The United States of America (USA) is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major territories and various possessions. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C. are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is located in the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. At 3.8 million square miles (9.842 million km2), the country is the world's fourth-largest by total area and the third most populous. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.
History
The United States was among the nations that were devastated by the War of 1996. On July 2, 1996, the U.S. Space Command detected the arrival of the alien mothership and its deployment of its City Destroyers. Initially unaware of the extraterrestrial vessels, the military attempted to identified the City Destroyers. One encounter with a City Destroyer approaching the American west coast resulted in the destruction of an AWACS plane. Due to the circumstances in which one vessel was approaching Washington, D.C., the President's Joint Chiefs of Staff and Vice President were evacuated to NORAD. However, President Thomas Whitmore chose to remain in Washington to keep the public calm.
After the City Destroyers arrived and take position over the American cities, Whitmore's government tried to establish communication with the vessel over Washington. David Levinson, an MIT graduate working for a cable company in New York City, discovered hidden transmissions in Earth's satellites which he realized is a timer counting down to a coordinated attack by the aliens. With the support of his estranged wife Constance Spano, the White House Communications Director, he and his father Julius gained entrance into the Oval Office to notify President Whitmore about the attack. Whitmore ordered large-scale evacuations of the targeted cities, but the aliens attack with advanced directed-energy weapons before these can be carried out. Whitmore and portions of his staff narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as Washington is destroyed.
On July 3, the U.S. military launched a counterattack on the City Destroyers near the ruins of the destroyed cities. However, they were underestimated by the aliens' force fields that made their vessels virtually invulnerable to conventional weapons. This resulted in a one-sided massacre on American forces. Afterwards, the aliens swiftly retaliated with a massive attack on many American military installations, including NORAD, killing the Vice President and most of the Cabinet who had been hiding there. Remaining military forces were evacuated from their bases to avoid further attacks, but have sustained heavy losses.
Whitmore eventually orders a nuclear attack on the destroyers, but the first attempt in Houston fails to penetrate the force field of the destroyer and the remaining strikes are aborted.
On July 4, Levinson devises a plan to use the repaired attacker from Area 51 to introduce a computer virus and plant a nuclear missile on board the mothership, theorizing that this will disrupt the force fields of the destroyers. Captain Steven Hiller volunteers to pilot the attacker, with Levinson accompanying him. With not enough military pilots to man all available aircraft, volunteers including Whitmore are enlisted for the counterstrike.
With the successful implantation of the virus, Whitmore leads the attack against an alien destroyer approaching Area 51. Although the force field is deactivated and the fighters are able to inflict damage, their supply of missiles quickly becomes exhausted. One of the volunteered pilots, Russell Casse, sacrificed himself in destroying the vessel by flying his plane directly into the ship's main weapon in a kamikaze attack. Soon after the Americans inform resistance forces from around the world about how to destroy the alien ships. The alien mothership was soon destroyed by the nuclear missile delivered by Hiller and Levinson, whom they managed to escape unharmed back to Earth.
Note
This page contains some real life information that is not reference in any media but is for the purpose of extended details.