World War Three had an abrupt surprise for the world. Hostilities had reached a point that nuclear weapons were fired, but none of them landed. After peace negotiations were begun, all the war leaders realized that some external agency must have prevented such extreme destruction. The next step was to begin a covert and unified effort to find out who had intervened.
The war had lasted for a years with over a billion people killed. The hostilities came to involve the whole world and lasted three years. In the end the nations turned to a nuclear exchange. This would have devastated the planet and killed over half of Humanity. Yet the miraculous intervention stopped that outcome.
The public explanation was a last minute accord, while privately leaders around the globe dispatched covert expeditions to Antarctica. After comparing many forms of intelligence strange wave of energy was found to have originated from the heart of the Antarctica continent at the time of the nuclear exchange. All the governments agreed to collectively investigate, setting aside recent hostilities. Each major alliance and power dispatched an expedition, mixing military and scientific elements.
China dispatched a battalion of airborne troops with a strong science element. Their rapid supersonic transports reach the rendezvous site first, setting up the base camp that would be used by all the various parties.
The Southern Coalition sent elements of both the Brazilian Republic and African Union militaries. Their later entry into the world war left less hostility toward the other parties, and less a need for a strong military component. They would send half the scientist present during the investigation would come from the Southern Coalition, including the most advance biologist and chemist.
The Russians sent the smallest contingent, but their long experience dealing in polar conditions made their contribution of vehicles and technical survival expertise vital. Their science commission was the smallest of all the expedition members, but their special operations troops brought heavy squad level firepower.
The European Union brought a multinational force with mostly German, French, and Poles. They traveled light, but attempted to strongly represent their governments in any findings of the expedition.
The Grand Alliance was the only expedition member to dispatch mostly by sea, when everyone else had traveled by long range air transport. Most of the forces were dispatched from India and the USA, but Australia, England, and Japan had several contributions, including mechanical robotic components.