Through A Mirror, Darkly
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
-Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)
The causes of the Great War are a complicated morass that stretches back generations, if not more. Political ambitions, nationalist rivalries and bad blood all caused the various factions of the United Nations Security Council to go for the knives. The war is really just a collection of smaller wars that's being fought across almost every world in the Olympic Cluster and the surrounding Fringe. For many worlds, the extent of the war is nothing more than gunfights between special forces operators and mercenaries in developing countries over mineral rights. But there are others were decades of continuous total war have ground down the population and their will to fight. Wars are being fought in almost every conceivable environment and biome, from the steam jungles of Cadmus to the empty steppes of Ixion to the icy marshes of Caduceus. Entire cities are Every day, tens of thousands of young men and women die in service of their country.
The heavily populated core worlds remain largely untouched by the war, and support still remains high there. But the war remains generally popular across the known Universe as a half century of patriotic fervor and nationalistic propaganda have whipped people into a fury. That's not to say that the war is universally popular with all people in all nations, as there is still a hearty and robust anti-war movement. Even the alliances aren't particularly very firm, as you can sometimes find examples of local Americans fighting local Chinese or local French fighting local Russians. The big level picture looking down often looks very different from the reality that exists on the ground. No side has managed to articulate any particular high-level goals--there might be local goals such as recapturing and reclaiming territory, but there's no end in sight for the overall war because no nation has managed to identify what it ultimately wants to get out of it.
The Great War has claimed billions of lives, and with no end in sight, it will claim billions more as trillions of dollars of materiel and equipment are lost to warfare. Entire cities and nations have vanished into dust as they've been destroyed by strategic bombing and urban warfare. The world of Salamis was rendered completely uninhabitable by continuous use of weapons of mass destruction in the 2810s and 2820s, but there are reports that a few lost regiments continue to duke it out to this day. Technology has grown in spurts, and all sides now have vast computer networks commanding their war efforts, which has opened up a whole new front of electronic warfare. In order to cut down losses, there has been intense research into human cloning, artificial battle drones and even necrotic resucitation to supply soldiers, but officially, such projects remain unfulfilled.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
-Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)
The causes of the Great War are a complicated morass that stretches back generations, if not more. Political ambitions, nationalist rivalries and bad blood all caused the various factions of the United Nations Security Council to go for the knives. The war is really just a collection of smaller wars that's being fought across almost every world in the Olympic Cluster and the surrounding Fringe. For many worlds, the extent of the war is nothing more than gunfights between special forces operators and mercenaries in developing countries over mineral rights. But there are others were decades of continuous total war have ground down the population and their will to fight. Wars are being fought in almost every conceivable environment and biome, from the steam jungles of Cadmus to the empty steppes of Ixion to the icy marshes of Caduceus. Entire cities are Every day, tens of thousands of young men and women die in service of their country.
The heavily populated core worlds remain largely untouched by the war, and support still remains high there. But the war remains generally popular across the known Universe as a half century of patriotic fervor and nationalistic propaganda have whipped people into a fury. That's not to say that the war is universally popular with all people in all nations, as there is still a hearty and robust anti-war movement. Even the alliances aren't particularly very firm, as you can sometimes find examples of local Americans fighting local Chinese or local French fighting local Russians. The big level picture looking down often looks very different from the reality that exists on the ground. No side has managed to articulate any particular high-level goals--there might be local goals such as recapturing and reclaiming territory, but there's no end in sight for the overall war because no nation has managed to identify what it ultimately wants to get out of it.
The Great War has claimed billions of lives, and with no end in sight, it will claim billions more as trillions of dollars of materiel and equipment are lost to warfare. Entire cities and nations have vanished into dust as they've been destroyed by strategic bombing and urban warfare. The world of Salamis was rendered completely uninhabitable by continuous use of weapons of mass destruction in the 2810s and 2820s, but there are reports that a few lost regiments continue to duke it out to this day. Technology has grown in spurts, and all sides now have vast computer networks commanding their war efforts, which has opened up a whole new front of electronic warfare. In order to cut down losses, there has been intense research into human cloning, artificial battle drones and even necrotic resucitation to supply soldiers, but officially, such projects remain unfulfilled.
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