![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
GWOT VI - Consequences
Mar. 9th, 2020 02:20 pmThe California convoy hit the town just after dawn.
They came in shooting.
The handful of town militia and police were shot on contact. They were not given the opportunity to drop their weapons.
Soldiers broke into houses and ordered the occupants out.
The one house where they met resistance, they backed away, fired the house, and shot everyone who came out. No one listened to the screams of those who chose not to come out.
The survivors were herded into the town square under machine guns. Someone tried to run and was shot.
Under strict discipline, 'G's … refugee soldiers under California control … started to loot the town of everything that could be moved.
A muscle car with a roll cage arrived. Out of it stepped a California officer wearing a major's tabs, with a slung machine-pistol and a bullhorn.
When the town office, the church, the courthouse and the fire station were fully involved, and columns of smoke rising to the sky, only then did he begin to speak.
"I am Major 18 of the Army of the California Republic. Church members from this town carried out a weapons of mass destruction attack on a refugee column and a California control point. Four California soldiers died horribly, along with seventy two refugees so far and twelve militia volunteers.
"I am within my rights to destroy this town and kill everyone in it. I have nerve gas. I contemplated using nerve gas to do exactly that. You would fall and twitch and choke and go into convulsions, from which you would break your spine and your bones and it would not stop until you died.
"I have decided instead on a limited act of reprisal. A reprisal is a violation of the laws of war, to punish another combatant for violating the laws of war. Tit for tat, an eye for an eye.
"But I said at Midland that I am a believer in One Up, and I am a man of my word. Your church has burned. I will now destroy your town."
As each house and business was stripped of everything useful, it was set to the torch. This process continued for a while.
Then Major 18 spoke again.
"That is not enough. Towns can be rebuilt. People die, but their children carry on.
"This town dies today. Army of California engineers at my specific order and direction are poisoning the water table and the water supply with industrial pesticides."
A truck driven by men wearing chemical warfare suits pulled up with drums. The crowd's eyes followed as they drove … past … to the water treatment plant.
"The laws of war normally prohibit the use of chemical weapons. But someone from this town carried out a chemical weapons attack. That will not happen again. Because no one is from this town any more.
"Your pictures will be taken. If you are seen again by California forces in this war, you will be killed on contact. I will let you keep your shoes. After your picture is taken, start walking south."
A man spoke up.
"How will we survive?" he cried.
"On Christian charity," Echo 18 bit out.
"If the laws of war permitted, I would castrate you all," he added.
Then left, before he could fall to temptation to do exactly that.
They came in shooting.
The handful of town militia and police were shot on contact. They were not given the opportunity to drop their weapons.
Soldiers broke into houses and ordered the occupants out.
The one house where they met resistance, they backed away, fired the house, and shot everyone who came out. No one listened to the screams of those who chose not to come out.
The survivors were herded into the town square under machine guns. Someone tried to run and was shot.
Under strict discipline, 'G's … refugee soldiers under California control … started to loot the town of everything that could be moved.
A muscle car with a roll cage arrived. Out of it stepped a California officer wearing a major's tabs, with a slung machine-pistol and a bullhorn.
When the town office, the church, the courthouse and the fire station were fully involved, and columns of smoke rising to the sky, only then did he begin to speak.
"I am Major 18 of the Army of the California Republic. Church members from this town carried out a weapons of mass destruction attack on a refugee column and a California control point. Four California soldiers died horribly, along with seventy two refugees so far and twelve militia volunteers.
"I am within my rights to destroy this town and kill everyone in it. I have nerve gas. I contemplated using nerve gas to do exactly that. You would fall and twitch and choke and go into convulsions, from which you would break your spine and your bones and it would not stop until you died.
"I have decided instead on a limited act of reprisal. A reprisal is a violation of the laws of war, to punish another combatant for violating the laws of war. Tit for tat, an eye for an eye.
"But I said at Midland that I am a believer in One Up, and I am a man of my word. Your church has burned. I will now destroy your town."
As each house and business was stripped of everything useful, it was set to the torch. This process continued for a while.
Then Major 18 spoke again.
"That is not enough. Towns can be rebuilt. People die, but their children carry on.
"This town dies today. Army of California engineers at my specific order and direction are poisoning the water table and the water supply with industrial pesticides."
A truck driven by men wearing chemical warfare suits pulled up with drums. The crowd's eyes followed as they drove … past … to the water treatment plant.
"The laws of war normally prohibit the use of chemical weapons. But someone from this town carried out a chemical weapons attack. That will not happen again. Because no one is from this town any more.
"Your pictures will be taken. If you are seen again by California forces in this war, you will be killed on contact. I will let you keep your shoes. After your picture is taken, start walking south."
A man spoke up.
"How will we survive?" he cried.
"On Christian charity," Echo 18 bit out.
"If the laws of war permitted, I would castrate you all," he added.
Then left, before he could fall to temptation to do exactly that.
