Courage Beyond Borders: John Nixon's Rally for Motherland

John Nixon was no stranger to adversity. The son of US military parents, he had grown up on bases the world over. His father had been a lieutenant during the first Gulf War and his mother a nurse in Afghanistan when the Mujahideen went after her hospital. He was born in Germany and lived there for seven years until his parents finally got orders back to the US. He'd grown accustomed to moving around, so it didn't bother him too much to go from school to school, but it did make it hard to make lasting friendships. He played on the baseball team and enjoyed music and video games, but he never felt like he fit with any particular group of kids. He took solace in learning as much as he could about history and geography, making sure he always knew exactly where he was at any given moment. It didn't hurt that his father was a decent athlete either, teaching him how to throw a fastball and hit home runs in their backyard at every base they were stationed at.

John knew being an introvert would cost him many things in life, but he was okay with that; it meant he got good grades, kept mostly out of trouble, and always found something different and interesting to do with his time. Unfortunately, those skills and hobbies would also be his downfall when the war broke out between Russia and the United States.

The North American continent had been divided into four distinct zones: Canada-US, Mexico-Central America, South America-West Africa, East Africa-South Asia. Each zone held its own government who had access to all the technology that vanished almost forty years ago. The US had become a democratic republic led by Speaker of the House Robert Meyers while Canada had voted for a system similar to what Australia's Coalition Government called "Direct Democracy", led by Prime Minister Adamson, although most people just assumed she was just another politician who couldn't keep her nose out of other people's business unless she had something to gain from it. Europe and Oceania were also divided into several nations each, although Europe seemed to be more politically unified than Oceania, who still suffered from small wars over territory and resources.

It hadn't taken long for tensions to rise between the four main regions of the world once again after decades of peace fell over humanity once more. Several skirmishes broke out across borders but it wasn't until Russia invaded Poland that things really kicked off. Russia declared itself to be a "Multi-Ethnic Republic" which basically meant that all peoples living within its borders were now Russians whether they wanted to be or not. The United States decided this was unacceptable and declared war on Russia in retaliation for their actions against Poland.

It's been almost three years since then and John knew there was no end in sight anytime soon; each side blamed the other for starting the hostilities and neither would back down from their position on the issue. As far as John could tell neither side really believed they would ever win this war either; both sides knew they could destroy one another if they really wanted to so they spent most of their time fighting proxy wars or skirmishes rather than full scale invasions or open warfare because nobody really wanted to see this world go up in smoke again so soon after two hundred years of relative peace between countries everywhere else in the world seemed worth fighting for too.

Then John received his draft notice; he'd known it would happen sooner or later but he'd hoped it wouldn't be as bad as his father told him it would be when they first moved overseas all those years ago when he was eight years old; however forty days later he found himself listening intently as his platoon sergeant explained why he should sign up for an internship program with an organization called Top Secret (no relation). Anybody who accepted this internship would be promoted ahead of their peers after completing the program and have access to special positions within the council that governed America's military forces during wartime; however only 10% of applicants were accepted into this program so John knew whatever happened next would determine what kind of future lay before him once this war ended - if it ever did...