The Third World War was a bloody mess. It had started as a regional war in Mesopotamia sparked by Shia and Suni rivalries. The first battle fields were along the Tigris and Euphrates but it quickly expanded to engulf the whole region. Vital interest around the world were endangered so other nations took sides. Eventually the war would spark other conflagrations across the globe.

The war lasted for years, with over a billion people slain. The hostilities came to involve the whole planet and after 3 years of war the major powers turned to a full nuclear exchange in escalation. This would have devastated the planet and killed half of the surviving numbers of Humanity in a day, yet that day a miracle and a reprieve for Humanity occurred. All of the nuclear weapons failed to exploded. The public explanation was a last minute accord, while privately there were many cover consultations between very scared leaders.

After weeks of comparing many forms of intelligence it was agreed that the strange wave of energy that had turned all the nuclear devices into duds had originated from the heart of Antarctica. With caution and uneasy diplomatic negotiations, all the governments of the world agreed to a plan of collective investigation.