-AFTER THE FLASH, 2056-

Lake Mead Valley, Arizona

"Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a Nuclear Winter." - NCR Trooper

Alternative Universe - "A Disillusioned Earth"

The Post Flash Era, 2056

PRE-FLASH, THE COLLAPSE OF THE OLD WORLD

In the early 2020s, a severe global resource shortage (primarily crude oil, rare earth metals, and clean water) destabilized the global economy. In response, Eastern powers consolidated into the Asian Continental Military Force (ACMF). The ACMF rapidly expanded its borders, aggressively securing resources and triggering a terrifying New Cold War. The United States government, terrified of a conventional land war against the numerically superior ACMF, funneled trillions of dollars into experimental defense contracts, which directly birthed the SEAL Project (Synthetically Engineered Assault League) and fusion-powered exo-suits.

Long before the nuclear sirens wailed, the United States was already bleeding out from within. Hyperinflation, massive resource shortages, and severe political polarization tore the country's social fabric apart. Independent analysts compiling national arrest data and cross-referencing regional crime statistics noted a terrifying, undeniable pattern: what the government was officially classifying as "isolated riots" were actually highly organized, systemic insurgencies. The federal government lost control of major metropolitan areas, leading to the deployment of the National Guard and the eventual declaration of nationwide martial law.

Sensing the terminal weakness of the American empire, the Asian Continental Military Force (ACMF) launched a massive, coordinated military campaign in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and against the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). Under the immense pressure of a foreign invasion, the US military and government completely fractured into several seceded republics.

The Loyalist States of America: Centered in the East and Midwest, desperately trying to maintain the illusion of the old federal government.

The Western Forces Alliance (WFA): A coalition of western states and defected military units that believed the Loyalists were corrupt and incompetent, breaking away to fight their own war. This created a catastrophic, three-way meat grinder of a war across the continental United States.

The Floridian Alliance & NPA: Regional powers that broke off to secure their own borders and resources, turning the continental US into a multi-front warzone.

As the Second Civil War raged, the DoD and private contractors grew desperate. Knowing they needed super-soldiers, they rushed the SEAL neural chip implants. Because the chips needed to interface perfectly with the brain stem to control the Mark I and Mark II suits, the government conducted highly classified, unethical surgical experiments on political prisoners, POWs, and unrelated test subjects. By the time the SEALs were fully operational, they weren't used to fight the ACMF overseas; they were deployed to slaughter their fellow Americans in the ruins of the Midwest and Southwest.

Seeing the United States tearing itself apart, the ACMF saw an opportunity to secure North American resources and eliminate their greatest geopolitical rival. They launched a massive, opportunistic invasion on US soil. However, the ACMF severely underestimated the sheer brutality of the warring American factions. The Loyalist States, the WFA, and the regional alliances temporarily focused their firepower on the invaders. The ACMF forces were pushed back, cut off from their supply lines, and entirely surrounded on the North American continent.

Facing total military annihilation and the capture of their top generals, the cornered ACMF high command made the fatal decision to enact the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine. In the final weeks before the Flash, intelligence agencies realized what was about to happen. A frantic, highly classified evacuation program occurred. The US President, high-ranking Loyalist officials, and select SEAL unit commanders were rushed into subterranean vaults. The general public was left completely in the dark until the sirens began to wail on November 2nd at 2:00 PM EST. Eight minutes later, the world ended in a blaze of nuclear fire.

The year is now 2056, Lake Mead, in the former territories of Arizona and Nevada. This valley has been contested by the Southwest Libertarian Front (SLF), and the United States Civilian Preservation Front (USCPF). They are locked in brutal conflict, while the CDF faces scorn from both factions.

RADIATION ACCELERATED DISEASE (RAD-X)

"This.. disease, it's nothing like we've ever seen before. It acts as bacteria, fungus, virus, and prion, all at once."

—Unnamed American epidemiologist, circa December, 2032.

RAD-X (Radiation Accelerated Disease) is not a naturally occurring pathogen. It is a horrifying synthetic byproduct of the November 2025 nuclear holocaust. When the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine was enacted, the sheer volume of varying radioactive isotopes, combined with experimental biological agents housed in obliterated military installations and the sudden, massive irradiation of atmospheric fungal spores, created a completely novel, highly aggressive mutagenic retrovirus.

The disease fundamentally alters the host's cellular structure at a rapid, agonizing pace. Rather than dying from acute radiation sickness, the host’s DNA is forcefully rewritten to incorporate and thrive on ambient radiation. The virus uses biomass to sustain this rapid mutation, requiring the host to consume excessive amounts of organic matter.

RAD-X is terrifyingly versatile in its transmission methods. The wasteland of 2056 is effectively a minefield of potential infection.

Direct Spore Inhalation: The most common form of passive infection. High-yield irradiated zones often harbor thick concentrations of RAD-X spores in the dust. Without proper respiratory filtration, inhalation leads to rapid onset.

Fluid Exchange / Physical Trauma: Bites, scratches, or direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected host guarantee transmission. The necrotic tissue of advanced mutants actively sheds the virus.

Contaminated Resources: Water sources and scavenged food left exposed to the elements frequently harbor dormant spores that activate upon ingestion.

Weaponized Transmission: Certain advanced mutant strains, notably "Leachers," have evolved specialized biological mechanisms to forcibly infect healthy populations.

The progression of RAD-X is entirely dependent on the host’s access to biomass (food) and their exposure to ambient radiation. The disease is categorized into distinct stages, escalating in lethality and physical deformity.

The Early Stages (RAD-1 to RAD-3): The Feral Decline

RAD-1 (Incubation): The asymptomatic phase. The virus begins rewriting the nervous system. The only detectable signs are slight lethargy and a minor spike in body temperature.

RAD-2 (Pigmentation Shift): The undeniable mark of the condemned. The host's skin undergoes a necrotic shift, turning a sickly, jaundiced yellow or a dull, unnatural green. Hair loss begins. The host becomes highly contagious.

RAD-3 (Docile to Feral): The virus breaches the blood-brain barrier, destroying higher cognitive functions and replacing them with an overwhelming, aggressive hunger for biomass. The host devolves into a baseline feral state, attacking anything uninfected.

The Middle Stages (RAD-4 to RAD-6): The Mutations If a RAD-3 host consumes enough biomass and survives long enough in highly irradiated zones, the virus triggers massive, specialized physical mutations.

The "Sapiens": The most abundant variant in the wastes. They are emaciated, hyper-aggressive, and move with alarming, unnatural speed. Their jaws distend, and they hunt in feral packs, utilizing sheer numbers to overwhelm settlements. They are the foot soldiers of the RAD-X plague.

The "Leachers": A specialized, highly dangerous mutation. The host's internal organs rupture and reform into acidic sacs. They develop the ability to spit corrosive, spore-laced barbs or vomit highly infectious, radioactive bile over significant distances, rendering cover useless and instantly infecting anyone struck.

The Late Stages (RAD-7): "The Behemoths" Decades of survival and immense consumption of biomass result in catastrophic physical enlargement. The host's skeletal structure shatters and rapidly calcifies, fusing with dense layers of irradiated muscle and necrotic armor. These creatures are towering, hulking masses of flesh, capable of tearing through pre-war steel bulkheads and shrugging off small-arms fire. They are slow but possess devastating kinetic power.

The Apex Strains (RAD-8): Walking Extinction Events The absolute pinnacle of the disease. Very few hosts survive the transition to a RAD-8, as the virus usually consumes the body entirely. Those that do become god-like horrors of the wasteland. They are heavily armored by calcified bone plates and constantly emit a lethal aura of ambient radiation, sickening anyone who gets too close.

RAD-8A ("Malicious One" - Yellow Strain): Characterized by extreme speed and hyper-dense musculature despite its massive size. It actively hunts, utilizing a twisted, feral intelligence to ambush convoys and stalk heavily armed patrols. Due to their superior brain functionality, Malicious Ones are usually figureheads of a RAD biomass should they be living in one. This neural mutation also has an area of effect, with mutants seemingly recovering most lost neural functions when they are near an active Malicious One.

RAD-8B ("Malevolent One" - Green Strain): The most dangerous recorded mutant. It is a slow, methodical, and nearly indestructible siege engine. It absorbs kinetic impacts and regenerates tissue at an impossible rate. When a RAD-8B approaches a settlement, the standard operating procedure is immediate, total evacuation. The armor of a Malevolent One also grows all over their entire body, covering them in chitinous armor capable of absorbing almost all arms fire, even up to that of a .50 cal. However, their body armor provides little to no protection against fire or electricity. Similar to Malicious Ones, their regained intelligence also has a nearby effect on lesser mutants that temporarily increase their neural functions. Malevolent Ones also act as ringleaders for mutant hordes.

There is no cure for RAD-X. Once the virus breaches the RAD-3 threshold and neurological death occurs, the host has already been lost.

POST-FLASH, THE NEW WORLD

Thirty-two years after the nuclear holocaust of 2025, the Lake Mead Valley is a scarred, irradiated basin locked in a perpetual state of asymmetric warfare. With the lake largely evaporated into toxic salt flats, the remaining subterranean aquifers and pre-war trade routes to the ruins of Las Vegas are the most valuable real estate in the Southwest. Three major superpowers, known as the "Big Three"—dominate this meat grinder, each possessing radically different ideologies and military doctrines.

UNITED STATES CIVILIAN PRESERVATION FORCE

"Hail Columbia!"

The United States Civilian Preservation Force is the direct, militarized descendant of the Loyalist States of America. When the nuclear exchange of November 2025 decimated the continent, the sitting US President, high-ranking federal officials, and loyalist military remnants successfully retreated into deep-subterranean continuity-of-government bunkers. In the immediate, chaotic aftermath of the Flash, the President signed an executive mandate creating the USCPF. Their official mission: to reclaim lost American territory, restore federal order, and eradicate "unpure" elements from the irradiated wasteland.

By 2056, the USCPF’s original mission of "preservation" has warped into a ruthless, authoritarian military dictatorship. They operate under the unshakeable belief that they are the only legitimate governing body left on the continent. The USCPF enforces a zero-tolerance policy for RAD-X mutations. Anyone displaying the yellow or green pigmentation shift is executed on sight or burned in quarantine camps. They view the Southwest Libertarian Front (SLF) not as a rival faction, but as the treasonous descendants of the Western Forces Alliance who stole federal property, such as the SEAL power armours, and caused the nation to fracture before the bombs fell.

Unlike the SLF, which relies on a smaller number of elite, augmented SEALs, or the CDF, which relies on sheer numbers and guerrilla tactics, the USCPF fights a conventional, deeply entrenched war. They utilize strict military hierarchy, salvaged pre-war mechanized infantry tactics, and overwhelming logistical superiority. They operate out of heavily fortified pre-war military installations and possess some of the most pristine, un-irradiated armories left in the wasteland.

Now in the Lake Mead Operational Theater, the USCPF operates a large occupational force. They aren't here to negotiate with the locals. They are here to dismantle the Southwest Libertarian Front, and reclaim Federal property that was taken by them.

SOUTHWEST LIBERTARIAN FRONT

"Be the architect of your own future."

The Southwest Libertarian Front (SLF) was born directly from the remnants of the Western Forces Alliance (WFA) who were specifically garrisoned at Fort Viridian, a major pre-Flash military installation located deep within established WFA territory. When the USCPF eventually pushed into the Lake Mead Valley years after the nuclear exchange, the local populace and these surviving western military remnants were horrified by their authoritarian brutality. Seeing the USCPF as an illegitimate, tyrannical successor that betrayed the pre-Flash US government, the Viridian garrison officially reformed into the SLF. Their goal: to violently push the USCPF out and reform the United States exactly as the Constitution originally intended, to a tee.

The SLF operates on a twisted, heavily radicalized form of right-wing Libertarianism. They are frequently compared to pre-Flash domestic extremist organizations, such as the Three Percenters or Oath Keepers. They seek to maximize absolute individual freedom and establish a sovereign state with zero government oversight. This does NOT make them Anarchists however. They violently oppose all forms of taxation and tariffs. The market must be entirely free and unregulated. Furthermore, they view themselves as the last true patriots of the Old World, fighting a holy war to preserve constitutional liberties in a dead wasteland.

Because of their extremist, non-interventionist ideology, the SLF is fighting a brutal two-front war against the other major factions in the Mojave. They view the USCPF as the illegal authoritarian occupiers and tyrants of pre-Flash America. They have also since turned on the Civilian Defense Force, painting them as a dangerous 'socialist body of armed forces' when they instated tariffs and taxes in settlements like Craterview. They declared the CDF an enemy of the Free Market. The Front also does not shy away from ruthless military action, even if it destroys their public image. Civilians who harbor or support the USCPF or the CDF are treated with extreme prejudice, labelled as traitors who have denounced America.

Despite their anti-government ideology, the SLF is a highly organized paramilitary force directly descended from the pre-Flash United States Armed Forces. They maintain an intact military hierarchy consisting of Commissioned Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers. Uniquely, they utilize the pre-Flash United States Air Force's rank composition and pay grades for their chain of command. Because Fort Viridian was a key Western Front Alliance stronghold before the bombs fell, the SLF possesses the Mojave Wasteland's most terrifying tactical advantage: operational maintenance bays fo the highly classified SEAL Mark II powered-exoskeleton power armour. By utiliing augmented, synthetically engineered mercenaries and their own heavy infantry, the Front punches massively above it's weight class, turning the Lake Mead Valley into a graveyard for USCPF troops.

CIVILIAN DEFENSE FORCE

"Most scrap towns in the wasteland have militias, we are the only ones that have a scrap town for the militia."

Unlike the USCPF and the SLF, which were born from the fractured remnants of the pre-Flash United States military, the Civilian Defense Front (CDF) was born from the desperate civilian populace. Established on September 19th by an alliance of scrap settlements in the war-torn central Midwest, the CDF was originally a localized civilian militia. Their founding objective was simple: provide basic essentials to survivors in need and rebuild a functional civilization out of the radioactive ashes. Over the last three decades, they have grown into a staggering, coast-to-coast conglomerate, establishing settlements from the far reaches of Alaska to the irradiated islands of Hawaii. By sheer numbers and territorial spread, the CDF is the largest faction in the post-Flash wasteland.

The CDF is widely considered the only major faction that genuinely cares for the survival of the everyday wastelander. They do not care about restoring the old federal government, nor do they care about radicalized libertarian ideals. The CDF acts as a massive, wastelander's mutual defense pact. They shelter refugees, secure trade routes from raider clans, and build permanent settlement infastructure. Additionally, rebuilding society requires resources. The CDF enforces laws, instates tariffs on trade routes, and collects taxes to fund their militia and infastructure. This pragmatic approach to governance has caused the SLF to denounce them as socialists.

Because the CDF understands what it means to be defenseless in this post apocalyptic environment, they inspire intense loyalty. When the CDF establishes a local foothold, survivors frequently rush to enlist, as they finally have a group they can rely on.

The CDF's arrival in the Lake Mead Valley in October 2037 completely shattered the local balance of power. What began as a 20-man Vanguard Rifle Detachment quickly escalated. Within weeks, they constructed Fort Ever Grande out of a roadside motel, transforming it into a massive refugee hub.

Realizing they needed a permanent, defensible civilian center, the CDF engineered Craterview—a fortress-town built atop two flat mesas overlooking a subdued ICBM crater. Craterview became the crown jewel of the valley. Before its construction, desperate survivors of Boulders Cove had to rely on the tyrannical USCPF or the extremist SLF for protection. Craterview gave the locals true independence and security, turning the valley's populace into a dedicated CDF stronghold.

The CDF does not possess the pristine pre-war armories of the USCPF, nor do they have the terrifying, fusion-powered SEAL Mark II suits of the SLF. Instead, they rely on sheer numbers, fierce local recruitment, and rugged, scavenged technology.

SYNTHETICALLY ENGINEERED ASSAULT LEAGUE (SEAL)

In the wasteland of 2056, the term "SEAL" does not refer to the old-world US Navy Sea, Air, and Land teams. It stands for the Synthetically Engineered Assault League. It was a highly classified, multi-trillion-dollar joint project between the US Military, the Department of Defense, and various private defense contractors. The original goal was to create a breed of super-soldiers capable of ensuring absolute victory against the Asian Continental Military Force (ACMF) when the inevitable global war broke out.

The stimuli for the SEAL project was the invention of the Mark I (and later, the notorious SLF Mark II) powered-exoskeletons. These suits were the first instances of using localized fusion power directly for infantry warfare. They were walking tanks, carrying heavy vehicular-grade plating and weaponry. However, the government quickly realized a fatal flaw: the suits were too heavy and cumbersome. It was biologically impossible for a baseline human being to endure the weight and inertia of the suit without suffering massive setbacks in movement speed and joint destruction.

To solve the weight penalty of the exo-suits, the DoD developed the Synthetic Neural Chip—the crown jewel of the SEAL program. Surgically implanted directly into the cerebellum, brain stem, and frontal lobe, this microchip wirelessly linked the user's central nervous system to the suit. It allowed the operator to move with the armor as if it were a second skin, rather than fighting against its weight. The chip also actively regulated the user's heart rate, filtered adrenaline, and stored encrypted military identification. But to perfect this incredibly invasive neurosurgery, the US government and the Central Intelligence Agency conducted horrific, classified experiments on political prisoners and unrelated test subjects prior to the Flash. Furthermore, SEAL candidates underwent heavy synthetic engineering to increase their bone density and muscle mass, ensuring their bodies wouldn't be torn apart by the suit's kinetic feedback.

Despite being built to fight the ACMF overseas, the SEALs never saw conventional deployment in foreign theaters. When the global resource crisis triggered the Second United States Civil War, these fusion-powered super-soldiers were activated on domestic soil. They were deployed by the loyalist government to crush rebellions, fighting their fellow Americans in the streets of the Midwest and Southwest until the nuclear Flash of 2025 wiped out the continent.

Thirty-two years after the bombs fell, true first-generation SEALs are exceedingly rare, having either died in the wars or succumbed to old age and RAD-X. However, second-generation descendants (exist, born with inherited or newly implanted hardware.

Across the dystopian wastes, SEALs are heavily extorted as reliable mercenaries, heavy laborers, and elite shock troops. The Southwest Libertarian Front aggressively hoards second-generation SEALs, as they have the neurological capability and the one-of-one Synthetic Neural Implant inherited to them from the first-generation SEALs. The USCPF also possesses various second-generation SEALs in their ranks, deploying them as heavily armoured federal enforcers. Independent SEALs and Unsung SEALs thrive the most in lawless zones, utilizing their superhuman strength and neural capabilities to survive through any means necessary, or highly paid mercenary contracts.

The SEAL Exoskeleton (Mark I, Mark II, & Variant A)

The SEAL powered-exoskeleton is a terrifying marvel of pre-Flash military engineering, acting as a bipedal, fusion-powered tank. Designed to turn a single operator into a one-man infantry battalion, the armor boasts heavy kinetic plating capable of shrugging off standard small arms fire and mitigating explosive shrapnel. Because the sheer weight of the armor would crush a baseline human, it relies entirely on the operator's Neural Chip to synchronize motor functions. The "Variant A" suit, an earlier iteration of the armor, was manufactured using a specialized compartmentalized design, utilizing standardized materials and hardware that could be easily swapped and repaired in the field.

Created alongside the SEAL project, the Recon Drones were intended to be the next major leap in unmanned military intelligence. Designed specifically to work in tandem with the Variant A SEAL Suit, the drones share materials and hardware with the armor. This compartmentalized design allows SEALs to dismantle their drones for emergency patchwork repairs on their suits.

There are two primary permutations of the drone, which share interchangeable components allowing operators to convert them in the field:

• Type A ("The Scouter"): Streamlined and optimized for forward reconnaissance and geographical mapping.

• Type B ("The Carrier"): Equipped with heavier mounting systems for extended operations.

In 2056, these drones are exceedingly rare. After the Flash, desperate SEAL operators frequently scrapped them to keep their own armored suits functional. However, for those who managed to keep them intact, their value in the post-apocalyptic wasteland is immeasurable.

Both drone types were originally programmed with basic Artificial Intelligence to perform precise or mundane actions without direct operator input, and utilize built-in speakers to act as lures or relay messages to ground troops. Strangely, over the last three decades of continuous operation in the irradiated wastes, the drones' AI has developed beyond its original parameters. Many units now exhibit what appears to be true sentience, behaving as if they are "alive." While USCPF technicians dismiss this as a mere glitch caused by radiation degrading the code, veteran SEAL operators believe in a true "Ghost in the Machine."

Due to the immense tactical value of the drone's memory drives, both types are equipped with a unique "self-destruct" mechanism. Unlike conventional explosive self-destruction, activating this sequence triggers a catastrophic electrical surge that instantly fries all internal systems, rendering the drone nothing more than a useless hunk of melted steel and slag. This self destruct sequence can only be activated by the SEAL operator.

CHARACTER CARD:

Name: Yvette "Tacit" Brooklyn

Age: 25

Alignment: Freelance Operator, True Neutral

Assignment: Southwest Libertarian Front, Mercenary

Previous Assignment: Synthetically Engineered Assault League

Backstory:

Yvette was born in 2031, around eight years after the nuclear Flash, in a subterranean fallout shelter beneath the Nevada desert. She never saw the pre-war world. Her father was a decorated US military SEAL Commander—one of the few original operators who survived the Mutual Assured Destruction of 2025 by retreating into the bunkers with the Western Forces Alliance.

Knowing that baseline humanity was rapidly falling prey to the radioactive environment and the early mutations of RAD-X, her father made a brutal, pragmatic decision. He utilized the bunker's surviving automated medical bays to subject Yvette to the highly classified, incredibly agonizing Synthetically Engineered Assault League (SEAL) augmentation process. Before she was a teenager, her skeletal structure was laced with synthetic reinforcements, her musculature was artificially densified, and a military-grade neural chip was surgically fused to her brain stem. She was not raised as a daughter; she was trained as a living weapon, drilled relentlessly in close-quarters ballistics, tactical survival, and threat-assessment.

When the bunker's fusion generators finally failed, Yvette and her father emerged into the Lake Mead Valley. They integrated into the early ranks of the Southwest Libertarian Front (SLF) at Fort Viridian. Her father became a legendary enforcer for the SLF, piloting his Mark II powered-exoskeleton against the encroaching USCPF.

However, the Mojave is unforgiving. Her father was eventually killed during a massive, disorganized ambush by a horde of feral Sapiens and a RAD-8A mutant. Yvette, only nineteen, fought her way through the horde to recover his body. She recovered his corpse of its most vital assets: his heavy .300 Blackout carbine, and his encrypted neural-link codes.

Following her father's death, Yvette grew deeply disillusioned with the SLF. While she relies on Fort Viridian's specialized maintenance bays to keep her neural chip from degrading, she views their hyper-nationalist rhetoric as a delusion. She dropped out of their official military hierarchy, adopting the callsign "Tacit" for her silent, terrifying efficiency.

Now 25 years old, she operates as a high-end independent mercenary in the Lake Mead Valley. She uses her augmented strength to take the most lethal, high-risk contracts available—whether it’s assassinating USCPF officers in the dead of night, clearing RAD-X nests from pre-war ruins, or escorting heavily targeted CDF caravans. She holds allegiance to no flag and no ideology. She fights simply to afford the massive caloric intake, micro-fusions, and clean water required to keep her synthetic body alive in a dead world.

misc note: This is a scenario that deviates slightly from the main Disillusioned Earth timeline, set in the aftermath of the Second Civil War. If any of you have ever played the After The Flash series, you would know most of the factions i've included here. I was apart of the ATF community for a while, starting from ATF5: Rain, and all the way to Wintertide. I was mostly active during the years of Deep Six and Mirage, and those were some really great times indeed.

Art is by Jason Dao. Don't ask me why she's wearing KLMK 'Berezka'