Introduction and Timeline

United States deploys anti-ICBM system. Rumors abound that it contains an offensive component.

US-EU-Japan found Mars research colony.

War between India and Pakistan. New Delhi and Islamabad are destroyed. Indian conventional forces crush Pakistan. Most of Pakistan is 'absorbed' by India. Islam is outlawed as a religion in the Hindu state.

American-Sino conflict: China invades Taiwan. Russia allies itself briefly with the Chinese, sparking a brief NATO (Ukraine, Lithuania, Sweden, EU)-Russian conflict. US and Japanese navies trounce Chinese invasion fleet. China retaliates by launching ICBM's at US and Japan. All are shot down. The 'Thor' component of the space base defense system is revealed when satellite based KKV's bombard government facilities in Peking. US technological lead is considered insurmountable. Russia and China request peace.

First human clone
HIV has ravaged sub-Sahara Africa, reducing the population by half.

Hanford experimental fusion power Tokamak reactor comes online.

Fusion heavy lift engine - cheap exploitation of space becomes a reality.

The first 'Space Hilton' becomes operational.

The Large Array Deep Space Telescope is deployed in geosynchronous orbit. Terrestrial planets are found orbiting most nearby stars.

Quantum computing becomes practical.

India creates research installation in the 'belt'.

Computer sentience

The United States sells most of their anti-ICBM system to the UN. Parts of the network are not handed over. It is assumed these are the Thor systems and other potential research projects.

Deep Space Probe Exploration launched to Alpha Centauri.

Iran seizes Iraqi remnant states, forms greater Persia.
Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan ally with greater Persia, create the Central Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, join the Alliance of Turkic Speaking Peoples.
Egypt appeals for calm between the two factions. Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues.

Greater Persia invades the Central Asian republics due to their 'outrageous' oil pricing (The Baku and Kazakhstan oil fields join Venezuela, Siberia and Alaska as the only remaining oil producing regions in the world).
Turkey honors its alliance, calling on NATO for support. NATO, particularly the EU, sends support to Turkey. The US wipes Persia's fleets from the sea. Soon after the US achieves air superiority. Between Thor and Carrier action, Persia finds itself unable to defend Jordan and Syria. Multiple warheads are launched at the US, EU and Israel. Jerusalem is destroyed, causing Israel to declare war. The Palestinian uprising gains intensity. Soon hundreds of thousand of Arabs and Israelis are dead. Israel crushes Syria and Jordan in 10 weeks of fighting.

Most of the population of NY, NY destroyed by fundamentalist Islamic terrorists using an Ebola bomb in retaliation for involvement in the Middle Eastern War. Tehran is destroyed by the United States in retaliation.
Anti-American riots rampant throughout Turkey and the Middle East.
Persia surrenders to the Turkic alliance.
Turkey requests an end to NATO operations in the Middle East.
Israel expels all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, creating a puppet Palestinian state in Jordan.

Fundamentalist revolution in Turkey. The fundamentalist state of Islamic Nation of Turkmen is founded, incorporating Central Asia, Persia and Turkey. All NATO forces are expelled from Islamic Nation of Turkmen.
Israel is formally inducted into NATO.

The Chinese invade Russia, seizing most of the Siberian oil fields.

The remnant of Russia joins NATO.

Deep Space Probe returns data of a habitable planet in Alpha Centauri.

The Chinese launch their first permanent space station. It is primarily a military complex.
The US and EU now have over 100,000 people on Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid belt, Europa and Titan.
Islamic Nation of Turkmen Space program kicks into high gear.

Islamic Nation of Turkmen and Chinese place bases on the Moon. They join over 25,000 'Western' and Indian colonists. Mars Colony now holds over 50,000 people.

Chinese stun the world by 'launching' most of their space station toward Alpha Centauri with 5,000 ‘colonists’.

Islamic Nation of Turkmen scientists launch a sleeper ship with 8,000 to Barnard 3. This ship contains most of the notable scientists and thinkers of the Arab world. The government in Ankara declares the 'colonists' to be infidels.

The Great Fundamentalist War: Christian fundamentalists announce that the West has become decadent and immoral due to the influence of atheistic science. Soon terrorist campaigns are sweeping western countries with leading scientific leaders being assassinated. Major universities are destroyed. Governments are paralyzed in their ability to prevent the insanity as major government leaders herald a new age.

The Second War Between the States in The United States. The South and Midwest split from the North and West. The South and Midwest form the Christian States of America. Washington D.C. is destroyed by a suitcase nuke. Most intellectuals flee for Mars and other colonies.

The US has effectively disintegrated.

June: China invades Alaska. The Christian States of America retaliate with massive nuclear strikes in China. Inexplicably the anti-ICBM system does not operate. Most of China and the CSA are incinerated.
August: Scientists determine that the world will enter another ice age due to fallout. Japan, India, the EU, and the US government-in-exile on Mars begin massive colonization projects. The Martian government begins 'rescue flights' to save as many as possible from the North America.
October: China launches a massive colony ship, holding 1,000,000 in cold stasis for Alpha Centauri.

Millions flee from Australia, New Zealand, the EU, and South America for Mars and the rest of the solar system.
Islamic Nation of Turkmen (which now controls the entire Middle East and North Africa) and Christian States of America declare science the work of the devil. Both declare the War of Cleansing and attack the EU, Japan and other remaining 'western' nations.

The population of Mars is now 100,000,000.

Fundamentalist nations now control the entire earth. Earth enters a dark age of religious hysteria and persecution. Most technology is lost over the next hundred years. Billions die. As a last act of defiance, the anti-ICBM system is set to destroy any object that comes any closer than geostationary orbit of Earth's surface. Contact with the surface is cut off as fundamentalist armies rampage across the globe.