Worthy of their Mettle: a Superhero Timeline

From Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi emanated the call to comply with the visitors' demands. They were persuasive, as being beholden to weapons in orbit would naturally make smaller nations comply. And so many nations agreed to provide their own superhumans as well as other troops to this international task force to go beyond this universe.

That being said there were some countries of the world that were not enthused, and wanted nothing to do with the hegemons' demands. In one particular city in one particular country, the response was indeed quite cold.

That city was Belgrade.

That country was Yugoslavia.

And so its Veliky Vozhd Black George, taking his name from an old national hero, refused any requests from foreign ambassadors.

Ambassador Howell had thought that something regarding the continued existence of the human species, and by extension his nation, would be amenable to compliance.

"These ... things do not seem like the types that would let you continue to exist."

Without another word Black George had expelled Howell, and indeed the entire American embassy staff. They flew back to Washington within a week.

Then the Veliky Vozhd decided that he had best demonstrate his power to the world.

The massive military parade through Belgrade was televised and covered extensively through state internet sites. The generals were there in all their regalia, the troops marched in formation, and behind them rumbled the tanks. Overhead flew fighters and bombers and helicopters and airborne superhumans.

And of course, the full powers of Black George were on display.

He shot beams wrecked surplus weapons bought from the Iranians or the North Koreans. It was a grand spectacle.

And then all the men and all the tanks were put on the borders, in case anyone dared trifle with the domain of Black George.

It's very much alive, just ruled by a superhuman dictator. 

Excerpt from an article in the Wiener Zeitung, December 27th, 2012, entitled Yugoslavia Undertaking Training Exercises near Border

The arrival of the so-called Stewards has had most of the nations of the world falling in with the major powers, with the exceptions of countries like our neighbor Yugoslavia. Black George, the superhuman dictator of the country since the 1990s, has resisted the call to send forces to the Stewards' wars elsewhere, and made a very clear statement against it with a military parade in Belgrade.

[...]

Yugoslavian planes have been spotted near the border between the Slovenian republic and Carinthia and Tyrol, in one case briefly going over the boundary at the Carinthian town of Bleiburg. Austrian and American planes have been on alert, but no violent action between the two sides has occurred.

[...]

Yugoslavian tanks, infantry, and superhumans have been sighted near the border, but well enough in Yugoslavian territory to prevent any international incident. That being said, the commander of American forces in Europe, Stephen Townsend, has put all forces in countries bordering Yugoslavia on high alert. Speaking from Prague, Townsend said that

"The United States has put its full faith in the Stewards and their reclamation efforts. International cooperation is required for the reconstruction of the planet to proceed, and not doing so puts our planet at risk of being assailed by extraterrestrial forces."

[...]

Amateur video feed has shown American aircraft escorting extraterrestrial craft from France and Spain to Austria, and landing at Modling Air Force Base. The US government has denied any Steward involvement, but this is not widely believed.

This is correct. 

  That's my fear as well.  Suspect they would be more accurately described as shepherds, preparing the sheep for sheering.

I would show them that while they can blast humanity from orbit, so can humanity punch back with what they have even if it is not enough to defeat the Stewards.

Well if the Stewards fire their orbital guns we will still die.