You Should Have Paid Your Soldiers

The Shattered States

Prologue: The Fall of the Republic

The year was 2035, and the United States had become a hollow shell of its former self. Decades of corporate lobbying, regulatory capture, and judicial manipulation had culminated in a quiet coup—billionaires, tech moguls, and private military contractors had finally dismantled the federal government. What remained was a patchwork of corporate fiefdoms, where citizenship was replaced by shareholder status, and democracy was a relic of the past. The elites called it enlightenment but the oppressed called it Technofeudalism—a sleek, efficient society where algorithms governed and human labor was optimized for profit.

But the world had other plans.

Act I: The War Machine Stalls

For generations, America’s wars had been fought by the poor—promised pensions, education, and a way out of poverty. But this time, when the draft notices came, the people refused. Desertions soared. Entire units defected, turning their weapons on the private security forces sent to enforce compliance. The elites, panicking, enacted the Wealth Conscription Act—anyone with assets over $1 million would be forced to serve, or forfeit everything.

The rich, who had never held a rifle, were thrown into the meat grinder. They died in droves—untrained, undisciplined, and unprepared for the horrors of war. The conflict sprawled across multiple fronts, stretching the corporate mercenaries thin. The American war machine, once unstoppable, was now bleeding out.

Act II: The Land Reclamation

With the U.S. collapsing inward, old grievances resurfaced.

• Mexico, backed by Chinese capital and military advisors, moved north. The Southwest—once stolen land—was retaken in a matter of months. Texas fractured, its cities declaring independence while rural militias fought both the Mexicans and each other.
• Russia, seeing an opportunity, landed forces in Alaska. The sparse American garrisons, abandoned by their corporate overlords, surrendered without a fight. The Russian flag flew over Anchorage within weeks.
• Canada, long weary of American instability, invaded New England under the guise of "stabilization." Boston fell quietly, its citizens too exhausted to resist. The northern states were absorbed into a new Canadian protectorate.

Act III: The Fracturing

What remained of the U.S. splintered along ideological and demographic lines:

• The Midwest became the Holy American Covenant, a militant theocracy where survivalist preachers ruled with Bibles and bullets. Dissenters were burned as heretics.
• The South fractured into warring ethno-states, where neo-Confederates battled Black liberation armies in a bloody stalemate.
• The West Coast, now a corporate dystopia, was ruled by a coalition of tech warlords who traded in data and human capital.
• The Northeast, under Canadian control, became a reluctant satellite state, its people adjusting to a new, quieter life.

Epilogue: A New World Order

By 2040, the map had been redrawn. The United States was no more—just a collection of failed states, corporate enclaves, and foreign-administered territories. The billionaires who had sought to rule the world found themselves hunted, their bunkers breached by vengeful mobs.

In the ruins of Washington, D.C., a single graffiti-scrawled message remained on the crumbling Capitol:

"You should have paid your soldiers."

The End.