The Road to the New Frontier

Prologue: July 30, 2397, 13:20 GMT

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A signal came from Charon, the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto. Every single receiver in the solar system, besides the ones that had the sun stand between and Charon, had heard the message, all waking souls who could see the message had seen it, and those that hadn't would learn soon enough.

The massage was an image of a man of Caucasian ancestry and a slim build, a sign of a low gravity upbringing. He couldn't have been older than 40 years and he was dressed in a formal suit.

"Greetings from Charon." He said. "My name is Nathaniel Schlossberg and I am the leader of what many have called a terrorist organization, the Frontier Initiative." The man introduced himself.

"As we speak, a fleet of warships from Earth is on approach to our last refuge. They have no plans to take hostages, only to take what is ours, what by right should've belonged to everyone, but they plan to make it their own, and to use it to destroy their enemies on Mars and Titan and every other world in this system that would threaten their dominion."

"I speak of course of the science behind the devastating attacks that the Dominion of Titan inflicted upon the peaceful inhabitants of the People's Republic of Enceladus and the Republic of Rhea on December 20th, 2395. The technology to manipulate the fabric of spacetime, a device that had been considered science fiction for more than 430 years and a scientific possibility since the turn of the 21st century, but only recently was it made into reality."

"With this reality, a new frontier came within reach, the frontier of our galaxy, the frontier of the known universe. But it also brought with it a new age of warfare, an age of weapons of untold destructive potential, weapons that would make the Atom as a source of destructive energy as insignificant as a speck of gunpowder."

"The initiative was founded in 2071 with a simple mission statement, to prevent humanity's extinction or descent into oppression, we used to operate in the open, until the oppression became too much. I am sad to say that we have failed in our purpose, Earth is a theocratic dystopia, worshiping gods that were forgotten until someone in charge decided that they should be worshiped once more. Mars is a reincarnation of the Soviet Union with all the weaknesses and deficiencies that came with the ideology of communism, what was initially supposed to be a refuge from the corporate and theocratic overlords of Earth had become a stagnant, authoritarian society deprived of potential. And across the asteroid belt, Titan had become home to the worst of mankind, a fascist dictatorship that would stop at nothing until everything belongs to them."

"The only bastions of freedom left are growing more unstable due to the meddling of the three. The Venusian Free State is enduring its second year of civil war, the Republic of Ganymede is suffering from daily riots from dissatisfied citizens that demand an end to its neutrality and to choose a side in this conflict between the three powers and the Europan Free Enterprise Zone is all but defenseless against any aggression, it's libertarian communities while prosperous, are just not powerful enough to preserve their freedoms if either one of the powers comes for them."

"It has become clear that no matter which side in this three-way war prevails, there will be no place in this solar system for anyone looking for freedom and prosperity. Which is why the Initiative will leave the system."

"For the past 20 years, the Frontier Initiative, alongside various private institutions in the Europan Free Enterprise Zone have been working constructing a generational ship, the Invictus, which would carry 100,000 brave men and women to a new star system, with new worlds to inhabit, now places to call home. When Project Invictus began, we were expecting such a journey to take hundreds of years, now it would only take hundreds of days. The Alcubierre Warp Drive is our ticket to the stars, and now our ship is ready, in two days time it will leave the solar system, allowing at least some part of mankind to escape the tyranny of the three powers. I promise you one thing, governments of Earth, Mars and Titan, we will return one day to liberate the people you've oppressed, you may chase us but you will have no direction to go on, you'll have to search the entire galaxy to find us, and by the time you do, we will be ready for you."

The transmission ended and the entire human race was left wondering what the future held. Would the Initiative make good on their promise or would they keep running until they were certain that no one from the Solar System would ever find them.

On Earth, inside the White House, President of the United Nations of Earth Valentin De Haas was left in shock following the transmission, he dreaded what the response of the oligarchs and the grand council would be.

On Mars, in her office in New Berlin, Utopia Planitia, Angelina Baker, Premier of the Union of Martian Socialist Republics looked at her staff with a cold unyielding look in her eyes. "Should we strike now, or wait for them to finish us off?"

On Titan, underneath the dome that separated the inhabitants of Thule City from the ammonia snow above, the nameless Supreme Chancellor was holding a gun to his head, he had been contemplating suicide like another fascist leader at the end of his rope. Earth and Mars were going to curb-stomp his planet's defenses and no amount of false-flag attacks could give his forces enough breathing space to stand a chance of prevailing.

The Initiative's ignorance of Titan's imminent defeat did not exactly place him at ease, so much as remind him that there were so many mistakes that he made the could've been avoided. In the end, much like another war in Earth's not-too-distant past, a fascist dictatorship was toppled by the combined might of a communist and a capitalist power. The two victorious sides would most likely turn on each other so that history can repeat itself in full while his name would be remembered in infamy.

He put the pistol down on his desk and continued waiting for the end.

Three days later the generational ship Invictus would leave the confines of the Solar System and five months later, its passengers would become the first human beings to travel to another star system as they approached a gas giant orbiting the star Proxima Centauri.

This was mankind's new frontier and the road to it was not an easy one.

An overview of the UK 2020 Election, to tie you over until my overview of the 2020s as a whole.

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In 2015 the UK General elections saw the end of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, as the Conservatives earned a majority in seats in the House of Commons, while the Liberal Democrats lost many of their seats to a combination of the rise of the Scottish National Party and the public's growing dissatisfaction with the Lib Dems under Nick Clegg's leadership.

The failure of the Labour Party to regain the majority resulted in the resignation of Ed Milliband as the party leader and the subsequent appointment of the proud socialist and left-wing hardliner Jeremy Corbyn, a man that would prove controversial among the Labour supporters. And in the meantime Conservative leader and British Prime Minister David Cameron opted not to push his luck and declare that he would not run for government in the 2020 elections, his replacement George Osborne was likewise a controversial choice for the conservative Britons and was proving to be unpopular with the masses despite convincing the party to follow him.

In the aftermath of the Liberal Democrat meltdown, the newly appointed party leader Tim Farron was left to pick up the pieces of the party and prevent it from being dropped in the dustbin of political history, however after seeing how polarizing the two big parties' leaders were becoming, he saw an opportunity to attract Conservative and Labour voters dissatisfied with their party's leadership into his fold, redoubling his efforts to reclaim the seats they lost in 2015.

The announcement of Osborne as the leader of the Conservatives resulted in many conservatives defecting to the right-wing nationalist UK Independence Party (UKIP), which had grown increasingly driven following the results of the 2016 "Brexit" referendum being the British populace narrowly voting "yes" to remaining in the EU, and despite Osborne being more Eurosceptic than Cameron, he was seen by some as being "too soft" on the EU, resulting in UKIP's support across the nation increasing exponentially in the buildup to the election.

The results would surprise most:

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Government: 352 Seats

Labour Party: 259
Scottish National Party (SNP): 51
Liberal Democrats: 42

Opposition: 255 Seats

Conservative Party: 255

Third Parties: 42 Seats

UK Independence Party (UKIP): 18
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP): 6
Sinn Fein: 5
Plaid Cymru: 4
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP): 4
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP): 2
Green Party: 1
Independent: 2

Speaker: 1 Seat

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The election's result was of a no clear majority. Corbyn and Osborne's polarizing personalities would result in UKIP gaining many seats from disgruntled Conservatives, and the Lib Dems would regain much ground due to Farron successfully luring in many center-left moderates that were unsure of Corbyn and many Conservatives that disliked Osborne and disliked UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage even more.

Ultimately Labour had a tiny lead in terms of popular vote and seat numbers but nowhere close to enough for a majority government. For most of the election night Corbyn was hopeful that even though Labour would not earn a majority, the combined seats of the SNP, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Green Party would be enough to form a Progressive Coalition out of all the left-leaning parties in the UK. Unfortunately for Corbyn, the would-be Progressive Coalition would end up two seats short of a majority, resulting in Corbyn reaching out to the Lib Dem leader Tim Farron and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon in forming a triple coalition. An agreement between the three parties was reached, despite many Lib Dems being uncertain as to what would happen if they joined another Coalition, especially after their disastrous showing in 2015 but were willing to give Corbyn and the Labour party the benefit of the doubt and the Lib Dems ultimately decided to follow Labour's lead, with Sturgeon and Farron becoming First and Second Deputy Prime Ministers and four members of the SNP and Lib Dems each joining his cabinet.

Despite Corbyn's hopes of a Progressive Coalition being dashed, the left-leaning third parties would prove to be strong supporters to his center-left "Triple Coalition" resulting in Corbyn being given a chance to reform much of Britain's economy. Corbyn himself would in retrospect say that it was for the best not to have to take five different parties' opinions into consideration, especially when considering how left-leaning the Lib Dems were becoming under Farron's leadership.

However, a month after the election, the infamous "Week of Hell" happened, and Britain and the rest of the world would be changed forever.

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Party overview (for non-Brits):

The "Big Six": The biggest and most politically influential parties.

-- Labour Party: The basic center-left political party and as of 2016, the official opposition to the Conservative government. Known for establishing the National Health Service (NHS) and for the cabinet of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Currently headed by the very left-wing socialist Jeremy Corbyn who, as the update stated, is controversial with the Labour voting base due to his borderline extreme political views.

-- Conservative Party: The center-right party and currently the guys in charge of the UK. Known for giving Britain it's most popular (Winston Churchill) and most controversial (Margaret Thatcher) Prime Ministers. Currently led by Prime Minister David Cameron.

-- Liberal Democrats: The third wheel party. It is left-wing on some issues, right-wing on others and for the most part it doesn't stray far from the center of the political spectrum. Was given a chance to form a coalition with the Conservatives back in 2010 after a hung parliament could not produce a single-party majority. The result was the Lib Dems going from 57 seats in the House of Commons to 8 in 2015, in part because of its leader Nick Clegg going back on his promises and in part because of:

-- Scottish National Party (SNP): Unlike what reality might lead you to believe, nationalism is not always tied to right-wing politics. Such is the case with the Scottish National Party, which as the name suggests is a party of left-wing Scottish politicians who want their own country, currently has control over most of Scotland's constituencies (54 out of 59 to be exact) and since most of them belonged to the Lib Dems and Labour you can tell why the Conservatives got a majority in 2015.

-- UK Independence Party (UKIP): A.K.A. the right-wing "GTFO of Europe" party. In about a month and a half as of the time of writing UKIP will either be doing cartwheels of joy followed by swiftly following the British National Party into irrelevance due to Britain voting to leave the European Union or will be getting so angry that in four years time they'll get 17 more seats in Parliament. It has a shaky reputation as a party that attracts neo-conservative aging fossils and outright racists. Has one seat in Parliament.

-- Green Party: Its a green party, advocates green policies, has one seat in Parliament and it just sort of speaks for itself.

The "Oirish" Parties: Parties that only operate in Northern Ireland and have seats in the House of Commons.

-- Democratic Unionist Party (DUP): A right-wing conservative party based in Northern Ireland that supports it remaining as part of the UK. Not much to say about it.

-- Sinn Fein: A left-wing Irish nationalist party that dominated Ireland before it became it's own nation the same way the SNP is currently dominating Scotland, though I'm sure it won't lead to Scottish independence. It's still a major player in Northern Ireland's politics.

-- Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP): A slightly more centrist Irish nationalist party than Sinn Fein. The SDLP is for whatever reason competing with Sinn Fein for the Northern Irish, nationalist, left-wing vote.

-- Ulster Unionist Party (UUP): See the Democratic Unionist Party

The Welsh: Welsh parties in Parliament.

-- Plaid Cymru: The Welsh equivalent of Sinn Fein and the SNP (minus the popularity). Has 3 seats in Parliament.

The Rest: Parties that are going nowhere.

-- British National Party (BNP): A proto-UKIP with fascist political undertones. Has not been relevant for over a decade.

-- Britain First: See the BNP.

-- The Christian Party: The American Religious Right, but British and extremely unpopular.

-- Alliance Party: The Lib Dems, but Irish and considerably less popular.

-- English Democrats: The SNP crossed with the BNP, it's about as popular as the name would suggest.

And many others but I won't bother listing them here.

Some say that the road to the new frontier we face began on July 20th 1969, with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins' historic voyage to the moon. In reality it truly began in the third decade of the 21st century.

At that point in history, mankind stood at a crossroad, and it made a costly mistake, the Wronged Twenties, as they would be known to be called were an era of misunderstandings, wars without end and a future that seemed bleaker with each passing moment.

As we prepare to leave the confines of the Alpha Centauri system and begin our journey to the Capella system and hopefully the habitable worlds it may contain,, I ask of you to consider the lessons of the past, in particular a lesson that free speech is good, but irresponsible speech can lead to disaster.

-- Nathaniel Schlossberg, 1st State of the Odyssey Speech, March 20th 2398.

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In the year 2020 the world was on the brink of war, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant continued to struggle in Syria against the Russia-backed regime of President Assad and the US-backed secular rebels. Despite having a common enemy, the rebels were unwilling to end the hostilities with Assad's government, driving a wedge between Russia and the US as the two nations were essentially fighting a proxy war and the world was beginning to condemn them for doing so. Despite US President Donald Trump's best efforts to smooth things over, Russian President Dimitri Medvedev remained adamant that the US's continued attempts to subvert Assad's authority are actions against the interests of his nation. Trump was now considering withdrawing his nation's support for the rebels and just focusing on the ISIL front in Iraq, which over the last four years had remained mostly stagnant thanks to a Russia-lead coalition's intervention, in part so that he could continue his plan of improving the ailing relations with Russia and in part because of his apathy as to any outcome of the Syrian Civil War that didn't involve ISIL's victory.

Trump's approval ratings as of early June 2020 according to the Gallup polls were at 41%, with many on the left despising him for his repeated but ultimately futile attempts (thanks to a Democrat-controlled Senate and a House split almost evenly down the middle) to lower the federal minimum wage and some members of the right, growing to dislike him for doing relatively little to combat the illegal immigration issues, despite highlighting them as a first priority problem to be tackled by his administration. Both of Trump biggest rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, had began to condemn what they had perceived as his broken promises, while over on the left, the Democrats, having realized their mistake in backing Hilary Clinton, were throwing their lot behind a very driven Joe Biden, who was quickly becoming the only possible nominee for the Democratic Presidential Candidate, swiftly crushing former New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and returning presidential nominee Martin O'Malley in the Democratic Primaries.

Unfortunately the third week of June 2020 would be remembered in infamy.

Monday, June 15 - Progress Faced a Stumbling Block:

News broke out that Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden had suffered a heart attack, while leaving a democratic convention in Chicago, Illinois. He was rushed to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he remained in critical condition throughout the week. Many Democrats across the nation took to social media to express their support for him and his family and wishing him a speedy recovery. To America's surprise even Donald Trump tweeted about the incident and wished Biden's family well. An act which was seen by some as Trump showing his opponents much needed respect but also by others as a sad attempt at boosting his approval with fake sympathy given his repeated attacks against him throughout the latter half of the presidential race.

At the same time, an announcement came from self-described democratic socialist David Hales, CEO of Valiant-Hales Inc., one of the newest and fastest growing pharmaceutical companies, having grown famous by drastically underbidding Turing Pharmaceuticals (post Martin Shkreli's price hike) in supplying an almost-equally as effective alternative to Daraprin called Coraphine for an incredibly low price (by comparison) of 16$ a tablet.

Hales announced his own run for President for the newly formed Democratic Socialist Party of America, formed by a bitter Bernie Sanders after his failure in the 2016 presidential race, but who himself chose not to seek his party's nomination due to his advancing age and poor health. His running mate would be fellow DSP presidential nominee, and former Democratic congressman for Illinois and prolific hip-hop musician, Kanye West. The fledgling party was picking up a lot of traction following the Democratic failure of the 2016 election and had Ballot Access to exactly 270 Electoral Votes, theoretically Hales could've won the election if he carried every state his party was on the ballot.

Unfortunately Hales' approval would poll against Biden (48%) and Trump (41%) at 11%, considerably higher than the average third-party candidate but nowhere near enough to make victory in the election plausible.

Tuesday, June 16 - Social Struggle:

In response to latest ISIL threats to the UK, recently elected Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn gave a public speech in front of the recently constructed 2018 London attacks memorial. His speech, having been attended by First Deputy Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon and First Secretary of State Tom Watson, however was interrupted by two shooters, later identified as being affiliated with ISIL firing at the Prime Minister's podium and the people next to him, wounding Corbyn as well as fatally shooting Sturgeon and Watson, as well as two aides, before being taken down. The attackers were apprehended and sentenced to life of imprisonment, on charges of murder and conspiracy to assassinate governmental officials.

Corbyn was quickly wheeled to the nearest hospital where it was announced that his condition was stable and that he was expected to make a full recovery from the shot, which had missed vital organs.

Second Deputy Prime Minister Tim Farron would take up the role of acting Prime Minister until Corbyn's full recovery three weeks later, in an address to the nation he would try to reassure the British people that the UK government will do everything in their power to ensure the safety of the British people and that further acts of terrorism will result in a more aggressive response, while stating that tomorrow June 17th, is to be declared a day of mourning for the four people lost to this attack.

Wednesday, June 17 - The Tweets that Changed the World:

In the aftermath of Joe Biden's hospitalization and Jeremy Corbyn's failed assassination attempt, the internet was blowing up with conspiracy theories, it was all too convenient that two left-wing politicians would face separate life threatening incidents within the space of two days, with many people claiming that Trump orchestrated Biden's heart attack to ensure that his biggest rival for the next four years in the Oval Office was out of the way, as well as staging a false flag attack on the UK Prime Minister to get the country more actively involved in the war with ISIL.

Political commentator and documentary filmmaker Peter Joseph, known for his controversial Zeitgeist documentary trilogy, would take up to twitter and say "The elite is losing and they know it. That's why they tried removing Biden and Corbyn. #ZeitgeistUK".

The Joseph tweet would be retweeted 100,000 times over the course of several months and would serve to boost his Zeitgeist Movement out of relative obscurity, with many likeminded individuals across the western world expressing their support.

Somewhere else on Twitter, right-wing political commentator Paul Joseph Watson had this to say: "This is what happens when PC libtards and cuckservatives dictate our border regulations.", "What happens when you let terrorists in because you're too scared to be seen as racist.", "We shouldn't stop speaking until all of them return to where they belong." Watson's tweets would likewise prove to be very prolific amongst UKIP supporters and other fringe right-wing groups across the UK but also would result in a lot of backlash from mainstream conservatives and liberals. A user by the name of @gregthecuck would say: "Yes listen to the girly fascist, he knows best." The resulting "twitter war" between nationalists and more mainstream conservatives and liberals resulted in a substantial amount of xenophobic tweets aimed at Muslim population, as well as many personal attacks against Watson and members of various nationalist right-wing parties like UKIP and the British National Party.

In a YouTube video posted late in the day, Watson would continue to lambast both Labour and Conservative politicians for not doing enough to prevent such attacks from happening in the first place, his rant was likewise perceived by many to contain a strong xenophobic and anti-Muslim undercurrent, culminating in Watson proposing that all Muslims should be deported or at least monitored. "Once again I'll be perceived as racist, or xenophobic, just because I have my nation's best interests in heart, but there is no denying that anyone associated with that barbaric, backward faith could be a threat to our country."

His rant would make him a very controversial figure, with many on the hardline right rallying in his support, while many on the moderate right and mainstream left dismissing or outright condemning his opinions.

Thursday, June 18 - Where's my Riot Shield?:

As a result of Corbyn's assassination attempt, and the ensuing increase in anti-Muslim sentiment across the nation, thousands of British Muslims took to the streets to stage protests in front of the regional HQs of UKIP and the BNP across London and many parts of England. Onlookers would tweet and journalists would report seeing the protestors holding signs which made statements including but not limited to the following. "This is our nation too.", "We are not terrorists.", "Peaceful until proven otherwise.", "We think ISIL/ISIS is wrong too.", etc. and generally had no antagonistic or confrontational language to them.

The protestors were also observed to be very calm and organized and did nothing to cause public property damage or to physically assault members of the UKIP and BNP parties as they entered and exited the buildings.

However at about 14:44 GMT, five hours into the protest, a group of UKIP supporters would stage a counter-protest in front of UKIP's London HQ and the confrontation quickly turned violent resulting in the police arriving on the scene to end the hostilities.

There were many conflicting eyewitness accounts as to who began the fight first, with some saying that it was the UKIP counter-protest members that attacked first and others saying that it was the Muslims but video recordings would prove that it was indeed a Muslim that ignited the powder keg which would result in dozens of people injured on both sides and one Muslim fatality.

As news of the incident began to spread across the nation, many of the protests quickly turned violent, with UKIP's HQ in Birmingham taking the worst of the brunt with thousands of pounds worth of property damage incurred by angry rioters throwing bricks and other heavy objects through windows and 13 people being injured before the police could contain the riot.

The June 18th riots would serve to worsen the tensions between the Muslim population and the nationalist movements in the UK, with many Muslims taking to social media to say that the nationalists provoked them into a riot and then killed one of them.

An anonymous Muslim, using sound editing software to disguise their voice, would post a video on YouTube in which they would call for a jihad against the Nationalists, "who are enemies of Islam and the Prophet." Their message would serve to further aggravate and drive the British nationalist sentiment.

The deceased Muslim's identity remained anonymous and his killer, 24 year old Benjamin Powers, would be arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of involuntary manslaughter. His prosecution would cause a substantial backlash from right-wing movements who had seen his sentence as being too harsh and more proof that the government and the justice system was being pro-Muslim.

The day ended with acting Prime Minister Tim Farron, once again addressing the nation and imploring the citizens of Great Britain not to antagonize each-other and not to allow xenophobia or racism to blind them from the facts that the vast majority of UK's Muslim population is peaceful and holds no ill-will towards the British natives and their cultures and values. He would end the speech by condemning those involved in the protests on both sides that are responsible for the riots in London and across the country. "The Muslim population is entitled to their right to protest, and the Nationalist individuals who saw themselves as patriots and proud citizens of our nation had the right to counter-protest. What neither side had the right to do was to engage in physical confrontations that is not only costing our nation much in property damage, but also costs us a single life that could've gone on if only both sides had not given in to violence."

As a response to the address, Paul Joseph Watson would tweet: "You're wrong, he would've lived had he not come here." A tweet that likewise would attract much controversy, with another twitter user replying to his tweet by saying "You're just a walking controversy machine aren't you Watson."

Friday, June 19 - Friday the 13th, Only 6 Days Late:

An update on Joe Biden's condition came in the early afternoon, he was recovering and was currently being monitored by hospital staff to ensure that he has recovered fully before being discharged.

There was talk nationwide as to what would happen to Biden, rumours came about that he was going to drop out of the presidential race out of concerns for his health, resulting in it becoming a two-way race between O'Malley and Booker, neither of which were polling against Trump as well as Biden.

Today the UK was learning that while the Muslims were rioting in their streets (regardless of being provoked by Nationalists or not), Russia was enduring riots of their own. The Crimean civil war, between the Ukrainian nationalist movements that began to emerge towards the end of 2016 and the Russian occupation forces was becoming very unpopular in its third year, with many Russians learning of just how high civilian casualties truly were (estimated to be around 29,000 at the start of June 2020), especially since many of them were the Russian minority that the annexation of Crimea was supposed to protect. The war was being perceived as being less about protecting the interests of their people and more about Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dimitri Medvedev trying to expand their new Russian Empire.

Despite the government telling its people that the Ukrainians are to blame for the high civilian casualties many sources of information from across the front lines would state otherwise, namely vlogs from angry Ukrainians, containing their own media's coverage of the conflict, which the Russian government would claim is propaganda.

Much of the populace however was not accepting Putin and Medvedev's statements, regardless of their truthfulness or not, and anti-war protests began to break out across the country on Tuesday the 16th that continued throughout the week, culminating in full blown riots in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Volgograd as the sun began to set on Thursday the 18th as a result of the police attempting to break them up violently and continued throughout the night, with socialist anti-government militias taking over the Volgograd City Duma building and taking numerous hostages. The militia leader would demand that all Russian forces withdraw from Crimea at once and allow its people to choose whether they want to join Russia, Ukraine or become and independent nation in a fair referendum, dismissing the results of the 2014 referendum as "rigged and unverifiable".

Prime Minister Putin refused to give in to the militia's demands and the hostage situation would continue throughout the rest of the week.

Elsewhere in the world Category 4 Hurricane "Felicia" passed through Surry County, Virginia and inflicted substantial damage to the Surry County Nuclear Station, FEMA quickly descended on scene and attempted to contain the resulting meltdown while evacuating as many people from the surrounding area as possible but with the hurricane inflicting much damage to roadways the evacuation was slow and many people could not be brought to a safe enough distance in time.

The meltdown resulted in massive radiation clouds carried by wind currents east towards Richmond, Virginia. The city's slow evacuation resulted in many of its citizens being caught in a radioactive rain and despite government officials warning people to stay out of the rain, preliminary estimates would suggest that somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000 people were subjected to some sort of radiation exposure.

Saturday, June 20 - This is Turning into a Week of Hell:

While the hurricane Felicia itself would claim 42 lives and result in 554 injuries, the direct casualties of the first day of radiation exposure totalled at 63 and according to FEMA that number would rise over the next few weeks. FEMA would also issue a warning to all of the Eastern United States, urging people to stay indoors and avoid rain at all costs.

Between the hospitalization of Joe Biden, the attempted assassination of Jeremy Corbyn, the June 18th Riots in the UK and Russia and now the Hurricane Felicia and the Surry County Meltdown, the media had began to dub the 3rd week of June as "the Week of Hell". President Trump would address the nation and try to reassure the citizens of the United States that the worst was over, that the Meltdown would be contained and that what happened in Britain and Russia would not happen in America. He would also state that he would look over the Surry County incident and see if there was a way to ensure that such hurricane-caused meltdowns can't happen again.

Over on the Russian front of the Week, the Volgograd hostage crisis continued with the militia leader once again demanding the pullout of all Russian troops from Crimea and adding the additional demand of the dissolution of the United Russia party and an end to "big tent" politics in the Russian government. "Putin has a monopoly on Russia, he successfully conned everyone into following him by promising just enough to everyone. In the end he delivers very little but it doesn't matter, because his biggest opposition is comprised of Communists and Nazis and nobody wants the Soviet Union to happen again or for Zhirinovsky to take power. I implore the people of Russia to turn against this despot to vote for everyone but him and the other two." The leader's speech was uploaded to YouTube in its entirety, with the leader saying that the hostages will only be harmed if the government attempts to rescue them but will not be released unless the militia's demands were met, and as a show of good faith had one hostage, a 22 year-old intern, released unharmed on camera. It would be seen hundreds thousands of times before the government could take it down. It was futile as many people had already downloaded it and re-uploaded it to their accounts forcing the government to shut down access to YouTube in attempt to contain it while state-sponsored media would attempt to spin the story to make the militia look like they were planning on killing all of the hostages by the end of tomorrow and made no mention of the released hostage, nor of their condemnation of Putin and United Russia.

The ruse was only partially successful, many people who hadn't seen the unedited speech were fooled but many bloggers and younger Russians, were taking to every social forum and social media website that the government hadn't shut access to, to voice their disgust at Putin trying to further demonize people already guilty of terrorism just so that he could make himself look better.

One blogger would say "Putin has gone full on Right-wing, at this point United Russia is no longer a party of Big Tent politics, it simply pretends to be one. I'm voting for A Just Russia next time and I expect all of you to do the same."

Another would say: "Simply disgusting, Putin's attempts to make his enemies look bad is only serving to undermine his image even more."

A third would say: "These guys are going to jail anyway, I may agree with what they're saying but I don't agree with their methods. Putin's attempts to make them look worse is only serving to make him look worse. I'm done with him and United Russia, I want the Soviet Union back. At least they were upfront with not allowing us freedom of speech."

In any case the lack of YouTube access served to make Putin's side of the story very suspect to many younger Russians and his approval polls with the younger demographics would take a hit as a result.

Over on the UK side, Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn addressed the nation for the first time since the assassination attempt from his hospital bed. He would state that his attempts at rejoining EU's open- would continue. This was very first act of his cabinet, in an attempt to rebuild Britain's economic ties with Europe following the 2016's renegotiation deal closing the UK's borders despite still being part of the Union and the subsequent minor unemployment-caused recession due to several foreign businesses pulling out.

His decision was rooted in the fact that closed borders did nothing to stop the terrorists from infiltrating the nation but would prove controversial across the political board, but would be especially hated by the UKIP supporter base.

Sunday, June 21 - Going to Church Won't Cut It:

An update on the Volgograd hostage situation came in the form of Prime Minister Putin announcing that a successful operation was carried out which neutralized or apprehended all the militia members and rescued all the hostages. Putin would go on to state that he is determined to find the leaders of the socialist militias and bring them to justice.

However the dissatisfaction of the public with the civil war remained, even if it was more subdued and the resulting mass arrests of "domestic terrorists" as well as the government implicating several members of the center-left A Just Russia party and left-wing to far-left Communist Party (including their leaders Sergey Mironov and Gennady Zyuganov, respectively) in assisting the socialist terrorists responsible for the Volgograd City Duma takeover.

Many younger Russians were beginning to suspect Putin of using the hostage situation as an excuse to get rid of his political enemies.

Today it was also made clear that Biden would withdraw from the race. In a statement he would say: "I should've done this four years ago. Now it's too late for me. I wish O'Malley and Booker all the best against Trump. May the best Democrat win the nomination." By the end of next week, Gallup polls would show Trump's approval ratings at 39% against Booker (37%) and Hales (18%) and at 41% against O'Malley (31%) and Hales (20%).

The Aftermath:

The "Week of Hell" would serve to have profound effects throughout the rest of the decade. UKIP's support would increase over the next months as tensions between the Muslim population of Britain and militant UKIP and BNP supporters would escalate, resulting in an upsurge of hate crimes perpetrated by both sides.

Radiation unleashed from the Surry County meltdown would be attributed to the cancer cases that killed over 10,000 people and potentially irradiated crops did cause a food scare that lasted for a few years but there was no conclusive evidence that it contributed to the minor increase in cancer rates that the mid-2020s would experience.
The Russian lower classes' growing dissatisfaction with the ruling United Russia party and Vladimir Putin in particular would result in a very chaotic 2024 election, whose outcome would be unexpected.

And as the 2020 election in the united states was fast approaching Cory Booker secured the Democratic Party's nomination, pitting him against a still unpopular but better polling incumbent president on one front and a die-hard socialist that was sure to draw votes away from him on the other.