by Adam Yoshida
"They have an army, a government, and everything else, Admiral," said the Acting President, "I think we can acknowledge their existence, even if we do intend to destroy them."
"Yes sir," replied the Admiral, "well, they're still bringing in troops and supplies at a pretty fast clip, as a result of having pretty much nationalized all of the European airlines. I'd put the build-up at 5000 soldiers a day. Now, they're going to run out of forces to mobilize and deploy at this rate - and so long as our submarines serve as a fleet-in-being in the Atlantic they're going to have some difficulty in moving a lot of types of gear - but they've managed to get some factories running in Canada and in the Northeast to provide at least some of what their army needs."
"How many soldiers do they have in place?" asked Ira Skelton.
"Including former Army of the United States forces that are now being reorganized into the Federation of North American States Army - FNASA, apparently - and the European forces that are being deployed, the estimate as of this morning is just over 400,000 total combat effective. Now, a lot of those are going to be under-trained and poorly-supplied, but - like we saw in Arizona and California - even soldiers like that can fight and inflict serious casualties."
"400,000 soldiers and counting," said the Acting President sadly.
"Yes, Mr. President," confirmed General Monroe.
"And with Mitchell Randall gaining on us every single day," said Rickover ruefully.
"That's not my department, sir," replied the General.
"People are tried of war, Mr. President," said Secretary Simpson, "and the sentiment is out there that there's no good reason why we should fight - and lose lives and billions of dollars - to force people into a country that they don't want to be a part of any longer."
"And what about the tens of millions of people who do? Should we abandon them to the rule of progressive dictators who have secured their office with foreign guns? Should we tear the stripes off the flag for Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Maryland, since they will all be part of a different country from hereon out?" shot back the Acting President.
"I did not say that I agreed with the position, Mr. President," replied the Secretary, "merely that it is a popular sentiment."
"I will die before I see a single star ripped off our flag," said Rickover, "and if anyone feels differently, then they should resign right now."
The room fell silent. The Acting President paused before he began to speak again.
"Good," said Rickover, "then we need to talk about how we're going to win this war. Let's talk about the Eastern Front."
"Well," began Secretary Preston, "the first thing that ought to be emphasized is that the border between ourselves and the secessionists is pretty porous. The lines on the map that exist right now only correspond in the most general sense to the actual lines of control, since neither of us are presently engaged in major military operations along the frontier."
"But, as things stand, the two major points of interest are the Illinois/Midwestern Theatre of Operations and the Trans-Virginia Front, anchored by Chicago in the former case and by Washington, DC in the latter."
"Our forces in the Midwestern Theatre are still pretty weak - most our forces in the West and elsewhere went to the Army of the Colorado for the invasion of California, and they're still being re-equipped and re-supplied. The Army of the South in Virginia and West Virginia is in better condition, but they've also done a pretty good job of fortifying Washington and the surrounding area. It'd be a heck of a fight if we moved on it."
"And Chicago?" asked the Acting President.
"They've got nearly 150,000 soldiers in that area, sir, and they're recruiting more. They're using European money to mobilize irregular forces at a rapid rate. They've been basically putting Chicago street gangs into uniform and sending them out on raids against the areas that we hold. If we go into Chicago, it'd be a godawful mess, even if we reinforced heavily beyond what we've already got in place," answered Preston.
"In other words," said Rickover, "whichever way we choose to advance - even if the Fifth Fleet can make it on shore relatively intact and deliver the Third Army to reinforce us, we're looking at a frontal assault against well-armed fortifications?"
"That's a fair summary, Mr. President," replied General Monroe.
The President whistled softly.
"That's going to be a heck of a sale, out here on the campaign trail," he said.
"You go to war with the army that you have," said the Secretary of Defense.
No. 10 Downing Street, London, United Kingdom
Prime Minister Henry Blunt rubbed his eyes as the Colonel from the British Army concluded his briefing to the Cabinet on the latest developments along the North American Front.
"...those casualties, actually, Minister are remarkably light considering the sort of operations that we are presently conducting. The American insurgents in Illinois are better-armed than anything that we ever faced in Iraq or Afghanistan and they are at least as determined. While, obviously, we would prefer zero casualties we have yet to figure out a way to do that when conducting operations against people who are very proficient with the creation of explosive devices."
"Nevertheless," said the red-faced International Development Secretary, "it seems outrageous that we should suffer such great losses to what are, in essence, civilian militias. With these latest deaths that makes our losses nearly one hundred British soldiers this month alone - without any major engagements being fought."
"It is regrettable, Minister," insisted the Colonel, "but nevertheless, such losses are inevitable in such a situation where we must move supplies down roads that can be effectively contested by insurgent forces. More armor and more protection mean less speed and less supplies and can be - in many situations - just as deadly and even more dangerous than what we have encountered here."
"Thank you, Minister for International Development," said the Prime Minister, shooting her a look that demanded she stop grandstanding.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said the Prime Minister, "I asked for you to come to this meeting so that you may ask direct questions - and receive direct answers - as to what the situation is overseas at the present time. The purpose of this is to better enable you to go back home and to go amongst our friends in the press in order to explain the noble task that we are engaged in. This isn't Question Time or an evening newscast. Please remember that."
"I'm sorry, Prime Minister," replied the Minister for International Development, a severe blonde woman in her mid-forties by the name of Sarah Percy, "but it remains unfathomable to a great portion of the country that we have somehow blundered ourselves into what has become a war against the United States. Whatever people think of the international and domestic policies of that nation - and I am certainly second to no one in my general disapproval of many of those - I do not believe that it is the will of either the British or the European people that we should war against them."
"That is very true, Minister," replied the Prime Minister, "but this is nevertheless the situation that we have, admittedly almost as if by accident, found ourselves in."
"It should be added," interjected Sir Gavin Ellison, the Foreign Secretary, "that we hardly went into this seeking a war with the United States. Indeed, ironically enough, we became embroiled in this conflict in support of the United States."
"As tends to happen," shot back Percy, "when one wanders into other people's civil wars."
"That will be enough, Minister," said Blunt.
"Of course," added Ellison, "the best evidence is that the American people - whatever the names of the polities that represent them now may be - are at least as eager for peace as the people of Europe and the rest of the world are at this point. We must not forget that before us is the thrilling opportunity to actually transform the world. If the creation of the Federation of North American States were to become an established fact - as it likely will following the November el
ections - then the entire geopolitical arrangements of the world will have been transformed in a fashion that will be very pleasing to progressive factions all over the world."
"Those parts that have not been conquered or are not dominated by the Chinese," noted the Home Secretary.
"While it is very unfortunate that the supposedly liberty-loving leaders of the United States have sought the assistance of China, and allowed them to take substantial territory in payment for their services, I am very sorry to say that there is little enough that we can do about that for the moment," said the Prime Minister.
"Well," said Percy, "it has not gone unnoticed."
"Just two months," said the Prime Minister, "if we can hold our front through the American elections, than the peace party will be able to prevail and we can get on with worrying about everything else."
Democratic Union, Temporary Office of the American Commissioner, Chicago, Illinois
"In the event of a direct assault on Chicago, Mr. High Commissioner," the German Colonel explained to former President of the United States, now the High Commissioner to the Democratic Union on behalf of the Federation of North American States as well as the Acting Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the FNAS, "we believe that we could hold out for a significant period of time. Months, if necessary. Certainly enough to take us well into the winter and beyond. We have already stockpiled significant quantities of both food and ammunition. The large surpluses that had been built up in the former Canadian provinces were very helpful in that regard."
"So, you're saying that - even though we are relatively close to the front - that it will not be necessary for me or for my staff to evacuate?" asked the High Commissioner.
"That would be a political decision, sir," replied the German officer, "I am merely telling you the overall status of the Democratic Union forces here in the Illinois theatre of operations."
"Let's not deceive ourselves, Mr. President... Err... Mr. High Commissioner," said Eugene Wesley, the retired U.S. Army General who had been recalled to duty and elevated to the position of the Chief of Staff of the FNAS Army, "there's nowhere safe in the little corner of North America that we hold. This is as good a place as any to make a stand."
"There is something to that," agreed the German, "the assessment in Berlin is that we have enough forces in the North Atlantic to prevent the Third Army from making an opposed landing anywhere in that region. Instead, they're going to have to go and land somewhere in the South and then join the rest of the Army there for a general advance. Whichever way they go - either towards Chicago or along the Eastern Seaboard, or both, the fighting is going to be brutal and take a considerable amount of time."
"Enough to push them past the elections," said the High Commissioner.
"Again," said the Colonel, "that's a political question. But: yes."
"Of course," said General Wesley, "if the Third Army manages to land at something like full-strength, or if they bring out their fleet from the Pacific, then the situation begins to change quite quickly."
"Certainly," said the Colonel, "and that is why every effort will be made to oppose the transit of the U.S. Fifth Fleet."
"So that's what's left to us?" said the High Commissioner, "that we should sit around and wait?"
"Sit around and prepare, I think, would be a better way of phrasing it," said the German.
"Well," said the High Commissioner, "we certainly have substantial problems of our own. So I suppose there's that to be considered as well."
"Speaking of which, High Commissioner," said General Eugene, "I just got a message that Green Berets pulled off a raid against one of our Resettlement Centers. Apaches plus Ospreys came in, blew a hole in our defenses, and managed to get around two hundred people out."
The High Commissioner shuddered at that news. He wished that he hadn't let the former Massachusetts Senator and Harvard Law Professor, now the Provisional Minister of Justice, have her way with that particular initiative. Only someone who was totally politically tone-deaf would have been able to turn Wall Street bankers into public heroes by ordering their arbitrary arrest for alleged financial crimes against the people.
The final collapse of the Washington government had released a great deal of pent-up radicalism among the former Loyalists. Up until that moment they had been required to pay lip-service to the notion that they were fighting in support of the Constitution against armed rebels out to undo the results of legitimate elections. However, the creation of the Federation of North American States as a result of the repeated defeats of suffered by the Administration of President Kevin Bryan and and subsequent general recognition of the government in Colorado, however repugnant, as the government with the best claim to being the Constitutional government of the United States had released radicals in areas outside of U.S. control from all previous bonds of loyalty. Freed from such shackles, they suddenly felt quite free to voice demands for the redistribution of wealth and for the reconstruction of society along racial, gender, and sexual preference lines. Quite suddenly, the former President had found himself to be a conservative within the context of the new order.
Nevertheless, faced with severe pressure from people who claimed to be his supporters, the High Commissioner had been forced to sign off on a series of criminal charges against "economic criminals", principally people who worked on Wall Street, but also a number of others who had fallen afoul of the Jacobins who held sway in the FNAS. The plight of these people - held in what the media of the United States referred to (hyperbolically, in the opinion of the High Commissioner) as "concentration camps - had captured the imagination of people in the rest of the country and was already becoming a headache for the leadership of the Provisional Government.
"Alright," said the High Commissioner, "I'll get the people on the political side of things to work on that. Did we take losses in the fight?"
"Three KIA, sir," replied General Eugene.
"I'll see if there's anything that Minister Ransom can do in order to provide some extra security," said the High Commissioner.
CHAPTER ONE
The Western Gambit
Vancouver, British Columbia, United Western Republic
General Jackson had slipped into the newly-rebuilt Vancouver International Airport via a private jet just after midnight. The government of the United Western Republic, still eager to keep out of the fighting in the United States, hadn't been willing to officially receive the controversial military officer and the General had preferred to keep things quiet anyways.
The airport, shattered during the early battles of the Canadian Civil War, had been sumptuously rebuilt. It was filled with equipment of the latest and most modern types, including brand-new holographic displays and gleaming walkways that appeared, if the General was not mistaken, to be made of marble. The General had not been home in almost a year and a half.
He slipped unnoticed through the terminal, trailed by only Lieutenant Colonel Benson. Both of them were wearing civilian dress and carrying their own bags. Out in front of the International Terminal, a Limousine was waiting for the both of them. The General and Colonel Benson deposited their bags in the trunk and then got inside, where the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff was waiting for them.
"Welcome back to the West, General Jackson," said the Chief of Staff. The Prime Minister's Chief of Staff was a man named Rajiv Harrison, who had been a member of the Canadian House of Commons back before the secession of the Western Provinces.
"Thanks Raj," said Jackson, adopting a familiar tone with a man whom he had barely-known in the years before the war, "I thought that we were going to meet with the PM in the morning."
"Oh, you are, you are," said the staffer, "but we thought that - given the extraordinary nature of both the situation and your visit - that we'd better do some more preliminaries first, especially given your understandable reluctance to communicate electronically."
"Of course," said the General neutrally, pausing for a moment.
"You'll h
ave to forgive me," said Jackson theatrically, "for I have just left our fighting men and women - who are splendid in every way - and I haven't had a moment's rest in quite some time."
"I understand," said the Chief of Staff quietly.
"I have come," said Jackson deliberately, "to appeal to the Prime Minister that the time has come for our Republic to take a side - the correct side - in the great war for liberty that has engulfed our entire continent."
"Yes," said Harrison, "that's about what we thought this was all about. General, you have to understand that a lot has changed here during the time that you've been away."
"Of that I am certain," said the General, his eyes passing over a block of vast skyscrapers that were under construction.
"Well, yes," said the Chief of Staff, "and you must understand that, given that, there are many people in this country - a majority even - who are, at best, neutral towards the United States in the present war. Your own popularity, while intense, is certainly under 50% here. There's even a substantial contingent, even in the Parliament, who support our joining the Democratic Union. This isn't, as a whole, a right-wing nation. It may have seemed that way during the rush of the rebellion, but that was largely because events took on a logic of their own."
"I appreciate that," replied Jackson, "but the fate of this country is dictated by geography. The United States are going to win their war and then, after that, what's next for a Western Republic that remained neutral throughout?"
"The Prime Minister believes that our good conduct and our friendship will leave us in a good place, whatever the outcome of the war itself it. And, for the record, the assessment of the Foreign Ministry - and one in which I concur - is that the most likely resolution is one which leaves the Federation of North American States intact, and so that must be considered as well."
