Last Heroes.

---

The 2061 Selection of the UNE Secretary-General ​

After the War in Heaven, (September 11th 2036) the United Nations of Earth grew into the spacefaring nation we know today. Acting with the same skill she used to lead XCOM to victory, Secretary-General Harper simultaneously orchestrated the reconstruction of Earth and Humanity’s expansion to other stars.

Because the United States was still in a state of civil war, the United Nations needed a new headquarters. Harper moved the UNE to the city of Berlin in Eastern Germany. A modern re-creation of the German Reichstag became the General Assembly while Harper moved herself into the Chancellery building. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission occupied the site of the former East German capitol building, and the structure is still considered a sacrosanct hall of justice to this day.

Harper’s UNE established a true space fleet and projected power into the Galaxy for the first time, with Humanity’s first solo victory in space combat occurring in 2041, when a UNE flotilla turned back a squadron of Turanic Raiders near Betelgeuse.

She oversaw the colonization of Terra Nova, the first Human settlement on another planet, throughout the 2040’s. Harper also negotiated Earth’s present-day space borders with Hiigara and Amadiio. She also established the Global Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which oversaw that trial and punishment of ADVENT war criminals such as Bellus Mar, Thomas Hutch, and Chelsea Daniels.

Perhaps the most defining achievement of Harper’s administration was the integration of the Reclamation agency and subsequent actions of Chimera Squad in the spring of 2040. Harper ordered the organization to admit alien members, leading to the creation of the multi-species Chimera Squad. Over the course of several tense engagements, Chimera Squad dismantled a conspiracy by the mercenary group Shrike to incite inter-species violence and genocide in City 31. (The ADVENT Megacity built on the former site of Philadelphia) Countless lives were saved.

In late 2058, Secretary-General Harper was halfway through her fourth term of office when she suddenly announced her early retirement, citing a newly diagnosed illness. While the exact state of her physical health was never disclosed, political observers and analysts noticed that Sec-Gen Harper went through a very sharp decline between the months of July and October of 2058. By the time she left office on December 1st 2058, Laura Harper was a shell of her former self and barely able to stand upright. Even so, she left office under her own power, famously walking out of the Reichstag and waving to her supporters.

Laura Harper passed away at home on March 8th 2060 at the age of 99.

If she had not resigned, Harper’s fourth term as Sec-Gen would have ended on January 1st, 2062. Due to Harper’s retirement, Deputy Secretary-General Alex Edinger succeeded her and became the new Secretary-General, filling in for the remainder of Harper’s term of office.

Political operatives started scheming for the 2061 selection process as soon as Harper was out of sight. Sec-Gen Edinger was never taken seriously as a contender for the office, and most members of the UNE saw him as a placeholder until a true successor could be selected. Furthermore, when he announced his intentions to run for a full term, France, China, and Russia immediately vetoed Edinger’s candidacy.

Despite being quickly written off, Edinger’s Administration did have a few significant achievements. Under his leadership, the UNE became the first spacefaring civilization to make contact with the previously undiscovered Tobari Star Empire, a reptilian nation located in the Galactic South. Edinger established peaceful relations with the Tobari and sponsored their entry into the Galactic Council only months after First Contact. Furthermore, Edinger terminated the security contract between the UNE and Shrike, formally displacing the mercenary group and allowing the UN military (AFUNE) to assume full responsibility for all security and peacekeeping missions in Human territory.

Edinger was also the leading voice of opposition to the sudden surge in Megastructure construction throughout the Galaxy that began in 2059. Shortly after he took office, the Hiigaran Empire started constructing a Dyson Sphere around Dubhe, which is one of the most prominent stars in the constellation Ursa Major. Sec-Gen Edinger lobbied the Galactic Council for an injunction, and he successfully caused construction of the Dyson Sphere to be halted. As of the time of writing (Summer 2086) construction remains paused. However, the outbreak of interstellar war in 2084 may be responsible for the ongoing delay.

With the incumbent vetoed by the P5, the Security Council vetted a slate of new candidates. Eventually, a trio of renowned diplomats came forward.

Philip Moregård, the Prime Minister of Sweden, ran on a platform of exploration. He wanted to dispatch science vessels to the Galactic South and possibly expand Human territory into the Galactic Rim. Moregård also wanted to follow in Edinger’s footsteps and use diplomacy to stop the construction of a Sentry Array by the Levakian Confederation. (A member-state of the Partogan-Levakian Commonwealth)

Eric DeAngelis was the director of the UN Truth and Reconciliation Commission. During his run for the top office, he promised to complete the prosecution of the last remaining ADVENT-era war criminals. DeAngelis also wanted to continue integrating aliens into Human society, promising to pass a law that would allow non-Humans to serve in the UN General Assembly.

Arinn Ruskay served as the governor of New Canberra, an Australian colony on the planet Terra Nova. She aimed to expand the General Assembly, hoping for Human colonies on other planets to be granted representation in the esteemed legislature.

The 2061 Selection process was one of the fastest in history. The first straw poll occurred on September 1st, 2061 and after that, straw polls occurred every three days. Over the course of two weeks, Director DeAngelis shot off to an early lead and never lost steam. It became clear very quickly that nobody could mount a significant opposition to his candidacy, especially once the P5 agreed to deny offworld colonies a place on the Security Council.

The Security Council voted to recommend DeAngelis to the General Assembly by Acclimation, meaning the actual vote was skipped because it was expected to be unanimous.

On December 1st Eric DeAngelis was elected Secretary-General by the General Assembly, winning by a landslide, and he assumed office on January 1st 2062.

 

[Von Acturus]

Great stuff! Why the opposition to megastructures tho? And on what grounds did the Galactic Community embargo the construction of the Dyson Sphere?

 

[Macavity116]

Why the opposition to megastructures tho? And on what grounds did the Galactic Community embargo the construction of the Dyson Sphere?

Dubhe, also known as "Alpha Ursae Majoris" was used by Humans for thousands of years to navigate. It's used to find Polaris, the North Star. It is also one of the brightest stars in the constellation Ursa Major. Sec-Gen Edinger successfully convinced the Galactic Council that Dubhe was culturally important to Humanity, and that it's loss from the night sky would cause irreparable damage to Human culture... and impede astronavigation in the general vicinity of Earth. (It's a reference to an old event in Stellaris I haven't seen in a while, where you could offend alien empires by enclosing their sacred stars in Dyson Spheres)

 

[Macavity116]

Well readers, this was fun. We've reached the final History Lesson. I hope these posts will help you stay up to speed during the Blake Vs Pascal moments of The Last Heroes, which will occur when the story resumes in September.

As always, thank you for reading. The summer hiatus will continue as usual, and I hope to see you again!

---

The 2071 Selection of the UNE Secretary-General and recent history of the current Administration​

The 2060’s was a very good decade for Humanity. During the administration of Secretary-General Eric DeAngelis, Humanity expanded to three more planets in the Sirius, Wolf 359, and Altair star systems.

Colonizing Altair turned out to be the most significant moment of Human expansion. The third planet in the system was an abandoned Ecuminopolis, built by the long-defunct Progenitor Empire. The ruined city-planet proved to be a treasure trove of ancient technology and historical knowledge. Over the first few years of Human presence on Altair, the Relic World became a central hub for archeologists and historians who wanted to study the Progenitors.

Meanwhile, the Global Truth and Reconciliation Commissioned accomplished the goal it set out to achieve in 2036, and successfully completed the prosecution of the last living ADVENT-era war criminal. Mayso Cassack, a Human-Alien Hybrid who served in the ADVENT army during the war, was executed by firing squad on July 11, 2063. The GTRC shut down the following day, and most of its offices have now been converted into facilities for other UNE agencies. The famed courthouse in Berlin still stands and is designated a World Heritage site.

Riding on the successes of his first term, Sec-Gen DeAngelis moved on the next part of his agenda: integrating non-Humans into the UNE government.

After the Second Hyperspace War, a substantial population of non-Humans were living on Earth and the various Human colonies. Most of them were transplanted to Earth during the 2015 Invasion and subsequent occupation of Earth. Certain species, like Mutons, Vipers, and Faceless, did not have a Homeworld to return to and were quite happy to adopt the Earth as their new home. Sec-Gen DeAngelis introduced a slate of proposals to the General Assembly that would permit aliens born on Earth to serve in the UNE General Assembly.

And this was just the start. DeAngelis’ plan would have ultimately allowed for any sentient life form to serve in the Assembly, provided they were born on Human territory and held UNE citizenship.

This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

The remainder of DeAngelis’ time in office was characterized by the intense debate and political infighting over the question of enfranchising aliens. DeAngelis met vigorous resistance to his plan at all levels of government. When he ran for a second term in 2066, the global coalition that elected DeAngelis broke up, leaving his re-election contested.

A Xenophobic faction put forth their own candidate for Secretary-General: a French-Canadian diplomat named Pascal Etienne.

Born in the Megacity of Montreal in what is now Canada, Etienne was blinded by illness at a young age, and he became dependent on ADVENT Gene Therapy Clinics to function. The treatments Etienne received at these clinics would temporarily restore his eyesight, and Etienne would have to keep up with regular appointments, lest he go blind again. During the Battle for Earth, Etienne was in Montreal and witnessed the hijacked broadcast that preceded Liberation. He was fully aware of the fact that the clinics were a death trap, but he was unwilling to help in their destruction. Etienne sat out the Battle for Earth, instead choosing to enjoy his eyesight for the final few days he had it. Etienne travelled to Banff National Park and took in the sweeping vistas of Canada’s natural beauty before going blind once again.

In the aftermath of the Second Hyperspace War, Etienne stayed in the Montreal Megacity and became a political activist, calling for the Gene Therapy Clinics to be re-opened. As time went on dozens and then hundreds of Humans who were similarly dependent on the clinics to function joined Etienne. Eventually, Etienne’s political movement grew and expanded to other causes, lobbying the Canadian government for greater protection from alien refugees and settlers. Etienne argued that government services should be offered to Humans first, and that the needs of non-Human invaders should be a secondary concern.

Eventually, Etienne found the Human Supremacist movement, or perhaps they found him. Either way, Etienne found an audience willing to hear his rhetoric, which was growing more and more xenophobic with each passing year. Etienne held non-Humans responsible for the closure of the Gene Therapy Clinics and he also engaged in some historical revisionism: claiming the clinics were harmless to begin with and that XCOM had no proof they were tied to the AVATAR Project.

As the years went by, Etienne’s message grew beyond Canada. The Human Supremacist movement started to go global thanks to his voice.

Etienne was a shrewd negotiator and vocal champion of Human supremacy. He easily convinced several members of the Security Council that he would be an acceptable alternative to DeAngelis, and his candidacy proved a major disruption to Human politics.

The Security Council conducted a series of 19 straw polls from June to November of 2066. Throughout each poll, Etienne commanded a slim majority of the Council. Furthermore, the largest cities on Earth were overrun by mass demonstrations as people who supported Etienne campaigned on his behalf. In Berlin, almost a quarter-million people protested in the Tiergarten for a week, demanding DeAngelis be removed from office and replaced with Etienne.

In late June of 2066, the General Assembly held elections for new members of the Security Council. Etienne’s Xenophobe faction scored an overwhelming victory, winning all of the open seats. As a result, Etienne’s faction now had a slim 1-seat majority on the UN Security Council.

Despite this victory, Etienne still managed to fall short at the finish line. When the Security Council undertook its final straw poll in October, Pascal Etienne won, receiving a commanding majority of votes, but he also received a veto from one of the P5. It was later discovered that the veto had come from the United Kingom. The British ambassador claimed that London was unwilling to support the installation of a Secretary-General who was not fluent in English. (Etienne is French Canadian… naturally, he speaks French)

With his only rival neutralized, Secretary-General DeAngelis cruised to a second term and was re-elected at the end of the year.

However, Etienne’s xenophobe faction continued to gather strength. Over the next five years, anti-alien sentiments overran the planet. Local governments grew steadily hostile toward non-Humans while Etienne continued stoking the flames from his office in Toronto. During his second term, Sec-Gen DeAngelis saw his landmark equality legislation fall apart.

Human-alien relations deteriorated quickly as anti-xeno protests regularly rocked major cities. Xenophobic governments came to power all across the Earth and eventually the distant colonies as well. Violent Human-on-alien crimes skyrocketed, but the overall increase in criminal activity was blamed on the non-Human populace.

In 2069, things reached a head.

On the evening of March 3, 1068, a Human-Levakian Hybrid was arrested for driving without a license in the Russian Megacity of Moscow. The arrest was videotaped by local bystanders; video of the Hybrid being beaten by the police officers soon circulated across Moscow. The officers were charged with a hate crime and put on trial.

Over the course of the next year, Human-alien relations deteriorated rapidly as the trial progressed. Violent crime in Moscow spiked. Then, on April 29, 2069, the verdict was reached. Both of the Moscow Police officers were acquitted of wrongdoing. Within hours, the alien populace of Moscow began to riot.

Civil unrest rocked Moscow for ten days. Looting, arson, and violence were widespread. At the height of the disaster, a mob of nearly four thousand Mutons, Levakians, and Assurians pushed past a cordon of Russian soldiers and breached the Kremlin. The assault on the Russian capital building lasted approximately six hours and ended with the Russian government relocating to St. Petersburg.

The Russian government deployed its own security forces to restore order, but the sheer number of injuries amongst both themselves and the civilian population quickly overwhelmed them. On the tenth day, a mixed contingent of UN soldiers and Shrike mercenaries entered Moscow and restored peace through brute force.

One-hundred-sixteen people died. Over fifteen thousand were injured. Moscow burned for two weeks.

The Moscow Riots caused a sea change in Human politics. Several non-Xenophobic governments collapsed overnight, and a series of snap elections led to dozens of additional anti-alien governments coming to power on Earth. Finally, in 2070, an overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly was part of the Xenophobic faction.

When his second term ended in 2071, Secretary-General DeAngelis saw the writing on the wall and refused to run for a third term.

Pascal Etienne declared his candidacy for the Secretary-General post in May of 2071.

All other candidates dropped out of the race immediately.

The Security Council selected Etienne unanimously.

The General Assembly elected Etienne with a final vote of 192-1.

The holdout was New Zealand.


Now we have reached the present day.

Secretary-General Etienne’s tenure marked a transformative time in Human history. On his first day in office, Etienne posthumously pardoned all of the Reapers, Templars, and Progeny members who fought against XCOM during the War in Heaven. In his pardoning speech, Etienne described these enemies of Humanity as “noble defenders of pure Human spirit.” The few remaining traitors who were alive in prison were granted clemency and released. He also granted the Altair Star System and its Progenitor Relic World to the Cult of Jericho.

Etienne also spoke in praising terms about the old ADVENT Coalition, remarking that he admired their centralized, authoritarian power structure.

Within his first month, Etienne ordered the re-opening of the Gene Therapy Clinics, shuttered for 40 years ever since the fall of the ADVENT Coalition. But the signature event of Etienne’s administration was a package of laws, regulations, and policies named Sol Invictus.

This landmark legislation marked a moment of radical transformation in the United Nations of Earth. The political scene changed so much that outside observers would say that the first year of Etienne’s Administration was nothing short of a political revolution.

All non-Humans were ejected from the UNE government and from all branches of AFUNE a short time later. Aliens were banned from all forms of artistic expression, and artworks created by non-Humans were seized and destroyed. After this, non-Humans were forbidden from being involved in the creation of educational media, and they also started to appear on television and in movies far less often.

Simultaneously, Etienne put a halt to non-Human immigration, stemming the flow of Partogans to Earth for the first time since the genetic relationship between Humans and Partogans was discovered.

Etienne pursued his Human Supremacist agenda very aggressively, and had the political capital to do so. However, he rapidly made new enemies by doing this. When Etienne called for the expulsion of all non-Humans from Earth in 2079, a group of UNE member-states (led by New Zealand) showed their dissent by walking out of the General Assembly.

The overwhelming majority of all Partogans who immigrated to Earth would ultimately settle in New Zealand because of their recently discovered Maori ancestry. Maori/Partogan reunification should have been a historic affair with much pomp and ceremony, but Etienne publicly showed distain for the whole event and intentionally sidelined New Zealand in UNE government. The island nation was removed from all UN Committees and even stripped of its leadership position on the UNE Human Rights Council. One commentator on Xenonian News claimed:

“If Etienne had his way, New Zealand would have been ejected from the UNE and become a pariah like the so-called United States.”

However, Etienne did not get his way. The harder he pushed his agenda, the stronger resistance to it became. An opposition movement started to gather with New Zealand at its center. When Etienne sought re-election in 2076, he promised the Security Council that his next term would begin with the confiscation of all businesses owned by non-Humans. Members of his Xenophobe faction rallied to the Etienne flag, while a few on the fringes found a new leader to rally behind.

Blake Robinson, the de-facto leader of the 2HW Veteran’s Association, began to speak against the expropriation plan at political events around Earth and on several outlying colonies. Millions of Humans who remembered their wartime non-Human allies began pushing back against Sol Invictus.

In 2076, Etienne cruised to a second term and followed through on his threat. All non-Human business owners had their enterprises confiscated and their homes raided by armed members of AFUNE. This triggered the first mass exodus of non-Humans from UNE planets. While alien refugees fled to the Hiigaran Empire, many Humans read the warning signs and fled to the United States of America, the only part of Earth that is not a member of the UN.

In many nations, the sudden expulsion of their non-Human business owners constituted the abrupt destruction of their entire middle class. Economies collapsed and food shortages began. In the face of Earth’ first post-war decline, Etienne blamed the growing economic crisis on “aliens and lovers of the same,” and then ordered his supporters in the General Assembly to pass a new law banning non-Humans from Gene Therapy Clinics.

For the first time since coming to power, political resistance to Sol Invictus made its way into the Reichtag as a small handful of member-states withdrew from the Xenophobe faction. They had no choice in the matter, as back home, these Xenophobic government were voted out of power in regular elections. This would start a trend that has carried on over the past decade.

The first real warning sign that Etienne’s agenda would no longer enjoy smooth sailing was in 2077, when New Zealand won a seat on the Security Council. For the next four years, Etienne’s agenda hit a powerful roadblock as a new friendship developed between New Zealand and Hawaii. The legal successor of the United States, with its powerful veto power, was being pulled out of the Xenophobic faction.

Determined to press on, Etienne started to gather political allies for an adventure in America. His aim was to see the Pre-2015 US Government restored to power, and eventually, to its seat on the Security Council.

The United States was still in a state of civil war at this time, but there were two governments, centered in Cheyanne and Columbus, that claimed to be the legitimate successor of Alexis Alexander’s presidency. (That was ended by ADVENT in 2015)

In preparation for this shift in agenda, Etienne dismissed his cabinet in early 2078 and brought new people into his government:

Ingrid Tsiajotso, an Admiral in the UN Navy, who had a reputation for being very direct and forceful.

Marcus Robinson, youngest child of Blake Robinson, who capitalized on his father’s fame to become a highly sought-after public speaker.

Emanuel Espinosa, the newly appointed chief of the Physics Division of the UN Science Directorate, also his wife…

Scarlett Freeman, Acting Director of the Internal Security Office, the UNE’s primary spy agency. She was a temporary officeholder due to the unexpected resignation of her predecessor.

Robert Lansing, Human Ambassador to Aoraki.

David Sepulveda, the highest-ranking Human Supremacist in XCOM, and finally,

Indy Hutch, a shrewd businessman who staged a hostile takeover of Pactical Industries, a megacorporation that got its start as an Old World weapons manufacturer.

Etienne and his new council would gather for weekly meetings in the Reichstag, planning out their next move. In the summer months, the group took action.

The 2080 Invasion of America was a very slow and quiet affair. AFUNE soldiers were inserted into the United States in small groups, seizing strategic locations. By the time the wider world was aware of the situation, AFUNE had already secured beachheads in Seattle, Yorktown, Cape Canaveral, New Orleans, and Boston. An airborne assault also seized historic XCOM bases such as Site X, Fort Riley, and the Elerium Mine in Bannack, Montana.

Officially, Etienne deployed AFUNE into America on a mission of “De-escalation.” UN soldiers were there to stop Americans from fighting each other and facilitate a peaceful reunification of the country.

The world responded to this development in two ways. First, Etienne’s supporters bought his story and actively supported his crusade to restore the United States. Leaders of the Hawaiian Republic (and by extension, the political opposition) saw this as a long-term ploy to deprive Hawaii of its Security Council seat and veto power. Fearing a power-grab, UNE member-states that opposed Etienne began working more openly to have him removed from power.

Simultaneously, several countries dominated by Xenophobes embraced the words Etienne said at the beginning of his tenure. Knowing how the Secretary-General admired the ADVENT Coalition and sought to emulate its heavy-handed style of governance, dozens of nations began to hold referendums and snap elections. Authoritarian governments began to replace democratic ones as political and military strongmen embraced the power of the metaphorical “iron fist.” At the same time, Etienne started courting the Cult of Jericho. Acolytes and Sorceresses became a regular sight in Berlin, while the Cult leader Erin Hyatt visited the Reichstag regularly.

When Etienne’s second term started drawing to a close in 2081, he announced his intention to run for a third term. In June of that year, former Stormbreaker Blake Robinson announced his intention to run against the Sec-Gen for the post. A political movement followed behind Blake, who campaigned on the promise of restoring the egalitarian policies of Laura Harper and ending the persecution of non-Humans.

Etienne consolidated his hold on power by promoting his closest allies.

David Sepulveda became Central Officer of XCOM.

Ingrid Tsiajotso became the Supreme Commander of all AFUNE forces.

Scarlett Freeman was confirmed to be the new Director of the ISO.



Then, on December 12th 2081, Pascal Etienne suffered his first political defeat.
It was a moment that set into motion the final act in the story of the Stormbreakers…

 

[Von Acturus]

The British ambassador claimed that London was unwilling to support the installation of a Secretary-General who was not fluent in English.

Oh, and I thought it would be because of his raging xenophobic agenda. Silly me.

And so we reach The Last Heroes. All great stuff. I learned a lot about the real UN, and your alternate timeline is real fun!

 

[Midnite Duke]

It would have been more fun, if Hutch cried like a baby and his consort/wife, Daniels, had remained stoic. This is not going to end well for Pascal. Thank you

 

[Midnite Duke]

Oh, and I thought it would be because of his raging xenophobic agenda. Silly me.

And so we reach The Last Heroes. All great stuff. I learned a lot about the real UN, and your alternate timeline is real fun!

IRL, France and UK would veto if nominee did not speak their language.

 

[HistoryDude]

I can't believe that a) Earth elected a literal Nazi as Sec-Gen and b) he was elected President of Austria after he was outed as a Nazi. What were they doing?

Hammarskjöld sounds like an interesting guy.

This is all very interesting...

Yeah, these vetoes are for the weirdest reasons.

Oh, so the UNE exists because of ADVENT destroying records.

DeAngelis looked like a good guy. What's he doing now?

Of course Etienne approves of both the literal Nazi and ADVENT. How does he reconcile ADVENT being a puppet state of aliens with his xenophobia?