A Brief History of the Halo Universe - Part 1
By the first quarter of the 21st century, the established governments of humanity were on the verge of collapse. The United States of America, wracked with hundreds of trillions of dollars of debt, finally collapsed its own economy. After hyper-inflating the value of the dollar, foreign creditors refused to continue to finance its ever increasing debt. Predictably, this severely affected the rest of planet. Across the world, inflation and unemployment skyrocketed. Fueled by the despair of the suffering masses, Communism made a new appearance in Eastern Europe and Asia. After six years of worsening conditions and no sign of recovery, the newly reformed Communist Party won control of the government in the Russian Federation. Four years later, legislation was passed by the Federal Assembly and the Soviet Union was reborn. The Soviets entered into negotiations with Communist China as well as a number of smaller communist countries in Asia and quickly began to take control of Eastern Europe. They were aggressively countered by NATO forces, but unwilling to wage war, the two sides simply stared each other down. The might of the United States, which had been severely crippled from the depression but not destroyed, honored its commitment to its allies in Europe and began to mobilize its forces in an effort to deter its enemies from starting a war. This kept the Russians at bay and the world stood on the brink of World War III as the United States of America, Europe, the New Soviet Union, and China watched each other to see who would make the first move.
In 2046, disaster struck the United States. On the morning of August 21st, twenty seven nuclear missiles were launched into America. Twelve of them were intercepted, but the remaining fifteen detonated 500 kilometers above various American cities. This resulted in a colossal set of Electromagnetic Pulses that left over eighty five percent of the country without power or the use of electronics and most machinery. Unable to import the food and supplies that sustained the country, chaos ensued as hundreds of millions of people starved to death and the survivors fought over the remaining resources. The US military was pulled from Europe to try and deal with the anarchy. Now with the United States effectively out of the war, the Soviet Union invaded Europe as the Chinese invaded America through Alaska. No one ever did find who was responsible for the nuking of America as neither China nor Russia ever did claim responsibility for the act, although extremist cells in China were considered the most likely candidates.
Now standing against the waves of Communist forces pouring into Central Europe and America, NATO and the remainders of the US military in America did their best to stem the tide, but to no avail. There was simply no stopping the aggressors. In an effort to turn the war, the United Nations, in an unprecedented move, drafted the Articles of Union, which would unite Europe under the United Nations, who would act as the governing body of the newly formed “super” nation. This action was opposed by many, but as the Russians moved closer to Germany and then to France, most of Europe signed the document. The United Nations, which kept NATO as its military arm, sent its united forces against the Russians and began to slowly drive back the Communist forces. Whilst this was occurring, the UN also sent soldiers into the United States to take control of the American forces. After eliminating or driving away American resistance fighters who saw the UN forces as an invading army intent on becoming their new masters, the UN then took control of the American armories and their vast nuclear array. The UN added these weapons to their own armories and used them as a bargaining chip to get both the Chinese and the Russians to accept a cease fire. It invited the two powers to the table and peace talks began, but as the three powers were discussing treaties, the UN smuggled several nuclear devices into Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. The devices detonated successfully and as both China and the Soviets instantly looked inward to deal with the unexpected devastation, UN forces blitzkrieged deep into Russian and Chinese territory. Their charge was irresistible and the Soviets and Chinese, unable to deal with both the devastation of their greatest cities and the presence of an invading army, soon surrendered. The UN forces, whose ranks were swelled by a great number of Russian and Asian political dissidents, occupied the enemy countries and dissolved their political institutions. By 2048, the United Nations, which now controlled America, Europe, and most of Asia, had become the greatest superpower the world had ever seen.
With World War III over and the economic situations across the world stabilizing, peace ensued for a time and the world looked to the stars. Mankind had always dreamed of traveling to the stars and the technology required was quickly becoming reality. New space travel and terraforming technology, a means by which to turn an uninhabitable planet into one capable of sustaining life, were developed and by 2080, mankind had begun to colonize Mars and the four moons of Jupiter.
By 2150, overpopulation was plaguing the Earth. To make matters worse, new bouts of economic depression crippled the United Nations. Former Soviet territories witnessed the birth of the Koslovic movement, a Neo Communist group that was spearheaded by Vladimir Koslovic. The Koslovics, who inspired the masses with images of the glorious Soviet Unions of ages past, spread like wild fire across the world and anti-capitalist terrorist cells began to emerge. This created a major backlash amongst many and the Friedan movement was created. The Friedans believed that a stronger government was needed to keep the Koslovic proletariat in check. The United Nations, who had been dealing with major secessionist movements in America, were not willing to appear as if they were going to strip the common man of the little rights that he had. This led the Friedans to take their movement to the Jovian (Jupiter’s) Moons. In 2160, after Koslovic terrorists bombed the World’s Fair in Germany, the Friedans on the Jovian moons declared their independence from the UN and attacked the United Nations Colonial Advisors that had been stationed on the moons. This led to a series of conflicts called the Interplanetary Wars that spread from the Jovian Moon to Earth and then to Mars. The Koslovics, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Friedans, also rose and took over large tracts of land across Earth. Unable to deal with these two massive uprisings on both Earth and in space, the UN created the United Nations Space Command, the entity that would be its new military backbone. The UNSC quickly adapted to the new theater of war: space. The UNSC Naval Shipyards began to build a fleet of space vessels dedicated for war. Massive recruiting drives filled the ranks of the UNSC and, led by tactically gifted officers, the UNSC waged war against both the Friedans and the Koslovics. After years of fighting, both of the rebel groups were defeated. The UNSC took back the enemy territories and the UN formed the Unified Earth Government, the federal entity that would govern all humanity, both on and off world.
Now that humanity was united under one government, war had ceased, with the exception of pirate raids and lingering terrorist groups. The populations on Earth and the human colonies exploded once again and overpopulation was again becoming a problem. In 2291, a monumental latchkey discovery was made. The distinguished scientists Tobias Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa discovered the concept of Slipspace, a set of dimensions that exist in space that when properly manipulated, allowed faster than light travel. They co-developed the Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive, which was capable of allowing ships to enter into these newly discovered dimensions. This revolutionary discover was quickly implemented by the UNSC and by 2310, they had created a line of colony ships that would travel beyond the boundaries of known space to colonize habitable planets. The overcrowded citizens of the Sol system, in search of a new and better life, eagerly joined the colonizing efforts. By the 25th century, the 210 habitable worlds closest to Earth, known as the Inner Colonies, had been colonized and were becoming well established. Outside the confines of those systems, hundreds of other planets were colonized and they came to be known as the Outer Colonies. Although the political and cultural backbone of the UEG was situated in the Inner Colonies, it became absolutely reliant on the resources that the Outer Colonies imported.
