Shanghaied - 2ACW

[gillan1220]

It's only been the first week of 2029 and yet things have already gone to hell.

[James G]

Mar 1, 2021 10:14:31 GMT gillan1220 said:

It's only been the first week of 2029 and yet things have already gone to hell.

Its only been the first week of 2021 and yet things have already gone to hell. (Said not too long ago)

[gillan1220]

Mar 1, 2021 10:57:12 GMT James G said:

Mar 1, 2021 10:14:31 GMT gillan1220 said:

It's only been the first week of 2029 and yet things have already gone to hell.

Its only been the first week of 2021 and yet things have already gone to hell. (Said not too long ago)

I wonder how my 33 year old self would react to the events of this timeline. Being in the Philippines, the country is probably trying to stay out of China's wrath.

[James G]

Mar 1, 2021 10:58:16 GMT gillan1220 said:

Mar 1, 2021 10:57:12 GMT James G said:

Its only been the first week of 2021 and yet things have already gone to hell. (Said not too long ago)

I wonder how my 33 year old self would react to the events of this timeline. Being in the Philippines, the country is probably trying to stay out of China's wrath.

Manila and Beijing have an understanding: mutual non aggression. Russia and Iran will be of bigger concern to world peace.

[James G]

53 – Coup d’état

Information leading to the successful capture and arrest of Boatswain’s Mate Reed could earn whoever turned him in to the federal authorities a total of $31 Million. The US Navy SEAL who’d gone AWOL, joined the American Insurgent Army and committed multiple infamous acts of terrorism within the United States was on both the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives & Most Wanted Terrorists lists. Not many people would miss the opportunity to claim such a reward. Reed and the AIA cell he was active with knew all about that cash sum on offer. There had been some jokes made about turning Reed in – while he was present – and everything had seemed to be of the good-hearted banter type. He and Gunnery Sergeant Carl Bright (AWOL from the US Marines who had joined Reed in that slaughter within the US Capitol Building) had killed the three others part of their cell after that. The jokes hadn’t been regarded as jokes at all, not when there was so much cold hard cash seemingly just waiting to be picked up. The dedication to the cause by Bright and Reed, one of a country without an oppressive government, no government at all in fact, was complete yet they had doubted their comrades due to seeing how their eyes had betrayed an evident greed at the thought of all of that money.

Orders came from on-high, from a nameless yet wholly trustworthy senior comrade, for them to go after the President of the United States. Information was provided to them as to where he could be found and how to get to him. Reed and Bright did as instructed and went towards Camp David. That rural retreat in Maryland – the part of that state swished between Pennsylvania and West Virginia – was a US Navy facility in the middle of a national park. It was one of the most secure sites in the whole country. They had been given a way in though, and a man to kill too. Unbeknown to each of them, that greed had enticed many more of their comrades than they thought it had. Another one of them provided the FBI with a tip-off as to where they could find Reed… and what he was doing. Even before the two AIA assassins came with twenty miles of Camp David, Walsh was quietly airlifted out of there. He went to Mount Weather down in Virginia – where he had been during the Taiwan Conflict – while the Catoctin Mountain Park was flooded with the very best counter-terrorist detachments that the FBI could call upon. Dead or alive Reed was sought though the latter would have been preferred due to the opportunity then given to interrogate him about the AIA.

A sniper shot who he thought was Reed. Firing over a significant distance from an elevated and concealed position, the gunman from the Hostage Rescue Team believed that he was about to lose sight of Reed in the wintery forested hills. His orders were to take Reed alive if possible yet kill if there was a danger to life. The sniper’s target was sneaking up behind another HRT member and so his co-agent took the shot. Half of the head of the camouflaged terrorist was blown off. He was left very much dead. Other HRT people moved in but they found that it wasn’t Reed whom they had got. Bright had been killed instead. A very dangerous terrorist he was, someone who had killed Members of Congress in that January 6th outrage. Yet, he wasn’t Reed. The SEAL remained on the run, surely alerted to the death of his comrade and likely to abort the mission he didn’t know was already a blow-out. US Marshals joined with other FBI agents in trying to secure a wide area to cover all possible egress routes in the hope of catching Reed as he fled. Once more though, the Navy SEAL slipped what had been a very tight net and continued to evade justice. His focus was no longer on getting Walsh – another time or the next president would do, such was Reed’s thinking – but discovering who had betrayed him and Bright. Whoever that had been was in for a whole world of hurt.


Once Padley had been convicted by the Senate of treason and removed from the post of vice president, several members of Walsh’s Cabinet turned against him. Secretary of State Samantha Leach organised an urgent meeting using the absence of the president as he fled from a detailed assassination plot to her advantage. Others were in on what she was doing: fellow Cabinet members and those from the Congressional leadership of both parties. The SecState argued before them that the president was ‘unable to fulfil the duties of his office’. The justification for removing him from the presidency was contained within the 25th Amendment (Section 4) dealing with presidential incapacitation. Her reasoning for trying to invoke that act, supported by others, was that he wasn’t doing what he should be doing as a president in neither leading the country nor fighting to keep it united in the face of full-on rebellion & secession: his inability to do so meant that he wasn’t fit for office. The wording of that act was ambiguous and Leach believed that there were others in the Cabinet – a simple majority of them was all she needed – who agreed. She asked for a show of hands in support.

Secretary of Defence E. John Ferdinand raised his hand and so too did Education Secretary John Vaughn. The three of them were joined by Eva Romero Torres and Peter Kelly, respectively the Health & Human Services and Housing & Urban Development Secretaries. No other hands were raised. Of the others, six members were acting secretaries in-place due to recent deaths & resignations, and there were four more who had been at the very top of the Walsh Administration since the beginning. Out of fifteen, with a minimum of eight needed, only five Cabinet members were willing to see Walsh removed from office just over a week before his term of office ended. The others wouldn’t be swayed. The Acting AG and Acting DHS Secretaries both called Leach’s attempt at presidential removal a coup d’état. The Commerce Secretary and the Acting Transportation Secretary each left the meeting, soon afterwards followed by the Energy Secretary as well: she would later that evening resign from Walsh’s government stating that she agreed with Walsh’s unfitness for office but not what had been done earlier in the day.

The Acting Veteran’s Affairs Secretary had long considered himself a bit of a constitutional expert. He interrupted a screaming match taking place between Leach and the Acting AG to inform the SecState that she was wrong on constitutional grounds when it came to the 25th Amendment. If such an action was taken to remove a sitting president by the Cabinet declaring that he was unable to fulfil the duties of his office, then the act declared that the vice president should assume the position of Acting President. No one else could. Leach retorted that without a vice president, the next in line was the Speaker of the House. That wasn’t in the 25th Amendment though and Leach was told that without a vice president, the act was impossible to evoke. Leach, Ferdinand and Vaughn had all met with the Congressional leadership – Democrats and Republicans alike – ahead of their effort to remove Walsh and from there had come agreement that the 25th Amendment could be employed as a mechanism to get rid of Walsh even without a vice president. Who was right and who was wrong was up for debate but that didn’t matter.

Walsh’s Cabinet refused to see him removed.

The Acting AG got him on the phone. The president was at Mount Weather when the attempted coup happened but told those on the other end of the line that he would come straight back to Washington. Those Cabinet members who had left were instructed to return to the White House and wait for his arrival. The Energy Secretary went and made her resignation speech just ahead of Walsh meeting with his Cabinet yet everyone else was in attendance. The president fired all five of those who had voted to remove him from office. He promised that they would be physically thrown out of the White House by Secret Service agents when Ferdinand led an effort for them to remain where they were. Out they went eventually, under protest yet gone from the White House and their Cabinet positions. The media was waiting for them. House Speaker Kenneth Fraser, a Republican who Leach had tried to make the Acting President so as to save the union, had already spoken with the media when it became clear that Leach’s plan had failed at the final hurdle: comments from the resigning Energy Secretary had already been broadcast too. Ferdinand and Kelly said nothing but the other three, Leach, Romero & Vaughn, all spoke to journalists. They gave their justifications and asserted that Walsh was unable to perform his duties and unfit for office.

In one evening, six members of the Cabinet had been fired or resigned. Not since 1973 with Nixon’s so-called ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ or the mad antics of the 45th President in his last month’s in office had anything remotely like that been seen! Their posts would be filled by those appointed in an Acting role. Walsh promoted more loyalists, those who shared – or said they did anyway – his belief that the use of force against those forming the Democratic American Republic was the wrong thing to do. The fired Ferdinand was meant to have stayed on at the Pentagon as SecDef and move seamlessly between presidential administrations. He spoke to President-elect Roberts after Walsh got rid of him on January 10th and was assured that he would be reappointed come January 20th. Roberts had been told late about the effort to try and remove Walsh. It was something cooked up by Senate Majority Leader Green working with House Speaker Fraser and House Minority Leader Alexander Burke which would have been done without his permission had he disagreed. His view on the constitution angle there was guided by theirs though he had had concerns. That came from the ability by the act empowering removal for a president for him/her to return to office with ease just be saying that he/she was able to fulfil their duties: those plotters had said they would have stopped that. Regardless, that was all immaterial when Leach couldn’t get enough cabinet members on-side.

Ferdinand informed Roberts of what exactly would have been done in using force against the secessionists who had based themselves in Las Vegas should Fraser have been made Acting President. That was a plan which Roberts said he intended himself to follow once Walsh was finally gone. Time was ticking away to that point when Roberts and the ex-SecDef spoke yet, at that point, while saying that they were soon to, there had be no official declaration of independence from MAR, Padley and their ‘ruling council’. The president-elect had believed that he had more time to play with and less time for the Council of Ten to get their act together. He, like the rest of the country, would get one heck of a surprise the following morning.

Those in Las Vegas then took their cue from what had been seen in DC. Never had there been a ripper time than after that.

[gillan1220]

Motherf_, a coup just right in time for the transition.

[James G]

Mar 2, 2021 3:06:38 GMT gillan1220 said:

Motherf_, a coup just right in time for the transition.

Not really a coup but it will be called that regardless.

[gillan1220]

Mar 2, 2021 9:36:55 GMT James G said:

Mar 2, 2021 3:06:38 GMT gillan1220 said:

Motherf_, a coup just right in time for the transition.

Not really a coup but it will be called that regardless.

This is just one of the craziness that will soon greet the 2030s.

[jedicommisar]

Mar 2, 2021 3:06:38 GMT gillan1220 said:

Motherf_, a coup just right in time for the transition.

Could of been worse they could have actually succeeded at removing Walsh 

[James G]

Mar 2, 2021 9:43:29 GMT gillan1220 said:

Mar 2, 2021 9:36:55 GMT James G said:

Not really a coup but it will be called that regardless.

This is just one of the craziness that will soon greet the 2030s.

A heck of a lot will happen before then!

Mar 2, 2021 13:51:19 GMT jedicommisar said:

Could of been worse they could have actually succeeded at removing Walsh 

If they had put the House Speaker in-charge, what happens below would still have, yet the immediate reaction would have been different than it will be.

[James G]

54 – UDI

On January 11th 2029, the world’s newest sovereign nation came into being. A Unilateral Declaration of Independence was read out in Las Vegas by the first president of the Democratic American Republic. From that moment forth, following the UDI asserting its sovereignty, Maria Arreola Rodriquez proclaimed that the DAR was wholly separate from the United States of America. Almost seventy-four million citizens formed the population of the DAR where they lived in what had beforehand been the western half of the USA. Good relations, friendly ones at that, were sought with the United States, MAR said, but as the UDI made clear, the new country was fully independent and would therefore act in such a manner. Should there be an attempt to destroy the democracy established, then resistance would come against efforts to do that by the United States.

In addressing the citizens of the country of which she became president, MAR urged them not to be afraid. There was in fact only celebration to be had at the birth of the new country in which they lived with in. She explained that there would be teething troubles with the DAR and asked for not just patience from people, but their help too. Join us, and assist in making the nation an even better place: such was her urging. MAR defended the UDI made. It wasn’t illegal, she assured those watching and listening, because the DAR was acting upon the internationally-recognised principle of self-determination. The United States of America had been created by a UDI more than two hundred and fifty years beforehand and at the beginning of 2029, the same was being done with the Democratic American Republic. MAR pointed to what had happened the previous evening, across in DC. She said that she and President Walsh had their differences and were no longer close, yet the attempted coup to remove him by ‘right-wing non-democrats’ was morally wrong. She asked how the people in West America could remain part of a country where such a thing was legally allowed to happen and could possibly have succeed? The only thing to do, MAR said, was to leave such a flawed, failed state behind and separate so that real democracy could be practised within the DAR. There would be elections very soon, MAR promised, and she wanted all citizens to take part in them. Allowed to vote in those, and given all other rights which DAR citizens would have, MAR said that one of the first acts of her presidency was to grant an immediate amnesty to all of those inside the DAR who had entered what was then United States territory illegally. The new country would have a fair and balanced immigration policy, but before then the amnesty would take a-hold. Dreamers, migrants and refugees within the DAR were citizens if they wished to be from the moment the new country was born.

MAR pointed to the new constitution. It was being released via the media but she highlighted sections of it during her speech. The citizenship provisions in there were what she called ‘fair’. Much of the constitution was very similar to that of the United States though it was a thoroughly updated document. There were universal rights contained within, election procedures to ensure representative democracy and modified laws likewise stemming from the US Constitution. Telling those citizens of it, MAR said that those who did business in the DAR and who resided in must pay their fair share of taxes. There would be no loop-holes, no methods for clever legal avenues to escape from ‘doing the right thing’ and contributing to the welfare of all. This constitution was one which MAR explained had been written by legal experts and approved by the governors of the eight states which made up the DAR. The legal system of the new country would be underpinned by that constitution. How the DAR would work as the federal nation which MAR said it was was something which she then explained. Those states would retain their previous limited sovereignty while being part of the DAR. At the same time, the governors of each individual state would have a place on the ruling federal council where they would govern the whole country alongside the parliament. How that second body would operate was addressed by MAR too where she spoke of the ‘real democracy’ which would be seen there among the delegates who were soon to assemble for its opening session. All voices would be heard with no restrictive two-party system and no disenfranchisement in elections from citizens as had been the case when they had all lived under the archaic, broken system of government employed to govern the United States.

Ending her speech, MAR once more asked the citizens of the DAR to not be concerned about what they might hear. The rule of the United States was behind them and there was need for alarm every time someone in that other country said something to threaten the DAR as they were sure to do so. There were hard feelings sure to be felt on the other side of the new border, MAR said, but the facts on the ground were all that mattered. The Democratic American Republic was independent and would continue to be so. The split was complete and that was the end of that!


No one had seen it coming. The UDI made came right out of the blue.

Those events in DC the night before which MAR had spoken of made it happen when it did though. Before several members of his Cabinet tried to remove Walsh, the thinking among the Council of Ten had been that they needed another week to create their new country. That would have meant doing so right before the transition in the presidency from Walsh to Roberts and not have given them much time, yet it had been the agreed upon course of action. That ‘coup’, and it really wasn’t that despite what the media said, changed everything though. It was a gift horse not to be looked in the mouth. Padley, Pierce and Rowan had all been behind the warp speed approach already being undertaken in building the DAR ahead of that. When it occurred, they got MAR to agree to take the final step in the secession of West America. The United States gave the impression of being in chaos and the time had been judged to be ripe for leaving. January 11th would also have been the forty-fifth birthday of Shauna McCleary. She’d been murdered in Las Vegas and it was from there where her friend MAR, and others who said they were honouring her legacy, declared the country which without her martyrdom never would have happened. The Council of Ten had decided that the many issues which had been considered to be in need of resolving ahead of the UDI could be instead done afterwards. It was argued by Governor Rowan that those would be in fact easier to do once independence had occurred. The others had come onside with that reasoning plus all that had been seen back in DC.

Walsh and the US Government had been thinking the same: that before the DAR could have got off the ground, many more things would have had to happen. It was known that while the secessionists had a name for their country and a capital selected, they had nothing really else. There was no flag, no currency… things like that were expected to be announced first. More than that, there had been no forming up of any sort of military force witnessed: how was the DAR expecting to defend itself? A further igniting incident, one which was expected that the secessionists would create if they couldn’t find one, was likewise anticipated. Another week was considered likely with Walsh believing that a UDI might come either the day before he was due to leave office or on the same day that Roberts was sworn in as the new American president. That all had made sense to those outside the DAR. It wasn’t the way things went though.


MAR’s speech where she addressed the citizens of the newly-established DAR – something seen throughout the rest of the United States too – was at once followed by a wave of resignations from public officials. There had been some of those the day before following that email sent to federal employees, yet there were many, many more once the UDI was made. Judges, federal employees and even state-level officials quit their posts. They wouldn’t serve under what they saw as an undemocratic regime illegally put in-place. There was also a lot of worry that the federal forces of the United States would get their act together and crush the ongoing rebellion: to serve under the DAR during that time was felt to be something which wouldn’t bode well for the future. However, the vast majority of federal officials and employees stayed in their jobs. There was that feeling that ‘it will all be over soon’ as well as a dedication to their roles. That was at the beginning though, when the DAR was right in its infancy. Things would change with time, at a rapid rate as well when things didn’t go back to normal.

The movie Making An Impression On You had completed its wrap-up in the New Year and was being promoted ahead of a planned Valentine’s launch by the studio Universal Pictures. It was a rom-com with the primary male lead being Riley Smith, that friend of MAR, and the second-billed male star being Jacques Cooper. Cooper was a very different personality from Smith. Outspoken, conservative and a registered Republican, he’d been blacklisted by other studios due to the controversy he seemed to revel in causing when talking politics. Getting a camera in his face was a favoured activity of much of the media because he was nearly always likely to say something newsworthy. TMZ spoke with him hours after the UDI was made to establish the Democratic American Republic. The vitriol directed at that formation, its president and anyone who supported it was just what TMZ had hoped to get. He called MAR, Padley & Governor Pierce ‘fascists’. There was no democracy in their one-part state (look at the name, he said) and they had created it because they were mad that they didn’t get their way in the previous year’s presidential election. He said he was leaving California and flying back to his native Alabama. He’d wait there until Roberts was ‘finished crushing those Hitlerite upstarts in Vegas’ before returning. Media crews spoke to other public figures in the West in the immediate aftermath of the UDI without getting such a strong reaction as that. Members of the public were interviewed too with all sorts of opinions given. There was opposition to the UDI as well as support. Indifference was also seen, something which no one had thought was likely due to the significance of a secessionist state being established in the manner which it was.

Up in Spokane, the mayor of that city in the east of Washington state called a press conference. Frank Forrest was an Independent (though voted into office with many Republican votes) and generally a quiet figure despite his public role. The formation of the DAR changed everything with him though. First he had watched the illegal removal of Governor Reeves to be replaced by Lt.-Governor Quinn and then the sudden announcement that Washington was no longer part of the United States but instead a new country. Via the media, he told MAR to ‘f*ck off’ and called her a ‘petty dictator’ due to how she had declared herself president like she had. Forrest said that he refused to recognise her rule and that of the country which she claimed to lead either. Furthermore, if Washington state was able to secede from the United States in the manner which it did, then he said he would ask Spokane’s council to ask the people of the city in a public vote – that is real democracy, he told MAR – whether they wished to secede from Washington and thus leave the DAR to rejoin the United States. That would be something he declared that he would support and he hoped that Spokane’s citizens, plus others elsewhere, would agree that that could be done. Two could play the game of secession, he said in comments directed at MAR, but what would be done in Spokane would be an exercise in democratic self-determination instead of authoritarian non-democracy.

[James G]

The Democratic American Republic is in green.
Look at those long, undefendable borders... begging for a 'border correction'.

(click on the map to enlarge)

[jedicommisar]

When all is said and done Hawaii is either going to be the last or the first of the "Democratic" States of America to fall

[James G]

Mar 2, 2021 20:30:00 GMT jedicommisar said:

When all is said and done Hawaii is either going to be the last or the first of the "Democratic" States of America to fall

That's an interesting viewpoint and something I hadn't thought of before.

[James G]

55 – Chaos

‘We told you so!’

In response to the unilateral declaration of independence made from out West, such a remark was made repeatedly in Washington. Critics of the Walsh Administration’s previous inept handling of the moves made by secessionists had more to say that just that when the unthinkable happened and West America finally broke away from the union. However, it was said in unison over and over again. They had been correct in warning of what was going to happen if President Walsh hadn’t firmly acted as they had demanded that he should have. Now the country had been torn in two and there was only blame given to those at the top of the government. It wasn’t fairly apportioned – plenty of others had been playing games where they had used the deteriorating situation for their own political gain – yet, the ‘buck stops here’ had been famously uttered by a previous occupant of the White House and so all of the fault was directed towards Walsh. He was in charge when it happened. He had had plenty of opportunities to stop it. He had done nothing.

As he had done after the successful impeachment of his vice president the day before the Democratic American Republic was established, Walsh had his press secretary issue a statement. There was no public appearance by the president nor even a video or audio recording. That statement was short and bland. It satisfied no one. His chief-of-staff, Sunny Park, went off-the-record in talking to a previously-friendly journalist where the administration’s position was defended. The only way to stop to those who’d taken their rebellion against the United States to the extreme, she said, would have been to use military force. Even when the West had finally done what they had, Walsh wouldn’t order any military action to be taken because he considered that morally wrong. Walsh didn’t believe that the United States should do that to its own people but he was expecting the president-elect to do so when he took office. Park’s remarks to that Washington Post reporter were released fully with her identified. A decision taken at that newspaper’s highest level had seen the journalistic breach of trust broken with the justification that such thinking inside the Oval Office needed to be revealed to the American people without Park being able to hide beyond anonymity. The Post had been been one of the last bastions of support for Walsh yet he had overseen the secession of eight states from the union and did nothing to stop that. No more would they defend his actions.

Everyone in DC had something to say in reaction to the UDI made in Las Vegas by the self-declared president of that new country. None of it was good. Democrats and Republicans alike joined in the chorus of outrage against the action taken and the refusal by Walsh to crush that rebellion. President-elect Roberts, Vice President-elect Mitchell, Senate Majority Leader Green, House Speaker Fraser, House Minority Leader Burke, senators & representatives, former Cabinet members, governors, public figures… everyone chimed in. Members of Congress from those states which had abruptly left the United States without them were sought out by the media especially. They didn’t disappoint. Senator Dunbar (from Arizona) and Congresswoman Shelton (out of California) were both Democrats who used that party-mandated qualifier ‘Jacobeans’ when talking about their fellow Democrats who’d committed such an infamous act. Congressman Scott Hutchinson, Oregon’s lone Republican and Roberts’ pick for his administration’s Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs, demanded that Walsh ‘save’ his state and its people from a ‘power-mad, treasonous cabal installed in Vegas’. Two dozen Members of Congress from states out West now part of a self-declared sovereign country found themselves effectively exiled to DC yet weren’t about to stay silent. Others joined Dunbar, Shelton & Hutchinson in assuring everyone watching and listening that the vast majority of people back in their home states had no wish to be part of the DAR. Those people couldn’t be abandoned just because others were saying that they spoke for them. Go and liberate them, Walsh was told. The Democrats continued with their Jacobean description of those out West from their party who were the face of the DAR; the Republicans stuck with the ‘treasonous Democrats’ line regardless. That partisan sniping there was important for each side yet at the same time, it paled in comparison to what else was happening. It was clear to all those in DC that the UDI made needed answering. However, Walsh showed no interest in acceding to demands made upon him to act. Eyes turned the president-elect. His comments made to the media when the news broke of what had been done out in Las Vegas were followed by a press conference which he held later that evening. Roberts left no one in any doubt that once the presidential transition was complete, his first act in office would be to begin the process of re-establishing the union. He’d do that by force if there was no immediate about-turn from those undertaking treason.


All of that drama in DC on the day when the West broke away focused the media, and thus public attention, on what was being said there in reaction to the formal establishment of the DAR. Yet, real-world significant events were ongoing while politicians made all of furious speeches about treason. The Wall Street Crash the Friday beforehand had major financial implications once the new working week began. The NYSE had started to slowly climb through the morning of January 11th due to a weekend of activity by the Acting Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve to inject some confidence into the markets… along with plentiful liquidity on offer too. Maria Arreola Rodriquez made her speech out in Nevada though and all of those small gains were wiped out. Once more, trading was quickly suspended in New York yet a lot of losses had occurred in the short time. Nonetheless, the US Government couldn’t do anything about what happened on overseas markets. There was real damage done to the American economy by speculators, short-sellers and those who saw themselves as having been given a once in a lifetime opportunity. Exchanges in Frankfurt, London and Tokyo would later close trading early too when the financial upheaval which first harmed the United States went out of control and threatened to spread further. Governments in those countries had meetings with those in the financial sector – trading houses and regulatory officials – to see what could be done to tame the market madness. There was a lot of worry yet at the same time a widespread thinking that once Walsh was out of office, the United States would act decisively internally and put down the rebellion which was at the heart of so much of the economic chaos.

The DAR had been established as an independent country and regarded its airspace, like its land, as sovereign territory. An official statement had been made Ryan Drummond after the UDI where he spoke as that new country’s Minister for Transportation. The day beforehand he had been a US Senator for California but he had been granted the transportation brief in the government led by his president and the Council of Ten. Drummond said that in time, the Democratic American Republic would fully establish both a transportation ministry and their own Federal Aviation Administration though in the meantime, transport links including air ones between the United States and the DAR would continue to be open. There would be rules and regulation coming along with significant taxes to fight carbon emissions causing climate damage though. Back in DC, the Department of Transportation had seen Walsh’s serving secretary quit in December leading to an Acting Secretary being in-place. He was called repeatedly by airline executives and the FAA asking what was to be done. Was the DAR considered to be a separate with regard to flying? Were the Western states in rebellion meaning that they couldn’t fly there? He didn’t have the answers to that which reassured the airline industry. American Airlines took action themselves without any proper federal guidance coming. The company announced that from midnight, they would be suspending flights to and from the eight states which had just declared independence from the United States. Others followed their lead. Their whole business model of cross-country flights was at threat and in the absence of any satisfiable reply to urgent questions by the Department of Transportation, they began the process of closing the air-links to the West. Fears about aircraft being seized by the DAR and the safety of their workers caused that. The consequences were fast with chaos coming to passengers. Those soon got worse when overseas airlines also responded, following the led set by domestic carriers.

Staff at the offices of US Government departments and independent federal agencies who had bases of operation in the West suddenly found themselves located within the confines of a new country. Officials from the secessionist states made contact with them ahead of anyone in DC doing so. The message which was delivered was that their work was to no longer serve the United States but instead the Democratic American Republic. Everything was supposed to stay the same but there was a change in who they worked for. Nothing was that simple! Field offices located in one particular state facilitated public services across others too, including those which remained part of the union. Such explanations fell on death ears among those who took charge. Where there was the ability to use force against DAR establishing control – real or imagined – there was the visible presence of national guardsmen. All of the eight states in the West had in previous days moved their National Guard units to ‘defend federal offices’. Outside bases of operation from where agencies such as the FBI, the Marshal’s Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal protection Service and Customs & Border Protection were located, there was an unspoken threat of action ready to be taken by those national guardsmen. Urgent calls were made to DC asking what was to be done. Unsatisfactory answers came. No one knew what to do. There were widespread incidents of the ‘issue being kicked upstairs’… all the way to the White House. Meanwhile, those out West, potentially in the firing line, were left without instructions apart from to do nothing.

After firing Secretary of Defence Ferdinand for participation in the failed effort to see him removed from office, President Walsh had replaced him not with the Deputy Secretary but instead the Secretary of the Air Force. Russell Talbott received calls from military commanders in the West who suddenly found themselves inside an apparently different country. Scrambling for a response, Talbott did what Ferdinand had been planning to do had that happened when the latter was in office. They’d been thinking more about sudden Western secession in the Pentagon and the immediate effects of that than had been done in other places: Talbott had been part of that planning which hadn’t needed presidential approval. United States Armed Forces elements remained part of the United States no matter where they were based. Should there be any effort made to try and force allegiance to the DAR, that was to be resisted. Military commanders had permission to defend their bases against any form of takeover using deadly force if necessary. Attempts at desertion and mutiny were to be dealt with in the usual manner though extra guard was to be employed against that happening following the UDI made from Las Vegas. Talbott was told that that was all well and good, but was asked by those in contact what were they to do? Were they to stand ready to put down the rebellion underway in the West? What would they to do if the secessionists tried to cut their communications or find ways to apply external pressure such as blockading them? Were there to be reinforcements flown into the many bases to defend against any possible attack? US Air Force and US Navy commanders wanted to know if they should start moving aircraft and ships out of the territory which the DAR was claiming less they be exposed. Talbott couldn’t give them the replies which they sought. He was waiting on presidential authority to do anything more than telling military units to remain loyal and not accept any annexation of them too alongside territory. The mess which his inability to give subordinates the answers they needed fast began to play out afterwards. It was clear to so many that the Pentagon, and the US Government, was at a loss at what to do. Meanwhile, they were inside a new country that was being formed without anyone lifting a finger to stop that.

Making contact with them soon enough was the DAR’s Minister for Defence & Security. Eleanor Rawlings (who’d been that US Senator from Hawaii before embracing secession) informed the commanders of military bases all across her country’s territory that they were now part of the Armed Forces of the Democratic American Republic. You serve us now, was the message.