I'm back with another Author's File... let's get into it.

Important History Changes

I'm sure you've noticed but this world we observe does have some similar history but it diverges in certain places, here I want to discuss the divergences.

The major changes go back very far, about the 12th/13th century. When Roman Catholicism was rejected by the majority of Europe for Churchism, due to reasons that weren't truly documented by many parties. But something all known sources agree on is it shouldn't have logically happened. Churchism became the dominant religion with multiple sects splitting off in the 16th century, including the whole of England when the Elders Council (Heads of the Church) refused to give the King of England a divorce due to the Holy Roman Empire's leader capturing Rome in 1527. However, a faction of British MI6/5 and the American CIA believe most of the sects haven't been as independent as they claim, so far they have only identified one sect's leadership as totally independent, and that would be none other than the Church of England. This is due to its links to the British Government and several odd incidents that happened throughout the late 80s. Like the Archbishop of Canterbury falling from the top of the Cathedral roof, at first many thought it was foul play, but things just seemed to be pointing more towards an accident or self-infliction. So the case was cast aside.

Another important thing that changed was the Korean War's ending, by August 1950 US Army General Matthew Ridgway was sent to China and managed to establish a covert peace deal between the UN forces and the Chinese.

Upon MacArthur making comments about continuing into mainland China, he was immediately fired by President Truman and replaced by General Ridgway in September 1950. When UN forces pushed deep into North Korean territory and the North Korean leader begged the Chinese for help, he got one response:

"Go Away"

By November, he was to flee to mainland China where he was arrested and given to American leadership and prosecuted accordingly, causing the unification of Korea under a pro-west, capitalist government. You may be thinking 'But J, the Chinese view NK as a buffer state and would never do that!' And you are correct unless the Americans are to give a 40Km DMZ in between Korea and China as well as the section in Northeast North Korea above a line between Hyesan to Ssangpoi-dong. Which would look something like this, with China being in red while the Republic of Korea (And UN allies) in blue:

Which would look something like this, with China being in red while the Republic of Korea (And UN allies) in blue: [https://img.wattpad.com/3a1dbd1b60b420708d8fe3612142ce3549d548dc/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6b4d534865764f4c7a5a304472413d3d2d313333303530333034302e313735613263306265313033353230313332363438353531323336322e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

I haven't drawn in the DMZ, because that would be a pain to do but you get the picture. This doesn't have too big a repercussion on history, Vietnam goes the same. Due to Ridgway's relationship with the Chinese, the US and SEATO still fear China amassing near the North Vietnamese border, but Chinese support for Vietnam is less and the Soviets are more pushy. South Vietnam still falls after the US leaves.

In 1978, Mclaw arrives. He's too late to participate in the Iranian Embassy Siege, which still goes flawlessly cementing the SAS as the legendary SF we know today. But, he gets his opportunity in Operation Empire as seen in Chapter 12. As well this HMS Sheffield (D80) was not sunk, but still heavily damaged, due to Mclaw spotting the Super Étendards armed with anti-ship missiles so the Harriers were already waiting for the Argentine flight. I won't go into the air battle, but it was bloody, becoming the final battle for the Air dominance, the British Harriers took the crown, beating the Argentine Jets with minimal losses.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

From there Mclaw was operating in the shadows with Task Force Reaper and the Loyalists. He messed with Soviet politics and possibly had a hand in the disbanding of the USSR and the reason Mikhail Gorbachev got into power. That does not mean Gorbachev was a Western spy in this universe, he would have been manipulated by the Loyalists. There is also the whole Chinese plot with the death of TFR which I won't get into, maybe someday. Maybe I'll do a side story on it one day.

Then there aren't many large changes in the later 20th century, the Iraq war goes about the same, allied forces have fewer casualties and Mclaw spends half the time yelling at A10 pilots while showing them diagrams of British vehicles and their 'Missile Launchers'. Before complaining the to US government about their CAS weapon.

Then we get into the War on Terror territory of discussion. This has changed quite a lot, the main points are Osama Bin Laden is killed a year earlier in 2010 due to Mclaw leading several raids and solo missions deep into Al Qaeda territory gaining vital information for Seal Team 6/DEVGRU. As well, Allied forces pull out of Afghanistan but 2011. This leads to the Taliban changing names and reassuming control. This was done by some shady politics on Mclaw's end, I won't detail exactly what happened, but I'll say Mclaw did indeed snap at one point in Afghanistan leading him to see the war as pointless and they'd just be wasting more lives. This is probably the one I've hinted at the most, and I believe I've had James state it at least once. Anyway smooth transition...

James Thompson

You may or may not know this, but James was the first character I ever wrote for this story. Well... not this story, one that was supposedly set in the same universe, but as this has been diverting from it, the original story is no longer what I'd consider 'canon'. If you want a shit tone of spoilers for how this story will end, I'd suggest you go read it, but be warned I forgot to edit it.

James is a very interesting character, over the past year I have been developing his story like crazy in my notes. I'm not sure if you have noticed but at this point of the story, he's kinda gone insane. Between the memories and the nightmares not even he could take it. And with that insanity, he'd developed an extremely dark side, this was the point of him cracking the skull of the already dead death trooper.

Spin-Off Chapters

Soonᵀᴹ I will release multiple spin-off chapters, these probably won't progress the main story but will give you a better idea of why characters are the way they are... Zeller.

Of these, I plan to have character stories for:

Zeller,

Richards,

Soman,

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is Kanti Soman there. The female soldier who went MIA when Heynes was KIA. I have a lot to say about her and we will see a lot of background information about the NZA/Oceanic Empire.

Maybe I'll do one for Mclaw, I've gotten a clearer picture of his whole life now.

These chapters will probably be done during the break between the end of Core 2 and the beginning of Core 3.

Progress

Right so, if you didn't know I plan very far ahead... sometimes. Currently, I have the plan for the rest of Core 2 complete. Then I have the storyboard for core 3 done and am currently working on the finished plan for it. These notes do differ slightly from the actual story, but not too drastically. Like in the plan, James Thompson only hit the first target (Referring to Chapter 38: Train Hard, Fight Easy during shooting practice), but in the actual story, he did destroy both targets. If anyone wants the full notes I can release them, but from reading them back, I have realised it's filled with hundreds of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. So I wouldn't recommend it.

Little Funny Stories

Well, if you haven't noticed yet, I make a lot of mistakes in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. For example, if you've been with me from the start, you'd probably have noticed that I spelt Arctic as Artic for quite a while. Honestly, I had no clue I'd spelt it wrong. But when I was randomly looking back at my chapter (The original Chapter 2: Artic Ghost), I realised that the word Arctic was indeed spelt incorrectly. I spent the next five minutes screaming as I went from platform to platform attempting to fix as much as I could. Thinking back on it, this type of thing has happened probably more than 10 times, especially when I was uploading to Royal Road.

Finally

That's all for this file, anyway, thank you and see you in the next chapter,

-J