My alternate Earth deviates from our history during World War 2. That war was prolonged until the end of 1946 by an only mildly deranged (but still evil) Adolf Hitler. For this reason technology was advanced a bit further by the end of the war than is the case in our world, and it was also in this period that super-powered beings (SPBs) first became generally known.

Following the arrival of peace, the period up to the end of the 1970's was largely similar to that of our Earth. In the early 1980's several secret organisations (some of which had been active elsewhere in the world for some time) began operations in Australia. Also around this time, a small band of super-villains unified the various organised crime gangs in Eastern Australian in a short but bloody mob war. The result was heightened tensions and crime of the costumed super-villain sort.

A kind of natural response to this was the appearance of costumed super-heroes. Some of them had no powers, while others had hidden or ignored their powers until their responsibility became evident. In any case, the battles of SPBs and costumed vigilantes became commonplace in Australian cities.

In 1983 the Federal government formed a small department called the Dept. of Internal Affairs, which was charged with gathering intelligence about SPBs in Australia. The directorship was given to Melissa Clark, whose zeal exceeded her authority. In greatest secrecy, and often in collusion with like-minded factions of Australia's other intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities, she formed an operations section to recruit SPBs, or capture or kill them. Clark had the support of the Prime Minister, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, in this matter.

By 1989 the DIA was a force spoken of in fear by the vigilantes and criminals alike. That year federal legislation requiring Metas (as SPBs were called) to be registered and carry identification, or face imprisonment.

Late in that year, a secret organisation called Darkness implemented an operation to neutralise the DIA. Having penetrated the DIA's staff, they arranged for almost all of the DIA's SPBs to be present at a speech in Cairns, Queensland. They then detonated a 10-kiloton fission device beneath the auditorium, killing 95% of the DIA's operations staff and tens of thousands of innocent civilians. In the aftermath, a public enquiry revealed the illegal activities of the DIA, and it was shut down, its surviving agents imprisoned or left unemployed. The identity of the bombers was never determined and many people confused the bombers with the DIA themselves, adding to their vilification.

Shortly thereafter, Darkness (now with no serious opposition) penetrated the Federal government and began to manipulate the PM. Able now to accomplish their goals from within, they ceased their illegal operations. They also formed a secret treaty with another organisation, Techno-Fear, which eliminated more illegal operations and provided the government with a continuous source of innovative technology. Australia, already a world leader in robotics and energy weapons, gained a signifigant lead on the rest of the world.

The 90's were a decade of anti-government operations for vigilantes. Though they had some successes, they were unable to break the government's increasingly despotic hold on the populace, and a few at a time they died or were imprisoned in a special facility called Gibson's Hole.

In 1997 a dimension-jumping group of SPB's made the singular error of bringing some mega-damage weapons and armour to Australia. They fell foul of government forces and some of their equipment was captured. The government's science advisors were quick to realise the value of this technology, and using their wide resources (their treaty with Techno-Fear, a brainwashed genius with detailed knowledge and several psychics with telemechanics) they deciphered the nature of the advanced gear and learned to reproduce it. Australia made secret gifts of some examples to the USA and Japan for various reasons, but remained a world leader because of their head start. Within 2 years mega-damage weapons and armour began being deployed by the Australian army.

In 2001 an alien task force (representing a power bloc which had acquired the interstellar rights to Earth's solar system) landed a "reconnaissance in force" in Australia, which they had identified as a place of high-tech manufacturing. Their invasion force was defeated handily, and various prisoners interned for scientific examination. The main alien force, which was watching from the orbit of Jupiter, determined that Earth required a solid defeat to make it ripe for occupation. They had been preparing for some years a Climate Weapon, basically a big asteroid to crash into the Atlantic ocean.

The Climate Weapon landed in July, 2008. The tsunamis and earthquakes it provoked devastated the US, Europe and Africa. It seemed a perfect opportunity to several antagonistic nations who threw nuclear weapons at each other, notably in South Asia and the Middle East. The combination of blows to the Earth brought about a profound and unexpected change - the Time of Rifts! This was the end of my campaign.