The assassination beginning the war in some eyes, or the Belgian Bypass in other eyes.
The Allied Powers were France, Britain, Russia. At least initially.
The Central Powers were Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.
The armament of the Centrals was initially superior. Aircraft with an interrupter that allowed forward-mounted machine guns to NOT chew off their propellors. The Pocket Beasts, which they had hoped to be theirs exclusively turned up in FRENCH possession as well, though more limited in number.
Tanks, originally a British development, proved to be less valuable than originally concieved. Lightning weapons such as the blitz-maus were ideal as anti-tank weapons.
Tesla's company was practically looted by agents of the United States government, acting apparently on a tip later traced to Edison's competing company. Notes and equipment were seized, some of which was eventually returned.
Tesla's Inner Circle had hidden most of the more important notes and equipment, having suspicions that something like that had been coming.
The Colorado Springs plant was closed down, and seeing these actions as betrayal by the US Government, Tesla began secret plans for relocation.
The French Pocket Monsters (as they were referred to in English) were more limited in number, which settled well into claims that the technology had been stolen, even if the French denied such. The French 'pochemonster' were initially confined to Pidgey, Insolourdo (Dunsparce in English), and Caterpie.
Naturally with the incredible advantage these new weapons were giving the Germans, acquiring something of these new weapons became a priority for those without. Over sixty elite troops died in the raid of a (until then thought secret) German lab and the prototypes of several of these stolen.
The British forces had only a few of these. Sandshrew, Cyndaquil, and Mankey were less than a half-dozen. They only had one Snubbull to begin with.
Electro-cannon were developed by Tesla and sold to the British, a device which built up massive charges in capacitors and then discharged lightning at one's opponents. Ineffective if one's opponent was in a trench, but against a number of other targets it had its advantages.
The problem with the monsters was not that they were ineffective as weapons, nor that they were particularly difficult to work with. It was that they were very limited in number and whatever the initial creation process - only a few of a particular type could be produced. Afterwards the number would grow because they were fertile, and had noncombat uses. The number of Trainers was small because the number of monsters they could field was also small.
Then Austro-Hungary came up with a weapon that made the 'pocket monsters' less spectacular. Rockets had been used by various forces for quite some time, but the idea of GUIDED rockets was something else altogether. Now had come the development of the 'packbomb' - an inner core that exploded and sent nearly a hundred fuse-bombs scattering over an area where THEY exploded. Combined with the ability to hit specific targets with fair accuracy, things went poorly with the Allies quickly.
Notes seized from Tesla that had not been hidden away gave rise to another weapon which proved to counter the usefulness of the packbomb and the pocket monster. Stungas. A chemical weapon which lacked the sheer deadliness of mustard gas or similar agents, which produced a long-acting sedating effect. Diluting it down, it would eventually become an anesthetic, but in the concentrated form used in warfare produced a "humane" alternative that caused large areas to become impromptu slumber parties. A weapon that could be used on civilian areas without significant loss of life or property.
Tesla's decision to aid the war effort and cut human losses further still saw the development of other minor things, such as a synthetic rubber that wore down less.
Eventually the war did end. Rutger Langevin was not found.
Rutger Langevin did show up eventually, in Russia. The 'tasche kugel' technology had been refined several stages over, and now he was revealing his purpose. Or at least what he said was his purpose. Forced human evolution. Of course, it had the same problem as the 'tasche monster' deployment in World War I - limited numbers to field. Even with the number of 'volunteers' for the process.
Only females could be produced with the necessary conditions, and they had the need to find someone to form a sort of empathic bond with as their "anchor" Of course, none of that was immediately apparent and only came out after several years and in bits and pieces.
Especially the problems escalated when
(Posted Mon, 17 Jul 2006 05:46)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.