The Italian Campaign

-Foreword-

This story takes place in Europe’s future, many years after a great social revolution has taken place. Here is some background. In 2025, peak oil was reached. The United States was forced to invade Iran to secure its oil reserves. The Americans spent trillions of dollars trying to bring down the Iranian regime, but were eventually defeated. The American defeat led to a series of Arab League negotiations that eventually saw the whole Arab League become a single, fixed nation. Knowing that China and India were needing oil desperately, the Arab League severed ties with the US and started only supplying oil to China and her affiliates. With little oil left, Alaska and Canada merged into one country, desperately trying to reign in their dwindling reserves. Eventually the Chinese bankers stopped backing American debt, and the whole United States folded, descending into a huge and unending civil war. In 2028, a huge magnitude ten earthquake rocked the Americas and the life on the two continents was destroyed by the radioactive leak of hundreds of destroyed nuclear plants.

            Britain succumbed to a need for oil in 2030, and signed a pact with the Arab league and China’s allies to secure some of the resource. In a few months Britain’s government was completely dominated by Chinese officials. Germany followed in the footsteps of Britain only a year later. France, Italy, Israel, and Japan only survived because of heavy reliance on “green technology” and eventually they could develop their nations without oil at all. Unfortunately they also produced little of everything on their own and needed huge Chinese imports to continue daily life. Trade with China was unbalanced and France and her allies were hurting for cash. In 2035, France, Italy, Israel, and Japan signed a technological pact and became known to the rest of the world of the “Axis Allies”. In 2040, they developed an artificial intelligence program called: “Joan”. Joan’s data-streams were downloaded into thousands of metal shells, building a huge and complex army of androids. With these androids, France launched a successful invasion of Turkey and Iran. Japan took areas of South-East Asia, but was held back at China. Having an inexhaustible amount of soldiers made it impossible for the Axis Allies to beaten, so in 2045, they secured the entire Middle East and Central Siberia, containing all the major oil deposits in the world. China was forced to submit to Japan’s rule, for so deprived it was of oil. Israel conquered the entire Southern Mediterranean countries and Italy picked off the Balkans. Spain remained unclaimed, after thwarting several attempts at conquests from France by resorting to Guerrilla warfare. 

            France and the Axis Allies developed well into the richest nations on Earth. France was able to use more technology based on oil and grew fat with wealth. Eventually the entire oil reserve on Earth dried up, and China became independent again.  The pollution caused by years of environmental neglect led to increases in ocean water levels that wiped out all life in northern Europe and forced the survivors to head for the South. Everything north of Lyon was destroyed.

To save their power, the Axis Allies redeveloped project Joan, but developed it into seven thousand different android “personalities” comparable to the work they were assigned. Spain bought the rights for the robot designs in 2050, and eventually every single European nation signed on. Three hundred million androids were created in a period of six months. The androids were used as manual labour in agriculture and construction. Eventually they grew to a point where they did all work in human society. This is a story of the androids and their struggle to be free.