I. The Rise of General North

Canadian Special Forces Commander Colonel  Chanteau had achieved a remarkable service record.  He and his troops had been engaged in every single major national and international terrorist situation, as well as one of the most powerful  military forces that opposed the Soltan Empire during their invasion of Earth in 2000.  At the age of 35, Colonel Chanteau was loved by thousands of his existing and former troops, as well as their families and kin.  He was an affable yet  intense man who enjoyed being the father figure for many of his troops.  His politics about his dislike for the United States and his conspiratorial belief the Soltan Invasion was, according to Chanteau, ‘allowed’ to happen because the United States’ wanted it to happen so they could take over the rest of the world. As such, he also believed there was a conspiracy afoot by the United States to keep him from obtaining the rank of Brigadier.  Nonetheless to say, he was quite vocal about the United States and the ‘upper echelon’ for preventing his advancement.  His troops strongly believed in him and usually got themselves in trouble for daring to challenge the upper echelon regarding Chanteau’s promotion.  Some of Chanteau’s unit even got jailed over the over zealousness in supporting Chanteau.

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In 2005, Chanteau was ordered to retire early or face courts martial for creating a ‘cult of personality’ amongst his troops.  Chanteau became extremely irate and angry in front of the upper echelon board and told them of they value their own lives they ‘will’ reconsider the offer and grant him Brigadier immediately.  The upper echelon instead scoffed at Chanteau and ordered him arrested on the spot.

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For the next three days, Chanteau awaited his trial, but that day never came.  On his third night of incarceration, Chanteau escaped jail thanks to over 200 of his troops, as well as the few others that had been jailed for demanding Chanteau’s promotion.  Knowing full well they’d committed treason, the troops, led by Colonel Malcolm McGuiness, codenamed “Enforcer Alpha”, made off with Chanteau to a remote island base of operations that only Chanteau and his troops knew about on Wolfe Island, between the Canadian New Brunswick and United States’ Maine border.  There, years before, Chanteau had accumulated tons of weapons, ordnance, food stores and equipment during the Soltan Invasion as a back-up plan.  Little did Chanteau know that his ‘back-up’ plan would become his new home for years to come.

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II. Wolfe Island

Wolfe Island and its surrounding smaller islands was an old fishing and farming region.  During the Soltan Invasion, nearly everyone left the island for safety or were killed outright by the Soltans.  A secretive series of caves, old mines and an abandoned underground warehouse existed from back in the 1960s when the threat of nuclear annihilation was a predominant issue.  The Canadian military and government had the caves and cavernous underground area dug out and made into a 9,000 square metric storage bay for military equipment and a place for the government to ‘operate’ from, much like the US military’s bunkers at NORAD.  Although the equipment, generators, lighting and cabling were all rotting and substandard, a “UCE Miracle” (a term Chanteau loves to use now and then) happened.

 

They met Dr. Phlebotinum, or, more to the fact, he met them.

 

Dr. Phlebotinum was a genius is engineering, design and power applications.  His problem – he was a mad hatter…and enjoyed anything Steampunk.  His designs and applications were limitless and futuristic, but he always put a ‘steampunk’ flair into everything he built; it was his version of aesthetics.  Although leery of Phlebotinum’s motivations, Chanteau needed such a man as Phlebotinum to get the base up to the 21st Century and then some.  In mere months, Phlebotinum was able to update and modify everything in the base to a powerful steam and solar powered system, creating enough power to light up the US East Coast, yet remain invisible to any form of heat bloom or satellite detection.  When asked why that much power was needed by Chanteau, Phlebotinum simply told him “I have plans that will meet those power needs as well as protect us from any form of attack…ever”.  Left to his work, Phlebotinum continued his sleepless work on new weapons and this ‘secret’ project.

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Chanteau’s #2 guy, Enforcer Alpha, completely agreed with Chanteau about his conspiratorial views of the United States and Canada’s government and believed that what the region needed was an emperor.  Playing to Chanteau’s megalomaniacal mentality worked.  Within days, he sat down with Chanteau and worked out the design and structure of that which would become the new “United Canadian Empire”.  700 pages of their own declarations, laws, government structure, military structure, rights, and their ‘manifest destiny’ to take over all of North America and become the pinnacle of the new world order, with Chanteau as the Emperor.

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After Chanteau read the “United Canadian Empire Manifesto” to his two hundred troops, they all agreed to sign the manifesto and pledge their lives to their new empire and emperor. Enforcer Alpha oversaw the coronation of Chanteau, including, as per their doctrine, a royal name changed (much like Popes do). Thus Chanteau became the United Canadian Empire's first emperor, Emperor North.  Days later, this and their manifesto was sent out for the world to read as part of their large propaganda campaign to draw in new citizens and life a life of fullfillment and plenty. 

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Using social media, posters, flyers, pirate radio broadcasts, a recruiting drive soon brought in several thousand new citizen-soldiers. Prior to going to Wolfe Island, reach new recruits would meet with one of the 200 “Imperial Captains” (the initial 200) and be interviewed, scanned, and vetted.  After the meeting, if the recruit was found to be true, they’d send them on an elaborate “treasure hunt” for clues to their next leg of the journey to Wolfe Island.  Chanteau and Enforcer Alpha believed this would ‘weed out’ the ignorant and bring in problem-solving troops, allowing for a greater quality military force.  Throughout this recruitment period, Wolfe Island remained undiscovered by the Canadian and United States governments.  Most considered the UCE, Chanteau and his followers as mere fanatics, however, Chanteau and his 200 ‘captains’ were still being hunted throughout Canada for treason and various other breaches of military law.  As such, each of the Imperial Captains, including Enforcer Alpha and Chanteau changed their names and created forged documents so they could get around without detection.  Chanteau created several different aliases.

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As recruitment continued, a couple of super-powered individuals came forward and joined.  One of these unique people was a ghostly spirit of a woman later codenamed “Netherbride”.  One of her incredible powers was teleportation using dark energies.  As such, she was able to make teleportation portals that could encompass an entire army.  Emperor North soon took her under his wing and started his own super-powered group that would later be known as the UCE Enforcer group, led by Enforcer Alpha himself.

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The die was cast, the movement was gaining new recruits and propaganda, but in order for the UCE to have ‘teeth’ to its bite, they needed more materials, armor, firearms…and nuclear weapons.

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III. The New Empire Begins

 

It didn’t take long before Dr. Phlebotinum created a list of equipment, unique materials and resources for building up the base and weapons of the UCE, as well as his ‘secret’ project.  In order to ‘obtain’ these items, as well as more food stores for his troops, he knew he’d have to start raiding civilian and military sites to get what he wanted.  His ultimate goal, however, was something even more ambitious – nuclear weapons.  

 

Emperor North truly believed that nuclear weapons were the ultimate deterrence weapon that he could use in his arsenal.  With nuclear weapons, he knew that other nations would pause before attacking him and his troops, so long as the world knew that he was fully capable of exploding said weapons.

 

Over the next few years, Emperor North and his new ever-growing army started raiding along the US/Canadian borders from east coast to west coast.  Vital rare elements, uranium, specialized science equipment, containment units, rifles, tanks, aircraft and even helicopters were stolen from both the US and Canada sites.  Each raid had the UCE Enforcer’s Netherbride provide instantaneous teleportation for the raiders exactly where they wanted to go.  Within minutes, the raid was done and only a few died as a result on both sides (usually).  As the raids continued, the United States and Canada agreed to send in special forces to stop them, but were unable to determine the next raid location, thus making their special forces always arriving way too late to do anything.

 

Eventually, the Canadian government sent in two of their super-powered agents to stop him, Bonne Fyre and her sister, Emily, both of which had fire-based powers.  As if to drive the point home, the UCE’s propaganda and influential abilities were so powerful that when Bonne Fyre and her sister finally came face-to-face with the UCE and Emperor North (who like directly leading raids most of the time, much to Enforcer Alpha's concerns), that both sisters ‘volunteered’ to join Emperor North and his UCE, rather than attack them.  Bonne Fyre's sister Emily even took on a new codename to emulate her desire to be with the UCE by calling herself "Emme Pyre". Nonetheless to say, this was the final straw for the Canadian government.

 

Within days, the Canadian government implemented a new dictatorial “Identity Check Stations” all across Canada, demanding that if you did not have one of their new government IDs, they’d be arrested.  This was designed to find UCE members and jail them, but instead, innocent Canadians, tourists and those in Canada on work visas (and even those that held dual citizenship) were jailed throughout the nation.  This created a firestorm of rhetoric, angry citizens and fuel for the UCE’s propaganda machine, thus bringing in more and more troops.  Eventually, the Canadian government rescinded the ID Check Stations, after only bagging a total of three UCE troops, and upsetting the whole of the nation.  As a result the UCE won a major social victory in showing ‘how Canada treats its people when the chips were down’. 

 

The final straw finally broke between the US and the UCE when Emperor North raided two US military bunkers in Montana that housed over five dozen nuclear weapons.  Thanks to Netherbride’s pinpoint teleportation, Emperor North stole over 15 nuclear weapons without a shot fired.  The nukes weren’t even discovered missing until the guard change and later security video analysis.  The United States and Canadian politicians got into heated arguments of how to deal with the UCE.  The CIA eventually discovered the UCE was operating off of Wolfe Island.  The US Joint Chiefs of Staff demanded the US "right" to conduct a military raid on the island, since they didn’t trust the Canadian military to carry out the operation without, as was quoted by the Chief of Staff, "Canadian troops ‘mass defecting’ to the UCE during the battle".  Nonetheless to say, the Canadian government and military leaders were not amused over this statement and implication. Negotiations went on for weeks thereafter, mostly ending in more arguments and strained relations. After weeks of intense discussions between the two governments, the US decided to ignore Canada's sovereignty and conduct the massive US military attack on Wolfe Island regardless of Canada’s objections.  The United States overstepped with their unauthorized attack, and, as can be guessed, was a complete international political debacle...as well as the results of which was to come to the United States as a result of their attack on Wolfe Island.

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As US special forces attempted to land on the shores of Wolfe Island, Netherbride teleported UCE troops directly to their location courtesy of Dr. Phlebotinum’s all-encompassing security alert system.  Nearly all of the US special forces were stopped in their tracks or forced to retreat. Minutes later, the US Navy, the US Air Force and US Army commended a multi-pronged attack using shore bombardment, Tactical attack aircraft and attack helicopters, respectively.

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That’s when Dr. Phlebotinum engaged his ‘secret’ project with the pull of an overly large lever.

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A massive opaque series of overlapping force fields engaged from the neighboring small islands as well as Wolfe Island, creating a massive barrier from all forms of attack.  The kinetic energy of the attacks was rechanneled into strengthening the fields’ strengths, thus, the more powerful the attack, the more powerful the force fields became.  His “Kinetic Force Fields” stopped every single attack.  Thanks to the Doctor’s power control and containment system, he was easily able to allow the troops to open and close various sections to allow missiles, troops and drones to exit the force field dome and attack the US invaders.  In the end, over 350 US military airmen, sailors and soldiers were killed in the attack, with only 4 UCE troops killed.  Dozens of American aircraft were destroyed, 27 Army helicopters were obliterated, and 2 US Destroyers and 1 Cruiser were sunk.  The US retreated from the attack, licking their wounds on the way back to their base of operations in Maine.

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Although the United States attack was summarily thwarted, Wolfe Island was under constant observation from then on. US military reconnaissance aerial drones, US Coast Guard vessels and at least 2 US Navy Cruisers maintained a blockade of Wolfe Island in Canadian waters, again, at the indignation of the Canadian government.  Since Netherbride was still able to teleport the UCE anywhere at anytime, the blockade had little to no effect on the UCE, however, the opaque Kinetic Force Field that was now terminally raised, had a side effect to Wolfe Island – it blocked out the sun...and the air.

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So long as the Kinetic Force Fields remained operational, Wolfe Island would remain covered in darkness.  Plants died, fish starved and the atmospherics grew thin. Dr. Phlebotinum created and engaged a massive Oxygen Generator and atmospheric processing machine to alleviate the conditions, but the results of the darkness prevented growing crops and harvesting fish for food.  The few remaining hundreds of civilians on the islands were considered “prisoners of war”, as were several other captured US troops and were forced into labor under harsh conditions.  Over time, a unique hydroponics farm system was created underground enough to feed the troops, however, once again, proteins from eggs (no chickens), beef (no cows), and other essential foods were instead supplemented through ‘meal pills’, another Dr. Phlebotinum creation. 

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Another side effect of the Kinetic Force Field and the atmospheric equipment was the creation of a large fog bank that surrounded the island extending for miles outside the force field overlapping domes. 

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Unusually, more and more recruits were still demanding to join the UCE, mostly since they'd 'beaten' the US, the big, bad world power.  Through Netherbride's teleportation and covert recruiting methods, the UCE's citizen-soldiers grew. Many were now showing with their family and children in tow, with the children all hoping to one day be a UCE Troops or Enforcer.  As a result of the amassing over 10,000 citizen-soldiers, the UCE's food resources, which were barely sustainable before the recruiting drive, began to deplete once again. 

 

The UCE needed to expand.

 

As per the Emperor’s doctrine, New England was going to be their first ‘expansion’ for the formation of their first UCE nation/capitol.  According to the Emperor, he had a plan that would make New England his new territory renamed to be “New Canada”.  The repercussions of this plan would catapult the UCE from a simple terrorist group to a global terrorist organization overnight.

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IV. The New Canada Gambit

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Just a few years ago, Emperor North and the UCE Enforcers and Troops planned to enact “Operation: Gambit”.  The plan had a grandiose set of goals and a very dangerous and destructive means of getting what they wanted.  The plan was four-fold:

·  Emplace nuclear weapons and UCE troops at critical locations in each of the New England states

· Emplace mobile versions of Dr. Phlebotinum’s Kinetic Force Fields all around New England, thus cutting off New England from the United States completely and protecting his forces in New England from being attacked by outside aggressors.

·  Use aggressive negotiations to politically ‘win’ New England and claim the region for the UCE as 'New Canada'.

·  If, for any reason, aggressors got into New England from outside the shields or anyone attempted to subvert, sabotage or defuse the nuclear weapons or his plans from inside the force field, he’d activate the nuclear weapons (teleporting himself and his troops out in time of course) and leave New England a radioactive wasteland.

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After months of planning and training, the plan was a go.  Netherbride once again was used to plant the nuclear weapons, equipment and troops at certain locations throughout New England, as well as move Portable Kinetic Force Field Generators (“FF Gens” as they were called) troops and support teams to critical and strategic locations.  In less than ½ hour, all the troops and equipment were emplaced in the middle of the night.  Within an hour of the plan’s implementation, the FF Gens were activated, creating a series of overlapping Kinetic Force Fields from Maine to Connecticut, covering all of New England.

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The nukes were armed and set to be fired off by one of two switches: one held by the Emperor himself and a backup switch held by Enforcer Alpha.  As soon as the FF Gens were activated, all US and Canadian communications and media satellites were taken over providing a pre-recorded video from Emperor North on Operation: Gambit and what their conditions were over nuclear devastation.  He said they had 2 weeks to agree on his conditions or he’d light off the nukes and/or let everything in the region die from a lack of oxygen (estimates were generated that the domed region’s oxygen would run in as little as 2 weeks, killing everything under the dome).  Operation: Gambit went off without a hitch; New England and its millions of people were now taken over and subverted. This action demand the US to take action against the UCE, but every attempt to penetrate the shields or communicate with those inside the bubble, failed.

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Emperor North was very thorough in his plans.  US military sites in New England were gassed, making the soldiers, sailors and airmen sick for weeks on end; superheroes that were in the region (that were known about) were either immobilized, captured and/or ‘sent away’ on a bogus mission (courtesy of UCE creating the situation to draw the heroes away from New England).  Once again, like Wolfe Island, the opaque nature of the force fields resulted in drowning New England in darkness, with a light fog emanating from the outer edges of the force fields once again.

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As Congress debated and roiled, the citizens of New England suffered.  Riots started, lootings became common, law and order fell the wayside.

 

Simple civility was sparse, yet many normal everyday ‘heroes’ were created in those dark days.  Doctors saved thousands of lives; scientists and engineers devised means of artificial light for growing plants and crops; citizens banded together in attempts to take on UCE troops, but only to help fill a temporary need, instead of any endgame results. 

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As the death tolls rose inside the dome over New England, a band of relatively unknown or secretive Ne England heroes and vigilantes (and a few other not-so-heroic types) banded together to battle the UCE and disarm the nukes and turnoff the FF Gens.  That group, led by a vigilante known as Minuteman, devised a dangerous, yet detailed plan to stop the UCE. With only hours left of air in New England and a mere two hours before Congress’ decision was required, Minuteman and his “Yankee Minutemen” engaged the UCE and the UCE’s villainous super-group, the UCE Enforcers, performing pin-point tactical attacks at the sites discovered to be the locations of the nukes and the FF Gens and engaging in battle with the UCE Troops and super-powered UCE Enforcers.

 

The fighting was fierce. Enforcer Alpha was killed in the fighting.

 

Some of the Yankee Minutemen died during the fighting, yet in the end, the UCE’s nukes were disarmed and the FF Gens were destroyed.

 

Most of the UCE were teleported back to Wolfe Island, however, because of the tactical efforts led by Minuteman, the UCE lost over 2,000 troops including their now-disarmed nukes.

 

Emperor North was furious.

 

The Emperor was ready to toss nukes at the United States when instead, after the emperor's return to Wolfe Island, one of his own followers stabbed the Emperor in the heart. The follower was 'displeased' when he'd heard his only sons, both UCE Troopers, died during the operation and that the Emperor and the UCE had nothing to show for it.  The follower was immediately killed, however, the Emperor lived to rant another day. The follower's attack on the Emperor was, however, crippling.  As a result of the attack, the Emperor was weakened and had to remain incapacitated for months.  As such, he had to hand over day-to-day operations of the UCE to someone other than himself - his new  secretive #2 who wore upgraded Enforcer Alpha weapons and armor, and a helmet to cover his face and features, preventing anyone from knowing who he actually was. As such, the new Enforcer Alpha led raids, planned missions and led the UCE Enforcers in the Emperor's stead.

 

New England eventually recovered from the horrific event that was the UCE’s Operation: Gambit.  Order was restored, medals were given, and a new superhero group, the Yankee Minutemen was formed.  The UCE was now considered a global terrorist organization, however, without any means of piercing or being able to infiltrate the UCE’s ranks or Wolfe Island location, the UCE instead continued to be a danger that the world would have to react to rather than stop up front.

 

On a side note, although considered as hearsay, it was rumored that Congress had actually voted to give New England to the UCE, but after the unsanctioned victory of the Yankee Minutemen, is was said that those records were shredded and a new vote was cast with 100% of the votes placed in defiance of the Emperor and the UCE.

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V. The UCE Today

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The UCE now retains about 8,000 troops and over 3000 dissidents, family members and supporters on Wolfe Island.  They are their own microcosm of a militant society.  The operate not much different than the rest of the world; they are friendly to one another, go to one of the three ‘theaters’ they have on the island (all that start with UCE propaganda videos before the main movie), their own television station and radio station, hydroponic farms, factories, labs, schools and housing.  Since Operation: Gambit, the UCE has amassed even more weapons and resources from additional raids that continue to this day.

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Emperor North does a weekly broadcast and/or film about their plans, while motivating and acknowledging the best of the UCE troops, scientists and family members.  His cult of personality is still in high gear amongst those that follow him, and even in his more frail condition, he has since donned a battle armor that not only has many incredible Dr. Phlebotinum-created weapons, but is also acting as his life support for his heart, which on several troops and doctors know of his debilitating condition and are forced to secrecy about his new weakness.

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G.U.A.R.D.'s Mystiguard Division has since worked with several other magical heroes to create wards and barriers at most Canadian and American military bases as well as around Wolfe Island preventing or diminishing Netherbride's dark energy teleportation powers.  Some locations even performed blessings to counter the basis of her ability to teleport.  As a result the UCE has been caught several times trying to leave Wolfe Island by conventional means resulting in some captures, but mostly brazen attempts at others having to resort to other methods to leaving the island.

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It seems that the UCE is building up for something even bigger.  The question is; what is it and where will they attack this time?

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