Title: “Into the Breach”
PLOT: In a post-apocalyptic US, eight brave souls struggle to survive in a dystopian future. Will they survive, or will they succumb to the temptations the brave new world offers them?
SETTING: Former United States, near future. Resource Wars have pushed the country to the brink of secession. Militias and government troops fight over water rights in the Southwest. Armed troops and mobile sensors guard a tenuous border between a secular, industrial North and theocratic South. Meanwhile, UNITO troops lead by Europe, Russia and China patrol the seas.
BELLIGERENTS:
Organization: The United States of York
Established: 2021
Government: Republic
Area: 91,000 Sq. Mi.
Capital: Washington D.C.
Geography: bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the East, French Canada to the North, and a constantly shifting border on the South, the United States of York is the most prosperous of the four major “Belts” to emerge out of the break-up of the nation formerly known as America. With a GNP equal to present-day Europe and a rich industrial and biotech base (thanks to industrialization and a heavy tax base in the sprawling metropolis of New York, after which the country is named)
Demography: 30% African-American, 40% Hispanic, 10% Asian, 10% Caucasian, 10% cyborg
Religion: 15% Non-affiliated/agnostic 15% Buddhist, 40% Protestant, 30% Catholic
Literacy rate: 98%
Sex ratio: 48% male, 51% female
Mortality/Infant death rate: 6.1/ 1,000(except for cyborgs, for which it is higher)
Armed Forces: Army of York, Coast Guard (Navy disbanded as per U.N. Regulation 484), York Air Force
Conscription rate: N/A, although men and women serve equally
Communications: The United States of York benefits from a host of media. In addition to the country’s many newspapers (subsidized and private), the USY has over 12 AM and FM radio stations broadcasting news, sports and popular music to an estimated 70 million listeners throughout the greater New York-Boston-D.C. metropolitan area. Broadband internet access is available to most households.
Issues: Water rights with French Canada, border disputes with Ohio and the SCR.
Treaties with: French Canada, San Francisco (city state), the Midwestern Confederacy (MN, IL, IN, IA, KN, MO)
Memberships: UNITO (non-voting), Coalition of Northern States (USY, French Canada, Anglo Canada, plus nations of the Midwestern Confederacy and Northern Europe). Memberships in OWDP (Organization of Water Producing States)
Cyborg ban: Yes (not enforced)
Organization: The Southern Christian Republic
Established: 2021
Area: 23,000 Sq. Mi.
Capital: Atlanta
Government: Christian theocracy with a legislative consultative assembly (similar to Iran)
Legislature: unicameral
Judiciary: Criminal, Appellate, Christian Supreme Court
Geography: Bounded by a contentious border with the “secular” North, a ravaged
Gulf Coast, and a no-man’s land in the Mid-West, several years after its founding the SCR is in many ways a nation in decline. With most of its male population fighting skirmishes and heavily dependent on food and energy exports from South America, Europe, and Asia, the 13 member nation is awash in poverty, hunger and overpopulation. Due to strict edicts enforced by the religiously guided leadership, much of the infrastructure and communications that defined the former Southeastern states has fallen into disrepair—unpaid roads are ubiquitous, as horse drawn carriages compete with “demonic” automobiles.
Demography: 50% African American, 30% white, 20% Asian and Hispanic
Religion: 95% Protestant, 4% Catholic, 1% “other” (Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist etc)
Sex ratio: 50% male, 48% male
Mortality/infant death rate: 37/1,000 births
Birth rate: 30/1,000
Armed Forces: SCR Army, SCR Air Force, SCR Navy (small)
Conscription: 99% males sixteen and over (women, and men in the cloth are exempt)
Communications: Despite the economic and social privations brought on by the government’s religious laws, the SCR has a small, yet vibrant media—most of it government owned. Over six national newspapers and countless regional and local newspapers operate within the burgeoning nation, in addition to numerous AM and FM stations, transmitting news and religious broadcasts. Internet access is sporadic and tightly controlled, but those with the means and equipment can evade censorship.
Issues: insurrections in Kentucky and Tennessee, water rights with Mexico and the
Midwestern Compact, border disputes with the United States of York.
Treaties with: Mexico, French Canada, Israel, U.A.E., Iran, etc. SCR also has consulates with Japan, Europe and Vatican City.
Memberships: Christian-Jewish Alliance (SCR, Vatican City, and Israel), Organization of Energy and Food Importers
Cyborg ban: Yes
Organization: The United Nations Intl Treaty Organization (U.N minus U.S., Canada)
Established: 2025
Capital (de facto): New York (permanent missions in Europe, U.K., Africa and Asia, etc)
Government: Inter-governmental organization
Head of State/Head of government: Secretary-General (renewable every 5 yrs, as per original UN charter)
Legislature: UN General Assembly (pro tem presides over regular sessions, rotates among member nations)
Judiciary: UNITO High Court, The Hague, Netherlands
Membership: 195 countries (192 plus French and Anglo Canada, USY and the three other “belts” of the former U.S. The SCR does not recognize UNITO).
Armed Forces: UN Army, Navy, Air Forces (military bases in the U.K., U.S and Europe as well as leases in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China). Manpower is over 5 million.
Conscription: No (although men and women over 21 serve equally as volunteers).
Communications: Although UNITO does not have an official “newspaper”, dispatches are regularly posted by embedded reporters via its website as well as affiliates such as the Pro-UNITO website The International. In addition, the organization funds over 23,000 radio and television stations in all six continents. Because of its charter to honor human rights and democracy, UNITO promotes broadband access for all member-citizens, and frequently funds projects in this regard.
Literary: 98%
Treaties: UNITO recognizes treaties with all member-nations
Ongoing operations: peacekeepers in Central and West Africa, as well as marine patrols near in the Atlantic and Gulf Coast. Humanitarian operations in South Asia, China, South America.