War!

A collective bright tone sounded through the minds of everyone present in the aula. The tone was typical as a request for silence, emptying the minds to a blank state of general receptiveness, and the start of the course, all in one.

It would be a lesson directed by a docent, capable in mind transference to a large group of people, all at once.

“Welcome, everyone, in this teaching moment about the history of Pre-Unification times, section Earth, subsection Second Dark Age, start of the 21st century of that timeline. To understand the start of the Second Dark Age, you have been given the lessons about the so-called first world war, the second world war, the first cold war and general social unrest following it. If you haven’t memorized it yet, I kindly must insist you to leave this room now.”

Several students obediently left the room, in order not to cause inconsistencies in the unified mind-melt of the rest of the aula. When they had left, the docent continued speaking trough the minds of everyone still present:

“Now then, in order to fully comprehend the Zeit Geist of those times, we in the Advanced Research Scientific Esotho-history Department, have chosen for the full immersion method.”

A collective cheer resounded through the minds of all the students, easily blanked out by a lighter tone induced by the docent.

“I understand your enthusiasm, but I have to warn you about the dangers of this method. Pre-unification history is full of inconsistencies, as at those times, several societies had different opinions, even worse, every individual had different viewpoints. As researcher it was a painful nightmare to sift through all the viewpoints. Some of us even collapsed at the first attempts to set up the immersion programs and are still in recovery.”

As anecdotal information I can give you two examples:

• In a country then called the United States of America, there was a tendency to distribute as many weapons as possible, that resulted of course in a societal epidemic of deaths. They were distributed under the guise of protection of life and freedom, while at the same time, pregnant mothers were to give birth, under the guise of protection of the unborn child only. Once the child was born in poor circumstances, the child had little to no chance to experience a protected life of freedom, and often was killed by those distributed weapons.
• In a country then called the European Union, there was a tendency to censure speech and thoughts impacting people of color or people of foreign origin. While I can applaud the effort, there were also serious breaches against all women. Some groups with contradictory agendas even worked together: there was a so-called feminist group, working for the acceptance and equivalence of all women versus men, in coalition with a group of foreign origin that worked for their own acceptance in society, but was adamant in creating a society that was considering women as second-grade citizens.

A collective sigh of disbelief resounded through the minds of the students. Blanked out again.

“I know, it were confusing times. The act of procreation and the experience of mutual enjoying the efforts to procreate were at times completely opposite to each other, and in some belief systems, even shunned by their members.”

Another but louder collective sigh of disbelief resounded. A heavier tone was needed to blank it out.

“Do know of course that the study of these inconsistencies, complete with a comparative analysis with current non-unified societies will be expected to be delivered at the end of the semester. On individual basis, so you will need to offline yourself for some time. And hand-written or typed, just to keep you practically immersed in that Zeit Geist. I will not accept Unified Brain Melt programs.”

A loud collective groan resounded in all the students. The thought-screens around the aula were even shimmering a bit, overloading a moment before transferring the extra energy into the Voidpool.

“Moving on, not only the confusion at those times are a problem for the full immersion method, but also there was considerable confusion in the individual minds of people in those times. Their memories were, simply said, a mess. Often they recorded their memories in extremely rudimentary methods, most of which got lost through the ages. As best as we could, we collected information of these minds, using a whole plethora of information extraction methods. We used the actual primitive recordings, contemporary interviews, journals, their primitive databases at the time, personal written diaries, but we have to admit, it was hard work to put them in logical and linear order. Even we failed at times and we still are in the process of reconfiguring the program. Our excuses for that.”

“As we also needed the thoughts of individuals, we collected a lot of information via the well-proven scientific methods of spectromancy, remote viewing, looking glass instruments, and even the experimental methods of multiverse light collection to get an exact feel and view of individual experiences.”

“We focused our efforts on a small group of people, about ten of them, that were living then in the same time period, grouped together more or less at the same time – some were added later, some left early – in a period just before the start of the third world war, as they called it at the time.”

“I know what you want to think. Will you be able to jump from one mind to the other? No! We separated the viewpoints in different sections and we urge you, we really urge you to start with the first chapter section. Try to immerse in the others too, and it will, I have to stress, it will fry your brain!”

“So with the first section, you will be / follow a guy named Alex. His memories are not linked to the memories of the others. In fact they will be at times completely opposite! His thought processes are not the thought processes of the others. His experiences are not linked in any way! These are Pre-Unification times after all.”

“If you want to have the full immersion, you will have to follow our recommendations: complete one section, before immersing in the next POV. After you have done so, in serial immersion, I repeat, in serial immersion, you can, on your own, put together the different POV’s, making conclusions and try to integrate it.”

“For that reason we made it so, that the other POV sections beyond the first are blanked out, or simply non-existent yet. They are available only for those that have made it to the finish. As for reaching the finish of the first, we are still busy with the program, so have patience. And for fuck sake, immerse them in the order we presented, or you will fry your brain even more.”

“Now, go offline to individuality mode, plug in the headset, and follow the introductory session.”

Every student plugged in the headset, linked it with their cybernetic implants and an offline session from the Unity. They were immediately, pretty crudely dropped into the immersion program and several expressed their pain, but were never heard or felt by others, as they were offline from Unity. It was a sort of introduction into the specific timeline of the immersion program, gathered it seemed from databases and spectromancy.

How did the third world war start? Simple. Take a greedy megalomaniac as president, who thought the world was better during the cold war, give him opponents with people like Chamberlain, and bit by bit he'll think he can do anything without punishment.

He claimed to have no fear, and yet, everything he did was inspired by fear. He was paranoid there would be revolt against his regime. The Arab Spring he thought was instigated by enemy nations. He claimed other nations were planning to bring the downfall of his ‘mighty’ nation, even invade it, yet he was the only one to go to war. First in Georgia, then in Crimea, then in the Donbas region of Ukraine and then into the rest of Ukraine.

He would claim the US illegally helped Ukraine, despite not being part of NATO. He would claim the moment his soldiers would set foot in Ukraine, the US and EU would put such sanctions on his nation, not any banking operation, let alone any international trade would be possible. It would be as if Ukraine was part of the EU. The EU conquered Ukraine with money. Ukraine was the puppet of the EU and the US. He had to liberate Ukraine, he had no other choice.

It did not go so well. Or so he claimed. In fact, it was planned as a failure. A traitorous defeat he would tell his own puppets. A self-fulfilling prophecy more like it. He was aiming for the peace conference after it. There he would strike his real blows. The strike would without any doubt divide the world into two powerful pieces. Just like in the past.

At the conference he would the president of Ukraine, the secretary of state of the US and the president of the EU.

Not that it really mattered, because his troops would already be on their way. Through Ukraine they would race, via the highway network of Europe, split off to take the nations alongside the Danube: Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia. From there three army columns would form to create three fronts. The first army would go through the Czech Republic heading North to Berlin, to then also encircle Poland, and still have the option to invade Scandinavia. The second army would go North-West to Cologne to reach the English Channel, and the third army would bend West up to the Danube, turn and invade Germany at its most southern point, then turn west again to invade France.

The EU was totally surprised. Not only by the invasion itself, but by the maneuvers. Instead of invading from the East borders of Russia, via Poland and the Baltic States, the fronts were formed in the weaker underbelly of the EU. The nations closest to Russia were the most prepared and had all its main forces at the borders, but very little at the south.

Russian soldiers at their best, at peace time were not… let’s say of high moral fiber. At wartime they were worse, much worse. As they did in the second world war, they and pillaged everywhere they came. So great their atrocities were, so great the motivations became for ordinary citizens to take up arms against them. Every man and a great number of women above the age of eighteen with a decent fitness enlisted in the army and were provided a minimal training in tactics and arms. In Germany alongside the regular army they would slow the Russian soldiers down with fierce and combat. In the Netherlands, Belgium and Eastern France, training would be somewhat longer. To be ready for the last battle. To hold out long enough for reinforcements to come from the US. If they would come at all. On time.

It is in one of those countries, at the west of the river Rhine, in these catastrophic events we will find our protagonists.

(Edit at january 29, 2022: be informed there is a reference to the chyoa forum: https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/war.4109 detailing my comments on certain chapters and progress of the story. Please be warned, this is a not a typical harem story.)

(Edit at february 24, 2022: Look, I can't help it if some of the elements in the story are rooted in real life, it's part of world building. I can't help it either if reality is catching up with the story about a third world war, starting in Ukraine. The US warned the EU for a possible invasion by Russians into Ukraine at November 22nd, 2021. I read the prophecies about a third world war and thought this would be a nice premise for a story. My thoughts and prayers go out for the soldiers and citizens in Ukraine, risking their lives for protecting their way of life. Let's hope their sacrifice is not in vain, and let's hope this story is not an actual prediction of things to come.