Earth

Terrain denial

The strategy the whole map is shaped by: when ground cannot be held, it is made worthless to whoever takes it. Both belts were drawn by the side that could not keep the land.

• The Western Belt Poland to the Black Sea by United States Terrain denial. Thousands of miles irradiated to stop an advance that could not be held by any other means — ground given up by making it unusable to anyone.
• The Eastern Belt Between Russia and Europe by China Its own new border, irradiated behind its own advance. A wall made of poison, holding a line it had just finished taking.

The powers

• The United States surviving
  A fragile totalitarian state inside the shell of a democracy Curfews, spy hunts and staged arrests answered a crime wave the war budget had allowed; citizens voted for protection and the executive took the power to provide it. Later splits into the Free States and the States of Opportunity.
• Russia surviving
  One of three signatories to the truce Opened the resource war, took Eastern Europe by bomber and ground invasion, and came out of it reeling from casualties.
• China surviving
  One of three signatories to the truce Entered late and for resources, marching several million soldiers from Pakistan to the Mediterranean — then irradiated its own new borders behind them.
• The European Union diminished
  Struggling to sustain itself Sided with the United States and struck Arab oil and gas to force Russia to negotiate. It did the opposite, and the invasion came through its own eastern half.
• The Alliance of Arab States shattered
  Production and pipelines destroyed Russia's only ally. Its oil and gas were bombed to break Russia's war economy, and its remaining resources were what drew China across Asia.

How it happened

1. The resource war A war with Russia over resources goes global. The EU sides with the United States; the Alliance of Arab States sides with Russia.
2. The pipeline strikes The EU bombs Arab oil and gas production to force Russia back to negotiations.
3. The invasion It incites the opposite. Russian bombers and ground forces take large swaths of Eastern Europe.
4. Terrain denial American bombers irradiate thousands of miles from Poland to the Black Sea rather than lose it.
5. China's march Several million soldiers move from Pakistan to the Mediterranean, and irradiate the borders behind them.
6. The truce Three remaining nations sign. The shooting stops; a second Cold War begins, with the stakes much higher.
7. The shell of democracy Fear, curfew and consolidation at home. A fragile totalitarian state takes shape inside a democracy.
8. The division The red states rename themselves the Free States; the blue states answer with the States of Opportunity. A war of public opinion, short of open secession.

All of it read from the Trials manuscript.