Storyline

Guideline

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Suggestions

All articles in this section are suggestions from contributors -- they are NOT part of the official storyline.

UFOAI: Synopsis (Davidf)

(Edit trim for relevant review) Conflicts have gotten rarer near the end of the century as new technology and universal health-care finally became available to the third world. Even the fires of terrorism have cooled in the wake of the Second Cold War, with its horrors and inhumanities still fresh in the minds of the people, from the old United States to the ravaged Indian subcontinent. Class struggles are ascending to the political battlefield now that every nation is guaranteed fair representation in the UN, and the global standard of living is slowly on the rise down to the most impoverished corners of the planet. Countries have solidified, stabilised around a restructured United Nations that successfully polices the world governments. Fragmented clumps of smaller nations, frightened at first by the vast power blocks accumulating around China and the European Union, have banded together into powerful political leagues of their own -- then found themselves with no neighbours they could safely fight. For the first time in the history of mankind, there is law and order across more than three quarters of the world. (Edit cut)

(edit start) For citizens of the world, stories of aliens had become a entertainment footnote in our cultural history. The fancy of extraterrestrial encounters had passed in and out of the world’s entertainment venues over the years. For world leadership, however the truth had been known sometime. The United States government began Project Blue book in 1952 to determine if the rise in reports of “Unidentified Flying Objects” were a threat to national security and to scientifically analyze reports of UFO data. The turning point came in 1969 when Air Force and US Federal government investigation triggered the “Calder Valley Incident”, an event that caused panic among global leaders.

The fallout of the “Calder Valley Incident” resulted in the termination of Project Blue Book and the creation The Phalanx, a UN sanctioned response team, managed by a secret sub committee of the UN Security Council. To this day the events of “Calder Valley Incident” have been black booked and remain unknown to but a few with the Eyes Only clearance.

The passage of time and lack of further extraterrestrial incidents resulted in a gradual downsizing and reprioritizing of the Phalanx resources. Finally in 2028, the new UN passed a bill to finally decommission and redeploy the remain resources of Phalanx by 2085 to other more valuable initiatives. (edit end)

The first attack hits the city of Mumbai on the 3rd of March, 2084. Six small UFOs appear out of nowhere and come screaming down from orbit, undetected by the vast radar installations covering the skies over Mumbai, and set down in the single most densely-populated city on Earth. They offer no warning, no explanation. Twenty thousand innocent civilians and three battalions of elite troops are massacred over the course of twelve brutal hours before massed Commonwealth soldiers manage to bring the aliens' advance to a standstill. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they retreat to their craft and vanish back into orbit, leaving only the ravaged streets of Mumbai as evidence.

An emergency meeting of the UN provides no conclusive direction. The incursions continue faster, larger and more savage than before, this time in Bonn, Johannesburg and Bangkok. Some nations attempt diplomacy, sending messages in a thousand different languages to the aliens ravaging across the countryside. Their words are ignored. Within hours, all three cities are emptied of human life. The attack is over by the time the various militaries are given permission to strike back. The aliens leave nothing behind them but concrete and blood. All the UFOs disappear without a trace -- but no one doubts they'll be back.

Left with only one alternative, the UN takes action. Ancient equipment is dusted off, some of it more than a century old, and the long-defunct anti-extraterrestrial agency (Edit cut) -- PHALANX -- is resurrected under a new UN banner. Its sworn duty is to combat the alien threat, and to ensure the survival of the human race at all costs. Funded by all eight of the political powers, and drawing its soldiers from the elite of their armies, PHALANX is the best of the best. It is Earth's first and only line of (Edit spelling) defense. It can't afford to fail; because if it does, humanity doesn't stand a chance.

--davidf

UFOAI: Synopsis (altugi)

The year is 2084. The Phalanx, a UN-supported research centre for alien encounters, that was established back in the 1950s to investigate "flying saucer" incidents, is undergoing a heavy structural change. Following a UN security report in 2027 titled "Terror from Outer Space", the Phalanx, which was a research-only organisation up to that date, received an increase in funds to establish a Special Anti-Terror Force to prepare for possible future encounters with hostile alien forces. After a decade, the paranoia which was caused by the 2027 Report diminished and the Phalanx Anti-Terror unit became increasingly subject to criticism within the UN, since it was never used in any real incident. More and more UN members regarded the Special Forces as obsolete and believed that resources were wasted. In 2078, the UN Council passed a bill to gradually disband the Phalanx Special Anti-Terror Forces in order to reduce the Phalanx to its initial status, a research-only organization. A cut in funds followed, as a result many of the advanced research facilities had to be shut down and many of the prominent scientists had to be fired.

Just a few days before a last group of rather inexperienced soldiers were about to leave, alien incidents were reported. Despite the difficulties that a shrinking organization has to face, The Phalanx declared itself ready when the UN Council called it back into full action. Under a ever-more threatening wave of alien attacks, it is now the Phalanx' turn to prove that its past UN-Support was deserved. Opinions in the UN Council are still divided and until a new bill is prepared, the UN Council will provide the Phalanx with limited funds based on a combination of monthly installments and per-mission payments. Under these circumstances, the Phalanx will have to save both the earth and its honour.

--altugi

UFOAI: Suggested Revision of Introduction (ChunLing)

It is the year 2084. The violent beginnings of the 21st century are distant memories, but not so distant that they've been forgotten. To most of Earth's people, the Global Schism is a dark shadow from the past, much like the World Wars were to the children of the late 20th. One great difference is that, while the Great Schism did not put an end to war, its aftermath did make large-scale intercontinental military conflict infeasible.

The fiscal disaster which broke America as an economic superpower was resolved--in part--by the sale of its most advanced defense technologies, first to creditor nations, and later to anyone who could afford them. There is little doubt that the widespread ability of almost any nation to effectively interdict nearby air space and sea lanes using advanced "brilliant" missile batteries mitigated some of the worst conflicts of that dark time by preventing the most advanced offensive weapons from ever reaching the battlefield. And in the wake of the global economic collapse few nations could have afforded the investment necessary to develop weapons capable of defeating such installations without prohibitive cost (given the relative expense of aircraft or ship mounted weapons compared to land-based systems). Great armies were mobilized, but grounded and deprived of both amphibious capability and cheap logistical support they stopped cold at oceans (and sometimes merely rivers or difficult terrain).

Still, the separate continents were quickly unified, one way or another. There were various factors; local conquest unimpeded by globalist meddling, local nations being forced to band together in self-defense, and revolutionaries gaining access to weapons capable of countering even the most advanced vehicles deployed by their own governments. And the shutdown of the oil trade, though perhaps costing more lives than all the military offensives of the Global Schism combined, did end up bringing most of the fighting to a standstill. The sudden return of basic infantry as the main source of military power saw land war settle into the defensive pattern that had already removed air and sea power from the equation. Localized defense units, whether drawn from or simply settling down with the local populations, ceased to be full-time soldiers as governments everywhere found themselves unable to maintain spending. Some national currencies became worthless as the dollar, others pulled back before hitting that point only by the most severe fiscal restraint, but people everywhere learned to live with little outside interference, and what governments remained learned to stick to politics and diplomacy. Communities did their best to take care of their own and statesmen worked to craft the formal representation of the world's new reality; intercontinental relationships--whether war or commerce--were all but dead, local communities--from socialist to theocratic to anarchic--were independent, and nobody much wanted to change things.

The U.N.--far from being crippled by suddenly being deprived of nearly all its funding--returned to its original purpose as a forum for international debate, with a subsidiary mission of spreading humanitarian technology rather than attempting the direct relief it could no longer afford (and which few desired anymore). Chief among these were the thorium reactor--which had already saved Russia's economy, ultra high-yield hardy crops adopted from abroad and developed further by South American agriculturalists, and the first practical programmable medical nanocytes, among the last products of America's lost technological supremacy--bought and developed further by members the Greater Arabian Alliance (generally referred to as the Middle-Eastern Alliance). The prestige the U.N. gained through such gifts, and the relative security of each region against outside interference, have allowed the U.N.--substantially reorganized--to maintain the peace for decades. For the first time in the history of mankind, there was law and order across more than three quarters of the world. Technological development is slow, but most diseases have been eliminated, while power and food are plentiful. The "brilliant" missile defense installations are maintained, but there is little incentive to improve them much since nobody has much appetite left for military adventurism.

To most people on Earth, it seemed like things were going all right.

The first attack hit the city of Mumbai on the 3rd of March, 2084. Six small UFOs appeared out of nowhere and come screaming down from orbit, undetected by the vast radar installations covering the skies over Mumbai. They set down in the single most densely-populated city on Earth, offering no warnings, no explanation. Twenty thousand innocent civilians and three battalions of elite troops were massacred over the course of twelve brutal hours before massed Commonwealth soldiers manage to bring the aliens' advance to a standstill. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they retreated to their craft and vanished back into orbit, leaving only the ravaged streets of Mumbai as evidence.

An emergency meeting of the UN provided no conclusive direction. The incursions continued faster, larger and more savage than before, stiking in Bonn, Johannesburg and Bangkok. Some nations attempted diplomacy, sending messages in a thousand different languages to the aliens ravaging across the countryside. Within hours, all three cities were emptied of human life with no evidence the attackers had heeded any plea to stop. The attack was over by the time the various militaries were given permission to strike back. The aliens left nothing behind but concrete and blood. All the UFOs disappeared without a trace -- but no one doubted they'd be back.

Eighty-seven hours after the initial attack on Mumbai, Earth declares war. For two weeks, the armies of humanity each try to fend off the mysterious alien attackers to the best of their ability. They score precious few successes. The decades old "brilliant" weapons which put an end to the arms race are all but ineffective against the alien craft, local militias and small government forces are inexperienced and ill-trained in actual combat, doctrines which emphasize static defense provide no framework for responding effectively to the swift attacks of the aliens.

Seizing on an unlikely alternative, the UN finally take action. Ancient equipment is dusted off, some of it more than a century old, and the long-defunct extraterrestrial threat countering secret agency of the former United States -- PHALANX -- is resurrected under a new UN banner. Its sworn duty is to combat the alien threat, and to ensure the survival of the human race at all costs.

Funded by all eight of the regional political powers, and drawing its soldiers from the elite of their armies, PHALANX is the best of the best. It is Earth's first and only line of defense. It can't afford to fail; because if it does, humanity doesn't stand a chance.

--ChunLing 17:45, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

UFOAI: Suggested revision of "PHALANX And The Mumbai Aftermath" (ChunLing)

"Project PHALANX" was originally conceived by the United States Department of Defense in 1955, after years of growing concern over increased numbers of UFO sightings all across the world. The project's proponents spent two years building support among the corridors of power in Washington, both in the Pentagon and the offices of a few trusted and politically secure Senators. In 1957, PHALANX received its first funding allocation. A significant chunk of the year's 'black budget' went to the construction of an advanced underground complex in the Nevada desert somewhere in the territory of Nellis Air Force Base. The complex was named "PHALANX Pacific Operations Command", loaded with state-of-the-art equipment, and staffed with the best and brightest to hammer out how best to combat an extraterrestrial incursion into US soil.

A rousing success in its formative years, developing ground-breaking technologies and producing working prototypes of things the world had never seen before, all for a fraction of the costs that civilian contractors would run up, PHALANX was still the subject of yearly budget battles due to its secretive nature. But its R&D successes (and a few 'favors' to the right people) kept the project alive during those dangerous early years. Eventually, it became just another obscure item lost among the immense military-industrial complex built to fight the Cold War. Only a few people outside of PHALANX itself had any idea what it actually did, most of them high ranking officers in the Pentagon who protected its budget as much out of habit as anything. Continuing research developments helped, but the program was losing relevance.

The desperate years preceding the Global Schism drained away the last life left in the project. Its commanders struggled to keep it going without even the money to keep their aircraft in the sky, but even the invention of artificial spider silk couldn't save PHALANX from the United States' crashing economy. The country's slide into ruin ended with the IMF demanding that all U.S. government owned technology assets be sold off to appease creditor nations. Their demands that the U.S. government immediately cease all spending might have fallen on deaf ears, had collected U.S. tax revenues not fallen to less than a tenth of the worst projections. As it was, simple concern for self-preservation led Congress to comply, cutting the national budget to almost nothing (as a symbolic gesture, they even eliminated all salaries for elected office). All military expenditures were eliminated, even the bases were turned over to the state budgets. Nevada, a landlocked state with a tiny tax base, shut its bases down and sold off everything it could find. PHALANX was left destitute and homeless. The staff left to find jobs in an unforgiving economy, the secret base was mothballed and abandoned. The entire project was quickly forgotten.

Until the horror and enormity of the events in Mumbai shocked the world.

The existence of intelligent alien life in the universe was no longer a matter of faith. Not only did it exist, it had made contact in the worst way. The massacres were too large and visible for Earth's governments to keep them secret. Video evidence of the smoking, blood-stained streets aired on television sets around the world. The aliens had left no other evidence of their visit; they diligently recovered their dead and collected every scrap of dropped technology before pulling out.

Panic spread like wildfire in the wake of the Mumbai broadcasts, and things got worse as word reached the general public about the slaughters in Bonn, Johannesburg and Bangkok. The world knew it had been visited, and now it began to realise it was under attack.

The quest for solutions was frantic. The United Nations remained in session continuously for over a week. Plans were drawn up and burnt down with lightning speed. The world was completely defenceless against an alien invasion, both militarily and psychologically. No one had prepared for this. It was one of the forgotten doomsday scenarios that sat crumbling to dust in the back closet of some strategic planning office, unread and unheeded. Now, however, the public demanded answers that no one knew, action that no one could provide.

The UN could agree only on a few token gestures; at the order of the Security Council, NASA evacuated International Space Stations 1 and 2, as well as the permanent colony on the moon. The entire range of planned missions to Mars was stricken from the calendar. On all the matters that counted, the UN was deadlocked. Some nations wanted to build massive orbital defences while others insisted they should be permitted to use nuclear missiles for UFO interception. Still others had even more outlandish projects to push. The situation grew worse as the days wore on, until one aging diplomat remembered reading about the PHALANX project years before--briefly described in a dusty file he'd inherited from a discontinued office.

With full access to the old US files, the UN was shocked to find plans, designs, equipment and training manuals; a fully-detailed response to an invasion scenario. They immediately decided to revive PHALANX and equip it to defend Earth from the alien threat. However, everyone who was once a part of PHALANX was either dead or dying. They were going to need a new staff.

By unanimous vote, it was decided to keep the project as secret as possible, known only to the highest-ranking politicians and military commanders in the world. The public was comforted with palatable smokescreens while a hand-picked team of operatives from all over the world struggled to resurrect PHALANX and whip it back into fighting trim. The long hidden base was located and carefully but systematically looted. Old equipment was tracked down and recovered from snake and scorpion infested storerooms, crumbling manuals and plans were located and dusted off, and stockpiles of suitable weapons were reassembled for use. With the secret backing of all eight great powers, the project had funding, support and the men it needed to go to war.

All it lacked was a leader.

--ChunLing 18:59, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

UFOAI: Suggested revision of Intro (GeistHund)

We were woefully under-prepared when the fighting began, lulled into false confidence by the predictions of our analysts and the propaganda of our politicians, complacent from a century of peace and calm.

They were tenacious and fought with a wit and ferocity that we could not have foreseen. They were not the mindless barbaric animals that we had been told they would be. They fought us at every turn, and adapted to us as quickly as we did to them.

We were lucky to prevail.

This is their story...This is a tribute to the courage of a frail race that once called themselves... Humanity.

--GeistHund

UFOAI: Suggested revision of Intro Two (GeistHund)

I remember the day they arrived. Twenty years to the day from the Union, the day the remaining ragtag, fragmented nations of a shattered, post-holocaust Earth finally re-established contact with each other after the dust cloud settled. Those were our golden years - one mankind, united in our unified quest towards global recovery and reconstruction.

It was the proudest day of my life. The day I assumed command of Phalanx. We were the best of the best, and we were legion.

The ship appeared out of nowhere. One minute it wasn't, and the next, it was - hanging in mid air over the center of Mumbai. It was colossal. It gleamed with a hue that I simply can't describe. We were mesmerized.

When they appeared - on all channels of television - on the radio - on the internet - in our heads - they were so beautiful - angelic, even. We knew - we just knew - they were benign. They told us they had come in peace, to share their knowledge with us. To give us wondrous gifts. And we felt in our souls that we were lucky - so lucky that they had chosen us.

She felt it too - the President of the World. Leader of the Unified Earth. And so we rolled out the red carpet. There were thousands of people there. Tens of thousands. Men, women and children. She stood at our fore, austere. Composed. Long, blonde hair rippling in the wind. Head held high, smiling, ready to welcome our new guests to our humble, brave new world as the ship began to descend. Ready to make history.

And then it opened fire. We never had a chance.

What were we thinking? I don't understand why I didn't see it coming. It was like a warm, thick fog had wrapped itself around my mind. It was impossible to think, to resist.

I remember her back arcing unnaturally as she flew backwards through the air towards me. I remember how her head and right arm came apart from her body. And the blood. I saw her face as it turned back towards me, her eyes still alive, pained with the mutual realization that hit us both - that we had been fooled. That we had been fools.

Thousands of us died in that first volley. And the abominations that skittered forth from the now-landed ship... cleaving through us like butter as we struggled, shell shocked to regain our feet... were the stuff of nightmare.

Our weapons were barely effective. We turned and ran, pell-mell, back to base camp from whence I am writing this.

We were the best of the best. We were Phalanx - the personal guard to the President of the World. And now she is dead.

I was responsible. I have failed in my one duty - to protect her. What was I thinking? What were we thinking... all of us?

Gunfire. They're here. I hear my men - what few of us there are left - screaming outside as they fall.

The war is lost. We are leaderless now.

This is my journal. Take heed, whoever finds this - whoever assumes my mantle - you cannot trust them. You cannot trust yourself.

It is time.

They will not take me alive.

Major-General Geever,

Commander, Phalanx.