ABF takes place in a future setting that stems from an alternate history.
In a nutshell, history took its turn somewhere in the year 2000, where the Middle East was united under a peaceful Islamic ruler and after tense but civil diplomatic relations, they joined the EU, split Jerusalem with Israel, and prospered.
Because of this new acceptance of the three principle sects of Judeo-Christianity, 9/11 never happened.
However, because of this new state of affairs among the capitalist Westerners, the Chinese and their allies the North Koreans became more hostile. They began stockpiling arms for what they believed was the "un-Sinification" of their lands by the Imperialist West, which was far from the truth but serious nonetheless. The UN sent multiple cease and desist notes, which were blatantly ignored by both forces. Chinese nationalist sentiment was running higher and higher every year, and due to a near-fanatical civilian body which produced tireless workers and expert hackers, China managed to steal valuable secrets from corporations worldwide, and almost reversed the backwardness of their country. In theory, anyway. What actually happened is that the government fed the population lies and propaganda to fire their citizens up, and then worked them nearly to the death in weapons factories "for their glorious country."
The UN, and more importantly the US, didn't just sit back idly during this fiasco. A similar, albeit more positive nationalist sentiment rose in the United States. Without the hassle of the War on Terrorism and 9/11 to mar President Bush's presidency, his conservative (and jingoist) outlook spearheaded a reaction to China's frantic rebuilding and starting a major arms-race, similar to that of the US and the USSR during the Cold War. The economy began rising with the issuance of military bonds and the funding of military-affiliated corporations (who also released numerous products to the civilian population). In part, this readiness to jump in and screw up a country that had made the US infamous in the previous century resulted in their near-salvation, as the other woefully unprepared nations in the UN basically sat back and prayed the Chinese would see reason. In 2004, Australia declared themselves neutral and left the UN, having perfected a massive laser defense system that literally made the island impenetrable. Making use of their new, advantageous position, they offered to become a secondary weapons facility for anyone who paid to maintain their own factories and sent their own personnel to work there. Surprisingly they were true to their word, but the UN was the only side who actually bought a base. They began producing (modern as of 2007) small arms and common ammunition, as well as a number of other higher-tech luxuries.
The continent of Africa also went through immense changes. Seeing the surprising success the Muslims had had in unifying their myriad but basically similar cultures, an idealistic African leader rose to power and proceeded to unify the continent, albeit by bloody conquest. By 2008 he had managed to seize almost half of the continent and was currently engaged in getting more.
Flash forward to the year 2008. Tensions have nearly hit the breaking point. The US had miraculously mananged to develop a brilliant new encryption method that Chinese hackers couldn't crack no matter what they tried just 4 years before, efficiently shielding their developments. The Chinese government was tearing its hair out because production had begun to drop since their propaganda-fueled craze was running low and workers were dropping like flies. North Korea was barely developing technology the US had 50 years ago, and they begun launching test missiles into the Sea of Japan. Japan freaked out and sent a request of help to the UN, who sent a joint task force of European and Middle Eastern troops into North Korea, assisted by the South Koreans and a small detachment of the US Navy (the Navy ships had been updated with only minor technology, and were thus deemed expendable in the event of Chinese takeover. This seemingly small incursion was the first official trigger of the third World War.
The UN task force quickly subdued North Korea and were about to storm the last base, a NK missile base, when the North Korean government attempted to blackmail China into assisting them by threatening to reveal a few Chinese military secrets that their Chinese allies had given them in trust. China, enraged, deemed themselves ready and launched enough ICBMs to annihilate all of North Korea, the task force, and a good portion of South Korea. The world was horrified. The UN, who had believed that this would be an easy way to raise morale, had sent their best soldiers and generals to the Korean front, only to find them annihilated in the blast. China realized they fucked up and ordered their navy out. Originally the US figured China's navy wouldn't be nearly as good as theirs was, however the secrets of how to build ships from the 20th century had long been stolen by the Chinese. While their navy wasn't nearly as well equipped as the US, they made up for it in sheer numbers. Japan quickly fell to the Chinese menace, and even at the beginning of the campaign (Circa year 2100) no one has heard from it since. The Chinese were halted in the middle of the ocean by the smaller but exponentially more heavily-armed US Navy. However, halfway across was enough for both sides to begin launching ICBMs at each other. The US caused more damage on the whole to China via satellite lasers and ultra-high-altitude airship bombers that carried massive payloads, but the sheer size of the country and the lack of intel on where principle targets were led to indiscriminate barrages. China on the other hand had the smart idea of throwing everything they had at all the cities in the US and hoping the radioactive winter would kill off the rest. Well, in the end, they both bombed each other until neither army could even think of retaliating.
Meanwhile on the European front, the horrified UN (or rather, the horrified European Union + Muslims and a few random Central Asian countries) tried to figure out what the crap just happened in the span of 24 hours, and why their best troops suddenly ceased to exist. Many days were spent in council deciding whether to oppose or offer to surrender to China (unsurprisingly, France headed the party for unconditional surrender). They finally decided to counterattack through the Chinese mainland, but by that time it was too late. China, who had predicted (rightly) that their war on the US would be mostly naval, had secretly moved 85% of their infantry and armor to the Eastern border, where they spearheaded a massive invasion of Asia and Europe. The Chinese propaganda offices managed to cook up a brutally effective and inflaming propaganda campaign about how the time of the Western barbarians were over, their capitalist ways would infect China, etc etc. The Chinese army brutally subjugated the completely unprepared European Union, using technology that outclassed that of the EU, who hadn't been party to the US's expanded R&D spree. Europe fell quickly and easily, and the entire Chinese army remained to occupy the cities and main routes of the continent. In the end, the order was given for the Chinese to retreat, whereupon the Europeans would celebrate their freedom only to be eradicated by a prototype massive experimental MIRV (Multiple independently targeting reentry vehicle, in essence a massive cluster-nuke) weapon intended for use against the US, however a group of truly heroic survivors of the Russian Spetsnaz special operations force managed to successfully infiltrate and commandeer the missile base, which had been guarded only by satellite Chinese army bases (all destroyed by the US). The Russians forced the launch of the superweapon months earlier than planned, and as a result nearly the entire Chinese occupying force was obliterated along with almost the entire continent of Europe.
After all this punishment, Mother Earth finally retaliated. The ozone layer was completely shot over the poles, filling them with lethal UV rays and melting the polar ice caps, which caused the waterlevel worldwide to rise and spreading massive climate changes throughout the planet. Many species of animals and plants that weren't already dead due to humanity's war met their end after they failed to adapt to new conditions. Europe was the most drastically effected as the massive craters created by the MIRV weapon and numerous small tectonic shifts caused the entire continent to become a massive archipelago of islands inhabited by a surprisingly large amount of hardy European survivors and a few hostile Chinese. The Africans caught a few bombs their way from China, and their few cities with modern technology were the prime targets of this assault. The leaders as well as numerous other factions were obliterated, and in the massive radioactive winter that drifted south from Europe, millions more died, since no one was prepared or educated for this kind of eventuality.
In the aftermath of World War III, society crawled out of their holes back onto the desolate wasteland that remained. Eyewitness reports vary, but from the most valuable tales, the extremist Chinese government largely survived in an armored vault underneath their largest base along with a large contingent of home guard. They attempted to reunify the surviving Chinese, but only the few that were actually close to the base listened to their now insane raving. The rest of lawless China either ignored them and attempted to survive by rebuilding or joining raider gangs, or rotted at the bottom of the massive radiation pits that dotted the once-beautiful country. Europe is mostly similar. They mostly regressed into a storm of isolationism and religious revivals, eking out survival on their tiny islands. Europe is currently something akin to the Dark Ages, with neo-Pagan and animistic revivals springing up helter-skelter, alongside various Christian revivals. Africa was basically reduced to feral savages (the only ones with bodies built up enough to survive nuclear Darwinism, though their strange cultures and such often led them to become irradiated and mutated. Africa regressed into a land of dark mystery and is avoided by those who travel the world. The US fared well in the sense that it wasn't horrifically damaged all over. The nuclear winter and climate shifts caused everything from the Pacific Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains to become a desolate wasteland, a desert in places and a grassy plain further east. Past the Appalachians are lands so heavily irradiated that no one who goes even a small distance in has returned to tell about it. Society groups around the trade hub cities that sprung up under the care of numerous resourceful American survivors, and the continent is the only known area to enjoy friendly trade relations with Australia. Australia itself rode throughout the war with little to no damage aside from that caused by climate changes, but the amount of technological superiority the people of Australia enjoyed due to their immense earnings producing ammunition and various other wartime commodities for both sides of the conflict allowed them to brave the worst of it rather unscathed. The Australians wisely expanded on budget weapon and ammunition production as well as various items militaries would need, such as space blankets and ration packs, and since they are the only ones who have both the facilities and the personnel to produce these commodities, they make a killing off of trading them to American survivors for raw materials and food. The continent of Australia remains almost entirely unknown, since the entire land is walled and defended by highly trained soldiers armed with advanced technology and wicked accents (lol). The Australians provided funding for a mutual neutral trading ground known as Freehold, where they send their ships to collect cargo and sell their wares. Before you ask, it is literally impossible for anyone to infiltrate an Australian cargo liner, as they incorporate special sensors created entirely for the purpose of keeping dirty wastelanders off their ships.
At the start of this game, the year is 21XX. Various cultures have surfaced, various power groups have prospered, and humanity has begun serious steps to picking themselves up off their asses and rebuilding. After a century, the worst of the radiation has cleared up, leaving the bombed-out ruins of prewar cities open for exploration (and looting). However, this has attracted the ire of various factions, and an expedition into the city could be possibly incredibly rewarding, but also incredibly dangerous.
In a nutshell, history took its turn somewhere in the year 2000, where the Middle East was united under a peaceful Islamic ruler and after tense but civil diplomatic relations, they joined the EU, split Jerusalem with Israel, and prospered.
Because of this new acceptance of the three principle sects of Judeo-Christianity, 9/11 never happened.
However, because of this new state of affairs among the capitalist Westerners, the Chinese and their allies the North Koreans became more hostile. They began stockpiling arms for what they believed was the "un-Sinification" of their lands by the Imperialist West, which was far from the truth but serious nonetheless. The UN sent multiple cease and desist notes, which were blatantly ignored by both forces. Chinese nationalist sentiment was running higher and higher every year, and due to a near-fanatical civilian body which produced tireless workers and expert hackers, China managed to steal valuable secrets from corporations worldwide, and almost reversed the backwardness of their country. In theory, anyway. What actually happened is that the government fed the population lies and propaganda to fire their citizens up, and then worked them nearly to the death in weapons factories "for their glorious country."
The UN, and more importantly the US, didn't just sit back idly during this fiasco. A similar, albeit more positive nationalist sentiment rose in the United States. Without the hassle of the War on Terrorism and 9/11 to mar President Bush's presidency, his conservative (and jingoist) outlook spearheaded a reaction to China's frantic rebuilding and starting a major arms-race, similar to that of the US and the USSR during the Cold War. The economy began rising with the issuance of military bonds and the funding of military-affiliated corporations (who also released numerous products to the civilian population). In part, this readiness to jump in and screw up a country that had made the US infamous in the previous century resulted in their near-salvation, as the other woefully unprepared nations in the UN basically sat back and prayed the Chinese would see reason. In 2004, Australia declared themselves neutral and left the UN, having perfected a massive laser defense system that literally made the island impenetrable. Making use of their new, advantageous position, they offered to become a secondary weapons facility for anyone who paid to maintain their own factories and sent their own personnel to work there. Surprisingly they were true to their word, but the UN was the only side who actually bought a base. They began producing (modern as of 2007) small arms and common ammunition, as well as a number of other higher-tech luxuries.
The continent of Africa also went through immense changes. Seeing the surprising success the Muslims had had in unifying their myriad but basically similar cultures, an idealistic African leader rose to power and proceeded to unify the continent, albeit by bloody conquest. By 2008 he had managed to seize almost half of the continent and was currently engaged in getting more.
Flash forward to the year 2008. Tensions have nearly hit the breaking point. The US had miraculously mananged to develop a brilliant new encryption method that Chinese hackers couldn't crack no matter what they tried just 4 years before, efficiently shielding their developments. The Chinese government was tearing its hair out because production had begun to drop since their propaganda-fueled craze was running low and workers were dropping like flies. North Korea was barely developing technology the US had 50 years ago, and they begun launching test missiles into the Sea of Japan. Japan freaked out and sent a request of help to the UN, who sent a joint task force of European and Middle Eastern troops into North Korea, assisted by the South Koreans and a small detachment of the US Navy (the Navy ships had been updated with only minor technology, and were thus deemed expendable in the event of Chinese takeover. This seemingly small incursion was the first official trigger of the third World War.
The UN task force quickly subdued North Korea and were about to storm the last base, a NK missile base, when the North Korean government attempted to blackmail China into assisting them by threatening to reveal a few Chinese military secrets that their Chinese allies had given them in trust. China, enraged, deemed themselves ready and launched enough ICBMs to annihilate all of North Korea, the task force, and a good portion of South Korea. The world was horrified. The UN, who had believed that this would be an easy way to raise morale, had sent their best soldiers and generals to the Korean front, only to find them annihilated in the blast. China realized they fucked up and ordered their navy out. Originally the US figured China's navy wouldn't be nearly as good as theirs was, however the secrets of how to build ships from the 20th century had long been stolen by the Chinese. While their navy wasn't nearly as well equipped as the US, they made up for it in sheer numbers. Japan quickly fell to the Chinese menace, and even at the beginning of the campaign (Circa year 2100) no one has heard from it since. The Chinese were halted in the middle of the ocean by the smaller but exponentially more heavily-armed US Navy. However, halfway across was enough for both sides to begin launching ICBMs at each other. The US caused more damage on the whole to China via satellite lasers and ultra-high-altitude airship bombers that carried massive payloads, but the sheer size of the country and the lack of intel on where principle targets were led to indiscriminate barrages. China on the other hand had the smart idea of throwing everything they had at all the cities in the US and hoping the radioactive winter would kill off the rest. Well, in the end, they both bombed each other until neither army could even think of retaliating.
Meanwhile on the European front, the horrified UN (or rather, the horrified European Union + Muslims and a few random Central Asian countries) tried to figure out what the crap just happened in the span of 24 hours, and why their best troops suddenly ceased to exist. Many days were spent in council deciding whether to oppose or offer to surrender to China (unsurprisingly, France headed the party for unconditional surrender). They finally decided to counterattack through the Chinese mainland, but by that time it was too late. China, who had predicted (rightly) that their war on the US would be mostly naval, had secretly moved 85% of their infantry and armor to the Eastern border, where they spearheaded a massive invasion of Asia and Europe. The Chinese propaganda offices managed to cook up a brutally effective and inflaming propaganda campaign about how the time of the Western barbarians were over, their capitalist ways would infect China, etc etc. The Chinese army brutally subjugated the completely unprepared European Union, using technology that outclassed that of the EU, who hadn't been party to the US's expanded R&D spree. Europe fell quickly and easily, and the entire Chinese army remained to occupy the cities and main routes of the continent. In the end, the order was given for the Chinese to retreat, whereupon the Europeans would celebrate their freedom only to be eradicated by a prototype massive experimental MIRV (Multiple independently targeting reentry vehicle, in essence a massive cluster-nuke) weapon intended for use against the US, however a group of truly heroic survivors of the Russian Spetsnaz special operations force managed to successfully infiltrate and commandeer the missile base, which had been guarded only by satellite Chinese army bases (all destroyed by the US). The Russians forced the launch of the superweapon months earlier than planned, and as a result nearly the entire Chinese occupying force was obliterated along with almost the entire continent of Europe.
After all this punishment, Mother Earth finally retaliated. The ozone layer was completely shot over the poles, filling them with lethal UV rays and melting the polar ice caps, which caused the waterlevel worldwide to rise and spreading massive climate changes throughout the planet. Many species of animals and plants that weren't already dead due to humanity's war met their end after they failed to adapt to new conditions. Europe was the most drastically effected as the massive craters created by the MIRV weapon and numerous small tectonic shifts caused the entire continent to become a massive archipelago of islands inhabited by a surprisingly large amount of hardy European survivors and a few hostile Chinese. The Africans caught a few bombs their way from China, and their few cities with modern technology were the prime targets of this assault. The leaders as well as numerous other factions were obliterated, and in the massive radioactive winter that drifted south from Europe, millions more died, since no one was prepared or educated for this kind of eventuality.
In the aftermath of World War III, society crawled out of their holes back onto the desolate wasteland that remained. Eyewitness reports vary, but from the most valuable tales, the extremist Chinese government largely survived in an armored vault underneath their largest base along with a large contingent of home guard. They attempted to reunify the surviving Chinese, but only the few that were actually close to the base listened to their now insane raving. The rest of lawless China either ignored them and attempted to survive by rebuilding or joining raider gangs, or rotted at the bottom of the massive radiation pits that dotted the once-beautiful country. Europe is mostly similar. They mostly regressed into a storm of isolationism and religious revivals, eking out survival on their tiny islands. Europe is currently something akin to the Dark Ages, with neo-Pagan and animistic revivals springing up helter-skelter, alongside various Christian revivals. Africa was basically reduced to feral savages (the only ones with bodies built up enough to survive nuclear Darwinism, though their strange cultures and such often led them to become irradiated and mutated. Africa regressed into a land of dark mystery and is avoided by those who travel the world. The US fared well in the sense that it wasn't horrifically damaged all over. The nuclear winter and climate shifts caused everything from the Pacific Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains to become a desolate wasteland, a desert in places and a grassy plain further east. Past the Appalachians are lands so heavily irradiated that no one who goes even a small distance in has returned to tell about it. Society groups around the trade hub cities that sprung up under the care of numerous resourceful American survivors, and the continent is the only known area to enjoy friendly trade relations with Australia. Australia itself rode throughout the war with little to no damage aside from that caused by climate changes, but the amount of technological superiority the people of Australia enjoyed due to their immense earnings producing ammunition and various other wartime commodities for both sides of the conflict allowed them to brave the worst of it rather unscathed. The Australians wisely expanded on budget weapon and ammunition production as well as various items militaries would need, such as space blankets and ration packs, and since they are the only ones who have both the facilities and the personnel to produce these commodities, they make a killing off of trading them to American survivors for raw materials and food. The continent of Australia remains almost entirely unknown, since the entire land is walled and defended by highly trained soldiers armed with advanced technology and wicked accents (lol). The Australians provided funding for a mutual neutral trading ground known as Freehold, where they send their ships to collect cargo and sell their wares. Before you ask, it is literally impossible for anyone to infiltrate an Australian cargo liner, as they incorporate special sensors created entirely for the purpose of keeping dirty wastelanders off their ships.
At the start of this game, the year is 21XX. Various cultures have surfaced, various power groups have prospered, and humanity has begun serious steps to picking themselves up off their asses and rebuilding. After a century, the worst of the radiation has cleared up, leaving the bombed-out ruins of prewar cities open for exploration (and looting). However, this has attracted the ire of various factions, and an expedition into the city could be possibly incredibly rewarding, but also incredibly dangerous.
