Shanghaied - 2ACW

[James G]

84 – Insurgency

Upon its foundation on January 11th 2029, the Democratic American Republic was hailed by its creators as the foremost democratic & progressive nation in the world. Its constitution, its system of government and those who founded the country carved out of the western portions of the United States of America claimed that they created a true utopia for the people who lived within its (expanding) borders. Their justification was the claim that the November 2028 presidential election had been stolen from the legitimate winner of that contest and they installed her as their president in Las Vegas rather than in DC. It would be impossible for the theft of an election by the losers to occur within the DAR due to what they created and there would additionally be no non-representation where citizens were unable to take part in democracy due to partisan cheating. The platform which Maria Arreola Rodriguez ran on to 'win' the White House – before the Republicans led by Florida’s governor illegally (or legally, it depended upon your point of view) took it away from her – was one with its social policies especially followed in how life was to be for the citizens of the DAR. As to claims made that those in the West hadn’t voted for the DAR, those were countered with the remarks that the overwhelming majority of those citizens had voted for MAR to be the president due to how they cast their votes the previous November. That was true in many respects. In the blue states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon & Washington, she had won them handily. There had been high numbers of votes for her elsewhere too in Idaho and Utah, plus those Pacific territories which the DAR formed into a single state (the country’s eleventh), yet no majority in them. Yet, combined, she had won more votes than had been cast against her. The policies which were announced for the programme of government at which she was at the head were what the DAR Parliament in Las Vegas – it moved to a new building – approved on behalf of citizens using that justification. They too hadn’t been elected to that position. Plans were announced for elections for the one hundred and twenty-five delegates, up from one hundred before the DAR moved from eight states to eleven, yet they were delayed once the conflict started with the United States. A lot of things were delayed due to that, a situation which the DAR claimed it had no control over. It fast became the catch-all excuse for everything that didn’t live up to the promise in the DAR.

If only the United States wasn’t trying to crush their independence and democracy then…

Before President Roberts took office and within days gave orders for Operation Shining Sword to begin, the national economy of the DAR had been in the toilet. So much of the economic foundations of the state were wholly dependent upon those states out West being interconnected to the rest of the United States. They were broken when the Unilateral Declaration of Independence was made. First it had been the airlines, the major financial institutions, Big Tech and long-distance haulage which suffered when their links to the rest of America all fell apart meaning that so many people suddenly lost their jobs. Then it was international trade coming in from overseas, the entertainment industry, the national media and similar sectors which depended upon the West being part of the United States that likewise suffered. More people were put out of work… millions of them in a cascading fashion. Minister for Finance Gutierrez had economic solutions to-hand. There was economic restructuring announced first and, to support ordinary citizens in the meantime, a UBI was brought in. Universal Basic Income was one of the key tenants of the presidential platform ran on by MAR when she had sought to replace President Walsh. When Gutierrez announced it, he treated it as such. However, what the immediate financial payment was all about was in fact similar to what had been seen in Western Europe during the years 2020-21 during the Global Pandemic. Those who had lost their jobs, with that blamed upon the United States waging war on the DAR, were given a wage nearly equal to what they had lost. The DAR Government paid them that money. That couldn’t last forever, and wouldn’t, but at the start it bailed out a lot of people. Much of that was a psychological thing too due to the scale of the damage done to people’s jobs and finances: it was said by detractors to be an unsustainable bribe rather than any real solution.

After the airlines either went bust or pulled out their services from the West, which Minister for Transportation Drummond had been unable to do anything about, the country’s president gave a big speech where she encouraged the citizens of her new country to welcome the positive ecological effects of that. Green politics had been something she had long been right at the forefront of: she had spent much of her presidential campaign at home and broadcasting events over the internet rather than flying everywhere. It wasn’t just the airlines though. There was fast a fuel shortage for private vehicles. Drummond spoke to the people of the DAR to explain how rationing while Vice President Padley stood beside him to assure the citizens that they didn’t need to make so many journeys by car in the modern age. The fuel shortage was caused by the illegal war of aggression being waged against the DAR, Padley reminded everyone. A lot of what fuel there was available was redirected towards military needs though, in the long-run, the fuel situation in the DAR was unsustainable in the long-term too. The country needed to run on gasoline until all of those policy announcements about the Green New Deal could finally pay off.

The DAR was meant to be self-sufficient in most resources. On paper it was. That wasn’t the case in real life though. Food could be grown and produced but there were shipping issues internally that came up due to fuel constraints and businesses collapsing. Luxuries which people wanted, either in goods or services, were a problem for the DAR to provide. The government wasn’t anti-business as its opponents alleged it would be but so many private enterprises collapsed when they were faced with the sudden formation of the DAR which cut them off from the rest of the country. From outside into the West, other goods and services didn’t come. Those could be replicated in time from within the DAR yet that wasn’t something that could be done overnight. The Council of Thirteen, along with the parliament, struggled with all of these issues. They used the distractions such as UBI and the Green argument as well as adopting more of what MAR had ran for the presidency on with regard to what had been long-standing political desires of those on the Left politically in the West. Immigration reform, criminal justice restructuring, college debt cancellation, progressive taxation policies and such like all came into force. Without any Republican obstructionism in their parliament, because there were none of them there, those key social programmes of the DAR’s foundation were able to be brought into action. Then there was the long-standing hot-button issue for gun rights reform.


The right for private ownership of weapons was enshrined in the DAR’s constitution but the details on that were granted as powers devolved to the component states themselves to decide. It was up to them how many weapons, what type and whether any could be held. Popular will, a vote of the citizens, was meant to be held on matters like that yet, due to the war situation, the state’s governors drafted emergency decrees. Several states, California foremost among them, banned the possession of personal firearms unless the holder had a valid reason and thus a permit: Governor Pierce wasn’t a dummy and knew that there were always legitimate needs for weapons in private hands. An amnesty was first announced yet at the same time, the authorities went after certain individuals and groups known to have excessive stockpiles of weaponry. The activities against those who valued their United States constitutional rights on guns, those who knew the wording of the Second Amendment seemingly off by heart, did more to set off the rapidly-expanding insurgency across the DAR than anything else. There were all those other factors involved, from illegal secession to federal US encouragement, but the seizures of guns, and the fears of what more would come with that, brought about a full-scale insurgency that created a second battlefield of the Second American Civil War far away from the front-lines of what was called the Main Front where armies lined up against each other to kill & maim on an industrial scale.

Before the civil war, ahead of the Years of Lead, any talk of an internal conflict within the United States whether it led to secession or not had been dismissed as wild speculation and fantastical doom-mongering. Where it had been said, those who talked about it had spoken of a fight between two sides where it would be partisan but more than that one of an urban vs. rural nature. The city folk would tell those in the countryside what they could & couldn’t do too many times and the resistance which would come in response would be about guns. The Second American Civil War had started about politics though, the rights and wrongs of a presidential election decided by a decision of the Supreme Court which so many Americans didn’t agree with. However, guns were still a factor in that. Right-wing militias out in the Inland North-West had destabilised that region – one which crossed state lines, the ones between Red and Blue states – and also had a negative effect upon California and Nevada before a pre-war crackdown by state authorities in them which led to their assumption of powers giving them enough near autonomy to allow for secession to occur without challenge. Cities large and small across the West had made themselves ‘gun-free zones’ when enacting legal restrictions on weapons and there had been the banning of organisations such as the National Rifle Association by state governments. State Police elements in various states had been told to draft secret lists of gun owners with the leaking on several occasions of that activity. There were those who saw the writing on the wall: there was a belief among many gun-owners that one day ‘the feds’ were going to come for their guns. They organised to be ready for that day. It had been feared that MAR (a ferocious opponent of the Second Amendment) would win the White House and do that from there… no one had seriously foreseen anything like the DAR being formed though, somewhere that there were no Republicans at the top to delay or modify the passage of anti-gun legislation. That come right out of nowhere because West America and subsequent secession hadn’t been a real thing until it suddenly was.

When the authorities came for their guns, people fought. That took place across many states of the DAR, almost all of them. Governor Winkelman from Idaho – the only Republican on the Council of Thirteen – allowed it to happen in his state as he finally tried to rid Idaho of all of the troubles which had for so long beset it with those responsible protected by the state government that had fled after the DAR invaded following his temporary removal. There was violence in Idaho like there was in the eastern portions of neighbouring Oregon and Washington. Throughout Nevada, the north & central portions of California, down into Arizona and across into the western, rural parts of Colorado and New Mexico there was more of that. Either alone or as groups, people in rural areas fought back against what they deemed to be an invasion. In Hawaii and the Pacific, there was very little of anything like that. That stood in stark comparison to Utah which made even the worst troubles in Idaho look like child’s play. Teddy Clarke had assumed the reigns of power there on the back of the whipped up mob which took control of Salt Lake City and other urban areas. The politics of Utah were nothing like they were elsewhere in the DAR. Governor Clarke had argued for and received an exception for his state from the Council of Thirteen where there was martial law across all of Utah of such a degree meaning that there was no ability for any ‘normal’ politics to go on. There was justice delivered to enemies of the people in Utah on the back of that martial law with the excuse made that those people were armed insurgents. Information which came out of Utah to those in Las Vegas was patchy and not fully believed. They should have taken more notice. Governor Clarke wasn’t one of them. He was a real radical and didn’t believe in democracy at all. There were utter horrors in committed in Utah that no one could defend, all done in the name of fighting an insurgency which gripped much of the DAR during its early history.

In that state and elsewhere, state-level authority was challenged beyond the efforts to seize ‘illegal’ guns. There were ordinary citizens, right-wing militias and far-left terror groups too. Most national guardsmen from the states were sent to the front-lines of the war leaving State Police and State Defence Forces trying to aid civilian police forces in the battles against armed opponents. Previous military training yet also a wealth of information out there on the internet – How To Build An I.E.D 101 – was put to use by those involved. Certain areas of the Inland North-West, Utah and rural areas of California became no-go areas for the authorities. The United States began inserting special forces as well as intelligence operatives though what was going on was not something that they could in any way control. Those who arrived were witness to atrocities being committed. Where the DAR Armed Forces clashed with those of the US Armed Forces in the main battles of the civil war and took so much care to not involve civilians, bending over backwards and harming their own war efforts at times, that was in no way the case behind the lines where there insurgency raged. Murder, looting, arson… the full range of war crimes took place with those on each side of the fight doing that especially when the DAR brought in ‘volunteers’ to assist them.

Urban areas were gripped by a different type of insurgency. Starting in Los Angeles first, before spreading to other cities such as Oakland, Phoenix and Seattle there were pro-democracy protests. The DAR claimed that it was democratic but there were people on the streets who didn’t agree. Their argument came from the Left, much further to the left than they regarded their country’s president. The president, her vice president and California’s governor were taken aback when the liberal bastion of San Francisco was rocked up a massive pro-democracy protests headlined by none other than a former Speaker of the US House, a long-serving California congresswoman. The lack of democracy behind pronouncements was savaged by that veteran politician who called for mass civil disobedience. In Washington state there were all of those Vanguardists who had caused the federal government so much trouble right before Washington seceded. That didn’t go away as they too had a negative take on the regime installed in Las Vegas. They wanted a worker’s utopia and the Democratic American Republic didn’t fit the Marxist-Leninist desire in their hearts for that. Protests led to civil unrest which led to violence. The streets ran with blood and it took a lot of brings things under control in one city before there was more of it in another. Secession took place all over the place. The city of Spokane up in Washington had counter-seceded from the DAR upon the country’s formation before that was put down – Mayor Forrest was under arrest and awaiting a trial where he was ready to put forward one heck of a defence! – and that inspired other events. Towns, cities, counties and regions tried to break away from the DAR either to rejoin the United States or, taking the right of secession argument that those in Las Vegas had used to heart, to become independent themselves. The political outlook each time was different but the result was the same. The DAR put an end each time to that, drawing resources away from their battles to keep their independence as well as put down armed insurgents. On and on it went though as one event inspired others. The insurgency in all of its formed grew with every day.

[James G]

85 – Total Recall

US Secretary of Defence General E. John Ferdinand was a big fan of dropping pop culture references into briefings to politicians and the media. His nods to films, songs and video games weren’t always either well received or even got by those whom he spoke with. The SecDef had popularised the Shanghaied reference when it came to the DAR’s expansion from its initial size to what it became ahead of the shooting starting. That had been a success. In an off-the-record briefing to a friendly journalist, one from the New York Times whom he had a good relationship with so he could ‘prepare the public’ for important matters, he said to her that there would be an announcement covering a Total Recall of almost all of the overseas deployed elements of the US Armed Forces to fight at home. She’d never seen either of the films – the original nor the remake – and it didn’t go over with her well. When she attributed her online piece to ‘an anonymous, high-placed Pentagon source’ to break the news of what was going to be done after only a few days of war, she left what Ferdinand said there out. Na, she had told herself, that just didn’t fit with what happened. It wasn’t even an accurate reference when she looked it all up!

Ahead of the fighting starting with the Democratic American Republic, the Pentagon had brought home from Eastern Europe elements of the significant US Army and US Air Force military presence there. There had too been the removal of a portion of the US Navy deployed in the Indian Ocean as well. What came out of Europe was only part of what had been sent there since the new Russian president had tried to incite a favourable situation inside the Baltic States so he would have a pretext to invade and liberate oppressed ethnic Russians there. Alongside NATO partners, the United States had filled those three small countries, plus Poland too, with a fully-equipped combat force not to act as a tripwire but to go toe-to-toe with President Makarov’s armies should he have chosen to follow deniable acts of state terrorism with an invasion. That was a big deployment, one which had come not long after the United States had been forced into a humiliating ceasefire-cum-defeat against the Chinese during the Taiwan Conflict. President Walsh had forced the Europeans to fully commit themselves alongside his nation and not just provide token forces to be stationed in the region as well. The Baltics were to be defended against any form of Russian attack in a manner so that should Makarov do that, he would take his country to war against the United States too. Airlifted out of Eastern Europe right before Operation Shining Sword started against the DAR had been two brigade-sized combat units: they’d flown home alongside an over-sized wing of combat aircraft too. The British, French and Spanish had all sent extra forces into the region to make up the difference – in numbers anyway, not so much in terms of capability – and that was a real stretch for them due to the already large European (and Canadian) commitment. Within hours of the New York Times running that story, and with President Roberts’ chief-of-staff Sara Keating giving a similar heads-up off-the-record to another journalist at a second publication, Ferdinand announced his Total Recall of the vast majority of elements of the US Armed Forces overseas… he once more used that pop culture reference.

On the ground in Eastern Europe, there was the US V Corps with two full combat divisions (1st Armored & 3rd Infantry) and corps attachments including the 2nd Cavalry Regiment as well as multiple combat support brigades of artillery, aviation, engineers and so on. The V Corps was coming home, the American people were told, to fight to help liberate the West. Two regular air wings of F-35s along with a mission-specific expeditionary wing of aircraft including F-22s & A-10s were likewise recalled back from out of Europe. The air strength removed from Europe to be returned to America was more than two hundred front-line combat aircraft: transferred with them were supporting aircraft and plentiful ground personnel including air special forces units. A composite wing of MQ-9s was also given the same ‘come home’ order. What Ferdinand didn’t mention was the US Navy carrier groups. Two of them were at sea in the North Atlantic and a third was in the Med. (with an attached amphibious flotilla containing a Marine Expeditionary Unit) in another big commitment. Just because they weren’t close to the Baltics, it didn’t mean that they weren’t part of the available on-hand force ready to fight to repel a Russian invasion of Eastern Europe. Ferdinand said nothing about them on purpose: he wanted the Kremlin to be unaware of the intentions there. Moving on after those recall announcements, Ferdinand briefed the media about the progress being made with the New Army being built at home. Starting within hours of Roberts’ inauguration, following pre-drafted plans, reservists and recalled service personnel not assigned to existing combat units were being formed into new combat formations for all elements of the US Armed Forces. Ferdinand spoke of the ‘soon-to-be-ready’ US I Corps with its trio of combat divisions ready to join US Army forces fighting against the ‘illegal regime in Las Vegas’. It had been more than a week since that had started when Ferdinand spoke from the Pentagon about the New Army (which included elements from all uniformed services) but it was known to everyone that it was going to take a lot more than a week to see any real progress with all of that. He knew that like media commentators did, but he delivered an upbeat message on that and gave no timeframe. There were no questions asked by journalists as it wasn’t a press conference type setting though the SecDef did address matters discussed in the media about the New Army ahead of that briefing. He once again made it clear that the recall to service for those returning to uniform was set for a duration of at least a year, maybe longer depending upon Congressional approval. It didn’t matter if the DAR collapsed that evening and the fighting ended, the US Armed Forces would need a long period to recover its strength and those in the New Army would be there to allow that to happen. He didn’t say what had been said by retired generals acting as talking heads on cable news channels where they spoke of all of the losses being taken as the US Armed Forces went head-to-head with a peer-level opponent for the first time since the Second World War and thus immense losses would need to be made up for. Ferdinand didn’t say it because everyone else already had. He did talk though about the immense effort being put in by arms and munitions contractors into speed producing weapons and ammunition for the ‘national need’ while at the same time downplaying the reports that had come out of Fort Worth about the damage done at Air Force Plant 4 where F-35s were manufactured. Everything was fine, there was no problem according to the SecDef. That certainly wasn’t the case at all: the DAR air strike had been followed up by one with two dozen plus Tomahawks.


NATO partners had been informed of what was going to happen ahead of the behind-the-scenes briefings to the media and then Ferdinand’s Pentagon appearance. In Ottawa, London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and so on, heads of governments had been spoken to by Roberts, Vice President Mitchell, SecState Renzi & Ferdinand. They had been told that almost everyone in US uniform in Eastern Europe – barring some specialists tied right in with allies – was going to be recalled home like they were. An immediate video conference was had between the key people involved in that and it had included the EU’s President too despite the EU itself not being part of NATO as many of its members were. There wasn’t much surprise because it had been something expected. From out of Washington even before the 49th President took office, there had been assurances that the situation was never going to get that bad that it would require what was done at the end of January 2029. Those hadn’t been believed. It wasn’t thought that the Americans were lying to them but instead there was just a shared feeling that the situation with the Second American Civil War was going to get worse and worse. Leaders of the United States’ allies recognised that those promises of no abandonment of Eastern Europe were made in many ways for the domestic audience in the United States as the Roberts Administration tried to claim it had a handle on the situation and would crush the secession/rebellion rapidly. It didn’t take a genius to see that that wasn’t going to be the case though. It had been said within the United States too by people outside of the US Government that no near-instantaneous victory was likely. There was only surprise in how long it took for Roberts to make the decision.

Canada and the UK were helping the United States in an official capacity as part of the Anglosphere’s Five Eyes intelligence network gaining information on the DAR in diplomatic and also military matters. Other NATO countries, as well as further American allies outside of that alliance, were unofficially conducting their own operations either with the approval of DC or, especially in the case of both the French and the EU, without their overt knowledge. There were exchange officers at military headquarters and diplomatic personnel reporting home. So much of what they did came from open source intelligence rather than anything secret they had to go out of their way to obtain. What had been realised before the shooting started was that the DAR was capable of putting up a real fight. In the end, defeat would come, but it was something projected to take far longer, and be more costly, than the sunny predictions – everything is all okay here – coming out of the Roberts-led White House and the Pentagon with Ferdinand back there. The strength of the available air power in the hands of the DAR had been one of the first things noted by America’s allies. All of those training units, naval aviation units and aircraft taken from AMARG in Arizona (the plentiful F-15s, -16s & -18s) had added up. The same information was available to the Pentagon yet they didn’t seem to take as much notice of the implication as that as those overseas did… or maybe they did but there was no outwards appearance of as much concern. A Canadian exchange officer assigned to US NORTHCOM saw for himself, and passed back to his government, details on losses inflicted in terms of personnel and equipment by both warring parties. Britain’s GCHQ ‘stumbled’ across similar information too where those numbers weren’t being shared by the Pentagon with allies and those in Las Vegas were also keeping quiet. The sums were done and the consequences were shocking. Those figures were looked at in two manners. First there was the understanding of how long the fighting was capable of going on for and what it was going to cost the United States once that major ally was finally reunited as a whole again. Secondly, there was naked self interest too: all of that American military strength was being lost to their defence as well! Since the end of the Cold War especially, grumble after grumble had come from inside the United States about how it extended itself to the defence of allies when they didn’t provide the same commitment to their own. Allegations were thrown about by detractors of the immense American military spending with regard to NATO in particular with it being said that rather than spend proportional amounts themselves, those allies would rather have left-wing social programmes. Unfair that was, but it was a widespread belief in the United States. European governments had long got complacent under the American military umbrella. When the Americans got their backsides handed to them by the Chinese, fear gripped defence ministries across Europe – Canada a bit too, though not as much –, that the fabled American giant was about to tumble from its role of their protector. Russia was no China but once Makarov was in power, the fear of what he might do against the United States in a shooting scenario caused concern. That concern didn’t translate into any real increase in defence capability though. Here and there in a slap dash fashion there was some new equipment but a lot of what happened was hot air in announced defence terms. In came the US V Corps in large numbers to Eastern Europe to ease some concerns too. The Chinese could target US Navy aircraft carriers and shoot down US Air Force stealth bombers, but what could the Russian Army do against the might the V Corps backed up by similar forces to be flown in to follow?

The UDI made by those in Las Vegas and then the beginning of the fighting to crush that independence illegally gained made allies sit up and take notice. They had to. Knowing that Americans were eventually going to recall all of their overseas deployed forces did knock some sense into many. Plans were drafted and preparations made. Back to the United States went that first, smaller wave of forces ahead of everyone knowing that the rest would go after them. ‘NATO Without The Americans’ became a term used by some to describe the situation that America’s allies in Europe would face when facing off against Russian territorial designs on the Baltics. What governments in Canada, Britain and on the Continent wanted was for Makarov to see sense rather than decide that war was what his country needed. A conflict with NATO where there was an invasion of the Baltics, probably part of Poland too in support, would mean economic damage of massive proportion to Russia too. The EU wouldn’t do nothing either: the Baltics were fully-integrated nations within that bloc. Makarov would have to be a fool to do that. Still… they had to be prepared for Makarov to make a gamble and think that without American forces in Europe, the furthest-flung portions of the continent were up for grabs.


In London, the Chancellor had been pressed by the Defence Secretary to release emergency funds to the Ministry of Defence. Not wanting to do that without good cause, the woman who was sitting ready to become the next Prime Minister when the sitting on moved on – it was expected that that would happen during 2029 – had kept the purse strings tight. The MOD wasn’t given the money required to spend big and fast until Mitchell called the Prime Minister (they had a good relationship) and told him about Ferdinand’s Total Recall ahead of that going public. The PM had the Treasury fork over what the MOD wanted. It was a big spending spree that the Defence Secretary went on. It was pre-planned and a great deal of it done out of the public eye at the outset. Parliament would be told later on and there would be many questions asked about where some of that money went. The emergency defence spending didn’t go on long-lead items like new warships or aircraft. It was instead focused in the manner of a rapid build-up of short-term capabilities for the UK Armed Forces to be able to fight – alongside allies but without the Americans – against a Russian attack in Eastern Europe. Tanks were broken out of storage alongside other weapons long removed from front-line service. Ammunition was ordered in bulk and so too was other military equipment in an off-the-shelf fashion. Some of the cash from the ever-tight Treasury went towards funding a partial mobilisation of Britain’s reservists. Their costs had to be covered and that wasn’t anything insignificant. That was done in public when the PM spoke to the country to announce a military call-up in light of the ‘worrying international situation’. In private, journalists were briefed about the Russia threat though in public that wasn’t said. Everyone knew though what it was all about. That all came at a time when there was an ongoing domestic political scandal in the country concerning Russian influence.

For decades, rich Russians had been buying themselves parts of the country and using soft power to influence the government of the day. There had been spy scandals and the murders – using radiological and chemical weapons even – of enemies of Russia inside Britain. Promises had been made to do something. It wasn’t until the middle of 2028, after the PM had led his Conservatives to their sixth election victory (‘10, ‘15, ‘17, ‘19, ‘23 & ‘28), that something real was done. Russian influence was gone after. Blowback came though, orchestrated from out of Moscow against that. The Foreign Secretary had been shown to have underhand ties to Kremlin-supporting businessmen and it took several months for him to resign. There were other political casualties yet those weren’t all for the PM’s party. Labour, almost two decades out of power and fighting a challenge from the Green-Red Union to push them into third-party status, had been caught up in the same issue of Russian cash being doled out for influence among two members of their Shadow Cabinet. For more than six months, right into 2029, the scandal continued as revelations kept on coming. The UK media was nipping at the PM’s heels as they tried to tie him into some of that too. The net had been cast to the financial sector and academia but he was the big prize for an increasingly hostile UK media. Finally bringing him down was what was wanted by his many enemies and the Russia issue seemed to be the thing to do that.

On the night when the PM made his announcement concerning partial mobilisation of the Army Reserve, the Foreign Office (under a less-controversial minister than the previous one) issued a press release meant to be low-key about the refusal of entry into the country of a certain person. Jessica Toomey, that former US Ambassador to the EU under the 47th President who had been so vocal in her support of the Democratic American Republic, was denied permission to enter Britain from out of the EU. She’d been all across Western Europe and attempted to go to the UK to attend a planned anti-war march in London that organisers wanted to see go towards the US Embassy. The government banned the march and kept Toomey out. She was in Amsterdam when that happened and made a massive deal out of it, attacking the ties between London and DC, and crying foul about British undemocracy. There were political figures in Britain who spoke up on her behalf, claiming that denying her entry was an affront to British democratic standards. While the Foreign Secretary didn’t want it to be a big deal, the PM didn’t mind. It reminded the United States once more of his stern support for their fight against secessionists – he’d done that himself in shutting down the Scots so determinedly – and also took media attention away from their very hard look into his own past financial dealings with suspicious Russians. He spoke with Mitchell about how his country shut Toomey out, without having to say that other supposed American allies on the Continent didn’t, and then also raised the issue with the Vice President about DHS Secretary Miller and the PUDDLEFOOT/Panda matter. That set off a fire on the other end of the trans-Atlantic connection!

[James G]

86 – Raid on Pearl Harbor 2.0

A secret high-level intelligence summary delivered to the DAR Armed Force’s commander-in-chief had told General Fuller that Hawaii was exceptionally vulnerable to attack from United States military forces in the Pacific region. There were two of their carriers, being joined by a third racing from the Indian Ocean, out at sea along with a still significant air presence in Alaska despite transfers of some of that to the mainland. Hawaii itself had been stripped of most of its defences and was exposed out there. It was a rear-area base to which damage to couldn’t be treated as only an inconvenience. Fuller had understood the danger yet couldn’t do much to limit the exposure of Hawaii – like new state of Guam & the Marianas too – when the majority of his forces were trying to stop those of the United States tearing apart the country he served via the Main Front from Montana to the Mexican border. However, there were combat aircraft on Hawaii and DAR Marines too. In addition, the aircraft carrier DARNS Midway (once the USS John C. Stennis) was in the Pacific with her battle group to provide protection to Hawaii as well as ensuring the air access routes from there to the mainland remained open. Fuller’s staff sought to wait until that third US Navy carrier, the shiny new USS John F. Kennedy, arrived before they thought that an attack was likely. Submarines were out looking for the battle groups built around the USS Theodore Roosevelt & USS Gerald R. Ford and there were DAR Navy aircraft flying from Hawaii as well. They underestimated their opponent’s desire to do their cause real damage though, and how far the conflict had very quickly pushed those in DC to do what Fuller, Minister for Defence & Security Rawlings and the government of the Democratic American Republic believed they wouldn’t want to: launch a full-scale air raid on Pearl Harbor.

Aircraft from the Roosevelt and the Ford conducted the attack with additional fighter cover provided – at great distance, using much tanker support – from out of Alaska. Those F-22s with the US Air Force had divert fields at reactivated sites in the Aleutians (Adak and Shemya) though didn’t need to use them. There was no opposition that they met in the skies near to Hawaii when covering the US Navy strike aircraft. Hawaii’s own Air National Guard F-22s, just the six of them, had been successfully lured away by a US Navy diversion to the south in conjunction with many of the combat aircraft from the Midway too. As to what air opposition was left, when F-22s didn’t engage F-22s above Hawaii, Roosevelt’s F-35s took on that. The Midway had a few of its FA-18Es who hadn’t been tricked into flying away south to chase ghosts created by electronic warfare specialists. Three of the Super Hornets went down with their pilots not knowing what hit them: the fourth dodged the sudden missile attack and managed to get away. No ground-based air defences challenged the air raid. SAMs were aboard several warships in Pearl Harbor and those were potent weapons of warfare in the form of SM-6s. None went skywards though. The raid was undetected until the last second and those systems hadn’t been spun up. The electronic interference from the Advanced Aegis systems aboard the cruiser and two destroyers in Pearl Harbor was too much of an issue when it came to affecting civilian activities. In the case of an air attack, they were supposed to come on and ignore that concern yet they weren’t switched on generally. Hawaii had other air defence radars regardless… well, did before short-range low-level missile attacks from aircraft launched by the Ford smashed apart the radars on both Mount Kaala (on Oahu) & Mount Kokee (on Kauai). Those were knocked out of action and afterwards the bomb-laden US Navy aircraft appeared.


The three big warships at anchor in Pearl Harbor were targeted first. Finding more than just them would have been much preferred by the US Navy but that was all that the DAR Navy had in port at the time when they chose to strike. They day before there had been seven major warships: it was just bad luck with the timing. All three of them were hit several times. In addition, so too were several smaller warships and non-combat naval vessels. FA-18s were used at low-level, and with orders to slow down to take their time on the attack, in making the second air raid on Pearl Harbor, this one done by Americans themselves, go as planned. Other Super Hornets used bombs and missiles to hit naval facilities in Pearl Harbor and also elsewhere on Oahu. Fuel storage, communications and munitions storage for the DAR Navy was targeted by aircraft unchallenged in the skies over Oahu. The F-35s employed by the two attacking carriers went elsewhere. They raided airbases as well as other key targets. Hickham AFB (with the attack deliberately avoiding Honolulu International Airport facilities which shared the runways) was hit first before the F-35s moved to drop laser- & JDAM-guided bombs against MCAS Kaneohe Bay, CGAS Barbers Point and Wheeler Army Airfield. NAF Barking Sands, on Kauai where the DAR Navy had flown jets to strike at US Navy ships from several days beforehand, was struck at as well. Schofield Barracks – empty of the 25th Infantry Division but still being used – was attacked along with DAR Marine Corps facilities around Kaneohe Bay. NCTAMS PAC was also bombed. That was a massive computing and communications station, something that those in the Pentagon hadn’t at first wanted to have on the target list until SecDef Ferdinand changed his mind on that.

Alongside all that was attacked, there was what wasn’t as well: some vitally important places that the Pentagon had kept off that target list for aircraft from the Roosevelt & the Ford to strike at. The National Security Agency’s complex at Wahiawa and the massive underground fuel storage tanks at Red Hill were left alone. They were both in DAR hands but the NSA wanted Wahiawa back intact and with the buried fuel tanks inside the Koolau Range it was feared that to successfully destroy them, and all of that fuel for ships and aircraft inside, would cause many civilian casualties in collateral damage. Projections for the worst affects had caused shudders in the Pentagon. The official residence of Hawaii’s governor (one of the original traitors to the United States who helped form the DAR) was likewise struck off an earlier target list because it, as well as the HQ of the reformed Hawaii Territorial Guard, were too close to civilian areas inside Honolulu. Even a targeted strike by the very best weapons couldn’t guarantee that there wouldn’t be innocents killed. Those aboard the two carriers argued that they could hit each without collateral damage yet no one told them about what the Glow-worm computer was continuing to do to US military precision strike capability. The risk was too great to allow it. All of the air strike above Hawaii was captured from up high via the video recording from a circling RQ-4B. The Global Hawk had a God’s Eye view of the air attacks over Pearl Harbor and the other military sites targeted. Footage from that was watched live in the Pentagon and would afterwards be released to the media. Moreover, with the daylight attack made, many people on the ground in Hawaii watched the air raid with their own eyes and also recorded it on cell phones. Hawaiians witnessed their state being attacked from above with impunity.


VMFA-311 – nicknamed the ‘Tomcats’ – was a US Marine Corps fighter squadron flying F-35Cs. Their home base was in California yet the squadron had been aboard the Roosevelt in the Western Pacific when other units in California defected to the new country which was the DAR. The Tomcats had stayed loyal to the United States and were proud of that. Aircraft from that squadron formed part of the carrier’s air wing and had taken part in the attack on Hawaii with the stealthy Lightnings having bombed Hickham to destroy many non-combat aircraft on the flight ramp there as well as putting holes in several runways. On the way out, one of the Tomcats’ flights, four F-35s, came across enemy opposition in the skies. There were other F-35s inbound towards Hawaii, racing towards Oahu from the Midway. Without seeing each other directly, pilots fired on aircraft identical apart from their markings. AWACS aircraft in US Navy and DAR Navy service (again, identical aircraft: E-2D Hawkeyes) guided-in the exchange of missile fire. VMFA-311 lost two aircraft and the same losses were incurred by VFA-115 – a DAR Navy unit – before the fight was over. For the US Navy, those were the only air losses of an otherwise extremely successful mission. Brothers-in-arms had clashed once more in the skies though with casualties taken to those whom few wanted to see that done.

Another flight from the Tomcats, more F-35s outbound from Hawaii, saw the enemy in the skies too. On that second occasion, instead of fighters it was a lone unarmed aircraft which flew right towards them seemingly unaware of all what was going on. The aircraft was identified as a DAR Air Force C-37A Gulfstream. That business jet was a VIP transport inbound on Hickham up from the southwest. No IFF signal was emitted to denote it as involved in aeromedical evacuation – both the United States and DAR were doing that with mutually-recognisable signals – and it was allotted for destruction as a legitimate military target despite being unarmed. The C-37 attempted to evade and dropped down low. The pilot was a damn fine flier yet there was no way that the US Marine pilots in the two F-35s detached to bring it down were ever going to be outflown though, not by a business jet anyway! A pair of Sidewinders were put into it, which blew off much of the tail as well as the starboard engine too.

With a splash, the Gulfstream hit the water in Maunalua Bay: that was the end of it and everyone aboard.

It would take some time for the Pentagon to be party to the revelation as to who was aboard that C-37. Several days later, the NSA shared information on the two VIP passengers flying up from Hilo on Big Island back to Hickham whose aircraft had stumbled into an air raid and US Marine aviators with their blood up. The DAR’s operational commander for the Pacific theatre, a three-star admiral no less, was aboard the downed aircraft along with the Governor of Hawaii. The two of them joined ten others in losing their lives when the Gulfstream smashed nose-first into the water. The affects of the killing of the latter would, in the long-run, do more for the United States’ war effort to reunify by force of arms their country than the attack on Hawaii ever could. He was of vital importance to the DAR leadership and his successor in Honolulu didn’t share the ‘enthusiasm’ for the DAR than he did… not by a long shot.

[James G]

87 – Win big

The new commander of US Army North had cancelled the planned III Corps assault westwards across the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico upon assuming command. Going head-on into a prepared enemy defence while at the same time as ignoring what was going on on the right flank, elsewhere in New Mexico, was something that he had informed his superior at US NORTHCOM was the height of foolishness. That was not how he was going to fight the war he had been tasked to prosecute against the traitors in the DAR Army. Lt.–General Lambert sent a good portion on the III Corps northwards the following night, late on January 29th. The Texans with their 36th Infantry Division stayed where they were to keep the enemy across the river in-check while he used the 1st Cavalry & 48th Infantry Divisions to take DAR Marines defending the approaches to Albuquerque from the flank. That attack by two complete divisions was complimented by the II Marine Expeditionary Force’s own US Marines pushing forward themselves. The aim with the night attack, which went on into the next morning too, was to finish off the enemy in a manner which he wasn’t expecting and defeat them on the eastern side of the Rio Grande rather than see them pushed back deeper westwards as General Fuller’s forces traded space for time. In they couldn’t be all beaten in the field, Lambert wanted them pushed north into the wilderness and far out of the picture: though that was the second option. A trio of attack helicopter battalions all with the latest AH-64E versions of the Apache were joined by dozens upon dozens of Gray Eagle armed UAVs as immediate air cover. Lambert had the US Air Force providing distant support, not on top of his own forces. Too many recent friendly-fire incidents had occurred for his liking yet, there was the additional non-need for them on the night-time battlefield either. He wanted the fast-movers elsewhere, pounding the enemy’s reserves and keeping them busy, while he used his snakes to do the dirty business of wiping out those former brothers-in-arms who had turned against the United States.

Operation Lobo (named after a near extinct species of wolf native to the Chihuahuan Desert across which the offensive ran) was a roaring success for ARNORTH forces. They’d seen victories won in previous days, in Colorado especially, but the gains made from Lobo were really needed as a morale booster. DAR forces had previously defended New Mexico so well when making a fighting retreat back to better defensive positions when faced with a head-on attack. Lambert gave them something that they weren’t expecting though, his opponents had become too complacent and believed that the III Corps in particular was a hollow force. Those helicopters and drones flying low over the desert did sterling work. They blasted a path forward for the III Corps which included opening up access to a crossing over the Rio Grande in the Socorro area. Where Interstate-25 ran through New Mexico, it went across the river, to run either on the eastern or western side, several times. Lambert didn’t have the III Corps use the freeway as their route of advance but it was to be the main supply route for them. To be on the other side of the river with his tanks and infantry carriers over there also threw the HQ of the New Mexico Corps into more of a panic than they were in because they worried about the implications of an immediate westwards dash towards Arizona. Lambert intended to take his forces into Arizona, and onto California, but in the long-run. The DAR Armed Forces didn’t know that and assumed the worst, all to the US Army’s benefit. The opponents which stood in the way of the III Corps at the very top of the Chihuahuan Desert were part of the 7th Marine Regiment. In DAR service and attached to their 1st Marine Division, that brigade-sized force had been busy beforehand keeping the 2nd Marine Division (in United States service) from rounding the bottom of the Manzano Mountains and attacking the Albuquerque area from the south just as the III Corps went and did. They had tanks, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery & air support on-hand. A strong force they were, before the III Corps got at them. Out in the open and faced with what they were hit with, in a such an expected fashion, they were wiped out. By the time the lead units of the 1st Cavalry Division reached the DAR Marines, they found few survivors left after the Apaches and Gray Eagles had struck. Still, many of those marines, damn fine fighters, put up resistance despite the odds. The US Army soldiers involved had to be careful due to worries over friendly-fire issues with US Marines on the flank who looked damn alike but they did what they were tasked to do. The last of the 7th Marine Regiment’s tanks – M-1A2s – were knocked out of action following multiple hits by M-1A3s. It took an Abrams to kill an Abrams… and still wasn’t easy. Many of the Gray Eagles were carrying Stinger short-range air-to-air missiles (as well as Hellfire anti-armour munitions) and used them to engage DAR Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper helicopters who tried to intervene. All of that top-of-the-range heavy equipment engaging each other came alongside close combat between US Army soldiers and DAR Marines. Many of the latter had to be pinned down and taken on before they could be overcome. There was fighting in trenches with bayonets used at times. One of the 1st Cavalry Division’s brigades got too involved in that and wouldn’t be pulled out: going up towards Albuquerque in their place as the first wave was the heavy brigade from the 48th Infantry Division.

Tanks and infantry carriers with the 155th Armored Brigade (national guardsmen from Mississippi with Kentucky attachments) went through Kirtland AFB. Their US Army comrades were on the western side but they were in the shadow of the mountains on the approach to that expansive air facility that the DAR Air Force had been making so much use of before they arrived. Kirtland stretched far away from where the runways were – used also by Albuquerque’s civilian airport – with munitions storage areas including those of the stockpile of nuclear weapons which the DAR had seized upon that new country being formed. The DAR Air Force had ground personnel who put up a fight. Brave men and women armed with personal weapons, and what few light vehicles hadn’t been attacked from above, did what the marines to the south did. They were overcome just the same. Abrams’ and Bradleys went through their attempts at resistance with haste and then into the major airbase facilitates north of the runways. There were enemy personnel everywhere yet few of them were armed with anything more than an M-16. Those weren’t combat troopers either which the attacking national guardsmen encountered. Surrenders came aplenty from ground crews who had been doing all that they could to try and see a rapid evacuation of air power from Kirtland but were in no state to fight against the opponent which came storming into the airbase like they did. Hands went up as weapons were dropped.

Outside of Albuquerque itself, two brigades of the 1st Cavalry Division engaged the DAR’s 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. It was another big clash of armour and one which the US Air Force joined in with ahead of the fighting moving far too close to civilian areas than anyone would have liked to have seen. The Blackhorse Cav’ had for several days preformed the ‘fire brigade’ role across the north of New Mexico and beat up portions of the 4th Marine & 28th Infantry Divisions in US II MEF service. That training unit which had been at Fort Irwin in California was a fine force who had experience of doing that in live fire exercises to the unprepared. The 1st Cavalry Division wasn’t unprepared though. Friendly Vipers (those with the US Marines) joined the Apache gunships in getting at them first before there was another major clash of tanks near to a small, private airport outside of the city in wide open ground. A-10C Thunderbolts showed up in the middle of the fight, those in DAR service who’d got through the fighter cover promised to the III Corps to stop that, and they almost turned the tide of the fight for the Blackhorse Cav’. However, not once but twice, friendly-fire incidents saw those tank-killers cause serious losses to allies on the ground rather than the enemy. That really made a difference. The Blackhorse Cav’ fell backwards as they made a retreat away from Albuquerque away to the north. In doing so, as they pulled away from a strong and lethal opponent who gave chase, those serving with the 5th Marine Regiment (also part of the 1st Marine Division) were left abandoned behind when the Blackhorse Cav’ departed. They were at that time positioned to hold the Sandia-Manzano Mountains against the US Marines but the US Army had just taken them in the rear so well. Cut-off with the enemy all around them they ended up being when hours beforehand they had been on the side of the victors with a seemingly sure-fire winning position.


The advance came to a halt the next morning in the Bernalillo area, some distance away from Albuquerque. DAR forces – the Blackhorse Cav’, the last remaining regiment from the 1st Marine Division and volunteer New Mexico national guardsmen – blocked entry towards the wider Santa Fe area on better ground for a defence. They did so in conjunction with healthier air support than they had had during the hours of darkness. By then though, the III Corps had achieved its objectives. Kirtland had been overrun and Albuquerque surrounded: other national guardsmen with the 48th Infantry Division, lighter units, went into there slow-and-steady. Fighting took place on the western side of the mountains which had protected Albuquerque at first but it didn’t last that long when the DAR Marines there gave in once it was clear that all was lost. Interstate-40 was thus opened up as another MSR like I-25 was, though from behind when all previous indications had been than any frontal assault to do so through the Sandia-Manzano Mountains would be a blood bath. Albuquerque was taken without any real drama to it. Military police units joined the soldiers and marines who moved into there. Like had been seen up in Denver a few days beforehand, some fools wished to fire guns against ‘armed federal invaders’ but they were no more than a nuisance in the end. Albuquerque had a criminal gang problem yet it wasn’t one which needed to be solved with tanks and attack helicopters: a lighter touch did it.

Kirtland was a massive loss to the DAR. It had been used by all sorts of aviation assets due to its good size and excellent location. In terms of combat aircraft, the Nevada Air National Guard had been flying F-15E Strike Eagles from there (the 152nd Wing operated ex-USAF strike-fighters since 2026) alongside the mixed 451st Air Expeditionary Wing that had contained several units from the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis AFB sent to New Mexico. Two of the F-22A Raptors were caught on the ground alongside twice as many F-15Es with that unit and also a trio of EA-18G growlers flown by DAR Navy reserve pilots. Other aircraft – including F-22s – had been in the air when the airbase was forcibly entered by national guardsmen from Mississippi or managed to get aloft in time. Just like what had been seen on the first day of major combat operations elsewhere in New Mexico, down at Holloman AFB, the DAR had lost many aircraft on the ground though in addition to all of the supporting infrastructure which didn’t get away. That was of more importance: all of that equipment, supplies and personnel. US forces took what they needed, out of the hands of Fuller’s control.

The nuclear weapons which had been at Kirtland when the Democratic American Republic was formed, and likewise from elsewhere in the West stolen by Fuller to make his new country a nuclear power, were almost all absent from the secure bunkers when military intelligence personnel went into them. Just over half a dozen warheads were found: no more. There was already information that the DAR had been emptying them from Kirtland and sending them to Nellis where another major stockpile was in their hands yet more than just seven had been thought to have been left remaining at Kirtland. The removal from Kirtland had been going on for some time before the 155th Armored Brigade rolled in like it did. There had been an incident with the ‘Broken Arrow’ codename as part of that when a C-130J Hercules in DAR Air Force service had crashed in Arizona. Nineteen weapons had been spread over the wilderness with DAR recovery efforts afterwards to locate them. That secret was known about only to those at the very highest positions in the two governments at DC and Las Vegas. The general public in both countries had also not been informed about the fact that the DAR was a nuclear power. US forces had strike missions planned against the DAR should it employ weapons of mass destruction first, and vice versa under Fuller’s direction, but neither side was of either mind to fight a nuclear conflict on their own soil against fellow Americans. It was a very strange sort of situation, one kept quiet as best as possible. Intelligence operations with a mind to at some point seize all of those DAR nukes at Nellis were something that the Pentagon had underway yet there wasn’t much enthusiasm to give that a try with all of the worries over what might go wrong in an attempt. Those seven warheads taken back into US custody at Kirtland were soon on an aircraft heading back east.

As to Operation Lobo, Lambert and ARNORTH had gone on the attack to win big. That had been achieved. The fight for New Mexico wasn’t over after that engagement but the tide had decisively been turned, just as it had been up in Colorado too. Eyes were cast ahead as to what was up next for the liberation of the West and the destruction of the DAR. However, in the afterglow of the victory at Kirtland/Albuquerque some absolutely shocking news came out of DC. It left those who heard it either dismayed, dumbfounded or ecstatic. Someone had died there, someone rather important.


End of Part Four

[gillan1220]

Happened so close for this timeline.

What would a total nuclear war between China and the US look like?

[James G]

Apr 8, 2021 18:25:43 GMT gillan1220 said:

Happened so close for this timeline.

What would a total nuclear war between China and the US look like?

Thankfully, we aren't going to see any of that!

[gillan1220]

Apr 9, 2021 15:03:03 GMT James G said:

Apr 8, 2021 18:25:43 GMT gillan1220 said:

Happened so close for this timeline.

What would a total nuclear war between China and the US look like?

Thankfully, we aren't going to see any of that!

Speaking of China, how is the occupation of Taiwan doing? Is there still an insurgency going on in the eastern part of the island?

[James G]

This is the opening portion of a faux Wikipedia article published sometime in ATL 2030.




Interlude


88 – Unexpected death

Edward Lloyd Roberts (June 16th, 1982 – January 30th, 2029) was an American politician and businessman who served as the 49th president of the United States for ten days in early 2029 at the very beginning of the Second American Civil War. A member of the Republican party, Roberts was elected to the presidency after a disputed election the previous November which saw the Supreme Court rule against votes cast in Florida for his opponent. His unexpected death due to a domestic accident has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories since. Roberts was the shortest-serving American president.

Born and raised in Galveston to a middle-class family, Roberts attended Texas A&M University before joining his father’s company after graduation, subsequently assuming control following his father’s terminal illness. He entered politics ahead of the 2024 elections and won an upset victory in the 9th congressional district of Texas, a previous Democratic party stronghold. Roberts, an African-American, was considered to be a shining light of the New Republicans in the 2020s: one of the high-profile minority members within the southern wing of his party. Running against Carla Newberry in the 2026 US Senate election in Texas, Roberts’ victory was marred by the death of his wife several days later in a vehicular accident. His tenure in first the US House and then the Senate was from the outset one of Roberts being a leading figure in the fight against political violence in the United States during the Years of Lead.

Starting as an outsider, Roberts contested the Republican nomination for the 2028 presidential election. He defeated Senator Jerry Stokes during the primaries to be his party’s candidate with his running mate confirmed in August 2028 as his eventual successor Lee Mitchell. Roberts’ campaign ran on a fiscally conservative and socially liberal platform despite the latter outlook not shared by most of his party ^{[Citation needed]}. The loss of Florida to the Democrat’s Maria Arreola Rodriguez lead to a near concession of defeat before Governor Erika Cook announced a legal challenge as to the legal status of the citizenship of MAR. Roberts was granted victory in Florida following the decision of Arreola Rodriguez v. Florida, leading to his assumption of the role of president-elect. Secession in the Western states ahead of the formation of the self-declared Democratic American Republic took place before Roberts could assume the presidency: he repeatedly challenged then-sitting president Mark Warner to stop that to no avail.

Roberts took office at noon on January 20th, 2029 and at once began the process of putting to an end the illegal secession in the West. Many of his high-level appointments, including to his Cabinet, were put in-place without Senate confirmation via executive orders. The start of Operation Shining Sword brought with it successes and failures. In the early hours of January 30th, Roberts was in the residence within the White House when he partook in a midnight snack, as was his habit ^{[Citation needed]}. He choked to death on a piece of food with the official cause of death recorded as asphyxia. Vice President Mitchell took the oath of office several hours later. The death of Roberts in such a manner when there had been assassination attempts against his predecessor and the various politically-motivated killings ahead of & during the civil war lead to many allegations that he was murdered. No evidence has come to light that Roberts was the victim of a conspiracy either from the DAR, overseas nationals/organisation nor domestic terrorists.

Roberts was buried in his native Galveston following a state funeral in Washington, DC six days after his death. He was survived by two teenage daughters. His legacy as the shortest-serving presidency is one contested due to the circumstances surrounding his election and the beginnings of the civil war. 

[James G]

Apr 9, 2021 15:10:39 GMT gillan1220 said:

Apr 9, 2021 15:03:03 GMT James G said:

Thankfully, we aren't going to see any of that!

Speaking of China, how is the occupation of Taiwan doing? Is there still an insurgency going on in the eastern part of the island?

Sorry, missed this the other day.
China has fully integrated Taiwan and there is no real problem for them there any more. 'One country, one system' is the new mantra in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

[James G]

Part Five – No surrender


89 – Operational Pause

It appeared in the immediate aftermath that that amount of people who believed that the death of President Roberts had been a simple domestic accident as said could be counted on just the one hand. That news of the demise of the 49th President in such circumstances just wasn’t something that Americans, whichever side of the divide during the civil war they were on, could accept as the truth. His ten days in office were cut short in a manner reported that just didn’t hold water. It had to be an assassination, it had to be a conspiracy, it had to be a lie! Vice President Lee Mitchell took the oath of office before Roberts’ death was announced to the American public. The revelation gave further fuel to the idea that there was something more to the story of what happened to his predecessor. There was nothing more though. The Physician to the President, Commander Anthony Ford from the US Navy, gave a detailed briefing on the accident alongside the United States Sturgeon General that laid how how the tenth president to die in office had lost his life. Ford explained what had happened and how all efforts to save the life of Roberts had failed. No one at the top of the US Government, nor Congressional leaders either, came out and said anything in opposition to the official cause of death. Whether they believed differently behind those comments was something that no one could know for sure yet did think was certain.

Mitchell, the former US Army Ranger who previously held elected office first as a senator from and then governor of North Carolina, was the 50th President. When he addressed the American people in his first instance in that role, he assured the nation that the war against the Democratic American Republic would continue. Illegal secession would be crushed and the West liberated with a return to democracy in those states & regions of the country under the rule of an illegitimate regime. He too intended to continue all other aspects of the national policy announced under the Roberts Administration. His remarks on race relations and social cohesion came from a man who had been the only one of four Caucasian males who had been in the ‘top four’ (presidential and vice presidential candidates for the Democrats and Republicans) at the previous year’s election. A noted campaigner against racism he had long been yet there were many who had believed those things more when they came from Roberts rather than Mitchell. Regardless, such were his promises to the country to which he was the head of state of. Within hours, several news networks ran stories concerning Commander Ford. That doctor was accused of personal inappropriate behaviour unbecoming of a serving military officer and there were questions over his competency. There had been leaks to the media from his personnel file with questions asked as to whether he should really have been the man to be at the president’s side. Those allegations, and they were only that, had in theory nothing to do with what happened with Roberts but they came tumbling out. Ford was a California native too, something that was brought up intentionally to point to a possible motive for him not giving the best possible medical care to the president. What had happened with Roberts choking to death during a midnight snack when he was alone in the residence had been quick and he had died before Ford could get to him yet that didn’t matter to those making the allegations. Mitchell’s spokeswoman – she kept her job from the Roberts Administration – was harassed for comment about all of that but affirmed that the new president would be keeping Ford in his post. Asked about other members of the government appointed by Roberts and as to Mitchell would keep them on, Cabinet-level posts especially, there was less certainty in her remarks there than there were about Ford. Political commentators moved to discuss whether Mitchell would be ‘cleaning house’, especially on the national security side of things where there had been (unproven) leaks from out of DC in the days ahead of Roberts’ untimely demise that Mitchell was unhappy with how so many of the appointments had turned out when it came to prosecuting the war against the DAR.

Out in newly-liberated Denver, the news of the change of presidency threw a spanner in the works for Jennifer Webb’s plans to see a return of ‘loyal’ civilian government to Colorado’s state capital. As lieutenant-governor, she’d been forced out of Colorado at gunpoint when that state had seceded yet upon her return, she had declared herself governor after David Rowan had ‘run away following his treason’. Governor Webb wanted to make a big media appearance in Denver while Governor Rowan was out in the Rockies somewhere. There were military police units as well as national guardsmen (the latter from Florida, not Colorado) on the streets of Denver who had put an end to the civil unrest. A big show was intended to be put on for the benefit of the media with Webb planning to show off her credential as a ‘real Coloradan’ and ‘real American’. With flags ordered at half-mast across the nation in light of Roberts’ death and a period of official national mourning announced, she couldn’t justifiably do all that she had wished to do. Still, Webb, a Democrat who had been sternly opposed to how the 2028 presidential election had turned out, yet not enough to commit treason, carried on with her move to show that Colorado was returning to the union which was the United States. Roberts had never been a legitimate president in her heart but she kept that to herself when making her opening remarks in a speech from the State Capitol building. Webb asked for a moment of silence and reflection with Coloradans asked to think of him and all of the other dead who had lost their lives during the fight against secession. She even bit her tongue and wished Mitchell well in his leadership of the nation. Like so many other Democrats who had disassociated themselves from those fellow members of their party who had turned their back on the United States, whom Webb had joined with others in calling them ‘Jacobeans’, she wanted to get re-elected in the future: voters would be reminded by the media and the Republicans of who was ‘on-side’ and who wasn’t.


Roberts had made one of his executive order appointments to a position which would usually require Senate approval when he made General Kathryn Dowd the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dowd was the first woman to hold that post. It was very likely that she would have been confirmed via the Senate yet the process for that was something that Roberts had believed could be held up. Walsh’s entire contingent of post-holders on the Joint Chiefs of Staff had resigned during his final days in office and there hadn’t been much faith in their temporary replacements. Dowd was someone known to Roberts and had occupied the post of CENTCOM commander: she’d been at the centre of the American military presence in the Middle East, a highly sensitive role. Picking a woman was said by critics of Roberts to be a cynical piece of political posturing. Both Mitchell and Secretary of Defence Ferdinand had spoken openly of their trust in Dowd as the holder of the position as the nation’s senior-most military officer. If others appointed by Roberts might have feared getting the chop in the early days after Mitchell assumed the reins of national leadership, Dowd wasn’t one of them. He spoke with her early on into his presidency to let her know that he wished for the strategy to put down the secession in the West what was being followed was one he wished to stick with. Problems aside, the West was being liberated – Denver and Albuquerque had both fallen to federal forces – and Mitchell wanted that to carry on. After giving him her thanks for his confidence in her ability to command, one questioned by many others just because of her gender, Dowd had reminded her president that Winter Storm Ted was about to hit. The Operational Pause discussed the evening beforehand at the White House, in the last meeting of his National Security Council which Roberts had chaired, was still going to happen. Mitchell acknowledge that. Ted wasn’t something that he nor anyone else could do about and Dowd was to proceed as planned with the necessary slowdown of military operations against the DAR while Ted did its worst.

The effects of weather on military operations is often overlooked by amateur critics and armchair generals. Because combat operations are often undertaken in bad weather with equipment and training to do such a thing, it was assumed that ‘a little bit of snow’ couldn’t cause that much disruption to either Operation Shining Sword nor DAR defensive efforts to protect their independence. Winter Storm Ted had been watched as it built up its strength and written off by those who didn’t know any better as no more than an inconvenience. Those who did know the difference and saw its certain impact ignored the foolish remarks and prepared for its impact. Meteorological analysts in military employ on both sides of the conflict raging in America gave warning to their political masters and senior uniformed personnel that Ted was going to be quite something. Everywhere west of the Mississippi was going to get blanketed in deep snow. The wind and the cold would be quite exceptional. There would be several days during which any serious military operation beyond those at the tactical level where it was absolutely necessary to carry on was going to be impossible. Ted was going to have a major civilian impact too, further disrupting the war effort. In addition, the same weather people pointed to a second powerful system forming up in the north over Canada too: what they were calling Winter Storm Ulysses. It was hypothesised the Ulysses would strike after Ted or maybe even combine with Ted in a worst case scenario. Up to a week of major disruption was foreseen ahead of time. It would be worse than the two winter storms which hit in mid-February 2021, what was then deemed a ‘once in a generation event’. United States forces had pushed those of General Fuller back into the Rockies and over those mountains it was going to be pretty bad yet there too would be snow from the Pacific coast to the Mississippi. The rest of the country east of that mighty river wasn’t going to get off lightly either though how bad that would be depended upon what Ulysses did after Ted unleashed its fury. The projected impact would hit everything, far away from where the fighting was. Aircraft wouldn’t be able to safely fly, roads & rail links would be blocked and there would be the need for military aid to be given to the civilian authorities to help save lives.

Unbeknown to one another, yet in something that was generally suspected would happen on the other side, both Dowd and Fuller spoke to their political masters ahead of Ted barrelling down from the north about a need for a pause in military operations. Their forces and those on the other side would be unable to fight while that epic storm, and likely the one behind it too, did all that it was capable of doing. Criticisms of the need to halt the fight came. In DC, the first reaction from those unschooled in such detailed matters, those who had built their careers on sound-bites for the media, was to claim that the DAR would take advantage on the battlefield to recover from the recent defeats inflicted upon them in both Colorado and New Mexico. There was additionally fighting being down in the bad weather of January and that hadn’t stopped due to a little bit of snow. Members of the Council of Thirteen, few of them with any real concept of military operations, claimed that they would get an opportunity to reinforce their positions on both the battlefield and politically too: there was talk of how they could point to a United States ceasing of forward attacks as a sign that the DAR had won. The Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and her opposite number the DAR Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief successfully fought back against that ill-advised political desires to intervene in military matters in the face of a weather onslaught like Ted was due to bring. Not much could be done under such conditions on the battlefield. As to the political implications… that wasn’t for them to intervene in. All that they could do was have their deployed forces batten down the hatches and prepare themselves as best as they could for what was coming their way.

However, there were military advantages for each side during the interruption that Ted brought with it. The decision by the Roberts Administration to withdraw almost all military forces from Europe was one stuck with by Mitchell. Getting them home was to carry on regardless of all of that bad weather and it gave what Dowd considered to be a head-start in terms of bring them home while the front-lines didn’t move. Moreover, Lambert’s assumption of the command of ARNORTH had come with his many complaints against what his predecessor had been doing with the US Army North fighting to liberate the West: the new commander had won several fights yet needed time to rearrange his forces. That would take time under bad weather yet there would be time to play with, one free of enemy interference. Fuller informed his political masters that rushing reinforcements forward en masse during what he called ‘the Reign of Ted’ was impossible yet he still attempted to do some of that despite what he said. Fuller was managing expectations there. He also wanted to see the opportunity which came about by a general stand down used for a rest period for some of his forces, especially air crews. The DAR Air Force had been flying mission after mission where the significant number of available aircraft had made the difference on the battlefield where in terms of ground troops, the DAR Army was seriously outnumbered: in the air, there was almost parity with United States forces yet only through the mass commitment of flight-time. A rest was needed as accident rates had been astronomical.

Winter Storm Ted hit during the afternoon of January 30th 2029. What a storm it was. The snowfall was exceptional and just as deep and widespread as feared. Ferocious gusts of wing blew and temperatures dropped as the Arctic air came in. Flying operations came to an end in all but the most serious emergencies. Civilian power grids and telecommunications for both them and the military were affected. Ted’s Fury was unleashed. Eyes were cast towards what Ulysses would do behind it too. The Operational Pause in military activity began, to the fury of a lot of people who didn’t understand why that was the case for just a bit of snow! Nonetheless, despite that orders from on high ending most of the fighting, some of that, in isolated places, even where the weather was at its worst, still went on due to the particular circumstances of each incident. The fighting and dying thus didn’t come to a full suspension.

[James G]

90 – Ted’s Fury

Ted’s Fury was unleashed upon Colorado pretty much a strong as possible. The winter storm which came down from the north, bringing with it Arctic air and devilishly strong winds, dropped a lot of snow upon that state of which about a third (the lower regions, those in the shadow of the Front Range) had recently been liberated by US forces. To aid Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Boulder and everywhere else where there was a population in need, became immensely difficult. Herculean efforts were made to keep the Interstate-25 corridor open running down from Cheyenne deep into Colorado in a combined effort between the US VII Corps and FEMA. Power – to provide heating especially –, water and telecommunications were out due to accidental war damage. Food and access to medical supplies was needed by Coloradans after disruption to supply. Getting it to them when air transport was out due to the atrocious weather and then the battle to keep the freeway open where stocks were readied in Wyoming was lost. Ted closed I-25 just like that storm shut down other routes. The majority of the EPWs captured when fighting for the Democratic American Republic had already been shipped out, along with civilian officials under arrest on federal charges of treason, so at least they all didn’t need to be cared for yet conditions for them when they had been moved into Kansas and the Dakotas weren’t that much better. Ted had a wide reach and blanketed those neighbouring states in snow along with all other negative effects like it did Colorado. Away to the west, up in the mountains, the conditions were far worse. There in the Rockies, fighting continued when it was entirely sensible to give that up for a few days at least. Despite the operational pause in major combat operations for each side which Ted enforced, life-and-death struggles raged in the mountain passes west of Denver.

US Army Green Berets had secured both the Eisenhower Tunnel and the Loveland Pass when Operation Shining Sword began. They’d taken those two access points where Interstate-70 connected Denver with Utah and the rest of the West. Along with other operations, the special forces soldiers had cut off the eastern half of Colorado from the rest of the DAR by blocking passage for resupply, reinforcement and withdrawal out. Once the air assault into the Colorado Springs area had occurred, the Green Berets up in the mountains were at first joined by Rangers and then paratroopers. DAR Marines had been sent by General Fuller from out of Utah to try and reopen those seized routes including those along the I-70. It had been a futile effort. Reservists with the 23rd Marine Regiment – two battalions strong, one of those with recalled marines & retirees given less than a fortnight’s refresher training – hadn’t stood a chance. 3/24 MARINES was that second battalion, one re-raised (after a disestablishment sixteen years beforehand) in Nevada and sent into Colorado alongside 2/23 MARINES from out of California. The Green Berets and Rangers themselves didn’t need the assistance which the brigade of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division gave them in stopping those marines from getting anywhere near their objectives. Even if they had been forced to yield, especially when the DAR Air Force made some particularly intense air attacks, both key points were wired with explosives and a withdrawal backwards into further defensive positions would have seen I-70 still shut. Up into the Rockies came the Devil Brigade (the 1st) from the airborne division at Colorado Springs. Waves of heavy-lift Chinooks and lighter Black Hawks moved soldiers and gear forward. The weather had been pretty bad at that point yet the airlift went ahead and the majority of those attacking marines were pushed back after an initial flurry of advance back to where the small town of Dillon lay. Task Force Devil, under the leadership of the commander of the brigade of paratroopers, took charge of the defences. The mission was to pin down and destroy the 23rd Marine Regiment elements who’d failed to open up I-70. That was it. Winter Storm Ted was seen ahead of time and when it came rolling in, TF Devil was told to hold its positions and ride out the bad weather. Reinforcement and resupply was impossible yet they just had to hold on. Creatively, that colonel disobeyed his orders on the matter of ‘staying still’ like he had been told to do. He looked for and found an excuse to sent those under his command forward in the middle of seemingly the worst storm ever imagined.

Part of the Devil Brigade, 2/501 INF, fought in the Arapaho National Forest where that 1984 film had been set (not filmed though). There were cut-off stragglers from the 3/24 MARINES there, men who hadn’t been able to fully pull back from their doomed effort to reopen the Eisenhower Tunnel which took the freeway under the mountains. After a few shots were exchanged between outlying posts, a whole battalion of US Army paratroopers were sent forward in the snow. The conditions got worse when they were out in the open and they moved forward in the middle of a blizzard where the temperature dropped fantastically. Their opponents fired off a few shots and stood firm in the minimal cover from the elements that they had. The paratroopers were unable to locate them after taking initial casualties and wandered about aimlessly in the white-out conditions. They got lost fast and were broken up into a rabble in the forest. Two company commanders ordered their men to stop the madness and start digging in the snow to get some shelter: those two captains knew that many would die from the elements otherwise. Ted’s Fury was at its worst at that point where they were and it was a wise decision. A few paratroopers suffered frostbite, to add to the casualty count of those ‘missing’ – they’d lost their buddies and soon their lives too – but those 2/501 INF companies were saved from loss. That wasn’t the case with the third one. Their commander obeyed his standing orders and marched his men to their deaths. They stumbled into their opponent’s gunsights and the DAR Marines opened fire. They hit many paratroopers using machine guns and automatic grenade launchers due to the inability to properly aim their rifles at anyone when visibility dropped as low as it did. A ceasefire was called by their commander when no return fire came. That company of paratroopers couldn’t return fire. The dead and injured where left behind when order broke down and those not hit ran for cover. Alone or in small groups, the survivors of the fusillade of fire spread out over a wide area. They’d die almost to a man from hypothermia, much of that brought on by weather-induced psychosis. Volunteers from the 3/24 MARINES detachment went forward and saved some of their enemy, dragging them into shelter, but that was only a few of them. 2/501 INF lost a whole company without impacting the enemy.

TF Devil’s commander sent 1/504 INF to clear away resistance in the Loveland Pass area again using the excuse offered by several small-scale exchanges of shots at distance. Running up as high as twelve thousand feet above mean sea level, weaving and winding its way this way and that way, the route was the old passage through the mountains from Dillon onwards towards the distant Denver before the Eisenhower Tunnel was built. It was kept open for civilian vehicles such as heavy trucks and those with dangerous loads that weren’t usually allowed to go through that high-use tunnel. Tourists also used the pass where US Highway-6 ran, some of them to visit the ski resorts yet others for the romance of the scenery. A pretty postcard picture the Loveland Pass would have been if the image was recorded when it was covered in all of that snow which Ted dropped, but there was nothing romantic for those suddenly thrust into a fight there. Many of the attacking paratroopers suffered from altitude sickness, especially when the air seemed to get thinner the colder it got. The defenders with another 3/24 MARINES detachment had with them recent arrivals of comrades out of a company from the 2/23 MARINES which had been sent to aid them when they were attacking rather than with the rest of their own battalion fighting in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon (near Cotopaxi) to open up Highway-50 for DAR Armed Forces use. Many of those late arrivals likewise suffered from the conditions brought along by physical exertion at such height… and that was before Ted’s Fury really got going. Scout-Sniper marines had taken their toll on Rangers beforehand and started doing that to US Army paratroopers from the 1/504 INF before visibility dropped to almost zero. Other marines waited in their covered firing positions throughout sections of the Loveland Pass which they had desperately held onto when failing to take the whole route as more paratroopers were sent forward. They never met their opponents who were came toward them in such terrible conditions to try and force them out. Several paratroopers were victims of fatal accidental falls from steep heights, others got separated from their buddies and were soon lost in the white-out conditions. The marines barely inflicted any casualties upon their opponents. 1/504 INF took them though, almost all to nature. The battalion commander stopped the forward movement after less than an hour with his unit in chaos. His men dug-in and were mortared at times but he refused to obey further orders from on-high for 1/504 INF to ‘clear the rabble out’ of the Loveland Pass. It was murder to do that, murder to his own men!

The Devil Brigade was at that point attached to the command of the 10th Mountain Division, with the VII Corps and not the XVIII Corps to which it had entered Colorado with. The rest of that higher unit was meant to come up into the Rockies and take over the mission of going westwards and finishing off DAR forces ahead of the projected arrival of the 2nd Infantry Division which Fuller had taken out of Idaho. Ted put pay to all of those designs. At the divisional HQ, the general commanding the 10th Mountain Division likewise deemed it murder when he heard what the Devil Brigade commander had done. Order from the corps and army group commanders were for a halt to forward operations unless it was absolutely necessary. His attached subordinate had wilfully disobeyed that instruction with the apparent aim of attaining some sort of glory. The reports that one battalion had lost an entire company and another was in a bad shape when split up all over the place under mortar fire with little cover saw the general remove the colonel from command. The latter sought a countermand to that as he appealed to the 82nd Airborne Division HQ. Going outside the chain-of-command like that didn’t work at all. He lost his command… while his foolish orders had seen many lose their lives. It wasn’t just in Colorado where such things happened. While Ted’s Fury went on, the madness of trying to fight a war at such a time occurred elsewhere up and down the Main Front at the end of January 2029 too.

[James G]

Some more fighting under Storm Ted up next, the a massive airlift of US forces out of Europe after that.

[gillan1220]

Fuck, I didn't expect Roberts to die of such a suspicious death. Having four presidents in one decade is bad enough.

[James G]

Apr 13, 2021 14:35:37 GMT gillan1220 said:

Fuck, I didn't expect Roberts to die of such a suspicious death. Having four presidents in one decade is bad enough.

There is a reason I did that, for later on in the story. Basically, Mitchell is a real baddie and that can only come to pass with him as POTUS.

Ah, it is six presidents in the 2020s.
Trump (until early 2021) > Biden (dies Valentine's Day 2023) > Harris (loses primaries in 2024).
Then the fictional Walsh, Roberts and now Mitchell. 

[gillan1220]

Apr 13, 2021 15:28:36 GMT James G said:

Apr 13, 2021 14:35:37 GMT gillan1220 said:

Fuck, I didn't expect Roberts to die of such a suspicious death. Having four presidents in one decade is bad enough.

There is a reason I did that, for later on in the story. Basically, Mitchell is a real baddie and that can only come to pass with him as POTUS.

Ah, it is six presidents in the 2020s.
Trump (until early 2021) > Biden (dies Valentine's Day 2023) > Harris (loses primaries in 2024).
Then the fictional Walsh, Roberts and now Mitchell. 

First of all, I love how you didn't name real life historical figures but everyone would know who these are ("the loser for the loser he was", "an old man with poor track records in politics and ailing health", and "the first female Vice President who is a woman of color and mixed race"). I'm guessing during the Years of Lead, QAnon and the alt-right would have been barking with conspiracy theories that POTUS 47th disposed 46th in a silent coup in order to take power.

Second, I really cannot say who is good or bad here. I do feel sorry for Walsh for inherited a the mess caused during the Years of Lead and was the President when America lots its superpower status to China. Same for Roberts who had the short office and Mitchell would probably make Dick Cheney look kinder in comparison.

Keep going. I like how the story is playing out.