Ok, finally we are getting started

. After thinking carefuly the timeline for some days, its finally done!!!
Here's the Chapter ZERO. It's based and deeply inspired on "The Story So Far... A Shattered World" which is BattleGoat's original storyline for the Shattered World Scenario in the game. As you'll see the events here are parallel to the ones of Shattered World.
I tried to develop this storyline as realistically as possible as I could

. I hope you enjoy this one, there's more coming this weekend cause I'll start the campaign and Episode 1.
It would be nice and I would be grateful if those who read this could post some comments and opinions

. I'd like to thank to those who are reading this AAR which is in its introductory stages

.
NOW!!! Let the Speculative Fiction Begin!!!!!!
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Chapter ZERO- A Shattered World: The Path to 2020November 2011-Drug War Escalates in Central MexicoAltought the Government continued putting its efforts on fighting the drug cartels, the situation started to worsen as corruption, unenployment and criminality raised continuously in the eastern coast of Mexico thus spreading the consequences to the central area. The once northern focus of the drug war was broken as some of the cartels managed to stablish their power in strategic locations near the capital. The cassualties raised terribly, this time, over 30,000 were reported dead or disappeared during the year. Development oportunities commenced to lower.
March 2012-Political Scandal Raises Tensions in Pre-Electoral CampaignAs the three main political forces PRI (Centre), PAN (Centre-Right), and PRD (Left Wing) prepared and named their candidates to the presidency, the public communications media got plagued by the topic. The PRI had been growing in influence during the last decade as the PAN showed its inefficiency in ruling the country and the PRD was experiencing internal difficulties as discussions between members of the party were intensifing. The PRI launched a massive propaganda campaign which let it got advantage over its opponents. In late March it was discovered that the party had been using a higher budget than the reglamentary stablished by the law, surpasing it by nearly one hundred and fifty million pesos (almost fifty million dollars), the PRD denounced such irregularities inmediatly but lack of proof made them useless as neither the PAN or the Federal Government members agreed totally on such controversy. Protests filled the streets in the capital since then.
July 2012-Severe Controversies Arise During Electoral ProcessAs the electoral process was being held, uncertanity and despair arised in the political factions and the society. Riots had been ocurring in the capital a month before the elections were held, protesters acused a political conspirancy by economical, empresarial and financial elites to commit fraud during the process. Vote inspectors were discovered manipulating the electoral packages in several municipalities. Once again, the lack of proof or investigation by federal police was the obstacle and the acusations were considered as “attempts against the democratic process”. At the end of the day the final result was given in public media... The Hegemonic party had recovered its power again...
March 2013-Rampant Corruption Rules Mexican GovernmentSuddenly, the PRI ordered to dissolve many of the worker's syndicates across the country, this action outraged the public in many cases, but gave benefits to the big bussiness companies and enterprises which took advantage on the situation. There was no doubt that the economical elites had intervened in last year's elections... As the drug war continued, it was obvious that given the nature of the conflict it was going to last for a long time, possibly during various decades. Then, the government decided to stablish top secret “negotiations” with some of the cartel's leaders, the war took a new form as this time some of the cartels were supported by the government to fight the other ones, in exchange, the supported mafias would get their interests protected by the government via a “Non Interference Policy”. Soon, corrupt politicians got their power positions backed by both, the drug traders and federal forces. Some others, the “lucky ones”, were enought wealthy to finance their own secret police units and in some cases, even their paramilitary forces.
September 2013-National Liberation Coalition FoundedBy the second half of the year it was clear that the opposition Parties wouldn't recover their lost popularity soon. Some of them vanished completely, others tried to held what was left of them. Political initiative commenced to rise in the discontent sectors of the population. There had to exist a strong opposition force if a change was wanted. The National Liberation Coalition was founded as a leftist and opposition party in order to defeat the overwhelming PRI influence during the next elections on 2018. The Party continued to grow constantly as civilians and ex-members from other parties joined the cause. Perhaps the most “curious” feature of the party was that, while being absolutely leftist, it oposed itself to accept the classic and modern socialist, anarchist and communist ideas, labeling them as tyranic and opressive, the party members, instead voted to create its own ideology, one that could perfectly fit the national situation.
May 2014-Mexican Drug War “Ends”As the “Non Interference Policy” gave its fruits, several cartels collapsed early on 2014. In May it was announced on national news that the rest of the drug leaders (those supported by the government) had been either captured or killed during massive operatives by the special forces. The truth was that by telling such false news, the government was fulfilling its pact with the remaining cartels as their leaders were given inmense inmunity by being protected in this way, the hypothesis was “If they are supposedly death, there's no way to look for them anymore”. This gave great benefits to the economy as the tourism industry returned to work at its full potential. Neverthless, this was at the cost of completely plaguing the national politics with the already overwhelming corruption. Cartels continued their operations in the darkness, backed by corrupt paramilitary forces and secret police units, thus benefiting their own economy by the demand of drugs in the United States and Canada. The army was withdrawn from the streets.
October 2014-The NLC's Political Force on the Rise... The Party “Confrontates” the GovernmentAs the popularity of the National Liberation Coalition was growing, peaceful protests were guided across the country. Countless public speeches were held in several places, this had a great effect on the most affected sectors of the population (low and middle classes and indigenous people mainly), as a consequence, the Coalition raised its influence and began making acusations (supported by evidence) against the Federal Government. As expected, such acusations were obviously denied by the government which in the international stage, claimed that the democraticaly choosen order was in danger by extremist and radical groups.
February 2015-Civil Unrest in MexicoReports appeared, telling that national economy was increasing its level, nevertheless, despite telling the truth, the economical growth didn't mirrored its effects on the middle and lower classes. Wealth distribution became even more irregular than it was on past years. Once again, the NLC guided the opposition during marches in the capital. The internal politics and social situation continued to destabilize as clashes became common between protesters and security forces. The situation became generalized in the economicaly poor southwestern states (Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacán).
July 2015-National Liberation Coalition labeled as “Terrorist Organization”Early on July, the government coninued to lose control over the population and when the situation became insupportable it decided to react without waiting anymore, then the government requested assistance from the CIA. The mexican government was favourable to american interests as the private sector was given privileges and the petroleum was being sold at reduced prices, not to mention, that the least thing the US wanted was a communist-inspired coup like those of the Cold War, it was decided that a small group of CIA agents were to be deployed to cooperate with the mexican government against the NLC. A terrorist attempt happened on July 14th, a bomb exploded in Mexico near the National Palace (it is the seat of the federal executive in Mexico) killing 10 people and injuring other 17, it was, indeed, a false flag attempt to be blamed on the NLC. Late on that same month an operation was conducted to completely disable the opposition party, on July 25th “Operation Black Thunder” was launched, the objectives were to take control over the administration centers and the headquaters of the National Liberation Coalition and capture the leaders of the movement in that day's night. A coordination error revealed the operation to members of the NLC as a group of paramilitary forces attacked their objective several minutes before the rest. The information was inmediatly spread over the members of the party across several states, many were evacuated (including the leaders of the social movement), several others were killed trying to resist as the paramilitary forces opened fire against the opposers. The operation ended in a bloodbath... The Headquaters of the National Liberation Coaliton were taken.
November 2015-Mexican Civil War Breaks OutAs many managed to escape during Operation Black Thunder, the remnants of the party were radicalized and the movement evolved into an uprising against the government in the form of urban guerrilla warfare. Since the past July, the members of the NLC organized the movement and achieved to get cuban support, in September a new communist government seized power in Moscow, the NLC sent a delegate to Moscow in October, partial support was obtained from Russia. Civil war broke out in the Central and South Eastern areas of the country, the conflict would intensify over the upcoming months.
February 2016-NATO Considers Intervention in the Mexican IssueThe North Atlantic Council began to consider making an intervention in Mexico in order to stop the rising violence. Economical unstability across the European economies was the only thing preventing an intervention. At the end, the initiative was discarded.
June 2016-Yucatan Declares IndependenceThe civil war continued to ravage across the country. The main focus of the war was in the capital, where the urban landscape worked in favor of the rebel forces, the army centered its efforts on protecting the capital, meanwhile, taking advantage of this, the continuous guerrilla ofensives in the south eastern states managed to collapse some of the regional governments, the Yucatan peninsula fell under the hands of the rebels which declared the independence of the Republic of Yucatan, the new republic sent its revolutionary forces to its border and focused its resources on supporting the revolutionary struggle in Central Mexico.

May-2017-US Sparks International CrisisWith the return of the Manifest Destiny in the US, Canada and Mexico decided to close their borders. European powers began to airdrop units to aid in the defense of Canada, meanwhile, the mexican government got diplomatic support from Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Spain. The mexican army had to split its forces to accomplish both tasks, the defense of the country and the containment of the rebels, this weakened the government's resistance efforts which began to face continuous failure.
International pressure against the US was the only thing saving Mexico and Canada from a military invasion.
September 2017-Monterrey City Captured by NLC's ForcesOn the night of September 5th, the rebel guerrillas launched a massive ofensive over the city of Monterrey which was considered as an economical strategic point. Armored units helped with air support managed to inflict massive cassualties against the numerically superior rebel forces. The 5 hour long battle ended with rebel forces encircling the armored forces, thus forcing them to retreat. Rebels took over the city, nevertheless this was a pyrrhic victory with cassualties on the rebels being counted over five hundred, in contrast, the army lost less than thirty soldiers. Over the next days the army launched sporadic attacks which almost put the rebels on the brink of defeat.
May 2018-Battle for Mexico CityWith the Yucatan peninsula and the city of Monterrey under rebel control, the army began to demoralize while rebels captured strategic points next to the capital. Rebel groups continued spontaneous engagements in the capital. In february, the city of Toluca fell under rebel control, continuous offensives were launched against the capital in the next month. The battle for Mexico City started in May, government members were evacuated to Veracruz where the war efforts continued to be organized. The battle endured for several days, from May 7th to May 16th. Finally, the remaining forces surrendered.
July 2018-Mexican Army Loyalty Level LowersWith the rebel forces on the advantage, soldiers commenced to defect from the army. Many were the ones who joined the rebel forces, and few were the ones that were joining the rebel forces since the start of the war. Now, it were the rebel forces who were on the ofenssive, while federal forces were put in defensive stance in a desperate attempt to turn back the course of the war.
November 2018-Federal Government CollapsesThe inminent defeat of the federal forces was unavoidable. Many members of the government decided to leave the country before the rebels could capture them, the president escaped to the United States, leaving the leadership to the National Defense Secretary who decided to surrender in order to avoid an useless and bloody last stand.
October 2018-Union of National Restoration (UNR) CreatedAfter a month-long continuous discussion, the new ruling force decided to create the “Union of National Restoration”, in other worlds, that's how the newly stablished government would be called, making strong emphasis on the reconstruction of the national infrastructures, the economy, the political structure, and the introduction of reforms in all aspects of the country. No president or identifiable authority was choosen to take the lead. Elections were to be held on December 2019 so the elected candidate could take power in January 2020. The Republic of Yucatan returned to the Mexican Federation.
From December 2018 to October 2019-The UNR Launches National Restabilization CampaignThe unemployment was one of the main concerns after the war, this was solved in the creation of jobs during the reconstruction program that the government launched in order to recover the damaged infrastructures, repare the deteriorated structures, build new facilities and more. The reconstruction and creation of new factories helped people to keep a job in them. The government managed to control poverty in this way. The economy had to be pushed and forced at its max limits in order to speed up the restabilization process.

The sales of petroleum greatly helped the treasury to afford social spending and free healthcare campaings and the restoration of free education. Mexico stablished close relations with the nations in Central America, Cuba and its new main trading partner, Moscow.
World's unstability meant that the country had to rebuild its decreased army in order to stand a chance in any possible future military conflict. The government encouraged new recruits to join the army, the high military salaries helped a lot in acomplishing this task.

The US final collapse in the mid 2019 spread economical crisis around the world. The mexican government was barely able to resist the incoming effect which produced negative effects on the treasury, it was again the rich petroleum reserves the ones that saved the country. But now, the main concern wasn't the economy at all as tensions raised with the Pro-Manifest Destiny territories that emerged after the US fell. Soon, Texas and California became the main threat to national security, meanwhile New Mexico became Mexico's main ally in North America. It was the month of October in 2019, and with the economy at an almost stable level, it was time to focus on the national defense.


During October, the Pre-Electoral Campaing oficially initiated. With no existing parties in national politics and the UNR as the ruling force, candidates from the UNR had to be choosen during the process.
November 2019-The Covenant Seizes PowerWith permission of the UNR, the misterious “Eagle's Covenant” seizes power in Mexico. Few are really sure on what the intriguing Covenant really is, rumors are heard but no one can ensure anything, the uncertainty reigns... Only one thing is sure, the Covenant is more than a simple political force... The Covenant goes far from that... “The Covenant is Mexico, isn't it?” Some start asking others even in the international stage, in the external opinion, but no one answers... Truth is, that the Covenant is a far more complex and deeper entity than everyone can imagine...
December 2019-Electoral Campaign Reaches EndAs the elections were held the country prepared to receive its new leader. Finally, on December 25th the results were revealed at 7:00 PM. With the elections being approved by the Covenant, Natanael Valdivia Zaldívar became the new president.

Mexico can't be recognized anymore as the country it used to be a decade ago...