Timeline Argo (Overwatch meets Metal Gear meets...)

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kingkasara
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:42 am

Timeline Argo (Overwatch meets Metal Gear meets...)

Post by kingkasara »

I've always wanted to do a setting on the old AtomicThinkTank/RoninArmy forums, and while my personal setting in my head expands beyond any ability to control, I thought I'd start from scratch here, more or less.

I've been playing a lot of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain the past few months, and recently picked up Overwatch as well. I like the focus both have on empowered, unique, special forces units/covert ops teams, and how they change or alter their world. Taking those as my starting point, I've started brainstorming this setting, and adding different elements, including influences from Fallout and Ace Combat, among other things.

I'm dubbing it Timeline Argo after the major back story event that visibly changes it from our world, this being the discovery of a massive asteroid in the 1990s, fragments of which later impact the Earth.
kingkasara
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:42 am

Re: Timeline Argo (Overwatch meets Metal Gear meets...)

Post by kingkasara »

The Secret History of Timeline Argo: A Preview

While this world may appear like ours prior to the appearance of Argo, there was always much more going on beneath the surface. On this world, advanced science, paranormal abilities, and secret societies co-existed with the more mundane world. But prior to the Argo impact and its consequences, these were unknown to the public.

Numerous technological advancements that seemed the stuff of science fiction existed in limited and prohibitively expensive cases. Projects to enhance the human body itself, whether the remains of Nazi augmentation serums or cybernetics far more capable, and costly, than publicly available prostheses. Strange radiological experiments carried out in the sealed Soviet science cities left dangerous individuals sealed away, forgotten. And secure labs conducted research to develop artificial intelligence, perhaps heedless of the consequences.

Paranormal conditions and afflictions, while often exaggerated by myths, legends, and the passage of time, were real. Various people suffered from hereditary lycanthropy, a virus that produced would could only be called zombies caused numerous outbreaks over the centuries, and psychic powers such as Extra Sensory Perception, pyrokinesis, and psychometry had rare but demonstrable cases scattered around the globe.

There was a hidden history that many were unaware of. These include shadowy warriors of the Cold War, like the soldier code-named MINERVA, who was legendary in covert ops circles. Prior to the rapid decline of the Soviet Union, the US seeded stay-behind organizations in Europe to fight off a communist invasion from the inside. Conspiracy theorists believed in the existence of secret societies like Kryptos, who tried to tilt world events in their favor from behind the scenes.

After the impact, many of these secrets would emerge into the light to shape the future.
kingkasara
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:42 am

Re: Timeline Argo (Overwatch meets Metal Gear meets...)

Post by kingkasara »

The Discovery of Argo
In 1986, astronomers identified an asteroid in orbit around Jupiter, which they dubbed “Argo.” At the time, other than its size and some odd, unexplored properties, there was nothing about worthy of further study, so it was documented and forgotten about.

In the early 1990s, an independent astronomer discovered that something had changed and Argo was now on a path that could put it on a collision course with Earth. This astronomer contacted several of his peers, and soon the Astronomical Emergency Team was put together by a government coalition. Renowned astrophysicist and public science speaker Edward Savet initially headed up the team and broke the news to the public. Unfortunately, Savet died shortly thereafter. His student and protégé, Jared Daniell Coyle took over as the spokesman of the group in his stead. Argo’s collision with the Earth became more and more likely, and the world population reacted in various ways.

While the public panicked and stock markets suffered, and unrest rose in the streets, government tried to maintain order and find solutions. Many states declared martial law, and others took this chance to push political and national agendas, especially in the newly dissolved Soviet Union.

The United Nations sponsored a number of projects to deflect the asteroid, mitigate the damage, or simply preserve as many human lives as possible. The Agartha Initiative of “sub-surface arks” were large-scale bunkers meant to shield people from the impact, and filled with supplies for rebuilding afterwards, but they could only hold a fraction of the Earth’s population. The Ritters-Mabaso Network was a series of railguns built around the world to target and destroy oncoming fragments of Argo before they could hit Earth. But the ultimate effort was the Argo Redirect Mission, a manned mission to detonate a bomb on Argo to alter its path.

Overwatch has the Omnic Crisis, it's robot war, as the establishing backstory event and excuse for why things are as they are in the setting. Metal Gear has less of a single inciting event (for global change, at least, the Boss's death sets off the actions of everyone running around in the shadows). I wanted a big event to set things off, but didn't want to copy the robot war. But I love the Ace Combat series, and they have an asteroid impact shaking up things geopolitically as an excuse for why the setting has a lot of modern wars, and superweapons, so I went with an equivalent to that. It was, as TV Tropes would say, the Outside-Context Problem to expose a lot of the stuff going on in secret beforehand.
kingkasara
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:42 am

Re: Timeline Argo (Overwatch meets Metal Gear meets...)

Post by kingkasara »

The Argo Redirect Mission

All other efforts to deal with Argo were contingencies, and the Argo Redirect Mission was the primary effort of Earth’s governments to react to the extinction-level threat. A team of astronauts and experts drawn from the American, Russian, European Union and Chinese space programs were brought together, in collaboration with the Astronomical Emergency Team, to plot the best way to deter Argo from colliding with Earth.

The numbers were run and it was reasoned that a nuclear detonation at the right spot, at the right time, on the surface of Argo could divert its course and spare the Earth. The scientists worked day and night, and dug out all sorts of experimental space travel technology to enable them to have a chance of success on the mission.

Ultimately, as Argo neared the Earth and the terrified population watched on live TV, the ARM mission was launched. Under the command of Captain Will Duvall and in communication with NASA on Earth, the ARM shuttle carried a high-yield (but not nuclear, as popular depictions show) bomb, and a hopeful yet desperate crew of so-called “Argonauts.”

Nobody knows exactly what went wrong.

Communications with the shuttle became hazy, possibly due to interference from the unknown and unusual minerals within Argo. Then, all communication ceased suddenly, after a few messages which indicated some sort of altercation occurred aboard the shuttle. The bomb went off, but not at the correct detonation site. Argo was damaged, and it’s course altered so that it broke up as it neared Earth, but it was still on a collision course. The Argo shards struck across the surface of the planet. Many were disintegrated upon entering Earth’s atmosphere, but many more survived to rain destruction around the globe.
kingkasara
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:42 am

Re: Timeline Argo (Overwatch meets Metal Gear meets...)

Post by kingkasara »

The Impact and the Year of Hell

The devastation of the Impact was instantaneous, and long-lasting. Shards rained across Europe and Asia, and by complete chance, Paris suffered an almost direct hit. China suffered immensely as well, especially in rural areas already under-served by the government. Strikes at sea created tidal effects that ravaged both the Atlantic and Pacific coastal communities of the world. And even after the rocks stopped falling, the damage wasn’t done.

The huge amounts of particle dust kicked up, or remaining in the atmosphere from shards that had disintegrated, led to an extended global winter for the better part of a year after the pieces of Argo hit. The environmental repercussions were severe, as were the agricultural ones. A creeping sense of worldwide fatalism had hamstrung anti-pollution efforts leading up to the Impact, and had caused many food producers to not bother planting new seeds or raising livestock. Coupled with the run on food markets to stock shelters, this led to intense food shortages and violence.

The dark sky, the lack of food (as well as shortages of medical supplies and response personnel), and the overall sense of despair and violence led to the remainder of 1998 and the beginning of 1999 being known as the Year of Hell. Political upheavals followed as well, as various groups saw opportunities to pursue their goals. In Europe, the DAGON organization emerged and attempted to seize control or influence of several political institutions. The United States suffered massive upheaval and withdrew a majority of its overseas military forces. New nations popped up, such as Taured, Borduria, Costaguana, Arraqis, and Nambutu.

Yet, in all this chaos, amazing individuals stood up to protect the innocent, many of them contacted and aided by the enigmatic Scheherazade. And as the Year of Hell wore to a close, people realized that as bad as things had gotten, the world had not ended, and they still had hope.
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