NX-Era Nations: The United Islamic Republic

FROM THE ASHES: THE UNITED ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
One cannot speak of the UIR and it’s current status without consulting it’s long, bloody and turbulent past. Citizens of the UIR have come far in the last two hundred years and have much to be rightly proud of, but the scars are still visible from the what is often called The War of Al-Shaitain by many of the locals.


THE EUGENICS WAR
The Nations of the Middle East has pretty much continued as they always had, with internecine squabbles, rulership by warlords of various stripes, and various flavors of terrorism directed inward and outward against perceived enemies. Unfortunately for the region, a new charismatic and powerful warlord had arisen in India and had mobilized it’s population to a martial tune never before seen. He was a Sikh by the name of Khan Noonian Singh.

Khan had come to power after a particularly bad spat of terrorism had hit several chemical plants releasing methyl isocyanate into the atmosphere, killing over ten thousand people and injuring hundreds of thousands more. The terrorist groups had been traced back to Pakistan, India’s long standing rival. The next thing people knew was that country Pakistan fell apart under the use of previously unknown stockpile of neutron warheads as the Indian army crossed the border and savagely put down what little resistance was left. Pakistan itself ceased to exist within three days.

While the world was aghast at the level of slaughter, the armed forces of the Greater Indian Empire launched a massive armored assault into Iran with modern T-90 Main battle tanks, MIL-24 assault helicopters, and a local variant of the Mig-29 Fulcrum. Resistance was scattered as Indian forces commenced a highly coordinated strike against all command and control installations as well as command vehicles in the Iranian army. The Iranians, even with access to American F-14’s, were badly outmatched by the MIGS, as Khan’s pilots has been training with American and Israeli pilots in the prestigious Miramar training facility (which the American’s would learn to regret later). Tehran was leveled with a carpet bombing strike using Fuel Air Explosives, obliterating many works of art and builds dating from the medieval era.

Khan’s forces soon secured access to the Iranian oil fields and followed up by what could accurately could be called death squads, executing any and all Imams they could find, their supporters, extended families, and anyone who so much as questioned their motives. The rest of Iran fell as supporters of the Khans political party (called the Six Moons party) rose against the theocrats and gave material and tactical support to the invaders. .And so the pattern repeated throughout the Middle East with the fall of, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait (who were offered admittance under peaceable circumstances).

Saudi Arabia suddenly found it’s northern border covered by a territorially rapacious enemy who utterly despised it and was out for blood. The leaders of House Saud pleaded to Washington and the U.N for assistance, but the pleas for assistance fell silent against the rise of Eugenics warlords on every continent. The U.S. was far too busy with it’s own internal problems and Europe was in the throws of a massive conventional war between two of it’s warlords (The European Hegemony and the Soviet Union), to whom Khan had promised uninterrupted oil supplies .

Riyadh died in a ball of thermonuclear fire as Indian forces moved in, crushing every last hope of ‘glorious resistance’ with the gassing of Medina and Makkah. As before, Khan’s death squads moved in and exterminated any potential resistors and their extended families, as well as burning down all any symbols which people could rally around. The Dome of the Rock was spared, but the entire city of Makkah along with it’s population was put to the torch as an example to the peoples under his Empire’s boot of what would happen if they resisted it’s military and technological might. There were violent flair ups as Muslims world wide protested, but after several particularly brutal crackdowns of several cities that resisted, plus a purge of the ‘ill-educated’, all hope of freedom died.


DOWNFALL
Now, with his empire stretching from Vietnam to the Sinai, Khan ordered mandatory education and loyalty indoctrination to the New Order, as well as massive construction projects to improve the populace’s well being. He also instituted the formation of the Special Judicial Services, a service of elite troops designed to impose order on an unruly population and weed out troublesome elements, particularly those who were religiously motivated, since religious fanatics were the ones responsible for the bombings in India that had lead to the war in his eyes. Which his schools and indoctrination centers reinforced this perception at every opportunity.

For several years things had relatively smoothly under Khan’s rulership, but given the nature of the genetic supermen running the various blocks they had carved out, rebellion was inevitable. As was internecine fighting between the arrogant warlords. To which the humans were able to exploit.

While quietly not saying anything against the Indian Empire, Israel had been quietly sending Soviet weapons materials through Palestinian proxies to various city throughout the Middle East. They even lobbied Khan to cede the Sinai to be set up as a Palestinian homeland. Khan was skeptical at the notion, and demanded that if he were to do such a thing, that they would still be a part of his Empire and the would give loyalty and obedience to him, or they would be wiped from the face of the Earth. After razing the city of Al Arish to illustrate his point that he would tolerate no discent,. the Empire kept a monitoring force in the Palestinian Sinai to monitor the population and the movements of the African Supermen across the border in Egypt.

As time progressed, the Eugenics warlords populations turned on them for their brutality and arrogance. And help eventually came in the form of North American Compact intelligence and low level materials support. With the sharing of intelligence between the freed Russian Confederation, The Sino-Free States (China), Israel and local partisans, simultaneous uprisings in every conquered nation, lead by the newly educated classes turned on the loyalists to the regime. The fighting was savage and brutal, with loyalists using chemical and biological weapons against local populations, but eventually even the Indian people turned against Khan’s excesses and drove themselves against his loyalists, culminating in the launching of the S.S. Botany Bay, and Khan’s escape.


JUDGEMENT DAY
As Khan escaped, some people attempted to reasset the various family led nations that had worked so well in the past. But many of the newly educated would have none of the old ways and fighting broke out between Traditionalists and the so called “Neo-Khans” who saw that in spite of all the brutality, Khan had managed to unify the Middle East into an effective power block far more influential, peaceful, and prosperous than any previously seen and they’d be damned if they’d go back to the old ways.
With Khan’s Stalinesque purges of the religious classes, the Neo-Khans gain ground and followed in the footsteps of The Indian Empire, killing the last of the radicals with little mercy. As the last bullets were fired, the middle east seem to breath a sign of relief. To signify a new age of peace and prosperity, the remaining nation states formed the United Islamic Republic, formed from the remnants of Khan’s Empire west of India. They also signed a peace treaty with Israel, who they remembered just how much they had risked to help them

Then came World War Three. The UIR was not affected directly by any nuclear strikes, but the disruption in global trade was nearly disastrous. Bitter feelings arose and longing for the ‘good old days’ under Khan began to surface. The UIR’s neighbor Israel suggested several plans to weathering the long night, ways to husband resources, and fight off radiation poisoning. Luckily, more rational heads prevailed and followed the suggestions. As a result, most of the population was put to work helping rebuild damage from previous decades, engaging in massive irrigation and food production projects, and doing what they could to meet the end with dignity.
_________________

A NEW HOPE

Then in Early 2063, an unknown contact approached on UIR Early Warning Radar at Al Arish from a Western direction. It was far more massive than any previously known aircraft seen. It was sending Friendship signals in English, Arabic and Hebrew. A hasty and confused communication from Israel informed the UIR that the contact was a ship of some sort from some organization calling itself the North American Compact and not to fire on it. Mindful or the problems that various sections of the UIR had caused the North Americans in the past, the UIR went alert status for it’s armed forces, such as they were.

The ship, on the scale of an old American supercarrier was mindful of UIR airspace and evenutally settled down near the recently reconstructed Makkah. It bore the old American, Canadian, and Mexican Flags, as well as a new Flas consisting of the old American blue field and red and white stripes, a large crimson Maple Leaf in the blue field, and the Mexican bear superimposed over the leaf. Understanding that a significant change had happened in the interregnum from WWIII, the UIR president decdied to face this new force and went personally to Makkah to meet with them.

Negotiations over radio while in the helicopter were more enlightening. Apparently the North American Compact had been busy rebuilding them the wreckage of WWIII with the assistance of an alien race known as the Vulcans, and had constructed the ‘planet ship’ N.A.C.S. Unification to travel the world and assess the condition of Humanity and tell them hope had returned. President Mubarak was somewhat skeptical about the idea of aliens, thinking the Americans were indulging in a perverse joke.

Until he saw a Vulcan, eliciting the famous quote, “Angels come in strange packages. Allah has a sense of humor.” Negotiations were pleasant, if a bit awkward, as President Pointed out to the captain of the ship, Captain Edmund Kowalski, that the Vulcan’s appearance would cause some consternation with the locals (UIR education was still somewhat haphazard in certain areas), and that he would need to take some time to acclimate the populace to the concept of aliens.

After a few non starters, the UIR accepted the help that was offered from the NAC, as well the Russian Confederation and China. During the Reconstruction era, the UIR commenced with restoring the environment that had been despoiled and rolled back the desert in certain areas. With the assistance of the Vulcans, the UIR citizenry look towards a brighter future and are generally a hopeful people.