2012 Pt. 1

6 Tin Pots and Boat's Cut.

It was at first thought to be a wonderfully romantic event. Seven bright stars appearing in the sky just a week before St. Valentine's Day. By the end of the week, Valentine's Day had been officially canceled for the year by the Catholic Church. The buzz word on everyone's lips was "Invasion." The stars were not stars, and they were getting closer. One broke free and fell into orbit of Saturn. Four more circled Mars, and one disintegrated into hundreds of tiny(by comparison) landing craft. Of the two remaining, one slipped into solar orbit behind the Earth, a menacing follower. The last disappeared behind the moon and apparently set down somewhere on the backside. The myriads of "Cut-Boats" (as they were being called) were spreading all over the solar area, many circling the earth, shooting down space telescopes and communications satellites.


The Nations of the Earth United was the new name of the old UN; the flag was the same save the color. The Blue Berets now wore Red. Mass conscriptions were underway, men in blue suits from the worlds air forces were embarrassed to show all their old canceled plans for exotic engines and space craft. Particularly embarrassing were the notes and letters that suggested we were aware they were coming and were afraid to tell based on projections of world wide panic.

The People of the Earth were organizing, calmly, and already under construction were some of the largest and most advanced objects ever. They were crying "Mars is Ours!" in the streets and three days before the 4th of July, Britain stunned the world by launching an Orion-Drive powered Dreadnaught from north of the Arctic Circle. Financed almost entirely by one newly appointed CBE Branson, the Virgin Earth was the largest man made moving object in history. She was destroyed with all 23 hands lost just a week after her launch, having racked up 17 Cut-Boats destroyed and 9 damaged.

The first of an armada, she'd fallen before anyone had managed to give her any support besides CERN's massive ground based particle beam weapon. They'd reconfigured their massive accelerators, blowing apart boat after cut-boat.

The retaliation was brutal and atomic.

302 million dead, 470 million displaced.

The Bugs were building bases on Mars, and were shelling the Earth
from entrenched positions on the Moon.