Denver

Denver, Colorado, is a city in the United States. It is located high in the Rocky Mountains. When the American team of physicists which had been working on an atomic bomb at the University of Chicago was forced to evacuate Chicago ahead of the Race's invasion, they relocated to Denver. They were joined there by General Leslie Groves with uranium captured from the Race in a raid in the Soviet Union and then presented to the United States as a gift by Mordechai Anielewicz after he intercepted Heinrich Jager attempting to deliver the uranium to Werner Heisenberg in Germany.

This uranium proved helpful to the American physicists and under the leadership of Enrico Fermi, they built an atomic pile and became the first humans to create a sustained, controlled nuclear reaction in Denver. Later they completed the successful construction of the atomic bomb.

The Race opened an active front east of Denver but, unaccustomed to mountains the likes of which are rarely seen on Home, never came close enough to threaten the city. It was to this body of Race personnel that Jens Larssen attempted to defect.

After the United States destroyed Chicago with an atomic bomb, Atvar decided to retaliate by destroying an American city. The Race's computers suggested either Seattle or Denver as targets; eager to disrupt Tosevite oceanic shipping, Atvar chose Seattle (thus killing Vice President Henry Wallace). After the US also destroyed Miami, Atvar was once again presented with Denver and another city as choices for his target. This time the other city was Pearl Harbor, and, against the advice of Kirel, Atvar made the odd choice to destroy Pearl Harbor. Had he chosen Denver on either of these occasions, he would have stopped the production of atomic bombs by the United States. This would have allowed him to overrun and occupy that not-empire rather than agree to recognize its sovereignty at the Cairo peace conference. This would have precluded Earl Warren's surprise attack on the Colonization Fleet, the visit of the Admiral Peary to Home, and, ultimately, the development of FTL technology by Americans.