Flash fiction thread

[James G]

Kings and Queens over the water

Self-declared exiles from Britain have established themselves in the United States. They say that their lives are at risk should they return home to the UK. According to them, and the governments of many other countries, Britain is a fascist dictatorship where political murders are commonplace. The official position of the United States is that this is not the case: Britain remains a democratic nation and a firm ally of America. There is some complication with that though. Requests for extradition with regard to many of these exiles who are accused of crimes (non-political ones such as murder, theft, fraud etc.) back in the UK have been refused. The exiles are free to say what they will to the media, organise themselves and lobby the US Government on behalf of their cause. The White House is at odds with Congress on the matter. Coming elections this November may change that but whether it will be for the better or worse for the exiles is not yet known.

There are British intelligence operatives active in the United States who have been tasked to operate against the exiles. Should they be caught, those involved would be in legal hot water and public exposure of their activities could do serious damage to the fragile trans-Atlantic relationship. Care is taken in their operations. They spy on the exiles and recruit among them those who will work against the cause of ‘Freedom for Britain’ from within. In addition to these espionage activities, there is also a highly secretive kidnap and/or kill programme ongoing. The long arm of Britain in striking within America against those Kings and Queens over the water who have the loyalty of sections of the public back in the UK is being used. There would be an uproar if the intelligence operations were revealed in public but if this was uncovered too… The consequences could be something quite dramatic.

The British Government would rather see important exiles snatched and smuggled out of America (via Canada or Mexico) to be brought back home. Once returned, they can be interrogated with the public trials of a couple of them for propaganda purposes. The others would either be left to rot in prison or quietly killed when they have ‘accidents’. The kidnapping is also difficult to do. It is done but assassinations are less risky. This denies the UK the knowledge that is in the heads of those they would like to squeeze dry. However, it does deny these people to their fellow exiles. Some of the most important figures are being killed. None of them are at the very top, those former politicians who sometimes appear on American TV screens talking about the dictatorship in London, but those around them. Organisers, activists and media strategists are losing their lives. They are dying in ways which are supposed to point to the cause being anything but a state-directed assassination conducted on American soil. Illness, accidents, suicides and such like have been occurring. Those at the top are having their closest advisers die off. A very few are turning up back in Britain where they wish to confess their crimes and publicly denounce those who have fled to America. Funerals are more commonplace though.

The FBI isn’t stupid. They know what is going on. Other agencies within the US Intelligence Community are aware too: the CIA and the NSA especially. To think that Britain could get away with this would be foolish. Before he died, one of those exiles killed when he ‘fell in front of a Subway train’ up in Manhattan had been to FBI Headquarters and given that agency’s deputy director a list of all of those exiles who had been killed. He was once a senior man at Britain’s MI-5 and someone whom the UK would have certainly liked to have smuggled home somehow. Alas, they had found him impossible to kidnap: killing him had been easier. Even without what that man did before he was subsequently murdered, the Americans knew. They had eyes on many of the exile community and also some of the British agents operating illegally within the United States. Months ago, the FBI Director had resigned after a dispute with the President on this matter. The new head of America’s federal law enforcement organisation has been less willing to press the issue than her predecessor. Instead, she has FBI agents frustrating and blocking as many British efforts as possible.

As to the rest of the US Intelligence Community, they long ago got over their outrage when shoving aside their moral compass for the sake of the ‘bigger picture’. The British Government is a firm ally of the United States. There is a global undeclared conflict raging, a new cold war. Britain led as it is now displays a willingness to be on the frontlines of that fight. America could do it alone but only if there was no other choice. The price to pay is a loss of true democracy in Britain – no matter what the president says in public about that – and the deaths of foreigners. Americans themselves aren’t losing their lives in these British activities. There has even been some assistance given. The CIA and NSA have kept their own hands clean but they have helped by pointing out some of the key exiles and releasing information on where they might be found. The American news media haven’t been able to get on top of this due to their efforts to stymie any independent investigations of all of those unfortunate, accident deaths.

The most prominent exiles will continue what they do, trying to lobby among the corridors of power in the United States to recognise what has happened to the country from which they have fled. Britain will continue to do all that it can, including killing those it can, to limit their influence. The dirtiest of all dirty conflicts carries on unabated. Perhaps the voters in November will change things?

[stevep]

Mar 1, 2020 18:46:51 GMT James G said:

Kings and Queens over the water

Self-declared exiles from Britain have established themselves in the United States. They say that their lives are at risk should they return home to the UK. According to them, and the governments of many other countries, Britain is a fascist dictatorship where political murders are commonplace. The official position of the United States is that this is not the case: Britain remains a democratic nation and a firm ally of America. There is some complication with that though. Requests for extradition with regard to many of these exiles who are accused of crimes (non-political ones such as murder, theft, fraud etc.) back in the UK have been refused. The exiles are free to say what they will to the media, organise themselves and lobby the US Government on behalf of their cause. The White House is at odds with Congress on the matter. Coming elections this November may change that but whether it will be for the better or worse for the exiles is not yet known.

There are British intelligence operatives active in the United States who have been tasked to operate against the exiles. Should they be caught, those involved would be in legal hot water and public exposure of their activities could do serious damage to the fragile trans-Atlantic relationship. Care is taken in their operations. They spy on the exiles and recruit among them those who will work against the cause of ‘Freedom for Britain’ from within. In addition to these espionage activities, there is also a highly secretive kidnap and/or kill programme ongoing. The long arm of Britain in striking within America against those Kings and Queens over the water who have the loyalty of sections of the public back in the UK is being used. There would be an uproar if the intelligence operations were revealed in public but if this was uncovered too… The consequences could be something quite dramatic.

The British Government would rather see important exiles snatched and smuggled out of America (via Canada or Mexico) to be brought back home. Once returned, they can be interrogated with the public trials of a couple of them for propaganda purposes. The others would either be left to rot in prison or quietly killed when they have ‘accidents’. The kidnapping is also difficult to do. It is done but assassinations are less risky. This denies the UK the knowledge that is in the heads of those they would like to squeeze dry. However, it does deny these people to their fellow exiles. Some of the most important figures are being killed. None of them are at the very top, those former politicians who sometimes appear on American TV screens talking about the dictatorship in London, but those around them. Organisers, activists and media strategists are losing their lives. They are dying in ways which are supposed to point to the cause being anything but a state-directed assassination conducted on American soil. Illness, accidents, suicides and such like have been occurring. Those at the top are having their closest advisers die off. A very few are turning up back in Britain where they wish to confess their crimes and publicly denounce those who have fled to America. Funerals are more commonplace though.

The FBI isn’t stupid. They know what is going on. Other agencies within the US Intelligence Community are aware too: the CIA and the NSA especially. To think that Britain could get away with this would be foolish. Before he died, one of those exiles killed when he ‘fell in front of a Subway train’ up in Manhattan had been to FBI Headquarters and given that agency’s deputy director a list of all of those exiles who had been killed. He was once a senior man at Britain’s MI-5 and someone whom the UK would have certainly liked to have smuggled home somehow. Alas, they had found him impossible to kidnap: killing him had been easier. Even without what that man did before he was subsequently murdered, the Americans knew. They had eyes on many of the exile community and also some of the British agents operating illegally within the United States. Months ago, the FBI Director had resigned after a dispute with the President on this matter. The new head of America’s federal law enforcement organisation has been less willing to press the issue than her predecessor. Instead, she has FBI agents frustrating and blocking as many British efforts as possible.

As to the rest of the US Intelligence Community, they long ago got over their outrage when shoving aside their moral compass for the sake of the ‘bigger picture’. The British Government is a firm ally of the United States. There is a global undeclared conflict raging, a new cold war. Britain led as it is now displays a willingness to be on the frontlines of that fight. America could do it alone but only if there was no other choice. The price to pay is a loss of true democracy in Britain – no matter what the president says in public about that – and the deaths of foreigners. Americans themselves aren’t losing their lives in these British activities. There has even been some assistance given. The CIA and NSA have kept their own hands clean but they have helped by pointing out some of the key exiles and releasing information on where they might be found. The American news media haven’t been able to get on top of this due to their efforts to stymie any independent investigations of all of those unfortunate, accident deaths.

The most prominent exiles will continue what they do, trying to lobby among the corridors of power in the United States to recognise what has happened to the country from which they have fled. Britain will continue to do all that it can, including killing those it can, to limit their influence. The dirtiest of all dirty conflicts carries on unabated. Perhaps the voters in November will change things?

James G,

  Definitely a nasty scenario but far from impossible I fear.   If Britain did get a nasty right wing dictatorship then if politically convenient I could see political leaders in the US supporting it in such a method for 'British' support elsewhere.  Hopefully this isn't going to be the plot of your next TL!

  Steve

[James G]

Mar 2, 2020 15:36:33 GMT stevep said:

Mar 1, 2020 18:46:51 GMT James G said:

Kings and Queens over the water

Self-declared exiles from Britain have established themselves in the United States. They say that their lives are at risk should they return home to the UK. According to them, and the governments of many other countries, Britain is a fascist dictatorship where political murders are commonplace. The official position of the United States is that this is not the case: Britain remains a democratic nation and a firm ally of America. There is some complication with that though. Requests for extradition with regard to many of these exiles who are accused of crimes (non-political ones such as murder, theft, fraud etc.) back in the UK have been refused. The exiles are free to say what they will to the media, organise themselves and lobby the US Government on behalf of their cause. The White House is at odds with Congress on the matter. Coming elections this November may change that but whether it will be for the better or worse for the exiles is not yet known.

There are British intelligence operatives active in the United States who have been tasked to operate against the exiles. Should they be caught, those involved would be in legal hot water and public exposure of their activities could do serious damage to the fragile trans-Atlantic relationship. Care is taken in their operations. They spy on the exiles and recruit among them those who will work against the cause of ‘Freedom for Britain’ from within. In addition to these espionage activities, there is also a highly secretive kidnap and/or kill programme ongoing. The long arm of Britain in striking within America against those Kings and Queens over the water who have the loyalty of sections of the public back in the UK is being used. There would be an uproar if the intelligence operations were revealed in public but if this was uncovered too… The consequences could be something quite dramatic.

The British Government would rather see important exiles snatched and smuggled out of America (via Canada or Mexico) to be brought back home. Once returned, they can be interrogated with the public trials of a couple of them for propaganda purposes. The others would either be left to rot in prison or quietly killed when they have ‘accidents’. The kidnapping is also difficult to do. It is done but assassinations are less risky. This denies the UK the knowledge that is in the heads of those they would like to squeeze dry. However, it does deny these people to their fellow exiles. Some of the most important figures are being killed. None of them are at the very top, those former politicians who sometimes appear on American TV screens talking about the dictatorship in London, but those around them. Organisers, activists and media strategists are losing their lives. They are dying in ways which are supposed to point to the cause being anything but a state-directed assassination conducted on American soil. Illness, accidents, suicides and such like have been occurring. Those at the top are having their closest advisers die off. A very few are turning up back in Britain where they wish to confess their crimes and publicly denounce those who have fled to America. Funerals are more commonplace though.

The FBI isn’t stupid. They know what is going on. Other agencies within the US Intelligence Community are aware too: the CIA and the NSA especially. To think that Britain could get away with this would be foolish. Before he died, one of those exiles killed when he ‘fell in front of a Subway train’ up in Manhattan had been to FBI Headquarters and given that agency’s deputy director a list of all of those exiles who had been killed. He was once a senior man at Britain’s MI-5 and someone whom the UK would have certainly liked to have smuggled home somehow. Alas, they had found him impossible to kidnap: killing him had been easier. Even without what that man did before he was subsequently murdered, the Americans knew. They had eyes on many of the exile community and also some of the British agents operating illegally within the United States. Months ago, the FBI Director had resigned after a dispute with the President on this matter. The new head of America’s federal law enforcement organisation has been less willing to press the issue than her predecessor. Instead, she has FBI agents frustrating and blocking as many British efforts as possible.

As to the rest of the US Intelligence Community, they long ago got over their outrage when shoving aside their moral compass for the sake of the ‘bigger picture’. The British Government is a firm ally of the United States. There is a global undeclared conflict raging, a new cold war. Britain led as it is now displays a willingness to be on the frontlines of that fight. America could do it alone but only if there was no other choice. The price to pay is a loss of true democracy in Britain – no matter what the president says in public about that – and the deaths of foreigners. Americans themselves aren’t losing their lives in these British activities. There has even been some assistance given. The CIA and NSA have kept their own hands clean but they have helped by pointing out some of the key exiles and releasing information on where they might be found. The American news media haven’t been able to get on top of this due to their efforts to stymie any independent investigations of all of those unfortunate, accident deaths.

The most prominent exiles will continue what they do, trying to lobby among the corridors of power in the United States to recognise what has happened to the country from which they have fled. Britain will continue to do all that it can, including killing those it can, to limit their influence. The dirtiest of all dirty conflicts carries on unabated. Perhaps the voters in November will change things?

James G ,

  Definitely a nasty scenario but far from impossible I fear.   If Britain did get a nasty right wing dictatorship then if politically convenient I could see political leaders in the US supporting it in such a method for 'British' support elsewhere.  Hopefully this isn't going to be the plot of your next TL!

  Steve

Nope, not going to be that. Just a product of unrealised ideas from Scimitars on Whitehall to be honest.

[James G]

Last column out of Karachi

It is November 1991 and the Soviet Union is in a state of collapse. Military forces aboard are receiving recall orders, including those long fighting wars in foreign lands to the south. From out of war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan too, there are instructions that those there are to make a return back to the Rodina. Gunfire is being heard in the streets of Moscow yet those orders stand: come home. The pull out begins. Lost in the shuffle, a result of a simple mistake, is the Soviet garrison in Karachi. They are ready to come home but fail to receive the final instruction to begin moving. By mid-December, when the security situation across Pakistan is absolutely dire, the error is realised. There is no conceivable way out that those in Moscow can see. New orders come to those in Karachi. Lay down your arms and surrender to the forces of the People’s Republic of Baluchistan. This instruction is something that is expected to be obeyed. Lt.–General Lavrov will do no such thing. He will return home, fighting his way across Pakistan, Afghanistan and even the Muslim lands of the southernmost reaches of the Soviet Union if necessary. The next morning, the last column out of Karachi leaves that city and begins marching back to the Motherland.

Tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks make up the column. While Lavrov has it as one overall, it is split into several component parts while moving. The main road running first northwest then north out of Karachi is followed as the line of advance yet not all of the column follows that route directly. There are flank guards off the highway. Forward scouts race away ahead from the main body. There is a rear guard too, those who protect the column from anyone following. Opposition quickly comes. The main body of vehicles rolling northwards is meant to be protected from these, leaving it to those on the outside to engage, but the rebels which Soviet forces have fought inside what was once Pakistan for the past five years are a clever, capable and cunning opponent. They avoid flank guards and let the forward scouts roll past them while hiding. When the exposed centre comes their way, the bandits strike. Lavrov is inside one of the few operational helicopters – others were left burning back in Karachi – above the column as it heads into the mountains. He listens to radio reports from those in contact while observing the rising smoke. With light weapons, rebel attacks are made. The enemy are mostly killed but they take Soviet lives too. The wounded and non-combat personnel are the main victims of gunfire and explosions. The column must keep moving though. The dead are left behind and forward movement carries on. The Rodina is the destination and there can be no halt made.

Khuzdar is reached. The small city is a battlefield between different Pakistani factions. Lavrov will not take sides. Passage ahead is blocked by those fighting and so he blasts them out of the way. There are mobile heavy guns and rocket launchers with his column. Those open fire to clear away around the city. Soviet forces bypass the Khuzdar, going through the mountains now. Enemy opposition comes here and beyond all the way towards Quetta. Sniping and roadside bombs are used by rebels as they attack the column. Continuous fighting is seen all while forward progress continues. The going is hard and the casualty tally rises significantly. Lavrov, back on the ground and riding within a wheeled command vehicle, is told that the helicopter he was on before has now been shot down. Rebels armed with American-supplied missiles have claimed another kill. The column is not even a third of the way home yet and most of the helicopters are gone. Without them, there will be no long-range observation of what is ahead.

Three days out of Karachi, the column is approaching Quetta. This is a bigger city than Khuzdar and one fully under the control of the Balochis. They know they have been abandoned by Moscow and will be subject to the revenge of the Pashtuns, Punjabis & Sindhis who will never forgive them for allying so willingly with the Soviets when Pakistan was forcefully broken apart by Soviet tanks. Lavrov will find no allies in Quetta. The Balochis will want to seize what they can, taking spoils of war from his column. His men will all be slaughtered. All roads led to Quetta though. There is no way around it. Lavrov must get his column past there before he can even begin to cross the more dangerous Afghanistan. He sacrifices men. To save the many, a few must lose their lives. Among those who he has launch a distracting attack upon Balochi forces are Pakistanis themselves: men from the other ethnic groups who hitched their tails to the Soviet Union’s war in their country and are running with them. Lavrov had no intention of bringing them to the Rodina. He’d known before leaving Karachi that they would come in handy. Using deception and breaking a flag of truce, Quetta is viciously attacked. The defenders are engaged and through the middle, Lavrov moves his column. He takes more losses than anticipated, but he gets past. Men are left behind and they will unfortunately suffer the consequences. The Afghan frontier is ahead though and that is soon crossed.

Another city on a crossroads controlled by the unfriendly is next. Kandahar is in Afghan rebel hands. The Mujahideen have never been allies, even ones to be betrayed. Lavrov cannot fight his way through Kandahar. His ammunition supply is far more depleted than projected with far more fights still to come. He can avoid the city directly though. Once inside Afghanistan, the number of vehicles in the column is cut down significantly. The journey has already been hard going on many of them but now things will be even more difficult. Men and stores are moved to others while spare parts and weapons are stripped away from those left behind. Lavrov is out of his command vehicle watching an armoured vehicle going through cannibalisation when an attack comes nearby. The Afghans give their welcome to those coming up from Karachi. His riflemen, joined quickly by tankers, make quick work of this attack. It is only a probing strike though and Lavrov is sure word is being spread. He anticipates that Kandahar will know of his presence nearby. Hopefully, they will be fooled into thinking he is coming straight towards them. He doesn’t: the column goes west, not north. The course of the near-dry Diori River is followed. The desert is on the left flank, Kandahar to the right but up ahead is Helmand. Lavrov drives his column into that region and then back towards the highway some distance away from Kandahar. His rear guards take casualties fighting off efforts to make a chase yet a successful escape is made.

The going across southern Afghanistan is hard. The elements rather than an enemy will see more losses accumulate. The column is laden with wounded and the ill. Because there can be no staying still, men die when on the move. Those who could have survived by staying in-place down in Karachi – of course if the city wasn’t soon to be lost to Pakistani rebels – will die while travelling through Afghanistan. Leaving Helmand, another fight is had at Delaram. This town is on the edge of the Khash Desert. The fight is unexpected. Lavrov makes a mistake where he is led to believe that the Afghan Government forces there will willingly step aside when faced with a strong oncoming force of armour which he shows them that he has out front. They are not taken in by the bluff, they see the weakness of his column. In addition, those here are not answerable to Kabul. They are rebels masquerading as erstwhile allies. A brutal fight occurs. Lavrov loses a hundred plus men. The enemy withdraws into the mountains to the north after causing a delay and inflicting those casualties. They are not beaten either. They follow his column afterwards to nibble at the rear. However, Lavrov is two-thirds of the way home now.

Herat is ahead. Beyond there lays the Rodina… well the Turkmen SSR where Lavrov cannot be sure of the political situation. He’d rather face domestic rebels than any more Afghan bandits though. There are two roads leading towards the city of Herat. The shortest route, to the right, is the most dangerous. It goes near to Shindand Airbase and that is in Mujahideen hands. Shindand was to where Lavrov’s men were supposed to fly from Karachi to – leaving all equipment & stores behind – on the way home. When it was abandoned to the enemy, that was a key part of the process of seeing he and his men left to surrender when down next to the Indian Ocean. He takes the road on the left, the one which will see his column having to take the long way around, rather than go near there. Farah is soon rolled through with minor attacks from rebels there beaten off. At the smaller town of Aokal, the rebels from Shindand are met here instead. Far too late to do anything about it, Lavrov realises he’s been herded into a trap. The Mujahideen have chosen a battlefield to fight him on. They have been watching and planning, getting ready for this fight where they think they will win a great victory. A huge force has been established including men with anti-tank weapons. They have underestimated him though. Lavrov has not come all this way to fail. There is one weapon which he has not used, one which he is sure that his enemy, nor whomever is currently ruling the roost in Moscow, suspects he would use. There had been a small stock of nuclear weapons down in Karachi: tactical ones for battlefield use. The warhead’s KGB guards are dead and the weapons are at Lavrov’s disposal. He uses nukes to blast a way home.

Two explosions occur in the skies above Aokal. Each are five kiloton blasts when rockets loft them up to sufficient height. Lavrov has his men wearing protective gear where possible or buttoned up inside armoured vehicles with overpressure systems on if not. Moving the wounded about has been hard to do but Lavrov has no choice. It is the only way to get past. He has no regrets about what he does. Within minutes of the detonations, the column is moving. The Soviet Army is long trained to operate on a nuclear battlefield: Lavrov’s enemy is not. Aokal’s defenders have been silenced. The radiation has killed them… and too a lot of civilians. The column goes up to Herat, leaving hell on earth behind them. Herat is in sort-of friendly hands. The locals there answer not to Kabul but no longer to Moscow either. At times enemies of the Soviets, and at other times allies, Lavrov is weary about what Herat will bring despite information telling him that those there will not shoot Soviet forces on-sight. He sends forward an emissary to speak with the Tajiks here. Among the men of Lavrov’s column, he has Soviet Tajiks but these are Afghan Tajik in Herat. He has his meet with theirs. Those in Herat call themselves Herati too rather than regard themselves as part of the larger Tajik ethnic group which stretches across many countries: they also don’t consider themselves Afghan. The differences are ones which Lavrov understands and he hopes to make use of. The negotiations take longer than planned. Lavrov waits a whole day. The Herati block access and unless he wishes to make use of any more nuclear weapons again, he must wait. He would rather not take that step. There will already be trouble at home for already doing so. Moreover, the Herati here can make more trouble for him should he just blast their city and try to drive past the ruins on home. They control what is beyond. Lavrov will not use nukes close to home no matter how small those warheads are.

A price is settled upon. Lavrov hands over weapons and ammunition. He feels the pain losing each and every single rifle and bullet. It is worth it though. There is fuel given – just a bit, every drop needed – as well as passage past granted. The Herati drive a hard bargain but they keep their word. The way ahead is opened. The last leg of the long journey is now taken. It doesn’t take long to reach the Soviet frontier and there are no further rebel attacks made on the way. A few more lives are lost though when unexploded ordnance is encountered and Lavrov finds these casualties a remarkable burden to carry. That is because they are so unnecessary though when so close to home. Nonetheless, the Rodina is reached. Lavrov goes to the front of the column to meet with what he hopes will be Soviet border guards there, not some traitors answering to any abomination such as a Republic of the Turkmen. Thankfully, his fears are misplaced. These men at the border are his fellow Soviets. The last column out of Karachi, men left behind there to die, have reached home. One-third of those who set out from Pakistan haven’t made it yet Lavrov has led the rest of them to safety. What happened at Aokal has already changed the world – not for any good though – and he will have to pay for that. Yet, he will go to his grave knowing that he did the right thing overall. Staying in Karachi would have meant death from them all. Glory has been won in fighting the way home against all the odds. Lavrov and his column would go down in history alongside Xenophon and his Ten Thousand.

[James G]

Reunifying China

Taiwan has elected a president who has refused to say whether he will declare independence for the island nation which the Chinese consider part of their country. Throughout his election campaign and ahead of his inauguration, the new president has played a game of ambiguity on this matter. In Beijing, China’s supreme leader has received intelligence reports – credible ones – that such a thing is going to be done. This matches the feeling in his heart that independence will be declared. The confirmation from his espionage operatives is used to justify the already taken decision to reunify China… to do that with force. An invasion is ordered. It is a gamble in international terms. China believes that the United States will do nothing. The Europeans and the rest of the world community will complain but be fearful of economic consequences of acting against China. If this is mistaken, the outcome will not bode well for Beijing. However, the risk is taken. Finally bringing all of China back together is the lifetime ambition of its leader. He wants to do this and it will be done.

More than nine hundred flights a week go between China and Taiwan despite their political differences. Ships move between the two, so many with different flags flying from them. There are Chinese tourists in their thousands in Taiwan. A ‘fifth column’ arrives in the days ahead of the invasion with the special forces troops going into hiding. Other deceptive moves are made elsewhere with the Chinese military build-up. Nothing is at it seems, nothing suggests even to the most suspicious outsiders that the People’s Liberation Army is making ready to attack. That it does though, out in plain sight. A readiness is reached with ease. The PLA is huge and geographically spread. The vast majority of those standing ready have no idea what they are about to do. Only at the last minute, ahead of seeing action, are they told. They are about to reunify China and are doing it now.

Commandos on the ground quickly overrun the two large airports either side of Taipei as well as the port facility at nearby Keelung. The entranceways to Taiwan’s capital are secured – with a fight it must be said – in the early hours of D-Day. Military transport aircraft disguised as charter flights arrive in Taiwanese skies just as missile attacks & commando strikes disable much of their defence network. Chinese paratroopers do drop over Taipei yet many more fly into the excellent airports. A couple of ships, non-military vessels, arrive in the harbour where they unload armoured vehicles with ease. Taiwanese marines, with tanks, are based around Taipei: they are garrisoned here to stop something like this. The Chinese try to pin them in their barracks but some fight their way out. Dawn in Taipei sees part of the city become a warzone. Elsewhere though, the PLA is taking over and bringing in more men. Their numbers increase rapidly. They have control and defeat the opposition.

Across Taiwan, the military forces of that nation, officially called the Republic of China Armed Forces, are under attack. They are bombed and struck with ballistic missiles. Contact is cut to some and false orders are sent to others. China has much control over internal Taiwanese communications and makes use of its long-established influence in the electronic field. Coordination is what Taiwan needs and what it now lacks. Around Kaohsiung in the southwest, a large urban area and Taiwan’s biggest port, there is a major military presence. Other Chinese paratroopers are here: just one brigade whereas there are three in the Taipei area. The paratroopers face a tough fight. Taiwan will not lay down and die. Beijing wanted Kaohsiung to be taken intact as much as possible but if those invading paratroopers – who have their arriving ships carrying light armour sunk – wish to survive, they must fight as hard as they can and destroy everything in their wake.

Taiwan has strong military forces from their army and marines long forward deployed on offshore islands. Dongsha, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu and Taiping are all major garrisons. Some of the islands are right off the Chinese coast while others are in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwanese defence strategy has always foreseen a fight for these islands. They aren’t to be disappointed. Chinese marines battle the defenders for the control of them. Small advanced waves are reinforced and likewise supported by immense air, naval and missile coverage. Islands fall but others hold. There is also a smaller Chinese move down in the South China Sea where Taiwan claims many of the Spratly Islands but only occupies one. It is seized in a vicious fight.

The main island of Taiwan is where the real fight is though. Despite off-island commitments, Taiwan has the majority of its armed forces here. The president and military chiefs are out of contact – all prisoners of the Chinese – but the military fight on. Jets get airborne despite missiles and interceptors. Army units still manage to begin moving in the face of everything thrown at them. They advance on Kaohsiung and especially Taipei. There are distractions though. Chinese raiding parties, mimicking larger forces, are active all down the western coastline as well as in the mountainous interior. The Taiwanese try to be everywhere at once. They manage to contain and isolate the Kaohsiung airhead but fail to prevent the Chinese from securing Taipei. The nation’s capital has fallen. Chinese propaganda with its capture is for their domestic and international audiences yet also directed – in a different manner – towards those still resisting on Taiwan too.

Taiwanese military units waver over continuing the fight. Some refuse to move any more, staying in-place and declaring themselves neutral in this fight… in particular once it becomes clear that America is not coming to their aid. Others do not. A counterattack is made towards Taipei. It is thought that the Chinese will be still few in number, especially in armour. They are wrong. China has a lot of tanks there and also close air support (aircraft and armed helicopters) to provide cover. The approaches to Taipei are fought over and the Taiwanese lose heavily. Mass surrenders begin after this. Fighting will continue though significantly lessen in the days the defeat outside of Taipei. The last organised resistance nationwide is soon no more.

China is reunified. It takes only a fraction of what the PLA has its disposal to do this, all in three days. They are only able to achieve the victory that they do, one where ‘only’ twenty odd thousand lives are lost, because the United States sits on its hands and doesn’t interfere. There is now only One China.

[stevep]

Mar 3, 2020 0:16:19 GMT James G said:

Reunifying China

Taiwan has elected a president who has refused to say whether he will declare independence for the island nation which the Chinese consider part of their country. Throughout his election campaign and ahead of his inauguration, the new president has played a game of ambiguity on this matter. In Beijing, China’s supreme leader has received intelligence reports – credible ones – that such a thing is going to be done. This matches the feeling in his heart that independence will be declared. The confirmation from his espionage operatives is used to justify the already taken decision to reunify China… to do that with force. An invasion is ordered. It is a gamble in international terms. China believes that the United States will do nothing. The Europeans and the rest of the world community will complain but be fearful of economic consequences of acting against China. If this is mistaken, the outcome will not bode well for Beijing. However, the risk is taken. Finally bringing all of China back together is the lifetime ambition of its leader. He wants to do this and it will be done.

More than nine hundred flights a week go between China and Taiwan despite their political differences. Ships move between the two, so many with different flags flying from them. There are Chinese tourists in their thousands in Taiwan. A ‘fifth column’ arrives in the days ahead of the invasion with the special forces troops going into hiding. Other deceptive moves are made elsewhere with the Chinese military build-up. Nothing is at it seems, nothing suggests even to the most suspicious outsiders that the People’s Liberation Army is making ready to attack. That it does though, out in plain sight. A readiness is reached with ease. The PLA is huge and geographically spread. The vast majority of those standing ready have no idea what they are about to do. Only at the last minute, ahead of seeing action, are they told. They are about to reunify China and are doing it now.

Commandos on the ground quickly overrun the two large airports either side of Taipei as well as the port facility at nearby Keelung. The entranceways to Taiwan’s capital are secured – with a fight it must be said – in the early hours of D-Day. Military transport aircraft disguised as charter flights arrive in Taiwanese skies just as missile attacks & commando strikes disable much of their defence network. Chinese paratroopers do drop over Taipei yet many more fly into the excellent airports. A couple of ships, non-military vessels, arrive in the harbour where they unload armoured vehicles with ease. Taiwanese marines, with tanks, are based around Taipei: they are garrisoned here to stop something like this. The Chinese try to pin them in their barracks but some fight their way out. Dawn in Taipei sees part of the city become a warzone. Elsewhere though, the PLA is taking over and bringing in more men. Their numbers increase rapidly. They have control and defeat the opposition.

Across Taiwan, the military forces of that nation, officially called the Republic of China Armed Forces, are under attack. They are bombed and struck with ballistic missiles. Contact is cut to some and false orders are sent to others. China has much control over internal Taiwanese communications and makes use of its long-established influence in the electronic field. Coordination is what Taiwan needs and what it now lacks. Around Kaohsiung in the southwest, a large urban area and Taiwan’s biggest port, there is a major military presence. Other Chinese paratroopers are here: just one brigade whereas there are three in the Taipei area. The paratroopers face a tough fight. Taiwan will not lay down and die. Beijing wanted Kaohsiung to be taken intact as much as possible but if those invading paratroopers – who have their arriving ships carrying light armour sunk – wish to survive, they must fight as hard as they can and destroy everything in their wake.

Taiwan has strong military forces from their army and marines long forward deployed on offshore islands. Dongsha, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu and Taiping are all major garrisons. Some of the islands are right off the Chinese coast while others are in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwanese defence strategy has always foreseen a fight for these islands. They aren’t to be disappointed. Chinese marines battle the defenders for the control of them. Small advanced waves are reinforced and likewise supported by immense air, naval and missile coverage. Islands fall but others hold. There is also a smaller Chinese move down in the South China Sea where Taiwan claims many of the Spratly Islands but only occupies one. It is seized in a vicious fight.

The main island of Taiwan is where the real fight is though. Despite off-island commitments, Taiwan has the majority of its armed forces here. The president and military chiefs are out of contact – all prisoners of the Chinese – but the military fight on. Jets get airborne despite missiles and interceptors. Army units still manage to begin moving in the face of everything thrown at them. They advance on Kaohsiung and especially Taipei. There are distractions though. Chinese raiding parties, mimicking larger forces, are active all down the western coastline as well as in the mountainous interior. The Taiwanese try to be everywhere at once. They manage to contain and isolate the Kaohsiung airhead but fail to prevent the Chinese from securing Taipei. The nation’s capital has fallen. Chinese propaganda with its capture is for their domestic and international audiences yet also directed – in a different manner – towards those still resisting on Taiwan too.

Taiwanese military units waver over continuing the fight. Some refuse to move any more, staying in-place and declaring themselves neutral in this fight… in particular once it becomes clear that America is not coming to their aid. Others do not. A counterattack is made towards Taipei. It is thought that the Chinese will be still few in number, especially in armour. They are wrong. China has a lot of tanks there and also close air support (aircraft and armed helicopters) to provide cover. The approaches to Taipei are fought over and the Taiwanese lose heavily. Mass surrenders begin after this. Fighting will continue though significantly lessen in the days the defeat outside of Taipei. The last organised resistance nationwide is soon no more.

China is reunified. It takes only a fraction of what the PLA has its disposal to do this, all in three days. They are only able to achieve the victory that they do, one where ‘only’ twenty odd thousand lives are lost, because the United States sits on its hands and doesn’t interfere. There is now only One China.

  James G,

  A nasty outcome but all to possible.  Hopefully even Trump wouldn't do nothing and the Taiwanese would be better prepared for such an attack but if Beijing throw the kitchen sink at them and get this level of surprise then it could well happen.

  Once this did occur I can't see the democratic movement in Hong Kong lasting very like either as Beijing no longer has to worry about not alienating Taiwan.

  Steve

  Steve

[James G]

Mar 3, 2020 11:05:16 GMT stevep said:

Mar 3, 2020 0:16:19 GMT James G said:

Reunifying China

Taiwan has elected a president who has refused to say whether he will declare independence for the island nation which the Chinese consider part of their country. Throughout his election campaign and ahead of his inauguration, the new president has played a game of ambiguity on this matter. In Beijing, China’s supreme leader has received intelligence reports – credible ones – that such a thing is going to be done. This matches the feeling in his heart that independence will be declared. The confirmation from his espionage operatives is used to justify the already taken decision to reunify China… to do that with force. An invasion is ordered. It is a gamble in international terms. China believes that the United States will do nothing. The Europeans and the rest of the world community will complain but be fearful of economic consequences of acting against China. If this is mistaken, the outcome will not bode well for Beijing. However, the risk is taken. Finally bringing all of China back together is the lifetime ambition of its leader. He wants to do this and it will be done.

More than nine hundred flights a week go between China and Taiwan despite their political differences. Ships move between the two, so many with different flags flying from them. There are Chinese tourists in their thousands in Taiwan. A ‘fifth column’ arrives in the days ahead of the invasion with the special forces troops going into hiding. Other deceptive moves are made elsewhere with the Chinese military build-up. Nothing is at it seems, nothing suggests even to the most suspicious outsiders that the People’s Liberation Army is making ready to attack. That it does though, out in plain sight. A readiness is reached with ease. The PLA is huge and geographically spread. The vast majority of those standing ready have no idea what they are about to do. Only at the last minute, ahead of seeing action, are they told. They are about to reunify China and are doing it now.

Commandos on the ground quickly overrun the two large airports either side of Taipei as well as the port facility at nearby Keelung. The entranceways to Taiwan’s capital are secured – with a fight it must be said – in the early hours of D-Day. Military transport aircraft disguised as charter flights arrive in Taiwanese skies just as missile attacks & commando strikes disable much of their defence network. Chinese paratroopers do drop over Taipei yet many more fly into the excellent airports. A couple of ships, non-military vessels, arrive in the harbour where they unload armoured vehicles with ease. Taiwanese marines, with tanks, are based around Taipei: they are garrisoned here to stop something like this. The Chinese try to pin them in their barracks but some fight their way out. Dawn in Taipei sees part of the city become a warzone. Elsewhere though, the PLA is taking over and bringing in more men. Their numbers increase rapidly. They have control and defeat the opposition.

Across Taiwan, the military forces of that nation, officially called the Republic of China Armed Forces, are under attack. They are bombed and struck with ballistic missiles. Contact is cut to some and false orders are sent to others. China has much control over internal Taiwanese communications and makes use of its long-established influence in the electronic field. Coordination is what Taiwan needs and what it now lacks. Around Kaohsiung in the southwest, a large urban area and Taiwan’s biggest port, there is a major military presence. Other Chinese paratroopers are here: just one brigade whereas there are three in the Taipei area. The paratroopers face a tough fight. Taiwan will not lay down and die. Beijing wanted Kaohsiung to be taken intact as much as possible but if those invading paratroopers – who have their arriving ships carrying light armour sunk – wish to survive, they must fight as hard as they can and destroy everything in their wake.

Taiwan has strong military forces from their army and marines long forward deployed on offshore islands. Dongsha, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu and Taiping are all major garrisons. Some of the islands are right off the Chinese coast while others are in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwanese defence strategy has always foreseen a fight for these islands. They aren’t to be disappointed. Chinese marines battle the defenders for the control of them. Small advanced waves are reinforced and likewise supported by immense air, naval and missile coverage. Islands fall but others hold. There is also a smaller Chinese move down in the South China Sea where Taiwan claims many of the Spratly Islands but only occupies one. It is seized in a vicious fight.

The main island of Taiwan is where the real fight is though. Despite off-island commitments, Taiwan has the majority of its armed forces here. The president and military chiefs are out of contact – all prisoners of the Chinese – but the military fight on. Jets get airborne despite missiles and interceptors. Army units still manage to begin moving in the face of everything thrown at them. They advance on Kaohsiung and especially Taipei. There are distractions though. Chinese raiding parties, mimicking larger forces, are active all down the western coastline as well as in the mountainous interior. The Taiwanese try to be everywhere at once. They manage to contain and isolate the Kaohsiung airhead but fail to prevent the Chinese from securing Taipei. The nation’s capital has fallen. Chinese propaganda with its capture is for their domestic and international audiences yet also directed – in a different manner – towards those still resisting on Taiwan too.

Taiwanese military units waver over continuing the fight. Some refuse to move any more, staying in-place and declaring themselves neutral in this fight… in particular once it becomes clear that America is not coming to their aid. Others do not. A counterattack is made towards Taipei. It is thought that the Chinese will be still few in number, especially in armour. They are wrong. China has a lot of tanks there and also close air support (aircraft and armed helicopters) to provide cover. The approaches to Taipei are fought over and the Taiwanese lose heavily. Mass surrenders begin after this. Fighting will continue though significantly lessen in the days the defeat outside of Taipei. The last organised resistance nationwide is soon no more.

China is reunified. It takes only a fraction of what the PLA has its disposal to do this, all in three days. They are only able to achieve the victory that they do, one where ‘only’ twenty odd thousand lives are lost, because the United States sits on its hands and doesn’t interfere. There is now only One China.

  James G ,

  A nasty outcome but all to possible.  Hopefully even Trump wouldn't do nothing and the Taiwanese would be better prepared for such an attack but if Beijing throw the kitchen sink at them and get this level of surprise then it could well happen.

  Once this did occur I can't see the democratic movement in Hong Kong lasting very like either as Beijing no longer has to worry about not alienating Taiwan.

  Steve

  Steve

It would only work with surprise. The ROC forces are small but capable. They actually have a brigade of elite marines (complete with tanks) in Taipei there to guard against a strike. Long term defence strategy has always been to fight for the offshore islands, maybe defeat off a raid on the main island, and wait for the US to show up. I have China here writing their own game plan rather than doing as Taiwan is prepared for.
The US might or might not stay out of a China-Taiwan war. It depends upon who is in the Oval Office.
I was thinking that Hong Kong would be 'under control' before this, but maybe things could happen the other way, as you suggest.

[James G]

Dover Castle, September 1940

Dover Castle is in the hands of Brandenburgers, commandos in the service of Nazi Germany’s military intelligence service (Abwehr). They’d taken it when Operation Sealion commenced with these unconventional soldiers of Germany using gliders to arrive and then trickery to take over much of the defences. There was a fight here, a final showdown because everything didn’t go to plan, but when Luftwaffe paratroopers arrived as reinforcements, they helped finish off the defenders. In the following days, as German forces moved inland away from the many coastal landing sites across the South of England, the detachment of Brandenburgers has remained. They have orders to stay whereas other commandos were busy helping destroy British efforts to defend their nation: Brandenburgers were in London storming the Tower of London, another historic castle used as a final bastion of resistance. Late last night, a ceasefire had been called. The British are giving in. This morning, arriving on his personal aircraft, Hitler comes to Dover Castle. He arrives with his SS bodyguards but these Abwehr soldiers are nearby too providing extra security. It looks like every single Briton isn’t about to lay down his rifle – they have established stay-behind units – and so there is a need for dependable troops to be in the immediate area.

One of the Brandenburgers assassinates Hitler.

The gruff-looking, prideful Nazi leader is having his picture taken while at the castle. The iconic image of Dover Castle in the background has been specifically chosen. It is supposed to be one for the history books like the image captured of him at the Eifel Tower after the French capitulation. This is meant to portray a veni, vidi, vici piece of propaganda for both domestic and international consumption of German supremacy. The picture is taken by a photographer Hitler himself has personally approved of. It is the last known image of the man who had just conquered much of Europe.

Two shots ring out moments later. They are fired from distance and up high by a man who is a pretty good shot.

Hitler is dead before he hits the ground. Only one bullet has struck him but it is enough to see his brains in the lap of one of his key aides. SS bodyguards – how they had failed today! – surround him with weapons drawn as Hitler is carried away. Desperate efforts are being made to save the Fuhrer’s life but it is all pointless. More SS men begin detaining everyone in-sight no matter what uniform they wear. Military officers from all services as well as conscripted soldiers are held at gunpoint. The Brandenburgers are ordered to lay down their weapons and they do, including the assassin himself who puts on the pretence of bewildered innocence.

Dover Castle is locked down. No one leaves and no information comes out. There are some very important Nazi figures who have come with Hitler to Dover and they urgently try to decide what to do. As Hitler had always wanted, they are divided and plagued by rivalries. They argue, fiercely too. Threats are made and there is even a bit of physical violence between them. No armed men are called in though. No one here has the will to truly act. Many actually believe that a miracle will see Hitler brought back, perhaps his brains can be shoved back inside his head, and no one wants to step up and take charge fearful of his rage at that being done. It will be no one here who takes charge.

Across the Channel, over at Reims where there is a captured French airbase, the head of the Luftwaffe is informed that the Fuhrer is dead. The information lock-down from those on the ground on the other side of the stretch of water which formed no barrier in the end to Hitler’s army failed to stop word leaking out. Field Marshal Goering knows that Hitler is dead with haste. Relief sweeps over him in a moment of privacy. Then comes something else: ‘the King is dead; long live the king!’.

Germany now belongs to Goering.

Orders arrive in Dover, sent from ‘Fuhrer Goering’. Hitler’s body is to be returned home pending a state funeral, sure to be an epic affair, so the nation can mourn. Everyone else will stay where they are. No one is to be allowed to leave Dover with no exceptions made. Goering will have an investigation done on the ground there into what had to be a conspiracy to murder Hitler. With that, Germany’s new leader secures his position for good. Those here in Dover are all guilty until proved innocent and they include among them those who might wish to vie for the post that Goering has just assumed. Finding who is responsible for Hitler’s death is important but this is more vital. Goering departs Reims for Berlin.

A storm arrives after the plane carrying Hitler’s corpse departs. Rain and wind batter Dover. The Germans take shelter indoors from mother nature. The weather is fierce. It appears to be a sign of things to come for many. Those who have nothing to do with that assassination a few hours beforehand fear that they will be blamed: a couple of them take their own lives, deciding that this is the time to leave this world. Others trapped with them decide that they must have been guilty and even if they weren’t, to the dead is where all fingers will be now pointed.

As to that gunman, the Brandenburger who’d used his rifle earlier, he is with his comrades all held by Luftwaffe guards. There is no real mistreatment for him and the others. He keeps his head down and is alone with his thoughts… and smiles.

If anything was worth another trip in that time machine, he silently tells himself, then it was the opportunity to fix my earlier mistake and kill that bugger.

Now he just has to work out how to make a return to 2040.

[James G]

A visitor

She was looking for her daughter. The younger one had gone wandering off, where she wasn’t supposed to go. Her mother had repeatedly warned her against doing so. However, her daughter disobeyed. She was like that. She was impetuous with a real sense of adventure. Exploring was what the younger one wanted to do always do, alone as well. Her mother had told her not to go to a certain place. Of course, it was exactly there where her daughter had gone. Older and more experienced, her mother knew the dangers which lay that way and had carefully explained those to her daughter. Acknowledgement had come yet, despite everything, off to there her daughter had gone. With no choice, her mother had to follow. She would have to retrieve her daughter from the mess which she had surely gotten herself into.

She followed the course her daughter was sure to have taken. This way, then that way. Around there and past that. Along here and forward to the dangerous rock. That was a rock of many colours. There was a lot of blue but also much green. Whites, yellows and browns could be found too. Unfortunately, there was ugly greys and blacks here now. There were more of those colours than there had been before. The mother was sad to see that. It would have interested her daughter, of that she was sure. The trail was picked up and she took the plunge, going forward into danger all to find her daughter.

Landing on the rock out here so far from home, she let out a call. Her daughter responded with one of her own, heard by her mother like her own was despite the great distance involved. A location was fixed, one where her daughter was trapped. The older one set off to rescue the younger one from imprisonment.

A visitor arrived on earth, the second in the last one hundred and fifteen years.


The younger, smaller visitor had appeared inside Tsarist Russia in 1905. It was a creature from the unknown, something to behold indeed. After a tough fight, the creature had been stunned into inaction and securely bound. It was held in various locations deep inside the huge country among great secrecy. It was studied while kept alive. An escape nearly occurred during the Russian Civil War where it almost got free. Ending up in the hands of the Communists after the Tsar was deposed, they hadn’t wanted to keep it. Lenin had considered killing it, Stalin too later. The creature was kept alive though. Experiments were done for decades on this creature which it was believed had come from out of the earth, not from out of space. The intention was that secrets would be revealed for the greater good of the Russian Empire / Soviet Union / Russian Federation. New leaders of the nation would come to look at it soon after taking power and have ideas about what to do with it but nothing ever really came of those. Now secured below the Ural Mountains, in a deep cave, when it called out today to its mother in reply, this came as quite the surprise. The mountains above shook. Those inside the holding facility lost their hearing for good. The creature almost broke free, showing much the signs of strength it had in the early years. Those binds which newcomers, including Putin himself, had considered a bit too much when stories of past events were disbelieved, only just held her in-place. There was chaos inside the facility. No one knew what was going on.

Her mother had landed in Africa, in the Sahara Desert within Niger. She began her ‘walk’ towards the Urals. She didn’t walk like a human or an earth-bound animal, but rather in her own particular way. Lifeforms were encountered soon enough. She’d seen them before: not that long ago in her memory but hundreds upon hundreds of years past in human terms. Animals got out of her way and so did many humans but there were some who opposed her. They attacked her from the ground and then from the air. Borders and countries meant nothing to her. The very idea of Niger, Libya and Egypt didn’t compute. A superpower located far away with a presence here now with immense weapons of war where humans flew within metal and plastic… all she knew was that they were dangerous. The desert was crossed and then the sea entered. She hadn’t swum in earth’s waters before but they were similar to those elsewhere, just dirtier. The humans didn’t bother her under the water though did again when she was back on land. Across Turkey she went, unknowing that that country, along with the whole world, was – for lack of a better term – freaking out at this advancing creature. Attacks came again. They didn’t hurt her. It was an annoyance really. Just before going back into the sea again, she called out to her daughter. A response came.

With a roar, the younger creature broke free. Scientific machines around the word would record the effects of the mountains crumbling all around her. Out of where she had long been held, daughter set off to meet with mother. Her strength was renewed with her mother so close. She was attacked like her mother was, with some horrible weapons which didn’t harm her one bit. Humans ran from her. There was a grey place, one of those which she had come to see to start this all off, where she met with her mother. Each of them celebrated… a city in southern Russia was destroyed in the process.

Now was the time to leave. The two visitors, who’d arrived separately, departed. Up they went, higher and higher above the rock below where there was all that uproar. Mother comforted daughter rather than chastised her. Their reunion had come and that was all that mattered… unless you’d been between them on earth that was.

[fieldmarshal]

Mar 1, 2020 18:46:51 GMT James G said:

Kings and Queens over the water

Very interesting; would love to know more about the sort of worldwide threat that would cause the US government to support a right-authoritarian regime in Britain. Russia gone red again? 

Mar 2, 2020 17:51:48 GMT James G said:

Enjoyable as well, the idea of a modern-day Ten Thousand is definitely a powerful one. Probably going to be hell to pay for Lavrov's unauthorized usage of nukes, but then I could see where he might get some sort of leniency as a national hero. The guards at the border being loyal Soviets - does this imply that Moscow has been able to reassert some level of control over the secessionists?

Mar 3, 2020 19:21:17 GMT James G said:

Dover Castle, September 1940

Those final lines are definitely intriguing. Is the implication that Hitler's rise to power OTL or a successful Operation Sea Lion was the result of the time traveller's earlier error?

Mar 4, 2020 18:55:36 GMT James G said:

A visitor

I like this one a lot. A bit like Gorgo but with the kaiju in question coming from space. I assume the younger one's arrival was Tunguska? Also, while I understand you probably left the descriptions vague intentionally, did you have any sort of image in your mind for what the creatures looked like? I'm picturing something with tentacles and bioluminescence, something between the squids from Gareth Edwards' Monsters and the Millennian from Godzilla 2000.

I apologize for mass quoting just bombard to you with questions about your stories. You've been on a roll with these recently; it's quite impressive and admittedly enviable. I wish I could crank out stories like this; even with short stories I get sidetracked or overwrite or get stuck and abandon them

[James G]

Mar 4, 2020 22:30:59 GMT fieldmarshal said:

Mar 1, 2020 18:46:51 GMT James G said:

Kings and Queens over the water

Very interesting; would love to know more about the sort of worldwide threat that would cause the US government to support a right-authoritarian regime in Britain. Russia gone red again? 

Mar 2, 2020 17:51:48 GMT James G said:

Enjoyable as well, the idea of a modern-day Ten Thousand is definitely a powerful one. Probably going to be hell to pay for Lavrov's unauthorized usage of nukes, but then I could see where he might get some sort of leniency as a national hero. The guards at the border being loyal Soviets - does this imply that Moscow has been able to reassert some level of control over the secessionists?

Mar 3, 2020 19:21:17 GMT James G said:

Dover Castle, September 1940

Those final lines are definitely intriguing. Is the implication that Hitler's rise to power OTL or a successful Operation Sea Lion was the result of the time traveller's earlier error?

Mar 4, 2020 18:55:36 GMT James G said:

A visitor

I like this one a lot. A bit like Gorgo but with the kaiju in question coming from space. I assume the younger one's arrival was Tunguska? Also, while I understand you probably left the descriptions vague intentionally, did you have any sort of image in your mind for what the creatures looked like? I'm picturing something with tentacles and bioluminescence, something between the squids from Gareth Edwards' Monsters and the Millennian from Godzilla 2000.

I apologize for mass quoting just bombard to you with questions about your stories. You've been on a roll with these recently; it's quite impressive and admittedly enviable. I wish I could crank out stories like this; even with short stories I get sidetracked or overwrite or get stuck and abandon them

King's and Queens:
It was a left over / unused idea from a short story Forcon and I did. I had in my mind that the US has swallowed it conscience because there really is a serious threat. Maybe Russia though I think it would have to be bigger: Russia as part of a New Axis.
Karachi column:
I've had this idea for a while and was planning to do a short story rather than one piece. It would be 'national hero' rather than the firing squad. Hell, he could always blame the KGB guys who never made it home and with a nod-and-a-wink, his superiors agree and give him a medal. I was thinking the USSR, of some sort, survived.
Dover:
The time travel idea came to me at the end there, just like that. I was thinking the time traveller made Sealion a success and so he is correcting that... when he would have done better to go back to exactly where he changed things. Alas, he's a failed hero.
I did read that Dover Castle, which is pretty impressive, was where Hitler was said to want a military HQ in Britain should he come. How true that is, I don't know but I liked the idea of him going there, having a picture taken and someone blows his brains out.
Visitor:
The younger one could have come via Tunguska thinking on it, though my dates don't match up. Let me go and change that: thanks for that! I didn't describe the two of them because every idea I had sounded silly. Big, scary and other-worldly is what I wanted. That is when on the move. Putin saw it in the facility - new presidents get a look at the big secret - and wasn't impressed... but then she brought down a mountain. I was thinking her mother was hit with a USAF Arc Light strike and kept on walking so she must be tough too. People run from the mother in terror so she won't be cuddly! Surviving space travel, bringing down the Urals: that makes them something special.

No worries over the mass quoting. I write for comments.
I've abandoned a few one 100 words or so in so it isn't that easy to do. I like to write something everyday if I can.
Getting ready to go with my next big story and so want to stay creative.

[stevep]

Mar 4, 2020 18:55:36 GMT James G said:

A visitor

She was looking for her daughter. The younger one had gone wandering off, where she wasn’t supposed to go. Her mother had repeatedly warned her against doing so. However, her daughter disobeyed. She was like that. She was impetuous with a real sense of adventure. Exploring was what the younger one wanted to do always do, alone as well. Her mother had told her not to go to a certain place. Of course, it was exactly there where her daughter had gone. Older and more experienced, her mother knew the dangers which lay that way and had carefully explained those to her daughter. Acknowledgement had come yet, despite everything, off to there her daughter had gone. With no choice, her mother had to follow. She would have to retrieve her daughter from the mess which she had surely gotten herself into.

She followed the course her daughter was sure to have taken. This way, then that way. Around there and past that. Along here and forward to the dangerous rock. That was a rock of many colours. There was a lot of blue but also much green. Whites, yellows and browns could be found too. Unfortunately, there was ugly greys and blacks here now. There were more of those colours than there had been before. The mother was sad to see that. It would have interested her daughter, of that she was sure. The trail was picked up and she took the plunge, going forward into danger all to find her daughter.

Landing on the rock out here so far from home, she let out a call. Her daughter responded with one of her own, heard by her mother like her own was despite the great distance involved. A location was fixed, one where her daughter was trapped. The older one set off to rescue the younger one from imprisonment.

A visitor arrived on earth, the second in the last one hundred and fifteen years.


The younger, smaller visitor had appeared inside Tsarist Russia in 1905. It was a creature from the unknown, something to behold indeed. After a tough fight, the creature had been stunned into inaction and securely bound. It was held in various locations deep inside the huge country among great secrecy. It was studied while kept alive. An escape nearly occurred during the Russian Civil War where it almost got free. Ending up in the hands of the Communists after the Tsar was deposed, they hadn’t wanted to keep it. Lenin had considered killing it, Stalin too later. The creature was kept alive though. Experiments were done for decades on this creature which it was believed had come from out of the earth, not from out of space. The intention was that secrets would be revealed for the greater good of the Russian Empire / Soviet Union / Russian Federation. New leaders of the nation would come to look at it soon after taking power and have ideas about what to do with it but nothing ever really came of those. Now secured below the Ural Mountains, in a deep cave, when it called out today to its mother in reply, this came as quite the surprise. The mountains above shook. Those inside the holding facility lost their hearing for good. The creature almost broke free, showing much the signs of strength it had in the early years. Those binds which newcomers, including Putin himself, had considered a bit too much when stories of past events were disbelieved, only just held her in-place. There was chaos inside the facility. No one knew what was going on.

Her mother had landed in Africa, in the Sahara Desert within Niger. She began her ‘walk’ towards the Urals. She didn’t walk like a human or an earth-bound animal, but rather in her own particular way. Lifeforms were encountered soon enough. She’d seen them before: not that long ago in her memory but hundreds upon hundreds of years past in human terms. Animals got out of her way and so did many humans but there were some who opposed her. They attacked her from the ground and then from the air. Borders and countries meant nothing to her. The very idea of Niger, Libya and Egypt didn’t compute. A superpower located far away with a presence here now with immense weapons of war where humans flew within metal and plastic… all she knew was that they were dangerous. The desert was crossed and then the sea entered. She hadn’t swum in earth’s waters before but they were similar to those elsewhere, just dirtier. The humans didn’t bother her under the water though did again when she was back on land. Across Turkey she went, unknowing that that country, along with the whole world, was – for lack of a better term – freaking out at this advancing creature. Attacks came again. They didn’t hurt her. It was an annoyance really. Just before going back into the sea again, she called out to her daughter. A response came.

With a roar, the younger creature broke free. Scientific machines around the word would record the effects of the mountains crumbling all around her. Out of where she had long been held, daughter set off to meet with mother. Her strength was renewed with her mother so close. She was attacked like her mother was, with some horrible weapons which didn’t harm her one bit. Humans ran from her. There was a grey place, one of those which she had come to see to start this all off, where she met with her mother. Each of them celebrated… a city in southern Russia was destroyed in the process.

Now was the time to leave. The two visitors, who’d arrived separately, departed. Up they went, higher and higher above the rock below where there was all that uproar. Mother comforted daughter rather than chastised her. Their reunion had come and that was all that mattered… unless you’d been between them on earth that was.

James G,

  Interesting idea and entertaining, at least while its fiction.  Not quite sure why Earth is considered dangerous and hence the mother warned the daughter about coming here given how weak humanity was until recently against such creatures.  Or how the daughter was caught back in 1905 unless either the transit gravely weakened/disorientated her or she was very young and weak a century ago given her success in escaping now and how dramatic - for humans anyway - it was. 

  Did those horrible weapons, that didn't harm either creature, include nukes as I can see them being used in desperation, especially by the Russians, with one creature breaking out from captivity on its soil and another heading towards it.  Also did you bother selecting a city where the reunion occurred.

  As well as the immediate impact its going to cause long term effects on Earth.  There are going to be some questions asked of Moscow and how much truth the rest of the world discover and how they respond I don't know.  Also the sheer fact there are such powerful creatures - even if their recognised as such - out there is going to shake humanities confidence and also provide strong evidence that we're not alone.  Probably a debate as well in the democratic states about how to respond to any future encounter - militarily or by attempted contact.  Not sure if any communication attempts were made but they probably weren't recognised as such by either creature.

  Definitely a good SF idea and potential for a great novel here on the aftermath.

  Steve

[James G]

Mar 5, 2020 16:08:47 GMT stevep said:

Mar 4, 2020 18:55:36 GMT James G said:

A visitor

She was looking for her daughter. The younger one had gone wandering off, where she wasn’t supposed to go. Her mother had repeatedly warned her against doing so. However, her daughter disobeyed. She was like that. She was impetuous with a real sense of adventure. Exploring was what the younger one wanted to do always do, alone as well. Her mother had told her not to go to a certain place. Of course, it was exactly there where her daughter had gone. Older and more experienced, her mother knew the dangers which lay that way and had carefully explained those to her daughter. Acknowledgement had come yet, despite everything, off to there her daughter had gone. With no choice, her mother had to follow. She would have to retrieve her daughter from the mess which she had surely gotten herself into.

She followed the course her daughter was sure to have taken. This way, then that way. Around there and past that. Along here and forward to the dangerous rock. That was a rock of many colours. There was a lot of blue but also much green. Whites, yellows and browns could be found too. Unfortunately, there was ugly greys and blacks here now. There were more of those colours than there had been before. The mother was sad to see that. It would have interested her daughter, of that she was sure. The trail was picked up and she took the plunge, going forward into danger all to find her daughter.

Landing on the rock out here so far from home, she let out a call. Her daughter responded with one of her own, heard by her mother like her own was despite the great distance involved. A location was fixed, one where her daughter was trapped. The older one set off to rescue the younger one from imprisonment.

A visitor arrived on earth, the second in the last one hundred and fifteen years.


The younger, smaller visitor had appeared inside Tsarist Russia in 1905. It was a creature from the unknown, something to behold indeed. After a tough fight, the creature had been stunned into inaction and securely bound. It was held in various locations deep inside the huge country among great secrecy. It was studied while kept alive. An escape nearly occurred during the Russian Civil War where it almost got free. Ending up in the hands of the Communists after the Tsar was deposed, they hadn’t wanted to keep it. Lenin had considered killing it, Stalin too later. The creature was kept alive though. Experiments were done for decades on this creature which it was believed had come from out of the earth, not from out of space. The intention was that secrets would be revealed for the greater good of the Russian Empire / Soviet Union / Russian Federation. New leaders of the nation would come to look at it soon after taking power and have ideas about what to do with it but nothing ever really came of those. Now secured below the Ural Mountains, in a deep cave, when it called out today to its mother in reply, this came as quite the surprise. The mountains above shook. Those inside the holding facility lost their hearing for good. The creature almost broke free, showing much the signs of strength it had in the early years. Those binds which newcomers, including Putin himself, had considered a bit too much when stories of past events were disbelieved, only just held her in-place. There was chaos inside the facility. No one knew what was going on.

Her mother had landed in Africa, in the Sahara Desert within Niger. She began her ‘walk’ towards the Urals. She didn’t walk like a human or an earth-bound animal, but rather in her own particular way. Lifeforms were encountered soon enough. She’d seen them before: not that long ago in her memory but hundreds upon hundreds of years past in human terms. Animals got out of her way and so did many humans but there were some who opposed her. They attacked her from the ground and then from the air. Borders and countries meant nothing to her. The very idea of Niger, Libya and Egypt didn’t compute. A superpower located far away with a presence here now with immense weapons of war where humans flew within metal and plastic… all she knew was that they were dangerous. The desert was crossed and then the sea entered. She hadn’t swum in earth’s waters before but they were similar to those elsewhere, just dirtier. The humans didn’t bother her under the water though did again when she was back on land. Across Turkey she went, unknowing that that country, along with the whole world, was – for lack of a better term – freaking out at this advancing creature. Attacks came again. They didn’t hurt her. It was an annoyance really. Just before going back into the sea again, she called out to her daughter. A response came.

With a roar, the younger creature broke free. Scientific machines around the word would record the effects of the mountains crumbling all around her. Out of where she had long been held, daughter set off to meet with mother. Her strength was renewed with her mother so close. She was attacked like her mother was, with some horrible weapons which didn’t harm her one bit. Humans ran from her. There was a grey place, one of those which she had come to see to start this all off, where she met with her mother. Each of them celebrated… a city in southern Russia was destroyed in the process.

Now was the time to leave. The two visitors, who’d arrived separately, departed. Up they went, higher and higher above the rock below where there was all that uproar. Mother comforted daughter rather than chastised her. Their reunion had come and that was all that mattered… unless you’d been between them on earth that was.

James G ,

  Interesting idea and entertaining, at least while its fiction.  Not quite sure why Earth is considered dangerous and hence the mother warned the daughter about coming here given how weak humanity was until recently against such creatures.  Or how the daughter was caught back in 1905 unless either the transit gravely weakened/disorientated her or she was very young and weak a century ago given her success in escaping now and how dramatic - for humans anyway - it was. 

  Did those horrible weapons, that didn't harm either creature, include nukes as I can see them being used in desperation, especially by the Russians, with one creature breaking out from captivity on its soil and another heading towards it.  Also did you bother selecting a city where the reunion occurred.

  As well as the immediate impact its going to cause long term effects on Earth.  There are going to be some questions asked of Moscow and how much truth the rest of the world discover and how they respond I don't know.  Also the sheer fact there are such powerful creatures - even if their recognised as such - out there is going to shake humanities confidence and also provide strong evidence that we're not alone.  Probably a debate as well in the democratic states about how to respond to any future encounter - militarily or by attempted contact.  Not sure if any communication attempts were made but they probably weren't recognised as such by either creature.

  Definitely a good SF idea and potential for a great novel here on the aftermath.

  Steve

I had the idea about an alien creature rescuing its young for a while, telling it from the POV of the visitor rather than humanity.
Earth is dangerous, as the daughter as warned, because the humans captured and held her. Weakness was caused by her landing: when her mother arrived, her energy and call awoke her daughter's strength.
It wasn't nukes used. Probably nerve gas but then maybe not. I couldn't see nukes being used her. No city selected: this was written, as my flash fiction pieces are, in a hurry and lacks many details a real story would.

Earth afterwards would be a mess! Information would be something some would try to hush but this is 2020 and that is impossible.
Russia would get a lot of blame but many would see a US conspiracy, as they do.
The Russians had the daughter for all those years and would have tried to communicate, to no effect.

[James G]

Red Beach

3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment made the assault on Red Beach.

They were on the left of the regimental landing team when it arrived in enemy held territory just as dawn broke. The US Marines, veterans and newbies alike, had been told that this would be an opposed landing. There would be an enemy behind the beach who would do everything that they could to repel their landing. 3/1 Marines were to fight through that and secure their battalion objectives up on the shoreline regardless. When they left their amphibious transports, loading into assault craft, the US Marines were aware of all of the supporting warships here. They knew the firepower that the US Navy, joined by Marine Corps air assets too, could muster to support them. The pre-dawn light allowed them to witness just a small portion of the massed sea power. From those warships, ahead of the 3/1 Marines making their landings, there came the crash of heavy guns and the woosh of rockets. Low-flying aircraft filled the skies. Those on Red Beach there to defend it were getting a taste of American firepower. These US Marines believed that they would just be mopping up survivors, many disregarding warnings that there would be a fierce defending force there still alive. There would be those who would pay for that foolishness.

Red Beach took the fire of a battleship which mounted three trios of sixteen-inch main guns, twenty five-inch guns and two multiple-launch rocket batteries. Two cruisers and three destroyers all had five-inch guns too which were used against the stretch of sand and the rocks up above it. Attack aircraft from a flotilla of four carriers made strikes in support of the 1st Marine Regiment where they used high-explosive bombs, rockets carrying napalm and their cannons too. Bombers from the US Air Force had hit Red Beach – along with Green Beach and White Beach too – with bellyfuls of their own bombs including ones with nerve gas warheads. All that firepower hit the defenders who’d been observed from afar as well as up close to exactly locate their fighting positions. It was an immense display of firepower, going on alongside the attacks made against another pair of three beaches (different colour codes for them) both to the east and west of here. The attacks went inland too, back towards where there were more of the enemy. They had been relentless and on a scale like nothing seen before in the history of warfare.

In defiance of all that ordnance expended to stop such a thing, assault landing craft carrying 3/1 Marines took heavy and accurate fire from those defenders as they came into sight of Red Beach. They were hit by anti-tank guns that made short work of their armour plating. Holed and often on fire, those hit hard enough quickly sunk with few of the passengers aboard being able to get out of them in time. The defenders had napalm and nerve gas themselves. They used the former just ahead of the 3/1 Marines reaching the sand and then the latter when they did. That gas attack – with mortars lobbing those shells vertically close-in from positions that had survived all efforts to silence them – came alongside the fire of hundreds of rifles and dozens of crew-served machine guns. There were mines of the beach too, laid where naval pathfinders had said that there weren’t any. The casualty count even before landing was staggering and 3/1 Marines quickly suffered many more deaths and injuries when on the beach to increase that dramatically. An opposed landing it really was. The battalion was at fifty per cent combat effectiveness within minutes of being on Red Beach.

There were artillery direction personnel on the beach with the first of the assaulting US Marines. Men from the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company were here to correct the continuing fire of the supporting warships, including those of that battleship. Radio messages flashed out and the sixteen-inch guns threw those huge shells of hers forward. A full broadside was given with smaller guns joining in. The impression to those on Red Beach was that this didn’t have any effect at all. Accurate and deadly fire was still poured towards them from defenders who they couldn’t themselves get at. They were pinned down. 3/1 Marines was stuck at the water’s edge. Landing craft burnt around them and they were caught in a minefield. No one was standing up, everyone was down (bellies or backs) on the sand with seawater lapping at them. There were the screams of the wounded and the pounding of heavy guns. Shouting was the only way that anyone could communicate. Officers, sergeants and NCOs tried to get the men moving forward. The few who tries to go forward were cut down. Staying still was no better either. The defenders targeted them carefully: they killed & maimed the men with 3/1 Marines at will.

Shells, rockets and bombs hit the defenders. One of the attacking aircraft crashed into the rocks up above and exploded with the biggest blast so far witnessed on Red Beach. The US Marines underneath this had seen that it was one of ‘theirs’ (a Marine Corps attack-fighter) and believed that while fatally wounded, the pilot had crashed his aircraft on purpose into the enemy to help them. This gave many the impetus to try to rush forward, hoping that this would turn the tide. Those brave fools were cut down when machine guns and rifle grenadiers swept through them. Another gas attack came straight afterwards with those mortars used again: wounded men of 3/1 Marines had their chemical warfare suits torn open and through those holes seeped the poison that would take their lives in the most gruesome manner.

Red Beach wasn’t being taken by the 3/1 Marines. On the two others, their regimental comrades had no luck too. No one was getting forward. They were pinned down and being massacred. Then they saw their enemy. Running through all of the firepower used against them in support of the US Marines, taking horrendous casualties themselves, the enemy attacked. They came out of their trenches and forward into the counterattack. With bullets and the rifle-mounted bayonets, they finished off 3/1 Marines. No prisoners were taken, none at all. Their own losses were to be greater than those of the attacking Americans, but they had retaken Red Beach. The same situation as repeated at seven more beaches: only on Black Beach, some distance from Red Beach, did the US Marines (2/7 Marines there) manage to hold on… and only just too.



It was August 1963.

Those defenders on Red Beach and elsewhere where the US Marines landed wore the uniforms of the army of Oceania.

They fought on the southern coast of Airstrip One against ‘Eurasians’ apparently.

The country once known as the United Kingdom – Britain if you must – had seventeen years ago gone a bit crazy. Big Brother had radicalised his people and it was their soldiers, proles aplenty, who did the impossible and turned back the opening attempt at the ‘liberation’ of their country… all while being lied to about who they fought and why too.

[James G]

The wider situation with the piece above comes from the idea - not mine - that Britain in Orwell's 1984 is all one big lie.
Britain is in a North Korea situation, taken to the very extreme.



This will probably be the last flash fiction piece from me for a while.
My new big story will start tomorrow: all will be revealed then.