Britannia Unleashed

FOREWORD There are worlds beyond our own that run in parallel, askew, yet the same. Histories intersect in births and non-births, some names familiar, other names unknown, the underlying lusts for power recognisable in them all. These worlds are but misted memories of the one true dream, this non-linear story of us, but makes them no lesser existences than ours. In one such timeline, Britannia, an altogether more fearsome version of our own Great Britain, the same indomitable Queen Victoria rules with a velvet fist, firm when needed, gentle when not. A mastery of those most pertinent scientific forces has meant Victoria’s Britannia rules not only the waves but half the planet. Long would its citizens have this continue. At this time of great change and prosperity, the vast majority know happiness, but not all. Some would call this minority dissidents, rebels, free radicals, others would more accurately term them Nazis. We would know these devils from years in our future, whereas Britannia would need to deal with the spawn of Germany’s deceased Kaiser far sooner. In truth, they presumed they had. And so, we are almost caught up with only the minutiae to observe. Queen Victoria’s beloved husband, Albert, smitten by a disease that has ravaged him, will soon die. He begs for death, but a distraught Victoria would share her soulmate’s imminent demise. He refuses her request as she refuses to end his torment. Two minds are twisted. Fate is set. It is at such times that vermin strike, sniffing out opportunities where none were foreseen, nibbling away at what has taken centuries to build. And so they have, bit by bit, little by little, piece by piece. However, hope remains, for like everything, evil also has its enemies, and this is the story of one disparate group who are just that. Some heroes, some ordinary men and women, others something else, they will fight for all Britannia has made and they shall never surrender. Read on, dear reader, if you dare, for as stated when this rambling monologue commenced, things are not so very different from our own.