Love Never Changes
Foreword
Copyright© 2020 by StarFleet Carl
This story is based in the universe created by Bethesda Softworks for their Fallout game series, specifically Fallout 4. If you’re unfamiliar with the game series, basically things were the same there as they are in our world up until during World War II. After that, the timeline diverges from ours.
There was still space exploration, but with the United States Space Agency, not NASA. The Art Deco phase never really went out of style, and in the United States, neither did the general way people dressed. Nuclear power plants were plentiful, but we were still consuming oil as we do now. However, the United States used its own oil, so never got involved in the Middle East, leaving that for the European Consortium.
At the same time, with plentiful power available, there was no need for microelectronics and thus televisions and radios never progressed much beyond what we had then. That also means there wasn’t a computer revolution like today, so while the Fallout Universe has some computers, they are considerably more primitive and bulky.
In 1969, the United States becomes 13 Commonwealths, made up of the different regions. Still answerable to the Federal Government, the Commonwealths made it easier to govern sectors of the country. States still maintained their borders, but it was easier for a state government to find a friendly ear in their Commonwealth government over Washington.
In what would be our very near future, robots would become commonplace. But they were also larger. At the same time, the transistor was finally discovered and military circuit boards allowed for robots to be programmed at least to simulate intelligence, if not actually pass the Turing test.
With everything else going on, there still was need for oil. By 2052, war between the EC and the Middle East for oil reserves had broken out. The same year, a genetically engineered plague killed tens of thousands in the United States, and the US instituted isolationism again.
The following two years see a limited nuclear exchange between the EU and Middle East. The isolated United States fears what could happen if this spreads and begins the construction of Vaults – protective shelters for at least a portion of the population. The plague is still killing thousands. With the last remaining American oil reserves now in Alaska, the US vastly increases its military presence there.
By 2060, oil was too expensive for vehicles, so electric and fusion cars began being made. The Middle East no longer has any oil, the war ends, and now the Resource Wars begin. The EC crumbles. The total death toll from the plague in the US is now into the millions. In 2066, China is bordering on collapse as well due to lack of oil and coal. The US isn’t willing to trade, leading to tensions rising between the two countries. At the same time, portable power armor with a portable fusion cell is developed in the US. Fearing what could happen, China invades Alaska. Canada had been resisting allowing the American military to supply Alaska, but eventually backed down.
The war continues in a conventional manner for several more years. By 2072, the US had been using so many resources of Canada it was decided to annex the country. The protests by Canadian citizens included an attempt to sabotage the Alaska pipeline, giving the military the excuse to finish annexation by 2076. China begins using biological weapons against the US. The US has pushed China back from most of Alaska and has moved troops into China itself. In an attempt to fight back at the biological weapons and the plague still decimating America, scientists begin working on FEV – Forced Evolutionary Virus. China makes a last ditch attempt to get American oil. It fails.
2077 – Food riots become common in the US, due to the inability to distribute what is being grown. The Chinese attempt to sabotage Hoover Dam. News of the US research into FEV leaks out, with other governments fearing the US is trying to create super soldiers. Chinese stealth submarines approach the US mainland.
October 23, 2077 – The Great War begins...
