Rustfields

A stone cottage, with a collapsed roof, overlooks the remains of a lifeless farm. The corroding shell of a tractor, or something like one, lies on its side in the middle of a barren field. Further on, a road, torn apart by shelling, leads to a ruined village. A few hardy weeds have begun to push through the rubble, and some small bugs can be spotted, but otherwise, it's frightfully still and lifeless.

Near the village, which was eventually determined to be in Southern France in the late 1920s, are the remains of an army, or two, or possibly more, an assortment of tanks, artillery, and crashed planes, all seemingly based on a type of steam technology whose inner workings are beyond easy recovery. A common speculation based on fragments of crystal in the ruined engines, is that, ridiculously, lasers were involved.

The scraps of newspaper and signage recovered implies the Great War had not ended, but was fought up to at least the date of the village's destruction. Scanning showed no radio signals. Further exploration along the roads, which did match those of Baseline France in the era to within 10%, showed similar sights. The destruction was incredibly widespread, given the apparent lack of nuclear weapons (no background radiation beyond the normal). Someone commented "It's as if chain lightning struck every vehicle, house, person, and animal larger than an ant, everywhere here, maybe everywhere."

Whatever it was had affected plants as well. Forests near the breach point were dead, with only a few shoots starting to appear. Even fungal growth was limited. Despite this, there was no indication of imminent danger, and the team proceeded to the Atlantic coast, where the same pattern was seen. The beach was mostly lifeless, as was the sea, with just the barest hints of life returning.

And everywhere, the remains of war. (The husk of an immense battleship lay on its side on the beach, evidently propelled there by some gargantuan wave. The rusting skeletons of metal ornithopters surrounded it.) It seems whatever did this was indiscriminate; multiple types of wrecked vehicles could be identified, and grouped into families to determine allegiances, and they were all destroyed in the same way. If one side had unleashed a doomsday weapon, it had backfired badly; that, or all sides had it, and decided that MAD was the only option.

BREACH

In theory, this world is a prime candidate for the 'H' part of BREACH -- Homesteading. There's very little left of value to plunder; whatever tore through here turned bookstores into confetti and seared art to ash. It's possible some precious metals and jewelery still exist somewhere; the first-in team wasn't looking for jewelers or banks. (They did note that not only did they find no bodies, they found no non-organic remains associated with a living being... no wedding rings, tie clasps, not even horseshoes in the farmhouse stable.)

But there is empty space galore, and in theory, life can be restored; soil analysis shows a layer of dead matter that has hindred regrowth, but time has eroded it so that long buried seeds have germinated, and planting new crops should work. If the destruction was not global, a suitable cover story for the newcomers would not be too difficult. However, the lack of any understanding as to what happened, and the risk of it happening again, serves as a damper on that idea.

Unauthorized breaches are watched closely and followed up on, both because of that risk and the perception that rampaging through ruins looking for high-value items is grave robbery of the lowest sort.

World Type

Alternate History

Divergence

Mid-1920s?

Current Year

Unknown

The War Machines

It appears the world... or at least this part of France... was in the midst of a vast battle when whatever-it-was (I know... heh heh heh...) happened. The overall technology would be 5+2 or so, and quite diverse, at least in weapons. What could be gleaned from the wreckage in the village and surrounding areas showed only a few items, badly damaged, that might be personal conveniences or appliances. While it's impossible to tell given the nature of the wreckage, it does not seem as if any weapon of the power needed to devastate the environment on this scale was part of the general aramament. Many of the wrecked craft show signs of damage inflicted prior to the "big wipe", and it seems to be due to conventional, if powerful for the TL, mechanisms.