The Second Civil War- The Complete History

by Adam Yoshida

  “I thought that we’d stockpiled enough goods for us to actually manage to through at least the end of January,” said the High Commissioner, finally speaking up.

  “We had, High Commissioner,” replied the Deputy Minister, “but it’s located all over the region. Right now we really only control the deeply urban areas. The U.S. Army hasn’t formally advanced into the suburbs, but they have enough support there - combined with special forces acting to support the insurgents - that we can’t say that we are in control of much there either.”

  “What do the numbers say?” said the High Commissioner.

  “We need to immediately reduce everyone, except for people actually fighting or doing work that directly supports the fighting, to about one thousand calories a day if we expect to make it through the end of January,” said the Deputy Minister.

  “That’s outrageous,” said the Justice Minister, “people have been getting full and balanced meals, even if there’s been a lot of whining about the lack of junk food, and we’re going to cut them to starvation rations! Are people hoarding? There must be some sort of action that we can take before we resort to such a drastic measure!”

  “Our food stocks are depleting with every passing day, Minister,” said the Deputy Minister, “and our actual stocks are, I am sorry to say, actually overstated for the transportation-related reasons that I just outlined to you. I wish that I had better news to deliver - I really did. Others in this Department have chosen to flee rather than deliver the news that I just did.”

  “Thank you,” said the High Commissioner softly as he turned around in his chair to face the window. The Deputy Minister took that as a signal to leave. This left just the High Commissioner and the Justice Minister in the room.

  “One thousand calories a day,” said the High Commissioner, “here, in America. I didn’t think I’d see the day.”

  “I think that’s probably an excessive estimate,” replied the Justice Minister, “it’s probably a product of too much caution. Maybe we can find some people who have been hoarding food and redistribute that. Maybe we can do something about the insurgents.”

  “Maybe,” said the High Commissioner before falling silent for a long moment.

  “We are going to lose this war,” he finally said.

  “I agree that we aren’t going to achieve all of our original objectives,” said the Justice Minister, “but there’s a long distance between that and losing.”

  “We are going to have riots - food riots - on the streets of Chicago,” said the High Commissioner, “and then, shortly after that, we are going to run out of food. Our people will fight - especially the ones that face the prospect of either jail or execution after surrender - but even those people will give way.”

  “It’s not good,” agreed the Justice Minister, “but, as I said, there are a lot of different ways in which victory or defeat can happen. It’s not just all one or the other. I would agree that, at this point, even Mitchell Randall isn’t going to give us control of any major areas of any state. He might not even be willing to give us control over any part of any state. But there’s still Eastern Canada - I don’t think that he wants to be occupying territory - and there’s still the question of what happens to our supporters. If we can get past this unreasonable man, there are still deals to be made.”

  “It’s a damned ugly path from here to there,” said the High Commissioner.

  “Leaders aren’t needed for the easy times,” replied the Justice Minister.

  XII Corps Headquarters, Near Buffalo, New York

  “They’re pretty worn-out General, so I wouldn’t count on them for quite as much as this,” said Colonel Benson as she reviewed the preliminary plans for the assault on the remnants of the Unified Army Group that had taken refuge in Buffalo.

  “This army has fought its way from one end of this continent to the other,” insisted General Jackson, “and then back again in some cases. There are officers and men among the volunteers from the Canadian War who fought at Vancouver, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Pueblo, Yuma, Los Angeles, Ottawa, and the St. Lawrence. Some Goddamned Navy flier can skip a few hours of sleep and give him some fucking support before we send them wading into a snowstorm in Buffalo to get shot at.”

  “Yes General,” said Benson, “I think that Admiral Layton is fully in agreement with that. I’m talking about equipment and supplies more than I am the willingness of the men to fight. When you combined worn-out planes with bad weather, there are problems. The Admiral told me that the pilots themselves would be happy to pick up and rifle and join the battle, but that they just weren’t in a position to execute the whole air tasking order.”

  “Well, fuck,” said the General, not bothering to disguise the seething sense of frustration that he felt.

  “The Second Armored Division has managed to reorganize and, with the exception of those soldiers who fought at Montreal, they’re the freshest. Even essentially short one brigade, thanks to the disbanding of the 1st Brigade and the scattering of its units among the other three, it’s our unit with the biggest combat punch,” said Benson.

  “But they’re still facing fifty thousand men,” noted General Jackson.

  “Yes General,” agreed Benson, “though it’s not really anything that could be called an even fight at this point in time.”

  “Wait until the entire Corps is drawn forward,” said Jackson, “actually, wait until the 4th Infantry Division catches its breath and joins the line as well. There’s work enough for all of us in this. Let’s talk to General Mackenzie. There’s no damned point in getting people killed when we don’t have to.”

  Army of Northern Virginia Headquarters, Dayton, Ohio

  “They swung backwards?” asked General Mackenzie.

  “Yes General,” replied the G3, “the entire Army - what’s left of it anyways - moved into Buffalo this morning. We’re ordered to turn and engage them.”

  “The 4th Infantry Division now well to their west,” noted Mackenzie.

  “General Kahn is pushing them to move fast. They should get there a little bit ahead of the forces being moved into position by XII Corps.”

  “But they won’t be enough to take on the entire Army Group,” said Mackenzie.

  “Well, the Unified Army Group is probably weaker than a single corps and the 4th Infantry Division is fresh… But, if they fight hard, it’d be a toss-up,” said the G2.

  “We don’t need toss-ups. Not now, when we have every advantage on our side. How do you tell a parent that their child isn’t coming home because we attacked too early and were repulsed when, in the alternative, we could have just waited a few days?”

  The General allowed the rhetorical question to hang in the air.

  “No,” he insisted, “this is the last-gasp of a defeated enemy. They saw the writing on the wall: they weren’t going to manage to link up with the rest of what’s left of the Federation in Chicago, so they decided to seek what shelter they could find. That makes sense. It’s what I would have done if I had found myself in their position. They’re hoping that we either leave them alone and continue along our original course, or possibly that they’ll be able to draw us away from Chicago long enough to reinforce their defenses there.”

  “Those seem like reasonable conclusions.” agreed the Chief of Staff.

  “Very well,” said Mackenzie, “let’s get the entire Army on the move. If they want to make a stand in Buffalo, we’ll give them a reason to regret it. I suppose that I should speak to General Jackson with regard to this.”

  “He’s actually already on the line for you. I’ve got him on hold,” said the Operations officer.

  “Ah, excellent,” replied Mackenzie, “then let’s put him up on the screen.”

  After a moment the image of General Jackson appeared on the monitor in front of the Army’s staff.

  “Good morning General,” said Mackenzie with a jovial tone, “I am very glad to finally make your acquaintance.”

  “Likewise, General Mackenzi
e. Getting the Third Army out of the Middle East and bringing it home will stand for all time alongside Xenophon’s long march.

  “You are too kind,” said Mackenzie, “I am likewise an admirer of your own accomplishments. I don’t believe that any of our commanders on the home front have had as distinguished a record as you throughout the course of this conflict.”

  “I’ve done what I’ve had to do,” said Jackson.

  “Of course,” said Mackenzie with a smile.

  “I guess that we’re going to be working together now,” said Jackson, “I presume that you’ve gotten the same orders as I have. I’ve been directed to compel the unconditional surrender of the Unified Army Group before continuing on to liberate those remaining areas of the nation that are still controlled by the Federation.”

  “Those orders mirror my own,” said Mackenzie as he glanced at a tablet handed to him by his operations officer.

  “We were going to crash right into them,” said Jackson, “but if we’ve got the support of the Army of Northern Virginia, I think that there’s a good case to be made that we should fully deploy both of our forces before acting. Hopefully that’ll give the Navy and Air Force a little bit of time to rest and complete repairs. I just got a message back saying that only 50% of the air assets in our theatre our serviceable at the present time.”

  “I agreed,” said Mackenzie, “most of my forces are still moving in the wrong direction and we’re going to have to turn them around. They could also use some rest. We’ve been moving them as fast as we possibly could and I’d rather that they didn’t turn right around and head directly into battle.”

  “Forty-eight hours should be enough time to us to move from around 50% readiness in terms of air units to closer to 80%,” said Jackson, “will that be enough to bring your forces into position?”

  “I think that ought to do,” replied Mackenzie.

  Unified Army Group Headquarters, Buffalo, New York

  For a day and a half, General Wesley had watched as the better part of a quarter of a million men were moved into position around the survivors of his embattled force. The fact that they had held off from actually engaging his forces was of small comfort as new markers denoting new units were added to the maps in the Army Group’s headquarters every hour.

  “The 200th Division was the last in the line among XII Corps,” said Colonel Chernow as he walked over to join the General.

  “Most of the Army of Northern Virginia is still on the way,” said Wesley, “I’m pretty sure that when they’re on the line they’re going to go on in, casualties be damned.”

  “They don’t really have enough forces to fully contain us,” said Chernow, “they’ve set up something that could be best described as half a siege at the moment. But it’s growing practically by the hour. There’s a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division that’s moving into positions right now. The same one that dropped on Quebec City - they just loaded them up onto trucks and are bringing them down.”

  “This is an impossible situation,” sighed Wesley, “prudence would ordinarily dictate that we surrender this command, regardless of our present orders.”

  “Perhaps,” said Chernow, “and that might even be enough to save our own skins. But that wouldn’t do much for the soldiers under our command. Most of them are liable to be imprisoned, deported, or even executed if they fall into the hands of the enemy.”

  “Their lines aren’t as strong as they might be yet,” said Wesley quietly.

  “No, they aren’t,” agreed Chernow, “but they still have double our strength.”

  “Spread out over a wide area. We’ve also managed to retrieve a lot of fuel and other supplies here in Buffalo. And we know that they have a timetable. They need to get to Chicago and take the city before the 20th of January,” said Wesley.

  “Ok,” said Chernow, “but that leaves them plenty of time to crush us and then move on to Chicago. And, anyways, it does us little good overall to have delayed their final assault if we’re all already dead or prisoners.”

  “Right,” agreed Wesley, “so what we do is we head in the other direction. All the way up to the old Canadian coastline. I’d say that this army has exactly one good fight left in it. We can fuel up as many vehicles as we can find and take - anything that we can lay our hands on, really - and then we break their lines in one place before they’re ready to full lay siege to us. And then we dash up towards New Brunswick or somewhere, not even as an organized force. We simply tell everyone that they’re going to have to look after themselves for the duration and hope for the best.”

  “We can order the army to disperse, but remain under arms. They’ll have to chance platoons and such from town to town in rural Canada,” said Chernow.

  “It’s shaky, but it’s about all that I can see looking at this map,” said Wesley.

  “You know,” said Chernow, running his hands across the map display, “some of these positions to the north of us are held by units from the 2nd Armored Division that were in Montreal. They pulled out, reorganized, and moved all the way down to here. They must be Goddamned tired by now.”

  Bravo Troop, 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, 3rd BCT, 2nd Armored Division, Near Buffalo, New York

  Bravo Troop was one of the units that was patched back together in the aftermath of the fighting in Montreal. They’d taken in survivors from two other troops that had likewise been in the fighting at Mount Royal. The men and women of the re-formed troop, with that common experience to bond over, had managed to get along surprisingly well thus far. However, as well as the transition was working out for the men, it meant a hell of a lot of work for the troop’s commander.

  His attention drawn by the arrival of a pair of white cargo vans, Captain Dumont watched as a group of soldiers unloaded several additional Javelin missile launchers.

  “Where the fuck did we get those from?” he asked.

  “Army of Northern Virginia apparently had stocks to spare,” said one of the techs, not looking up.

  “Well, thank God for that,” said the Captain as he returned to his paperwork. His work was interrupted again when an explosion - the first that he’d heard in days - occurred somewhere in the distance. The gentle fog that had descended over the Captain’s brain in the days since the fighting in Montreal had ended lifted in an instant as he felt himself begin to sweat and became hyper-aware of his surroundings.

  “That was close,” he said in a quick and clipped tone.

  The first explosion was followed by several more. It didn’t take any more than that for Dumont to recognize the sound of incoming artillery fire. He got up and walked over to the area where the commander of the First Platoon was standing.

  “Captain, the Squadron CO’s on the horn,” said Dumont’s radioman, coming up to hand him a portable radio handset.

  “Bravo actual here,” said Dumont as he placed a hard grip upon the plastic.

  “Bravo,” came the voice of Lieutenant Colonel Olafson, who had managed to gain a brevet promotion from General Jackson himself, “they’re coming your way. They just started moving from a standing start. We’ve got a few Predators over the scene and we’re trying to scramble everything that we can, but they’re all moving towards the airport. We’re going to reposition, but that’ll take time. We need you to hold your position and prevent any breach. Can you do it?”

  “We can hold them, Colonel,” said Dumont simply.

  “Good,” replied Olafson, “I’ll give you direct control over the air assets that we scramble for CAS. I’ll get you the callsigns as soon as I can.”

  XII Corps Headquarters, Near Buffalo, New York

  “I’m not really sure what to make of it,” said Colonel Benson as she watched the maps in Corps headquarters updated with the latest movements by the survivors of the Unified Army Group, “they can’t possibly hope to win a fight. Better to hunker down and wait for us. At least, that’s what I would have thought.”

  “No one likes to wait for the hangman to get about his busi
ness,” replied General Jackson grimly, “perhaps this is suicide-by-cop on an incredibly grand scale.”

  “I don’t think so, General,” interjected General Dunford, who had just arrived along with the rest of the 200th Division, “I think that they’re going to try and scatter to the wind, and they need to throw us off-balance before they pull something like that. They want to blow a hole through the parts of Second Armored that are holding the line and then they’ll drive off as fast as they can and hope to either melt into the population or to make trouble for us later. Both, in a lot of cases, I suppose. That’s why they’ve been taking all of these civilian vehicles. That’s why they’re throwing all of their remaining firepower into trying to cause damage in a sector to the east. It’s a smart move.”

  Jackson got up and took a look at the map closely, leaning his face towards it for dramatic effect.

  “That’s a wild plan, if that’s what they’re up to,” he said, “thought that is what a lot of Confederate officers wanted Lee to do at Appomattox. It makes a lot of sense. Could you reposition in order to block any proposed exit?”

  “Well,” said Dunford, “it’s not just my Division. We have the 42nd, the rest of the 2nd Armored, the 4th ID, and parts of the 82nd Airborne here with more on the way. We’re a lot more powerful than we were in the old days, but we’re not so nimble. By the time we manage to sort ourselves out, they might have broken through the defenses that we’ve set up in that wide industrial area near the airport.”

  “I take it you have an alternative?” asked Jackson.

  “I do, General: order a general attack,” said Dunford.

  “We haven’t fully prepared. We haven’t planned or organized fully yet. We’d be talking about a bloody melee on the streets of an American city,” said Jackson.

  “Fuck the politics of it, General,” replied Dunford, “the election is over anyways and we all know that we’re up against the clock. I’m a little worried about blue-on-blue action, but we can restrict that by trying to set up clear boundaries between our own units. Those men and women on the other side are tired and confused and grasping at straws. So are their commanders. If decide to say fuck it and just rock and roll, we’ll massacre the sons-of-bitches, sir - and then they won’t be future partisans or any sort of threat to whatever comes next.”