The 2050's
With Great Britain in a cold war with America the world had become a very different place.
Space
A period of colonisation of the Moon, Mars, Jovian moons, and the asteroid fields takes place. The RSF have the only space transportation capability on Earth. This is used to transport Commonwealth assets to their new worlds and new opportunities. The Mars base is expanding at a great rate with ideas being put forward as to how to terraform the planet.
In the asteroid field RSF Ceres begins construction of a new, and improved, Sol class station - RSF Gilese. This station will be the first to employ gravitational acceleration and mass reduction techniques, improving the speed and manoeuvrability of the RSF stations.
Politics
The civil service has started to improve dramatically over the years. Money is being spent in more appropriate places. Many of the supposed 'cost cutting' contracts with private companies have gone due to public pressure. The current Head of the civil service, Maria Okoye, has been in place now for nearly a decade.
Riots and Animosity
The benefits system of years gone by has been replaced. Those individuals without a job are no longer unemployed. They are Employed by the state. They are not classed as citizens and can therefore not vote. This has caused a lot of upset amongst this group of people. They argue that they want to work but cannot get a job due to the old staying in jobs longer. In some respects this is true. The old either don't want to retire or just can't afford to. Many pensions have been eroded away or spent by their unscrupulous employers. This has caused a divide in Great Britain between the young, non-working and the working class and OAPs. It started with an old folks home in Birmingham being attacked and burned to the ground. Fortunately no one was killed, but many were seriously injured. The Police were being pushed in to making arrests, carrying out a series of raids throughout the areas. This lead to the police being attacked. And then all hell was let lose. Riots spontaneously erupted all over the United Kingdom. The Police were over whelmed in many cases and the Army were called in to assist. This was the first time in decades that lethal force was used against the UK's own people.
By the end over 3000 people had lost their lives. A civil war - but only not on paper.
Employment
The Commonwealth adopts a Universal Basic Income. Unlike past UBI the commonwealth version provides credit for essential items such as clothing, accommodation, and food. To enable the purchase of luxury goods a job is required. Credit for working is paid as an addition to the UBI and can be used to buy whatever you like. Everybody, once they have left general education at 17, is entitled to UBI whether they are working on not.
Conflict
The 2050's was a decade of conflict. Some minor and others with much farther reaching consequences.
The Caliphate
The West's forces in the middle east were having difficulties with manpower, funding, and backing from their respective governments. This lack of resources permitted the ISIS Caliphate to gradually gain control of more and more ground. Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and large parts of Egypt were effectively under Caliphate control. The Caliphate had also started making routes North into Turkmenistan and Tajikistan and East into China and on towards Mongolia. The Caliphate's organisation has been put down to the man who claims to be Saladin reincarnated. He is a shite Muslim who has gathered together the separate factions of Muslims in to a coherent force. He has converted many non-shite Muslims to his way of thinking - or die!
The Mongolian General Purpose Forces also mustered against the Caliphate. Forcing them back from their borders and onward into China and Kyrgyzstan. The Mongolian forces joined with the hard pushed PLA forces, effectively taking command.
In Africa the Northern Countries of Algeria, Niger, Somalia, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, and Sudan had formed the North African Republic. The NAR was originally a joint military effort with backing from south Africa and Great Britain. They were fighting a guerrilla war with the three prominent Islamic terrorist groups in the region. As these African Islamic Groups (AIG) formed in to a more cohesive structure so did the NAR. By 2057 most of the extremist AIGs had been eradicated and the NAR are currently acting as a Border Force on the Libyan and Egyptian borders.
Caribbean Conflict
In 2051 a US geological team discovered a stable oil reserve in the Caribbean sea, south of Jamaica. A diplomatic battle immediately ensued as to who had the mining rights to the region. Eventually a joint Mexican/US endeavour won out using refineries in Venezuela and Brazil. Undersea pipelines were installed to Mexico and Texas. The two boring rigs that were to set up the well were both attacked by unknown parties whilst they were being established. This entailed that the US and Mexican Navies had to protect the area. Later in 2052 the wells were simultaneously attacked by suicide boat bombs. Throughout the decade the entire site has been under constant threat from terrorist attacks. An environmental group known as Black Pearl Pirates have claimed responsibility on all occasions. It is also believed that Colombian cartels have also carried out attacks in retaliation for the US/Mexican drugs war
Korea
After North Korea effectively took control of South Korea, much to most of the worlds disgust, in early 2050. It was only a matter of time before the Koreans started trying to expand. In December 2054 Korean troops over ran the US base on Guam. They had taken advantage of the US involvement in other areas leaving the bases in Guam virtually unmanned. Even more embarrassing for the Americans was that there were three Zumwalt destroyers moored there each with a skeleton crew onboard, and a single Colombia class submarine. The Korean forces captured all three ships and the submarine along with their trident missile armaments. The airbase included six B-21 Raider Stealth Strategic Bombers and an MQ-4C Triton Maritime surveillance aircraft. These 4 ships and the aircraft all joined the Korean Navy. America was in uproar. Their only issue was that with the majority of their forces engaged elsewhere there was very little left to retaliate against the Koreans. It also transpired that America had very little in intercontinental missiles left operational. It appeared that they had used the majority of their missile stockpile against the UK on their failed attack attempt a few years earlier.
A small force of reserves were mustered and sailed towards Guam. But once China stepped in the Americans realised the attack would be futile. Diplomatic negotiations had China citing the same arguments that Argentina and America had used against the British over The Falkland Islands. Guam was given up as lost.
Pakistan/India conflict
In February 2055 Pakistani Caliphate forces moved against India. They had a complete shock however when they came up against not only the Indian Army, but also, British Legionnaires and Army Soldiers. India was one of the first countries to join the British Commonwealth and therefore received the full support of the advanced British forces.
The Second Crusade
After the Caliphate claimed responsibility for a nuclear explosion in Los Angeles that caused a major part of the Western Seaboard to fall in to the sea. America gained support to strike back at the Caliphate. Known unofficially as 'The Second Crusade' US lead, coalition forces moved in to Israel in early 2053, reinforcing their borders and starting to push inland. The war started small but had no real end game.
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