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Dark Angel: History Lesson

By Matt Quinn 

Seattle, 2019. Ever since the Pulse in 2009, the city has fallen into decay as America�s superpower status crumbled. Max, Logan, and other characters live in this world. For Max, it is a daily struggle to survive and avoid the attacks of the evil Colonel Donald Lydecker, while Logan makes it his personal mission to right all the wrongs of this shattered world. This idea leads to Logan volunteering to teach at a local school for poor children on one sunny Tuesday. 

Logan�s Penthouse, 8:15 AM 

�Ready to go?� Bling, Logan�s physical therapist and sometimes personal assistant asked his boss. �The people at the school will be happy to have you teaching again.� The school in question wasn�t really a school; it was a local YMCA that was helping educate local children whose parents couldn�t afford private schooling or couldn�t send their children to a public school for whatever reason. The school also taught orphaned, homeless �street children�.

�Just a minute,� Logan said, adjusting his shirt. He had accidentally spilled some orange juice on it and he had to wipe it off. He wanted to look professional for this, even though he wasn�t a certified teacher. He had been trained to be a journalist, which helped in the transmission of information. He finished with his shirt and wheeled himself towards the door. �Got a big day today,� he said. 

Streets of Seattle, 8:30 AM 

Logan wheeled himself down the sidewalk towards the YMCA where they were operating the school. Bling followed close behind, ready to help with any mishaps that Logan might have with his wheelchair. It was a sunny day, which was a rarity in a city renowned for its foul weather. Logan watched the people roaming about the street with interest. Everyone was out today, enjoying the warmer temperatures and brighter environs.

�Hey Logan,� Max called as she pedaled along the street. �Going anywhere?�

�The local YMCA,� Logan said, smiling. �I�m volunteering to teach today. One of their history teachers called in sick today, some kind of springtime cold. They want me to teach something called �recent world events,� which will probably involve mentioning the Pulse and its effects. What�s up with you?�

�Normal�s riding us, as usual,� Max complained. She held up several packages, each marked with a different address. �He wants us to deliver more than one package per run as a means of increased efficiency. I can handle the load, but it�s a pain in the neck for most of the other riders.� She shrugged. �It�s a living and it doesn�t attract too much attention.� She looked at her watch. �Gotta run.�

�Have fun,� Logan said, smiling again. Bling merely nodded. As Max pedaled away, Logan turned his wheelchair around and continued wheeling towards the local YMCA. 

 

YMCA, 8:34 AM 

�Mr. Cale, we�re so glad you can help us,� Melissa Starkweather, the rather matronly chief of the teaching staff said. �Jim got some kind of cold-flu thing and couldn�t come in.� The two were situated in the middle of a hallway leading down the center of the clean, white building. The leaders of the Young Men�s Christian Association wanted to present a favorable impression of their facilities.

�No problem,� Logan said. �And you can call me Logan if you want to.� He looked around a bit. �Which classroom is it?�

�Classroom number six, the third room on the left. You�ll be teaching high school students today. Here�s the curriculum.� She handed him a sheaf of papers. Logan flipped through them, noting the various topics. Most of them were not pleasant historical events. The end of �Pax Americana� had caused disruptions worldwide, the most serious in the Balkans, in China, in the Middle East, and in India. The package also included a tape labeled �Curriculum Bits: Recent History.�

�Do classes start soon?� Logan asked.

�They�re waiting for you now,� she said. �Go on in.�

Logan wheeled himself towards the classroom in question. He held the papers in his lap. Bling followed close behind, keeping an eye on him. 

Classroom #6, 8:35 AM 

�Morning class,� Logan said as he entered the classroom.

�Good morning Mr. Cale,� the class said in semi-unison. Logan wheeled himself to the front of the class, where there was an overhead projector. He removed a transparency from the sheaf of papers, reached up, and placed it on the projector. He then wheeled himself to the switch and flipped it. The image of the Pacific Rim flashed onto the screen.

�Today,� Logan began, �we�re doing recent world events, stuff that�s happened over the past ten years. The first thing that we�re discussing is the Sino-American War.�

�Sino?� a girl asked from the back. �What�s that?�

�It means like or pertaining to China. Ten years ago, the United States of America and the People�s Republic of China went to war. You can see the map here.� Logan flipped through his notes and found the information he needed. �However, I need to explain some background information.�

�In March of 2009, a previously-unknown terrorist group procured a 100-megaton warhead from a corrupt Russian nuclear officer. Although the United States sent the Rangers to assist the Russians in retrieving the warhead, the terrorists managed to slip into the Central Asian desert and avoid capture. President Harry Browne increased American military readiness to Defcon Two in case they tried to use the nuclear weapon against us. One of the 100-megaton weapons could produce a firestorm 140 miles wide that would kill millions of people. This event laid the groundwork for the Sino-American War because two months later, the terrorists placed it aboard a weather rocket. Once it got into the upper atmosphere, they set it off.�

�The Pulse,� one of the students whispered.

�The enormous electromagnetic pulse produced by the weapon erased the memories of almost every single computer east of the Rocky Mountains, with the exception of the hardened military computers. We weren�t totally sure about who was responsible. However, President Browne suspected the Communist Chinese of using the terrorist group as a pawn to destroy the USA.�

�We went to war over suspicions?� one of the people asked.

�The Chinese saw the effects of the Pulse and as soon as word got out of our predicament, they attacked Taiwan. Taiwan is an island nation just off the Chinese coast that they considered �a renegade province� and threatened use of military force to reclaim the island. We had always protected the Taiwanese and supplied them with advanced military equipment to scare the Communists away. They saw that the federal government and most American military forces were paralyzed and mounted a huge missile strike on Taiwan and invaded two strategically important islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The American leadership thought that the Pulse was a Chinese attack designed to disable the USA long enough to take over Taiwan and other strategic Pacific Rim territory.�

�We had provided the Taiwanese with Theater Missile Defense, or TMD, technology so most of the missiles were shot down. The Taiwanese forces remained intact enough to fight off the main thrust of the invasion, an amphibious invasion of Taiwan. However, the Chinese were firmly entrenched on Quemoy and Matsu. One of our aircraft carriers, the Nimitz, was still in the area and had engaged Chinese air forces during the initial attack. The Chinese retaliated with a nuclear-tipped cruise missile, sinking the carrier and damaging the escort forces severely. The missile was a Sunburn supersonic weapon, which they had purchased in large numbers from the Russians, so it would have been nearly impossible for the escort Aegis cruisers to shoot it down. At this, President Browne ordered massive retaliation.�

�What happened?� another student asked.

�He ordered the nuclear submarines in the Pacific to launch a massive counterforce nuclear attack with Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles and to fire nuclear cruise missiles at major military forces. The Pulse had not affected the command links with them too badly due to their use of Extremely Low Frequency communications equipment rather than radios or satellites. A counterforce attack is designed to cripple an opponent�s nuclear forces without doing excessive damage to the country in general. The missiles were targeted at Chinese military installations, missile silos, nuclear command centers, etc. We used the ballistic weapons mostly on the hard targets like military command centers and silos, while smaller warheads mounted on cruise missiles were used on targets near population centers. We used conventional warheads to strike the main PLA command center in Beijing since we wanted the generals annihilated without killing millions of non-combatants. At the same time, hunter killers went on the attack in the Pacific, hunting and destroying the Chinese missiles subs.�

�Did it work?� one of the students asked.

�Mostly. All of the silo-based ICBMs were destroyed in their silos and the heavy bombers were caught on the ground. The Chinese were so sure that the Pulse would cripple the USA that they didn�t put their forces in high alert. However, their more mobile missile forces survived. The surviving leaders, mostly military generals who were in transit when the strike began, ordered the road-mobile missiles, weapons capable of being launched from trucks, fired at the continental Untied States and the nuclear cruise missiles fired at local US bases such as Okinawa. They also got word out to the nuclear missile subs operating the Pacific. The strike on Beijing apparently failed in its objective, although it made military organization hard for awhile.� Logan removed the transparency showing the map of the Pacific Rim with a different map showing the same map with several radiation icons (the inverted triangle-looking things) and the explosive power of the blast next to them. Most of the blasts were concentrated in the northeast, southeast, and northwest of China. The blasts in the southeast were small ones, single-digit kilotons for the most part, while the ones in the other areas were as large as 600 kilotons. However, two blast markers were in different parts of the map. One was on an island south of Japan, the other was in the Taiwan Strait.

�Thankfully, President Browne had continued the work of his predecessor, George W. Bush, in ballistic missile defense. Bush had laid the groundwork for the system and even completed the construction of the infrared satellites necessary for striking enemy missiles in their boost phase, but it was President Browne who presided over the system�s completion. A large network of space-based interceptors and space-based lasers were in place by 2008. The interceptors had destroyed many of the Chinese reconnaissance satellites, but didn�t get all of them. We didn�t want to tip the Chinese off before we launched, so we launched at about the same time we began the satellite destruction. Some of the interceptors were targeted against Chinese anti-satellite weapons, so they weren�t available to hit reconnaissance and communications gear. Some of the Chinese missiles managed to get off the ground and out of the ballistic missile submarines, so the defense system shot them down. We later discovered that the missiles were targeted at Los Angeles, Hoover Dam, Chicago, Atlanta, Norfolk, Detroit, Colorado Springs, Seattle, Portland, Whitfield AFB, Grand Forks AFB, West Point, San Francisco, New York, and Washington.� He removed the first-strike map and replaced it was a scene showing missiles rising from China and the Pacific and laser-armed satellites firing on them, slicing many in half.

�What about the submarines?� another student asked. �At first you said that they had launched and had their missiles shot down, then you implied they were destroyed.�

�Our hunter-killer submarines managed to destroy around one-third of them before they could launch. The launch of the missiles had given away the rest of the missile submarines, enabling the rest to be destroyed even though their missiles were shot down before they could escape the atmosphere. However, we couldn�t catch one of the specialized nuclear attack subs that they had recently acquired from Russia. It was a super-quiet Akula-class craft that is nearly impossible to detect. That one submarine launched two nuclear-tipped cruise missiles at strategic targets in Alaska. One was the Prudhoe Bay oil field, the other was the North Slope natural gas drilling complex. Combined, the two supplied 70% of America�s domestic fuel needs. The complexes were completely destroyed and the pipelines ignited, burning a huge path across the wilderness to the city of Valdez, an ice-free port where the pipelines emptied their contents into tankers. Over 8,000 people, mostly citizens of Valdez killed when the oil and gas tankers taking on fuel exploded in the harbor, died in that attack and that�s part of the reason for the extremely high gas prices these days. We haven�t even gotten started rebuilding the North Slope complex and we�re still clearing up the damage at Prudhoe Bay. There hasn�t been too much money for the project, even though its strategic value is obvious.�

�Also, four cruise missiles were launched at American forces in Okinawa. Our Patriot missiles shot down all but one of them. That one destroyed most of the port complex and a nearby communications center, killing 10,000 servicemen and sailors. However, our initial attack all but destroyed China�s strategic nuclear capability, destroyed half their armed forces, and wiped out most of their top military leadership. After the strike, local US forces and the Taiwanese joined together and drove the Communists off Quemoy and Matsu, preserving Taiwanese independence and forcing the mainland to sue for peace.�

�Then why does the Communist government still exist?� someone in the back asked.

�The government ceased being truly Communist in the 20^th Century and began allowing free markets. The economy had become truly capitalistic in around 2004. However, the government remained repressive in the political sphere. The near-uniform dislike of America at this point by the bulk of the citizenry distracted the people from the weakness of the government at this point and Premier Zemin�s playing of that managed to prevent a popular uprising. The leadership�s main goal has been the preserving of the economy, which was surprisingly unaffected by the nuclear attack, and rebuilding the armed forces. Even at that point, most of the Chinese equipment was outdated and the only truly modernized forces were the nuclear strategic forces and the air force. The attack got rid of most of the obsolete stuff. They�ve been busy trying to rebuild themselves into a superpower for the past decade, and have shown interest in bio-synth technology.� Logan didn�t got into detail about that part. He helped Max, Zack, and surprisingly Lydecker find the traitor Army people who were selling Brin, one of the X-5 group, to Chinese agents looking for Manticore technology. Preventing Brin�s sale was a lucky break for the US. If the Chinese began mass-producing Manticore knockoffs, they�d become a world power much faster and they�d want revenge for their defeat ten years in the past.

�However, the Chinese destruction of the oil fields added to the misery the Pulse caused the economy. All of our commercial stuff, industrial equipment, and machinery of government was physically intact at this point; only the banks, stock markets, etc. were virtually gone. However, with most of America�s oil supply in flames, the economic situation got a whole lot worse. We�ve managed to get some semblance of the stock market going again, but the need for imported oil and confusion over who actually owns what has kept the economy in the toilet since then.�

One student raised his hand. �I thought American nuclear doctrine didn�t include the use of the first strike? Why then, did President Browne launch?�

�The Chinese had attacked first with nuclear weapons and they had a long-standing threat to attack major population centers if we defended Taiwan. The Nimitz group and other military forces had engaged the Chinese invasion force and we through that an attack was coming. Even though we constructed a missile defense system, we were worried that the system couldn�t completely stop a missile attack. If the missiles survived long enough to disgorge their multiple warheads, there was a risk one or two might get through. Thus, we launched a first strike to minimize the number of missiles sent. If they had launched an all out attack, we�d be worrying about more than three hundred ballistic missiles, many carrying multiple warheads, rather than twenty-five. However, the system did save one hundred million Americans, which showed that it worked.�

Another student raised his hand. �How could the Chinese economy have survived an attack like that?�

�The more destructive fallout-producing weapons were only used against the missile silos and command centers, which were mostly in northern Manchuria and Xinjiang. The average burst against the nuclear forces was around 600 kilotons with pinpoint accuracy. The military forces in and around the Taiwan Strait were disposed of with smaller cruise missile warheads, the largest at 20 kilotons. Most of the warheads were 5-7 kilotons and were used for knocking out heavy land forces, while the larger weapons were used to strike dug-in forces and larger bases like Kuo Mountain, which had large forces dug in. Besides, the airburst attacks the military used against the military forces and less armored bases in the populated areas produced minimal airborne fallout that could spread to the cities. The economic centers of the country survived. Also, the leaders made many reforms in order to make what was left of the country more efficient, preserving the economy.�

�How many people died?� a student asked. �It�s going to be big, isn�t it?�

�Actually, the Chinese put a lot of their strategic capability away from the population centers. Only 2.75 million died in that conflict and all but 90,000 were military personnel. Granted, that is a big number but even in a limited nuclear conflict, most projected casualties surpass twenty million. Those figures would have been a lot higher if it hadn�t been for the defense system.�

�Back in the United States, things were getting pretty bad. When it became obvious that the federal government had pretty much frozen solid and the state governments weren�t doing too well either, rioting and anarchy broke out all over the country. American troops would have to fire on other Americans in order to restore order. President Browne was forced to declare martial law, and then he resigned.�

�Meanwhile, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt attacked Israel. The dictatorial leaders of those countries saw the chaos in the United States and figured that if they took out local American forces, they wouldn�t have to deal with any reprisals. This was before the first strike on China, so they hadn�t figured in on the long-range missiles. The Iraqis launched a massive missile attack on American forces in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf with chemical, biological, and in one case, nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Syria and Iraq launched similar attacks on Israel in a campaign of genocide with Lebanese and Egyptian forces moving into the country in a two-prong blow designed to divide and destroy the elite Israeli army.�

�Israel�s a major player in the Middle East now,� a student said. �So how could it have survived such an attack?�

�The Israelis had TMD systems as well, along with anti-missile laser technology. They blocked all but three missiles. A nuclear strike destroyed Tel-Aviv, while the Aqaba port facilities were hit by a missile loaded with sarin gas. Finally, the last missile dispersed submunitions of Ebola all over the Judea area. Combined, the attack killed two million Israelis, a quarter of the country�s population.�

�Meanwhile, they had gone on the offense against local American forces. Two important American bases in Saudi Arabia were decimated by another sarin gas attack. An augmented Aegis cruiser managed to shoot down two missiles later determined to be carrying nuclear warheads aimed at the Saudi capital and one of their huge oil complexes, thus preventing massive civilian casualties. However, we only had one of the modified Aegis cruisers in the area and the missile strike was timed with an airborne attack on the cruiser so the ship couldn�t get all the enemy missiles. In another attack, occurring at about the same time, a nuclear warhead destroyed the Yorktown carrier battle group.�

�In a matter of hours, over 10,000 of our soldiers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were dead. However, we still had a sizable force in the area and they went on the offensive. The President ordered an attack on what we had determined to be an Iraqi ICBM site by what was left of our forces. The 124^th Mechanized Infantry managed a quick in-and-out strike in central Iraq, defeating an army nearly twice its size in a fierce three-hour firefight. In that battle, we managed to destroy their strategic deterrent. However with the Yorktown group gone, we had no regional nuclear forces and our communications with the land-based ICBMs and heavy bombers was unreliable so we couldn�t launch a retaliatory nuclear attack.�

�Israel did it for us. They launched a massive nuclear attack on Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, and Iraqi forces, virtually annihilating the enemy�s military. Damascus and Baghdad were destroyed as well. In the aftermath, the battered Israeli armed forces occupied all of Lebanon and the parts of Syria immediately near the Golan Heights, plus a large portion of the Egyptian coast. They also forced what was left of the Iraqi government to sign over 50% of the oil production for the next decade as reparations.�

�Noting the overall uselessness of the inspectors after the first Gulf War, they also nuked the R&D facilities in Iraq and Syria, hoping to utterly destroy their chemical-biological weapons production facilities. In Syria and Iraq, the oppressed Kurdish minority declared their independence and established a �Free Kurdistan,� quickly taking control of the local oil fields. Overall, eight million people died in the Second Persian Gulf War.� Logan shook his head. �So much death in the world.� He removed the China transparency and placed one showing a �Before and After� map of the Middle East. The �After� map showed a greatly enlarged Israel and the national capitals of the aggressor nations being different cities than before. It also had a region in Iraq and Syria labeled �Free Kurdistan.�

�Once the Second Gulf War ended, it was pretty quiet for the next few years. The various foreign governments that challenged the United States or its allies had been seriously damaged during the immediate aftermath of the Pulse. However, in 2011, there was a military coup in Turkey led by Islamic hardliners possibly backed by Iran. Turkey had become a regional power at this point due to discovery of oil in the Taurus Mountains and had developed a very powerful military. The pre-coup had also armed themselves with chemical and biological weapons to protect themselves against Iran, which was behaving aggressively. Once the hardliners were established in power, they immediately launched an invasion of the Balkans to restore the Ottoman Empire, or as they called it, the Eastern Mediterranean Islamic Cooperative. They allied themselves with the Bulgarians, who were having a dispute with Romania and hoped to benefit by absorbing large portions of the country and the Albanians, who wanted a larger slice of the Balkan pie and whose quasi-fascist leadership sympathized with the Turks. Many Bosnian Muslims, tired of being kicked around by non-Muslims and wanting revenge for the Serb atrocities of the early 1990s, quickly joined in.�

�That�s the Balkan War, isn�t it? That guy who hacks into the TVs says that there was some kind of disease associated with it.� Logan smiled at this, knowing with satisfaction that his little crusade was reaching the next generation.

�American forces in Turkey and Greece stayed out of the war since both countries were NATO members and there was a question on who to side with. However, many American servicemen were exposed to either the chemical-biological weapons used by the Turks or the nuclear-radiological weapons used by the Greeks and Macedonians. Many of those who survived the war in Turkey developed a chronic and eventually terminal lung disease.�

A student in the back raised her hand. �How did the war go?�

�The Greeks and other Balkan powers were taken by surprise and took heavy losses. The Turks and their allies made a breakthrough and occupied Belgrade, raping and murdering large numbers of people in a sack reminiscent of the Rape of Nanking during the 20^th Century. On Cyprus, the Turkish population rioted against the Greek people and eventually took over most of the island. However, under the leadership of General Alexander Moustoukas, the Greeks rallied and struck at Istanbul itself. This is where the hallucinogenic gas was first deployed. Nobody knew what exactly it would do, so it wasn�t used until the Greeks began occupying Turkish territory. Over half of the Balkan forces destroyed themselves in an orgy of hallucinatory madness. This was coupled with the use of the Black Friday virus on targets in Greece, Serbia, and Croatia. Millions died in that mass attack.� Logan bowed his head. His parents were visiting his mother�s relatives in Athens and both of them bled to death over the course of a week after contracting the Black Friday plague. He crossed himself in the Greek Orthodox fashion, moving his fingers across his chest and then down and up. �My parents were among those millions.�

Some of the girls in the class expressed their sympathy, while some of the nastier types snickered. Those malcontents were quickly shushed. Logan continued on. �The Greeks and other Balkan governments lacked chemical and biological weapons to retaliate against the Turks, but the Greeks did have some leftover American nuclear weapons from the Cold War. All of them were battlefield nukes of some kind or another, but some tinkering with the fissile material and detonation mechanisms turned five-kiloton atomic artillery shells into forty-kiloton fusion bombs. These bombs were mounted on missiles and launched at key industrial and political targets throughout Turkey. Seven million Turks got evaporated in the counterstrike, with Turkish, Albanian, and Bulgarian forces taken out soon after with other tactical nukes, including neutron bombs, a type of nuke that only produces massive radiation and not a huge explosion. The Balkan War ended soon after.�

�What were the reparations?� another student asked. �You never described what the Chinese had to do as punishment for their starting the Sino-American War but you did describe the land and oil the Israelis took from the defeated Arab nations.�

�Well, Greece absorbed parts of Albania and a huge portion of Turkey, basically European Turkey, including Istanbul, Ionia or western Asia Minor, and all of Cyprus. They renamed Istanbul Constantinople, as it was originally called, and renamed the country Greater Greece. Thousands of years ago, the Greeks controlled western Turkey and they though that it was rightfully theirs. The Turkish government had to provide massive monetary reparations to all the nations they had attacked. Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia absorbed the rest of Albania while Serbia and Romania got big chunks of Bulgarian territory. Turkey�s industrial base is shot now and the country itself is at the tender mercies of the Greeks and the Ukrainians. The Kurdish people of the eastern mountains and have taken advantage of the situation and declared themselves independent, merging with Free Kurdistan to form the Republic of Kurdistan. The country is now a regional power with a large supply of oil and control of the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Balkan War has also led to the formation of the Mediterranean Coalition as international mediating body for the region. However, we decided at this point to withdraw American troops from Europe.�

�Also,� Logan continued. �We forced the Chinese government to ship us hundreds of free computers to replace those fried by the EMP. The Chinese were also forced to give up all claims on the oil-rich Spratly and Paracel Islands and to give recognition to Taiwan as an independent nation. That answers the question about Chinese reparations. Those computers helped use get the federal government up and running and to cobble together some remnants of a stock exchange and commodities market. That�s helped lessen the depression we�re in, but not by much.�

�Three nuclear wars,� one of the students said. �Damn.�

�Keep the profanity to a minimum, please,� Logan said. �This is a school environment. And that�s not the end of it. In 2014, the Indians and the Pakistanis finally got into the last big fight over Kashmir.�

�What�s Kashmir?� another student asked.

�Kashmir is a region in northern India with a large Muslim population. British India was divided in 1947 into Pakistan, predominately Muslim, and India, predominately Hindu. The Pakistanis have disputed Kashmir�s ownership since 1947 and in 2014, the Pakistanis moved into Kashmir and routed several Indian battalions. Pakistani and Indian reinforcements got bogged down into trench-style warfare, neither making much headway against the other. Eventually, the Indians decided to break Pakistani lines with nuclear weapons. The elite Pakistani forces that held Kashmir were all but annihilated in the nuclear artillery barrage, but the Pakistanis retaliated with missile strikes at military targets in the rear areas of the theater, killing one million Indian soldiers and eighty thousand civilians. The Pakistani leaders then gambled on a nuclear strike on New Delhi, hoping to wipe out India�s civilian and military leadership.�

�The gamble failed. India managed to launch an all-out nuclear attack on Pakistan and successfully wiped out most of their military forces and population. Ninety five million Pakistanis died in the holocaust and the country has become the battleground of Iranian and Afghani-supported factions seeking to gain control of the country. In fact, Afghani and Iranian soldiers have moved into the country to support their respective allies. Pakistan is all but gone and India is weakened. They�ve moved the capital to Bombay now and they�re busy rebuilding the New Delhi and the country�s military capability, in case the Iranians turn Pakistan into a satellite and move southward.�

�So all the Pulse has caused is anarchy, war, and genocide?� a student asked. �Millions and millions of people dying all over Asia and Eastern Europe and America no longer being a superpower.�

�Well,� Logan said. �Japan has made a killing helping the United States and China rebuild themselves after all this madness and is now the dominant Pacific Rim economic power. They�ve also militarily rearmed with Russian and American hardware, although they haven�t struck out on an imperialistic war like many have feared would happen should they expand their military beyond a Self Defense Force. However, the negative effects of the Pulse far outweigh the positive ones. It caused a worldwide economic depression, which is all but over by now. The depression has caused resurgence in authoritarianism in some European countries, but nothing too bad has resulted yet. However, we still haven�t gotten out of our economic woes just yet.�

�Hey Mr. Cale,� someone said from the back of the class. �What happened after President Browne resigned?�

�Well, his Vice President, Jefferson Lindsey, took over and helped restore order, even though his administration was rather ineffectual in everything else, including a rather half-hearted attempt to restore the economy. The last bandit gangs and rebel militias were crushed in 2015 and the state National Guard contingents and �patriot forces� that tried to hold the USA together stood down. Those tanks and Sector police that are a regular component of Seattle have been stationed there, as have similar units in other major cities, to preserve order and prevent similar anarchy. Once he was done, he refused to run for re-election. I think it was because the whole martial law thing is an anathema to the minimal-government ideas of the Libertarians and both he and Browne, even though they knew it was necessary, hated it. The Libertarian Party, which came up with Herbert Johnson as a candidate at the last possible second, lost the election to the Restore America Party, led by Mike Hamill.�

�Mike Hamill is a fascist,� a student complained in the back.

�Mike Hamill decided that a defense buildup was necessary, both to replace personnel and equipment losses in the post-Pulse nuclear wars and to employ people to get the economy going. His rearmament program led to the expansion and modernization of the 1980s-era Rail Garrison system of having nuclear missiles based in armored trains rather than in silos, the building of the Khe Sanh and Quemoy to replace carriers lost in the wars, and the F-25 space-capable fighter. He�s also cut taxes to stimulate economic growth and removed some useless tariffs. He�s also engaged in the selling of arms to American allies such as Taiwan and Korea and powers that oppose the militaristic Russians. The space program is getting some funding to go back topside and repair the SDI satellites, which are beginning to fall apart. Calling him conservative is one thing; calling him a fascist is something else.�

�He hasn�t removed the soldiers from the streets,� the student argued. �And his militarism will lead to future wars. Besides, his policies haven�t ended the depression, have they?�

�He didn�t get the tax cuts through Congress until six months ago and it�s too soon to tell,� Logan said. �However, removing the soldiers would be a good idea. Now, besides these nuclear wars, other things have happened.�

�Although many military strategists feared North Korea would attack South Korea during the Sino-American War, nothing happened. The country had been suffering from famines and economic woes and eventually food riots led to the overthrow of the Communist government. South Korean troops invaded to prevent various factions� takeover of nuclear arsenal and ended up uniting the country. By now, they�ve managed to modernize North Korea�s industry and they�ve benefited as a trading juncture between Japan and mainland Asia. United Korea is now economically prosperous, and thanks to the North Korean�s nuclear, chemical, and biological forces, well-armed and protected from any likely aggressors.�

�Russia, however, has reemerged as a global power with militaristic ambitions. The government is currently controlled by ultra-conservative hardliners led by Zhrinovosky, a major political figure from the 1990s. They�re currently engaging in a diplomatic struggle for influence among the Islamic Central Asian nations that resembles the 1945-1991 Cold War with the United States. Iran wants the others to join with them in an Islamic confederation that controls much of the world�s oil and is armed with weapons of mass destruction, while Russia seeks what they consider their rightful, historical territory. With America collapsed, the economic sanctions against Iran have all but evaporated and the Iranians are becoming a regional superpower.�

�They�re currently using their economic and military clout, plus diplomatic shenanigans to try to install similar Islamic hardliner governments in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and other nearby nations. Their military is also fighting the Afghani Taliban in Pakistan for the same purpose. Russia objects to this since a militarized Islamic bloc in Central Asia represents a massive threat. Iran possesses at least two hundred ballistic missiles armed with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons capable of striking targets all over Russia, while some of the Central Asian republics possess nuclear storage facilities and stockpiles of their own. Kazakhstan also possesses massive oil fields and a long pipeline running through the Caucasus to the Black Sea. If the Iranians gain control of that, they�ve got 28% of the world�s oil supply.�

�Should the Iranians unite Central Asia from Azerbaijan to China and start some kind of jihad, we�re looking at potential superpower nuclear that would threaten to annihilate the world�s economy as well as millions of people in Russia and the potential Iranian bloc. The Ayatollah Mohammed Khan, current leader of Iran, is noted for his militarism and has bandied graphically about nuclear conflict with the �lesser Satan�. Iran is gaining influence with the Kazakh government right now, and if Kazakhstan joins with Iran, the rest of the area will fall in line soon enough. This, I imagine, prevents Premier Zhrinovosky from expanding southward and is why he is continuing diplomatic and economic finagling with the Central Asian nations, hoping to draw them toward Russia and away from Iran.�

�Mr. Cale,� another student said from the middle of the class. �You seem to be engaging in Islamic stereotyping with your description of the Central Asian situation and the earlier business with the Bosnian Muslims. Muslims are not all maniacs armed with nukes.�

�I know that,� Logan said �and your standing up against perceived stereotyping is appreciated. Most Muslims are decent people. However, the leader of Iran has stated numerous times that a jihad against the quote-unquote �infidel Russians� is necessary to liberate the Muslims of the region. For the record, I am not a religious bigot. However, these people do exist and their radical interpretation of their religion is the motivating factor. Thankfully, they are a vocal minority. Now, moving on��

�In Europe, withdrawal of American troops after the Balkan War has led to the breakup of the NATO alliance and the formation of various regional alliances for defense against Russia or other unfriendly powers. Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, for example, have formed the Eastern European Mutual Defense Cooperative, or EEMDC, to protect themselves against Zhrinovosky. Germany and Ukraine have nuclear weapons now, and the missiles to deliver them. Poland has also developed massive stockpiles of nerve gas and has appropriated missile technology from their neighbors. They�re terrified of Russian expansionism and they�ve militarized Europe from the Rhine to the Russian border. The Poles in particular have vowed �never again� in reference to being enslaved by the Russians and that is the reason for their possession of weapons of mass destruction. This alliance has formed links with Iran and the nations of the Caucasus Mountains, hemming in Russian expansion in the west as well as the south. Although Kazakhstan is not part of the Iranian bloc just yet, they�ve made deals for Kazakh oil in exchange for German and Ukrainian technology and military assistance. Much of the advanced military equipment that comes from this deal will end up in Iranian hands.�

�Renewed German militarism and the nation�s growing power has agitated France and Western Europe with all too familiar memories of the 20^th Century�s two World Wars. France, Belgium, Italy, and Austria have aligned into the Western Defensive Alliance or WDA to defend against the Germans. The French have stationed nuclear weapons in Austria capable of striking Berlin and Warsaw to make totally sure that the Eastern Europeans understand not to trifle with them. The Russians are making overtures of aid towards France, but the French are suspicious of Russia too. That�s why they�ve included longer-range missiles capable of striking Moscow and the Russian heartland in the Austrian bases as well.�

�Russia is also making inroads in Eastern Europe. Belarus, to be totally blunt, is a Russian puppet and the EEMDC and Russia are jockeying for influence with Finland. Russia wants Finland and Belarus to join a �greater Russia� confederation and control of Finland will give the Russians greater access to the Baltic. The Baltic States have agitated against this and are promoting a �Baltic Free Trade Sphere� to woo the Finns and show Russia that cooperation is better than a regional nuclear conflict.�

�After the Pulse,� Logan said sadly. �Europe and Central Asia have become centers of renewed nuclear brinkmanship never seen during the Cold War. A Third World War over there is in the making, I�ll wager. Within the next twenty years, I think that the EEMDC and the WDA or the EEMDC and Russia will go to war and then millions of Europeans will die. Iran and the Central Asian nations will be sure to join in for a piece of the Russia pie and the world�s oil supply will be further jeopardized.�

�In Central Africa, things have gone to hell in a handcart. Zaire has disintegrated due to a power struggle in the ruling party and its mineral resources are up for grabs. Large multinationals, local chieftains and political movements, mercenary gangs, and other groups are all fighting down there, financing their operation with sale of diamonds and other minerals to foreign buyers. The Stone Dogs, a mercenary gang from Saudi Arabia, have currently established their own fief in the Katanga area with its vast mineral resources, while the chief of the Baranga tribe has taken over western Zaire with the capital at Kinshasa and called for national reunification. In the volatile eastern regions, a political demagogue named Reginald Mobutu, who may be related to a Zairian dictator from the 20^th Century and is nicknamed �Hitler of the East,� has taken over valuable mining areas and establishing himself as the absolute ruler. Burundi and Rwanda are embroiled in renewed conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis, with hundreds of thousands dead so far.�

�In Angola, the anticommunist UNITA forces have finally defeated their enemies and have transformed the nation into a local power with US-type government. With America-based diamond companies that funded the mercenaries fighting against UNITA in disarray during the Pulse, the UNITA forces easily overcame the neo-Marxist opposition. Zimbabwe has fallen into racial war between the near-Communist and extremely brutal Mugabe dictatorship and the white farmers he loves to victimize, with the farmers funded and armed by Great Britain since most of them have dual citizenship. There are even some reports of British Royal Marines participating as �volunteers� in some battles. Zambia and South Africa are getting worried about this too since if Mugabe falls, the new government will be very prone to British influence. They�re complaining about �neo-imperialism� these days. South Africa�s government has experienced a drift rightward. Much of the neo-Marxist hegemony over the government has been evaporated. Their economy is starting to improve due to the mass purchase of gold for currency stabilization and some leaders are looking with covetous eyes on Namibia, which used to be a South African possession.� Logan scowled, thinking of the South African super-soldiers who tried to kidnap Max mere days before.

Logan flipped through the remainder of the notes. �In South America, the drastic changes in trade with the USA and the fact that now Americans are illegally emigrating to Latin America for work rather than the other way around has done very strange things to the economies there. America was one of the largest oil consumers in the world and with the Pulse and an overall messing-up of the oil routes; Mexico and Venezuela�s economies haven�t done too well. However, there�s some business going on down there concerning shipping crude oil to the refineries in Texas and then selling the resulting products in the southeast. Some of the refineries are working again and the situation seems to have worked. Gas prices in Texas are back down to pre-Pulse levels but that pricing hasn�t made its way up here just yet.�

�Also, peace has finally been made in Colombia. America was one of the largest cocaine consumers and money from the USA funded various private armies of drug lords. That contributed to civil war and neo-feudal conditions down there, with local drug gangs rather than the central government controlling large areas. However, with the majority of Americans a lot poorer than they were then, the amount of money flowing south has dropped and the majority of those groups collapsed. Order has been restored and rebuilding is beginning. However, many farmers depended on coca for their livelihoods and the fact that their product is no longer in demand has bankrupted a lot of people.�

�That�s also improved the inner cities of the USA quite a bit. Without the flow of cocaine, wars between heavily armed gangs funded by crack dealing have all but ceased. Without crack cocaine infesting America, the crime rate has gone down quite a bit. Granted, with tanks in the streets in some places, gang warfare isn�t too safe anyway. Other drugs such as marijuana and heroin, which needed to be imported from faraway areas for the most part, have been reduced. Now, the only major drug problem in the USA is methamphetamines, which are made domestically for the most part.�

�Back to South America. In Mexico, various local demagogues have come to power claiming that the �gringo infestation� is poisoning the country. Lots of Americans went to Mexico in search of work and as it was in California in the 1850s with the Chinese and in the 1930s with Oklahomans, lots of established people take a dislike of immigrants coming for work and willing to work at low wages. There have been mob killings of American immigrants in at least one Mexican state where such anti-immigrant characters have taken power. A couple of years ago, one of our Army units went rogue and attacked the ranch of one of the Mexican state�s governors because he spoke out against American migrant laborers and allowed some local people to abuse them. He and his bodyguards didn�t last long and his successor got the hint and cracked down on mob violence.�

�Otherwise, not too much in Latin America. In Australia, more and more of their trade has been with Asia since US markets are much smaller now. However, there have been no economic depressions or ethnic upheaval in Australia. In Southeast Asia, the Communist governments of Vietnam, Laos, and Burma have collapsed of their own bureaucratic weight and Thailand is helping them establish free markets and representative governments. That�s not too hard in Vietnam, but Burma and Laos have been semi-Stalinist virtually since their independence.�

�Now,� Logan said, putting his sheaf of papers aside. �Your principal gave me a videotape that will go along with this curriculum. Bling, could you put this tape in the TV and get it running?�

�Yes, Logan,� Bling said, taking the tape from Logan and going over to the TV in the corner. It was an older TV, from the 1980s at least, but it seemed functional. The tape got running without much trouble. The tape, it turned out, was recorded news footage of the major events from the Pulse in 2009 to the renegade attack on the Mexican governor. Logan watched quietly along with the class as CNN reporters covered the joint operation between Russia Spetsnaz commandos and US Army Rangers as they hunted the terrorists and their 100-megaton warhead through the steppes of southern Siberia. Soon after came the flash in the midnight sky which was the Pulse, and the amount of domestic news coverage went down after that.

Next came footage taken from the Taiwanese Bureau showing the fireworks show-like missile attack on Taipei by the Chinese, with Chinese cruise missiles and Taiwanese Patriot theater defense weapons bursting in the air over the city. The distant nuclear blast that sunk the Nimitz and the wrecked, radioactive remains of the fleet were filmed from helicopters. A computer simulacrum of the Pacific Rim and the tracks of the missiles launched from the submarines came next, along with casualty reports and gruesome footage of thousands of dead and wounded Chinese soldiers being removed from the remains of their bases. After this, the President mournfully announced his decision to launch a nuclear first strike and its results. The segment wrapped up with scenes of the blitzkrieg-like American-Taiwanese attack on Quemoy and Matsu, driving the Communists into the sea, and the terms of the Chinese surrender.

Soon after came the Second Persian Gulf War and the harrowing scenes of dozens of vultures picking at the streets full of those struck dead by sarin gas in Israel and Saudi Arabia. There was also plenty of CNN footage of the wounded Aegis ABM cruiser limping through the Persian Gulf, having survived an Iraqi air attack but in the process failing to save thousands of American troops. Grainy footage of Jericho-2 missiles armed with tactical nukes being launched took up the next segment, along with a series of distant nuclear detonations in the scrub brush and desert. This alternated with scenes of American troops battling rioters in the streets of New York City filmed by helicopters and President Harry Browne�s resignation speech. His successor was sworn in and made a speech describing how �America is not dead� and that the Pulse would not be the death knell but a new beginning.

Logan shook his head as he saw the carnage and mayhem. How transient the fates of nations were. Before the Pulse, America was the reigning superpower. Afterwards, it was a burnt-out remnant of its former self, trying to rebuild its economy while keeping a weary eye on the new world situation, where Iranians and Russians played a diplomatic chess game in Central Asia and a wrong move meant nuclear conflict and where Americans went to Mexico for jobs rather than the other way around. When the commentators announced the use of tactical nukes in Kashmir, he firmly resolved to keep up his crusade and to, in whatever small way he could, try to improve the lives of those innocents hurt by the Pulse. 

The End