The Last Gasp was just that; a desperate attempt by the oil-producing countires to keep themselves relevant in a world which had finally realised that it needed them no longer.

2070 saw them uniting for the first time in centures. Moving quickly, they made land grabs where they could targeting other countries that had embraced solar-, wind-, and water-power wherever they could in order to not only capitilise on those assets for themselves, but to also exploit any countries buying energy from those sources. Many of the invaded countries were based in their region, exporting the power to countries unable to generate enough power for themselves.

With the oil-producing countries threatening the supply of both oil and renewables, those countries dependant upon those supplies struk back through economic, technological, digital, and physical means. It was all-out war on many fronts.

In the space of less than a month the war went from conventional to nuclear. The final battle was fought in the deserts of the middle east, a massive nuclear attack being launched by all the major powers and - some say - corporations of the world, before specially equipped troops went in to finish off what the bombs hadnt.

This war was supposed to truly be the war to end all wars. But it wasn't. Despite the best attempts of the allies, radioactive dust covered the planet. Countries that had been hit by government-sponsored terrorists using dirty bombs struggled wiht countering the effects. Infant mortality and birth defect rates went through the roof. The public backlash was intense. Governments fell, new governments replaced them, and fell themselves.

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it was then that Paul O'Leary, head of FlashBang!, the company that had developed many popular VR games came up with a solution. Duty Calls Online, a full-sensory game developed initially to aid in trianing troops for war, but released commercially, would become the battleground of the future.

Troops would be transported to the county of their enemies to be inserted into sensory deprivation tanks. There they would fight the war, online, in a fully-immerise experience. Each soldier would be given 50 lives and, upon losing their 50th life, they would be executed by lethal injection applied by the enemy.

In order to ensure the wars didn't go on ad-nauseum, it was agreed by that soldies who made it through 100 battles without losing all of their lives would be allowed to return to civilian life, and could not be called upon again for that war. The constant depletion of manpower meant that that wars would have to be short and sharp. it also helped that any damage in the game world had to be fixed. Real-life engineers, architect, builders, and a whole host of other experts would have to be ported into the game and repair the damage. All whilst being paid a full salary. War still had a cost.

Any gains made by a protagonist in the war would be reflected in the real world. This meant that if X country invaded Y country, for the duration that X country held that territory, all people within it owuld be counted as civilians of X country. This meant they would be subject to their laws, and pay their taxes. Considering the huge civilian casualties suffered in The Last Gasp, many felt this was a small price to pay.

Acceptance of the terms was unaminous, and the earth finally entered a period of 'peace' for the first time in centuries. And Paul O'Leary became the first trillionaire in history.