Agents of Re.L.I.E.F
Commander Takahito MacArthur bin Saud
In a timeline where American involvement in World War Two started later and ended worse, Central and Western Europe are uninhabitable, the former Soviet Union is a long chain of warlords, the USA is catatonic, and much of the rest of the world teeters on the brink of apocalyptic collapse.
The REconstruction/Liberation/secret-Intelligence Enlisted-Force was created in the 1950’s to help save civilization in the Old World. They argue that they have succeeded.
Governments within the Re.L.I.E.F zone do not go to war with each other, and they have indeed rebuilt an industrial base. At least, they can service and refuel Re.L.I.E.F ‘s fleet of aircraft. Re.L.I.E.F subject states have a growing economy, funneled mostly into the fleet, itself. And they have an education system…with the soul purpose of identifying talent to send to the airborne university established by rescued Nazi aeronautical engineers, die Luftfahrttechnik, Mathematik und Intelligenz Akademie, aka the L.M.I.A. (pronounced “lamia,” of course).
Now, after nearly 50 years of ultra-isolationism, the United States of America has again taken a military interest in the affairs of the Old World. And they are appalled at what they see. American media is abuzz with denunciations of Re.L.I.E.F, calling it an international dictatorship, a terrorist organization funded by piracy, its once-noble mission hijacked by the L.M.I.A.
Commander Takahito MacArthur bin Saud, Shogun of Japan, King of Arabia, Protector of the Peoples, has made known his displeasure with the USA by blockading Alaska and sinking any American ship that dares sail west of Hawaii. The few passenger planes that had begun flying across the Atlantic are grounded once more, and American oceangoing vessels must travel under armed escort even within sight of American shores. Nuclear tests on Iceland and the Aleutians are the subject of much consternation in Washington.
And there are darker rumors. Turning Machines networked into an electronic brain the size of a continent. Genetic modification of bacteria and viruses. Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Hydrogen fusion.
War is again coming to the world, perhaps for the final time.
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Okay, so I was watching this S.H.I.E.L.D thing and a lot of questions came up:
1) Who do these people report to? The US government? If so, why do they train and employ foreigners?
2) Where does their money come from? Taxes? Come on.
3) Why is their inter-departmental communication so consistently awful? I mean, okay, being host to two generations of secret Nazi octopus-cultists is pretty bad, but I watched an episode where Agent Triplett and Agent Ward just straight-up started brawling when their orders weren’t clear. And then there was this secret medical base that those same two agents (and their friends) blew the hell up, killing the two guards that their own organization had stationed there? That’s some bad operations management, people.
So, I got to thinking: how would you get an international military/intelligence ring with a private fleet of  aircraft, proprietary technology, training facilities, and funding for it all? How could it get to the point where you have agents wrasslin’ in super-tech planes for no reason?
Perhaps if the Marshall Plan, SCAP, and NATO got fed into a blender, lost support from the US government, and went rogue in an anarchic world? Sound like a plan?
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Welp, that’s it for 2014. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone. Tune back in on January 13th, when the Kingdoms of Evil will be back with new podcasts, new awful ideas, and maybe some good news.
