Timeline: 2014-2027

2014

• Second Soviet Civil War ends with the surrender of the last Old Guard-controlled ICBM site to Loyalist forces.
• True to their word, NATO forces begin to pull out of Russia.
• Leaders of the various Western powers meet in the newly reunited British Prime Minister's call for "a new alliance of Western nations."
• NATO and the European Common Market are dissolved in favor of the Western Alliance.
• Leaders of various Soviet political and ethnic groups meet at Kiev. These representatives formally dissolve the USSR and create seven independent Russian States in a loose confederation. They are:
  • The Democratic Republic of European Russia (formerly the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Moldavia, and parts of the USSR)
  • The People's Union of Kazakh
  • The Islamic Republic or Turkmen
  • The Soviet Socialist Republic
  • The Democracy of Yakut
  • The Magadan Socialist Republic
  • The Confederation of Free Orient Peoples
  The seven states begin a ten-year probationary period, after which the Western Alliance will consider making them members.

2018

• While working on a prototype fusion reactor at Stanford University, Professors Thomas Kearny and Takayoshi Fuchida notice anomalies inconsistent with known laws of physics. The two scientists publish "What Happened to the Universe When Einstein Wasn't Looking" in the September issue of The Western Alliance Journal of Theoretical Physics.

2019

• Kearny and Fuchida publish "Einstein's Theories: The Cooked And the Raw."

2020

• First full-scale fusion reactor is completed by a team of Harvard and MIT engineers and General Motors Corporation. The reactor exceeds all expectations.
• Kearny and Fuchida publish their famous paper entitled, "Now What?"

2021

• Kearny and Fuchida publish "Pan-Dimensionality." Other scientists consider the contents of these papers to be even more amusing than their titles. The two scientists are laughed out of their jobs and their profession.
• Professor Takayoshi Fuchida marries Katherine Kurita. Many generations later, the descendants of this marriage will rule one of the largest and most powerful interstellar realms.
• General Motors patents first commercially available fusion reactor.

2022

• China, the Hong Kong Collective, and the recently combined Korean States announce their intention to form the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. This action is seen as a direct threat to the Western Alliance. Both sides actively court Japan, the one country that could make the ACPS a rival to the Alliance. International tensions escalate.

2023

• January - The ACPS announces a naval blockade of Japan to "better present its case to the Japanese people, free them from the influence of Western venom-spreaders." The heavy pacifism of the Japanese leads them to decide not to fight the blockade unless absolutely necessary.
• April - Supplies airlifted from the Western Alliance are insufficient to make up for the effects of the ACPS blockade. The Japanese government collapses. Public sentiment is split evenly between the two alliances. The Emporer of Japan assumes temporary control and imposes rationing. He requests major assistance from the Western Alliance.
• May - First Western Alliance relief convoy leaves Pearl Harbor. It is composed of ships from both the U.S. and the Free Soviet Nations navies.
• ACPS says it will not back down.
• The Chinese cruiser Iron Flower runs over a surfaced Western Alliance submarine that had been scouting for the relief convoy. The submarine, the USS Bremerton, sinks with all hands.
• The Akagi and the Kongo, the two Japanese Defense Force destroyers closest to the incident, challenge the Iron Flower and order it to surrender. The Chinese cruiser opens fire. In the subsequent battle, the two Japanese ships destroy the Iron Flower, but not before the Akagi is sunk.
• The Japanese public sides with the Western Alliance. The Emporer frees the Japanese Defense Forces from its strict rules of engagement. The JDF begins immediate military actions against the blockading ships of the ACPS.
• The relief convoy enters Tokyo Harbor. Western Alliance forces in the Free Russian States and in the member-states of India are placed on a war footing.
• As both sides gird for war, the Japanese launch an intensive diplomatic effort.

2024

• The Osaka Agreement is announced early in the year. The accord provides fro the entry of Japan, China, and the Korean States into the Western Alliance, with the proviso that they retain the power to resolve some regional questions without need for Alliance approval.
• The Western Alliance accepts Japan, China, the Korean States, and the seven Russian States as members.
• Takayoshi Fuchida, his credibility as a physicist destroyed by his controversial work, returns in disgrace to Japan. He and his wife, Katherine Kurita, set up a small stationery and oragami supply shop in the poorer section of Tokyo.

2026

• First working fusion drive developed.

2027

• The AS Columbia, a fusion-powered spacecraft, voyages to Mars.