by Mephit James
The timeline for this alternative setting follow the Standard Timeline through mid-1971. Riots in Camden, New Jersey elicit the response of police and National Guardsmen which results in a new faction of metahumans who carve out an anti-white enclave on the east coast of the United States.
1971
Suspicion 1 | Technology 1 | Economy 0 | Warfare 2
August: After police kill Rafael Gonzales after a traffic stop in Camden NJ, protestors march on city hall and occupy Roosevelt Plaza. The police respond in force and use tear gas on protestors. Private Bill Stross, now working with the National Guard, responds as well and inadvertantly empowers several of the protestors including the leader Rosa Santiago.
Santiago uses her powers to create a fleet of automata and a wall of scrap metal to halt the attacks and keep the National Guard at bay. Ironically, Abbie Hoffman is denied access to the site which prevents her from protecting the National Guardsmen from the powers of Nacio Gualterio convincing them to leave. The situation draws to a standoff as authorities set up outside of Camden and the protestors organize inside. A steady stream of white citizens leave Camden, also influenced by Gualterio's powers, while black power groups and Latino organizations from New York to Washington secretly enter the city to help the protestors.
September: Reddy March enacts his jail break at Attica prison (see Progenitor p. 59). Many of the former inmates head for the newly-formed Liberty City, formerly Camden NJ. Meanwhile, an ideologue named Adam Jakobsen rises to prominence in Philadelphia, across the Delaware River from Liberty City. He advocates a strong military response to the "anarchist occupiers" of the city, though the government seems unwilling to escalate the situation further.
October: In the first weeks of the month, a joint press conference is held between Rosa Santiago, Nacio Gualterio, and General Andrew Colt announcing the formalizing of Liberty City self-rule. The city will follow federal laws but Santiago and her cohort will have the opportunity to enact their own local laws similar to the District of Columbia. The decision is very divisive and Colt later admits that he felt there was no good alternative short of massive bloodshed.
November: Sympathetic protests in Johannesburg, South Africa demand recognition of a self-governed space for blacks similar to Liberty City. Rosa Santiago sends a message to the protestors, run in a local paper, encouraging them to maintain their struggle against apartheid. Across the river, Adam Jakobsen's group approaches Metavictims Advocacy and Support for any help they can provide to arm the citizens of Philadelphia against the metahuman defenders of Liberty City.
1972
Suspicion 1 | Technology 1 | Economy 0 | Warfare 2
March: Rosa Santiago holds a press conference in which she shows listening devices that she found in her home. She blames the FBI for this and states that if they want to deal with her and her group, they should do so to their faces.