A World in Chaos (The Great World Wide Earthquake of 1977)

From Alternative History

All history seems to be the same as in our timeline up until that day in 1977, except the 1906 California Earthquake never happened, meaning that over the course of 71 years, pressure was building and building; so much so that when it ruptured in 1977 the whole world paid dearly for it!

The quake happened on April 19, 1977. The entire world was turned upside down. The Empire State building collapsed, the Hoover dam broke, It was chaos.

One - Nine Months Later

Unable to deal with the pressure of the world situation, President Jimmy Carter steps down from the Presidency and His vice president, Walter Mondale, takes the seat. He believed that tougher leadership was needed in the time of crisis. The Congress was very much against everything he proposed and vice-versa. The feud between the Executive and legislative branches became so heated that the Congress, for political reasons and nothing to do with the law, planned to impeach the President. Before they could do anything the President himself commands a military unit to over run Capitol Hill, and does so with ease. With little to no opposition he sets up a new government with him at the head of both the executive and legislative branches.

Meanwhile,Europe, a continent barely recovered from World War 2, has been all but destroyed. Buildings demolished to nothing but rubble; governments collapsing under the economic strain of trying to rebuild; the crime rate sky rockets and the death toll is unimagineable. Taking advantage of the situation, 5 months after a group calling themselves the Peacemen start over running small communities then the cities and then the country. Their leader is named Massimo DeCavalli. His tactics, however, are anything but peacful. He slaughters all who get in His way. He is absolutely ruthless when it comes to meeting out his goal. The armies that come against them are more often than not destroyed within hours. And when he sets up his regime in a conquered region he is merciless when seeking out "justice". His favorite form of execution: Crucifixion.

When Britain sees what's happening on the continent it summons up all the strength it can muster to break the Peacemen.

March, 1978: The First Shots of War are Heard

With DeCavalli's army in the heart of Germany, the United Kingdom makes its move in an attempt to defeat the Peacemen. By now however Massimo's forces had grown so large and well-trained (through threats of torture and execution) that at every encounter any sort of defense is futile. By the end of March Britain had suffered the loss of over 3,000 military personnel.

Summoning the US, Prime Minister Callaghan begs for support to defeat the conquerors. He points out that if Britain were to fall there would be no stopping the Peacemen from overrunning the eastern shore of the US. Mondale agrees to enforce a draft requiring all able people from 17-40 to enlist in a branch of the military. By July the US was ready to support Britain. But it was too late; the Peacemen had overrrun England.

July, 1978 - May 1979: One Disaster after Another