War of 1996

The War of 1996 was a full scale assault on Earth from July 2 to July 4, 1996 by a vast extraterrestrial race (later named the "Harvesters") seeking to harvest Earth's natural resources. It was the largest military conflict in the history of mankind, taking the lives of 3 billion people. Within a span of two days, over 108 cities were outright destroyed and/or damaged, as the aliens began a systematic and genocidal campaign of wiping out humanity. The onslaught was halted when humanity coordinated a global counterattack after the United States managed to disable the aliens' force-field technology and the subsequent destruction of the alien mothership, thus ending the war in human victory.

The conflict drastically altered the political alignment and social structure of Earth. Humanity set aside their previous cultural and nationalistic rivalries and united globally. The Earth Space Defense was established to defend Earth and humanity from future extraterrestrial threats.