The Allied Timelines for Non-Determinism

Allied Timelines for Non-Determinism

 

Table of Contents

 

Origins

 

Organization

 

Time Scout

 

Special Agent

 

Crux Operations

 

Technology

 

S.H.A.K.K. - Seeking Hypersonic Ammunition Kinetic Kill

 

N.I.F. - Neural Induction Flechette

 

Portal Technology

 

Universal Translator

 

Technical Manual Device

 

Transponder

 

Transponder Tracker

 

Society

 

The Closers

 

Operations

 

Society

 

Technology

 

Closer Anti-Personnel Rifle (APR)

 

Gameplay Considerations

 

As ATN

 

Relations with other Meta-Factions

Origins

The Allied Timelines for Non-Determinism (ATN) is a Meta-Aware Faction that originate from the series of books written by John Barnes known as the Timeline Wars#. The ATN and the Closers, time-traveling Carthaginian conquerers, are locked in an eternal genocidal conflict known as the Timeline Wars, which they wage across time.

The ATN began with Hyper-Athens, a world in which Greece continued to dominate the world in technology and science. Hyper-Athens was invaded by the Closers at some point in their timeline, and became the only world up to that point who had successfully fended off a Closer invasion. Hyper-Athens then reverse-engineered captured Closer trans-timeline technology and began aggressively expanding, fighting the Closers at every turn. The ATN, spearheaded by Hyper-Athens, was created in order to have a united front against the Closer threat. Its member timelines run the gamut from democratically elected world governments to communist police states to worldwide caliphates. They are united by one thing: to resist, fight against, and eventually exterminate, the Closers.

Organization

The ATN has several divisions as befits an organization of its size: R&D, Logistics, and Medical. The two divisions that are most notable, however, are Crux Operations, and the Special Agents.

Crux Operations are the special operations division of the ATN. Crux Operatives are highly trained, highly talented individuals capable of being dropped off into a hostile timeline and completing their mission objectives with minimal to no backup from their organization.

Time Scouts are the ATN’s explorers, sent into unexplored timelines to map them for future inclusion in the ATN’s war against the Closers. It is the Special Agent that will prepare worlds for inclusion into the ATN by introducing technology, influencing political and social leaders, assassinating (“erasing” as the euphemism goes) inconvenient historical figures, and otherwise guiding history onto a path that will lead towards a world that will be amenable to joining the Alliance and being able to provide recruits, technology, and war materials.

Time Scout

A Time Scout is a reconnaissance operative who is sent to parallel timelines and back into the past to critical junctures in history, known as cruxes, where major alterations to the course of a timeline are possible. They are usually armed with very little, as their objective is reconnaissance and information-gathering. In rare cases they may take on the duties of a Special Agent.

Special Agent

The Special Agent is authorized to use any and every means at their disposal in order to alter a timeline to become a potential member of the ATN, preferably to be able to develop new technologies for their war-effort, but simple industrial and recruit capacity are acceptable.

Not even informing select natives about the nature of their organization, or the particulars of trans-timeline travel, or the very existence of parallel worlds and time travel, is off the table in order to secure support for their operations.

Known actions taken by Special Agents in order to prepare worlds for entry into the ATN:

 

    Fomenting rebellion against the reign of the Nazi Party of America and the Third Reich (post-WW2 with Nazi victory) and introducing technical details of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology to the natives.

    The assassination of King George II and the rise of King George III.

        Assassinating King George II using targeted retroviruses, curing Prince Frederick of Wales of his sickness via penicillin and ensuring that George III received a better education, including the appointment of Benjamin Franklin as his tutor.

        The introduction of Stirling Engines, airship technology, bolt-action rifle technology, and political analysis and advice to King George III.

        The conquest of Canada by American colonists and the fall of France to the British Empire as red-coated soldiers marched down the Champs-Élysées.

        This included the targeting of American revolutionary leaders before they could begin to foment rebellion, either subverting them to the British Empire’s cause, causing the loss of their reputation, or preparing for their assassination if the situation required.

    The introduction of rocket artillery technology and advanced metallurgy to Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in their civil war against Julius Caesar.

    Providing ship-building technology to allow for the creation and launching of an exploratory fleet by the Roman Republic to the Americas.

 

 

A Special Agent is generally not provided with advanced equipment beyond a communications device, whatever covert assassination tools they require (targeted gene-coded retroviruses, medical nanites, weaponized nanite swarms), and a Universal Translator. They are, however, armed with something even greater: in-depth knowledge of science, technology, economics, and politics. They receive training on psychology and how to read and manipulate people. What a Special Agent lacks in the combat capabilities of a Crux Operative, they more than make up in the capacity to utterly alter a world’s course of history.

A Special Agent will usually be stationed at a timeline, inserted into a crux point, and remain a resident of that timeline until retirement or their death, with no further support from their home except updated orders every 6 months, and if they stop reporting in or call for help, a Crux Op to rescue or avenge them.

Their goal is to rapidly tech-up a world so that by the time it is contacted by the ATN officially, their industrial base can be used by the ATN in their war efforts, and to change the world’s societies to make them more amenable to becoming a member of the ATN. Additionally, by going further and further back in time and making changes then, the ATN hopes that more and more advanced technology will be created by these new prospective member-worlds. In the pursuit of their goal, a Special Agent will stop at nothing.

 

Crux Operations

A Crux Operative, commonly called a “Crux Op”, is the special forces of the ATN. An operative may operate anywhere from individually up to a team of a dozen. Drawn from their member-worlds, a Crux Op generally is chosen for their combat abilities as well as their adaptability. Crux Op support can be requested by Special Agents if they believe that their operation has become endangered by Closer interference.

A Crux Op is expected to find and terminate any Closers and those that will get in the way of the timeline becoming a member of the ATN, and is equipped with the standard weapons of the ATN to assist them in this endeavor.

The qualifications for becoming a Crux Op do not appear to follow the same rigorous selection process as that of, say, the US Navy S.E.A.L.S. or German GSG9.

A notable example is Mark Strang, protagonist of the series and a private investigator from New Jersey, with a degree in history.

In this regard, Crux Operations are more concerned with operatives that are able to adapt to changing conditions, demonstrate lateral thinking, and intellect, rather than pure physical conditioning. As such, they are very similar to the M.I.B.# in that they are not interested in simply getting soldiers, but in recruiting operatives that can handle their fluid and often vague mission parameters.

A Crux Op will usually be equipped with both a S.H.A.K.K. and a N.I.F. gun.

Technology

The ATN has technology and science vastly ahead of many other Canons and timelines, and can be argued to have certain technologies rivaling that of the Federation of Planets from Star Trek and the Ancients of Stargate: SG-1. They have access to advanced AI, nanotechnology, metallurgy, quantum engineering, dimensional mechanics and applied temporal mechanics.

S.H.A.K.K. - Seeking Hypersonic Ammunition Kinetic Kill

The standard firearm of the Crux Operative, and the most common weapon used by the ATN.

A pistol-shaped weapon, with a slot with a hopper tray built into the handle and that slides out of the bottom of the handle like a modern pistol’s magazine. Usually silver in color, it has a digital display along the side that shows its ammunition count.

The weapon has several important components:

 

    Power Source: a highly advanced and compact nuclear power source that requires no external cooling or venting, and fits into the frame of a gun no larger than a standard 9mm pistol, yet is able to power the weapon for years.

    Ammunition Hopper/Feeder Tray: the weapon is meant to be able to operate in hostile environments far from resupply, with no logistical support. Therefore, it is designed to accept any and all materials placed into the feeder tray, and will break them down into their constituent elements, and will use the materials to create the weapon’s ammunition which will be stored in its internal magazine. This entire process takes only a few seconds. Excess elements or elements unnecessary to the process will be purified and left in the feeder tray as pellets of the element. Excess created ammunition that will not fit in the internal magazine will be left in the feeder tray.

        This feature of the weapon was used by Wernher Van Braun (alternate version, working for the allied resistance forces fighting against the Third Reich) to enrich U-235 and separate it from U-238 for his nuclear weapons program, allowing for the creation of enough weapons-grade uranium to fabricate multiple nuclear warheads to arm a number of I.C.B.M.’s used to glass Berlin.

        A Crux Op expecting to go into intensive combat can use the excess ammunition manufacturing feature to create enough ammunition to fill several buckets. This extra ammunition is immediately moved to the internal magazine once loaded into the ammunition hopper, and saves time in ammunition creation.

    Ammunition: a tiny plastic and metal pellet ball, transparent and pitted with vector nozzles. In the center can be seen a microchip that contains the ammunition’s AI.

    Selector Switch: changes the firing mode from single-shot to full-automatic to hex-pattern, which fires a six-shot burst in a hexagram pattern.

    Ammunition Counter Display: shows how much ammunition is remaining.

 

Everything starts when the wielder points the weapon at a target and pulls the trigger.

If the target is a person, no matter how little of their outline is exposed and targeted, the bullet will fly out of the weapon at Mach 10, with very little recoil, and seek out the target. Once it reaches the target, it follows their outline till it reaches their head, punches into the cranium, and then expends its kinetic energy by spinning inside the skull. This causes the distinctive wounds of S.H.A.K.K. victims; a completely deflated head and all of their brain matter being forcefully sprayed out of the entry wound.

If the S.H.A.K.K. is pointed at a weapon within the computer’s onboard database, it will first destroy the weapon, most likely causing massive damage to the hand that was holding the weapon.

A standard accessory to the S.H.A.K.K. is a small video camera unit, which is wirelessly linked to the S.H.A.K.K. This video unit allows for targeting around corners, over trenches, and otherwise allowing the user to stay safely in cover. The S.H.A.K.K. will make any and all flight adjustments necessary to seek out its target and kill them, as it can make a 180° turn within 2 meters while traveling at its maximum speed of Mach 10 to hit a target selected by the remote video unit.

 

The weapon itself requires little maintenance; it is capable of extended operation for years with no maintenance or cleaning, only needing the feeding of raw materials in order to create ammunition.

 

Range of the weapon is up to 7 miles, allowing for the targeting of aircraft.

 

This weapon is a one-shot kill weapon for anyone who does not have a fully-enclosed suit of power armor or a force-field of some kind. While the ammunition is not shaped properly for armor penetration, its velocity of Mach 10 makes most such considerations moot. Only super-materials or personal force fields can protect against such a weapon once a target has been selected. Therefore the most effective protection from this weapon is to not be seen.

N.I.F. - Neural Induction Flechette

The NIF is another common weapon among Crux Operatives. Operation is much like the S.H.A.K.K., including its homing capabilities, except that the flechettes fired by the NIF are designed to sink into a target and then hijack their nervous system, allowing for a number of different effects. It is a very effective stun weapon, jacking the target’s nervous system and causing them to fall into a deep sleep. Another known setting is hallucinatory panic, forcing a victim to hallucinate things dredged up from their memories.

A documented case of the NIF’s versatility is when it was programmed to cause the target to simulate death, up to and including muscle spasms, loss of bladder and bowel control, and minimizing breathing and heart rate.

Besides single-shot mode, another known setting for the NIF is Loiter Mode, which programs the flechettes to fly over an area the size of a football field, loitering in the air and actively seeking out targets. The flechettes will intelligently select targets, indicating a network capability.

The NIF is silent in its operation, in contrast to the S.H.A.K.K. with its characteristic hypersonic crack, making it an excellent stealth weapon.

Portal Technology

The ATN’s Portal technology is based off of captured Closer designs. Not only does it allow time travel, but it allows for travel to different timelines. These portals can be made from small enough to handle individuals to large enough to accommodate large vehicles.

It is very accurate, so long as the coordinates can be calculated and the travel is between two timelines at the same points in time, with enough fidelity to allow for a portal to appear inside the bathroom of a passenger airliner.

The power requirements, computing power, and support infrastructure required by the portal generators precludes them being available on anything less than the ATN’s primary worlds and bases.

Cross-timeline travel is considered easy and cheap, however the energy requirements of time travel forward or backward make timeline travel only on an as-required basis.

A person enters an embarkation room, and upon declaring that they are ready, are instantly transported to the time and place required, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

Another function of the portal technology is to maintain an open portal, a shimmering wall of broken space-time, through which things can go in both directions.

Currently there is no known protection against this form of inter-dimensional and inter-time travel.

Anti-Teleport Wards, Dimensional Anchors, and Transport Inhibitors have all failed to protect against a space-time coordinate lock, and the moving of vehicles and personnel through the resulting portal. The only effective means of preventing a positive space-time lock is to simply not be known, and to hope that the enemy has not been able to discover your space-time coordinates among the infinite various timelines.

Universal Translator

A small patch about the size of a dime and paper-thin, it is placed behind the ear against the skull. The onboard computer provides real-time translation of both visual and auditory languages into the user’s native tongue and feeds it seamlessly into their visual and auditory inputs, and allows the user to speak and write the necessary language, taking over muscle control as needed to force out the correct sounds and write the correct letters. The Universal Translator is also capable of providing culture-appropriate information regarding objects that are focused on given the context of the current region and time period; if one were to be in Boston in the year 1775, and a maid places a large pitcher of water on your dresser, the implant will inform you that it is for washing and drinking. Removal of the patch is followed by a second of disorientation as the translator’s neural link to the user is cut.

Technical Manual Device

A device about the size of a small matchbox, containing the Great Libraries of a number of timelines, and including an interface.

Transponder

A surgically implanted radio transmitter, operating off of the operative’s body heat and capable of 10 years of operation after user death. It will only transmit in response to a coded signal, and has a range of 2 miles.

All ATN operatives are implanted with this device.

Transponder Tracker

A tracking device for a transponder. It sends out a coded signal, and if a transponder is in the area, will provide direction and distance to the transponder.

 

Other technologies are of a non-Canonical nature, but can be expected to be highly advanced.

Space travel and industry is limited to the Sol system, concentrating on the Inner Planets. The ability to open portals to uninhabited Earths to harvest their resources has resulted in a tight curbing of attempts to break the Light Barrier by Hyper-Athens and the members of the ATN.

Also, as most of the books occur within the pasts of alternate timelines, little is shown of modern ATN technology.

Society

The one and half million timelines which make up the ATN are vast and varied, running the gamut of human history. Normally, an organization as disparate as the ATN would have torn itself apart, its members at each other’s throats, Babylonian empires grappling with megacorporations, British monarchies feuding with French empires, fighting against Chinese Imperial hegemonies and Korean communists. But they are all united by one single objective: to fight against the Closers.

The ATN does not interfere in the politics and societies of its member-worlds (interference in history before they join the ATN is allowed, however), and so the society that a given ATN agent has grown up in can be very diverse.

 

As a result of the ATN’s non-interference policy regarding their member-worlds, Special Agents and Crux Ops are very well trained and instructed to keep their personal opinions tightly under lock and key.

 

The ATN is predominantly Human, as all of the member-timelines are various Earths.

Magic is almost unheard of, however some of their technologies may appear to be so.

 

 

 

The Closers

The Closers control nearly three million timelines, a juggernaut of an inter-dimensional war machine. Calling themselves The Masters, the Closers are a brutal and merciless cross-time empire dedicated to conquest of all space-time.

Operations

The Closers have analogues of the ATN’s own Time Scouts, Special Agents, and Crux Operatives. The only name known for their version of a Time Scout is Slave Searcher. A reconnaissance operative, but able to take on the duties of forcing a change in history if needed.

A Closer Special Agent will attempt to concentrate all political, social, and industrial power into a single, small cabal of leaders at the very top of the world’s power structure. Once all preparations have been completed, the natives at the top will be assassinated and a group of Closer families will take control. It is brutally efficient, and effective, as evidenced by their vast empire.

However, a cultural weakness does exist. The Closers demonstrate a near phobia of nuclear fallout; they will immediately abandon a timeline that has experienced any kind of nuclear conflict, even if it was limited to only a single city, or even the development of nuclear technology. They have been observed to do this even when their control over a timeline was nearly complete, as when Resistance forces launched ICBM’s at Berlin when the Third Reich controlled 70% of the world; Closer agents immediately retreated from the timeline and it experienced no further Closer incursions.

It is suspected by the ATN that the original Closers experienced some form of horrific nuclear war, and that the sociological damage from that conflict is still present in their collective psyche.

Closer Crux Operatives are just as skilled as their ATN counterparts, with a much more ruthless and cruel bent. They have a tendency to have more equipment available to them, even acquiring vehicle support if required, in order to achieve their mission objectives.

The Closers have also been known to identify especially effective ATN Crux Operatives, go back in time, kidnap an alternate version of the Crux Op, and indoctrinate them into Closer service. It has been reported by ATN Crux Ops to be very disconcerting, to see one’s own self working for the Closers.

Society

The Closer society is descended from ancient Carthage, one where child sacrifice was common, and institutionalized slavery exists.

A Closer family is expected to sacrifice their first-born into the furnaces of Moloch, and this is seen as a Closer male’s duty to their family, society, and god.

A Closer child grows up surrounded by slaves for playmates. Once they reach puberty, they are trained and directed to rape and kill their childhood friends, in order to reinforce the Carthaginians’ position as the slave masters, and that all non-Closers are but slaves to be used and discarded.

Closer society values cruelty, ruthlessness, a willingness to do whatever it takes to win, and duty to society. It is their manifest destiny to conquer all of time, controlling all possible pasts and futures, closing off possibilities that they do not control.

Technology

The portal technology used by the ATN is derived from reverse-engineered samples of captured Closer technology. As such, it has much the same limitations as that of the ATN.

Closer Anti-Personnel Rifle (APR)

The actual name of this weapon is unknown. The standard anti-personnel weapon of Closer forces, it appears to be a wire coat hanger twisted into the shape of an Uzi submachinegun. Squeezing the forend of the weapon fires a single round, which acts very much like the S.H.A.K.K. One notable change is that when the weapon is aimed at a person holding a weapon, instead of targeting the held weapon, the Closer device targets the wielder with lethal efficiency.

There is a display which shows how many shots are remaining, however, this is not always accurate. The magazine has been known to carry anywhere from 100 to 500 shots, though the true magazine capacity is unknown.

Much like the S.H.A.K.K. the APR’s effective range is 7 miles.

A notable feature of the APR is that it has a built-in scope, which can switch between zoom, infra-red, and night vision modes. This scope is tied into the weapon’s homing system.

The APR is also a completely recoilless weapon; it is not understood even by ATN scientists how the weapon works, or how its recoilless feature is achieved.

The Closer APR is powered by a micro-singularity, and it is this which also provides matter for the creation of ammunition. When the micro-singularity loses too much mass, the APR will begin to sound an alert, indicating that the Hawking radiation of the internal black hole is reaching critical levels. It is advised that anyone holding the weapon when this occurs throws the weapon away immediately and run as far away as possible.

The APR’s micro-singularity will then explode with a force equivalent to a Mk. 3A2 hand grenade.

Gameplay Considerations

As ATN

As an operative for the ATN, player characters will be humans. Cyborgs are permissible, but due to a large proportion of their operations taking place in the past, obvious cybernetics are highly discouraged.

Any Earth setting that doesn’t include magic is a potential point of origin for a player character, either as an operative recruited from a non-member timeline, as an operative who joined the ATN from a timeline considering membership, to a recruit from a member world.

 

You are “The Good Guys”, and the ATN regards itself as such. No matter how diverse its member timelines may be, they are all united in defeating the Closers. The ATN will always try to do the ‘right thing’, but this does not alway manifest in expected ways.

For example, the ATN will gladly support King George III in preventing the creation of America, and turning the British Empire into an unstoppable world hyper-power, so long as it helps the goals of the ATN. They will assist King George by assassinating his grandfather, George II, ensuring that his father Frederick stays on the throne. They will offer alternative revenue streams to pay off the Empire’s debts, make Parliament more responsive to the voice of the American colonies, and generally setting the Empire on the road to becoming a world leader in progressive politics and civil rights. They will provide the metallurgy required to create bolt-action rifles, and introduce the mass production methods and technology needed to make them cheap enough to outfit the entire British Army, so that Britain can march upon Paris. And if that means smothering the nascent American Revolution in its cradle, then so be it. Nations are nothing more than tools to an end, and America is not needed if the British Empire can fill its shoes just as easily.

Relations with other Meta-Factions

The ATN’s stance to other Meta-Factions is very binary: help us against the Closers or get out of our way.

 

The TSAB

The ATN finds the TSAB’s stance on lethal weapons to be quaint. Their war against the Closers has shown them that no weapon can be dismissed against such great evil.

They do have a healthy respect for the Barrier Jackets and Devices used by the TSAB, and wish them the best of luck in their own endeavors, as long as the TSAB doesn’t interfere in their war.

 

The TSAB regards the ATN’s methods with distaste, their lethal means of dealing with the Closers, the interference in the natural development of other worlds, and their willingness to erase figures from history; all are against the ideals that the TSAB holds.

Yet, the TSAB also needs the ATN to do what it does. The ATN is keeping the Closers contained, even with only half of the Closers’ resources. Without the ATN, the Closers would be running roughshod over the entire Meta; not even the TSAB’s vaunted Barrier Jackets would last long against a Closer APR, and they have no defense against the Closers’ time-travel attacks.

 

The Transpace Guard

The ATN respects the mandate that the Transpace Guard has in protecting the fabric of the Metaverse. However, the ATN is far too preoccupied with the Closer threat to be distracted by S.U.E.’s and Crossover Events, and consider the Closers to be the greater of two evils. No documented S.U.E. has ever survived an encounter with the Closers, and the same is true of their encounters with the ATN. S.U.E.’s simply are not a big enough threat, even with their potential to collapse entire branches of timelines, for the ATN to have a dedicated branch of operations to putting down the S.U.E. threat.

As such, the ATN acts like an FBI Agent to the TG’s mall rent-a-cop: “Stand aside, we’ll take it from here” when facing down something they believe worth terminating such as a Closer field base or an Arch-S.U.E. encroaching upon ATN controlled timelines, to “Don’t waste our time, you handle it” when the matter is just a S.U.E. or Hedonist operation outside of ATN space.

ATN Operatives will, of course, be more tactful about such feelings. However, they will not compromise their missions for the sake of TG field operations.

 

The TG hates to admit defeat to any Fictional, but against the Closers, even they must accept that they are completely outclassed. The ATN’s standard operations of farming timelines goes against their directives and ideals; but the Closer threat is something that they cannot hope to win against, and so they are forced to accept that the ATN’s methods are the only thing keeping the Closers from invading the rest of the Meta.

 

Consequently, both the TSAB and the TG, as well as other Meta-Aware Factions who know of the Timeline Wars between the Closers and the ATN (The Combine, UPW, IDPKB), have an unofficial agreement to let the ATN do its job. All Factions realize that if they become involved in the war, that the Closers would utterly crush them; besides the fact that the Closers have an empire of three million worlds to pull resources from, no defense against Closer portal technology has ever been discovered. Once the timeline coordinates of a capital world were to be discovered, the Closers could move entire armies into a Faction’s seat of power if they’re feeling generous, otherwise they could send a singularity bomb through to simply annihilate the world.

As such, all Factions see it in their best interests to allow the ATN to consume the full attention of the Closers, and allow the ATN to do what it requires in order to keep the Closer threat contained.

Even criminal groups such as the Hedonists and the smugglers give the Timeline Wars a wide berth, only attempting the capture of ATN or Closer technology for an exorbitant fee.