The Grande Esercito Invades Russia

The state of TIAH

June 24th, 2006

in 1812, Italian Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte invades Russia with his Grande Esercito, a force of half a million men gathered from across Buonaparte's continental possessions. The Russians, seeing no way of defeating the mighty Italian force in a head-on confrontation, began a program of burn and retreat – leaving the Italians no supplies to loot from the locals and denying the Little Roman a battle in which he could decimate the Russian defenders. It wasn't until winter began, and Napoleon was forced to return to Rome, that the Russians began to attack, and in the snow they were far deadlier fighters than the Grande Esercito. By the time Buonaparte was able to bring his forces home to Rome, his half-million man army had been reduced to a mere 100,000.

in 1948, in a move that almost heats up the Cold War between the Soviet States of America and the European monarchies, the constant incursions of capitalists into the People's Democracy of Eastern Germany, under American control since the Great Patriotic War, force the Soviets to block travel into West Berlin from the monarchies. Berlin had been partitioned into a capitalist west and communist east by a hastily arranged treaty at the end of the war, in order to keep the SSA from claiming it all. With this foothold in the People's Democracy, the monarchies had been attempting to brainwash the Eastern Germans into believing that they were less free under communism than they would be as vassals to a reactionary feudal system. Although only a tiny percentage of the People's Democracy ever actually fled to West Berlin and then outside the PDEG, America felt that the harassment was bad enough to warrant sealing off their East German comrades from such harmful influence. Although the program was halted after the monarchies began using planes to bombard the Berliners with food and propaganda, it did lead to the formation of the great wall sealing off West Berlin from East Germany.

in 2017, the Pokor, the Quarai ship carrying the golden device that brought the human crew of the Eagle to the Amandara system, reaches the safe distance they had desired and set up their experiment with the crew of the human ship. Commander Patterson is still concerned that no one really understands what the device is capable of, and advises caution to her own team members who are assisting the Quarai scientists. Dr. Stephen Hayazowa, the Eagle's nuclear specialist, tells Commander Patterson, “Look, Commander. I don't think that an advanced society would make such a thing capable of blowing up – what purpose would that serve? No, it's much more likely that an accident will simply propel us all to some unknown destination.” That doesn't make the commander very happy, either. “This system is perfect for maintaining life – what if we end up someplace that's the space equivalent of the Sahara?” Dr. Hayazowa shrugged. “Then I guess we try like crazy to get it to jump us someplace else.” Commander Patterson assumed her position at the controls of the Eagle while the human and Quarai scientists ran their experiment on the device. To everyone's astonishment, the device began glowing, and both ships were enveloped in a great white glow.

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